Fast-evolving technologies and shifting family dynamics are forcing a rethink on furniture designers. Armed with new and surprising materials such as concrete, these designers are aiming to restyle our homes.
The explosion of the latest must-have gadgets such as flat-screen televisions and home cinemas has raised the tricky question of just where we should put them.
And what about the accompanying clutter of speakers, DVDs and CD-ROMs in often crowded homes housing several generations with different tastes and interests under the same roof?
Some of the 1 200 exhibitors at the Paris Furniture Salon, which closed on Monday, sought to provide answers to such questions and meet the demands of what has been dubbed the ”comfort generation”.
”Television led to the introduction of sofas. Now it is computers, home cinema and other multimedia technologies which demand more comfortable chairs,” said Gerard Laize, from the government and industry-backed body VIA, which aims to promote innovation in the furnishings field.
Nanotechnology used to control movement is helping to make armchairs more comfortable — no more cushion-plumping.
And for city dwellers crammed into apartments, there are tables that roll up to a large poster size; rugs that with the simple pull of a tab become stools; a bath that doubles as a couch; flexible, playful storage systems that look more like works of art; and even a chair that unzips.
Rene Barba has designed for Pirelli bedding a nomadic bed, which consists of five large separate, latex envelopes that the designer said ”can adapt itself to all desires and needs”.
New materials and a new generation of polymers are helping to create smooth, sensuous textures, while other designers are looking back to the future, employing such things as feather-light chain mail, lacquered eggshell and even humble concrete to create surprising new looks.
”We are very far from the kind of concrete found on building sites,” said Stephane Delaitre, from the Cement Information Centre, as he looked at a fluid, curvaceous set of shelves made from thin-moulded white concrete.
Young designer Jeremy Bataillou, who worked with ”l’Atelier du Beton” on a collection of garden furniture, which look like a sheet of paper gracefully folded into a chair, said his concrete collection had been a challenge.
Even though each chair weighs about 65kg, the ”design has a quality of lightness as well as solidity at the same time”, he said.
A walk through the vast salon showed that hi-tech innovation does not mean that home interiors have to become chrome-filled, sterile wastelands.
Plasma TVs can happily sit on top of a whimsical rococo table for an original look. Hi-tech and furniture design can be married, argued designer Chantal Saccomanno.
”I think things are a bit morose at the moment and there’s no reason for it. I’d like to see a bit more fun, creativity and freshness,” she said.
Electrical goods can even be designed to make them more pleasing, argued Tokyo-based designer/architect Gwenael Nicolas.
He put together an exhibition of Japanese goods for Nippon Design, showcasing goods already used in Japan that have yet to find their way on to international markets.
Caressing a small, white, flat-screened Sanyo television, he praised ”the sense of poetry” always found in Japanese products.
”There is an evolution in Japanese technology which deals with the emotional aspect of the product, as well as a simplicity and softness,” he said.
The latest technology has also gone into an automated, self-cleaning, self-flushing toilet, from Japanese company Toto, which appeals to the senses with a warmed seat (five different temperature settings), as well as spouts for cleaning and drying posteriors after use.
At $5 000 per loo, they are not cheap, but the company says people are now queuing up to buy them — including the United States actor Bruce Willis.
”This spirit of comfort is following us even into the bathroom,” said company spokesperson Joseph Costa, adding that ”people want the bathroom to be another living space”.
The French furniture market is worth a whopping â,¬8,79-million a year, so to help buyers, the Paris salon organisers commissioned 11 ”Trend Houses” scattered through the exhibition centre.
Designer Francesca Avossa built a storyboard around a day in the life of a house to explore the changes in family structures with spaces for well-being and relaxation, as well as calls to protect the environment. — AFP
