Collection by Kelsey Keith
ICFF 2012: Offsite Design Exhibitions
Each spring, New York Design Week gets bigger and better thanks in part to an ever-expanding roster at ICFF (more on that here) as well as the dedication of several local organizations presenting contemporary design outside the walls of Javits Center. Here are a few notes and photos from Wanted Design, the NoHo Design District, and various showrooms we visited in the span of five action-packed days. Our roving team of editors Instagrammed the daylights out of ICFF, as well as the offsite events, exhibitions, and parties we attended en masse. See all of those here, and follow us on Instagram under the name "dwellmagazine."
Herman Miller's SoHo pop-up store was no disappointment, breaking out the greatest hits (Eames birds, Case Study bookshelves, and the George Nelson Studio archives at right, to name a few) alongside future classics. Konstantin Grcic's wood Medici chair, which appeared in its painted incarnation at Salone last month, is shown in a stripped-down version at left. Grcic says, "Wood is a material I really love but I rarely get to work with it."
Matter hosted two exhibitions for ICFF, one in their brick and mortar shop on Broome Street, and their pop-up "Next World" show in a now-abandoned subway entrance just around the corner. In the first location, Swiss designer Daniel Heer crafted a traditional horsehair mattress by hand; in the second, a round up of young designers (Resident, Chen Chen & Kai Williams) were exhibited alongside more established names (Soren Rose, Autoban). Shown here are two lamps by Resident (we're keen on the brass Oud lamp in the background).
Toronto's Castor exhibited their "Deadstock" series of lamps and tables at the pop-up. The duo of Kei Ng and Brian Richer found a cache of unused steel components in a lighting factory and used those pieces in the line. Dwell has long lauded adaptive reuse in architecture and we loved the application of this concept to product design. Pictured here is their floor lamp.
On Friday afternoon, Dwell, along with event partners Cool Hunting and Architizer, selected panelists for an informal talk on sound design and architecture. The chat took place in the Sonos Sound Library at the Standard East hotel, our unofficial weekend perch, which was part of the massive NoHo Design District initiative organized by Sight Unseen.
In the Sonos Sound Library (left), designer Kiel Mead re-worked a Lindsay Adelman chandelier with Sonos speakers. A Hastens round mattress anchored the room and encouraged a few disco naps. One thing that Sonos should look into next year? Incorporated Symbol Audio's new hi-fi cabinets (right), which launched at ICFF. (See our full Javits Center round-up here.)
Tom Dixon and crew were taking it somewhat easy during ICFF following an incredible showing at Salone del Mobile, in which he curated a massive exhibition at the Museum of Science and Technology. (There was a submarine.) On a much more intimate scale, Dixon paired with Fab.com to put on a display in the basement of a Bleecker Street building in the NoHo Design District.
Yves Behar demonstrated his new SodaStream design at a dinner in the Meatpacking District on Sunday evening. There are three bubble-strength settings (three carbon droplets for me, thanks) and you attach the reusable bottle to the nozzle then push down the entire rectangular attachment at top to dispense the bubbles.
Dwell joined partners Cool Hunting and Architizer in presenting an exhibition pairing architecture and design called SCALE at the Standard East. Among the exhibitors were Seth Keller, whose bench and blocks are pictured at right, and Katie Stout, with a piece called "Bump In Your Rug." Snarkitecture's slab shelves are shown on the back wall of the space, above Jonah Takagi's 'Range Life' table for Matter.