Last year CreativeRoom challenged some of Vancouver's top architects and designers to reinvision the traditional typology of the gingerbread house. The competition was a candy-filled homage to The Case Study House Program organized by Arts and Architecture Magazine from 1945 to 1964. They asked the entrants to do away with ubiquitous veneer of jujubes and smarties in an effort to re-interpret the gingerbread house within a modern context. The results were outstanding!
Ten delicious submissions from some of Vancouver's finest architecture and design firms, a week long bidding battle, and a gala event (complete with studio critique) allowed them to exceed their fundraising expectations.
This holiday season they challenged again the creative class to put their aprons on, get out their poured in place gingerbread panels, and attempt to redefine the gingerbread typology once again.
The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) presents an exhibition (now in Chicago) with 99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world. Seemingly common activities such as walking, playing, recycling, and gardening are pushed beyond their usual definition by the international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition. Their experimental interactions with the urban environment show the potential influence personal involvement can have in shaping the city, and challenge fellow residents to participate.
The 99 actions featured include projects related to the production of food and possibilities of urban agriculture; the planning and creation of public spaces to strengthen community interactions; the recycling of abandoned buildings for new purposes; the use of the urban fabric as a terrain for play such as soccer, climbing, skateboarding, or parkour; the alternate use of roads for walking, or rail lines as park space; the design of clothing to circumvent urban barriers against resting on benches or sliding on railings; among others.
The Table Tennis Fence subverts the fence as a dividing element. A built-in ping pong table can be opened for neighbours to play with each other, transforming the fence into a meeting place. Share Fence is a related project with cut-outs in the shape of gardening tools like trowels and a watering can. Neighbours can hang tools to be shared in fence holes where they are accessible from both sides. Droog Design was founded in Amsterdam in 1993 by Bakker and Renny Ramakers. NEXT Architects was founded by four graduates from the Delft University of Technology.
The city of Turin saved 30,000 euros by using sheep to mow lawns at three public parks. In Pasture in the City, cows were also used during the experimental first year, but because they produced too much manure they have not returned. Traffic is diverted for the herd of sheep to enter the city. After the animals are rotated through fenced-off parks for two months, they return to the Alps for the remainder of the summer. The sheep aerate and fertilize their temporary pastures.
A proposal made to the city of Seville for legislation to assist in the temporary transformation of public and private solares – vacant lots walled off for security – into public spaces for at least six months. Wall rubble is incorporated into the design, and elements of car and pedestrian barriers are used to construct benches, see-saws, swings, and bike racks with readily available plastic materials like concrete. Instruction sheets were produced to allow residents to construct their own furniture. The project is designed to minimize material movement, cost, and other barriers to change. Santiago Cirugeda is an architect based in Seville who has proposed semi-legal strategies for housing and urban renovation under the name Recetas Urbanas, or “urban prescriptions,” since 1996. He inhabits gaps between laws, exploiting overlap and oversight to practice autonomous architecture.
Richard Reynolds, or Richard 001, as he is known in the Guerillagardening.org organization, descends on traffic islands, forgotten parks, public gardens, and roadway edges with troops around the world; he transforms ignored spaces into beautiful gardens. Other troops focus on productive planting, encouraging vegetable and fruit farming in the city. Although Richard 001’s little war against mundane landscaping began in 2004 when he became fed up with the sorry condition of the yard in front of his apartment building, the guerrilla gardening movement can be traced back to at least the 1970s, when artists like Liz Christy and Gordon Matta-Clark used the term to describe illegal, and often nocturnal, horticulture missions.
Jihyun Ryou, Design Academy Eindhoven graduate, did his Master Thesis about food preservation. By accumulating traditional oral knowledge, he looked at a feasible way to bring the knowledge into everyday life.
"Through the research about the current situation of food preservation, I’ve learned that we hand over the responsibility of taking care of food to the technology, refrigerator. We don’t observe the food any more and don’t understand how to treat it.
