Get the best of Domus straight to your inbox!

Domestic Platforms

The mutlifunctional collection designed by Matic Vrabič comments the position of furniture industry in times of crisis by searching for new ways of production and usage.

Matic Vrabič’s challenge for this collection was to design a furniture family that would be simple to produce, and would exploit the still existing woodworker’s knowledge and technical skills within a different production model.

Inspired by the austere structures and material treatment of traditional furniture, refusing to transcend or hide, the elements of this prototype look-alike furniture are made entirely of parts used in the door-making industry. The simple technology was slightly modified in order to manufacture a new product.

Domestic Platform uses and exposes “undesirable” materials that would normally be covered by a layer of wood veneer or paint. The top surface is an MDF sandwich panel filled with cardboard honeycomb that assures extreme lightness. The wooden three-dimensional leg functions as a support element. Each leg can be turned into one of the three desired positions in order to create a daybed, a bench or a table – a platform for domestic or office environments.

The system was initially developed as exhibition mounts for Slovenian Museum of Architecture and Design, where low cost, simplicity and quick execution were main requirements. The design allowed quick adaptation by turning legs when the need for a specific type of mount increased. For the museum a total of 100 pieces were made. Domestic platforms are now being produced in small series.