Sometimes a less-than-perfect translation says more about the spirit of a line than any precise explication ever could. This gem, for instance, from Spain’s Vondom, Mobiliario Exterior e Interior: “Vondom is born with the inquietude and anxiety by creating a new form of understanding the world of indoor and outdoor decoration. One of the most innovator process in the decoration field at the moment, rotational molding is the main employed technology.”

Lava Lounger. Designed by Karim Rashid for Vondom.

The blurb works particularly well in regard to the recent collaboration between the manufacturer and ubiquitous wunderkind Karim Rashid. Rashid’s plastic joie d’vivre (and I mean that in both senses of the word–the literal material and the boundless sense of movement he instills therein) melds perfectly with Vondom’s daring experimentation and innovative outlook. This propitious fusion was front and center at last month’s Salone, where Rashid exhibited his new Vondom line–the Lava Lounger, Doux Loveseat, and Pal Low Table and Chairs.

As is his wont, Rashid has once again worked wonders with rotationally molded polyethylene. Each of the Vondom pieces thus displays his signature asynchronicity, highly-textural appeal, and glimmering, shimmering audacity. The one claim I won’t make is that the pieces are superlatively comfortable (though they might very well be, at least the Vondom model looks to be enjoying a high degree of bodily satisfaction). The first of the bunch, Lava reminds me in concept of the iconic Party Lounge. Just replace leather with plastic, fast-forward a couple of millennium, and heat to a rapid boil. The surging contours just beneath Lava’s surface certainly suggest the stuff of worldly cataclysm (or the recent geothermal event in Iceland). Doux is an overtly organic and sexily curvaceous seat for two. My best analogue for this one is Dr. Seuss meets the early Stanley Kubrick, as it manages to be both childlike and chillingly futuristic. Lastly, the matched chair and table set called Pal has more of a geometric aspect than the other two. I wouldn’t dare to call it “severe” (the extraordinary palette of color options precludes that type of sobriety), but the set does incorporate a bit of linearity into Rashid’s familiar serpentine profiles.

Via Contemporist.