This work comes from the IDEA course Experimental Connections, taught by Barak Asher. The class focused on "the many potential technologies and materials that can be reassembled to create new meanings" and then asked students to develop their own connections through a process of physical exploration.
Pictured above are "Pinch" by Emi Schenkelback (researching the effect of metal pins on a soft textile), "Squashed and Broken" by Yuri Movshovich (embedding a polymer joint into wood) and "Slope" by Yuval Star (a balloon exploration of blowing glass into molds).
A lot more pics, projects and descriptions after the jump.
Material Short Stories is a new project from Core contributor Aart Van Bezooyen (author of the Material Stories Newsletter ) and designer Tim Oelker. Manufacturers, design agencies or individual designers can subscribe to this service in order "to advance their product with innovative materials."
This consultancy takes the form of a publication, offered at a fixed subscription fee. Instead of receiving a magazine, however, each client receives a pamphlet produced especially in response to a submitted concept.
After receiving a concept from a client by email, Bezooyen and Oelker will select five innovative materials, sketch out how they might be applied, and send back a booklet of material information, sketches and specs, complete with USB card for digital materials.
A very cool material is Hylite, which is comprised of sheets of aluminum bonded to a polypropylene core. Why bond metal to plastic? Because once you mill off a thin strip of aluminum from either side, boom, you've got a metal sheet with a living hinge.
Hylite is being used to excellent effect by California-based computer accessories maker AviiQ, whose folding Portable Laptop Stand has been named a CES Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Award honoree. Check out how it works, simple and sweet:
Congrats to Manuel Dreesmann who received the first prize at this year's VisionWorks Award - Cargopacks 2020! His future concept GREEN envisions a more sustainable future through vertical gardens that add a green and sustainable skin to future buildings.
The jury says: "The winning concept Green by Manuel Dreesmann stood out for three reasons. It uses no packaging, solves transportation and distribution problems through on-site production, and uses the concept of vertical farming in office buildings as the basis for a future-focused vision that can have a positive impact on the climate and atmosphere at the workplace."
URBAN MOLE by Philipp Hermes was awarded with the 2nd prize, BACS by Mareike Frensemeier and WATER AHEAD by Mathias Rauch both received the 3rd prize.
Cargopacks 2020 is the title of this year's VisionWorks Award. The award challenged young design students from all over Europe to envision and design for future scenarios. The VisionWorks Award was initiated by Bayer MaterialScience in cooperation with Airbus, DHL and Hettich.
The comments are building on Allisson Arieff’s recent piece for The Times entitled “Not New, But Improved.” Here’s a sweet spot:
Many companies are doing the important job of that “messing” by committing to product design for supply-chain management (that is, improving the fit between supply chain capabilities and product designs). Nike has been a trailblazer with their Considered line, developing shoes and apparel that use less material, incorporate sustainable materials like organic cotton and are easier to recycle, and by developing adhesives made from water instead of toxic chemicals. Notably, they’ve open-sourced much of their research, allowing other companies to make use of their advancements.
Though they hold considerably smaller market share, Simple Shoes is also working to make it better, not over, having just introduced a new collection of biodegradable footwear with outsoles and midsoles designed to break down to dirt in a landfill environment in 20 years. Furniture companies like Steelcase and Herman Miller have also been industry leaders in finding ways to replace current materials with more environmentally friendly ones, and creating products imbued with cradle-to-cradle philosophy. More and more companies are open to sharing their discoveries with others, but it’s been a slow-moving process. It needs to be a faster one.
Favorite comment so far: “How about not buying the giraffe at all? Last night, with our four-year-old son, we made a monster out of a few old socks, stuffed with pieces of a worn-out towel that he cut up himself. The exercise gave him some practice using a pair of scissors, and taught him that you don’t need to go to a store to buy a toy. Which is more fun to play with? The soy-based giraffe, or the home-made monster? Which will do more to teach our son creativity?”
Sustainable Minds has just released the first version of their web-based, on-demand life cycle assessment software. Based on the Okala Design Guide 2009, this comprehensive SaaS software encourages the design of greener products by providing information at the beginning of the design process about the potential impacts of material choices on the environment and human health.
Features include optimization for electro-mechanical products; assessment for any portion of the product (whole or subassembly); streamlined use with CAD and PLM systems; 450+ impact factors with CO2 equivalent values; and much, much more.
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You can watch the video demo or look through the comprehensive information available on their website. The cost is $700 for a single user, annual subscription, and a 30-day free trial is available as well.
Looking for some unusual textures? Check out the Prexury Collection by "high-end innovative surfaces" manufacturer Cosentino, a series of countertops made from rare minerals, semi-precious stones and even petrified wood. (Their website also features some cool production shots along with explanations of the exhaustive process by which these slabs are made.)
