This Friday’s Museum of Possibilities addresses furniture that can be rotated, upended or turned upside down to reveal a distinctly different function. Over a span of nearly 30 years, this trivial and relatively unimportant design challenge has intrigued me. It is a persistent idée fixe for me. It would be dishonest to suggest that such furniture would be indispensable, useful or necessary for a small home or office. Frankly, it is no more than an intriguing design puzzle.
I have a friend, Dirk Dieter, who lives in a single-family home on a sliver of land not much wider than the grass strip that parallels some sidewalks. His home, a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean south of San Francisco, occupies literally 250 sq. ft. He could use one of these designs, perhaps! Of course one of the several weaknesses of these ideas is that when one function is in use, the other is unavailable. But I challenge my dear Neatorama readers to think up your own flip-over, multiple-use furniture. It is lots of fun to imagine them!
Visit Steven M. Johnson at his website.
i got the right vase for your design if you wish!!!
magicvase@gmail.com
half this stuff is brilliant
i mean seriously
if i see one more car model that looks like every other car model
if i see one more hideous piece of shaker style furniture
i will punch everybody in the face
it's the future already
That's a challenge for you, Steve. :)
There continues to be something of a disconnect between some of my commenters and the original intent of my work, which was as HUMOR. Sadly, I must consider the possibility that the humor is so weak that some folks assume I am serious, and therefore a bad designer. If my ideas seem "illogical" or if something I show represents a "fire hazard" that's because I made it that way intentionally. I usually work at making them flawed in some way. When my young son, while still in diapers, showed his first evidence of a sense of humor, it was when I intentionally told him something that had a MISTAKE in it. He found mistakes funny. I needn't go on and on here, I guess....
Oh well. But thanks Gauldar!