Hasta La Ideas

Ultra-personalized equipment born of craftsmanship and attentive design

Handmade skis—just like bespoke bike frames—came into favor over a decade ago. Respected brands all over began to make skis covered in striking graphics, one-off photography, typography and more. But Mark Wallace, who co-founded Parlor Custom Skis (located outside Boston) in 2014, says he and his partners, Pete Endres and Jason Epstein, had different priorities. They wanted to focus more on the skis’ guts than the graphics. As ex-racing pros, they tested custom skis from the USA’s west and felt they were too soft for the hard-pack snow of the Northeast and Northwest. “We wanted to make skis for all conditions,” Wallace says, because “a ski that can turn on hard-pack, if you know what you’re doing, can still ski softer snow.” Just as crucial, the team’s racing background informed what they wanted to do for each type of skier: give that individual the ideal tool for the slope, rather than make the skier adjust to the ski.

Wallace explains that even the best ski shops simply don’t have that option. More often, they ask if you prefer skis that turn easily, if you are planning to ski powder or groomers, and where you’re going to hit the slopes. From there, customers get funneled a few different directions. Less ideal again, most skis have to be made for an “average” skier, and if you don’t fit that niche age/height/strength/aggression profile, your skis might not be the best fit for you. This results in them feeling too soft or too hard, possibly chattering on firm snow, not initiating a turn if you’re lighter or too easily overpowered if you’re heavier.

To find out more about Parlor’s process, we meet with Wallace and attend one of the brand’s classes, in which customers come to build their own skis. Parlor is unique for this reason, as well, as most custom builders won’t let you participate in the bulk of the process.

On the day of our visit, Dylan Peck and Chris Martinez—who run NYC’s Alpine Construction and Landscaping and who treated themselves to custom-graphic skis from Parlor in 2016—were visiting to build their own. “Chris really wanted to do this class,” Peck tells us. “I went along for the ride, but then the lightbulb really came on.” Both Peck and Martinez teach kids racing at a ski camp at Windham Mountain in the Catskills. Peck realized he was spending every day on a race ski, but not actually racing, and decided he wanted something more playful. “Now that I’m here doing it, I understand how each individual ski has its own nuances. I not only never had a ski like that—even though, as a racer I can’t count how many skis I’ve had—I never thought about how a ski could be that customized. And I’m making this ski with my own hands.”

Wallace explains that’s precisely the goal of the classes. “It’s not productive for us to do this—it takes about twice as long to make skis this way, but we do it because the only way to prove the quality of what we’re doing is for people to literally see every ingredient that goes into what we’re making. Really, what they’re making.” Parlor still makes the bulk of its skis for customers, but there’s still a lot of guidance, calls and emails to make sure they get a set of skis that truly fits their preferences and the conditions they face most frequently.

And there’s similar guidance and care in the classes. If you’re hesitant to use power tools, one of Parlor’s pros will step in. They also take the make-or-break moments of the process out of your hands. A CNC machine custom-cuts the wood cores, and while customers are involved in every step—from attaching edges to final lay-up (when the core, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and top sheet are epoxied together and fused under a press)—the goal is really to learn about the process as it is to physically undertake the task.

“We bake all the critical math into the skis,” Wallace says of the core construction, ski shape, and edge geometry. Those factors are predetermined to fit the skier precisely. Also, the final tune is done by Parlor’s pros, not the students. “It’s one of those decisions we can make,” he explains. “We spend more time on tuning than most ski companies do on their entire build.”

Sean Campbell—who is also attending the class—is super-excited to be able to immortalize a topographical map from a part of Upstate New York where his family has had property for several generations on the top sheets of the skis he’s building. The map was tough to find. “It’s from a really rural part of the state and I was surprised how hard we had to hunt to get it,” he says. Wallace had the map sent to their house graphics artist so she could figure out how to change the scale so it would work on the tails of the skis.

Wallace notes that while it’s most important that the skis are the best pair the customer has ever carved a turn on, he enjoys hearing how wowed buyers are when they receive their skis. “This is such an important part of skiing,” he says. “This just elevates what it means to be a skier. And we get to be super-proud to share that with people.”

Images by Michael Frank

For our review of 2019, deputy editor Augusta Pownall picks out ten trends that have preoccupied the design and technology industries this year, from the circular economy to the continued rise of China and a focus on privacy.

