Movie: in our second video interview with Konstantin Grcic in Milan, the industrial designer discusses the upsides and downsides of designing collections for multiple brands, rather than building relationships with a select few.
Konstantin Grcic
“I think the business model of design studios working for several companies, and companies working with many different designers, is quite unique [compared to other industries],” says Grcic, who unveiled new products for brands including Emeco, Flos, Magis and Mattiazzi in Milan this year.
“It has its advantages; it creates dynamism,which I think is positive. I’ve seen the negative side of it as well; because of the dynamics things change and a company that was great to work with for five years suddenly becomes less interesting.”
Grcic concedes that he would prefer to work with fewer companies and build long-term relationships with them.
“To be honest, I prefer working for only a very few companies and having a very steady relationship,” he says. “That’s how it was in the old days, especially in Italy. The great masters each had a few companies that they worked for, almost for a lifetime, and that’s what produced the really great work.”
Traffic collection by Konstantin Grcic for Magis
However, Grcic says that is still possible to work with a company on a short-term basis and produce good work.
“I think some companies, for sure, hire designers for marketing reasons, for having their names in the catalogue,” he says. “But there are other companies – and those are the interesting companies – that are looking for designers as partners for realising certain projects.”
Traffic collection by Konstantin Grcic for Magis
He continues: “It’s interesting that a company like Magis, for example, somehow succeeds in bringing together very different designers on very different projects. If it works, it’s actually quite fascinating. It creates an interesting tension and energy.”
Similarly, Grcic says that a long-standing relationship with a company doesn’t guarantee good design.
“There are companies that only work with very few designers and it can show that the continuity creates better work,” he says. “But it can also end in repetition and a kind of dead-end street.”
The setting for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio will be a lagoon-side peninsula with 15 sports venues dotted along a network of snaking pathways, as detailed in this new set of visuals by masterplanners AECOM (+ slideshow).
Located on a flat triangular site in the city’s Barra da Tijuca district, the main Olympic park will centre itself around a trio of existing stadiums leftover from the 2007 Pan-American Games, which were constructed over a Formula One racetrack from the 1970s.
AECOM plans to transform the peninsula into a tropical landscape that reflects the mountains and valleys of the Brazilian coastline, including gently sloping hills and curving pathways. Venues will be lined up on either side of a black-and-white striped central axis, winding like a river from the site entrance to the waterfront.
Seven new stadiums will be constructed on the site. London studio AndArchitects is collaborating with Rio office Lopes, Santos & Ferreira Gomes on the handball arena, which will be dismantled after the games and used to build four new schools.
UK firm 3DReid is teaming up with Rio studio BLAC Architects to renovate the existing Velodrome, while the Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre will be reused for swimming and diving events, and the HSBC Stadium will host gymnastics.
A waterfront lawn will allow up to 12,000 spectators to watch the action on big screens and an AECOM-designed broadcast centre will accommodate around 20,000 international journalists.
“This is such a high profile and complex project for AECOM, which brings many exciting opportunities and challenges,” commented the firm’s Jason Prior. “We are drawing on our experience from being masterplanners of the London Olympics to take the design of the Rio venues and park even further, which will hopefully be reflected in the end result in 2016.”
Alongside Barra da Tijuca, events for the games will also take place at Copacabana, Maracanã and Deodoro, where the National Shooting Centre is already in place.
In 2011, AECOM won Brazil’fs first international architecture competition to design the masterplan for Rio’s 2016 Olympic Park, making it the first company to design the parks for two consecutive Olympic and Paralympic Games Parks – London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.
In Rio, AECOM has taken on an even larger role than it had on the 2012 Games, with responsibility for the preliminary design of the seven sporting venues as well as the detailed design of the International Broadcast Centre. This is in addition to the architectural, masterplanning, landscaping, engineering, cost consultancy, project management, sustainability and transportation strategy design services that it also provided in London.
Site masterplan – 2016
Set in one of the most beautiful areas on Earth, AECOM’s masterplan takes its inspiration from the dramatic natural setting of Rio. Located on a former Formula 1 race track in Barra da Tijuca, the main Olympic park sits on a triangular space with water on either side. During Games time, at the southern peninsula of the site there will be an entertainment area for around 12,000 people to watch the events on big screens.
