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Product news: French designer Mathieu Lehanneur has created a glass with a stem that holds exactly one measure of alcohol for liqueur brand Ricard.

Lehanneur designed the glassware primarily for bars and restaurants to enable the precise amount of Ricard‘s anise-flavoured spirits to be poured.

The flared stem prevents ice cubes from distorting the measurement and forming crystals that detract from the taste while permanently sitting in the liqueur.

A carafe for mixers has a similar spout to the glass stem and a larger base with the same conical shape.

Mathieu Lehanneur has completed a few projects recently, such as the interior of a cafe in Paris that serves food in edible packaging and a chandelier that looks like illuminated lengths of rope.

One of our most popular stories ever features a range of glasses each designed with one of the seven deadly sins in mind.

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Photos are by Véronique Huyghe.

More information from the designer follows:

Mathieu Lehanneur designs the new Ricard carafe and glass

Ricard entrusted Mathieu Lehanneur with the role of redesigning its carafe and glass set to equip bars, restaurants and clubs. The tasting ritual, a real institution, has been perfected by a complete revision of the codes and features by the French designer. The stem of the glass contains the correct measure of Ricard, an end therefore to incorrect measures. Then, the flared shape of the stem does not allow ice cubes from entering, a small detail that prevents direct contact between the ice and the Ricard and therefore the formation of solidified anise essential oil flakes, that spoil the taste buds of purists!

A design feature that satisfies lovers and also guides enthusiasts who have the tendency to put the ice-cubes in the glass first of all, making a precise measure impossible. “With the Ricard teams we looked at reintroducing the preparation ritual to the very core of the tasting. I wanted to use the alchemy of the perfect measure but make it intuitive, obvious. The glass is primarily responsible for all that. As a result, whatever the order between ice-cubes and Ricard, you can be sure of having the right balance.

A new set that perfectly illustrates the modernist axiom “form follows function” with an innovative design, generous as well as fresh and functional. A big challenge to put into practice for this subject that Mathieu Lehanneur accepts with his usual talent for surprises and surpassing constraints in terms of style.

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for Ricard appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: these coffee tables with interlocking wooden legs by German studio Ding3000 have been put into production by Danish brand Normann Copenhagen (+ slideshow).

Ding300s‘s design is based on brain-teaser puzzles that join three pieces of wood together as one to form what looks to be an inseparable knot.

“The three legs seem to pierce through each other in an impossible way and our intention is to draw attention to this almost magical detail,” say the designers. “That is also why we have chosen a transparent top, so the table’s key focus point is the joining of the legs”.

The coffee tables are assembled without any screws or tools and the pieces of oak simply slot together to create a single sculptural form, which becomes the base for a glass tabletop. The base is held firm due to specific shapes cut into each individual leg.

The designers first showed the table as a prototype in 2011, along with cutlery based on the same joint, and it’s now part of Normann Copenhagen‘s collection.

The legs come in natural, orange or black, and the top is available in transparent or smoked glass.

We’ve featured a variety of coffee tables, including Glimpt’s Peruvian hand-carved wooden design, Foster + Partners’ base created by stretching a perforated disk of steel  and Reinier de Jong’s coffee table for REK which can be expanded by sliding out sections in any direction.

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for Normann Copenhagen appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: London studio Industrial Facility has designed an office furniture system for American manufacturer Herman Miller that promotes interaction in the workplace (+ slideshow).

Industrial Facility created cantilevered tables with rounded edges to encourage movement and provide space for users to gather round work stations as they would around a meeting table.

Low, linear units covered in vertical planking combine to create a unifying spine along which modules acting as desks, social areas, meeting tables and a library can be arranged.

Screens wrap around the desks to provide privacy, while the height of tables, screens, easels and storage can be adjusted to create a more personal and less rigid arrangement.

“One could argue that collaboration is a buzzword right now, that somehow it might go away, but we think this is unimaginable,” says Sam Hecht of Industrial Facility. “People are collaborating globally, empowered by digital networks, but the most ambitious businesses still need productive, collaborative physical environments.”

The system was presented as part of Herman Miller’s Living Office project at the Neocon trade fair in Chicago last week, alongside modular office furniture by Yves Behar’s San Francisco studio Fuseproject.

Sam Hecht and Kim Colin of Industrial Facility previously collaborated with Herman Miller on a two-tier work table with a sliding surface, and launched new products in Milan this year including a lamp that projects light onto the tabletop and a three-legged wooden stool.

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Here’s some more information from Industrial Facility:

Locale Office Furniture

What is work today? It is as much about the individual as it is about the company. It is the individual who brings an organization to life. An organisation benefits from creating an office environment that connects people in a more natural way. The reason to come to work is to work together, to collaborate. Herman Miller, Living Office.

Locale is an intelligent office furniture system that previewed at NeoCon 2013 as part of Herman Miller’s Living Office. Locale promotes collaboration at work by creating dynamic, high-performance neighborhoods that allow for free movement, variety and adjustability. Locale makes working together simpler and more pleasurable by promoting interaction around large, adjustable tables, and by fostering easy transition between focussed work and collaboration. Cantilevered, rounded work surfaces give individuals more space to change position throughout the day and can easily accommodate multiple colleagues to sit or stand together without the clutter of legs at floor level. Locale simplifies the usual chaos of collaborative work and cleverly balances individual and group needs within an open plan office.

