More "Recession-Friendly" Design Ideas

It is interesting to observe what reactions economic crisis provokes in our way of thinking and what designers' solutions appear. In one of her latest interviews trend forecaster Li Edelkoort is convinced that "creativity will help us emerge":

"Design will always be able to find new scenarios. Once you’re creative you’re not afraid, you will always be able to make something out of nothing, improvise, find solutions."

I began posting about recession-friendly design and think that it will be definitely a trend of the near future. Re-using products - like Reestore’s inventive recycled washing machine table with embedded lighting Silvana (above) - and materials will become more and more popular
I do welcome Platform21's Repair Manifesto that opposes throwaway culture and celebrates repair as the new recycling. Great initiative! But that does not mean we should forget about aesthetics. Is it worth repairing a plastic chair? Like in the Reanim: 5.5 designers project - right. For it Sauvez les meubles (save the furniture) designed a special repair kit, consisting of a prosthetic chair leg and elastic.
I hope that creativity will not only help us emerge, but will also confirm the value of good craftsmanship, exquisite details implementation and natural materials.

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What Recession? Christie's $28 Million Chair

"'There are still a lot of extremely wealthy people out there." - obviously, since someone would pay $28 million for a leather armchair. The sale was about $25 million higher than the Christie's estimate and set a record for a work of 20th-century design at auction. These words are of Edward Dolman, Christie's managing director.
It was bought by Cheska Vallois, owner of the Paris gallery Vallois, which had originally sold the chair to Saint Laurent. Created in 1917, or slightly later, by Eileen Gray, an Irish architect and furniture designer, for her first commission as an interior decorator. With lacquered wooden armrests shaped like braided serpents, it shows her in transition from art nouveau to art deco.

I like her designs, but still this is unbelievable! "She's always been a darling of design curators and collectors because she was a woman competing in a men's world, and because as a one-of-a kind object it would be perceived as art," explains William L. Hamilton, who previewed the auction for Art in America.
Eileen Gray continues to get her belated appreciation! And crisis appears to be quite relative!

via Fast Company