The park’s design draws from the Atlantica Forrest that surrounds Rio de Janeiro. This context provides the conceptual inspiration and influences the architecture and landscape design as will the Brazilian culture and strong design heritage. The masterplan sets out to respect and reinforce the balance between native ecology, the city and its people while delivering the platform for sporting excellence.
Site masterplan – 2018
Every Olympics needs to reflect the character and ambitions of the host city and this is where the differences between the two parks are most pronounced. While London was about demonstrating how a short global event can lead to the long term regeneration of one of the most neglected and deprived areas of the city, Rio is about celebrating Brazil’s emergence as a world power as well as making sure there is a strong legacy plan in place.
Throughout the development of the Rio masterplan, you can see how AECOM has been applying the lessons learnt from working on London 2012. This includes working with the wide range of stakeholders and local communities, and the utilisation of its knowledge of the requirements for running such a huge event, from crowd management and traffic strategies, to meeting the needs of athletes, visitors and the extended Olympic management and support system.
Site masterplan – 2030
The vision for the future is not just to create a global stage for the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2016, but also, in the longer term, to create a new legacy district with new homes, jobs and places for leisure activities with a new central park and a thriving beautiful waterfront. It is also set to become a global centre of sporting excellence, with a Legacy Olympic Training Centre utilising the Games’ permanent sporting venues.
After the Games, the site will evolve into a compact urban environment built around a network of streets and open spaces, which encourages a diverse mix of living, working and recreational uses. AECOM has taken reference from the grid, linearity, axis and contrasting organic forms which permeates Rio’s unique urban environment to propose a responsive flexible framework that resonates with and echoes the specific local characteristics of Barra and Rio. The masterplan provides an opportunity to enhance environmental quality and bring Costa’s original concept into the 21st century as an example of new urbanism for a new era.
Product news: French design company Moustache will present new products including lights shaped like swirls of cream and visor-inspired wall lamps at Maison & Object in Paris this weekend (+ slideshow).
The Moto walls lamps by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez reference motorcycle helmets, with rounded iridescent shades based on visors.
Parade vase by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez
Also by Fastrez, the Parade vase comprises blown-glass balls with holes in the tops that hang from a wooden stick.
Chantilly lamp by Constance Guisset
Constance Guisset’s Chantilly lights look similar to a swirl of cream and can either be stood on spindly legs or suspended from the ceiling.
Ooga Booga, Frik Frak and Pierre coat hooks by Bertjan Pot
Wooden coat hooks that have pegs positioned like facial features on tribal masks are designed by Bertjan Pot.
Gavotte chair by François Azambourg
François Azambourg employed techniques used to build sailing dinghies when creating his wooden Quadrille and Gavotte chairs.
Mousse shelf by François Azambourg
He has also extended his collection of squidgy looking Mousse shelves, which are actually made from enamelled ceramic and designed Très Jolie, a translucent red seat with a truss-like structure.
Bold chair by Big-Game
Big-Game has added six new colours to its range of Bold chairs, each formed from two curved tubes, and made the new two-seater Bold bench in the same style.
Bold bench by Big-Game
Moustache is exhibiting in Hall 8, Stand B33 at Maison & Objet, from 6 to 10 September.
At the occasion of Maison & Objet in Paris next week French company Moustache will launch a new collection of furnitures and objects designed by regular designers François Azambourg, Inga Sempé, Big-Game, Ionna Vautrin, Benjamin Graindorge, Sébastien Cordoléani and will reveal the firsts products issued from their new collaborations with Bertjan Pot, Constance Guisset and Jean-Baptiste Fastrez.
Since its launch in April 2009, Moustache, a French publishing house in the field of contemporary articles and home furnishings, under the impetus of Stéphane Arriubergé and Massimiliano Iorio, is forging close links in a network of complicity and expert knowledge in design fields.
An active participant in the present-day writing of the history of manufactured articles, Moustache proposes a collection which explores new approaches to production and consumption. Its articles and pieces of furniture involve their users in their own contemporary history. To the market constraints linked to the ever-increasingly insistent demand for novelties and experiences on the market, Moustache prefers to build a long-term domestic world with a high cultural value.
