These aluminium stools and benches by design graduate Sara Mellone are designed to look like folded pieces of paper.
The Simple Things, Sara Mellone‘s graduate project from the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf, comprises pieces of furniture made from 2.5-millimetre sheets of aluminium that have each been folded four times.
The process of bending the lightweight aluminium gives the furniture strength and ensures that the stools and benches have a stable footing.
“The simple shape of the double fold creates enough strength to build a bench that is three times longer then the stool,” says Mellone.
Both designs can be manufactured without any offcuts and don’t require any additional parts for assembly.
Mellone has also created a version finished with a white powder coating, which protects the surface from fingerprints and scratches.
This plastic maternity vest by design graduate Alice Kim allows people to carry young plants like babies (+ movie).
Alice Kim, who recently graduated from Kingston University, designed the PVC maternity vest with a compartment on the front to carry seedlings and young plants.
Kim hopes the project will remind people of the care and attention that plants require to grow. “Plants share very similar birth and growth process to humans,” she said, “but we do not appreciate much of what they give us.”
After the seedling has grown into a small plant the owner can use Kim’s Plant Stroller to take it for a walk.
Kim exhibited the project at London’s graduate showcase New Designers 2013 last week.
Furniture design graduate Leala Dymond has designed a sofa where elasticated yellow bungee cord holds cushions and other items in place.
The Bungy Sofa by Bucks New University graduate Leala Dymond features a grid of yellow cord that is tied in knots around the upholstery and fixed to the frame with a system of pegs.
This cord can be used to secure extra cushions, or to hold magazines, books and remote controls.
“This sofa was designed to be adjustable to everyone’s comfort,” says Dymond. “The yellow elasticated cord allows the user to rearrange the cushions to their personal taste, without them sliding out.”
The frame is designed in walnut but Dymond says it could easily be made from cheaper materials.
“The motivation was to utilise the power of unconventional thinking and apply my own dyslexia to objects to create products which have dyslexia and function better as a result,” Franks told Dezeen.
Confused Hangers can be hung either way round
One of Franks’ products is a coat hanger with two hooks, so it can be hung either way round. “The Confused Coat Hanger wasn’t paying attention when being told which way round it was supposed to be,” Franks explains. “As a result, it has a double-hooked head and can hang either way round when hanging your clothes up.”
Franks’ Poor Memory Pen Pots can hold just two or three pens because they “have a terrible memory due to their dyslexia and can only remember a couple of things at a time,” says Franks. Yet this apparent shortcoming prevents the pot overflowing with items and keeps just a few essential writing tools to hand.
Coaster Plinth, an oversized cork drinks coaster, ended up as an elevated platform rather than a flat disc because it “misread the dimensions it was supposed to be and hasn’t understood the question,” says Franks. Despite the apparent precariousness of a cup placed on top of the plinth, it makes the cup more noticeable so it’s less likely to be spilled.
Franks’ upside down Muglexia mugs
Muglexia, a range of mugs, are inversions of the traditional shape and refer to the way dyslexics invert and flip letters and words when reading. “These three mugs illustrate inversion and as a result are more stable and more balanced in the hand,” Franks explains.
Franks was given the award at the New Designers Part 2 opening ceremony at the Business Design Centre in north London last night.
Franks receives a £1000 cash prize, £1000 worth of advice from intellectual property lawyers Briffa, £2000 worth of advice from accountancy experts Rhodes & Rhodes, and a half day with PR consultancy Four Colman Getty.
Muglexia mugs refer to the flipping around of letters and words and keep drinks hotter
“Henry joyfully combines utility with human behaviour resulting in a clever, well rounded collection, brimming with unique ideas,” said the award judges.
See Henry’s winning design collection on Northumbria University’s stand at New Designers 2013 until 6 July at London’s Business Design Centre.
Coaster Plinth makes a drink more obvious so you’re less likely to spill it over
New Designers is an annual showcase of graduate projects from design schools around the UK. Previous New Design of the Year winners include boiled leather furniture and an extending shelving unit.
Adornments that deploy robotic wings when someone gets too close or change colour when the wearer is embarrassed have been designed for introverts by Goldsmiths graduate Lilian Hipolyte Mushi.
