Alessi Releases Kid’s Collection Designed by UNStudio

Italian design brand Alessi has unveiled its kid’s collection, featuring a hybrid seat, 3-piece cutlery set and sustainable tableware, all designed by UNStudio.

UNStudio has designed a three-part kid’s collection for Italian design brand Alessi, comprising the ‘Doraff’, a playful piece of furniture, alongside a polished steel cutlery set and a sustainable, shatterproof tableware set.

Ben van Berkel, UNStudio’s founder and principal architect, said that his firm’s first venture into children’s products had opened up “a whole new world of possibilities.”

“When you design a product for adults, you concentrate on its functionality and how to couple that with its materiality, aesthetic and spatial qualities. But something else happens when you design for children: different, more playful ideas start to rise to the surface, because you start to approach the design through the mind of a child,” he explained.

The Doraff is a hybrid chair, table and toy that combines the shapes of a dog and a giraffe into a versatile, multifunctional object that stimulates the child’s imagination during play. This robust object is made of 100% recyclable thermoplastic resin and its light weight makes it easy to flip over to make use of its differently sized surfaces.

The two other new products form the Giro Kid’s Collection, comprising a 3-piece child’s cutlery set and shatterproof, highly sustainable tableware.

The cutlery originates from the Giro cutlery collection designed by Ben van Berkel for Alessi in 2016, while the tableware, made from melamine and bamboo, uses bright and contrasting colours that have an instant appeal to children as well as anti-slip rubber rings to anchor it to any surface.

“For me it is important that the products we design for children have some kind of playful or educational functionality, and that they are related to the interior environment in some way,” said Ben van Berkel.

Alessi and UNStudio started working together in 2001, having produced a number of products together since then including the Tea and Coffee Towers, Sofa Circle, the 'Alba' Truffle Slicer, Ribbon Wine Rack and more.

Photo: © Inga Powilleit © Matteo Imbriani, courtesy of Alessi