Selection
A chair with a way back.
A familiar café chair makes a larger point: lasting value needs a practical route back into use.
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Image: Doc Searls
Image: Sailko
Image: tomislav medak
Image: W.carter
Image: Sandstein / Wikisympathisant
Image: Sailko
Image: Sandstein
Image: Holger.Ellgaard
Image: Andreas Schwarzkopf
Image: Gionata Xerra / Flos
Image: Venini / Damiani Japan
THE WHV WORLD
Furniture & Lighting
Distinctive pieces that change how a room feels and works.
Our perspective on Furniture & Lighting
THE QUESTION WE BRING
What makes this design worth living with, and what distinguishes the particular edition or example?
OUR FIELD OF VIEW
- Authored furniture and modular systems
- Lighting and sculptural domestic objects
- Materials, editions and ownership
Each selection begins with a specific subject, a reason to care and evidence worth examining.
In view.
22 readings · Page 1 of 2
Image: Doc SearlsDiscovery
PH Artichoke and the art of hiding a bulb.
Poul Henningsen’s PH Artichoke turns a practical problem into a memorable silhouette. Its overlapping leaves are there to manage light, not simply to decorate it.
Read the noteImage: SailkoDiscovery
The weight that is not there.
Gio Ponti’s Superleggera makes lightness a construction problem. Its slender frame is the result of material choices and joints, not simply a thin outline.
Read the noteImage: tomislav medakDiscovery
Two pieces. One quietly radical stool.
Sori Yanagi’s Butterfly Stool finds its character in two matching pieces of moulded plywood. Its lasting interest is how little is needed to make the idea complete.
Read the noteImage: W.carterDiscovery
The shelf that leaves the next move open.
Kajsa and Nisse Strinning’s String shelving makes its supports part of its identity. The enduring idea is a room that can change without starting again.
Read the noteImage: Sandstein / WikisympathisantDiscovery
The arms are also the wires.
Richard Sapper’s Tizio turns balance, structure and electrical conduction into one spare silhouette. The clever part is not what was added, but what became unnecessary.
Read the noteImage: SailkoDiscovery
The chair drawn in empty space.
Konstantin Grcic’s Chair_One makes a seat from a network of aluminium triangles. What looks missing is part of the design.
Read the noteImage: SandsteinDiscovery
The light is not where you expect.
The Castiglioni brothers’ Taccia looks like an oversized glass bowl on a column. Its real intelligence is the route light takes through it.
Read the noteImage: Holger.EllgaardDiscovery
A tractor seat, reconsidered.
The Castiglioni brothers’ Mezzadro moves an agricultural silhouette into the home. Its wit depends on how the parts work together, not simply where the seat came from.
Read the noteImage: Andreas SchwarzkopfDiscovery
The chair that had to change.
The Panton Chair survived as an idea partly because its material did not stay the same. Its history includes a failure worth understanding.
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Discovery
The cut that becomes light.
A 2026 TOKIMEKI collaboration places Shimadzu Satsuma Kiriko glass above a machined metal base, giving the cut surface a different role in a room.
Read the noteImage: Gionata Xerra / FlosDiscovery
The hole in the marble.
Flos Arco puts overhead light where there is no ceiling fitting. Its most revealing detail may be the hole through its heavy marble base.
Read the noteImage: Venini / Damiani JapanDiscovery
The glass that catches the light.
Venini’s Tiara Luce uses a quilt-like glass surface to make light tangible. A traditional forming technique becomes something encountered in an ordinary evening.
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