“Layers we wear are the first boundary into our personal space,” says Lilian Hipolyte Mushi. “These structures allow introverts to gradually change their personal temperament continuum.”
When someone comes within just over 80 centimetres of the wearer of a dress covered with distance sensors, wooden arms shoot out into a fan from the back to keep people at arms length.
A pleated hood covered in thermochromic pigments gradually changes colour with fluctuations in body heat, which can occur when the wearer is shy or embarrassed.
The pleated sleeves of another garment are embedded with Nitinol wire, a shape-memory alloy that becomes rigid when heated. This expands the arms to twice the size and then collapses them back when cool, again highlighting changes in body temperature.
“This project explores how introverts use isolation as a mechanism for social recharge as well as a way to navigate social situations,” says the Goldsmiths graduate. “Furthermore, it is an exploration into how the psychology of introverts can be used in our societies and begs to find new ways to help people with social problems such as isolation and loneliness.”
An Introvert’s Transformation to Extroversion was on display at part one of the New Designers graduate exhibition in London, which ran from 27 to 29 June. Part two of the event takes place from 3 to 6 July.
This project explores how introverts use isolation as a mechanism for social recharge as well as a way to navigate social situations. Furthermore, it is an exploration into how the psychology of introverts can be used in our societies and begging to find new ways to help people with social problems such as isolation and loneliness.
“Yes I am an introvert, no I am not shy”.
These introverts have the ability to transform into extroverts in social situations by extending the boundaries of their introversion. Their battleground is the politics of personal space versus public space boundaries.
They have devised ways to find a balance between blending in and standing out, by using engineered structures to aid their transformation, whilst protecting their social identities in a world designed for extroverts.
Layers we wear are the first boundary into our personal space; these structures allow introverts a gradual change on their personal temperament continuum.
They aim to spread the power of introverts by sparking conversation amongst their spectators who admire them; and question the choices we make, of presenting and re-presenting ourselves.
Proxemics Protector
Distance sensor controls the space around this introvert’s body, deploying robotic inverted wings when a spectator is within 80.429cm of their proxemics.
Space Inflator
Nitinol Memory wire in the garment’s arms, allows this introvert’s body form to change state by inflating the arm structure when they are extroverted and collapsing when introverted.
Temperament Transformer
Thermal Chromic colour pigments display the gradual transformation process of this introvert by changing colour as they transform back and forth on the Introvert – Extrovert continuum.
News: Architectural Association graduate John Naylor has won this year’s Foster + Partners Prize with his proposal to introduce bamboo to the construction industry in Haiti, which is still struggling to recover from the 2010 earthquake.
Presented annually to an Architectural Association diploma student who best addresses themes of sustainability and infrastructure, the prize is awarded to John Naylor for his Bamboo Lakou project, which combines a sustainable bamboo-growing infrastructure with the development of the vernacular “Lakou” communal courtyard typology.
Naylor explains that Haiti’s current construction practices contributed to the massive devastation caused by the earthquake, which caused the collapse of 280,000 buildings and killed 316,000 people, even though a far more powerful quake in Chile caused the deaths of just 525. “This was a disaster of Haiti’s lack of lightweight building materials, working practices, and construction, not nature,” he says.
Lakou workshops
As Haiti has massive deforestation, Naylor wants to establish a long-term bamboo planting strategy and then gradually introduce it as an earthquake-resistant replacement for concrete.
Lakou earthquake resilience
“In a proud culture such as Haiti, preaching a new form of building to the construction sector is riddled with problems,” he explains, citing low skills, lack of equipment and illiteracy as obstacles. “This rematerialisation of a construction industry and subsequent demand aims to engender bamboo growth in Haiti.”
Naylor proposes a four-stage strategy that will begin with assessing the existing stock of bamboo available. A small group of workers would learn the techniques and as the material became more widely available the systems could be introduced nationwide to construct thousands of new Lakou courtyard houses.
AA director Brett Steele commented: “John Naylor’s project demonstrates the ways in which infrastructural ideas and architectural imagination might today expand beyond the cliches of Modernism to become life itself, literally breathing life into communities, cities and entire countries, today and long into the future.”
