Electric Happaratus glove enables wood and stone to be sculpted by hand

Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: in this movie filmed at the Royal College of Art, graduate Morten Grønning explains how he adapted an electric kitchen knife to make a prototype glove for carving hard materials.

Visual prototype of Morten Grönning's Happaratus power glove
Visual prototype of Morten Grønning’s Happaratus power glove

Grønning‘s Happaratus glove features a pair of abrasive pads on its fingertips, which move back and forth in a reciprocating motion, enabling the wearer to sculpt materials like wood or stone with their hands.

Visual prototype of Morten Grönning's Happaratus power glove
Visual prototype of Morten Grønning’s Happaratus power glove

“It’s a project that explores a new way of creating,” says Grønning, who graduated from the RCA‘s Innovation Design Engineering course. “I wanted to explore how we can use our hands to create directly in hard materials.”

Early prototype of Morten Grönning's Happaratus power glove
Early prototype of Morten Grønning’s Happaratus power glove

To make his first prototype, Grønning took the mechanism from an electric carving knife.



“I needed a specific motion to power this tool and an electric kitchen knife was very well suited to do this,” he explains. “So I ended up strapping one of those to my wrists and using that to power the tool for the first prototypes.”

Sculptor David Neat using a Happaratus prototype to carve balsa wood
Sculptor David Neat using a Happaratus prototype to carve balsa wood

To demonstrate how the tool could be used, Grønning gave the prototype to a number of wood and stone sculptors to test it out. He claims the feedback was very positive.

“The whole prototyping phase was about finding a way to build a tool so I could give them out and have people test it,” he explains. “The main feedback was that, as you are creating a curve, you know the shape through the haptic feedback. So you are understanding the shape as you make it.”

More refined prototype of Morten Grönning's Happaratus power glove
More refined prototype of Morten Grønning’s Happaratus power glove

Grønning has since built a series of more refined prototypes, which all feature a pair of reciprocating sandpaper pads that are able to sculpt materials like balsa wood, sandstone and plaster.

Visual prototype of Morten Grönning's Happaratus power glove
Visual prototype of Morten Grønning’s Happaratus power glove

However, he hopes to develop a version of the glove with much tougher interchangeable blades. These would be connected to an electric motor on the back of the glove via flexible shafts along the fingers, granting the wearer full dexterity.

Visual prototype of Morten Grönning's Happaratus power glove
Visual prototype of Morten Grønning’s Happaratus power glove

“In the real product, the tool tips would be made from tungsten carbide or hard steels that could really dig into materials and last a really long time,” he explains. “We could also have tool tips just for sanding and surface work. We could have some very fine and detailed ones for intricate work.”

Visual prototype of Morten Grönning's Happaratus power glove
Visual prototype of Morten Grønning’s Happaratus power glove

Grønning hopes that with further development, he’ll be able to produce a much more tactile replacement for conventional power tools.

“For an artisan it’s really desirable to get as close to the material as possible,” he says. “With this tool you cannot get any closer.”

RCA graduate Morten Grönning
RCA graduate Morten Grønning

This movie was filmed at the Royal College of Art in London. Additional video footage is courtesy of Morten Grønning.

The music used in the movie is a track by UK producer 800xL.

Dezeen and MINI Frontiers is an ongoing collaboration with MINI exploring how design and technology are coming together to shape the future.

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Dezeen and MINI Frontiers

The post Electric Happaratus glove enables wood
and stone to be sculpted by hand
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Ezri Tarazi's Jerusalem Tables highlight the city's demographics

Israeli designer Ezri Tarazi has created a series of nine tables based on the cultural, religious and geographical diversity of Jerusalem (+ slideshow).

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Divided City table

Tarazi’s Jerusalem Tables are each shaped like the same map of the walled Old City – a UNESCO World Heritage Site that has had a turbulent history. The tables present different information about the area using forms and materials.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Divided City table

With a surface comprising 20 sections of typical Jerusalem objects made from materials including leather, glass, pottery and copper, the Divided City table opens into two parts.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Gush Bloc table

“The table’s design reflects the geopolitical situation of the divided city of Jerusalem,” said Tarazi. “When the table is closed it emphasises the beauty of the city as a whole consisting of many multi-faceted parts.”

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Gush Bloc table

The Bars table is made of a series of glass-covered decorative iron bars made using laser cutting technology. These reference the decorative metal lattices that cover doors and windows around Jerusalem.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Dirt from Your Earth table

“The houses of the Old City, like many public buildings in Jerusalem, commonly have bars across the doors or windows that are embellished with symbolic ornamentation, decorations, and texts with different meanings,” said the designer. “Different styles side by side in a single building provide evidence of the range of cultures in the city.”



