Milan 2014: designer Alvaro Catalan de Ocon has created a range of wicker lamp shades woven with old plastic bottles by artisans in Chile for his PET Lamps project (+ slideshow).
Alvaro Catalan de Ocon and the PET Lamps team combined reused plastic bottles with traditional craft to create a second range of lighting called Chimbarongo, which hung from vines in the courtyard of Spazio Rossana Orlandi for Milan design week.
Named after the Chilean city close to Santiago in which the craftspeople who made them live and work, the lamps combine strips of recycled plastic bottles with local artisanal wicker weaving skills.
“The whole city is involved in working with wicker,” said Catalan de Ocon. “They normally do traditional and not very nice things but we went there and worked together for one month.”
Discarded plastic drinks bottles are adapted by chopping off the bottoms, then cutting the sides into thin strips up to the neck.
These strips are then woven with the wicker to form the lamp shades, mixing the coloured plastic with natural fibres to create patterns.
The idea was based on traditional Japanese stirrers made from bamboo in a similar way, said Catalan de Ocon.
“We got the inspiration from a Japanese bamboo piece from the tea ceremony,” he explained.
The old bottle necks provide structure and support for the lightweight material. A bulb is suspended below the neck and the electrical cord threads through the top.
The PET Lamp project originally began as a collaboration with weavers in Colombia, who created the first lamp collections that have simpler shapes but use more colours and patterns in the design of the shades.
“It’s the same concept but the result is quite different,” said Catalan de Ocon. “It is always dependent on the local craftsmanship.”
The Chimbarongo range has a loose weave and some feature two or three woven tiers, using the wicker in its natural hue.
“We decided to keep the original colour because they never tint it,” Catalan de Ocon explained.
The lights are available as sets, which can be strung up together from a single source, or as individual lamps.
Following the project’s debut at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in 2013, the new collection was on display in the gallerist’s courtyard for Milan design week earlier this month.
Milan 2014: Japanese architect Jo Nagasaka has created a collection of spongy seats by tying up blocks of foam and dipping them in rubber.
Nagasaka, who is principal of architecture studio Schemata Architects, based the Shibari series on the traditional Japanese art form of the same name, which means “to tie something with string”.
To create the pieces of furniture, foam sheets were folded and tied up into bulging forms with rope. They were then dipped in a rubber coating. Each piece is a different irregular shape and comes in black or white.
Different types of furniture – stools, sofas or tables – can be created by varying the way the foam is folded and tied. The lightweight items can then be carried around by using the knot as a handle. “We are envisioning furniture that generates different activities according to what we tie and how we tie,” said Nagasaka.
Shibari is reputed to have evolved from Hojo-jutsu, the martial art of restraining captives by tying them up with rope. Samurai warriors honoured high-status captives by binding them in elaborate and flattering ways.
This later evolved into Shibari, an erotic form of bondage that involves tying up the human body in such a way that the knots and ropes act upon pressure points to create an effect similar to shiatsu or acupuncture.
The Cheburashka table set for ceramics company Dymov was designed by Luca Nichetto and Lera Moiseeva to enhance and reinterpret the ritual sharing of food.
A large collective container has oversized handles and a lid that when placed upside-down becomes a flat surface for the serving spoon, which can also hang from either handle.
Two smaller bowls complete the set and can be stacked upside-down on top of the main container’s lid, creating a totem shape for storage.
Hand-engraved lines on the surface of the ceramics resemble a fishing net, appearing to wrap the containers.
“Cheburashka” is the ancient Russian word for the floats used by fishermen to support their nets and also the name of a popular big-eared Soviet children’s character, who bears a resemblance to the main container in the collection.
After being formed on the potter’s wheel and dried, the surface of the red clay pieces are polished using a hard smooth surface to close the pores and shine the material.
The pieces are fired at 950 degrees and then smoke-fired in an air-tight kiln filled with smoldering embers of wood chips and sawdust.
A chemical reaction allows the clay minerals to absorb the smoke and gives the products their dark appearance. Finally, the objects are polished using natural beeswax provided by local beekeepers.
Cheburashka was exhibited as part of the Walk the Line exhibition at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan last week.
“The idea is to show that the same kind of approach can create two objects that are completely different, one in porcelain and the other in ceramic, but with the same kind of energy and the idea of sharing with guests,” Nichetto told Dezeen at the exhibition.
Photography is by Lera Moiseeva and Luca Bragagnolo.
Milan 2014: products by French design brand Moustache will be exhibited as a “breathing” installation at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan to celebrate the brand’s fifth anniversary.
The Half Decade Beast installation of new and existing designs by Moustache, created by French designer Jean-Baptiste Fastrez, will pulsate and appear to breathe.
