Hasta La Ideas

A whirring helicopter of LEDs creates the illusion of a glowing hat in this design by Moritz Waldemeyer for Irish milliner Philip Treacy (+ slideshow).

Six blades, each fitted with a strip of LEDs, are attached to a propellor headpiece worn by the model. When in motion, the blades disappear from view and a huge halo of light seems to float in mid-air.

Above photograph is by Chris Moore

“It has long been my aim for the technology to disappear, to dissolve it into the surface of the work so that the light effects themselves become the focus,” explained Waldemeyer.

Above photograph is by Chris Moore

Waldemeyer also created a basket-like cloak that covers the wearer from head to foot with a mesh of 6000 LED lights.

Threads soaked in resin were woven around a styrofoam frame to become rigid once dry, making the structure light enough to be supported by the model’s head.

The creations were unveiled as part of Philip Treacy’s Spring/Summer 2013 collection at London Fashion Week last Monday.

Waldemeyer recently created 140 costumes embedded with LEDs for the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and a choreographed light show for the Paralympics closing ceremony.

Other designs by Waldemeyer we’ve featured on Dezeen include a laser suit for U2 singer Bono to wear on stage and laser drumsticks and LED wands for singer Ellie Goulding.

Photographs are by Moritz Waldemeyer, except where otherwise stated.

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Here’s some more information from Waldemeyer:

Fresh from producing 140 LED light-embedded costumes for the London 2012 Olympic closing ceremony, designer Moritz Waldemeyer has turned his attention to hats in an extraordinary collaboration with Philip Treacy.

Philip Treacy’s catwalk show at the Royal Courts of Justice marks the master hat designer’s return to London after 12 years in the most hotly anticipated event of London Fashion Week. The show, sponsored by Swarovski, includes a specially chosen selection of Treacy masterpieces and a collection of original Michael Jackson stage outfits designed by Michael Bush and Dennis Tompkins, the auction of which will take place on 2 December conducted by Julien’s Auction in Beverly Hills.

An eye-catching and technologically advanced piece is a new design by Moritz Waldemeyer. A delicate illuminated basket type sculpture extends down from the head to envelope the model’s entire body. “Philip presented us with an unusual challenge,” says Moritz. “It was a visionary idea that was difficult to achieve using conventional techniques in millinery.” Studio Waldemeyer’s solution was to weave an intricate mesh of threads around a specially designed styrofoam core. The threads are soaked in resin, which when dry are rigid allowing the design to be complex, but also very light.

The result is an object that looks impossible, especially when you think that it is supported by the head alone. 6000 LED lights integrated into the webbed surface and programmed with animated sequences enhance the illusion of weightlessness. It typifies Waldemeyer’s innovative approach towards lighting design, which has brought him international acclaim. When the lights shine directly out into the audience the structure itself becomes invisible – the model appears enshrouded in a floating cloak of light.

Moritz again drew on the idea of weightlessness when asked to design his own piece for the show. This time a continuous band of light sweeps around the head with no apparent physical connection to the wearer at all. This uncanny effect is achieved courtesy of a carefully positioned propeller headpiece – each blade is finished at the end with LED lights. When in full motion the blades themselves disappear leaving only an ethereal halo of light. It’s millinery for the 21st Century.

The Treacy catwalk show caps a busy summer for Studio Waldemeyer. In addition to designing outfits for Brazil’s dazzling dance display at the Olympic Closing Ceremony, Waldemeyer also created an elaborately choreographed LED light show for the Paralympic Closing Celebrations.

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for Philip Treacy appeared first on Dezeen.

London Design Festival: Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, Jasper Morrison and AL_A are among the designers who have created benches with British design brand Established & Sons for the central courtyard of the V&A museum (+slideshow).

Each of the one-off benches is made from a different material and produced in collaboration with a company specialising in that material. After being on display for the festival they’ll be auctioned off and the money fed back to fund next year’s London Design Festival commissions.