Rooted in the history of arts and techniques,the Moustache philosophy combines design and pattern in the present: attentive and responsible production responds to his searches for new, aesthetic, function and relevant shapes. Committed, Moustache is surrounded with designers for whom it is essential that convictions and points of view be shared. François Azambourg, Big-Game, Sébastien Cordoléani, Jean-Baptiste Fastez, Benjamin Graindorge, Constance Guisset, Bertjan Pot, Ionna Vautrin and Inga Sempé make up the uniqueness of this joyful community.
The result of a well thought-out dialogue between technique, strong identity and contemporary use, each article with its disparities forms the contours of the same family.
Moustache is attached to the heritage value of the articles, evidence of a society, its developments and its uses. It offers to share its soul, its ideas and its values. The environment it reveals according to an enlightened editorial line, a catalogue of objects linking some with others according to the principles of simplicity and accessibility.
A distinctive and remarkable symbol, Moustache publishes a collection with a character which, today, is imposing its presence in the design environment.
Objects produced by Moustache have joined museum collections such as the MoMa design and architecture collection, Museum of Modern Art in New-York, the F.N.A.C, Fond National d’Art contemporain, centre national des arts plastiques, Paris, Le Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, the MAKK, musée des arts décoratifs of Cologne…
New products September 2013
Moto lamp by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez
Moto, design Jean-Baptiste Fastrez
The Moto wall light designed by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez revisits the aesthetic codes of motorcycle equipment vendors. Hieratic, ultra-reflective, producing numerous optical effects, when lit it diffuses slightly coloured light through its translucent visor.
The Moto wall light is available in 4 colours. It can be connected to a wall power outlet or plugged directly into a socket.
Parade vase by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez
Parade vase, design Jean-Baptiste Fastrez
The Parade vase by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez organises and articulates blown glass parts and a wooden spindle. They are fastened together by nylon industrial wing nuts.
To be suspended or placed on a piece of furniture, the Parade vase forms a bunch of spherical or oblong containers and expresses in its own right the bases of a work statement: combine industrial and craft techniques and update the outdated industrial ideal, “an object for all”, for a more adapted contemporary ideal, “an object for everyone”.
The research studies for this project were conducted at the CIRVA during the seventh edition of the Design Parade festival at Villa Noailles, Hyères (France), in 2012.
The Parade vase is available in three colours.
Ooga Booga coat hook by Bertjan Pot
Ooga Booga, Frik Frak and Pierre, design Bertjan Pot
Ooga Booga, Frik Frak and Pierre could have been the artistic creations of an archaic nonliterate society if they had not come across Bertjan Pot, who gave them a function!
Tribal arts, witchcraft and drolleries underlie this series of three masks to which Bertjan Pot simply seems to have added the traditional function of coat hanger.
Generously sized, Ooga Booga, Frik Frak and Pierre are available in solid ash, ash dyed white, yellow or black and are made in France using highly sophisticated industrial tools!
Chantilly lamp by Constance Guisset
Chantilly, design Constance Guisset
The Chantilly lamps by Constance Guisset create complex volumes based on a highly simple yet ingenious system of folds.
Delivered flat, the lampshade takes shape in the single closure movement required to assemble it.
Small, large or to be suspended, the Chantilly lamps follow the delicious movement of the icemaker’s siphon and enhance it through the use of subtle colours, fold by fold.
Each Chantilly lamp is available in three sizes and four colours, at a very attractive price.
Quadrille chair by François Azambourg
Quadrille and Gavotte, design François Azambourg
The Quadrille chair and the Gavotte armchair by François Azambourg are updated versions of his now classical tripod chair, the Petite Gigue. Like their predecessor, the Quadrille chair and the Gavotte armchair are based on the construction principle known as hard chine used for small sailing dinghies such as the Fireball. The manufacture of these amazing chairs requires both cabinet-making and shipbuilding skills.
This range composed of the Petite Gigue and Quadrille chairs and the Gavotte armchair, takes the names of three popular dances in Europe.
Each chair is available in natural or lacquered ash.
Très Jolie chair by François Azambourg
Très Jolie, design François Azambourg
The Très Jolie chair, known as Very Nice in its initial experimental version, has now been structurally transformed to become completely functional. The Très Jolie chair immediately evokes the childhood balsawood and paper scale models, even using its construction and assembly principles. Fascinating, like a complex construction whose logic escapes you, the Très Jolie chair almost resembles a folly in the architectural sense of the term. Red, pretty, light and comfortable, the Très Jolie chair by François Azambourg is also a concentration of qualities difficult to combine in a single chair.
