Milan 2014: London designer Lee Broom will launch these glass and marble vessels during a dinner party in the window of a Milanese design boutique next week.
Lee Broom‘s On the Rock wine and champagne glasses feature crystal bowls perched on top of Carrera marble bases.
“Fusing the delicate crystal with the heavy marble base plays with the idea of balance – both structurally and through the contrasting materials,” said Broom.
The surfaces of both materials are curved where they meet, so the glass looks like it could topple off.
The champagne coupe has a wider and flatter cup than the wine glass, as well as a taller, thinner stem.
The collection will be launched during the dinner at Spazio Pontaccio, Via Pontaccio 18, in Milan’s Brera district on 8 April, before the showroom opens to the public the day after.
A limited series of 30 wine glasses and 30 champagne glasses will also be available to buy from a pop-up shop at the boutique, along with a selection of Broom’s designs.
Milan 2014: these hand-blown glass bubbles by Dutch duo Studio Thier&VanDaalen that delicately spill out of their wooden frames have been created to house precious objects (+ slideshow).
Each design in Studio Thier&VanDaalen‘s collection can be used as a cabinet, light shade or vessel. Wenge wood frames appear to struggle to contain different shaped glass structures within.
The basis for the Round Square Cabinet range was “the fascinating effect of a floating bubble which adapts to its surroundings until it snaps,” explained designers Iris Van Daalen and Ruben Thier. “We had the dream to capture these temporary beauties in a tendril frame.”
To recreate this idea, the studio teamed up with Dutch glass blower Marc Barreda.
Wood has traditionally been used as a mould in free-hand glass blowing, but not as a permanent fixture for the glass to sit inside.
The frame was created first, then the glass was gently blown to swell through the gaps.
“The glass will mark the wood forever during blowing, therefore the wooden mould and its object in glass match perfectly together,” the designers said.
The Round Square Cabinet comes in a variety of sizes. A low rectangular frame features a gold fish bowl-shaped piece of opaque glass.
A taller variant, akin to a side table, features a piece of glass perched on top of a stand inside the frame.
The largest iteration of the cabinet has two frames stacked on top of the other. Inside, glass with a blue hue appears to be escaping the upper frame through the sides.
The collection will be on display from 8 to 13 April at Ventura Team Up exhibition in the Ventura Lambrate district during Milan’s design week.
Here’s some information about the project from the designers:
Round square glass bells to show your precious objects
When blowing soap bubbles in the air Iris & Ruben had the dream to capture these temporary beauties in a tendril frame. The fascinating effect of a floating bubble which adapt to its surrounding until it snaps, was the inspiration for a new series of objects in glass combined with wood by Studio Thier&VanDaalen.
They came up with the idea to blow a round bubble of glass in a square frame made from wood. To challenge two ancient handcrafts; free glassblowing and fine woodworking. Fascinated by the two different materials with their own unique properties and treatments; when combined, they have to deal with each other.
Wet wood is commonly used as a mould in free hand glassblowing. But never as a definitive part of the end object. Iris and Ruben saw this as a beautiful element to use in the end result. The glass will mark the wood forever during blowing, therefor the wooden mould and its object in glass match perfectly together. With this new method Studio Thier & VanDaalen created different objects, to show your precious objects.
During the Milan Design Week 2014 we launch this new evolution of our showcase cabinets: Round Square. Our dream finally came true, “soap bubbles” made from glass blown in wooden frames! Come and see it in real life, from the 8th until the 13th of April at Ventura Lambrate Team-up (B on the map). We called AIR Collaboration.
We worked at ‘Van Tetterode Glas Studio’ together with Marc Barreda to blow the glass pieces in wood.
Materials: glass & Wenge Variations: cabinet, light object, vessel etc. Size: diverse Year: 2014
Glass panels sit at right angles to each other to form two desks, two benches and shelf in this range by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec called the Diapositive collection.
“Diapositive consists of an assembly system of simple glass panels in which the edges are protected with pieces of wood, which distract from the impression of fragility,” said the designers.
One of the desks also includes an ash counter for writing, while the tops and legs are edged in the same wood.
