Current Feed Content
Heracleum Lighting by Bertjan Pot for Moooi
Posted: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:51:08 +0000
Dutch designer Bertjan Pot has created the Heracleum lighting for Moooi.
.Description from Moooi:A decorative LED lamp inspired by the Heracleum Plant. The white leaves/lenses ramify from one branch creating a very technical, natural structure. By using the technique of coating conductive layers, the lamp is very thin and delicate. A design not possible by using normal wires.Visit the Moooi website – here...The 19 Series by Omer Arbel for Bocci
Posted: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:22:40 +0000
Canadian designer Omer Arbel has created the 19 series of copper bowls for BOCCI.
Watch a short video about the 19 series – here.
.Series 19’s are made of 100% recycled copper at the oldest foundry on the West Coast of Canada, located in East Vancouver. In addition to being numbered and dated, subsequent pieces bear a mark indicating the weight of copper used to make the piece. Pricing is based on a combination of a conventional retail cost plus the calculated market value of copper on the day of the sale.Omer Arbel says “This piece is a step forward for our practice because it marks, perhaps, the maturity of a concept we’ve been struggling with for many years. We have always taken an interest in formal motivation, and have wondered about the conceptual rigor of justifying formal decisions in different ways. It has been a long process, but the practice has evolved to its current position, which is that our role is simply to design conceptually motivated fabrication processes”.Watch a short video about the 19 series – here.Visit the Bocci website – here...The Lastika Chair by Velichko Velikov
Posted: Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:54:29 +0000
Velichko Velikov has designed the Lastika chair for Italian manufacturer LAGO.
.Description from Velichko Velikov:Lastika resembles a flower, in fact a daisy. When you sit in it, you are supported by forty elastics that make up the seat and create a rocking sensation, although the structure of the seat is in fact very stable. It is a fun and comfortable seat, very lightweight and … stackable!Visit the LAGO website – here.Photography by Pietro Firrincieli..The Chimney House in Bosschenhoofd by Onix Architects
Posted: Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:12:26 +0000
Onix Architects have designed the Chimney House in Bosschenhoofd, The Netherlands.
.The Chimney House in Bosschenhoofd by Onix ArchitectsThe Chimney House in Bosschenhoofd has a simple main volume with a rectangular floor plan and a saddleback roof. The plan is based on the fact that the chimney is a disappearing feature in architecture of this century. This tempted us to create a house with several chimneys. The chimney has been used in different sizes and shapes and with different functions. In conjunction with the other premises on these grounds, the new house has a strategic position within the domain. The layout defines intimate spaces with varied identities. Of the existing buildings, only the old house remains intact, to be used as a studio. The walls of the existing sheds will be dismantled so that only the roof remains, supported by columns. These roofs will be used as a carport and as a storage area for wood for the hearth.The grounds are wedged between a wooded parcel to the south and agricultural land to the north. The wooded parcel provides some soundproofing against the motorway in the vicinity, but also creates shadow. The house is optimally oriented to the surroundings. The main contour seems to harmonize with an environment that accommodates mainly saddleback-roofed houses and sheds. On the ground floor, the volume with the transverse roof appears to balance on two short legs. Between these two short legs, which contain the technical areas, the storage area and the entrance, there is a transparent interior oriented to the exterior, although it also maintains a relationship with the more introverted upper reaches by means of a void. The frame on the ground floor is formed by a row of balusters that interacts with the sprouting stems of the beech hedge. A splendid three-dimensional effect arises when viewing the surroundings from this vantage point. A large terrace adjoins the house just beyond the wood-shaded area on the west side. The first floor has a more secluded character in order to resist the warmth from outside. The bedrooms and other spaces have a window bordering on an alcove. Only the main bedroom has a large window on the north side. The simple saddleback roof volume blends with the four chimneys on the roof. The chimneys are used as channels for the hearth, but also allow light and space to the interior.
The plank played an important role as the smallest element in the development of the house. Planks were used to make the shuttering into which concrete was poured. This concrete then acquired the imprint of the planks. The same planks were also used for the façade, for the finishing of the roof, and for the interior walls. The surface was made coarser or smoother as required. The interior walls are coarse, but various types of finishing are applied. Sanding can smoothen the surface and restore the original colours to wood that becomes greyed. The hearth, kitchen block, staircase, toilet, bath, etc. are all realized to correspond with a plank width of 20 cm. The inside panelling was done by the clients themselves.Visit the Onix Architects website – here.Photographer: Mark Secuur..The NONO’ Chair by Stefano Soave for Alma Design
Posted: Sat, 16 Apr 2011 06:47:44 +0000
Back in 2009, we featured the NONO’ Chair, designed by Stefano Soave, when it was just a prototype. Now NONO’ has been announced as a real product, manufactured by Alma Design.
