In 1947 the American designer Edward J Wormley reflected in the New York Times on what contemporary furniture could, should, be, and amongst his thoughts on beds, chairs, storage units et al, opined that “an ideal table would be a flat plane suspended in space”, and that not least because “it’s the legs that are the big nuisance”.

“Can we find this kind of furniture in today’s market?”, he asked his readers, albeit, rhetorically, “You know we can’t.”1

Which tends to imply Wormley didn’t visit the Home Show exhibition in New York in April 1930, for had he, he would have seen Friedrich Kiesler’s Flying Desk…….

The Flying Desk by Friedrich Kiesler (Photo © and courtesy Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Vienna)

“Dear Architect” wrote Maria Chinaglia Ponti in 1967 to the architect, but no relation, Gio Ponti, “why don’t you design us some modern furniture? Daddy Walter is worried because our traditional stuff is not selling as it used to”.1

An unsolicited request, from a company of whom he’d never heard, an architect of the status of a late 1960s Gio Ponti could have turned down, it wasn’t as if a late 1960s Gio Ponti needed the commission; however, something about the letter from Maria Chinaglia Ponti interested, intrigued, Gio Ponti. Beyond the shared surname. For as he continues, in his recounting of the tale, “Ci vado“.

“I went to see them”…….

Gabriella Chair by Gio Ponti for Walter Ponti

“The placing of foam mattresses, spring mattresses, and the like, on bed frames made of wood or metal is familiar”, notes a July 1966 patent application, and it was. However, it continues, “bed frames of this type are heavy, continually take up one and the same space in a room, must be dismantled if they are to be moved to a new location, and represent a major obstacle in context of cleaning the bedroom.”1

Which, certainly in the early 1960s, they were and did.

But what is one to do?

Verner Panton had an idea.

An idea that may not count amongst his better known projects, but is a project that allows one to approach a better understanding of the work and career of Verner Panton…….

Lost Furniture Design Classics: The Panton Bed

Throughout his numerous lives and careers Isamu Noguchi practised as an artist, set designer, garden designer, furniture designer, lighting designer, etc…. yet through all incarnations he remained one thing: a sculptor.

Isamu Noguchi’s most popularly known work is inarguably his Akari lamps, yet before Akari there came a lamp which in many regards exists more in context of the man and his art than its more famous relations…..

Lost Furniture Design Classics: Model 9 Table Lamp by Isamu Noguchi for Knoll Associates

In context of the Radio smow Sofa, Couch, Settee Playlist we briefly discussed the settle as an early forebearer of the settee.

Existing in a myriad expressions and forms, one variation on the settle was a pleasingly multi-functional, multi-talented, culinary adept, object.

And one that has, sadly, vanished from the contemporary furniture landscape…….

An early 19th century English Bacon Settle

One of the inescapable features of our recent #campustour was the number of projects exploring potential, possible, new materials, including, and amongst many others, egg shells, eelgrass and chitosan. Explorations whose relevance and importance was neatly underscored post-tour by the exhibition Pure Gold. Upcycled! Upgraded! at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg.

Beyond the questions posed by the projects themselves, the experimentation we’ve seen these past few weeks has increasingly caused us to reflect on a material once tipped as being a potential new future for the furniture industry…… Papier-mâché.

Chair, 1830-1840 Wooden legs, Papier-mâché backrest (Photo © Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service, www.blackcountryhistory.org)

Celebrating the Renaissance era humanist and author Thomas More’s contribution to the history of furniture design. And a work sadly now as lost as his fabled commonwealth….

Abraham Ortelius' map of Utopia (ca 1595) (Source https://commons.wikimedia.org/)

Rocking Chair by Jacob Müller, as seen at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Amongst the objects Jasper Morrison selected from the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich’s archive for the “MyCollection” section of his Thingness

Rondella Lamp by Christian Dell(rechts), 1930s Advert *Owing to the nature of teh item we don't ahve any photos we can use... google it,you won't be disappointed)

In his Letter of Reference for Christian Dell on the occasion of his departure from the Kunsthochschule Frankfurt, the school’s

Rocker by Constantin Wortmann & Benjamin Hopf Büro für Form

One of the biggest disappointments of Milan Furniture Fair 2015 was that all manufacturers, or at least all the ones

george nelson bench

There is currently a lot of “buzz” in the contemporary furniture and interior design communities about bringing nature in to

We know what you’re thinking, lost furniture designs from Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames. ??? Yup. Two of the most

Table for display of trousers Joseph Emberton

If you visit the London Design Museum’s new permanent collection exhibition “Extraordinary Stories About Ordinary Things” you will be treated

Lost Furniture Design Classics Office Furniture by Arne Jacobsen for the American Scandinavian Society desk

At the same time as he was developing the Ant Chair, Arne Jacobsen created a one-off range of office furniture