Boomerang Chair, design: Richard Neutra, 1942, reedition by House Industries

California, and in particular Los Angeles, has been home to numerous Hollywood stars and other glamorous figures of the burgeoning jet-set since the 1930s. The City of Angels was the ideal place for many architects to develop their ideas. The spectacular landscape, the sophisticated clientele, the climate, the wealth of the film industry, and, above all, the free-thinking that transcended all convention offered architects then, as well as now, the opportunity to realise their visionary projects.

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Interior design of Information Centre, Zuiderzeemuseum, Enkhuizen, The Netherlands by Maarten Kolk & Guus Kusters

According to the Dutch penchant to connect traditional aesthetics with modern issues the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen showcases masterpieces and objects of an enormous historical variety – from old impressive Dutch paintings to the artistic objects of Victor & Rolf.

In 2009 the Zuiderzeemuseum invited the Eindhoven based designers Maarten Kolk & Guus Kusters to design the interior for the information centre of the museum park.

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Stool-bench, black by Fehling & Peiz

This playful composition of upholstered stools which merge into a seemingly randomly structured bench is the latest creation of the German design duo Fehling & Peiz. The project is produced as a limited edition for KKAARRLLS – a collection of outstanding projects of students from HfG Karlsruhe.

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Remix #2, desk by Gesa Hansen

The young German designer Gesa Hansen was born into the furniture producing, family-run business Hans Hansen. After graduating from Bauhaus Universität Weimar she founded her own label ‘The Hansen Family’ under which she realised this series of solid wooden pieces. The classic design refers to Gesa’s Scandinavian roots: old archived scetches from the family fund have been combined with functional requirements of our times.

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'Series One': Another Country's first collection: coffee table, stool, kids' stool, kids' step

On the occasion of this year’s London Design Week, the new British manufacturer Another Country will launch its first collection of contemporary craft furniture. Owned by Paul de Zwart, the founding publisher of Wallpaper* magazine, Another Country focuses on archetypal design quality, using familiar and unpretentious forms of traditional woodwork.

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'Huts' on the facade of Centre Pompidou in Paris by Tadashi Kawamata, photo by Hervé Véronèse, Centre Pompidou, 2010

The Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata is well known for his architectural installations made from humble, sometimes recycled materials such as cardboard boxes or disused timber. One of his newest creations are wooden huts hanging like wesp’s nests between the beams and pillars of the structural facade of Centre Pompidou in Paris. With their look of improvisation the small parasites build a strong contrast to the highly technical appearing “Refinery” – this is how Parisians call the Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers building from 1977.

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'Stalker' by Studio Hausen Foundry

The Singapore based young label Foundry understands itself as a “bridge between the world of contemporary design and East Asian craftsmanship” and in fact all of their products envisioned by design talents across the globe are made into reality by the finest craftsmen from Singapore and Peninsula Malaysia. This year Foundry presented amongst others these beautiful occasional tables. ‘Stalker’ is a small tripod side table created by the Berlin based Studio Hausen.

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'Animal' by Quentin de Coster

For his small children’s desk the Belgian designer Quentin de Coster found inspiration in the scetches of dogs and tables he asked some five year olds to draw. The beautiful figurative yet simple design results from a mixture of these drawings.

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'Sierra' by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Dune

The US manufacturer Dune presented this new slightly modernist-looking series of cabinets created by the Stockholm based design trio Claesson Koivisto Rune at this year’s ICFF in New York. ‘Sierra’ exists as a sideboard and highboard and is made from MDF with a reconstituted wood veneer. The filigree base is stainless steel with a pale gold tint.

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'Bluff City Light' pendant light, by Atelier Takagi

Jonah Takagi, Washington based designer and founder of Atelier Takagi, recently launched these beautiful new creations: ‘Bluff City Light’ is a pendant light which particularly accentuates an element one usually tries to disguise – the ventilation grid. The enameled steel cage is combined with an elegant copper socket and an enameled minimal aluminum diffusor.

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