January 25

Soft Parcel by TAF. Universal Design

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(All photos © Joakim Bergström)

Find a rectangular piece of foam rubber and wrap it up in brown paper, a simple object will look like a present. The instant modules will give you the chance of infinite sitting arrangements and space layers. The simple, easy and cheap act to create always new and modifiable space solutions has been put in practice by swedish architects and designers TAF, Gabriella Gustafson & Mattias Ståhlbom. Read more

January 14

A talk with Graphic Designer, Academic and Blogger Essam Abu Awad

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(Article by Nataleen Daas)

Essam Abu Awad portrait, photo © Ingrid Buecheler

Not only a great graphic designer, Essam Abu Awad is the teacher that inspires any student to do better. Whenever you hear his passion and his talks about design, colours, theories, etc. you get deeply involved with his world, which thrives with brilliant knowledge and sound experience. A tutor and a friend I was lucky to meet in my life, since I had the honour and pleasure to attend his classes during my bachelor. This is just a glimpse of his biography and works, Essam keeps his background intro brief as he does not intend to get anyone sleepy!

Essam Abu Awad was born in Amman in 1958. He finished his secondary education in 1977. At the tender age of four he showed an interest in drawing and, by the age of 11, he started exhibiting his works in the annual exhibition held by his school. At that time his work had alreaby been recognized as promising by tutors and many professional artists around him.

In 1977 he enrolled in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. He was granted a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1983 and a Master of Arts degree in 1985, both in the discipline of Graphic Design. During his studies at Lahore, Essam was able to build a hefty portfolio of high quality work which assured him professional practice as a freelance designer, while studying in Lahore and Karachi until 1986. Read more

January 6

hometta.com

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(Text by Nicola Bozzi)

In his Manifesto of Futurist Architecture, Antonio Sant’Elia despised all architecture that wasn’t built for the people inhabiting it. Decades later, the Archigram group was designing computer-inspired visions of modular living units, focusing on human scale living spaces and the use of technology to make the best of urban living. Designing and building your own home is still too hard to do on your own, but while we wait for a technology that will allow everybody – regardless or design or architectural education – to build their own place like Lego, we can still get somebody to help us in the process of choosing and building our shelters. Today, if you are looking for both relatively-customized design and tailored assistance, as well as a relatively simple interface, you can turn to the Hometta guys. Read more

December 28

The ways of Fashion and Design

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Aversa – Facoltà di Architettura SUN
Chiostro di San Lorenzo
December 16, 2009 – January 7, 2010

Between hand-made and Made in Italy, an intricated close-up on clothing and objects outlines the ways of fashion and design, drawing unusual visual paths shaping a history that’s yet to be written.

The exhibition is part of the “Storie per il design” class, in the Design and Fashion course’s first year, curated by professor Francesca Castanò and professor Ornella Cirillo. Le vie della moda e del design aims at highlighting the existing connections between the campanian textile tradition and industrial-bred innovation on national scale during the XX century. Read more

November 16

Lama Hourani – interview and focus on Jordanian jewelry designer

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(Interview, video and photos by Nataleen Daas)

Lama Hourani is a Jordanian jewellery designer, who also participated in Unveiled Jordan, the Jordanian exhibition which took place in Milan recently. She graduated in Fine Arts and holds two Diplomas in jewellery design and gemmology from GIA, with also a Master’s degree in Product Design from Istituto Marangoni in Milan-Italy. Read more

November 13

Espacio C Mixcoac by ROW Studio

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(Introduction by Ester Baia, all imagesand project description © ROW Studio)

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It might seem an elementary school or a recreational centre, but instead the colorful and irregular Espacio C by ROW Studio is a training place for adults, where design and the Coca Cola brand get together to create a flexible and versatile environment, fit for various uses and needs.
A luminous space, acoustically protected from the city, where you can get updated and have a drink while comfortably sitting on a sofa. And even write on the walls.
The high quality and varied environments are wi-fi-enabled and feature all you need in a comprehensive training facility, including classrooms, a mediatheque, a bar, a gift shop and a storage room.

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The colored bands marking the paths on the floor continue on the walls to turn into light slices and trapezoidal doors, through which interesting lookout perspectives on the interiors are created. They also highlight the dynamic relationship between serving and served spaces already expressed by color. Read more

November 3

PLARTONVIDEO: mischer’traxler

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invito-mischer'traxler1

Fondazione PLART
presenta / presents

PLARTONVIDEO: mischer’traxler

a cura di Marco Petroni in collaborazione con Giovanni Innella /
curated by Marco Petroni in collaboration with Giovanni Iannella

Inaugurazione Sabato 7 novembre 2009 – h. 11/ 19
Opening Saturday November 7, 2009 – h. 11am/7pm Read more

October 19

Elogio della superfetazione

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[Read the English version of this post]

(Testo di Angelica Di Virgilio)

