Hasta La Ideas

Herd your own laser-cut cardboard mechanical menagerie

Using the same tab-and-slot construction technique as classic balsa wood airplanes, Kinetic Creatures start as flat-packed, laser-cut cardboard and transform into the impressive mechanical Rory the Rhino, Geno the Giraffe or Elly the Elephant. The DIY animals were conceived by Portland, Oregon-based visual arts teacher Alyssa Hamel and industrial designer Lucas Ainsworth, who were interested in encouraging youth to “be builders, thinkers and inventors”. After four years of research and design, the duo are launching a Kickstarter campaign today with the goal of raising enough funds to make the project possible while keeping the production local and sustainable.

As a project with educational roots, Kinetic Creatures require hand assembly and move by either a hand-cranked wire handle or an optional electric gear kit. The intuitively-assembled kit consists of little more than laser-cut wooden gears and a battery-operated on/off switch that fits in the open back of each animal, showing off all the moving parts for a basic lesson in mechanics.

To learn more about the project or to support this clever blend of art and science head to the Kinetic Creatures’ Kickstarter. At this point donations are the only route to getting your own animal, so for $30 you can score your own Elly the Elephant or Rory the Rhino, while $40 buys Geno the Giraffe and $90 or more gets you all three critters for your own moving menagerie.

Slideshow: this wooden cabin in Iceland by Reykjavik studio Arkís is split into asymmetric apartments with roofs that slope in alternate directions.

Located across the bay from the town of Akureyri, the three apartments that comprise Villa Lola each have living rooms that face out across the water.

Both the walls and roof of the building are clad in larch that has been pre-weathered to give it a muted grey colour.

One concrete wall increases the stability of an otherwise wooden stud-framed structure, which is lined with plasterboard on the walls and either wood or concrete terrazzo on the floors.

All three apartments have a first-floor mezzanine.

Dezeen recently travelled to Iceland as part of DesignMarch in Reykjavik. See photographs from our architectural tour of the city, as well as our visits to designer’s studios.

Photography is by ?

The information below is from Arkís:

VillaLóla

The design of villa Lóla was an especially enjoyable dialogue process between client and architect.

Various ideas of materials, concepts and techniques where discussed in the process. Inspirations range from Swiss mountains cabins, a sea ranch in Sonoma County in California, and Japanese solutions in spatial efficiency. Furthermore, the framing of views was an important topic of discussion.

The natural surroundings of the site and the fjord of Eyjarfjördur were key factors to address.

Design

The client requested the possibility to divide the house into three spaces, or apartments that could be enlarged or reduced as needed.

Villa Lola is 128m² of gross floor area.

Another request from the client was to use low maintenance materials and to develop an inclusive approach with regards to the site and building.

Based on these requests the design process started.

Location

The experience of being on site played a major role in the design. The house faces Akureyri across Eyjarfjodur bay with unrestricted mountain views, to the north and south.

Villa Lola is strongly rooted in its surroundings, playing of the dignity of the landscape and the uniqueness of his appearance. The form of the building is composed of three peaks that point towards the sky, forming a valley between the roof slopes. The roof form is indicative of the landscape; mountains, valleys and a fjord surround VillaLola.

The approach to the house is from above, which gives the building unique unrestricted views of Akureyri, the largest town of northern Iceland.

Weight of Nature

It was decided to seize the natural gradations of the site where natural light and beautiful color combinations are formed at different times of the year, grass, straws, weeds and birch woods surround the house and elevate the exceptionally strong appearance of the larch surfaces. The natural landscape of the site was left undisturbed.

Materials

VillaLola is built with a frame of sustainable goal settings.

Villa Lola is clad on the exterior with Larch-wood. The larch is weathered to its nature gray-ish color, forming a natural weather protection. All loadbearing members are of wood except for one concrete wall, used for stabilizing the structure, and a concrete foundation.

Flooring is of robust wooden boards and concrete terrazzo. Inner walls are gypsum surfaced stud frame walls painted with environmentally friendly paint. All windows are of wood, clad with aluminum on the exterior.

During the construction process the plot was carefully protected and the working space around the building was minimized.

During construction, all waste was carefully sorted and appropriate materials sent to recycling.

The building is specially designed as a low maintenance structure.

Our interview with the honorary designer and co-curator of the NYC-based art and design showcase

by Matt Domino

BOFFO was founded in 2008 as a means of fostering artist collaboration and inspiration in the design world during a time of financial and, for many young architects and designers, spiritual crisis. Nearly four years later, Faris Al-Shathir and Gregory Sparks, BOFFO ‘s founders, asked designer Andrew YES to be the honorary designer and co-curator of the first BOFFO Show House, running from 15 May through 4 June at NYC’s Madison Jackson building.

To create custom designs specifically tailored for the space YES has been working closely with various designers and architects. The show itself will sprawl across four duplex condominium units with each separate unit expressing a theme—Work, Nature, Future, and Play. YES will also present some of his own designs and work at the BOFFO Show House. Some of which will include Persian Helmet Lights, which are draped with chain mail and would seem to fit at home in a medieval gathering hall; a Van Eyck Mirror that alludes to the legendary Arnolfini Portrait and is framed with recycled wood and hand-made Flemish suede; a 62″ Fossil Meeting Table inspired by the equality implied in King Arthur’s round table and made of grey marble with real mollusk fossils embedded in its matrix; and Surreal Pillow Balls, which are Andrew YES latest creation.

