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BE#16<br />
Grow it yourself<br />
Stek is a decorative design element for<br />
growing cuttings from plants and herbs.<br />
With a set of four rods and a bowl featuring<br />
an ingenious cut-out, you can construct<br />
the ideal support for your cutting. This varies<br />
from plant to plant. The Stek set is 3D<br />
printed in <strong>Be</strong>lgium. You can plant the packaging<br />
in the ground, and then flowers will<br />
grow from it.<br />
www.anneluusvermeersch.be<br />
Birds’ feathers<br />
Maarten De Ceulaer had always been fascinated<br />
by birds. This ultimately inspired<br />
him to create the Feathers rugs: sophisticated,<br />
expressive collages of feathers. He<br />
seeks out and scans the feathers, often<br />
from different birds, before editing and abstracting<br />
them. Their shapes, colours and<br />
textures are arranged into surprising collages.<br />
These are executed as hand-knotted<br />
carpets in wool and silk from the Himalayas.<br />
In addition to the standard circular and rectangular<br />
versions, Maarten has also created<br />
freeform rugs.<br />
BRUSSELS FURNITURE FAIR<br />
A’SCH – STEK, DESIGN: ANNELUUS VERMEERSCH<br />
Stay healthy? Greenery in your home!<br />
CC-TAPIS – FEATHERS COLLECTION , DESIGN: MAART<strong>EN</strong> DE CEULAER<br />
<strong>Be</strong>cause of the pandemic, houseplants took on an additional significance. The<br />
botanical interior trend has proved to be essential for your health. Walking in<br />
the open air, ideally in nature, has been rediscovered. It’s so good for us! This<br />
experience is being taken back into the home, as it were. Plants create life, peace<br />
and routine. Plants are good for the interior climate, some have air-cleansing<br />
properties. Caring for and taking cuttings from plants creates those all-important<br />
zen moments. More than ever, nature appears as a source of inspiration in<br />
the interior. This translates into organic shapes, purer materials, and more room<br />
for variety and spontaneity.<br />
14 15<br />
Online boost<br />
The lockdown has given a boost to online shopping. Consumers took to it en<br />
masse. They discovered how easy it was to buy with a single touch of a button. At<br />
the same time, they became aware of how much they missed the physical shopping<br />
experience. Especially at interior design shops, they want to see, feel, and<br />
try out their (bigger) purchases. Shopping by appointment makes the customer<br />
feel like royalty, plus perhaps prompting a sense of obligation to buy. Recreational<br />
shopping was wiped off the map. Wandering around an interior design shop is<br />
worlds apart from peering at a screen. In the meantime, consumers have become<br />
more familiar with the virtual realm. Configuring sofas and cabinets online is a<br />
game. Augmented Reality makes it even more fun. They are accustomed to QR<br />
codes.<br />
For interior retailers and manufacturers, these developments have profound,<br />
sometimes far-reaching consequences. Physical shops opened a webshop. Manufacturers<br />
have been playing online catch-up: their websites have been rigorously<br />
overhauled, their photography made more stylish, and their social media activities<br />
professionalised. These online developments were in the air and have been<br />
hastened by the pandemic. How do you keep up as a business with the onlinesavvy<br />
consumer?<br />
There’s also a less ideal side to online shopping: its impact on the environment<br />
(all that packaging and all those delivery vans) and on spatial planning. All hot<br />
issues.<br />
BRAM KERKHOFS – MEANDER<br />
Regional awareness<br />
The pandemic has exposed a number of sticking points. The recent natural disasters,<br />
the undeniable issue of climate change, and raw materials shortages have<br />
acted as a catalyst.<br />
Consumers were confronted with the overseas origin of products and the less<br />
pleasant attendant consequences. Surely this provides food for thought? Then<br />
you’re better off buying locally/regionally/European. Manufacturers experienced<br />
the less pleasant sides of globalisation and outsourcing. They tried to solve things<br />
in-house and to draw upon regional (European) resources.<br />
These issues set in train a change in mentality. How quickly will this lead to a<br />
drastic shift in behaviour? Time will tell. /<br />
Endlessly elastic<br />
Meander is a continuous research project to<br />
single-handedly assemble semi-transparent<br />
screens. The design concept combines elastic<br />
ropes/bands with a stable material, in this case<br />
a stainless steel plate. With this you can literally<br />
put together all imaginable constructions and<br />
shapes.<br />
You have the choice of round elastics of between<br />
3 and 10 cm in diameter, and flat elastic<br />
bands of between 5 and 60 mm wide. You<br />
clamp these in between the profiles in the<br />
stainless steel plate (see photo). You can vary<br />
both the format of the elastic and the gaps<br />
between it. In this way you can create your<br />
semi-transparent screens in the most fabulous<br />
shapes. Straight, round, undulating and pretty<br />
much anything you can come up with. The potential<br />
applications are endless. From room divider<br />
to cabinet carcass to façade cladding. In<br />
this case, ‘screen’ is a highly elastic concept.<br />
www.bram-kerkhofs.be
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