Hasta La Ideas

A Mies van der Roe Dip, an Odile Decquiri cocktail and Florence Knoll Rolls are among the recipes in a tongue-in-cheek cookbook by New York artist Esther Choi.

Choi’s Le Corbuffet book, which takes its name from 20th-century architect Le Corbusier, includes 60 dishes and drinks influenced by well-known architects, designers and artists.

Alongside the recipes dedicated to architects Mies van der Rohe and Odile Decq, and designer Florence Knoll, are baked goods named after Denise Scott Brown, a crème brûlée dedicated to Rem Koolhaas, and Korean side dishes for Shigeru Ban.

Each recipe is accompanied by text that describes the featured artist or designer and an explanation about the inspiration behind the ingredients. Choi describes them as “edible structures”.

The László Macaroni-Nagy imagines Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy, hungrily tucking into a macaroni cheese.

The Bannani Albers-Babka meanwhile is a sweet Jewish loaf with a twisted form intended to be reminiscent of the weaving found in Bauhaus designer and artist Anni Albers‘ textiles.

Other highlights include the Frida Kale-o Salad, Mario Bota Carota and Lina Bo Bacardi cocktails.

The book is designed by graphic design agency Studio Lin and published by Prestel.

It forms the cumulation of “absurd, pun-inspired dishes” that Choi began creating in 2015 – which she was prompted to start after finding an extravagant menu that Moholy-Nagy had created for Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius in 1937.

She said that she found that the elaborate dishes were incongruous with the rationing that was in place at the time.

“It prompted me to reconsider the often uncritical historical narratives ascribed to Gropius, complicated by his twofold status as a cultural icon during his lifetime, and a German immigrant in England and the United States during a time of intense xenophobia,” she said.

“Inspired by the menu for Gropius’ dinner, and the questions that it raised about the elitism and valuation of cultural production, I decided to conduct a social experiment a year later,” Choi continued.

She began hosting “Le Corbuffets” in her Brooklyn apartment in 2015 and continued the events up until 2017.

“Offering meals to an assortment of guests, these social gatherings revolved around the consumption of absurd, pun-inspired dishes that referred to canonical artists and designers,” said Choi.

While Le Corbuffet is a pun, Choi also intends the book to function as an art piece that prompts a question about the way that art and design products are consumed.

“As a commentary on the status of art, food, and design as commodities to be ‘gobbled up’ by the market, the project deliberately twisted idioms to probe the notion of ‘aesthetic consumption’ though taste and perception,” said Choi.

“I wanted to explore what it means for canons to be consumed and reproduced, but how in revisiting great figures, works, and their narratives, we might reframe and engage with historical legacies to achieve new and different outcomes.”

Other projects that have taken creative twists on food include a series of sculptural cakes that architect-turned-patisserie chef Dinara Kasko based on the three-dimensional works of artist José Margulis. Kasko also created geometric desserts.

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With a built-in microphone and 40-second sample memory, Teenage Engineering pocket-sized micro-sampler provides hours upon hours of entertainment. Craft your own beats and tunes on this portable device, which offers simple instructions on the back. There are also plenty of helpful tutorials online too.

The FoldEat’s one of those ambitious projects that really show us how backward we are when it comes to our way of life. Ditching the notion that you need to carry tupperware, cutlery, and napkins in a cloth bag and have them rattle around while you’re traveling to and from work (and then consequently worry about washing your cutlery after you’re done eating so you can carry it back with you), FoldEat’s solution is elegant, organized, and potentially game-changing. The kit comprises a roll-top bag with modular vessels and cutlery kits inside. Zip open the bag and it unfolds into a table-mat with your food at its center and the cutlery right beside it.

The way the FoldEat transforms from food-kit to a dining-set is perhaps its biggest advantage over conventional lunchboxes. All homogenously packed in a single bag that’s easy to carry around, the FoldEat is perfect for office lunches, travel lunches on a plane or train, or even an outdoor picnic. Its all-inclusive set includes main containers, side containers, cutlery, all elegantly laid out on a mat, almost like you’d expect at a restaurant. The outer cover (which doubles up as a mat) comes with a zip and clasp to secure your boxes in place. Its roll-top design allows you to add more boxes to the kit, letting you pack meals for an entire day, or even for an extra person. Embedded within the mat is also a flexible magnetic layer that keeps all your boxes and cutlery in place, allowing them to stay arranged and organized every time you open the kit out. Moreover, the outer cover which serves as a table-mat, is machine-washable and comes with the ability to attach a side-strap or a carabiner-clip to let you carry your FoldEat with you anywhere you go.

