From the studio of Pablo Reinoso comes a new piece of useable art. I first blogged about one of his pieces back in 2009 on his lovely Spaghetti Bench made of sensuous wood curves, like the lines of a typical park bench trying to escape.

Now Pablo has created another work of art that has taken doodling to a whole new level. I can easily see the fluid marks of a big fat pen in a sketchbook that must’ve been the inspiration for the Huge Sudeley Bench. The beauty of his work isn’t simply the fluidity of the curves but that he uses material like wood and metal that isn’t typically thought of as being used in this manner. These often heavy, rigid materials become light and playful.

And speaking of playful, the edges speak to my childhood days and I can’t help but think of how cool it would be to let a hotwheels car go flying around those loops!

Lines are the simplest of design forms but are so versatile. Lines can be manipulated and transformed into amazing shapes yet still maintaining that simple form of a single line. When the Finish design duo Aamu Song and Johan Olin from Company decided to play with the lines of a simple railing, they came up with new shapes that lended themselves to various uses in addition to just looking cool. The sketch below shows some of the different shapes that came from pushing or pulling at the traditional lines and how they are intended to be used.

These rails in a new Helsinki housing project also provide lovely artwork in addition to their utility. This project has been called Kaide-Taide or Art-Handling. The 8 stories of metal rails are bent into shapes that follow in the footsteps of form follows function to create shapes for leaning, sitting, and viewing.

Ideas like these simple line manipulations could be incorporated into the urban landscape to facilite quick lunches (like seen in earlier post on urban lunches), gathering and seating spaces without taking up too much valuable space.

images via designboom

These aluminum and steel tables by Shanghai designer Zhili Liu are part of a collection called Shrub. The naturally inspired branching legs are attached to the table tops by exposed sunken screws which create a decorative detail in the surface of the aluminum table top.

images via dezeen