Designed for casual meeting places and relaxation areas such as hotel lobbies, the Chic Lounge features a curved metal base and low-slung seat.
Chic Lounge is available with a matching cushion
"The chairs are extremely comfortable, encouraging informal meetings over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine," said Profim.
"The collection is distinguished by minimalist, elegant design, while the style is dominated by subtle forms that blend perfectly with many different spaces," the brand added. "There is no exaggeration, no unnecessary elements in the design. It is stylish, soft and flowing."
The chair also comes with a low back
The Chic Lounge comes with a high or low backrest, as well as with a matching cushion and footrest. The chair is also available in a version that rocks slightly for added comfort.
About Dezeen Showroom:Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.
Japanese architecture studio Unemori Architects has designed a small house formed of several stacked boxes wrapped in corrugated steel on a 26-square-metre plot in Tokyo.
Named House Tokyo, the house was designed to make most of a small plot of land in a densely populated area of the Japanese capital.
"With the building area of just 26 square metres we used the small space to its maximum," Unemori Architects founder Hiroyuki Unemori told Dezeen.
"You have to be experimental and clever with regards to its utmost usage and we looked towards how diverse and extendable the space could be within the tiny plot."
Above: the house is designed as a series of stacked boxes. Top image: it is located in central Tokyo
The studio designed the house around a geometrically structured wooden framework with the upper floor set back from the street to create a small terrace.
All of the outer walls were made from cement clad in industrial corrugated galvinised steel.
The set-back facade creates a terrace on the first floor
Although it was built in a dense urban area, where neighbouring buildings are close by, House Tokyo was placed slightly away from the sight boundaries to allow more light into the house.
"The exterior wall of House Tokyo is partly offset from the dense surrounding houses," Unemori explained.
"The small gap between the neighbouring houses brings a view to the sky, wind circulation and of course sunlight."
House Tokyo is clad in corrugated iron
Large windows open the house up to its surroundings and break up the corrugated-iron facade.
"As the windows are oriented in different directions, various daylight atmospheres fill the room throughout the day," Unemori said.
The ceiling height is almost five metres
Inside the house, ceiling heights range from 1.9 metres to 4.7 metres with the house's wooden structure has been left visible as a decorative detail.
"The differing ceiling heights within the suspended inner wooden structure and the distance to other buildings were challenges, as well as the task of designing a pleasant living experience in such a small space," Unemori said.
The bedroom, bathroom and storage is on the ground floor
The house has a total floor area of 51 square metres, spread over two floors.
A bedroom, bathroom and storage area were located on the semi-basement ground floor, while the open plan kitchen and dining areas are housed on the first floor.
A kitchen and dining area sits on the first floor
The house was built as a private residence, but the owners plan to eventually rent it out, so Unemori Architects designed the bedroom so that it can be divided into two rooms if needed.
As the owners lead a busy life, the small footprint of the flat isn't an issue.
The home was designed to be rented out in the future
"The client has a very urban lifestyle, such as eating out and using public bathing facilities, so the city is their extended house," Unemori explained.
"They use the House Tokyo for sleeping, working and living."
The artist and the visualiser who collaborated on the first NFT house are locked in a dispute over the copyright of the virtual property, which last week sold for $500,000.
Mars House is "the first NFT digital house in the world," according to online art marketplace SuperRare, which sold the digital file.
But Argentine 3D-modeller Mateo Sanz Pedemonte, who created visualisations of Mars House for artist Krista Kim, claimed the project was "a fraud".
"I am afraid to say that this project is a fraud," Pedemonte told Dezeen.
"Krista Kim never owned this project fully," he continued. "I have created the project with my own hands, combined with her direction. I do possess the full intellectual property."
"Mars House is my art creation and my copyright"
However, Kim disputed his account. She confirmed to Dezeen that Pedemonte created visualisations for her but claimed that she retained full ownership of the project.
"Mars House is my art creation and my copyright," Kim told Dezeen. "He does not need to be credited because I own the copyright."
Mars House was sold for over $500,000
Kim told Dezeen that she contracted Pedemonte to work on the project through freelance marketplace Freelancer.com. She claims she did not agree to give the 3D visualiser any rights to the artwork.
"Mateo provided freelancer rendering service for which I own the copyright of Mars House," she said. "He was properly compensated for his services."
"Krista Kim never owned this project fully," he wrote.
"I have created the project with my own hands, combined with her direction. I do possess the full intellectual property. This is going be processed legally," Pedemonte's comment continued.
"I have all the content in my PC and have produced all in Unreal Engine, with all recorded working sessions. I was discredited from this project."
Pedemonte rendered the project in Unreal Engine
The transparent virtual home, which "can be built in real life by glass furniture-makers in Italy," according to the artist, was created in 2020 using 3D rendering platform Unreal Engine.
