Azure-2013-9

STYLE SCENT AND Three experimental perfumes explore how scent relates to place SENSIBILITY and memory BY NINA BOCCIA ←↓ It’s not unusual for big-city dwellers to turn to Twitter to complain about the foul smells imprinted on certain neighbour- #MILANSMELLS hoods. During last April’s Milan Design Week, designers Olivia Mapping the Alice Clemence and Kate McLean turned this activity on its Italian head by inviting pilgrims to tweet the city’s sweeter aromas with city’s aromas the hashtag #milansmells. Then, with Clemence’s distillation system, a handcrafted piece she has employed in multiple ex- periments, they bottled Milan’s olfactory hot spots. In one trial , they dropped the paper packaging of a local pizzeria’s fresh- baked pie into the glass beaker and steamed it to release an earthy tomato and basil scent. They plotted out the smells on a cityscape that covered a dining table at the Magazzini, a creative hub in the Tortona district. The street grid, drawn in black marker, was filled in with paper replicas of local buildings that diffused their correspond- ing smells. Visitors breathed in a tiny espresso bar’s rich notes, and the mini-Duomo’s incense. Whether they knew it or not, they were triggering the brain’s olfactory bulb, that tightly wired neighbour to the hippocampus, where smells forge memories. oliviaalicedesign.co.uk, sensorymaps.com SECRET EDITIONS A perfume for a cult film ACQUA ALTA An art object that captures the Venetian lagoon ↑ Filmmaker Mark Harris, along with perfumer Josh Meyer, takes merchan- ↑ For Acqua Alta (translation: “high water”), Italian designers Giorgia Zanel lato dising that extra step with a fragrance based on his  sci-fi thriller, and Daniele Bortotto collaborated with perfumer Lorenzo Dante Ferro to The Lost Children, about a New York socialite who joins an extraterrestrial concoct a scent that captures the essence of the constantly flooded city of commune. It mingles lemon and clean musk aromas of linen and birch leaf Venice. They infused this lagoon scent into three ceramic cylinders – a nod with such exotic notes as castoreum and ambroxan (extracted from beaver to the bricole , the wooden poles used to steer gondolas  – surrounded by a and sperm whale scent glands, respectively). Co-produced by the Institute specially crafted vessel of chartreuse Murano glass. The art piece launched at for Art and Olfaction, a Los Angeles lab that elevates perfumery to an art form, Salone del Mobile last April, and then the design showroom Rubelli exhibited  bottles were distributed at a screening of the film, where one audience it during last summer’s Venice Art Biennale. acquaalta-collection.com member remarked how it added a “weird, erotic tone.” artandolfaction.com  SEPT  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

Design is networked There are six sides to every connection © 2013 Shaw, A Berkshire Hathaway Company BEIJING • CHICAGO • DUBAI • GUADALAJARA • HONG KONG • LONDON • LOS ANGELES • MELBOURNE • MEXICO CITY • MIAMI • MONTERREY • NEW YORK • RIYADH • SAN FRANCISCO • SHANGHAI • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • WWW.SHAWCONTRACTGROUP.COM

TOOL KIT  SHADES The newly unveiled Palette.org uses  easy-to-navigate swatches to OF GREEN help architects build carbon neutral BY ELIZABETH PAGLIACOLO ECOBUILDING DATABASE WEBSITE Palette.org REGION CATEGORIES Building, site, district, city and region SAMPLE SWATCH: SUBCATEGORIES  swatches and counting, from side MOUNTAINSIDE daylighting to living shorelines SETTLEMENTS A checklist for build ing away from eco- sensitive zones and limiting SITE soil erosion SAMPLE SWATCH: SOLAR ACCESS How to determine access BUILDING to sunlight, through SAMPLE SWATCH: physical, digital and STACK VENTILATION hand-rendered Essential guidelines models on how to space openings for optimal natural airflow DISTRICT SAMPLE SWATCH: CITY TRANSITORIENTED SAMPLE SWATCH: DEVELOPMENT URBAN BIKEWAYS Four types of TODs Identifies the ideal defined, from downtown dimensions for cores to destinations bike lanes like universities SAY YOU’RE AN ARCHITECT or a planner about to embark on a project. Before you that you can click on to see each case study plotted around the world, and filter start to think about form, you’ll probably want to consider context. For prac- it by latitude, climate and population density. “Architects and planners take all titioners with an eye on sustainability, Palette.org (set to launch in of that information and visualize a solution,” says Mazria. “They put that concept November) is an all-in-one tool that works like a lens, starting with the building into the computer and generate a form, so we are there at the point of inspira- and then zooming outward. It covers five categories, based on scale: building, tion, before they’ve locked in a major portion of a project’s energy consumption.” site, district, city and region. These further break down into subcategories, With user-generated content to be integrated in the future, the database will or “swatches.” In the building category, for instance, you’ll find a solar shading be an essential tool for the entire design process. swatch that provides instructions on positioning overhangs above glazing, The site’s main goal is to help practitioners meet Architecture ’s chal- along with images of exemplary projects that employ similar passive design lenge of making every structure carbon neutral by . In less than two solutions. Under regional, you can view a swatch on inundation maps – of decades, urban centres will require  billion square metres of new buildings, lower Manhattan, say, or Jakarta – with guidelines for building on coasts. and the lion’s share of those projects will go up in China. “Many prominent The strokes are broad, and determinedly so. Santa Fe architect Edward firms in the U.S. are working there, so it’s an opportunity to get it right,” says Mazria started the research-intensive initiative three years ago as part of his Mazria, who is translating the site into other languages, including Mandarin. Architecture  platform, one of the top non-profits committed to furthering One thing the database won’t do is assign LEED points for the swatches: INFOGRAPHIC BY KARI SILVER sustainable design, according to DesignIntelligence reports . For the website , “They’re not intended for that, because you can’t say that any one element he and his team boiled down the best eco-practices into core principles, with can save carbon. It’s the universal design that counts.” palette.org links to more in-depth tools and resources. Other useful features include a map  SEPT  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

GROHE GRANDERA TM Capture style that is simply grand. Enjoy the grandeur and sophistication of yesterday complemented by the modern sensibilities of today. GROHE’s Grandera ™ collection reconciles opposite geometric shapes, circle and square, in one harmonious look. The result is fl owing feminine forms with defi ned masculine edges. Thanks to Grohe StarLight ® technology, the fi ttings retain their shine and ® resilience while Grohe SilkMove technology guarantees easy movement of the handle and precise temperature control for years. Timeless, simple and yet extravagant… relax and take it all in. grohe.ca 35773_5Grohe_Azure5.indd 1 13-06-25 8:58 AM

GREATER GOODS KITE Float, a pollution-tracking kite, delivers air quality data HACKING to the people of Beijing BY PAIGE MAGARREY IN THE EARLY HOURS of a July  morning, in a public plaza in a .-by-.-centimetre module outfitted with a sensor, and  A rendering of Beijing,  locals gathered to take part in one of the city’s most LEDs that change from green to pink to indicate air quality, from the kites in the night beloved pastimes: kite flying. As they wove between playing best to worst. A slightly heavier version comes with an SD card sky shows their LEDs children, public karaoke singers and elderly dog walkers, their that logs the data for users to view or upload; both are lightweight glowing pink, indicat- kites began to light up the sky with LEDs. It was a colourful, if enough to be held aloft by any medium-sized kite. ing bad air quality. not haunting, representation of the ever-worsening air quality To set up workshops about how to build the units and read ↑ Designers Deren in the mega city, which recently reported pollution at  times their output, the pair navigated local politics. “We had to re assure Guler and Xiaowei the levels deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization. state security agents that we weren’t trying to overthrow the Wang helped locals Called Float, the project is the brainchild of grad students government,” says Wang. “But we hope residents will use this data build the kites in a Xiaowei Wang, of the Harvard School of Design, and Deren Guler, to compel them to enact environmental change, whether through series of workshops of Carnegie Mellon University . The high school friends came political means or by improving their own habits.” While the project in July and August up with the idea for an open-source mapping project while Wang is shortlisted for an Index: Design to Improve Life award, Guler of last year. was taking a class at MIT. A former resident of Beijing, she saw and Wang are already preparing for the next step: making the data the cultural significance of kites as a way to engage communities, infrastructure more flexible and accessible to a wider audience. while Guler sought to develop technology that citizens without After all, what could be more universal than flying a kite? prior tech knowledge could build themselves. The pair constructed f-l-o-a-t.com Micro-environments to go Three air-changers for the home While traditional puri- Fastened to the top A finalist concept in fiers use HEPA filters to of any plastic bottle and the Electrolux Design clean particles above powered via a USB port Lab, Ohita, by Jorge . micrometres, the iF in the side, the Amazing Alberto Treviño Blanco, Design Award– winning Humidifier, by South is designed to filter air AirCare , by Taiwan’s Korean company Ecoco, using bamboo charcoal. AcoMoTech, attacks is equipped with a fan The polygonal module at the molecular level, and a -centimetre- adheres to any flat sur- breaking down carbon long water filter to mist face, and can even be bonds in bacteria and the surrounding air for attached to a backpack. viruses. acomotech.com up to eight hours. electroluxdesignlab.com aggift.com  SEPT  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

