Hasta La Ideas

Milan 2014: a teaspoon that follows a cup around a table and a clock that mimics the actions of the person in front of it were among projects presented by students from Swiss university ECAL in Milan (+ movie).

Based around the title Delirious Home, ECAL‘s Bachelor of Industrial Design and Media & Interaction Design students explored alternatives to the idea of the electronically connected smart home by creating products with more tangible behaviours.

“Technology has become smart but without a sense of humour, let alone quirky unexpected behaviour,” explained the project’s leaders Alain Bellet and Chris Kabel in a statement.

“This lack of humanness became the starting point to imagine a home where reality takes a different turn, where objects behave in an uncanny way,” they added.

The projects employ sensor-based technology to enhance the interaction between user and product, encouraging people to touch them, listen to them, blow on them or move in front of them to see how they react.

Guillaume Markwalder and Aurélia von Allmen’s Broken Mirror features a round surface made from a sheet of wrinkled reflective material that is pulled taught to show a clear reflection when someone approaches it.

Mr Time by Léa Pereyre, Claire Pondard and Tom Zambaz is a clock that shows the correct time until someone stands in front of it, at which point the hands follow the position of the user’s arms.

Bonnie & Clyde by Romain Cazier, Anna Heck and Leon Laskowski produces a playful interaction between a coffee cup and teaspoon.

The cup has a blue interior surface that is tracked by a camera suspended above the table, which sends a signal to a magnet mounted to a mechanism under the table surface. When the cup is moved, the magnet also moves to the same spot and causes the spoon to follow it.

Il Portinaio by Anne-Sophie Bazard, Tristan Caré and Léonard Golay is a curtain of suspended threads that reacts to the presence of someone standing in front of it. A disembodied hand moves along a raised track to their location and draws back a section of the curtain so they can walk through.

Voodoo by Megan Elisabeth Dinius, Timothée Fuchs, Antoine Furstein and Bastien Girschig facilitates a tactile interaction between people sitting in two armchairs by making one of the chairs shudder and vibrate when someone moves in the other one.

Iris Andreadis, Nicolas Nahornyj and Jérôme Rütsche designed a series of containers called Ostinati that can be tipped over and spin on the edges of their bases thanks to embedded gyroscopes.

The Delicious Bells by Caroline Buttet, Louisa Carmona, Margaux De Giovannini and Antonio Quirarte turn dining into an aural experience by projecting noise from speakers embedded in the handles of glass cloches when the cloches are raised.

Touching the shadows of lamp shades projected onto a wall in Léa Pereyre, Claire Pondard and Tom Zambaz’s Chairoscuro installation causes the corresponding light to turn on and off.

Victor Férier, Ludovica Gianoni and Daniele Walker designed a fan attached to a smaller version that users blow on to start the device.

Cactunes by Pierre Charreau, Martin Hertig and Pauline Lemberger invites people to touch a series of cacti that each emit a different sound on contact.

The project was presented at Spazio Orso 16 in Milan’s Brera district during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile last week.

Photography is by Axel Crettenand and Sylvain Aebischer.

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address “lack of humanness” in electronics appeared first on Dezeen.

This week’s job of the week on Dezeen Jobs is a position as head of the Product Design Masters programme at ECAL, where past students’ work includes Thibault Penven’s folding boat (pictured). Visit the ad for full details or browse other architecture and design opportunities on Dezeen Jobs.

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Design Masters programme at ECAL appeared first on Dezeen.

L’Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne o meglio nota come ecal, ha presentato durante questo Salone del Mobile una serie di accessori pensati apposta per la bici proposti durante il Workshop con il professor Chris Kabel.

ECAL graduate Su Jung-Cheng has designed a collection of boxes and flat surfaces that clip together to make stools, shelves or whatever’s needed at the time.

The Nonsystem collection comprises five elements in different materials that can be fixed to each other using small red tabs.

Su Jung-Cheng came up with the design after thinking about how homeless people build beds and furniture from boxes and pieces of cardboard.

The red box and the black frame are made from aluminium and the crate is made from maple, while the two flat surface pieces are made of Plexiglas and recycled plastic.

The pieces are designed to be multi-functional, says the designer. “For example, a box is the minimal element for storage, but if you turn the box it could also serve as a stool,” she told Dezeen.

“I chose not to define much about the function so that you can always leave it open to any kind of function,” she added.

The design is currently a prototype but Jung-Cheng hopes to put it into production soon.

Jung-Cheng completed her bachelor’s degree in Taiwan before graduating from the Product Design master’s course at Ecole Cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) in Switzerland this year, where Nonsystem was her final project.

Other adaptable furniture we’ve featured on Dezeen includes a set of chairs that can be swapped around in their bathtub-shaped base and a storage design that uses sliding rods for its shelves.

See all our stories about storage »
See all our stories furniture »

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Nonsystem is a system furniture or not a system furniture.

It was inspired by an image that shows a homeless person building his bed with two storage boxes and chipboard. I was very fascinated by this minimalist style. So I created this boxes furniture collection to cope with all changes by remaining unchanged.

This transforming furniture system consists of five various elements that can be adjusted to a user’s needs. Made from aluminum, maple wood, Plexiglas and recycled plastic, the collection can be playfully mixed and matched.

It is a research of function and material. While designing these boxes, I learned to treat different materials in different ways.

The final result gives a look almost like a collage of materials and colors. And what makes them look coherent is only by their dimension. So each piece can be regard as an individual object but also part of the system.

“Random is measurable”
“La mathematique est l’art de donner le meme nom a des choses differentes.”
(Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.)
Henri Poincare

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by Su Jung-Cheng appeared first on Dezeen.

ECAL graduate Kacper Hamilton has designed a luxury axe with carbon-fibre in its handle and interchangeable heads.

The Zai CORE Axe has one head for felling trees and another for chopping wood, both made of high-carbon steel.

The handle comprises carbon-fibre sandwiched between ash for strength and lightness.

He created the design for Swiss ski makers Zai while studying at the Ecole Cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL).

Hamilton’s graduation project from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in 2008 was a series of vessels based on the seven deadly sins – check it out here.

See more stories about carbon-fibre »

Photos are by Michal Florence Schorro & Prune Simon-Vermot unless otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Zai CORE Axe by Kacper Hamilton

The Zai CORE Axe was designed by ECAL graduate Kacper Hamilton for Swiss ski company Zai.

The CORE Axe consists of a helve and two interchangeable heads. The straight shaft helve is made from a sandwich of carbon fibre and ash wood. The layering construction is inspired by Zai’s process and philosophy of making skis using raw and contrasting materials in Disentis, Switzerland. Carbon fibre is used to provide strength whilst the ash wood forms a protective shell around the core and pays homage to the heritage of a traditional axe.

The form of the helve has been refined to be slim and lightweight, reducing the thickness substantially to 13mm along the spine. The weight of the axe is thereby focused at the head; generating greater striking momentum and efficiency when cutting or splitting wood.

The two heads are made from forged high carbon steel with a blackened finish. They can be changed using the integrated quick release system; allowing for secure head attachment, easier sharpening and safer transportation. Each head has a different function, one is for felling trees and the other for splitting logs of wood.

Above image is by ECAL/Nicolas Genta

Zai CORE Axe is a quintessential companion for the mountains, around the chalet or on a trek.

Axe 28” helve – Ash wood + Carbon Fibre
Felling head – Forged high Carbon Steel 1200g
Splitting head – Forged high Carbon Steel 1500g

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Kacper Hamilton appeared first on Dezeen.