Live After ICFF: Sealing the Deal

Even after our four-day live-blogging extravaganza, I ended up with scores of unpublished snapshots of worthy products and projects from this year’s ICFF. Herewith, one final show-and-tell from the 2009 International Contemporary Furniture Fair.

I’d been looking forward to meeting PARO, the cooing therapeutic robot seal from the Japan by Design exhibition, since we first wrote about it (her?) in the May issue. Finally, on Tuesday, I got some face time.

Cute enough to thaw even the most Javits-hardened heart. (Click here for a video of PARO in action.)

Also at Japan by Design: this compact ABS vacuum cleaner from Silver Reed and a handsome wooden keyboard from Hacoa.

At the Apulia Italian Excellence booth. Whoa.

Misewell won this year’s Editors Award for best new designer.

Justin Gologorsky, a 2004 Metropolis Next Generation finalist, poses with his Tumble rocker.

Over at the Metropolis booth, Raphaël Ménard (left) and Nicola Delon, from this year’s winning Next Generation team, posed with some miniature wind turbines.

From Chilewich‘s tabletop collection

At the Coalesse booth, Jeffrey Bernett’s Davos armchair—designed for Viccarbe but now being manufactured in High Point, North Carolina

When I visited Spark Modern Fires at ICFF way back in 2006, Javits Center regulations prevented the company from lighting its direct-vent gas fireplaces. No more!

EcoSmart Fire was taking advantage of the revised regulations as well.  I like the red Retro model on the right.

I wrote about Itoki Design‘s first line back in April. It was great to finally see the pieces in person.

Jeff Miller and Yoshi Konishi of Itoki Design

Amuneal was showing off models of some of its recent projects, including this Jeff Laetham sculpture at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Inflate manufactures temporary, portable event structures for indoor or outdoor use.

Speaking of portable structures: the VersaRoom, by VOOS Furniture, is a modular system for building private indoor spaces like closets, bedrooms, or offices. (This is a good solution for loft renters who don’t want to wrangle landlord permission to build out a space.) Deger Cengiz, of VOOS, said that a room of this size can be put together in about four hours with just a socket wrench. This configuration would cost around $11,000; a basic walk-in closet could go for as low as $2,500.

Next door, ECCO Design was showing its ultra-efficient new Ribbon Lamp, which uses Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lighting (CCFL).

The designer, Eric Chan, says that CCFLs offer a better range of light than LEDs and a longer lifespan than CFLs. (The Ribbon Lamp will last approximately 15,000 hours.) The lamp also folds down to provide ambient light.

Nice sink basins at Lacava

Richard Schultz‘s new chair and table (left) and the classic Petal Table

Dominique Gonfard and James Coombes of Lerival, which manufactures furniture by architects. In the foreground: the Infinity Bench by Carl Fredrik Svenstedt

Mette Breindahl from the Danish design company Ferm Living

First-time exhibitor Non Fiction Design Collective is trying to apply new technologies to ceramics. For the Rattus Norvegicus Rex chandelier (left), the Ohio-based studio utilized a stuffed rat, 3-D scanning, rapid prototyping, and slip-cast porcelain.

At Edra: Scrigno, by the Campana brothers

Shuttlecock lights at the Areaware booth