Industrial Design

[FunTimePartyTeam]

awesome

[travolta]

paullw, even if they are considered a giant evil corportion blah blah... i actually think they are quite innovative. for instance, the nike promotional videos as 'experiential' ads.

http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums...ad.php?t=29117

[travolta]

thanks for link! the whole A-Z project seems very sound minded.

i liked how they used their surrounding resources to design life sustaining objects such as clothing, and shelter.

i liked this quote

The area and its history represent a very poignant clash of human idealism, the harshness of the desert climate and the vast distances that it places in between people.

i also liked the single strand uniforms.

After the creation of the A-Z Single Strand Uniforms (which reducing the “tools of production” to simply crocheting strands of yarn directly off of ones fingers), A-Z next began to consider the strands of wool and how these could also be in some way reduced or simplified to a more "elemental" form. What if one could make a dress directly out of the fiber itself? A period of experimentation resulted in a technique where washed and carded wool is "felted" directly into the shape of a shirt or dress. Because the clothing is made as one piece there are no seams, and if needed one can use a safety pin to position the garment correctly on the body.

[travolta]

very cool



Raugh Furniture Prototype #1

In 1998 Andrea Zittel moved back to her home state of California, leaving behind her home and finely honed showroom testing grounds in NY, which she called “The A-Z.” For the previous eight years she had been working to create a complete world that incorporated all of the elements of day to day living from the clothing that she wore to the food that she ate. Everything seemed to dovetail together perfectly into a seamless system – one which was neat, compact and complete.


But the transition to California led to many challenges. Life became bigger, messier and a lot more difficult to streamline. In short, it became impossible to “A-Z” her new life – so she did what she has always done in situations like this and assessed the new circumstances and created an ideology (and corresponding design) to embrace them.


Raugh is the term that describes this new lifestyle. Although it is pronounced “raw”, it doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing. While “Raw” suggests a more natural or original state, “Raugh” on the other hand actually means the way that something becomes naturally “undone” over time and as the result of repeated lived experience. Our house is really “Raugh” these days, and it feels great. Raugh plays with the idea of “natural order” and the way that the most progressive designs start out by looking backwards towards a more original or pure state of being.


There are many “Rules of Raugh”, some of which include:
• Raugh is absolutely comfortable
• Instead of being easy to clean, a Raugh surface absorbs or camouflages dirt rather than reveals it
• Since everything will ultimately break down or wear out, a Raugh design must deteriorate beautifully
• Something Raugh doesn’t require an “expert” to make it

Andrea Zittel’s Raugh living environments are large, soft sculpted arrangements that look like landscapes or rock formations. From a distance they sometimes look like realistic granite, but upon a closer viewing look rough, like the raw foam that they are made from. The beauty of Raugh relies on our own evolved social codes that identify and contextualize the designs in our day-to-day lives such as furniture, architecture and clothing. For instance, a few years ago an anthropological study describing how sitting in a chair is actually not the most anatomically comfortable resting position for the human body. But because of social codes (Egyptian rulers sat in chairs, which meant that they had special status) we all think that chairs are just fine. The sense of correctness remains, but the moral and social content/intent has been forgotten.

[travolta]

zittel's use of paper pulp to creating structures for living reminds me of the architect shigeru ban.



paper church



He Builds With a Really Tough Material: Paper
By BELINDA LUSCOMBE


There are a few ineluctable facts about buildings. They are expensive, time consuming and labor intensive to make. They are strongest if built from the sturdiest materials. Well, no, on all counts. Japanese architect Shigeru Ban has built homes, pavilions and churches, some of them permanent, using little more than cardboard tubes. "I was interested in weak materials," says Ban, 42. "Whenever we invent a new material or new structural system, a new architecture comes out of it." Ironically, Ban may be closer to the old modernist ideals than many who build today in glass and steel. He wants beauty to be attainable by the masses, even the poorest. Ban first began to use the tubes in the '80s, in exhibitions. Impressed by the material's load-bearing capacity (he calls cardboard "improved wood"), he thought of them again in 1995, after the Kobe earthquake, and used donated 34-ply tubes to build a community hall and houses.



Working with the U.N., Ban has shipped paper log houses to Turkey and Rwanda. "Refugee shelter has to be beautiful," he says. "Psychologically, refugees are damaged. They have to stay in nice places." But it's not all about utility. Ban has managed to turn ugly-duckling cardboard into some gorgeous swans. The Japanese pavilion he created for this year's EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Germany, is a huge undulating grid of paper tubes enclosed, like a covered wagon, with a paper canopy. A nine-ton, 87-ft.-long lattice arch of tubes currently swoops over the garden at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, casting a thatch of ever changing shadows. Ban's designs touch the earth lightly in more ways than one. After EXPO 2000, his pavilion will be shipped to a recycling center to be returned to the pulp from whence it came. Just try that with bricks.


http://www.time.com/time/innovators/...ofile_ban.html


he also designed one of my favorite houses ever. the curtain wall house.

[travolta]

paper log house



each house's foundation was made of sand - filled beer cases



the units occupied 16 mq each and had an 'acceptable'
appearance. the beer cases were rented from the
manufacturer and were also used to form steps during
the construction process.
even in these circumstances of great need,
ban's ever-present sense of humor was evident in
his description of his choice of 'kirin' beer crates over
those of a rival company, because their yellow color
harmonized better with the brown of the paper tubes

http://www.designboom.com/history/ban_paper.html

another shot of the paper church



a slightly different construction was used to build a
church.
as a result of the earthquake, the takatori church
in kobe burned down. the paper church has been
constructed in only 5 weeks by 160 church volunteers.

[travolta]

his paper furniture





paper tube daybed by shigeru ban
manufacturer cappellini,
italy, 1998

btw. i have to show more pics of the curtain wall house!

[travolta]

honey-pop by tokujin yoshioka



created from a two dimensional build up of 120 pieces
of glassine paper which are glued together and precisely cut.
the structure is then opened forming a strong three
dimensional honeycomb structure.

[travolta]

Eva Zeisel
salt and pepper shakers 1946

[travolta]

....

[travolta]

speaker made of dried bread
http://www.designboom.com/contest/vi...em_pk=2612&p=1

[travolta]

second hand toys turned instead out. reappropriation.



http://www.designboom.com/contest/vi...em_pk=1042&p=1

[orlem]

Can you explain the honey-pop? Is it just a strong material?

[FunTimePartyTeam]

I want one!

[travolta]

^ i just saw the link jameson sent me of the chairs. really great stuff...






http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/pantone.html