.Description from Stefano Soave:NONO’ was born by analizing new ways of sitting of young people, who are always ready to find seats everywhere and transform every support in a sitting. The name is made by two negations NO Chair_NO Stool, indeed NONO is a new way of ischial sitting. This type of sitting allows people to lean on it in a semi-sitting position and to partially put down the body weight on the standing during temporary waitings. NONO’ is a new way to “seat down”, perfect for home, contract spaces, bars and restaurants, that become its natural habitat. Light, dynamic and stacking, realized in polypropylene filled with fiberglass and printed in air moulding technology. UV-resistant material.Visit the Alma Design website – here.Dream Space Dome by David Trubridge
Posted: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 13:41:00 +0000
New Zealand-based designer David Trubridge has created the Dream Space Dome.
.Description from David Trubridge:An internal ‘break-out’ space for quiet contemplation, an external gazebo as a garden sanctuary, or a light-weight frame for an attractive shelter, Dream Space has a range of functions. But here in Milan we can enjoy this structure simply for its beautiful flow of lines and patterns, and for the way in which it focuses energy into its still calm centre.This is the first time that we have applied to architecture our process of building complex structures with minimal material use. The wood is only 5mm thick, and the entire set would fit inside a suitcase, yet it produces a remarkably strong and stable structure, once the pieces are curved and under tension. To reduce our environmental impact this dome was assembled entirely on site.
The wood is thermally modified, plantation-grown pine which has been heated to make it durable outdoors without the use of poisonous chemicals. It has an oiled finish. The junctions are aluminium plates fastened with rivets. The dome is built in six sections which can be taken apart for easy transport. A timber floor, made from the same material, can also be supplied, and a fabric cover is under development.Visit David Trubridge’s website – here...Foliage Sofa by Patricia Urquiola for Kartell
Posted: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:23:27 +0000
Patricia Urquiola has designed the Foliage sofa for the Italian manufacturer Kartell.
.Description from Kartell:Dialogue between natural realities and artificial Foliage, the sofa clearly bears the graphic hallmark of Patricia Urquiola as an object that looks as if it just grew naturally in plastic. The leaves form a crown resting on a framework of branches which virtually form a seat. Foliage is a sofa with great personality featuring a seat with top-stitched embroidery on four round legs. Cosy and soft, Foliage offers two roomy seats. The top-stitching runs over the entire surface and on the back too making the sofa a standalone piece that can be placed even in the centre of a room and seen from all sides.Visit the Kartell website – here...The Moooi Gallery in Amsterdam
Posted: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:48:57 +0000
Here are some images from the Moooi Gallery in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
.Visit the Moooi Gallery website – here..The TONUS Stool by Aldo Bakker
Posted: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:02:47 +0000
Dutch designer Aldo Bakker has created the TONUS stool from solid oak wood.
.The TONUS stool is being displayed at the Particles Gallery in Amsterdam...The Shark Chair by René Holten for Artifort
Posted: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:42:57 +0000
PlaidBench Collection by Raw-Edges Design for Dilmos Milano
Posted: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:35:45 +0000
Raw-Edges Design Studio have created the PlaidBench collection for Dilmos Milano.
.Description from the designers:A collection of furniture assembled out of interlocking iconic urban benches into a plaid surface. Stripes arrangement is a common element in iconic benches. Many of the very common archetype benches happen to be shaped in this way. Stripes are also the fundamental element in textile check/plaid pattern where they arranged together in a vertical and horizontal fashion. Making a graphical connection, Raw-Edges created this large set up of different wood benches that interlocked to each other perpendicularly in order to achieve a Plaid/Check patterns.Visit the Dilmos Milano website – here...The Oloron-Sainte-Marie Multimedia Centre by Pascale Guédot
Posted: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:34:19 +0000
French architectural firm Pascale Guédot have designed the Oloron-Sainte-Marie Multimedia Centre, located in the town of Oloron-Sainte-Marie in south-western France.
