Hasta La Ideas

Milan 2014: Japanese design studio YOY presented a lamp that projects the shape of a shade onto a wall and a rug that doubles as a chair in Milan this week (+ slideshow).

The new collection from YOY includes a tray that appears to defy gravity and a series of drawers that can be mounted on the wall, as well as the rug and two lamps.

“In this exhibition, we tried to make a new story between a product and a space,” YOY co-founder Naoki Ono told Dezeen. “We would like to create strange feelings with humour in an ordinary room.”

The table and floor lamps are both made from aluminium and plastic. Rather than using a light bulb, the designs have a hole in the head with an LED light inside, which projects the shape of a shade onto a nearby wall.

The rug has a 10-millimetre-thick aluminium sheet inside that makes it strong enough to hold the weight of a person when rolled, enabling it to be used as a seat. The black fabric is made from polyester and elastic.

The wooden tray, called Protrude, appears to be perilously perched on the edge of a table when in fact it is fixed with a stainless-steel clip.

The drawers are designed to hang on a wall and have a mirror inside to make them appear deeper. They come in small, medium and large, and are available in black and white plastic.

The pieces are showing at stand D-43, Salone Sattelite, Fiera Hall 15 in the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan from 8 – 13 April.

The post YOY brings “humour to an ordinary room”
with light that projects its shade appeared first on Dezeen.

This zigzagging house in Australia by Iredale Pedersen Hook is raised above the ground on stilts to minimise its impact on the native landscape and wildlife (+ slideshow).

The holiday home was designed by Australian studio Iredale Pedersen Hook for a site near the town of Nannup. Situated between a forest and a flood plain, the area provides a habitat for local fauna including emus, kangaroos and snakes.

The house was given a cranked layout to create different experiences along its length. It was also lifted off the ground to enhance views and reduce disruption to the site.

“This is a holiday house, a place of temporary inhabitation that offers a variety of experiences and relationship to the native landscape,” said the architect. “Spaces are strung in a line, an open-ended line that allows one to enter, exist and then leave and continue.”

The kinked plan optimises different views of the forest on one side and the horizon on the other. It accommodates outdoor living areas, including an enclosed balcony at the rear of the property and a pointed terrace that projects towards the flood plain.

Windows on the angled facades alternate between vertical apertures that make the most of the view towards the nearby trees and longer openings overlooking the plain.

The use of the stilts and their diagonal cross-braces references the fallen trees that are a common feature around the forest edge, while the material palette used for the exterior references its natural setting.

“Materials were carefully selected to dialogue with the context,” the architects explained. “Dark Colorbond steel, rusting steel and recycled jarrah [wood] contributes to the notion of the building as ‘shadow’.”

Long steel grate ramps lead to an entrance at one end of the house and a balcony at the other, continuing past the master bedroom and main living areas to the sheltered terrace.

The main entrance opens into a dark corridor that meanders past bedrooms, a laundry and a study, before reaching the two terraces on either side of the bright, open-plan living and dining room.

The architects said they wanted to enhance the experience of moving between interior and exterior spaces by emulating the experience of “wandering through a forest in and out of darkness and openness.”

Richly textured, dark jarrah wood used on the floor of the corridor contrasts with the bright living spaces, while carefully chosen colours and textures were introduced throughout the interior to evoke the natural surroundings.

Treated plantation pine was used for 90 per cent of the building’s framework and recycled local timber features on the outdoor decks as well as internal flooring and storage.

Photovoltaic panels on the roof supply the home’s power and a solar-powered system heats its water, which includes rainwater captured from the roof.

Photography is by Peter Bennetts.

Here’s a project description from Iredale Pedersen Hook:

Nannup Holiday House

The Nannup Holiday house forms part of a wandering path through the landscape from Perth to Nannup. This path dialogues with the landscape of intense forest, meandering river and rolling hills, each experience is carefully choreographed to enrich the occupancy of the house. A Jeykll and Hyde experience of the landscape is carefully controlled through oscillating vertical (forest) and horizontal (horizon) openings and the contrast of grounded and floating experiences. While the exterior dialogues with the numerous fallen trees, the interior is revealed through a sequence of ‘growth rings’ coded and extruded in relation to the building program.

