Product news: the seat of this chair by London design duo Raw Edges for Italian brand Moroso is made from a single loop of material.
The Kenny chair by Raw Edges for Moroso has a pocket-shaped seat fixed to a four-legged oak frame.
The seat is made from from a loop of metal mesh, a thin piece of upholstery foam and a “warp and weft” fabric from Danish textile manufacturer Kvadrat, which has two colours of yarn woven in different directions.
The designers pulled out individual threads to reveal more of the weft, creating a striped pattern across the fabric.
“Turning flat material into three-dimensional volumetric shapes can be done in many ways, from pattern-making in fashion to complex origami folding,” explained designers Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay. “This project is all about the effortlessness of its geometry.”
News: blueprints for the world’s first 3D-printed gun have been taken offline at the request of the US government.
Defense Distributed, the Texas-based group that developed the weapon, stated on Twitter that its project to make a downloadable and printable gun had “gone dark”.
The group’s file-sharing website Defcad is now headed with a red banner that reads: “Defcad files are being removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.”
Cody Wilson, the 25-year-old law student who leads Defense Distributed, said he complied with the State Department’s request immediately.
“But this is a much bigger deal than guns. It has implications for the freedom of the web,” he told technology website Betabeat.
According to Defense Distributed, blueprints for the gun were downloaded over 100,000 times in the two days after they were uploaded to Defcad.
Defcad was launched this March as “the world’s first unblockable, open-source search engine for all 3D-printable parts”, such as components for rifles, pistols and grenades.
Like Rams’ 606 Universal Shelving System, which Rams designed for Vitsœ in the same year, the chair is an adaptable piece of furniture that can be joined with other chairs to form a multi-seat sofa. Its castors can also be swapped for a swivel base.
Following Dieter Rams granting Vitsœ the exclusive worldwide licence to his original furniture designs, Vitsœ is pleased to announce it has comprehensively re-engineered Rams’s 620 Chair Programme delivering exceptional improvements in both quality and price. The 620 Chair Programme – marking its 50th anniversary – will be available from 9 May.
Vitsœ’s new production of 620 shows characteristic rigour and attention to detail. The chair has been completely re-engineered, right down to the last purpose-designed stainless-steel bolt. In turn, the very best traditional upholstery skills have been revived to ensure a chair that will last for generations, a point reinforced by the choice of a sumptuous full-grain aniline-dyed leather that will only improve with age. All of this has been achieved while prices have been reduced.
Designed for Vitsœ in 1962, the 620 Chair Programme has won numerous prizes and is collected by, and exhibited in, museums and galleries worldwide. Notoriously, in 1968, the chair was copied. Vitsœ’s co-founder, Niels Vitsœ, fought a lengthy court case that culminated in the chair being granted rare copyright protection in 1973.
Like its sibling the 606 Universal Shelving System, which was designed by Dieter Rams in 1962, the 620 Chair Programme is a carefully-conceived kit of parts. For example, a single chair can become a multi-seat sofa when more chairs are added. Or a chair on castors can be transformed into a swivelling chair.
Bursting with talent and plenty of places to show it off, New York as a design story is arguably a massive late pass. But, as MoMA Store proves by selecting the Big Apple as this year’s…
News: the winners of the 2013 Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards have been announced, with Chicago-based collective Studio Gang Architects taking the prize for architecture.
New Jersey Performing Arts Center facade by Pentagram
James Vines, founder and president of New York-based architecture studio SITE, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement prize for his work on environmentally-conscious buildings, interiors and public spaces.
The Corporate & Institutional Achievement award was given to TED, the nonprofit organisation whose online TED Talks on topics ranging from augmented reality to how to tie shoelaces surpassed one billion views in 2012.
Silk dress by Behnaz Sarafpour
Architect and urbanist Michael Sorkin picked up the Design Mind award, while the Graphic Design prize was given to Paula Scher, a principal at design consultancy Pentagram, whose work includes the typographical decoration on the facade of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
The Fashion Design award was won by Behnaz Sarafpour, who has collaborated with Target, Lancôme and Earnest Sewn and had her clothes exhibited at the V&A in London and the Fashion Institute of Technology’s museum in New York.
