GIARDINO Color, Peperoncino option

Tisca Tiara, who specialise in the production of textile flooring, have recently ventured into the Astroturf market with ‘Sportisca’. ‘GIARDINO Color’ is a polychromatic version of this playing surface, which has been conceived specifically for architectural applications. Two differently coloured piles, each with a different height, are woven together. ‘GIARDINO Color’ is available in several bright colors, such as magenta, signal red, turquoise, as well as in a number of more mute hues, like beige, light and dark grey.

GIARDINO Color, Gioiello option

Reused wall panels as part of Reclaim programme from 3form

3form, the manufacturer of sustainable building materials and architectural hardware, has launched a programme called Reclaim, which reuses and recycles materials removed from installations or panels damaged in production.

Reused panel as part of 3form's Reclaim programme

Aimed at architects, designers, contractors and consumers who are trying to reduce their environmental footprint, the extended-life materials come in a set of standardised sizes and are subject to the company’s quality-control standards.

3form's Reclaim programme extends the life of materials through reuse

more 3form products @ Architonic

'Liga' chair by Elise Gabriel & TheGreenFactory

Elise Gabriel, working in collaboration with TheGreenFactory, has created ‘The Zelfo Embrace’, a collection of furniture that explores the material possibilities of Zelfo, a 100% biodegradable cellulose paste.

'Liga' chair by Elise Gabriel & TheGreenFactory

Funded by VIA, the Paris-based organisation set up to support and promote emerging French designers, Gabriel has designed a chair, trestles and lamps, which illustrate the patented material’s capacities to lend shape to, and to maintain, complex three-dimensional structures that are strong and light.

'Ossos' trestle by Elise Gabriel & TheGreenFactory

The patents for Zelfo are owned by Omodo GmbH, Germany, and TheGreenFactory has initiated a Europe-wide R&D programme to industrialise applications of the material, which is made from recycled materials (papers, agricultural wastes) and fast-growing plants (hemp and miscanthus).

'Vélines' lamps by Elise Gabriel & TheGreenFactory

read more about the work of VIA at Architonic

Moulding pressed from biodegradable PLA granulate

When half a century ago designers such as Verner Panton and Luigi Colani revolutionised people’s living rooms with their brightly coloured plastic furniture it crossed nobody’s mind that this wonder material that could be formed into any required shape would one day come to become a symbol of global rubbish and the ecological crisis.

Bioplastic made from PLA granulate, at the Vitra Workshop in Boisbuchet

However, there is hope: for years now international materials producers have been working on sustainable alternatives and they are now ready to launch biologically degradable plastics which can be used for a range of applications. The long-term aim is to create those everyday objects which nowadays consist of countless materials from as few components as possible in order to simplify recycling and accelerate the natural degradation process.

Material studies with biodegradable PLA fleece

Just as with ‘normal’ plastics these bio-plastics also consist of countless chains of molecules, the polymers, which in turn are formed from a large quantity of basic components, the monomers. In contrast to synthetic polymers, which are produced from fossil raw materials, the term ‘biopolymers’ refers to the origin of the basic components for the polymers, which come from renewable resources. Biopolymers are composed of materials derived from living organisms – in other words plants, animals or bacteria. These can be starches from potatoes, wheat or maize, cellulose from vegetable cell walls or proteins such as silk, spider’s webs or hair. The properties of the material are determined by the length and molecular structure of the chains. Depending on the manufacturing process and the formulation of the material they can be regulated and optimised by additives such as natural fibres. The variety of bio-plastics which have been tested is already impressive today.

Creating a fruit bowl made from PLA fleece, at the Vitra workshop in Boisbuchet

Creating the material is one thing but finding applications for it is another, because the cost-intensive development of new production materials is only justified by their use in series production. This is where the skills of product designers and manufacturers come in – above all those who are aiming at greater things. 
One of these is the Swiss designer Beat Karrer, who together with the biochemist Michael Kangas experiments with new possibilities for processing biopolymers. The low-tech experiments in their Zurich witches’ kitchen produced promising results and these were quickly built on by cooperations with a number of materials producers and a research institute.

Beat Karrer at the Vitra workshop in Boisbuchet, France

continue article @ Architonic

'Ceramics & Architecture' a this year's Dutch Design Week

At this years Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven the .ekwc will showcase the result of their five-year project Ceramics & Architecture, that consists of the projects ‘Brick’ and ‘Combined Residencies’. It is the biggest exhibition in .ekwc’s history, where 75 architects, designers and visual artists present their works. The publication shows the overall picture of all works made by the participants of Ceramics & Architecture. 

'Between Bricks' by Baukje Trenning, photo by Ruud Peijnenburg

Brick 

In the Brick project architects, designers and visual artists from The Netherlands and abroad have been asked to develop a new type of brick or come up with a new use for existing bricks. The results are as diverse as the participants themselves. They testify to intensive form research, the search for new functionality of the brick as well as an artistic approach to the material. 

