Hasta La Ideas

Australian architect Matt Gibson has created a multi-generational home from a stack of zinc-clad boxes on a narrow infill site in Melbourne.

According to the architect multi-generational living, which is becoming increasingly prevalent in Australia, lent itself to the thin site on Wellington Street.

The irregularly stacked boxes that form the house allow it to be segmented vertically to cater to different generations of the family.

With a residential street to the north and a busy freeway to the south, Gibson sought to maximise a connection with sunlight and the outdoors while minimising any acoustic disruption or overlooking.

The stepped arrangement of boxes on the southern facade responds to the neighbour’s views and lighting requirements.

Due to the zoning regulations of the site, Gibson was required to create a building that would be used for business purposes on at least one level.

So the house on Wellington Street has a commercial space at ground level with four floors of residential arranged above.

The commercial unit sits alongside a shared garage. Separate entrances to the shared garage and commercial unit are designed to generate a greater connection with the street to the north.

A strip of existing redbrick wall alongside the building has been retained, creating a slim alleyway leading to a stair up to the first floor residential areas.

The first to third storeys have three clearly defined zones. The communal spaces such as the living and dining room, the private bedroom spaces, and finally the “retreat” spaces are all arranged inside different boxes.

Roof terraces on the second and third floor provide outdoor places to relax with views over the city.

An atrium at the centre of the plan brings light into all of the living spaces, and gives a visual connection between the house’s levels.

It doubles as a cooling stack for ventilation, and mechanical shades have been installed above this atrium so protect it when the sun is at its highest during summer

Matt Gibson founded his practice in 2003. Previous projects include a house extension in Melbourne featuring a woven steel-mesh curtain, and a concrete and stone home in Melbourne’s suburbs inspired by Brazilian Modernism.

Photography is courtesy of Matt Gibson.

The post Stacked zinc boxes form multi-generational house in Melbourne appeared first on Dezeen.

This Lexus Design Award winning clock goes to show that sometimes the solution to a problem can be just oh-so-simple. Ditching the idea that you need to have multiple clocks to tell the time in different time zones, Masafumi Ishikawa’s World Clock is just ridiculously simple. The clock comes with a dodecagonal (12-sided) form, and just an hour hand. Each face of the dodecagon has the name of a famous city, corresponding to a time zone, on it. Just face the city’s name up and the hour hand tells you what time it is there (you’d probably have to use your common sense to tell if it’s am or pm). The only catch is that the World Clock doesn’t work with daylight-saving time, given that not all countries follow the practice of turning their clocks back and forth.

As the hour hand rotates on an axis, the world clock’s form was designed to be rotated and placed on a surface. Change what face it rests on, and the hour hand points somewhere else. Ishikawa uses this rather simple fact to turn a regular clock into a world clock! Give it a try, you can turn your table clocks into world clocks too!

Designer: Masafumi Ishikawa

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Click Here to Buy Now

Welcome to the second leg of the Core77 Design-Athlon, where designers flex their design-y muscles! Play along by taking the following brief and mocking up your ideas. The emphasis here is on exploration and problem-solving – translating concepts into physical form, ideally at a 1:1 scale where all the context of real-world use can inform the process.

Our first #c77prototyping challenge is “A Lunch Box for Adults” here is the Brief:

Budget. Diet. Schedule. An adult lunch is defined by restrictions – either embrace or escape these realities of a modern work lunch through physical ideation and iteration. Maquette, prototype, sketch-model, or buck – we are looking for quick form & use exploration of a lunch box. Choose a scenario and ideate quickly, work through it with your hands and eyes, build quickly, find a rhythm and let the process guide you to a resolution. It is not about the destination; this is the journey at the heart of design – take a pic to document your path and post it!

For our prototyping leg of the competition we have special guest-star judge Julie Arrivé of Map to help us pick winners!

Prototyping is how a concept meets the real world and with the Design-Athlon it serves as a bridge between the first leg, sketching, and the final and upcoming leg, rendering. We’d like to slow the pace down here – each challenge is (approximately) 2 weeks long.

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How To Enter

1. Follow us on Instagram

2. Explore the concept of “A Lunch Box for Adults” via prototyping and take a picture of your process

3. Post your picture to Instagram, posting must tag us, @core77, and include the hashtags #c77prototyping, #c77challenge

Good luck!

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Rules

• The contest ends Friday, July 19th – 11:59PM – EDT . Winner and runner-ups will be announced within 30 days of close.

• Multiple entries are permitted but a participant can not have more than one winning entry per challenge.

• Winning entries will be selected by a panel of design professional(s) and Core77 staff based on skill, presentation and ideas.

• The contest is hosted by Core77 and there are no eligibility restrictions.

• This contest is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.

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To learn more about our entire Summer-long design skill series, check out our announcement of the Core77 Design-Athlon.