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, the designers of the Olympic torch, made a marble bench with holes bored through (above) in collaboration with Italian studio Tor Art. They were inspired by shrapnel marks left in the V&A museum’s western facade after the Second World War. “It’s something that always fascinated me and Ed on the way from South Kensington tube up to the Royal College when we were students, and so when this project came up we thought it was a nice way to reference that,” explained Jay Osgerby at the opening.

AL_A, the architecture practice led by Amanda Levete, worked with Barcelona ceramics company Ceramica Cumella to come up with a bench (above) made of overlapping tiles, glazed with colours inspired by the museum’s ceramics collections. AL_A is also designing a new subterranean gallery for the museum.

British designer Alexander Taylor made a bench from mirror-polished stainless steel cylinders (above) with steel specialists Caparo. He explained that making perfect cylinders in steel is tricky because “the material is extruded with an oval profile so it has to be cut and put back together again.”

Italian designer Martino Gamper built a wooden bench (above) from slanted planks of thermally modified hardwood, treated to improve its stability and resistance to decay. The angled stripes of red oak, maple, ash, yellow birch and tulipwood provided by the American Hardwood Export Council create an “optical illusion” and “somehow give the impression of animation” said Gamper, adding that the modular system can be extended to any length.

British designer Jasper Morrison collaborated with concrete specialists lowinfo to create a concrete bench (above) with narrow runnels along the seat that allow rain water to drain away despite the seat being curved for comfort, while German designer Konstantin Grcic worked with Italian company Bisazza on a glass mosaic bench (below).

Portugese designer Fernando Brizio created a cork bench in the shape of a pig’s foot (below) with Amorim Cork.

British designer Felix de Pass produced a cream-coloured sheet-steel bench (below) with perforations that help water drain away and disperse heat from the sun. It’s an adaptation of his bench that’s already in production with Established & Sons.

Sam Hecht and Kim Colin from Industrial Facility worked with Corian, a material often used for kitchen worktops, to create two benches (below) that mimic the marble plinths found inside the museum.

Sadly the final bench in the collection, created by Italian designer Luca Nichetto and glass manufacturer Nardo Vetro, was broken in transit.

Other installations at the V&A during the London Design Festival include Keiichi Matsuda’s data visualisation and chairs by Nendo scattered around the museum.

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at the V&A museum appeared first on Dezeen.

London Design Festival: drops of coloured ink fall from the top of a stone staircase into a glass tank six storeys below in this installation at the V&A museum by German artist and designer Rolf Sachs (+ slideshow).

As the drops of primary-coloured ink reach the tank, the splash is amplified in the echoing space by a sensitive underwater microphone – the same kind used in Olympic pools to determine the exact moment swimmers hit the water.

The ink drops reach their terminal velocity in the three and a half seconds it takes for them to fall to the tank, where they create a burst of colour on impact.

“The liquid in the tank is a detergent, and that’s why the colour slowly disappears to wait for the arrival of the next drop,” Sachs explained at the opening of the installation.

Sachs also noted that the blue drops create a slightly different noise due to the varying concentration of pigment in the ink.

The installation was inspired by the traditional method of making lead shot for ammunition, which involves dropping molten lead from a specific height so that it solidifies into a sphere when plunged into water.

Small monocular telescopes allow visitors to see the drops as they are released from the three tubes at the top of the staircase.

The Journey of a Drop is installed in the Henry Cole Wing Grand Staircase, which has been opened to the public for the first time during this year’s London Design Festival.

Other installations at the V&A during the London Design Festival include a visualisation of the city’s data streams by Keiichi Matsuda and a series of white metal chairs in various configurations by Nendo.

Dezeen has been reporting from the festival for the past week and we’ve put together an audio guide featuring interviews with designers including Yves Behar and Tom Dixon.

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Photographs are by Susan Smart.

Here’s some more information from the V&A:

The Journey of a Drop
An installation by Rolf Sachs at the V&A during London Design Festival 2012

Conceptual designer Rolf Sachs presents a site-specific installation for the V&A’s rarely seen before Henry Cole Staircase. Playfully responding to the museum’s architecture, Sachs creates a visually arresting and emotionally engaging spectacle with the focus on the dramatic drop.

