Hasta La Ideas

The facade of this house in the English seaside town of Margate appears to peel away from the rest of the building and slump down into the front yard (+ movie).

British designer Alex Chinneck created the installation – called From the Knees of my Nose to the Belly of my Toes – by removing the facade of a detached four-storey house that had been derelict for eleven years and replacing it with a brand new frontage that leaves the crumbling top storey exposed, then curves outwards so the bottom section lies flat in front of the house.

“I just feel this incredible desire to create spectacles,” Chinneck told Dezeen. “I wanted to create something that used the simple pleasures of humour, illusion and theatre to create an artwork that can be understood and enjoyed by any onlooker.”

Located on Godwin Road in the Cliftonville area of the town, the house had been acquired by the local council and earmarked for social housing, but nothing was due to happen to it for a year and the structure was in a dilapidated state. “There were barely any floorboards, it’s very fire-damaged at the back and water-damaged at the front, and had fallen into ruin,” said the designer.

His installation reveals this dilapidated interior where the smart new facade falls away from the top floor. “I increasingly like that idea of exposing the truth and the notion of superficiality,” he explained. “I didn’t go into the project with that idea, but as it evolved I started to like that.”

Cliftonville is a district of Margate that used to be affluent, but like many seaside towns in the UK it has suffered with the changing patterns of holidaymakers. “It has social issues, it struggles with high levels of crime and the grand architecture has fallen into a fairly fatigued state,” said Chinneck.

In addition to causing delight when residents happen upon his intervention, the designer hopes to will draw visitors up the hill from the centre of Margate, where high-profile projects like the Turner Contemporary gallery by David Chipperfield are using culture as a tool for regeneration.

“Cliftonville is a very poor area referred to as being ‘up the hill’, and the culture and the arrival of artists hasn’t quite reached up the hill yet,” he said. “I was drawn to Cliftonville because it’s an area where the culture hasn’t reached and I think public art too often forgets its responsibility to the public.”

“I like the idea of surprise,” he added. “I never put signs on my work and I never give it any labels, so it does have this sense of mystery. It’s positioned in a way that you don’t see the artwork as you approach from either direction – you just see the hole in the top at first, so it’s a series of discoveries and you have to walk around it.”

The designer initiated the project himself and spent twelve months convincing companies to help him realise the artwork. Everything was donated by ten different companies except the labour, which was done at cost and paid for buy the Arts Council. The installation itself came together in just six weeks by assembling prefabricated panels.

The artwork will remain in place for a year, before the building is converted for use as housing.

Alex Chinneck’s work has often featured dilapidated buildings – past projects Dezeen has reported on include a factory near the Olympic park in east London with 312 identically smashed windows and a melting brick wall.

“I like the contradiction of taking a subject that’s dark or depressing or bleak, something like dereliction which suggests something quite negative socially but also aesthetically, and delivering a playful experience within that context,” he explained. “I don’t think it’s a negative comment on society, it’s just trying to give society a positive experience.”

If you like this, check out the Dalston House in east London, where a mirror reflects the facade of a house lying on the ground to give the illusion that visitors are standing on walls and window ledges. There’s also a student housing block hidden behind the facade of a historic brick warehouse, which has been named Britain’s worst building of the year.

More design by Alex Chinneck »
More installations »

Photographs are by Stephen O’Flaherty.

Here’s some more information from Alex Chinneck:

From the knees of my nose to the belly of my toes

British artist and designer Alex Chinneck has completed construction of his most ambitious installation to date after peeling the front of a four-storey house in Margate away from the rest of the building. As curving bricks, windows and doors slide into the front garden of a property that has been vacant for eleven years its upper interiors are revealed to the public below.

Thanet District Council gave the artist permission to use an empty property on Godwin Road in the Cliftonville area to create the artwork. Cliftonville is a district striking for both the grandeur of its architecture and for the challenging social issues it has faced in the last thirty years. Together with Margate’s widely discussed use of culture as a tool for regeneration, this provides an ideal context for the piece.

The completion of construction follows a twelve-month campaign undertaken by the artist to realise his self-initiated £100,000 project. Ten leading companies across British industry donated all the materials, manufacturing capabilities and professional services required to build the sliding facade.

Alex Chinneck’s practice playfully warps the everyday world around us, presenting surreal spectacles in the places we expect to find something familiar. At 28 years old ‘From the knees of my nose to the belly of toes’ is his boldest project yet as he continues to theatrically combine art and architecture in physically amazing ways. This project follows his acclaimed 2012 installation ‘Telling the truth through false teeth’, in which the artist installed 1248 pieces of glass across the façade of a factory in Hackney to create the illusion that its 312 windows had been identically smashed and cracked.

Alex Chinneck is a London based artist and designer. He is the founder of The Sculpture House, a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors and a graduate of Chelsea College of Art and Design.

