Hasta La Ideas

Furniture by prolific Danish Modernist designer Hans J. Wegner will go on display at Copenhagen‘s design museum next month, marking the one-hundredth anniversary of his birth.

The Just One Good Chair exhibition at Designmuseum Danmark will showcase a retrospective of work by Hans J. Wegner, who designed over 1500 chairs and other furniture pieces before he passed away in 2007.

“If only you could design just one good chair in your life… But you simply cannot,” Wegner was quoted saying in 1952.

The exhibition will tell the story of his life and work, using over 150 pieces of his furniture alongside drawings, photos and models.

“I’d say he’s the most important Danish designer ever,” the exhibition’s curator Christian Holmsted Olesen told Dezeen. “The reason for that is that he developed this new organic Modernism, which became so popular especially in the US in the 1950s and 1960s.”

His most recognisable designs including the Wishbone Chair – named after the shape of its back support – and the bent plywood Shell Chair endured the Postmodern era, and remain as popular today as they were when they were first issued.

“During the 1980s the Postmodernists were criticising the Modernist design because it was boring, too rational, too anonymous,” Holmsted Olesen said. “Wegner’s design is never boring – it’s full of fantasy, it’s very poetic and it’s very human in its approach. It still is very rational and everything can be explained about the way it is constructed.”

Wegner trained as a cabinet maker before studying at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts under Kaare Klint, the so-called Father of Danish Design.

Wegner was soon commissioned to design furniture for Copenhagen brands such as Rud Rasmussen.

He spent hours measuring chairs from other cultures, especially Chinese, so he could prefect the shapes in his own pieces. “He was inspired by historical typologies and the idea of refining things from the past,”explained Holmsted Olesen.

In 1949, Americans visiting an exhibition of Danish furniture that included Wegner’s work saw one of his seats and named it “The Chair,” as they considered it perfect.

“Everyone had given up on craft all over the world and in the US there was a craft revival just after the Second World War, because everyone had seen what disaster the industrial development had created,” said Holmsted Olesen.

“Denmark really had something good at that time to present to the whole world and Hans Wenger was very good at designing in these organic forms,” he continued. “The international modernist movement, which came from Central Europe and the Bauhaus, had developed into more organic forms in architecture. But there was very little organic furniture design and he was one of the only designers doing this, so that’s why he came so popular in the 1950s and 1960s.”

The exhibition will also include prototypes that are previously undisplayed, such a lounge chair that Wegner kept in his own home and was used solely by his wife.

Wegner’s furniture is currently produced by three Danish firms – Carl Hansen & Son, PP Mobler and Fritz Hansen – using the same traditional craft techniques as in the 1950s and 1960s.

Carl Hansen & Son recently began producing the CH88 chair, first designed by Wegner in 1955, and adopted the logo he designed for the company in 1950.

The exhibition opens on 3 April and will continue until 2 November.

Here’s some more text sent to us by the museum:

Wegner – Just One Good Chair

Designmuseum Danmark marks the 100-year anniversary of Hans J. Wegner’s birth with a large exhibition, opening 3 April 2014.

“If only you could design just one good chair in your life . . . But you simply cannot” – Hans J. Wegner, 1952.

Hans J. Wegner (1914-2007) was one of history’s most prolific designers. In 1949 he created the design that the Americans called The Chair. The perfect chair – but he continued designing new ones nonetheless, producing a total of over 500. He was referred to as The King of Chairs – or just the Chair Maker. His furniture paved the way for Danish Design’s international breakthrough in the years after World War II, and he was to become a leading figure in Organic Modernism.

A poetic take on modernism

Wegner’s work always took its starting point in craftsmanship, and he produced nearly all of his own prototypes in the workshop. His life is best understood as an enduring mission to understand the logic and the potential of wood. He showed the modern world that the old virtues of craftsmanship, such as sensuality, beautiful detailing and the use of natural materials, also have a place in the modern industrialised world. Wegner’s approach to design was neither retrospective nor romantic, but his furniture was nevertheless full of poetry – which is why his designs, despite the fact that they are wholly rational and grounded in functionality, have remained popular right up to the present day, even escaping criticism from the postmodernists. In our late postmodern times, Wegner in many ways represents a more human route into modernism.

