Hasta La Ideas

Product news: industrial designer Yves Behar has added a pocket-sized version to Jawbone‘s range of Jambox wireless speakers (+ slideshow).

San Francisco electronics brand Jawbone released the Mini Jambox as the smallest in its range of speakers, which can wirelessly connect with phones, laptops and other bluetooth devices to play music.

Jawbone’s creative director Yves Behar told Dezeen that the latest speaker was developed to make listening to music on the go a more communal activity.

“People’s experience of music is pretty selfish and very much focused on earphones,” said Behar. “I think now we expect speakers to be used everywhere, from underground to office settings.”

The speakers are made from extruded aluminium, reinventing the manufacturing process from the original Jambox to reduce the number of parts and assembly steps.

“You really have to develop some manufacturing techniques that are very, very advanced in order to make a product that is affordable,” Behar said.

A CNC machine was used to create five textured patterns on the front of the speaker and users can chose between nine different metallic colours.

The speaker is managed through an app, where Mini Jamboxes in range appear as icons in their colour and texture. Many users can connect to one Mini Jambox at a time, so everyone can contribute to the music they’re listening to.

“We play the game ‘who’s music is this?’,” said Behar. “Essentially [the Mini Jambox] becomes something that allows people to jump in and play their own music.”

In Milan two year ago, tracks submitted by Dezeen readers were played through an installation of Jamboxes called Jamscape. Earlier this year Jawbone released the UP activity-tracking wristband, which monitors how you move, sleep and eat.

We’ve also featured a gadget that plays music wirelessly through vintage speakers and a wireless speaker that you wear over your sneakers.

See more design by Yves Behar »
See more speaker design »
See more products by Jawbone »

Here is some additional information sent to us by Behar:

The Making of the Mini Jambox

The Mini Jambox is the latest entry in the category-leading family of Jawbone speakers. The original Jambox design ushered in the era of the wireless speaker with critical and commercial success. When we first explored what the Mini Jambox could be we dreamed of a very small and pocketable size, of an experience so simple and yet game changing, and of materials and processes so refined they had previously only been used in top-end audio products. Jawbone design goals are to seamlessly integrate technology and everyday life. Mini Jambox is built on the foundation that life is constantly moving; with Mini Jambox you can pick up and bring your sound environment with you. We call it pocketable sound.

The design explorations for Mini Jambox started with a blank sheet and the idea to completely re-invent the wireless speaker, as we knew it. “It’s a strange moment when everyone loves your last product, and yet you realise the next one will have to be conceived and re-invented as if we were designing it for the first time,” says Yves Behar, CCO of Jawbone.

The user-centred insight and starting point for Mini is that people love the small Jambox size, and yet they want to take the product with them without hesitation about size or weight, from a jacket pocket to a small handbag. Delivering clear, high quality sound in a small space requires a very rigid enclosure with inherent structural integrity. To fulfil this need we explored many roads. Eventually aluminium extrusions combined with a very advanced and patented assembly method became the clear winner. This new approach enabled us to achieve the most efficient use of space, as outer skin and structural skeleton are one and the same. Form and function are truly intersected, as the overall size is the smallest, yet the rigid acoustic cavity affords maximum volume for the sound chamber. The extrusion and material also confers Mini with the strength and robustness needed in a physical object made for portability.

“In order to innovate, we have to take a process and push it somewhere entirely new,” says Yves. The demanding pursuit of refining the aluminium extrusion into an entirely new construction and aesthetic took twelve months, flexing what might be possible with a mechanical engineering assembly that requires fewer parts and assembly steps, stewarding major leaps in production capabilities at scale. “The result is that the Mini exterior skin is also the internal skeleton, in one fluid gesture; we are not just wrapping internal components with a sexy package, the package is the sound chamber.”

The Jawbone design language has always pursued minimal construction and geometry, made personal through the integral use of relief textures that are both personal and tactile. On Mini, we are pushing the boundary of rough and fast CNC, typically used to machine mechanical internal details. We flip the use of this usually hidden process, employing it externally to reveal beautiful capabilities for textures. We used large CNC cutting bits programmed to sculpt a few marks in the aluminium at high speed; the resulting intersections create new unexpected patterns. The beautiful reliefs, enhanced by reflecting light on Mini, are the result of a craft methodology developed with small machine shop partners, requiring a deep collaboration between designers, machinists, and engineers.

The CNC process innovation has transformed what’s both possible and efficient in using aluminium. We turned CNC, an industrial process, into a brush we can paint with. Mini Jambox speakers’ highly specialised perforations and unique framework channel sound for clear, elegantly routed sound. Functionally driven design that is also expressive.

The five textures and nine anodised colours allow people to make Mini into their own personality. The textures also provide a tactile grip, and each of them is carefully matched to an anodised colour that shows aluminium relief best.

From the design to the user interface and packaging, we believe Mini Jambox is our crown jewel of Jawbone design and craft. “Every element goes back to the purest expression of simplicity, performance, and elegance,” says Yves. Mini combines beautiful design and experience at the most minimal size. Providing unparalleled and uncompromised listening in a breakthrough highly portable mini package, Mini Jambox blasts rich sounds at high volume. The integrity of the Mini materials and craft enhances our music experience in ways we could only have dreamed off.