An estimated three million people were affected by the quake. 250,000 residences, 30,000 commercial buildings collapsed, a million people homeless and 316,000 people dead. One month later an earthquake 500 times more powerful, hit central Chile resulting in the deaths of 525. This was a disaster of Haiti’s lack of lightweight building materials, working practices, and construction, not nature.
Set in the context of Haiti, a country with massive deforestation and threatened by earthquakes, only heavy concrete and cement are the building materials of choice. As an integral part of a wider reforestation strategy, this project merges a sustainable bamboo infrastructure along with the vernacular ‘Lakou’ communal courtyard typology.
This aims to encourage the physical use of bamboo in the Haitian construction sector. The material properties of bamboo provide design opportunities to provide resilience to hurricanes and earthquakes, and affords an assembly logic which intends to communicate a parallel understanding of bamboo’s application beyond the building site. This rematerialisation of a construction industry and subsequent demand, aims to engender bamboo growth in Haiti, a material with wider ecological benefits.
Introducing any new practice of working is difficult in any field. In a proud culture such as Haiti preaching a new form of building to the construction sector is riddled with problems. Low skills, lack of equipment and illiteracy, not to mention theft from a project, whether political corruption or material theft on site, all cause an environment not in a position to implement quality output which is all the more dangerous in Haiti, a site of huge seismic and natural threat. Materials in this location are defined by skill and natural resources. A lack of timber due to deforestation has resulted in concrete becoming the 21st Century vernacular and as a result any skills associated with construction have been aligned to work with concrete.
Initially the ‘Lakou’ courtyard house forms the fundamental urban block and this itself is broken into four stages.
(1) Occupational Strategy; which aims to determine a means of developing solutions of occupation for the local population grounded in the existing Haitian ‘Lakou’ typology of courtyard living.
(2) Material Strategy; looks at what is available in Haiti right now and speculates on how what is available can be compounded in the short term with bamboo. The typology and properties of materials will then determine any subsequent strategies.
(3) Structural Strategy; looks at how bamboo can be implemented into a structural system which allows for the Haitian vernacular ‘Lakou’ design to be implemented. The structural strategy also looks at the limits of design versus materials in seismic areas and tests compounds of materials as well as seismic building techniques to develop a low cost, easily buildable structural system with proven seismic credentials.
(4) Construction and Assembly Strategy; will produce an assembly logic explicit enough to work initially in a workforce mostly illiterate and yet can result in the successful implementation of aspects 1, 2, and 3. It is also designed that this logic has aspects of construction and material awareness which can propagate nationwide. This being either skill or outsourcing construction beyond the proposed new urbanism. This aims to create standards, knowledge, respect for the material and new economic opportunities.
This technical strategy forms an integral part of making a new timber and bamboo urbanism possible in Haiti. Through initially encouraging the physical use of bamboo in the Haitian construction sector at the building scale, the material properties of bamboo provide design opportunities to provide resilience to hurricanes and earthquakes, and affords an assembly logic which intends to communicate a parallel understanding of bamboo’s application beyond the building site.
This rematerialisation of a construction industry and subsequent demand, aims to engender bamboo growth in Haiti, a material with wider ecological benefits and lay the foundations of a new biodiverse dynamic Port au Prince.
3D-printed casts for fractured bones could replace the usual bulky, itchy and smelly plaster or fibreglass ones in this conceptual project by Victoria University of Wellington graduate Jake Evill.
The prototype Cortex cast is lightweight, ventilated, washable and thin enough to fit under a shirt sleeve.
A patient would have the bones x-rayed and the outside of the limb 3D-scanned. Computer software would then determine the optimum bespoke shape, with denser support focussed around the fracture itself.
The polyamide pieces would be printed on-site and clip into place with fastenings that can’t be undone until the healing process is complete, when they would be taken off with tools at the hospital as normal. Unlike current casts, the materials could then be recycled.
“At the moment, 3D printing of the cast takes around three hours whereas a plaster cast is three to nine minutes, but requires 24-72 hours to be fully set,” says the designer. “With the improvement of 3D printing, we could see a big reduction in the time it takes to print in the future.”
