The upcoming issue #5 of Apartamento will be featuring my most recent project «Rearranged». Join the launch event at Foodmarketo in Milan on Tuesday April 13th.

Read the article after the jump.

Lately, someone asked me: why does an architect who wants to make a living as a product designer work as a bike messenger?

I actually remember my first 6 months after graduating working in an architect’s office as a frustrating experience. Drawing plans all day wasn’t what I expected. When I quit, I decided to live my two passions: product design and biking. Working as a bike messenger pushes me to stay in touch with a certain reality and be exposed to a group of people that also decided for a certain lifestyle, that is, values over money and ideas over status. Everyone there has a different background and experiences, which is critical to what I do. Also, biking is like breathing for me so, when I’m around the city, I feel free to work in my head and all the best ideas come when I’m riding under the snow or with frozen fingers.

I always ask myself: Why launch new products yearly, if well-proven designs exist? Rearranged is an attempt to answer that question. It represents an attitude, not a finished product. I’m aware that today, the need for new is part of the consumer’s DNA so my proposal is to create a way of satisfying the desire for innovation in a sustainable way. Let’s continue to use those existing things which work well and have been accepted by a large number of users and we can fulfill our need for novelty by changing it there where possible.

In this case, I chose the Eames Plastic Chair because it follows the idea of focusing efforts and investment where it makes sense: the shell. This is the permanent and durable part that everyone would recognize and where the value is. However, the base remains the exchangeable element that would create a new object when rearranged.

The Eames are a reference to every designer because they were real entrepreneurs who tested, tried out and ventured. That is exactly what I try to do. It is not the expression of the object what guides me but to work on materials with my own hands. I’m not working on a proper, typical creative expression. I rather cultivate a scientific approach. As an architect, I recognize that if manufacturing, materials, statics and ecology are adjusted, then all variables coincide optimally and the form takes a compelling shape. I’m not the first one to rethink design but I try to bring it to a level of authenticity that will speak to many people by creating cross-references.

As in my day to day, all my designs serve the choice of flexibility and lifestyles that are not bound to a place or time. I’m not into artistic interventions that trigger big intellectual thinking but more into intervening reality in a constructive way. The real proof for a design is when the object is brought to a real level and becomes tangible. Additionally, I also want to offer the potential consumer an alternative, a choice. My furniture relates to people that change and rearrange their lives many times and that wish to have an active role in the design. The more a product is adaptable and transformable, the more sustainable it is and that is at the core of what I do.

So, I guess the answer to the initial question is: because it helps me to keep it real.

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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.

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Achille Castiglioni

by Silvia Barbero and Brunella Cozzo: “Sustainable design is the common thread that links the items illustrated in ecodesign. From household appliances to means of transport, clothing to home fittings and packaginng to advertising campaigns, more than 100 products divided into eight categories demonstrate the incredible results achieved at the international level by state-of-the-art design in pursuing sustainability.”

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Design Revolution (by Emily Pilloton) features more than 100 contemporary design products and systems–safer baby bottles, a high-tech waterless washing machine, low-cost prosthetics for landmine victims, Braille-based Lego-style building blocks for blind children, wheelchairs for rugged conditions, sugarcane charcoal, universal composting systems, DIY soccer balls–that are as fascinating as they are revolutionary, this exceptionally smart, friendly and well-designed volume makes the case for design as a tool to solve some of the world’s biggest social problems in beautiful, sustainable and engaging ways–for global citizens in the developing world and in more developed economies alike. Particularly at a time when the weight of climate change, global poverty and population growth are impossible to ignore, Pilloton challenges designers to be changemakers instead of «stuff creators». Urgent and optimistic, a compendium and a call to action, Design Revolution is easily the most exciting design publication to come out this year.

Follow Emily and her Design Revolution Road Show on Twitter.

www.foldschool.com

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Papercraft is an extensive survey on the insatiable trend of innovative art and design work crafted from paper. It explores the astounding possibilities of paper and gathers the most extraordinary creations – from small objects and figures to large-scale art installations and urban interventions as well as three-dimensional graphic sculptures from a vast spectrum of artistic disciplines ranging from character design, urban art, fine art, graphic design, illustration, fashion, animation and film. The book also includes a DVD with fun DIY printable templates for creating your own paper characters and toys as well as a curated selection of the best stop-motion animations.

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by Petra Schmidt and Nicola Stattmann: “In Unfolded – Paper in Design, Art, Architecture and Industry paper conquers the third dimension and demonstrates the undreamed-of possibilities it holds today for lightweight construction, product design, fashion and art. The book presents paper as a high-quality contemporary and ecological material in numerous projects. A comprehensive directory of state-of-the-art paper products and innovative paper technologies give detailed information on the “high-tech” material paper. From Japanese washi paper and paper foam, to ceramic paper and carbon fiber paper, “Unfolded” presents the latest in research and development, as well as the most important methods and technologies in handcrafts and industry.”

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Thanks again Wallpaper for the great shots of Trapeze!

Tactile shows how graphic design is moving into three-dimensional objects and products. The innovative examples documented in the book demonstrate how designers are developing and implementing their ideas spatially from the very outset of a project. Tactile proves that spatial innovation in graphic design is not limited to personal work or artistic endeavours, but is being sought out more and more often by commercial clients, for example, in store design.

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