by Gavin Lucas Inspired by Jay-Z’s track “99 Problems,” British artist Ali Graham has been creating an illustration every day since the first…
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Dezeen Watch Store: Block Watch is the first timepiece by London designer Tom Dixon and the latest addition to our collection of watches by leading designers and independent brands (+ movie).
Block features a distinctive square case stamped from a piece of stainless steel or brass and a circular face with etched numerals and markers. The watch’s hour, minute and second hands are powered by a high-quality Swiss movement.
The timepiece is available in either stainless steel or rose gold (plated) with matching mesh straps, or in brass with a chunky brown leather strap.
“I’m trying to produce something with an expressive neutrality,” says Dixon in the movie we filmed at his studio in London. “I tend to try and work out what I can strip out without losing character.”
He continues: “I wanted to make sure that you can tell the time. With all too many contemporary watches you really can’t tell what time it is.”
Dixon goes on to explain that the mesh strap featured on two of the watches refers to his childhood. “It’s got this chain link bracelet, which I guess is a reference to when I was growing up – Kojak, maybe.”
“It’s just the minimal elements that you need to make a watch, all reduced to their bare essentials,” he concludes.
Block by Tom Dixon is available to preorder now on Dezeen Watch Store with free worldwide shipping.
The post Block Watch by Tom Dixon now available
at Dezeen Watch Store appeared first on Dezeen.
Aggiungere un naso alla tazza può renderla meno noiosa del solito. Non nuova come idea ma simpatica. Pensata dal messicano Rafa:el Cacharro Mucino.
Starry Light d’Anagraphic est une collection de lampes fabriquée à Budapest issue de la collaboration entre Anna Farkas et le designer Miklós Batisz. Cette création représente des constellations et grâce à son éclairage, elle offre la possibilité de projeter les différentes représentations d’étoiles sur le mur.
by Stefano Caggiano Italian multidisciplinary designer, artist and engineer Maurizio Montalti is the founder and director of Officina Corpuscoli, a laboratory of scientific creative research dealing with the role design could play in the bio-tech revolution…
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News: a human-powered helicopter by Canadian startup AeroVelo has become the first winner of a 33-year-old aviation prize, after hovering for 64 seconds and reaching an altitude of 3.3 metres.
AeroVelo co-founders Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson raised over $34,000 last year via a Kickstarter campaign to build Atlas, a quad-roter helicopter that would be powered by a single person riding a bike.
On 13 June 2013 at 12:43 EDT, the team delivered the record-breaking flight at an indoor soccer stadium in Toronto. This was the very first time a human-powered craft has reached the stringent requirements of aviation pioneer Igor I. Sikorsky’s Human Powered Helicopter Competition, originally established in 1980.
To qualify for the prize the aircraft had to hover within a 10 metre-square area for 60 seconds and rise to an altitude of three metres.
American Helicopter Society (AHS) and Sikorsky Aircraft announced last week that AeroVelo had successfully met the requirements and won the $250,000 Sikorsky’s Prize. “It’s been 33.3 years in the making. Today is the day,” tweeted Sikorsky Aircraft.
Here’s footage of that record-breaking flight:
Constructed of very light carbon tubes Atlas weighs only 55kg, but spans 50 metres (162 feet). It has four rotating blades and a pedal bicycle at its centre.
“In 18 months, this passionate team went from preliminary design to achieving what many considered impossible; taking down one of the most daunting aviation feats of the past century,” the AeroVelo team said on its web page.
The $250,000 prize has remained unclaimed since its inception, despite over 20 human-powered crafts built to attempt the challenge. “When Sikorsky increased the prize to a quarter-million dollars in May 2009, many people were skeptical and felt the challenge was impossible,” said Mark Miller, Sikorsky’s vice president of research and engineering.
“This is an incredible accomplishment,” said Mike Hirschberg, executive director of AHS International. “For a third of a century, the AHS Sikorsky Prize has eluded the best minds and technology available. The technological and theoretical advancements achieved in pursuit of our challenge have been astounding,” he adds.
Other record-breaking transport projects unveiled recently include a solar-powered family car and a flying car capable of vertical takeoff and landing. See more transport on Dezeen »
Here’s more information from AeroVelo:
Canadian built Human-Powered Helicopter wins elusive $250,000 Prize
AeroVelo, a Toronto based engineering team has won the AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Challenge and its $250,000 prize. On Thursday, June 13, 2013, Atlas, their human-powered helicopter, completed a record-breaking flight lasting 64 seconds and reaching a height of 3.3 metres.
