We came, we saw, we conquered. From Long Island City to DUMBO, Greenpoint, Chelsea, Tribeca, Nomad, and Soho, design took over New York this past week for NYCxDESIGN. As the widespread agenda can attest, it was a buzzy and busy week in celebration of design.
This year, the week coincided with both ICFF and Shelter, which made its inaugural debut. If two fairs didn’t present enough design to see, there were also a dizzying array of exhibitions, gatherings, and talks, including AN Interior’s own 10th anniversary party held at Salvatori’s showroom. Brooklyn had a stronger showing than in past years: The programming officially kicked off in Williamsburg and then celebrated its closing night in DUMBO, a newly designated design district.
Throughout all the latest products presented, the following stood out for its visual concept, craftsmanship, attention to production, and longevity. Below are the latest releases pulled from both fairs as well as the many showroom and gallery activations throughout the city that were well worth traversing boroughs to check out in-person.
Arcora and Himalaya Lunar by HEAKO Studio
These refined yet playful lights from HEAKO Studio were on view at Shelter. In addition to the standing Oblique Glow light, which balances off of a skyscraper-inspired steel base, the Himalaya Lunar and the Arcora were the latest lighting from the New York–based studio. The former is a white stone affixed to an L-shaped brass pipe, finished by hand. The latter continues the geometric language with a curved aluminum body, built around an illuminating globe. It can be a sconce or tabletop lamp.
Reflect by Tanuvi Hegde
Presented at OUTSIDE/IN by Lyle Gallery and Hello Human, Reflect is a chair designed for the fidgety, stimulated, and anxious. Brooklyn-based furniture designer and architect Tanuvi Hegde uses cherry wood with a hand-stitched leather cushion to craft seating embedded with a steel ball within the armrest for fidgeting. Reflect is part of Hedge’s thesis, ”Exhibit (A): Furniture for the Anxious Being,” that explores how furniture can respond to emotions and mental health.
CMPT by Lichen and Karimoku Furniture
Design platform and showroom Lichen collaborated with Karimoku Furniture at ICFF. In addition to re-introducing the ZE sofa from Karimoku’s archive, the duo launched a new collection, CMPT, that combines the latter’s craftsmanship with the former’s New York sensibilities. Designed for practicality, storage, and the limits of compact spaces, the collection begins with the Apple Box, a chestnut cube that can be stacked atop one another to create shifting consoles or compartments. Each modular box is held together by an exposed wooden peg. The collection, elegantly simple, is designed to grow with its owners throughout their life.
Gantri Made by Gantri
During ICFF, Gantri announced a new program opening up its innovative production of 3D-printed sustainable polymer lighting to other designers and brands. Gantri Made is a platform, where others can submit designs in CAD where they will be manufactured by Gantri using its proprietary technology and factory in California—all in as little as three months. This system offers scalable, efficient, and more sustainable designs to others in the industry. For its inaugural launch, Gantri released designs in partnership with Rarify, RAD, and Haworth.
Cacao seating by Blackcork
The Cacao chaise lounge and Cacao lounge chair are, like all of Blackcork’s furniture, made from rapidly renewable cork in Portugal. The basis of the design honors its production: expanded black cork. This is made through taking the granules of the material and “cooking” it with water vapor which gives the cork its chocolate color and allows it to take on vast geometric shapes.
Dream Tower by Yuxuan Huang
Yuxuan Huang continues to evolve her oeuvre of assembling old furniture into new designs in poetic and elegant ways. The Dream Tower, shown at the group exhibition Forced Perspective, is lighting crafted from stitched-together wood salvaged from an 1800s chest of drawers. The lamp shade utilizes hand-painted Mashi paper and bamboo via traditional Chinese lantern and kite-making techniques.
Anemon by Kasthall
A floral artwork from 1991 by Gunilla Lagerhem Ullberg was discovered in the extensive Kasthall archive and recently brought to textile life. The Anemon marks a bright departure from the usual neutral color scheme of Kasthall’s work, but the latest rug still retains the careful attention to pattern and hand-craftedness. Available in a blue, coral, and lilac variation, the rug’s floral designs mix and match types of patterns and weaves for a dimensional and optimistic design.
Strata by In Common With
Meticulous glass techniques make up this new lighting collection. The first involves applying finely milled glass powder to sheets of glass using traditional silkscreen tools, much like layering ink in a printmaking studio, to create a patinated pattern. The second technique creates a patchwork, using hand-cut pieces of tile with colored squares and strips applied to clear backing glass. When fired in a kiln, the tiles edges soften and fuse and create tiny air bubbles that give each piece movement and depth.
Curvy Rugs by CICIL
CICIL introduced color to their line of a natural rugs, made with wool sourced from farms in Upstate New York and milled in North Carolina. Their premium wool is braided around a jute core, which is all natural, sourced from deadstock, and salvaged from landfill. The new colorful options bring a playful and refreshed look to their minimal, simple designs like the Curvy Rugs, as well as introduces fun, checkered patterns.
Kinship I & II by Lana Launay
In response to the theme of family that unites Love House’s group exhibition The Family Show, Lana Launay creates light sculptures using doilies collected from her family and passed down from generations. The textiles clad various geometric volumes, stacked atop one another. When lit, the soft glow passes through the doilies, visualizing the time passing through generations. The lighting becomes a poetic representation of the ties that bind.