Illy in a Box

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen all day.

Designer Adam Kalkin has teamed up with Illy Coffee and designed a café in a box that unfolds at the push of a button.

Holiday shoppers milling about the Time Warner Center in New York will have a fabulous chance to experience one of these (pop-up metal containers) soon. Between November 28 and December 29, 2007, they can rest, relax and sip a perfect cup of illy espresso in one of Kalkin’s creations, the temporary Push Button House cafe that the Trieste, Italy-based illycaffè will install there.

With the push of a button, the house opens in 90 seconds like a flower and transforms from a compact container into a fully furnished and functional space with a kitchen, dining room, bathroom, bedroom, living room and library. All materials used in the Biennale house were recyclable or recycled. As Andrea Illy, chairman and CEO of illycaffe, has been quoted as saying, illy was initially interested in Kalkin’s idea as an examination of “home as one continuous mouldable surface, a relief against which human activity would pop out.” (from Cool Hunter)

And according to Gizmodo…

Not only will you get to check out a cool piece of outside-the-box (or inside-the-box, I guess) design, but you’ll get a free espresso when you go.

If you go, report back and let us know how it was. If all goes as planned I’ll be stopping by sometime in December to check it out.

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