Background

Locale has been in development for more than two years. During this time, the conditions of work in terms of atmosphere and attitude have shifted, so it was important that Industrial Facility leapfrog any old preconceptions of the modern office and propose a new place based on deeper social and cultural changes. Herman Miller research noted early in the project that the office now should become ‘a place you want to be’ rather than ‘a place you need to be’. However, Hecht and Colin remained suspicious of recent efforts to evoke a kind of forced playfulness in the office to achieve this. Locale addresses a significant paradigm shift that sees in-person communication as increasingly relevant to productivity, effectiveness and enjoyment at work.

Design

“We often talk about how social networks behave given current technology, where close relationships are not based on physical proximity, but instead on similarity of purpose or interest. You might make an alliance in a social network with someone who is very far away but very close to you in other ways. They are great spatial condensers in this respect. Locale is a physical manifestation of this principle, where the most relevant participants are kept close and communication is fast and frequent.” Kim Colin

Locale organizes the office into clusters of activity along a Workbase, a linear, low, architectonic element that helps give definition and organisation to the open-plan office. Distinct clusters are composed out of different functional modules; the result is that seemingly disparate functions of the office reside comfortably together along one line of the Workbase, which organizes the plan orthogonally. The library, the social setting, the working desk, and the meeting table are all close by and visually coherent along the Workbase. Useful mobile pieces (height-adjustable tables, screens, easels, storage, a refreshment unit) can be ‘pulled up’ to customize the group and individual settings off the Workbase, making an even richer neighborhood. Clusters can be wider or narrower, with adjacencies nearer or further, depending on need.

Spontaneous interaction or unplanned communication increases productivity at work and Locale encourages this in the open plan office without relying on broader architectural-scale social devices like open stairs and community eating areas. Screens attached to the Workbase or parallel and perpendicular desks allow a balance of visual separation and porisity in the cluster. A lot of engineering effort was spent getting rid of legs on the desks and in creating a mobile table and accessories program so that work can occur easily, sitting or standing in a variety of settings.

Locale brings different parts of the office together in proximity so you shouldn’t have to go away to talk to a colleague in a more conducive manner. Instead, you can raise a table, stand, and discuss. You don’t have to move to completely separate spaces to accommodate varied work styles. Locale is planned for availability in the Winter of 2013.

Facts

A third of working people are now mobile, up from a quarter since 2006. The world’s top companies spend 40% of their time collaborating, compared with 21% on focussed work. A healthy work life is one that lets you adjust. To sit, to stand and to walk will let you work better and live longer.

Kim Colin – “We find a lot of value in our own office, which is small, highly productive and considerate. We are all from different parts of the world, which says a lot about how the free movement of people has created a multi-dimensional condition. We collaborate constantly about ideas, methods and opinions. We travel a lot. Our work is never created in cultural isolation, and therefore our office itself behaves like a good, condensed international neighborhood, which is efficient, energetic and pleasurable.”

Sam Hecht – “One could argue that collaboration is a buzzword right now, that somehow it might go away, but we think this is unimaginable. People are collaborating globally, empowered by digital networks, but the most ambitious businesses still need productive, collaborative physical environments. The offices we visited during our research—places where people want to work—are open-plan, transparent, and energetic.”

Client: Herman Miller Inc.
Design: Sam Hecht & Kim Colin, Industrial Facility
Award: NeoCon 2013 Silver Award

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for Herman Miller appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: Yves Behar’s San Francisco studio Fuseproject launches an office furniture system for American design brand Herman Miller at the Neocon trade fair in Chicago this week (+ slideshow).

Called Public Office Landscape, the modular design by Fuseproject for Herman Miller aims to encourage spontaneous conversations and continuous collaboration between employees.

Rather than design desks for individuals interspersed with pockets of collaborative meeting areas, Behar wanted to spread collaboration evenly throughout the office.

The designers came up with three main concepts: social desks for individuals to work in configurations that encourage interaction, group spaces for focussed collaboration and spaces in between that facilitate casual interactions and community.

The resulting modular system features seating elements that flow into desks and soft fabrics that flow into hard surfaces.

Fuseproject used the prototypes at their own office in San Francisco, testing and evolving the various elements in-situ over the course of 18 months.

Neocon continues until 12 June.

Yves Behar previously designed the Sayl office chair based on suspension bridges for Herman Miller. Other recent product launches by Behar include a lock with no keys and a remote control with no butons.

Herman Miller recently acquired New York-based textile manufacturer Maharam in a deal worth about £101 million and will also present work by Industrial Facility this week, who the brand previously worked with on the Enchord two-tier work desk in 2008.

In a recent Opinion column on Dezeen Sam Jacob called for an end to the “tyranny of fun” in office design, while Jean Nouvel told us than “apartments make better places to work than offices” in an interview about his office design installation at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile.

