Everyone knows you can’t escape NeoCon without laying eyes on a Karim Rashid creation. Last year we focused on the Pyramid Chair, shaped like an upside down triangle. This year, Rashid is moving from hard geometry to organic curves. His Uno Desk for Stimex almost looks like it’s melting–something in its shape reminds me of the bitumen art/furniture pieces by FORMLOS. In fact, if Rashid’s Extraordinary Family actually came to life, I believe they would own Uno.

Stimex’s booth at #NeoCon10

Constructed of molded fiberglass, the executive desk can be used from virtually any side, a design element that’s meant to democratize the office: “This soft, friendly, human and receptive object allows the user to sit at any side of the desk. It is comfortable for everyone. There is no traditional ‘my side’/’your side’ to the desk.”

Winner of a Good Design Award by the Museum of Architecture and Design of Chicago in 2007 and 2008, Uno Desk, and its companion piece Zero, transform the nature of work into something far more fluid, opening up the potentiality of production: “It demonstrates that the world has no boundaries and that everything can be done. The desk inspires those who sit behind it to look to the possibilities rather than to limits.” While Uno includes an oak drawer unit balanced on sleek chrome legs, Zero stands alone on a singular base that seems to defy gravity. Given the whimsical Extraordinary Family, the utopian Smart-ologic Corian Concept House, and the optimistic Uno and Zero, I’m beginning to think that Rashid is looking at the world through rose-colored glasses–especially given Stimex’s claim that the office pieces “improve communication to employees: ‘That he/she is a perfect contemporary man/woman, receptive and always open to an exchange of ideas, with great social spirit, enormous organizational skills and always attentive to the practical aspect of his/her work’.” That’s got me wondering what my own desk says about me!

Photography by John Yu.