Bouroullec brothers to debut Belleville furniture collection for Vitra

Milan 2015: French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have created two chairs and two tables for Swiss furniture brand Vitra, which will debut at Milan design week next month (+ movie).

Hybrid Belleville chair by Bouroullec

The Belleville collection includes two variations of a chair with a frame made from black polyamide plastic. This supports a shell that comes in four different versions – polypropylene, ultra-thin 4.5 millimetre plywood, or upholstered in fabric or leather.

Hybrid Belleville chair by Bouroullec

According to the duo, the idea behind the Belleville chair was to create a flexible product that can be used indoors or outdoors.

“From one side, the polyamide version allows heavy-duty outdoor locations,” the designers said. “While on the other hand, the upholstery and plywood shell versions belong to a softer landscape.”

Hybrid Belleville chair by Bouroullec

The single-piece frame is made with an automated injection-moulding process that uses gas to quickly place pressure on the molten material and form it into shape.



“Injection moulding with gas is a technique that asks for massive engineering before production because there are no room for possible errors with this kind of tool,” said the Bouroullecs. “Production is about 3-4 minutes only, and then everything is finished.”

Hybrid Belleville chair by Bouroullec

The frame for the armchair appears to travel in a continuous line, curving forwards from the angled back legs up into the arms, and then looping around to form a narrow backrest that widens into the seat. The second version is more linear, with the back rising up from the legs and across the top.

Hybrid Belleville chair by Bouroullec

“The ‘one line’ frame structure links the feet to the shells and continues into the armrests and into the backrest,” said the designers.

“Like a typographer does with the design of a letter, step-by-step we valued the proportions of this line in order to make it well balanced, but also to answer the demands of the production technology.”

Hybrid Belleville chair by Bouroullec

The Bouroullec brothers recently debuted bent-steel tables and shelving for Vitra-owned Finnish brand Artek, while at Milan last year the two announced their first fabric collection for Kvadrat.

Hybrid Belleville chair by Bouroullec

Also in the Belleville range are two tables – one round and one rectangular – with black powder-coated cast aluminium legs, with tops in laminate wood or stone.

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec will display the collection at the Vitra stand, Hall 20 at Salone del Mobile.

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furniture collection for Vitra
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Private CrossRail station planned underneath Adjaye-designed London house

Photographer Ed Reeve has applied for planning consent to dig a private railway station underneath his home – the David Adjaye-designed Sunken House in north London.

Designed by Adjaye in 2003 and completed in 2007, Sunken House is located in De Beauvoir Town, directly above the future route for the CrossRail 2 train that is set to connect south-west and north-east London when it opens in 2018.

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Concept diagram – click for larger image

Reeve plans to take advantage of this by building his own personal station, which will use ramped travellators to ensure he and his family can board and disembark a train without it needing to stop.

“I think the station could become a prototype for public-private initiatives in the capital’s infrastructure,” the photographer told Dezeen.

EdsShed-Crossrail-David-Adjaye-Ed-Reeve_dezeen_1a
Section – click for larger image

Sunken House, known affectionately as Ed’s Shed, is a partially submerged three-storey structure clad with dark-stained cedar. The lowest floor of the building is partially submerged, creating a sunken kitchen and dining room, and an adjoining home-office.

“We realised that by simply excavating the ground beneath the courtyard we could easily create our own access to the new CrossRail line,” said Reeve.



Working with architectural designers Elizabeth MacLeod and Adriana Keast, Reeve has proposed connecting these spaces to a new lift shaft that will descend to down to interchange level, directly above the north and south-bound railway tunnels.

Crossrail house by Ed Reeve

The proposal includes ramped travellators – moving walkways that will accelerate to the speed of passing trains to allow the family to board and avoid disruptions to the timetable due to unscheduled stops. The direction of the travellators will be reversed for disembarking.

Crossrail house by Ed Reeve

Reeve submitted his planning application to the London Borough of Hackney today, 1 April 2015. According to the photographer, construction works will not disrupt local residents.

Stations For Citizens (SfC), a newly formed pressure group, is backing the proposal. “CrossRail has a major influence on London’s neighbourhoods and residents have a right to capitalise on the opportunity to shorten their commute,” said SfC founder Roger Wilko.

Crossrail house by Ed Reeve

The project is located close to another example of subterranean architecture – the so-called Mole Man house, made famous when it was discovered that former resident William Lyttle had dug a warren of tunnels underneath. David Adjaye is currently working on the property’s renovation.

Additional reporting by Peter Allison.

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Adjaye-designed London house
appeared first on Dezeen.

Class recap: Instafood in Amsterdam

Bloesem living | Class recap: Instafood- food styling and mobile photography class in Amsterdam, March 2015

Along with the class in Amsterdam we announced a giveaway in collaboration with Viamartine. The best photograph taken during the class would receive a poster of their instagram shots from Viamartine and we are happy to finally announce the winner is Suzanne!

Thank you Martine for your generous prize for our Bloesem class student, we hope it motivates everyone to keep going with all the new skills they picked up during the class.

Of course there were so many beautiful shots to choose from and it was quite a challenge just picking one but Trisha Toh and the Bloesem team had a great time looking through the images.. there is so much potential!

Here is a little recap of some scenes from the class. Our favourite time to snap away is when our students are fully focused on getting the shot!

Bloesem living | Class recap: Instafood- food styling and mobile photography class in Amsterdam, March 2015

Bloesem living | Class recap: Instafood- food styling and mobile photography class in Amsterdam, March 2015

Even Vera from Cousine catering, who did the catering for the class, was getting in on the food photography action.. you can’t help it.. you just want to join in!

Bloesem living | Class recap: Instafood- food styling and mobile photography class in Amsterdam, March 2015

Bloesem living | Class recap: Instafood- food styling and mobile photography class in Amsterdam, March 2015

Brightly coloured salad are great for photos and satisfying our tummies..

Bloesem living | Class recap: Instafood- food styling and mobile photography class in Amsterdam, March 2015

Chop sticks used for precision food styling.. great job guys!

Instafood4

Bloesem living | Class recap: Instafood- food styling and mobile photography class in Amsterdam, March 2015

Bloesem living | Class recap: Instafood- food styling and mobile photography class in Amsterdam, March 2015

We met so many wonderful people while we were there and look forward to many more classes! For the students: Keep shooting! and we’ll catch up with you on instagram!

First image by Suzanne, all other image credits: Zara Salahuddin.

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