Program Resolution

This is a holiday house, a place of temporary inhabitation that offers a variety of experiences and relationship to the native landscape. Spaces are strung in a line, an open-ended line that allows one to enter, exist and then leave and continue. The house is part of a broader and longer experience that constitutes the experience of being on ‘holiday’, the travel to and from the site and the experience of visiting local towns and tourist attractions are then contemplated and celebrated in the context of this residence. Spaces are organised to provide a sense of seclusion and retreat, guests view the forest from a distance through vertical windows, the boys view the horizon and rolling hills through shared horizontal openings and the parents almost touch the natural landscape. These areas are collected by a dark, twisting and cranking space clad in recycled jarrah that oscillates between interior and exterior creating a sense of ambiguity and wondering through a forest in and out of darkness and openness. Outlook from this space is carefully controlled to provide detailed relief, openings also align to view through interior to exterior to interior and back to exterior.

Built form context relationship

The building hovers above the native landscape minimising disturbance, it is a shadow to the immense forest, cranking in plan and undulating in section. The plan twists in relationship to program requirements and variety of views. The section undulates in direct dialogue to the backdrop forest enriching the spatial experience with variety and complexity; spatial proportion varies between rooms capturing the verticality of the forest and the horizontality of the horizon.

It sits between the edge of the forest and the edge of the flood plain, the space between fire and flood, a fragile zone of existence. The ground level is dominated by roaming wild pigs (the size of humans), tiger snakes, dugites and other less threatening native fauna including emus and kangaroos. The elevated house with access via the steel grate ramps creates a safe retreat to observe nature.

Materials were carefully selected to dialogue with the context, dark Colorbond steel, rusting steel and recycled Jarrah contributes to the notion of the building as ‘shadow’. This concept continues internally, the main passage being dark and an extension of the exterior (recycled Jarrah) and primary living spaces being lighter and more connected to the exterior (recycled WA Blackbutt). Small fragments of intense colour capture the colours of the forest undergrowth.

Integration of Allied Disciplines

The core building team camped on site during construction; it became an obsession, highly crafted and full of pride. Our structural engineer also travelled regularly to site while visiting his own holiday farm in the vicinity. His knowledge of local conditions and contractors was highly valued. The project enjoyed a high level of respect and collaboration between all teams; this is reflected in the end result.

Sustainability

This project offers a holistic approach to environmental sustainability commencing with design and placement of access paths. The vehicle access path is placed along the site edge an area that requires annual clearing for the firebreak. This enables us to minimise the clearing of land. The materials required to build the access path were quarried from the site (gravel and clean yellow sand). These areas were immediately rehabilitated with plant species already existing on the site.

The house was sited and designed to minimise clearing of bush and removal of trees. The area under the house is then free for re-introducing local species and will be fed by the grey water recycling.

Materials were selected based on a life cycle analysis of embodied energy, Colorbond cladding provides a durable exterior core and inhabited areas include recycled Jarrah and recycled WA Blackbutt. Timber off cuts was re-used for storeroom linings.

The building structure is 90% treated plantation pine and most furniture constructed from hoop pine plantation plywood. The structure was mostly pre-fabricated to minimise building waste.

The long roof form increases the capacity to capture rainwater, this is re-used in the house. Grey Water is recycled for garden watering under the house. Water is heated from a solar hot water system with back up instantaneous gas hot water systems located close to areas of water use to minimise water waste. Water consumption is reduces with rated fixtures and fittings.

Photo Voltaic cells balanced over the year easily cover consumption requirements. Power consumption is minimised through energy efficient equipment, use of LED and Compact Fluorescent globes and feature wall mounted light fittings manufactured from plantation plywood.

Applied coatings are minimised and generally Low Voc or oil.

Architects: Iredale Pedersen Hook architects
Architectural Project Team: Adrian Iredale, Finn Pedersen, Martyn Hook, Drew Penhale, Caroline Di Costa, Jason Lenard, Matthew Fletcher
Structural Engineer: Terpkos Engineering
Builder: Brolga Developments and Construction

The post Nannup Holiday House by Iredale Pedersen Hook
rises above the Australian bush on stilts appeared first on Dezeen.

This bright white house in Portugal by GSMM Architetti uses the trees on its hillside site to create a sense of intimacy, providing a counterbalance for the openness of its central courtyard  (+ slideshow).

Miles away from the nearest town, the single-storey House in Quinta do Carvalheiro was designed by local studio GSMM Architetti as a quiet retreat that has as little impact on the landscape as possible.

“This is a holiday house; a place to renovate energy, to get close to the wild nature, to live in a different way. A place to be alone, for meditation or to be among friends,” architect Monica Margarido told Dezeen.

“Our translation was to design a house where spaces were defined by transparency and reflection of the landscape, to feel protected but at the same time to feel emerged into the forest,” she added.

Cork oak and pine trees surround the house and help to shade it from the sun. “The dense cork trees that surround the house provide intimacy,” said Margarido.

