The Radiator Redesigned

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Share When�s the last time you really took a good look at your radiator? As we�re deep into chilly February, you�ve no doubt been paying attention to it, if only to keep from freezing. But as a design element, your radiator probably leaves a lot to be desired. Well, leave it to design wunderkind Karim Rashid to change all of that. The man who has transformed everything from trash cans to teapots into works of art has set his sights on the humble radiator � and staying warm in winter may never be the same. Now he�s teamed up with New York's Museum of Arts and Design to focus on his latest obsession as curator of an exhibition titled "Totally Rad: Karim Rashid Does Radiators."

The exhibition, which opens March 4, showcases 30 radiators, all currently in production, that will fit in as works of art in the most elegant of homes. There�s Studio Dell�Acqua Bellavitis�s Bambu, a series upright steel tubes, gently curved, that resemble swaying stalks of bamboo. Ron Arad�s Arabesque, produced by Hellos, is a shining modern composition of intertwining lines of steel. And Rashid�s own Klobs, featuring artistic blobs mounted on a silver pole, is another example of the radiator as a piece of sculpture. Fittingly, the exhibition will launch the museum�s new Design and Innovation Gallery, where we are bound to see more amazing transformations of everyday objects in the years to come.

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