This project has been made possible with support from the Arts Council England, Margate Arts Creativity Heritage, Thanet District Council, Ibstock Brick, Smith and Wallwork Engineers, Norbord, Macrolux, WW Martin, Urban Surface Protection, Jewson, RJ Fixings, Resort Studios, Cook Fabrications, the Brick Development Association, and All Access Scaffolding.

Location: 1 Godwin Road, Cliftonville, Margate, CT9 2HA
Dates: 1st of October 2013 – October 2014

The post From the Knees of my Nose to the Belly
of my Toes by Alex Chinneck appeared first on Dezeen.

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).

The Wind Portal installation by Najla El Zein comprises an eight-metre-high gateway made of paper windmills that were each folded by hand and attached to upright plastic tubes with custom-made 3D-printed clips – read more about the design in our previous story.

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.

The Wind Portal was commissioned by the Victoria and Albert Museum for London Design Festival and will be on display until 3 November 2013.

Also at the museum for the festival, a giant chandelier of 280 colourful glass bauble lights was installed in the main hall and a still life of a dinner party in progress was arranged in one of the galleries.

See more installations »
See all our stories about London Design Festival 2013 »

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

Film by: Tarmak Media

The post “The Wind Portal tries to grasp and emphasise
common emotions and senses” appeared first on Dezeen.

In this movie by film studio Stephenson/Bishop, architect Carl Turner describes the importance of flexibility in the London house he designed for himself and his partner, which last night was awarded the RIBA Manser Medal 2013 for the best new house in the UK.

Located in Brixton, south London, Slip House is a three-storey residence with walls made from planks of translucent glass and staggered upper floors that cantilever towards the street.

The house features a spacious ground floor that is currently used by Carl Turner as a studio for his architectural practice.

“The house is really flexible,” he explains. “We’ve got this amazing space on the ground floor that we’re currently using as our office and studio space, but the idea is that if we move out of there, we can use the whole space as a house again.”

The first floor accommodates an open-plan living and dining space, but Turner says this space could be easily converted into bedrooms if the ground floor was turned back into a living room.

“It’s a kind of frame structure and that allows us these open floor spaces that mean we can then have really flexible uses,” he adds.

Slip House was awarded the RIBA Manser Medal 2013 last night in a ceremony that also saw an addition to a twelfth-century castle in Warwickshire win the Stirling Prize. It was praised for sustainable features that include rooftop solar panels, a rain-water-harvesting system, a ground-sourced heat pump and a wildflower roof.

“Slip House demonstrates an admirable commitment to the creation of an exemplary low-energy house, with a suite of sustainable enhancements that are integrated effectively into the building design,” said the judges. “However, at no point do the sustainable ambitions of the project crowd out or dominate the refined quality of the spaces that are created.”

The project was completed last year and first featured on Dezeen in September. Another project by Carl Turner Architects is an extension to the couple’s former home in Norfolk.

Other recently completed houses in the UK include a Corten steel bunker that provides a home and studio for a photographer and a small home that looks a gingerbread house. See more British houses »

Movie is by Stephenson/Bishop. Photography is by Tim Crocker.

The post “We’re sharing the house with the studio”
– Carl Turner on Slip House appeared first on Dezeen.

New York designer Francis Bitonti worked with students to 3D-print this dress using commercially available MakerBot machines (+ movie).

Francis Bitonti created the dress while leading a three-week digital fashion workshop over the summer, which aimed to introduce students to computer software and additive manufacturing equipment.

“The project wasn’t to design a garment, the project was to design a method of making form on the computer that could be deployed across the body,” said Bitonti.

During the New Skins Workshop, students experimented with form-building software and created samples of their designs using the 3D printers.

“The MakerBot provided the students a direct link with the material world,” said Bitonti. “While they’re working on all these complex computer simulations they were able to get tactile, physical results through the MakerBot.”

Interim reviews of the groups’ work took place with guest critics, including designer Vito Acconci, who chose their favourite 3D-printed dress designs to develop.

Intricate patterning from one group and the silhouette from another were combined to create the final design, which was then printed in sections using a new flexible filament created by MakerBot.

“The idea was to create a landscape of geometric effects, things that would have different material behaviours in different parts of the body,” Bitonti said.

The result was a garment that referenced muscle fibres, veins and arteries to look like an inside-out body. It was named Verlan Dress after the French slang word for the reversal of syllables.

The workshop took place at the Digital Arts and Humanities Research Centre of the Pratt Institute in New York.

Bitonti previously worked with designer Michael Schmidt to create a dress for burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese using selective laser sintering. We’ve also featured 3D-printed clothing by Iris van Herpen and Catherine Wales.

Last month Microsoft began selling MakerBots in its US stores, while Makerbot unveiled a prototype of a desktop scanner earlier in the year. Read more about 3D printing in our one-off magazine Print Shift.

