Hasta La Ideas

We’re sorry to report that the Adamo laptops, which were some of Dell’s boldest forays into mobile design and intended to be an answer to the MacBook Air, are having their lids closed forever. The eye-catching form just couldn’t generate the enthusiasm needed to get consumers to swallow the $2,000-plus price tag, which is why the company is now clearing them out for as low as $799.

It can only be a good thing that Apple’s emphasis on design has pushed PC manufacturers to attempt to follow suit, even if they fall short. We were worried the Adamo’s sales failure would discourage Dell from continuing to invest in design, but happily CNET reports that Dell has a new design “possibly more compelling than…the Adamo” in the works.

(more…)

Questa Loungebarrow vince la mia personale design week. Pensata da Sascha Urban e Dorothea Wirwall.
{Via}

Winners of this year’s Amsterdam Fashion Week’s Green Fashion Competition, OAT Shoes is a biodegradable sneaker that actually sprouts when “planted” in the ground. That’s right, when you’re ready to toss out your worn out OAT sneakers you can bury them, water and with some sunshine, the soles will actually sprout flowers. The Dutch brand will launch this spring with their “Virgin” Collection in selected stores in Holland and Belgium, but will be available online for those who don’t have a trip to Amsterdam planned!

(more…)

Digitally sensuous architecture in two of Alex Haw’s residential staircase projects

Architect Alex Haw of Atmos may not be the first to use digital tools to craft seductively curving forms, but his recent staircase installations in two London abodes might be the most transformative. Each plays off each owner’s interests to create organic asymmetrical forms that lend sensual drama to the spaces.

For a gardener’s house Haw came up with a series of growing sculptural spaces that move seamlessly from exterior to interior, like the serpentine branches of a tree. Delicate branches flow throughout the house in an beautiful arts-and-craft style, albeit using modern technology to realize these complex forms.

Describing the ornate process, Haw explains “The stair was entirely digitally fabricated using an intricate set of simply-cut but highly-detailed flat-pack elements, CNC-carving sheets of MDF and oak directly from our drawings.” To make “elements that perfectly slot together like an architectural jigsaw,” he and his team engraved “depths to further split structural strands into ever-finer lineaments.”

The architect calls the structure a “sensualscape,” citing the client’s lifestyle and passion for plants as direct inspiration. “Our use of the garden as prime architectural generator tries to capture our clients’ brilliant energy and to formulate this essence into built form and lived space, weaving a seamless landscape around the passage of light and the movement of its inhabitants.”

Making a spectacular case for the staircase as an opportunity for playful architectural and sculptural form, the structure at the Woven Nest apartment in North London brings beautifully simple contours to the home. The owners—an actress and musician—clearly embraced the expressive and sinuous Atmos style, at once decorative and minimalist, while always full of movement.

Haw, a lover of florid prose as much as spaces, describes the central open stairs as having, “timber strands growing upwards towards the light, and unleashing delicate tendrils to frame each step—a single thin metallic line dancing across their lines to offer the lightest of additional support to the hands that seek it.”

Atmos’ work, pulsing with life, pushes this exciting new architecture, drawing as much from structural exploration and the use of technology as from close human relationships and behaviors.

Ci piacciono le Volta Strada. Finalmente sono disponibili nei migliori shop around the world tra cui anche Oki-Ni. A Milano le trovate da Corso Como.