Hasta La Ideas

Milan 2013: Achille Castiglioni’s iconic Parentesi lamp has been updated with a flat LED light source by designer Konstantin Grcic, who presented his redesign at Euroluce in Milan last week.

Created for Italian lighting brand Flos, which has produced the Parentesi lamp since 1972, Konstantin Grcic’s OK lamp comprises a flat LED disc that slides up and down a steel cable and rotates 360 degrees.

The design is an update of Castiglioni’s classic Parentesi lamp, itself a version of a 1969 concept by his friend Pio Manzù, who died before it could be realised.

The cylindrical weight hanging at the bottom of Castiglioni’s design has been replaced with a conical weight that’s easier to install, but the small spun metal ceiling rose remains exactly the same.

The name of the new lamp combines the round “O” shape of the disc and the first initial of the designer’s name. OK is available in white, black, yellow and nickel.

Grcic’s Medici chair recently won the furniture category in the Designs of the Year Awards, and he launched an accompanying chair and table this year in Milan.

In January he also unveiled a bench system based on the iconic Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe – see all design by Konstantin Grcic.

Grcic was among several designers, including Marcel Wanders, Yves Behar and Tom Dixon, interviewed by Dezeen in Milan last week – see all our coverage from Milan.

Last year in Milan, Flos presented a lampshade by Paul Cocksedge that allowed visitors to stick their heads inside to view an animation.

Here’s some more information from Flos:

“It is a truly enlightening story of design evolution, the one of the Parentesi lamp. Pio Manzù’s original idea of creating a ‘light source that can slide vertically from floor to ceiling and rotate 360 degrees on its axis’ was adapted by Achille Castiglioni after his friend’s early death in 1969. A beautiful original illustration reveals the painstaking process of refinement that transformed the first schematic concepts into the final product. FLOS launched the Parentesi lamp in 1972 and it has been in continuous production ever since.

“Forty years later, much has changed. The world of lighting has seen a fundamental shift from conventional bulbs to a variety of new lighting technologies which in themselves are creating new opportunities for the design and manufacturing of lamps. Designing a lamp is no longer limited to working around a given bulb. Today, it means designing the actual bulb or light source. This challenged me to think of Parentesi, a lamp that celebrated the traditional bulb in the most effective and beautiful way. Would it be possible to rethink the Parentesi lamp once more and pass the Manzù-Castiglioni torch on to the future?” – Konstantin Grcic.

A light-emitting disk. A sun hanging from a wire. A luminous circle embracing space. All of these are OK, a flat circular shape with a wire that works like a rail and runs from the ceiling to the floor. The name incorporates the shape of the “O” and the first initial of its German designer, Konstantin. Once again, Grcic unites technological experimentation, design sensitivity and a taste for unadulterated shapes. His passion for technology and materials translates into design that speaks the languages of simplicity, innovative avant-garde and design history.

And so Grcic pays homage to an icon of Italian industrial design, redesigning the original light bulb as an ultra-flat LED surface with edge-lighting technology, directable over 360 degrees. The parenthesis-shaped tube of the original lamp maintains its vertical sliding function over the steel cable, but has now become a small rectangular box that houses the electronic components and a soft-touch switch.

The formerly cylindrical weight has been substituted by an easier-to-install cone shape. Only the small ceiling rose, designed by Achille Castiglioni, has remained identical: a beautifully shaped piece of spun metal. OK is available in white, black, yellow and nickel.

The post OK lamp by Konstantin Grcic
for Flos appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: designers including Marcel Wanders, Yves Behar, Tom Dixon and Konstantin Grcic discuss the importance of Milan design week, which ended in the city yesterday, and whether it can retain its title as the world’s leading event.

Each April, the world’s leading designers descend on the city for the fair still regarded as the most important in the world. “I come to Milan every year,” says Yves Behar. “It’s the obligatory stop.”

“It’s a moment I can’t miss,” agrees Stephen Burks. “It’s the most important week in the design calendar.”

They are joined by hundreds of thousands of international visitors including students, journalists, buyers and younger designers trying to get their work noticed.

“It gives lots of young designers a great thrill to come here and get discovered,” says Ron Arad. “My entire design team comes here to suck up new ideas and ensure they’re seeing the latest and the greatest,” says Anders Warming, head of design at MINI.

The fair owes its importance to the emergence of Milan as the world’s key centre for the design and manufacture of both furniture and products after the devastation of the Second World War, playing a key role in Italy’s economic recovery. “All of the important history of post-war furniture design happened here,” says Konstantin Grcic.

The official fair, the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, as well as the Fuori Salone events around the city, grew over the years into the sprawling citywide festival it is today. “There was a lot of excitement around [the fair], starting in the early eighties with Memphis and [Studio] Alchimia,” says Arad, citing two of the most influential Milanese design studios of the last century.

