Hasta La Ideas

Young designer Rami Tareef creates chairs with geometric patterns by wrapping and weaving cords around spare, steel frames.

The chairs are the product of Tareef’s COD Project (Crafts Oriented Design), in which the designer aims to update and preserve traditional weaving techniques.

He applies skills learned from a wicker craftsman in the Old City of Jerusalem to contemporary forms and materials.

The chairs are composed of only two materials; 500 meters of polypropylene cord are threaded around 10 meters of steel rod.

Alternating colours of cord create a secondary pattern in the weave that accentuates the chair’s structure.

Tareef is a recent graduate of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design .

See all our stories on chairs »

Photographs are by Oded Antman.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

The COD (crafts oriented design) project 2011

By Rami Tareef

What really happens in the encounter between craft and design, what fundamental differences in thought, planning and execution characterize the objects produced by the craftsman and the designer?

This past year I have been preoccupied by a fascinating endeavor that is, essentially, a hybridization of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design. The project was born of my desire to create by embracing the truth of the material. A designer’s desire to explore, to engage in trial and error, to learn, to know and to produce something new − via the sole agency of his thinking hands.

The project tries to illuminate the differences and similarities between craft and design; it tests and stretches the limits of their hybridization, and tries to end up with something identifiable from that past world. The COD project deals with wicker/woven furniture − a traditional craft product − and preserves its production values while incorporating innovative design features from the world of mass production.

This One-Off stool try to make a new approach to the idea of “One of a kind” product by combination between traditional craft technique an high technology of cutting laser. It’s came to raise question about status of products with hand made values in our saturated mass production world. Is there any soul in these products?

The rest (other 5 chairs) of the project deals in the hybridization between traditional craft technique and contemporary design attempt to create something new while keeping the truth of the old tradition.

Some chairs examine the technique and stretching the boundaries of it. The angular structure of the chair came up to keep the technique possible to apply.

On the other hand, part of the design trying to touch in textile design, it comes through the use of colors and multi-variable relationship between the cord and the chair structure that create many surfaces and three-dimensional spaces.

Further, the project came from my faith, as a young designer, that we should preserve traditional crafts by upgrade them through design and place them in the contemporary context in our world and culture.

I learned the basic technique from a wicker furniture craft man in the old city of Jerusalem and from there began a long development process that included dozens of models to upgrade technique.

Bezalel, Academy of art and design, Jerusalem – final project, B.Des of industrial design department
Furniture Craftsman: Abo Ahmad Nazir

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Serpentine by Eléonore Nalet	New Amsterdam Chair by UNStudio	Flux by Jerszy Seymour

After saying the rumors were completely unfounded, architect Will Alsop recently once again pulled a 180 and did exactly what the rumors had foretold, specifically that he was leaving the massive Scottish firm RMJM to start his own new practice. Now Building Design has learned a few specifics of the new venture, which he’s launched with his longtime business partner, Scott Lawrie, who has been working with Alsop since their days toiling for Norman Foster. The new company will be called ALL Design and will call South London its home. Here’s a bit more about it from BD:

Up to 15 staff will be transferring across from previous practice Will Alsop at RMJM and will be based in the same Battersea studio which has been Alsop’s home through a number of incarnations. In all, the new firm will have 20 staff.

…“We are very happy to work on anything from a tea spoon to a city, sometimes in collaboration with designers from other fields,” Lawrie added.

The site also reports that Alsop will continue working with his now-former employer on several projects that were ongoing at the time of his exit.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It was apparently housecleaning time this week at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The LA Times reports that the museum has let go “several veteran department heads,” seven in total. Director Michael Govan told the paper that the move was “not a financial belt-tightening” but was instead a method of “shifting some priorities” and “adapt to technology-driven change.” In English, that means that they let go a number of people involved with making things that weren’t going online, namely the editor of their catalogs and publications, Thomas Frick, their VP of communications and marketing, and their head of design, Amy McFarland. Each will be replaced by current employees whose roles and titles will be expanded. What’s more, the paper reports that Govan has announced that not only are they now not planning to replace Melody Kanschat, who left her role as president of the LACMA at the start of the year, but will be eliminating the position of museum president entirely. Here’s a bit more from the Times:

