Hasta La Ideas

Milan 2014: an armchair made entirely from foam and designed by Canadian designer Philippe Malouin is being exhibited in Milan.

The chair, called Mollo, has been designed for British brand Established & Sons and is Malouin‘s first project for a commercial furniture brand.

The chair is made without any hard internal structure. The design aesthetic came about as Malouin was experimenting with the expanded polystyrene foam – an everyday foam that you might find in a mattress.

“We always knew we wanted to make something super soft and comfortable and [Mollo] kind of happened by accident,” said Malouin.

The seat and arms are created using stitches to make shapes in the material. “Imagine you are putting your finger on the foam, where that pressure is you place a stitch and that creates the seat which is lower than the armrests,” he explained. “This curves the foam is such a way that gives it its plumpness and shape.”

The prototype was made from a single piece of foam, but it will be produced using two pieces. The foam is upholstered in velvet.

Speaking about why he decided to work with Established & Sons, Malouin said, “they just came to the studio to meet me at the beginning of this experiment and they were interested in developing it. I rarely contact people because I’m too shy but I’ve always admired the brand and wanted to work with them.”

The chair is being shown until 13 April at 
Istituto dei Ciechi, 7 Via Vivaio, Milan.

The post Philippe Malouin creates “super soft” foam chair
for Established & Sons appeared first on Dezeen.

London Design Festival 2013: designer Philippe Malouin built an analogue 3D printer to create moulds from piles of sugar for this range of plates and bowls (+ movie).

The Dunes collection by Canadian designer Philippe Malouin has been commissioned for Staffordshire ceramics company 1882 Ltd.

Malouin’s custom-made machine features a box frame and a wooden turntable that is powered by a small motor and controlled by a computer.

Grains of sugar are poured into a funnel and fall onto a spinning cylinder positioned on the turntable beneath, where they pile up to form structures like cylindrical sand dunes.

The resulting shape was used to make a silicone negative, then cast in plaster and given to 1882 to produce in bone china. The final bone china pieces retain a sandy texture and have been finished with a matte glaze.

Originally Malouin tried using sand, however explained the material was difficult to use. “I originally started to try and ‘freeze’ these sand dunes by spraying resin onto them, but each time I would try and cast the resulting shape with silicone, the sand would stick to the cast and the shape would be altered,” said Malouin.

He later realised that sugar was the perfect substitute, as any grains clinging to the silicone could be washed away with water.

The printer created shapes that Malouin said could not be designed by hand or a computer and was perfect for creating plates and bowls. “All that was needed was to change the diameter of the sand dune in order to create a smaller dish,” Malouin told Dezeen.

“I was interested in designing the process that would produce the shape of the dishes. Not necessarily designing the dish directly,” said Malouin.

Here’s a video showing the making process:

The Dunes collection is on display – alongside Max Lamb’s crockery made from lumps of plaster – at the Sand & Clay exhibition at Paper Tiger, The Basement, 10 Exhibition Road, SW7 2HF until 22 September.

See all our stories about Philippe Malouin »
See more ceramics »

See all our stories about London Design Festival 2013 »
See Dezeen’s map and guide to London Design Festival 2013 »

Photographs are by Eva Feldkamp.

Here’s some additional information from the gallery:

Dunes by Philippe Malouin

Dunes is a stunning collection of fine bone china tableware featuring skillfully hand-crafted plates and bowls from one of the design world’s most applauded new talents. Slip-cast from plaster models, the collection maximises Malouin’s beautifully minimalistic patterns through analogue 3D printing. The analogue 3d printer made by Malouin, creates shapes that cannot be designed by hand or computer. Only movement, imperfection and randomised material deposition form the pieces. The shapes formed are carefully utilised and transformed into functional china pieces, highlighting the skill of the craftsman and creating a collection that wonderfully exemplifies its title of – Dunes.

