A l’occasion d’une rétrospective consacrée au créateur de mobilier Gerrit Rietveld, le studio Wieki Somers a collaboré avec le chocolatier Rafael Mutter en vue d’exposer un ingénieux moulin en chocolat. Composée d’un bloc cylindrique, la délicieuse œuvre à découvrir en vidéo a été organisée en dix couches empilées, révélant différents motifs géométriques.
The way we eat food—you know, through our mouths—hasn’t changed a whole lot. But where the method has stayed the same, the processes that make up our favorites and tools we use to make our meals have seen radical innovations. The 2014 honorees from the Food category of the Core77 Design Awards vary from multi-purpose kitchen tools to breeding homes for insect protein.
Led by Eating Designer Marije Vogelzang, the jury team chose 12 designs that stood out among the rest and shared their thoughts on the work. Read on to see how cricket-infused cocktail bitters, liquid flower petals, edible Menorahs, and more:
Student Winner: 432 Farm: Insect Breeding, by Katharina Unger
We’ve been seeing insects pop up here and there in future-focused culinary designs, but there hasn’t been a whole lot on how to keep our insect reserve alive and thriving. University of Applied Arts Vienna student Katharina Unger has developed an in-home breeding tool for insects—specifically looking at insect protein as a substitute for meat. “We chose this winner unanimously,” says the jury. “This project stood out from the others due to it’s high quality and designing every single aspect of the process. The project takes on a very current issue and transforms it trough in-depth research, design quality and the ability to make a very complex structure simple and understandable. Eating insects will still be quite a step for the western consumer to make but with this product the designer takes a bit of the horror away and provides a practical, consumer oriented product that people can relate to.”
» Learn more about 432 Farm: Insect Breeding
Student Runner Up: Food Radiation Scanner, by The Furious Fika
Japanese households located in the blast area of Fukushima are still suffering the consequences. The Furious Fika, a team from the Umeâ Institute of Design, designed a scanner that helps identify food with dangerous amounts of radiation, in a hope to make purchasing locally grown food safe again for consumers. The jury’s thoughts: “A very powerful design for a very realistic issue. In many cases technology in combination with food enables loss of connection to the own soil. In this case the design is made to ensure a more firm connection, feeling of safety and trust in local food. Also it will help fight against food waste. Another interesting effect of showing this design at an international contest like this is that it gives us a glimpse into the reality of daily life of many. It shows us a creepy glimpse of something that could happen anywhere, also next to our own doorstep. A big issue is made tangible.”
» Learn more about Food Radiation Scanner
Professional Notable: Blow Dough, by Omer Polak and Michal Evyatar
Bread has been a source of sustenance for longer than any of us can remember—and it’s been made and consumed the same way for just about as long. Omer Polak and Michal Evyatar have reintroduced us to the starchy staple with a new baking method that involves a blowtorch. The experience starts with seasoned dough that’s transformed into herbed balloons with a flamed clocking in at temperatures as high as 1,112°F. The jury called it “a fun and engaging project with a very strong cultural aspect honoring heritage whilst innovating and creating a bonding experience extraordinaire.”
Here’s a fascinating video about a tiny house community in the District of Columbia and the legal and zoning issues that the residents have faced.
There are some really inspiring living spaces featured in the video.
Post written by PJ Doland
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As the eyes of the world fell on Glasgow, a special countdown was devised by Jack Morton Worldwide to promote community and craft groups through out the city. 14 groups were approached to make the numbers involved, as a billion viewers around the world counted down to the start of the XX Commonwealth Games.
The numbers were filmed at locations around the city to showcase to the world both the talent and the sites of Glasgow. Clocking in at number 7 was the amazingly brilliant social enterprise, GalGael Trust, a community and heritage association located in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland, near the River Clyde. Aside from fabricating the elm handle for the Queen’s Baton for the XX Commonwealth Games, GalGael is best known for its fight against the problems of unemployment and poverty, especially the high incidence of family breakdown, alcoholism and drug problems. Founded in the mid-1990s by the late Colin Macleod, GalGael has been providing participant based programmes that help people regain a positive sense of both self and community ever since. The phrase “GalGael” comes from 9th Century Norsemen, who mingled with native Celts; gall meant “foreigner,” and gael meant “native.” When they adopted the emblem of a 9th-century birlinn (a highland galley or large rowing-boat) as a logo, it occurred to them that they could achieve many of their social objectives by actually building a boat, so this is what they set out to do: to provide learning experiences anchored in practical activities that offer purpose and meaning to marginalized people. From there they took inspiration in the community boat-building revival in the Shetlands and in Norway, which they envisaged also would make a good template for reclaiming heritage and reconnecting to Clyde coastal communities.
