photo francisbitonti.com

The designer’s first project emerged in 2007 for the New York City Department of Transportation when he created Squiggle Rack, a playful alternative to the ever-so-boring bicycle racks found on sidewalks. After that, Bitonti worked up his name through projects that generate more than a few “a-ha moments”, including the appearance of Dita von Tesse as a Sci-Fi evil character with a hidden agenda and a very revealing look.

photo francisbitonti.co

Ever since Bitonti started to experiment with the broadening technique of 3D printing, his work has been tinted with a fresh, organic approach that is visible in everything he creates, whether it is a chair, a mirror or a garment.  For instance, the Bristle Stool and Bristle Chair consist of multiple thin and inflexible stems developed through specific algorithms and designed using one single ABS plastic part. Hempitera is another cutting-edge piece of furniture which resembles a mirror moulded in a chair-like form. It is actually made of polished aluminium, but it looks very deceiving as it reflects the surrounding environment.

photo francisbitonti.com

Being a designer who makes a statement not only through his work but also in the way he presents himself to the public, Bitonti brought 3D printing into the fashion world. The collaboration with Katie Gallager for her Autumn/Winter 2013 collection translates into laser wool textiles that make the body melt into the clothes. Each netting corresponded to a specific piece of clothing and was digitised in computer algorithms that generated the pattern for laser cutting. The collection also included belts created by Francis Bitonti’s Studio that keep to the all-black look and twiggy motif.

photo francisbitonti.com

Since I adverted to inventive elements, I must refer to the impressive Setae Flatware, the kind of cutlery that the graceful elves from Lord of the Rings might use during a lavish dinner. The intertwining of four individual strands made of silver plated 3D printed stainless steel provide an elegant functionality.

photo francisbitonti.com

From the dinner service worthy of fairest Lothlórien to the black and white design of Peconic Ballet Theatre in Riverheard, New York, Bitonti never ceases to baffle. This 2,000sqft facility is reminiscent of the ballet company featured in Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010). White walls balance against black floors, black ceilings and black leotards, making the performances stand out and highlighting the dancers. In the waiting room a couple of laser imprinted acrylic Rorschach Tables that double as chairs are randomly displayed. The lighting helps to create a diffuse yet simple and elegant space where the art of ballet is the main ruler.

photo francisbitonti.com

Francis Bitonti’s work is straightforward and technological, yet it doesn’t upset the eyes with an overspill of details. He turns computer techniques into wearable garments and transforms spaces and objects into human-friendly products. Ironically, this comes from a designer who looks like a walking-cliché with his punk hairdo and all-black clothing.

photo francisbitonti.com

photo francisbitonti.com

by Cristiana Șerbănescu

Cristiana Șerbănescu is allergic to describing herself to the public. The one thing she is sure of is that she wants to come to terms with her own artistic differences. She is now attempting to INHALE.

The post UNEXPECTED DESIGN FROM EVERYDAY REBELLIOUS DESIGNER // FRANCIS BITONTI appeared first on INHALE MAG.

The philanthropic limb of the Swedish leviathan – a.k.a the Ikea Foundation – has invested $ 4.5 millions in order to create better housing units for refugees. Alongside UNHCR (the United Nations’ Refugee Agency) and RHU (Refugee Housing Unit), the organisation is sending 50 prototypes to be tested in Iraq, Lebanon and refugee camps in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia.

photo designboom.com

photo designboom.com

What were the priorities in this 3-year-long development? In accordance with everything Ikea represents, the prime issues were durability, security, handiness and comfort. And all of these come in the well-known flat-packs which take about four hours to construct, quite a bit longer than it takes to set up a canvas tent (a single hour). However, the new shelter needs no special tools to be built, as most Ikea shopaholics know, so the mallet is useless in this scenario (advantage: Ikea unit; handiness: checked). Also, the prototype is more sustainable than a simple tent, with a resistance up to nearly 3 years (durability: checked).

Simplicity remains the norm for Ikea’s prototype in such a way that the rectangular panels of lightweight plastic snap onto a metal frame and are held together by wires. Hence, four walls made of Rhulite (a lightweight polymer easy to transport but strong enough to confront harsh climate) and a rooftop covered in solar panels offer insulation and privacy in a space of 17.5 square metres (security and comfort: checked).

photo visible-good.com

At present, the price of one Ikea shelter is about $7.500, but it could drop to less than $1.000 once it becomes mass-manufactured. And this might happen in the future, as the prototype is easier to ship, assemble and live in than its predecessor. Although Ikea Foundation deserves all the praise for orchestrating such a complex collaboration, I must call to record another initiative of this manner.