Brick - exhibition 3, photo by Ruud Peijnenburg

Combined Residencies 

The project ‘Combined residencies’ focuses on a change in mentality: to demonstrate that cooperation between architects, visual artists and designers at as early a stage as possible, benefits the interactive, creative process. The results are innovative and surprising. Wienerberger, .ekwc’s partner in developing the project, has researched and manufactured some of the results of Brick and Combined Residencies.

'Combined residencies': 'Penrose 2' by David Celento en Del Harrow

Ceramics & Architecture, 17 / 25 october, Hal 2 Klokgebouw Strijp S and TU Eindhoven 

to the .ekwc website

'Westwood' by Camilla Diedrich

These are the two new wallpapers by the Swedish designer Camilla Diedrich. As one of the first textile designers to start cutting holes in textiles and structuring them in terms of negative space, Diedrich’s early works related more to deconstruction architecture than they did to fabric design.

With ‘Westwood’ – a wallpaper for corners – she once more underlines her architectural approach.

'Westwood' – a wallpaper for corners by Camilla Diedrich

‘True Blue Gold’ is printed like in the old days, nearly handprinted on a more than 100 year old machine in Sweden with the highest quality real artist pigments

that is glimmering, this make the surface very living, far from the ordinary machineprinted wallpapers made today.

It is all organic, ecological produced and totally resistant against sunlight, will never fade/bleach.

It is a ultramarine blue or white bottom with splashed vivid lines in glittery gold. 1 Roll is 10 meters long x 54 centimeter width, repeatable in all direction.

'True Blue Gold' by Camilla Diedrich

Detail

more Camilla Diedrich products @ Architonic

'Objekt 1' by Markus Becker

At this year’s DMY Festival in Berlin we discovered this series of delicate light objects by the German designer Markus Becker. ‘Perelin’ consists of four different self-supporting objects made from an artfully bent glossy electroluminescent glow sheet.

'Objekt 1' by Markus Becker

“These lights made from EL-foil are very light, thin and flexible, almost like paper. They provide indirect lighting and are definded by being twisted onto themselves. The contrast between back and front side, between luminous and non-luminous surface creates a striking black-and-white effect.”

'Objekt 1' turned off, by Markus Becker

'Objekt 4' by Markus Becker

more Markus Becker products @ Architonic

'New Veneer' by bkm in cooperation with RoHol

‘New Veneer’ is the new collection of furniture the Vienna-based practice bkm created in close cooperation with RoHol, a company in Upper Austria producing veneer panels. It is showcased at the Artmark Galerie within the Vienna Design Week.

'New Veneer' by bkm and RoHol

“bkm develops its products through research, analytically, with a view to the concrete deficit of existing solutions. Exploration incorporates archetypes, roots from cultural history, and social developments. Also purposefully integrated is the heritage of design history.”

With ‘New Veneer’ bkm and RoHol developed various methods to change veneer surfaces and applied them to different types of storing furniture.

Material pattern by RoHol

'New Veneer' by bkm and RoHol

to the bkm website

to the RoHol website

Three dimensional textiles by Angharad McLaren

At this year’s 100%Futures the Britsh textile designer Angharad McLaren presented her recent works, a collection of artfully woven textiles suitable for blinds, screens or wall panels.

A passion for the sea and water-sports such as sailing and windsurfing visually inspire the colours, patterns and textures in Angharad’s designs. Her personal experience of sports and performance textiles has also led to an interest and exploration of hi-tech yarns and finishes such as neoprene and reflective yarns as well as organic, recycled and eco-friendly fibres. In an experimental design process she combines these with new weave structures and updates traditional patterns, sometimes combining industrial production with hand- finishing techniques to create unique innovative effects.

Visually inspired by sea and water-sports such as sailing and windsurfing

“As the yarns and materials I use are quite unusual, I sometimes have to experiment with a lot of different weave structures and techniques until I get the right effect. Weaving intrigues me as there are so many possibilities within a logical framework of structures and limitations- I like to push these boundaries and develop new techniques to get the effect I’m looking for, such as using a traditional technique with very modern yarns or combining hand craft techniques with industrial production.”

Textiles by Angharad McLaren

Angharad McLaren is currently working on a commission which also looks to traditional textiles for research: to design and produce blinds for the Shetland Museums’ Hay’s Dock Cafe & Restaurant.

to the Angharad McLaren website

Concrete wallpaper made of concrete powder

The German manufacturer Architects Paper presents an extraordinary wallpaper at the 100%Design in London this year. A thin layer of stone material is applied on cotton weave. Depending on the sort of stone the layer is either made of stone powder or – and this is really sophisticated – a thin layer of the natural surface of the stone is transmitted through a chemical process directly on the backing textile. Due to naturally occurring rock formations within the structure and colours, each drop has the property of being slightly different which offers no reason for complaint. Each drop is unique.

Sandstone wallpaper with the natural structure of the stone

Stone wallpaper by Architects Paper

to the Architects Paper website