Among the changes that influenced his thinking, Govan said, were the advent of social media and shifts in the publishing industry that are leading LACMA to place more of its catalogues and publications online. Last year, LACMA established a “Reading Room” on its website so the public can access art books the museum has issued. “It’s an interesting moment for museum publishing,” Govan said. “Traditional middle-cost books are not doing well, and we’re beginning to shift to e-books, although we’re not doing away with paper yet.” He said LACMA is readying the first e-book version of one of its exhibition catalogs, for last year’s show “Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ribbons of mesh spiral around two conical bridges by French architect Dominique Perrault that cross a river and park in Madrid.

One part of the 278-metre-long footbridge crosses the Manzaranes River, whilst the second bridges the Arganzuela Park, beneath which the city ring road is buried.

The two steel-framed cones meet at the peak of a hill inside the park but are separated by a snaking footpath.

The footbridge connects two residential neighbourhoods and provides a route for both pedestrians and cyclists.

Lights hanging from the branches of tree-like lamp posts illuminate the bridge after dark.

Above: photograph is © Ayuntamiento de Madrid

The Pasarela del Arganzuela opened to the public in April, as did the park designed by landscape architects West 8 and other architects.

Above: photograph is by Gaelle Lauriot Prevost

Other pedestrian footbridges in Spain recently published on Dezeen include a looping bridge over a busy road and a bridge connected to an outdoor elevator – see all our stories about bridges here.

Above: photograph is © Ayuntamiento de Madrid

Photography is by Arteuno, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here are some more details from Perrault:

The Arganzuela footbridge, designed by Dominique Perrault in the very heart of Madrid.

Forming a major element in the new urban strategy for the city named “Madrid Rio”, the Arganzuela Footbridge, first civil engineering work by the architect, is already called “the jewel of the Rio” by the residents.

In the 1970’s, the M30 ring road, running along the both edges of the river Manzaranes, was an important boundary in the urban network of the city. In 2000, the City Council of Madrid launched a major project for the urban redevelopment of the Manzaranes banks: Madrid Rio.

To begin with, the city council hid the M30 highway, burying it 25 metres below the river the banks.

In 2005, the disappearance of the ring road allowed for an international urban planning competition for the redevelopment of the Manzaranes banks. This competition, won by the group of architects M-RIO, offered a new territory to the inhabitants:the Arganzuela Park. This future 23 hectare park, to be inaugurated in April, will become a substantial urban mesh of the city.

In parallel with its realisation, the city council appointed Dominique Perrault to construct a footbridge over the Manzaranes river, creating a link between the two banks.

Here, Dominique Perrault has created an original and technical architectural icon for this new territory.Over 250 meters long, the Arganzuela footbridge is located between the historic Toledo bridge and the Praga bridge which leads to the cultural centre of the capital. It links the Arganzuela and Carabanchel neighbourhoods.

Designed for pedestrians and cyclists, the footbridge consists of two metallic cones. It allows the passage of people from one side of the park to the other while also providing one of a the main entrances to the park below. The park, which hides some of the buried highway’s technical infrastructures, has an irregular topography. Playing with that topography, the two cones join above the curve of a hill, and are offset to create a new entrance point to the park.

The first cone – to the south – spans from the Avenida de Manzaranes, crosses over the river and then joins the top of the hill.

Placed offset to the first cone, the second cone – to the north–passes over the other side of the park to reach the Paseo de Yeserias. This positioning creates a platform over the park and the surrounding city, and an exceptional vantage point from which to admire the famous Toledo Bridge.

The footbridge is impressive in its dimensions. The south cone is 150 metres long and the north cone is 128 metres long,and their diameter varies from 5 to 12 metres from one end to the other.Each cone rests upon two pillars laid at each end, giving the impression that the footbridge is floating in the air.Made in steel, the self supporting main structure has two interlocking metal spirals that cross diagonally. A silver ribbon,made of metallic mesh, wraps this structure and protects the users from the sun and the bad weather. “Sewn” like a spiral,this ribbon creates a rhythmic and dynamic line to the Arganzuela Park.

