Milan 2014: dripping water from ice-encased tropical plants and quietly rotating feather-patterned fans featured in this climate-themed exhibition by Italian research centre Fabrica (+ slideshow).
Industrial, graphic and interactive designers at Fabrica created a series of sensory installations that aimed “to give a visual and experiential form to temperature” for air conditioning brand Daikin, in Milan last week.
Thirty-six exhibits were installed within a laboratory-like setting entitled Hot & Cold.
Following research into the effects of temperature, the designers curated a series of kinetic, material and sound-based works led by the project’s creative director Sam Baron.
“In this project we conceived design as a practice that must communicate through form and function, a design that sets out from an object, and reaches towards sound, graphics and interactivity,” said Baron.
Works on display included Migration, which comprised five motorised exhibits with hand-illustrated feathers. These represented the migration patterns of birds, characterised by height, distance and flock sizes during flight, said the project team.
“We loved the idea of birds migrating from one climate to another, as an expression of cold to hot and vice versa,” design team member Dean Brown told Dezeen.
The Solar exhibit used NASA’s interpretations of what planets sound like. In the centre of the exhibition, the team hung a mechanical model of Venus and Neptune, the hottest and coldest planets, orbiting the sun.
A sculpture called Air was made from suspended borosilicate glass letters, a material which is typically used in laboratories and resists extremely high temperatures.
“We discovered that you can burn the glass on the inside,” said Brown. “These oil lanterns are slowing charring the inside of the glass and by the end of the exhibition, the letters will become totally black.”
A series of tropical plants entitled Flora were encased in ice, which gradually melted away and collected in a glass vessel to reveal the plant.
Smaller objects were displayed on white metal stands with perforated tops, while larger exhibits were protected by low metal barriers designed to evoke a museum environment. “We took these references like these fences and plinths and framing objects the way you might do in a natural history museum,” said Brown.
The exhibition took place at the Garage Milano show during the city’s design week, which concluded on Sunday.
On 8 November 2013 Typhoon Haiyan devastated much of the Philippines and Southeast Asia. It was the deadliest typhoon on record in the Philippines and there is still much work to be done in the island…
London Design Festival 2013: Lebanese designer Najla El Zein has sent us this movie showing her 5000 spinning paper windmills being installed in a doorway at the V&A museum in London (+ movie).
In the movie, Zein says that the installation aims to make visitors feel and hear that they are transitioning between two spaces. “It defines an exaggeration of a specific sensorial moment that each one of us experiences throughout our daily lives,” she says.
“The wind portal tries to grasp and emphasise common emotions and senses that are often forgotten,” she adds.
The film also shows the designer creating each of the windmills by hand-folding paper and fixing them in place with hand-sculpted wooden joints. Each windmill is then attached to the vertical poles with 3D-printed clips.
A computerised wind system controls which windmills spin at any time by letting air escape through tiny holes in the uprights. “Different speeds of wind were programmed, resulting in different speeds, sounds and feelings,” explains the designer.
Later in the film, visitors can be seen walking through the two parted gates, which although static, appear to be shut when viewed from certain angles. “According to the angle you are positioned, one would perceive the gate as being closed. As soon as you approach it the gate seems to open up,” Zein says.
Photography and films are courtesy of Najla El Zein Studio.
Here’s a full project description from the designer:
The Wind Portal
The Wind Portal is a walk-through installation that represents a transition space from an inside to an outside area. It defines an exaggeration of a specific sensorial moment that each one of us experiences throughout our daily lives.
Wind and sound are the elements that makes us understand our environmental context.
The Wind Portal installation is shaped as a monumental gate of eight metre-high and composed of thousands of paper windmills that spin, thanks to an integrated wind system.
The aim was to make visitors feel, hear and become aware of transitioning through two spaces.
The wind portal tries to grasp and emphasise on common emotions and senses that are often forgotten.
Its architectural shape works as an illusion effect where, according to the angle you are positioned from, one would perceive the gate as being closed. As soon as you approach it the gate seems to open up.