The diverse activities at GalGael range from producing a small selection of crafts and reclaimed timber for sale to volunteering for the organization itself, but the main activities are a joinery apprentice program, community boat-building and voyaging and, most recently, recovery stays at Barmaddy Farm in western Scotland, just southeast of Oban and the Inner Hebrides.
Sometimes inspiration for how to use a material can come from the natural world. Case in point: The beauty of Utah’s arches like the Rainbow Bridge above. A recent study out of Charles University in the Czech Republic breaks down how such sculptures form—and, in doing so, allows us to see potential for our own design and creativity.
The natural occurring arches and narrow stone towers do not require a complicated mix of materials or the natural variables involved in geology or weather. All we need is some sandstone and stress.
This cedar-clad Vancouver house by Canadian studio Splyce Design features a lopsided roof that follows the line of the staircase (+ slideshow).
Splyce Design was influenced by Modernist homes when designing East Van House, built in a culturally and architecturally diverse neighbourhood of Vancouver for a single professional.
“There are several houses in the area that reflect the diversity of the community, and this house fits into that context,” architect Nigel Parish told Dezeen. “There are elements designed to relate to the size and materials of its neighbours, but it reflects an architecture that has been tailored to the needs of the client.”
The three-storey home occupies a shorter plot than is normal for the area, so Splyce Design built up into the roof to maximise internal space and designed a long slope on one side to fit the staircase beneath.
“The off-set, asymmetrical roof worked well in accommodating the stairs, and created some unique spaces inside,” said Parish.
The basement has a garage, utility room, wine room, and a bedroom and bathroom for guests.
The ground floor houses the main entrance from the street, which leads to an open-plan kitchen and dining area at the back, and a living room and terrace. These areas face south, attracting natural light throughout the day.
The kitchen has floor-to-ceiling white-oak storage units concentrated along one surface in order to keep the side wall free of overhead cabinets. The storage unit closest to the entrance steps down to provide a seating box, which also doubles as a spot to drop off bags.
On the kitchen’s side wall, a recess with windows has been left behind the counter-top, designed to bring light deeper into the house and provide space for plants.
“We were allowed to have a bay window, and this was our interpretation, with windows on the sides instead of directly in front,” said Parish. “We saw this as a space to grow herbs or have seasonal flowers throughout the year, and during the day it provides additional light.”
At the back of the house, the dining area and living room are set at different levels and separated by a fireplace.
“The split level allowed us to get the living space closer to the garden, and also defined the different spaces within the larger whole,” said Parish.
A reading nook around the corner from the living room leads back to the front entrance, offering a circular route around the ground floor.
“There are no dead-ends in the house, and given the relatively small floor plate, this makes the space feel larger,” said Parish.
The top floor has a study and a bedroom, with a west-facing rooflight that frames views of the sky and trees from the bed.
A dressing area has been added behind the bedroom, with a corridor of wardrobe space that leads out to a small terrace.
A bath and shower have also been added behind the bedroom, with the bath and its adjacent wall built in marble to contrast the timber used throughout the rest of the house.
Stairs between the three floors are at the north-facing front of the house, which is the darkest part of the building. Open stair treads, glass balustrades and a rooflight at the top of the stairwell have been added to increase the flow of natural light here.
“The tall stair volume adds to the sense of expanse in the house. People are often surprised it’s only 2,300 square feet [213.67 square metres],” said Parish.
Larch has been used for the flooring throughout the house and western red cedar forms the external cladding.
“Western red cedar was our favoured choice, because it is grown locally in our forests and sustainably harvested,” said Parish.
Splyce Design has previously designed a house with a cantilevered dining room.
The post East Van House by Splyce Design
features an asymmetric sloping roof appeared first on Dezeen.
News: structural work has completed on A House for Essex, the holiday home designed by British artist Grayson Perry and London architecture firm FAT for Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture project.
Plans for A House for Essex, which sits on a plot surrounded by meadows on the east coast of England, were first unveiled in 2012.
Scaffolding has now come down to reveal a house with a facade clad in ceramic tiles and a four-part roof topped with large cast-aluminium sculptures by Perry and FAT.
More than 2,000 bespoke tiles were cast from originals by Perry for the outside of the building by specialist firm Shaws of Darwen. Copper alloy panels were used to create the standing seam roof.
Related story: John Pawson designs countryside lodge for Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture project
“The exterior of the house responds to this contemporary romantic landscape, forming something that is both ancient and modern, archetypal and imbued with narrative,” said architect Charles Holland of FAT when the plans were unveiled. “It is a hybrid building, part house and part gallery.”