The glass bench features a thin layer of dark coloured felt that forms a cushion on top of the seat.
The pieces are available in dark and light grey, pink, orange, transparent or mixed.
The collection will be presented at the Glas Italia stand at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile fair in Milan from 8 to 13 April.
This egg-shaped spirit decanter by London designer Sebastian Bergne can be positioned at different angles without spilling its contents.
Named Egg, the ovoid-shaped decanter comes with a cork stopper and matching place holder, which allows the vessel to sit upright or tilt, raising its end.
“I have been interested in eggs for some time,” explained Sebastian Bergne. “They are full of complications and meanings. It is in many ways perfection from the organic world.”
When empty, the container stands upright. But when liquid is added the centre of gravity is lowered, allowing the top of the decanter to lean to 45-degree angles without falling over.
“Nowadays we usually associate perfection with geometry. The egg goes against this idea. In fact, if you’ve ever tried to draw an egg using geometry, it is surprisingly hard,” said Bergne.
Egg was designed for French gift company Designerbox and is made from borosilicate glass.
“As this project is an edition piece for Designerbox, I also felt free to experiment with using a form so full of symbolism. It is not something we are used to reading in objects these days but it is always there and we should not forget it,” added the designer.
The Egg is available to buy as a one-off purchase on the designerbox website, or as part of a subscription service.
While the monocle is of course the magnifier of choice for the Scrooge McDucks of the world, the simple bronze magnifier by Australian design studio Daniel Emma is certainly the…
Dutch firm Wiel Arets Architects applied an intricate fritting technique to the glazed facade of this office complex in Zurich to give it the appearance of onyx marble (+ slideshow).
Located within a developing commercial zone outside the city centre, the 20-storey tower and five-storey annex were designed by Wiel Arets Architects to provide a new Swiss headquarters for financial services company Allianz.
Planning guidelines stipulate that all new buildings in the area must be clad in natural stone. But the architects chose to instead create the look of onyx marble to “allow the building to blend into its context while simultaneously maintaining its distinguished stance”.
An abstracted pattern taken from the marble surfaces of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion was used to frit the glass. This was achieved by building up composite layers of black and white dots.
“The original image of the onyx marble was rasterised, and from this two versions of the same image were created – one black and the other white,” project architect Felix Thies told Dezeen.
“These two images were then patterned and fritted on the back side of two different layers of glass, separated by a distance of six millimetres,” he explained.”When viewing the facade from an angle, the reflections of the rasterised patterns appear ever-changing, in accordance with the angle of the sun.”
A regular grid of windows breaks up the facade and each one contains a silver curtain between two layers of glass. These are controlled by computer to vary the level of shade they provide, adapting to different weather and lighting conditions.
The building’s entrance is at the base of the tower and leads through to a central staircase that ascends from the main lobby through all 20 storeys. This is to encourage employees to interact with people on different floors.
Four enclosed bridges connect the tower with the adjoining annex. There are also voids in the floorplates to create double-height spaces between storeys.
“The Allianz Headquarters can be experienced as horizontal and vertical landscape of neighbourhoods,” said the design team in a statement.
Internal heating and ventilation is provided from behind a panelled ceiling system. These panels are made from steel and perforated with a pattern derived from Swiss chalet ornamentation.
A cafe and restaurant is located on the fifth floor, while the level below accommodates rooms for client meetings. Employees can also take time out from work on a roof terrace dotted with Japanese maple trees.
A three-level car park unites the two buildings at basement level and provides space for up to 300 vehicles.
Here’s a project description from Wiel Arets Architects:
WAA complete construction on the Allianz Headquarters in Zurich
Allianz Headquarters is a 20-storey tower and 5-storey annex, the latter capped with roof gardens of Japanese maples; these two components are interlaced by four enormous bridges
The Allianz Headquarters is a hybrid-office and the pinnacle of a masterplanned mixed-use district on the edge of Zurich’s city centre. Comprised of a 20-storey tower and a 5-storey annex, these two components are externally linked by a series of four bridges, and vertically linked by numerous interior voids and staircases; as such, the Allianz Headquarters can be experienced as horizontal and vertical landscape of neighbourhoods.
