Hasta La Ideas

Situated on the grounds of a former power plant, 751 D-Park has become a center for Beijing’s design scene housing interior designers, furniture showrooms and fashion firms. The area has recently been reclaimed after the rise of the neighboring 798 Arts Zone elevated the surrounding area as a destination for art-lovers.

During this inaugural Beijing Design Week, the dramatic industrial backdrop will host a range of exhibition work from local and international designers. With a mix of everything from student work to more established designers, 751 D-Park will be a hive of design-related activity with pop-up book stores, Pecha Kucha discussions and hosted talks scheduled throughout the week. Below are some highlights from the exhibitions.

751-D Park
Building A, No 4.
Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District
Beijing

“Urban Body” – Structure built out of repurposed shipping palates from the students of Tsinghua University and Ecolre Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.

Lucite Table from Zhou Qi Yue. On view at Open Studio: Beijing Design

Explorations in plastics from Song Tao (O Gallery). On view at open Studio: Beijing Design

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Taking advantage of his adopted country’s national obsession, French-born London-based designer Pierre Ospina has produced the cunning “Cricket Stool” from repurposed cricket bats; some of which stained, all of which given a colorful textile grip.

From the amount of people chilling out in the “Rest Area for the Brits” we can conclude that the stools are somewhat-functioning despite being little wider than a two-by-four. The stools are stackable to a certain degree as well and, apparently, the attached legs don’t hinder the swing of the bat too much (as Gabriel Klasmer kindly demonstrates on Pierre’s blog), so you can always burst into a spontaneous game whenever you might feel the need. You’d have to be British to understand.

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Among RCA’s many contribution to the London Design Festival this week, RCA Sustain—housed at the school itself—is a collection of student work offering insights and solutions for a world that will be forced to adapt by changes in the world’s climate.

Markus Kayser’s “Solar Sintering” stood out as a particularly pertinent future vision for industrial designers. Markus imagines a time—perhaps in the not too distant future—where manufacturing processes as we know them today become too costly and unpopular to sustain.

The concept explore this possibilities for manufacturing of basic objects, like bowls and plates, in the world’s deserts, where energy and resources are abundant. Perhaps a method could be developed, Markus hypothesis, where the suns rays can be concentrated to power a 3D printing process, creating a glass-like material from the sand.

Whether viable or not Markus’ concept offers interesting perspective on how the relationship between nature and manufacture could develop in the coming years.

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We couldn’t resist stopping by CutLaserCut to check out a small exhibition of new laser cut projects. Clearly trying to get in on the LDF’11 action to show of their skills to prospective designerly clients, the small laser cutting outfit have put on a rather impressive display in their little foyer.

These dangerous looking heels are by London-based fashion design Char Har Lee, laser cut from acrylic, stainless steel and leather.

Food design outfit Astarism have been using the services at CutLaserCut to burn exceedingly delicate patterns into food and garnish, including poppadoms and banana leaves.

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Size+Matter is something of a fixture at London Design Festival—the space outside the Royal Festival Theatre on the Southbank being given over to the likes of Zaha Hadid, Marc Newson and Paul Cocksedge in previous years, each designer having been commissioned to create a sculpture in partnership with innovative material manufacturers.

This year’s installation was created by David Chipperfield Architects, an arrangement of large glass panels apparently establishing “a dialogue between two identical forms, different in their orientation and material build-up”. The arrangement is coloured with thin copper and aluminium mesh sandwiched between layers of glass, giving the glass a translucent quality.

Unfortunately—what with the amount of pigeons flocking around central London—”Two Lines” will probably need a lot of cleaning to maintain the architects vision.

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