Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with MVRDV to give readers the chance to win a pink Twin House cushion from the studio's Vertical Village furniture collection, which launched in Milan this week.
Congratulations to the winner! Olivier Menard from France won a MVDRV cushion.
The Twin House cushion is one of 26 colourful foam "houses" that have just been put into production by Dutch architecture studio MVRDV and Belgian furniture label Sixinch.
The cushions were originally designed for the centrepiece of an exhibition in Hamburg about the studio's Vertical Village research – which examined alternative solutions for apartment blocks in East Asia – but were used as seating by visitors and staff.
"The flexible, durable foam elements became an instant crowd pleaser," said MVRDV in a statement.
MVRDV decided to develop a furniture collection from these foam elements and chose to make 26 objects in the shape of houses proposed for the Vertical Village.
"The objects are not furniture in the traditional sense, they are more experimental and appeal by being surprising: how does one use a soft house in a living room?" said MVRDV.
The Twin House cushion is shaped like a semi-detached house, with the space in-between the roofs becoming the seat or a cradle for a baby.
Other pieces in the collection include The Barn, The Factory, The Depot, The Cloud, The T and The Terrace House.
The cushions are made from foam rubber with a PU coating and come in a range of colours. The winner of this competition will receive a pink Twin House model, as pictured.
The Vertical Village furniture is currently on display as a sculpture at Interni's event Feeding Ideas for the City at Università degli Studi in Milan.
Due to shipping limitations, this competition is only open to readers in the EEC countries however the cushions are available to buy on the Vertical Village website.
This competition is now closed. One winner will be selected at random and notified by email. The winner's name will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page.
Here's some information from MVRDV:
What started as a radical urban vision for the densification of the East Asian Metropolis has now turned into an iconic series of furniture, bringing vision and innovation to your home. The pieces are available in a wide variety of shapes and colours – allowing you to tailor your own personal Vertical Village. The product is flexible, waterproof, seamless, hygienic and comes in a range of striking and sophisticated colours. The objects are made of foam rubber with a PU coating, which is 100% recyclable and safe according to DIN EN71-3 standards for Children's toys.
After the Vertical Village exhibition in Hamburg, a 4 metre tall installation made of 80 of these foam elements returned to the MVRDV offices, it was spontaneously used by the staff and visitors as furniture becoming part of office life. In daily changing settings it is used as seats, waiting lounge, playground, pedestal for models and even for the odd deadline powernap. And so a furniture collection was born as a by-product of urban research. The 26 objects are in the shape of houses proposed for the Vertical Village and one can sit, lounge, work and play. The coated foam is resilient and can withstand office life, family life and even outdoor use.
And why not put some unexpected architecture in an interior? A semi-detached house, a volume with a gap or a cloud shape? The objects are not furniture in the traditional sense, they are more experimental and appeal by being surprising: How does one use a soft house in a living room?
Under the title 'The Vertical Village – Individual, Informal, Intense' the research project explored the rapid urban transformation of East Asia, the qualities of urban villages, and the potential to develop much denser, vertical settlements as a radical alternative to the identical block-like architecture of standardised units and their consequences for city life. The research was exhibited in Taipei, Seoul, Sao Paulo and Hamburg, usually accompanied by a large sculpture of a possible Vertical Village. After metal and plastic shapes in Seoul and Taipei in Hamburg the foam was the best solution for the 4 meter tall sculpture, leading to this furniture application.
The furniture is available from April 7th online at www.vertical-village.com. The sculpture will be displayed at Interni's Feeding New Ideas for the City, at Università degli Studi in Milan, in collaboration with Viabizzuno lighting.
The Vertical Village research has been made possible with the generous support of the City of Taipei, the JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture Taipei and Delft University of Technology, The Why Factory. The objects are hand made by Sixinch in Belgium.