A cornerstone in Danish design

The exhibition tells the story of Wegner’s life and career, showing more than 150 of his major original works from the time, drawings, photos and models, exploring Wegner’s working methods and vast oeuvre. It is also possible to try out and touch over 50 newly produced Wegner-pieces in the exhibition. Along with film and furniture, by some of his contemporaries, like Charles & Ray Eames, Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen and Mies van der Rohe, the exhibition shows how the finest wooden furniture is made.

Wegner’s work was the product of the Danish Furniture School – while also representing a break with it because of his free, artistic mode of expression. Founded by Professor Kaare Klint in the 1920s, The Danish Furniture School set out to build on traditions. Historic furniture from different cultures and eras, from Designmuseum Danmarks’s collection, was studied, refined, and adapted to contemporary needs. A hallmark of Danish design is the desire to perfect the very best work found in other cultures and eras. The history of Danish design is like the history of Danish politics – defined not by revolution, but by evolution. This pragmatic, humanistic and democratic thinking is seen throughout every aspect of Danish society, and it is in this context that the characteristically clean lines of Danish products should be understood.

Traditionalist and modernist

Wegner worked his whole life towards improving old Chinese and English chairs, along with new, modernist furniture; and towards simplifying and beautifying them, in order to enhance their artistic expression, while also making them more suitable for industrial or mass production. The majority of his most ground-breaking ideas were presented at the annual Joiners’ Guild Exhibition at the Designmuseum Denmark. It’s at these exhibitions that Americans came to see the quality of Danish furniture art, and began to write about it. What was special about Wegner, as a Danish designer, was his ability to develop classic design ideals into something completely new, often finding inspiration in centuries-old handcrafts. With his organic shapes, inspired by ancient tools such as axe-handles and oars, Wegner made his impact on the artistic movement of the time: Organic Modernism.

The exhibition tells the story of how and why Wegner and Danish design made such an impression in the 1950s throughout America and the rest of the world. What makes Danish design special in relation to German, American and Italian design, for instance? And why is Danish design, and Wegner’s in particular, so popular in Asia today, serving as a model for so many of the greatest designers of our time – such as Jasper Morrison, Naoto Fukasawa, Tadeo Ando and Konstantin Grcic. The exhibition shows not only Wegner’s work, but also some of the most significant post-war Danish and international designers; works of historical inspiration from the Designmuseum Danmark’s collection; and also current international work, inspired by Danish design.

The exhibition is shown from the 3 April 2014 to 2 November 2014 and is accompanied by a richly illustrated book on Wegner’s work, published in Danish by Strandberg Publishing and in English and German by Hatje Cantz Verlag.

The museum, Kunstmuseet i Tønder, also celebrates Hans J. Wegner with an exhibition. For more information please go go: museum-sonderjylland.dk.

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important Danish designer” Hans J. Wegner appeared first on Dezeen.

Artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo has created a vending machine that dispenses human genetic material to highlight privacy issues emerging as biotechnology makes it easier and cheaper to access information locked in our DNA (+ interview).

“In a dystopian future where we all have samples of our friends’ DNA, we will be able to do things like genetic engineering in the same way as we do 3D printing,” Gabriel Barcia-Colombo told Dezeen. “When everyone has access to cheaper biotechnology, DNA may be much more valuable than a candy bar, soda or some other treat sold in a vending machine.”

The New York artist created the DNA Vending Machine with the hope of challenging people to ask more questions about privacy and who owns the material that makes us unique.

“There are a whole range of court cases that say our DNA can be used against us for anything,” explained the artist, who is also a lecturer at New York University specialising in interactive telecommunications. “We have huge pharmaceutical companies making loads of money out of DNA from people who haven’t necessarily given them permission to use it.”

Presented in a recent TED Talk, the DNA Vending Machine replaces snacks and drinks usually found in an automated food dispenser with samples of people’s genetic code. These samples can then be bought.

“I began collecting the DNA of my friends at my house during Friday night gatherings, and then furthered mycollection through several scheduled open houses where anyone could come to my studio and sign up to submit an open-source sample of their own DNA,” the artist explained.

Participants in the project spat into a vial containing solution that breaks down the cells found in the saliva, releasing the DNA. Alcohol was then added, causing the strands of genetic code to clump together and making them visible to the human eye.

The vials were then sealed inside identical white containers and placed inside a standard vending machine. “Each sample comes packaged with a collectable portrait of the human specimen as well as a unique link to a custom DNA extraction video,” said Barcia-Colombo.