About 1882 Ltd

1882 Ltd. is thrilled to announce their new collections for September 2013, fusing 130 years of traditional British heritage with fresh and contemporary new designs. The collections feature works from some of the world’s leading talents. These included an extended collection of ‘Crockery’ by Max Lamb, ‘Fragile Hearts’ by Mr Brainwash, ‘Standard Ware’ by Fort Standard and ‘Gashu’ by Alan Hughes and ‘Dunes’ by Philippe Malouin: all made of fine bone china, harnessing the tradition of the company originally set-up by the Johnson Brothers in the heart of the Stoke-on-Trent potteries in 1882. To this day, 1882 Ltd. remains a family business following its rebirth in 2011 by Emily Johnson and her father Christopher.

The post Dunes by Philippe Malouin
for 1882 Ltd appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2013: London designer Philippe Malouin is exhibiting furniture built from slats of two-by-four, sand-cast chairs and a spinning candle at the ProjectB gallery in Milan.

Simple, a show of Malouin‘s recent work, includes the Slat table, made of two-by-four timber lengths laid horizontally to create a top and arranged radially on end to create two cylindrical legs.

The table is accompanied by shorter benches in the same style, which can be stacked up into a bookshelf.

Horizontal bands circle the lamp, bookends and containers in the series of Functional Shapes, formed from lathed and polished layers of black MDF.

Each Type Cast Chair is sand cast in aluminium or iron to create a single piece covered in marks left by the process.

Three slender legs support a thin seat that’s curved at the back and an equally svelte back support that follows the same shape.

The Pendulum installation comprises a candle lit at both ends, which is suspended on wires stretching between two walls.

As melting wax from one end drips to the floor, the weight distribution changes and the candle spins upside down, then the process repeats.

Also on display are wall hangings covered in geometric patterns produced by slicing through layers of MDF.

ProjectB gallery is located at Via Maroncelli 7 in Milan and the exhibition continues until 10 May.

See more designs by Philippe Malouin »
See all our coverage of Milan 2013 »
See our Milan 2013 map »

Read on for more information from the gallery:

ProjectB is proud to present the first solo exhibition in Italy by Canadian designer Philippe Malouin in the occasion of Milan’s furniture fair in April 2013. Malouin has emerged as one of the strongest voices of today’s design with his simple and yet sophisticated products that always develop from an endless research on materials, forms and techniques.

The power of Malouin’s objects and furniture relays on their permanence and durability: from a rug made of metal, to an all-in-one meeting room with hanging chairs; from a racking system in metal that includes the lighting, to a series of lamps inspired by classical shutters. The designer often begins his design process from an existing reality to develop new unprecedented projects.

For his solo show at ProjectB SIMPLE, Malouin is presenting two new series of objects – commissioned by Emanuele Bonomi’s gallery, Slat and Type Cast Chairs – and an installation titled Pendulum that coherently represents his wide spirit of action. Pendulum is a reflection on gravity and by contrast a speculation on ephemera.

Malouin’s research is based on the power of materials: for Functional Shapes, black MDF sheeting is cut and laminated and the resulting material is then turned into shape on a lathe. MDF is extensively hand-polished, transforming this extremely rudimentary material into something new, light and highly tactile. The simple geometric shapes are dictated by their function revealing a lamp, bookends and nestling boxes, presented for the first time in a pitch black finishing.

The same color is to be found in the Type Cast Chairs, a series of sand casted sitting tools in iron or aluminum as a single component. The chair is extremely thin with no mechanical fixings and surprisingly resistant. The sand leaves its mark on each chair, transmitting something of its own history and making each one of them slightly different than the other.

In Philippe Malouin’s Slats pieces, standard timber slats are translated and repeated, forming a linear pattern, revealing a tabletop, rotated around an axis, forming a base and reflected for support. The resulting table gives the impression of a building, columns and ceiling. The same simple process is applied to benches that can stacked to become a bookshelf.

