Hasta La Ideas

Clockwise from top right: The Cugino.IT has magnets to hold the streamers in place; the “Bubo” lamp can be set on either of two feet with mirrors on them, such that the lamp can be upright or more horizontal; the “Topoluce” light is suspended by its ‘ears’

Designer Roberto Giacomucci takes the notion of “small things design” refer not to the physical size of his work but to those details that matter most in the interest of simple, straightforward universal design. Yet his focus on usability is complemented by his willingness to experiment with form and material. Taken together, Giacomucci creates unpretentious design objects that are both beautiful and inviting.

The “Expander” iPod/iPhone dock

The “NBA” bookshelf is a personal favorite

“The Little Designer” is currently on exhibit at the Triennale di Milano through April 22. From the website:

More than an anthology, this exhibition wants to explain the effort, the mistakes, the surprise, the delusion and the satisfaction you feel while creating and trying to bring to life something which still does not exist. They are some little steps that permit to develop a thought and to have those visions without which it would not be possible the change.

The exhibition starts from a fixed point in my way of designing: the simplicity, the simplicity meant as essential, immediate and plainness, as a design which does not need names, but thoughts…

Marco Ferreri has been called to curate the exhibition because of his multisectorial experience and his ability of distinguish the concrete from the noise. The coherence, the constancy and the ethic of his work, make him an authoritative designer, able to reject the fashion and to prefer the real life with critical consciousness, typical of the today best Italian design.

“Fly Fly” teabag holders

“Zoowood” toys are set on rounded bases so they can rock back and forth

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profiled in last year’s Milan coverage.)

Frederik Roijé, Dish of Desire

Sharing a space in Tortona, co-founder Frederik Roijé showcased a new collection of personal work. I loved the “Dish of Desire,” a multi-course dining experience for our avian friends. Employing real plates tiered with cedarwood, the bird feeders created beautiful layers in the large cavernous space. Also of note are the organic sconces created in collaboration with Janne Kyttanen’s Freedom of Creation. The 3D printed plastic lighting fixtures continue with the theme of a visual feast, reminding me of the gill-like underside of mushrooms.

New Duivendrecht and Frederik Roijé
Tortona Design District
via Novi 5, Milan
Through April 22nd

(See more products from New Duivendrecht after the jump)

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The display cases of Sept Appartements based on groundsman Hervé Liénard’s DIY approach to renovation and upkeep of seven rental apartments.

What is your favorite object? The young designers from Benetton’s prestigious Fabrica Institute presented this question to 15 staff members from Belgium’s Grand-Hornu cultural center and museum. Translating their responses into considered one-off furniture pieces, the 15 objects were presented as one-half of the Objet Préféré/Objet Coloré exhibition at the Triennale Design Museum.

The interviews with Grand-Hornu’s staff members—ranging from museum guides, administrative managers, site electricians to the museum’s director—looped on a video inside the exhibition and were also accessible via transcripts laid out on newsprint. Grand-Hornu was built in the early 1800’s as an industrial mining complex—today it hosts innovative design exhibitions and cultural events.

Under the art direction of French industrial designer Sam Baron, unlike typical exhibitions, individual designers and the Grand-Hornu staff members that contributed their thoughts are not identified—each piece is named solely after the object it is based on.

United Color of Benetton presents Objet Préféré
An exhibition by Fabrica and Grand-Hornu
Triennale Design Museum
Milan
On View through April 22nd

Nesting tables of Bottines pour Enfant & Crâne (Boots for Children & Skull) based on head of Grand-Hornu Images Françoise Foulon’s first pair of baby shoes and the, “little skulls adorning the site’s founders in the Grand-Hornu crypt.” (Foulon couldn’t choose which she liked more.) The tables extend to resemble steps as a reminder of Foulon’s of first steps and the skull, as a memento mori, reminds her of the end.

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Rotterdam’s Nightshop is the brainchild of Ward van Gemert and Adriaan van der Ploeg, who started the studio to explore “new and surprising products with a reference to everyday life and focus on bringing aspects of ‘low-culture’ into our designs.” Ventura Lambrate will see the debut of a new household object from the Dutch pair: the “P.O.V.” vase joins the “Lightweight” lamp among their product offerings.

As with another previewed piece, the vase’s name captures its essence without betraying what it actually looks like. Indeed the “P.O.V.” vase purportedly shares a trait with the iPad—”quite magical if you ask us”—though its interactive aspect is simply a function of circumambulating the piece.

It comes in at 40 cm (about 15.75 inches) tall, with a maximum diameter of 18 cm (~7 in.). “Made out of different kinds of plastics, the P.O.V. vase… will come in an endless variety of colors and patterns.”

Shiny:

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Here’s an interesting take on flatpack: Netherlands-based Studio Mango’s Spring Lamp, above, which arrives in the mail as a disc and unfurls into the shape of a bell.

Springs are magical little components, so much can be done with them, if you fold them flat they unfold themselves again and pop up. In today’s world transport is becoming increasingly more expensive and there is a continuous challenge for designers to create nice products which perform and look great but are either stackable or have a minimal size during transport. This is what inspired us to create the Spring Lamp, it is small enough to be inserted in a letter box and when hung it unfolds itself like a full lamp shade.

Another circular lamp that will ship in a considerably smaller package than its end form is their Lygo Lamp. You get 12 dozen Lego-like Lygo blocks along with the lighting hardware, and after some elbow grease you’ve got a 50-centimeter-diameter shade.

Who doesn’t remember the colorful playing blocks from their youth, LEGO an abbreviation of Leg Godt (play good) was transformed by Studio Mango in Lygte Godt: LYGO. A unique LYGO block was designed which curves into a 50 cm diameter circle, through stacking, combining and playing you are now able to design and build your own lamp. 144 LYGO blocks go into one lamp and the model becomes available middle 2012 in 5 colors to start with: white, black, transparent, red transparent and purple transparent.

These products are so new they’re not yet up on Studio Mango’s website, and the only info we’ve got on them so far are the paragraphs above. But we, and some of you, will know more by Milan; the Spring and the Lygo will be unveiled at the Salone Satellite design show.

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