.The Oloron-Sainte-Marie Multimedia Centre by Pascale GuédotOloron Sainte Marie, a town on the edge of the Pyrenees with a population of around 12,000, offers a magnificent site at the confluence of the Aspe and Ossau torrents for the Piémont Oloronais intercommunal multimedia centre. This is the first step in the renewal of an industrial wasteland, part of an ambitious urban regeneration project. With this town centre amenity, the architect Pascale Guédot has designed a new living space with fine architectural and urban qualities. A major element in this recapture of the site, a wide public portico has been created, linked to the opposite banks by two walkways designed by RFR, successfully releasing the site from its isolation.Originally a municipal initiative dating from 1990, the Confluence site is now a showcase for recent intercommunal aspirations. A child of deindustrialisation, in the late 19th century this urban wasteland housed a high concentration of textile industries, which exploited the hydroelectric power produced by the torrents. With the development of the road networks and because of the site’s inaccessibility, industry gradually moved to the outskirts and changed its character.
Over the 20th century, the Confluence continued to decline, until the architecture competitions and the subsequent development of the site, launched respectively in 2005 and 2009 and won by Pascale Guédot and Michel Corajoud. The multimedia centre replaced a former beret factory abandoned in the 1980s, and was erected on that building’s original stone foundation.
Situated at the end of the confluence, the new multimedia centre – unlike the beret factory it replaced – provides access to the river banks. It is the balcony overhanging the water that releases the space for a fine public promenade, right alongside the rivers. This combines with two terraces of greenery designed by Michel Corajoud, laid out below and on either side of the portico. Together, the design acts as a catalyst to magnify the environment.
Modelled by the stone foundation of the former factory, the shape of the building – the multimedia centre is designed around a set of superimposed volumes – is of great simplicity. The main block, overlaid with a transparent wooden lattice, which contains the reading rooms and administration, conveys a sense of levitation through the presence of a recessed intermediate level made entirely of glass, containing the children’s space. The bow of this wooden vessel culminates in a wide window offering spectacular views over the torrents. In synergy with promenade viewing point, this detail unveils a building that is shaped by and for its environment.
The spatial layout of the two-storey multimedia centre is fully visible from the moment the visitor enters the building. The entrance to the main reading room is an extension of the portico, while at the heart of the building, an atrium generates a visual connection between the youth area in the basement and the primary space for other users. This sense of connection – an effect accentuated by the peripheral location of the weight bearing structures – offers an instant spatial grasp of the building. The mixed texture – concrete infrastructure and steel newels and frames for the superstructure – contributes to the creation of a unitary volume, where shelves and reading spaces are freely arranged.
The bright atmosphere comes from the natural light that penetrates through the roof lights in the wooden lattice covering the ground floor ceiling. Opposite the entrance, an immense window draws the eye towards the water and the riverbanks, the focus of the relaxation space located at this spot. At basement level, the light has its source in the transparent glass curtain wall which diffuses natural light and offers a surprising panorama of the Pyrenean torrents and their untamed banks, contrasting with the historic and immemorial town above them.Location:Programme:
Oloron-Sainte-Marie, Pyrénées Atlantiques
Intercommunal multimedia center
Public concourse
44-space car park
Area : Multimedia : 2 700 m² total floor area
Concourse : 1,255 m²
Car Park : 1,110 m²
Cost:
Multimedia Center : €5,481,482 excl. VAT
Concourse, car park, promenade: €2,096,115 excl. VAT
Photos :
BERGERET Gaston (all except aerial view)
BALLOÏDE PHOTO.COM (aerial views only)
..Hotel Sezz Saint-Tropez by Christophe Pillet
Posted: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:47:40 +0000
French designer Christophe Pillet created the interiors of the Hotel Sezz in Saint-Tropez, France.
.Photos © Manuel Zublena.molo design at Superstudio Piú in Milan
Posted: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:45:29 +0000
molo design, a collaborative design and production studio from Vancouver, Canada, have setup their exhibit for this year’s design week in Milan at Superstudio Piú in in Zona Tortona.
.Description from molo design:A series of natural brown paper caves, “grotta di carta”, have been constructed from stacked columns of flexible paper blocks. Mobile-like clusters of luminous paper clouds are suspended overhead. The new mobile structure allows a broad canopy of cloud forms, hung from a single point, to provide light and a sense of intimate enclosure. We are also showing urchin softlight with a new LED armature that will be available in the coming months.We also have available “heartfelt lantern for Japan”. The numbered, limited edition lantern is $150 USD (110 €) with full proceeds being donated to Architecture for Humanity’s relief efforts in Japan.
molo’s cappello lamp was installed yesterday at the Studio Museum Achille Castiglioni!
molo’s float glassware used in the film TRON: Legacy is part of the TRON Designs Corian® exhibition.Visit the molo design website – here...Urban Housing in Nieuw Leyden by 24H Architects
Posted: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:18:09 +0000
24H Architects have designed some houses in Nieuw Leyden, which is in the north of the city of Leiden, in The Netherlands.