The house has a square plan with a courtyard at its centre, offering residents an uninterrupted view of the skies.

“You lay down on the patio and you dive among thousands of stars, in your transparent envelope,” explained architect Giorgia Conversi, who also worked on the project.

An expansive living area runs along the southern side of the house. Sliding glass panels line two walls, allowing the space to open out to both the courtyard and surroundings.

A fireplace separates the living area from the kitchen. There is also a sheltered terrace where residents can dine al fresco.

Two north-facing bedrooms sit on the opposite side of the courtyard, while a master suite and guest bedroom run along the eastern side of the house.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here’s some text from the architect Giorgia Conversi:

House Quinta Do Carvalheiro, São Francisco da Serra, Portugal

A new presence in the light and shade of cork trees. Clean and sharp. I’m here. I’m here, but let me cross. Occupy a space without closing. Play changing face between the white presence and the absence of glass: let me cross from the shadows of branches and give back their image to the around gnarled trunks.

Quinta do Carvalheiro is another way of living. Enter and you’re still out. In the middle of the trees. In every point the look finds the way to project far away.

The walls are a pause between a glimpse and other. A border to cross, like all boundaries. A unit of measure for the space that extends around.

A challenge to the concept of “locked at home”. Within four walls. In ourselves. The house doesn’t obscure the view but reveals it. Doesn’t take away the other, doesn’t take away the sky. But is there.

The first day is alienation. The second you start to feel it, the Quinta: is of few words but is there. The third: you lay down on the patio and you dive among thousands of stars, in your transparent envelope. Protected but free. The fourth, you realize that you can change perspective. Look inside. And, as a game of mirrors, seek your hidden corner.

An open house, first of all, to mental disposition. Open to people who arrive, to changing light, to curious insects, to the moon peeping from the hill, to ideas, to the next new discovery.

The post Hillside hideaway by GSMM Architetti
features a courtyard for stargazing appeared first on Dezeen.

Berlin-based product designer Mark Braun has created his first watch, with the Metro for fine watchmakers Nomos Glashütte (+ interview).

The Metro is manually-wound and bucks the trend for luxury watches that feature large faces and show all their internal workings, said Braun.

“The big brands like Patek Philippe and Omega and so on, they really look for big diameters and show really a lot of the inside of the chronograph,” said Braun. “These super large diameters and this show off of technique –  it’s not what I really like.”

The workings of the timepiece include Nomos’ new assortiment – the combination of the balance, balance spring, escape wheel and pallet that powers a mechanical watch – called the Nomos Swing System.

This has freed the brand from using an assortiment by the Swatch Group that many manufacturers are forced to rely on, and makes this watch the first to have all of its elements built in-house at Nomos.

Braun was approached directly by Nomos on the strength of the work he has generated from his own studio over the past 8 years, including furniture, lighting and homeware.

Part of Nomos’ appeal for Braun was its use of manual workings, as battery watches are convenient but do not have longevity, he said.

“Battery watches are like fashion and you just need it for one year,” said Braun. “[Metro is] a long term design, a slow design and that’s something I really like. It’s a bit dangerous to be too conservative but I don’t think that this is a conservative design.”

The timepiece he has created features a white face, with mint and red details including a small circle which indicates the amount of time remaining before the mechanism needs to be re-wound. “Because it’s an expensive watch you can’t be too fashion coloured but I think this [mint] colour has a very strong character,” said Braun.

He has chosen to express the precision of the inner functions of the watch in the hands, which are unusually thin and highlight the “craft of making”, according to Braun.

At the bottom of the face is a new calendar function with a dial and a date display which has been patented by Nomos.

Nomos was established in the town of Glashütte in Saxony, Germany, in 1990 by Roland Schwertner. Its first collection of hand-wound watches, designed by Susanne Günther and inspired by Bauhaus and the German Werkstätte, set the tone for its future ranges.

“The expensive watches are very much about showing the technique, showing value by using diamonds and gold or something like that,” said Braun.

“Metro is still proud of what it is and it shows more in a delicate way what it is, not so loud. I think that’s also very much Nomos, they like this approach.”

Read an edited transcript of Dezeen’s conversation with Mark Braun:

Amy Frearson: Could you begin by telling me a bit more about where you come from and what you do?

Mark Braun: Actually I’m not a watch designer. I’ve designed furniture, lighting and accessories since 2006, so eight years. I think my projects were interesting, so Nomos asked me to do a watch. We worked for almost two years on this project and now it’s ready and I’m very happy about it. It’s really a great brand and a cool project.

Amy Frearson: Could tell me a little bit about the watch you’ve designed, and explain the concept behind it?

