Join us Tonight at the Hand-Eye Supply Curiosity Club in lovely downtown Portland, Oregon as Sam Lanahan of Flextegrity expounds on his Buckminster Fuller inspired work with structural materials composed of icosahedral arrays!
Flextegrity "Innovations in Structural Optimization. Making things stronger and lighter- why geometry matters!"
Making load bearing materials- A new look at discontinuous compression continuous tension structures. The discussion will explore the structural and symmetrical integrity of the icosahedron and what it means to constrain the twelve degrees of freedom. From there we will weave omni-axial, omni-extensible arrays into virtually any form. We will explore the unique characteristics of the resulting arrays and potential applications.
I had the great good fortune as a young man to travel with Buckminster Fuller on a trip to Southeast Asia where he was the guest of many heads of State. His influence on me is immeasurable. Afterwards I spent two years exploring the geometry of geodesics and tensegrities with Joe Clinton at Union College. I earned a MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Oregon, after which I founded a company with others that pioneered Geographic Information Systems applications for mobile data collection in the electric, cable, and telephone industries. Naturally, this work dovetailed nicely with my interest in spatial topologies. In 2004 I reinvigorated 'Flextegrity' by continuing my earlier explorations into the development of a 'universal material.' I now hold two patents and a third pending in structural optimized materials based on icosahedral arrays.
Following last year's remarkably successful inaugural exhibition at the Terminal Building, WantedDesign is back and bigger than ever as a major satellite event to the 24th International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Core77 is pleased to partner with the event in support of their first Student Design Challenge, which, along with the Live/Work design contest and the iGet.it pop-up shop, are new for 2012.
For the student Design Challenge, WantedDesign has invited students from six schools—three stateside and three French—to participate in a three-day digital fabrication workshop:
The "Design Students Challenge" will be an engaging live workshop that allows design students, ambassadors of their schools, to express their creativity and technical ability. Over the course of three days, design students from the U.S. and France will use one material, one conceptual tool (e.g. computer software), and one fabrication tool (a laser cutting machine) to design and construct a lighting design of their own invention. At the end of three days, the designs will be presented and be judged by the public and a jury of design professionals...
We had the chance to chat with the creator of the design challenge, Fran�ois Brument.
Core77: Can you introduce us to your personal work and your interest in exploring digital manufacturing?
A hundred years ago, the industrial revolution had totally changed the way we conceived of and fabricated objects. A century later, how should we approach the digital paradigm? My aim is to investigate how thinking, conceiving, fabricating, distributing digitally can profoundly change the design practice.
Where did the idea for the Student Design Challenge come from? Why did you choose this particular format?
The idea came to me when I was a jury during students design diplomas. A lot of them were using laser-cutting techniques, but they were using it as a way to escape from manual modelmaking—not exploring its untapped potential as a new technology. The idea, then, is to create a very short format to explore a fast and expressive use of laser-cutting and digital conception techniques.
You've run this project before in France—how do you anticipate this transatlantic iteration to be different or similar to the previous challenges?
I've always thought the digital battles as fun moments to compete and share skills and visions... but I've been really surprised how quickly design and aesthetic approaches of each school were appearing. I'm very eager to see how students will express themselves and enjoy this moment together.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Boston's Fenway Park, Objet used one of their Connex 3D printers to crank out a replica of the stadium, created from blueprints and photographs:
In Finland you can build a house without a permit as long as it's no larger than 128-square-feet. Needless to say, most people just get a permit. But in 2010 Robin Falck actually designed and built an itsy-bitsy Finnish dream house in the woods, a project he fantasized about and finally pursued because, according to Falck, "my military service was approaching and after sketching and calculating it seemed so possible."
After consulting a few architects, Falck began construction in early June, and after just two weeks "the only thing missing was a window and door, which arrived a couple of weeks later." The house, which Falck calls Nido (Italian for 'birds nest') is a mere 96-square-feet with a 50-square-foot loft bedroom. A large window spans the two stories, letting in tons of natural light and affording a full view of the sky at night. And since Nido sits on a lakeshore there are spectacular day time views as well.
