A few years ago, an unusual map of Africa began gaining traction throughout the internet. It showed that the continent is, in fact, larger than the United States, China, Japan, India and all of Europe combined….
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The fall issue of UPPERCASE magazine will have a special focus on the art of calligraphy. I’d love to see your work and share it with our readers!
The submissions for “Calligraphy Auditions” are in two parts. Your digital submission and a mailed-in example of your work. The best submissions will be featured in the print edition of the magazine as well as on our blog.
Mail in a 5 x 7 example on card stock (either in an envelope or sent as a postcard) showing off your calligraphic skills by writing about why you love calligraphy or demonstrating what makes hand-lettered messages so appealing. The card should be exclusively calligraphic.
UPPERCASE magazine
#201b – 908, 17th Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
T2T 0A3
The online application form will close on July 21, 2014, so you must complete that before mailing anything. Mailed submissions should arrive before July 25, 2014.
To submit your work, click here.
A la fois sculpteur et poète, l’artiste japonais Tomohiro Inaba compose de superbes représentations d’animaux à base de fils de fer et d’acier. Avec un aspect surréaliste et une accumulation de fils, ses créations nous plongent dans un univers unique à découvrir dans la suite dans une sélection d’images.
Big news in designworld this summer Friday: Herman Miller has agreed to acquire Design Within Reach for $154 million in cash. That sum, enough to buy 26,602 of DWR’s new all-black Eames lounge-and-ottoman combos, will get Herman Miller an 84% interest in the Stamford, Connecticut-based company, which operates 38 retail stores in the U.S. and Canada along with its online and print catalogue presences. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the month.
DWR CEO John Edelman and President John McPhee, who hold the remaining ownership stakes, are slated to stick around to run DWR as part of a newly formed consumer business unit of Herman Miller. DWR had revenues of approximately $218 million in 2013, while Herman Miller booked $1.8 billion in its 2013 fiscal year, during which it announced its purchase of Maharam for just a couple million more than the DWR pricetag.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Like many designspotters, we first took note of Jólan Van der Wiel at the Transnatural exhibition in Milan in 2012, one of two exhibitions that included his “Gravity Stools” (we saw him in Ventura Lambrate as well). He’s been busy since then, transposing his magnetic modus operandi to couture—with fellow Amsterdammer/futurist Iris van Herpen, of course— and now, with a project called “Architecture Meets Magnetism,” into ceramics.
By developing a formula for clay slip with iron fillings, the Gerrit Rietveld Academy grad (and now teacher) arrived at a material that he calls ‘dragonstone.’ Wired‘s Liz Stinson likens them to Tim Burton machinations, but I’m seeing some Giger-worthy gnarliness in the extruded stalagmite carapaces. The designer, for his part, was inpsired by Gaudí: In Dezeen, van der Wiel expresses admiration for the Spanish architect’s use of “gravity to calculate the final shape of [La Sagrada Familia].” “I thought, ‘What if he had to power the turn off the gravitational field for a while?’ Then he could have made the building straight up.”
The project is part of ongoing research into the applications of magnetic forces, which Van der Wiel conducted at the European Ceramic Workcentre in Den Bosch.
After discovering that clay could be shaped by magnetism, he is now exploring applications for the technique in architecture.
“The idea of creating buildings with magnetic field has always fascinated me,” said Van der Wiel. “I’m drawn to the idea that the force would make the final design of the building—architects would only have to think about the rough shape and a natural force would do the rest.”
“This would create a totally different architectural field,” he added. “These are the very first models showing how future buildings and objects could look when they are shaped by natural forces.”
There’s no denying that once you’ve stepped off your bike and locked it up, carrying around a clunky helmet is annoying. NYC-based Mara Holmgren and Megan Kiefer—like so many designers—saw the…
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Walking through a vast museum filled with paintings and sculptures, you might be surprised learn that what you’re seeing is, on average, only 2–4 percent of the museum’s entire collection. The other 96–98 percent is tucked away in climate-controlled storage rooms deep beneath the museum or at off-site locations. Recently, the Dutch art historian and designer Maaike Roozenburg unveiled the first results of a project intended to give these hidden objects a new life, putting them in museumgoers’ hands and helping people get back in touch with their heritage.
