Shiny Facade

The exclusive Camping series has been designed by Jesper K. Thomsen, and consists of chairs, table, stool and daybed in moulded beech wood. The essence of Camping is its excellent craft that focuses on traditional cabinet making methods and finish.

  The inspiration behind the series is the idea of leisure and togetherness – values that are often associated with camping. Camping brings the enjoyment of camping indoors, and has added quality and character to the overdimensioned interpretation of the familiar furniture.

Camping has a light and airy design, in which the moulded pieces interact in a strong and uniform construction. The series bears witness to skilled craft and good materials – quite simply. This is furniture that will be handed down through the generations.

Material: Moulded beech, full-grain leather

Recommended retail price:

Chair: £2.400,-

Table: £1.150,-

Stool: £1.800,-

Daybed: £4.200,-

Zaha Hadid Architects, working with Leonhardt, Andrä & Partner and Sinotech Engineering Consultants, have won the international competition to design the new Danjiang Bridge in Taipei for the Directorate General of Highways, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Located at the mouth of Tamsui River that flows through the capital Taipei, the Danjiang Bridge is integral to the infrastructure upgrading program of northern Taiwan. The bridge will increase connectivity between neighbourhoods and reduce through-traffic on local roads within local town centres by linking the Highways 2 and 15, with the West Coast Expressway (Route 61) and Bali-Xindian Expressway (Route 64). By also reducing traffic from the congested Guandu Bridge upriver, the Danjiang Bridge will greatly improve the northern coast traffic system and enhance accessibility throughout the region with the rapidly expanding Port of Taipei/Taipei Harbour, the region’s busiest shipping port.

The Danjiang Bridge will also allow for the extension of Danhai Light Rail Transportation (DHLRT) system over the Tamsui River to connect the town of Bali and the Port/Harbour with Taipei’s public rail network.

The Tamsui River estuary is a natural environment flanked by the urban centres of Tamsui to the East and Bali to the west. The estuary is rapidly growing in popularity with both residents and tourists as a recreational area where people gather each day to watch the sun setting over the Taiwan Strait.

The cable-stayed bridge design minimises its visual impact by using only one concrete structural mast to support the 920m road, rail and pedestrian deck made from steel. The Danjiang Bridge will be the world’s longest single-tower, asymmetric cable-stayed bridge.

The mast is designed and engineered to be as slender as possible and positioned to offer the best structural performance, avoid impeding the navigability of the river and also minimise any interference with the views of the sunset from popular viewing points along the river. This single-mast design also minimizes structural elements in the riverbed in accordance with the increased protection programs of the estuary’s ecosystems.

After a successful first year Trefecta Mobility is proud to announce it has renewed its partnership with GP2 race team Racing Engineering. This partnership came to life through a similar passion for high performance mobility and technology.

Trefecta is the ultimate top segment E-bike that integrates power, design and function. A team of experienced professionals from automotive and aerospace engineering has developed the ultimate bike with a range of unique features and a top speed of 70 km per hour in off road terrain.

Founder Haiko Visser had a clear vision in mind: “with a background in the military and mobility industry I was convinced, passionate and very determined. I have always been fascinated by durable mobility. I wanted to buy the perfect bike that was compatible with a MIL-SPEC performance. That bike was not on the market yet. With the strong growth in the E-mobility market in mind, we decided to develop and market this bike by ourselves in order to meet perfection and the highest industry demands. The Trefecta truly emphasises on freedom of movement and freedom of mind. With Trefecta we expect to contribute significantly to the fast growing and changing industry of transportation.”

Trefecta will come in two versions. The DRT is designed for off-road use under the most extreme conditions. It comes in a speed pedelec and off-road version. The URB is a tailored version, is designed for urban use and will appear in a L1E and a speed pedelec performance version.

Besides its consumer purposes, the bike is made for military utility in peacekeeping and stability operations. Trefecta offers a wide variety of additional fleet and business-to-business potential for all kind of public service operations, corporate and leisure possibilities, for example in the yacht industry.

Equipped with a 4kw engine fuelled by a 60-volt smart battery pack, the e-bike has a range of 100 kilometres on varied terrain and is recharged within 3 hours. The pedelec system measures the force you put into it and the electric motor helps you accordingly, reaching speeds of 70 km/h. The integrated 14 speed electrically shifting gearbox gives the rider full control for a natural ride. It has active suspension controlled through your handlebars to soften or harden the ride on demand. The Trefecta is a true hybrid, with the human torque dominant smesh gearbox system at low speeds, and the use of motor power to comfortably reach high speeds. A regenerative brake system charges your battery when braking or going downhill. The integrated display gives you all the information you need whilst the iPod adds extra features like sensitivity of throttle, navigation and additional system info. The Trefecta drive-train is machined from 7075 high-grade aluminium blocks. It rides on extremely tough 6 spoke carbon fibre wheels, can hold loads up to 150 kg and folds up into a flight case that fits easily in the back of a car.

