Zilio A&C has released three minimal furniture items with practical design quirks, including a sofa with wide armrests that double up as a perch for drinks and a chair that has no visible fixings.

All three of the furniture pieces were designed for Italian brand Zilio A&C with Mentsen as artistic director, and include the Kinoko sofa, designed by Mentsen, the Candid chair by Note Design Studio and the Upon chair by Sylvain Willenz.

The two-seater sofa by London studio Mentsen features wide, wooden armrests that provide a resting spot for small items like drinks and books.

These solid ash wood armrests are connected by a back section that has joints with semi-circular-shaped cutouts where the armrests meet the line of back support.

The Candid dining chair by Stockholm-based Note Design Studio features a simple, compact design with rectilinear legs that are turned diagonally inwards. This grants it a different appearance from varied points of view.

The studio designed the furniture item after failing to find a "straightforward" chair that it could use for its interior design projects.

While the Candid chair may look austere to sit on, with its hard edges and geometric form, the designers say it is surprisingly comfy as well as being cleverly constructed.

"The frame is really cleverly constructed by Zilio. When you turn the chair upside down, it's like looking at a piece of art," Note Design Studio said.

The third seating design is the Upon chair, created by Belgian designer Sylvain Willenz, which features a curved plywood backrest that appears to rest atop its metal frame without any fixings.

The backrest, however, is secured to its tubular frame using hidden, internal joints – leaving its sleek, minimal design uninterrupted.

Three prongs protrude from the metal frame and fit snugly into three corresponding holes in the bottom of the backrest – a system that also enables the chair to have a much thinner profile, tapering out to a width of only six millimetres around the edges.

Other companies exhibiting products on Dezeen include Danish brands Muuto and Fritz Hansen, as well as British brand Modus and Swiss furniture brand Vitra.

New York-based office-furniture brand Humanscale recently introduced three collections for the workplace, including desk equipment that aims to boost wellbeing and the ergonomic Freedom Headrest office chair.

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