Flex & fold
New York furniture fair unveils scaled-down models that can double as artwork
Space savers wowed NYC show by doubling as artwork,
New York City’s “gotta-have-it” factor spikes every spring as tens of thousands of interior and store designers, architects, retailers, manufacturers and other design VIPs flock to the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), a central plank in the city’s Design Week events.
Keen-eyed trend spotters at last month’s show, which drew some 32,000 industry players to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, would have noticed an abundance of smallspace design. That’s because it represents a growing market, says Javier Korneluk, U.S. managing director for Laufen, a Swiss maker of high-end bathroom fittings that had a booth at the ICFF.
“The first part of the market to come back following the recession was the hospitality trade and project work — mainly higher-end urban condos and apartments. Toronto has certainly seen its fair share of growth in this market. As a result, we’ve experienced an uptick in this segment,” he explains.
Homeowners with small-footprint baths are big on amenities such as water-saving toilets and accessibility features for aging in place, adds Korneluk. And more than ever, over-programmed urbanites want bathrooms with modern looks and a relaxing, spa-like feel.
To meet functional needs, Laufen has expanded its luxury toilet offering for North America, notably with its HiJet toilet, which has a water distribution system that cleans and clears the entire basin using low water volumes. (That’s been an issue with low-flush toilets). Growing consumer demand in North America has also led the company to launch two scaleddown versions of its popular Il Bagno Alessi (which the design cognoscenti affectionately call the “tuna”) in sizes that better fit the scale of smaller bathrooms.
Laufen’s collaboration with Kartell has also produced some clever small space solutions — including a faucet that can hold a removable disk to serve as a perch for grooming products and accessories.
Flexible and foldable furniture and accessories is another hot trend for small spaces. Perhaps no other exhibitor at ICFF offered a more interesting iteration than Folditure, a Hoboken, N.J.-based company that uses computer-driven machining technologies and sustainable materials to create furniture that, when not in use, can hang flat on a wall — doing double duty as art.
“It’s not only about creating new products, we’re trying to create new concepts for saving space. Hopefully, these will pave the way for better living in smaller spaces,” explains founder Alexander Gendell.
Response to the pieces was overwhelming, he says. “A lot of people who stopped by the booth said we had the most interesting products at the show. And a lot of people couldn’t make the connection immediately that the furniture actually was embedded in the artwork and could be removed — so we had to talk them through it. When they did, they were amazed, as well.”
Michele Varian, who has one of the prettiest design and decor stores in New York, showed a handsome sawhorse table that’s also easy to dismantle and store. She suggests it’s not “visually heavy,” so it’s wellsuited to a small spaces.
Multi-purpose tables from Buz-ziSpace are a good choice for small work/live spaces. With slots for electronic devices and options for connectivity, they can be used for work during the day and dining in the evening.
The Belgian company also makes BuzziFalls — decorative panels formed from sustainable felted material that can be hung from a ceiling to separate a small space by function. They can also be hung on a wall, acting as a sort of dimensional wallpaper with sound-dampening properties — useful in condos with lots of windows and hard floor surfaces. However they’re used, they add a punch of colour and decoration to a room.
Groovy Organic Blocks from Sustainable Materials — made out of recycled, renewable cork in 10 colours and five geometric shapes — add dimension and visual interest to a wall in spaces large or small.
Although small spaces work best when they’re not over-cluttered, they need not be devoid of decoration and there were lots of beautiful “statement” pieces at the ICFF.
One of the loveliest examples, however, was at WantedDesign, an exhibition that also runs during Design Week. There, in a display celebrating Mexican design, Ad Hoc Design Studio showed side and coffee tables. One leg of each was turned by artisans who make traditional Mexican chocolate whisks in Santa María Rayon, proving that furniture can at once be small, useful and exceptionally beautiful. Vicky Sanderson is also the DIY editor for Reno and Decor magazine. Follow her on Twitter@vickysanderson or email her at vswriter@sympatico.ca.