Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: Eindhoven designer Miriam van der Lubbe takes us around the fair she co-founded, claiming: “What is visible in Milan in two years, you can see at Dutch Design Week now.”

This year’s Dutch Design Week, the 12th edition of the show, was attended by an estimated 250,000 visitors, more than the entire population of the city of Eindhoven where it takes place.

Van der Lubbe, who co-founded the event, remembers its much more humble beginnings when she was “happy with 5,000” visitors.

She reveals the first Dutch Design Week was borne out of a frustration among local designers over the lack of a proper platform to present their work.

“Why do we always have to go to Milan to show our work, as if you are only something in design if you are there?” she asks. “In Holland there was nothing, so let’s see if we can actually pull something off here.”

Van der Lubbe believes that the pro-active spirit of Eindhoven-based designers helped Dutch Design Week quickly get off the ground and grow into the event that it is today.

“There were all kinds of initiatives going on,” she says. “There’s a good urban culture here; people are actually doing stuff instead of talking, which is a big difference, and it grew up to be this huge event.”

The first area van der Lubbe takes us to is Strijp, a former Philips industrial complex that is now one of the central areas of Dutch Design Week.

“The Klokgebouw, one of the old industrial buildings, is the starting point of Dutch Design Week,” van der Lubbe says. “This week there are about 400 events of almost 2,000 designers.”

She then takes us to the graduation show at Design Academy Eindhoven, the school where most of Eindhoven’s designers, including van der Lubbe herself, received their education.

Van der Lubbe says that current graduates do not benefit from the same economic support that she enjoyed when she graduated.

“The government was very much aware of the importance of creative people,” she says. “There were a lot of funds and we did not have to earn our money from day one.”

“But when the [economic] crisis came in, that all changed. I think it is now the obligation of companies to create opportunities for creative people to grow. I think that is also the role of Dutch Design Week, to be between culture and the money.”

Next, van der Lubbe takes us to Sectie C, a new design district where young designers including Nacho Carbonell open their studios up to the public. We then head to Eat Drink Design at Kazerne, a gallery and restaurant housed in a former army barracks.

“[Dutch Design Week] is really different from all the design weeks in the world because it comes out of the designers themselves,” says van der Lubbe. “They open up their doors, you’re welcome in their studios or in their workspaces. You actually can feel the vibe of innovation and of new developments.”

“Martijn Paulen, the new director of Dutch Design Week, said: ‘what is visible in Milan in two years, you can see that here now.'”

We drove around Eindhoven in our MINI Cooper S Paceman. The music in the movie is a track called Family Music by Eindhoven-based hip hop producer Y’Skid.

You can listen to more music by Y’Skid on Dezeen Music Project and watch more of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour movies here.

The post Dutch Design Week presents trends
“two years ahead of Milan” appeared first on Dezeen.

A capsule that will float passengers to the edge of space and offer views of the Earth’s curvature has been designed by British studio Priestmangoode (+ movie).

Developed for the World View programme set up by US space development corporation Paragon, Priestmangoode‘s lightweight pressurised vessel will be lifted by a helium balloon to take six passengers and two crew members to the periphery of the atmosphere.

“When you think about going near the edge of space,” Priestmangoode director Nigel Goode told Dezeen, “you think of some sort of Star Wars-type craft, something which has direction and speed but obviously this is very, very different. It would look very odd to have a craft stuck at the bottom of a balloon so the shape was really designed for strength and for maximum visibility for the people on board.”

The journey to the edge of space will take around an hour and a half, then the vehicle will spend from two to six hours at the 30-kilometre altitude so passengers can take in the views of the Earth below, the curve of its surface and the blackness of space beyond.

The World View concept aims to create a luxury voyage instead of a thrill ride. Space suits won’t be needed in the pressurised cabin, which will provide a breathable atmosphere.

“You can travel up there, spend a bit of time in the capsule moving around at that altitude and be able to enjoy the leisurely experience,” said Goode.

Large circular windows on each of the four sides are divided into segments to reduce the pressure on the surfaces. A small transparent dome will also allow views out into space above.

Attached to the pod by suspension cables, the polyethylene helium balloon used for propulsion will expand as the helium density decreases while it rises to its target altitude.

A steerable parafoil will control the 20 to 40-minute descent before the capsule lands intact on the ground using deployable landing gear.

The vertical take-off greatly decreases the amount of infrastructure needed to launch, compared to the Virgin Galactic craft that take-off using a runway, and the vehicle can be transported on a specially designed trailer that doubles as a platform for liftoff.

This means that capsules could depart from any location around the world that has clear, dry weather, and the initial flights will leave. “I think it will open up space travel for an awful lot of people,” said Goode.