“Fashionably” For certain. the “late” part is on you. You might want to start thinking of a better excuse. Because the Verano Turbo goes 0-60 in 6.2 seconds with more horsepower than Lexus IS 250, it’s the perfect way to show you’ve arrived, no matter what time you get there. The all-new 2013 Buick Verano Turbo. It’s your kind of luxury. Discover more at buick.ca. ©2013 GM of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. Buick Buick emblem Verano ® ® ® GCUV13MG500B__168525A01.indd 1 7/9/13 3:35 PM ENGLISH 168525A01 GCUV13MG500B Verano Fashionably_pg.indd GM of Canada - Buick Verano “Fashionably” page - ENGLISH 010-CUUXNMG3001 Azure 4/C bleed magazine page 2 637-xxxxxx 81/13 7/12/13 (To Schawk 7/10) 9.25” x 11.75” 9” x 11.5” SAFETY: 8.5” x 11” None 1:1 Martin Hohmann Birney 2 Stewart Goclik dbugaj Studio:Volumes:Studio:Documents:2013:2013 BG Canada: 2013 BUICK PRINT:GCUV13MG500B Verano Fashionably_pg.indd 7-9-2013 9:40 AM AD NOTES: Art is FPO. Schawk to place hi-res CMYK. IMAGES: 13BUVR00090_V1.tif, 13BUVR00006R_V3.tif, BVE TURBO_horL_4c_neg.ai, Canada Flag.ai COLORS: FONTS: Futura 1 Assembly 7/9/13 st

Calendar september 14 to 22 upcominG fairs london september 6 to 10 design maison&objet, paris exquisite furniture, ceramics festival and more. maison-objet.com september 12 to 15 macef, miLan Home decor with a retail focus. macef.it anchored by the 100% Design fair, this citywide festival boasts dozens of events, exhibits and instal- september 19 to 22 ids west, vancouver lations. at the old sorting office, the group show interior design with a West Designjunction – a returning favourite – hosts furniture coast flair. idswest.com launches by such top-notch brands as italy’s poltrona Frau, germany’s e15, and sweden’s string, which november 20 to 22 debuts an mDF shelving system finished with white GreenbuiLd, ash brackets (right) that reflects scandinavian phiLadeLphia the latest in sustainable simplicity. on the other side of the thames, the gallery building systems, of talent spotter Libby sellers exhibits amy Hunting materials and services. and oscar narud’s mirrors (far right). in copper, steel greenbuildexpo.org and stone, they embody a material mash-up in ele- mental shapes. londondesignfestival.com december 4 to 8 desiGn miami collectible, high-concept art-design. september 26 and 27 designmiami.com iidex january 8 to 11 toronto heimtextiL, frankfurt the ultimate contract and residential textile fair. heimtextil.messefrankfurt.com january 11 to 14 For designers and architects looking to jazz up office domotex, hanover, interiors, canada’s contract furniture and architecture Germany expo delivers the goods. showgoers will find the latest Floor coverings of all kinds, in task lighting, coverings and flexible furniture for the from handwoven rugs to ceramic tiles. domotex.de workplace, from such brands as Keilhauer, interface, and nienkämper, which presents shanghai architec- january 13 to 19 ture firm Four-o-nine’s folded steel lounge chair (left). imm coLoGne event scape, which recently produced a neon-hued soft seating, lighting, display for a sneaker exhibit at toronto’s Bata shoe accessories and more at museum (far left), will show off its flexible, lightweight germany’s premiere design fair. imm-cologne.com wall panels. the keynotes are also must-sees: among the illustrious speakers are italian designer Luca nichetto; and charles renfro of Diller scofidio + renfro, the architecture firm behind new York’s High Line. iidexcanada.com september 23 to 27 Cersaie bologna showcasing an unrivalled selection of bathroom fittings and ceramic tiles, cersaie boasts its longest exhibitor list this year. more than 900 manufacturers – mostly italian – will present innovative surface finishes and fixtures for bathrooms and kitchens. Keep your eyes peeled for trendsetting products, including Floor gres’ three-metre-long planks, inspired by concrete factory floors; and artemateria’s petrified wood bricks in white, beige and grey (right). an exhibit of the top 110 tile and sanitary furnishings from the past 15 years rounds out the five-day affair. cersaie.it 58 sept 2013 azuremagazine.com

A.D. Graph.x Venezia Murano glass design M. Thun and a. Rodriguez water at its best Vancouver Québec Fantini USA Cantu Bathrooms Céramique Décor A&D BUILDING 604.688.1252 418.627.0123 150 East 58 St. 8th Floor New York, NY 10155 Montreal Toronto Ph. 212 308 8833 Ramacieri Soligo Ginger’s [email protected] 514.270.9192 416.787.1787 www.fantiniusa.com

ET CETERA  FRIDA AND DIEGO EXHIBIT  NOWHERE NOWHERE  COLLAGE TABLES BY BONALDO  BLANKETS BY RØROS TWEED New York exhibition design firm Using photo-luminescent thread and For a recent one-off promotional Last year at ICFF, Norwegian Thinc was invited by High Museum eye-tracking technology, this dress event, designer Alain Gilles took a wool blanket manufacturer Røros in Atlanta to interpret the work of by Montreal’s Ying Gao activates permanent marker to his Collage Tweed launched a new pattern, Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and motion simply by being looked at. Tables, originally made for Bonaldo created by native architecture firm Diego Rivera, though in a very The piece goes on tour this fall, to in , adding an eye-catching Snøhetta and inspired by one of its contemporary way. The result was Shanghai’s Power Station of Art pop art twist with cartoon-drawn many award-winning projects. In two vibrant rooms: one painted and then to Toronto’s Textile Museum. shadows. bonaldo.com response to positive feedback from yellow, the other all red with matching yinggao.ca New York fairgoers, the company bunk beds – a nod to Kahlo’s life,  MIM BY VERTIGO BIRD has now added two more and will spent mostly in bed, where she  CRADLE BY MOROSO The neoprene covers on these be selling them through various painted many of her self-portraits. The U.K.’s Benjamin Hubert combined charming desk lamps, by Berlin’s e, American retailers. Pictured here The red also represents Rivera’s the hammock and the lounge chair give them the appearance of a man is the Alexandria Library, based fiery support of Communism, which into a seat that fits as snugly as a in the moon, or MiM, as the halogen on Snøhetta’s building in Egypt. he expressed through his massive sweater. Cradle is composed of light is named. Available in five rorostweed.no murals. thincdesign.com CNC-cut mesh wrapped around a colours. e.com COMPILED BY DIANE CHAN steel frame. moroso.it  SEPT  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM



