Hasta La Ideas

Designer Hella Jongerius and architect Rem Koolhaas have renovated the North Delegates’ Lounge at the United Nations buildings in New York (+ slideshow).

Working alongside a team of Dutch creatives that included graphic designer Irma Boom, artist Gabriel Lester and theorist Louise Schouwenberg, Jongerius and Koolhaas have reconfigured the layout and added new furniture to the lounge – one of the key spaces in the complex designed during the 1960s by a team of architects including Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.

Koolhaas’ OMA began by removing a mezzanine that had been added in 1978, opening up a view towards the East River. Hella Jongerius then added a bead curtain made from hand-knotted yarn and 30,000 porcelain beads.

Furniture is arranged so that one end of the lounge accommodates formal meetings and the other is more suited to coffee and drinks. Jongerius designed two new pieces for the space – the Sphere Table and the UN Lounge Chair – which are accompanied by original Knoll chairs.

A new bar is made from black resin, while the existing information desk is retained and repositioned alongside the original clock and signage.

Jongerius was responsible for the colour palette, adding an orange carpet alongside the purple, blue and green upholstery.

“The renovation and redesign of the lounge is a gift from the Netherlands to the UN,” said the designers.

Dezeen recently filmed a series of interviews with Jongerius discussing her latest projects and why she chose to relocate to Berlin. Watch the movies »

See more stories about Hella Jongerius »
See more stories about Rem Koolhaas »

Photography is by Frank Oudeman.

Here’s a project description from Jongeriuslab:

New interior for United Nations North Delegates’ Lounge (New York)

More than sixty years after the opening of the UN North Delegates’ Lounge, Hella Jongerius has redesigned the lounge in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas, Irma Boom, Gabriel Lester and Louise Schouwenberg.

Their aim was to create a space of both comfort and professional informality. The team carefully edited the history of the space, retaining some of the iconic Scandinavian designs and creating a new perspective on the works of art already on display. They removed the mezzanine that had blocked the view of the East River, restoring the open architectural space.

Jongerius designed two new pieces of furniture for the lounge: the Sphere Table and the UN Lounge Chair, produced by Vitra. For the East Facade Jongerius designed the Knots & Beads Curtain, with hand-knotted yarn and 30,000 porcelain beads made from Dutch clay by Royal Tichelaar Makkum. Jongerius was also responsible for revitalizing the colour palette, selecting the furniture and designing the cradle-to-cradle Grid Carpet.

The UN buildings in New York date from 1951, six years after the foundation of the UN. Referred to as ‘A Workshop for Peace’, the complex was designed by a team of architects including Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer and Wallace K. Harrison. In 2009, the UN launched a large-scale renovation project, which is now nearly complete. At the request of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hella Jongerius formed a team to redesign the lounge and bring it into a new era. The renovation and redesign of the lounge is a gift from the Netherlands to the UN.

The lounge will be officially opened on September 25, 2013 by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frans Timmermans, in the presence of Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Year: 2013
Material: Various
Dimensions: Various
Commission: United Nations/ Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Category: Industrial production

The post United Nations North Delegates’ Lounge
by Hella Jongerius and Rem Koolhaas appeared first on Dezeen.

Movie: Dutch designer Hella Jongerius explains why she enjoys working with colours and textiles rather than designing full pieces of furniture in the third video interview we filmed at her studio in Berlin. 

“It’s just one solution for design, making stuff,” says Jongerius, who works with Swiss furniture company Vitra as creative director of colours, textiles and surfaces. “You can do so much more with your talent and brains [as a designer].”

Jongerius has worked on refreshing the colour palette Swiss brand Vitra uses for its furniture, including famous designs by Charles and Ray Eames and Jean Prouvé.

“Vitra have great stuff,” she says. “Why do they need me to create another piece of furniture? They need me on another level.”

Jongerius says that she enjoys working with textiles for the same reason; they enable her to express her creativity without designing a new product from scratch.

“If you design a textile you don’t have to design a full new piece,” she says. “Just the skin can make the new design. That’s why I find textiles interesting and also a nice subject for the future. There are not many designers that are good in textiles.”

However, Jongerius says that many companies are resistant to using new colours or textiles in their products, valuing consistency and durability over quality of colour or texture.

“There are very many colours to choose from,” she says. “But [the colours manufacturers use] only come from a certain scheme in the whole colour world: colours that do not change due to daylight. That’s what they think consumers want, colours that stay the same from morning to the evening and I think that’s really a mistake.”

She continues: “Testing in the industrial world is really so outdated. It’s all about the functional level. If you ask people if they care that a colour changes during the day, or if a fabric wears out after some years, I think there are many consumers who will see that as a quality.”

