Nina Bruun is a student at The Danish Designschool in Copenhagen. Her Fold chair, which was just completed, will be shown at the Stockholm Furniture Fair. She was inspired by origami and wanted the chair to be fold-able with references to both Scandinavian and Japanese design.

The frame consists of 10 mm plywood cut into six profiles and assembled with hinges. The shell is six pieces of hard plastic, and padded with 3 mm foam on both sides of the plastic. Finally, the chair is upholstered with woolen felt. All the seams on the chair were hand sewn, which took Nina a total of 105 hours!

She says, “The seams are visible to create a more industrially expression and to create sharp edges which gives the chair a lighter expression. It was important for me to achieve this ‘light expression’, so the chair doesn’t have too many references to elder heavy upholstery chairs.”

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Smart Furniture’s newest contest is up and running: “Smart Space Design Contest: Design and Win Your Dream Space.”

SmartFurniture.com is giving away some awesome chairs to folks who design the best interior space plans using its new space-planning tool: the Smart Designer®. You could win your choice of a Herman Miller Aeron Chair, Herman Miller Setu Chair, Herman Miller Mirra Chair, or a Herman Miller Embody Chair, and be entered to win the grand prize of $2,500 gift credit to Smart Furniture so you can buy your very own dream room!

Each week in February, the Smart Furniture Team will pick their favorite Smart Space Design to be a Finalist — go here to get the software and the details!

In addition, the Smart Space Design entry receiving the most votes on Facebook and the Smart Space Contest Page will be the People’s Choice Finalist. The $2,500 Grand Prize Winner will be chosen from the five Finalists. The Grand Prize Winner will be decided by a panel of guest judges (one of them being yours truly!) So, get your act together and go to the site to get started now — time is ticking! Or, just check out all the entries here.

In an exhibition including the works of Gamper Martino along with other designers, a series of shelves, cupboards, and chairs were assembled in different ways to confront a variety of contemporary positions on the edge of reality.

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“Necklace” side table, 2009, polished stainless steel and black nickel-plated brass, Edition of 20, Photograph by Reed Krakoff

Swiss-born, Paris-based artist Mattia Bonetti will be exhibiting his largest US show at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York beginning this month. Bonetti’s work is a balance between art and design — in his creations there is no definitive line drawn.

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Volume Gallery, Chicago’s newest cutting-edge design gallery, debuts with an exhibition of new works by American designer Jonathan Nesci, aptly titled: THE NEW, March 19-23, 2010. Volume Gallery will take over the Andrew Rafacz Gallery for the first in an ongoing series highlighting freshly commissioned work from American contemporary designers.

Each piece in THE NEW is born from Nesci’s observations of the world around us and the banal designs that inform our lives, forms many of us never stop to consider, such as the edge of a curb, the base of a street light, etc. With these pieces, Nesci picks up the torch of 20th Century design and carries it into the 21st century, stating, “I am informed by the work that has preceded me and aim to add a building block in the continually changing landscape of product and process.”

Nesci’s translated observations reflect his inspirational sources and modern design ideals through the use of industrial materials — concrete and metal. All the pieces in THE NEW, created specifically for Volume Gallery, embody the spirit of traditional American mid-century design. The finish is matte white, to absorb the light and its surroundings; the pure minimal forms, prevalent in Nesci’s body of work, echo the essence of the design in our surrounding landscape.

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Bruxe Design designed these adorable uranium necklaces with pendants resembling miniature versions of vintage chairs that revolutionized furniture production and the process of design. The series includes The Dining Chair, The Work Chair, and The Scoop Chair. They are available in sterling silver, bronze, and 10k gold. Grab a few at the Montreal Designers Online Store.

This versatile birchwood piece by designer Jung Jae Yup is designed to work throughout different stages of life (since it could be a seat for a toddler or a grown child) to eliminate the need to give the piece of furniture away when a child outgrows it. It also works as a storage solution with small shelves that can be stacked to fit your space needs. A stainless steel frame is used to ensure strength.

[via Yanko Design]

This new collection of furniture and lighting by Steuart Padwick consists of several pieces made out of oak with a splash of color.

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Ontwerpduo designed an entire coated steel furniture set especially for the garden. It includes a hanging chair, a table, and chairs that come with beautifully embroidered pillows. The pillows can be placed on the chairs when you want to use them.

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Stijn Bisscheroux has created this table, stool, and light which is now at design shop Mardonio Home in Amsterdam.

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