storm from the east

Monika Drożyńska: Scarf sold by the metre

Polish artist and designer Monika Drożyńska invites you to rethink your concept of the humble scarf, reinventing it as as something that can be used by one person at a time, or even a hundred people together. She is now giving people the chance to purchase parts of this extraordinary scarf by the metre.

The total length of the scarf is 135 metres and it is rolled into a one metre high roll and is designed for sale in one metre and one metre and a half pieces, although longer pieces are available. It is ready to use after cutting.

The price is 40PLN per metre. For more details:

http://www.delikatesy.org.pl

www.monika.drozynska.pl

Kyoko Hashimoto

We have recently been alerted to the work of Kyoko Hashimoto a Japanese born, Australian raised jeweller, who is producing some very eye-catching and unique work.

Prior to launching her own label in 2006, Kyoko produced conceptual fine art jewellery, exhibiting in some of Sydney's most influential galleries including Object, Quadrivium and Art Gallery of New South Wales. Then, in 2005 she moved to Tokyo where the lure of city's underground fashion and music scene inspired her to start a new jewellery label.

Each of Kyoko's pieces is carefully handcrafted and finished in her studio, currently based in Berlin, Germany. Her conceptual and fine jewellery background continues to inform her current design and her choice of material, form and construction methods.

Find out more, and see more of her work, on her website:

http://kyokohashimoto.com/

Munkii: Vintage

Readers of this site may be familiar with the name Jaren Goh, the Singaporean designer behind the fabulous Black Diamond mobile phone from a few years back. It's good to hear that he is still designing and still producing great looking work, including the Vintage bookshelf for Munkii.

The concept of Vintage was first released in 2007, following which a prototype was displayed in Nhow Hotel, Milan in the same year. The bookshelf is made using eco-responsible MDF and Munkii are currently preparing orders for clients in California, USA.

Sales director Kelvin Goh tells us that more products are due from the company in 2010.

www.munkii.com.sg/

Kokoro & Moi: Air Current/Past

NOW IDeA by UTRECHT in Minami-Aoyama is holding the first exhibition in Japan by Finnish design agency Kokoro & Moi. Entitled Air Current/Past, the exhibition takes a look at some of their previous work while also highlighting what the team is up to recently. The exhibition runs from 27 October - 3 November 2009.

http://www.nowidea.info/2009/10/kokoro-moiair-currentpast/

http://www.kokoromoi.com/

フィンランドのデザインユニット、KOKORO&MOIの日本初個展を開催いたします。日本語の「こころ」とフィンランド語の「ハロー」がチーム 名のKOKORO& MOIが紙飛行機をテーマに、グラフィックワークを新たな視点から再構築。彼らの作品のたどり着く先ではなく、それらがそこにたどり着くまでに描く経路 や、二人の共同作業、そして遊び心を展示します。また空を飛ぶ紙飛行機は、ヘルシンキから東京への旅路、そしてチーム名の由来であるふたつの国の友好の歴 史もあらわしています。

http://www.nowidea.info/2009/10/kokoro-moiair-currentpast/

http://www.kokoromoi.com/

Gecko Stickers: New Products

Gecko have added a fantastic new set of stickers to their range, including contemporary and traditional lamps, side tables and candlesticks. The stickers pictured above represent only a few of the huge amount of designs on offer - available in up to thirty colours - which you can find on their website.

Website: Gecko Decorative Stickers

UXUS Design & H&M Home

UXUS Design send us word of their latest project, a great-looking collaboration with fashion giant H&M for the launch of H&M Home. The collaboration with the H&M team on the launch in Stockholm is titled ‘Home Reflections’ and imagines the world through a looking glass, to explore our ever changing relationship between identity and style. The idea was to create a “gallery” of fun fashion home products which customers are encouraged to touch and explore and it looks to us like they've got it spot-on.

UXUS Design | UXUS Blog

H&M

Fugas Lusas by Extrastudio

Extrastudio has completed Fugas Lusas, a Delicatessen/ Café in Setúbal, Portugal. Set in the historical district in Setúbal, the project insists on customization in order to create unique spacial or material qualities. Taking advantage of low-tech traditional materials used side-by-side with technological processes, Extrastudio has been addressing the creation of a specific material universe as a key element in each project.

Commissioned by a young Economics professor to develop a concept for a Portuguese delicacies shop that would also work as a café, the project represents an effort to revitalize the historical district of Setúbal, creating a new meeting point in the city.  Combining two complementary functions required the creation of a unique space, one that should be as extraordinary as the products the client was proposing to sell and as cozy as a neighborhood café.

The construction works started with the opening of a large window front, exposing the café to the square, as a preview for the future terrace. New shelves were carved on the thick exterior walls to display a wide range of products. The bar, clad with typical Portuguese ceramic tiles, divides the working areas from the public space. In the ceiling, laser cut plywood panels; duplicate the pattern used on the counter tiled walls. The furniture is composed by a set of used hardwood chairs from the old assembly room of Setúbal’s Fish Industry Union, together with tables with marble tops from Alentejo.

