London Design Festival 2013: British designer Jasper Morrison and Japanese designer Wataru Kumano have designed a self-assembly chair with a linen seat and backrest (+ slideshow).
The chair comprises an ash wood frame and a linen seat and backrest. It is intended to work in a country home, city apartment or hotel lobby, according to the designers.
Morrison and Kumano wanted to create a chair that could be bought in a box and built at home by following simple instructions.
“The core of the design is the seat frame which is already assembled, to which the legs and backrest structure are attached with a combination of screwing and gluing,” Morrison explained.
“It’s a basic but comfortable low chair with a slightly rural character and definite Scandinavian influence,” he added.
London Design Festival 2013: these round stools by Stockholm designer Kyuhyung Cho can be stacked thanks to a ring of holes around the edge of each seat.
Kyuhyung Cho designed the Poke Stool for British brand Innermost. It features four round legs and has eight holes in the seat. When not in use, the legs can be poked through the holes of another stool.
“The twist of each stool added creates a rhythm as the stack grows higher,” said Cho.
“The composition of different colours and variations to the rhythm lead us create our own structure, like a geometric sculpture,” he added.
The stools are available from Innermost in black, white, natural wood, red, yellow, green and blue. They are made from laquered timber and are 44 centimetres in height.
London Design Festival 2013: Lebanese designer Najla El Zein has sent us this movie showing her 5000 spinning paper windmills being installed in a doorway at the V&A museum in London (+ movie).
In the movie, Zein says that the installation aims to make visitors feel and hear that they are transitioning between two spaces. “It defines an exaggeration of a specific sensorial moment that each one of us experiences throughout our daily lives,” she says.
“The wind portal tries to grasp and emphasise common emotions and senses that are often forgotten,” she adds.
The film also shows the designer creating each of the windmills by hand-folding paper and fixing them in place with hand-sculpted wooden joints. Each windmill is then attached to the vertical poles with 3D-printed clips.
A computerised wind system controls which windmills spin at any time by letting air escape through tiny holes in the uprights. “Different speeds of wind were programmed, resulting in different speeds, sounds and feelings,” explains the designer.
Later in the film, visitors can be seen walking through the two parted gates, which although static, appear to be shut when viewed from certain angles. “According to the angle you are positioned, one would perceive the gate as being closed. As soon as you approach it the gate seems to open up,” Zein says.
Photography and films are courtesy of Najla El Zein Studio.
Here’s a full project description from the designer:
The Wind Portal
The Wind Portal is a walk-through installation that represents a transition space from an inside to an outside area. It defines an exaggeration of a specific sensorial moment that each one of us experiences throughout our daily lives.
Wind and sound are the elements that makes us understand our environmental context.
The Wind Portal installation is shaped as a monumental gate of eight metre-high and composed of thousands of paper windmills that spin, thanks to an integrated wind system.
The aim was to make visitors feel, hear and become aware of transitioning through two spaces.
The wind portal tries to grasp and emphasise on common emotions and senses that are often forgotten.
Its architectural shape works as an illusion effect where, according to the angle you are positioned from, one would perceive the gate as being closed. As soon as you approach it the gate seems to open up.
The installation blends in different technologies and materials such as hand-folded paper windmills, hand-sculpted wooden joints, 3D printed clips, and a complex wind and light computerised system.
Different flows of wind are programmed resulting into different speeds, sounds and feelings. The light, which seems to play with the wind flow, gives us an impression of a breathing piece. Indeed, the gate breathes in and out, where wind is its main source of life.
Studio team: Najla El Zein, Dina Mahmoud, Sara Moundalek, Sarah Naim Lighting designer and automation: Maurice Asso and Hilights
London Design Festival 2013: the restaurateurs behind east London restaurant Les Trois Garçons have launched a furniture collection in collaboration with Portuguese manufacturer De Pau (+ slideshow).
Side table 1
The collection marks the launch of L3G Designs, an interior design firm led by Hassan Abdullah, Michel Lasserre and James Gold, co-owners of Les Trois Garçons and London bar LoungeLover.
The first collection, called DP pour Les Trois Garçons, launched last week during London Design Festival and comprises twelve pieces including side tables, coffee tables, shelves, sideboards and seating.
Coffee table. Photograph by Luke Hayes
Speaking to Dezeen at the launch event, creative director Abdullah said that the collection was designed to fit in different environments. “Having the possibility to change the shape and look of the items also maximises the appeal and the practicality of the items,” he told Dezeen. “For instance the coffee table made of two triangles could be reconfigured from a square coffee table to suit a rectangular space.”
Abdullah further explained that customers can custom-select materials, colours and sizes for each product. “For L3G Designs, we think it is very important that clients can order the products to their own requirements without the price of bespoke furniture,” he said. “Not everyone has the same colour scheme or preference for the type of wood, marble and metals.”