IDENTIKIT JON The Canadian designer produces thought- provoking objects and installations that explore STAM our digital inner lives BY WILL JONES Born Waterford, Ontario, Location Amsterdam Education  Design Academy Eindhoven, the Netherlands, master’s degree in social design – Design Academy Eind- hoven, graduated cum laude from the man and well-being department Occupation Designer ↑→ Crafted from solid western red cedar, the Selected awards Curiosity Cabinet combines ordinary storage  W Hotels Designers of the drawers and boxes equipped with radio fre- Future Award, Design Miami ⁄Basel quency identification tags. When placed near a  Nominated for the Melkweg computer, the tags recall digitized mementoes. Design Prize, the Netherlands Selected exhibits FROM ONTARIO TO AMSTERDAM  Design Miami ⁄Basel In a way, I fell into being a designer. My father is  ⁄ Salone Internazionale a carpenter, and I grew up in a workshop. When I del Mobile, Milan applied to university, I opted for industrial design  Curiosity Cabinet added to the at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and I Design Huis permanent collection, became obsessed with Dutch design. The work of the Netherlands Gijs Bakker, his sense of fun and playfulness, is  Rene Smeets prize for what lured me to the Netherlands. I went to the best all-around project at Design Design Academy Eindhoven to get some portfolio Academy Eindhoven advice, and to my surprise I was accepted on the spot, so I left OCAD and moved there. Aldo Bakker, show, where I presented the Curiosity Cabinet, my Gallery representation Gijs’s son, evaluated my work and gave me the attempt at bringing my meaningful physical and Caroline Van Hoek (Brussels) offer. His work is form driven and precise. It digital things together. I wasn’t sure the cabinet Victor Hunt (Brussels) widened my perception of Dutch design, and he would resonate with a larger public, but people remains an inspiration. It’s difficult to pinpoint really responded to it, recognizing the problem of Selected clients precisely what in my work is Dutch or Canadian. wanting to hold on to their favourite digital photos, Dutch Association of Public Libraries It’s a mix between the two. movies, music – files destined to be hidden away House for Contemporary Art Z on a hard drive – as well as cherished objects. Heineken FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT The cabinet’s first incarnation alternated The first time my work was shown on an inter- physical drawers and digital ones with embedded commonplace.nl national scale was at my Eindhoven graduation memory and radio frequency identification tags,  SEPT  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

← One of the Table Quints, → In the Save as [Mine] a set of bone china bowls installation, on the floor of with optical glass lids that a decommissioned mine in enhance the appearance of Belgium, computer screens their contents – whether milk, and 3-D-printed tiles create sugar, pepper, salt or oil. a memory mosaic. ↑ Imaginary Museum is a hacked View-Master find new ways to design. I work on the borders of for online imagery (still, moving, -D and -D) art, technology and design, yet I ultimately see curated by various artists and designers. myself as a designer, since I am making for others. ← Created for Design Miami ⁄ Basel, the Claude A piece can be aesthetically beautiful, but if it Glass embeds digital images of nature, manipu- does not respond to people it’s not as satisfying. lated by spinning the round black mirror. REWARDING CHALLENGES As part of the W Hotels Designer of the Future which enable digital content to pop up on a nearby Award from Design Miami ⁄Basel, I was sent to computer. After the first RFID model , I experi- Verbier, Switzerland, to envision an installation for mented with other ways to bring the digital and the new W Hotel opening there this December. I the physical together. A popular version of the was introduced to the local photographer Guido cabinet incorporates engraved data matrix codes Perrini, and we collaborated on an abstract in the wood. timepiece to bring the beauty of the Alps to Basel. Claude Glass is a round black mirror that displays PERSONAL TRANSLATIONS digital reflections of the landscape through the I take much of my inspiration from contemporary glass. The image changes every minute, showing artists, such as the Belgian artist David Claerbout. photos captured from a -hour time-lapse In his digital video projections, he presents set-up. To change the hour or witness a whole day ↑ Recalling vintage projectors, Bioscope lets seemingly ordinary scenes with a surreal twist, in passing, you rotate the edge of the Claude Glass, you rotate the handle to animate a home movie a manner that forces you to look in a new way. I and time will advance or reverse in the speed and on a USB stick, frame by frame. try to translate this way of looking but apply it to direction you turn. For the final installation in the ↓ The Lakes Rug pays homage to Canada, with a daily personal context, by framing a sense of W Hotel, I envision summer shown in winter. As seven embedded speakers that mix personal richness and intimacy with our digital media. This most guests only visit Verbier during ski season, tales and Canadian folklore. is a reaction against the speed, impersonality and this might entice them to return in summer. information overload of today’s communication. I find it essential that we select, curate and make BEYOND BASEL choices regarding our digital things, to make them I am now working with contemporary art spaces meaningful, which is why some of my projects are in Belgium and the Netherlands to develop a tool purposely limiting. For example, my Imaginary kit that mediates the memory of these spaces. Museum , a digitally hacked View-Master, allows One of the first pieces consists of a small convex a sequence of just seven images to be shown on wall mirror and a pull cord. The mirror reflects the each disc . installations on show, but when one pulls the cord the image is captured and displayed at the art BRIEF INTERSECTIONS centre. You can project yourself into the exhibition I like using different materials, whether new or while creating a whole new participatory archive old. Whatever I am working on, I want to discover that the institute can document. the craft behind it and learn from those who have I find working on memory and contemporary worked in that medium for a long time. Meanwhile, art centres especially exciting, since it seems to having a naive viewpoint can be interesting. It’s be a sort of paradox. These spaces have no important to draw in experts from other disciplines, collections, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have whether woodworkers or computer programmers, stories to tell. This project will revolve around and I like to ask questions, push and provoke, to telling narratives as they happen in real time. SEPT

STYLE SALT  PEPPER Twelve inspiring kitchen tools to spice up your drawers COMPILED BY DIANE CHAN ⁄ PHOTOGRAPHY BY COLIN FAULKNER  ELEVATE  ALMOCO  LONG SPOON  EGG SPOONS  PURE BLACK  ISPOON With an integrated This gold-finished fork Japanese artisan For Georg Jensen, Each knife in Stelton’s Umbra’s tasting and rest built right into the and spoon form part Tomiyama Koichi’s this four-piece set by ergonomic matte black mixing spoon gives heat-resistant handle, of a five-piece cutlery hand-carved wooden Alfredo Häberli is collection, designed by online recipe chefs the Joseph Joseph’s setting from Portugal’s spoons measure  to crafted from cow horn, HolmbäckNordentoft, dual functionality of beechwood batter Almoco. Also available  centimetres – ideal which gives each is forged from a single stirring and navigating spoon stays off the in silver or matte black for reaching the coffee -centimetre spoon piece of stainless the web using the black counter to minimize finish. $ per setting, grounds at the bottom a unique pattern. steel. From $, handle as a stylus. PHOTO BY LOREM IPSUM DOLORE mess. $, dwr.com of a press. $ each, $, georgjensen.com, stelton.com, ago.net $, umbra.com josephjoseph.com, tomiyamakoichi.com, torpinc.com danescoinc.com mjolk.ca  SEPT  DEMODE DRAWER BY VALCUCINE COURTESY OF DOM INTERIORS, DOMINTERIORS.COM

7 8 10 9 11 12 7 GARLIC GRATER 8 RAMEN SPORK 9 TEA EGG 10 MELAMINE TOOLS 11 POTATO PEELER 12 TOWER rub cloves against Before designing this Taking cues from a available in such hot Danish design team The latest piece from the blades of Eva utensil for the MoMA teed-up golf ball, made shades as orange and Holmbäcknordentoft Tom Dixon’s eclectic Solo’s dishwasher-safe Store, masami by makers’ tea infuser yellow, Rosti Mepal’s devised these line is this wooden salt charm ing vegetable melamine utensils microplane, then slide PHoTo BY Lorem iPSum DoLore piece to reveal minced for Japan’s Sugakiya six shades, with a tures of up to 100 Copenhagen. avail- tricolour pattern. grinder, with a matching Takahashi created his for Normann pepper mill in the same graters for Normann withstand temper a- Copenhagen comes in spoon-fork hybrid the stainless steel built-in handle for noodle shop chain. able in six shades. $75, tomdixon.net, garlic inside its lime degrees celsius. $5, $20, normann- klausn.com green (or black) body. stirring. $20, normann- mepal.com, swipe.com From $20, momastore.org, copenhagen.com copenhagen.com $30, evasolo.com swipe.com azuremagazine.com b3 interior fitting system courtesy of bulthaup, bulthaup.com SePT 2013 65

Real beauty speaks for itself. We could mention our custom burners that deliver a full spectrum of heat output from a tender flame to an intense blaze. Or reference the carefully handcrafted construction. But that’s not what makes the 48\" Pro Range a perfect centerpiece for your kitchen. It’s the fact that you don’t even need to know all this to fall in love with it. monogram.ca P26223_GE_APL_V13.indd 1 12-11-15 5:32 PM