Secondo l’intesa raggiunta il 1 aprile del 2009 tra governo e regioni, queste ultime avevano novanta giorni per recepire le indicazioni del cosiddetto “piano casa” e trasformarle in leggi proprie. Le singole normative erano chiamate a disciplinare e a regolamentare, “al fine di migliorare la qualità architettonica e/o energetica”,  interventi edilizi che prevedessero la possibilità di ampliamento “fino a 20% della volumetria esistente di edifici residenziali uni-bi familiari o comunque di volumetria non superiore ai 1000 metri cubi”, “di demolizione e ricostruzione con ampliamento per edifici a destinazione residenziale entro il limite del 35% della volumetria esistente” e  avrebbero dovuto introdurre “forme semplificate e celeri per l’attuazione degli interventi”. Ad oggi sono solo dieci le regioni che hanno rispettato i termini previsti dall’intesa, mentre la Campania si sta preparando il 21 ottobre ad approvare la propria normativa sul “piano casa”, che, come si legge in  una nota firmata da Italia Nostra, Lega Ambiente e WWF si prospetta come “una sciagurata deregulation che affida per intero, e a tempo indeterminato, la trasformazione delle nostre città alla proprietà fondiaria”. Non volendo entrare nel merito di un delicato dibattito politico, per il quale questo blog non è la sede più idonea, e nella convinzione che una legge non sia giusta o sbagliata di per sé, ma che sia l’utilizzo che se ne fa a determinarne le conseguenze e le ricadute sul territorio, presentiamo alcuni esempi di superfetazioni, progetti di ampliamento, realizzati negli ultimi anni, i quali con grande forza espressiva, propongono una nuova strategia di intervento e un modo nuovo di pensare la dilatazione dello spazio. La volontà è quella di dimostrare, con questa sorta di breve vademecum, che quell’ampliamento del 20% prospettato dal piano casa può essere un’occasione per riflettere in maniera creativa e propositiva sulla nostra edilizia.
Un modo insomma per dimostrare che c’è altro al di là del balcone verandato.

Ne è un esempio la RUCKSACK HOUSE, la casa zaino, dell’artista bavarese Stefan Eberstadt che tra il 2004 ed il 2005 ha letteralmente “appeso” alle finestre di diversi edifici in Germania, da Leipzig a Köln, questa scatola di 3,9 x 2,5 x 2,5 m, per un addizione spaziale di circa 9 m2. Pensata come un’estensione temporanea, è costituita da un telaio di acciaio rivestito da compensato, in cui si aprono una serie di finestre in corrispondenza degli spigoli.

rucksack house

Foto: Claus Bach

rucksack house2

Foto © Hana Schäfer

Questa micro architettura sembra recuperare l’eredità lasciata da quello strano oggetto verde che improvvisamente comparve nei cieli di Rotterdam nel 2001, anno in cui la città fu capitale europea della cultura.

PARASITE LAS PALMAS, ideato dallo studio Korteknie Stuhlmacher Architecten come prototipo di una piccola casa ecologica (circa 85m2), poggiava sul vano ascensore di un ex edificio industriale e come un vero e proprio parassita, ne sfruttava gli impianti e l’energia. Fu realizzata in solo otto settimane, con pannelli di legno, rivestiti da laminati verniciati. Nata per essere una sorta di logo tridimensionale, per segnalare le iniziative di quell’anno in città, riscontrò talmente tanto successo che la sua esistenza temporanea fu prolungata fino all’estate del 2005, anno in cui fu smantellata per il rinnovamento delle strutture della fabbrica. Attualmente riposa in un magazzino in attesa di una nuova localizzazione.

Read more

October 14

Creativity Festival – Future Cities in Florence

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[Read the Italian version of this post]

festival della creatività

15+16+17+18 October 2009
Florence
Fortezza da Basso
Padiglione delle Nazioni

The 2009 programme will offer four days of meetings, talkshows, workshops and live performances with artists, scholars and scientists coming from all over the world. The programme was inspired by the scientist’s forecasts of a 80% of the world population living in “urban contexts” by 2050, and is meant as a laboratory for the future focusing on the city as its most immediate locus for confontation and experimentation. Among the cities, going through an important public and private transformation, under the festival’s magnifying glass are: Medellin, Seoul (2010 design capital), Shanghai (Expo 210), Dubai, Cairo, Milan (Expo 2015), San Paolo, Brasilia, Paris and Tokyo. Read more

October 13

Plurima•Palermo, an urban publishing project

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[Read the Italian version of this post]

logo-PluPa

3-PluPa

Today we’re pleased to introduce you Plurima•Palermo, a good european example of practice born out of the research of italian architects able to look beyond the parochialism afflicting our country. Starting from specific experiences on the territory or reached by local identities, it offers case studies with such an expressive strenght and glocal meaning that they cross the boundaries of their departure and suggest a shared architecture and communication pattern. Read more

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