Hasta La Ideas

Product news: French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have added three new colours to their Corniches shelves for Vitra.

The Bouroullec brothers chose dark grey, khaki and orange to supplement the black, white and Japanese red colour options that Swiss furniture brand Vitra launched last year.

Corniches is a storage system comprising shelves with rounded undersides that can be grouped on a wall to create a landscape of useful surfaces. Made from ASA plastic with a high gloss finish, the shelves are available in several different shapes and sizes.

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s suspension lamps that dangle from tangled wires recently went into production with Flos, while an exhibition dedicated to the brothers’ career is currently in progress at Les Arts Décoratifs museum in Paris.

Vitra has also put its latest range of updates and reissues from the archive of French designer Jean Prouvé into production.

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Here’s a short description of Corniches from Vitra:

Corniches arose from the need for small stor- age spaces to spontaneously keep items. “The same way that we hang our beach towel on a rock jutting from a cliff before diving into the sea, we need small storage spaces in everyday life, too”, explains Ronan Bouroullec.

And this is the reason that Corniches are neither regular shelves nor simple horizontal surfaces, but rather individual, isolated protrusions in the environments that we create.

Whether as a key rack beside the front door, a spot to put the soap dispenser in the bathroom, as a pedestal for a small collection of objects or as a large installation, Corniches are a new way to use the wall in your living space.

(Related movie) In this movie filmed at Vitra’s London showroom during Clerkenwell Design Week, Erwan Bouroullec explains that office environments are changing now there is less storage for papers and books.

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Erwan Bouroullec for Vitra appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: Copenhagen design firm KiBiSi designed this low-energy pendant lamp by scaling up the shape of a classic light bulb.

KiBiSi’s Bulb Fiction pendant lamp unites the socket and bulb into one product.

The shade is made from hand-blown opal glass and the pendant’s cord incorporates a thick white silicone cover to give it extra volume. The cord can be tied in a knot for a different look and the lamps can be hung in clusters.

“The fixture creates the illusion of a classic incandescent bulb, hides the low-energy light source and ensures a comfortable, soft light,” said the designers.

Bulb Fiction is now available to buy in North America through furniture company HighTower.

KiBiSi is an industrial design firm founded in 2009 by designer Lars Holme Larsen of Kilo Design, architect Bjarke Ingels of BIG and brand consultant Jens Martin Skibsted of Skibsted Ideation.

Other KiBiSi products we’ve featured on Dezeen include an office chair that is mounted on a Y-shaped stem – allowing it to move back and forth whilst rotating, and a series of candle holders made from a compound of plastic resin and powdered stone.

See all our stories about KiBiSi »
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Here’s a press release from HighTower:

Designed by Danish design team KiBiSi and manufactured by Lightyears, the Bulb Fiction pendant lamp is a playful take on the classic incandescent light bulb and is now available in North America through HighTower.

Bulb Fiction remains true to the iconic shape but has been scaled up and broken down, creating the illusion of a single bulb, while hiding the low energy light source, and ensuring a comfortable, soft light with its hand-blown opal glass shade.

Bulb Fiction transitions seamlessly between public and private spaces from hospitality to retail, commercial and residential environments. It works beautifully as a single lamp, but also looks fantastic when hung in a cluster, a straight line, or in staggered formations.

To further play with the design, simply tie knots in the cord or gather several lamps together to form a modern chandelier.

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by KiBiSi appeared first on Dezeen.

News: British industrial design firm Dyson has launched a tiny vacuum cleaner for British homes, which are the smallest in western Europe and often lack space to store a full-size cleaner.

“57% of Brits complain that they don’t have enough space in their homes for storage,” a Dyson spokesperson told Dezeen. “A lack of storage space shouldn’t mean people have to compromise on the technology they buy. Engineers should respond by developing smaller, more efficient technology.”

The DC49 Multi Floor is just a fraction bigger than a sheet of A4 paper because it’s the first cylinder vacuum to be powered by a Dyson digital motor – the same motor that powers Dyson’s Airblade hand dryers.

It’s also designed to be the brand’s quietest cleaner yet. “When people are living on top of each other, technology needs to be quieter,” Dyson explained.

“Investing in our core technologies means we can develop leaner, more efficient machines. Using the new high-speed Dyson digital motor, we have developed a machine that is smaller and quieter, yet even more powerful,” British inventor and founder of the company James Dyson said.

The digital motor inside the vacuum weighs 670 grams and generates 1050 watts, whereas a normal AC motor generating the same power would weigh an average of 1.2 kilograms.

