Rewrite by GamFratesi

Copenhagen designers GamFratesi have designed a prototype desk with a cave-like shield on top to create an intimate working environment.

Called Rewrite, the desk is presented at GamFratesi’s solo show at The Danish Museum of Art and Design.

Baked by Formafantasma

Italian design graduates Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Formafantasma present a series of baked objects at an exhibition in Eindhoven this week.

The Baked collection, which includes objects made of flour, coffee, spinach and other foodstuffs, is part of an exhibition called Getting Lost at the 4 Apostelen church in Eindhoven.

Design Auction: Few and Far

16th September '09, 6:00pm

Few and Far

242 Brompton Road, London SW3 2BB

This wednesday Few are Far will host their very own design auction. Run by an ex Sotheby’s auctioneer, the sale will offer works by a range of designers including Andrée Putman, Nigel Coates, Vico Magistretti, Xavier Lust, Julian Stair among others.

Viewing will take place 14th - 15th September ’09.

For further information and catalogue enquiries tel: 020 7225 7070

Absentee bidding is available.

www.fewandfar.net

Porcelains at the RCA

Georgios Maridakis’ final work at the summer show was his Sèvres Vase Clock. “The project started as an initiative between the French Sèvres porcelain factory and the RCA”, explains Maridakis. “My goal was to celebrate the inherent qualities within Sèvres vases, instead of generating yet another porcelain piece. The aim of this project was to create an object that could give life to the unique characteristics possessed by pre-existing artifacts.”

“My interest in ceramics began during my studies in Arnhem, where I designed several pieces with this material. In my view porcelain is a material that requires skill, patience, and some degree of humour. The Sèvres Vase Clock is a new type of timepiece that tells the hour by tapping on the surface of a vase to produce sound. An adjustable hammer mechanism allows a variety of vases to be used, thereby permitting a range of chimes to be generated. This piece was inspired by porcelain’s three main qualities: transparency, whiteness, and its pure ring. The clock reminds the user of the passage of time not only through its chime, but also through the gradual fractures and eventual shatter that it inflicts (on the porcelain).”

Jozephine Duker’s work also looks at the concept of sound, through her Ceramic Sound Landscape. This ‘musical instrument’, a project for Yamaha, is made from ceramic bowls of differing thicknesses and sizes on flexible silicone rubber feet, which can be struck by everyday objects, such as a pen.

Duker explains, “The Ceramic Sound Landscape invites people to play music: a moment of pleasure is created when walking from one place to another in an office building or school, for example. The varied thicknesses and sizes of the bowls create the different tones, which are structured in a grid from low to high. This allows people to explore the surface and to learn to play it.”

Willem van Landeghem studied ceramics at the RCA and it was a work placement at Royal Crown Derby that led van Landeghem to use bone china for most of his graduation projects.

His ceramic washbasins deal with the concept of how we should think of water as a luxurious commodity, yet we don’t give it a second thought as it drains away out of our washbasins. The use of special plugs splashes droplets of water back into the basin, instead of letting it all go straight down the plughole unnoticed. Van Landeghem says, “The aesthetics of splashing water and the drops like pearls makes the user feel the preciousness of water.”

Van Landeghem has also worked on the instability of bone china, creating bowls and lights that have structural textures within them. The lights have delicate ribbed effects and these are strongly highlighted by the translucent qualities of the material when backlit.

Main image and image 1: Georgios Maridakis
Image 2: Jozephine Duker
Image 3: Willem van Landeghem

via design.nl

The Prosthetics Project: Re-designing the prosthetic arm

This past fall, Allan Chochinov, a partner at the design blog Core 77, ran a course at SVA which challenged students to rethink the prosthetic arm. Today, The Prosthetics Project launched as an online exhibition, showing the work of all 21 students that took the class. As Chochinova writes:

The students took different approaches to the problem: some attacked it directly with mechanical improvements to existing prosthetics. Others offered devices and garments that introduced alternative modalities or provided new functionality. Some students took a more abstract approach, creating formal, often sculptural, gestures as a way to help us think about the notion of 'prosthetic,' while others took an extremely conceptual approach to investigating the paradigms and cultures around prosthetics and amputees.

The intent wasn't to create solutions that might pop right into the current market--but rather, to challenge students who otherwise might never have encountered such a difficult and unique design problem. The hope, according to Chochinov, was that the young greehorns would have ideas that would never occur to an engineering pro.

The projects are organized along four basic approaches: Decorative, Playful, Utilitarian, and Awareness. Here's a sampling of each category:

In the Decorative category, Tonya Douraghy & Carli Pierce designed the "Feather Cuff and Wing Arm"--which aims to tackle the stigma associated with a prosthetic, by turning it into a fanciful accessory.

In the Playful category, Ekta Daryanani designed a sleeve for a prosthetic arm which kids can draw on--thus making it into a canvas for self-expression, not unlike a cast which all your friends sign.

