Some sofa designs will never go out of fashion – but around the world, designers are always coming up with new ideas and unusual sofas.
Will they catch on? Not always – and some look out of fashion even when they are first released – but as concepts, they highlight the versatility of this perennially favourite piece of furniture.
1. Borge Mogensen’s Spokeback Sofa
Mogensen’s 1945 ‘Spokeback Sofa’ is an icon of the Danish Modern movement, characterised by minimalist designs and lightweight wood constructions.
2. Gaetano Pesce’s Sunset in New York
The distinctive Art Deco style of this sofa combines skyscraper-style rectangular elements with a splash of vivid sunset-red on the backrest.
3. Swarovski’s Crystal Sofa
Is there anything Swarovski won’t put crystals on? Seemingly not, as this sofa at the brand’s Kristallwelten (‘Crystal World’) exhibition in Austria proves.
4. Haldane Martin’s Songololo Sofa
Inspired by sectional sofas from the 1970s, and by many-legged insects from nature, Haldane Martin’s design looks like an epoxy-coated steel centipede.
5. Belfast’s Brick Seat
Found in Sandy Row, Belfast, this public bench is built out of carved bricks, and designed to look like a soft sofa you might find in any living room.
6. Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculpture
Erwin Wurm’s ‘One Minute Sculptures’ show was an interactive exhibition at the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg. Among the works was this sofa, which takes on a new identity when objects (or body parts) are pushed through the hole in the backrest.
7. Wicker Paradise’s Cactus Sofa
Featured on Wicker Paradise’s ‘Wicker Blog’, this eye-catching sofa is perhaps more of a statement than a piece of practical furniture, with inhospitable prickles sticking out across its surface.
8. Benjamin Shine’s Box Lounger
Created as part of the BT Artbox project, Benjamin Shine reinvented the classic red telephone box by flipping it on its side, cutting it into a sofa shape, and adding matching red upholstery.
9. UrbanizeD Mainstore’s Second Life Sofas
If it exists in real life, it probably exists in the virtual world of Second Life – and in the case of virtual furniture outlet UrbanizeD Mainstore, it might ONLY exist in Second Life, as their distinctive and stylish modern designs are entirely digital.
10. Home Reserve’s Loveseat
Home Reserve’s sofas and seats are self-assembly, and that means they don’t look so good until they are complete with their fabric cover – but at least they’re kind on the environment.
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