Dyson developed the product in response to the Royal Institute of British Architects’ report last year entitled The Way We Live Now, which found that many British homes lack storage space for household utility items like a vacuum cleaner, ironing board and rubbish bins. One participant in the survey admitted to storing his vacuum cleaner at his mother’s house, a twenty minute drive away.

In April this year another RIBA report entitled Case for Space revealed that the average new home in the UK is just 46 square metres, the size of a Jubilee Line train carriage on the London Underground, making them 15% smaller than in any other country in western Europe. The report also found that new-builds had decreased in size by 11% in the last ten years.

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Here’s some more information from Dyson:

Smaller. Lighter. Quieter. High performance Dyson vacuum technology: Concentrated

Homes are getting smaller. The average new-build one-bedroom home in the UK is just 46 square metres (the size of a tube carriage on the Jubilee Line); and 57% of people say there is not enough storage in their homes for their possessions. Compromising on space shouldn’t mean compromising on technology.

Designed for the technologically astute Japanese, DC49 is engineered to be Dyson’s smallest, quietest Ball™ vacuum cleaner yet. The Dyson digital motor V4, allows DC49 to deliver the performance of a full size machine, in a small package.

Powerful but quiet: Engineers were challenged to develop Dyson’s quietest vacuum. Acoustic engineers developed simplified airways in the floor tools, funnelling the turbulent air downwards to dampen the sound. They adjusted the motor’s orientation, and smoothed the airflow inside the vortex fingers of the cyclone to reduce sound from the machine.

Concentrated technology: DC49’s body is lightweight, weighing just 2.7kg; making it 30% smaller than the DC47 Ball vacuum cleaner.

Ball technology: The machine is light to pull, can pivot on the spot, and follows obediently without snagging on corners. It has a low centre of gravity for negotiating tight turns and getting around furniture. There are over 100 components arranged in the ball including the motor, ducting and 5 metres of cable.

Improved floor tools: DC49 comes with both turbinehead and motorhead floortools. These have been re-engineered to improve pick-up and sound quality, and reduce weight. Simplified airways decrease noise levels and a self-tightening mechanism keeps the brush bar stable. A dust capture channel prevents dirt from escaping back to the floor, increasing pick-up. The new configuration of carbon fibre filaments and nylon brushes removes fine dust from hard floors and ground-in dirt from carpets.

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the size of an A4 sheet of paper appeared first on Dezeen.

At the height of summer, with seemingly endless weekends sprawled out on lawns and beaches, it’s hard not to succumb to apathy and ignore sun care. Even if you haven’t worn sunscreen all summer, it is never too late to start protecting your skin from harmful rays and to incorporate…

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Product news: these chandeliers by American lighting designers Rich Brilliant Willing feature glowing blobs of glass that dangle from aluminium rods.

The Gala chandelier was designed by Rich Brilliant Willing with a form taken from nature. “It’s like “full, ripe fruit hanging on a branch,” says the studio.

The bulbs are hand-blown by a local glass blower, before being hooked over aluminium rods using fixings that look like basket handles.

The rods come in three lengths – 42 inch, 72 inch or 114 inch – and can be combined with a choice of small, large or long bulbs that can be configured in either symmetrical or asymmetrical arrangements along the rod.

Gala chandelier was presented last month at New York Design Week, where Rich Brilliant Willing also launched a wall-mounted bedside lamp that can be swivelled to angle light where it’s needed.

Other lamps we’ve recently published include a set of pendant lamps with raised collars that direct light up to the ceiling as well as down to the floor and a duo of floor lamps that have shades almost identical to their bases. See all our stories about lighting »

Here’s a product description from Rich Brilliant Willing:

Full, ripe fruit hanging on a branch. The Gala Chandelier takes its cues from nature (and a RBW favourite snack!), with curvaceous, organic forms that sit alongside or above one another on a strong linear arm. Hand-blown glass bulbs are supported by a sleek aluminium beam, adding warmth and subtle character to any contemporary space.

Gala also conjures a festive celebration and it is this spirit that the warm orbs of light intend to offer. Basket like ‘handles’ connect globes to the beam and discreet powered cables connect the beam to the ceiling.

All RBW products are hand-assembled in the studio and with that as a production backbone, we thought to further explore artisan skills and craft in our 2013 collection. The Gala Chandelier’s most prominent design feature is undoubtedly its glass bulbs and for this, we sourced a local glass blower.

A technique developed in the middle of the last century BC, glassblowing requires a blow pipe and super lung strength. These tools allow molten glass to form into a bubble and from there it can be shaped however the blower sees fit.

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Rich Brilliant Willing appeared first on Dezeen.