However the economic crisis of recent years and the emergence of rival design centres combined to make this year’s fair a more sober affair than recent years. “I feel like there’s a return to the reason why we are all here, which is the actual commerce of the fair,” says Johanna Agerman Ross, editor-in-chief of Disegno magazine.

“It’s certainly got much, much more competition these days,” says journalist and curator Henrietta Thompson. “The London Design Festival is fantastic these days but also Stockholm and Paris.”

Milan-based designer Fabio Novembre touches on the reasons why the city might be losing its edge: “It’s hard to take a group of Italians and make them all go in one direction,” he says. “That explains why we’re in a big crisis and why we are almost losing the importance of Salone del Mobile.”

Joseph Grima, editor-in-chief of Milanese design magazine Domus, agrees. “The city is really in need of someone who’s going to have a vision for the future,” he says.

“Milan remains the only place where you can still see everybody in one go,” says Tom Dixon. “Whether it can maintain that top spot … is hard to tell. It becomes impossible to navigate the city, you can’t get a taxi, you can’t get a hotel room and you can’t afford space to show your goods.”

Look out for more reports from Milan as part of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour in the coming days. The car featured in the movie is the MINI Paceman.

The post “It’s the most important week in
the design calendar” appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2013: French architect Jean Nouvel unveiled a pair of leather and rubber boots for Italian shoe brand Ruco Line at the Interni Hybrid Architecture and Design exhibition in Milan this week.

Jean Nouvel’s Pure footwear for Ruco Line reduces the concept of a shoe to its purest form, according to the architect.

The boots have chunky rubber soles and calf leather uppers with a stretchy Lycra lining inside.

The name of the design is printed in abbreviated form – NVL PR 13 – on the top of the boot alongside a serial number, making each pair unique.

They come in white, black, fluorescent yellow and fuchsia and are sold in translucent plastic bags.

The footwear is on show at the University of Milan as part of the Interni Hybrid Architecture and Design exhibition, which runs until 21 April, as well as elsewhere across the city, including at Nouvel’s huge installation of future office environments at SaloneUfficio.

Other fashion launches in Milan this year include Ron Arad’s 3D-printed spectacles and Tom Dixon’s collection for Adidas featuring garments that convert into luggage and camping equipment – see all fashion on Dezeen.

See more architecture and design by Jean Nouvel »
See all our coverage of Milan 2013 »
See our Milan 2013 map »

Here’s more information from Ruco Line:

Ruco Line previews Pure, the capsule collection designed by Jean Nouvel at the 2013 Milan Furniture Fair.

Ruco Line, a company specialised in the making of high quality designer sneakers, presents Pure, the capsule collection created through the collaboration with the French starchitect Jean Nouvel, dedicated to those who love purity of form. It is the first time that Nouvel explores the world of fashion, transferring his creative vision to an accessory that, beyond the standards of quality, functionality and aesthetics, is a true object of desire. A new perspective for the architect, who goes from the macro to the micro, from the designing of large buildings to that of a shoe, for which Nouvel has always had a passion.

The starting point is the architecture of the shoe, the work of taking away that is characteristic of Nouvel and his search for the ultimate essence of things. The result is a sneaker with a strong identity, a tradition with Ruco Line, for which linearity and essentiality are two cornerstones. The basic concept of the design is the monolith, the search for the elementary that is at the foundation of Jean Nouvel’s creative philosophy. The resulting simplicity is only apparent, the fruit of research that aims at the archetype that best expresses the object’s nature. The complexity, therefore, is dissembled and is perceived only when the sneaker is put on: the bottom, highlighted by a double band, is light and the purity of form gives the shoe a versatility that makes it right at any time during the day.

This complexity, or as Nouvel defines it, this contradiction between opposites becomes a creative paradigm. It makes reference to many dichotomies: simple/complex, light/heavy, macro/micro, universal/special.

This last contrast is developed through attention to details, to the personalisation created by means of the graphic elements that make each shoe unique. The graphic element that identifies Pure, which is also the result of the work of taking away in which the vowels are eliminated from the nouns, will be imprinted on the shoe upper together with a serial ID of the sneaker, making it unrepeatable. It is a refusal of standardisation and homologation, bringing the individual and their unique, original being back into the fore.

Pure, which Ruco Line is previewing at the Milan Furniture Fair, is made from the finest leather, emphasising even more the sneaker’s strong identity, in the neutral, white and black variations and in the bright fluorescent yellow and fuchsia colours.