The installation blends in different technologies and materials such as hand-folded paper windmills, hand-sculpted wooden joints, 3D printed clips, and a complex wind and light computerised system.
Different flows of wind are programmed resulting into different speeds, sounds and feelings. The light, which seems to play with the wind flow, gives us an impression of a breathing piece. Indeed, the gate breathes in and out, where wind is its main source of life.
Studio team: Najla El Zein, Dina Mahmoud, Sara Moundalek, Sarah Naim Lighting designer and automation: Maurice Asso and Hilights
London studio rAndom International has created a 20-metre tower of falling water at a former coal mine in Germany (+ slideshow).
The Tower: Instant Structure for Schacht XII by interactive design studio rAndom International features a rectangular frame from which four huge curtains of water fall to the ground and cycles up to 30,000 litres of water each minute. Visitors can view the rain storm from afar or step inside – if they don’t mind getting wet.
“It is a sensuous adventure: the sound of falling water, the humidity, the glimmering water walls in the sunlight,” said the curators. “The sound of the resulting rain storm is intensely loud and a sensation of moisture lingers in the air.”
“By bringing such large quantities of water into the controlled form of a building, rAndom International investigate if a structural purpose can wrought upon this otherwise chaotic element,” they add.
The monumental Tower structure has been installed at the Zollverein industrial complex in Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, a World Heritage site that consists of a historical coal mine and a range of early twentieth century buildings.
The giant shower forms part of the music and arts festival Ruhr Triennale 2013 and intends to sit in contrast to the “solid and static architecture” of the former coal mine, the curators explain. Each year the international festival transforms industrial venues in the region into locations for music, art and performance events.
Here’s a video featuring the Tower:
The installation was commissioned by arts organisation Urbane Künste Ruhr. It is the first outdoor project by rAndom International and opened in Essen on 23 August. Tower will be open from 10am-1am every day through to 6 October 2013.
Formed in 2005 by former Royal College of Art students Hannes Koch, Florian Ortkrass and Stuart Wood, rAndom International has created a number of installations involving audience participation.
Here’s more information from rAndom International:
Tower: Instant Structure for Schacht XII
Commissioned by Urbane Künste Ruhr for Ruhrtriennale 2013, ‘Tower’ will be on view daily from 10am-1am at night, until 6 October 2013.
Known for their experimental installations that explore natural phenomena, London based studio Random International have created a monumental, performative structure at World Heritage Zollverein using its plentiful, native material: water (6 million cubic metres of which have to be pumped out of the former mines every year to warrant the structural integrity of the entire region).
Random are cycling almost 30,000 litres of water per minute to create a monolithic form, an ephemeral tower that appears and disappears instantaneously. The sound of the resulting rain storm is intensely loud and a sensation of moisture lingers in the air.
Through the senses, ‘Tower’ explores possibilities for engagement wit, and access to, an historic, industrial space at a scale that had not originally been intended for human and social use. In sharp contrast to the solid and static architecture of Zeche Zollverein, the ‘simulated structure’ of the Tower is transient, its watery presence a temporary spectre.
By bringing such large quantities of water into the controlled form of a building, Random International investigate if a structural purpose can wrought upon this otherwise chaotic element. The architecture of the space becomes performative, inviting those within it to experience the water of Zeche Zollverein in a uniquely physical and intimate way. And get absolutely soaked in the process.
About Ruhrtriennale
The Ruhrtriennale is the international arts festival hosted by the Ruhr metropolitan area. The venues of the Ruhrtriennale are the region’s outstanding industrial monuments, transformed each year into spectacular sites for music, fine art, theatre, dance, and performance. At the centre of all this are contemporary artists seeking a dialog with industrial spaces and between the disciplines.
A new artistic director every three years provides the festival with ever-new impulses. Under the artistic directorship of Heiner Goebbels, the Ruhrtriennale will become a laboratory and an open platform for current developments of the international world of the arts.
Japanese studio Tetsuo Kondo Architects teamed up with environmental engineering firm Transsolar to encase a cloud inside this transparent two-storey cube (+ slideshow).