When it comes to exceptional dedication and passion for engineering, Trefecta and Racing Engineering are kindred spirits. The Spanish race team competes in the GP2 series, which is characterised by the same chassis, engine and tyre supplier for all teams. Its engineers are therefore dedicated to push the possibilities to get the maximum result. Refining the car to drive the perfect race is a reality Trefecta engineers also experience in their everyday work.

It is this remarkable fit between Trefecta and Racing Engineering, that makes this partnership such a success.

A row of cherry trees is planted at an embankment at its basin, and many people visit this location during the cherry-blossom viewing season. There is Mirrors along the avenue.

Taking advantage of this location, we intentionally made repeated refractions of the tree. In order to amplify the cherry, two mirror walls set up angle position and making a cherry forest on a corner of the town. Overlapping the cherries and reflecting with a warp, people are to the forest. In addition, from the café people can see the cherries and feel season changing closely. Especially vertical roof struts of motif of the tree blanch made them feel like resting under the tree.

Between the two buildings, white gravel makes more reflecting brightly and symbolically expressing the centre of a tree. There are three trees in this site. Camellia makes flowers before cherry blossom. We designed changing season of winter to spring by the colours.

Exterior wall is made of white steel that is galbanum plating. Entrance door is red. Interior wall is red and green. Every design and color implies being in the forest intentionally.

Kano is a computer and coding kit, for all ages, all over the world. Children as young as eight have used it to make games, synth music, animate characters and much more.

Developed with the help of hundreds of young people, artists and educators from across the globe, Kano provides a powerful and accessible toolkit for anyone who wants to create technology, not just consume it. Kano is inspired and created by people all around the world, from Nigeria to the United Kingdom.

Awards: Kano is the recipient of the first-ever Cannes Gold Lion for Product Design; German Design Award, Gold; International Design Society of America, Silver; Webby Awards, People’s Voice; International Design Excellence, Silver.

  To use Kano, you purchase a kit for $149.99 (with free shipping). You can purchase the Kano Kit online at http://kano.me. It ships to 86 countries and counting – that’s more than Amazon.com. Its illustrated stories are in seven different languages.

Once Kano is built, you can make everything from a wireless server, custom worlds in Minecraft, and games like Pong and Snake as well as create music and sounds through coding.

The new floating staircase maintains the lightness of the gallery space. Each suspended step is articulated as a separate ribbon cast from Ductal®, an ultra-high performance concrete with exceptional structural as well as aesthetic qualities.

The tensile strength of Ductal® allows the ribbons to remain relatively thin. Despite each step becoming slightly narrower towards the lower level, all the treads have been cast from a single adjustable mould that was engineered in Italy by Il Cantiere. The floating staircase has been designed to be demountable.

The DDP has been designed as a cultural hub at the centre of Dongdaemun, an historic district of Seoul that is now renowned for its 24-hour shopping and cafes. DDP is a place for people of all ages; a catalyst for the instigation and exchange of ideas and for new technologies and media to be explored. The variety of public spaces within DDP include Art/Exhibition Halls, Conference Hall, Design Museum/Exhibition Hall/Pathway, Design Labs & Academy Hall, Media Centre, Seminar Rooms and Designers Lounge, Design Market open 24 hours a day; enabling DDP to present the widest diversity of exhibitions and events that feed the cultural vitality of the city.

    The DDP is an architectural landscape that revolves around the ancient city wall and cultural artefacts discovered during archaeological excavations preceding DDP’s construction. These historic features form the central element of DDP’s composition; linking the park, plaza and city together.

    The design is the very specific result of how the context, local culture, programmatic requirements and innovative engineering come together – allowing the architecture, city and landscape to combine in both form and spatial experience – creating a whole new civic space for the city.

The DDP Park is a place for leisure, relaxation and refuge – a new green oasis within the busy urban surroundings of Dongdaemun. The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape. Voids in the park’s surface give visitors glimpses into the innovative world of design below, making the DDP an important link between the city’s contemporary culture, emerging nature and history.

    The 30,000 square meter park reinterprets the spatial concepts of traditional Korean garden design: layering, horizontality, blurring the relationship between the interior and the exterior – with no single feature dominating the perspective. This approach is further informed by historic local painting traditions that depict grand visions of the ever-changing aspects of nature.