The Utilitarian category emphasized function over form. Giho Lee began his investigation by experimenting with a "trainer"--a device that gives a two-armed person a sense of what it's like to have a prosthetic hand. Then he began devising a clever, willfully "dumb" and low-tech method for wire attachments to adapt the trainer to different tasks. It's not a design solution per se, but nonetheless, documents the process of how you'd start developing improvements on the "hook" (thanks to Allan for the clarification).

The most abstract category was Awareness, which investigated the cultural mores that amputees live with. Meital Gueta created three pieces that aim to reflect the body image of amputees.

You can see all of the projects--and more images--at the Prosthetics Project Web site. Kudos to Allan for leading such a well thought-out class, and to the students, for coming up with such a wealth of interesting ideas!

[Via Core 77, fastcompany]

BauBike by Michael Ubbesen Jakobsen

Michael Ubbesen Jakobsen is the mind behind the Bauhaus inspired fixed gear BauBike. Jakobsen manufactured the frame using geometric perspectives, applying 60 and 90 degree patterns throughout the bike, giving it a boxy appearance. Gathering only raw materials for the frame, Jakobsen exhibits his excellent craftsmanship and meticulous form is evident at a first glimpse. For more photos and details about the bicycle, check out the BauBike website.

Drawn From Clay

The geography of the Noordoostpolder region of the Netherlands has been captured in the hand-made clay vessels designed by Atelier NL currently on show at Gallery Libby Sellers in London.

Gallery Libby Sellers in London presents the exhibition 'Drawn From Clay' from Dutch design studio Atelier NL, where hand-made clay vessels express the geography of the Noordoostpolder region of the Netherlands.

Libby Sellers explained that it was the research and process-led nature of the project that excited her when she first saw the work of Atelier NL. Sellers met the designers Lonny van Ryswyck and Nadine Sterk during Dutch Design Week last October, when the duo’s head of department at Design Academy Eindhoven, Dick van Hoff took her to meet them at their studio.

Van Ryswyck and Sterk both graduated from the Design Academy in 2006. One of their graduation projects was ‘Drawn from Clay’, a series of cup and saucers made from clay found in different parts of the Netherlands, with each piece taking on a different colour and texture depending on the area it came from.

"When Jurgen Bey and Rianne Makkink saw the results of this research project, they invited us to come and stay at their farm in the Noordoostpolder region of central Netherlands to continue our project", Van Ryswyck says. "This polder was created only 67 years ago from land reclaimed from the sea. It was designed as a complete agricultural utopia. To create a very functional new agricultural area, the land was divided into systematic plots of in farmland, with each plot (field) being 24 acres in size".

The duo then stayed at the farm for a year gathering material and information and making an archive of the different types of clay/earth found on the fields of the farmers within the polder. "The search for clay/ earth and the digging of it is very time-consuming but gives a bond with the material and with the owner of the land. The farmers are an essential part in the project. They form a source of knowledge about the soil and its history. We visited and had photographed sixty farmers; the photo portraits are by Paul Scala".

"The soil-samples are made into tiles; each one represents a farm field in the area. Together they form a colour scheme of the Noordoostpolder. We discovered that the soil is strongly related to the crops/ vegetables that are grown. In a sandy area they grow mostly bulbs and where there is clay, it’s mostly potatoes and sugarbeet. We decided to make tableware so that the vegetables we eat for dinner are served in vessels made from the soil the vegetables grew in. This resulted in the polder ceramics that we are showing at Gallery Libby Sellers".

Atelier NL see the project evolving on an international scale. "We want to slowly travel and map the globe by exploring its soils and show this visually by baking all the differences in earth, structure and texture. We would love to work more closely with researchers, such as geologists, chemists and archaeologists. They all have a different story to tell because they all use soil in different ways. We want to make objects from different types of soil, not only to show the difference in colour, structure and texture, but also to tell the story of the personality of the landscape, the vegetation that’s growing, the animals living there, the characteristics of the buildings; cultural behavior of today and from the past".

Since June 2008 Atelier NL have been working with Royal Tichelaar Makkum to develop a production range made from different Dutch clay/ soil types. This collection will be launched at the Salone del Mobile in Milan this April.

This exhibition is supported by the Brompton Design District, London and The Mondriaan Foundation.

Drawn From Clay
March 5 to April 3 2009
Gallery Libby Sellers, 29 Thurloe Place, London SW7

Image credits: Paul Scala, Atelier NL

Text by Kate Dominy, via design.nl

Spaza-De-Move-On by Doung Anwar Jahangeer

Design Indaba 09: architect Doung Anwar Jahangeer won the South award for his mobile, fold-away shop at the Design Indaba conference and expo in Cape Town last week.

Called Spaza-De-Move-On, the product is intended to give dignity and convenience to street hawkers.

It incorporates a seat, trolley handle, wheels and fold-out display table.

