Hasta La Ideas

A mat that can be folded into a two-seat sofa by California designer Yumi Yoshida was inspired by the ancient Japanese art of paper-folding (+ slideshow).

The Origami Sofa by Yumi Yoshida comprises a series of upholstery panels sandwiched between two layers of fabric. Each piece is separated by a fold allowing the segments to be manipulated into a self-supporting seat.

The concept uses different colours to highlight the duality of the Origami Sofa’s function as a mat and sofa, and also to mimic the traditional origami paper that lends the concept its name.

“The two different colours resemble the sides on a sheet of origami paper and emphasise the change in both function and form as it folds from a flat rug into a couch,” said the Austrian-born furniture designer.

To convert the mat into a sofa, one end is folded into a pair of right-angled triangular boxes while the other is pinched into the beginnings of a box shape that will become the seat section.

The triangular boxes are then folded inward to create the back and armrests that will form the upper section.

The seat is then rolled into the centre to create a supporting structure shaped like a trapezium.

To complete the sofa, the back section is stacked on top of the seat. The completed piece of furniture retains a few flashes of orange to serve as a reminder of the seat’s dual use.

We’ve recently reported on a number of designers and architects inspired by the ancient Japanese art of paper folding.

Last month, Paris-based accessories designer Qi Hu created paper headdresses based on Chinese mythological creatures for the Printemps department store, and in January German designer Jule Waibel created 25 folded-paper dresses for fashion brand Bershka’s shop windows around the world.

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unfolds to become a floor mat appeared first on Dezeen.

Inspired by cigar makers in Spain, Austrian designer Helene Steiner has used thin strips of beech wood rolled into pipes to create a folding chair.

To make the Pepe chair, water is applied to one side of each slice of wood, or veneer, before glue is added on the other. This ensures there is tension on both sides of the sheet and the veneer doesn’t start rolling itself before the process has begun.

The veneer is then rolled into a pipe. Once it has set, each end is pressed to increase strength and make them easier to join to other components. The wood is then pressed in the middle in the opposite direction using a wooded mould.

“This helps to control the direction and position of the pressed parts so they are accurate,” explained Helene Steiner.

Because the veneers are just 0.5 millimetres thick, the material is pliable enough to allow the pipes to be squashed almost flat while still retaining structural strength. The pipes are then left to dry for a day before they can be sanded and waxed.

“Manufacturing in this way results in a strong structure with a novel 3D form and flat sections for assembly,” Steiner added . “The flexible process cleverly uses different pressing angles to make shaping in any direction possible.”

The Pepe chair is then assembled by passing two threaded rods through the middle of the chair. Spacers are added to create enough pressure to hold everything together. A separate rear stand made of two extra pieces of piping is attached to complete the chair.

“The squashed borders of the legs create the unique form and enable different structures with only one screw,” explained the designer.

The production method was first developed by CuldeSac, a Spanish design studio based in Valencia. Called the great tobacco project, the process was inspired by cigar makers in the small town of Torres de Quart in Spain, who have been making cigars there for more than 100 years.

“The name of the chair is an homage to my work at CuldeSac and an expression of thanks to my time as a designer there and the collaboration with Pepe Garcic from CuldeSac,” said Steiner.

In future, Steiner believes the process has wide-ranging applications beyond furniture. “The process gives great opportunity for strong and lightweight constructions as shelves and smaller architectural constructions,” she said. “For that, the process has to be translated to a industrialised process.”

Steiner is currently studying at the Royal College of Art in London and presented the Pepe chair at the recent Work in Progress show.

Here’s some text from the designer:

Pepe

Pepe is made of paper-thin veneer and therefore lightweight but also very stable.

The process is as exciting as the result. The veneer is only 0.5 mm thick and moistened on one side with glue, this is then rolled into a tight pipe and pressed. Manufacturing in this way results in a strong structure with a novel 3D form and flat sections for assembly. The flexible process cleverly uses different pressing angles to make shaping in any direction possible.

Pepe is lightweight and stable and uses a production method developed at CuldeSac Valencia during “The great tobacco project” in 2011.

Old production processes, materials, factories and the people who work and create there are a real inspiration for life. In a small town near Valencia you can find one of those factories full of history and a fascinating atmosphere, with authentic people and a special patina. The great tobacco project was inspired by the unique process of hand rolled cigars that have been produced at Torres de Quart in Torrent for 100 years.

Every table leg of the great tobacco project will be produced out of a thin sheet of wood and will be hand rolled to a perfect pipe. The squashed borders of the legs create the unique form and enable different structures with only one screw. Each table leg is unique. The etiquettes are aligned to the typical cigar banderoles and give every single leg the last touch of its personality. The great cooperation between CuldeSac and Torres de Quart brought the handmade cigars back to the place of inspiration.

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from rolled-up beech veneer appeared first on Dezeen.

The 77 individuals who lost their lives during the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway will be commemorated by this competition-winning intervention by Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg to sever a strip of headland from the coastline near Oslo.

Jonas Dahlberg plans to pay tribute to victims by creating “a wound or a cut within the landscape” that will symbolise the feeling of loss created by the events of 22 July, which included the bombing of a government quarter in Oslo and the shootings that followed on the nearby island of Utøya.

The artist plans to make a 3.5 metre-wide slice between the surface of the landscape and the waterline in the Norwegian village of Sørbråten – just across the water from Utøya – effectively making it impossible to reach the end of the headland on foot.

“My concept for the Memorial Sørbråten proposes a wound or a cut within nature itself,” explained Dahlberg in his competition text. “It reproduces the physical experience of taking away, reflecting the abrupt and permanent loss of those who died.”

