An eco-friendly home in a Cotswold nature reserve in United Kingdom was designed by London architect, Sarah Featherstone, whose office will be designing part of the Olympic athletes' village. The 'Orchid House’ was inspired by the Bee Orchid that is found on the reserve.
One of the many green features of the 'Orchid House' will be to produce more energy than it uses with an underground heat pump, geothermal heating and cooling, rainwater and solar and wind power.
"Our inspiration for Orchid House comes from the wildlife and landscape at Lower Mill Estate. A number of Orchid species can be found here, but it is the camouflage of the Bee Orchid that specifically generated our design."
"The house will blend with its landscape and environment. The organic form is created from laminated veneer lumbar (LVL) ribs and clad with timber shingles (tiles). The camouflage pattern is burnt to the timber."
"The house offers flexible living spaces, adopting a layout which we have pioneered in our house designs. The kitchen is at the heart of the house with the living and dining wings fanning out to create an intimate open courtyard around which the house orientates. It is like a 'whorl' of leaves encircling the seed of the flower."
The house has been sold off-plan and will be completed in 2011.
Thomas Owens is a young British product design graduate. His
latest project is a stylish bicycle that not only offers all the
benefits of cycling but, with its power system, the user can cruise
around with ease.
When folded, 'One' turns into an amazing compact case free of all dirty and protruding parts. It can be easily carried, stowed and stored.
After successful international premiere in Talent Zone, Copenhagen Furniture Fair, last year, Wood Processing &
Furniture Design students have demonstrated their sustainable design
work - furniture prototypes and interior elements, at Salone Satellite
2008, Milan Furniture Fair, held from 16th-21 April.
Exhibition showed fresh, multi functional elements, new construction principles, as well as projects from REST WOOD DESIGN sustainable design workshop by mentor MA Jelena Matic, held every year at the Center for Tools and Machinery, at Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade.
Organized annually, the workshop operates as an extracurricular activity at the University promoting sustainable creativity through innovative use of industrial wood waste in student furniture and interior design concepts, which often results in real student prototypes, first time experiences, valuable knowledge, and rewards to young designers.
When is a jug not a jug? When its a jar! By screwing on plastic tops, these jars are turned into containers with a specific function. A jar is transformed into kitchenware, creating more practical and emotional value. The family includes a sugar pot, milk can, spice container, chocolate sprinkler, oil&vinegar set, mug and a water jug...
Clamp-a-book, clamp-a-hook, clamp-a cable... Design solutions derived from the clamp typology: a family of objects, each with a specific function. The collection of these informal utensils includes a book stop and a book finger, a book display, a hook and a rail that clamp onto the side of horizontal surfaces, a hook to clamp on to electrical pipes, a candle holder, and a cable manager that can be clamped onto a table leg.
Inspired by and learning from the Clampology project, the clamp principle has moved to another scale: a clamp-on table leg. The legs are a more compact alternative to trestles. The legs come as an individual set of four legs to match any surface.
Casulo is a complete set of room furniture which can be set up in less than ten minutes and later disassembled and repacked like a standard Euro pallet of 80 cm by 120 cm. No tools are needed in the process.
The unit is constructed of durable, long-lasting materials. Even after many moves the strong materials chosen for the unit mean that the Casulo will never show signs of wear and tear. This is for people on the move, those in job training, students, and people who have to change their location frequently.
Casulo, a collaborative project of designers Marcel Krings and Sebastian Mühlhäuser, won the Abraham & David Roentgen Prize for its innovative design in November 2007.
'Fifteen Pieces for a Soundscape - First Movement' is an architectural installation that is the result of geometrical experiments and investigations of 20th century music undertaken by the Städelschule Architectural Class during the last six months.
The resulting investigations have included encounters with work spanning from the experiments and recordings of Glenn Gould, via compositions of the late Karlheinz Stockhausen, to the varied work of Brian Eno.
The exhibition attempts to make sense of the evasive interface between time and space in architecture through the logics of music and matter. It presents a speculative synthesis of the temporal and auditory with the presumed stasis of the architectural object. In this sense, the exhibition continues a tradition that in modern architectural terms revolves around the Philips Pavilion Poème Electronique, by Le Corbusier, Iannis Xenakis, and Edgar Varèse (1958). In comparison, 'Fifteen Pieces for a Soundscape - First Movement' is a modest endeavour, but it explores the same vibrant interface that bears on our senses and to which architecture contributes more than material silence.
The fourteen objects are presented as floating, effervescent singularities within a space conceived as a whole, embracing and silent soundscape. The fourteen pieces are scaled, transformed and completed in the fifteenth piece, the visual backdrop formed by the photographic banners.
Conceived and directed by professors Ben van Berkel, Sanford Kwinter, and Johan Bettum with Luis Etchegorry. The exhibition by the Städelschule Architecture Class takes place in Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Frankfurt am Main, from February 8 to April 30, 2008
Etienne Meneau's elastic houses are made for those who like instability and precarious, who like to be awakened by the sound of the rain, those who like to sleep under the overturned boats. They will be recalled at any time to the realities of gravity, rocked by wind and earthquakes. The elastic houses therefore ask its inhabitants a strong sense of balance and a real taste for the experiments.
This is a concept of an extension cord designed by Wilson Song, seen on Yanko Design's blog whith the question: "If a device is plugged into one output, doesn’t that prevent power from reaching the other outputs?" What is your opinion?
It's been a while since we last showed you a student project. In this festive season, with big receptions to be held, here is the creation of Sandra Groll, student at the German "Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe". In my opinion, she did not plan to serve soup for Xmas. :-)
This is a project for a great Playground done by designers Alain Gilles, C. Fidalgo and M. Leroy.
"Young children acquire most of their social behaviors through playing with others. So, what they play with greatly matters. In large urban cities, the playground is often one of the few outside place children have free access to. It is time to redefine the functions a playground should offer in ten years from now. Considering that most social needs of children age 3 to 8 will not have significantly changed, as tends to show different various scientific analysis of the evolution of society, cities and children in general. They obviously need to exercise outside, but they must also acquire self-confidence and social values. Too often, playgrounds are seen as boring and are deserted after a while. Hence, the idea to have a solid structures allowing for different games to be rotated between playgrounds, or even within every playground itself. So the various elements are held to the ground by a series of studs evenly embedded within the foundation of the playground itself. It goes without saying that this grid is a constraint that has to be taken into account during the conception of each interchangeable element. It plays a role in the determination of the size and shape of each game, just as much as the ergonomics and general legislations. In order to make sure that the elements of the playground could be financially accessible to a wide range of communities the pieces have been designed to be producible using generally accessible technology: metalwork, rotation molding, PUR foam, recycled rubber… The various element of the playground are meant to foster the acquisition of some values needed to live in a community. So some games will in a way highlight some social behaviors and encourage communication, independence, self-esteem, respect for others and for what belongs to the community, but also encourage the need to behave as the majority, as well as encourage young children to find their own path and venture out."
