Hasta La Ideas

La bottega di Søren Sögreni si trova in Skt Peders Stræde a Copenhagen, in una zona nota per i negozi di abbigliamento usato, i caffè e le panetterie. Qui fu fondata nel 1981 agli inizi del decennio nero dell’economia danese. E infatti questa è un’avventura imprenditoriale cominciata in sordina: senza budget, con poco tempo e raccattando carcasse di bici abbandonate per le vie di Copenhagen. In questa stessa officina l’allora venticinquenne Søren dedicava le sue notti alla costruzione di velocipedi con telai e componenti di recupero.
Questa prima produzione raffazzonata ed economica brillava però per originalità  e un rapido passaparola portò a risultati di vendita inaspettati con la possibilità di investire sul progetto e dargli la forma che ancora oggi conserva.

Le bici attualmente prodotte sono un manifesto ambulante di buon design, proprio come lo intende Elmanco: sono progettate fino all’ultimo dettaglio, ma senza orpelli, anzi togliendo tutto ciò che è superfluo. C’è poi una grande attenzione all’ergonomia e il fatto che il loro costruttore non abbia una formazione né da progettista né da ciclista lascia quasi spiazzati.
Søren Sögreni tiene un profilo basso e si stima di avere una patente di guida come unico attestato delle sue competenze (ipse dixit). E’ umile ma senza false modestie e non nasconde un giustificato orgoglio per le sue realizzazioni e i riconoscimenti ricevuti: è stato addirittura insignito del titolo di designer danese dell’anno nel 2002!

I ricchi testi del suo sito lasciano poi trapelare una personalità istrionica, specie nella parte in cui si fa propaganda della bicicletta in generale come mezzo supremo del benessere umano e saggia fonte di risparmio. Dichiarazioni condivisibili, ma che ironicamente non valgono per le bici del signor Sögreni dato che sono prezzate, ahi noi, da 1000 euro in su! D’altra parte queste biciclette sono bellissime, e qualità di progetto e realizzazione artigianale raggiungono qui un livello eccelso:

Il telaio: Sögreni ha messo a punto un trattamento che chiama delta-treatment. Prevede una verniciatura allo zinco come fondo e due ulteriori verniciature per garantire un’adeguata resistenza al rigido clima della Danimarca. E’ garantito contro la ruggine per 25 anni.

La sella: Nemmeno Sögreni poteva fare meglio di Brooks e quindi le selle sono fornite dal prestigioso marchio inglese.

Le manopole: la pelle proviene dalla Polonia ma viene cucita a mano nella bottega di Skt Peders Stræde e fatta calzare sui manubri con l’ausilio di alcol ed aria compressa: molto difficilmente queste manopole potranno sfilarsi.

Il portapacchi: rivoluziona il tradizionale e inefficace portapacchi “a ciappetto” montato in tutto il mondo. E’ più efficace, più durevole e decisamente bello da guardare.

Il campanello: un’altra piccola e semplicissima rivoluzione. Non si svita con le mani né da solo, non suona da solo pedalando sull’acciottolato, non arrugginisce poiché si può avere solo in zinco, rame od ottone.

Ma per quanto queste bici raccolgano consensi presso gli amanti del buon design (Søren Sögreni  mi ha tra l’altro detto che i suoi clienti sono per lo più architetti) non mancano di suscitare reazioni di sdegno tra gli amanti del ciclismo sportivo che giustificano prezzi così alti solo a fronte di contenuti tecnologici d’avanguardia ed altissime performance. Se sei interessato a sentire anche la loro versione qui e qui trovi due degli articoli dei più veementi detrattori di questo marchio.

Copper louvres shade the glazed upper storeys of a police station in France that emerges from behind a cobbled stone wall.

The building was designed by Paris architects Ameller, Dubois & Associés on a medieval World Heritage Site in Provins.

Local white stone set into concrete provides the cobbled wall around the building’s ground floor and surrounding car park.

The two copper-fronted upper floors feature large focal windows, which face out from meeting rooms inside.

All the standard facilities of a police station are contained within the building, as is a gym.

In the past on Dezeen e’ve also featured a concrete police station in Seville  – see our earlier story here.

Photography is by Luc Boegly.

Here’s a description from the architects:

Police Station of Provins

Located on a triangular parcel next to the entrance to the city, the Police Station of Provins is part of the creation of a new civic center close to the historic neighborhood.

The police station is on the edge of what is essentially a pavilions zone within proximity of the Northern gate to the medieval city of Provins. A site which, in 2001, was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. This highly symbolic position gives the building an important status: it must maintain the continuity between the residential quarters of the North and the historic center of the South, and be worthy of such on all its faces, including when seen from above.

This urban continuity is favored through the use of a single continuous base. From there, a compact form rises, lifted off, highlighting the presence of the building in its environment.

The base – which includes the retaining wall, the groundfloor and the parking lot – is on the outside a concrete wall covered with local white stone. The green roof helps soften the building when seen from a higher point. Artificial lighting, integrated within the outside wall, punctuates the base. This sheath cinches the functionality of the building with an air of nobility. It ensures its protection and its relation to the city’s history.

