We asked our editors, architect friends, and fellow design aficionados what they are putting at the top of their wish lists this year. The result is a compilation of rarities, outrageous objects, curiosities, and other items that you would want but would never buy for yourself.
Cheese grater Forma
Zaha Hadid for Alessi
Zaha Hadid Architects designed a cheese grater that follows the same aesthetic of her most iconic works: organic shapes derived from natural forms. Composed of a sculptural black base that holds a punctured, mirror-polished stainless-steel grater, the ergonomic shape is designed to fit comfortably in the palm of the user’s hand.
$80 | alessi.com
1st Floor Blue Mug
Adam Nathaniel Furman for Sir John Soane’s Museum Shop
“In the grand classical manner of the very best salons of old, this mug is raised up on a vaulted arcade so that it may occupy the airy summit of its own piano nobile. Elevated above the common detritus of your breakfast table, this dining item elegantly maintains the dignified sanctity of your morning brew.”
$32 | soane.org
Guatemala Throw
CoopDPS for ZigZagZurich
This brightly patterned woolen Nordic blanket is the work of Nathalie Du Pasquier and George Sowden—the founding members of the Memphis Group. Part of the Post Crisis Collection, referencing the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash, the blanket features geometrics mingling with abstract organics in a wash of the iconic duo’s famously bright, bold primaries.
$203 | zigzagzurich.com
Frank Tray
Good Thing
Purveyor of all things mundane and manufacturer of everyday objects, Good Thing made something that is especially banal into something quite useful and amusing. Using an industrial metal-forming technique to shape siding into a hotdog wrapper–like detail, this handsome catchall is a useful tool for storing a sausage, as well as loose change, keys, makeup, etc.
$24 | supergoodthing.com
Half Timbered T-shirt
Sam Jacob Studio
Sam Jacob Studio devised this T-shirt with an edge-to-edge silk-screened Pugin-esque black and white motif. Like “architecture for your body,” the graphic pattern is a tribute to the op art effect of buildings like the Elizabethan manor Little Moreton Hall, and is also a twist on the artifice of mock-Tudor suburban buildings.
$40 | samjacobstudio.com
A Piece of Kahn – Travertine Earrings
Pico Design for the Yale Center for British Art
Inspired by the architecture of Louis Kahn, these earrings are part of the Moth/Butterfly Collection, a collaboration between Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) and Pico Design. Geometric in form, the sterling-silver jewelry has brushed and oxidized finishes that envelop a travertine cuboid recovered from the recent renovation of the Kahn-designed YCBA.
$125 | picomeanslittle.com | YCBA Museum Shop, corner of High and Chapel Streets, New Haven, CT