Mousse, design François Azambourg
The Mousse family of shelves, launched in July 2011 during the Moustache exhibition and a performance/production given by François Azambourg for the Hyères Design Parade at Villa Noailles, is growing. The collection now includes a corner model and a very deep shelf.
The Mousse collection is currently available in turquoise, pale yellow and pale pink enamelled ceramic.
Bold bench by Big-Game
Bold bench, design Big-Game
The Bold bench by Big-Game could be seen as an extension or a deformation of the chair. The first sketches drawn by Big-Game for the chair represented a tube full of paste which formed in a single stroke the tube of this chair with expanded lines. Four years later, the Bold bench integrates all the structural and graphical qualities of the chair to produce a very comfortable two-seater. The removable coating is available in four colours.
Bold chair/New colours, design Big-Game
The Bold chair, added to the collections of the New York MoMA Design and Architecture department last spring, is now available in six new colours that complement the six existing colours.
London studio rAndom International has created a 20-metre tower of falling water at a former coal mine in Germany (+ slideshow).
The Tower: Instant Structure for Schacht XII by interactive design studio rAndom International features a rectangular frame from which four huge curtains of water fall to the ground and cycles up to 30,000 litres of water each minute. Visitors can view the rain storm from afar or step inside – if they don’t mind getting wet.
“It is a sensuous adventure: the sound of falling water, the humidity, the glimmering water walls in the sunlight,” said the curators. “The sound of the resulting rain storm is intensely loud and a sensation of moisture lingers in the air.”
“By bringing such large quantities of water into the controlled form of a building, rAndom International investigate if a structural purpose can wrought upon this otherwise chaotic element,” they add.
The monumental Tower structure has been installed at the Zollverein industrial complex in Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, a World Heritage site that consists of a historical coal mine and a range of early twentieth century buildings.
The giant shower forms part of the music and arts festival Ruhr Triennale 2013 and intends to sit in contrast to the “solid and static architecture” of the former coal mine, the curators explain. Each year the international festival transforms industrial venues in the region into locations for music, art and performance events.
Here’s a video featuring the Tower:
The installation was commissioned by arts organisation Urbane Künste Ruhr. It is the first outdoor project by rAndom International and opened in Essen on 23 August. Tower will be open from 10am-1am every day through to 6 October 2013.
Formed in 2005 by former Royal College of Art students Hannes Koch, Florian Ortkrass and Stuart Wood, rAndom International has created a number of installations involving audience participation.
Here’s more information from rAndom International:
Tower: Instant Structure for Schacht XII
Commissioned by Urbane Künste Ruhr for Ruhrtriennale 2013, ‘Tower’ will be on view daily from 10am-1am at night, until 6 October 2013.
Known for their experimental installations that explore natural phenomena, London based studio Random International have created a monumental, performative structure at World Heritage Zollverein using its plentiful, native material: water (6 million cubic metres of which have to be pumped out of the former mines every year to warrant the structural integrity of the entire region).
Random are cycling almost 30,000 litres of water per minute to create a monolithic form, an ephemeral tower that appears and disappears instantaneously. The sound of the resulting rain storm is intensely loud and a sensation of moisture lingers in the air.
Through the senses, ‘Tower’ explores possibilities for engagement wit, and access to, an historic, industrial space at a scale that had not originally been intended for human and social use. In sharp contrast to the solid and static architecture of Zeche Zollverein, the ‘simulated structure’ of the Tower is transient, its watery presence a temporary spectre.
By bringing such large quantities of water into the controlled form of a building, Random International investigate if a structural purpose can wrought upon this otherwise chaotic element. The architecture of the space becomes performative, inviting those within it to experience the water of Zeche Zollverein in a uniquely physical and intimate way. And get absolutely soaked in the process.
About Ruhrtriennale
The Ruhrtriennale is the international arts festival hosted by the Ruhr metropolitan area. The venues of the Ruhrtriennale are the region’s outstanding industrial monuments, transformed each year into spectacular sites for music, fine art, theatre, dance, and performance. At the centre of all this are contemporary artists seeking a dialog with industrial spaces and between the disciplines.