Surveillance and privacy

Data is one of the most lucrative resources on the planet, but concern has mounted over protecting digital privacy and the damaging effects of online surveillance this year.

Winston Privacy created a hardware filter that users plug into their modem that prevents online tracking and the resulting profiling across any smart device in the house, whilst Accessories for the Paranoid generates fake online data to blur your digital profile.

CounterBug is a playful take on the theme that confuses data harvesting algorithms by giving virtual assistants conflicting information about the user, speaking about socially desirable topics and “shouting” over trigger words. Ewa Nowak’s solution – brass face-jewellery that confuses facial recognition cameras – is the most aesthetically pleasing, and can be worn in London’s King’s Cross area, which we learnt this year is using facial recognition to monitor visitors.

Meanwhile, Facebook redesigned their site to “put privacy first” and opened a privacy cafe in five locations across the UK where visitors could check their privacy settings over a cup of coffee.

Folding phones

This year a number of companies revealed phones with folding screens. Samsung revealed the Galaxy Fold in February this year, with a design that opens like a book to reveal the folding screen inside.

Huawei’s offering a few days later flipped this idea on its head, with the screen folding around the exterior of the folding phone. Microsoft unveiled the Surface Duo in October, and Motorola gave its classic Razr flip phone a revamp with a screen on both internal planes. With Samsung suffering some problems with broken folding screens, it seems the technology still has a way to go.

Climate protest

Dezeen published its first story on climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion in April this year. Our coverage has since included the modular wooden boxes used at their protests, the acquisition by the V&A of flags, pamphlets and digital files, and the group’s boycott of the Design Museum’s Designs of the Year show on account of the sponsor, insurance company Beazley.

Our fractured relationship with the natural world has also been explored in a number of high profile exhibitions around the world this year as well, including Broken Nature, the Milan Triennale exhibition curated by Paola Antonelli, who also opened our inaugural Dezeen Day conference, Nature at Cooper Hewitt in New York, 24/7 at Somerset House and Eco-Visionaries at the RA.

Circular economy

Difficult to define, but hugely important for the future of design, the circular economy was a big topic this year. Round-the-world sailor and circular-economy champion Ellen MacArthur said switching to a circular economy was “absolutely vital” and is looking to persuade 20 million designers to follow her. Adidas’s innovation team added that it was “good for business”, while designer Richard Hutten believes that companies that don’t embrace a non-linear business model will go bust.

IKEA has pledged to become a circular business by 2030, and even London’s mayor called on property developers and architects to design for a circular economy.

Examples of these ideas being put into practice included garments by made by Swedish company Re:newcell made from Circulose, a new material that uses recycled cotton clothes, and Carlo Ratti’s orange juice bar that 3D prints a cup to drink from using the fruit’s peel.

Electric-cars

Electric vehicles have been around for a while, but this year saw some unusual additions, with supercars and Harleys being unveiled. Italian auto-maker Lamborghini claims its first hybrid production car, Sián, will be its fastest motor of all time, whilst the Lotus Evija is a powerful, fully electric supercar with the lifting dihedral doors typical of such a design.

Electric cars featured heavily  at both the Shanghai and Geneva motor shows, and next year’s Olympics will see athletes move around in the autonomous, electric e-Palette vehicle by Toyota. More surprisingly, Harley Davidson, the motorbike company associated with Hells Angels and petrol-heads moved into the electric market with two bikes suitable for urban commuters.

Tesla, meanwhile, went after the American pick-up truck market with its Cybertruck, and Dyson scrapped its electric vehicle project entirely as “not commercially viable”.

Yinka Ilori and colour

It was designer Yinka Ilori‘s year. The British-Nigerian designer created The Colour Palace pavilion, which stood outside the John Soane-designed Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London. The multi-coloured structure was raised above the ground on four bright-red, stocky legs, and made the designer’s mark as the ultimate maximalist.

Ilori’s signature saturated prints also adorned a playground for adults at Cannes Lions festival in the south of France, and guided visitors around the Get Up Stand Up Now exhibition celebrating black British culture at Somerset House. Downtrodden commuters were cheered up with his eye-popping transformation of a railway bridge in London, while his work also found its way into a Yorkshire stately home.

