#mats-steen

#mats-steen

"The whole photo shoot looks incredibly clumsy, since I'm not a photographer. It's more of a means to an end and my least favorite part of the process."

Glass demands immediacy. Working at temperatures above 2,000°F leaves little room for overthinking, so the process becomes a kind of live dialogue between material, colour and chance. That same immediacy informs what I'm drawn to as a collector: works that carry a decisive gesture, a tactile presence, and the feeling that they could only exist in one form.

From unassuming hunks of Carrara marble and limestone, Matthew Simmonds carves realistic, miniature gothic cathedral arches, stairwells, and colonnades. Often based on architectural details of real places, such as cities around Tuscany and Germany's Bamberg Cathedral, the sculptures portray intimate details of corners, vaulted ceilings, arcades, and stairwells that can sometimes be peeked through additional apertures.

The sculptures are designed to contrast Manhattan's monumental architecture with imagery drawn from fairy tales, archetypal symbols and dreamlike storytelling. Their polished steel surfaces will reflect the surrounding city while their whimsical forms invite pedestrians to pause-and maybe look up from their phones for a minute.

Sand Art is a game by Kory Jordan and published by 25th Century Games for two to four players ages 10 and up. It takes about an hour to play, and has you collecting resources and then coloring in a bottle, making art in a bottle out of sand, in case the name didn't give away the plot. Gameplay Overview: Sand Art has you gathering and mixing sand, which is used to fill your bottle.

SO KOIZUMI DESIGN has developed Resonique, a ladder that explores the relationship between functional structure and sculptural form. The project draws on the structural logic of ladders while referencing the flowing geometries associated with brass musical instruments. Through this combination, the object shifts from a purely utilitarian tool toward a design piece that engages both function and spatial presence.

A gold ring with a deep-blue, oval setting - decorated with fine spirals of filigree and tiny granulated beads - has been recovered from medieval deposits in Tønsberg, a historic town in southeastern Norway. The ring was found during an excavation in the modern town centre, where archaeologists have been investigating layers of urban life preserved beneath today's streets. The discovery was made within the protected archaeological area known as Tønsberg Medieval Town.

There is a moment at dusk when the boundary between sky and water dissolves. The sun hangs low, the tide softens, and the surface of the sea becomes a trembling mirror, holding light in fragments. Studio Haran's Sandscape Collection seems to trap that exact instant. These sculptural luminaires do not simply resemble waves. They resemble the reflection of something luminous hovering above them, as though the moon or sun has descended and dissolved into ripples.

Dining outside can be quite a beautiful thing - as the sun sets over a delicious meal, everything can feel just right - except, of course, when the night begins to fade. Enter Solae by Cecilie Manz, a portable, directional lamp that merges an ethos in nature with the quality and craftsmanship we've come to know and love from Fritz Hansen. Solae marks Manz's first rechargeable, portable lamp, offering new frameworks for how we might think about objects in the future.

How did a material conceived for bridges, factories, and large-scale structures make its way to the living room bench, the apartment bookshelf, the café table? For centuries, metal was associated with labor, machinery, and monumentality-from the exposed structures of 19th-century World's Fairs to the productive logic of modern industry. Its presence in domestic interiors is not self-evident but rather a cultural achievement: the transformation of an industrial material into an element of everyday, intimate use, in close proximity to the body.

The project is structured around a single continuous hanging rail that extends for nearly 100 meters, serving as both the primary display system and the organizing element of the space. In response to the constraints of the site, the design reconsiders the hanging rail as a spatial device rather than a fixed retail fixture. The rail adapts to existing walls, columns, and building services, bending, rising, and shifting in section as needed to navigate obstacles.

Moooi expands its imaginative universe beyond lighting and furniture with the launch of its first-ever ceramic surfaces collection, The Nesting Room. Developed in collaboration with Italian ceramics innovator ABK Group, the new line translates Moooi's signature blend of fantasy, refinement, and multi-sensory storytelling into architectural form. Crafted in full-body porcelain stoneware, each surface transforms walls and floors into serene landscapes of texture, rhythm, and quiet contemplation.

Arco is a headphone stand designed to feel like a finished object, whether or not there is a pair of headphones resting on it. Carved from a single block of wood or stone, it has a smooth arc that gives the headband a gentle resting point and a solid base that reads more like a small piece of furniture than an accessory. When empty, it still looks complete, adding subtle presence to a shelf or desk.

The Nobel Center, set to become an open civic institution, will be built along the waterfront between the neighborhoods Södermalm and the Old Town. It will introduce a place for exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and cultural gatherings, with an emphasis on public access. The building forms part of a continuous public route along the water, linking destinations such as Fotografiska and the Stadsmuseet.

When was the last time you saw an ashtray filled with stubbed-out Marlboros at a friend's apartment? At a restaurant? For some of us, the answer may very well be "never." Maybe that's the charm of the International Museum of Dinnerware Design's new exhibition on ashtrays - invoking an era before health codes and Mayor Bloomberg. Or reaching back even further, when you might see a Similac-branded ashtray in the office of your OB/GYN.