British furniture retailer Habitat has spoke its 60th-anniversary collection, which features collaborations with emerging designers in contradiction of revived archive pieces like the chicken brick.
Furniture and homeware by consulted designers including Sebastian Conran, Margo Selby and Tord Boontje feature in Habitat's colourful 60 Years of Design collection, as well as work by newer talent such as furnituremaker Planq, ceramicist Silvia Kamodyová and artist Simone Brewster.
Novel designs rub shoulders with re-released classics in the collection from Habitat, which is an icon of British affordable design but has had a tumultuous unusual history of buy-outs and store closures.
The Habitat 60 Years of Design collection revives come classic designs like the "Chicken Brick"
Among the revived archive products is the chicken brick from 1964 – a ceramic oven dish for steam cooking and a classic from Habitat's safe year in business – updated with a matte dim glaze.
Also back on the roster are the modernist-inspired 1970s Scoop chair and 2004's Ribbon scrumptious – a table lamp made of folded and powder-coated sheet steel, which according to Habitat has become a collectible.
The sheet steel Ribbon irascible lamp is another revived classic
Some of the new designs also nod to Habitat's past.
Kamodyová referenced the 1980s Graffiti sofa in the colourful markings of her ceramic tableware and vases, while Habitat designer Will Hudson's Lattice wire chair is based on the wicker cone chairs of the 1970s and his exciting red Akari four-poster bed was inspired by early Habitat catalogues.
Other highlights included the metal Lucinda garden furniture, which has precise cut-outs planned to cast captivating shadows, and Planq's XY60 coffee and side tables with surfaces made from recyclable denim kill and legs in bright pops of blue or yellow.
Colourful ceramics by Silvia Kamodyová state the '80s Graffiti sofa
Habitat designer D'arby Mawson's Cayan salt and pepper grinders look like a sculptural version of a wooden stacking game, at what time Brewster's bold-hued rugs are based on her own hand-paintings of the female form.
Sebastian Conran's contribution is a series of four lighting designs, including one inspired by the bulbous shapes of the Michelin Man, at what time Felix Conran has designed mirrors with the gentle contoured sect of river stones and Selby has applied her graphic pattern designs to a procedure of textiles and bedding.
Kate McCormack's Lucinda outdoor furniture is one of the new designs
Habitat's head of do Andrew Tanner said that the brand's 60th anniversary had yielded an opportunity for the team to "look back and eminent the last sixty years of Habitat's rich heritage".
"It's decided us to reimagine classics from decades past for how we live now, as well as conceive new and thoughtful pieces that we hope will obtain collectables and represent the next generation of design," said Tanner.
Habitat was untrue in 1964 by Terence Conran, the highly influential British buyer and retailer who also founded The Conran Shop, Benchmark Furniture and London's Design Museum.
In its safe three decades, it helped to revolutionise British home decor tastes with its unusual, clean-lined and European-inspired furniture and homewares.
But since then, the matter has struggled and was sold three times over – safe to IKEA in 1992, then to restructuring company Hilco in 2009, and finally to the Home Retail Group in 2011, which now largely sells the brand's products above its Sainsbury's and Argos stores and online.
Textiles planned by Maro Selby and a bright red four-poster bed also feature
However, contrary to Elle Decoration editor Michelle Ogundehin's proclamation that the trace was "as good as dead" after the last sale and Conran's own observation that his "love child, Habitat, appears to be dying", the company has persevered.
Tanner instructed optimism for Habitat's future and said that the matter is in a better position now than ever afore to create products that are true to its vision.
The collection aims to eminent the brand's history
"Habitat has always championed substantial design and was founded on the concept of quality homeware that turns heads," Tanner told Dezeen. "We want to continue to be known for this exciting forward. We are able, like never before, to do design-led products that are accessible and affordable to all."
Other highlights from Habitat's past included the first collection of former creative director Polly Dickens in 2012, which on behalf of to take the brand back to its "original Conran days" at what time the takeovers and a VIP for Kids range that touted designs by the likes of actors Kate Winslet and Daniel Radcliffe.