Hasta La Ideas

From ethical Swiss design studio Nature Squared’s new chief innovator, Elaine Yan Ling Ng, the CArrelé tile series is composed of organic white eggshells discarded in industrial kitchens and then collected by craftspeople on the Philippine island of Cebu (where the brand maintains a factory). The shells are cleaned, crushed, cured and then combined with natural dyes. They’re ultimately cut into beautiful design-forward tiles. Ultimately, it was Nature Squared’s intention to divert the eggshells from landfills, where their decomposition contributes to climate change. Read more at the material, and the brand at Fast Company.

Image courtesy of Nature Squared

With its oddly rustic design aesthetic, Sebastian Cox’s Mycelium pendant lamps aren’t made… they’re grown.

Mycelium, or the vegetative part of a mushroom, has found itself in the limelight for being a cheap, sustainable, and vegan alternative to suede and leather. If treated correctly, it looks and feels just like leather, offering a cruelty-free and biodegradable alternative that doesn’t have as much of a carbon footprint either. Teaming up with researcher Ninela Ivanova, British designer Sebastian Cox’s “Mycelium + Timber” examines the viability of mycelium as a potential material in commercial furniture design. The mycelium fibers are bound to scrap strips of willow wood, which provides the base and fodder for the fungus to grow. The result is the absolute antithesis of mass production. Designed in part by nature, each lamp is unique, has its own aesthetic, and is beautiful in its imperfections.

The lamps take anywhere between 4-12 weeks to ‘grow’. The scrap willow wood is first sourced from Cox’s own woodland, and cut into fine strips before being woven into shape and placed inside a mold. The mold is then filled with a fungus called fomes fomentarius, which was cultivated using more scrap strips of wood. Inside the mold, the mycelium and wood fuse together, creating a unique type of composite material. “In our workshop, we don’t use composite wood materials because I’ve never been quite satisfied with the binding agent holding the wood together,” Cox said in an interview with Dezeen. “As a result, I’ve always had a kind of fantasy interest in ‘reinventing’ a type of MDF and finding new ways to bind wood fibers into either sheets or mounded forms, ideally without glue.” The resulting lamp is removed from the mold when it’s fully grown and is supplied with 2.5m of oatmeal round fabric braided cable. The entire Mycelium lamp is sustainably produced and entirely compostable.

“It’s not just about the fungus, it’s about the marriage of the two materials,” adds Ninela Ivanova, a researcher who collaborated with Cox over this project. “These two materials have a natural relationship in the woodland, so let’s see how we can exploit that.” The duo plan to continue their collaboration and are working on releasing a full collection of mycelium and wood composite products in the near future.

Designer: Sebastian Cox with Ninela Ivanova

Dezeen promotion: Parisian galleries, showrooms and boutiques will open their doors for Paris Design Week from 9-18 September.

The 10-day event will host exhibitions, workshops and discussions surrounding a range of design disciplines, including fashion, homeware and interiors.

This year the event has adopted the same theme as the biannual Parisian interior design show Maison & Objet – “desirable development”.

The show will aim to explore objects that represent designers’ visions of what makes a desirable lifestyle in light of the changes the coronavirus pandemic has brought.

Although Maison & Objet was a digital event in 2020, it will return physically this year from 9-13 September, and like Paris Design Week which was an in-person event in 2020, it will exhibit previously unseen collections from across the globe.

“Rising talents and iconic design brands, young graduates and museum institutions, freshly launched design houses, artisans and designer-makers with inspired and inspiring hands will all flock to Paris to invent and showcase their vision of a desirable lifestyle,” said the organisers.

“A lifestyle that is in harmony with nature, that leverages technology to bring people together – sometimes virtually – whilst drawing on traditional expertise that is handed down from generation to generation, bearing witness to the passing of time.”

The event will be hosted across 300 venues in Paris. One of which is the Hotel de Coulanges which will host an exhibition called Frugal that intends to address the design challenges the world is facing in relation to the climate crisis.

The exhibition will include pieces from over 40 designers who have experimented with recyclable and low energy materials, including seaweed, fungi and shells.

This includes Samy Rio, professor and researcher at the recently opened Luma Arles arts centre in southern France, who has made a series of minimalist vases from clay and a bamboo lamp.

“It is an exhibition that invites us to rethink our approach to beauty, encouraging us to look for it in a frugal and sustainable way,” said the organisers.

The Paris Design Week Factory, a flagship event for young international designers in partnership with Galerie Joseph, will run throughout the week.

Here recent graduates will present their prototypes and the event intends to help them kick start their careers.

Also displayed in Galerie Joseph will be an ideas laboratory and new materials experimentation hub where visitors can learn about emerging materials, methods and designs.

From 13-15 September Campus des, Métiers d’Art et du Design will exhibit the work of eight design schools in an exhibition called Vivement Demain. The students’ work tackles the challenges of today and the future, including how to manufacture sustainable products.