A new artistic director every three years provides the festival with ever-new impulses. Under the artistic directorship of Heiner Goebbels, the Ruhrtriennale will become a laboratory and an open platform for current developments of the international world of the arts.
Our second recent story from Japanese architects Studio Velocity is a house shaped like a fairytale tower with five different staircases connecting its two floors (+ slideshow).
House in Chiharada was designed by Studio Velocity in the garden of another residence in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, so architects Miho Iwatsuki and Kentaro Kunhura specified a cylindrical volume that would contrast with the rectilinear structure of the existing building.
“To avoid facing each other, a round-shaped volume was chosen against the corner of the square-shaped volume of the main house,” explained Iwatsuki.
The first of the five staircases wraps the curved perimeter of the house, leading up to a first-floor entrance that is sheltered beneath an ultra-thin canopy.
Inside, a large circular room occupies the entire floor and contains a sequence of family spaces that are divided by four box-shaped volumes with various proportions.
Each box contains a staircase down to a different room on the floor below. Arched wooden doors lead inside, while square windows help to draw in extra light.
One staircase descends into the bath and washrooms, while the other three head directly into bedrooms. There are no corridors between these rooms, but extra doors give direct access to the bathroom from the other rooms.
“By intersecting the living space from exterior to interior and from upstairs to downstairs, the hierarchy between the first floor and the second floor disappears and individual functions and sceneries mix together,” said Iwatsuki.
To allow this arrangement to work, the architects gave low ceilings to the ground floor so that each staircase needed only ten treads. Meanwhile, the upper level is a double-height space that brings light in through openings in the roof.
Additional doors allow residents to open their bedrooms out to the garden.
Here’s a project description from Studio Velocity:
House in Chiharada
Deconstruction of a multi-floored architecture
A site with a two-storey main house is split in half and a new house for a young couple is going to be built on the vacant area.
Although there is enough space within the surrounding environment and there are no approximate buildings, it is inevitable that the new house be built rather close to the main house. In addition, a multi-floor living space was needed due to the limitation of the site area.
Sectional model
Therefore, to avoid facing each other, a round-shaped volume was chosen against the corner of the square shaped volume of the main house. It was arranged so as to create a valley-like space in between the two buildings spreading open towards the outside. The round shape is set on an irregular shaped site, creating various shaped gardens around it that can be shared with the main house. Each room on the first floor in the round-shaped building has a door that opens to the gardens.
A number of small rooms and a bathroom are located on the first floor, and a single large hall where everyone can gather is arranged on the second floor. Downstairs and upstairs are relatively close by lowering the height of the slab (the upstairs floor) that lies between the two floors, and therefore, the garden grounds can be seen even from the centre of the second floor through the enclosed staircases and downstairs rooms.
Entering through the entrance on the second floor, enclosed staircases are arranged within the living room that is filled with natural light from a high ceiling; the enclosed staircases look like slender structures of various heights. The space seems like being on a street in a town, and makes you feel that it is on the ground level although it is upstairs of the multi-floor building.
Each of the four enclosed staircases connects to an individual room on the first floor. When you look up at the open ceilings from the children’s room or the bedroom (inside of the enclosed staircases) that almost reach the roof, the sky can be seen and natural light pours down from skylights above the openings in the enclosed staircases. It was intended with this house that a person be able to feel the ground and sky throughout, though it is a multi-floored building.
Elimination of the discontinuity between multi-floor stairs that usually exists might result in the unfolding of a united and continuous new living environment. By interrelating with each area, including the outside, and by intersecting the living space from exterior to interior and from upstairs to downstairs, the hierarchy between the first floor and the second floor disappears and individual functions and sceneries mix together.
Product news: Hannover designer Patrick Frey curved and folded a sheet of thin aluminium to create the seat of these chairs for outdoor accessories brand Vial.
To create the Kirk chair, Patrick Frey precisely cut a special aluminium alloy so it bent into the desired shape.
He used clamps to sculpt the seat shell over a frame formed by the tubular aluminium legs and back, then folded the edges to increase stability.
The seat curves up at both sides to meet the lower bar of each armrest and swoops right to the top of the back, leaving large gaps in the corners.
Designed for Vial to be used both outdoors and in, the chairs are stackable for easy storage and transportation.
