The Design Dozen

Dorothy Kalins

PATRICIA URQUIOLA: This Spanish-born, Milan-based designer is hot, hot, hot, turning out inventive furniture for Italy's best manufacturers. But it's the seductive, lacy texture of her new T-table (as in T. rex) for Kartell that caught our eye. Urquiola calls it a "technological fossil, in direct contrast with the clean-edged plastic objects we know." The table is injection molded in one piece, its sturdy legs supporting a top so delicate-looking, you're surprised to discover organic shapes, "like creatures that were trapped there millions of years ago," explains Kartell's Ivan Luini. "Polycarbonate comes from the earth, hence a very old material meets a very new one."

Dorothy Kalins

Cross-Culture Project

3M PROJECTOR: What do you get when you cross a giant American corporation (3M) with a feisty Milanese design studio (Design Group Italia)? The end of the clunky projector. 3M's Digital Media System's sensuous shape is based on sports-car technology. It'll project large images from a short distance and it has a DVD player. Arrivederci, slide machine.

Dorothy Kalins