This image: Aurore lamp by Ferréol Babin. Main image: preview of Moustache’s products to be shown in Milan
“Alive and breathing, the Half decade Beast has 10 new projects to show, which open up and prospect new ways for publishing and production,” said a statement from the brand.
The installation will include a chair by Dutch duo Scholten & Baijings with textile ribbons woven around a lacquered metal frame to create the seat and back.
Scarabée vase by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez
Milan studio Formafantasma has used tanned salmon and perch skins leftover from the fishing industry to cover a stool and create a hot-water bottle, similar to items in their Crafica collection.
Curving overlapping forms created from injection-moulded recycled plastic by Constance Guisset form shades for table and pendant lamps.
Cape pendant by Constance Guisset
An iridescent vase designed to look like a scarab beetle shell and a mirror framed with welded PVC have both been designed by the installation’s creator, Fastrez.
The piece will be installed at Spazio Rossana Orlandi from 8 to 13 April during Milan’s design week. It will then move to the Bon Marché Rive Gauche department store in Paris for a further two months.
On the occasion of his 5th anniversary, Moustache presents Half decade Beast, a beast at the half-way point of his first decade.
Alive and breathing, the Half decade Beast, his slow and assured breathing, has 10 new projects to show which open up and prospect new ways for publishing and production.
A living incarnation of Moustache’s commitments in favour of projects which are not only dictated by market requirements but also by the cultural quality they convey, taking into account the recent history of manufactured articles, Half decade Beast presents together projects designed by Scholten & Baijings, Formafantasma, Bertjan Pot, Raw-Edges, Constance Guisset, ECAL/Dimitri Bähler Jean-Baptiste Fastrez. In their own way, they all question the way in which, today, we produce and consume the objects we surround ourselves with.
Fins, Perch and Salmon stools by Formafantasma
Rather than heading towards a certain technological escalation or trying to satisfy outmoded ideals and standards, these 10 new products shuffle the cards and, each in its own way, argues for a reasoned production consistent with our contemporary ideals.
Alive, Moustache’s Half decade Beast installation also shows a selection of articles that Inga Sempé, François Azambourg, Big-Game, Ionna Vautrin, Benjamin Graindorge, Sébastien Cordoléani and Dylan Martorell designed since 2009 which marked the story of Moustache and which played a part in building his identity.
The Half decade Beast will make his first stop at the Spazio Rossana Orlandi during the Salone del Mobile from 8 to 13 April 2014 before settling in at the Bon Marché Rive Gauche in Paris for two months, in May and June 2014.
For the Half decade Beast exhibition, Moustache asked Jean-Baptiste Fastrez to design the beast and the setting, the Graphiquants to design a breathing font and all the graphic elements for the exhibition. A series of 12 photos of Charles Negre goes with the exhibition.
Boat mirror by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez
Strap chairs by Scholten & Baijings
Lacquered metal structure and textile straps. Stackable, for indoor and outdoor use. Three colours available.
The Scholten & Baijings Strap chair is a reinterpretation of the tradition of cane or woven chair produced in Holland for the first time at the start of the 17th century and which have been in France since the 18th century.
As is their custom, Scholten & Baijings put colour at the heart of the project and give it an unusual material status. Going back to the project’s origins, it is the colour which determines the use of a particular know-how and not the contrary. No longer bound by the status of its customary finishing, colour is determining and it is in this inverse process that the innovative coloured harmonies of the Strap chair work.
The attention paid to the quality of the finishing and the manufacturing details are what make the Strap chair a perfect seat for both for outdoors and indoors. Stackable, at the same time it will be a worthy contemporary heir to the cane bistro chairs to be seen on the terraces of Paris cafés or as a very comfortable seating around a table in a domestic world.
Strap chair by Scholten & Baijings
Pad stool by ECAL/ Dimitri Bähler
Black or light grey 3D textile, expanded foam.
Pad is the result of a series of experiments with foam injected into a flexible envelope, without using any structure.
Pad is a stool which takes its inspiration from the triangulated construction of a large number of objects. Its ribs, at first sight, basic and rigid, contrast with the use of a flexible and random fabric.
These ribs are what structure the envelope and form the article’s “exoskeleton” while giving it a padded and comfortable appearance.
In an instant, when the foam is expanded, the ribs become taut, the envelopes swells up and Pad takes it final form, every time a different one.
Fins, Perch and Salmon stools by Formafantasma
Vegetal tanned salmon and perch skins, solid ash.