DDP encourages many contributions and innovations to feed into each other; engaging the community and allowing talents and ideas to flourish. In combination with the city’s exciting public cultural programs, DDP is an investment in the education and inspiration of future generations.

    DDP’s design and construction sets many new standards of innovation. DDP is the first public project in Korea to implement advanced 3-dimensional digital construction services that ensure the highest quality and cost controls. These include 3-dimensional Building Information Modelling (BIM) for construction management and engineering coordination, enabling the design process to adapt with the evolving client brief and integrate all engineering requirements. These innovations have enabled the team building DDP to control the construction with much greater precision than conventional processes and improve efficiencies. Implementing such construction technologies make DDP one of Korea’s most innovative and technological advanced constructions to date.

DDP opens to the public on 21 March 2014 by hosting Seoul Fashion Week. DDP will also host five separate design and art exhibitions featuring works by modern designers as well as the prized collection of traditional Korean art of the Kansong Art Museum.

  www.ddp.or.kr

Kano is a computer and coding kit, for all ages, all over the world. Children as young as eight have used it to make games, synth music, animate characters and much more. Developed with the help of hundreds of young people, artists and educators from across the globe, Kano provides a powerful and accessible toolkit for anyone who wants to create technology, not just consume it. Kano is inspired and created by people all around the world, from Nigeria to the United Kingdom.

  To get started, you assemble all the pieces together found in the Kano kit to build your own computer – then you connect it to a monitor of your choice. Once Kano is built, you can make everything from a wireless server, custom worlds in Minecraft, and games like Pong and Snake as well as create music and sounds through coding.

  Connect blocks, output Python or Javascript, and see games change with live code updating – it’s like a magic jigsaw that turns pieces into real code. Makers can build and play without hours of homework in advance.

    Kano OS is an open-source world to make amazing things. It’s a proud fork of Debian Linux, which powers the International Space Station, and packed with projects to make games, code Minecraft, build servers and radios, synth music, and much more.

www.kano.me

With the LaCie Rugged RAID, you get it all in one package – with zero tradeoffs. It delivers a game-changing blend of PC and Mac® compatibility, capacity, speed, mobility, and reliability. As the ultimate solution for on-the-go professionals, the LaCie Rugged adapts to your needs for performance or complete data security.

  When getting the win hinges on speed, you need Thunderbolt – the fastest interface on the market. The LaCie Rugged also includes two internal hard drives that are preconfigured in hardware RAID 0 for sustained performance of up to 240 MB/s*.

Tailor the LaCie Rugged to your precise needs. Leave it in RAID 0 (striped mode) to maximize speed and capacity. Or choose RAID 1 (mirrored mode), where your data is duplicated across the two drives. So even if a drive fails in the field, your files remain completely accessible.

Using LaCie Setup Assistant, it’s incredibly easy to make the LaCie Rugged compatible with any Mac computer, PC, or both. And with Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 interfaces and hardware RAID, any computer will recognise the LaCie Rugged*. It lets you transport a massive amount of data – with complete security – and access it freely from any computer.

LaCie has designed acclaimed Rugged storage products for nearly a decade. With the Rugged RAID, LaCie makes your data more mobile than ever. Carry fewer hard drives, fewer cables, and encounter zero roadblocks.

  www.lacie.com

Designed by Rafael de Cárdenas, the first OHWOW Book Club opened in New York’s Greenwich Village.

    Drawing inspiration from stepping patterns commonly found in Navajo blankets, Rafael de Cárdenas

constructs a new retail space for OHWOW, the creative collective spearheaded by Al Moran and Aron

Bondaroff. OHWOW Book Club is located below street level in a landmarked historic brownstone on

Waverly Place. At 150 sq ft, this pocket-sized store was conceived by de Cardenas to echo a classic black

& white, pre-war NYC bathroom. Its shelving units appear stacked one atop the other and the negative

space behind the shelves lends a floating sensation. A layered pattern of stream-lined brushstrokes on the

walls, coupled with reflective angular mylar shapes and sharp fluorescent lighting give the space a sense

of disorientation and chaos, fitting in OHWOW’s vision of creating a heterotopic arena for cultural

projects.

    About Rafael de Cardenas:

Rafael de Cardenas received his BA from The Rhode Island School of Design and, following graduation,

took a job at Calvin Klein, working for three years as a designer for the men’s collection. In 1999, he

began pursuing an architecture degree at Columbia University, later transferring to UCLA where he

received his MA architecture in 2002. His first project following graduation was working with the architect

Greg Lynn on the redesign of the World Trade Center site. Their submission, a series of five buildings

interconnected to create a cathedral-like space, was one of the six final entries. De Cárdenas then began

work in the New York offices of special effects production house Imaginary Forces.