A World View trip is estimated to cost $75,000 (£47,000) per person, less than a third of Virgin Galactic’s $250,000 (£156,000) price tag.

Goode told us that project is not just for tourism, but can also be used for scientific research: “There are lots of opportunities on the craft to conduct experiments. We’ve got measuring equipment and things like that so other scientific research can be done as well.”

The next step is to design the interior, which Goode envisages to be arranged so two people will face each window.

After testing and approval, the first flights are planned to take place in three years time.

Goode also told us that his company has been working with Paragon on a vessel to send a two-person crew on a 501-day flight around Mars and back.

Here’s more information about the Journey to Space project from Priestmangoode:

Priestmangoode designs journey to the edge of space

Priestmangoode, the leading global travel and transport design consultancy, is delighted to be working with the Paragon Space Development Corporation on their World View project to take passengers on balloon flights to the edge of the Earth. The London and China based studio has designed a concept capsule, which will take passengers to the edge of space where they will be able to observe the curvature of the Earth.

Nigel Goode, director at Priestmangoode says: “This is a dream project to work on. It’s incredibly exciting to be part of this nascent industry. Inspired by our work designing luxury aircraft interiors, our design vision focuses on enhancing comfort onboard the capsule to create a truly transformative human experience.”

Goode continues: “We have been working closely with Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum, who founded the Paragon Space Development Corporation. They are both at the forefront of aerospace technology and brought us in for our expertise designing luxury travel experiences. It’s been an inspiring process to combine our different skills to define the experience of premium space travel.”

World View plans the flights of the capsule, which can carry eight people, to over 30 kilometres (98,425 feet) by means of a helium balloon. The ascent will take between one and a half to two hours. The capsule will then spend between two and six hours at the intended altitude of 30 kilometres, before returning to Earth over the course of 20-40 minutes.

The extended length of time spent in space was a significant driver for the design of the vessel. As Goode explains: “The idea of space travel naturally brings to mind traditional rocket ships and the aerodynamic forms they command.

“However, the World View experience is not about speed, it’s about enjoying a once in a lifetime journey. Our unique advantage is that our body of work over the last 25 years, from product design to aircraft interiors and hotels, means we always design with the user at the heart. We didn’t just want to design a vessel, we wanted to define what commercial space travel could be. We wanted to create a stylish, elegant, luxurious environment for this unique experience. It was all about finding the right balance between form and function.”

The capsule’s sturdy form was designed to enhance passenger safety. The key design features are the large panoramic windows constructed from an array of small high pressure units. Goode continues” “It was crucial to find a way to maximise the viewing windows. In our initial design meetings with the World View team, they talked about wanting to start the journey before dawn, so that as passengers rose up to space, they would be able to observe the sunrise, the curvature of the Earth, the thin blue atmosphere and the blackness of space. The windows we designed offer the maximum amount of viewing space for passengers, whilst meeting stringent safety requirements. There is also a cupola viewing dome for unrestricted view of the Earth’s curvature.”

Other features include a lightweight structure, permanently deployed parafoil to maximise safety, science capsule attached to the top of the exterior for potential scientific data readings, deployable landing gear (skids), a reserve parachute for safety and a unique trailer unit for ground transportation and launching platform.

Earlier this year, Priestmangoode visualised another project for the Paragon Space Development Corporation. Inspiration Mars will see a two-person crew travel on a unique orbital journey to Mars and back to Earth in only 501 days. The historic journey will see the two passengers fly within 100 miles around the Red Planet and return to Earth safely.

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by Priestmangoode appeared first on Dezeen.

Movie: in this exclusive interview Spanish artist and designer Jaime Hayon discusses the design of his first watch collection, which is available to buy now at Dezeen Watch Store.

Orolog is a new watch brand created by Hayon and his business partner Ian Lowe.

The OC1 series, the brand’s first collection, is a chronograph timepiece featuring a square stainless steel case and leather strap.

“The idea of the watch is very simple,” says Hayon. “I wanted to do a very compact case that has details of different influences that I thought were nice to put together.”

“It’s a little bit of a new classic, that’s the idea I had from the beginning.”

The OC1 series comes in five colourways, including a green and blue version among more traditional colours such as brown, black and white. Each colour is available in a limited-edition run of 999 pieces.

“I thought about a mixture of colours and combinations that could be classic as well as some that could be sporty or some that are more, let’s say, shocking,” says Hayon. “The pieces are going to be limited, they’re pretty exclusive.”

Orolog features a number of subtle details. The face of the watch has a distinctive quilted texture, while the glass that encases it is slightly curved.

Each watch is made in Switzerland and features a robust Ronda quartz chronograph movement inside.

“There’s a little bit of playfulness in the watch, which I wanted from the beginning,” Hayon says. “The idea was always to create something strong enough that also looks good and has those little details that make it unique.”

