KEY POINTS:
Up and coming young designer Guy Hohmann doesn't quite know how to account for his recent successes. Hohmann says that when he was named Young Designer of the Year and his shelves awarded Design of The Year at the recent Home NZ magazine-run awards ceremony, he was speechless.
"I was quite blown away," says Hohmann, who graduated from design school only last year. "In fact, I was standing right at the back with my partner because I didn't expect to win at all - and I had to wade through all the people to get to the front."
Hohmann's winning design was the Rhythm shelf, a chain of cleverly folded cardboard that expands along a wall like molecules.
"The judges said the design was unexpected and I guess they thought it was quite fresh," says a mildly bashful Hohmann.
He made the shelf by hand - Hohmann has something of a family history of craftsmanship with his father a boat-builder and furniture-maker, and Hohmann junior's childhood forays into kayak and dinghy building - but with the aid of the 12-month mentorship he won from the Eon Design Center, he is hoping to start mass producing more Rhythm shelves soon.
1. Superleggera chair
My absolute all-time favourite. Gio Ponti's 1957 reworking of a traditional design from the fishing village of Chiavari uses materials to their absolute potential and stays simply elegant.
2. Phare Tower
When I first saw this project in POL Oxygen - my favourite magazine - I was delighted. If Morphosis' finished building, due for completion in 2012, looks like the drawings, then Phare Tower will become the next piece of iconic architecture on the Paris skyline.
3. The Arrival
Australian illustrator Shaun Tan has published some gorgeous books in the last few years, my favourite among them being The Arrival. The book is a beautifully rendered and completely wordless retelling of the experiences of displaced peoples and migrants: "all those who have made the journey".
4. MR Chair
Marcel Breuer may have made a cantilevered tubular steel chair first, but Mies van der Rohe's is the one to have. An exemplary piece of modernist furniture by perhaps my favourite modernist architect.
5. Nature Design
This book was brought out last year alongside an exhibition at the Museum Fur Gestaltung in Zurich. It tracks the history of nature's influence on design, from 18th century botanical drawing to contemporary nature-inspired design.
6. Glide chaise
David Trubridge's boat-building inspired the Glide chaise and this continues to be one of my favourite pieces of New Zealand design ever. Perhaps it's the influence of my boat-designer father but every bit of this piece seems to be just where it should be.
7. Wolfgang Laib's sculptures
An exhibition by this German sculptor came to the Auckland Art Gallery in 2005. I was moved by his sure and steady use of a limited palette of materials to create works which speak of an essential understanding of his craft.
8. Ernst Haeckel
This German scientist and aesthete was responsible for the creation of what must be some of the most inspiring scientific drawings ever printed. His 1862 monograph on the little-known microscopic organisms, Radiolarians, inspired a fascination with natural structures in design.
9. Olivetti Valentine Typewriter
This design classic by Ettore Sottsass may be the only bright red plastic thing I really, truly covet. If anyone wants to get rid of their Valentine, give me a bell.
10. Architect WH Gummer
Before the introduction of the nikau palms, Queen St was made bearable by the architecture of William Henry Gummer. The Dilworth Building and The Guardian are two of my favourites.