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exploring the potential of copper in design world

issue 21 May 11www.copperindesign.org

copperindesign

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Aquariva

Exploded Lightslighting

Carpenters

Modern Times

Chippencopper

art

objects

objects

furnishing

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www.copperindesign.org is a meeting space for contemporary designers and their followers. This international platform provides a comprehensive source of information on the crafting of the red metal: copper creations, first-hand accounts from designers, exhibitions, competitions and many others. The website is aimed at creators, design professionals, journalists and all copper-loving netsurfers, offering them an invitation to (re)discover this material whose natural properties have established it over the past few years as an essential feature of the design scene.Sponsor: European Copper Institute www.eurocopper.org

Powerless

KME Design

Animal Jewels

Naturally False

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Blossom Lamps

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furnishing

objects

lighting

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Australian design star Marc Newson has designed a speed boat in collaboration with Officina Italiana Design for Italian boat brand Riva.Newson’s design for the Aquariva vessel is unique in its conception as well as the materials chosen. A wood-like, textile-based laminate was used for the deck area and instrument panel. This material was developed in the first half of the 20th century, and was a precursor to fibreglass. To give the exterior a more high-tech look, Newson utilised chrome brass, yet it remains contextual among Riva’s glamour and classical design.Some of the changes that Newson makes are truly innovative: the re-imagining of the transom, the wrap-around, laminated glass windscreen, the split cabin door entry, the functionality of the lounge and dining area, and the re-introduction of separate driver and passenger seats. Aquariva by Marc Newson’s simplicity and functionality are what make the boat truly extraordinary.

Link: www.marc-newson.com

Marc NewsonAquariva

objects

Young Dutch designer Ward van Gemert has recently presented his Exploded chandeliers at Mint Gallery in London. The deconstructed brass parts of a used chandelier are reconstructed into a new and modern chandelier. The electrical wire is used to light the bulbs, but also in constructing the new item.In 2006, van Gemert graduated as a product designer at the St. Joost Arts Academy in Breda, the Netherlands, with a series of three imaginary chairs. His ‘exploded chairs’ were stripped of their function and created as an academic project. With his newly-designed ‘exploded chandeliers’, van Gemert used the same method to create new images, but adding more functions. The use of electrical wire, both in a functional and constructive manner, makes this design modern and innovative.With his way of designing, van Gemert wants to surprise both user and viewer with beautiful images and, at the same time, increase the functionality of an existing product, while visually preserving the past in new designs.

Link: http://www.wardvangemert.nl

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Ward van GemertExploded Lights

lighting

Artists’ Studio Job has recently exhibited a new collection of lamps consisting of bronze models of a crane and a wrecking ball at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London. Specially designed for the gallery, Crane Lamp is a floor-standing bronze structure. An enforced cord runs through the core to a hanging light and shade. Indicative of Studio Job’s fine attention to detail, small bulbs light the boom point from which the jib hangs. An ancient invention, the crane has a long history of industrial use. Here, it has been miniaturised into an ornamental design piece.Exclusive to the Carpenters Workshop Gallery, the newly-designed Wrecking Ball Lamp, cast from solid bronze, further explores the theme of industry. The lamp showcases the subtle humour and attention to detail that defines Studio Job’s design ethos.

Link: www.studiojob.nl

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Studio JobCarpenters Workshop

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Modern Times is the first collaboration of Swedish designers Johannes Tjernberg and Rasmus Malbert. The project was named after the “Modern Times” film by Charlie Chaplin from 1936, in which Chaplin’s character struggles with the pace within the factory. It consists of three objects: Ash – a paraffin lamp made of brass, Instant – a series of table clocks made of wood and polished brass, and Pulse – a docking station for mp3 players, which is the main piece.The heat and fire in the factory are represented by Ash, the constantly present, time is represented by Instant, and the heart and rhythm of the factory are represented by Pulse. Tjernberg and Malbert regard the music player as the centrepiece of their product presentation. As the traditional street-organ player was the master of the public square, Pulse masters the room and encourages friends to gather around it.Pulse’s glossy black structure is partially covered in tiles and the classical crank made of polished brass, was added to control the volume. The architectural body of the piece floats on a mirror laminate and hides two speakers and an amplifier on the inside. The entire piece is supported by a single leg which is sculpted with notions of playful music from a street organ.