The cloud effect was formed by pumping three layers of air into the space. Cold dry air went in at the bottom, while hot humid air was fed into the middle and hot dry air was pumped in at the top.
Photograph by Ken’ichi Suzuki
This produced a canopy of clouds at the centre of the cube, which visitors could climb through using a central staircase.
“The temperature and humidity inside the container are controlled to keep the clouds at their designed height,” explained Tetsuo Kondo.
The transparent cube surrounding the cloud was built from a framework of metal tubes, with cross bracing that allowed the structure to respond to outside wind pressure.
“The edges of the clouds are sharp yet soft, and always in motion,” added the architect. “Their colour, density and brightness are constantly changing in tune with the weather and time of day.”
We created a small bank of clouds in the Sunken Garden of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. The clouds billow softly in a compact, transparent container and can be seen from the entrance hall, exhibition galleries, outdoor plaza, and other parts of the museum.
Climb the stairs inside the clouds’ container. When you climb beyond the clouds to reach the top, the museum, the surrounding buildings, and the sky stretch out above the clouds. The edges of the clouds are sharp yet soft, and always in motion. Their colour, density and brightness are constantly changing in tune with the weather and time of day. The temperature and humidity inside the container are controlled to keep the clouds at their designed height. The air inside the container forms three distinct strata, one cool and dry, at the bottom, a warm and humid middle stratum, and a hot and dry stratum at the top. The warm, humid layer is where the clouds form.
The transparent container is constructed of 48.6 millimetre diameter pipe. The elastic material added to the mid region, at a 6 metre ceiling height, makes the structure as a whole responsive to wind pressure. That elastic material also makes it possible to build the transparent container of nothing but thin pipes. The double layers of vinyl sheets dividing the strata ensure stability of temperature and humidity inside the structure.
The constantly changing clouds are both soft structures and part of the natural environment that surrounds us. It is not the structure alone but the invisible differences in humidity and temperature and the weather, the time of day, and other aspects of the surrounding environment, all influencing each other, little by little, that make this work an artistic whole.
Cloudscapes is, in effect, an experiment in creating a new type of architectural space, one that achieves integration in engagement with its environment.
Collaboration with Transsolar/Matthias Schuler Location: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Program: installation Completion period: December 2012 Architect: Tetsuo Kondo Architects Structural Engineer: Konishi Structural Engineers
A Dutch artist has captured a fluffy white cloud in a beaux-arts style room in San Francisco for the latest in his series of photographs of indoor clouds (+ slideshow + interview).
Berndnaut Smilde creates his indoor clouds using a smoke machine. He adjusts the humidity of the room by spraying water, and reduces the temperature – this allows the smoke to take a cloud-like shape for just long enough to be photographed before it dissipates.
“It has to be cold, damp and really wet, so I’m moisturising the air as much as possible,” Smilde said in an interview with the BBC. “The moisture will stick to the smoke, making it heavier.”
Nimbus Cukurcuma Hamam II (2012) by Berndnaut Smilde. Photo: Onur Dag
“I cannot really control the cloud – it’s different every time. So, I create hundreds and hundreds [of images] and select just one to be the [final] work,” Smilde said.
Nimbus Green Room by Berndnaut Smilde. Photograph by RJ Muna.
Smilde spoke to Dezeen about his latest installation, Nimbus Green Room, which he created at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, “The space is kitsch, but it has great architectural ornaments,” Smilde said.
“As you probably know the Green Room is an American interpretation of the mirror room [Hall of Mirrors] in the Palace of Versailles, France. Its interior is classic and symmetrical, and represents perfection,” he added. “The green walls and features such as the chandeliers almost look like they’ve turned into plastic because of the extreme sharpness of the photographs.”
Nimbus Munnekeholm (2012) by Berndnaut Smilde. Photo: Onur Dag
For his Nimbus photography series, Smilde has created indoor clouds within buildings including the Hotel MariaKapel in the Netherlands and Aspremont-Lynden Castle in Belgium.