 Extrastudio has been recently awarded in the Valdebebas Urban Park competition in Madrid, with a proposal that ranked 4th among 163 international practices. Its work has been recently selected for Habitar Portugal 2009, an exhibit organized by Ordem dos Arquitectos, the Portuguese Architects Association, on the most relevant architectural  projects built in the last two years in Portugal.

www.extrastudio.pt

Harmonie Intérieure: New Stickers

Our apologies for bringing this news late, but innovative design team Harmonie Intérieure have introduced some new stickers to their already excellent range of wall coverings.

Included in the latest batch are designs especially made for kids, featuring the fantastic height chart, right, amongst many others made to add a little magic to their rooms.

Check them out, and buy a few, at the Harmonie Intérieure website:

http://www.harmonie-interieure.com/

83 Design: Light Boy and Keat

In keeping with their policy of producing stimulating, but somewhat nostalgic and heart warming design, 83 Design have added two wonderful new pieces to their collection: Light Boy and Keat.

Light Boy is a fantastic-looking lamp which, like a favourite pet, is designed to be around you all the time. The fun design also features a shade reminiscent of the cones pets wear when they've had an operation. Great stuff.


By inserting a key into Keat, a small magnetic key holder that can fit on the fridge or on a door, the smile on its little face is completed as you can see its 'teeth' - just like a real smile. And if there is one thing that 83 Design's products are guaranteed to do, it's make you smile.



Website: http://www.83design.jp/

SFTE Profile: http://www.storm-from-the-east.com/83-design.html

Naolab: naoooooooooo

Hong Kong/Shanghai-based Naolab has a knack for creating things that you really want way before you knew you wanted them. First came the ChargerFrame, then the naoLoop, now the naoooooooooo.

naoooooooooo is a high energy-saving light, featuring subtle ambient LEDs which randomly change to a natural, calming rhythm. The light can be free-standing or wall-mounted and is powered using a USB power supply adaptor, including the option of connecting it to the USB port on your computer.

To further accentuate the green potential of the product, the company points out that many households already use USB adapters to charge their mobile phones or music players and encourages owners to recycle their existing adapters to use with the light.

Furthermore, they remind you that plugged-in adapters continue to draw energy even if they are not connected to a device and ask you to remove adapters from power sockets after use. Great stuff.

Website: http://www.naolab.com/

SFTE Profile: http://www.storm-from-the-east.com/naolab.html

Francesco Lipari: Hong Kong Noise Barrier

Italian architect Francesco Lipari has sent us good news concerning the Open International Ideas Competition for Noise Barrier/Noise Enclosure Design in Hong Kong: his stunning design, detailed below, received an honourable mention.

The noise barrier project consists of 4 pieces located in the city of Hong Kong along the streets of Tai Po Tai Wo Road and Gascoigne road: a cantilevered barrier 170 metres long and 6 metres high, a vertical barrier 140 metres long with a variable width from 20 to 23 metres, a vertical barrier 70 metres long and 4.5 metres high and a semi-full-cantilevered noise barrier 500 metres long and 6 metres high. The space frame structure of the noise barrier has been constructed from hot-dip galvanized 50 mm tubes for the main structure and 30 mm tubes for the secondary structure. The entire structure is covered with translucent polycarbonate panels with a differing range of apertures, each one with dimensions of 3 m x 0.65m. The panels change color with the daylight and react to the impulse of the shaft located at the intersection of every panel.

During the day, the new noise barriers form a harmonious unity with the surrounding landscape. They also integrate an innovative green system. The design is developed incorporating the natural growth characteristics of grass. What makes the design unique is that the construction itself; the sound barrier is a living, green unit. Light and shadow on the white panels establish a suggestive relationship with the surrounding landscape. After sunset, the artificial light illuminates the architectural body from inside, turning the shapes into a illuminated sculptures.

The focal point of the whole system is the blade named RICCIO ©, an innovative technological system that transform the air movement into energy and then, thanks to a generator, into electricity.

During the vehicle transit close by the noise barrier it produces a pressure wave with a kinetic energy and potential. This energy is transferred to the blade orthogonally to the wave front. Then the blade stimulated by the wave, begins swinging in analogy to a damped harmonic oscillator.

The electricity produced will be stored by appropriate capacitors. The electricity will be used to manage the noise barriers and to provide clean energy for the districts.

Credits
Plan's title: Hong Kong Noise barrier competition
Location: Hong Kong
Organizer: The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Project Design: Francesco Lipari
Project Team: Vanessa Todaro, Pierpaolo Pugliano
Timing: Design 2009

Web information: www.francescolipari.it

For more information:

http://www.noisebarrier-competition.hk/eng/comResult.htm

http://www.architetto.info/Hong-Kong-Noise-Barrier-menzione-d-onore-a-F-Lipari_spotlight_x_50.html

http://www.professionearchitetto.it/news/notizie/9440.aspx

Gecko Wall Stickers

If your walls need some brightening up, we recommend you check out the GECKO set of wall stickers developed by the designers Leonardo Conrado and Gabriela Rocha. They have recently introduced some new designs based on their home city of Rio de Janeiro, which are bound to liven up even the drabbest of abodes or workplaces.

http://www.geckostickers.com.br/english/

PING-PONG Dining Table by Hunn Wai for Mein Gallery

Good news from the ever-inventive Hunn Wai, who is going from strength to strength having shown in Milan last year, gone on to Venice for the 11th Architecture Bienalle and been published in Die Gestalten Verlag's book on design/art DESIRE:The Shape of Things to Come.