Unfortunately, tight after Falck built Nido his military duties kicked in, and it was a full year before he was back and able to finally enjoy all his hard work. If you're wondering how much it all cost, the answer is: very. "I was surprised how affordable the whole project was," Falck said. "Most of the materials are recycled and I haven't really calculated how much it finally cost, but the ballpark figure is something like $10,500 plus the man hours."
"Hypervan (rear down view)" (2008); all images courtesy of BravinLee programs
Film lovers—sci-fi fans in particular—are surely familiar with the work of "Futurist Designer" Syd Mead (we're not sure if he's got issues with the term 'concept designer,' but we'll grant him the exception), and even the masses ought to recognize his groundbreaking work for the likes of Blade Runner, Aliens and TRON, among other canonical examples of the genre. If Mead's reputation as a visionary visual artist is all but surpassed by those blockbusters, the current exhibition of gouaches—spanning the four decades of his career and counting—at BravinLee gallery in Chelsea offers a fascinating look at his work in a fine art context.
Mead's vision of the future is sleek, erotic, and glamorous. It is populated by impeccably dressed, trim and tanned 1%ers and smartly uniformed worker bees. Mead is fond of portraying the arrival of guests or travelers in the act of greeting their hosts, which allows him to focus on the vehicle in the context of a short narrative sequence. The fantastic conjectural machines seem more plausible when placed in a richly detailed context and in a familiar situation. With few exceptions, Mead's future is utopian, free from famine, litter, security lines, corpulent tourists in cargo shorts, white socks and traffic snarls. Almost invariably the result of a client's commission, Mead once described his work as the lubricant for capitalism...
I'm still getting used to the fact that New York City, once a global leader, has fallen so far behind other cities in keeping up with the times. On a trip to Copenhagen in 1995, I marveled at that city's system of public bikesharing, and many of you live in places where that's old hat; but I'm still excited to see that New York is finally getting something similar in a couple of months.
Like many other things in New York, it won't be free. Citi Bike is something like ZipCar for bicycles, though the pricing model is a bit different: You pay a $95 annual fee and then get as many 45-minute bike rides as you can take, from station to station, throughout predetermined locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Another difference with Citi Bike is that tourists can take advantage of the program by paying for 24-hour access or 7-day access (30-minute riding intervals). Thus far the map looks pretty comprehensive for downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, though some of these may change:
"Bike share systems only work when bikes are used and re-docked so that others can use them," Citi Bike writes, explaining why overages are charged if you exceed the 45-minute limit. You can get around this on longer trips by relaying from station to station, but NYC is geographically small enough that I can't see myself having to do that often.
I'm curious as to how they'd work out the logistics of keeping each bike station balanced between having enough supply and enough empty slots to dock incoming bicycles; there's no word on how they plan to solve the former, but Citi Bike has solved the latter as follows: Should you get to your destination station and find it full, a screen at the station awards you a 15-minute credit and directs you to the nearest station with an empty slot. The stations appear close enough that this will hopefully not be a hassle.
What will be a hassle is if you're unattentive enough to have the bike stolen out from under you; that will incur a $1,000 fine. Ouch.
Citi Bike launches this July with 10,000 bikes in 600 locations. (And as the name implies, yep, it's sponsored by the bank.)
Starwood is seeking a Senior Interior Designer/Architect to collaborate with key team members in the concepting, development and execution of innovative, strategic design solutions for all aspects of the built environment and guest experience for W, Le Meridien, St. Regis and The Luxury Collection hotels. Communicate this strategy and design direction through design documents, Brand style guides, design guidelines, and presentations to both internal and external partners.