Therefore my design looks at re-introducing and re-evaluating traditional oral knowledge of food, which is closer to nature. Furthermore, it aims to bring back the connection between different level of living beings, us as human beings and food ingredients as other living beings."
Verticality of Root Vegetables -carrot, raddish, leek...etc. Keeping roots in a vertical position allows the organism save energy and remain fresh for longer time. This shelf gives a place for them to stand easily, using sand. At the same time, sand helps to keep proper humidity.
Dryness of Spices Rice absorbs the humidity easily. The spice container with rice inside helps spices stay dry without forming into a mass.
Humidity of Fruit Vegetables -zucchini, aubergine, pepper...etc. We tend to think zucchini, aubergine, cucumber, etc. as vegetables. But they are biologically fruits. This shelf gives them a space to be outside the fridge. Also through the ritual to water them everyday, they will stay fresh.
There are so many born-dead projects floating about we sometimes forget that - before anything else - design is an exact discipline in which function gives nothing away to style, and technical innovation is there to serve real user protocols and not just the sales pitch. With their 'Silver Art' range, Elium Studio has made this clear, demonstrating how French elegance can inform industrial design.
Five pieces compose the breakfast set - espresso machine, coffee percolator, toaster, electric jug and juice extractor - enacting subtle crossovers from kitchenware to tableware, and from function to décor. Purity of line and high finish given to materials (brushed stainless steel, wood chrome) in series products opens a new window on these archetypes of modern living: in the 'Grand Hotel' spirit, modest everyday accessories for preparing and serving access to the status of potential collector's pieces. The range reflects the way Elium Studio uses technology - efficiency must always be user friendly. This is the right stuff in the French vein, expressing clear balance between function and form.
MetaboliCity is the name for a vision of a city that metabolises its resources and waste to supply its inhabitants with all the nourishment they need and more.
As a participatory design research project it explores how designers can intervene sensitively within local urban food growing cultures by providing a design thinking and crafting that may help to sustain these initiatives and catalyse larger positive changes in the surrounding environment.
The team has installed urban grow-kits accompanied by a set of guidelines to be tested and developed at a broad sample of communities in London, UK and Brussels, Belgium. This is a design-service system that integrates both traditional and hi-tech industrialized agricultural techniques into the fabric of the built environment whilst simultaneously being rooted in an ethical systems thinking.
The project is led by Rachel Wingfield of Studio Loop.pH based at Central Saint Martins, London and funded by the Audi Design Foundation.
MetaboliCity is about empowering people to grow food in the most challenging of urban spaces, be it indoor window farms or vertical green cladding that clings to the buildings. Design studio Loop.pH has been developing lightweight, architectural structures together with soilless growing techniques for the project. The rigid 3D lace provides support for plants and irrigation and can be retro-fitted to buildings or become free standing vertical gardens for indoor or out.
The agenda is driven by how design can be used to bring about positive change. Recognizing that it is social innovation and open collaboration that is needed to address some of the most pressing problems of today. Rather than favoring single solutions for diverse and complex problems the outcome of MetaboliCity is a diverse portfolio of solutions to empower city-dwellers to create sustainable human habitats.
The project explores how designers can work in multiple ways, taking on different roles within an interdisciplinary context, mediating between experts and amateurs in the field of urban agriculture and regeneration. The initial case study, based at Central Saint Martins, School of Art and Design, is to test the feasibility of urban agri-tecture kits with a broad spectrum of participants that covers four main city activities for small-scale amateur growing; Restaurants, Community and public spaces, Workplaces such as offices and schools and Housing both social and private.
The role of the designer in this project is that of a facilitator, mediator and co-researcher working alongside the participants, offering designerly ways of thinking, documenting and crafting within each case. A new collective imagination of the city is cultivated through workshops and the weaving and planting of temporary grow spaces within each of these local contexts. The participants of MetaboliCity share their experiences via a collaborative online platform to create a live journal for the project and knowledge ecology. This is a dynamic space to document activities, create a library of resources and support discussions.
