A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same backwards or forwards. British artist/designer Peter Marigold’s Palindrome collection of furniture for New York design store Moss is that, with a twist: They are symmetrical pieces that are half mold and half cast, with the forms, textures, and details of one side mirrored on the other. To make the items, Marigold engages in a little production trickery. He first assembles the wood as a mold, with the composite casting material layered inside. Once the latter is set, he disassembles the wooden mold, turns it inside out, then reassembles it, using fasteners to join the two sides. The result is that the imperfections in the wood and rendered beautiful on the cast side: circular saw marks become symmetrical decorative swirls, knots become motifs, and holes become handles.
Prior to casting, the item’s wooden half is engraved with a word or phrase, which is repeated on the cast side in raised writing. Each of the collection’s eight pieces has its own palindromic name, save for the gun cabinet. Sadly, each item is a one-off.

Konstantin Grcic's Steel Pipe desk in dark gray, with optional hanging drawers, and Steel Pipe chair for Muji Manufactured by Thonet.
Hello, global spirit of collaboration! Not every day do you get an upstart Japanese brand pairing with a revered German company to issue a range of products by a British minimalist and German formalist. But design is a boundary-crossing thing. Witness James Irvine and Konstantin Grcic’s new lines of affordable wood and tubular steel furniture for Muji, a collection created in collaboration with Thonet.
Thonet’s creative director, Irvine exploits the curved lines of the company’s original bentwood chair for his pieces in the line, dubbed Muji Manufactured by Thonet. His super-light Muji No. 14, made of beech and with a seat constructed of either wood or mesh, features a simple horizontal panel across the back. When placed next to its corresponding dining table, available in a four- and six-person size, the back panel merges with the tabletop, leaving only the elegant arc of the chair’s frame visible.
Harry Allen's Uruku refillable lipstick case for Aveda, which is molded from recycled aluminum and a new material composed of recycled plastic resin and natural flax fiber.

Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto, and Ola Rune are superstars in Stockholm. Not only are the three in-demand architects and interior designers, but they also teach at Konstfack (the Eindhoven of Sweden) and create products for Offecct, Wastberg, and Sultana in their spare time. Their latest innovation, Olive, straddles the line between bespoke and mass-produced furniture. Featuring five different backrests and seats randomly paired together during production, the chair, produced for Swedese, was inspired by a bowl of the delectable drupes that the three designers were sharing. They noticed each fruit had a distinct shape but was related to the others, which got them thinking about ways to convey difference and similarity. Available in metal or wood, and with or without armrests.

Ah, the cardboard seat. It can be humble (that box on which you’re resting your broke-ass butt) or fancy (like Frank Gehry’s Wiggle, currently retailing at fine furniture stores for about $1,000). So kudos to Tom de Vrieze, of Belgian firm tovdesign, who papers over (ha!) the competition with his low-key but stylish Kraftwerk chair. Comprising 4mm-thick cardboard, kraftpaper-tape, and two London brackets, the polygon-shaped seat weighs 4 pounds but can support up to 50 times that load. How? Because it’s internally filled with polyurethane expansion foam, more commonly used in the automotive and plumbing industries, and which provides amazing structural stability. Yet before you try to buy a Kraftwerk on Ebay, know there’s a hitch. De Vrieze doesn’t sell finished versions of the chair, only the plans for it. So making Kraftwerk is, by design, a DIY project. First you purchase the details from his web site for 7 Euros ($9), then visit your local hardware store for those four raw materials, which will run about 20 Euros ($25). Finally you fold, tape, and foam-inject away until you have your seat. Once you’re finished, you can leave it that drab neutral brown or sexy it up however you please. But either way, you can be smug in the knowledge that Gehry has nothing on your design skills.