“But still we are testing as if you are wearing velcro on your jeans all the time, or you [will] invite an elephant to sit on your armrest. A lot is lost because of the testing.”

Despite the difficulty in convincing manufacturers to change their approach to colours and materials, Jongerius believes it is a worthwhile pursuit.

“It’s very difficult to sell,” she says. “But it’s a topic where I can use my brains and talent to change something in the industrial world. If you design the skin you have a new product and you don’t have to have a whole new table or a whole new sofa.”

See our previous story about Vitra’s updated Prouvé range »
See all our stories about Hella Jongerius »

The post “Why create another piece of furniture?”
– Hella Jongerius appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch designer Hella Jongerius has created a new cabin interior for Dutch airline KLM, including textiles inspired by the Milky Way and carpets made from recycled uniforms.

Launched today at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, KLM’s revamped World Business Class cabin features spotted and striped dividing curtains, leather and aluminium details and a carpet made from the recycled uniforms of flight attendants.

Hella Jongerius and her team at Jongeriuslab developed the palette of blue, purple, grey, brown and white by bringing fabric swatches onboard flights to observe how colours could be perceived differently in various lighting conditions.

“The light condition above the clouds and the light temperature makes all colours very red,” Jongerius told Dezeen at the launch. “We had to really work in that sense so that the red goes out of the colour palette and so we chose colours that have a bit of green in them.”

The carpet is inspired by an image of the Milky Way, with blue dots as stars in a pattern that’s designed to be easy to match up when it needs repairing.

“The [previous KLM business class] interior was more business-like, very uniform and efficiently done but this feel of mass-production is not what we want to have right now as an atmosphere,” she continued. “I really want to have luxury. Is luxury glamorous? Luxury for me is comfort.”

“Maybe Marcel [Wanders]’s work is more the glamorous part,” she added. KLM previously commissioned Dutch designer Marcel Wanders to create a dinner service for use onboard its aircraft, including porcelain, glassware, cutlery and linen.

Jongerius is now working on designs for the airline’s economy cabins. See all our stories about design by Hella Jongerius.

Last year industrial design studio Priestmangoode designed a first-class cabin with sofas and wardrobes for Brazilian airline TAM, while London studio Pengelly Design created an aeroplane seat that converts into a 2.2-metre-long bed for Virgin Atlantic – see all aircraft design.

Here’s more information from Hella Jongerius:

The new interior design for KLM World Business Class in the Boeing 747-700, by Hella Jongerius/Jongeriuslab

When KLM invited a designer to develop a comprehensive vision for its interior, it broke new ground in the aviation industry. Usually, new aircraft parts are simply selected from the available stock. Furnishings, materials, service facilities, and storage space must meet so many stringent requirements that they are usually seen as the domain not of designers, but of technical engineers.

Jongerius threw herself into the project with the Jongeriuslab team, seeking opportunities for meaningful change within strict parameters. In the spirit of her earlier work and her design philosophy, she found those opportunities in KLM’s own corporate traditions, such as the company’s distinctive colour palette and sustainable materials.

Design

Flying is magical. But at the same time, air travel stands for discomfort – the exhaustion, the endless waits, the anonymous crowds, the long stretches without privacy, the lack of telephone or internet access, the severe restrictions on movement, the processed air you breathe.

The primary objective of Jongerius’s design is therefore to offer passengers the greatest possible comfort, so that they can use their airborne interlude however they prefer: to work or to dream, unplugged from everyday life.

Jongerius rose to the challenge through the imaginative use of textiles and the double-faced weaving technique, combining mass-produced parts with craftsmanlike details, reducing the ‘visual noise’ of the interior to a minimum, and creating ingenious variations on the KLM colour palette.

This brought aesthetic excellence and a warm ambiance to the hi-tech world of the aviation industry, creating an atmosphere and experience that, according to Jongerius, suit the needs of today’s cosmopolitan world travellers.

The richly varied patterns of the carpeting make passengers feel welcome and stir vague memories. That’s because they’re sustainable creations based on high-quality recycled materials, including the discarded uniforms of KLM stewards and stewardesses.

Even when a carpet has to be repaired, sustainability is guaranteed. The pattern – a scene of the Milky Way with blue uniform dots in the role of stars – will always match up.

The efficiency that has always characterised World Business Class will be preserved. At the same time, the new interior will offer a more restful environment with greater personal privacy and considerably superior quality and comfort.

The post World Business Class cabin
by Hella Jongerius for KLM appeared first on Dezeen.

We’ve teamed up with publishers Phaidon to offer readers the chance to win one of five copies of their new monograph about Dutch designer Hella Jongerius.

Entitled Hella Jongerius: Misfit and designed by Dutch graphic designer Irma Boom, the 225 page stitch-bound book documents Jongerius’ work since 1993.