#modernalways Modern always ™ Celebrate 75 years of iconic design, from pioneering modernist vision to bold contemporary designs for home and office. Always timeless. Always true. 1966 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architect, Barcelona Chair. Photo: Dirk Lohan ® Shop and explore the new knoll.com 800 343-5665 2013 Rem Koolhaas, Architect, 04 Counter, OMA Collection

mould busters From sugary confections to houses built from corn, 3-D printing is changing the way everything gets made By Will Jones over the past year, 3-d printing has exploded into the mainstream with a sensa- ↑ new food dimensions tional list of frsts: the frst houses to be built using the technology are now under One of Kyle and Liz von Hasseln’s sweet structures. way; the frst model for a lunar module assembled by robots has been unveiled The California partners operate Sugar Lab, where (courtesy of Foster + Partners); and, infamously, the frst operational frearm was they 3-D-print custom cake toppers, lacy pie crusts – squeezed into existence, printed at a cost of just $25. Of course, 3-D printing even chandeliers – made of sugar. (formerly known as rapid prototyping) has been around for decades, and leading manufacturers routinely use it to supplement traditional mechanical operations. → this is cement But its growing presence is being touted as the next industrial revolution, poised Emerging Objects is a leader in 3-D printing to change entirely how things are made, how designers manufacture their products, technology. It teamed up with Andrew Kudless and how architects build buildings. on an art exhibit that included printing this fibre- “The current limitations are bound only by the size of the printer and the reinforced cement sculpture, called Seed. materials used,” says Ron Labaco, the curator behind Out of Hand: Materializing 68 sept 2013 azuremagazine.com

3-D Printing sept 2013 69

↑→ printing cement British engineers Richard Buswell and Simon Austin demonstrated 3-D printing with concrete by producing Wonder Bench. Its arched shape shows how compli- cated building components such as double-curved panels can be built. the Postdigital, an exhibit opening next month at New York’s Museum of Art and Design, where products and prototypes by such future-thinking designers and architects as Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and Greg Lynn will be on display. Labaco has spent close to two years tracking how digital fabrication has worked its way into the design realm, ↑ learning from silkworms and like many industry watchers he believes we have only begun to exploit its potential. The Media Lab at MIT is exploring the next frontier “The creativity that abounds around the technology,” he notes, “will open up to great of 3-D printing by mapping out the cocoon-building new concepts.” actions of 6,500 silkworms, now housed within Perhaps the current race to construct the frst so-called 3-D-printed house illustrates a suspended pavilion. The caterpillars’ complex this best. At least four such houses are in the works, each by architecture frms using activities are then simulated by a robotic arm. their own purpose-built methods, including one by Softkill Design of London. Fabricated out of plastic, the structure’s ultimate form will look like a web of fbrous strands, a design based on the algorithms of bone tissue. Earlier this year, DUS Architects began printing its canal-side house in Amsterdam, using bio-plastic blocks produced from corn. The frm developed its own giant printer, named the KamerMaker, and its pro- duction facility, enclosed within a shed near the site, is open to the public so they can observe the process frst-hand. Each brick measures two by two by 3.5 metres and is printed over three days. Completion of the facade is expected by the end of this year. DUS principal Hedwig Heinsman sees the pioneering project as both a discussion piece and an actual house. “We want to revolutionize architecture,” she says. She anticipates that the four-storey structure will be used as a venue for debate, and to develop standards for this new kind of construction. “There are no regulations for how to build this way,” she says. “Policy-makers will have to catch up if these structures become commonplace.” The frm’s ambitious project brings to light a number of ways 3-D printing is having an impact on the industry, not only in how things get made, but in terms of what form structures will take. Among the pioneers exploring the technology as a viable process are Richard Buswell and Simon Austin, engineering professors at Loughborough University in the U.K., and leaders of the Freeform Construction project. In 2007 they began devel- oping an architectural-scale 3-D process that uses a cement-based mortar. They have partnered with such innovative frms as Foster + Partners and Buro Happold, both of the U.K., to develop a wet extrusion process that can print complicated components, such as double-curving walls. To demonstrate what this might look like, they have produced Wonder Bench, an 70 sept 2013 azuremagazine.com

3-D Printing ↑ large-scale printing London’s Softkill Design plans to test the boundaries of printing on a massive scale with this nest-like habitat, called ProtoHouse 1.0. Thirty fibrous pieces will be assembled into one cantilevered structure with no need for adhesives to bind it. ↓ robotically printed lunar base Foster + Partners is working with the European Space Agency to build habitats on the moon, using robots and lunar soil (known as regolith). A 1.5-tonne mock-up has already been printed in a vacuum chamber to simulate lunar conditions. ↑→ house made of corn In Amsterdam, DUS Architects is constructing a house using a purpose-built printer that squeezes out one corn-based bio-plastic block every three days. The four-storey facade should be completed by the end of this year. sept 2013 71

3-D PRINTING ↑→ DISRUPT DIXON Tom Dixon’s open- source competition asks designers to come up with a function for -D-printed hinges, which have no purpose as yet. The goal is to encourage designers to think creatively. REPLICATOR ERA Who could have foreseen that Chuck Hull’s “solidification machine,” built in , would define the next industrial frontier? Here’s how the sci-fi technology has taken shape Compiled by David Dick-Agnew : U.S. : BELGIUM : : SPAIN : : U.S. Inventor Materialise NV opens, RepRap.org Architect Enrico NETHERLANDS Cube, the first May: Online instruc- June: U.S. manufacturer extraordinaire giving designers launches an open- Dini develops the Couture designer desktop -D tions for a working Stratasys buys up Chuck Hull better access to the source project six-cubic-metre Iris van Herpen’s printer, hits the 3-D printable gun competitor MakerBot devises the technology. Patrick that allows people D-Shape with the Crystallization line marketplace, ignite a media fire- (and its massive trove of first rapid Jouin and Arik Levy are to build their aim of printing an marks the first retailing for storm and a legal downloadable designs) prototyping among their clients own printers entire house (not appearance of 3-D $, U.S. nightmare in a $403-million U.S. deal machine yet achieved) printing on the catwalk : U.S. : : U.S. : CANADA Hull’s 3D NETHERLANDS A 3-D printed Urbee, the greenest June: Amazon July: Swiss designers Systems begins Freedom of prosthetic leg car on earth, with and Staples Michael Hansmeyer and pro ducing the Creation becomes by Bespoke a 3-D-printed body, start selling Benjamin Dillen burger first selective the first design Innovations takes its first 3-D printers to unveil Digital Grotesque, laser sintering studio dedicated to takes its first successful test run home hobbyists an entire room crafted (SLS) machines for concepts for additive step from sandstone using industrial uses manu facturing 3-D modelling software of multiples  SEPT  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

←↑ only sand and sun German designer Markus Kayser has applied the basic mechanics of 3-D printing to create objects made from desert sand using the sun’s rays. ↗ made only for you Based on individual foot scans, designer Earl Stewart’s XYZ shoes are like a second skin, with extra support to improve stability, comfort and alignment. → one-material glasses Ron Arad’s hinge-free Pq eyewear is digitally crafted using nylon powder and selective laser sintering (SLS) technology. S‑shaped seat designed by Foster + Partners that shows how the concrete is suspended dome‑like scafold that houses 6,500 silkworms, each excreting built up, layer by layer. “We can now print fat or double‑curved elements silk with a free‑form motion that resembles a fgure eight. “We found that for the same cost,” notes Buswell. “We can also print forms that are impos‑ if a silkworm has no access to vertical axis, it will typically spin a fat patch,” sible to make using conventional methods.” He predicts a day when we will rather than individual cocoons, explains Oxman. The implications of this see the commercial manufacture of 3‑D building components: “It won’t be discovery are multi‑layered and profound, since her team is essentially due to mass production; we can already do that. It will happen if the tech‑ controlling the architecture of the cocoon. Translate this to the built world nology can add value to an existing product, or if a client wants a landmark and Oxman foresees many multi‑axis printers working collectively to build design like nothing else.” structures on a massive scale. She refers to these futuristic machines as While Freeform pushes the limits of a conventional material, another “swarm bots,” where printers communicate and build like silkworms. growing feld of exploration is more attuned to how biomimicry might Mediated Matter Group may be light years ahead of the industry, but a inform the next phases of 3‑D printing. Alex Newson is the curator of The key factor in how 3‑D printing has evolved so rapidly is the Internet, where Future Is Here: A New Industrial Revolution, currently on view at London’s designers can simply buy a printer and operate independently of manufac‑ Design Museum. The exhibit features a factory where technicians demon‑ turers, or share ideas and fles. One project that is tapping this potential of strate 3‑D printing, and another area where the public can watch emerging open‑source creation comes from Tom Dixon, along with 3‑D manufacturing designers work on special digital projects. He believes materials must specialist Dassault Systèmes of France. During Milan Design Week in April, evolve beyond the current list of polycarbonates, epoxy resins and metals. the London designer launched Disrupt Dixon’s Design in 3D, an interna‑ Concrete, for instance, is uniform in terms of how it behaves. “We’re coming tional competition that asks designers to download fles for a series of parts to the limit of what’s possible with the current palette of ‘dumb’ materials.” and joints that have no real purpose, yet. The idea is for contestants to build His viewpoint is backed up by such projects as that bone‑tissue‑inspired something with the joints – a sculpture, furniture, anything. The winning house by Softkill Design. Neri Oxman is heading up the Mediated Matter concept will be exhibited this fall at Maison&Objet in Paris. Group, a laboratory at MIT that is on the cutting edge of 3‑D printing tech‑ The rationale behind the competition is to encourage designers not to nology. With access to a multi‑material Connex 500 3‑D printer her team get too bogged down in the technology but to use it creatively. According to can output from extremely high‑resolution images. The magnifed detail Frédéric Vacher, strategy market director at Dassault Systèmes, a major enables them to create continuous variations in material properties limitation of 3‑D printing is the lack of imagination from users. “We need comparable to bone or plant tissues. They have also repurposed a robotic to fnd out what can really be done, which is what this competition aims to arm to operate as a 3‑D printer capable of printing in six diferent axes. do. Where the Industrial Revolution left artisans in the cold, now they will Printers on the market today only output in three directions – up and reconnect with technology that enables them to transform their ideas via down, side to side, and back and forth – and they do so by simply layering, truly advanced methods.” Alex Newson agrees. What he has found after like squeezing out toothpaste row upon row. The ability to print or build researching his London exhibition is that the technology is forcing creative something with technology that moves in any direction could transform types to re‑evaluate their methods. “It’s not the end of the factory as we how buildings are constructed. know it,” he adds, “but 3‑D printing will enable diversifcation of manufac‑ To give this abstract idea form, the lab produced Silk Pavilion, a turing. It is a new tool in the designer tool kit.” sept 2013 73