He worked with the orthopaedic department of his university on the project and is now looking for backing to develop the idea further.
After many centuries of splints and cumbersome plaster casts that have been the itchy and smelly bane of millions of children, adults and the aged alike, the world over, we at last bring fracture support into the twenty-first century.
The Cortex exoskeletal cast provides a highly technical and trauma-zone-localised support system that is fully ventilated, super light, shower friendly, hygienic, recyclable and stylish.
The Cortex cast utilises the x-ray and 3D scan of a patient with a fracture and generates a 3D model in relation to the point of fracture.
Bartlett School of Architecture graduate Viktor Westerdahl has devised a fantasy scenario where the discovery of a new liquid energy cues construction of a remote city in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Viktor Westerdahl completed the project as part of the Bartlett‘s Unit 10, which asked students to imagine a fictional future and assess the impact it could have on architecture and communities.
“I’ve based my speculation on the impossibility that, rather than honey, bees would collect liquid light, a clean and green energy source that is similar to solar power and has an efficiency of 96 percent,” he told Dezeen. “What if this energy all existed on one island? The community would have to become the beekeepers of a new ecology.”
Westerdahl envisages the scenario for Diego Garcia – an island where the indigenous community were expelled in the 1960s to allow the US government to establish a military base – and suggests that the discovery of liquid light would prompt the construction of a new infrastructure for harvesting and trading the zero-carbon energy source.
To avoid disturbing the existing ecology, Westerdahl proposes that residents construct their new buildings on stilts, which would emerge amongst the lily pads of the island’s central lagoon. A community bank would store the harvested energy and trading would take place in a new marketplace.
Liquid light would also affect day-to-day life, as its glowing presence would be visible on the flowers and water lilies, as well as on the bees buzzing through the skies overhead.
Here’s a project description from Viktor Westerdahl:
The Liquid Light of Diego Garcia
“In ancient times Lixus was the site of a famous grove which bore golden fruit. Its flowers have petals like golden foil… …Insects like bees with metallic bodies and golden wings gather the juices of this fruit. Inside their nests, these insects… …manufacture a honey like substance for the nourishment of their young.” – Pliny the Elder, Inventorum Natura, 1st cen. AD
Instead of honey, a honeybee ecology yields Liquid Light – an energy equivalent to the extraordinary future potential of solar power at an efficiency of 96%. This invented nature is inserted into the real social and ecological context of a remote island, Diego Garcia. Its previously dispossessed local community is empowered by this new zero-carbon, sustainable energy, collectively cared for in commons trusts. Trade in Liquid Light underpins the existence of the island as an independent city state.
The fragile ecology of the island is nevertheless placed at risk by the process of urbanisation necessary to harness its Liquid Light. To minimize the impact, a string of villages are placed floating in the lagoon. These form a soft infrastructure of continuously adaptable elements constructed with a context specific materiality. Buildings are thatched with woven palm leafs and structural aluminium segments are produced cleanly with the aid of the abundant energy of Liquid Light.
On Diego Garcia energy is not only an integral part of its ecology, but also central in enriching the experiences of daily life within its communities. Below a glowing sky of Lixus Bees, floating houses circle fields of luminous flowers. The village square is illuminated by vertical beehives and towering above the settlement, a community bank is sparkling with the daily harvest of Liquid Light.
Project tutors: CJ Lim, Bernad Felsinger and Rokia Raslan
Students from London’s Architectural Association have suspended a giant wooden cocoon between the trees of Hooke Park in Dorset, England (+ slideshow).
The wooden structure, designed and built by four students on the AA Design & Make programme, was envisioned as a quiet woodland retreat where an inhabitant can sit and watch the sun set beneath the surrounding tree canopy.
“The Cocoon represents a journey through the forest, inviting and challenging the visitor to anticipate, imagine, explore and discover the natural beauty of the forest from a completely different perspective,” says the design team.
Using four untreated sheets of plywood and one locally milled cedar tree, the students constructed a temporary frame and then used a bandaging technique to build up a facade of thin and flexible layers inside it.
Once the structure was stiff enough, it was suspended around three trees so that it appears to weave between them.