The post Mini Jambox by
Jawbone appeared first on Dezeen.

An OMA-designed housing complex comprising 31 apartment blocks stacked diagonally across one another is nearing completion in Singapore (+ slideshow).

The Interlace was designed by former OMA partner Ole Scheeren, who has since moved on to set up his own studio. It is made up of a series of near-identical six-storey blocks, which have been arranged in a honeycomb pattern around six hexagonal courtyards.

Set to complete in 2014, the 170,000 square-metre complex will offer 1040 apartments and is located at the intersection of Ayer Rajah Expressway and Alexandra Road in the south west of the city.

The stacked arrangement of the structure creates numerous cantilevers and bridges around the exterior spaces. Gardens are located over the rooftops, while staircases are positioned at the overlaps between blocks.

Other communal features include a lotus pond, a waterfall, an open-air theatre and a rock garden.

Dezeen visited the building last week during a visit to Singapore, as part of the Dezeen and Mini World Tour. The trip included a tour of the city with Colin Seah of local architecture studio Ministry of Design, who also took us to his studio’s New Majestic Hotel.

OMA unveiled its design for The Interlace in 2009, but the delivery has been carried out under the direction of property developer CapitaLand Residential.

OMA has also recently completed the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China and renovated the North Delegates’ Lounge at the United Nations buildings in New York in collaboration with Hella Jongerius. See more architecture by OMA »

Other new buildings from Singapore include a hotel featuring balconies covered in tropical plants and contoured surfaces based on rock formations. See more architecture in Singapore »

Photos are copyright Dezeen.

The post The Interlace by OMA and Ole Scheeren
nears completion appeared first on Dezeen.

Gabion walls, concrete staircases and huge rocks frame the spaces of this public park in Zaragoza by Spanish architects Héctor Fernández Elorza and Manuel Fernández Ramírez (+ slideshow).

Venecia Park spans a 415-metre stretch beside a ring road on the outskirts of the city, forming a gateway to the residential neighbourhoods to the south.

Architects Héctor Fernández Elorza and Manuel Fernández Ramírez, who previously teamed up on a park elsewhere in the city, were asked to overcome three issues – a 14-metre level change across the site, regular flooding caused by heavy rainfall and noise from the adjacent road.

The largest space in the park is a sunken concrete plaza in the south-west corner. Staircases lead down to it from all four corners, while the surrounding walls offer protection from the strong prevailing winds.

Most of the time this space can function as a pedestrian space, but it also doubles as an overflow basin for rainwater, reducing the impact of flooding to the surrounding residential areas.

To create a sound barrier and deal with the level change, the architects designed a system of rammed-earth banks to run along the north-west border of the park and fronted them with four staggered gabion walls, made from steel cages and stones.

Another sound barrier was required along the south-west side so the architects specified a wall made from oversized rocks, which they refer to as the “cyclopean wall”.

“This wall is conceived as an icon that characterises the new neighbourhood,” they said.

Young trees have been planted along some of the pathways, while metal shelters mark the location of viewpoints and ramps lead on towards the nearby canal.

“Venecia Park is a carefully planned topographical operation that complements the acoustic functions and flow-forming processes, in addition to providing green spaces to the city,” added the architects.

Other landscape architecture on Dezeen includes a public square in Croatia where steps, terraces and textured paving delineate different zones and a colourful city park in Copenhagen featuring street furniture from 60 different nations.

See more landscape architecture »
See more architecture and design in Spain »

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Venecia Park, Zaragoza

The green space within sector 88/1, known as Venecia Park, is located at its north-western limits, running parallel to the Ronda Hispanidad Avenue between the Calle Zafiro Roundabout and the historic channel of the Imperial Canal of Aragón. The project encompasses a linear urban infrastructure, averaging 415 metres in length and 60 metres in width: a surface area of approximately 2.5 hectares. It was required to address three issues: the resolution of an acoustic problem, the evacuation of rainfall deposits and the question of topography.

The sound issue caused by road traffic on the Ronda Hispanidad (Third Ring Road) affecting neighbouring dwellings, requires the establishment of a sound barrier to include the whole north-western border of the park. The existing topographical ground level difference between ground-level of the new residential quarter and the ring road reaches a maximum height of 14 metres, where the containment of the terrain is resolved by means of a system of reinforced earth walls. This is made up four steps set apart from one another by 1.50 metres, composed of a galvanised steel mesh and large gravel stones, thus forming a sound barrier that will protect future residential developments in the area.

To the far south-west of the park, where no significant topographical difference is noticeable, the issue of sound containment is resolved by means of a Cyclopean wall 100 metres long with a maximum height of 10 metres. This wall is moreover conceived as an icon that characterises the new neighbourhood and also provides access to the underground square or mill basin situated in its extrados.