A series of MetaboliCity Workshops and instruction sessions are underway with the participants to provide a think tank for UA initiatives and a structured platform to discuss possible future, long-term developments.
Swedish design student Rickard Hederstierna from Lund University wins Electrolux Design Lab 2009 with his concept 'Cocoon', the meat and fish maker.
'Cocoon' is a sustainable response to the world’s growing population and its desire to consume meat and fish. Similar to heating popcorn in a microwave, Cocoon prepares pre-packaged meat and fish dishes by heating muscle cells identified by radio frequency identification (RFID) signals. The signals detect the specific dish and then suggest the required cooking time. This process uses science to create food, lifting a burden on the planet by reducing the need for further intensive farming and fishing.
Jury's motivation: “Cocoon addresses a controversial issue that is very real: humankind’s continued desire to eat meat and fish. A great design concept polarizes opinion, and this is exactly what Cocoon achieves by exploring this issue. An inviting, tactile design, the Cocoon resembles a gemstone with a metal accent reflecting the heritage of the Swedish art-glass industry. Cocoon meets all of the brief’s criteria: it is daring, cutting edge and truly innovative in its focus on social and environmental issues.”
The Electrolux Design Lab 2009 award is a prize of EUR 5,000 and a six-month paid internship at one of Electrolux global design centers.
James Reynolds' Far Foods project is an alternative packaging for
supermarket. It shows the distance that some foods travel from and the
resultant carbon dioxide released during the journey.
The receipt features a boarding card style tear-off strip.
James Reynolds has recently graduated from Kingston University studying Graphic Design. He lives and works in London.
Studio Gorm is a collaboration between John Arndt and Wonhee Jeong. They met while studying at the Design Academy Eindhoven but their office is now located in Eugene, Oregon where they also work in the product design program at the university.
'Flow' is a kitchen they have designed where waste products are used to grow plants.
'Flow' is a living kitchen where nature and technology are integrated in a symbiotic relationship, processes flow into one another in a natural cycle, efficiently utilizing energy, waste, water and other natural resources. It provides a space not only for preparing food but an environment that gives a better understanding of how natural processes work. A kitchen where food is grown, stored, cooked and composted to grow more food.
The flow products can be used independently but are far more effective when they work in concert as part of the larger system. The individual objects are relatively uncomplicated, acting as simple vehicles for the more complex natural processes to do the work. This kitchen is developed as a flexible system where resources are reused by several elements creating a dynamic flow between the products. The flow kitchen focuses on three major problem areas in the kitchen Waste, Water and Energy. The hanging dish rack offers vertical storage for drying dishes saving valuable counter space, water from the dish rack drips on the herbs and edible plants, which are grown in the planter boxes positioned below the rack.
The refrigerator is one of the largest consumers of electricity in the home. The majority of the items we refrigerate do not need to be kept as cold as a standard fridge temperatures. The evaporative cooling fridge box keeps food cool through evapo-transpiration. The space between the double walls is filled with water which slowly seeps through the outer wall and evaporates, causing the inside temperature to cool. It is deal for storing vegetables, fruit, eggs, cheese and butter. The evaporative cooling fridge reduces the need for a larger conventional fridge.
The Storage jars are made from unglazed earthenware with beech wood lids. They utilize the natural porous properties of earthenware, which creates an ideal environment for maintaining the consistency of bread, extending the life of garlic and onions, storing grains and growing herbs. The beech wood lids which have natural anti microbial properties can also be used as cutting boards or serving trays.
Up to 40% of household waste can be composted. The integrated cutting board can be slid forward allowing scraps to be swept into the composting bin. Kitchen scraps, newspaper, junk mail and paper scraps can be added to the vermicomposter. Worms breakdown food and turn it into worm castings, a nutrient rich fertilizer (about 2 weeks start to finish). By pulling the handle finished castings are sifted into the collection tray where they can be dried out until needed. The fertilizer can be used in the herb boxes, added to houseplants or the garden.
