A Pelvic Maneuver.

If you want to have a good day, look at what the Dutch are doing in design. Joris Laarman‘s Bone Chair, above, says W magazine, is a concept

that he developed on a computer and then cast in aluminum. For the form, Laarman relied on software that car manufacturers use to develop the most efficient shapes for auto parts. (The software was originally inspired by the biology of human bones, whose regenerative capacity allows them to add and subtract matter as needed.) The result is a delicately sculptural object that contains no superfluous or decorative matter yet is gorgeous enough to make people marvel. “It’s as if a tree just grew out of the ground to keep you propped up.”

So adds Paola Antonelli, senior curator in the Museum of Modern Art’s department of architecture and design. MoMA featured Laarman’s chair, and this polyurethane chaise version, right, in the museum’s Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit this past spring.

I first saw and was struck by Laarman’s work on Trendhunter and the indefatigable Dezeen. Yet his conceptual force is what gives his work its elemental power. As he notes in W, “Combining reason with emotion, that’s the most difficult thing to do—in design and in everything.”

Difficult, yes. But, clearly, there’s an even harder task at which Laarman excels: Making it look easy.