Design

Design News

Dutch Design Week

Dutch Design Week is the largest design event in the Netherlands. Around 1500 designers from home and abroad show their work all over the city of Eindhoven from design disciplines such as industrial design, concept design, graphic design, textile & fashion, spatial design, fooddesign and design management & trends. Visitors are given insight into the entire development process from concept to product in various disciplines ranging from industrial design to applied arts.

The participants include established bureaus, high-profile designers, talented newcomers, and recently graduated designers, one of the reasons why this Dutch Design Week is the perfect meeting place for designers, companies, and public.

www.dutchdesignweek.nl

Interior Design

Dâ€™Epresso Cafe New York

This amazing interior design idea comes from Nema Workshop and belongs to D’Espresso Cafe located on Madison Avenue, in New York City. The idea was to create a strong identity for the bar that would immediately stand out and be easily recognized.

â€œInspired by the nearby Bryant Park Library, Nema Workshop designed a store that is straightforward in a simple twisted way â€“ take a library and turn it sideways. The book lined shelves become the floor and ceilings and wood floor ends up on the walls meanwhile the pendants protrude sideways from the wall. To achieve the books shelves on the floor, the space is lined with sepia-toned full size photograph of books printed on custom tiles.â€

317 Madison Avenue, New York
www.despresso.com

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Eco Design

Solaris Sun Shade

Solaris is a pure blessing for claustrophobic souls who would bargain anything for fresh open air. The magic sun shade fitted with solar panels harnesses the sunâ€™s energy to keep your entire gadgetry juiced to the full anywhere anytime. The designer has planned the shade mindful of a highly connected information age that thrives on free internet services.

So all you need would be an energy point, wireless connection and of course the sun shade so that you can function leisurely from even outside the office premises. What amuses one most is the fact that you can do away with all the long traveling distances besides contributing to a greener planet with fewer CO2 emissions and fuel consumption.

A design contribution toward sustainable and a more socially inclusive city landscape, the tastefully designed Solaris has been chosen as one of the finalists in the International Design Competition â€œFeel the Planet Earth.â€

Via The Design Blog

Lighting

Pour Lighting

â€œPour Lightingâ€ by Korean designer Yeongwoo Kim, is an original lamp idea that manages to intrigue and fascinate its viewers, because at first this product simply looks impossible. Pour Lighting is a design inspired by a spilling cup of tea (it even has the tea bag inside for an extra lifelike effect). This product can be moved around by grabbing the pouring liquid, it is sustained by spilled tea and it lights up with the help of a tea bag.

www.yeongwookim.com

Design News

London Design Festival

First staged in 2003, the London Design Festival is one of the world’s most important annual design events. The nine-day Festival programme is made up of over 200 events and exhibitions staged by around 160 partner organisations across the design spectrum and from around the world.

The diversity of world-class design talent in – and attracted to – London is one of the key strengths of the city over other global design centers; the London Design Festival brings this talent to the fore every year to connect with others, explore issues, do business, exchange ideas, and have fun.

Now in its eighth year, The London Design Festival is firmly established as a major cultural and commercial event. Last year London hosted a rich mix of over 200 commissioned installations and exhibitions plus over 150 launches, private views and parties, cementing its reputation as the design capital of the world. The next edition of the Festival promises an even greater diversity of activity taking place across the capital â€“ from the Festival hub at the V&A to spaces across the city filled with design from partners across the UK and around the world.

Events and Venues include:

Trafalgar Square, Victoria and Albert Museum, Size + Matter, London Design Medal, Brompton Design District, The Royal College of Art, Serpentine Gallery, Covent Garden and West End, the Design Council, 100% Design London, Design Museum, Tent London, Origin â€“ the London Craft Fair, Decorex, HEL YES!, Showhow, and many more.

www.londondesignfestival.com

Architecture

Honeycomb Restaurant

The Honeycomb Restaurant in Shenzhen, China was designed by Japan based Sako Architects.

The white surfaces of the large space undulate in plane, and form six bands of ‘pleats’ that become the boundary for each space. In section, they appear like six ‘honeycombs’. Over 1000 oval shaped holes have been opened on the surface, and a subtle continuity has been established between the two areas.

These holes bulge on the outer surface like empty pots, and enrich the space with an organic expression. Base on such manipulation of space, a hall with ceiling height of 9.2 is form at the outer side, and VIP rooms for private use at the inner side. The diameter, angle, and level vary for each of the 6 honeycombs. Based on such variations, hierarchies are established in terms of VIP room sizes, and ceiling height etc.

The inner side of the white surface is divided up to two levers, of which consist of large room and private rooms as well. A spiral staircase penetrates between the levels, and in the center, about twenty five thousands of acrylic balls hang from the 9.2 meters ceiling above. Drops of water dribble along the lines of acrylic balls, and glitter under the strong ceiling light. It looks like as if a waterfall is running down from the ceiling. This waterfall is an eye-catcher from the entrance and draws customersâ€™ attention to the back of the restaurant.

Floor 3, Zone A, Poly Cultural Center, Haide San Dao, Nanshan, Shenzhen