Conceived by Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson, along with the AeroVelo team, Atlas spans an incredible 46.9 metres (154 feet) rotor tip to rotor tip, while weighing only 55kgs (122lbs). The record-‐breaking flight was piloted by Reichert, a cyclist and speed skater who has been working with high-performance coaches to develop the power and endurance necessary for a prize-winning flight. According to Reichert “Lifting off and floating above the ground is an incredible feeling, but it’s certainly no easy task. The sheer power required, combined with the high level of mental and physical control, has made this a worthy athletic challenge.”
In addition to Reichert as Chief Aerodynamicist and pilot, and Robertson as Chief Structural Engineer, the team is made up of volunteers as well as engineering students who are part of an experiential learning program at AeroVelo. This unique program uses human-‐powered vehicles as a design, innovation and learning platform. “Engineering for a human-engine fosters creativity and ingenuity thus providing an eye-opening experience to our students, and inspiring youth and the general public. Team members will go out into industry and society knowing how to do more with less, ready to solve the formidable challenges facing our generation” said Reichert.
The $250,000 AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Challenge was established in 1980, and requires a human-‐powered helicopter to have a total flight time of more than 60 seconds, reach a height of over 3 metres during the flight, and stay within a 10 metre by 10 metre box. Since its inception a third of a century ago, dozens of international teams have taken on the challenge, yet the prize has remained elusive.
This is not the first time that Reichert and Robertson have achieved a significant aeronautical milestone; in 2010 they became the first team to successfully build and fly a human-‐powered ornithopter (flapping wing aircraft), named Snowbird, while U of T Engineering students. According to Robertson “Our experience with the Snowbird helped develop the innovative approach and techniques critical for attacking this challenge, and endowed us with the persistence required to overcome many setbacks large and small.”
The project is funded by donors in both the academic and corporate communities, including significant contributions from the University of Toronto, U of T Engineering, Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney Canada, Cervelo Cycles, CSR Inc, Kenneth Molson Foundation, the FAI, Bell Helicopter and Cassidy’s Transfer & Storage Ltd.
Looking to the future, AeroVelo hopes to tackle the 2 remaining human-‐powered aircraft challenges, which have yet to be won; the Kremer Marathon Competition and the Kremer Sporting Aircraft Competition. In addition, they have their sights set on the World Human-‐Powered Speed Challenge, where streamlined bicycles, reaching speeds over 130 km/hr, compete for the title of world’s fastest human.
AeroVelo is an elite design and innovation lab, focused on high-profile thought-provoking engineering projects.
The post Pedal-powered helicopter claims
33-year-old aviation prize appeared first on Dezeen.
Anyone who’s used photo-editing programs has no doubt experienced the frustration of removing a background from an image. It can be a painstaking process. But Dutch company StyleShoots has found a solution with its flagship product…
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Design graduate Joe Buttigieg has created a tubular steel chair that can be easily stored over the surface of a desk or table.
Finished in red, the steel tubes splay out to form the legs and curve outwards to wrap around a laminated plywood seat.
The lightweight chair is designed to be slotted around the surface of a table to allow cleaners easy access to the floor. It can also be stacked.
M6 was presented by Joe Buttigieg – graduate of Buckinghamshire New University – at the New Designers 2013 exhibition in London earlier this month.
Other chairs we’ve recently featured include aluminium stools and benches designed to look like folding pieces of paper and wooden chairs with bird-shaped armrests. See all our stories about chair design »
Here’s some more information from the designer:
This chair is innovative and redefines the appearance of regular tubular steel chair forms. Designed through the play and manipulation of the material, while considering proportions, dimensions and ergonomics. This design fits into a box and stacks; these aspects appeal to manufacturers. A light chair that can be easily lifted off the floor onto a table appeals to buyers and shop owners. This chair is something new to the competitive contract market.
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Joe Buttigieg appeared first on Dezeen.
In this movie we filmed in New York, French designer Philippe Starck explains how his Organic tap for bathroom brand Axor dramatically reduces water consumption by combining it with air.
“We have created a new type of water, which we call ’empty water'”, says Philippe Starck. “You have the feeling of having a lot of water, but you have a lot less. That is a new standard that uses less than half [as much water as] before.”