Side table 2. Photograph by Luke Hayes
One side table has two brass-clad drawers stacked on top of one another. “It pivots for ease of use and it is also stackable to create a chest or a tallboy,” explained the designers.
A second table features three stacked units of brass, marble and oak, which gradually increase in size towards the top.
Side table 3
A third cube-shaped side table has contrasting colours and retractable sliding trays on all four sides.
Coffee table 1. Photograph by Luke Hayes
A multileveled coffee table made in solid oak has square inserts available in glass, mirror or marble.
Coffee table 2. Photograph by Luke Hayes
A series of interlocking tables with coloured edges and of varying heights form a second coffee table design. “The taller one can be used for TV dinners or playing games,” explained the designers. “The configuration of the tables can be changed to create an ever-changing look.”
Shelving unit
A modular shelving unit made from solid oak has compartments that can be moved and fixed at varying heights.
Shelving unit 2. Photograph by Luke Hayes
A second shelving system has a solid oak frame and coloured drawers and cabinets that can be positioned in different places.
Sideboard 3
The collection also includes an oak framed sideboard with coloured drawers and doors, available with brass or wooden feet and door handles.
Les Trois Garçons is delighted to present its debut furniture collection. Designed in collaboration with DP [De Pau], the collection is a fusion of meticulous design, natural materials and traditional skills.
Coffee table 2. Photograph by Luke Hayes
The grace and simplicity of this range combines the refinement and elegance that has brought Les Trois Garcons international acclaim with the uncompromising quality of DP, a family-owned business that has been making furniture in Portugal for three generations.
Shelving unit 1
The simple lines and natural materials make for a collection to suit any home. Comfort and convenience are the hallmarks of the collection; all the furniture comes in a variety of finishes to suit your taste, and many of the items are customisable.
Arm chair 2. Photograph by Luke Hayes
The range will be available for sale on our website and at a handpicked selection of the world’s finest retailers.
About L3G Designs
L3G Designs is a boutique interior design firm that specialises in high-end hospitality, retail and residential projects. Having enjoyed great success with their own restaurant Les Trois Garcons, and bar LoungeLover, L3G Designs also provides F&B consulting services.
Under the creative direction of Hassan Abdullah, L3G create imaginative, memorable and elegant new spaces.
The Bloated Shelf by Damien Gernay comprises an ash wood frame and four shelves made from sheets of leather filled with expanded foam. One side of the leather is glued to a wooden board to create the flat surface.
“The idea originates from the image of a prominent belly, constrained by a belt,” said Gernay. “The leather inflates in a natural way, making each piece unique,” he added.
The unit stands at 175 centimetres tall and is 85 centimetres wide.
The shelf forms part of the designer’s range of furniture using leather and foam, which includes a stool with a black leather seat. Gernay said the collection intends to “create a dialogue between a rigid structure and a flexible skin.”
The Bloated Shelf and Bloated Stool are on display at the Cabinets of Curiosity exhibition at Mint shop, 2 North Terrace, Alexander Square, London, SW3 2BA until 30 September 2013.
London Design Festival 2013: new studio Brose~Fogale has launched a valet stand, dresser and set of mirrors, which were installed in an east London boutique last week (+ slideshow).
Brose~Fogale‘s Camerino Collection includes a valet stand that balances on a horizontal bar and props up against the wall.
Clothing can hang from poles that stick out from the central stem.
It also has two shelves for shoes or accessories in front and a circular mirror to one side near the top.
The dresser has legs at each end that match a circular copper-tinted mirror, which sits atop a third stand protruding through the surface of the table.
The mirror is also available in a hand-held version, shaped like a table tennis bat with a wooden handle, or as a tabletop model with a small tray at its base.
Separate trays for loose change and other small objects also feature in the range, as well as angled coat pegs with rounded ends.
All are available in natural wood or painted in bright colours.
Here’s some more information from the designers about the installation:
The Artist’s Dressing Room
Start London joins forces with up and coming design studio, Brose~Fogale to celebrate the London Design Festival 2013.
Brose~Fogale, a partnership between designers Matteo Fogale and Joscha Brose will take over Start’s store windows from 14 to 22 September, showcasing their new Camerino Collection and reinterpreting the idea of an artist’s dressing room with their modern, contemporary furniture.
The installation is titled “The Artist’s Dressing Room”, which translates to Camerino in Spanish and Italian. Kate Moss before a fashion show, Marilyn Monroe preparing for her next hollywood shoot – the name instantly evokes images of glamour and excitement. It is this special place, and the five minutes before the curtain gets lifted that are magical, full of concentration, excitement and glamour.
Brose~Fogale, through their inspiring and original display will be recreating this scene in the Start Womenswear boutique located at 42 – 44 Rivington Street, and allowing the public to catch a glimpse of this intimate and never before seen moment.
