The ongoing collection „Our New Apartment“ is a radical assemblage of prefabricated components and selective laser sintered Polyamide parts. The self-engineered Polyamide parts and the semi-finished materials enhance a clarity of purpose wholly dedicated to usage.

The Investigation of Selective Laser Sintering on ordinary objects should draw conclusions of the visual and technical qualities of this undeveloped material.

Don’t forget to check out their amazing selection of inspirational pictures at their website.

(via designboom)

The OS (OpenStructures) project explores the possibility of a modular construction model where everyone designs for everyone on the basis of one shared geometrical grid. It initiates a kind of collaborative Meccano to which everybody can contribute parts, components and structures.

Shared grid:

Example of a structure:

(via dezeen)

- me

- Oliver Gassmann, Institute of Technological Management, St. Gallen

Visit me on architonic

- Cerré from 2 or 3 things I know

Industrial design looks sideways towards the art of the craftsman. Design has become fascinated by the process by which hand-made objects come into being, because that process can absorb every tiny fraction of aesthetic quality and incorporate it. With every detail it gives meaning to things and magically creates a history for the resultant whole. For users, however, it offers the chance to be aware of the authenticity of things.

- Trendboard of imm cologne 2010 (Johanna Grawunder, Cecilie Manz, Marcus Fairs, Bertjan Pot and Giulio Ridolfo)

The imaginary farm becomes an ideal playground for designers. It demonstrates that authenticity can look refreshingly different from the well-trodden paths of Bauhaus. Through the interplay of a more intense awareness of the physical properties of materials, hand decoration and rustic forms, objects emerge with a dramatic quality that is hitherto unknown. With their narrative qualities, they go far beyond the poverty of expression exhibited by products cast in the die of industrial manufacture.

- Trendboard of imm cologne 2010 (Johanna Grawunder, Cecilie Manz, Marcus Fairs, Bertjan Pot and Giulio Ridolfo)

Putting a piece of furniture together has, up to now, given the consumer a chance of a little physical self-awareness in an increasingly incorporeal world. Now the page has turned: the forms and materials that inhabit the world of the hobbyist DIY enthusiast have become the paradigm for the professionals.  With simple, yet intelligent creations, designers are breaking the bonds imposed by the modular furniture systems that we have come to know so well up until now.

- Trendboard of imm cologne 2010 (Johanna Grawunder, Cecilie Manz, Marcus Fairs, Bertjan Pot and Giulio Ridolfo)

Portrait on Nicola from Bern in «arhitectura»

Finally I managed to have an original copy of arhitectura (#73, April 2009), the leading Romanian magazine on architecture and design. The portrait on me is a true boost for the self-esteem of a young designer like me. Besides the article full of praise, my name even appears on the magazine’s cover right next to Mies van der Rohe!

Read the full article by Radu Comsa:

The Portrait of Nicola from Bern seems the most appropriate for a preview of Milan 2009 since how glamorous or severe it will be remains to be seen. Nicola was without any doubt the best exhibitor at Salone Satellite 2008 and he should have caught by now the attention of the specialized press and in particular of the big dream furniture manufacturers. That is to say if Salone Satellite takes seriously its role of instant official springboard for those who really deserve a career in design. The reason why Nicola should have been noticed is the fact the since the great Achille Castiglioni I have not met any other designer who should be so in touch with the essence of things, in an ad-hoc deconstruction which makes him reach simple and wonderful results using unconventional means.
A year ago I included two of his products – Phasmatodea and Accordion – in the column dedicated to Milan 2008. Phasmatodea is a shape-object, apparently useless at first sight, but anybody can find many useful positions for this object in the specific bathroom backgrounds thus replacing the “cheap” hangers and hooks which only end up falling off the wall. And the Accordion wardrobe is not only innovative (and we are speaking about a major innovation here) through a mobile design that allows the access of the user from any angle, but it may be also read as a reference to the chaste ritual of the beach cubicule, while keeping everything remarkably simple.
These were the last year products; in the mean time, Nicola from Bern enriched his portfolio with more items designed according to the same rare recipe based on simple and practical objects. Thus, Trestle, a table which is decompesed and recomposed at the same time, is in fact a functional essay on the concept of “table” seen in all its meanings. The four legs are detachable and elastically joined together, which ensures the flexibility of the table position on a more problematic floor or the table immediate mounting and dismounting. And if the legs are positioned in a maximum opening position, the table becomes very rigid.
Trapeze is a shoe support, a humble object which got the attention of very few designers lately. Trapeze is module-based, it is flexible and exactly what you need for an object which is automatically placed in the most disagreeable locations in the house.
And Coathook (he did not even bother to find a commercial name for it) is a hook which brings flexibility and in particular elasticity in the very humble space dedicated to coat hanging. Why not? In the end what matters is the functional aspect and Coathook does its job brilliantly, with the utmost simplicity.
A simplicity which, I have to emphasize, I have not met since Achille Castiglioni.

Get your copy here.

Achille Castiglioni