See more digital fashion »
See more 3D printing »

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and New Skins Workshop students appeared first on Dezeen.

Automotive brand Nissan has unveiled the first smartwatch concept to communicate with a car, providing drivers with real-time information such as average speed and heart rate (+ movie).

The Nismo Watch will connect with Nissan‘s Nismo vehicle range, enabling drivers to keep track of their speed and fuel consumption to help improve efficiency.

Racing drivers will be able to use the watch to access performance statistics while on track. Data from the car and wearer will be transmitted to a smartphone app via bluetooth, where it will be stored.

The watch will also track and rate the user’s social media activity across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram via Nissan’s Social Speed software.

“Wearable technology is fast becoming the next big thing and we want to take advantage of this innovative technology to make our Nismo brand more accessible,” said Gareth Dunsmore, the brand’s Marketing Communications General Manager.

The interface will be controlled by two buttons on the smooth band, which will secure to the wrist with a snap-fit mechanism and come in black, white, or a combination of black and red.

A lithium battery will have a life of over seven days and charge by micro-USB. Packaging for the watch will be made using rubber from racetrack tyres.

Nissan has also set up a mobile laboratory to develop and test additional features for its wearable technology.

It is hoped these new features will be able to monitor biometrics including heart rhythm intervals to identify when drivers are becoming tired, brainwaves to track concentration levels and emotions, plus skin temperature to record core body temperature and hydration levels.

The concept was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show earlier this week, close behind electronics brand Samsung‘s announcement about its own smartwatch.

Google is set to launch its Google Glass augmented reality eyewear in 2014, which the UK government wants to ban for drivers amid safety concerns.

Apple is also rumoured to be working on a smartwatch that might take the form of a slap bracelet with a video display patented by the company earlier this year. See more wearable technology »

Here are more details from Nissan:

Nissan enters wearable technology space with the unveil of the Nismo watch concept

Nissan launches first smartwatch to connect car and driver performance.

First smartwatch concept to connect driver and car Nismo Watch showcases Nissan’s intent to deliver biometric data that enhances driver performance and efficiency Nissan is investigating heart and brain monitoring technologies for future wearable tech.

Nissan will become the first car manufacturer to create a smartwatch designed specifically for drivers of Nissan Nismo cars. The Nissan Nismo Concept Watch will be the first smartwatch to connect a driver to the car and will provide drivers with real-time biometric data.

The watch, unveiled today ahead of its display at the Frankfurt Motor Show (10-22 September 2013), is Nissan’s first step into wearable technology and epitomises its “fan first” approach to performance.

The Nissan Nismo Watch will allow drivers to: monitor the efficiency of their vehicle with average speed and fuel consumption readings; access vehicle telematics and performance data while on track; capture biometric data via a heart rate monitor; connect to the car using a smartphone app via Bluetooth Low Energy; receive tailored car messages from Nissan.

Gareth Dunsmore, Marketing Communications General Manager, Nissan in Europe, commented: “Wearable technology is fast becoming the next big thing and we want to take advantage of this innovative technology to make our Nismo Brand more accessible. On track, Nissan uses the latest biometric training technologies to improve the performance of our Nissan Nismo Athletes and it is this technology we want to bring to our fans to enhance their driving experience and Nismo ownership.”

Earlier this year, Nissan launched the Nismo Lab – a bespoke, mobile laboratory that features the latest, advanced biometric training tools such as brainwave technology and JukeRide – a cutting-edge performance analysis tool, that captures live biometric and telematics data from the race cars and Nissan Nismo Athletes during races. Nismo’s vision is to take these digital age technologies and make them available to athletes from other disciplines and to Nissan owners through future wearable tech.

Three key technologies have already identified for future development: ECG (Electrocardiogram) – to measure the intervals of the R-R rhythm of the heart, and identify early fatigue; EEG (Electroencephalogram) Brainwave – to monitor the drivers’ levels of concentration and emotions, and help athletes to get ‘In The Zone’; Skin Temperature – to record core body temperature and hydration levels; The Nismo Watch will also track and rate the user’s social performance across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram via Nissan’s proprietary Social Speed software.

The sleek Nismo Watch will be available in three colours – black, white and the flagship black and red. The watch design was inspired by the Nismo ring and is reflected in a seamless, futuristic and ergonomic design. The simple user interface can be controlled by two buttons and is secured onto the driver’s wrist via a simple snap-fit mechanism.

Even the packaging will have a unique Nismo identity. Dunsmore concluded: “We have brought the Nismo experience to life in every aspect of the watch, including its packaging, which will be made using tyres and rubber from the racetrack. As Nismo is the performance arm of Nissan, we wanted a way of integrating Nismo’s heritage in racing into this futuristic innovation.”

The Nismo Watch will use a lithium battery and will be charged by micro-USB, with a battery life of over seven days under normal usage conditions.

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by Nissan appeared first on Dezeen.