As we move further into this eighth month and closer to the ninth (sadly, here at 9,200 ft., select leaves on select trees are already showing signs of yellow), I think it’s time to re-visit a classic of double-duty functionality… if eight years of accolades and inclusion in MOMA’s permanent collection can be said to constitute such. I vote yes. [ via While I Work]

Non Chairs and Table. Designed by Komplot Design. Manufactured by Källemo.

Because if you’re beginning to sense the slight chill of autumn in the air, you might be thinking about bringing your patio furniture inside, but if said furniture features the Non Chairs and Table (by Komplot Design for Källemo), once the summer sun has set and/or it’s gotten too dark to see your food and/or celebratory beverage, you’ve been bringing it in all summer long-since one of the many great things about Non is that it’s suitable for use indoors or out.

Constructed of a steel frame encased in “Pur” rubber (which, best as I can tell, is a variety of polyurethane foam with increased “cellularity,”-i.e. the same strength for less weight), the Non line represents a kind of savvy indestructibility: the chairs are somewhat long-legged, geometrical, straight-seated and straight-backed (just a hint of a thoracic curve up high). And how’s this for a list of virtues: indoor/outdoor use, waterproof, UV resistant, stackable five high, virtually indestructible, available in four colors, and (my favorite) quiet.

Of all the qualities to recommend Non, this last is an amusing notion to say the least: my reaction is something along the lines of “of course it’s quiet, it’s an inanimate, stationary object you dolt!” Even so, I can understand the PR folks’ temptations in this regard. Because Non looks so portable, so tough, so lively, that it wouldn’t surprise me if the chairs were capable of locomotion. Like the famed wise cows of Gary Larson’s Far Side who, out from the purview of their human overlords, ambulate bipedally in their pastoral field, sipping espresso and discussing Sartre in the manner of tweedy intellectuals, yet who return to all fours and set to munching grass whenever a car passes, I see these chairs as full of boundless exuberance, such that-unseen by Homo Sapiens Sapiens-they’re prone to gleeful fits of activity, carooming off the walls like so many bouncy balls procured from dime dispensers; hence, the pressing need for sound damping. But just once I’d like to catch them in the act.