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Danish designer Mikael Høilund's storage cabinet presents two faces
to the world.
By Paul Makovsky
August/September 2001
While studying architecture at the Århus School of Architecture (AAA),
in Århus, Denmark, Mikael Høilund (b. 1973) interned in New
York at Architecture Research Office and Donghia Furniture and Textiles.
After he graduated from the AAA in 1999, he returned to New York to work
full-time at Donghia Furniture Design Studio. He recently returned to Århus
to set up his own studio. Currently he is working on a side chair and an
upholstery collection, as well as on a collection for ABC Carpet & Home.
While Mikael Høilund was creating displays for his mother's bridal
shop in Århus, Denmark, in 1997, he started to think about designing
storage for small spaces. He began investigating the ideas of opening, closing,
and concealing things inherent in every storage system. We asked the designer
to talk about the result of his experiments--a storage cabinet called Mr
H!de--which debuted at this year's International Contemporary Furniture
Fair (
ICFF), in New York City.
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The wall mount is made of cast aluminum and is available in three flnishes:
polished, brushed, or glass-blasted.
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I named it Mr H!de because I wanted you to think about its function. When
you turn the cabinet one way, it's nice and neat, and when you turn it the
other way you see all the junk. The transition is quick--like Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde. I decided to use an exclamation point instead of the letter
i. You notice a word when it's misspelled.
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Dimensions:
Height: 71 in. (80 in. with wall mount)
Width: 15.75 in.
Depth: 15.75 in. (20.5 in. with wall mount) |
The idea behind Mr H!de was to develop a movable cabinet, where opening
and closing it is an intriguing part of using it. The cabinet has wall mounts
at the top and bottom. A swivel mechanism in each mount lets the cabinet
rotate 360 degrees around its axis. Therefore the open Mr H!de closes by
turning the box halfway, so that the open side faces the wall.
It's ideal to hang the cabinets with seven inches between each box--that
allows you to turn the cabinets at the same time, and you won't get your
fingers stuck in between them.
Mr H!de can also be custom made in any height and shelf division. It is
available in three types of wood: lacquered maple, oak, and cherry; in flve
colors: red, black, anthracite gray, light gray, and white; and in black
or cognac upholstered leather.
In the very first working model, the shelf divisions went from being
narrow at the top to bigger toward the bottom. It looked very nice. I wanted
it to be commercially adaptable, so that someone could, for example, put
a binder on each shelf. So I redesigned it so all the shelves were spaced
apart equally.
Offsite:
Mr H!de is available in North America at the Showroom of Scandinavia, 515
Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10012, (212) 226-1991, or through Mikael
Høilund (e-mail
mikael@hoilund.dk).
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The end result is a product that's very versatile. I'm thinking of designing
a matte black version for kids to draw on with chalk, because it's already
somewhat like a toy.
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