Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
OBSERVED
NO.1
MEDIATED
The computer screen and lenses distort, filter and refract our view of nature in this technology-focused era.
STORIES
NO.2
HARNESSED
Tools enhance our experience of nature as we strive to rekindle our relationship and understanding of the natural environment.
NO.3
CAPTURED
Plant life is captured in artworks or allowed to envelope architectural projects in a bid to question mans relationship with the natural environment.
OBSERVED NO.1
MEDIATED
BACKGROUND Senses are challenged as natural textures, colours and scents are encapsulated in glass, distorted by lenticular frames or translated into colourless 3D prints, paralleling our increasing desire to view everything through a digital screen.
OBSERVED NO.2
HARNESSED
BACKGROUND Our relationship with nature is restored as we synthesise forests to combat CO2 emissions, plant fields of grass-like carbon rods to harness wind energy and construct trumpet-like structures to encourage us to stop and listen to the sounds of our natural environment.
OBSERVED NO.3
CAPTURED
BACKGROUND Nature is observed and studied as architectural projects are slowly and deliberately engulfed in vine-like structure. Household plants are trapped in layers of coloured wax and local landscapes are framed in abstracted, billowing curtains.
OBSERVED
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Natural materials are distorted by screens and lenses
OBSERVED
3D PRINTED PHOTOGRAPHS
The birth of new machines is changing future design processes, leading us into a crafted industrial age. Right now, manufacture is in a state of flux, oscillating between the digital and analogue eras. This trend looks at this moment of transition. The birth of new machines is changing future design processes, leading us into a crafted industrial age. www.instructables.com
THE WINDSTALK
A new concept in natural energy by Atelier DNA envisages giant carbon-fibre rods replacing traditional wind farms. Current-generating shock absorbers at the base of the structures activate as the grass-like stalks sway in the wind, forming a balanced relationship with the surrounding flora and fauna. atelierdna.com
GREEN BOX
A framework of lightweight galvanised rods by Act Romegialli engulfs a disused alpine garage in vegetation. The plants have been carefully selected to ensure light but continuous flowering throughout the year. rebeccajreeve.viewbook.com
MARJORYS WORLD
Highlighting our own mortality, Rebecca Reeve scavenges old curtains to frame landscapes of the countryside in Florida, reminding us of the delicate balance between ourselves and nature. The project highlights the vulnerability of our surrounding natural resources. www.actromegialli.it
SPRING/SUMMER 2015
VITAL
INTRO A fresh approach to design combines lightheartedness with thoughtful sensitivity. Natural materials are rendered luminous through high-energy vitamin colour, while contrasting elements such as marble, resin, plastic, foam and metal are harmoniously balanced and creatively combined. Health and wellbeing give us a renewed perspective of design, products and environments.
VITAL
NO.1
TACTILE RENDERINGS
Digital textures are applied to physical environments and surfaces for colourful computer-like effects.
STORIES
NO.2
REVEALED GRAIN
Natural patterns emerge through opaque colourful layers for new synthetic grains.
NO.3
COLLAGED MATERIALS
Material, form, texture and colour are harmoniously balanced for a fresh and inspiring design approach.
VITAL NO.1
TACTILE RENDERINGS
BACKGROUND Real, tangible objects take on the appearance of digital renderings. Trompe loeil illustrations show optical passageways and rooms, while artwork blurs the boundaries between the tactile and the digital with textures that appear to be manipulated in Photoshop.
VITAL NO.2
REVEALED GRAIN
BACKGROUND Ancient Japanese carpentry techniques are key. The soft wood is carefully removed from prepared Cypress wood, leaving a pronounced grain. Textures are traced, tracked and exaggerated through sanded but vibrant layers of paint or ghost-like pastel rubbings.
VITAL NO.3
COLLAGED MATERIALS
BACKGROUND Traditional architectural interiors and material compositions are re-evaluated, renewed and re-balanced, carefully combining multiple textures, materials and shapes in a bid to bring lightness, health and wellbeing into our day-to-day lives.
