Hasta La Ideas

NYC’s supper clubs offer an impromptu dining cart serving up a six course meal in the subway

In a theatrical culinary feat, passengers aboard NYC’s L train were recently treated to a six-course lunch as they rolled across Manhattan, under the East River and into Williamsburg, each stop adding to the food frenzy. Cooked up by the crafty chefs behind A Razor, A Shiny Knife, the luncheon included an elegant array of dishes, including foie gras and filet mignon, as well as a pyramid of chocolate panna cotta, dusted with gold leaf. Guests—who paid $100 for a reservation—were given no information apart from “the promise of a clandestine dining experience.”

Michael J. Cirino and Daniel Castaño began A Razor, A Shiny Knife several years ago with an interest in experimental cooking, determined to create new ways for “people to interact with food and each other.” Hosting the luncheon on the L train is just one example of how the team challenges themselves with gastronomic adventures, with timing and execution at the crux of the daunting task. The challenge that put the duo the map though was their 20-course recreation of the $1,500 dinners Grant Achatz and Thomas Keller were serving at their restaurants, which they executed for $300 a meal with the help of A Razor, A Shiny Knife “PHD/Cook” Andrew Rosenberg and “Self-Appointed Master Sommelier” Jonny Cigar.

The ingenious event was also aided by Studiofeast‘s Mike Lee, who brought the entree on board at the Morgan Avenue stop. With more than 50 people involved, the group effort really demonstrated the power of a well-planned idea.

via The New York Times, pictures by Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Ergonomic, luxury nail trimmer promises the smoothest cut

One of the the most satisfying interactions with a tool is when designers reinvent something you use all the time but don’t think too much about. The Klhip nail trimmer is a shining example of such an innovation, transforming a mundane concept by applying design principles to make it more useful. The Klhip uses a reversed lever to give the user greater control when clipping and also requires less pressure to cut through nails. This makes for a super-smooth nail edge, essentially eliminating the need for filing afterwards.

Made in the U.S.A. from surgical grade stainless steel, Klhip delivers what it promises in a sleek, functional package. It sells from the online store for $70 or $95 with a leather carrying case, and includes a lifetime warranty.

Switzerland’s newest design trio debuts their dead simple chair designed for taking it easy

A simple concept with an equally simple name, “Chair” has an extended backrest, designed so you can easily throw your arm over it and relax. Easily stackable and with a straightforward geometric form, on first take Chair looks like it might be one of Ikea’s more high-quality products. But, the brainchild of Arnault Weber, Camille Blin and Emmanuel Mbesse—the industrious trio behind the newly-formed A C E studio—the chair is actually produced by local artisans in Vaud, Switzerland with the designers overseeing every step. Nothing short of fully considered design, the sensible seat is the cornerstone of their Collection 1, a six-piece series of furniture made from Swiss ash that includes shelves, tables and lighting.

Weber explains the Lausanne-based project has its roots in a shared desire to “change the Swiss design scene. We really want to work together with designers from our generation and edit their work and also work with more famous designers.” A C E serves as both design studio and a platform for collaborators to sell their works.

The price for Chair is around €500, and can be ordered through the A C E website.

Fixtures that put light first and other revelations from Finland’s design pioneers

In 2010 Artek celebrated its 75th anniversary. This past week as part of Milan’s design festivities, the Finnish company made a strong statement positioning themselves with a confident eye toward the future, grounded by their design heritage as they head into their 76th year. Along with a new forward-thinking line of lighting fixtures called White (pictured above), Artek announced Open Archives, an online repository of images of Artek interiors, as well as the acquisition of the rights to produce Ilmari Tapiovaara’s furniture collection, a true icon of Northern European design. (See more images of the White collection in the gallery below.

In a private showcase at Galleria Giò Marconi, we asked Ville Kokkonen, Design Director of Artek, who also heads up White about the new series of lighting solutions. Consisting of four models, the line is the upshot of in-depth research on the use of light fixtures in domestic, office and public settings. “We have studied the effects of lack of lighting in the Northern Countries,” Kokkonen shared, “and this was the starting point for the achievement of the right intensity and quality of light that we wanted. We have also interviewed creative people in order to understand how light should correctly fill working environments.”

As a result, the White light collection is utterly essential; the strict standards and quality requirements of the light determine the design of each object. Composed solely of wood and matte plexiglas, each box-like lamp has a pure, simplistic character. “We chose not to use LEDs, because they don’t produce the diffused and uniform light we were thinking about,” Kokkonen explained. “At the end, each one of our new lamps obtained a medical certification, since they meet all the necessary characteristics required by the Finnish health associations.”

