As the international world of A&D exhibits goes, we tend to pay more attention to the state-side biggies like NeoCon and IIDEX (though we do a fair bit of Salone coverage every year). So while we know that designer of the year honors at Design Miami were conferred on Fernando/Humberto Campana in ‘08 and Maarten Baas in ’09, we may have missed that that a similar mark of distinction for DM’s sister exhibit recently went to London Studio Raw Edges. The design duo of Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay won the honor of “Designer of the Future” at Basel in 2009. As harbingers of the next decade in A&D, I’d expect nothing less than the current Coiling Collection at the FAT Galerie in Paris. Debuting today and running through January 15, the exhibit includes chairs, stools, rugs, lamps and coffee tables—each of whose principal material is an abnormally large and cleverly coiled swath of felt.

Coiling. Designed by Raw Edges.

Furniture from Silicone-Dipped Fabric

The pieces recall work exhibited not too long ago at NY’s Cooper Hewitt (see Fashioning Felt), but they’ve an aesthetic all their own, not to mention a structural innovation that’s as clever as it is inspired. To create each of the seven prototypes made from a total of 326 Meters of raw felt, Mer and Alkalay first coiled out the desired shape (either loosely, as with the shown rug, or with a wooden structure as the center), then covered one side of the material in silicone. As the silicone sets it infiltrates the felt to create formidable structural integrity, resulting in a piece with “one side of the felt being left in its natural softness, where the other side is saturated with silicon… together they set into a hybrid material with structural build.”

Interestingly, the concept wasn’t so much inspired by the prospect of turning something soft and pliable into functional furnishings, but rather ancient building techniques that use “composite materials… a combination between bonding and structural materials, similar to reinforced concrete or the ancient cob set from mud and straw.” So beyond creating a compelling multi-colored collection that looks to my eyes like it could be the living room ensemble for the cast of Where the Wild Things Are, Raw Edges has proposed a bold new science of materials, prompting me to wonder if we could build our walls out of felt. That would certainly be softer than studs and drywall, if not one thousand times more attractive. Then—just as we often see with the interiors of houses made from cob—we could populate our spaces with the leavings of our walls. In the meantime, however, if you’re lucky enough to be in the environs, check out Mer and Alkalay’s unusually smart and sublimely textural Coilings.

Via Dezeen.