Link: www.yatzer.com

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Tjernberg & MalbertModern Times

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The Chippencopper chair is an extravagant design in FIDU (Freielnnen Druck Umformung) – or ‘free inner pressure deformation’ – a manufacturing process developed by Polish designer and engineer Oskar Zieta, whereby flat, welded copper sheets are industrially inflated. Created as a result of research on material behaviour using the FIDU forming method, it discovers new, more complex possibilities and opens new fields in FIDU shaping technology. With FIDU technology, two ultra-thin copper sheets are welded together around their edges and inflated under high pressure to produce a 3D object. FIDU enables mass production of individualized shapes. Forms made in FIDU are very light, but also very durable. Thanks to the flexibility the technology offers, the pattern of the chair can be multiplied to customise its length, width and height. The chairs are available in copper and raw, lacquered steel, and are produced in two editions: one with a closed back and one with an open back.

Link: www.zieta.pl

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Oskar ZietaChippencopper Chair

furnishing

This sculpture of a boy and rocking horse by Berlin artists Elmgreen and Dragset will be the next installation on top of the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square.In this portrayal of a boy astride his rocking horse, a child has been elevated to the status of a historical hero, though there is not yet a history to commemorate, only a future to hope for. Elmgreen & Dragset’s work proposes a paraphrase of a traditional war monument beyond a dualistic worldview predicated on either victory or defeat. Instead of acknowledging the heroism of the powerful, Powerless Structures celebrates the heroism of growing up. It is a visual statement celebrating expectation and change rather than glorifying the past.The rocking horse, a toy originally dating from the 17th century and later popularised in Britain, is here depicted in a stylised version merging a Victorian model with a contemporary mass-produced design.The boy’s features and gestures underscore a character that has its own “infantile” logic, one that is not yet influenced by the classic masculine expression.

Link: www.london.gov.uk

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Elmgreen & DragsetPowerless Structures

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Ferruccio Laviani KME Design

The colour, structure and working of copper make it a unique material for contemporary design products although it has previously mainly been applied in architectural design – think of Renzo Piano’s Padre Pio Pilgrimage church in San Giovanni Rotondo and the de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco by Herzog & de Meuron. Ferruccio Laviani’s installation in the KME showroom of Milan, during the recent Milan Design Week, aims to fill this gap by illustrating the full range of its potential applications in two ways: in four suspended panels freely inspired by Mondrian’s abstract pictures, which convey the material’s aesthetic in overlays, double-ups and colour variations, and in a magic box – a 1:1 scale interior furnished with iconic designs presented in their original version, and a copper one.

Link: www.laviani.com

furnishing

Inspired by the death of her dog, London-based designer Tithi Kutchamuch has designed a range of jewellery pieces with animal-shaped bases to keep them on. “My dog died a month before I got back to my parents’ home,” explains Kutchamuch. “I would love to bring her everywhere with me if I could.”The collection includes a necklace, ring and bangle made from patinated bronze.Kutchamuch describes the pieces as: “simple jewellery as a part of home that you can bring with you, keep them safe and take them home.”

Link: www.tithi.info

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Tithi KutchamuchAnimal Jewels

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The creative credo of Hella Jongerius is based on the well-known motto of the classical modernists: “Form follows feeling”. With BLOSSOM, she has designed a light for Belux, the lighting manufacturers from Birsfelden, which is a surprisingly harmonious combination of colours, materials and shapes. The aim of the Dutch designer was to build on an archetypal shape with its logical design.In her designs she is always breaking with perfection and smooth surfaces and searches for new ways of handling familiar materials. Hella Jongerius explained that she wanted to create “a collage of shapes”. Each of the blossom-shaped elements provides a particular light: the upper opal reflector serves as general room lighting, the middle element is used for broad, accentuated light and the lowest element is perfectly suited to being a reading light. Many parts are made of brass.Hella Jongerius also pays particular attention to details: the graceful switches made of cast gold-bronze are hand-crafted in afro-cast.

Link: www.jongeriuslab.com

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Hella Jongerius Blossom Lamps

lighting

Els Woldhek’s series of unconventional shelving and lamps is joined by copper growths.Called Naturally False, the collection designed by London-based Woldhek features shelving units made up of timber veneer sticks connected by copper lumps produced by a copper plating process.Sheets of copper, which make up the shelves and lampshades, are welded together in different configurations and inserted into the rod structure.The project is an exporation of copper plating and veneer, materials typically found as surface finishes, but used in this instance as structural elements.

Link: www.whatels.net

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Els WoldhekNaturally False

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