Furniture is gradually moving outside, the search for the perfect coffee machine may soon be over and chaos is now being celebrated: Here are our Living & Design trends of the month.
Collaboration
Rethought
Anyone who thinks of office furniture when they think of USM Haller needs a quick lesson. The iconic brand likes to reinvent itself and looks at least as good at home as it does in the office. Recently, it was designer Armando Cabral who provided a breath of fresh air. Before designing shoes, clothing and home accessories, he was a model. So he knows every facet of aesthetics. With his exclusive USM designs, you can give several rooms a makeover at once: There is a bookcase, an asymmetrical platform bed, a lounge chair, a side table and a coat stand. The name of the collection, NKYINKYIM, comes from the Adinkra symbolism of the Akan people in Ghana and the Ivory Coast and stands for the close interweaving of progress and challenges. A meaning that can be recognized in the flexibility of
USM furniture.
We Love
Pick-me-up
Anna, Bianca, or William after all? We are not looking for a partner, but are faced with choosing the perfect coffee machine. Anyone who tries their hand at being an amateur barista knows that the question of the correct way to prepare the best coffee can end in heated discussions. That’s why the Italian family business Lelit offers a range of different espresso machines – there’s something for every level of home barista. Each machine allows you to experiment with the grind, pressure and extraction time to your heart’s content. But the design is at least as important as the right taste. Lelit has that right too.
New Collection
Summertime
What to do when the living room is ready? Start all over again, but outside. In 2017, Antonio Citterio launched “Erica”, an outdoor furniture collection that can easily keep up with its relatives who prefer to stay indoors. This year, Erica has a new addition to the family: deckchairs, sofas, tables and co. appear in new shapes, colors and materials. Cheap, wildly thrown-together plastic chairs can be safely stowed away in the far corner of the cellar. Whether terrace, pool or garden – no one has to do without design, even in the open air.
Darling
Messy
If we were perfect, we would lay out the clean clothes for the next day and immediately put the worn ones in the laundry basket. Because perfection is overrated, a pile of textiles grows somewhere on the bed, the floor or the nearest chair instead. And this is where others see art: instead of sending us on a tidying course, French artist Lola Mayeras has designed a comforter cover with the fitting name “It’s a Mess”. Thanks to the optical illusion, it looks as if there are already items of clothing on the comforter. It doesn’t even matter if there are a few more. Lola Mayeras, “It’s a Mess”, comforter cover, approx. 330,
Nice to Have
Oasis
We always want the best of both worlds. And the designers deliver: The garden should be just as cozy as the living room. The “Oasis” sofa system from Flexform makes you want to put it in the living room right away. Only the metal frame and the woven back panel serve as a small hint that this piece needs to be a little more weatherproof than its indoor counterparts. What remains the same: The sofa can be configured as desired so that it blends in perfectly with its surroundings.
Exhibition
Highlights
How and why does design change? Since 1875, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich has been collecting exemplary objects in order to answer these questions visually. To celebrate 150 years of exquisite collecting, a new permanent exhibition is opening with 2,500 objects from the fields of graphics, typography, textiles and product design that will set design fans’ hearts racing. Around 580,000 objects from the fields of design, graphics, applied arts and poster design are also stored in the basement of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. Some of these archive treasures can be explored independently for the first time as part of the Swiss Design Collection. The extensive collection of furniture with a focus on Swiss design makes you want to throw your own furniture right out of the window. As if that wasn’t enough of a design dream, the archive also contains haute couture dresses by none other than Cristóbal Balenciaga. Swiss Design Collection, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Toni Areal, from April 11, 2025,
You can find even more design trends here.