Repurposing materials for installations

Designers have been addressing the issue of waste at fairs and exhibitions in two ways: by making installations from recycled materials and by reusing the same materials from the year before.

Matter of Stuff repurposed 5,000 wooden dowels from their 2018 installation to create a bench, sculptures and screens for this year’s LDF presentation, while the Eco-Visionaries exhibition at London’s Royal Academy reused dividing walls and boards from previous shows.

Martino Gamper’s Disco Carbonara at Coal Drops Yard in London was made with leftovers from the wood veneer industry, Paul Cocksedge’s undulating benches were made from scaffolding boards and Tarkett’s snowy mountain-scape at Stockholm Design Week was bound for display in other Nordic countries before finding its home in a school.

Fashion designers take on the home

Apparently fashion is out of fashion, as those who used to make clothes are turning their hands to designing furniture and homeware instead. Belgian fashion designer Ann Demeulemeester launched her first collection of tableware, cutlery and glasses in Paris in September. Meanwhile Rick Owens created a suitably gothic, monochrome collection of seats for Carpenters Workshop Gallery, inspired by brutalism.

Virgil Abloh launched a collection with IKEA, showed his sinking Alaska chair in Venice, and at the RA in London, and even hacked the Vitra archive to create his vision of how we might live in 2035.

Fashion designer Dion Lee worked with Australian brand DesignByThem on a collection of furniture using leather, whilst fashion house Loewe hosted Japanese basket-weaving workshops during London Craft Week. Roksanda Ilincic went one step further and designed an entire apartment at Gasholders in London’s King’s Cross.

Responses to air pollution

The ocean plastic problem is well known and continues to be a pressing issue, but this year the industry also turned its attention to air pollution.

Design studio NotAnotherOne created a personal air-quality tracker that clips on to a backpack, for city dwellers to measure the pollution in the air as they go about their day, while IKEA came up with two products that approach the problem in different ways, the Gunrid purifying curtain and an Indian collection of homeware made from straw that would otherwise be burnt.

The air-pollution crisis in Delhi meant that when Space10 opened their second outpost, in the south of the city in November, they only invited local journalists and designers to the opening weekend. Earlier in the year, however, Dezeen reported that officials in Madrid were planning to repeal the city’s low-emissions zone, as traffic jams are part of the city’s “identity”.

Made in China

For years China was accused of copying the West, but this is changing. Designer Ruohong Wu deliberately subverted the idea by using Chinese mass-production techniques to make a set of unique porcelain vessels, while Jun Jie Zhang looked to the traditional bamboo-weaving techniques used south of the Yangtze river for his irregular bamboo light shades.

Fritz Hansen chose the city of Xi’an for its largest store anywhere in the world, at the same time declaring its ambition to become the “biggest Danish brand in Asia”, and home-grown brand Stellar Works launched its latest collections as Design Shanghai rather than taking them to the Milan furniture fair.

Chinese designers took centre stage at international events such as Stockholm Furniture Fair and IDS in Toronto, where Neri&Hu were guests of honour, and at Design Biennale Saint-Étienne as well as Maison et Objet trade fair in Paris where six emerging Chinese designers, including Mario Tsai were named the talents of the future.

The post Dezeen’s top 10 design and technology trends of 2019 appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese studio Nendo has designed a fractional, boxy clock with hands that completes its square form just twice per day.

The Cubic Clock takes the form of a solid, brushed-aluminium cube that appears to sit at a slant, balanced on one of its corners, due to its sliced-off tip.

Designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of luxury watch retailer The Hour Glass, the clock aims to “blur the lines between art, design and watches”.

Two pointed clock hands are attached to one corner of the cubic body and rotate to show the time.

Rather than adding extra “unnecessary parts and materials” to the clock, the studio made the hands by removing one of the corners and slicing this off-cut in two to produce the desired shapes.

The clock only “reveals its true form” twice per day – at midday (12:00 pm) and midnight (12:00 am).

These are the times when the long and the short hands vertically align with each other, and with the cube itself, to complete the clock’s shape.

Throughout the rest of the day, the angular hands overlap one another 22 times.

According to Nendo, this configuration gives the impression “as if time is reset after completing a twelve-hour cycle”.

“For but a moment, all indication of time disappears and the mind is offered a chance to reset,” added The Hour Glass.