Greenery pic by Dose Juice

In a newly converted micro-factory in Zurich, Freitag is “extending production chains all the way to its storefront.” For the first time, truck tarp bag aficionados can fully design and finish their own version of the exclusive F718 BUH model at Freitag’s newly opened Sweat-Yourself-Shop. The cheeky news release says the process will appeal to “people who like doing things for themselves, are better than the rest, and are factory fetishists with and without taste as well as all other Do-it-Yourselfies.” But don’t worry—there will be minimal sweating involved.

Visitors will first pick out a front, backside, bottom, and handles for their bag. Then, they’ll chose a bold-patterned piece of tarp cut-off brought in from Freitag’s official factory, which will be shaped into the bag’s external pouch (this particular model also comes with a key holder). “The sheer amount of color choices for tarp pieces that go into the F718 BUH shopper will probably have our part-time bag makers perspiring more heavily than the production work itself,” Freitag says.

Using a plexiglass template, visitors/”part-time bag makers” cut the piece to size and round it off with a punching machine. Next, there’s the requisite CI-compliant brand logo that everyone will have to weld onto the fabric, the last step before handing the soon-to-be-ready bag to an experienced team who will finish off the necessary sewing and riveting while you enjoy a complimentary drink for your efforts.

The whole process takes about one and a half hours per person, and there’s a two-person maximum per “shift.” If you’re ready to sign up for a production shift, check out the availabilities and more details here.

You could add a self-driving module or a biometric lock on a travel suitcase and call it innovation, but is that honestly a better designed suitcase? Yes, it has more features, but it isn’t an improvement on the existing problems, now is it? The G-RO SIX Carry-on is what you get when you design a radically better travel-case, not by feature-adding, but by problem-solving. The G-RO SIX has a better, more spacious design, features a handle that’s angled for better navigation, and six wheels designed to let you push your suitcase (yes, not pull, push) for longer distances without the wrist-pain, and even down the stairs without having to lift your heavy bags. The G-RO SIX isn’t a better suitcase because you can unlock it with an app, or you can charge your phone with its in-built power bank. The G-RO SIX is a better suitcase because it categorically solves the real problems we’ve been having with suitcases for decades now… not through a tech intervention, but through good design and great engineering.

The G-RO SIX is a radical improvement on the hard-shell bags we’ve been seeing and using all this while. Its design is punctuated by a strip running diagonally across the side, forming the SIX’s angular handle. Rather than have vertical handles like most suitcases, the G-RO SIX’s 66° angled telescopic handle was optimized for easy traveling. Taking on a detail found in pushcarts and prams, the handle eases wrist and shoulder fatigue by allowing you to easily push instead of pull your luggage. You’re much more in control, with the bag in front of you, and the G-RO SIX’s wheels allow you to easily maneuver the bag wherever you go.

The wheels on the G-RO SIX are redesigned for better navigation too. With two larger hubless rear wheels for easier, ergonomic pushing, and four swiveling custom-designed durable castor-wheels on the front for better navigation, the G-RO SIX requires lesser effort to maneuver around large airports and cities. The larger wheels are even designed to overcome terrain as well as push down a flight of stairs, making it easier to roam around with your luggage on any sort of terrain, be it flat surfaces, carpeted floors, roads, or even cobblestone. The wheels also come with an optimized ground-clearance, giving you as much as 10% more space along with better mobility.

These crucial innovations result in a bag that, aside from being better, looks different too. The diagonal handle running across the bag is its signature element, and comes with its share of well-engineered details that make the bag a class apart and very difficult to counterfeit. The handle comes with a rotating grip and a recessed button to activate its telescopic extensions, which come made from magnesium, making them lightweight but incredibly durable. The handle design also splits right through the middle when you open the bag… a detail engineered to perfection to make sure it stands the test of extreme usage over years of traveling. Meanwhile, a TSA-approved lock sits on the front, giving the bag its security. All these details sit recessed into the bag’s expanded design, which gives unto 10% extra storage space on the inside, while fitting the dimensions of a regular carry-on case on the outside. G-RO even went the distance to give the bag a perfectly flat top, making it ideal for resting other bags or even using as a makeshift laptop-resting table while you’re waiting for your flight.

G-RO’s design process involves paying attention to the common travel suitcase’s real, physical setbacks. It solves real problems through real design thinking, giving you a no-nonsense travel luggage-case that’s more spacious, more durable, just as secure, and easier to travel with. The SIX combines a PolyCarbonate hard shell, Aluminum chassis, Magnesium handles, Aluminum hinges, and durable PolyUrethane-lined silent-wheels to make every frequent-traveler’s dreams come true… all with a lifetime warranty!

Designer: Netta Dor Shalgi

Click Here to Buy Now: $345 $495 (30% off). Hurry, Only 6/635 Left! Raised over $935,000.

The SIX: Carry-on Luggage You Effortlessly Push Forward

The Spinner Re-imagined: A durable pushed bag with all-terrain wheels, increased volume, and advanced ergonomics for an effortless ride. This is G-RO’s sixth product, with six wheels and a handle tilted at 66 degrees. Thus, the team decided to name it “the SIX.”

