Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen Wire: Thomas Heatherwick has designed a distillery and visitor centre for gin brand Bombay Sapphire at an abandoned mill in Hampshire, England.

Construction has already begun on the renovation, which includes the addition of two curved greenhouses for growing the ten botanical herbs and spices that Bombay Sapphire use to flavour their spirits. Named Laverstoke Mill, the centre is due to open in autumn 2013.

Thomas Heatherwick has been in the news a lot this week, after his Olympic cauldron was unveiled at the opening ceremony of the games. See all our stories about the designer »

Here’s some information from Bombay Sapphire:

Bombay Sapphire Gin Unveils Plans for “Home of Imagination” in Hampshire, UK

Visionary designer Thomas Heatherwick to restore historic site into distillery and visitor center for iconic gin brand

Bombay Sapphire® gin, the world’s number one premium gin by value1, unveils plans for its distillery in Laverstoke Mill, Hampshire. The project is a multi-million pound restoration of the historic buildings which housed one of England’s most significant bank note paper making facilities. The design imagined for the site is headed by acclaimed London designer Thomas Heatherwick and his team at Heatherwick Studio. The site will be completely renovated from a derelict mill into a state of the art premium gin distillery and visitor centre encompassing the highest standards in design, functionality and sustainability.

The distillery will be built on a two hectare brown-field site, near the grounds of Laverstoke Park, just 60 miles from London. For 200 years, the site produced high quality paper for the bank notes of India and the British Empire. The site is steeped in natural beauty, astride the crystal clear River Test – and historically associated with producing the finest quality product through the care and skill of those who owned it and worked there. The newly renovated site will be the first opportunity the public has to discover the home of this iconic spirits brand.

The ambition for the project restores the buildings and grounds and its heritage while introducing a new structure that will complement the existing buildings as a showcase of the brand’s intrinsic quality that reflects the aspirations of the Bombay Sapphire brand. The highlight of the complex build is the glass house for Bombay Sapphire gin’s 10 botanicals. As a major feature of Laverstoke Mill, the glass house is a symbol of the brand’s careful, skillful and imaginative approach to gin making.

Heatherwick comments on the design: “As the particular flavours of Bombay Sapphire gin are derived from ten botanicals, the centrepiece of the site is a glass house, within which visitors will experience the specific horticultural specimens infused in the spirit. The glass house, influenced by Britain’s rich heritage of glass house structures, will be two separate structures providing both a humid environment for spices that originate from the tropics, as well as a dry temperate zone for Mediterranean plants. We are thrilled to have the chance to take this historic site, and turn it from its current derelict state into a new industrial facility with national significance.”

The 10 year relationship between the brand and Thomas Heatherwick started when he was crowned the inaugural winner of the Bombay Sapphire Prize – an international award for excellence and innovation in glass. Alongside high profile designers he joined the Bombay Sapphire Foundation, which encourages and rewards the very best in contemporary design and glass design in particular. In 2010, he was approached by the Bombay Sapphire team to design the brand home in Laverstoke.

Bombay Sapphire Global Category Director John Burke adds: “It’s a very exciting time for the Bombay Sapphire team, especially now that we’re seeing our plan for Laverstoke Mill come into fruition. With tradition, quality and craftsmanship at the heart of the site’s heritage, we can finally look forward to opening our doors to consumers worldwide and share with them the care, skill and imagination that is infused in the spirit we produce. Bombay Sapphire gin has experienced great success and growth over the last 10 years and with the opening of the brand’s home and consumer experience, we are very optimistic for next decade.”

In February 2012, planning permission to restore Laverstoke was granted and the build process is now underway and managed by Meller Ltd, with a goal the distillery will open its doors in autumn 2013.

Meller Managing Director, Graham Cartledge adds: “Meller is proud to be leading the development of Laverstoke Mill into a world class production facility and unique visitors centre. Our expert team looks forward to delivering this exceptional project in a way that fulfills Bombay Sapphire’s brand aspirations and also the technical requirements of restoring a site with such heritage, environmental consideration and unique design.”

The post Laverstoke Mill by Thomas Heatherwick
for Bombay Sapphire appeared first on Dezeen.

A retro-inpsired rucksack from Vans’ California Collection

Perfect for a summer weekend away, the newly released Adelanto Backpack from Vans’ California Collection channels a well-loved vintage aesthetic that seems at home on the road. As a nice change of pace to the tech-driven bags we often encounter, this mid-sized top loader earns our thumbs up with an extremely basic 12oz canvas construction with few bells or whistles. While the worn-in retro vibe feeds on the pared down three pouch pocket design, we welcome the more era-relavant laptop sleeve strategically placed along the back panel.

And to further inspire your inner rubber tramp, the bag’s bottom comes with two compression straps to hold your sleeping bag or sleeping pad. Find the Adelanto Backpack ($120) along with the rest of the California Collection in store from DQM and other official Vans Cali dealers.