The design for the building, which overlooks the Stour Estuary in Essex, was inspired by eccentric houses across England, as well as fairytales and pilgrimage chapels.
“The idea behind this project relates to buildings put up as memorials to loved ones, to follies, to eccentric home-built structures, to shrines, lighthouses and fairytales,” explained Perry. “There are much loved buildings all over the county and the country built in the same spirit.”
Inside, two bedrooms on the first floor will have balconies overlooking a double height living room, and a bath suspended over the entrance.
Work on the interior, which will also feature tapestries, mosaic floors and ornamental pots created by Perry, is still ongoing and the house is due to be completed later this year.
The house was created for Living Architecture, the holiday rentals organisation created by philosopher and critic Alain de Botton to commission celebrated architects to design contemporary houses for the UK, and will be available for bookings from Spring 2015.
It will be the last project to be completed by FAT, the London Postmodernist architecture firm run by Sam Jacob, Sean Griffiths and Charles Holland. The partners announced plans to split in December last year after 23 years.
“We think this is really the completion of the FAT project which began many years ago, with no intention that we were starting an architecture office and the ‘glittering careers’ we would have,” said Jacob, who is also a columnist for Dezeen.
Other projects in the Living Architecture series include a house that cantilevers over the edge of a hill and a boat-like structure on the roof of London’s Southbank Centre.
The post First photographs of Grayson Perry
and FAT’s house for Alain de Botton appeared first on Dezeen.
On its 50th anniversary, one of Roald Dahl’s most well known books – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – is being reissued as a Penguin Modern Classic. Its cover, which places some of Dahl’s darker themes in front of a new audience, has already caused something of a stir online…
Published next month, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will become one of a handful of children’s books on the Modern Classics list. Its long life as a children’s favourite has seen covers ranging from depictions of Willy Wonka and his factory to Charlie Bucket and his golden ticket, with many incarnations penned by Dahl’s long-term collaborator, Quentin Blake.
The approach for the new edition could not be more different.
The image used is in fact a cropped version of a picture taken by the photographers Sofia Sanchez and Mauro Mongiello, which originally appeared in a 2008 issue of Numéro magazine as part of a retro-styled fashion story called Mommie Dearest (shown below).
Image via Noir Façade
Initial reaction, on Twitter at least, hasn’t been that favourable with many commenters believing the image of a young girl readied as if for a beauty pageant to be too unsettling, and more in keeping with stereotypical cover ideas for Nabokov’s Lolita.
Indeed, debate regarding the sexualisation of children may seem out of place on the front of a children’s book, and without the wider context of the original fashion spread – which would certainly suggest the hand of the parent is at work in the process – the image is understandably more provocative.
That said, I think it works. While the candy-colours hint at the sickly-sweetness of Willy Wonka’s confection, of more significance is the unnerving quality of the image which touches on one of the main undercurrents in the book: the relationship between children and their parents, and what can happen when fame and fortune enter into their lives. (Visually, if it alludes to any of the book’s character’s, it’s likely to be Veruca Salt, the spoilt English darling who gets anything she wants. Here, her ‘mother’ has been cropped just out of shot).
Yet perhaps what has added to the upset stems from the way readers associate certain books with certain covers. Any deviation from the norm – in the form of a new cover – is an affront to their own experience of the book.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a book that many will have read in childhood, but not gone back to. In producing another visual take on the story (and one of the themes within it), a further aim of the new cover is to attract those who might now consider reading the book again. After all, themes that were once undetectable many years ago, might now come rearing back into focus. The title’s position as part of the Modern Classics series invites such a reassessment by adult readers, so it is important that the cover addresses this new perspective.
According to a page on the Penguin blog, the Modern Classics cover “looks at the children at the centre of the story, and highlights the way Roald Dahl’s writing manages to embrace both the light and the dark aspects of life.”
It does that well, perhaps disturbingly well. Speculation, of course, but I think Dahl may well have been in favour.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is published as a Penguin Modern Classic on September 4 (£7.99). More at penguinclassics.co.uk.
The Water Draining Soap Holder basically drains excess water away from your soap and into your..(Read…)
Le studio parisien d’arts graphiques Violaine et Jeremy propose de la direction artistique, des sites internet, de l’édition, de la production vidéo mais également, du dessin. Parmi leurs meilleurs travaux, on retrouve ces animaux originaux, ornés de barbes faunesques et de plumes minutieuses. Les détails dans la suite de l’article.
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