Design Indaba took place 25 February -1 March.

via Dezeen

Now Vending | The Luxury Automat

By Shonquis Moreno

Photo courtesy of Morgans Hotel Group The Semi-Automatic automat serves as the hotel gift shop at Miami’s Mondrian South Beach.

The automat — that ’50s-era icon of American ingenuity known for vending rubbery sandwiches from glass compartments — is back, and this time it’s boutique. Exhibit A: The most opulent and cheeky element of the Mondrian South Beach, a Marcel Wanders-designed hotel that opened in Miami in December, is a vending machine that now anchors the lobby. The Semi-Automatic was designed not by Wanders but by Ito Partnership for the Morgans Hotel Group, to conquer the cliché of the gift shop.

The Semi takes plastic instead of pocket change and is stocked with delectables (though nothing edible) curated by the Morgans creative director Kim Walker. Walker didn’t shrink from being naughty (24-karat gold handcuffs from Kiki de Montparnasse, a spa package called the “Masochist”), retro (Atari Classics for Playstation), tastefully sybaritic (a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow or 2000 Bentley Azure convertible — rental only), do-goodish (the Can of Gold, for $200, is a design-art “vase” whose proceeds go to charity) or obscurely hip (14-karat gold Retainer Necklace by the Brooklyn designer Kiel Mead). Best sellers include anti-recession T-shirts ($28) and Fred Flair heart sunglasses ($18), along with — who would have guessed? — marabou feather vests ($400).

via NYT: the moment

Tiny letters

Prototypes and Experiments

The Aram Gallery is continuing its series of displays made up of prototypes and experiments sourced from designers’ studios. The displays form a long-term and ever-changing exhibition, with a new piece brought into the gallery each time another is sold or returned to its owner. Prototypes and experiments are critical elements in the development process of any new design.

The prototype is the manifestation of the design idea on its way to production; experiments are more like steps on the way.

The prototype, being part of a process, makes more real an idea that will lead to a final piece, and is not made with the intention of being sold or shown outside the designers’ studio. Experiments are also unique artefacts but are even less refined and sometimes constitute a partial sketch on the way to the prototype.

These objects however, can hold a rare charm; there’s an increased closeness to the designer’s imagination, and a directness to the making that often changes when manufacturing and marketing forces are fully integrated. The objects might be characterised by a technical or material discrepancy, compared to the final product, due to a lack of access of the designer to technology at the process stage. It’s a stark contrast to the current wave of limited editions - which has made for the unique to be diluted by multiples and for the production piece to be restrained in order to increase the value of singular pieces.

The Aram gallery is interested in the way designers think and work. We have chosen to present these unique artefacts as part of our ongoing search for insight into the design process. To accompany the prototypes the exhibition will include selected drawings taken from the designers physical or digital sketchbooks.

The next cycle will feature; Roger Arquer, Shin Azumi, Georg Baldele, Carl Clerkin, Nigel Coates, Caterina Fadda and Fran Santos, Gitta Gschwendtner, Demelza Hill, Yaacov Kaufman, Andre Klauser, Tomas Kral, Max Lamb, Tomek Rygalik, Rolf Sachs, Nina Tolstrup and Ben Wilson.

Curator Daniel Charny
Assistant Curator Ellie Parke
Director Zeev Aram

Georg Baldele Yokohama Lamp

Yaacov Kaufman Straw Lamp

Andre Klauser Mechano Chair Batch 3

Ben Wilson Tubular Stool

Rolf Sachs Modular 01 Modular 02

Aram Gallery

The World’s Fastest Electric Motorcycle by Yves Béhar

Just yesterday Yves Béhar unveiled the Mission One, the world’s fastest electric production motorcycle. The fantastic looking bike is the brainchild of Mission Motors and Fuseproject, and is designed to have a top speed of 150mph, with a range of around 150 miles. Yves Béhar’s projects have always exhibited a deft balance between stunning aesthetics and sustainable design, and his latest opus is no exception.

Unveiled at this year’s TED conference, the Mission One motorcycle is the designer’s latest groundbreaking design. The fully electric motorcycle boasts 100 lb-ft of torque and is powered by a high-energy lithium-Ion battery that charges in under two hours.

The bike is currently being exhibited at the Kohler Livinghome at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. The first 50 bikes will be delivered in 2010, and will run a cool $68,995, so it’s time to start saving. by Jorge Chapa

via Inhabitat

+ Fuse Project

+ Mission Motors

Another Kountry: 4th February - 31st March '09

Chest by Roy McMakin

Established & Sons LIMITED

2-3 Duke Street, St. James’s, London

Established & Sons LIMITED presents Another Kountry, an installation of important limited edition works by Seattle-based artist, designer, and furniture maker, Roy McMakin.

Bridging the infamous gap between art and design, McMakin’s work draws particular attention to the complexities of furniture, while eroding the culturally recognized line that exists between furniture and sculpture.

www.establishedandsons.com

Holly Chair by Roy McMakin – Established & Sons Limited

Ebonized Stools by Roy McMakin – Established & Sons Limited

via Detnk