Classic vintage shades get a refreshing modern twist

Vintage-inspired eyewear isn’t a new concept by any stretch of the imagination, but Gentlemonster reworks the classics with an emphasis on innovation. Buddy Holly specs and brow line glasses take on a modern edge with sleek angles whereas changeable faceplates give Wayfarers a much-needed update. Frames from the ’50s to ’70s serve as points of reference, but strictly in a design sense.

“We actually don’t get inspired by particular periods of fashion,” founder Hankook Kim tells CH. “In fact, we love Steve Jobs and his craft. We get so much inspiration from his obsession with perfection and beauty.”

Based in Seoul, South Korea, Gentlemonster got its start like many other independent eyewear makers: Kim is an avid collector of vintage glasses. “I started to make eyewear because I know about glasses better than other accessories,” he says. Previously, Kim worked for an English education company, launching the label in February 2011.

Gentlemonster is proud of its craft and documented the process from start and finish. Instead of injection molding, frames are carved from a sheet of acetate and finished by hand. With two designers collaborating with Kim, design and development are just as intensive. “We make at least more than ten blueprints of one model,” he says. “And then we choose three good ones and make samples, of which we choose one.”

While Kim tells us Gentlemonster is not influenced by Korean culture or style, the label reflects the nation’s growing appetite for fashion. “Trend changes are very fast in Korea, so there’s no winner and no forever,” says Kim. “And people get so tired of designs. That’s why we make lots of designs every month.”

But Gentlemonster is not all work and no play. Letting creativity run loose, “Project B” brings unrestrained ideas and one-off concepts to life, such as frames with real flowers, grass and soil and glasses inspired by the mask of Zorro. “The reason we do this is to express our imagination freely,” he says.

Gentlemonster eyewear is available for purchase on their website and 29CM.

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards 2012! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

This concept re-defines the relationship between passengers in a vehicle and the world around it by transforming the vehicle’s windows into an interactive interface. The concepts generated in this project aimed to re-define human-nature relationship in the context of near future mobility, expose Europeans to Japanese values and culture and use this experience to trigger emotions.

How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
The project team discovered that we had won the Speculative Design category by watching the online stream on the Core77 website. CIID is very international and we were scattered across various computers and countries. The Toyota team were in Brussels and Japan. One CIID team member was in Spain, two were in Italy, and the rest of us were gathered around a computer in the CIID Consulting office in Copenhagen. We were continuously refreshing the twitter stream and our eyes were glued to Bruce Sterling as he announced the results. When we heard the words “Window To The World”, our screams travelled throughout the building!! Our colleagues could hear us two floors above – so they knew without asking that we had won!

What’s the latest news or development with your project?
Since developing Window To The World, CIID Consulting has continued to have a successful on-going collaboration with Toyota. The vision of Window To The World has proven to captivate many audiences both on and offline. The video has had well over a million views, it has been featured on CNN, and published in many newspapers including The Independent (UK) and The Chicago Tribune. A working prototype of the Window To The World interface is now exhibited in the Toyota Flagship store on the Champs Elysee in Paris. Winning a Core77 design award is a great honor to add to these achievements and we look forward to further successful collaborations between CIID and Toyota in the coming months.

What is one quick anecdote about your project?
The original storyboard for the Window To The World video was set in beautiful countryside, with rolling hills and the sun shining in the background. However, we soon realised we were in Denmark (one of the flattest countries on the planet), it was winter, there was no sun and only a few hours of light a day! Not to be put off by such trivial matters, we went ahead as planned, fueled with enthusiasm – just with a lot of scarves on!

What was an “a-ha” moment from this project?
The ‘a ha’ moment for this project was when we built the first working prototype of the Window To The World interface using rear projection, IR technology and some code. The physical prototype itself was by no means beautiful but the experience it promoted was. By using these quick prototyping methods we were instantly able to test the idea with people in order for us to get feedback and refine the overall vision. It was an amazing experience to see people engaging with the idea and enjoying the interaction – and it was interesting for us to understand the different behaviours it promoted. What was initially a simple sketch and paper scenario of an idea, was brought to life in the real world where people could experience it for themselves.

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Turn your iPhone into a waterproof wide-angle POV camera

As enthusiasm for compact personal POV cameras like GoPro and Contour continues to grow, iPhone accessory innovator Mophie recently released their solution to the dedicated camera system, Outride. The mountable case and app turns your iPhone into a protected video camera, allowing you to use your most readily available and familiar device for capturing the excitement.

Using multiple mounts the rugged, waterproof case can be affixed on a wide range of surfaces—surfboard, skateboard, bike—with minimal risk of damage to your device. The lightweight polycarbonate housing also features an integrated wide-angle lens with 170 degrees of capture, while the free Outride app lets you view footage, make edits and share videos through various social channels—meaning more than just your nearest friend can see the aftermath of the inevitable “watch this” moment.

Set to drop mid-September, Outride will be available directly from Mophie online for between $130 and $150.