Pure will be presented in Milan, following an itinerary including the symbolic places of fashion and design, two worlds that influence each other more and more often. The first models in the capsule collection will be shown at the Ruco Line stores on Via della Spiga and Corso di Porta Ticinese; in the concept shop 10CorsoComo; at Antonia Uomo on the second floor of the Excelsior; in the Design Supermarket on the basement floor of la Rinascente and in Spazio Rossana Orlandi; at the event Hybrid Architecture & Design organised by interns at the University of Milan; at the Brera Gallery, as part of the Spazio Umbria project and, lastly, at the iSaloni – Salone Ufficio, within the Project: office for living exhibition created by Jean Nouvel himself in Pav. 24.

The capsule collection will be presented in the display case designed by Jean Nouvel, in which one can see once again those elements of clean forms and linearity that have been the guiding thread of his creative opus. The shoes are inside transparent plastic sacks that are hanging inside clear Plexiglas showcases, underlining the importance of arriving immediately at the ultimate essence of the object, the pureness of the shoe.

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for Ruco Line appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2013: pinching steel clips for holding candles and chairs with legs that tuck into pockets feature in the latest range of products by Italian brand Discipline (+ slideshow).

Above: Clip Candleholders by Nendo

Japanese studio Nendo‘s contributions to the collection include the pinching steel candle holders shaped like fruit, a coat stand made of rectangular steel frames and a similar glass-topped side table.

Above: Linking Rings by Claesson Koivisto Rune

Frameless mirrors set into oval bases and sand-cast tables with round or square tops were created by Swedish designers Claesson Koivisto Rune.

Above: Slice desk organiser by James Irvine

A desk organiser sculpted from a solid piece of cork was designed by James Irvine, who passed away earlier this year.

Above: Pocket Chair by Ding3000

Among the chairs in the collection, one by Ding3000 has wooden legs that tuck into pockets in sides of the leather seat and another by Ichiro Iwasaki is cushioned with cork.

Above: Peg hooks by Jonah Takagi

Accessories include Johanna Dehio‘s waste paper bin with colourful compartments and Jonah Takagi‘s simple coat pegs.

Above: Quarter bin by Johanna Dehio

Discipline is exhibiting the products at Via Pietro Mascagni 4, the same location it launched it’s inaugural collection last year.

Above: Bridge stool by Ichiro Iwasaki

Other product ranges debuting in Milan include the Unexpected Welcome collection by Moooi and new furniture and lighting by Front.

Above: Clip Coat Hanger by Nendo

See all our coverage of Milan 2013 »
See our Milan 2013 map »

Here’s some more information from Discipline:

Pianissimo – Lars Beller Fjetland

A hanging lamp made with a special processing of cork which, cut in light leaves, becomes sinuous like fabric. The upper and lower parts are in glass; the illumination is LED, both direct and indirect.

Drifted – Lars Beller Fjetland

Designed by the young, brilliant Norwegian naturalist designer Lars Beller Fjetland, the Drifted series is the perfect synthesis of the Discipline style. Three stools – in low, high and bar versions, with a cork back, and a chair recall the purity and essentiality of the design – a light structure in oak, comfortable seat, impermeable and lasting, and interlocking assembly make this series unique. The structure is available in 3 colours and the seat in light or dark natural cork.

Above: Puck round table by Claesson Koivisto Rune

Linking Rings – Claesson Koivisto Rune

A minimalist, sober and elegant mirror with a little bamboo shelf on the structure in MDF which makes it light yet resistant. Available in two sizes and 3 colour versions, it is suitable for any type of environment.

Puck – Claesson Koivisto Rune

A small table with metal feet and a steel base treated with a sandcasting process, available both round and square. Particularly suitable for public spaces.



Above: Turné fruit bowl by Pauline Deltour

Quarter Bin – Johanna Dehio

An innovative bin with compartments, modular, for the home or the office, suitable for separating paper, tins and plastic. It is in wood and the individual modules can be combined and joined via a system of magnets, enabling the space to be optimised.

Turné – Pauline Deltour

The fruit bowl becomes an elegant, sophisticated furnishing element. Available in two finishes, mahogany or ash.

Above: Roulé gold tray by Pauline Deltour

Roulé – Pauline Deltour

A tray shouldn’t just be limited to its function but please and move. The sophisticated shape, rounded edges and sought-after materials make it luxurious in its simplicity. Pauline has also designed a little table, in ash or mahogany, where the Roulé tray becomes the top of the table. The series is further enriched by a glass mat, a little tray, a bowl and a centrepiece.

Pocket Chair – Ding 3000

An eccentric solution for this little armchair in natural cuoietto leather with a soft-touch effect. It slips over the wooden structure like a glove, the frame remaining suspended on the structure guaranteeing a surprising adaptability of the seat. The welcoming shape gives it a familiar yet sophisticated air. Washable and resistant, it can be used in different contexts.

Above: Gemma Box by Gemma Holt

Gemma Box – Gemma Holt

This looks like a simple block of wood but the top is a lid held by little magnets. A box or, better, a secret, multi-functional box, in 4 sizes and three finishes – ash, walnut and oak.