VITAL
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Marble, resin, plastic, foam and metal have equal value
VITAL
FIBRE-WOVEN WALLS
An installation of woven and printed panels by Wies Preijde shows images of corridors, windows, walls and rooms. Unexpected gaps in the translucent walls lead you through a maze of optical illusions and imaginary spaces. www.wiespreijde.com
COLORING FURNITURE
Prepared using the udukuri technique of removing soft grain, the ColoRing furniture series by Jo Nagasaka with Schemata Architects further exaggerates the natural texture of wood by painting with multiple layers of paint. This is then sanded back to reveal a vibrant, multicoloured wood grain. schemata.jp
SKYHOUSE
The gutted interior of a 19th century New York penthouse is radically redesigned by David Hotson & Ghislaine Vias. A tubular steel slide winds through the four stories while interconnected rooms and levels balance light, space, materials and geometries for a fluid living space that promotes health and wellbeing. hotson.net
ALLEY-OOP
The collaboration between artist/furniture designer Eric Trine and record-sleeve designer/illustrator Will Bryant results in a lively and fun collection of powder-coated steel furniture and mixed media objects that are stacked, layered and balanced into totem-like structures designed to brighten up our day-today lives. www.willbryant.com
SPRING/SUMMER 2015
DOCUMENTED
INTRO As we examine the real possibility of bringing extinct creatures back to life, an understanding of the past enables future design solutions. Mysterious prehistoric materials such as fossilised matter and bone take on a contemporary relevance. Modern applications, technologies and finishes are beautifully crafted from historical fragments into macabre and surreal designs.
DOCUMENTED
NO.1
DE-EXTINCTION
Designers and scientists collaborate using the latest insight and technology to reconstruct extinct animals.
STORIES
NO.2
OSSIFIED
Strong, yet lightweight bone is transformed with modern coatings and materials for new products.
NO.3
ARTICULATED
Crafted robotics, skeletal frameworks and surreal animal-like forms provide a new direction for domestic products.
DOCUMENTED NO.1
DEEXTINCTION
BACKGROUND Artists and designers collaborate with zoologists and paleontologists to reconstruct extinct animals with greater accuracy than before. Fossilised remains can be scanned and studied in minute detail, with the breakthroughs in technology revealing the previously unknown sounds, colours and textures of long-forgotten creatures.
DOCUMENTED NO.2
OSSIFIED
BACKGROUND Animal bones are salvaged to create sculptural artworks and useful products. The macabre association with bone diminishes as the benefits of its lightweight, yet strong structure and wide availability as an industrial by-product is recognised.
DOCUMENTED NO.3
ARTICULATED
BACKGROUND Lighting and furniture take on a Surrealist form with long sinuous carved legs and skeletal articulated joints. Mechanical puppets from wood and paper are powered with robotics that mimic the movements and characteristics of their real counterparts. They serve as a crafted antidote to mass-produced machines.
DOCUMENTED
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Bone structure is imitated for lightweight, yet strong materials
Ancient materials are combined with pearlised lacquer or industrial gloss Paper and plastic film is warped, manipulated and layered
DOCUMENTED
MICRORAPTOR RE-LIVED
Through the study of micro-structures in fossils that are particularly well-preserved, scientists Jakob Vinther and Jason Brougham can determine the colour of feathers from extinct animals. Until recently the long plumes of the Microraptor were thought to have evolved to help it fly, however, it is now believed that they were iridescent to attract a mate. www.jakobvinther.com
ENVI
The Dali-esque furniture by Italian craftsman and designer Umberto Dattola is made from old beds, desks and drawers that he has transformed into sculptural pieces with long, sinuous legs. The furniture looks as though it has come alive, giving a dreamlike, surrealist character to these compelling pieces. www.clab4design.com
A POSSIBLE LANDSCAPE
Two elephants, a tortoise, a gazelle and an exotic bird are the latest creations of Amit Drori. The movements and characteristics of the animals are incredibly realistic, yet the robotic workings are left exposed beneath the crafted wooden chassis. thecreatorsproject.vice.com
SPRING/SUMMER 2015
IMAGINED
INTRO A powerful connection between traditional craft and radical futurism manifests in products that express change in cultural identities. Old materials combine with industrial processes to shape rough-hewn objects into modern artifacts. A contemporary overlay of oxidised iridescence and dichroic patinas infuse materials with mysticism.
IMAGINED
NO.1
REIMAGINED CULTURES
The origins of traditional materials are re-contexturalised, lending a mystical, otherworldly feel to products and environments.
STORIES
NO.2
SENSE OF PLACE
Found materials are worked by hand into objects and talismans with personal significance and meaning.
NO.3
EARTHY IRIDESCENCE
Ancient materials with raw surfaces have contrasting industrial coatings or highly polished facets.
IMAGINED NO.1
REIMAGINED CULTURES
BACKGROUND Forgotten stories are told and cultural identities are preserved through the patching of traditional and futuristic materials. A floating school improvises with plastic barrels to buoy the building, future-proofing it against the increasing risk of severe floods.
IMAGINED NO.2
SENSE OF PLACE
BACKGROUND Materials that have personal importance to an individual are made into spiritual products that comfort or act as memory triggers. The smell and texture of materials such as unrefined clay, rosin, horsehair and shiny metallic twist ties hold a sense-of-place; they remind us of a specific location.
IMAGINED NO.3
EARTHY IRIDESCENCE
BACKGROUND Elemental and earthy materials are coated or finished using techniques from the industrial age; polished copper has an oxidised iridescence and raw granite is coated with tar and enamel. These unusual combinations invoke mysticism and a new preciousness in the objects surrounding us.
