---

Rotterdam-based practice presents furniture based on the idea of an alternative to sprawling urban growth in East Asia's mega-cities

---

Rotterdam-based architecture practice MVRDV, in collaboration with Belgian furniture company Sixinch, unveiled a playful furniture collection at Milan Furniture Fair last week that imagines an antidote to the sprawling urban growth in East Asia's mega-cities.

Vertical Village consists of 26 large 'cushions' that take the form of small, densely packed houses, designed as colourful alternatives to the identical standardised residential blocks that currently dot East Asia's skylines.

The project started life as a 4-metre tall installation for an exhibition in Hamburg, but soon became spontaneously used as furniture in the MVRDV offices, sparking a furniture collection with Sixinch.

The colourful objects are made of resilient foam rubber and are flexible, waterproof and seamless. MVRDV says: 'In daily settings they were used as seats, waiting lounge, playground, pedestal for models and even for the odd deadline powernap... The objects are not furniture in the traditional sense, they are more experimental and appeal by being surprising.'