The Fins de Formafantasma collection puts to use fish skins rejected by the fishing industry and, in this way, examines the question of resources and materials in the furniture industry. These skins, in vegetal-type tanning, are most frequently obtained from commonplace fish such as salmon or cod and are used here to cover a stool or to shape the cover of a hot-water bottle.
Apart from the aesthetic appearance inherent in the use of tanned fish skins, this material commits its user to an unusually direct relation with the animal world.
Zoomorphe, the Formafantasma Fins collection for Moustache flirts with the world of taxidermy and the symbolism of the wild world.
Accolade trestle by Raw-Edges
Accolade trestles by Raw-Edges
Adjustable height. White or light grey laminated black mdf.
Similarly to the building sets of our childhood, the Raw-Edges Accolade trestles provide a set of elements for assembly by the user to build a pair of trestles however as he wishes and whose height he can vary. Once built, the trestles’ black band displays the familiar punctuation marks deriving from typographic typefaces.
Fins, Perch hot-water bottle by Formafantasma. Vegetal tanned perch skin and glass tube.
The Fins collection by Formafantasma puts to use fish skins rejected by the fishing industry and, in this way, examines the question of resources and materials in the furniture industry.
These skins, in vegetal-type tanning, are most frequently obtained from commonplace fish such as salmon or cod and are used here to cover a stool or to shape the cover of a hot-water bottle. Apart from the aesthetic appearance inherent in the use of tanned fish skins, this material commits its user to an unusually direct relation with the animal world.
Zoomorphe, the Formafantasma Fins collection for Moustache flirts with the world of taxidermy and the symbolism of the natural world.
Pad stool by ECAL/ Dimitri Bähler
Aurore lamp by Ferréol Babin
Black or light grey. Lacquered metal base, multi-coloured glass.
The Aurore lamp by Ferréol Babin is more for projecting than diffusing light. Turned towards the wall the lamp lights, this wall is transformed into a reflector. Thanks to a filtration system, the Aurore lamp produces coloured luminous effects which change depending on how far away from the wall it is. This mechanical light filtration system produces colour effects similar to those seen at dawn or during rainbow. When switched off, its disk becomes opaque and transforms its surface into a mirror creating reflections in changing colours.
Cape by Constance Guisset
Cape table lamp by Constance Guisset. Two models: small or large. Injected recycled polycarbonate. In seven colours.
Cape pendant by Constance Guisset
Injected recycled polycarbonate. In seven colours
Like a half animal, half plant silhouette, with its fluid curves between softness and tension, Cape reveals its pale and opalescent colours. Fragile on its metal base or pendant, soft and ethereal, it seems to incarnate a breath. Its two interlinked shapes gracefully reveal a mysterious presence.
Ooga Booga by Bertjan Pot
Scarabée vase by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez
Enamelled ceramic, pmma and rubber band. Two colours available.
Comprising two shells fitting into each other, held together by an elastic connection, the Scarabée vase takes inspiration, even imitates, the constructive and aesthetic principles of the insect which it is called after.
While evoking the scarab’s iridescent aspect, its front, which also borrows certain codes from the world of sport and the motorcycle, contract with each other and with the body of the vase, craft-produced in enamelled ceramic.
The Scarabée vase by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez also somewhat draws from certain contemporary or older fantastic mythologies.
Boat mirror by Jean-Baptiste Fastrez
Lined PVC coated fabric and mirror.
The frame of the Boat mirror is made of welded PVC fabric diverting the use of materials for manufacturing nautical equipment to a domestic purpose.
By its softness, the mirror’s oversized frame acts like a garment. Like a coat or a hat, by means of a strap, it can be held on in a large number of ways.
An open and polymorphous object, the Boat mirror may have both a character and new expressivity that can be freely determined by its use.
Design Miami 2013: this chair shaped like the fanned fail of a peacock by Toronto design studio UUfie was one of the most talked-about pieces at the Design Miami collectors’ fair last month.
The symmetrical shape of UUfie‘s Peacock chair is made from a latticed sheet of Corian, a solid surface material that’s often used for kitchen work surfaces and bathrooms, which curls round at the bottom and spreads out at the top to create the back of the chair.
The sheet was slit to create the lattice then stretched apart and folded round in a thermoforming process that uses heat to soften the material.
“Like children playing with paper by cutting, bending and folding it, we have created a single sheet of acrylic composite material into a peacock,” said the designers. “Resembling a peacock tail in courtship or a blossom opening, it makes a visual statement in any space, indoors or outdoors.”
Product news: cable clutter is hidden away under the lid of this extension lead from Swiss design brand Punkt.
The ES 01 socket hub by Colombian designer Georges Moanack conceals five plugs under its cylindrical cover.
A central button allows all five devices to be turned off at once.
