Hasta La Ideas

Milan 2014: Dutch designer Maarten Baas‘s circus-themed show at Milan design week, featuring a welded metal gum ball machine and modified arcade game, was created to “emphasise the circus that Milan is” (+ slideshow + interview).

Baas‘s show was installed in an empty garage in the new 5 VIE design district during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, which took place from 8 to 13 April.

Visitors followed a red carpet that led them through a presentation with fairground music and surreal objects created specifically for the event, as well as some of the designer’s latest work for clients and galleries.

“The starting point was to emphasise the circus that Milan is,” Baas told Dezeen, adding that the event has become more about presenting photogenic objects for promotional purposes than retail-ready products.

“It hardly makes sense to develop a piece from A to Z and then present it in Milan because in the end it’s nothing more than a snapshot for sharing on Facebook, and the product is never sold even though it’s widely published,” he said.

Baas and his team spent three weeks in Milan producing pieces for the exhibition, many of which were deliberately fabricated to look good in photographs, but were, in fact, very roughly finished.

These pieces included a chair with a randomly shaped seat upholstered in a red fabric that was held together at the back with sticky tape.

To enhance the idea of creative freedom and that “everything was possible”, Baas exhibited new limited edition works for London and Paris gallery Carpenters Workshop Gallery alongside pieces made from polystyrene that were thrown out after the fair.

To tie in with the circus theme, Baas replaced the playful seats of rocking rides commonly found at fairgrounds or shopping malls with a range of adulterated alternatives including a welded metal box, an upholstered four-legged creature and a foil-covered blob embellished with coloured lights.

Inside two booths built against the walls of the exhibition space, actors dressed as clowns sat surrounded by everyday paraphernalia, representing Baas’s recent collaborations with Dutch theatre group De Kwekerij.

A gumball machine in Baas’s cartoon-like style dispensed oversized pills instead of sweets, while chairs and lamp shades were presented on a carousel with a stripy tree at its centre.

Summarising his thoughts on the overwhelming volume of products launched by design brands in Milan and the reason for his own avant-garde presentation, Baas said: “for the visitor [to Milan], your whole critical system is kind of wobbling in the end – you kind of swallow everything and that’s what I wanted to break open.”

The exhibition was coproduced by Ventura Projects, the organisation behind the Ventura Lambrate design district. It was presented alongside a separate show dedicated to the work of designers and companies with whom Baas collaborates, including Den Herder Production, Bertjan Pot and Nightshop.

Photography is by Kazoe van den Dobbelsteen.

Here’s an edited version of Dezeen’s interview with Maarten Baas:

Marcus Fairs: Tell us about the show you’ve set up in Milan.

Maarten Baas: In the Circus there’s a lot that reflects my ideas. The starting point was to emphasise the circus that Milan is and also that things are very much about showing nice pictures. It hardly makes sense to develop a piece from A to Z and then present it in Milan because in the end it’s nothing more than a snapshot to share on Facebook or whatever. And then the product is never sold, even though it’s widely published. So I think it’s not needed to develop the product totally. So I made a lot of improvised pieces that look good from one side and are taped together from the back side in order to anticipate that way or working.

That’s one thing and another thing that was important was that it was so crazy, I wanted to get rid of all the critical voices in your head saying “This is not done!” “You cannot do this!” All the things that in the creative process are blocking your creativity. I threw it all out, all the ideas, I put bronze next to polystyrene pieces, very expensive €40,000 pieces next to things that we are going to throw in the garbage after the fair. We cut a Bambi in half and made a trophy out of it, we made a rocket going through the sky, everything was possible and I wanted to explode all those ideas.

Also for the visitor, your whole critical system is wobbling in the end. You kind of swallow everything. That’s what I want to break open.

Marcus Fairs: Describe the show for people who haven’t seen it.

Maarten Baas: We’re here close to the Duomo, five minutes walk from the Duomo. I always like to be not in the popular zones. This is a new zone called 5VIE and it’s a kind of garage. Since I’ve put a circus in it you could say it’s a circus tent. It’s an open space where I put all my pieces around a red catwalk carpet. You walk in one direction and go around all the pieces in a certain order and then you go out having seen the entertaining show.

Marcus Fairs: You have some kiosks with actors dressed as clowns in them.

Maarten Baas: I collaborated a lot this year with other artists, other designers but also theatre people. Also last year I designed a set for a theatre play in Holland. I see design in the widest sense of the word as anything that is creative in whatever way and where the creativity becomes reality or hits the market. I want to use design as a platform where everything like that can happen. So theatre and music and all kinds of things that are somehow connected.

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“emphasise the circus that Milan is” appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: Japanese architect Jo Nagasaka has created a collection of spongy seats by tying up blocks of foam and dipping them in rubber.