Now comes his first collaboration with Mein Gallery, the show-space of interior lifestyle concept brand Mein, dedicated to commissioning and showcasing works of young and upcoming designers. PING-PONG Dining table harks back to the origins of table-tennis with its duality of both being a table fit for dining and playing on. What started off as impromptu after-dinner amusement mimicking tennis in an indoor environment for upper-class Victorians became an international phenomenon with rules and standards. This is an official-sized game table with a DuPont™ Corian® surface CNC machine-routed with French Rococo patterns interjected with Ping-pong iconography filled with gold lacquer, supported by stately hand-lathed timber legs.

In the middle, a long rectangular vase filled with dainty blossoms does double-duty as a game-net and a table floral arrangement. Reinstating grandeur and pomp with neo-classical inspired embellishments, with a twist in material by using the hi-tech marble-like Corian, the PING-PONG dining table creates a remarkable conceptual and lifestyle statement in the true heart of the home; the dining area.

http://www.hunnwai.com/

Naolab: NaoLoop

Naolab introduces another inspired product with the naoLoop, calling it 'your ultimate organizer – stretching the limits of your everyday stuff.' naoLoop’s stretch configurations can hold together mobile devices, name or credit cards, lipsticks or chewing gum. Any of your prized possessions can be compactly bunched together so that you can easily find them. Comfortable to the touch, naoLoop wraps and protects your accessories and with its absolute reduction of material, naoLoop fits in your back pocket – or your disco bag!

It is created with Naolab's customary care and attention, using high-quality, robust materials designed to last a lifetime. Each naoLoop varies slightly, which means not only is yours going to be useful, it will also be unique.

naoLoop’s extremely flexible Polyester Latex Band can stretch more than 50% and holds items tightly and safely together so that nothing can slip out.

Find out more on Naolab’s web site and get your very own (unique) naoLoop at the Naolab Shop.

New Profile: Westwood College

We are happy to announce our first school profile:

Westwood’s Interior Design Degree Program offers students instruction in graphic drawing, color theory, construction technology, interior finishing, and space planning. Students are taught the technical, creative, and human factors associated with interior design.

>> View the complete profile.

>> Create a profile.

J.P. Meulendijks: Blade (for Next)

J.P. Meulendijks presents a new lamp designed to "move you".

Blade offers almost infinite possibilities to illuminate a room. One lamp - fourteen possible variations. Give one room fourteen different looks. It takes just a few moves to rearrange the three bowl-shaped shades into a new position. In the starting position all three shades form a circular shape with a diameter of approximately one meter. As they are fanned out, the lamp gradually changes into a propeller-shape that can be exteded to a diameter of over two meters before the shades converge in the form of an organic triangle in the final position.

- Material: PE, Aluminium
- Colours: White
- Lamp: 2G11, 6 x TC-L 36 Watt
- Other: Rotatable Shades

More info on:

Next:  www.next.de        J.P.Meulendijks: www.n-u.nl

Etienne Meneau: Petit Coeur/Little Heat

Sculptor Etienne Meneau has added a wonderful drinking glass, Petit Coeur, to his range of 'Strange Carafes'.

Naolab: ChargerFrame

If you're looking for a stylish solution to keeping your cables tidy, the ChargerFrame - the first product from Hong Kong and Shanghai-based Naolab - could be the answer. Designed by Naolab founder Tim Richter, the ChagerFrame aims to 'transform your electronic landscape into wall art'.

Benjamin Hubert: Material Centric

Young British designer Benjamin Hubert has been producing innovative design since he began and his latest collection continues very much in the same vein. Collaborating with a number of master craftsmen in the fields of glass blowing, ceramics, veneer/woodworking, metal engineering and concrete casting, his Material Centric interior collection makes use of a host of materials not often seen in modern design, including blown glass for table lamps and concrete for pendant lamps.

The collection will be on display at 100% Futures at 100% Design 2008, London.

Click below for larger images.

No, No, Yes! Bachesca Bag

My apologies to all at No, No, Yes! for posting about this so late, but the innovative Japanese design company has introduced a new product, the Bachesca bag, pictured left.

 

「あなたみたいな子、どこにもいない！」

               

　・・・ と、あなたにも、あなたにも、あなたにも、言いたくて、言いたくて、BachescaというBAGを作りました。全ての女性に、のびのびと女の子であるこ とを楽しんでもらいたい、そんなおせっかいみたいな気持ちからBachescaのテーマは“フレンドシップ”。いつもそばであなたを応援したいんです。リ ラックスしているから、セクシー。自分に満足しているからこそ、やさしくなれる。シリアスになりすぎず、軽やかに気持ちいい女性。それって、誰でもなくあ なたのことなんです。