Hasta La Ideas

To prove that germs aren’t all bad, Paris-based studio Bold-design came up with an activity kit that uses bacteria to turn sand from the beach into stone souvenirs (+ slideshow).

Designers William Boujon and Julien Benayoun of Bold-design created Memorabilia Factory for the Design Exquis project that invites four designers to respond to each other’s objects in turn, like the parlour game where one player draws part of a character then folds the paper over and passes it along for the next player to make his contribution.

Bold-design was asked to respond to a portable machine designed by Mikael Metthey and Milan Metthey, which lets parents test sandy beaches for harmful bacteria to find the safest place for their children to play.

“Since we both ate sand when we were little and are still healthy, we immediately thought about finding a positive quality about these bacteria living in the sand,” the designers explained.

The designers came up with Memorabilia Factory, a family activity kit that uses a harmless bacterium to turn sand from the beach into solid stones in the shape of local rock formations.

The kit includes a bacteria solution, a fixing agent, a tool to fix and shape the sand and three moulds, which represent Durdle Door in the UK, the dune of Pilat in France and the Kon Phi Phi islands in Thailand.

The designers worked with soil technology specialists Soletanche-Bachy and their Biocalcis process, which the firm is currently developing on a larger scale as a way of preparing sandy ground for building work, Boujon told Dezeen at the launch of Design Exquis during London Design Festival this year.

“We are talking about tons of litres of this mix with bacteria,” he explained, “and after that they add the second solution, which is a kind of feeding solution. The bacteria get bigger and bigger and they create a small bridge in between the grains of sand that turns the sand into a kind of stone. It’s not real stone, but it’s like concrete or something. And after that they can build architecture on top of it.”

Boujon and Benayoun founded Bold-design in 2007, having met at L’Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design in Reims, France.

We’ve featured lots of other projects involving sand on Dezeen, including a robotic 3D printer that builds architectural structures from grains of sand and a tractor that prints stars onto sandy beaches.

See all our stories about sand »
See all our stories about London Design Festival »

Photographs are by Bold-design except where stated.

Here’s some more information from the designers:

Memorabilia Factory

Children (and adults) can play for hours on the beach. They create memories together by sharing time. With Memorabilia Factory, they fabricate personal and unique souvenirs using local sand, harmless bacteria and a mould inspired by native landscapes.

Memorabilia Factory is a project created on the invitation of Design Exquis, exhibition that first took place during the London Design Festival 2012. Design Exquis was a dialogue invitation on design through design, a challenge. Four designers were asked to respond in turn to the object created by a predecessor through their own design language.

Bold-design had to imagine an object after receiving a Sandpit Detector and a Beach Detector (concept design for Design Exquis). These prospective instruments are meant to analyse the quality of the sand “to pinpoint the safest environment for kids to play on the beach.”

Since we both ate sand when we were little (and still healthy), we immediately thought about finding a positive quality about these bacteria living in the sand. During our project development, we found the Sporosarcina pasteurii, a bacteria that naturally calcifies sand. This phenomenon of biological calcification is also well known for building the ‘Stromatolites’ around the coast lines of Australia and New Zealand.

Above: Memorabilia Factory displayed at the Design Exquis exhibition. Photograph by Milan Metthey

With our discovery of Soletanche-Bachy and their Biocalcis® process to use the sand in construction, we found our perfect partner for this project. When we proposed the scenario to the company, the open minded management was delighted by our idea to combine nostalgia, science and technology and gave us the opportunity to work with their scientists.

William and Julien had the chance to study and experiment with the bacteria directly into the laboratory with the help of an enthusiastic biologist. It was there that the Memorabilia Factory started to get solid. By understanding the whole process, we were able to design a handy kit for people to create their own personal souvenirs. The colour palette of sand all around the world is incredibly diverse and we want you to enjoy that diversity by bringing a piece of coloured earth home with you.

Above: the Dune of Pilat, the tallest sand dune in Europe

Three shapes for our prototypes were inspired by iconic landscapes. We chose an English landscape because the project was first exhibited in London, a French one because we are French and Koh Phi Phi Islands because that’s an amazing place.

Above: Durdle Door in Dorset, UK

Memorabilia Factory kit content:

A mould inspired by native landscapes – different shapes are available regarding your place on Earth.
A two way tool to press the sand and engrave the souvenir to personalise it with a name or a date.
The two key components to calcify the sand: a bottle of ‘Memorabilia Builders’ and a bottle of ‘Memorabilia Fixing Agent’.

By treating sand with biocalcification, the final product can be compared to a calcareous sandstone. The BIOCALCIS®: process was developed by Soletanche Bachy for the consolidation of soil in situ by injection.

Above: part of the Kho Phi Phi islands in Thailand

Partners and Credits

Technical team:
Soletanche-Bachy with the Biocalcis® process
Annette Esnault-Filet, project manager
Julie Mougeot, biologist

Creative team at bold-design:
Elise Lalique, designer
Alexis Diers, designer

Design Exquis curators:
Florian Dussopt, designer
Géraldine Vessiere, journalist

The post Memorabilia Factory
by Bold-design appeared first on Dezeen.

London Design Festival: industrial designer Benjamin Hubert has created a trestle table and bench with timber parts held in tension by sheets of bowed steel.

The trestle table rests across two sets of tripod legs, each supported by a rolled sheet of steel, while the bench sits over a single long strip of steel.

“The rolled steel allows for a great strength to weight ratio as well as economy of materials,” explained Hubert. “It also has the benefit in the bench of giving suspension to the user and some flex to the seat.”

The Bow collection launched at the designjunction trade show during London Design Festival last month, where Hubert also showed a lighting collection made of mesh fabric and a chair constructed from a piece of T-shirt-shaped curled plywood.