Nagasaka, who is principal of architecture studio Schemata Architects, based the Shibari series on the traditional Japanese art form of the same name, which means “to tie something with string”.

The series, created for Japanese design brand Ichiro Inc, was presented at Spazio Rossana Orlandi during the Salone del Mobile in Milan earlier this month.

To create the pieces of furniture, foam sheets were folded and tied up into bulging forms with rope. They were then dipped in a rubber coating. Each piece is a different irregular shape and comes in black or white.

Different types of furniture – stools, sofas or tables – can be created by varying the way the foam is folded and tied. The lightweight items can then be carried around by using the knot as a handle. “We are envisioning furniture that generates different activities according to what we tie and how we tie,” said Nagasaka.

Shibari is reputed to have evolved from Hojo-jutsu, the martial art of restraining captives by tying them up with rope. Samurai warriors honoured high-status captives by binding them in elaborate and flattering ways.

This later evolved into Shibari, an erotic form of bondage that involves tying up the human body in such a way that the knots and ropes act upon pressure points to create an effect similar to shiatsu or acupuncture.

See all our stories from Milan 2014.

Photography is by Hirotaka Hashimoto.

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seating by Jo Nagasaka appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: this plastic table by Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka for Italian brand Kartell resembles cut glass.

Tokujin Yoshioka‘s Twinkle table for Kartell refracts light in a similar way to crystal glass. “The table explores a new possibility of plastic,” said Yoshioka. “Twinkle is a table that shines like a crystal by reflection of light.”

The polycarbonate breakfast table is made using injection moulding, a manufacturing process that allows for a table size that would not be possible to create from glass.

Changes in the thickness of the material created by the shape of the mould produces a prism effect.

With a square base, the table features shallow grooves that run along the single pedestal leg and spread out from the centre beneath the larger square table top.

The table was exhibited at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2014, which concluded on Sunday.

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sparkles like crystal glass appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: dripping water from ice-encased tropical plants and quietly rotating feather-patterned fans featured in this climate-themed exhibition by Italian research centre Fabrica (+ slideshow).

Industrial, graphic and interactive designers at Fabrica created a series of sensory installations that aimed “to give a visual and experiential form to temperature” for air conditioning brand Daikin, in Milan last week.

Thirty-six exhibits were installed within a laboratory-like setting entitled Hot & Cold.

Following research into the effects of temperature, the designers curated a series of kinetic, material and sound-based works led by the project’s creative director Sam Baron.

“In this project we conceived design as a practice that must communicate through form and function, a design that sets out from an object, and reaches towards sound, graphics and interactivity,” said Baron.

Works on display included Migration, which comprised five motorised exhibits with hand-illustrated feathers. These represented the migration patterns of birds, characterised by height, distance and flock sizes during flight, said the project team.

“We loved the idea of birds migrating from one climate to another, as an expression of cold to hot and vice versa,” design team member Dean Brown told Dezeen.

The Solar exhibit used NASA’s interpretations of what planets sound like. In the centre of the exhibition, the team hung a mechanical model of Venus and Neptune, the hottest and coldest planets, orbiting the sun.

A sculpture called Air was made from suspended borosilicate glass letters, a material which is typically used in laboratories and resists extremely high temperatures.

“We discovered that you can burn the glass on the inside,” said Brown. “These oil lanterns are slowing charring the inside of the glass and by the end of the exhibition, the letters will become totally black.”

A series of tropical plants entitled Flora were encased in ice, which gradually melted away and collected in a glass vessel to reveal the plant.

Smaller objects were displayed on white metal stands with perforated tops, while larger exhibits were protected by low metal barriers designed to evoke a museum environment. “We took these references like these fences and plinths and framing objects the way you might do in a natural history museum,” said Brown.

The exhibition took place at the Garage Milano show during the city’s design week, which concluded on Sunday.

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for sensory installation in Milan appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: Dutch designer Frederik Roijé has created a series of metal trays that form criss-crossing patterns when stacked on top of each other (+ slideshow).

Frederik Roijé‘s set of three Texture Trays are made from bent powder-coated steel bars, which run in parallel diagonal lines.

These curve up at the edges and join a bar forming the rim around the top. A grid pattern is formed when the different-sized trays are stacked inside one another.

The two smaller pieces are designed to sit inside the largest tray.

“We were inspired by all the different textures around us so you can play with it and make different combinations,” Roijé told Dezeen.

Designed to fit together on a desktop, the trays can be used for organising files and stationery.

“You can put magazines and other things in there. We have all these phones, keys and stuff like that on the table so we wanted to put them somewhere,” said Roijé.

The trays were on show as part of an exhibition of Dutch design at Via Savona 33 in Milan’s Tortona district last week.

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form overlapping grid patterns appeared first on Dezeen.