She started her studies at the department of biology, and then ended up graduating as a designer. In her diploma project, Anna Czikkely combined the two fields: her collection titled Leaf Me Alone is built around plants.
We could hear about the positive impacts of plants on our well-being, mood or productivity on countless platforms. Yet there are still only a few pieces of furniture made that could integrate them practically and aesthetically into our homes. Anna Cikkely (Panni) graduated from the department of design of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, and filled this gap with her diploma project.
“When the time for choosing our diploma project themes came, I knew I wanted to find something to which I can relate on several levels. I grew up amongst a lot of plants in our small second floor apartment, and I was always fascinated by the ways plants affect us. I also observed that most of the time we just put plants at a place where there is enough space and light for them. My choice of topic was also influenced by the fact that I started my university studies at the department of biology and the wildlife have always formed part of my interests. Over time I realized that designing and creating are closer to me, but my love for living things and my curiosity remained. This is how the idea of designing a piece of furniture that will be a friend for both plants and people in everyday life came.” – Panni told us.
The main elements of the experimental furniture collection include a multifunctional chair and a desk. Everything started off from the chair – in the beginning, Panni designed this single piece of furniture, and its prototype was made for the diploma defense. The piece of furniture was inspired by plant stands, and so it is also suitable for storing plants. It can also be used as a chair in the traditional sense, however, taking a 180 degree turn, it also offers a smaller desk surface, suitable for short term working, working on laptops or drawing. As an advantage, it can be placed at either point in the apartment, or even to the patio.
The back of the frame of the table ends in a pot-holding tray, into which the concrete pot forming part of the collection and the plant planted into it can be placed. Its character varies depending on whether a devil’s ivy, or a green plant reaching towards the sky with pointed leaves is placed on it. We can further enhance the effect with tray elements that can be clipped to the foot part, giving space to additional plants, which can climb on the foot part. By placing the tray part higher, it can also be used as an extra storage room.
Both the desk and the chair are made of a welded and bent metal frame and plywood. The designer attempted to determine the sizes based on ergonomic measurements, so that she could provide comfortable and effective working conditions to the users.
All this is complemented by the wooden plant wall circle panel, which is a perfect dehumidifier and air cleaner owing to its lichen sponge structure, as well as wall supporting elements allowing the users to create vertical gardens as required on the wall of the room or the study.
“The world of the Memphis group and Alvar Aalto’s Stool 60 stackable furniture made a great impression on me. In the course of designing, I prefer working with geometric shapes, and so I used the basic form of the circle and its truncated versions. This can particularly be seen in the back of the chair, where the two segments of circle give a leaf shape by disrupting the surface, thus reflecting on the plants.” – the designer adds.
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