Mark Braun: The idea was to play with archetypes, so to research where these original shapes come from. The pocket watch has a very nice archetype or shape. They are very pure but they have lots of character.

With the dial there was the goal to translate the precision of the inside of the watch into a dial which is highlighting this craft of making. So when you see the hands they are very thin at the end and this is something I like very much, like the Empire State Building spires they point to the time. And then we have this mint-coloured circle – this is showing when you have to recharge the watch, and I like this colour very much. Somehow because it’s an expensive watch you can’t be too fashion coloured but I think this colour has a very strong character. You can imagine that the [Metro] watch would have also a textile look which we are working on to show in 2015.

Amy Frearson: One of the main features of the watch is that it’s like a classic watch, you have to wind it at regular intervals. Can you tell me why you decided to have this?

Mark Braun: That’s something really related to the manufacturers in Glashütte because they have produced watches for 400 years. They have this production still in Germany and they are very proud of the perfect and precise technique inside. So how to translate the tradition into a good and timeless design?

Amy Frearson: Are there any big trends in watch design at the moment that you find interesting?

Mark Braun: I’ve just been at [watch trade fair] Baselworld, and I think the big brands like Patek Philippe and Omega and so on, they really look for big diameters and show really a lot of the inside of the chronograph. And what I think with these super large diameters and this show off of technique, it’s not what I really like.

Metro is still proud of what it is and it shows more in a delicate way what it is, not so loud. I think that’s also very much Nomos, they like this approach. The trend is a bit different, I think it’s more to show the technique as much as possible and to make big diameters. And the battery watches, are a completely different thing. I love Dezeen Watch Store and there you see what is going on with these kind of more fashion-related watches. But I love Daniel Wellington, I think he is a doing a great job and building a bridge to maybe do the chronograph watches. But that’s a bit different price so maybe there are two different trends. The expensive watches are very much about showing the technique, showing value by using diamonds and gold or something like that. A bit classic and conservative.

Amy Frearson: We interviewed Daniel Wellington really recently and he said that he felt there was something missing, a kind of a gap in the market, for a classic watch that is within this price range. Is that something you felt as well?

Mark Braun: Yeah I think Daniel has a bit of the same approach design-wise as I have but he has a different market. His watches have great design, but I think the technique is different.

Amy Frearson: And who do you see as your market for this watch?

Mark Braun: I think it’s one of the youngest watches for Nomos, but the buyers were around at the age of 30 and the name of the watch is a bit related to the group who might like it. They’re people living in large cities and have a good job and who have meetings and they need a watch beside their iPhone maybe to have the time with them, but of course also like showing their identity with this watch.

The post Mark Braun celebrates “craft of making”
with Metro watch for Nomos Glashütte appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: futurist and writer Bruce Sterling was among this week’s visitors to the FOMObile in Milan – the first mobile press room for an algorithmic publishing experiment led by Joseph Grima (+ download).

Sterling’s comment on events being “the new magazines” became one of the guiding principles for the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) project, which centres around a piece of software that combines voice recognition and data from social media to produce an instant newspaper.

“The project was born from the idea of publishing not being compatible with such a timeframe [as Milan design week]; asking how it can embrace this notion of the event, as Bruce Sterling stated,” said Grima, whose design research collaborative Space Caviar developed FOMO.

“If events are the thing that now drives contemporary production, we need to find a way for publishing to adapt to that condition, to explore a way to create an instant record,” he said.

FOMO had its debut in Milan this with a series of evening talks from leading designers called On The Fly. Taking place underneath Nike’s Aero-static dome at Palazzo Clerici, the presentations tackled themes including weightlessness and sustainability in design. Speakers included Atelier Bow Wow, Clemens Weisshaar, Martino Gamper and Formafantasma.

Their words were combined with social activity trawled from the #ontheflymilan hashtag, including Instagram pictures and Tweets, which were put together by the algorithmic publishing machine into a PDF, printed and bound, and handed out for free to visitors at Palazzo Clerici.

You can now download issues four to eight of FOMO from day two of the experiment, with contributions from Italo Rota, Ianthe Roach and Pier Nucelo on the theme seamlessness.

» Olympia Zagnoli – download here
» Italo Rota – download here
» Pier Nucleo – download here
» Marco Raino – download here
» Ianthe Roach – download here

Download the previous issues of FOMO featuring Atelier Bow Wow, Clemens Wiesshaar, Studio Folder, Marco Ferrari and Elisa Pasqual here.

The final issues of FOMO from Milan will be available on Dezeen next week.

The post Download issues four to eight of experimental
Milan newspaper FOMO appeared first on Dezeen.