The metallic mesh, favoured material of the architect, transforms and changes the footbridge depending on the time of the day: it alternates between filtering, reflective and opaque. Shaded during the day, the promenade becomes luminous at night, like a lantern. It’s impossible to capture all those visual possibilities in one single glimpse, as the metallic mesh turns the footbridge into a living object.

Above: photograph is by Gaelle Lauriot Prevost

Located in a strategic point of the city, the footbridge improves the urban connections between the northern and southern neighbourhoods of Madrid. By taking advantage of the site’s drawbacks, Dominique Perrault creates a new place for gathering,resting and admiring the city. For the city council, the Arganzuela footbridge is becoming an architectural event for the city and a powerful urban landmark.

Client: Madrid City Council, Madrid, Spain
Engineering: MC2 / Julio Martínez Calzón, Madrid (stucture); TYPSA, Madrid (mechanical engineering)
Stainless steel Escale mesh: GKD
Location: Parque de la Arganzuela, 28045, Madrid, Spain
Beginning of conceptual design for the urban competition for the redevelopment of the Manzaranes banks: 2005
Beginning of conceptual design for the footbridge: February 2008
Beginning of construction: February 2010
Length of the construction: 13 months

Above: photograph is by Gaelle Lauriot Prevost

Arganzuela park area 23 hectares
10 000 trees and 122 000 shrub planted

Arganzuela footbridge dimensions
south cone: 150 metres long
north cone: 128 metres long
diameter varies 5 à 12 metres from one end to the other

Total area of the decks 1 684 m²
south cone: 922 m²
north cone:762 m²

Tree species: ipe wood

Lampposts number 32
south cone: 17
north cone: 15

Luminary under the decks number 66
south cone: 35
north cone: 31

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Pasarela del Postiguet by bgstudio	Can Gili Footbridge by Alfa Polaris	Trestles Beach footbridge by Dan Brill Architects

Inside a swimsuit design studio in the heart of NYC’s garment district

“Save the Garment Center” urges the sign in the middle of swimsuit designer Malia Mills’ garment-district studio in New York City. Haphazardly stuck in one of the many racks of patterns that fill the workspace among rolls of fabric, sketches and other evidence of a busy design hub, the sign reads like a battle cry for the eponymous 20-year-old line. Mills, a poster child for what it means to live and work as a fashion designer in the city, built her brand over the decades through a combination of grit, ingenuity and her vision of making great-fitting suits for women.

The journey for Mills started unconventionally at Cornell University, where she studied apparel design, constructing everything from scuba suits to skirts. As a supplement to the problem-solving skills the program instilled, she learned the art of tailoring at Paris’ renowned school for haute couture, The Chambre Syndicale. Once landing in New York, a long road of alliances and luck helped get her where she is today. Landlords that let her go without paying rent for six months, the Tribeca restaurant where she waitressed that let her use their office, and a mentor in Theory founder Andrew Rosen all helped the business grow into the 10-store-strong label that it is today.

But of course the real backbone of Malia Mills is design. While education gave Mills the highly technical background needed for such a challenging garment, the founder traces her aesthetic to two pivotal childhood experiences with swimwear. Her first bikini, a lemon-yellow number received for Christmas in 1976, followed by a hot pink two-piece that stood out among the Speedos of 1980, helped define a look for women that’s as much about style as it is about function.

The sensibility has to do with the kind of thoughtfulness that goes into good design. On our recent visit, the designer jumped up to pull out a college assignment on fashion designer Claire McCardell, who Mills cites as a huge influence on her approach. McCardell’s philosophy of “honing your senses” is advice Mills still gives to every new hire.

To pull it all off, Mills credits the “massive luxury” of being in the Garment Center as a key factor that “truly facilitated the growth of the business.” Her tops-by-bra-size approach and goal of fitting almost every body type means she has to be completely hands-on throughout the entire production process. “What we’re making is such a tactile thing,” she explains. Even the smallest discrepancy in yardage can make a huge difference in fit.

See more of the designer’s early stylings, current collection, and more in the photo gallery.

by Karen Day and Ami Kealoha

Photos by Karen Day