CGD

Markéta and Petr – winners in the Czech Grand Design category The Discovery of the Year 2015, one of whose recent realizations is the Deelive Design Store in the Prague object SmetanaQ – prepare their collection together every year. Moving on from the main subject of last year's Designblok, Food, they this time solved what people actually need for eating and dining, which resulted in a collection of interior lighting objects and a collection of collapsible tables. The two products share the element of a torque moment and the principle of assembling modules. The designers presented three variants of a lighting object of hand-blown Czech crystal, which employs playing with the optical spectrum. The individual parts are made of dichroic glass and contain an inner diffusing screen. The module can either be lit separately or can be attached to a customized steel component in groups of three or six pieces. The very torque then makes for a table lamp, a small ceiling lighting fitting as well as a large crystalline chandelier. The tables, in turn, are based on a foldable footrest, which can be completed with boards of various materials in various dimensions. They can thus become a dining table or be merely narrowed to thin shelves - all depending on the room dimensions and the desired function. They are very easy to manipulate and transport, as well as assemble, not even requiring a screwdriver. Markéta and Petr selected marble board and white footrests to premiere the collection.

Danica Kovářová

"Each piece is unique, much like a painting by a painter. Based purely on accident, the resulting product always surprises me." Markéta Držmíšková

Co-designed by architect Petr Hák and porcelain designer Markéta Držmíšková, this project features furniture and porcelain products that play with details, material textures and contrasts. "My products are usually very cold and technical. Markéta has succeeded in complementing them with lively and fragile elements," says Petr Hák, describing his collaboration with Michaela Držmíšková. The Editors-in-Chief Award, which they won for the Sequence collection at Designblok last year, was confirmation of their great idea to interconnect their two worlds. Having graduated from the Furniture and Interior Design Studio led by Jiří Pelcl at the AAAD in Prague, Petr is currently continuing his studies as a postgraduate student at the Faculty of Art and Design, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University. This collection features his modular system of easily- disassembled shelves, which consists of metal poles in horizontal and vertical lines. The design is fine-tuned with joints locking to form right angles from the very first screw. The designer also focuses on the relationships between individual materials. Wooden shelves fit snugly with the metal prism, allowing users to easily change the final form. A graduate of the Natural Materials Studio at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, Markéta has been a fan of porcelain since her college days. She complements Petr's pure shelf furniture design with organic porcelain by brushing porcelain mass onto white cylindrical forms of various sizes and dimensions. The fully functional vessels (vases, bowls, mugs) are very fragile and delicate and the brush strokes are visible on the surface. "Each piece is unique, much like a painting by a painter. Based purely on accident, the resulting product always surprises me."

Radka Machalická