Dezeen's 10 favourite projects at Collectible design fair in New York
Chairs made with spools of denim and furniture with stylish mixes of wood and metal were on show at the second iteration of Belgian design fair Collectible in New York. Here, US editor Ben Dreith selects 10 standout objects, exhibitions, and collections.
Collectible kicked off its second New York edition at 180 Maiden Lane, one of two converted office towers that make up WSA, a constantly changing collection of office and exhibition spaces in Downtown Manhattan.
Occupying one floor of the 41-storey glass-clad skyscraper, the fair concurred with several cultural offerings in the city aligned with Armory, a long-running New York art show.
Led by founders Liv Vaisberg and Clélie Debehault and under the creative direction of Dutch designer Jelle Peter van Bouwhorst, the fair brought together international designers and studios, with a mix of offerings from single-designer booths to curated installations, including listening rooms and tablescapes.
It included a talks series in a space curated by Philadelphia-based design retailers Rarify.
Many designers and gallerists we spoke to said the fair offered a perfect home for gallerists and designers who find themselves at home neither in design trade fairs nor fine arts exhibitions, and organisations shipped in work from regions as diverse as Montana and Brazil.
Here, we've selected 10 stand-out aspects of the show, from single pieces to installations.
A Listening Room by Silence Please and Tang Thousand
New York-based audio manufacturer Silence Please worked with design studio Tang Thousand to curate a listening room for the fair. Silence Please has been a staple in the design world for the past few years, and has its own cafe and showroom on the Bowery.
With a glossy metal entryway, the listening room featured a red carpet that guided visitors in and then seamlessly integrated with Tang Thousand's recently released modular Pilot Sofa.
Silence Please placed its Echo speakers around the sofa, and the ceiling was covered by a backlight grid simulating a skylight in the otherwise dark space.
Bells & Whistles by Kiki Goti for Toro Manifesto
New York-based architect and designer Kiki Goti's fully fledged collection, displayed at the booth of Mexico City gallery Toro Manifesto, was unified by a series of wavy aluminium bells.
These served a variety of different functions, including as the leg of an armchair and the shade of a lamp, becoming functional at one instance and decorative in the next in an act of industrial whimsy.
Playful and sophisticated simultaneously, the pieces feature hidden details such as a pull-out drawer in the armchair. The aluminium details contrast the wood, lacquer and upholstery that characterise Goti's latest collection as that of a preeminent New York designer.
Puupa collection
Brazilian furniture designer Luccas Iatauro showcased the work of his studio, Puupa, which included chairs, a side table, and a coffee table. The tables combined metal elements with Jatobá wood, with the coffee table featuring playful steel inlays.
The chairs in the collection were extremely clean, with a structure of concentric steel tubing that looks telescopic, giving the design "the illusion of movement," according to Iatauro.
The Cork Collection by Studio Ahead
San Francisco-based Studio Ahead's release for the fair included a circular table flanked by a concentric bench and a stool.
As indicated by the name, the Cork Collection features Italian cork inlayed into glossy stainless steel structures. It was designed to showcase the timlessness of steel next to a renewable material, according to the studio.
Interval
Designers Alban Roger, Arthur Vallin, Maurizio Bianchi Mattioli, Monica Sordo, and Pietro Franceschi came together to form a collective installation under the moniker Interval, which Roger described as an ongoing project.
All the pieces are complementary, with white lacquer and metal connecting them, showcasing Interval's level of organisation, given that all the pieces are new for the show.
Its booth featured a minimalist arrangement meant to be cinematic, complete with a glass of liquor left in the centre of the beige carpet that grounded the booth. Sordo created a stand-out armchair based on her jewellery designs, while Valin created a layered console informed by Pininfarina's 1980s automotive design.
The Roll-Up Chair by Caroline Chao x G-Star
New York-based designer Caroline Chao displayed a modular chair as part of the fashion section of Collectible. It was created for denim brand G-Star's Art of Raw programme, and features rolls of deadstock denim at the backrest and seat of the piece.
The frame was made out of industrial railing components, and the entirety of the piece can be deconstructed and stored. Chao said this approach was informed by camping and military gear and shows the potential for material reuse.
Jonald Dudd
Long-running experimential design collective Jonald Dudd brought a slew of designs to the fair from studios such as James Burial and Mothership.
Two stand-out pieces from this curation were a metal screen with opaque glass inlays by Carl Durkow and a lamp and sconce made with blue-green cast glass and wooden bases by Nine Stories Co.
Silver Tablecloth by Francesco Rosati for Playinghouse
Architect Francesco Rosati showcased a conceptual table with a glass top affixed by clamps to an aluminium structure, created for art and design platform Playinghouse.
The top of the table has a glaze with outlines of florals and tableware. According to Rosati, it "reinterprets a tablecloth, distilling its function into pure idea".
In Praise of Folly by Hannah Martin
Writer and curator Hannah Martin put together this year's Curated section for the fair under the theme of folly – an ornamental structure with little to no purpose. It featured dozens of works that incorporate optical illusions or clever plays on function.
Examples from the curation included a striking chair by US designer Jisu Han Jung with light bulbs as feet, making it more light than chair, and a surrealist ceramic egg holder by New York-based Fefostudio.
Polygon Collection by Syndicate Architects
Swiss studio Syndicate Architects showcased its ongoing series of blocky chairs.
"The design is inspired by early 90s computer graphics," according to the studio.
For Collectible, the studio opted not to bring furniture from Europe but to fabricate chairs in New York using its designs. The result was two chairs, one rendered in metal and the other in wax.
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