    As a creative director working on experience design projects, he oversaw a range of innovative concepts including the

BMW Experience at their headquarters in Munich, and the HBO store in New York. In 2005, de Cárdenas

opened his own design firm out of an office in New York’s Chinatown. His interest in creating

environments with moods, as opposed to any specific style, has allowed him to work with an array of

clients. Using color, light, and pattern, de Cárdenas has created artful, imaginative interiors for boutiques,

restaurants and private residences in London, Rome, Athens, Chicago, Miami, New York, and

The Hamptons. His work has been featured in Elle Décor, Surface, Paper, Metropolis, CITY, The New

York Observer, and The New York Times.

The designer duo Iskos-Berlin aka. Aleksej Iskos and Boris Berlin have created a soft, inviting and playful friend: the Bunny chair. With its soft, voluminous forms, this is a chair you can snuggle into as well as appreciate for its edgy, humorous contribution to any room. A fresh interpretation of the classic ear chair, Bunny entices you to have a seat and savour its embrace.

  The chair’s cheeky and playful design is further emphasised by the tightly-strapped strings wrapped around the soft, upholstered body. Boris and Aleksej explain: “We have always felt that the ear chair has somewhat been forgotten as a style of furniture.

Most people associate it with grandpa sitting with his newspaper or with granny and her knitting. It was therefore exciting to reinterpret the chair in a fun way, with recollections of the cute cuddly toys we had as children and of the soft Bunny –now also for adults!”

  The Bunny chair is upholstered with fabric from Gabriel and is available in three stunning colours.

Materials and colours: Fabric in purple, pink or grey.

Size: 120x100x100cm

Price: £ 2600

  For more information visit: www.normann-copenhagen.com

By Johannes Schulz

“I just wanted to create a very simple watch which fits perfectly to any outfit or occasion no matter if you need it casual or elegant.

The most important thing on this project is the design. Reduced to a minimum, very clean, simple and classical with a sportive hint on the one hand and high quality materials on the other hand.

    Therefore I created the almost completely hidden hand in shiny, bright and friendly colors. Framed in a titanium watchcase without any scrollwork that stands out by its unique shape. Even the logo is printed restrained in a glossy transparent varnish.

    We are currently working on entering the market very soon.”

    True luxury rises to new heights at The Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo, a five star hotel located in the cultural, diplomatic and entertainment apex known as the Roppongi District. Here, the latest trends in food, fashion and upscale retail coexist with Tokyo’s ancient temples and nearby ruins. And from an urban oasis atop one of the most dramatic skyscrapers in Tokyo, you can revel in it all, surrounded by an elevated experience that will leave you with memories as vivid as the panoramic views before you.

Admire the beauty and the true reflection of Japanese culture of our traditional teahouse in the sky. Enjoy dining experiences that leave towering impressions from both the delectably authentic fare and mesmerising views. Begin your spa journey with a heat experience that is simply heavenly. And know that all your cares and needs are met with warm, down-to-earth service.

Brokula&Ž clothing is made from organically grown materials, with hidden messages written on the inside that can be seen only by you… and whoever undresses you. The feeling of comfortable, natural fabric on the skin warms you on the outside, while the inspirational messages warm you from within.

  Why Brokula&Ž? We have decided to make the type of clothing we ourselves like to wear. We wanted to make something nice, organic, comfortable and long-lasting, at affordable prices. Our entire lives, we have been packing and advertising products. It was a challenge for us to create our own product where we could dedicate ourselves completely to quality of materials and production. With Brokula&Ž, everything good comes from within! Two years ago, we found experts in textiles at the company Lacuna, and decided to work with them to make products that live up to our own views of the world.

        Brokula&Ž is clothing that takes care of nature. It is made from naturally grown, organic materials that guarantee comfort, airiness, warmth, quality and durability. In making the Brokula&Ž clothing line, we used only organically grown cotton – cotton that grows and matures the way nature intended. Brokula was the one to insist on this. Ž doesn’t care either way, he likes leather pants.

      Organic cotton + elastin + ProModal

The Brokula&Ž collection is made from two types of fabric – one is made of 48% organic cotton, 48% ProModal and 4% elastin, and the second from 96% organic cotton and 4% elastin. Elastin has been added to the fabric to make the Brokula&Ž clothing more durable, meaning that you will throw it away less often, which will protect the environment from pollution. In a few dozen years, when the clothing from the 2010s comes back into style, you will have fine vintage things to wear… with the possible exception of underwear. The third material is ProModal which is made from natural cellulose fibres from trees. This is a material that is made from a combination of modal and tencel, fibres derived from cellulose in a controlled, ecological and sustainable production process that results in maximum usage of the organic raw materials.