Orolog OC1 by Jaime Hayon is available now at Dezeen Watch Store with free worldwide shipping.

You can buy all of our watches online and you can also visit our watch shop in Stoke Newington, north London – contact us to book an appointment.

 www.dezeenwatchstore.com

The post “There is a little bit of playfulness in
Orolog watches” – Jaime Hayon appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: the penultimate stop on our Dezeen and MINI World tour is Eindhoven. In our first video report from the city, co-founder of Dutch Design Week Miriam van der Lubbe explains how the small industrial town has become one of the leading centres for design and technology in the world.

“Eindhoven is actually a very small city compared to the big capitals in Europe or the world,” says van der Lubbe. “It’s a group of about seven villages that grew together into Eindhoven.”

It is also not a very pretty one. “The centre of Eindhoven really got destroyed [during the Second World War],” Van der Lubbe explains. “They built it up in the fifties and it became a really ugly city. In Eindhoven, it can only get better.”

Despite its size, the city has been a site for technological innovation since the industrial revolution, thanks almost entirely to Dutch electronics giant Philips.

The company was founded in Eindhoven in 1891 and, although it moved its headquarters to Amsterdam in 1997, its blue logo still adorns many of the buildings in the city.

Once Philips moved out, many people were afraid Eindhoven would become a “non-area”, Van der Lubbe says. In fact, the creative industries were quick to take advantage of the large amounts of cheap space Philips left behind.

One example Van der Lubbe takes us to is Strijp, a former Philips industrial complex that is now one of the central areas of Dutch Design Week.

“Strijp is a major part of Eindhoven centre actually,” says Van der Lubbe. “The owner of Strijp bought these industrial buildings and gave them to the creative people.”

An abundance of designers ready to take up these former industrial spaces graduate each year from Design Academy Eindhoven, which has gained a reputation as one of the foremost design schools in the world.

Former students include Hella Jongerius, Marcel Wanders and Tord Boontje and many graduates, such as Piet Hein Eek plus Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farrasin of Formafantasma, choose to stay in the city.

Van der Lubbe, herself a Design Academy Eindhoven alumni, shares a studio in nearby Geldrop with fellow academy graduate Niels van Eijk.

“It grew out of Philips, because they saw that design was an important aspect of products,” she says of the school.

“It used to be that as soon as people graduated they left. But now they’re coming back because they see that there’s something going on here that’s interesting.”

There is still an emphasis on science and technology in Eindhoven. Van der Lubbe takes us to the High Tech Campus on the outskirts of the city, where many technology companies are based, as well as Eindhoven University of Technology.

Having design, industry, science and technology in such close proximity is the key to Eindhoven’s success, says Van der Lubbe.

“There is a huge opportunity for Eindhoven because it has all these aspects in it,” she says. “It has the academic world, it has science, it has the creative world, it definitely has industry.”

“The potential of what is here is just starting to come out and there is so much more that can actually happen here. I really believe that.”

We drove around Eindhoven in our MINI Cooper S Paceman. The music in the movie is a track called Family Music by Eindhoven-based hip hop producer Y’Skid.

You can listen to more music by Y’Skid on Dezeen Music Project and watch more of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour movies here.

The post “Eindhoven has design, it has science
and it has industry” appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has developed an “electronic vacuum cleaner” that can remove smog from urban skies and is working with the mayor of Beijing to use the technology in a new park in the city (+ interview + movie).

The concept uses buried coils of copper to create an electrostatic field that attracts smog particles, creating a void of clean air above it.

“You can purify the air so you can breathe again,” Roosegaarde told Dezeen in an exclusive interview during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. “It creates these holes of 50-60 metres of clean air so you can see the sun again.”

Roosegaarde’s company Studio Roosegaarde has signed a memorandum of understanding with the mayor of Beijing to create a public park to showcase the technology.

The authorities in Beijing are finally admitting the huge problems caused by smog. This weekend the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center warned children, the elderly and those with heart and breathing problems to stay indoors due to extreme levels of pollutants in the air.

Working with scientists at the University of Delft, Roosegaarde created a working prototype of the project last week. “We have a 5×5 metre room full of smog where we created a smog-free hole of one cubic metre,” he said. “And now the question is to apply it in public spaces.”

The buried copper coils produce a weak electrostatic field that extends into the sky above. Smog particles are drawn down towards the ground, punching a clean hole in the air and allowing the particles to be collected. The coils can be buried beneath the grass of a park and are completely safe.

“It’s a similar principle to if you have a statically charged balloon that attracts your hair,” Roosegaarde explained. “If you apply that to smog, to create fields of static electricity of ions, which literally attract or magnetise the smog so it drops down so you can clean it, like an electronic vacuum cleaner.”