The RDM (Rapid Deployment Module) developed by Visible Good (a company which provides housing not only for people in need, but also for their caregivers) is a shelter destined for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. This modular unit stands at the crossroads between a trailer and a tent and requires only 25 minutes to set up, without the use of tools. The hard walls and good insulation properties are signs of a sustainable unit that is easy to ship, as it can pack into its own floor. Although the cost of such a project reaches $15.500 per unit, the durability extends from 10 to 20 years (with the exception of the roof that requires a makeover every 3 to 5 years). Ikea might have found a cheaper way to help refugees in the short-run, but the RDM proves to be more innovative with its ability to affix to other prototype units, whether it is a shower or a lavatory.

photo fastcoexist.com

I believe that this is just the beginning of a new course of action concerning emergency housing. The examples mentioned above are proof that smart design can be applied in any given circumstances. There is more than enough room in this world for ambitious, philanthropic products. If only nature was solely to blame for the calamities that require such devised improvements…

by Cristiana Șerbănescu

Cristiana Șerbănescu is allergic to describing herself to the public. The one thing she is sure of is that she wants to come to terms with her own artistic differences. She is now attempting to INHALE.

The post WHEN EMERGENCY RELIEF MEETS SENSIBILITY FOR DESIGN appeared first on INHALE MAG.

Backing further away in time, in 2006, the headquarters of Österreich newspaper in Vienna, Austria receives a makeover which follows the principle “order out of chaos”. What do all of these have in common? Three innovative minds that carry a nostalgia for modernist intentions (“there are no rules”) and have the courage to play across the spectrum from serious mass-produced objects to experimentation with surprising materials.

photo numen.net

The journey began in 1998, when industrial designers Sven Jonke, Christoph Katzler and Nikola Radeljković started to create objects of predefined functions and immediate usage for big-name companies such as Cappellini, ClassiCon, Moroso or Zanotta. Their work developed under the name For Use (very short-spoken and catchy, considering they were mostly creating furniture).  One year later, the same three craftsmen grew out of the industrial conventions and entered the realm of experimental design. Thereby, Numen was established and was the designer’s identity when dealing with projects outside their incipient profession.

The lucky break came in 1999, when the group won the Grand Prix of the Zagreb Salon. From that point on, the designers became artists and their  work turned into a truly visionary art, expanding in fields such as installations, scenography, spatial design and video projections.

Revolve
Producer: Kvadra / 2012
photo numen.net

photo archdaily.com

When being confronted with such an outflow of art and objects, it is rather difficult to pinpoint the best ones (I, for one, stand in awe of everything they create), as Numen/For Use is not about promoting mere products, rather internalising the surrounding environment and creating new links between people.

In this manner are the installations Tape or Net, which have been presented across Europe in various locations. The projects consists of multiple layers of the assigned material suspended in the air in such an ingenious way that visitors are able to climb in and inhabit them. These “floating landscapes”, as they are seldom called, are surprisingly accessible, safe and carefully planned. Nothing (and nobody) is ever left to accident and the end result is a feeling of levitation and individual performance – because the works do not fulfill their function if people do not interact with them. Net was last exhibited earlier this year, between April and June in Berlin, Germany, while Tape made an appearance in November 2012 at the House of Contemporary art in Hasselt, Belgium.

Tape Installation, Odeon, Vienna, 2010
photo c-cyte.blogspot.ro

photo archdaily.com

Scenography is another area that places Numen/For Use on the map. Ever since they engaged in stage designing in 2004 with a project for Dante’s Inferno at the National Centre for Drama in Madrid, Spain, they have been intensively working with major theatre companies and transformed canonical stories in impressive visual performances – here I advert to Cinderella (City Theatre Tresnja, Zagreb, Croatia 2006), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Gavella Drama Theatre, Zagreb, Croatia 2008), Medea (Festival Internacional de Teatro Clasico de Merida, Spain 2009), War and Peace (Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb, Croatia 2011), Dangerous Liasons (Harbiye Muhsin Ertuğrul Sahnesi Theatre, Instabul, Turkey 2011).

Suffice it to say that Numen/For Use is here to stay in the long run while the public waits eagerly to see what is going to be their next mise-en-scène.