The storeys seem suspended above, emphasizing the contemporary character of the project and reaffirming clearly its vocation as an important public service. The lifted form contains two plateaus freed from each other, filled with various modular offices and locales. That leaves space for a continuous glass sheeting of the outside surfaces that filters natural light through to the offices via transom windows. The more confidential quarters are wrapped in thick concrete, pierced here and there with glass openings to let light in. The front (or Western side) faces the promenade, and is made of glass dressed with copper slats angled slightly downwards, making it an extension of the roofing surface. Its treatment, in contrast with the thick mineral sheeting of the other three facades, emphasizes the frontal aspects of the police station, at once open to the city but protected.

The building is seen at once as a city gate, a link and an institution.

This compact building favors the synergy between services while letting them be independent. The operational costs are reduced. The building materials require little maintenance. The metal slats of the principal facade ensure natural lighting and spectacular views but good protection from the sun while maintaining the confidentiality of the work going on inside. This metallic wrap has been set 60 centimeters from the facade to leave space for a path for maintenance crews.

The patio and the loggia that run alongside the promenade bring light and some plant life to the heart of the police station. The central patio is a reference point and a meeting place that serves as a cohesive element between the services; it lights the interiors further, creates transparencies, and breathes in some space.

The construction kept in mind the evolution of the building, relying on structures held up with posts and beams that leave room to move around and reshape interior spaces. Services can be added, relocated, enlarged all while conserving the spatial structure, the natural light and the fluidity of the general organization at each level.

Area: 2130 sqm
Interior: Holding cells, reception, administrative offices, gym.

See also:

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Mobile Police Station by Gesamtkonzept	Police station in Seville by Paredes Pedrosa	Civil Courts of Justice by Zaha Hadid

British industrial design brand Dyson have unveiled their latest product: a fan heater.

Yes, it looks a lot like the Air Multiplier bladeless fans released last year and it incorporates the same technology, channelling the air through a 2.5mm ring-shaped aperture and accelerating it over an aerofoil.

The Dyson Hot has low surface temperatures and no grilles to attract dust, incorporating an automatic thermostat and a magnetic remote control that fits over the top of the machine.

It can also be used without the heating element as a cooling fan.

James Dyson is famous for inventing vacuum cleaners without dust bags and released his first fans without blades in 2009. Listen to our podcast interview with James Dyson here.

Here are some more details from Dyson:

Goodbye cold corners. Hello Hot.

Dyson Hot™ fan heater warms up every part of the room – fast

Conventional heaters have limited settings; like a watched pot that never boils, they can’t always heat a whole room quickly. And central heating is sometimes wasted on the whole house. Engineered to heat the room, Dyson Hot™ fan heater is the fastest to heat the room evenly.

Dyson Hot™ fan heater can be set between 1 and 37 degrees celsius to heat a room. When it hits the desired temperature, it monitors the room temperature by measuring surrounding air. If a drop is detected, the heater turns back on to maintain the set temperature.

James Dyson says:

“Other fan heaters rely on inefficient motors or dust friendly grills. As the heat rises you’re left with a partially heated room and a worrying burning smell. Dyson engineers have developed a heater that produces no smell and heats the whole room”.

It took a team of 22 engineers – including experts in thermo dynamics and fluid mechanics – over three years researching, developing and testing Dyson’s patented Air Multiplier™ technology for its application in a heater.

How it works: Using patented Air Multiplier™ technology, air is drawn in through a mixed flow impeller, a combination of the technologies used in turbochargers and jet engines. It is then accelerated through a 2.5mm aperture (the thickness of a £2 coin) set within the loop amplifier. This creates a jet of hot air which passes over an airfoil-shaped ramp channelling its direction. Surrounding air is drawn into the airflow, amplifying it 6 times in a process known as inducement and entrainment.

Safety: Low surface temperatures throughout and no visible heating elements. And if tipped over, the machine has been engineered to automatically cut out.

Remote Control: Turning the Dyson Hot™ fan heater on and off, adjusting temperature, airflow rate and controlling oscillation can be done easily from across a room. The remote control is curved and magnetised to store neatly on top of the machine.

Precision: Dyson Hot™ fan heater has temperature controls and an intelligent thermostat. Variable airflow and oscillation is controlled either by remote or on the front of the machine.

Cooling fan: Unlike conventional heaters it has a dual-mode function as a cooling fan. In keeping with Dyson’s Air Multiplier™ range it couples high airflow and velocity.

See also:

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Interview with James Dyson	AM02 and AM03 Air Multiplier fans by Dyson	Air Multiplier by Dyson

Atlanta-based ai3, the same interior design/architecture firm that worked on the new Holiday Inn lobby, also designed this office space for marketing agency The SuperGroup. The main entrance corridor is straight out of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, complete with their own monolith at the end of the tunnel, while the doors to the conference room are pure original Star Trek.

I love the fact that beyond the office being a well-designed space, it is also an experience. Your walk into the office is an experience; your first encounter with the SuperGroup-branded monolith is an experience; opening the doors to the conference is an experience. This is the true power of architecture: to influence the context of the world we live in, both in our physical interactions and in our capacity to dream and think creatively. I know that I, for one, would function much more dynamically in a space like this than a drab office building.

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