Roozenburg has spent years exploring museum archives, and about four years ago she started examining the possibilities of 3D scanning technology as a way to put out-of-reach museum objects back in the hands of everyday people. “These objects are meant to be used, not just exist in a museum,” she explains. “I want to bring their existence, their soul, back. That’s where my work as a designer comes in. I really wanted to make these objects accessible.”
A 17th-century teacup and saucer (left) and its 3D replica
The final porcelain replicas are enriched with an Augmented Reality overlay that can be viewed on a smartphone or tablet.
During one of her research trips to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, in Rotterdam, Roozenburg fell in love with a set of 17th-century glasses. “I just wanted to have them,” she says. “They looked very modern somehow and I wanted to use them in my home.” Unfortunately, the glasses were among the most fragile objects in the museum’s collection, and not allowed to be touched.
La designer américaine Danielle Evans dont nous avons déjà parlé, associe une fois de plus sa créativité avec l’utilisation d’éléments culinaires comme le blé, le café, le piment et même les spaghettis. L’artiste travaille ces aliments pour leurs couleurs, leurs aspects et leurs propriétés physiques, imaginant ainsi une typographie créative et unique.
This week’s job of the week on Dezeen Jobs is a position for an exhibition designer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Visit the ad for full details or browse other architecture and design opportunities on Dezeen Jobs.
The post Job of the week: exhibition designer
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art appeared first on Dezeen.
Bamboo architects: a new movement led by architects Kengo Kuma, Shigeru Ban and Vo Trong Nghia is putting bamboo construction back in the spotlight, according to Chris Precht of Austro-Chinese practice Penda (+ slideshow + interview).
The rise of modern architecture in the last century pushed the material “out of the spotlight”, Precht said, but he added that the overuse of glass and steel in contemporary architecture meant that people are now “longing for a certain imperfection in things; an imperfection you get with natural materials.”
“When we see a building made of bamboo, we think about the natural environment,” added Precht, who recently unveiled a concept for a bamboo hotel and a spectacular bamboo gateway. “That creates a certain campfire romanticism of being off the grid for a while.”
Japanese architects Kuma and Ban and Vietnamese designer Nghia are spearheading the return to bamboo, which was used for hundreds of years as a construction material but which fell out of favour during the 20th century.
“During the last century, the modern and industrial approach to architecture put bamboo more and more out of the spotlight,” he said. “Its use was downgraded to bamboo flooring or scaffolding on construction sites.”
Now, however, leading architects are once again working with the material, giving it credibility and exploring new construction techniques. “Thankfully to the work of great architecture offices like Kengo Kuma, Shigeru Ban or Vo Trong Nghia is turning the public focus back on bamboo,” he said.
Dezeen spoke to Precht as part of our series of interviews with architects working with bamboo. With offices in both Vienna and Beijing, Precht’s practice Penda is involved in projects on both sides of the world, and he points out a strong difference between the architectural culture in the two hemispheres.
“In history, architecture evolved from two different type of spaces: the cave and the nest,” he said. “Eastern architecture originated from the latter. A bamboo building is a very direct translation of the nest.”
Penda recently unveiled its concept for a temporary, modular, high-rise hotel made of bamboo arranged in tipi-like forms. The studio is also working on a giant bamboo gateway to a garden in Xiangyiang, China, the sweeping form of which is derived from Chinese calligraphy.
“If the smooth curvature of a 3-degree spline stands for computer-generated perfection, its opposite would be Chinese calligraphy and the natural imperfection of the brushstroke,” Precht added. “In architecture, I would translate that into a bamboo building.”
In an interview with Dezeen published earlier this week, Vo Trong Nghia described bamboo as the “green steel of the 21st century” and said he believed the material will soon “replace other materials” in the building industry.
In another interview Dylan Baker-Rice, principal at Hong Kong studio Affect-T, said bamboo was becoming “increasingly popular in Chinese architecture,” due to its low cost, abundance, strength and beauty.