The machine was installed in an art gallery in New York last year, and the artist recalls some of the reactions to the art piece. “They’re disgusted that this is using human genetic material, and they often are scared by it,” he said. “They’re scared because the samples can be bought and used to plant evidence on a crime scene.”

“In a dystopian future where we all have samples of our friends’ DNA, we will be able to do things like genetic engineering in the same way as we do 3D printing,” he predicted. “When everyone has access to cheaper biotechnology, DNA may be much more valuable than a candy bar, soda or some other treat sold in a vending machine.”

Barcia-Colombo sees comparisons between DNA ownership and concerns over the collecting and harvesting of our own digital data. “Our phones are harvesting our data and then being sold is a very similar idea to companies harvesting our DNA and selling it to pharmaceutical companies without us knowing.”

The DNA Vending Machine was designed to start a conversation that the artist feels is long overdue.

One of the most high-profile cases surrounding the legality and ethics of DNA ownership was the example of Henrietta Lacks. While receiving treatment for cancer of the cervix in 1951, she had a healthy part of the tissue removed without permission.

The cells were later grown in vitro and have since been used by pharmaceutical companies to develop polio vaccines and in the research of AIDS, cancer and radiation poisoning. The material is still used today and is referred to as hela cells in reference to the first two letters of her first and last name.

More recently, a court case in 1990 between John Moore, a US citizen undergoing treatment for hairy cell leukaemia and the UCLA Medical Center brought the issue back into the headlines. “The supreme court decision in the case ruled that a person’s discarded tissue and cells are not their property and can be commercialised,” said Barcia-Colombo. “It’s ridiculous. When it becomes easy to reproduce these things, it brings up a lot of personal questions about rights and you as a personal franchise.”

A second version of the art project is due to go on display in New York this summer.

Below is an edited transcript of the interview with Barcia-Colombo:

Matt Hussey: How did you develop the idea of the vending machine?

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: I’m very interested in the idea of law generally when it comes to ownership of DNA, and I like to express that in a playful way. But it’s really about questions of privacy. We have huge pharmaceutical companies making loads of money out of DNA from people who haven’t necessarily given them permission to use their DNA. That kind of thing really fascinates me.

Matt Hussey: What is the piece about?

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: The piece is about privacy and DNA ownership. With the DNA Vending Machine I hope to draw attention to historical cases of DNA ownership or commercialised human cells as in the cases of Henrietta Lacks and the supreme court decision in Moore v. Regents of the University of California, where in the early 1990’s the court ruled that a person’s discarded tissue and cells are not their property and can be commercialised.

This is not a celebration of any of these verdicts or laws but rather a reminder of our complicated past when it comes to ownership over genetic material. In the future, when everyone has access to cheaper biotechnology, DNA may be much more valuable than a candy bar, soda or some other treat sold in a vending machine.

Matt Hussey: What have been the responses to the vending machine?

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: On approaching it, they don’t know what it is. Then they read about it on a little placard and are pretty grossed out by it. They’re disgusted that this is using human genetic material, and they often are scared by it.

They’re scared because the samples can be bought and used to plant evidence on a crime scene. It’s DNA from inside our cheek cells which is very readily available, but in this context it’s elevated to a more artistic context, but also, in another way, it makes it more human.

Matt Hussey: Who are the samples of?

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: Mostly friends. I started doing it at parties. I’d have people over at my house and say hey, “let’s do some DNA extraction” and show them how it worked. I work at NYU and asked if there were any students who would be interested in it outside NYU, and then I worked with a bio-tech lab in Brooklyn called Genspace, and we did some DNA extractions there. So I started with friends and then expanded.”

Matt Hussey: Were you worried at all that people wouldn’t want to give samples?

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: I was worried at first about how many people would want to be part of it. I explained to them very clearly that this could have implications where someone could buy this sample and if they wanted to sequence it, and in the process discovered some kind of new drug, they could make a lot of money out of this.

But I also framed it as a very exciting art project that they could be part of. I think it’s one of the first times this has been done in the artistic community.

Matt Hussey: What was it that appealed to you about using a vending machine?

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: They’re usually utilised to sell snacks at the movie theatre or on the street, but suddenly here it’s used to sell genetic material. It’s funny in a way. Because it’s humorous I think it makes it easier for people to understand. Ideally I’d want to bring it in to public places like Grand Central Station or Times Square. Places with a more public context.

Matt Hussey: There has been an increase in cheap gene sequencing thanks to companies like 23andMe that’s raising legal questions that many people don’t feel comfortable with. Is this a response to that?