The dish and utensil drawer provides the necessary space for storing plates bowls cups and cutlery in an economic and easy to access format.
The bag rack is used to hang net market bags, these can be used to hold onions potatoes or produce form the market. The rack can also be used to hang most any other type of shopping bag.
The gas cook top is made up of a floral pattern, offering an alternative to the conventional standards. The continuous surface allows pots to be easily moved on and off the heat source.
Ten leading designers have been commissioned to develop new uses for sustainably grown and harvested materials in order to tell a unique story about the life-cycle of materials and the power of conservation and design.
The featured designers and places include Yves Behar/Costa Rica; Stephen Burks/Australia; Hella Jongerius/Mexico; Maya Lin/Maine; Christien Meindertsma/Idaho; Isaac Mizrahi/Alaska; Abbott Miller/Bolivia; Ted Muehling/Micronesia; Kate Spade/Bolivia; and Ezri Tarazi/China.
This is the debut venue in a national tour of the exhibition, organized by The Nature Conservancy. On view are the prototypes, drawings, and finished product created by the designers.
What qualifies as a crisis? Royal College of Art Design Products students’ Sold Out Shop will offer the stimulus to rethink what a crisis actually is...
During the Milan Salone 2009, a team of young design students from Platform 10, one of six teaching units within the College’s department, will be taking up residence at the prestigious Seves glassblock showroom in the heart of the city.
The fourteen postgraduate student designers will stage a makeshift Crisis Shop, exhibiting a range of crisis products. The shop layout will embody the very nature of a potential crisis - a canopy, attached by suction pads, hooks and grommets will stretch across the glass surfaces of the showroom. Under extreme tension, the canopy serves to communicate a sense of urgency, a material under stress and physical tension.
The Shop isn’t about making a commodity out of a crisis but investing in the means to respond to crises at large. One man’s crisis is another man’s opportunity. All products in the Crisis Shop are examples of opportunities in disguise.
The collective response to this state of alert can be broken down into two clearly defined product categories: those that require an ‘Immediate Response’ and those that opt for ‘Mutations’. The group have deliberately emphasised the ‘closeness’ in crisis and consequently closeness to the body. Subsequent incarnations frequently deal with this through solutions of wear-ability.
Exhibition from April 22 to 27 2009 Showroom Seves glassblock - Via Lodovico il Moro 25/27 - 20143, Milan, Italy
Toyota has set up a design challenge to students of the Royal College of Art. The brief was to create a household item that represents intelligent urban living. After a brisk three months of hard work the winners of the iQ competition were announced in a celebration of young designers' work at the Royal College of Art.
The judges include Ron Arad, Lynda Relph Knight - the editor of Design Week, Sebastian Bergner, and Lance Scott - Chief Engineer at Toyota.
Yusuf Muhammad, was the winner of Living Room category and joint overall winner. His Yu Type design sits on the computer keyboard and allows 'hunt and peck' two fingered typists the opportunity to increase their speed and confidence. He is now thinking about developing the idea and hopes to include features like spellchecking and predictive text to increase its appeal. Judges praised the way he addressed a social issue of an ageing population within the urban context.
Dominic Hargreaves, was winner of the Garage category and a joint overall winner. His concept for a bike lock which sits at first storey level on the front of a building is designed to hoist bikes out of the reach of potential thieves. Along with Yusuf Muhammad, judges felt that Dominic's design would benefit the most from money to develop the idea further.
Graeme Davies took the first prize in the Kitchen category. His Quicksnap icetray design solves the problem of dropping two ice cubes on the floor for every one you manage to get in the glass by creating an undercut to release individual ice cubes. Judge Lance Scott called it "An innovative solution to a very simple but annoying problem". Graeme, who has a patent on the design, is looking to have it on sale by the summer.
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