Matte surfaces are powder coated in black, white, red, blue and green.
Angular cutaways and a deep shaft create apertures between the floors of this family house on Shikoku Island, Japan, by Osaka studio Horibe Associates (+ slideshow).
The compact wooden House in Kamihachiman was designed by Horibe Associates with all its windows on the northern side, overlooking bamboo woodland rather than neighbouring houses.
“The challenge in this design was to provide a comfortable, open lifestyle despite the fact the building site is surrounded by other homes lined up uniformly on a street running along their south side,” said architect Naoko Horibe.
The houses’s rear facade is built at an angle, with double-height windows that bring daylight into an open-plan dining and kitchen area.
The internal window and cutaways offer glimpses between this space and the bedrooms on the floor above.
A living room just beyond is lined with low wooden benches and leads out to an open-air courtyard, which provides another source of natural lighting.
“The overall result is a home that is much more comfortable and relaxing than one would guess by looking at the surrounding neighbourhood,” said the architect.
A lavatory, bathroom and laundry room are clustered together on the opposite side of the house, while the three first-floor bedrooms are arranged around a central wooden staircase.
Here’s a short project description from the architects:
House in Kamihachiman
The challenge in this design was to enable a comfortable, open lifestyle despite the fact that the building site is surrounded by other homes lined up uniformly on a street running along their south side. The architects chose not to place windows on the southern side of the home, where they would look out only on neighbouring houses, and instead included large windows on the northern side that take advantage of the view of a bamboo forest behind the property.
In doing so they achieved even natural lighting and a feeling of spaciousness in the interior. A private walled-in terrace connecting to the living room adds to this sense of light and space. The overall result is a home that is much more comfortable and relaxing than one would guess by looking at the surrounding neighbourhood.
Location: Tokushima-Shi, Tokushima Primary usage: Residence Structure: wooden construction, two stories above ground Family structure: Couple with a child Site area: 175.29 m2 Building area: 74.54 m2 Total floor space: 98.92 m2 Completed: May 2013
Competition:Dezeen and laminate brand Formica Group have teamed up to give readers the chance to win a limited-edition Eames table and copies of the brand’s latest book.
Designers Charles and Ray Eames first created the Wire Base Low Table in 1951, with a stand formed from welded wire rods.
To celebrate Formica Group’s 100th anniversary the brand has introduced 12 new patterned laminates to top the tables, which are produced by design brand Herman Miller.
Also commemorating occasion, Formica Group has released a book containing over 400 images and a series of essays that document the evolution of the brand.
Graphic designer Abbott Miller modelled the Formica Forever book on a Formica Group laminate swatch book from the 1960s.
One Dezeen reader will win a Red Ellipse table, while five runners-up will each receive a copy of the book.
To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “Formica” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers. Read our privacy policy here.
You need to subscribe to our newsletter to have a chance of winning.Sign up here.
Competition closes 1 October 2013. Winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.
Here’s some more details from Formica:
Formica Eames Wire Base Low Table
In the late 1940s, Charles Eames noted all the “fantastic things being made of wire.” That fascination led Charles and Ray Eames to develop a mass-production technique for simultaneously welding wire rods. One result was the Wire-Base Table, which was introduced in 1951. The Eames Wire Base Low Table (1950/2012) is remarkable for the elegance it achieves using simple, practical materials. The table is just 10″ high and it provides a handy surface for a stack of books or a place to rest a drink.
Formica Group is proud to present a limited edition of the Eames tables topped with Formica Laminate Anniversary Collection. The collection features 12 new patterns that reflect the Formica brand and its history giving a fresh look to its iconic design. The Anniversary Laminate tables are limited edition and only 227 have been made worldwide. The tables are designed and produced by Herman Miller.
The Formica Forever book
Formica Group, the inventor of laminate, celebrates 100 years of global design with Formica Forever, a commemorative book that captures the company’s 100-year evolution through cultural shifts, economic uncertainties, trend exploration and global growth. Formica Forever presents the story of how luck and ingenuity, colour and pattern, and design and manufacturing contributed to make Formica brand laminate a truly global brand.