Malouin’s objects and installations are new simple classics. As he expresses in his own words: “Simple timber slats, positioned in the right rhythm and proportions create benches, a table, a library. A Simple chair, exhibiting modest geometry and simple boxes, bookends and a lamp composed of a readily available and humble material such as MDF, just cut and polished. A simple natural phenomenon, powering an installation. SIMPLE is an exercise in restraint. The statement is the absence of complication, nothing is hidden, nothing is faked, everything is displayed. A complicated needs to lead to a visually and tactually simple outcome. A traditional process leads to a well-balanced object. An unexpected discovery creates a deceptively simple installation. A traditional process is used to facilitate simplicity of shape and thickness” (Philippe Malouin, 2012).

The post Simple by
Philippe Malouin appeared first on Dezeen.

Designer Philippe Malouin describes how the Olympics has changed Hackney in this movie we filmed at Dezeen Live during 100% Design.

Above: Malouin’s Hackney-based studio

Malouin talks about the gentrification of the east London borough, where his studio is based and that Dezeen featured prominently in our Designed in Hackney coverage. “We measure how fast Hackney is changing by the amount of ‘blackboard cafes’ selling flat white coffees that pop-up,” he says. “There’s a new one opening every week.”

“It’s also creating a giant demand which escalates prices,” he continues.”Inhabitants of Hackney can’t necessary live there any more.”

Above: American designers Charles and Ray Eames

The second of five images he shows is of multidisciplinary American designers Charles and Ray Eames, who he cites as his inspiration. “In terms of a studio, what they represent and what I aspire to, they are the best possible example.”

He then shows photos of rolling up fabric to create stools without metal frames. “Form and style are extremely important but they usually come after a long, stretched out process-led design and then we think about the shape,” he says.

Above: the making of Hardie Stools commissioned by Kvadrat 

“We’re also interested in the way products inhabit spaces,” he explains about the space his studio created for furniture company Artek at designjunction this year.

He finishes by showing his spinning “light paintings” made of Swarovski crystals, currently on display at the Digital Crystal exhibition at London’s Design Museum.

Above: the Artek space at designjunction

Dezeen Live was a series of discussions between Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and a number of designers and critics that took place as part of the talks programme at design exhibition 100% Design during this year’s London Design Festival.

Each of the four one-hour shows, recorded live in front of an audience, included three interviews plus music from Dezeen Music Project featuring a new act each day. Over the next few weeks we’ll be posting all the movies we filmed during the talks and you can watch all the movies we’ve featured so far here.

Above: Blur “light paintings”

The music featured in the movie is a track called Mosquito Maps by American designer and musician Glen Lib. Listen to more of his songs on Dezeen Music Project.

See all our stories about Philippe Malouin »
See all our stories about Dezeen Live »
See all our stories about London Design Festival 2012 »

The post “Hackney is changing” – Philippe Malouin
at Dezeen Live appeared first on Dezeen.

These spinning ‘light paintings’ made with sparkling crystal beads by designer Philippe Malouin are currently on show in the Digital Crystal exhibition at London’s Design Museum (+ movie + slideshow).

“Blur is a series of ‘paintings’ realised through light and motion,” Malouin told Dezeen, explaining that they were made by attaching rows of colourful Swarovski crystal beads to a motor that spins at high speeds.

“The circles shimmer because LEDs shine light at them, while variations in the speed of rotation affect the colour intensity,” he added.

Like the other pieces in the exhibition, Blur explores the idea of memory in an increasingly digital world.

Malouin says the piece alludes to memory through the “transformation from its solid state to its accelerated state,” as it retains the memory of its simple underlying design while transforming it through movement. “It doesn’t always spin – it’s programmed to reveal its different states,” he adds.

Digital Crystal continues until 13 January 2013. We recently featured another installation from the exhibition – a mechanical projector by London design studio Troika.

Malouin is also taking part in Seven Designers for Seven Dials, an aerial installation in Covent Garden curated by Dezeen that will be on show throughout London Design Festival, which takes place between 14–23 September.

See all our stories about Philippe Malouin »
See all our stories about the Design Museum »
See all our stories about Swarovski »

Photographs are by David Levene.

Above: movie interview with Philippe Malouin filmed by the Design Museum

The post Blur by
Philippe Malouin appeared first on Dezeen.