Here’s a transcript of the interview with Precht:
Marcus Fairs: What is the tradition of using bamboo in architecture in China?
Chris Precht: In history, architecture evolved from two different type of spaces: the cave and the nest. Eastern architecture originated from the latter. A bamboo building is a very direct translation of the nest. Canes are combined to form a structural system and the same canes are also used to provide walls, floors and a circulation system. It is open, it breathes, it is natural, flexible and lightweight.
Throughout China’s building tradition, bamboo was a dominant material in architecture, especially in southern China. It was used for all the elements in architecture: structure, wall, floor, furniture, or ladders and stairs. A bamboo house offered the needs for a family in the south: it provided an enclosed space, which protected them from insects or snakes and, at the same time, it was well ventilated.
Architecture aside, many of the daily used objects were, and are still, made of bamboo: baskets, smoking pipes, containers for cooking rice or chopsticks. Bamboo was and is strongly involved in China’s daily life.
Until today, the majority of bamboo used around the globe is grown in bamboo forests in southern China and Vietnam.
During the last century, the modern and industrial approach to architecture put bamboo more and more out of the spotlight. Its use was downgraded to bamboo flooring or scaffolding on construction sites. Thankfully to the work of great architecture offices like Kengo Kuma, Shigeru Ban or Vo Trong Nghia are turning the public focus back on bamboo.
Marcus Fairs: What properties does bamboo have that make it suitable for architecture?
Chris Precht: I think there are technical properties of bamboo which makes it suitable for architecture, but also aspects which connect to peoples’ emotion and feelings which explains the current heavy usage in architecture.
On the technical side, bamboo is firstly a very fast-growing natural resource – it can grow more than a metre per day – and it can be harvested without harming the plant. Its rate of growth makes it a very eco-friendly construction-material and in times of “bigger, better, faster” many people can relate to this natural honesty in a building.
The strength and hardness of bamboo makes it a great material of modular structural systems. The strength of bamboo according to its weight is comparable to the behaviour of steel. And it still has a haptic, natural appearance.
Marcus Fairs: Why are architects using bamboo so much these days?
Chris Precht: All the great technical aspects of bamboo aside, bamboo is a material which connects to all our senses. Its natural appearance in architecture gives you a very honest and haptic connection, you can smell it, it’s appealing to the eye and gives the wind a voice. In many Chinese dishes, you can even taste bamboo.
In times of great technological progress, with all the advantages it is bringing to architecture, comes also a lack of sensibility to natural resources. With the heavy usage of the computer and the perfection it offers as an output, I think, a lot of people are longing for a certain imperfection in things; an imperfection you get with natural materials.
If the smooth curvature of a 3-degree spline stands for computer-generated perfection, its opposite would be Chinese calligraphy and the natural imperfection of the brushstroke. In architecture, I would translate that into a bamboo building.
Another reason why people are drawn towards bamboo these days is that most of us are constantly surrounded by steel and glass. But when we see a building or structure, which is made of bamboo, we think about the natural environment, where it is built and that creates a certain campfire romanticism of being off the grid for a while.
Marcus Fairs: Does your studio work in a high-tech or a low-tech way?
Chris Precht: We still consider ourselves digital architects or architects in a digital age. But we want to avoid materials like plastics or epoxy as an easy outcome of the digital. We are very drawn to natural materials. We use digital tools in the designing and the tools and knowledge of craftsmen in the execution.
Marcus Fairs: What is it like working with bamboo compared to other materials?
Chris Precht: To work with bamboo is very different to other natural materials, because it asks for modular thinking. The diameter of the culms is limited, therefore the focus lies much more on the joints and how to add the same element to create one coherent system – very much like a bird’s nest. One element gets copied and is used for the structure, the floor, the wall and the cover. The structure stays visible and offers a very honest interaction between the complexity of the building and the people using it. Therefore working with bamboo has a very personal scale to it.
It also has given us a certain freedom and relief to not have to think about the cladding or the wall colour, because bamboo has a clear visible statement and makes you focus on the essential.
The post Leading architects are “turning the focus
back on bamboo” appeared first on Dezeen.
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