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: For me, it’s indicative of other privacy right issues that are going on right now in the United States with phone calls and online data. When this moves completely into the genetic market, and when it becomes easy to reproduce these things, it brings up a lot of personal questions about rights and you as a personal franchise.

It also touches upon those people who are disenfranchised with the process and don’t understand the legal issues surrounding it and don’t have a way of really fighting back.

Matt Hussey: How would you summarise the mood of people towards these ideas?

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: I think there is an immediate fear growing within people. I think we’ve only really started hearing about in the past two years. Our phones are harvesting our data and then being sold. It’s a very similar idea to companies harvesting our DNA and being sold to pharmaceutical companies without us knowing. I think it’s reflecting itself.

I myself am not a paranoid person, I’m very open about things, but I do think there is a place for art to question what is going on. I use art to provoke conversation, and this is a conversation piece. The DNA vending machine is not a protest piece, it’s about having ideas and questioning what the future holds, security in terms of genetic material, and to educate people about what can be done with DNA, and how accessible this human data is.

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3D-printing” says DNA Vending Machine designer appeared first on Dezeen.

The shingle-clad upper storeys of this house on the outskirts of the Austrian city of Linz by Vienna practice Destilat are rotated to create a cantilevered overhang above the entrance (+ slideshow).

Destilat was asked to convert the existing property on a hillside in the Bachlberg suburb of Linz into a property accommodating three self-contained apartments.

The original house was gutted and rebuilt from the level of the existing concrete pedestal, with the storeys above rotated slightly to shelter the entrance and make the most of views towards the Alps.

Grey shingles covering the upper storeys give the exterior of the building a monolithic appearance, while the gabled profile typical of Alpine properties is interrupted by a scattered arrangement of windows.

At the front of the house a variety of outdoor spaces are created by openings in the facade.

A gap in the pitched roof provides a small balcony outside the dining space of the penthouse, while the first floor features a terrace framed by a long aperture.

Each of the storeys above the basement garage contains an apartment with its own sleeping, eating and living spaces, with the top floor also incorporating a mezzanine area housing a gallery and guest bedroom.

The ground floor apartment occupies an area previously used as an indoor pool and provides multiple points of access directly into the surrounding garden.

The penthouse apartment features an open plan living space with a fireplace that projects from one wall to provide some separation from the dining and kitchen area.

A black concrete base and rough plaster hood add to the monolithic and sculptural look of this central feature.

The massive ceiling height and pitched roof are accentuated by pendant lights suspended above the dining table.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

House B.A.B.E.

B.A.B.E. stands for exclusive living at Bachlberg.

The former domicile of a family of entrepreneurs from Linz is located near the top of Bachlberg, in very quiet area near the woods, overlooking the provincial capital of
Linz, with a panoramic view of the distant Alpine foothills.

In cooperation with W. Wimmer, this run-down object with its spacious garden was converted into a modern apartment house with three living units. The original structure was gutted completely and extended by an additional floor with insulated timber framing.

Starting at the socle storey, the entire structure was slightly turned to optimise its viewing angles.

Covered entirely with grey shingles made of asbestos cement (Eternit), the building has a very monolithic and sculptural character due to its seemingly random distribution of apertures for windows, loggias and terraces.

The apartments of this house have very diverse characters and usable floor areas ranging from 140 to 200 sq m.

The former indoor pool area on the ground floor was converted to an apartment with direct access to the property’s garden.

However, the crown jewel of this building is the penthouse with its open living, kitchen and dining area and up to 6.5 meter high, open pitched roof and a gallery. A massive open fireplace is the almost archaic centre due to its reduced design as well as its concrete base and rough plasterwork.

Besides the impressive main room, which includes a gallery, the entrance area as well as the bathrooms were individually designed to meet the client’s requirements.

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twisted to shelter the entrance appeared first on Dezeen.

British furniture brand Vitsœ has relaunched an injection-moulded plastic table originally designed by German industrial designer Dieter Rams in 1962.

The 621 Side Table was designed to showcase the practical and aesthetic properties of plastic.

Rams regularly promoted the use of plastic in his products for Vitsœ and electronics brand Braun, and described it as a “noble and long-living material.”

Having been out of production since the 1980s, the table is manufactured by injection-moulding plastic into a form that gives it inherent structural rigidity.

Two sizes are being produced, which can be purchased separately or combined as a nested pair.

