#autobob

[n0wg0t0]

#HTE Using Plastic Off-Cuts as Templates for Paper Off-Cuts

Two companies are collaborating to combine their waste into something useful. Japan's Plastics Co. Ltd. manufactures products out of acrylic sheets, while Ito Design Studio creates paper products. Both companies produce a lot of off-cuts.

The idea is to turn Plastics Co's off-cuts into templates, that can then be used to trace fold- and cut-lines onto paper off-cuts from Ito Design Studio.

Sadly, none of the resultant objects are terribly useful: A dried snacks holder, a business card holder and some fancy envelopes. But I applaud the thinking behind the concept, and the objects might be fun for children to make.

The line of templates is called Kimochi no Katachi ("the feeling of the shape") and it has its own Instagram account.

https://www.core77.com/posts/112036/Using-Plastic-Off-Cuts-as-Templates-for-Paper-Off-Cuts

[n0wg0t0]

#HTE Industrial Design Student Work: María Ruiz Cozcolluela's Multipurpose Furniture Unit

This Kami furniture piece is by María Ruiz Cozcolluela, done as her Industrial Design Masters thesis at Switzerland's University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The concept is intended to start out as children's furniture, but to offer new utility and thus remain relevant as the child grows.

Assembly is simple, as the unit consists of relatively few parts:

"Kami is a versatile furniture system that adapts to the different needs of a family and grows along with the children. The system is designed to allow that its elements can be rearranged in different positions. It can be used as a toy box, children's shelf, changing table, children's table, desk, wardrobe or as a shoe rack. "

The idea of having different modules that can plug into the frame, to increase the piece's longevity, is a good one; I could see Ikea selling a version of this.

https://www.core77.com/posts/115574/Industrial-Design-Student-Work-Mar%C3%ADa-Ruiz-Cozcolluelas-Multipurpose-Furniture-Unit

[n0wg0t0]

#HTE Reader Submitted: Newtons - a hand crafted sculpture using magnets to create tension

We always aim for "seemingly natural unnatural beauty." Although several products use magnets, their surfaces need to be flat for adsorption. However, what is innovative about Newtons is that the adsorption surface of the objects has been transformed into a perfect curve. Therefore, "fluctuation" occurs, and the surface does not remain stable while adsorbing with the exact appropriate strength. The fluctuating characteristic makes the objects, i.e., Newtons, seem like they are alive, creating a mild sense of discomfort with regard to space. Newtons may even become "a piece of everyday art." Coincidence and necessity create a free form.

newtons_1

newtons_2

newtons_3

newtons_4

newtons_5

newtons_6

newtons_7

newtons_8

View the full project here https://www.core77.com/projects/115768/Newtons-a-hand-crafted-sculpture-using-magnets-to-create-tension

[n0wg0t0]

#HTE Reader Submitted: Disco Compacto 3d printed chair

The Disco Compacto Chair emerged from a desire to create something beautiful, unique, and sustainable that would challenge our relationship with furniture.

Dicco Compacto Chair

angle

assembly

back structure

View the full project here https://www.core77.com/projects/115765/Disco-Compacto-3d-printed-chair

[n0wg0t0]

#HTE Ex-Dyson Designers Create Bee-Friendly Brick to Increase Pollination

As designers working for Dyson, UK-based Kate and Gavin Christman worked for a company dedicated to keeping indoor spaces clean. But now the Christmans have started their own company, Green&Blue, and it's dedicated to attracting bugs to our homes.

To explain, the Christmans observed something familiar to those who live in old homes and spend lots of time outside: Certain bee species (red masons, leafcutters) are solitary creatures who live alone, often finding narrow spaces in damaged bricks or crumbling mortar in which to nest and lay eggs. Because these bees are solitary, they are not part of aggressive swarms that live in hives, but they do perform the pollinating tasks necessary to keep a healthy ecosystem going. In other words, you want them around.

What the Christmans realized is that newly-constructed homes, with perfect bricks and freshly-pointed mortar, provide no crevices for these bees to thrive. So they invented the Bee Brick, a simple Swiss-cheese take on regular bricks, with the idea that you'd sprinkle a few of these throughout every new home build.

"We recognized the scale of construction happening across the globe," Gavin told Homecrux, "and thought if every one of those houses could make space for nature we could see real change in habitat."

"Bee Brick™ is solid at the back and has moulded cavities where the bees will lay their eggs, sealing the entrance with mud or chewed up vegetation. Offspring emerge in the Spring and begin the process of nesting again, repeating the cycle."

Green&Blue is based in Cornwall, which has a clay industry manufacturing Cornish China. The Christmans use that industry's concrete waste to comprise up to 75% of each brick.

After learning of the Christman's product, municipal authorities in both Brighton and Hove passed a law requiring all new home construction to incorporate Bee Bricks.

https://www.core77.com/posts/113471/Ex-Dyson-Designers-Create-Bee-Friendly-Brick-to-Increase-Pollination

[n0wg0t0]

#HTE Austrian Product Designer Revives a Classic Café Object

The coffee ritual of today: Go to Starbucks, drink your coffee, read fake news on your smartphone, play some Candy Crush, be shitty to someone on Twitter.

In the traditional Viennese coffee house, however, the ritual was very different. Here's an excerpt from Robert Edward Norton's "Secret Germany: Stefan George and His Circle:"

The café was, as [writer] Stefan Zweig memorably described it, "actually a sort of democratic club, open to everyone for the price of a cheap cup of coffee, where every guest can sit for hours with this little offering, to talk, write, play cards, receive post, and above all consume an unlimited number of newspapers and journals."