The Push Configuration

After years of multidisciplinary research and hundreds of thousands of miles of travel, G-RO developed the concept of ‘push’ luggage. With the new push configuration, the user’s body weight acts as a counterbalance, requiring zero additional energy to roll the bag. It makes maneuvering through crowded places, and navigating through narrow airplane aisles, as easy as pushing a baby stroller.

Features & Components

Push Forward – Changing the Rules of the Game

The SIX bag was created for effortless travel. The SIX was designed to always be pushed forward, virtually eliminating all the effort required when using traditional luggage. When we lug or roll other bags, we use muscle groups we don’t activate regularly. This can create major pain and discomfort. Pushing forward concentrates the entire activity on the main muscle groups we already use on a daily basis. As a result of this design, the SIX is the healthiest travel bag ever created. All travel-related pain – in the wrists, arms, shoulders, neck, elbow, and back – is eliminated. It makes travel truly effortless.

Forming a Perfect Rectangle

The SIX utilizes every cubic millimeter of the 22”X14”X9” dimensions for packing space or the components of the bag. Even when overpacking, the bag will compress your belongings to the allowed size and will always fit in the sizer and the overhead bin – no surprises when you arrive for your flight!

Superior Maneuverability

The SIX will roll and maneuver on many different terrains and surfaces without ever needing to pick it up and carry it. If the terrain is a bit rough, simply apply a small amount of pressure on the handle (extend the main handle all the way up for improved leverage) to lift the spinners from the ground, and the bag will roll on its back axle-less wheels to smoothly conquer any terrain.

Super Spacious

The SIX is a super spacious bag. By recessing all of the components into the polycarbonate shell, lowering the bottom and lifting the top, we optimized the internal volume for a carry-on. We kept the internal compartmentalization simple and clean to reduce the weight and the complications of packing. The SIX offers 38L of pure packing volume.

Superior Rolling

Since their first project, G-RO has been recognized for its large-diameter, axle-less wheels (which never break and come with a lifetime warranty). They have developed world-class expertise in the field of luggage wheels. They have now taken that expertise to the next level and have conquered the spinner wheel.

Each of the wheels has passed rigorous testing, which simulates real-life abuse. Specifically for this bag, G-RO developed durable full-bearing wheels, complete with lightweight and silent polyurethane tires for unmatched rolling. The combination of two of our signature GravityRoll wheels in the back and two of their new, custom G-RO spinner wheels in the front creates a bag that rolls like nothing on the market.

Advanced Handles

G-RO angled the main handle at precisely 66 degrees for effortless steering. This handle is made of magnesium tubes and coated with a protective layer of oven-cured paint for lightness, structural strength, and durability. The SIX’s main handle features a unique mechanism that splits the handle in half, with a special lock to make sure it’s firmly locked when in use, and a patent-pending “throttle grip” for extension.

G-RO used 2 single-tube profiles for this bag, due to its special function and configuration, and used magnesium instead of aluminum to reduce the weight. All handles are recessed in the shell for impact protection and increased durability. The main handle is recessed at the corners into a special casing that protects the handle from impact.

This revolutionary handle has passed a wide range tests, and meets or exceeds industry standards for strength, functionality, and durability.

A Completely Flat Top

During long wait times spent sitting at the gate, in the food court, in a busy lounge, or on public transportation, you could always use a little personal space. The only physical item that you carry with along is your bag. For that reason, G-RO created the SIX with a completely flat top so it can be utilized for your needs, even if just to place a cup of coffee, a laptop, or put your feet up for a few minutes. You will be surprised how useful this feature is once you start using it.

Tough and Durable

The SIX has been tested and passed a series of aggressive tests that simulate both real-world and extreme scenarios. G-RO dis this in order to make sure the bag they deliver to you will endure and last.

The SIX and TSA

The SIX is equipped with a TSA-compliant lock – with one slide of the lever, the bag’s aluminum channel is locked in two locations. To open the SIX, you first open the lock on the handle and then slide the main lock upwards to unlock it. To lock it, you will lock the bag first, making sure none of the contents are trapped in the aluminum channel, and then lock the main handle sections together.

The G-RO Way & Their R&D Process:

Architecture: the “pillar” of the design. This includes all the detail about what the product will do, how it will function, what features it will include, and what the product will accomplish for the user.

Mechanics: after we know what we want to build and we’ve laid out the frame, we begin to execute it and decide on the materials, how things are going to perform, and how everything will work mechanically. This is where many considerations come into play, such as manufacturing and logistics capability.

Cosmetics: the cosmetic decisions complete the process and include all of the aesthetic and branding decisions that do not affect the performance of the product. This includes commercial aspects such as color (outside and inside), textures of the lining and exterior, density of the mesh, and zippers that are not structural, as well as identifying and addressing potential concerns like scratching or fading.

As the G-RO team go through each step, factors inevitably arise and affect the previous steps. For example, they might find that a certain feature they planned to include in the architecture was not mechanically possible to implement. At that point, they would revisit the previous step and find the best way to update their plans and move forward.

Click Here to Buy Now: $345 $495 (30% off). Hurry, Only 6/635 Left! Raised over $935,000.