Texture is creeping back into modern design in a big way. As designers develop new technologies and techniques in fabrication (and continue to explore traditional crafting techniques in contemporary applications), modern home furnishings are evolving from "sleek" and "clean-lined". We noticed a huge increase in crafting techniques like weaving, knitting, and crochet at the recent International Contemporary Furniture Fair, but there were additional projects that took advantage of computer-aided construction to create texture. Some notable, textural designs and applications after the jump...
The beautiful chairs above are from Spanish company Swalaline...
In addition to the Non Random Light by Bertjan Pot (hanging from above), Moooi showed off the amazingly-lightweight Carbon Chair (a collaboration between Bertjan Pot and Marcel Wanders). The Carbon Chair is an excellent example of technological application creating texture...
The Umbra Balloon stool by designer Natalie Kruch is a wooden frame wrapped in discarded balloons. There is also a black and white version.
This metal-framed stool from an El Salvadoran designer is wrapped in discarded bicycle inner tubes.
Titi Abiola's needlepoint chairs...
There were a few companies that used a laser-cut scoring technique to create cool faux-woven forms from a two-dimensional material..
The lounge chair above is from Italian brand MatteoGrassi. Part of the Loom collection, the laser cut leather is the basis of various side chairs, sculptural forms and room dividers.
Thai company Tazana uses the same technique with thin sheets of metal to create amazingly textural lamps (that arrive flat-packed!)...
Your observation brought to mind a current exhibit at the Art Institute I saw last week while in Chicago, "Figuration in Contemporary Design":
http://www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/exhibition/figuration
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thanks for sharing amt230!
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