.Within the urban plan of Nieuw Leyden, 24H Architecture design two ecological houses. The building block consists of 18 houses, designed by different architects. There are no regulations of the beauty commission, so the future owners are free to design their house, as long as it fits within the provided building envelope.The density of the area is high and the width of the street is minimal. To provide its inhabitants with maximal daylight during the day, a so-called ‘canyon’ is introduced. The canyon flows through the house and encloses the stairs. It’s orientated in a way that light falls to the lower floors. The walls of the canyon are used to divide the house into the necessary spaces. No other walls are placed thus the canyon is present in every room. Where desired, the canyon becomes transparent and filters the daylight. Where needed, it’s closed and allows toilets and bathrooms to be placed behind its walls. The facade is an echo of the canyon. Where the canyon is projected, Corten steel is used instead of the certified wood that is applied to the rest of the facade.Visit the 24H Architects website – here.Photography by Boris Zeisser.FLO by Foster + Partners for Lumina
Posted: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:51:03 +0000
Foster + Partners have designed the FLO lamp for Italian lighting manufacturer Lumina.
.Description from Lumina:LED lights for desk, bedside, floor, and clamp, in varnish coated aluminium. Its head rotates by 300° for direct lighting, arms pivot on their bases by 120°.Visit the Lumina website – here..The Mendoza Lane House by Lanefab
Posted: Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:13:03 +0000
In 2009, the Canadian city of Vancouver made an effort to increase density in its single-family neighbourhoods by allowing home owners to replace their garages with laneway houses. The Mendoza Lane House by Lanefab was the first laneway house completed.
.Description from Lanefab:As for a description, the project – completed in early 2010 – the Mendoza lane house was the first ‘laneway house’ finished under the city of Vancouver’s 2009 bylaw that allowed for small infill dwellings to be added onto existing single family properties throughout the city. With passage of the bylaw (part of the city’s ‘eco-density’ program) over 60,000 properties became eligible for this type of infill development.The mendoza lane house is 710sf, 1br + den, with combined living/dining/kitchen upstairs – along with a balcony. It’s built on a standard 33′x122′ lot and has the same footprint as the garage it replaced. The project (like all Lanefab projects) was built with Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) a prefab system that allow us to create buildings that are 2x as energy efficient as typical new home in Vancouver. The windows are triple glazed, and most of the materials for the building were manufactured locally.Visit the Lanefab Design/Build website – here.Photography by Krista Jahnke..DNA Lighting by Karim Rashid for SLIDE
Posted: Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:04:48 +0000
Karim Rashid designed the DNA lighting for Italian manufacturer SLIDE.
.Description from SLIDE:DNA creates a weave of lights, colours and suggestions, all illuminated with the LED technology. DNA is a modular element of 2 meters length, with the possibility to interlace it to create an enlightened spiral. We can define it as a revisiting of traditional luminous decorations.Visit the SLIDE website – here..Transparent Chair by NENDO
Posted: Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:26:58 +0000
Japanese design studio NENDO have created the Transparent Chair.
.Description from NENDO:A chair made with polyurethane film, a transparent film commonly used as a packing material for precision instruments and products susceptible to vibrations and shock, thanks to its high elasticity and ability to return to its original state. Looking at the chair, it seems to consist of nothing but a backrest and armrests. It wraps and supports the body like a hammock, providing a light, floating feeling for the sitter.Visit the NENDO website – here...Evita by AquiliAlberg for Kundalini
Posted: Sat, 09 Apr 2011 21:53:00 +0000
Italian architects AquiliAlberg have designed the Evita floor lamp for Kundalini.
.Description from Kundalini:As in a sartorial artwork, the metal is wrapped around the luminous body of Evita in a garment stitched together by a single continuous gesture, forming a spiral rotation of 90 degrees. It is characterized by a strong graphic style and a clean and refined image that easily becomes imprinted in one’s memory, as it unwinds in space and traces out curved lines and surfaces, lightness and dynamism. With its fine lines, Evita clothes the light with its physical elusiveness, delicate elegance and stylistic cogency. Its name recalls the gracefulness and strength of far-reaching feminine figures such Evita Peron, whose character evoked the imagination of the whole world, inspiring writers, musicians and directors. Similarly, the feminine image of delicate elegance of the luminous body stimulates the imagination and opens itself to multiple evocative interpretations. The result of a new poetic and dynamic quality that makes the produce versatile, original and geometrically complex, it diffuses light, thanks to its rotation, according to how it is placed. It is always in harmony with its environment, and generates unique atmospheres in any given space.Visit the Kundalini website – here.