The black oxidised-iron Gush Bloc table is a geometric abstraction of the map. The base is narrower than the top, and despite its solid appearance, the table weighs just 15 kilograms.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Dirt from Your Earth table

“When the table is viewed from below, it seems to be in an upward thrust, from the earthly level of the city to its heavenly level – a visual depiction of the ‘Heavenly Jerusalem’,” said Tarazi.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Voronoi table

A series of wheel-turned bowls penetrate the metal surface of the Dirt from Your Earth table. The bowls are made of porcelain clay mixed with soil from the excavations of Temple Mount – a celebrated and contentious religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Dressed Stone table

“The table’s design reflects two issues,” explains the designer. “One is the political-religious issue, signified by the origin of the raw material – a controversial historical and archaeological site. The other is cultural – the tradition, common in Mediterranean countries, of providing refreshments in numerous small bowls.”

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Dressed Stone table

Data from the map of the city was translated with the use of a Voronoi diagram – a method of mathematical calculation based on partitioning a plane into polygons. The map was first converted into a two-dimensional diagram and then into a model produced with a 3D printer, and suspended on red powder-coated metal legs.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Maqam Makom table

“The Voronoi table’s design was inspired by the demographic changes anticipated in the Old City regarding the population’s growth and trends in its segmentation,” said Tarazi, who has previously formed a chair by dropping a concrete-filled mannequin onto a mesh box.

The Dressed Stone table is made from Jerusalem Stone. The upper part of the table was mechanically cut and polished – resulting in a smooth finish – whereas the lower part was cut by hand and has a more coarse texture. The table was made at the Jerusalem Limestone factory, which provided stone for Israel’s Supreme Court, the Foreign Ministry, the Temple Mount Plaza, and the Hurva Synagogue.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Maqam Makom table

The two-ply walnut Maqam Makom table celebrates two traditions associated with social gatherings in Jerusalem: drinking coffee and making music. Maqam is the system of melodic modes and structures used in traditional Arabic music.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Maqam Makom table

The table contains 12 copper-lined cavities for copper-based glass coffee cups and one for a coffee pot. A cup placed in one of the cavities completes an electric circuit, activating a musical “loop”.

Each loop causes a different sound to be produced by a single musical instrument. “The table emphasises the complex beauty of a joint group creation,” said the designer.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Remapping table

A projector above the Remapping table is connected to a three-dimensional sensor, which detects moving objects in the space surrounding the table. Any movement over the table causes the buildings on the map projected onto the surface to regroup, creating a new map.

“This optical mechanism depicts the city as a dynamic place, subject to frequent changes that are often caused by the different populations making up the human fabric of the city,” explained Tarazi.

Tables of Jerusalem by Ezri Tarazi
Excavations table

Finally, the Excavations table resembles a model of an archaeological site – many of which can be found around Jerusalem, initiated by different political and religious factions. “The form of the table resembles an abandoned futuristic mine, portraying the dystopian world of a city that has been totally abandoned after being completely excavated,” the designer said.

The nine tables are on display alongside functional items and humorous sculptures by fellow Jerusalem-born designer Haim Parnas, as part of the Objective exhibition at the Tower of David Museum in the city that runs until December 2015.

The post Ezri Tarazi’s Jerusalem Tables highlight the city’s demographics appeared first on Dezeen.

For Sale: A Small-Town Journalism Future

Agata Bielen jewelry

Bloesem living | Agata Bielen minimalist jewelry

 

 

Bloesem living | Agata Bielen minimalist jewelry

 

It’s a really rainy and chilly morning over here in Singapore and we can’t help but feel that calm and serene feeling we get from these shots of Agata Bielen‘s jewelry. Minimal jewelry is all the rage now but doing them right in terms of photography and styling is not always the easiest but this time they hit the nail right on its head. So gorgeous we can’t look away!

 

 

Bloesem living | Agata Bielen minimalist jewelry

Bloesem living | Agata Bielen minimalist jewelry

.. Agata Bielen

Gigantic Street Art Painting on 200 Houses in Mexico

Le gouvernement mexicain a demandé au groupement d’artistes baptisé Germen Crew de peindre les façades blanches des maisons de la petite ville de Palmitas dans le but d’unifier les habitants. Le résultat offre une peinture colorée sur 209 maisons transformant le hameau en une gigantesque oeuvre de street art de 20 000 mètres carrés.

