Our annual trends package explores the colours and materials that will take centre stage in the coming year. In this, our first of five instalments, metallic shines in furniture, lighting and interior design.
Chrome still reigns as the minimalist’s metal of choice, but brass and bronze are making a strong appearance in products, interiors, and even cladding.
1 Circuit
One of the many lighting fixtures handcrafted by Apparatus of New York that uses a signature brass finish. apparatusstudio.com
2 Incenstix
Brooklyn studio Avandi, run by Ariane van Dievoet, spins its brass tabletop objects in limited editions. avandistudio.com
3 Captain Flint
The conical shade of Michael Anastassiades’ lamp rotates for directed light. It’s made of polished brass with a marble base.
4 Trophy Jigger
Umbra Shift’s brass-plated jigger measures out three different size shots: half-ouncers, full-ouncers and one-and-a-half-ouncers. umbrashift.com
5 Take me to Miami
Nika Zupanc’s eight-piece brass collection for Ghidini 1961 was launched during Milan Design Week. ghidini1961.com
6 Platner Easy Chair
To celebrate 50 years since the launch of the Platner Collection of tables and chairs, Knoll has released the iconic series in bronze and 18-karat gold finishes. knoll.com
7 A-Frame Daybed
One of the furniture items by Eindhoven’s Kiki van Eijk, whose pieces are made of sticks and branches cast in solid bronze. The series is called Civilized Primitives and was exhibited during Milan Design Week. kikiworld.nl
8 Atlas
Karl Zahn’s table lamp for Roll & Hill is named after “the Titan doomed to shoulder the world.” Available in polished or blackened brass. rollandhill.com
9 Carapace
Inspiration for Maarten Baas’s limited edition furniture comes from two sources: an admiration for vintage refrigerators with round corners, and the hard shells that protect such living creatures as beetles and armadillos. Baas presented the hand-welded suite at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in New York last March. maartenbaas.com, carpentersworkshopgallery.com
10 Sulwhasoo Flagship Store
The Asian skin-care brand recently opened its first dedicated retail store in Seoul, with an interior defined by a cage-like network of brass lattice. The treatment, designed by Chinese firm Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, gives the five-storey shop a dramatic yet warm glow. neriandhu.com
11 Water Steps
Each year, the German faucet company Axor invites a handful of designers to rethink the spout by using the U-Base, a universal base for bathroom fittings. Swedish duo Front devised this two-tier metal fountain, called Water Steps, to emphasize the calming effects of trickling water. frontdesign.se, hansgrohe-int.com
12 Office by Ricardo Caetano de Freitas
For a real estate office in Porto, Portugal, the local designer encased the meeting room in a metal-mesh framework that takes the form of a pitched-roof house. Other interior elements, including desks made from old doors, reference the home.
