Monitor » Materials

Satura

Paula — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 10:00:40 +0000

Within the ”Plus Edition 2011″ of the swiss Ruckstuhl we wish to point out Satura by Alfredo Häberli a delicate yet functional modular rug, a composition of natural colours and geometrical cuts, made out of 100% pure new wool (wool felt).

Jamal, another creation of Häberli dated 2005.

Magis

Paula — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:19:20 +0000

In these difficult times for the industry Magis, and its inspiring stand, shone during the design week in Milan. Showing new products, proposing new ideas and even materials.
Featured here are a couple of “Cyborgs” by Marcel Wanders, like the original ones, these chairs are the combination of both artificial and natural systems.

Zartan by Starck & Quitllet , is a promise of a natural daily future, a chair resulting from the use of elemental materials, such as bamboo, linen, hemp, with a high ecological technology. The reminder of an old post: Artek and UPM ProFi is not completely casual, and we hope for more developments.

Last but not least Vigna by Martino Gamper, like a climbing plant the Magis wire swirl creates a structural feature which supports the chair leg. The seat is in bi-injection-moulded plastic, a technology allowing to obtain a seat pattern in many combinations of double colours.

Wooden-plastic joints.

Paula — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:27:26 +0000

During the Furniture Fair in Milan 2010, in 3 different locations, 3 different designers, 2 materials getting together, plastic and wood. Not with glue neither with nails, they are joined through a molding process that makes the components interlace each other, creating a unique body.

Elastic wood by Gil Sheffi (another Bezalel’s Academy of art and design student) from bakery-design is the first one of the 3 examples.

Jonas Trampedach showed in Hotel RCA his Folding chair.

Closing the examples with these crates exhibited at the Ecal Design, they have the same concept, but in a subtle way (in means of size), the joints are little coloured plastic details, that hold the wooden pieces together.

Marbleous Garden, Oversize

Paula — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:18:00 +0000

When you see the oversize garden designed with Marsotto, Testi Fratelli, Budri, Grassi Pietre (Marmomacc-Veronafiere) you immediately realise it was designed by a woman, and when looking for a name it comes with no surprise: Patricia Urquiola.
The collection of pieces, originally conceived for Landscape by Rosenthal, is made out of natural materials such as marble, stone and onyx, illuminated to enhance the harmonies of contrasts not just on light and dark, but also different textures , patterns and carved bas-reliefs.

Green pockets

Paula — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:43:08 +0000

This project is obviously one of the winners in our Bucolic Empowerment category, these simple and beautiful plant pot/tiles by Maruja Fuentes not only allow you to bring nature into your home, they are also made of recycled materials, and can be placed in different configurations according to your vertical garden design.

Wood is everywhere

Paula — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:31:09 +0000

Wood, laminated wood, is always a great option to express your creativity, especially when a reduced budget doesn’t allow the use of particular machinery. The results, depending on the designer can be exhilarating, or just boring. But from a wide range of products, starting with the stand’s decoration, passing through lamps and furniture (these last ones being a more elaborated version, than simply dye cutting and joining) here below are some examples of the diffused use of laminated wood during this past year.
Hoping to see the developments in the case of the school projects, and fresh and new products in the shops.

Stands

Lamps

Extras
The pieces seen here come mostly from design schools: the french V.I.A., the Dutch Design Academy Eindhoven with the artEZ; and in the “Salone Satelite” Milan 2009.

Every bag counts

Paula — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:33:32 +0000

Campaigns like “one less plastic bag a day” on Facebook, talk about the daily awareness, we are all getting, on the state of our natural resources.
Daily life without harming the environment results in a difficult task nowadays, using: our cars, hot water, wrappings, cling-film, fashion, nappies, takeaways, all those simple and practical friends from “the disposable culture” that make our life so easy, they are priceless, indeed, we are paying a price for them that is ever so high, none of us would believe it (look at the pacific rubbish island, the weather changes, not to mention allergies and infertility ranges) and it will be like that for many generations if we don’t start taking the problem of our “disposable” life style seriously from now on.
The alternatives are not always, beautiful, quick or easy, but taking some time to choose, we can find a wide range of green products and services, some examples:
- Bamboo Eco Friendly Disposable nappies from Denmark or even better, baby cloth nappies with delivery/cleaning service in the UK.
- Biodegradable and compostable shopping bags and packagings, like Italian bottled water Sant’Anna with its Biobottle, made in Ingeo™ biopolymer. Or a personal reusable “Not a Paper Cup” by Chartreuse
- Another choice are the beautiful reusable designed shopping bags, becoming more common every day, two examples I’ve just seen at Macef are: • Stelton’s from Denmark, the case works as a handle (to carry a heavy 10kg load), washable at 30° “without soap”.
• Envirosax® “Chic, inexpensive and compact bags”, the different ranges from the Organic Series (“manufactured from natural materials including viscose from bamboo, linen and a fine grade hemp, as well as recently introduced organic cotton”) to the kids or graphic series; all designed thinking about the environment, and to make us happy when going greener.

Antler by Nendo

Paula — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:23:12 +0000

Without doubt Nendo‘s low armchair, designed for Cappellini, is one of the best examples, belonging to our “Bucolic Empowerment” category. The choice of the very natural materials: wool or leather for the seat and solid ash wood for the frame; and needless to mention the ”fauna call” evidentiated on the back frame.

Sleek thin layered materials Seats

Paula — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:47:35 +0000

Three chairs, with a common style: simplicity, not just visually, but going down to materials, oak, ash, raw wool, leather, all disposed in thin layers; nothing to hide, a frame with a very “materic” shell.

From left to right:
- Brio: by Mikiya Kobayashi for Covo - Bac: by Jasper Morrison for Cappellini - El: by Antonio Citterio for B&B

Artek and UPM ProFi

Paula — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:58:30 +0000

Artek 10-UNIT SYSTEM

When I first came across “UPM ProFi” two years ago, in the Triennale museum of Milan, there wasn’t something really captivating about it. Artek’s pavilion, in the middle of the gardens, was built out of these bricks, made in a new composite material, recycled, water resistant (See the last picture on this entry, of one I still have on my shelf).

It was just in a “aperitivo fuori salone”, talking to Liliana, that I realised it is the same material (enriched with colour and design) Shigeru Ban, used then for the pavilion and now for the 10-UNIT SYSTEM, the proposal for Artek at the “Salone del Mobile 2009″. Based on an “L” shaped module, that can be easily assembled to build chairs, benches, tables. The simplicity of this project is not just the module, but the material: UPM ProFi

Made mostly of recycled wood and plastic, “UPM ProFi” is a sustainable material, that produces almost no waste during it’s production process; although its not biodegradable, it can be recycled several times into the raw material and so produce more “UPM ProFi” products; and its high environmental resistance, makes it a perfect choice for external uses.

Artek 10-UNIT SYSTEM