This video on how a bicycles are made—or at least on how they were made in 1945 in the UK—is a lot more interesting than you'd think it'd be, particularly if you're British and recall your country's former prominence as a manufacturing giant. It's presented by Raleigh's chief designer of the time, and you catch a glimpse of the army of workers he presides over in the "Drawing Office," noted as one of the more important departments. And on the factory floor, it's fascinating to see how, for instance, a circular piece of steel like this...
...is transformed, step by step, into a joint like this:
As with previous "manufacturing in the past" videos we've shown, you'll note the manpower required, the division of sexes by task, and at least one poor bastard breathing in the steam from a caustic cleaning bath in those pre-OSHA days:
The latest Kickstarter success story comes from industrial designer Chris Thomson and cinematographer Ben Ryan, who have created a simple, portable, and clever device to help shooters regulate motion control. Called the Genie, it doesn't take up much more space than the SLR body it's meant to be attached to, and it allows the user to program in both rotating and panning features.
What most impresses us is the inherent hackability of the device: Because it can propel itself along by a provided rope, the camera can go anywhere you're willing to string that rope, either using an optional track or something you whip up yourself, like a few pieces of wood nailed together or even a skateboard.
What's also neat is that in the video below, you can see that they've prototyped it with the help of a MakerBot Cupcake:
Once again Core77's Hand-Eye Supply is participating in Portland, Oregon's Starlight Parade, this year defending its title of Best Illumination! As a part of this extravaganza we held an open call to find a group of "Portland's Most Inspirational Makers" who will literally be paraded through the streets on our float "The Brain Storm". After receiving 52 nominees and over 1200 votes we have our winners! Reflecting Portland, Oregon's diverse maker culture our winners this year hail from a variety of fields.
We are very honored to have this team for our float and encourage all Portland readers to turn out to cheer them on at the Starlight Parade on the evening of June 2nd. The parade offers an eclectic mix of parade floats, marching bands, and people representing local businesses and organizations. It draws more than 250,000 spectators to downtown Portland and is broadcast live on KPTV (Channel 12 on your TV dial.)
We really appreciate the enthusiasm displayed by all our nominees and their posses!
Here are some pics from our announcement party, where in addition to celebrating our Maker Overlords we invited party-goers to create designs that will be compiled and illuminated in our float - "The Brain Storm"
Salone del Mobile Milan 2012
Case Study: Reinventing Wool as a Performance Fiber
Architectural Digest Home Design Show 2012
International Home + Housewares Show 2012
New York CityVision Competition
Snarkitecture - Funiture 
Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving, by Jon Kolko
Where They Create, by Paul Barbera and Alexandra Onderwater
The Key to Sustainable Product Creation: Engineering + Design
One Chair a Week 
IKEA Takes on Consumer Electronics
New Philips LED Light Bulb
Core77 Design Awards 
SHIFTBoston 2012 Glow Competition 
"Hypervan (rear down view)" (2008); all images courtesy of BravinLee programs
"Future Rolls-Royce" (1967)
"Running of the Six DRGXX" (1983)
Google Maps: Designing the Modern Atlas
The Messy Art of Saving the World
Big Idea, Little Printer
The Landscape of User Experience Design in Asia
Photo Courtesy of Lindsie Reitz // 
Overlords Steve Davee and Courtney Hermann with Kerri Beth Elliot
Photo Courtesy of Lindsie Reitz // 
MILAN 2012: SATELLITE EXHIBITIONS
MILAN 2012: BRERA DESIGN DISTRICT
VENTURA LAMBRATE 2012
ART GRAD SHOW SPRING 2012
Book Review - Introducing: Visual Identities for Small Businesses
Wallpaper's City Guide: What's Hip in Tel Aviv
Paper View: Sight Unseen's Printed Edition
Book Review - Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving, by Jon Kolko
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Imperialist Tendencies: The Real Design Imperialism
New Amsterdam Bicycle Show Recap
Case Study: Icebreaker Merino - Reinventing Wool as a Performance Fiber
Logic over Lust: Remembering Butzi Porsche
Designing Handwashing Part 2: Diverse Nudges in a Hospital
