Hasta La Ideas

Dutch Design Week: this lamp by designer Dennis Parren casts a network of coloured shadows.

LEDs project light upward from a circular platform at the base of the CMYK lamp, past thin white metal bars that split the light to cast cyan, magenta and yellow shadows onto surrounding surfaces.

Red, green and blue shadows are created where the different colours overlap.

Cyan, magenta and yellow, along with black, make up the CMYK subtractive colour model used in printing, while red, green and blue make up the RGB additive colour model common to electronic screens.

Parren explains how the properties of LED bulbs enabled him “to show how the primary colors of light – red, green and blue – on the one hand, and the pigment colours – cyan, magenta and yellow – on the other, interact. The effect it produces may be called the aesthetics of LED light.”

“You can’t really say ‘that chair is red’,” he continues. “Actually, the chair is reflecting red light while absorbing green and blue light. It is light that colors the world.”

He adds that the CMYK lamp is “not designed to demonstrate how and why, but to show that light is the true custodian of color.”

Different iterations of the design have been presented at various shows since Parren’s graduation from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2011, including a small table lamp in Kortrijk, a version on stilts for a Parisian gallery and a little corner lamp in Milan.

The large CMYK pendant lamp shown here was nominated in the autonomous design category at the Dutch Design Awards, which took place as part of Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven – see the winning projects here.

You can see all of our coverage of the event here.

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British designer David Irwin has created pentagonal pendant lights that are bound together by silicon bands for design company Deadgood.

Five identical profiles made from three-millimetre-thick aluminium are held together by three black silicon bands, one at the top and two at the bottom.

All the profiles for one EXTL Light can be cut from the same bar of extruded aluminium, dissected at angles so the two styles can be made from one length.

“This highly engineered solution effectively demonstrates both the efficiency and the precision of this time-honoured industrial process,” says Deadgood.

The lights are available in two slightly different styles, one of which has a wider opening at the base than the other. The surface of the aluminium is finished in either a matt black, gold or silver anodised metal coating.

Deadgood launched the product at 100% Design in London last month.

Stories we’ve previously featured about Deadgood include a seating collection covered in textile offcuts and a lighting range made from wire.

We’ve recently written about an adjustable lamp with a magnetic concrete base and a collection of lamps with empty baskets for bases that can be filled with various heavy objects. See all our stories about lamps.

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for Deadgood appeared first on Dezeen.

Interieur: French designer Matali Crasset has created a collection of concrete furniture, including a lamp shaped like an interwar military listening device.

Crasset recently became the artistic director of French concrete specialist Concrete by LCDA, and the Concrete collection is a result of this collaboration.

The lamp references concrete acoustic mirrors, also known as “listening ears”, which were developed in Britain between the wars to concentrate sound waves and detect airborne invasions.

The bookshelf is designed to be a “backbone of knowledge” with shelves like vertebrae protruding from a central spine.

“This project combines fluidity and the desire to get away from the very common single-piece shapes when concrete furniture is concerned,” said the collaborators.

Other projects by Crasset we’ve featured recently include a set of vessels shaped like horns, speaker components and loudhailers and a woodland hotel room on legs.

We’ve been publishing some of the best projects from Interieur this year, including furniture that expands like popcorn and an arcade of light beams that appear to bend inwards – see all our stories about Interieur.

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Photographs are by Simon Buisson.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

The international designer Matali Crasset is working with Concrete by LCDA as artistic director. This is a new stage in the development of Concrete by LCDA which, after putting its know-how into use to excel in interior design, from now on becomes a design and manufacturing company.

The international designer Matali Crasset is working with Concrete by LCDA as artistic director. This is a new stage in the development of Concrete by LCDA which, after putting its know-how into use to excel in interior design, from now on becomes a design and manufacturing company.

The aim is to tame concrete to so that it will be better incorporated into the heart of our daily life. The range of concrete products that Matali Crasset has designed for Concrete by LCDA invites concrete to be a fully-fledged player in our interiors, both for primary uses and more immaterial functions. So it is in this setting that the material and symbolic dimension of concrete is highlighted.

This initial collection of furniture and objects designed for concrete takes its strength from the beauty of the concrete material. By moulding the concrete, it becomes furniture and then enters into a dialogue with us in our life scenarios. In this way, Matali has designed a collection of timeless and sculptural objects, both obvious and essential, which combine a technical material and a know-how with a high level of craftsmanship with a sensitive approach.

The collection is comprised of three objects which suggest three functions and values: to meet, to store, to light.

Table

Concrete becomes the centre of the house with a very archetypal table which asserts its desire for continuity. The shape is meant to be simple to so that material’s sensitive aspect can be revealed: the texture of the wood’s grain will reveal more than the manufacturing mode, it locks the project into a long tradition of moulding. The concrete unobtrusively finds its place and becomes a key element in the apartment. Wooden frame is the most frequently used tool for framing concrete walls that are generally reinforced, a forming tool used since the 17th century made from pieces of wood. The concrete is both a very technical material – lightweight concrete – and a material which requires precise handwork; in this way, the mould leaves the trace of the wood and the handwork. This is an archetypal object, with a clean line which easily fits into any type of interior. A large table seating 6 to 10 persons in a spirit of conviviality and hospitality.

