Scandinavian Luxe: LYX Furniture Designer Michael Malmborg

If you know any of Michael Malmborg's work, chances are you know the Wing Lounge Chair, shown below, given it's extensive coverage on design blogs and furniture design sites (as well as being featured in a Nikon Coolpix commercial starring Ashton Kutcher):

WING Lounge Chair:

A reincarnation of the classic wing chair, created for the future. This recliner is made for serious cocooning and is the closest you can get to weightlessness. The upholstery in the Wing Chair is made by open cell visco elastic memory foam, developed by NASA and used in all spacecrafts.

The foam adapts to our body shape and temperature leaving you in cosmic comfort. WING Lounge Chair is the first and only chair ever to be certified by The Space Foundation – tested and recognized by NASA. WING is also the biggest single piece of bendwood ever used to create a chair.



But what you may not know is that Michael is the founder of LYX, a luxury Scandinavian furniture and lighting store, and has several other unusual pieces of furniture worth noting.

Moduluxe Sofa:


A fully flexible design that allows you to design the perfect sofa, using a number of modules. And not only can you combine different types of upholstery like soft Swedish leather and fine Danish fabric. You can also select a base for the sofa that matches your style

Tripps coffee table:


The thick wooden or hi-gloss painted top engraved and supported by mirror polished aluminum.

Zig zag chair:


This serpent inspired lounge chair almost forces the spectator to examine it closely. And despite it’s abstract look, it’s quite comfortable. The strong aluminum alloy frame and a thick layer of supporting foam, it perfectly balances the weight of anyone who dares.

Roy Maccassar Dining Table:


The solid Roy table is extendable from 6 to 10 seats with ample of space for animated get together’s (390 cm / 12.5 ft). The unique extension mechanism is seamless using the latest magnet technology.

The Pris Chair:

The Pris chairs are made with thick mirror polished aluminum frame and very generous upholstery. They are also available with or without armrests and with a low or high back.

Bongo lounge table:


The thick acrylic board, with naturally frosted edges from the water cutting, creates a magic effect. Especially at night or in a dark room when the table acts like a luminary as the edges catches light and reflections in the dark.

The Cell coffee table:

A combination of soft, rounded lines and hard, mirror polished stainless steel gives Cell a techno-organic look. The fine wood, together with its solid form and handmade quality, creates quiet elegance and luxury.

Lightspeaker Lamp:

It is shaped like a loudspeaker, but instead of emitting sound it emits light. The "bass & treble reflectors" in the polished white acrylic box are really light reflectors with mirror topped bulbs. And the volume control is really a dimmer.

The LightAir ion purifier:

The LightAir is probably the world’s most efficient air purifier without even looking like one! It pleases the eye and restores the body - the unique technology combined with award winning design delivers 99.94% clean air. The simple transparent form feels at home in any environment. No expensive filters need to be replaced – just clean the collector when necessary.


Above: LYX founder Michael Malmborg

About LYX:

LYX is the Swedish word for luxury. Rooted in the Scandinavian designs of the 60s and 70s – their furniture and lighting embody pure, simple and clean lines. LYX exists for customers that are special, both in taste and in their willingness to spend a little bit more on a unique piece of furniture.

Their pieces are handmade, of high quality and not in high volume, which adds a bit more to their worth and cost. The pieces are inspired by the traditional Scandinavian design, but makes a stronger and more luxurious statement.

LYX has been published in +100 international media since the premiere in November 2003.

Visit LYX here.

All Aalto, All the Time: Finds Inspired By Alvar Aalto

Above: Alvar Aalto's "Savoy Vase"designed in 1936 and is still inspiring products today.

I've always been a fan of Alvar Aalto's classic web furniture and wonderful vases. Since his death, many things have been inspired by the famous "Savoy" vase shape of his design.

And here are just a few.

Just click on any of the items below and you'll be directed to their place of purchase

See more of my It's All About Aalto! list at ThisNext.

About Alvar Aalto:

Alvar Aalto was born in Kuortane, Finland. He studied architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology from 1916 to 1921. He returned to Jyväskylä, where he opened his first architectural office in 1923. The following year he married architect Aino Marsio. Their honeymoon journey to Italy sealed an intellectual bond with the culture of the Mediterranean region that was to remain important to Aalto for the rest of his life. Aalto moved his office to Turku in 1927, and started collaborating with architect Erik Bryggman. The office moved again in 1933, to Helsinki. The Aaltos designed and built a joint house-office (1935-36) for themselves in Munkkiniemi, Helsinki, but later (1954-55) had a purpose-built office built in the same neighbourhood. Aino Aalto died in 1949 and in 1952 he married architect Elissa Mäkiniemi (died 1994). In 1957 they designed and had built a summer cottage, the so-called Experimental House, for themselves in Muuratsalo, where they spent their summers. Alvar Aalto died in May 11, 1976, in Helsinki.


Above: Early portrait of Alvar Aalto

Although sometimes regarded as the first and the most influential architects of Nordic modernism, a closer examination of the historical facts reveals how Aalto (while a pioneer in Finland) closely followed and had personal contacts with other pioneers in Sweden, in particular Gunnar Asplund and Sven Markelius. But what they and many others of that generation in the Nordic countries had in common was that they started off from a classical education and were first designing in the so-called Nordic Classicism style before moving, in the late 1920s, towards Modernism.

In Aalto's case this is epitomised by the Viipuri Library (1927-35), which went through a transformation from an originally classical competition entry proposal to the completed high-modernist building. His humanistic approach is in full evidence there: the interior displays natural materials, warm colours, and undulating lines. The Viipuri Library project lasted eight years, and during that same time he also designed the Turun Sanomat Building (1929-30) and Paimio Sanatorium (1929-33): thus the Turun Sanomat Building first heralded Aalto's move towards modernism, and this was then carried forward both in the Paimio Sanatorium and in the on-going design for the library. But though the Turun Sanomat Building and Paimio Sanatorium are comparatively pure modernist works, even they carried the seeds of his questioning of such an approach and a move to a more daring, synthetic attitude.

above: Alvar and his wife, Aino

Aalto was a member of the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne; attending the second congress in Frankfurt in 1929, and the fourth congress in Athens in 1933. It was not until the completion of the Paimio Sanatorium (1929) and Viipuri Library (1935) that he first achieved world attention in architecture. His reputation grew in the USA following the critical reception of his design for the Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair, described by Frank Lloyd Wright as a "work of genius".

It could be said that Aalto's reputation was sealed with his inclusion in the second edition of Sigfried Giedion's influential book on Modernist architecture, Space, Time and Architecture. The growth of a new tradition (1949), in which Aalto received more attention than any other Modernist architect, including Le Corbusier. In his analysis of Aalto, Giedion gave primacy to qualities that depart from direct functionality, such as mood, atmosphere, intensity of life and even 'national characteristics', declaring that "Finland is with Aalto wherever he goes".

Aalto's awards included the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture from the Royal Institute of British Architects (1957) and the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects

For More About Alvar Aalto or Aalto products and design, see the links below:
Wikipedia
Buy Aalto vases and products
The Alvar Aalto Museum
Aalto's Architecture
More info and products from Scandanavian Design
Design Museum info