frugal innovation 100% mine kafon ingenuity afghanistan Designer : massoud Hassani When design is driven by need, beautiful things can Production happen. These four outstanding designs demonstrate cost : $50 that innovative ideas are priceless By Kimberlie Birks 74 sept 2013 azuremagazine.com

Mine Kafon, made of cast iron, plastic and bamboo sticks, can safely detonate up to four land mines before expiring. necessity may be the mother of invention, but detonate any mine in its path. Called Mine Kafon play is defnitely the father. Massoud Hassani’s (“mine explorer”), the device is made of protrud- career was born of both. “I began designing when ing bamboo sticks afxed to a cast iron core; each I was a kid,” explains the 20-year-old Afghani. radiating leg is capped with a plastic disc that “We used to make our own wind toys out of paper helps contain the explosion when it hits a target. we found on the street.” He spent his childhood A GPS chip tracks its progress, and one Mine near Kabul, where his toys would scuttle over Kafon can absorb up to four explosions. stretches of desert. These open spaces were per- Its ingeniousness has attracted international fect for playing in, except that they were covered media attention, along with expert opinions, in land mines, and anything that blew past safe which tend to determine its validity in being perimeters was considered irretrievable. “There more poetic than perfect. (How, for instance, can are about 10 million land mines in Afghanistan. you ensure that every mine is detonated if the It’s a big problem,” Hassani explains. Years later, route is random?) Nevertheless, with its simple as a student at Design Academy Eindhoven, he construction and modest price of $50, Mine decided to revisit his childhood interests and Kafon presents a far more afordable option than think about alternatives for clearing mines. traditional safe removal methods, which cost His solution is a self-propelling structure light anywhere between $300 and $1,000 per mine. enough to blow in the wind but heavy enough to minekafon.blogspot.ca sept 2013 75

frugal innovation Pet lamPs Colombia Designers: alvaro Catalán de ocón with local artisans Product material : used water bottles 76 sept 2013

“Visually, it’s Very powerful, like a party – full of colours and happiness,” enthuses Alvaro Catalán de Ocón while describing his latest project, PET Lamps, which transforms plastic water bottles into vibrant pendant lights, each handcrafted by Colombian tex- tile artists. After several research trips to the region, the Spanish designer and his team spent time in Bogotá, establishing workshops for artisans displaced to cities due to guerilla warfare. The bottle’s neck acts as a joint to contain the electrical components, and the plastic body is cut into strips and used as a warp through which the designers weave traditional palm fbres. A creative type himself, Catalán de Ocón understands that artists are most engaged when given freedom for self-expression, so he sees his role as more catalyst than controller. With nine diferent models and endless colour combinations, each lamp is unique. The project has already generated a viable fnancial base. Coca-Cola is on board as a sponsor, and venerable retailers such as Conran (London) and Merci (Paris) are selling the lamps as individual pendants or in clusters that form eye-catching umbrellas of colour. A dramatic installation of 35 lights was recently on display during Milan Design Week, hanging over tables at Spazio Rossana Orlandi’s outdoor café. With pieces collected every two weeks, the initiative has given a growing number of families a secure income, and Catalán de Ocón hopes to introduce similar projects in Mexico and Chile. “We know we’re not going to solve the universal problem of plastic waste with this idea,” he says. “It’s more about giving artisans work and creating a new con- sciousness around the PET bottle, for both maker and consumer.” petlamp.org An umbrella of PET Lamps hung above the tables at Spazio Rossana Orlandi’s outdoor café during Milan Design Week. sept 2013 77

frugal innovation at a congested intersection in downtown Mexico City, the bright orange cladding of the Asadero café can be seen tucked underneath a bridge. At noon, the place hums with workers seated on bar stools, munching on tacos. A year ago, there was nothing here but debris and the occasional vagrant – a virtual no man’s land in the heart of the city. This un expect ed haven’s transformation is part of an initiative run by the urban development department, which aims to fnd cost-efective ways of altering some of the city’s scrappiest streets in small but impactful ways. The Under Bridges program (“Bajo Puentes” in Spanish) is among its most successful initiatives so far. By leasing spaces beneath freeways to in vest ors, the city has hatched a new micro-commerce model through which vendors can set up shop permanently. The only criterion is that half of the site be carved of for public space: playgrounds, gardens or outdoor under exercise areas. The remaining land is split between parking and revenue-generating ventures. bridges head the plan, says the model is based on schemes City ofcial Eduardo Aguilar, who helped spear- found in other urban centres. What makes Under Mexico City Bridges unique, however, is that it hasn’t cost the By leasing out derelict spaces beneath city a cent. The investors do the initial cleanup, its many freeways, Mexico City has secure the site, install essential utilities and fnd Project : enabled a new micro-commerce initiative city- approved vendors. urban rezoning to take hold. “These places are well lit at night,” says Aguilar, initiative “and they attract a lot of people,” which improves safety. Without the need for fnancial output at the city level, the project has mushroomed. According City budget : $0 to Aguilar, fve more Under Bridges locations are under construction, and 30 more have been identi- fed as ideal candidates. By Catherine Osborne 78 sept 2013 azuremagazine.com

NaNoleaf Toronto engineers : Gimmy Chu Tom , Rodinger and Christian Yan Purchase price: $50 savour the next time you change a light bulb, because you might not have to do it again for another 25 years – that is, if you use a NanoLeaf. The origami-like bulb is considered the world’s most energy-efcient LED. Using just 12 watts of power, it generates the same amount of light as a 100-watt incandescent and burns 30 times longer. The fxture was engineered by Gimmy Chu, Tom Rodinger and Christian Yan, three University of Toronto graduates who met in 2004 while looking to get some hands-on experience in electronics design. In 2011, they came up with a key innovation: by replacing the traditional bulb with a multi-folded circuit board form, they managed to eliminate the Thirty-three diodes usual hardware and glass encasement. The resulting are embedded into light spreads a speckled warm hue through 33 the circuit board embedded diodes. casing of NanoLeaf, A Kickstarter campaign launched in January gen- the world’s most erated $287,000 from 5,746 backers, surpassing the energy-efficient initial start-up goal by tenfold. “That success LED bulb. has opened up many opportunities,” says Chu. “We’ve top photo BY alessandro CanCian e27 lamp Cord from muuto, CourtesY torpinC.Com the team is frmly committed to: “We’re planning just fnished manufacturing our frst 1,500 lights, and the numbers will keep going up.” (The bulbs retail for $50, from thenanoleaf.com.) Chu says the light also fuels a personal challenge to reverse our combined carbon footprint. If we could at least make it net zero, that would be a success.” NanoLeaf is an impressive start. thenanoleaf.com sept 2013 79