Unlike most taps, the water temperature can also be preset at the top so there’s no need to adjust it once the water is running. “[Normally] when we change temperature, we lose a lot of water,” Starck explains.
“That’s why this product is not a new faucet, it’s a new philosophy,” he continues. “It’s a big revolution because it fits with what we need for today and tomorrow.”
Starck cites his inspiration for the form of the tap as a childhood memory of a farmyard water pump. “We have to find the bone, the essence, the centre, the spirit,” he says. “I dug into my memory of childhood, and the first time I saw water was in a farm.”
He also wanted the form to mirror nature. “All the lines come from our body, all the lines come from vegetation,” he says. “I tried to [capture] the organic energy.”
Find out more about the Organic tap in our earlier story, or see all our stories about design by Philippe Starck.
The post “We have created a new type
of water” – Philippe Starck appeared first on Dezeen.
Clothing can be tucked away behind the textile skins of these storage units by German designer Meike Harde.
Meike Harde created the London series of bedroom furniture by stretching different fabrics over metal frames.
Included in the collection is a cabinet enveloped in pleated purple material, which bunches when the doors are slid open on a mechanism hidden within the fabric.
An adjustable metal rod can be added on top of the cabinet to hold a circular mirror.
Rhomboid-shaped frames wrapped in light translucent green cloth form a series of shelves.
Objects are inserted through silts in the fabric and accessories can be hung on the protruding parts of the metal frame.
Beige cotton is pulled taut over the metal skeleton of a dismountable wardrobe, which has an open bottom so long dresses can drape freely.
Garments hang from a wooden rail, held up by holes in flaps that hang down from the top inside corners.
The final item in the range is a stool created by a foam cube suspended off the ground by lengths of pink and blue mesh material, which attach to a four-legged black frame.
Meike Harde has also designed benches and stools formed from folded foam mats, plus masks that cover just the eyes and mouth with idealised features from the media.
More clever storage solutions on Dezeen include tables and chairs that clip together to form an assortment of shelving units and a cabinet that opens like a giant sewing box.
See more storage design »
See more design by Meike Harde »
The designer sent us the following information:
Commonly used storage facilities for clothes are mostly made of heavy and thick-walled materials like wood or press board. However, the walls of a storage object only serve as a protection against dust and generally do not need any static features.
For this reason the series London makes use of textile materials. By means of a framework made of metal sticks the fabric protect the clothes from dirt to the same extent, but they make the furniture more lightweight and mobile. Additionally the textile material facilitates entirely different applications, both in the construction of the furniture as well as in its surface design.
The violet cabinet made of organic molton makes use of the principle of a sliding door. The opening mechanism is incorporated into the textile part so that it can do without additional guiding rails. On the internal side of the textile mantle are rubber bands. These rubber bands are stretched when the furniture is closed and contract when it is opened, which results in the door gathering to the outside. The dressers smoked surface picks up the gathering of the wardrobe when opened, which prevents a wrinkling of the fabric.
A mirror can be installed if desired. It hangs flexibly on a metal stick which is fixed to the upper open part of the cabinet. It is connected to the metal frame and adjustable in height.
Whereas the cabinet can be used to stow folded clothes like t-shirts, pullovers or trousers, the beige wardrobe serves to hang up clothes hangers. This furniture provides room for shirts, dresses or jackets.
The slip cover made of pure cotton was constructed custom-fit so that it gains an enormous strain and stiffens when put over the metal frame. The zip placed in the front part forms the door. Behind this door a wooden clothes rail surfaces which was incorporated into the slip cover.
The wardrobe is intentionally kept open at the bottom so that even extra-long dresses can be stowed away. It is also completely dismountable and can be installed and uninstalled with only a couple of hand movements.
The mint-green rhombic tower is composed of a metal frame over which an elastic textile tube can be put and then is tightened where the metal sticks cross. This creates pockets which can be filled through a slit in the textile mantle. These pockets are intended to make room for underwear, socks, caps, scarves and other accessories which can be seen from the outside due to the transparent fabric.
The rubber foam cube is kept in shape by two net sheets that are fixed in a metal frame. This creates a wavering effect. The construction is relatively simple as the frame can be deconstructed at the corners so the net can be slid onto the metal posts. When putting it together the rubber foam cube is inserted and the frame is screwed in place.
Due to the light net the sheets of fabric overlap on the top side of the stool. This causes a slight colour mixture of the colours pink and blue.
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Meike Harde appeared first on Dezeen.
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