It comes complete with a "calming musical accompaniment" by rock musician Jeff Schroeder of The Smashing Pumpkins.
On his Behance profile, Pedemonte describes the project as a "meditative house concept, surrounded with mountains and pure renovating energy".
Earlier this month, the non-existent property was put on sale via SuperRare, with the virtual dwelling offered "for file upload to the owner's Metaverse".
Virtual house sold for $512,000
A buyer called @artoninternet made a series of increasingly high bids in cryptocurrency Ether until an offer of 288 Ether, which equates to $512,000, was accepted last week.
The digital file of the house is verified by a non-fungible token (NFT), which acts as a digital certificate of ownership, allowing unique digital artworks to be bought and sold and collected.
NFT technology has come to prominence in recent weeks with several high-profile sales of NFT-backed artworks and designs.
Dezeen Showroom: Hopper is an aluminium picnic table designed by Flemish designer Dirk Wynants for his own company, Belgian furniture makers Extremis.
The Hopper table and two benches are formed of a single continuous piece of aluminium. The table legs dip down in a V shape before forming the benches to allow the sitters easy access.
The picnic table has two benches
"Four pass-through zones at the ends eliminate the need to scramble over the benches to reach the table," explained Extremis.
"A picnic table at heart, this piece adds a playful yet architectural element to any indoor space or outdoor terrace."
Its shape is designed for easy access
Dirk Wynants has a design studio based in Belgium and Shanghai. He founded Extremis in 1994 after designing an outdoor table for his own family.
About Dezeen Showroom:Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen's huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.
Italian studio Carlo Ratti Associati is among four winners of the global Helsinki Energy Challenge, with a proposal to create island-like, floating seawater reservoirs that would store heat to help decarbonise the city's heating network.
The international Helsinki Energy Challenge was launched in 2020 to unearth sustainable alternatives for urban heating networks, using Helsinki as a testbed.
Officials in the Finnish capital intend to use the winning solutions to reduce the city's dependence on coal and biomass, in order to meet its target of carbon-neutrality by 2035.
Floating islands will store heat for winter
Carlo Ratti Associati's design, named Helsinki's Hot Heart, comprises 10 floating reservoirs that are filled with hot seawater, mimicking a small archipelago. The system would use seawater heat pumps to convert mainly carbon-free electrical energy from sources such as wind and solar power into heat.
The circular basins would then work together like a giant thermal battery, storing the heat that has been converted from renewable energy so that it is readily available for district heating in the winter.
Four of these reservoirs will also be covered by inflatable roof structures to create a series of enclosed recreational spaces.
Top image: Helsinki's Hot Heart will resemble a group of islands. Above: it will double as a public recreational space
These will be filled with plants from tropical ecosystems and lit by LED lights that mimic sunlight, offering a "unique public space" for locals and visitors throughout the year.
Other winning proposals include Smart Salt City, a new model for an energy system that uses artificial intelligence to monitor demand and supply forecasts.
Designed by SaltX Technology and Rebase Energy, it relies on renewable energy technologies for heat, but will also utilise thermochemical energy storage – thermal energy that is stored as chemical energy – for times when demand is not met.
A scheme that proposes the installation of heat pumps within the Baltic Sea to meet 50 per cent of Helsinki's heating demand was also a winning design, conceived by Storengy, Newheat, Engie, PlanEnergi, AEE Intec and Savosolar.
Named HIVE, it would also utilise solar thermal fields, thermal energy storages and district heating optimisation.
The sheltered reservoirs will contain spaces with tropical plants
The fourth winning scheme, named Beyond Fossils, is "an energy transition management model". It proposes that Helsinki replaces using coal for heating by 2029 through clean heating auctions – a process where renewable energy developers bid against each other to supply energy.
The winners of the Helsinki Energy Challenge were selected from 252 teams, ranging from tech start-ups to banks, engineers and architects, from 35 countries.
Carlo Ratti Associati will take a share of a prize fund worth one million euros, split between the four teams.
While helping Helsinki decarbonise, the organisers hope the competition will also encourage other cities to "take the energy revolution into their own hands" in order to achieve carbon-neutrality.
"Helsinki is not alone: to fight climate change, sustainable heating solutions are needed in cities all over the world – heating not just beyond coal, but also beyond burning biomass," organisers said.
"The City of Helsinki is committed to sharing the lessons learned and results gained in the competition so that also other cities around the world can use them in their climate work."
London is another city that is trying to find sustainable ways to support its district heating networks. In the Borough of Islington, waste heat is channelled from the Northern Line tube to the grid to warm offices, leisure centres and 1,350 homes.
The system was developed with engineering firm Ramboll to make London more self-sufficient in energy while cutting carbon emissions and reducing heating bills.