Every piece of Brokula&Ž clothing has a message from Brokula and Ž on the inside that can only be seen by you. And anyone who undresses you, obviously. The message is on the inside because important things are most often not visible at first glance. What’s important is that they make you happy and you know something that others don’t. Your little secret. Like when you go to work without wearing any underpants…only a hundred times more hygienic.

The concept

  The location chosen for the new building was the central, slightly sloping plot in the middle of the area demarcated by the master development plan for the European Quarter. This area in the basin of the city reaches from the main station in the south to Heilbronner Strasse on the northern border. In future, Stuttgart City Library is located in Mailänder Platz and, thanks to its design and size, represents the centre of the city district that will emerge there. The external effect of the structure of pale grey fair-faced concrete and frosted glass bricks planned in the geometrical form of a cube with an edge length of almost 45 metres comes through its sheer physical presence.

  The building consists of volume, shell and core. The circulation is contained in the gap. While the structure with its decisively clear, geometric form and focused entrance was inspired by the “Cenotaph for Newton” by Étienne Boullée, the “Heart” of the library reinterprets the ancient pantheon in light of our changed technical reality. It is quasi enclosed by a second façade and as cubeshaped room is situated at the middle of the building, illuminated by a central roof light. A room to retreat to.

Its oculus is in the funnel-shaped reading room above it. The staggered Galeriesaal (gallery hall), by contrast, is an age-old type of room which architects have picked up on again and again, such as the design by Étienne Boullée for the French National Library from 1785. Now, it has been realised in a contemporary way, in a compact, square shape and as a five-storey room with a shell of books, so that for once one can truly experience a realm of books. The spirally arranged, interior circulation stairs in the reading gallery levels have been designed as flowing promenades. Light floods in through the glass roof. On the inside, the glass roof is closed off with a grid-work drop ceiling so that the room is perceived to be even simpler and purer. On the outside, the glass roof is also closed off, in this case with sun protection blinds so that the structure is a perfect cube.

The third central room is located below the “Heart”. The “Forum”, which was originally staggered towards the middle, is now a level event room due in part to the light-railway line that crosses in the first and second basement floors and also at the request of the user. The result is a flat, square room which completes the theme “morphosis of the square room”. The whole structure liberates itself from the flat, square room via the perfect cube into a room which dissolves itself towards the top.

www.yiarchitects.com

The award-winning international design studio known for sleek, minimalist design home and office organization products including CableBox, StudioDesk, and The Sanctuary, announced a new product.

      SKU to its growing portfolio of functional home and office design products, the CableBox Mini, a predecessor to the popular CableBox. The CableBox Mini has a smaller form factor and comes in vibrant colors – ideal for the office and home electronics users with limited space around their workspace or for users who want to display the CableBox Mini as a personal expression on their desk.

  CableBox Mini includes a short power strip/power surge protector for convenience. AC Adapters and surplus cable lengths are hidden away seamlessly within CableBox Mini’s sleek, sturdy container. In addition to cable storage, CableBox Mini can be used to protect routers, hubs and other devices in its fire retardant plastic casing.

  “We created the CableBox Mini for our customers who required the utility of the original CableBox product in a smaller form factor for the spaces they work and live in,” says Bluelounge Principal and Designer, Dominic Symons. “The CableBox Mini provides a smart solution for those with limited space and multiple, grouped together devices that require a single power source. And its compact design allows for attractive, out-in-the open placement and fits nearly anywhere – on your desk, next to the computer, in the kitchen, bedroom or even hidden behind the desk. This creates a simple, versatile solution to hide cable clusters.”

  CableBox Mini is a simple solution, ideal for small spaces with big problems.

It is available in a variety of colors including blue, green, orange, pink, yellow and white. The bright colors and compact size allow the CableBox Mini to be used on the desktop too. It organizes clutter into a single dust free container. CableBox Mini is 9” x 4” x 5” and retails for $29.95. Made from material that is fire retardant (UL 94).

      About Bluelounge

  Bluelounge, founded in 1999 by designers Dominic Symons and Melissa Sunjaya, is a multidisciplinary design studio that creates a synergy of product, graphic, interactive design and original illustration. Bluelounge products are distributed through over 100 U.S. locations and 17 international distributors, promotional agents and licensees.

  Bluelounge’s design studios and administrative offices are in both Los Angeles and Jakarta, Indonesia. In addition to their own branded products, Bluelounge has undertaken design commissions for major corporations such as Airwalk, Microsoft, Panasonic, and Trina Turk.