Fluidly connected to the city centre by a multitude of public transportation options, the building encourages the blossoming of twenty-first century office culture, which demands flexibility in space and its use, via its hyper-hybrid programming that amplifies ‘interiority’.
The entire lobby and ground floor are publicly accessible, ensuring a continuous animation throughout both, which compliments the adjacent public square. A central staircase rises from the lobby up and into the 20-storey tower, allowing employees to, if desired, meander throughout all levels of the office without entering its core.
A café and restaurant are located on the fifth floor, rather than within the lobby, which creates a buffer zone between public and non-public areas. A ‘business centre’ is located one floor below, and contains meeting rooms for use with external clients. This ‘business centre’ enables employees to meet with their guests, without the need for elevators.
This new district’s masterplan mandated that all building facades be composed of natural stone, yet it was chosen to frit this building’s full glass facade with an abstracted pattern of Onyx marble – from Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion – which allows the building to blend into its context while simultaneously maintaining its distinguished stance.
Each element of the facade contains a closed cavity system, in which an aluminium-coated silver curtain hangs, which fluctuates its degree of shading by responding to external environmental factors – a process administered by a computer controlled algorithm.
Interior heating and cooling occurs through a panelled ceiling system that utilises concrete core activation and concealed air ventilation. These 1.35 x 1.35 m panels are composed of ‘crumpled’ steel sheets into which a three-dimensional pattern, derived from traditional ornamentation of Swiss chalet eave, has been stamped, which introduces a larger scale to the interior office spaces by decreasing the amount of visible ceiling seams. Micro-perforations in the panels maintain ventilation, allowing for no visible interior air ducts and the placement of an acoustically absorbing sheet on the back of each.
Inhabitable volumes adorn the roof of the lower building, with several garden terraces for employees. These gardens contain a singular red Japanese maple tree, which return in the landscaping of the central courtyard below.
Both the 20-storey tower and 5-storey annex are adjoined underground by a tri-level 300 car parking garage, where most of the extensive IT and mechanical facilities are stored. Similar to a home, the Allianz Headquarters has been infused with espresso corners and lounge like spaces throughout, for instance, its four 8m wide bridges, to stimulate informal conversation within this highly formal working environment.
Dustin Yellin s’amuse à collecter divers objets qu’il trouve dans la rue pour s’en servir petour composer des silhouettes humaines encastrées dans différentes couches de verre. Cette pratique artistique, appelée Psychogeography, explore les éléments d’un environnement urbain avec talent, pour un rendu impressionnant.
Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka will present a reflective glass table for Italian design brand Glas Italia in Milan next month.
Yoshioka‘s Prism Mirror Table for Glas Italia uses a high-transparency mirrored glass that covers the surfaces of the table to reflect its surroundings.
“This piece will be a table like a shimmering sculpture reflecting the view of surroundings,” said Yoshioka. The table is made up of a long rectangular top with bevelled edges, with mirrored blocks for legs.
The panels of glass were cut in a way that allows the edges of the table to refract light like a prism.
Visible brush strokes pattern the surfaces of this furniture collection by Japanese studio Nendo for Italian brand Glasitalia (+ slideshow).
Nendo’s boxy Brushstroke tables and seats for Glasitalia are formed from rectangular sheets of glass, which are decorated with streaked colours created by dragging layers of paint across the material.
“We brushed colour onto the transparent glass surface, then blew another layer of coloured paint on top,” said the designers.
Scraped across in one direction, the resulting effect resembles the texture of wood grain.
“The tense perfection of glass’ glossiness and smoothness fuses with handwork’s imperfect texture to create an unusual material,” added the designers.
The eight-piece set includes a side table, console, bench and dining table, and the top of each design overhangs its base.
A range of blue, grey and beige hues have been used for the different designs.
The collection will be shown in Milan in April, at both the Salone Internazionale del Mobile and Nendo’s solo exhibition taking place at Via delle Erbe 2.
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