In the best coffee houses one could find, Zweig said, "all of the Viennese papers and not just the Viennese ones, but also those from the entire German Empire and the French, English, Italian and American ones as well, in addition to all of the important literary and artistic magazines of the world…."

"…the opportunity the coffee house provided [was] of informing oneself so comprehensively about all of the events in the world and at the same time discussing them within a friendly a familiar circle."

About those newspapers: Go to an Austrian coffee house today, and you may spot something odd attached to them.

Image: Kurt Forstner

Image: Andreas Praefcke

You may also have seen those in a fancy hotel. Those are Viennese newspaper holders. (What were the Austrians going to do, touch the paper with their bare hands, and get that ink flavor all over their strudel? Nein.)

"In an increasingly digital world, the newspaper holder is an anachronism and an artifact of deceleration," writes Austrian product designer Thomas Poganitsch. Yet "The newspaper is still an important, public instrument for imparting knowledge. It is traditionally available free of charge in the coffee house - and there is a wide variety of it. The newspaper culture in the café is at the same time the door to differentiated opinion-forming."

Upon observing that newspaper holders were disappearing, Poganitsch's eponymous design firm revived them. "Until a few years ago, an old basket weaver from the Vienna area supplied coffee houses, regular customers and private enthusiasts with his newspaper holders. The family business has been manufacturing and supplying the holders since 1867, and at the age of 90 the owner finally ceased operations.

"Thomas Poganitsch has taken over some of these tools and machines. In this way, we ensure that the products continue to be produced with the same quality and authenticity. And that a piece of Viennese history remains alive and accessible to people. It's no longer just about practicality when reading large sheets of paper: Original Viennese newspaper holders are a reminder of an almost forgotten time and a tradition of craftsmanship."

Pognanitsch now manufactures and sells them in multiple sizes.

https://www.core77.com/posts/109748/Austrian-Product-Designer-Revives-a-Classic-Caf%C3%A9-Object

[n0wg0t0]

#HTE An Ikea Living Room from Each Decade, 1950s to Today

Fun project: Look through Ikea catalogs from each decade, starting in the 1950s. Pick your favorite furniture pieces, then render up a living room that incorporates them.

A company called Household Quotes (which is something like a UK-based Angi's List) did just that, hiring Neomam Studios to take care of the renderings. Here are the results:

1950s

Prices (in 2021 Dollars)

1960s

Prices (in 2021 Dollars)

1970s

Prices (in 2021 Dollars)

1980s

Prices (in 2021 Dollars)

1990s

Prices (in 2021 Dollars)

2000s

Prices (in 2021 Dollars)

2010s

Prices (in 2021 Dollars)

2020s

Prices (in 2021 Dollars)

How about that Eames knock-off in the '90s? I bet Ikea received some faxes from HM lawyers.

https://www.core77.com/posts/110296/An-Ikea-Living-Room-from-Each-Decade-1950s-to-Today

[n0wg0t0]

#HTE A Look at Some Wild 1980s Digital Dashboards

Not too long ago, automotive interior designers had to integrate certain features into dashboards that would seem strange today: A keyed ignition switch, a cigarette lighter, an ashtray. They also didn't need to make space for modern mainstays like airbags and touchscreens, which gave them more real estate to play with.

That wasn't necessarily a good thing; in the '80s, everyone became infatuated with flashy "digital" displays, led by the Japanese and the Italians, as well as the production designers of the 1982 hit show "Knight Rider." The purpose of these dashboards was apparently to dazzle rather than design a manageable user experience. Here are some examples, in no particular order:

1985 Citroen BX Digit (designed by Marcello Gandini)

It is so strange to see how much negative space there is in the steering wheel. Not that you would, but there's enough space to reach through the wheel to get the key.

1987 Cadillac Eldorado

Are there enough buttons on the lower-center console?

1986 Toyota Soarer (Japanese-market progenitor of the Lexus SC)

The cigarette light's right next to the steering wheel, and just past it is the ashtray. The dream car for a chain smoker.

1979 Volvo Tundra concept car (also designed by Marcello Gandini)

How hilarious is it to see the "hi-tech" dash up top, and at the lower left, just above the clutch, a choke lever.

1985 Subaru Alcyone (Japanese market; U.S. version was called the XT Turbo)

The layout of the switches doesn't bother me, as it at least seems rational. What seems wildly irrational is the assymetrical steering wheel. It seems ideal for the driver who makes primarily right turns.

1984 Toyota Cressida

This is tied with the Citroen up top for "most negative steering wheel space."

1985 Mazda MX-03 concept

Maybe Mazda fell a little too in love with K.I.T.T., as they went with a yoke here. I do wonder what the thumb buttons were meant to do; Turbo Boost?

Toyota Celica GT-R (year unknown)

The weird trend of reminding you, via branding on the steering wheel, about a mechanical feature of the engine.

1987 Cadillac Allante (designed by Pininfarina)

The first in this line-up to go back to actual dials, but they tried to jazz them up by adding reticles and an ill-fitting digital readout on the right-hand dial.

1986 Oldsmobile(!) Incas concept (designed by Italdesign)

What can I say, except that cocaine was a very popular drug in the '80s.

Isuzu Impulse (year unknown)

As close to K.I.T.T. as they could get.

1982 Knight Industries Two Thousand

The dragon everyone was chasing.

https://www.core77.com/posts/109822/A-Look-at-Some-Wild-1980s-Digital-Dashboards