On the inside, the FoldEat is more than a simple set of containers. Designed to enable a proper dining experience, FoldEat designed its containers to be modular, allowing them to pair up and stack on top of each other, while also keeping them microwave and dishwasher-safe. There’s a separate container that’s designed just for holding liquids, with a screw-cap and thermal insulation (perfect for soups and curries), while a gel-pack allows you to keep the rest of your food piping hot too. The outer cover comes with its own thermo layer too for extra insulation. FoldEat’s inner layout adjusts itself to your intake as well as your cuisine. A snap-on cutlery set lets you dig into all sorts of food without needing to rely on flimsy disposable cutlery. The stainless steel fork, spoon, and knife allow you to eat food as you would at home or at a restaurant. The main containers come with separator panels, enabling you to segregate your food, while a set of three mini-containers let you carry smaller portions of garnishings, dips, desserts, or nuts along with you for a complete nutritional experience.

Ultimately, FoldEat upgrades the portable lunch experience by making it convenient and classy. The kit is easy to carry around anywhere you go, and opens up into an organized dining experience, rather than a cluttered picnic basket full of bits and bobs. By taking the fine-dining experience and making it portable, FoldEat does a few key things. It reduces your dependency on clunky lunchboxes that may leak inside your laptop bag, and on disposable cutlery. It encourages you to eat better, by carrying all your meals (along with its tiny accompaniments) wherever you go, and most obviously, it keeps your dining experience organized no matter where you are, whether it’s at work, on a plane, at the gym, at your hotel, or even outdoors at a picnicking site. Besides, if it means eating less takeout food and more home-cooked meals, isn’t that just a massive win?

Designer: Alex A.

Click Here to Buy Now: $59 $109 (45% off). Hurry, less than 48 hours left! Raised over $1,100,000.

FoldEat – A Modular Lunchbox That Unfolds Into an Eating Mat

With over 15 features smartly integrated, packing and eating on the go have never been easier.

Unfolds in Seconds

FoldEat is a carrying pack, but as it unfolds, it becomes a full-size eating mat giving you instant access to all the items inside.

Its unique patent-pending opening system makes it super easy to use.

It’s Modular

You can adjust FoldEat to any day to any diet plan. Pack up to four containers for a picnic or pack one container for a snack.

Carry It Anyway You Like

FoldEat has an adjustable and detachable strap so you can easily carry it anyway it suits you.

The Containers (Fullor & Liquidor)

Made out of Tritan, it’s microwave and dishwasher safe.

The Fullor is large enough to fit the equivalent of a regular plate of food. It also comes with a separator so you can easily portion your meals.

The cooling pads can be placed between compartments when you need maximum efficiency.

The Liquidor enclosure will ensure a perfect seal.

The mini containers are perfect for carrying the essential extras like salad dressing.

Click Here to Buy Now: $59 $109 (45% off). Hurry, less than 48 hours left! Raised over $1,100,000.

Foster + Partners has unveiled a proposal for Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba‘s headquarters in Shanghai that will be built within a giant grid.

Alibaba Shanghai will be manufactured off-site before being built on Xuhui Riverside, where it will overlook the Huangpu River and Pudong Central Business District.

Foster + Partners designed the Alibaba headquarters alongside a giant public space that will allow passersby to observe the retailer’s “unique working culture” from outside.

“We are delighted to be designing the new Shanghai headquarters for Alibaba, the world’s largest online retailer and e-commerce company,” said Luke Fox, head of studio at Foster + Partners.

“Our design emphasises the importance of communication, the integrity of the working community and above all, the creation of an image that reflects the standing of Alibaba,” he explained.

“The scheme is truly designed from the inside out, centred on a dynamic, sheltered public space capitalising on its amazing location with its views of the Huangpu River and the Bund.”