Another clever new project, Open Archives showcases past and present Artek interiors from around the world, from 1935 to modern-day. The site also functions as a community for Artek’s fans; images can be shared, tagged and freely used in blogs.

Dror unveils his innovative multi-use space truss geometry

Designer Dror Benshetrit took the stage at Design Indaba‘s opening day to unveil a project he spent the last four years working on: QuaDror. A versatile structural support system, QuaDror is a fresh take on space truss geometry that offers innumerable solutions for use and eliminates redundancy in structure. “Mass is one of the worst in terms of energy waste,” Dror told Cool Hunting.

A hinge without a revolution joint, the QuaDror is extremely strong and energy efficient, but the real beauty about QuaDror is its flexibility. The robust nature of the design allows it to hold up to 86 QuaDrors on top of each other. When stacked the unit can serve as a sound barrier or temporary wall; when collapsed, the QuaDror is completely flat. Dror explained that while you can fit 1,750 pieces in one shipping container, that fact isn’t even relevant because “there is no reason why you can’t just produce them locally”—a brilliant aspect when finding immediate solutions for disaster relief, which is another viable option for the form’s purpose.

How much less room does the door need?

I would say one-third, if you have to put a number to it. The Mini has quite a long door, because it’s a four-seater but a two-door car. If you open it with one hinge, you hit the other door and then you have to sort of squeeze in. With the Rocketman, we solved both issues. You can crawl in the back because the door’s quite long, but you don’t have to squeeze in through a narrow opening because of the double hinge.

That’s actually why we called the car Rocketman. On the one hand, Rocketman sounds like a brave little guy—and Mini is that, a brave little guy. But this car to us is so full of ideas, that we thought it’s rocket science by Mini. That’s why we call it Rocketman.

How did you treat the interiors for this car?

Of course we are dealing with a small car, but as a designer you can do a lot to give the feeling or the sensation of more space. We did this in the Rocketman in the sense that there is no dashboard like we know it today.

The dashboard takes up a lot of space. In the old Mini there was only a steering wheel and one big dial, and that’s what we’ve done in this Rocketman as well. But the steering wheel and the big round center dial have grown together into a structure. And then the rest of the dashboard is gone, you don’t need it.

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The lighting is another feature which I believe can do a lot to create a very nice atmosphere, even in a small space. We’ve played with that a lot in the car, and we believe that the light or the light color in the future is going to play a bigger role in the whole color and material set up of the car. Right now the light is treated very separately from the materials that we use in the car, and in this concept we made it an integral part. We thought about it from the beginning, it could light up in red or blue or some other colors.

You could customize to your mood, which is something that Mini offers today. There’s just one or two LEDs in the Mini interiors today so you can change the color seamlessly from orange to blue. But in this car now, there’s big surfaces of light. And the roof of course is transparent which is another element that increases your sensation of spaciousness.

What other examples of industrial design inspired the car?

We’re constantly not just looking at other fields of design, like industrial design, furniture design or fashion design, we also have a part of our team—actually a large part of our team located in California—called Design Works. And this design consultancy, we do industrial design for other companies as well. We are actually in touch with other industries, like aircraft industry, or boating. We design airplane interiors or boats exteriors and interiors.

And you always learn, so as a designer you become more creative the more you work on different types of products, or design problems. LED light is something that is coming anyway, also in furniture, also in housing. It is simply very small, it uses less energy.

It led to a whole creative outburst, because now we can position these lights in places where in the past a lightbulb would have to go in and there wouldn’t be the space. Without LED we couldn’t have done this roof or the illumination of the door panels, or the tail lamps where the air can pass through. It wouldn’t be possible.

What about the headlights?

In the headlamps, the way we use LED is we would like to make the light in a way that is soft and homogenous. We don’t like to see the dots actually, because we think it’s a little bit too bright, a little bit too cold. And we want to have the light be somewhat soft and warm.

What are the features you think are most likely to go to market?

When you’ve just presented a concept car that’s meant to go very far in the future, then that’s probably the toughest question to ask. But, the lighting ideas for sure. I would say things like the hinges, or the way the trunk works. This would be possible to put in production.

Also a lot of the surface features, the design the ideas, the form ideas we’ve put in the car, both in the interior and the exterior. I can see a lot of potential in using those because that is not necessarily technically difficult. That’s just a matter of seeing how it was received—judging by tonight that was good but let’s see if the broader audience in Geneva sees the car.

And this was also deliberate. If people see this car as part of what could be Mini, then we have just broadened our palette. We’ve just given ourselves more room to play. Because Mini has such a strong history, such a strong heritage in one car. Of course everything gravitates towards this one original car. Does it look like that car or does it not? I think this concept car will help us widen the palette a little bit, which I think is necessary to develop the brand into the future.

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