ShareThisIndustrial designer Ran Lerner is on a mission to create long-lasting, ecological home products that don't mimic what is already in the market and, when possible, have a dual-purpose.
The 40-year-old Milan-educated Israeli met some of those goals with his new Grapevine wine rack for Umbra, the 30-year-old housewares and furniture company headquartered in New York.
For his ovoid pyramidal rack with holes for six bottles, Lerner used design and production skills he honed while working for star interior designer Adam Tihany and, later, at a flatware company that mass-produced fine yet affordable cutlery.
Grapevine, made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a Lucitelike thermoplastic polyester resin used to make plastic bottles and fabric, is intended to look sculptural, like a bunch of grapes, when not in use. It is made in clear, black and red versions. In the clear, translucent version of the rack, "bottles seem as if they are floating," Lerner says.
Expert opinion: "Most products are made of the same five or 10 types of plastics, and we pick from among them," Lerner said. He chose a PET acrylic, even though it is relatively more expensive, because it is shatter-resistant and recyclable. Eco-conscious Lerner, also a design teacher at the Parsons School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology, uses just enough PET acrylic to form a rigid tower to hold six full bottles of wine. "Such material conservation also helps products from being over-designed," Lerner says.
Pros: Grapevine's small footprint is ideal for urban kitchens that don't have much counter space. Grapevine racks are made of clear or integrally colored acrylic, therefore they are lightweight, stain-resistant, easy to clean with a cloth and won't fade. "Ovoid shapes are generally very strong," Lerner says. Even so, if Grapevine racks do fall to the floor, they won't shatter easily "because PET acrylic (unlike brittle polypropylene) has some flexibility."
Cons: Grapevine racks are not modular and are not designed to be stacked in tiers. More racks would need more counter space.
Price: $21
Resources: Umbra.com; ranlernerdesign.com; cliffsvariety.com
(E-mail ideas for Material World to Zahid Sardar at home(at)sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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