“The unconventional form and clever subtlety of the cubic clock embodies all the thoughtfulness, humour and refinement which defines Nendo as a design studio,” said The Hour Glass.

“It is of course an object which tells the time, but is also an object of our time whose form and aesthetic captures the very best qualities of good design today,” it added.

The Cubic Clock was designed for The Hour Glass’ anniversary exhibition, titled Then Now Beyond, which is running until 31 January 2020 at the 8,000 square-foot Malmaison by The Hour Glass emporium in Singapore.

The company collaborated with different creatives, including Snarkitecture co-founder Daniel Arsham, to “challenge our perceptions of time and blur the lines between art, design and watches”.

The clock was made as a limited edition series of 10, and is available to buy at the Then Now Beyond exhibition.

This is not the first time Nendo has created a playful take on the typical clock design. The studio previously designed three unusual variations of the traditional cuckoo clock, including one that doubles up as a bookend, and one that rests on its roof.

Back in 2017 it also launched the inaugural collection from its new 10:10 watch brand, which saw curved timepieces shaped to look like the window of an aeroplane.

Photography is by Hiroshi Iwasaki.

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Dans le cadre d’un projet de rénovation, The Syrup Room a investi dans la High Street, très populaire au Royaume-Uni, pour construire un paradis dystopique tout droit sorti d’une ville fantôme.

Un centre commercial abandonné à Bournemouth au Royaume-Uni a été repris dans le but de créer une expérience de shopping à couper le souffle. Le centre commercial venant d’être recréé servira à la fois de lieu de commercialisation et de moyen d’attirer notre attention sur la réduction de notre empreinte carbone.

Snøhetta and WERK Arkitekter have released visuals of a community centre for water sports on the coast of Esbjerg, Denmark, which will be made from wood.

Named Lanternen, the circular facility is designed by Snøhetta and WERK Arkitekter to evoke “the geometry and craftmanship of boats” in a bid to set it apart from other buildings in the seaport town.

Set for completion in 2021, the building will accommodate multiple water sports clubs, boat storage, training facilities, a large workshop and social spaces.

“The design developed together with the Danish architecture firm, WERK Arkitekter, pays homage to the maritime tradition,” said Snøhetta.

“The purpose of the design is to develop a building that creates its own unique urban space which stands out from the city behind it.”

Lanternen was the winning entry of a competition for the facility, and was chosen by the jury for its ambition to “support the community” and combine “innovative architecture with high functionality”.

Once complete, it is hoped to enhance Esbjerg’s connection to the sea, and become a community hub for maritime enthusiasts and the wider community.

Its form was designed by Snøhetta and WERK Arkitekter to be open and inclusive, and will allow visitors to enter from “every angle”.

This feeling of openness will be enhanced by large windows placed all around its exterior that look out over the ocean.

The windows are also intended to illuminate the building at night so that it resembles a lantern or lighthouse. This informed the projects’ named, Lanternen, which is Danish for “the lantern”.

“Like a lighthouse, the maritime centre has to face the sea and literally light up. Lanternen will be a new landmark for the Port of Esbjerg,” said WERK Arkitekter.

One side of the maritime centre will be punctured by a large staircase that leads up onto a terrace on the first floor.

Sheltered by the building’s circular form, this terrace will form the heart of Lanternen and provide a common space for visitors using the training facilities and the clubrooms positioned around its perimeter.

A second key area, referred to as the studios as “the hall”, will be held ground floor. The hall will host the building’s more practical facilities including a workshop and storage spaces.

It will lead out to the water edge through a large opening in the facade to allow visitors to carry out small boats and canoes, and will be lit by two large voids that puncture the terrace above.

“Our vision is to create a building where the rational and the poetic meet in a symbiosis,” concluded Thomas Kock, creative director at WERK Arkitekter.

“A symbiosis between the movements of the sea, the migration of light and the low-key and everyday. A symbiosis between spatial experiences and practicality. A symbiosis between the fine and the raw, the social and the sporting.”

Founded in 2989 by Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and Craig Dykers, Snøhetta is an architecture practice with studios in Oslo and New York.

Other waterside buildings designed by the studio include an office that produces twice the amount of energy it uses and Europe’s first underwater restaurant, which was shortlisted in the Interior design category for the Dezeen Awards 2019.

Visuals are by MIR.

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