Sitooterie II by Thomas Heatherwick

Picture by Rick Guest
Barnards Farm, Essex, UK

What's a 'Sitooterie'? It's a Scottish term for a small summer house - quite literally a "sit oot". It's a 2.4m cube with a window and a door, perforated with nearly 5,000 pre-drilled holes, each receiving an identical aluminium "hair".

How does the lighting work? Sunlight is transmitted down the hollow length of each tube into the "Sitooterie" and coloured acrylic caps on the end of each hair gives the light an orange glow. Internal lighting at night makes the outside glow with thousands of points of light.

The structure is a cube punctured by over 5000 long thin windows that project from all its surfaces and lift it off the ground. The cube, which measures 2.4 x 2.4 metres, is precision-machined from 15mm anodised aluminium and the windows are 18mm square-section aluminium tubes glazed with transparent orange acrylic.

As the long thin windows all point at the exact centre of the cube, it only takes a single light source, located at this central point, to send light through every tube, causing the windows to glow orange. A small number of them also project into the cube to form seating.

To check out more amazing designs from Thomas Heatherwick's website click here.

Nanna Ditzel

DESIGN By NANNA DITZEL (1990)

PROTOTYPE MADE IN THE DESIGN OFFICE WORKSHOP. THE BUTTERFLY CHAIR IS MADE FROM FOLDED FIBREBOARD. I LOVE THIS CHAIR BY NANNA DITZEL

Where to get nice sofa bed?

One day I was looking for a nice sofa bed and after so much time spend running around shop, I found INNOVATION LIVING sofa bed. If you are looking for good quality sofa bed for your loft, bedroom, living room this is the company to consider. Go to Innovation living.

Innovation offers the most exciting line of Convertible Sofa Beds and Platform Beds in the industry today. Founded in 1971 by Flemming Hojfeldt, Innovation has been creating Convertible Sofa Beds since 1988. In 1996, Innovation was voted the fastest growing Danish company.

Marshmellow sofa by George Nelson

George Nelson, 1956

Here is one more design of the 2oth century.
Nelson's design transformed the traditional sofa into a three-dimensional pattern consisting of 18 brightly-coloured sections of upholstery, supported by a simple steel structure. This unusual shape and construction make Marshmallow Sofa one of design history's more unusual sofas. An extension element consisting of six individual cushions can be mounted between two sofas, allowing sofa to be extended as required. Available from Vitra.

Eero Aarnio ball chair

Design by Eero Aarnio, 1963.
Fiberglass shell, upholstery.
Made in Finland by Adelta.

The Ball Chair was designed by using one of the most simple geometric forms: the ball. By lopping off one end and fixing it at one point Eero Aarnio comes to a remarkable result - a supremely unconventional chair. A Ball Chair is a 'room within a room' with a cozy and calm atmosphere, protected from outside noises it provides a private space for relaxing or a phone call.
The ball chair is something between a piece of furniture and a piece of architecture and at the same time embodies both the mobile and the established. I always wanted one of them. You can find them for sale at www.hivemodern.com

Swivel seat by Borge Lindau

This seat was designed by Borge Lindau. Börge Lindau, born in Åhus, Sweden, 1932, is one of Sweden’s most well known and appreciated designers. He graduated at ”Slöjdföreningen” nowadays HDK, School of Design & Craft, in Gothenburg, in 1962. During the seventies and eighties he worked together with Bo Lindekrantz in their own company Lindau & Lindekrantz.

Look at Float bed by Okooko

Float by Okooko, designed by David Trubridge Float was voted by the public as 'Best piece of bedroom furniture'. It is indeed beautiful piece of furniture. Very romantic....deamy....sleepy.

SWAN SOFA by Arne Jacobsen

Design of the 20th Century.

This amazing piece of furniture is called SWAN SOFA. It was designed for the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen in 1958 by Arne Jacobsen- for the suites, lounges and the Panoramic room at the 21st floor. An outstretched 2-seater version of the Swan chair covered in different types of leather or fabric and resting on an aluminium shaker base.

I can't believe it was 1958. Arne Jacobsen was very productive both as an architect and as a designer. His cooperation with Fritz Hansen dates back to 1934. It's still available from Fritz Hansen.