This laminar flow basin is designed to cope with the intense rainfall that affects the area, thus preventing floodwaters from emptying into the municipal network, whose diameter and capacity are insufficient to deal with such heavy quantities of rainwater. This compound with its large surface area (3,150 m2), whose use as a laminar flow space will be conditioned by the frequency and intensity of local rainfall, has been conceived and designed as an urban space or pedestrian square for most of the year and a welcome area of shelter from the unpleasant Cierzo wind which blows in this upper area of the city. Four stairs situated at the corners provide access to the underground square, connecting with the adjacent neighbourhood and the city level. The incorporation of sufficiently wide ramps situated within the sound barrier wall gives access to service and maintenance vehicles and a more ample use of the compound.

Finally Venecia Park is a carefully planned topographical operation that complements the acoustic functions and flow-forming processes described above in addition to providing green spaces to the city. All this is structured spatially over the Ronda Hispanidad by means of staggered interconnecting platforms in a linear or extended link-up of little squares (hard and soft), viewing points protected with light metallic pergolas, extensive groves of pines and pedestrian ramps leading to the historic heritage site of Aragón’s Imperial Canal.

Architects: Héctor Fernández Elorza, Manuel Fernández Ramírez
Collaborators: Félix Royo Millán, José Antonio Alonso García, Antonio Gros Bañeres, Beatriz Navarro Pérez (Engineers)
Location: Sector 88/1, Pinares de Venecia, Zaragoza
Project: 2008
Construction: 1 July 2009 – 31 December 2011
Client: Junta de Compensación del Sector 88/1
Constructor: IDECON, S.A.U.
Surface Area: 2,5 Ha.
Budget: 2.598.799 euros

The post Venecia Park by Héctor Fernández Elorza
and Manuel Fernández Ramírez appeared first on Dezeen.

Italian designer Luca Nichetto has created a pavilion in Beijing with a facade covered in 1200 vertical brass tubes (+ slideshow).

Nichetto‘s pavilion sits within a garden and houses a range of design showrooms.

The tube facade is a reference to blades of grass and the landscaped setting in which the pavilion sits.

The brass tubes will oxidise and change colour naturally as time passes.

Behind the facade sit large bronze monoliths with generous windows revealing the exhibition spaces inside.

The reception and business area in the centre is clad in elm wood recycled from old houses in the Hebei province.

White plaster and concrete floors provide a plain backdrop for the products on sale in the showrooms.

The first floor mezzanine is lit by a large skylight, which is embedded within the exposed concrete beams.

The railings are decorated with gridded lattice work that references the plan of the building, and the same pattern is used for the window in the reception area, rugs and air-conditioning grids.

The pavilion opened to coincide with Beijing Design Week, which took place from 26 September to 3 October.

Other pavilions that have featured on Dezeen include an austere concrete pavilion in Lisbon with a staggered corridor and a hidden courtyard and a temporary pavilion by Shigeru Ban made from cardboard tubes. See more pavilions »

The post Tales Pavilion
by Luca Nichetto appeared first on Dezeen.

Beijing designers reMIX Studio created a string installation that guided visitors through a derelict building to a pop-up restaurant at Beijing Design Week 2013 (+ slideshow).

Entitled Paizi 38, reMIX Studio created the intervention as part of the urban regeneration of the historic Dashilar hutong in Beijing.

Lengths of string and a wooden path created a journey through three traditional courtyards, leading visitors over rubble and through holes in the walls.

Threaded through the doorways, the strings spanned room lengths in grouped arrangements.

In the final courtyard space, lightbulbs hung from the ends of the strings over dining tables at a temporary restaurant.

“The city builds millions of square metres every year at an uncontrollable speed whilst instead this project forces the investors, the designers, the city to a new slowed-down development,” said the practice.

Following the temporary intervention for this year’s Beijing Design Week, the space is to be turned into a boutique hotel.

At last year’s event a constellation of illuminated ceramic yoghurt pots were hung in the stairwell of a former bicycle factory and Nike shoe material was used to create a colourful web in a rusting gas tower.

See more installation design »
See more architecture and design in Beijing »

Here’s some more information from the designers:

This space will become after the Beijing Design Week a new boutique hotel that will be grafted into the existing building through precise insertions and punctual modifications.

These considerations are the premises and the constrictions of the temporary installation we are exhibiting today. Starting from the structural survey and the analysis of the actual spaces that in succession form an extended horizontal layered system – an unique feature for a building typology such as this one especially in this area of Beijing.

We propose a new connective path that reveals the existing building secrets and tunnelling throughout the architectural body it highlights in few observations points the quality and characteristics of the future intervention.

The system of new portals is a succession of points of view that, passing in the position where the new hotel circulation will be placed, forces the visitors into an unexpected journey; challenging his imagination and forcing him to redefine the meaning of “exploration”.

The path ends in the main room where a series of photographs taken from the Orchid hotel construction will show the quality of the future refurbishment.

The tunnel, branching in a three lines lighting feature marks visually the areas of the main space where the opening dinner of the Beijing Design Week will take place.

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by reMIX Studio appeared first on Dezeen.