Inferno / Divine Comedy National Theatre Maria Guerrero
photo metalocus.es

by Cristiana Șerbănescu

Cristiana Șerbănescu is allergic to describing herself to the public. The one thing she is sure of is that she wants to come to terms with her own artistic differences. She is now attempting to INHALE.

The post THE WORLD IS A STAGE WAITING TO BE DESIGNED – NUMEN/FOR USE appeared first on INHALE MAG.

This is the legacy of Walter de Maria. Though an unfamiliar name for the general public, de Maria decided to be on the map in other ways. I mean literally, on the map.

His most famous work, The Lightning Field (1977) expands over an area of one kilometre long and one mile wide in the desert of Western New Mexico, USA. Four hundred poles made of polished stainless steel with pointed tips are mathematically arranged and fixed into the ground 220 feet apart (this guy really had a sense of humour with choosing numbers!), thus creating a monumental installation which visitors can not merely look at from afar, but also walk through at appropriate times.

The Lightning Field
1977
photo theguardian.com

The well-directed artistic intention of de Maria takes effect not only during storms – as the poles are murderous conductors of electricity – but also at specific hours of the day. During sunrise and sunset, the visual performance created by the light gradations on the poles are said to be memorable. On one hand, de Maria managed to praise the higher forces of nature while still making it accessible and somewhat playful. On the other hand, his expansive thinking materialized into something that goes beyond the narrow spaces of traditional art quarters such as galleries or museums.

Another attempt to override artistic conventions was the Vertical Earth Kilometre (1977) in Kassel, Germany, included in that year’s Documenta. In this case, the work is ironically hidden from view and placed into a borehole in the ground. One thousand metres of solid bass cut into six metre sections were inserted in that bore, making visible only the top part which quizzically sits level to the ground. If this is a game of hide-and-seek, I honestly think that Walter is the winner.

Additional to the list of viewer-interactive works is The Broken Kilometre (1979) located in New York, USA. Five hundred solid brass rods, of two metres in length and two inches in diameter apiece are placed in five parallel rows of one hundred rods each. The artist’s mathematical precision goes even farther as the distances between the rods increase by five mm with each consecutive space, from front to back. The prodigious work occupies the wooden floor of a monumental hall, illuminated by metal halide lighting fixtures.

The Broken Kilometer
photo artobserved.com

This is not the only work by de Maria commissioned and maintained by Dia Art Foundation in New York. An earlier piece, The New York Earth Room (1977) can also be found under the same patronage and is the last remaining of three similar Earth Room sculptures (the first in Munich, Germany – 1968, the second in Darmstadt, Germany, 1974). The title of the work doesn’t convey anything; on the contrary, it overtly denominates the indoor art-piece: a 335-square-metres floor space evenly covered with 197 cubic metres of earth.

The New York Earth Room
photo nothingmajor.com

Adding-on to the list of works, I should mentions 360° I Ching (1981) and The 2000 Sculpture (1992) which are demonstrations of how art can be too elusive to the viewer’s visual coherence. De Maria manages to conquer difficult spaces by moulding them into Minimal sculptures of massive proportions and meticulous display that trigger a reflective state of mind. “No matter how pure I try to be” the artist noted in 1968, “something always enters in, a streak of non-purity. It’s a point where warm meets cold, action meets inaction, that’s what interests me. And what goes on in people’s minds”.

360° I Ching
photo pavlinalucas.com

The 2000 Sculpture
photo archpaper.com

Such artistic convictions of Walter de Maria are harboured in some of his essays that are quick-witted and genuine with taunting titles: On the Importance of Natural Disasters, Art Yard, Beach Crawl, Meaningless Work (I just love it when a great artist is being modest about his art).

Among so many seriously conceived works of art, I will raise the barometer of coolness by pointing out that de Maria was also a talented drummer, playing alongside of Lou Reed and John Caleb in The Primitives (a New York-based band which was a predecessor to The Velvet Underground).

The 2000 Sculpture
detail
photo archpaper.com

I must admit that it is distressing for me that Walter de Maria’s death earlier this year is an inducement of his work being recollected in various articles (this being included). However, it’s never too late to recognize good art, especially when it is waiting for you in open field.

photo stendhalgallery.com

photo stendhalgallery.com

by Cristiana Șerbănescu

Cristiana Șerbănescu is allergic to describing herself to the public. The one thing she is sure of is that she wants to come to terms with her own artistic differences. She is now attempting to INHALE.

The post THE MEANINGLESS WORK OF WALTER DE MARIA appeared first on INHALE MAG.