The shoelace rug is a "happenstantial multiple" (we love that) created by Nate Silverstein and Andrea Paustenbaugh. It moves beneath your feat, creating an ever-changing sculpture that's surprisingly comfortable and engaging. Custom versions are available, but the standard black+white versions start out at 1 meter by 2 meters, and 2 meters by 3 meters. And it's machine washable.
How many laces are in each? Well, we need to finish counting the jelly bean jar first!
There's a great profile of Core-fave Tiffany Threadgould in tomorrow's Consumed column by Rob Walker in The New York Times Magazine. Here's a little scrap:
At some point there would seem to be tension between all this information about how to be a good garbage reuser and the business of, you know, having a business. Then again, Threadgould's educating can be thought of as a form of marketing, much as Martha Stewart and other so-called lifestyle icons offer free projects and advice that sync up with the suite of products and services they happen to sell. Threadgould has appeared on the television show "It's Easy Being Green" and has a book of garbage-themed D.I.Y. projects ("ReMake It!") due out in 2011.
In Threadgould's case, however, she's advancing not just her specific company but also a larger garbage-loving agenda. And as she points out, that agenda flies in the face of the way most of us think about the material goods we're done with--not to mention the overwhelming message of most marketing, which has to do with obtaining the new, not pondering the potential usefulness of the old.
Can't wait for that book! Check out all her stuff at RePlayGround.
In 1996, Dutch engineer Jan Peeters of FibreCore had a problem: They
were designing a footbridge made of composite materials, "But the mould itself was more expensive than the bridge would have been in steel!"
The obvious solution is to get your money's worth out of the mold by using it over and over again--in other words, mass production. Thirteen long years later, FibreCore has managed to do that, using a fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) for their new Delft Design Bridge (rendered above):
The Delft Bridge, a joint venture between Royal Haskoning and FiberCore Europe, makes use of the fact that composite bridges are ideally suited to serial production. The length and width of the bridge deck can be varied to fit each location thanks to the inclusion of a prismatic mid-section in the moulds. Where aesthetics are important, the colour schemes are also customisable, giving a harmonised finish that will blend into different settings.
Jan Peeters explained the bridge material has a stiffness much greater than steel, which means the units are extremely lightweight, can be swiftly manufactured and are very easy to install. No excavations are needed because the bridge doesn't require much in the way of foundations, so installation causes little disruption of the surroundings. This also means that bridges can be easily relocated.
Making the rounds is this video from March--a very nice example of informationalization. "Sending the recipe instead of the dish" as Nathan Shedroff would say, in this case, clothing patterns. "You're still making the same 10 dollars."
New York-based artist Aaakash Nihalani uses tape to create geometric ironies on the street. A nice way to start your week! Nice interview at It's Nice That. Nice.
The sediliegi² chair is a lounge chair for two person, and probably the most romantic winner of this year's One Good Chair competition.
Finalist Helene Cany writes: "I chose a place, near to Turin in Italy, where we can see the Alps. Many lovers come to this square because it is really romantic and the view is beautiful. This chair is made of molded cork. And the cork come from the Italian cork tree. Its shape allows transport easily and to rest comfortably in the sun watching the Alps. The shape is inspired by the cars designed in Turin (Fiat 500 and Ferrari)."
Great to see inspirations, materials, and research coming together. The two other finalists, Andrej Blazon and Azul Cadenas, were inspired by the Daughters of Charity and beautiful estancias houses in Argentina. Watch all chairs here
Las Vegas is your home? Prototypes of the three finalists will be fabricated and presented at the upcoming Las Vegas Market on September 14!
Andrew Duffy, Craig Tyler and Edward Harrison, all students at the University of Rochester, have made their very own rotational moulding machine entirely from scrap materials. Powered by a drill, the machine spins cold-setting bio resins into hollow plastic products.
Images of process and some footage of the machine in action below, and more snapshots after the jump.
Well, on the packaging for legalized marijuana, actually, and you can see all the design solutions at the Print website. Design above from The Heads of State.
Plastic was one of the great innovations of the 20th century, but German scientists believe a new invention, liquid wood, could soon supplant the chemical in terms of everyday usefulness.
"Car parts and other durable items made of this bio-plastic already exist, but the chemical hadn't been suitable for household use until now, due to the high content of sulfurous substances used in separating the lignin from the cell fibers. The German researchers were able to reduce the sulfur content in Arboform by about 90 percent, making it much safer for use in everyday items."
Transmaterial, the online companion to Blaine Brownell's similarly titled book series, has just been relaunched as a highly searchable database of the latest in "materials that redefine our physical environment", designed to better facilitate access to critical developments in the field. For some choice tidbits, check out the Bubble Screen and Super Cilia Skin.
Imagine an I-beam you could carry on your shoulder--you'd be thankful you could haul it without needing a crane, but you probably wouldn't want to build structures out of it, thinking it surely wouldn't be strong enough.
