New York 2015: New York designer Alexander Gendell has added a chair that pops out of an artwork to his Folditure collection of fold-flat furniture (+ movie).
Pop Mural is a triptych of decorative wall panels that contains six flat-packed seats which, thanks to a complex system of hinges and levers, unfold in a single movement into fully functional chairs.
"When we started Folditure four years ago, our initial concept was to make comfortable, solid folding furniture that you can hang in a closet when you weren't using it," Gendell told Dezeen.
"But our customers liked the sculptural look of our furniture and didn't want to hide it away, so I decided to find a way to hang it on the wall. The problem was when you take if off the wall, you don't have anything there."
The final concept uses textiles as a backdrop to create an artwork that works with or without the chair components.
"I went through different versions and materials and concepts and finally hit upon the idea of using textile to create some kind of dialogue with the chair," he said.
"The intention is that you have an art panel when you take the furniture out of it and when you put it in, that somehow the proportion works."
The American company has also launched an addition to its Cricket range, which currently comprises a table that can be folded flat using one hand, creating a 19-millimetre-deep form.
The new version of the table transforms into a two-person art easel with a range of attachments, which adds the functionalities to lock the work surface at any angle, to hold brushes, tools, water containers and solvent pots, and to clip on a task light.
"When designing the Cricket, I wanted it to be very versatile – something like a Swiss Army knife of a table," said Gendell. "The Cricket is a sculptural piece, and I wanted the additions to make it even more sculptural and expressive, as well as functional."
The third new launch is the birch plywood Star lounge chair that folds to a flat silhouette measuring just 32 millimetres deep. Perforations in the chair's back turn into a hook when the chair is folded, enabling it to be hung in a standard-sized wardrobe.
Gendell exhibited the products at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York earlier this month.
Previous Folditure projects include the Tilt chair, the Leaf chair and the Maya chair – all of which fold completely flat, enabling them to be hung in a cupboard when not in use.