Though the calendar might suggest warmer temperatures, here in NYC and from the Alps to the Rockies, the snow continues to fall. After testing outerwear and base layer pieces across a full range of conditions–from frigid blustery days at high elevations to…
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The Portland brand teams with five like-minded companies on a new online shopping experience
Advertorial content: While many companies strive to bridge the gap between design and function in the space of outdoor apparel, few succeed like Nau. The environmentally conscious, Portland, OR-based brand creates design-driven products with a sleek aesthetic. Since its inception Nau has been interested in collaboration, and has decided to…
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Three layers of sustainable design from the Portland-based outdoor apparel brand
Known for their efforts in sustainable production and simplified design, Portland-based Nau offers a selection of appealing, subdued outdoor apparel with each coming season. Their latest men’s collection for Fall/Winter 2012 collection includes three pieces that caught our eye for their level of comfort, style and practicality. Wool Patrol Hoody…
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Coffee for design-minded gourmet campers
Coffee snobs don’t have many options when it comes to camping, a hobby dominated by single-serving packs of less-than-tasty instant brews. For those unwiling to sacrifice fresh brewed flavor on mountain treks (not to mention superior design), Snow Peak and Nau have teamed up to produce a limited edition collection of titanium café ware. Included in the upscale camping set are a lightweight French press, milk foamer and stacking mug—everything you need for a fireside cup of joe. Plus, the durable titanium will resist rusting, making this a generational investment that is sure to remain landfill-free.
Joining the French press, frother and mug is a stainless steel Japanese knife and wooden case, which opens to form a handy travel cutting board. Staying true to their northwestern roots, the brands have also brought in Stumptown Roasters to supply a bag of Organic Holler Mountain Blend, an international combination of South and Central American coffees with earthier Indonesian beans.
The Café Luxe Kit sells from Nau for $125.
Design cooperative NAU and DGJ have completed this interior for Swiss bank Raiffeisen in Zurich, featuring curving walls perforated to create pictures of faces.
The bank is designed as a lounge with the banking terminals concealed within pieces of furniture.
The perforations extend from reception to the employee workstations and the courtyard beyond, creating abstracted images of historical residents from the local area,
The bank also houses meeting rooms, safety deposit boxes and an electronic information table.
More projects in Zurich on Dezeen »
Photography is by Jan Bitter.
The following is from the architects:
Open Lounge by NAU
Raiffeisen’s flagship branch on Zurich’s Kreuzplatz dissolves traditional barriers between customer and employee, creating a new type of “open bank,” a space of encounter. Advanced technologies make banking infrastructure largely invisible; employees access terminals concealed in furniture elements, while a robotic retrieval system grants 24 hour access to safety deposit boxes.
This shifts the bank’s role into becoming a light-filled, inviting environment – an open lounge where customers can learn about new products and services. This lounge feels more like a high-end retail environment than a traditional bank interior. Conversations can start spontaneously around a touchscreen equipped info-table and transition to meeting rooms for more private discussions.
The info-table not only displays figures from world markets in realtime, but can be used to interactively discover the history of Hottingen, or just check the latest sports scores.
Elegantly flowing walls blend the different areas of the bank into one smooth continuum, spanning from the customer reception at the front, to employee workstations oriented to the courtyard. The plan carefully controls views to create different grades of privacy and to maximize daylight throughout. The walls themselves act as a membrane mediating between the open public spaces and intimately scaled conference rooms.
Portraits of the quarter’s most prominent past residents like Böklin, Semper or Sypri grace the walls, their abstracted images milled into Hi-macs using advanced digital production techniques. While intricately decorative, the design ground the bank in the area’s cultural past, while looking clearly towards the future.
Credits
Open Lounge was designed by the design cooperative NAU (www.nau.coop) with offices in Zurich, Berlin and Los Angeles in association with Drexler Guinand Jauslin Architekten.
NAU is an international, multidisciplinary design firm, spanning the spectrum from architecture and interior design to exhibitions and interactive interfaces. As futurists creating both visual design and constructed projects, NAU melds the precision of experienced builders with the imagination and attention to detail required to create innovative exhibits, public events and architecture.
NAU has quickly garnered recognition as an accomplished creator of fashionable interiors for retail, hotels, restaurants and residences. Its dedicated teams offer a personal touch, working with clients to align design approach with the appropriate market. Distilled in clear, contemporary forms, the designs of NAU promote modern, flexible solutions that engage and welcome.
NAU and DGJ collaborated with ROK (Rippmann Oesterle Knauss) on the design of the wall pattern.
Client
Raiffeisen Schweiz, Niederlassung Zürich
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Nau’s portrait series of brand ambassadors from film, food, design and more
Advertorial content:
Identifying 12 people that truly represent the Nau spirit, the Portland-based brand created ten compelling profiles of subjects spanning writers to butchers. As part of their ongoing project called “Portraits of our Friends,” Nau’s Provocateurs live by codes in keeping with the Nau ethos and serving as a benchmark for the type of people for which they design their products.
To capture the essence of each, Nau continued their collaboration with photographer Eden Batki and filmmakers Thomas Oliver and Jordan Strong, the duo behind Into the Woods. Working together to shoot both still photos and video, the team brings the stories behind these notable individuals to life.
The group represents a range of vocations and interests, from home design to butchery but every person is compelling in their own way. Adrian Grenier and Daniela Sea get commended for using their celebrity status to speak out and give back to their chosen causes, providing clean drinking water to developing nations and working to end violence against women, respectively. Daniel Sharp, Nau’s principal photographer, shoots smart and spontaneous images that resonate for the brand’s designers. Camas Davis, food writer and founder of a sustainable meat collective is a forceful advocate for locally-sourced foods and responsible consumption.
Jeremy Pelley of creative team
Official Manufacturing Co., the brains behind the brand identity of Ace hotels, impresses with his business manifesto, which boasts lines like “Kill your ego and fear of failure.”
To learn more about the portrait series and get to know The Provocateurs, visit the Nau blog.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