We recently talked with YES about the BOFFO Show House, his ongoing work with Mr. Al-Shathir and Mr. Sparks as well as his aspirations as a rising designer in New York.

What is your primary thought when designing an item? Functionality? Overall design?

I see functionality in every piece I create. Some things that we think are not functional actually have a deeper function in our psyche. Materials and art inspire me. I think about who will enjoy the design, and how it will improve the lives of people experiencing it.

What piece of yours that will appear in the show is your favorite?

I’d say my “Pillow Ball” collections, which are spherical, down-filled pillows made in sets of three. The set comes with pillows in diameters of 9″, 12″, 15″ and clients can personalize larger sizes if they want. Collection themes include: Batiks, Cosmic, Tapestry, and Surreal. I feel that each different theme has a color or texture that will find a match for each different person.

How do you decide on a color scheme when you design something?

Colors are determined by the pieces of art and design that I find in my clients spaces, as well as the energy of a space and the light. Yellow and happy colors have always been big colors for me.

How did you get involved with BOFFO?

My work caught the attention of Greg [Sparks] and Faris [Al-Shathir] during the 2009 BOFFO artists residency in an old Bible factory in Brooklyn Heights. This year they invited me to develop the first BOFFO Show House for which I am also curator.

How does your work fit into the BOFFO aesthetic and story?

BOFFO’s modern, multifaceted, and young spirit resonates with my work.

Can you describe what each different section of the show (Work, Nature, Future Play) means to you?

I thought that the common denominator for every New Yorker’s apartment was embodied in those four themes. “Work” is designed with creative and physical work in mind. “Nature” is meant to be psychedelic and vibrant and full of surprises. “Future” features sacred geometries and “alien” light. “Play” is designed as a super cool space that is still in progress and features a bedroom for someone with a sense of fun, of daring.

What result from the show would satisfy you?

Prove one more time that BOFFO is a germinator of great talent. I want to see everybody to succeed.

Wood, metal and formed concrete create some of the most creative designs around

by Graham Hiemstra and Evan Orensten

Milan Design Week is always full of surprises and this year’s fair was no exception. We found a strong presence of innovative furnishings mixing modern production techniques with the classic aesthetic of raw materials. From “melting” wood to laser cut marble and a table that can be formed in multiple shapes, here are five of our favorites.

One of the most intriguing pieces was Ferruccio Laviani’s design for Emmemobili. The massive wooden Twaya table is machine molded of countless layers of solid oak. Each corner of the expansive tabletop appears to melt, stretching the rough wood fibers into legs for a look unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Using over 400 wooden slats, the impressive Fan Table from Mauricio Affonso was a highlight of the Royal College of Art ‘s PARADISE show in the Ventura Lambrate neighborhood. Designed to “explore the role of tables as the infrastructure for social interaction,” the transformative design can be effortlessly expanded or contracted to meet the needs of its surroundings. As the rectangle legs are moved the shape changes along with the surface size. From circle to rectangle to square, the Fan Table is a work of pure inspiration and one of the most impressive designs we saw. Affonso, a Brazilian designer earning his Master’s at the school, is one to keep tabs on.

As part of the Vertigo exhibition, student designer Gaetano Gibilras instilled a sense of unknown with the VoroNOI table. Standing at 30cm high with a diameter twice the size, the stone and wood table was cut with innovative digital dissection techniques not generally seen in furniture production. Juxtaposing nicely against the milky stone top, each pinewood leg bares its own unique shape dictated by the unique VoroNOI diagram.

Also seen within the winding streets of Ventura Lambrate, Free Concrete was the product of Studio Itai Bar-On, part of the TLV Express collective. As the name implies, this sculptural piece is hand made with concrete, utilizing a customized bending process that allows the concrete to be rendered in lightweight, free form figures. The process allows for the choice of a smooth surface or a rougher, more natural texture, and this piece takes advantage of both with a smooth surface and a rough interior, to great effect.

Released just days before the fair, the TRI table is one of many inspiring pieces from the multidisciplinary design studio Thinkk. Created with the environment in mind, the table is made with powder coated aluminum and natural teak wood, and comes flat packed. We really appreciate the playful burst of color that extends through the tabletop, base and one of three legs.

Minimally designed seating finds strength in warped wood

While exploring Milan’s Lambrate neighborhood during last week’s Salone del Mobile, we found no shortage of inspiration outside the fair. Inside one of many abandoned warehouse-turned-exhibition spaces we came across a group of promising young designers from Tel Aviv. While each designer involved in the TLV Express collective did well to experiment with materials and technology, Michael Blumenfeld‘s TRIZIN Stools caught our attention with an elegant design aesthetic and original take on construction.

The series of TRIZIN stools—Triz meaning “wedge” in Hebrew—were designed to test the physical boundaries of raw wood while combining traditional woodworking techniques. Each piece is minimally constructed from little more than a few pieces of plywood, a centralized bolt and a great deal of tensioned pressure. Using minimal hardware and no glue or adhesives of any kind, Blumenfeld gives the stools their shape by forcing a wedge attached to the top of the legs between two flat pieces of wood. As the legs go in, the wood flexes to ultimately form a comfortably warped seat with increased rigidity and strength.

The light wood, flexed seat and exposed artisanal construction combine nicely for a clean modern aesthetic that to Blumenfeld “captures the moment of transformation, and the energy put into them by the manufacturer at the time of assembly.” To learn more about Blumenfeld and his TRIZIN see the gallery below.