The Home Design exhibition and fair welcomed visitors between October 7 and 11 this year at Hungexpo. Even though the coronavirus did not spare this event either, we had nothing to complain about: the Hungarian designers were able to surprise us with their novelties even in the middle of the pandemic. Let’s see what the audience could see at the Hungarian Design stand!
Even though this year’s Home Design exhibition and fair was realized on a much smaller area than before, we didn’t regret this at all: we weren’t fascinated by the booths promoting various floors and kitchen furniture before the epidemic either – we always headed straight to the hall, to the section showcasing the novelties of Hungarian designers. And we did the very same thing this year. The Hungarian Design welcomed visitors in the largest pavilion of the homemaking exhibition marked with “A” with a renewed visual identity (designer: Zsuzsi László), dominated by the classic blue tone chosen as the color of the year.
Ádám Vas’s (Ádám Vas Design) 3D-printed, blue-white lampshades named Nongo and Eszter Révész’s handmade tapestries boasting mustard yellow tones fitted well into this milieu. In addition to the tapestries, the audience could also see a selection of the pillows of the brand Dreaming Threads once again designed by Eszter Révész (we have already presented the home textiles of the designer earlier).
Pastel hues also appeared on Rita Koralevics’s powder-rose gold-grey lamps and small furniture: this time, the representative of the brand Paper Up presented pendant lamps combined with metal and a more emphatic piece, too. The latter manifested in the form of a concrete table with a simple silhouette, enclosed by the members of the 2019 diploma project of Brigitta Péni, the UNITY chair family.
In addition to Brigitta Péni’s furniture, we also found two other “diploma-related” seating furniture, the metal-framed chairs of Petra Pinezits and Alexandra Takács: looking at these tube-framed pieces of furniture, we many times doubt their comfort, but these armchairs actually proved to be very comfortable.
We also got to try Dániel Lakos’s TILT chair finally (we have already presented his collection earlier), designed for Balaton Bútor, which received the Hungarian Design Award in the product category just a few days before the opening of Home Design. In addition to the versions with and without armrests, we could also meet the dining table forming part of the collection at the stand. Even though we think the version without an armrest has more unified looks, the advantage of chairs with armrests is that we don’t have to turn the chairs upside down to lift them from the ground: it’s enough to “hang” them on the table by putting the armrests to use.
Sarolta Csoma and Máté Horváth were recurring participants at the stand, whom the audience could already meet in a previous HYPE article. We were delighted to use their chairs combined with KRION this time, too, and the designer duo also surprised us with some novelties: the audience could see a comfortable couch with simple design, and a practical desk perfectly matching the Mix chair – which won the Design Award in 2018 – we would happily accept either of them.
Just like the FOLDER table designed by designers Sára Kele, Dániel Bartolits and Zoltán Lang, representing puritan elegance. The foldable workstation was produced by Barlang Műhely using a combination of fine hardwood and powder coated steel components.
In terms of lamps, we can mention YOZA’s table lamp “undulating with metallic lights” amongst the most exciting pieces, but the SELFORDII pendant lamp made in the collaboration of Nietolight and Plydesign also deserved our attention. The same as in previous years, VIAPLANT‘s plant-based lamps of various size and form were also exhibited.
Additional exciting surfaces were provided by Overlap One Another‘s (Éva Valicsek and Ildikó Valicsek) vibrant, geometric wallpaper, and Socowoo‘s multi-drawer KOOD sideboards also invited us with fascinating textures. Staying true to its name, Demeter Fogarasi’s Breeze Chair also offers a novelty with its exciting design evoking waves: this extraordinary chair was made in the framework of the Moholy-Nagy László Design Grant in 2019 (which we also presented earlier), manufactured by Győr-based company Meshlin experimenting with composite materials.
The home decor items showcased at the stand also included playful pieces: such as the felt pillow collection designed by Manohuis, which we have already presented to our readers before, and which invites us to cuddle up almost immediately owing to its ergonomic design and friendly colors. Daniella Koós’s (Koodform) wooden serving set also invited the audience to engage: looking at the subdued, natural-colored yet still characteristic bowls with the edges painted blue and red, the visitors kept trying to match the pieces considered to be pairs. Tetris a la De-Stijl – we thought.
Even though we missed Plydesign a bit from the stand, we still got to see some of their Scandinavian-inspired furniture at the 360 Design Budapest pop-up exhibition organized by the Hungarian Fashion and Design Agency. Those who missed out the designboom in early October but would love to catch up can do so it until the middle of November at the Design Without Borders exhibition in Kiscelli Museum, where the audience gets to admire works of both Hungarian and international creators.
Exhibiting designers: Sarolta Csoma | Dreaming Threads | Demeter Fogarasi | Forms Design | Sára Kele | Daniella Koós | Manohuis | Nietolight | Oleant | Overlap One Another | Paper Up | PDSiGN | Brigitta Péni | Petra Pinezits | Planbureau / Balaton Bútor | Plydesign | Socowoo | Alexandra Takács | Ádám Vas | Viaplant | YOZA
Photos: Attila Glázer
Accidentally familiar scenes
Smart sanitization, not only for your hands