The tables are available in off-white or black with surfaces hand-painted to give them a textured surface that provides durability and anti-static properties.

Rams has added adjustable feet to the new versions, which enable the product to perform better when used on uneven surfaces.

It can also be turned on its side so one end slides under a chair or sofa and the other becomes the table surface.

Vitsœ was granted the exclusive worldwide licence to produce many of Dieter Rams’ furniture designs in 2012, and last year it relaunched an upholstered armchair that was also created in 1962.

Here’s some more information from Vitsœ:

New licence, new table production

Vitsœ continues to build on its exclusive worldwide licence for Dieter Rams’s original furniture designs by adding the 621 Side Table to its growing furniture collection. The table – injection-moulded in Britain – will be available from March 2014.

The table was originally designed by Rams in 1962 along with his 620 Chair Programme. It was last produced in the 1980s and is typical of Rams’s constant quest – at Braun and Vitsœ – to elevate plastic, as he has said, to a “noble and long-living material.”

The detailed form of the table is quintessential Rams and has been displayed in museums worldwide, often in its innovative Rams-designed packaging. The table is hand-painted with a distinctive textured finish to give both durability and an anti-static surface.

Available in two sizes and two colours (black and off-white), the table can be turned on its end to slide over a sofa. Its simple modular design allows it to sit alone or be combined as a group to satisfy a surprising range of uses in the home or office. Not only a side table, coffee table or bedside table, it is excellent as the there-when-needed table.

In addition, the table is now delivered with adjustable feet which have been designed by Rams to realise his original desire that uneven surfaces should be overcome easily.

The competitive price and worldwide online availability directly from Vitsœ ensure that more people will be able to embrace Vitsœ’s ethos of living better, with less, that lasts longer.

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by Dieter Rams appeared first on Dezeen.

News: internet-connected cars will soon be harvesting data on the weather, road conditions and traffic flow and selling it to the grid, according to panelists at the Internet of Cars session at the SXSW festival.

The data could then be used by meteorologists and highways agencies to help them improve their services, with drivers receiving a small payment.

Other innovations in the near future will include heads-up displays on windshields that allow you drive through thick fog, and music systems that automatically pick tracks to match your driving.

“The cars we drive nowadays are giant sensors on wheels, generating tons of data,” said Scott Lange, executive creative director at Team Detroit, an agency that works closely with Ford. “Each car generates 25Mb of data per hour.”

By aggregating data from sensors in cars’ suspension systems, for example, highways agencies would know which stretches of road needed repairing, Lange said. “You could create really accurate data of where all the potholes are.”

Information on when drivers had switched their windscreen wipers on and off could be used to track the weather, he added. “That data suddenly becomes very important to meteorologists.”

Automotive makers are working to develop an industry-standard software platform that could be made public so that developers can explore ways of utilising the data, much like they develop apps for mobile phones.

“It’s not about creating a proprietary Ford-owned system,” said Sefi Grossman, vice president of technology enablement at Team Detroit. “It’s about opening it up. We’re trying to create a unified API.”

This would also allow manufacturers to push software updates to cars via the internet, rather than waiting for the car to book in for a service.

The panel, convened to discuss the implications of having cars connected to the internet, took place in Austin, Texas last week as part of the SXSW Interactive festival.

Lange described cars as “the biggest and greatest wearable [device] that you have. It’s an exoskeleton that gives you superhuman powers.”

Dave Knox, CEO of digital strategy company Rockfish, said that cars could link drivers to their homes and interface with wireless control systems such as Nest. “The car would remind you that you left your front door open at home,” he said.

Lange added: “You could get an icon on your phone saying you need to leave work early to buy gas, and suggesting where you could buy it.”

Heidi Browning, senior vice president of strategic solutions at internet radio technology company Pandora Media, added that in-car music streaming services would soon be able to match tracks to your driving style. “You could control your music by your speed,” she said. “Hard Rock when you’re speeding, Country when you’re slowing down.”

The panel predicted that car use would move to a subscription model, with car companies providing drivers with different vehicles for different purposes, based on a unique digital profile of their driving habits captured by sensors in cars. “You will get different data sets for different drivers in the same car,” said Lange.

The panel agreed that the issue of who owned the data was a sensitive one, with Grossman saying the information was “valuable and there may be some payback for drivers [who give up their data]”.

He added: “Hypothetically, users could give up certain data streams and in return get different vehicles for different times of the week.”

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