“I’m really passionate about this acquisition,” says Long, who is senior curator of contemporary architecture, design and digital at the V&A and was heavily involved in acquiring the gun.
“It has caused a lot of fuss in the press, that the V&A would acquire something like this. But what I’ve been pleased about is that most people have seen it not as something deliberately shocking but as a really good signpost to where manufacturing might be going and the implications of new technology.”
The original prototypes did not arrive at the museum in time for London Design Festival, so the museum printed out a copy in London based on Wilson’s blueprints.
“We have guns in the collection; we have all the relevant licences to import firearms,” Long explains. “The only problem we have is getting an export licence. We’ve had the Department for Culture and Media here involved, we’ve had all of our technical services people involved. It’s been an immense bureaucratic effort.”
Wilson, a self-proclaimed anarchist, made the blueprints for the weapon available online through his Defence Distributed website, before the US government ordered them to be taken down. Long says that the politics of Wilson’s gun is what gets him excited.
“Something that I’m really passionate about at the V&A is to show the political backgrounds of things, even when they might not be palatable,” he says.
“I don’t believe everyone should be carrying guns and that’s not what we’re advocating here. What we are saying is this is possible and we might have to do something about it if we don’t want these things to happen.”
He continues: “The design of the gun and its distribution online is an act of politics as much as an act of design and that’s when I get really excited because I think design is something that can tell us about the world.”
Long believes the weapon has also turned the conversation about the future implications of 3D printing on its head.
“There’s been a lot of technocratic optimism around 3D printing, particularly in the design world,” he says.
“But when Cody Wilson released [the digital files for his 3D-printed gun online] it really transformed that conversation. It changed it into ethical issues around how we want to live together, how new technologies affect our relationships with one another. This gun, just sitting there, is pregnant with all of those questions.”
He continues: “Design for me is the thing that really focusses those questions. And when you see this thing for real you think: ‘All these things, can they go together and kill someone?’ The answer, simply, is yes.”
Kieran Long
We drove to the V&A in our MINI Cooper S Paceman. The music featured in the movie is a track called Temple by London band Dead Red Sun.
London Design Festival 2013: designers Laetitia de Allegri and Eva Feldkamp have created a collection of furniture and products including a magazine holder that resembles a toast rack (+ slideshow).
Photograph by Richard Hanson for the Brompton Design District
Laetitia de Allegri and Eva Feldkamp showed a selection of products designed individually, alongside three designs created in collaboration that were inspired by sailing.
“I sailed for the first time two years ago and I love everything about it,” Laetitia de Allegri told Dezeen. “The closeness to nature, the design of the boats, the materials, techniques, everything is so simple and beautiful.”
A beech tray features a linear arrangement of wooden slats joined using the process of caulking that traditionally creates a non-slip seal on boat decking.
Door handles sand cast from aluminium or gunmetal reference the curving form of propeller blades.
The duo’s foldable stool can be hung on the wall to display the fabric that creates its seat when unfurled. The fabric is attached to a horizontal bar that holds it in tension when in use and weighs it down when hung up.
Laetitia de Allegri exhibited a range of side tables and stools with colourful bands of glazing based on the look of the frayed ends of rugs.
De Allegri also showed a magazine rack that supports magazines between three protruding vertical fins. The product is available in marble or colourful ceramic.
Eva Feldkamp showed a pair of ceramic carafes with forms that reference their contents. The taller, slimmer vessel is for water, while the rounder one is used for pouring milk.
Feldkamp’s other product is a tape cutter comprising aluminium sections and a circular blade that can be stacked to create a tool for accurately cutting rolls of tape into strips of a desired width.
Photograph by Richard Hanson for the Brompton Design District
Drawing on the technical expertise developed throughout their studio work, the duo Laetitia de Allegri and Eva Feldkamp launch their debut exhibition, Issue No. 1, in a tribute to feminine sensibility at London Design Festival this September. Against a landscape of colours, a selection of independent projects – side tables, magazine racks, carafe and a tape cutter – are showcased alongside three feature collaborations: a series of door handles, a foldable stool and a tray, each inspired by the mood and feel of sailing.
The inspiration underpinning the collection is the free spirit of sailing. Through our projects, we explore its associated shapes, materials and techniques alongside its relationship to nature.
Door handle
The door handles capture the sensitivity experienced in the repetitive touching of an everyday object. All three handle types are sand cast, as is each shape – some from aluminium, some from gunmetal. This project revisits the domestication of a product that is technical in its design, yet involves the senses in its use, embodying the perfect balance between function and tactility
Foldable stool
This stool’s function is twofold. In its closed position, it can be hung on the wall to create a framework for the fabric that gently drops down lengthwise. The weight of a stitched inner tube creates a slight tension to display the material. When unfolded, the tube centers the fabric in between two simple frames joined at an axis, forming the seat.
