Dish racks and kitchen storage systems are among the most disappointing offerings in stores; it’s hard to find one that really functions well and looks great. The design group Studio Matière has designed a kitchen storage system built of pine splints in an irregular, ladder-like grid that can hang from a tree branch, or be free-standing. The tree-thing is definitely out-there (charming…impractical for many), but the shelf part does seem to me to be a design-model that could easily be improvised uponto make a “custom” rack built to the space I have, and would hold plates, cups utensils “in the air” to dry themselves. I could see buying pine sticks from the lumbar yard (or even an art-supply store), sawing the pieces by hand (easy) and then plotting them out like a puzzle before nailing them together, with some redoing to get the spacing right to hold plates upright, etc. In lieu of “legs” the ladder-rack might be suspended on rocks…

There’s a philosphical underpinning to this approach that would be wonderful to reminded of daily as I use the rack: “Matière A” says thaty “want to find a link between the creation/construction process and the object itself , Form Follows Process. In the end we want to express a process in a result.”

via Dezeen