Smilde’s clouds were listed by TIME Magazine as one of the top 10 inventions of 2012.
Here’s a BBC interview, where Smilde discusses how he makes the clouds:
Nimbus Minerva (2012) by Berndnaut Smilde. Photo: Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk
Here’s the full interview with Smilde:
Kate Andrews: Can you tell us about the motivations behind your cloud installations? How did this start?
Berndnaut Smilde: The idea started when I was working in a small scale space for art projects. Model spaces are a recurring subject in my work. Because you have total control over these spaces it enables you to create an ideal situation. This is one of the reasons I think a model can stand for an idea. I wanted to see if it would be possible to exhibit a raincloud. I’ve modelled the exhibition space after my ideal perception of a museum space and wanted to create an ominous situation.
Nimbus Cukurcuma Hamam I (2012) by Berndnaut Smilde. Photo: Onur Dag
Kate Andrews: What’s unique about the Nimbus Green Room from your other installations? Can you tell us a little about the building and the interior space?
Berndnaut Smilde: The Green Room is a great example of a representation of an ideal space. As you probably know the Green Room is an (American) interpretation of the mirror room in the castle of Versailles. Its interior is classic and symmetrical and represents perfection.
The space is kitsch but it has great architectural ornaments. The materiality of the room really stands out and in the photographs. The green walls and features such as the chandeliers almost look like they’ve turned into plastic because of the extreme sharpness of the photographs.
I also like the reflection in the mirror. The room continues and you can see the backside of the cloud reflecting in it providing the work with an extra dimension.
Nimbus NP3 (2012) by Berndnaut Smilde
Kate Andrews: Do you take your own photography?
Berndnaut Smilde: I am not a photographer and always work with local professionals. In San Francisco I worked with RJ Muna. He was great to work with and had fantastic equipment.
Nimbus LOT (2013) by Berndnaut Smilde
Kate Andrews: How does architecture and interior space affect your work?
Berndnaut Smilde: My work is often about situations that deal with duality. They question: inside and outside, size, the function of materials and architectural elements. Lots of time I work in a site-specific way reacting to the architecture or history of a location.
I am interested in in-between situations and situations that don’t really have a function yet and are to me therefore open for interpretation. Sometimes I create these situations, like I did with the clouds.
I also like to collect these moments when I see one. For instance the work Bored Art (2008) represents a ‘found situation’ were a painting is resting against the wall for a brief abandoned moment. Here it is the context of its surrounding (the museum) that changes the interpretation of this painting and situation.
Nimbus Platform57 (2012) by Berndnaut Smilde
Kate Andrews: What will you be working on next?
Berndnaut Smilde: I am preparing for a project at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, where I will be creating an exhibition with their collection and my work.
British studio United Visual Artists created an “electrical storm” inside Sou Fujimoto’s cloud-like Serpentine Gallery Pavilion using LED lights during a performance at the temporary structure last month (+ movie).
United Visual Artists (UVA) inverted the pavilion’s similarity to a white fluffy cloud by using flashing lights to imitate lightning, making it look like a thunderstorm was taking place inside it.
“This piece specifically aimed to energise Sou Fujimoto’s architecture, which is representative of a somewhat serene cumulus cloud,” said the studio during a question and answer session last week. “Our intervention aimed to evoke a terrific and comparatively overwhelming electric storm in the architecture, kind of simply aiming to bring it to life.”
To create the effect, LED strips encased in clear plastic tubes were attached to the temporary pavilion’s steel grid with magnets. Lighting effects were accompanied with thunderous noises, created by a combination of audio samples of the hums and buzzes from electric power stations and synthesised sounds.
The performance took place on the evening of 26 June in collaboration with creative agency My Beautiful City.
United Visual Artists Serpentine Pavilion Intervention
On the evening of 26th June, UVA, in collaboration with My Beautiful City, transformed Sou Fujimoto’s Pavilion, bringing the cloud-like structure to life with an electrical storm.