A five-minute trail will lead visitors across the landscape towards the memorial. This pathway will become a tunnel, arriving at a cutaway that faces across the water towards a stone wall inscribed with the names of the victims.

“The names will be close enough to see and read clearly, yet ultimately out of reach,” said the artist. “This experience hopes to bring visitors to a state of reflection through a poetic rupture or interruption. It should be difficult to see the inherent beauty of the natural setting, without also experiencing a sense of loss.”

Dahlberg also plans to use the excavated material to build a second memorial at the government quarter in Oslo, forging a connection between the two sites to reference the connection between the two attacks.

The various trees and plants removed to create the pathway at Sørbråten will form an artificial landscape in Oslo, creating a sunken walkway with tiered seating along one side. Meanwhile, the leftover stone will be used to construct an amphitheatre.

Here’s the full announcement from the July 22 Memorials organisation:

Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg to design July 22 Memorial sites in Norway

Director of KORO/Public Art Norway Svein Bjørkås announced the jury’s evaluation of submissions and final decision in the closed competition July 22 Memorial sites. The jury’s decision was unanimous, voting Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg as winner of the competition.

Dahlberg’s concept takes the site at Sørbråten as its point of departure. Here he proposes a wound or a cut within the landscape itself to recreate the physical experience of something being taken away, and to reflect the abrupt and permanent loss of those who died on Utøya. The cut will be a three-and-a-half-metre wide excavation running from the top of the headland at the Sørbråten site to below the waterline and extending to each side. This gap in the landscape will make it impossible to reach the end of the headland.

The material excavated from the cut at Sørbråten will be used to build the foundation for the temporary memorial at the Government Quarter in Oslo, and will also subsequently serve as the foundation for the permanent memorial there.

From the Jury’s evaluation of Jonas Dahlberg’s proposal:

Jonas Dahlberg’s proposal takes the emptiness and traces of the tragic events of 22 July as its starting point. His suggestion for the Sørbråten site is to make a physical incision into the landscape, which can be seen as a symbolic wound. Part of the headland will be removed and visitors will not be able to touch the names of those killed, as these will be engraved into the wall on the other side of the slice out of nature. The void that is created evokes the sense of sudden loss combined with the long-term missing and remembrance of those who perished.

Dahlberg has proposed to move the landmass taken out of the rocky landscape at Sørbråten to the permanent and temporary memorial site in the Government Quarter in Oslo. By using this landmass to create a temporary memorial pathway between Grubbegata and the Deichmanske Library, a connection is forged between the memorial sites at Sørbråten and the Government Quarter. The names of those killed will be recorded on a wall that runs alongside the pathway.

The proposed permanent memorial site in Oslo takes the form of an amphitheatre around Høyblokka. Dahlberg also proposes to use trees taken from Sørbråten in this urban environment to maintain the relationship between the memorial sites in the capital and to the victims of the atrocities at Utøya.

The Jury considers Dahlberg’s proposal for Sørbråten as artistically highly original and interesting. It is capable of conveying and confronting the trauma and loss that the 22 July events resulted in in a daring way. The proposal is radical and brave, and evokes the tragic events in a physical and direct manner.

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honour Norwegian terrorist attack victims appeared first on Dezeen.

Books, records, plant pots and even shoes can be turned into musical instruments thanks to British designer Nick Brennan’s Sound Pegs device (+ slideshow).

Camberwell College of Arts graduate Nick Brennan created a device that features a series of enlarged wooden pegs, two speakers and a converter that changes the vibrations into a digital signal.

When the pegs are attached to any object, sensors inside the jaws can detect when the object is struck. The vibrations are then then passed to the converter, which feeds the signal to a laptop running Apple’s Garageband music software. The software triggers a sound, which is transmitted through the accompanying wood speakers.

“I work a lot with electronics and also natural materials,” explained Brennan. “I like to provide tactile experiences through my work.”

Objects can be used to create drums, pianos, guitars or any instrument stored in the software.

In a video demonstration, Brennan’s Sound Pegs are connected to shoes, books and old vinyl records that when struck sound like high hats, snares and kick drums.

“I use Garageband, but it can be used with any music generation software,” he said.

Brennan admits that some experimentation is required to discover which objects can provide the best platforms for sound: “Flat objects work better, as they’re easier for the pegs to grab onto.”

Brennan’s work follows in the footsteps of other designers who have used unexpected objects to generate sound: last year, London artist Di Mainstone developed an electronic instrument that enables performers to make music from the subtle vibrations of suspension bridge cables, and researchers in Canada designed a family of prosthetic musical instruments that create music in response to body gestures.

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with Sound Pegs by Nick Brennan appeared first on Dezeen.

A triangular section of frame at the top of this mirror by German design duo Kaschkasch Cologne allows it to rest neatly in the corner of a room.

The Kaschkasch Floor Mirror was designed for Danish brand Menu by Kaschkasch Cologne as a space-saving solution.

The top of its simple aluminium frame is bent into a 90-degree point so it fits into the often unused spaces where perpendicular walls meet.

The tubular frame has curved corners and is available in black, white or moss green.

“Our products are casual and voguish at the same time,” said Florian Kallus and Sebastian Schneider of Kaschkasch Cologne.

“Precise lines and geometrical shapes give them a distinct impression, which we like to combine with intriguing colour combinations for the additional Kaschkasch touch.”

When balanced against a flat surface, the top of the frame can be used as a rail for hanging clothes.

“We want each design to offer something extra, discovered by the user little by little,” said the designers.

The mirror glass is fixed between the sides of the frame and doesn’t extend to the top or bottom.

Menu presented the mirrors at the Stockholm Furniture Fair earlier this year.

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designed to fit into corners appeared first on Dezeen.