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The statement below is from Yves Behar:

Public Office Landscape brings fluidity, variety, ergonomics to social seating in order to help people feel engaged, focused, and collaborative

I began thinking about the need for casual, collaborative office seating three years ago, when I was in Cologne for the Orgatec furniture show. I was walking with Don Goeman — Herman Miller’s Executive Vice President of Research, Development, and Design — when he stopped to point out a couch with sectionals made from large blocks of foam. It seemed like the designer of the couch had thought to himself, “big chunks of foam say comfort!”.

A year later, when Herman Miller asked me and my team at fuseproject to develop a more effective office environment for collaboration, I saw an opportunity to go beyond the superficial approach to social seating design I had observed a year earlier. I wanted to create a design that would support a more flexible, fluid way of working while addressing the very human need for interaction.

With research showing that 70 percent of collaboration happens at a workstation, I saw a clear need for desks that support interaction. This led to our concept for Social Desking for individuals, Group spaces to allow collaboration in proximity, and Interstitial spaces which are solutions which convert spaces in between into community space for casual interactions — a set of ideas that would ultimately become Public Office Landscape.

This system of shared surfaces would be inviting to guests, have no implied hierarchy, and offer collaborative zones spread evenly throughout the floor plan. The idea of integrated spaces for casual meetings went against the traditional thinking that individual and social work habits need to be separated. We believe collaboration doesn’t just happen in conference rooms— it happens everywhere. Public proposes collaborative areas in close proximity to individual workstations and addresses this disconnect and encourages the type of productive interaction that drives organizations forward.

As we worked with Herman Miller to bring our vision for Public Office Landscape to life, we were able to test our ideas and prototypes at our new office in San Francisco. We injected ourselves into the design process and inhabited evolving versions of the furniture for 18 months — literally growing every part of the vast system, while researching and evaluating variations, and refining the design.

The result of our work is a system that achieves an ideal state of flow in the office. Public Office Landscape encourages fluid interactions and spontaneous conversations with seating elements that flow into desks, and with soft fabrics that flow into hard surfaces. These designs culminate in a choice of focused and collaborative places to work. All of this variety helps people feel engaged, focused, and free to move between tasks without interruption. With the support of elements like the Social Chair — the first of its kind to introduce ergonomics into collaborative seating — people can feel good while doing some of their best work.

There is no technical reason why offices are needed today. In theory, we could all be working from home, remotely checking in when needed. The reason why people still want to go to an office, is to collaborate with others. Public Office Landscape offers a better way of working together with solutions that we believe will be increasingly relevant. Public addresses collaboration not in moments, but as movement. It is designed with collaboration spread evenly throughout the space, while the system’s modular components can evolve with the needs of groups and individuals. And with a variety of ergonomic and collaborative elements to enhance fluidity in the workplace, the system will continue to support the ways people want to work.

Herman Miller’s Living Office

Living Office is a different approach to managing people and their work, the tools and products that enable that work, and the places where people come together to do it. Together with Yves Behar’s fuseproject, Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, and Studio 7.5, Herman Miller is expanding its offering of human-centered elements to create a total work experience that is more natural and desirable, and within it the opportunity for individuals and organisations to achieve a new dynamic of shared prosperity. Built on what is fundamental to all humans, Living Office will help both people and their organizations to update their places, tools, and the management of the workplace, to uniquely express and enable shared character and purpose.

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for Herman Miller appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: a perforated door slides across the front of these simple sideboards by Danish designer Simon Legald for Normann Copenhagen.

The Kabino cabinet by Simon Legald for Normann Copenhagen comes in white or grey with a natural ash wood frame.

The perforations mean it can be used as a TV cabinet because devices hidden inside can still be operated with a remote control when the doors are closed.

“I like to work in the cross field between craftsmanship and industry,” says Legald. “When you buy a modern sideboard, it is often designed with pure craftsmanship or total industry in mind.”

“With Kabino I have explored manufacturing methods and various combinations of material in order for Kabino to have a little of both.”

Earlier this year Norman Copenhagen launched a table-top mirror with a dish in the base to hold small items.

Colourful wall-mounted shelves and a collection of cabinets carved with geometric patterns are the most recent stories we’ve featured about storage.

See more storage design »
See more products by Normann Copenhagen »

Here’s some more information from the brand:

Kabino is a simple and versatile sideboard with an exclusive look designed by Simon Legald. One of the sideboard’s two sliding doors has perforated holes, giving it a visual elegance. The ash frame softens the feel and adds warmth. Kabino is a useful piece of furniture for almost anywhere in the home.

Designer Simon Legald often adds his personal touch to his designs through well thought out details. He has worked with the details of the doors on Kabino breaking up the otherwise uniform surface and creating a more dynamic design. This can for example be seen in the handles, which have been deliberately staggered and made into an integral part of the doors.

Kabino is available with white or grey doors and is ideal as a sideboard in the living room, dining room, hallway or bedroom. Kabino is also suitable to be used as a TV cabinet due to the built-in cable outlet and the perforated holes, which make it possible to use a remote control even when the doors are closed.

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for Normann Copenhagen appeared first on Dezeen.