“Today’s ecological issues have left us all with no choice but to think about manufacturing things differently,” said the organisers. “Disposable goods, polluting products and unsustainable manufacturing processes must all make way for more responsible solutions.”

“It is an exhibition that places the decorative arts resolutely centre stage, with projects demonstrating a combination of innovation, audacity and a keen eye for detail, spearheaded by young up-and-coming designers who are in tune with modern times and keen to address the challenges of the future.”

Also included throughout Paris Design Week will be designer Pierre Gonalons’ contemporary furniture, which will be exhibited at the Sully Hotel, home to France’s Centre of National Monuments. Here visitors can see Gonalons’ contemporary chairs and furniture interact with the historic architecture.

“Pierre Gonalons in collaboration with Craman Lagarde, Carrésol, Duvivier and Les Emaux de Longwy, will be installed in such a way as to cleverly interact with the majestic XVIIth-century Parisian architecture,” said the organisers.

Installations including Jardin Secret by light sculpture studio Art et Floritude will also be in place during the week. Exhibited in a former Parisian paint factory the piece is a light sculpture referencing plant’s structure and form.

“In a nod to the grape harvest season – the iconic vines ramble across the walls and ceilings, intertwining with some brand-new creations,” said the organisers.

“A celebration of metal lacework, handcrafted sheet by sheet, and adorned with porcelain flowers whose transparency is revealed by the light.”

Throughout the week visitors can also see Jamy Yang’s luscious rugs with marble patterns designed to explore hyperspace and relativity. Yang’s carpets are distorted and made via hand-tufting techniques.

Visitors can also visit Empreintes, a concept store showcasing French designers’ tableware, jewellery and sculptures made using traditional crafts. This takes place at 5 rue de Picardie, Paris 3.

More information about Paris Design Week is on its website.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Paris Design Week as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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British designer Thomas Heatherwick has met with the UK government to discuss commemorating those who have died during the coronavirus pandemic.

Records of the UK government’s recent ministerial meetings show that the designer met Cabinet Office minister Chloe Smith in March this year at a meeting described as: “To discuss COVID-19 commemoration”.

The meeting was an “informal discussion” on how best to commemorate the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Cabinet Office.

“Whilst the Government’s immediate focus is on protecting the lives and livelihoods of the nation, there is nonetheless the need to mourn those who have died during the Covid pandemic, and to mark and remember this period as one of immense struggle,” the Cabinet Office told Dezeen.

“The meeting was an informal discussion of general ideas around how the nation could remember those who have lost their lives and recognise those involved in the unprecedented pandemic response.”

“No decisions have been made”

However, the Cabinet Office made it clear that Heatherwick, who is the head of London-based Heatherwick Studio, had not been selected to design any memorial that may be built.

“It was not specifically about a memorial and no decisions have been made,” it continued.

On May 12, British prime minister Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that he would “establish a UK Commission on Covid Commemoration”.

“I also know that communities across our whole country will want to find ways of commemorating what we have all been through,” he said.

“This national endeavour – above party politics – will remember the loved ones we have lost.”

The commission will set out the terms of reference along with a timeline for the planned commemoration.

Heatherwick designed Olympic cauldron and bus while Johnson mayor

Heatherwick has previously worked with Johnson on a number of high profile commissions while he was mayor of London including a cauldron made from copper petals for the 2012 Olympic Games.

In 2011, he redesigned the iconic London Routemaster bus in collaboration with bus manufacturer The Wright Group.

Johnson also supported Heatherwick’s Garden Bridge, a plant-filled pedestrian bridge that crosses the River Thames. The controversial project was scrapped in 2017 after the subsequent mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, withdrew his support for the plans. Spiralling construction costs and fears surrounding the potential upkeep costs were cited as reasons for his withdrawal.

In countries around the world, architects and designers are planning Covid memorials to honour the lives lost to the pandemic. In Milan, Italian architect Angelo Renna proposed to plant 35,000 cypress trees in San Siro stadium to turn it into a public memorial for victims.

Elsewhere in Uruguay, Latin American architecture firm Gómez Platero designed a circular monument to remember coronavirus victims.

The post Thomas Heatherwick in discussions with UK government over Covid-19 memorial appeared first on Dezeen.

This video shows the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cauldron designed by Japanese studio Nendo opening up to reveal the hydrogen-powered Olympic flame.

Designed by Nendo founder Oki Sato to evoke a sun, the spherical cauldron was the centrepiece of the games’ opening ceremony, which took place last Friday in the Kengo Kuma-designed Tokyo National Stadium.

The video shows the aluminium segments of the spherical cauldron unfurling before the Olympic flame is lit.

The flame is powered by hydrogen, which burns without producing greenhouse gas emissions. This is the first time that this fuel was used for the Olympic flame instead of propane.

Read more about the 2020 Olympic cauldron ›

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