The book includes a series of essays with the focus on different aspects of the story; Phil Patton writes about Formica Group’s Global Business Expansion, Alexander Langer talks about Formica Group’s design legacy and Peter York looks at the cultural impact Formica Group has had during its 100 years. Designed by Abbott Miller, a partner in the renowned international design consultancy Pentagram, the book contains more than 400 images and is modelled after a Formica brand laminate swatch book from the 1960s.
The book can be purchased worldwide from bookstores and also online.
Formica Group
Formica Group is a worldwide leading provider of branded, design coordinated surfacing solutions for commercial and residential customers. As the largest manufacturer of High Pressure Laminate (HPL) its worldwide network of manufacturing, distribution and sales operations maintains the recognition of Formica as a global brand. Formica Group celebrates its 100 years anniversary this year.
An asymmetric tunnel leads through an all-black facade to a bright and spacious interior at this house in Chiba Prefecture, Japan (+ slideshow).
Designed by Tokyo studio Sugawaradaisuke, Kiritoshi House provides the home for a family of four on the rural perimeter of a residential district in Oamishirasato.
While the black-painted front elevation presents a blank face to the street, the rear features a glazed wall that opens the house out to the neighbouring fields.
“The client’s goal was to link the interior of the house with the scenery outside, letting the family live intimately with the surrounding environment,” said architect Daisuke Sugawara.
The interior spaces are arranged to complement this arrangement, with bedrooms grouped together at the front of the house and an open-plan living room and kitchen leading out to a terrace at the rear.
“The building provides an expansive view that allows the natural sunlight and fresh air in the house,” added Sugawara.
A wooden panelled floor runs through the house and is mirrored by a matching ceiling in the living room. Walls between are painted white and feature a series of triangular openings and facets.
This house is designed for a married couple with two children, and is located in Oamishirasato, Chiba Prefecture. The building provides an expansive view that allows the natural sunlight and fresh air in the house, so that the residents enjoy the life in the green ambience.
The building sits on the borderline between the new residential area and the pastoral fields. The client’s goal was to link the interior of the house with the scenery outside, letting the family live intimately with the surrounding environment. The exterior is finished as a simple box, allowing the residence to blend in easily with the rest of the surroundings.
The interior spaces are constructed according to the three-dimensional cellular structure, and in the middle is the largest space for the family members to gather. This maximises the physically sensed largeness and at the same time, each room’s storage capacity.
The relativeness of the scenery, space and body changes dramatically by moving from each space to space. The physical perception experienced in this house is like that in an excavation (=”Kiritoushi”) – the fusion of both natural and artificial dimensions.
British fashion designer Paul Smith has extended his Albemarle Street store in London to include a room lined with dominoes and a patterned iron facade by 6a Architects (+ slideshow).
Paul Smith took over the building adjacent to his existing shop in London’s Mayfair district to create a new flagship store on the corner of Albemarle and Stafford streets, which opened last Friday.
Menswear, womenswear, accessories and furniture are all displayed across rooms of various sizes.
In some spaces garments are hung on simple metal rails and in others they are folded on wooden shelves.
Selected items are laid out on tables with sculptural wood tops and thick metallic stands.
Square wood tiles are used for the floor in the men’s zone, with ceramic tiles and timber planks in womenswear areas.
In the accessories room 26,000 dominoes line the walls, forming a pattern of scattered dots that looks like an encrypted code.
The dominoes are flipped over where used above shelves to provide a less chaotic background to display the accessories against.
Red picture frames and a blue staircase match the colourful upholstery of Paul Smith’s furniture.
London studio 6a Architects designed a bespoke cast iron store front based on Smith’s hand drawings.
Transparent cylindrical pods protrude through gaps in the iron panels and act as display cases for furniture pieces.
The basement has also be turned into a flexible gallery space and will host a series of exhibitions throughout the year.
The imposing facade incorporates Paul’s hand drawings in bespoke cast iron panels designed in conjunction with 6a architects.
The interior is decorated with an eclectic mix of stunning design pieces and intricate details, such as the 26,000 dominos covering the accessories room walls.
Significantly extending the pre-existing Paul Smith shop on the corner of Albemarle and Stafford Street, the new space expands into the neighbouring building and will sell clothing and accessories for men and women as well as a selection of furniture.
The basement has been converted into a flexible gallery space that will host the work of various artists throughout the year, starting with Walter Hugo’s portraits during Frieze art fair.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