Sparks by Laetitia de Allegri
SparkS is a collection of playful, ceramic side tables and stools, based on colour experiments in glazings. They were intended to be placed next to a sofa or bed, but are equally at home on terraces or in gardens. The superimposed colours were inspired by the frayed ends of rugs bundled together on display, fusing together to create a coincidental new world of colour. Dimensions: 350 x 350 x 540mm (Tall round Table), 300 x 300 x 240mm (Small round Table)
Photograph by Flurin Bertschinger
Untitled Nº 01 by Laetitia de Allegri
Untitled Nº01, marble magazine rack, has been created for the exhibition No function – no Sense? for DEPOT BASEL in August 2012. Dimensions: 310 x 400 x 210mm
Untitled Nº 02 by Laetitia de Allegri
Untitled Nº02, ceramic magazine rack. Dimensions: 310 x 400 x 210mm
Carafe by Eva Feldkamp
Similar in form, these two carafes are distinguishable by the liquid each is made to hold. The fresher, slimmer carafe complements the flowing, refreshing and transparent quality of water, while the rounder, deeper bellied carafe evokes the rich, nourishing quality of milk. Dimensions: 255 x 75 x 75mm 230 x 80 x 80mm
Tape cutter by Eva Feldkamp
Personal tool to customise the width of tape, composed of turned aluminium layers and circular knife. When the layers of turned aluminium are stacked to a certain height the tape can be cut precisely into a specific width. Pressure controls the number of layers, and with that, the length of the cut piece. Dimensions: 65 x 55 x 55mm
London Design Festival 2013:sound machines that transform and distort visitors’ voices feature in this interactive installation by Japanese designer Yuri Suzuki (+ slideshow + movie).
The Garden of Russolo at the Victoria and Albert museum comprises voice-activated devices that Yuri Suzuki calls White Noise Machines. Each processor is housed in a wooden box on four legs and has a horn on one side that receives sounds made by visitors and emits the transformed noises.
“If you speak or scream into one of the boxes, it captures your voice and translates it into various effects,” Suzuki told Dezeen.
Each box is fitted with a Raspberry Pi computer to process the sounds it receives and each machine is programmed to create a different effect.
One machine plays sounds back in reverse, another creates musical notes and another can speed up or slow down sounds when a handle on the side is turned.
Suzuki told Dezeen that he created the machines to allow people to appreciate the sounds that they can make. “You never realise or feel the sounds that you are creating and the sounds that you do create disappear almost immediately,” said Suzuki.
“I wanted to create a way for people to capture sound and a moment for them to realise how interesting it is,” he added.
Suzuki originally designed the White Noise Machines for the Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi, India, in 2009 where he was a resident artist.
The Garden of Russolo was on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum last week as part of the London Design Festival. “A museum gallery is a great location to present this idea as most museums tend to be quiet and people care more about the noise they create,” said Suzuki.
Here’s a film of visitors interacting with the machines in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Sackler Centre foyer:
Here’s another film of the sound machines in the V&A’s John Madejski Garden:
Suzuki told Dezeen that he named the installation after Italian Futurist painter and composer Luigi Russolo. “He treated noise as music and created machines purely to create big noises,” Suzuki said.
Yuri Suzuki is an artist who explores the territory of sound and design by developing devices under the theme of sound-technology and music-human relationships. In our daily lives, we are unconsciously surrounded by environmental sound, but sound influences people’s minds to a great extent. Suzuki produced numerous works focusing on this “noise”.
One representative work is sound-taxi: a London black cab outfitted with a sound collector microphone and many speakers records the surrounding noise, converts it into music, and outputs it real time.
Additionally, he produced Child Chiller, which uses the visible effect of “white noise” to erase noise with some other noise. This uses the noise that resembles the sound in Mother’s womb and is said to relax and stop babies from crying.
Similarly, this time, V&A introduces the new work, “White Noise Machine”, that asks about “the sound-human relationship” using this “white noise”.
It is based on “silent city” project during his residence at Khoj Artist Association in New Delhi in 2010 to erase the town’s noise. He says New Delhi is the noisiest city that he ever visited and could not stand the noise, which normally he comfortably enjoys. So he used the noise erasing effect for TV static called white noise and made a device that produces the same amount of noise in order to make the noisy city silent.
Throughout his works, Suzuki’s problem consciousness always stays at “sound” and “physical law”. He conveys invisible “sound” and “mechanism of things moving” to viewers as a fun experience. Substance itself is at the same time an object that explains it. His concept is simple, clear and design is pop, that’s what makes it good. It is rare to find a designer who is so good at making an entrance to products’ humorous part. It is strange that while looking at his works the machines become loveable and almost human-like.
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