The Wheel Shelf by Vladimir Kagan for H Furniture, 2016

The Wheel is an out of the ordinary magazine rack by the celebrated American designer Vladimir Kagan in collaboration with H Furniture, originally produced for Wallpaper*, and hndmade during Milan Design Week 2016. Kagan was a titan of mid-century modern design, and was one of the most fêted and enduring furniture designers in the United States. Kagan was inducted into the Designer Hall of Fame in 2009, by which time he’d been creating his sinuous, playful and highly collectable furniture for over 60 years. The dramatic, one-off piece pays loving homage to the London Eye, a gently rotating home for eight double sided magazine racks, made from solid oak and red metal plates. It can turn both ways, with each rack housing eight magazines – four on each side. The Wheel has a certain simple, brutal beauty, with clearly visible mechanics and fixings. The collaboration with H Furniture on The Wheel was fitting, as Kagan’s hugely impressive body of work was based on his philosophy of “purity of design and integrity in manufacture”. Similarly, H Furniture believes in fostering design talent, in uncompromising production values, and has a single-minded vision to create original, meaningful pieces of furniture that enhances people´s lives. As a unique collector’s piece, The Wheel certainly embodies the spirit of its creators.