“I wanted to make crawling under furniture to untangle cables a thing of the past, and the design challenge was to find an attractive and accessible solution to this problem,” says Moanack.
The power cord is three metres long and there are six different socket types available for different countries.
Like all Punkt. products, it comes in red, black and white.
Punkt. launches its third product: the ES 01. The ES 01 is an original extension socket that has been designed to tackle a ubiquitous lifestyle problem: cable clutter. The ES 01 plugs 5 sockets and is available in a range of versions to comply with the different power supply standards of a wide selection of countries.
Punkt. ES 01: finally a solution to the cable clutter that plagues modern lifestyles and makes a mess of interiors. All of your cables and plugs converge neatly in the ES 01 extension socket, tucked away under its sleek rounded lid. Convert cable chaos into a clean design feature for the home or office.
No hiding power stations under furniture, no crouching down to untangle dusty cables, and no power damage to your devices; just an attractive, sturdy design piece that blends in well with all interiors and simplifies cable management. Get organized and power your gadgets and devices with the ES 01!
The young Colombian designer Georges Moanack designed the ES 01 under the art direction of Jasper Morrison. The ES 01 combines Georges’ fresh outlook with Jasper’s talent and experience, resulting in an ingenious solution to a ubiquitous problem.
Tel Aviv designer Nir Meiri used seaweed to create the shades of these lamps.
Nir Meiri made the lamps by draping fresh seaweed over a structure of thin metal spokes attached to a metal base. The final shape of each lampshade is formed as the seaweed dries and shrinks, before being set with a preservative.
Through the unconventional use of seaweed as a main material for a domestic environment, the product plays on the tension between the artistic and the commercial.
Ancient cultures have appreciated and utilized seaweeds for different uses. Today, seaweeds are cultivated and harvested on a commercial scale, as a result of a growing interest driven by environmental concerns.
The Marine Light lamp combines a metal base and a structure of thin metal strings for the lamp-shade. The seaweeds are applied on the metal strings while still fresh. As they dry, they shrink and obtain the form of the lamp-shade. A mixture of preserving material is applied to preserve them.
The light reflected through the seaweeds and the morphology of the lamp induce underwater images Furthermore, the use of seaweeds, borrowed from other disciplines into the world of design, might inspire new thinking in the field.
Called Hyperion Spotlight, the piece is assembled from many components of CNC-cut oak. Joints allow it to be posed in various positions ranging from a low crouch to stretching up on tip-toes, as seen in the stop-motion animation by Niels Hoebers.
“Hyperion is finding a way of putting the world around us together in a unconventional but stimulating way,” says Paul Heijnen. “Instead of concealing and hiding a product’s constructional and mechanical functions, this three-legged spotlight celebrates them.”
The piece is the first in a series of installations at different scales and Heijnen hopes to create a six-metre-high one in steel to sit atop Piet Hein Eek‘s Eindhoven headquarters, in a former ceramic factory, for Dutch Design Week in October.
“This is merely in the planning stage but I would like to put a super-strong laser inside it that beams over the city,” says the designer. The project is named Hyperion after the Titan god of light, whose name means “watcher from above”.
Concept and set design by Paul Heijnen and Niels Hoebers Hyperion by Paul Heijnen Stop-motion animation by Niels Hoebers Music and sound design by Fab Martini
Milan 2013: Netherlands-based designer Tomáš Gabzdil Libertíny presented a solid marble chair at the Bagatti Valsecchi exhibition curated by Rossana Orlandi in Milan.
“After an exchange of ideas, the fluid robust form with cantilevered seat offered itself to a beautiful combination with marble. The chair is a sculptural study on comfort and ergonomics,” explains the designer.
The Bust chair exists in both an indoor and outdoor version, the latter of which is equipped with small holes for drainage.
Milan 2013: designer Dennis Parren has developed a light bulb that casts coloured shadows.
The CMYK bulb by Dennis Parren combines a white main light source with coloured LEDs in red, green and blue to cast shadows in cyan, magenta and yellow.
“It is easier to produce and you find yourself more in [the] mainstream of lighting,” says Parren of the new design. “That makes it many times more accessible.” He expects the bulb to be priced around €95 when it appears in shops.
CMYK bulb and Diamond shade
The prototype was showcased at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan this month, together with a shade Parren developed especially to complement the bulb.
The faceted Diamond shade is made of paper covered in tiny pin-pricks to scatter coloured dots of light onto surrounding surfaces.
CMYK bulb shown with Ikea Knappa shade
“The shade derived from a previous project, the RGB Galaxy,” he says. “I chose this shape because the light sparkles through the little holes like a real diamond.”
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