Iittala launches timeless interior news
Iittala launches timeless interior news for fall 2014. The iconic Finnish global design brand launches a series of small accessories for the home designed by Scandinavia’s top designers.
Iittala has dominated world of design-conscious tabletop products for well over a century so this addition to the existing collection is a highly anticipated launch. Iittala’s bold move into small furniture and clever accessories is met with enthusiasm by the design world and those who want to create a Scandinavian ambience at home. This versatile collection includes designs that help simplify modern living; organising possessions becomes a joy rather than a chore. The two perfectly formed designs include a shelf that transforms into a table or a tray and a playful, practical storage system for walls.
The much-admired Danish designer Cecilie Manz has produced a collection of small, playful functional storage solutions for walls. Aitio (meaning theatre box in Finnish) can be mounted on the wall as a single piece where small, targeted storage is needed, for example by the door for your keys or indeed to highlight small mementos that have a place in one’s heart but no obvious place in the room. Also the user can create his or her own larger system, for example in the kitchen or office incorporating any combination of the shelf, hooks or high-rise or low-rise boxed-in shelves. Aitio is a follow up from Iittala’s earlier storage solutions: the glass Vitriini box, the plywood Vakka boxes and the felt Meno bags. Cecilie Manz says, “My focus with Aitio was functionality, simplicity and aesthetics. A diverse product that can be used all around the home to store important things that need to be easily reached.”
Aitio is made from powder-coated steel, birch wood and plastic hooks. It is available in variety of colours and is designed to be easily removed from the wall for cleaning. Manz’s work tends to revolve around simplicity and the process of working towards pure, aesthetic and narrative objects. Manz comments: “I view all my works as fragments of one big continuous story where the projects are often linked in some way.”
The Kerros shelf by Matti Klenell is an incredibly clever member of the new Iittala home collection. It is designed to create extra levels of small display storage for anywhere in the home, and functions as a two-level side table, an extra level for cupboard storage or can even be used as a two-storey tray.
“Designing a furniture item for Iittala was indeed a challenge,” says Matti Klenell. “The company’s great heritage within tableware, cooking and decorative objects created an interesting framework for designing something on a larger scale. Kerros is designed to move around the home and be versatile in any room; in fact it can even be used on the table for eating tapas or enjoying an evening tea. In many ways Kerros is a new kind of object that sits somewhere between furniture and a household product and I find this an exciting ambivalence.”
Kerros is made from plywood and comfortably accommodates Iittala dining plates. Kerros is the latest design by Klenell for Iittala adding to the other products he has designed for the company including the perfectly proportioned stackable glass Lempi and Nappula candleholder.
Images Iittala & Purodeco
