Incollect Magazine - Issue 13

Incollect Magazine 31 nightstands from Habibabadi for her New York apartment, and a set of double doors for her gallery and office at the New York Design Center at 200 Lexington Avenue. They had begun planning a solo exhibition at her space in the New York Design Center for his new high-end design line, under Habibabadi's own name. “Amy was such an important person in my life and influential on my career,” Habibabadi says. “She admired my craftsmanship and felt that we could take it to the next level with a line of incredibly labor-intensive one-of-a-kind pieces that would really stand out in the market.” Habibabadi completed the designs and models, but with Lau’s passing, the show was canceled. He will be presenting a cabinet from the series this year at Design Miami in Miami with CASA AnKan gallery. Habibabadi is still planning to launch his new line of higher-end designs. They are a more labor-intensive and extreme version of what he is doing, he says, with radically undulating surfaces made of new, experimental materials such as papier-mâché embedded in wood. “I am currently building a cabinet for the show in Miami. Each door takes me about 2 weeks to finish and sand. It is time-consuming, exacting work.” Habibabadi sees the new designs as the more artistic part of his practice as a designer. The price point is higher because the designs are complex to execute and incur additional labor, particularly in the finishing processes. One of legendary designer Tapio Wirkkala’s carved wall installations from the 1960s, using bent plywood, serves as inspiration for the undulating curved surfaces of the new cabinet he is working on. “Tapio Wirkkala used plywood that at the time was also used for aircraft bodies, celebrating the glue lines of the plywood as an additional pattern on the surface,” he says. Habibabadi created his own type of plywood by combining white oak with colored paper. “It allows me to introduce color and also play with surface textures. By gradually changing the color of the papers, I can get an ombré surface effect.” He has also begun working on a new line of sculptural wooden doors. The design features elegantly integrated sinuous handles that emerge organically from the door slab. “They illustrate how my work is expanding beyond furniture design into architectural elements. While I’ve designed only two doors so far, my goal is to shape features that seamlessly merge form and function — pieces that are not just functional but are architectural statements, carrying the language of my furniture into the built environment.” The statuesque Roman Floor Lamp in ash with a saddle oak stain.