Technical description :
Table in ultra-high-performance fibre-reinforced raw concrete and inner core, with a mat varnish surface.
Dimensions: 250 x 100 x 75 cm, also available in 220*100*75 cm.
Weight: 120 kgs
Top 80 kg, each base 20 kg.

Lamp

The lamp is more unexpected, it shows that concrete knows no borders. It refers to the listening ears in Folkestone in England. These objects deriving from technology exiting between the two wars have become obsolete with the arrival of radar beams. The function of these large objects in reinforced concrete was to listen to the sky. The flag changes scale to become a light diffuser. It is placed in various locations in the apartment, standing or suspended. Here the concrete is moulded with great finesse to so that the design can be seen.

Technical description :
Dimensions: 53 x 50 x 31.5 cm
Ultra high-performance raw concrete, LED 18W lamp.
PCB (printed circuit board) made up of 0.5W 36 leds powered by 24V direct current. The power obtained is 18W or about 1800 lumen for a colour of 4000°.
A diffuser made of a white light spectrum moulded acrylic sheet offers an excellent diffusion strength and an eco-efficient solution.
Weight: 18kg

Bookshelf

This is a bookshelf in the image of the backbone of knowledge. The material is known for its strength, this project combines fluidity and the desire to get away from the very common single-piece shapes when concrete furniture is concerned. The material seems to be set in its lightness, like a freeze-frame shot, it retains the momentum and the dynamism of growth. The table and the storage space are a homage to human building genius, to major structures in raw concrete which symbolise modernity.

Technical description :
Dimensions: 190 x 95 x 35 cm.
Smooth ultra-high-performance concrete, Ductal.
Weight: each element 70 kg

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for Concrete by LCDA appeared first on Dezeen.

Every table, chair, lamp and light switch in this furniture collection by Italian designer Loredana Bonora is covered in crocheted yarns of cotton, PVC, plastic tape and even washing lines.

Bonora made the red and white chair and hat stand (below) by crocheting barrier tape that reads ‘work in progress’, while the decorative circular pendant is made from the plastic wire used for washing lines.

The pale grey chair has rings of crocheted cotton irregularly spaced on its legs and a plume of large black feathers on the seat back.

The white table and white chair are both crocheted with PVC.

Feathers have also been used to cover the bulbs of the two standing lamps, while the table lamps have crocheted shades.

The gold chair was made with the small wires used to tie up chocolates boxes,while the fluffy white chair was crocheted with wool thread.

Different crochet patterns appear in each piece of furniture, from simple circular designs on the white table to intricate flowers on the base of the recliner.

Nodi Contemporanei, which means contemporary knots, is Bonora’s first solo exhibition and can be seen at the Plusdesign gallery in Milan.

The exhibition continues until 10th November at Plusdesign, Via Ventura 6, Lambrate, Milan.

We’ve published lots of crocheted furniture on Dezeen, including a chair of resin-coated crochet flowers by Marcel Wanders and a set of handmade pendant lamps which decorated the Dezeen Super Store this summer.

See all our stories about wool »
See all our stories about knitting »
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Photographs are by Carlo Beccalli.

Here’s some more information from Plusdesign:

On the occasion of the Start Milano’s incoming opening events, Plusdesign presents Nodi Contemporanei (Contemporary Knots), the first solo exhibition of the Italian designer Loredana Bonora. The show introduces a new collection of furnishings, tables, chairs, beds and lamps, entirely covered in crochet and artfully woven with unusual materials combined with traditional techniques.

Loredana Bonora covers the design icons, revealing new and unique personalities. Through the transparency, unexpected details and provocative combinations, she gives the furniture a new character, changing their the story and releasing them from their own objectivity.

With her crochet, Loredana Bonora does not redraw only the objects, but a whole world made of colours, feelings and soft lines woven with ability and extraordinary femininity. She draws on a scenario that belongs to her imagination and invites the observers to access a dreamlike dimension made of subjective feelings and emotions, free from all formal constraints.

Loredana Bonora combines the traditional technique of crochet with ongoing creative research and the experimentation of new materials aimed to design unique objects. Yarns of PVC, the red and white stripes work in progress tape, clothes hangers or packaging, but also more classic yarns such as cotton and wool, are skillfully woven maintaining the same ancient craftsmanship but overturning the traditional beliefs, taking a fresh and contemporary brand new personality.

Loredana is an Italian designer from Varese. She has been engaged for long time in a creative research that retrieves the traditional practice of the crochet to interpret the home furnishings in new ways. The use of non traditional yarns – such as plastic and raffia – and the experimenting of plot techniques with variable patterns, keep her updating this traditional handbuilt style with a contemporary taste.

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Loredana Bonora appeared first on Dezeen.

This bowl of candy-coloured glass fruits is a lamp by Japanese designer Hisakazu Shimizu of S&O Design.

The lamp is part of a collection that also features fruit-shaped clocks and tableware.

The Fruits Table Lamp was first presented at Shimizu’s ‘Fruits’ exhibition at Galeria VIVID in Rotterdam last year.

Above image is by Yves Krol

Photographs are by Yoshie Shirane, except where otherwise indicated.

Above image is by Tomoko Shintani

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by Hisakazu Shimizu appeared first on Dezeen.