Hasta La Ideas

The "Venus Of Cupertino" iPad dock is created by Scott Eaton…(Read…)

London studio Haptic has created a forest-like lounge at a hotel in Oslo, filled with trees, stacks of lumber and a plant-covered wall.

The open-plan lounge is also the lobby for the hotel, which contains 300 guest rooms and a business conference centre.

The stacked-up timber beams form the reception counter, while the trees create a protective canopy along the edges of a 350-seat canteen.

“The challenge was to provide spaces that felt intimate whilst being easy to get to, flexible and compatible with large-scale event logistics,” Haptic’s Tomas Stokke told Dezeen.

Instead of using matching furniture, the designers have added a variety of chairs by different designers, including Charles and Ray Eames, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, and Jasper Morrison.

A row of timber columns separates the lounge from the hotel restaurant, where more columns fold outwards to shelter dining tables.

In contrast to the busy spaces of the lobby, the guest rooms have a simplified design, with a muted colour palette and plain furnishings.

Another hotel completed recently is the Hôtel Droog, which opened in Amsterdam earlier this month.

See more hotels on Dezeen »

Photography is by Trine Thorsen.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Inspired by Nature

This interior architectural project for a large, 300-room hotel and conferencing venue, is inspired by the stunning Norwegian landscape and uses a primary palette of natural materials to provide variety in spatial composition, form, texture and colour.

The primary design strategy was to rationalise a complex set of interconnecting spaces and functions, providing consistent themes and architectural tectonics, but variety and specific “installations” to define each space from the next.

The main communal space of the hotel is understood through a simple architectural theme, the “big floor”, which is then subtly sub-divided into zones to define the lobby, from the restaurant/canteen to private dining, lounge/library and conference lobby.

The Norwegian forests are a primary inspiration, whereby timber is used through out in very different ways to create semi-permeable screens, cladding to cores, a bespoke square-log reception and bar, right down to details such as signage and loose furniture.

The main lobby space is framed by a stylised forest wall that divides the lobby from the restaurant but allows glimpses between the spaces and filters natural light from the main skylight above.

The lobby is more than a reception and waiting lounge, elevated to a communal dining and meeting point for hotel and conference guests. Subtle lighting has been installed to work with the planted trees, where shadows from their canopies dance upon the articulated lobby ceiling.

The lounge and library space is defined by a slender timber screen, that seemingly goes off for a walk, creating bar shelving, bookshelves, desks and ceiling.

By contrast, the hotel rooms are pared down, with simple, quality materials and custom-made furniture made in collaboration with B&B Italia.

The post Quality Hotel Expo in Oslo
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Camera Lens Mug. About $15..(Read…)

Things You’d Better Not Mix Up…an animated short by Joost LieuwmaSynopsisA series of things you’d ..(Read…)

As industrial designers, we’re probably pickier than most about the objects we own. We become conscious of badly-placed buttons, poor ergonomics and shoddy construction in ways the average consumer may not. In this series I’ll look at the specific objects I choose to use most often, and examine them as if they were the subject of a design research project.

First up, my not-a-wallet wallet, which is actually a Japanese train pass holder.

Purpose of Object: Carry credit cards and driver’s license only. Cash and receipts go in my pockets, which get emptied every night to file the latter.

Price paid: I think it was 95 Yen–about a buck–in 1998.

Why did you choose this object over competing objects?
1) It’s thin. It had to be not bulky, yet carry my five EDC cards (Driver’s license, banking card, two credit cards and my ZipCar pass). I hate that back pocket wallet bulge and don’t know how people comfortably drive cars and sit on the subway like that.

2) It’s fast to use. It had to allow me to quickly remove and re-insert a card. As an impatient New Yorker I can’t stand being that guy that holds up the line.

Story behind this object:
I bought my first while living in Japan in 1998 to hold my train pass. Everyone I knew in Tokyo used them. The trains in Japan are as efficient as the passengers; the design of the pass holder allows you to quickly slide your monthly train pass out to insert into the turnstile, which opens to admit you while spitting your pass back out at the top, where you retrieve it and slide it back into the holder. Everyone did this smoothly.

Tokyo train stations are unbelievably crowded—it’s one of the most population-dense cities in the world—but the crowds flow well and efficiently. I truly believe that if everyone in Tokyo carried their train pass in a flip-out wallet, the citywide transit times would slow down.

I didn’t carry my U.S. driver’s license or credit cards while living in Japan, as I had no use for the former and believe it or not, it wasn’t common to use credit cards in 1990s Japan. Everyone used cash. But upon returning to the ‘States, I found the train pass holder would perfectly fit the few credit cards I needed to carry, and was a lot less bulky than a wallet. I’ve been using it ever since, occasionally replacing them as they wear out. On return trips to Japan I’ve bought a stack of the cheap things.

Stateside, Muji sells something similar (more on that below).

(more…)