Hasta La Ideas

Milan 2014: Alessandro Mendini recreated his iconic Proust chair in marble for an exhibition of products shown by Italian company Robot City at Ventura Lambrate in Milan.

Made for the Italian marble company’s Solid Spaces show, the new iteration of the Proust chair is an attempt to create an object with a “hyper-realist” appearance by using marble to create an “almost surreal” effect, said Robot City.

Originally created in 1978, the Poltrona di Proust chair became Mendini’s best-known work. It was the first in a series known as Redesigns, which brought together his academic theories on the importance of historical context for design and the significance of surface appearances in a fast-moving world.

The Proust chair was developed after Mendini stumbled across a copy of a Neo-baroque chair while researching ideas for a fabric pattern for Cassina, influenced by the work of French writer Marcel Proust. The original version of the chair was covered in a multicoloured fabric, with a pattern carried through in its hand-painted frame, enlarging and reproducing an artwork by Pointillist artist Paul Signac.

It was originally a one-off design, but its popularity led Mendini to produce variations in limited numbers.

This marble version is one of four creations by different designers produced from a single 38.7-tonne block of white marble, excavated from a quarry owned by Robot City leader Gualtiero Vanelli.

The designs “give unexpected twists to the interchange between form, function, visual appearance, ergonomics, tradition and innovation”, said Robot City in a statement.

“Each of them enhanced the expressive and functional potential of this ancient, fascinating material, transforming it into advanced contemporary expressions according to their personal style and language.”

The other three projects in the exhibition included shelves by Paolo Ulian, an undulating glass-topped table by Stefano Boeri, and a table with three rabbit-shaped chairs by Stefano Giovannoni.

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for marble exhibition appeared first on Dezeen.

Victoria Siemer, connue sous le pseudo de Witchoria, est une designer graphique basée à Brooklyn, qui a fait une nouvelle série de photographies dans lesquelles elle intègre des figures carrées inversant le paysage et la nature. Une nouvelle perception de l’espace à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

Competition: Dezeen has partnered with publisher Particular Books to give away three copies of B is for Bauhaus – a “personal dictionary of design” by Deyan Sudjic, director of London’s Design Museum.

Covering subjects that range from authenticity to Grand Theft Auto, Jorn Utzon, Dieter Rams and Postmodernism, B is for Bauhaus is described as Deyan Sudjic’s “essential tool kit for understanding the modern world”.

The book offers a highly individual take on various elements of modern culture from Sudjic, who has been the director of London’s Design Museum since 2006.

His career has included stints as a critic for the Observer and the Sunday Times, a period as editor of Domus, and curatorships in Glasgow, Istanbul and Copenhagen. He was one of the co-founder of Blueprint magazine in the 1980s and directed the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2002.

B is for Bauhaus draws on all of this experience to create an “a highly eclectic, intensely personal dictionary of design”, said Particular Books.

Published this spring, the 480-page hardback book is “about what makes a Warhol a genuine fake; the creation of national identities; the mania to collect,” said the publisher.

“It’s also about the world seen from the rear-view mirror of Grand Theft Auto V; digital ornament and why we value imperfection. It’s about drinking a bruisingly dry martini in Adolf Loo’s American Bar in Vienna, and about Hitchcock’s film sets,” the publisher added.

Competition closes 15 May 2014. Three 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.

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by Deyan Sudjic to be won appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: designers Luca Nichetto and Lera Moiseeva collaborated to create a ceramic tableware collection to accompany a porcelain coffee set, for an exhibition at Spazio Rossana Orlandi.

The Cheburashka table set for ceramics company Dymov was designed by Luca Nichetto and Lera Moiseeva to enhance and reinterpret the ritual sharing of food.

A large collective container has oversized handles and a lid that when placed upside-down becomes a flat surface for the serving spoon, which can also hang from either handle.

Two smaller bowls complete the set and can be stacked upside-down on top of the main container’s lid, creating a totem shape for storage.

Hand-engraved lines on the surface of the ceramics resemble a fishing net, appearing to wrap the containers.

“Cheburashka” is the ancient Russian word for the floats used by fishermen to support their nets and also the name of a popular big-eared Soviet children’s character, who bears a resemblance to the main container in the collection.

After being formed on the potter’s wheel and dried, the surface of the red clay pieces are polished using a hard smooth surface to close the pores and shine the material.

The pieces are fired at 950 degrees and then smoke-fired in an air-tight kiln filled with smoldering embers of wood chips and sawdust.

A chemical reaction allows the clay minerals to absorb the smoke and gives the products their dark appearance. Finally, the objects are polished using natural beeswax provided by local beekeepers.

Cheburashka was exhibited as part of the Walk the Line exhibition at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan last week.

The set was paired with Nichetto and Moiseeva’s Sucabaruca porcelain coffee range for the Mjölk gallery in Toronto, which was designed with the similar principal of enjoying hot drinks with others.

“The idea is to show that the same kind of approach can create two objects that are completely different, one in porcelain and the other in ceramic, but with the same kind of energy and the idea of sharing with guests,” Nichetto told Dezeen at the exhibition.

Photography is by Lera Moiseeva and Luca Bragagnolo.

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tableware for shared meals appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: fluid compositions of coloured glaze cover the ceramic tops of these metal-framed tables by German designer Elisa Strozyk (+ slideshow).

Strozyk created the table tops by covering them with different liquid glazes, which were then mixed together by rotating each piece and blowing air across the surface.

This technique makes the glazes “pool and mix together”, creating “traces of fluid movement and smoke-like patterns, which are solidified in the heat of the kiln,” said Strozyk.

Shades of grey, blue, brown and white swirl and blend together on the table tops, which have a reflective glass-like finish to them created by the glaze.

“Glazing clay is one of the oldest techniques to decorate products of everyday life,” said the designer. “The process of firing transforms the liquid suspension of metal oxides and powdered minerals into various glass-like surface-finishes.”

Strozyk also carved criss-crossing lines into the glaze on the surface of one table, allowing the ceramic base to show through the rust-coloured shades decorating the top.

The round ceramic tops sit on simple metal frames, which come in copper and steel and are available in three different sizes.

The tables were shown as part of the Berlin Design Selection in the Ventura Lambrate district of Milan last week.

Photographs are by Studio Been.

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by Elisa Strozyk appeared first on Dezeen.