Slice – James Irvine

The desk organiser ‘Slice’ is made from a block of solid cork and is an elegant item of classic design which becomes original, contemporary and light through the choice of the material. It can house everything that’s required on a desk, from paper clips to the smartphone, and the pen to the tablet, in its rationally divided sections.

Above: Bridge table by Ichiro Iwasaki

Bridge – Ichiro Iwasaki

The Discipline collection is extended by a range for the outdoors – chair, stool, bench and table, featuring a simple, essential and elegant structure. The chair is in Iroko, a particularly resistant African wood suitable for outside; the structure in treated steel and the back in aluminium give the series robustness and lightness. Available in four colours to create combinations never trivial.

Clip Candleholder – Nendo

The minimalist style of the Japanese studio emerges in the clean lines, emptying of the volumes and the functionality of the items. The slender steel structure of Clip candleholders evokes the shape of fruit and the functional spring system enables any standard candle to be adapted to it.

Above: Clip Side Table by Nendo

Clip Coat Hanger – Nendo

Taking off the clothes worn in the open air so that you can be comfortable in your own home is one of the most comforting feelings associated with well-being. Just like having an object which carries out this function and, at the same time, exalts the aesthetic value. The Clip coat stand, which hooks and hangers can also be attached to, is functional, essential and features the clean lines typical of the Japanese studio. It adapts perfectly to every room where it will certainly be noticed because of its refined elegance. Available in three colours.

Clip Side Table – Nendo

The clean, severe lines and the minimal structure in steel supporting the solid, extra-clear glass top make CLIP a side table able to give every sitting room, office or waiting room a discreet touch of aesthetics and elegance. Available in two sizes and three colours.

Above: Smusso chair by Philippe Nigro

Smusso – Philippe Nigro

Sophisticated, flexible, light and sustainable, Smusso features a monocoque in natural bamboo, cut out to ensure lightness and transpiration, attached to a structure in light, robust steel. It is marked by a transverse design, available in the version with or without arms, and is easy to include in the domestic environment or public spaces. The rotating structure and the height adjustable one, with or without wheels, make it especially suitable as an individual desk or conference room chair. Available in the warm natural colour of bamboo or the more formal black.

Peg – Jonah Takagi

The coat stand becomes an element of style and personality. Simple and linear, in wood, in four colours to create bright colour combinations on the walls.

The post New products
by Discipline appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2013: work by the late James Irvine and other international designers has been reproduced in black marble for this collection by Marsotto Edizioni, unveiled in Milan this week.

Above: Ipe tondo and Ipe quadro sidetables by James Irvine

Just Black inverts a selection of Italian brand Marsotto Edizioni‘s products in white Carrara marble by replicating the designs in black Marquina marble.

Above: Gina fruit bowl by James Irvine

British designer James Irvine, who passed away in February, was the company’s art director. Dark versions of his Ipe tondo and Ipe quadro side tables and his simple fruit bowl designs are included in this collection.

Above: Pia fruit bowl by James Irvine

Thomas Sandell‘s melting bookcase features alongside Claesson Koivisto Rune‘s monolithic low square table and Jasper Morrison‘s London, Paris and Rome tables.

Above: Pina fruit bowl by James Irvine

Other contributing designers include Konstantin Grcic, Naoto Fukasawa and Ross Lovegrove.

Above: Gallery table by Claesson Koivisto Rune

The original collection was presented during Milan design week in 2010 and has been annually reinterpreted ever since – see our story about the range here.

Above: London table by Jasper Morrison

On show until tomorrow, the exhibition is located at Galleria d’Arte, Via Brera 16.

Above: Melt bookcase by Thomas Sandell

See all of our stories about Milan 2013 »
See our Milan 2013 map »

Here’s some more information from Costanza Olfi and Mario Marsotto:

Just black 2013

Variations on a theme. After the absolute predominance of white, Marsotto edizioni now presents a selection of products in Black Marquina marble. The radical contrast produces entirely different effects, as in a sort of reversed image of the objects. Last year, it was the individual lines that stood out. Now it is the piece as a whole that reveals the essence of its design.

Above: Taksim side table by Konstantin Grcic

The black, non-light, forcefully asserts its presence, emphasizing the character and functionality of each object. Thus the collection acquires a renewed balance: alongside the ethereal lightness of white are the depth, weight and texture that are so ideally expressed in black.

Above: Eco book ends by Ross Lovegrove

The harmonious proportions that have always been the hallmark of each item in the Marsotto edizioni collection are naturally unvaried, together with that touch of elegance which black cannot but enhance.

Above: Poodle table by Naoto Fukasawa

And so a veritable metamorphosis has occurred, where the vibrant impact of black actually reinterprets each single piece. Enriching it with emotional, totemic values that strike a chord.

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Marsotto Edizioni appeared first on Dezeen.