Fitbit activity tracker by NewDealDesign
Joshua Aidlin and David Darling of Aidlin Darling Design won in the Interior Design category, while media design firm Local Projects, which specialises in work for museums and public spaces, took the Interaction Design prize.
Margie Ruddick won the Landscape Architecture award for her work on projects including New York’s Queens Plaza and Trenton Capital Park on the Delaware River, while NewDealDesign, a San Francisco studio whose work includes the Fitbit wearable activity tracker, picked up the Product Design award.
Known for striking a balance between high-tech materials and minimal, modest design in what seems to be the most aesthetically pleasing way possible, NYC’s Isaora has been on our radar for a few years now. Recently,…
Massachusetts-based company Terrafugia has announced it is working on a concept for a four-seater vehicle with motorised rotors, which can take off without the need for a runway.
TF-X concept
Dubbed TF-X, the vehicle’s wings and rotors are designed to fold into the side of the car when it’s on the road, making it small enough to park in a standard garage.
The ability to take off from standstill would allow owners to take to the air from their driveways. Once in the air, it is expected to be able to fly nonstop for 500 miles.
The TF-X probably wouldn’t be suitable for escaping traffic jams, however, as it requires a 30-metre-wide clear space around it during takeoff.
A working model of the aircraft is expected to become available to purchase within eight to 12 years.
Transition
Meanwhile Terrafugia’s earlier flying car concept, the Transition, which last year flew for eight minutes at an altitude of 420 metres during its test flight, is set to become available to buy within two years, priced at £190,000.
Terrafugia Inc., the developer of the Transition street-legal airplane, announced its vision for the future of personal transportation. Building on its experience with the Transition program, Terrafugia has begun feasibility studies of a four-seat, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) plug-in hybrid- electric flying car, the TF-X. Incorporating the state-of-the-art in intelligent systems, fly by wire controls, and currently available technology, the TF-X will further increase the level of safety, simplicity, and convenience of personal aviation.
“This is the right time for us to begin thinking about the future of the company beyond Transition development,” says Terrafugia CEO/CTO Carl Dietrich. “We are passionate about continuing to lead the creation of a flying car industry and are dedicating resources to lay the foundations for our vision of personal transportation.”
Terrafugia’s design team is excited to be looking ahead to TF-X development activities as the Transition programme shifts from research and development to certification, production, and customer support activities. The Transition serves as a Proof of Process for TF-X development and commercialisation through the many technical, regulatory, and usage challenges it has overcome.
By directly addressing congestion and other transportation challenges currently being faced internationally, widespread adoption of vehicles like the Transition and TF-X could result in significant economic benefits and personal time savings. Preliminary conversations with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about the TF-X concept have demonstrated their willingness to consider innovative technologies and regulatory solutions that are in the public interest and enhance the level of safety of personal aviation. Terrafugia is excited to be nearing production of the Transition and continuing to push the envelope of personal transportation.
Terrafugia (terra-FOO-gee-ah), based in Woburn, MA, is a growing aerospace company founded by pilot- engineers from MIT and supported by a world-class network of advisors and investors. The company name is Latin for “escape the earth.” Terrafugia’s mission is to build practical flying cars.
The latest tool to get the royal Best Made Co. treatment, the Laguiole 127, is a better functioning and more aesthetically pleasing version of your traditional toothpick pocket knife. As we’ve seen before, Best Made really…
New York graphic designer Massimo Vignelli compares the grid used to lay out a publication as “the underwear of the book” in this movie by design consultancy Pentagram.
Vignelli explains how he begins a book design by laying paper over a simple grid for positioning images and text, which can’t be seen in the finished article. “The grid is the underwear of the book,” he says. “You wear it but it’s not to be exposed.”
He lists different layout options made possible by his grid system, including several pictures per page, one full page image and one smaller opposite, or double-page photos for the “wow” effect.
Vignelli sketches the images by hand when mocking up the layout as he believes it’s faster for him than using a computer.
He compares the design process to making a movie. “The scale and the pacing of the images makes the book, it’s just like a film,” he says. “The scriptwriter is the author of the book, and I’m the director and cinematographer.”
The film was designed by Michael Bierut of Pentagram for paper manufacturer Mohawk‘s What Will You Make Today? campaign. It features the publication Richard Meier, Architect: Vol. 3 released in 1999.
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