The book is richly illustrated with over 300 photographs, as well as two essays written by New York Times design critic Alice Rawsthorn and senior curator at MoMA Paola Antonelli.

It also includes four hypothetical conversations between Jongerius and author Louise Schouwenberg.

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “Hella Jongerius: Misfit” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers.

Read our privacy policy here.

Competition closes 8 March 2011. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the bottom of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

Subscribe to our newsletter, get our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter for details of future competitions.

Here are some more details from Phaidon:

Hella Jongerius: Misfit

Dutch designer Hella Jongerius (b.1963) is one of the most individual and influential product designers working today. In January Phaidon Press will launch a new monograph Hella Jongerius: Misfit celebrating the designer’s eclectic work. A major exhibition of the same name, displaying a range of Jongerius’ remarkable products, will also be on show at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (13 November 2010 – 13 February 2011).

Richly illustrated with over 350 photographs, Hella Jongerius: Misfit presents the designer’s work in extraordinary detail. A desirable Collector’s Edition will also be available, accompanied by an exclusive vase designed by Jongerius and manufactured by Royal Tichelaar Makkum.

The designer’s unique aesthetic has often been described as a fusion of opposites; manufacturing and craft; high and low tech; traditional and contemporary. Materials are brought together in unusual and often contradictory ways, creating works that are extremely textural and beg to be touched: rough edged leather is rolled to create wheels; paint is dripped messily onto earthenware; ceramics are sewn onto cotton table cloths; vases are soft and sinks are made from rubber.

The title of both book and exhibition allude to Jongerius’ belief that quality craftsmanship is indistinguishable in perfect, industrial products, and is only present in the ‘misfits’, their imperfections betraying the process and the hand of the maker. Jongerius pioneered the reintroduction of craftsmanship in contemporary design. By incorporating crafted individuality into the industrial manufacturing process she has succeeded in creating eclectic pieces which play on consumers’ expectations of style and function.

The Polder Sofa was Jongerius’ first industrially designed piece of furniture and marked the beginning of her highly successful professional association with Vitra. True to the Jongerius ethos, the piece contains several different types of material and textures (some chosen specifically to look worn), nuances of colour and mismatched cushion sizes. All of these small but significant variants highlight the uniqueness and individuality of her design.

Created in close collaboration with Jongerius, the monograph exhibits all of her work to date. The book features the main text, consisting of four hypothetical conversations between Jongerius and author Louise Schouwenberg (a Dutch writer, curator and Associate Professor of Design Theory at Design Academy Eindhoven), which discusses Jongerius’ working methods, disillusion with the perfection of much industrial product design, and the development of her key designs. Two essays by contemporary design experts Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli further contextualise Jongerius’ work.

The breadth of detail, along with the striking imagery ensures Hella Jongerius: Misfit is the ultimate insight into one of the most creative product designers working today. The extraordinary book was designed by the wellknown Dutch graphic designer Irma Boom.

Contents

Photographs detailing Jongerius’ work from 1993 to the present, spread across 225 pages.

‘A Conversation that might have taken place’, four dialogues between Jongerius and author Louise Schouwenberg.

‘The Human Factor’, an essay by Alice Rawsthorn.

‘Hella’s Imperfect World’, an essay by Paola Antonelli.

‘Complete Works’, an illustrated catalogue detailing all of Jongerius’ work.

Tile Information

Title: Hella Jongerius: Misfit
Texts: Louise Schouwenberg (editor), Alice Rawsthorn, Paola Antonelli
Graphic Design: Irma Boom Office / Irma Boom and Sanne van de Goor
ISBN: 9780714859873
Extent: 308 pp
Retail Price: £29.95
Binding: Stitch bound
Publication Date: January 2011
Illustrations: 350 colour illustrations
Size: H 255 x W 185 mm, H 10 x W 7 ¼ inches

If you can’t wait for the competition to end buy your own copy now from Phaidon.com

Dutch designer Hella Jongerius has created a range of conservatory furniture for Kettal featuring aluminium frames wrapped in cord.

Called Bob, the collection includes a chair, foot stool and side table.

See all our stories about Hella Jongerius »

Here are a few details from Kettal:

HELLA JONGERIUS CREATES KETTAL BOB

Hella Jongerius has designed a garden club set for Kettal called Bob: a new take on the traditional garden club chair.

The dark aluminium frame lends solidity to the front, while the back is noteworthy for its elegant light construction. The seat consists of large, soft rods, highlighted by visible stitching.

The details on the armrests and Bob footstool handles and side table use cord.

The Collection is composed of a relaxer chair, footstool and side table.

See also:

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Rotterdam Chair by Hella Jongerius	Office Pets by Hella Jongerius	Artificial flowers by Hella Jongerius