Vienna Design Week 2011 - Polish Design11. Jan2012
"An ordinary object - most often common, not worth much attention or maybe simply unnoticed; In the eye of a designer an ordinary object gains a new meaning.
The beginning of the story is simple. I invited 10 designers to take part in this project. They were given the conditions the object had to meet and the financing from The Adam Mickiewicz Institute to produce the prototypes. They also received the theme and the size of the package (75cm x 75cm x 75cm) into which the prototype had to to fit. This particular requirement was introduced for practical reasons - 10 objects packed in unified boxes make a collection easy to transport and display. The catchphrase "Ordinary object" was to be dealt with the participants on their own.
An ordinary object. What does it mean? Every designer tries to create a surprising object, one of a kind, defying definitions - "Extraordinary". Can an ordinary object be all those things? The aim of designers among others is to address the needs of the society.[...]
The exhibition is an invitation to reflection and discussion about ordinary and out of ordinary objects and attempts to find a definition of "ordinariness" in design." - Agnieszka Jacobson-Cieleka, exhibition curator
Photos by Patrick Moraras.
See here what will be featured tomorrow: Vienna Design Week in review.
VARIABLE LAMP - designed by Krystian Kwiecinski.The lamp is an allusion to a traditional chandelier, anchored in the ceiling, with no chance of change (here is presented as a table lamp). Variable Lamp is a modular, variable system made of aluminum branches connected with steel locks that allows to re-arrange the lamp in any way you please by changing the intensity and arrangement of lighting in the room. The lamp comes in both ceiling and standing version.
DRAWERS - designed by Lukasz Wysoczynski.Cutting through convention. Recovered from old, mass-produced furniture, the drawers have preserved their primary purpose to store things. They are given, however, a new look and often an additional, not quite defined function. The important thing is the contrast between the rich expression of the drawers and the simple form of the new furniture.
PICK-UP Sticks - designed by Piotr Stolarski.Pick-Up Sticks is a set of elements which can be used to make your own lamp. The set includes three lamp-shades of different sizes, ten wooden or metal "sticks" and rotating cast iron connectors, out of which one can make even three different lamps.
The Pick-Up Sticks may be extended by adding additional "spare parts" and making a bigger geometrical light installation. 
SELF PORTRAIT IN FIVE PIECES - Designed by Arek Wolski.A (not so ordinary) stool - made of lacquered plywood - can be used for seating or meditations, but reflect before sitting!. Aren't you making yourself ridiculous? is it appropriate to move it to another place? Aren't you offending the human race and yourself by sitting on it?
HAND-BLOWN GLASS - designed by LA POLKA (Marta Bialecka, Anna Piwowar).A design based on illusion. The traditional form of a cup is interpreted in a modern, grotesque way. Hand-blown glasses which will never break.
Material used is soft PVC. 
EXPLORER's CHAIR - designed by MALAFOR (Agata Kulik Pomorska, Pawel Pomorksi).An armchair with a cushion, which resembles a sail filled with air. The cushion is made of Polyester X-PLY Line, containing carbon fiber used for the production of regatta sails like the America's Cup Regatta. It is made in a professional workshop, by a sail maker who uses special sail stitches.
The cushion is mounted on a steel frame. 
Owing to the technologically advanced materials, the armchair is highly durable and may be used outdoors in any weather conditions - as at the sea... 
HEAT HOUSE - designed by Bartosz Mucha.Braziers are put out in the streets when it gets intolerably freezing. Heat House repeats its classical shape. However, when fitted with two castors, it becomes a mobile object. One can move around the city with their own source of heat or carry the brazier looking for those who are cold. This object also has other practical elements. Its handles are in fact telescopic rods which may serve as a poker while the special grates will make a perfect barbecue.
TABLES +/- - designed by Pawel Grobelny.A set of tables which can be folded as models in geometry class. A change of scale and material - from a sheet of paper to a a sheet of steel. Two very similar structural grids make two complementary tables. Open corners are fitted in such a way that - when joined - they are connected along the edges. The intensive color enhances the simplicity and geometrical character of the design.
SIT SOMEWHERE ELSE - designed by BETON.From a distance, the pigeons cannot see the neutral architectural elements in the shape of very sharp spikes. As they come closer to the place they had spotted, they suddenly realize they are in danger. Heavily, they rise from the ground, humiliated...
We decided to make it clear for the pigeons they are not welcome here. Our alternative "spikes" ca be seen from afar while the different language versions make them understandable along the cornices in Berlin, Bucharest, London...
NOBLES MIRROR SERIES - designed by AZE Design (Anna Kotowicz Puszkarewicz, Artur Puszkarewicz).Perfect finish to the Polish manor house architecture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Response to the nostalgic longing for the aristocratic roots of the Polish middle and upper class. A universal gallery of ancestors in which one can find their own reflection.