Responsive design it s alive ’ it’s alive From buildings that breathe to blankets that read the body’s vital signs, sensor- embedded architecture and design open up a world of interactive possibilities By susan Walker ↑ Natural humidifier .35pt Shown in a glass case at Paris’s Centre Pompidou in 2012, hygroscope, by achim menges, with Steffen reichert, at the university of Stuttgart, exploits wood’s intrinsic responsiveness to moisture. the model’s eye- like apertures were fabricated in shapes and directed fibres that make them open and close in response to humid air. icd.uni-stuttgart.de 80 sept 2013 azuremagazine.com

.35pt ↑ a blanket that calls the doctor for you .35pt engineered by the responsive architecture at daniels lab, at the university of toronto, IM blanky is covered in circles that conceal lilyPad arduino microcontrollers and sensors. these might one day register changes in the wearer’s body temperature and heart rhythms, and upload the data for nurses to access. rad.daniels.utoronto.ca ↓ a Mask that unfurls to block gerMs for the age of super-viruses, rad came up with Micro-environment gear, a shirt with a collar/mask sewn with shape-memory wire and impregnated with silver nanoparticles. It senses the wearer’s biophysical reactions to airborne germs, and then activates the mask, which expands to cover the face and filter the incoming air. Architect cArol moukheiber is wiring sensors into a grey felt blanket with With the miniaturization of technology, small, easily programmed com- round modules, which resemble the lily pads that adorn the green tafeta puters can be embedded in our buildings and objects so they adapt to our hanging on the wall, an earlier iteration of this thinking, responsive device needs and those of the environment. This growing realm is fulflling the with its own IP address. A co-director of the Responsive Architecture at predictions of the ’60s cybernetic scientist Gordon Pask that humans Daniels Lab, at the University of Toronto, she is both the designer and maker would eventually interact with technology in a mutually constructive way. of IM Blanky 2.0, a project in development with the university’s department The fourishing of experiments in responsive design is a direct result of of occupational therapy. Now in the testing phase, the blanket is designed designers and architects taking the means of production into their own for people confned to bed; when you place it over yourself, it measures your hands, as technology becomes more accessible to them. For instance, breathing patterns, and possibly your heart rate, and relays those signals many interactive devices employ Arduino microcontrollers, tiny circuit back to a clinic for analysis. boards designers can program to read and respond to sensors. With these “It’s not that the blanket is a replacement for more precise clinical moni- and other technologies, they are developing smart textiles that playfully toring. Its value is in being able to record vital signs over time and provide change colour and pattern with the application of heat, or release fragrance data to give better diagnoses,” says Moukheiber. It is easy to see its applicabil- or lotion with the use of chemical actuators; and bodysuits equipped with ity as an aging population faces health problems later in life and society looks sensors to measure vital signs. For the home, we are already seeing more for ways to care for ailing and disabled citizens in their own homes. user-friendly appliances and systems that respond to touch or a wave of the Moukheiber, her RAD colleagues Rodolphe el-Khoury and Christos hand; and in the future, morphable furnishings, such as those envisioned Marcopoulos and their students are pioneers in this rapidly evolving feld. by Neri Oxman at MIT’s Media Lab, will change shape to ergonomically sept 2013 81

.35pt ↑A building with A fAcAde thAt breAthes ↓ instAllAtions thAt light up to enviro-stiMuli .35pt in barcelona, the Media ict building, by enric ruiz-geli’s cloud 9 by late 2013, ecopark (left) will illuminate pier 35 along new York’s architecture firm, features a dynamic facade made up of triangular east river. the project consists of “digital seaweed” that “sings” in etfe cushions. these are Arduino programmed to contract response to mussel activity. it was conceived by the living, a local stu- and expand, filtering sunlight. the opposite side is clad in long, dio run by david benjamin and soo-in Yang, with shop Architects and rectangular pillows that fill with heat-blocking nitrogen. natalie Jeremijenko. living light (right) is a map of seoul that glows to e-cloud9.com indicate the city’s air quality in real time. thelivingnewyork.com

Responsive design .35pt .35pt ↑ a motorized panel system that blocks heat ↓ a highway that illuminates road conditions For the kaFd spas in riyadh, architect chuck hoberman collaborated now under construction in the dutch province of brabant, the smart with buro happold and metal panel manufacturer zahner to devise highway, by studio roosegaarde and heijmans infrastructure, motorized facade panels. they consist of three titanium layers comes alive thanks to temperature-responsive paint that reflects programmed to slide over each other, aligning the perforations to road conditions, and street lamps that turn on when vehicles admit light, or blocking them to mitigate the desert heat. approach and then go dim afterward. tessellatesurface.com studioroosegaarde.net accommodate the user. Houses will respond to environmental needs: along aimed at improving energy efciency. Chuck Hoberman, the New York with the now ubiquitous planted walls and ceilings that flter air and absorb designer who invented his eponymous shape-shifting spheres in the ’90s, is carbon dioxide, there will be surfaces that literally breathe, expanding and applying biomimicry in a concept for a facade that could change and react contracting to mitigate humidity. We can now talk about buildings having a to sunlight and temperature. For the KAFD spas in Riyadh, starting construc- nervous system, and having a dynamic relationship with their surroundings tion next year, his frm worked with British architecture frm Buro Happold and inhabitants. at their joint Adaptive Building Initiative to develop Tessellate surface Among the visionaries in the feld is Toronto artist and architect Philip modules composed from three layers of perforated titanium, two of which Beesley, who represented Canada at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale are motorized. Responding to the sun’s intensity, the way heliotropic plants with his Hylozoic Ground installation. “Could architecture of the future be, such as sunfowers do, the screens move so that their perforated patterns in some ways, alive?” he asks. “Might it care about us; might it know about overlap to regulate light and heat, ventilate and create privacy in a continual us?” He composed his Radiant Soil installation, recently on exhibit in Paris reaction to external conditions. Manufactured by the metal panel experts at the Espace Fondation EDF, from tens of thousands of digitally fabricated at Zahner, they can reduce the cost of cooling a building by 15 to 20 per cent. feathers ftted with microprocessors, and active liquid cells in suspended A new highway system by Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde and glassfasks. Shape-memory alloy actuators (microscopic wires) stimulate Heijmans Infrastructure will similarly employ responsive design to curb growth and chemical processes, so the components respond to light and energy consumption, and could inspire many more projects that embed scent, and mimic metabolism to flter the air. “Working with nature and with these technologies into the urban fabric. The highway incorporates inter- artifcial technologies, digital fabrication and computation, we are trying to active street lamps that come on as vehicles approach them and dim after make something sensitive, something that might approach a living system.” they pass. “Wind lights” employ updrafts from passing cars to generate Indeed, biomimicry lies at the core of many responsive design concepts energy for illumination. Temperature-responsive paint on the road sept 2013 83

Responsive design ↑ A light thAt’s .35pt moved by sound the Fiet glowing light piece, by studio toer of eind hoven, the .35pt nether lands, is made up of hundreds of plastic cones. the tips respond to atmos pher ic sounds: a sharp noise triggers a sudden tensing up, while a peaceful setting allows them to expand and contract in a calming manner. studiotoer.com → living mAchines toronto architect Philip beesley’s Radiant soil installation was recently on display at the Alive exhibition at the espace Fondation edF in Paris. its clusters of feathery fronds are fitted with shape- memory alloy mechanisms that react to viewers as they approach, stimulating protocells and scent emit- ters in the glass vessels. pHoto BY Lorem ipsum DoLore philipbeesleyarchitect.com 84 sept 2013 azuremagazine.com

