Low life is better than high life
After impressing London Fashion Week with Anya Hindmarch, Numen/For Use heads for Milan opposing sofa trends with Prostoria
Numen/For Use have become globally known for creating interactive public installations inviting visitors to climb them up, clamber through or hide inside. These structures are designed from materials such as adhesive tapes, ropes and carpet. One of these installations made for Anya Hindmarch caught the public attention during London Fashion Week just last month. The installations virtually resemble furniture, and it is lesser known that Sven Jonke, Christoph Katzler and Nikola Radeljković are in fact furniture designers behind the Numen/For Use collective.
Next week at Salone del Mobile in Milan they will show their long standing cooperation with the award-winning Prostoria brand. After the initial success with the Revolve sofa, the iconic Polygon easy chair and Trifidae armchair, their cooperation has reached a new level. Numen/For Use has been given free rein to design integrated solutions on the verge between experimental architecture and designer furniture.
“In Milan we are showing two new systems of upholstered furniture, LowlifeandLoop. Both projects, in a way, result from our research into the potential of novel interpretations of concepts related to informal space and unconventional social relations typical of the countercultural movements in the late 1960s,” explains designer Sven Jonke from the Numen/For Use collective.
Lowlife is a modular system combining various backrest heights with three different seat depths providing a fully customised lounging experience. The slightly rounded segment edges take on vibrant and dynamic shapes with smooth, futuristic undertones. Loop is a modular system creating a soft interior landscape. Seamlessly interconnected seats and poufs unfold as a soft terrain of sloping surfaces conducive to relaxation, leisure and new ways of living and socialising.
Besides, Prostoria is one of the ten globally selected furniture makers exclusively entitled to use new textiles of the absolute world leader in upholstery textile production, Danish Kvadrat. Thus Prostoria’s novelties come with the textiles of Raf Simons, Artistic Director of Jill Sander, Christian Dior and Calvin Klein.
“Both systems presented in Milan feature the currently underrepresented low-sitting. For this reason, they are pitched under the slogan Lowlife is better than highlife. With this launch, we want to step out of our comfort zone, make something less commercial and appeal to younger generations,” highlights architect Biljana Angelovski from Prostoria.
Prostoria’s cooperation with designers such as Numen/For Use collective has earned numerous awards such as the Red Dot, German Design Award, Interior Innovation Award and IF Design Award. Some of their award-winning pieces are e.g. the highly innovative Trifidae armchair, Polygon easy chairs and Revolve and Up-lift transformable sofas. Their easy chairs can be found at Starbucks in Milan, airports in Switzerland, Russia and Israel, Microsoft offices and hotels from Singapore to Finland. They are present at prestigious sales locations in New York, Paris and Milan.