IMAGINED
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The smell, texture and physicality of materials evoke a new nostalgia
IMAGINED
AFRONAUTS
Photographer Christina de Middels Afronauts series tells the story of the failed Zambian Space Programme in 1964 that aimed to put the first African on the moon. The combination of traditional African wax-cloth textiles with foggy orbs set in sparse environments preserves the culture. www.lademiddel.com
MEMORY CARRIERS
Brnea Costa draws on the powerful feeling of nostalgia and comfort that the scent of materials can invoke. Her jewellery is made from sandalwood, rosin, horsehair and old books, personal materials from her past; when rubbed and scratched they help her to recall memories. brineacosta.wix.com
THE SOUZOU
A collection of ceramics, textiles, drawings and sculpture by 45 artists who attend social welfare organisations in Japan is on show at Londons Wellcome Trust. Found materials, off-cuts and scraps are thoughtfully and imaginatively crafted into sculptural objects that have individuality and character. www.wellcomecollection.org
IRIDESCENT COPPER
Germany-based Studio Besau-Marguerre adapts the ancient technique of mirror-making by using highly reflective polished copper which is then combined with an iridescent heat-derived patina. www.besau-marguerre.de
NON-SMOKERS
Berlin-based Argentinian artist Santiago Taccetti coats natural lumps of rough granite with tar and enamel. The artist uses the combination of a simple geological form layered with refracted colour to represent our relationship with the natural world. www.taccetti.com
SPRING/SUMMER 2015
GROWN
INTRO Natures complex structures and organic growth systems inspire networks and patterns. Micro-crystals, minute nano-forms and bacterial traces provide a myriad of intricate and mutating structure, pattern and surface possibilities.
GROWN
NO.1
GROWTH SYSTEMS
Natures intricate growth patterns are manipulated by science or imitated with technology to create intelligent physical and virtual networks.
STORIES
NO.2
BACTERIA BUILDING
Microbial bacteria and slime growth formations inspire decorative surfaces with health benefits.
NO.3
BIO MIMICRY
New innovative architectural and automotive projects are engineered using the principles of the scientist Fibonaccis patterns and biomimicry.
GROWN NO.1
GROWTH SYSTEMS
BACKGROUND Organic networks are manipulated with new technologies to create intricate, man-made systems. 3D printing and molecular modelling software create nano-scale art, while micro-crystals are manipulated to resemble botanics.
GROWN NO.2
BACTERIAL PATTERNS
BACKGROUND Bacteria is used to create portraits, artworks and even bespoke footwear. Bacteria is cultivated on petri dishes tracking growth patterns and bacterial social systems, while a students footwear projects aims to fill the spaces between toes to minimise the spreading of microbes.
GROWN NO.3
BIOMIMICRY
BACKGROUND Natural systems inspire new breeds of architecture and automobiles as designers use bio-mimicry to build stronger and more efficient structures. Concept cars are inspired by the Fibonacci patterns while engineers emulate construction methods from silkworms building their cocoons.
GROWN
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Natural growth systems advance the field of bio-mimicry
Crystal forms are curved rather than angular following new scientific research Bacteria formations inspire surface, pattern and form
SPRING/SUMMER 2015
MADE
INTRO Materials are forced, extruded, pushed and pulled using gravity and restriction. Both lo-fi craft techniques and technological processes yield highly tactile surfaces and imprecise forms, exploring oozing expanding foam, drippy ceramic glaze and gestural, air-set 3D printing technology.
MADE
NO.1
ENERGY ANXIETY
Synthetic non-biodegradable waste is reconsidered as a valuable resource in a new approach to upcycling and thrift.
STORIES
NO.2
FORCED FORMS
Process dictates form as material is forced into gravity-defying forms and products.
NO.3
EXTRUDED
Extrusion continues as a construction technique; allowing for both haphazard outcomes and precision engineering.
MADE NO.1
ENERGY ANXIETY
BACKGROUND The value of plastic is increased as designers explore the meaning of synthetics in an age where waste becomes a useful commodity. Material combinations contrast the luxurious with the throwaway as synthetic materials begin to gain a new prestige.
MADE NO.2
FORCED FORMS
BACKGROUND New ways of making form emerge as designers experiment with restriction, gravity and inflation. Materials are forced to react in unpredictable ways, resulting in plump, inflated surfaces and product forms that appear to be set in flux.
MADE NO.3
EXTRUDED
BACKGROUND Basic extrusion machines and lo-fi formmaking present a back-to-basics take on 3D printing. At the same time, the technology itself is more intuitive and expressive, offering designers the chance to sculpt in mid-air.
MADE
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Viscous, oozing and dripping surfaces take over objects