To enter the structure, a step ladder leads in through a hole at one end, while a smaller hole on the opposite side forms the window. Light also penetrates the interior though small gaps in the walls.
Photographs are by Hugo G. Urrutia, one of the design students.
Here’s some extra information from the design team:
AA Hooke Park – Cocoon
Shelter was prefabricated, transported and successfully installed, hanging and weaving over three selected trees in Hooke Park, Dorset, UK.
The Cocoon is a design derived from the experience of walking through the forest of Hooke Park in Dorset. Its design explores the relationship between natural light, material and occupational space. The Cocoon represents a journey through the forest, inviting and challenging the visitor to anticipate, imagine, explore and discover the natural beauty of the forest from a completely different perspective. Even though it uses the trees as vertical support, the design is site specific as it weaves through 3 selected trees in the forest.
Construction process
The structure emerged through a process of ‘bandaging’ until it was stiff enough to hang it from the trees. This process provided a unique spatial transformation of the interior spaces through articulation and penetration of natural light, and a strong tectonic language, achieved by the imperfection but novel materials and form.
An inhabitable suspended ‘cocoon’, that takes its form from a precise weaving through three trees at the fringe of a forest clearing, becomes Hooke Park’s premiere vantage spot to view the winter sunset.
Installation
The Cocoon, provides a unique visual and tactile experience through its undulated canyon-like forms created by the form-finding cladding.
The selection of materials for the project was based on the team’s design ambition to maximise the use of material from Hooke Park. Four sheets of plywood and one western red wood cedar tree was milled to create this unique ergonomically design shelter with interior spaces that provide areas for relaxation and enjoyment of the amazing framed views of the winter sunset. An important characteristic and advantage of the green and untreated timber is the high flexibility achieved after milling into thin strips, permitting the cladding strips to bend and take new form.
Concept visualisation
The interior spaces of The Cocoon enable the visitor to have a unique visual and tactile experience through its undulated canyon-like forms created with the cedar cladding, the fresh smell of the wood and the articulation of the light, bringing the visitor closer to the canopy of the trees and surrounding environment. Architecturally, the team’s ambition was accomplished thanks to the unique material characteristics, the spatial transformation of the interior spaces through articulation and penetration of the natural light, and a strong tectonic language, achieved by the imperfection but novel materials and form.
Designed and made by: Hugo G. Urrutia, Abdullah Omar, Ashgar Khan, Karjvit Rirermvanich Designed for: Architectural Association/ M.Arch Design & Make programme 2013
Royal College of Art graduate Bilge Nur Saltik has designed dimpled glassware that creates kaleidoscopic effects (+ movie).
Pieces in Saltik‘s OP-jects collection are patterned with concave cuts around their lower portions, which act like a series of magnifying glasses and warp views through the glass.
When placed on a purposefully designed tablecloth covered in brightly-coloured triangles they create optical illusions.
Water contained within the vessels distorts the reflections further, so imagery is constantly changing while drinking from a glass.
The collection includes a carafe, tumbler and two different bowls. A set of rippled glass wall tiles were also created as part of the project.
Saltik studied on the Design Products course at the Royal College of Art and is exhibiting her glassware at Show RCA, which continues until 30 June.
This playful series by Royal College of Art graduate Bilge Nur Saltik contains daily life objects with optical illusions.
Presented at Royal College of Art graduate show in London this week, the playful series contains glassware, wall tiles and a tablecloth to reveal this secret, magical and playful lenticular effect. The function of the objects triggers the effect of illusions and it reveals hidden visual secrets.
“I am manipulating the information brain receives by distorting the image with layering different materials. Playing with colour and geometrical patterns enhance the optical illusions. These objects designed to change the pace of our ordinary life. They will surprise you by unexpected change and distortion on what you see during simply drinking water.”
Glass pieces cut by hand to get concave cuts and sharpen edges. Different size cuts works like magnifying glass. They distort and multiplies the pattern underneath cause a psychedelic experience.
Bilge Nur Saltik is graduating from Platform 18 of the Design Products course at the Royal College of Art, where the show opens to the public from 20–30 June.
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