Well--wrong! A new material called LSB, or LiteSteelBeam, is as strong as any hot-rolled steel I-beam, but it's 40% lighter. The result of six years of research and testing, LSB "can be cut, drilled, screwed, bolted, welded, and nailed using standard tools."
Already in use in Australia, LSB is now being manufactured in the U.S.
Researchers at MIT have developed an unusual fabric made from light-sensitive fibers woven into layers. The resultant material essentially acts as a huge, flexible camera, able to capture images (albeit rudimentary ones) of whatever is near it.
"We are saying, 'instead of a tiny, sensitive object [for capturing images], let's construct a large, distributed system,'" said Yoel Fink, researcher leader and Associate Professor of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. "While the current version of these fabrics can only image nearby objects, it can still can see much farther than most shirts can," he added.
With funding coming from multiple sources notably including the Army Research Office and DARPA, the first applications will, surprise surprise, be military-based. But if this tech trickles down to the mainstream, it will redefine the term "fashion photographer."
If there's one thing I hate it's mopping, though I have to do it constantly--with two dogs, my wooden factory floors get filthy quick, particularly when one of them has an "accident." A friend gave me one of those Swifferjet thingies, but it doesn't do anything more than a surface cleaning and is incapable of getting rid of ground-in dirt (or worse).
What I wouldn't give to have a floor made out of (the dorkily-named) Happywood material, which looks like wood, but is actually porcelain stoneware:
Happywood takes the warmth of natural wood and adds the strength of porcelain stoneware: it does not wear, deteriorate or get ruined. The special hardness eliminates streaks and scratches. The surface is compact, it does not stain or absorb. It can be washed and sanitized: no problems, even when using harsh detergents. It is totally un-absorbing and can be installed in wet areas as well.
Produced by Novabell, Happywood's got enough recycled content in it to earn a LEED rating. Learn more about the stuff here.
Recently, I traveled to Frankfurt with a team young designers to visit Material Vision 2009. This excursion is a part of my teachings as visiting professor at the Bremen University of the Arts (HfK Bremen) which focuses on the aesthetics of materials and manufacturing in design.
Material Vision is a biannual trade show showcasing the latest materials and technologies for product developers, designers and architects. I asked the students, or "materials scouts", to share what they liked best. Here's what they found!
Nano-Stone
Forget stone-printed foils, these sheets are made by real slate stone. A special resin makes sure that the stone slates are kept in place. Unlike sculpting heavy rocks, Nano-Stone allows you to work with a flexible and lightweight sheet that is only 0,3 millimeter thin! Website:www.richter-furniertechnik.de
Never mind Google Chrome, let's look at the real stuff.
American designers' love affair with chrome has certainly cooled a bit since the 1950s, but it's still the go-to material when you want to express high-quality plumbing or mechano-fetishism. (Sorry, don't know if that's really a word, I suspect I just made it up.)
But designers who spec out chrome, and who know what goes into making it, might feel a tinge of guilt; the electroplating process required to produce the stuff uses awful chemicals that make for some hazardous waste that can poison groundwater when it's dumped.
Luckily M.I.T. researcher Dr. Christopher Schuh has recently developed a chemically different variation of chrome, sexily named nanocrystalline nickel-tungsten alloy, that gives the shine and the toughness without the environmentally-deadly byproducts. The material is currently being tested out as (what else) truck bumpers, and if it proves to be as tough as its forebear, you'll one day be washing your hands from a tap made out of the stuff.
In other chrome news, here's a picture of a tasteful chrome Mercedes from that bastion of subtlety, Dubai:
It's scary to think an entire generation of us reading this was raised on baby bottles made with BPA (bisphenol-A), an estrogen-mimicking ingredient of hard polycarbonate plastic. BPA is thought to be a carcinogen.
A new product slated to hit the market in late July is the Weil Baby Bottle, which uses a new copolymer called Tritan. Developed by Eastman Chemical Company, Tritan has the qualities of hard plastic that you need in a reusable bottle--clarity, toughness, and dishwasher-machine-weathering heat-resistance--without the BPA.
The Weil Baby Bottle's launch is still about a month away, so their website hasn't gone live yet. Images are still scarce, but you can expect to see it cropping up on parenting blogs in 30 days or so. In the meantime, materials geeks can learn more about the Tritan stuff, which should be cropping up shortly in consumer and medical products, here.
DUTCH DESIGN WEEK 2009
PRAGUE DESIGN DAYS 2009
LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 2009
GIZMODO GALLERY 2009
EUROBIKE 2009
MAKER FAIRE AFRICA
NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL GIFT FAIR
ISTANBUL DESIGN WEEKEND 2009
BAUHAUS SUMMER SCHOOL 2009
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