Born from his inherent curiosity and experimental personality, Rolf Sachs invites the observer on a sensory journey. Spectators are drawn into the mysterious performance and a voyage of discovery that beckons the eye upward. From the soaring heights of the atrium, three lab-like instruments individually drop primary coloured ink in measured intervals.

Starting slowly, with scientific precision, each measured drop quickly gains pace. As the speed gathers momentum, the drop becomes more spontaneous in its nature, before falling into the depths and landing into a vast tank of illuminated liquid with unexpected results. On impact the individual drops explode into the liquid creating organic transient clouds of ever changing shapes and colour. Yet once more taken by surprise, the observer sees these clouds mingle and merge until inexplicably disappearing… until the next show. Understated at first glance, the seemingly simple notion of a drop falling has been masterfully designed using finely-tuned machinery and specially developed liquids and pigments.

“As the drops commence their journey, there will be a sense of anticipation, followed by a visual spectacle,” states Sachs.
Intended to touch all the senses, the apparent silent sounds of the drops hitting the water is captured by an underwater microphone and amplified like an echo throughout the space. Encouraging further interaction, binoculars are at hand opposite the tank, to witness the complete journey of the drops from a variety of perspectives, intensifying the connection between the art and the observer.

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by Rolf Sachs appeared first on Dezeen.

An undulating golden plane blankets the new Islamic art galleries at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, which opened to the public this weekend (+ slideshow).

Designed by Italian architect Mario Bellini and his French colleague Rudy Ricciotti, the new gallery wing is surrounded by the neoclassical facades of the museum’s Cour Visconti courtyard and has two of its three floors submerged beneath the ground.

Tessellated glass triangles create the self-supporting curves of the roof and are sandwiched between two sheets of anodized aluminium mesh to create a golden surface both inside and out.

Above: photograph is by Philippe Ruault

“It’s more like an enormous veil that undulates as if suspended in the wind, almost touching the ground of the courtyard at one point, but without totally encumbering it or contaminating the historic facades” said Bellini.

Beneath the roof, two exhibition floors accommodate over 2500 works by Islamic artists from the seventh to the nineteenth century.

Glass facades surround the galleries at ground floor level, so visitors can look out at the surrounding architecture, while the underground galleries are filled with artworks that are sensitive to light.

The layout of the galleries is designed as a loop, which connects with the existing routes of the museum and encourages visitors to enter the new wing.

A third floor is located beneath the galleries to house technical facilities and storage areas.

We’ve noticed a trend in golden buildings recently. See more of them here »

Section – click above for larger image

Photography is by Antoine Mongodin, apart from where otherwise stated.

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by Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti appeared first on Dezeen.

The sounds of the countryside are amplified when you place your ear towards one of these four enormous trumpets built by architects Studio Weave (+ slideshow).

Named The Hear Heres, the horns are dotted along a walk through the grounds of Kedleston Hall, a stately home in Derbyshire, England.

One horn is pointed down towards the surface of a lake (above), while another angles up towards the sky (below).

The third trumpet winds around the the trunk of a tree, so listeners can hear the movements of the branches (below).

When describing the fourth and largest of the trumpets (below), Studio Weave’s Maria Smith told Dezeen how “it’s fun for two people to sing to each other from opposite ends.” She explained how the sound is loud on one side, but “sounds distant” from the other.

“We thought people would play and experiment with them,” she said.

Each trumpet is made from fibreglass and coated with zinc, and a set of metal struts holds each one in place.

“The struts have metal plates welded to their bottoms and are staked into the ground, said Smith. “When The Hear Heres are removed, the ground will be left untouched.”

Other unusual projects by the Hackney-based architects include a floating cinema, a latticed timber hut on stilts and a 324 metre-long bench.

We’ve also featured a couple of other listening installations on Dezeen, including a room in a shipping container and two riverside pavilions.

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Masterplan sketch

Water horn sketch

Sky horn sketch sketch

Tree horn sketch

Woodland horn sketch

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by Studio Weave appeared first on Dezeen.