Foster + Partners’ design for Alibaba Shanghai will follow a modular approach, utilising off-site production in a bid to reduce waste, ensure quality control and efficient construction.

The exterior’s orderly, gridded form will be visible inside the headquarters in the building’s central public space or “urban room”.

This space will have a pixellated massing developed by Foster + Partners using a genetic algorithm – a type of algorithm often used in computer science to solve optimisation problems.

“The algorithm combines several aspects that are crucial to the project such as, being highly responsive to the environmental conditions, maximising outside views, and the specific area requirements for different functions, to create the most appropriate form,” explained Foster + Partners.

“The design optimises the massing to provide the best year-round user comfort in the central public space, protecting it from strong winter winds and the harsh summer sun, while creating tailored workspace solutions for the different departments at Alibaba.”

Once complete, the pixelated core of the building will host a series of terraces and viewing platforms, alongside the main entrances for employees.

According to Foster + Partners, this form is designed for transparency to provide the public with a “glimpse into the world of Alibaba” and employees with views outside.

The studio will develop the interiors of Alibaba Shanghai so that its desk arrangements, break-out spaces and meeting rooms all encourage collaboration and teamwork.

Natural light and external spaces will also form a key part of their design in a bid to help Alibaba employees be focused and engaged.

Founded in 1967 by Norman Foster, Foster and Partners is an architecture studio with offices worldwide and headquarters in London. Other recent proposals by the studio in China include the China Merchants Bank headquarters in Shenzhen.

Elsewhere, the studio also recently hit the headlines after it revealed visuals for the 305.3-metre-high Tulip tower in London, though plans were later axed by the capital’s mayor for offering “very limited public benefit”.

Images are courtesy of Foster + Partners.

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Samsung introduced its vision of robots as “life companions” at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show – a tiny, ball-shaped AI device that rolls around the house and responds to commands like a pet dog.

Unveiled on 6 January 2020 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Samsung’s small, yellow Ballie robot is designed to act as a personal assistant for the home.

The device uses a mobile interface, on-device artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, voice activation and an in-built camera to recognise and respond to its users, and help them with various household tasks.

It responds to spoken demands as a pet might, but can be used as a wakeup call, a fitness assistant, to record moments or to manage other smart devices in the home like TVs and vacuums.

It can also keep real pets company when owners are out of the house.

According to the company, Ballie carries out all of these tasks while adhering to strict data protection and privacy standards.

“We believe AI is the future of personalized care,” said Sebastian Seung, executive vice president and chief research scientist at Samsung Electronics.

“We see on-device AI as central to truly personalized experiences,” he continued. “On-device AI puts you in control of your information and protects your privacy, while still delivering the power of personalization.”

As Samsung president and CEO Hyunsuk Kim explained in the opening keynote at CES 2020, consumers have entered the “age of experience”, where hardware and software merge to deliver personalised experiences that make life easier and more enjoyable.

Ballie is the electronics brand’s response to this demand for more human-centric innovation, which aims to enhance the wellbeing of consumers by catering to their individual needs.

“In the age of experience, we need to re-think the space we have to accommodate our diverse and evolving lifestyles,” said Kim.

“What makes Samsung’s approach unique is the fact that we have a very clear philosophy built around human-centered innovation,” he added. “We build and create to solve problems and enhance people’s lives.”

During his CES keynote, Kim addressed the robot like a pet dog, controlling it with commands like “come here Ballie”, “good boy” and “say hi”.

The device, which is said to resemble the BB-8 droid character from the Star Wars franchise, responded with jingles and gestures.

“I love this guy. He even knows to give me a little space,” said the Samsung CEO during the speech, before proposing the idea of using the robot around his office to make sure he isn’t late to any meetings.

“Of course, Samsung’s vision is more than just a cute robot,” he added. “It’s a vision of technology as an all-round personal life companion.”

“Intelligent robots will live by your side,” Kim continued. “They know you, support you, and take care of you so you can focus on what really matters.”

Other electronics brands exhibiting at this year’s CES include Sony, which surprised visitors by showcasing a prototype of a driverless, electric concept sedan called Vision-S.

The vehicle was Sony’s way of demonstrating what its advanced electronics technologies could do to contribute to “safer and more reliable autonomous driving”.

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