A message table

Dana Gordon (currently with us in Cambridge, MA) hacked an existing answering machine and rewired some of its original functions (such as recording a message, play, pause and delete). The result is super fun and inspiring. Imagine in your living room a reactive table instead of a regular answering machine! She called the machine the "message table" as in an answering machine merged into a wooden table. For each message received, a box appears on the table. To listen, open the box - and to delete, push it back into the desk.




Designed with Shawn Bonkowski, she exhibited the table at the Victoria & Albert Museum, at the Salone del Mobile 2005 in Milano and at the Gallery AB+, Torino.

You can watch the video here.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Pipe furniture

It is so refreshing to discover good design work. Sometimes I miss my design school where creativity was combined to elegance. I love this set for the toilet: their shape ironically becomes their function: a pipe! This toilet set is designed by Thomas Kral.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
.............................................................................................
Blog Jouons Blog Maison Blog Passion

Wearable vs furniture radiator

Another interesting design concept, the modulo radiator by Anna Gotha, discovered on Kontrastblog. Anna Gotha wanted to make more use of the heat from a radiator by designing a radiator with multiple functions. The modules are designed with an upholstered aluminium core to use the installed radiator parts as a piece of furniture to lean up against. The core is warmed up by the radiator to be used outdoor.

Apparently the radiator is made of multiple parts that can work independently from one another or connected to each others. Heating parts can be hanged on a wall, carried in a purse, or used more traditionally as a "furniture" that heats a large surface.
Existing radiators take up too much room and the design is often rather conservative. With the new radiator, Anna Gotha has made use of the heat, and at the same time given the user a more functional and simple design.



Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
.............................................

Hugging my furniture

A landscape designed for the body. These livingstones, "les coussins galets" created by French designer Stephanie Marin, remind me of Ernesto Neto's work. I stumbled upon these and I love them. I can now embrace my furniture, discover the spaces inside, around and between my body!

See also the felt rocks by Molo!

Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
.............................................

Flat or wrapped machines

All the parts of this sewing have been polished and nickel-plated. Every reference to hand making has been avoided, although this is the most labour-intensive work Marloes Ten Bhomer said she has ever made. The piece deals with the trust humans have in machines.



This next piece contrasts well with the polished sewing machine. Would the artist say that it contains references to a labour-intensive wrapping process? The artist motive for making this beer bar came from seeing a documentary on a meat-factory. This factory made one big piece of meat out of little pieces of meat by gluing it together. Afterwards it was being presented as one big rump steak.
"What I find very interesting about this is the way that people deal with information. Something is not what it seems to be - Marloes Ten Bhomer"

This work by artist Marloes Ten Bhomer stands as an example on how social and individual percepts can be taken for granted in everyday design. The artist usually revisits these percepts and sometimes codifies them into material form. Last year I gave a lecture on semiotic principles for practical design that takes in consideration the visual aesthetic production process from the perception, the conception, the inception and the reception of information. I see a lot of table top interfaces in interaction design. Their references should be made clearer. It would strengthen the definition and context of the project and clarify their research goals. I find the analysis of this process very useful to organize how social and individual percepts are codified into material form.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
.............................................

Playstation human sculptures

Sculpture in perforated steel with sections upholstered in felt

Designers came up with a landscape of concept furniture derived from the statue-like forms of people sitting, standing or leaning against walls engaged in playing the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The result is "sculptural and machine-like". Each piece contains a PSP unit and users are encouraged to step inside these structures to play, the idea being to create an individual gaming experience while allowing for interaction with other gamers in other pieces using the PSP’s wi-fi capabilities.

Inspired by gaming, after the Nintendo Wii, the Wii-fit is coming. Also check the new hypnotic video-ad for playstation!




Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
.............................................

Robotic furniture design part II

The Meeraboo FL-1 a floor lamp with white curvilinear shapes fused with linear components, teardrop shaped feet on thin white legs, and illuminated golden interiors!

I wrote about Victor Vetterlein's work on robotic furniture design. He recently sent me his latest explorations. Same color palette!

The Meeraboo FL-1 floor lamp is 60 inches (152.4cm) in height, and 24 inches (61 cm) wide. The body of the lamp is fiberglass with a high gloss white finish. The interior is gold leaf. An electric cord passes through a rear leg of the lamp to supply an internal adjustable light source, and a removable panel on the side of the lamp provides access to the inside. The FL-1 is designed to cast light downward in order to reflect light off the floor plain.

Airbed

Airbed, an artificial lung and breathing mattress, is constructed from clear polythene and chromed waste plugs. It is a hybrid object borrowing language from the bedroom and the bathroom. An intermittent air supply feed into one end of the mattress bringing the bed to life. Audible bursts of air are sent down a plastic windpipe, mimicking a sleeping body.

Sketch furniture

Sketch furniture by Front allows sketching onto space to become an object.

Motion Capture translates motions into 3D-files and are used in this project to simply record the tip of a pen when people draw pieces of furniture in the air. Rapid Prototyping is a technique that materializes 3D-files. A laser beam builds the 3D-file layer by layer within a liquid plastic material. Every 0.1mm the liquid harden by a laser beam. After a few hours, the 3D-files come out as materialized pieces. The Sketch Furniture project in Japan is made in collaboration with Barry Friedman Ltd. Tokyo Wonder Site Aoyama and Crescent.

Bendable interior objects

Yanko Design announced tha launch of BIO in September 2007, Bendable interior objects (BIO) comes in the form of a flat bag. Objects are laser cut in recyclable aluminium and ready to be assembled.