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GiganticStreetArtPaintingon200HousesinMexico4
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GiganticStreetArtPaintingon200HousesinMexico1

Tribe Studio Architects adds contemporary brick extension to a 1920s Sydney bungalow

Square windows and a matching door puncture the dark brick facade of this extension to a 1920s house in a Sydney suburb, designed by local office Tribe Studio (+ slideshow).

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

House Boone Murray is located on a typical street in the Australian capital’s North Randwick neighbourhood, where many of the properties are protected by heritage status. Tribe Studio was asked to update the bungalow to meet the needs of a young family.

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

Instead of extending the building vertically, the architects removed an existing 1970s extension at the rear and replaced it with a modern addition that contains the main living spaces and improves the connection with the garden.

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

“While many of the surrounding bungalows have been added to with a second storey, this project respects the original single-storey nature of the streetscape and the neighbourliness that single-storey projects protect,” explained the architects, whose past work includes a house where bikes are stored on a pulley system.



“In a town-planning sense it is a modest addition, largely invisible from the public domain. Nevertheless, it is robust and unapologetic about its newness.”

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

The building’s street-facing elevation is rendered and decorated with timber details, corbels and fretwork, but its side walls are finished in simple face brickwork.

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

This informed the decision to extend this basic material treatment onto the external surfaces of the new addition, which provides a modern expression of the familiar Australian “box on the back” extension.

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

“We took this diminution of detail to its perverse extreme in the scheme, presenting a completely flat elevation to the garden,” the project team explained. “The box on the back grows out of the existing house and reinforces the original house’s logic in a thoroughly contemporary way.”

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

The extension accommodates a new bedroom, bathroom and laundry room at the rear of the building. A central hallway leading through the house culminates in a short set of steps up to the open-plan kitchen, dining and living area that looks out onto the garden.

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

Rather than using large panels of glass to create a connection with the garden, the architects inserted square windows of different sizes that look out towards a jacaranda tree and other aspects of the surrounding plots.

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

“This creates a ‘perforated skin’ reading of the extension, undermining its brickiness and achieving a unique and powerful connection with the outside,” they said, adding that smaller openings also help to avoid overlooking from the neighbouring buildings.

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

Further windows extend around the edges of the space to provide views to either side, while square roof lights accentuate the natural light that permeates the interior.

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects

The surfaces inside are whitewashed to brighten the space while retaining the original brickwork texture. Wooden joinery, including a freestanding kitchen island, offers a warm contrast to the white surfaces and raw concrete floor.

Photography is by Peter Bennetts.

House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects
Floor plan – click for larger image
House Boone Murray by Tribe Studio Architects
Sections – click for larger image

The post Tribe Studio Architects adds contemporary brick extension to a 1920s Sydney bungalow appeared first on Dezeen.

Motorola "Moto Surround" Bluetooth Headphones

Motorola’s Moto Surround($70) Bluetooth Headphones is wireless in-ear headphones which is designed so nothing will get in the way of your music, whether you’re working, traveling, or out and about. An ultralight, contoured collar fits your body and resists movement. It featurs  both waterproof and sweatproof, a 12-hour battery cycle. And you can play or pause a track, or skip to the next one, with dedicated buttons right on the collar.(Read…)

Swincar Spider

‘Swincar Spider’ is an  extremely electric offroad car by French company Mecanroc.”Here we are, Swincar comes to life after many years of research, reflections, testing and developments, we are now ready to share with you our Adventure … and the pleasure of this extraordinary vehicle! Swincar, this electric vehicle with exceptional field skills was developed by reinventing a tilting technology on fully mechanical bases. It will allow you to rediscover the pleasure of ridding in the mountains, in the forests, in the fields or along the beach enjoying the fresh air, the sound of the wind, of the waves or the birds without noise or air pollution.  “(Read…)

Dad Builds the World's Longest Seesaw so that he can play with His Son 730 Miles Away ( Video )

Liu Haibin, 30, is an engineer who works in Xiamen City, China.  His work takes him away from his family, which lives 730 miles away in Tengzhuo City. Two identical see-saws have been placed in both cities and are equipped with motion sensors, cameras, and display screens to make the family feel closer together.(Read…)

Key & Peele – Severed Head Warriors ( Video )

A barbarian warrior learns the finer points of playing with an opponent’s decapitated head.(Read…)