Roosegaarde had the idea for the project while staying at a hotel in Beijing and looking at OMA’s CCTV building from his window. “I saw the CCTV building,” he said. “I had a good day when I could see it and I had a bad day when I could not see it. On a bad day the smog is completely like a veil. You don’t see anything. I thought, that’s interesting, that’s a design problem.”

Roosegaarde’s team will now spend up to 18 months developing the technology before starting work on the ground in Beijing.

Here’s the text of the interview between Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and Daan Roosegaarde:

Marcus Fairs: Tell us about the smog project.

Daan Roosegaarde: As you may know I hop from obsession to obsession, from fashion to highways to a problem we have right now which is smog. So it’s weird, because in a way we as human beings have always developed tools to enable ourselves. Wheels are an extension of our legs; glasses are an extension of our eyes; we developed cars to travel around.

But the weird thing in China, where growth is going so fast, is that these machines are striking back. They create side effects that we never thought about, which is pollution, which is smog. And Beijing is getting so incredibly worse that the American Embassy had to buy a new meter, because it was hitting the top all the time.

Marcus Fairs: How did the project come about?

Daan Roosegaarde: I was in a hotel in Beijing where I saw the CCTV building. I had a good day when I could see it and I had a bad day when I could not see it. On a bad day the smog is completely like a veil. You don’t see anything. I thought, that’s interesting, that’s a design problem. We could use smog as a material to design with, to draw.

Marcus Fairs: How does it work?

Daan Roosegaarde: We learned a lot from the Crystal project we’ve done in Eindhoven, which uses static electro-magnetic fields of ions. It’s a similar principle to if you have a statically charged balloon that attracts your hair.

If you apply that to smog, to create fields of static electricity of ions, which literally attract or magnetise the smog so it drops down so you can clean it, like an electronic vacuum cleaner. You can purify the air so you can breathe again. And it creates these holes of 50-60 metres of clean air so you can see the sun again.

So we teamed up with the Technical University of Delft, with a smog expert, and he said the technology is possible, so we have a big indoor prototype working. And I spoke to the mayor of Beijing who, when the microphone is turned off, admits they have a big problem, and so they are investing in making it happen.

The idea is to make a park in Beijing where you will see the old world and the new world. We’ll drag nature in. It’s Dutch landscape design in a most radical way.

It’s similar to how static electricity works, where you create a field. By electrifying particles they gravitate and fall down. It’s similar to how they spray-paint metal onto surface [by a process known as vacuum metallisation, in which electrostatically charged metal particles are attracted to the surface of an object, creating a metallic surface on it].

Marcus Fairs: Could this be a solution to smog in future?

Daan Roosegaarde: It could be a first step in creating awareness of how bad it really is. Because you see the difference really clearly. Of course the real solution lies in dealing with reality in a different way; it’s a human problem not a technological problem. But for sure my goal would be to apply it to parks, to public spaces which are for everyone, where people can meet and enjoy life again.

Marcus Fairs: What does the device look like?

Daan Roosegaarde: It’s copper coils that we put in the ground and put grass over them so you don’t see it. It sounds a bit dangerous but it’s pacemaker-safe, you can walk through it, the electric field is quite low. It’s an induction thing similar to how your toothbrush gets charged.

Marcus Fairs: How high can it reach?

Daan Roosegaarde: That’s what we’re testing now. The smog is quite low, which is good, especially in Beijing. Basically the more energy you put in it, the higher you can get. It’s high voltage, low ampere, and the more power you put in the more smog you can attract.

Marcus Fairs: If you switch it on would you see the smog suddenly disappear into the ground?

Daan Roosegaarde: Yes. You would literally see it on the ground. What I would like to do is capture all that smog and then compress it. So for example you could make a smog ring of all the smog in a cubic kilometre. It would show the reality and question why we accept it.

Marcus Fairs: Have you tested it?

Daan Roosegaarde: Yes. We have a 5×5 metre room full of smog where we created a smog-free hole of one cubic metre. And that happened this week. And now the question is to apply it in public spaces.

Marcus Fairs: Is the Beijing project going to happen?

Daan Roosegaarde: Yes. We signed a memorandum of understanding to do it. They just launched [another] project, a €2.3 million project to purify air, to reduce cars, more cycling. But it’s peanuts. It’s not going to work.

Marcus Fairs: How much does your concept cost?

Daan Roosegaarde: The research and development is the biggest hurdle as always. It will take another 12-15 months with a good team of people to make it work, to make it safe. But we know it’s possible and you know me by now: I have a scientist who says it’s possible, you have me, a designer who creates the imagination and you have a client who is desperate. And now all we have to do is find the “merge” button. It’s a new challenge.

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could solve smog problem appeared first on Dezeen.