The pieces were produced in collaboration with Portuguese manufacturer De La Espada, who last year invited Hubert to design his first complete collection.

See all our stories about Benjamin Hubert »
See all our stories about tables »
See all our stories about benches »

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Bow by Benjamin Hubert x De La Espada
Bow is a series of furniture including a trestle table and bench launching at the London Design Festival in collaboration with Portuguese manufacturer De La Espada.

Bow is a system of simple timber frames and surfaces held in tension by a rolled sheet of mild steel. The rolled steel allows for a great strength to weight ratio swell as economy of materials. It also has the benefit in the bench of giving suspension to the user and some flex to the seat.

The integration between the steel and timber has been CNC cut to maintain a fluid integration of the two materials and geometries. The timber and steel system has also been designed to be knockdown for cost effective shipping to reduce its carbon footprint. The system has been developed over a period of 12 months after several interations of prototying and testing.

Materials:
Solid Ash Mild Steel
Dimensions:
Bench H 450mmx L1800mm x D400mm
Trestle H 740mmx L1800mm x D900mm

The post Bow by Benjamin Hubert
for De La Espada appeared first on Dezeen.

London Design Festival: this mechanical contraption by artist Martin Smith and his design company Laikingland will wake you up by chirping like a bird (+ movie).

Bird Song with a Found Feather is a mechanically operated sliding whistle that uses a bellow and levers to mimic birdsong.

“The noise is created by two cams rotating and pushing levers up and down,” explained Smith, who is also the artistic director of Laikingland. “One lever pumps the bellows, forcing air into the whistle, and the second lever adjusts the slide in the whistle in order to change the pitch and length of the chirp.”

The feather itself offers no clue to the bird imitated by the contraption. “The origins of the feather are unknown, as it was found and donated to the piece – although it is very blue,” Smith told Dezeen.

A bespoke analogue timer has been built into the piece so that the chirping sound can be used as an alarm clock.

The piece was displayed at Mint in South Kensington during the London Design Festival – see all our stories from the festival here.

We’ve featured a few other machines by Laikingland previously, including a gong timer that’s inaccurate on purpose and a cacophonous doorbell made in collaboration with Tord Boontje.

See all our stories about machines »
See all our stories about Laikingland »

Here’s some more information from Laikingland:

The concept came from the notion of waking up to the wonderful sound of birdsong. Rather than a caged living bird, an elaborate mechanically operated sliding whistle has been devised that can be set and activated when required.

I wanted a piece that could be set, as with an alarm clock, and would allow you start the day gently. I am interested in producing mechanical bird sounds and seeing the cause and effect through a mechanism. For me the making is very important and I wanted to craft every part of the machine, to understand how the bellows are constructed and operate and to get the bird whistle sounding just right.

Materials: steel, brass, fabric, motor, custom electrics and a feather
Dimensions: H 1500mm (59”) W 300mm (12”) / D 300mm (12”)
Power: 12v motor
Edition: unique
Price: on request

The post Bird Song with a Found Feather
by Martin Smith/Laikingland appeared first on Dezeen.

London Design Festival: delicate flowers and foliage are protected by the steel cages around these concrete vases by Korean designer Seung-Yong Song.

The V4 collection comprises four differently shaped vases, each with a thin walnut base.

“Lightness and heaviness, lines and lumps, smoothness and roughness, coldness and warmth – all materials and forms balance through the course of colliding and confronting within one volume,” says Song.

The vases were showcased by design company Design To Do at the 100% Design trade show during the recent London Design Festival, as part of an exhibition organised by the Korea Institute for Design Promotion.

We previously featured a collection of furniture by Song, which included chairs that double as ladders, beds or rocking chairs.

Dezeen hosted a series of talks with designers and creatives at 100% Design this year, including a discussion with Yves Behar on skeuomorphic design.

See all our stories about vases »
See all our stories about the London Design Festival »

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Seung-Yong Song appeared first on Dezeen.

Arik Levy‘s contribution to the Digital Crystal exhibition at London’s Design Museum in an interactive installation that uses visitors’ body movements to mutate computer-generated crystals (+ movie).

In Osmosis Interactive Arena, visitors enter a darkened room with a screen at one end. By stretching an arm or hopping to one side, for example, they can mutate the crystals on screen in unpredictable ways.

Israeli-born and Paris-based designer Levy was inspired by the idea that a master jewel cutter can predict the shape of a cut stone but not how it will interact with the light.

The installation “generates unexpected results that one cannot create with conventional tools or intellectualised creativity,” adds Levy.

Digital Crystal continues until 13 January 2013. We previously featured two other installations from the exhibition – a mechanical projector by London design studio Troika and a series of ‘light paintings’ made with spinning crystal beads by Philippe Malouin.

Other projects by Arik Levy we’ve featured on Dezeen include another crystal-inspired piece for Swarovski and a pebble-shaped device for opening bottles.

See all our stories about Arik Levy »
See all our stories about the Design Museum »
See all our stories about Swarovski »

Here’s a statement about the installation from Arik Levy:

Osmosis Interactive Arena

This installation creates a new bridge between the body movement, the eye, the sense of space and the impact that of all of these have over the geometric and structural mineral body.

This emotional interface transforms the object into a symphony of movement and colors, texture and density. We live on our planet not without impact, we engineer and progress not without transition… all of this generates unexpected results that one cannot create with conventional tools or intellectualised creativity.

This relates to Swarovski being a master cutter. Crystals get cut and formed by advanced tools and mechanical actions: the one and only parameter that we have a hard time to simulate or predict beforehand is the light and the way it will interact with the cut stone. This small place of incertitude is where my action takes its place and expression.

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by Arik Levy appeared first on Dezeen.