← a textile that .35pt ruffles its feathers When you wave your arms in front of emotional dialogue – or touch it, clap your hands near it or engage it otherwise – the textile piece flutters and ripples in response. .35pt .35pt While it’s more of a playful design than a practical one, it explores the emotional connection between people and objects. the project is by Germany’s svenja Keune, a designer fascinated with responsive surfaces. svenja‑keune.de ↓ hands-free home appliances ↑ plaYful objects that react to everYthinG open mirror, with parts that slide away to reveal an ipod charger, communicative organisms, another whimsical project by svenja represents the open-source evolution of interactive devices for Keune, are embedded with arduino circuit boards, leds, motors, the home. italy’s digital habits offers the product as a diY design, sensors and touch screens. the net-encased objects react to light, supplying the digital files for building the physical components wind, touch – or even morse code tapped out on a touch screen. and arduino circuits, as well as the software. digitalhabits.it svenja‑keune.de surface displays snowfakes, alerting drivers to icy conditions. Painted present obstacles on the way to commercial production. lines indicating the lanes absorb the sun’s energy during the day so they However, going by the example of Enric Ruiz-Geli’s Media ICT building can light up at night. And in a bold gesture toward driving without fossil in Barcelona – named World Building of the Year in 2011 by the World fuels, the highway has induction coils embedded under the tarmac to Architecture Festival – enormous savings and huge reductions in a project’s recharge electric cars as they proceed over it. A 150-metre trial strip of carbon footprint can be realized in the embrace of relatively simple the road is under construction in the Dutch province of Brabant. technology. “Performative buildings can be [constructed] at low cost. You All of these innovations represent a paradigm shift from static to put the money into engineering,” he has said. The main innovation in his dynamic architecture and urban design, which requires a certain bravery Barcelona building is a pneumatic facade of ETFE cushions. The triangular from architects, planners and city ofcials as they confront the new pillows on the southeast side inhale and exhale like lungs to provide realities of climate change. “There’s a kind of stasis of architecture deeply sensor-controlled sun shading. The long cushions on the southwest fll with ingrained in us,” says Vera Parlac, architect and assistant professor at the nitrogen to block heat and flter light; in 30 minutes, a beautiful, cascading University of Calgary’s faculty of environmental design. “You have to be nitrogen cloud responds to the rising temperature outside, replacing a ready to give up the notion of constant stability. There is equilibrium in conventional air conditioning system, which can account for 80 per cent motion, too, but as architects we don’t deal well with that. Embracing that of a building’s energy consumption. concept has the capacity to slowly change the nature of the design process.” Ruiz-Geli is now at work on the equally imaginative El Bulli Foundation, Parlac leads the University of Calgary’s SKiN (Soft Kinetic Network) a cultural and gastronomic centre on the Catalonian coast that will resemble Project, which is developing a building material with embedded “muscle” an organism and aim for carbon neutrality. He en visions a future where wires that activate surfaces to follow people’s movements and activities, structures contain thousands of embedded computers, are built with recy- harvesting warmth and creating localized heated zones for greater comfort cled materials, and increasingly adopt the designs and processes of the and energy savings. As with much research in the feld of responsive natural world – and he is just one of the ingenious designers who dare to design, the need for rigorous testing and the technology’s associated costs make that future happen. sept 2013 85

the farthest shore Responding to the local vernacular of building on stilts, Fogo Island Inn’s volumes are supported by steel columns drilled into the bedrock. 86 sept 2013

Architect Todd Saunders builds the ultimate escape on Fogo Island, an inn that celebrates Newfoundland’s raw beauty By Lisa Moore Photography by Alex Fradkin sept 2013 87

↑ as well as the usual hotel amenities, the four- storey inn has a library, an art gallery, a cinema, and a rooftop sauna. ← Views of the land and the ocean are highlighted throughout, so guests continually confront the beautiful though inhospi- table terrain. azuremagazine.com

the restaurant serves new Newfoundland cuisine, based on fresh-caught fish and locally foraged vegetables and berries prepared by chef Murray McDonald. the cantilevered wings that make UP Fogo Island Inn, a cruciform structure economy. It is a project of the Shorefast Foundation, a charitable organiza- clad in indigenous spruce, are set at peculiar angles, appearing to be held tion whose president, Zita Cobb, grew up on the remote island, a 45-minute up by slightly of-kilter stilts. This careful detail embodies a particular ferry ride from the mainland. Her vision includes bringing visitors to Fogo brand of Newfoundland humour – equal parts sly wit and bravado, born of Island to take in its great stretches of barren coastline and its sublime ingenuity and necessity. The angles suggest that the 29-room hotel is so terrain, which are swathed in weather of all sorts. In turn, hotel profts go cleverly designed, you could remove all of the supports and it would remain toward future community development. standing, despite the snow, sea spray and occasional gales from the wild The best view of the inn arrives without warning, along the drive from North Atlantic pounding at its doorstep. the community of Tilting, near Tina’s Convenience Store in Joe Batt’s Arm. The stilts also recall the quaint decay of vernacular architecture, the The white cladding shimmers in the sun-crimped, wavering ocean haze, fshing fakes and stages that have fallen out of use with the demise of resembling a seagull about to alight. the cod fshery. In this reference lies the seed of the hotel itself, which The building looks so delicately placed on the landscape because it has was en visioned as part of a revitalization scheme for the declining island been. Architect Todd Saunders explains that when he and his client chose sept 2013 89

↑ as with traditional newfoundland houses, the hotel’s main entrance is at the back. ← The 29 guest rooms, which occupy each of the four floors, are arranged along a single-load corridor with windows facing north to the ocean. → most of the rooms are heated by a cast iron wood- burning stove. the site, they took readings of the terrain every 10 centimetres or so, to avoid disturbing the rock and the vegetation with excessive blasting. Rather, they created a plan that allowed for the irregularities of the rocky surface, and they built a temporary boardwalk to protect the ecology during construction. “In more temperate climates, where the vegetation would grow back in a season or two, those kinds of precautions wouldn’t be necessary,” says Saunders, who grew up in Newfoundland and now lives and works in Norway. “On Fogo Island, regrowth might take years, and we wanted to preserve it.” According to Saunders, plans for the hotel involved thousands of drawings and many conference calls with the owner from all over the world. The build- ing’s footprint was even rotated a few times, to achieve the perfect orientation for a view of the sunset from every table in the dining room. During my stay in June, I ate juniper-smoked turbot, caught hours before by local fshermen, and a dessert of goat’s cheese ice cream and bakeapples, while a boiling red sun tinted the white dining room in pink and gold hues. From a distance, the inn almost seems to foat above the landscape, yet it is a dramatic structure, as minimalist and modern as a spacecraft. “This isn’t the kind of building we wanted to hide, or sweep under the carpet,” says Saunders. “We wanted it to appear as though it were raising its head, full of pride, to look out at the sea.” At frst Saunders, still in his 30s when he received the commission, felt slightly intimidated by the prospect. He had been designing single- family homes and had already exhibited a defnite fair, but a hotel was on a mark- edly diferent scale. “I was fne as soon as I started to think about it as a home. I wanted a structure that I believed my grandmother (if she could azuremagazine.com

RESIDENT MANAGER NORTH AMERICA ANDREA ROMANO, [email protected] WWW.RIMADESIO.IT MOON DOOR SHOWROOM: MILANO ROMA BOLOGNA PARMA GENOVA TORINO BRESCIA FIRENZE PALERMO CATANIA COSENZA VIENNA MADRID BARCELLONA BILBAO MONACO ISTANBUL BEIRUT VARSAVIA PECHINO DESIGN G.BAVUSO TAIPEI HONG KONG BANGKOK NEW YORK CHICAGO MIAMI BRASILIA BELO HORIZONTE SAN PAOLO Azure Moon Blunotte S mar_apr 13.indd 2 16/01/13 14:49

←↑ all of the interior accents, including the hand-stitched quilts, hooked rugs and furniture, were crafted by local artisans. pop out of the grave) would fnd very comfortable.” The entrance is at the back of the building, which is typical of many tradi- tional Newfoundland homes. Two large red wooden doorknobs provide the only accent of colour on the facade, and the only indication of an entrance. “Like big red buttons,” Saunders says. “I wanted the very frst thing a visitor touches to be handcrafted.” The interior was conceived in collaboration with a team of international architects and interior designers who conducted a fve-week workshop with local craftspeople. Together, they created all of the interior accents: wallpaper, furniture, light fxtures, quilts, hooked rugs with murals of island life, even the wooden baskets that arrive at guests’ doors in the early morn- ing with fresh pastries and cofee. The cylindrical hanging light fxtures in the dining room were fashioned from ordinary rope, and they form an elaborate, airy pattern that brings to mind the making of fshing nets or sailing knots. “There was an imperative to avoid anything mass produced,” Cobb explains. “The last thing we wanted was a boutique hotel like every other boutique hotel around the world.” The amenities include a cinema, a restaurant, a library, an art gallery and a bar, and guests are encouraged to stay for up to three days. An exercise facility, saunas, and hot tubs on the roof overlook the sea, and each room provides an expansive view of the ocean and other islands in the distance. “You know those frst three or four seconds when you wake up in a hotel room and you don’t know where you are?” Saunders asks. “We wanted every bed to face the ocean, so that as soon as a guest opens her eyes she knows exactly where she is. She’s in Fogo.” fogoislandinn.ca azuremagazine.com

best seat in the house Urbana base with Titan shower door urbana shower base with sea t Fleurco introduces an innovative Reserve your seat shower base with built-in seat and storage amenity to enhance your showering experience. www.designashower.com • www.fl eurco.com