UVA take inspiration from the transparent, undefined attributes of the pavilion, which changes form depending on perspective, shifting as your eyes travel across it.
Their performative installation aims to make the architecture “breathe”, awakening a character and energy, seemingly from within. For this piece UVA reference their past works which, similar to Fujimoto’s, rely on geometric foundations and interests.
One reference could be J.M.W. Turner’s paintings, which rather than being representative evoke the sensation of an overwhelming natural phenomenon. UVA’s transformation aims to capture the essence of being inside an electrical storm, exploring the similarities between what is digital: electronic and the awe-inspiring natural world.
French designers Zébra3/Buy-Sellf have designed a prefabricated holiday home in the shape of a cloud that sits next to a lake in south-west France (+ slideshow).
Le Nuage (The Cloud) cabin by Zébra3/Buy-Sellf was designed for the Urban Community of Bordeaux (CUB) and is located in the Lormont commune just outside the French city of Bordeaux in south-western France.
It was originally designed as an art installation and is now used as a rural shelter for holidaymakers. “Sleeping in a comic-style hut […] is a unique urban experience,” said Zebra3.
The cabin is made from softwood, plywood, plexiglas and glass‐fibre reinforced plastic. It is painted white to look like a fluffy cloud and has thin slanted windows that offer views across the countryside.
Sitting on the side of the French lake and surrounded by leafy hills, the playful cabin shelters up to seven people.
It provides only bare essentials such as bedding. The cabin does not provide any electricity or water.
Canadian interior designers Mason Studio filled a warehouse with luminous clouds as a calming space amid the hustle and bustle of the Toronto Design Offsite Festival last month (+ slideshow).
Behind layers of scrunched-up tissue paper, the installation was filled with motion-sensitive devices that triggered a system of concealed lighting.
As visitors approached, each cloud would start to glow, but when that person walked away the lights would slowly die down.
“The installation was an attempt to pull festival goers out of the commotion and noise that inevitably surround design festivals, to provide a space of tranquil and rest, if even for a fleeting moment,” explains Mason Studio.
Gentle music accompanied the installation, helping to block out the noise from outside.
Mason Studio, the Toronto-based interior design firm, created a large series of gentle, cloud-like objects to form a site-specific installation nestled in a side-street warehouse. In part of Toronto Design Offsite Festival ’13, the installation was an attempt to pull festival goers out of the commotion and noise that inevitably surround design festivals, to provide a space of tranquil and rest, if even for a fleeting moment.
Fabricated from large sheets of semi-transparent tissue paper, the warehouse was engulfed with the billowing forms to submerge the visitors in a glow emulating the soft filtration of light by clouds at dusk. The ethereal installation was accompanied by a resonating soundscape, producing a numbing white noise to block any extraneous noises.
The motion-sensitive objects were reactive to the surrounding users and environment. Upon inspection, the forms gently intensified with light; walking away, they reverted back to neutral, leaving a trail of dark.
Dutch designer Wouter Biegelaar used blocks of ice to sculpt a single piece of furniture for lounging, sleeping and dining inside a suite at the Icehotel in Lapland (+ slideshow).
The Icehotel is constructed afresh every year in the small village of Jukkasjärvi and is only open to guests for a few months before the walls of ice and snow begin to melt.
Each year a number of artists are invited to design and build a suite during November and December. This year, Wouter Biegelaar was invited for the first time.
He wanted to create “an iceberg in a soft environment”, which prompted him to design a single icy object lit from within, incorporating a bed, a sofa and a dining table with two seats.
The arched walls and ceiling of the suite are covered with snow, sculpted to resembled the soft padded upholstery of a Chesterfield sofa.
“It was my first time working with ice and snow,” the designer told Dezeen. “It was a really nice experience. You can work really fast with them. The best feature was that the materials have no grain or direction. Where a chisel would follow the grain in wood, in ice it’s a direct result of how much pressure you apply, so it does exactly what you want.”
Suites at the Icehotel can be rented privately for overnight guests but during the day each one also becomes a gallery that is open to visitors.
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