Designers Suzanne Tick and Jeffrey Bernett are heading up two new brands for Canadian manufacturer Teknion. 94 sept 2013 azuremagazine.com

not your fAther’s offiCe With the launch of two new product lines and a freshly minted alliance with B&B Italia, teknion is poised to become a giant in the contract furniture industry By Alison Garwood-Jones Portrait photography by Chris Chapman By all reports, neocon, held each spring in Chicago, had a palpable sense America to a more competitive six- to eight-week time frame. of excitement that hasn’t been felt in a while. The upbeat mood at North Meanwhile, Teknion president and CEO David Feldberg was busy America’s largest contract furniture expo was no doubt the culmination of attending two other major launches at the fair that could very well propel numerous factors, among them news that Herman Miller had bought up his mid-size, privately owned company closer to the ranks of such industry Maharam, and a string of intriguing furniture debuts by such big-draw giants as Haworth, Knoll and Steelcase. A few months earlier, Teknion’s names as Jean-Marie Massaud and Alain Gilles. But the most newsworthy Toronto head ofce sent out press releases announcing two new brands, to announcements to hit the Merchandise Mart trade foor came from the be headed up by New York designers Jefrey Bernett and Suzanne Tick, Teknion showroom, where a landscape of minimalist sofa sectionals and two of the biggest names in the contract furniture business. chrome-based Tulip chairs were elegantly set against an all-white back- On view at NeoCon, the inaugural prototypes for Teknion Studio and drop. The furnishings were part of B&B Italia’s Project Collection, and their Teknion Textiles included a wide-seated, three-legged tub chair called presence at Teknion signalled a new alliance that will see the illustrious Fractals, which groups easily into a circle of three or six, nesting together Italian company’s contract line produced at Teknion’s North Carolina plant, like fower petals. The Spectrum sofa sits low to the ground on slim metal a development that will speed up production and cut delivery time in North legs, while the Keel lounge chair’s gentle backward lean invites users to sit sept 2013 95

back and stay awhile. Each piece was upholstered in one of 10 new fabrics the North Carolina plant. That’s when the phone rang. that ofcially launch Teknion Textiles. Bernett happened to be in Toronto around the same time, and on a Judging by the collection’s relaxed air, the Studio brand is targeting whim he gave Feldberg a call. What was intended to be a visit to catch up non-cubical ofce environments: the nooks, hallways, lobbies and reception with an old acquaintance led to several dinners, and before long Bernett areas where creative collisions and breakout sessions tend to occur. “If had agreed to oversee Feldberg’s new divisions. “The funny thing is,” refects your client is Google, which has gone on record saying collaboration is the Bernett, “I wouldn’t have called David if I hadn’t made that trip to Toronto. key to its success,” notes Bernett, “you want your furniture to refect con- I had a big program on the go, and I had no reason to start something new.” temporary culture – not your father’s ofce.” Based on the positive reception Back at his CDS studio in New York, he and his long-time collaborator, received in Chicago (both the furniture and fabrics earned Best of NeoCon Nicholas Dodziuk, had assembled an impressive list of regular clients over gold awards), Teknion’s latest ventures are getting it right. the years, producing popular designs for such lines as B&B Italia, Bof, It’s easy to imagine such game-changing initiatives taking years to evolve. Knoll and Design Within Reach. Their Canvas Ofce Landscape furniture Yet most of the key elements fell into place in less than a year. In 2012, system, introduced almost three years ago, remains one of Herman Miller’s Feldberg purchased a plant in Clayton, North Carolina, with the intention bestselling and most proftable collections. of expanding his American base, although at the time he wasn’t clear how. During a tour of the Toronto plant with Feldberg, Bernett had noticed “We looked at diferent companies,” says the CEO, now in his mid-ffties, “and that the facilities were set up with the same fnishing equipment used by we thought about acquiring other businesses in the sector.” The following B&B Italia. “I could see that David had already invested in quality and capa- summer, he decided to start fresh with his own line and manufacture it at bility levels,” he says, noting that many manufacturers routinely outsource 96 sept 2013 azuremagazine.com

↗↗ Envita, by Mario Ruiz of Spain, is also part of the Teknion Studio brand, which includes complemen- tary occasional tables. ↗ The gentle back- ward angle of the Keel lounge chair invites users to sit and stay awhile. → For Teknion Textiles’ debut at NeoCon, Suzanne Tick intro- duced Surface Tension, a collection with 10 fabric styles. ← The high backrests and arms of Teknion Studio’s Fractal Seating Group, by Jeffrey Bernett and Nicholas Dodziuk, buffer sound and add a little privacy. production. “Teknion in‑sources, which allows it to control quality, and the company is fexible enough to accommodate custom orders.” Teknion Bernett also sensed a possible synergy between the two organizations president and and their second‑generation family lineage. Feldberg’s father, Saul, started CEO David Teknion’s parent company, Global, in 1966, the same year Piero Busnelli Feldberg. began his luxury goods business in Novedrate, Italy. Busnelli’s sons, Giorgio and Emanuele, now run the business. “Jefrey was the catalyst for intro du‑ cing me to Teknion,” says Giorgio who is president of B&B Italia, “and I instantly had a good feeling about David. He’s dynamic, open and honest.” While the frst item on their agenda is to start manufacturing B&B Italia’s existing contract line, Project Collection, both presidents are keen to see where the alliance will take them. It’s a win‑win situation, says Bernett enthusiastically: Teknion stands to beneft from B&B’s reputation for craftsmanship, and it can also venture into furniture for hotel lobbies, for instance – another popular touchdown workspace for wireless executives. “From there, we could even bridge into residential,” adds Feldberg. The fnal addition to the Teknion expansion was to develop a textile

↑↓ b&b italia’s Project collection is now being B&B Italia manufactured by president teknion at its north Giorgio carolina plant. the line Busnelli. includes cloud, a minimalist sectional by naoto Fukasawa. and Bernett suggested his long-time friend Suzanne Tick, a 20-year veteran in the upholstery business who is well known for her heather felts, chunky weaves, polyester velvets and metallic vinyls, crafted for such clients as Knoll and Tandus Flooring. “I called Jefrey on another matter,” she recalls, “and he started talking about Teknion. He kept saying, ‘This is it, Ticker!’ We’re building a new brand, and the one missing link is textiles.” Feldberg followed up the next day with an ofer. The fabrics will cover all of Teknion Studio’s seating products, as well as B&B Italia’s Project pieces. Called Surface Tension, the frst iteration is a range of 10 styles that Tick describes as “juxtapositions”: warm and cool neutrals with saturated colours, plushness with slickness, and handcrafted aesthetics with super-technical action structures. The 110-swatch palette includes a semi-refective quilted polyurethane, and a line of felt with a visible honeycomb stitch. Another frst for Teknion will be bringing the new fabrics to the open market, a move that once again sends Teknion into uncharted areas. “This is the fantastic part of building a collection in a holistic way,” says Tick. “I see areas that could easily grow from here, including drapery and wrap wall fabrics.” Bernett reiterates that most furniture giants are big public companies, and Teknion by contrast is still very entrepreneurial. “What that means in its wholeness,” he observes, “is the ability to embrace change and move quickly.” Tick agrees: “This is the frst time in both our careers Portrait by amy aiello that we aren’t referring extensively to a company archive. We’re only looking forward.” teknion.com azuremagazine.com



the big dig when most post-war duplexes in montreal undergo renovation, they rarely survive demolition; their boxy shapes and fat roofs are so utilitarian that little nostalgia is attached to ensure their survival. One local architect, though, has revealed the potential of these everyday modernist cubes. For Jean-Maxime Labrecque’s revamp of a two-storey red-brick duplex in the Rosemont– Montreal’s Jean-Maxime Labrecque La Petite-Patrie neighbourhood, he kept the monolithic structure adds volume to an ordinary duplex by intact, turning his attention to the interior instead. Where rooms and hallways once defned the main foor, a 2.6-by-3.3-metre excavating the crawl space incision now opens up to the basement level. “A primary reason the owners bought this property was the By austin macdonald house’s volumetric qualities,” says Labrecque, sole principal of photography by Frédéric Bouchard INPHO Architectures Physiques et d’Information. He has run 100 sept 2013 azuremagazine.com