Inhoudsopgave van March - April 2017 - Frame

How can physical stores remain relevant in a digital age? For retailers, it’s the mother of all questions. In Frame Lab we discover that the answers are beginning to find direction. Although store closures are the order of the day, we now know that brick-and-mortar shops are not going to disappear. But the widespread notion that physical stores cannot exist without screens that provide access to the internet – an opinion held by many only a few years ago – is not the answer. Today there’s a certain consensus with regard to touchscreens in stores. Tablets? Floor-to-ceiling displays? Don’t do it. When people take the trouble to go to a store, the last thing they want is to be confronted with screens. Main reason: we already spend too much time…

TECHNOLOGY – A collection of disruptively humorous multimedia devices by Bollería Industrial makes waiting at the airport more fun. Managing Dissidence is the Madrid-based studio’s response to a competition held during the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016, whose proposals were to relate to a state of perpetual transit. Bollería emphasized the ironic contrast between the tranquilizing, neutral interior of the Norwegian capital’s airport and the frustration provoked by delays, overcrowding and strict security. Inspired by true stories of nonviolent rebellion in airports, the designers turned terminals into sites of soft activism. People formed alliances over shared inconveniences and were encouraged to be inventive. Although humorous, the project – supported by Cosentino and the European University of Madrid and produced by Ilione – had a critical undertone. The routine of in-transit experiences…

‘Products for seniors don’t have to look like they were made for seniors’ You’ve taken this challenge rather personally . . . KEVIN GOURIOU: I am emotionally implicated in all my projects – and in 2050 I will be 61. Plus, I’ve wanted to design a moped for a long time, so when I thought about me in 2050, I knew my concept would include wheels. But mobility isn’t the main issue your concept addresses. No, it’s feeling young. Products for seniors don’t have to look like they were made for seniors. For my master’s degree at ÉCAL, I designed Léonie, an electric scooter that doesn’t look like a wheelchair. It’s really fun to drive, and although it was made for my grandmother, a lot of people wanted to try…

You’re keen to reverse common perceptions of the elderly. KAILU GUAN: Most of the time they’re seen as a group that needs to be taken care of, an attitude that ignores their ability and desire to share knowledge and experience. I think of the elderly as wise people who want to contribute to society as much as the rest of us do. Your proposal involves VR. As a fashion designer, why did you not combine clothing with AR – or another wearable technology – as you have done previously? Many elderly people are keen to act as mentors, and I thought that creating a VR learn-and-teach system would fulfil that desire better than clothing. On a more personal level, I find it challenging to innovate out of the box and…

SUDDENLY SHE APPEARED. Her name was ev-e-ry-where. As if she’d materialized from the fog. The truth is, however, that Sabine Marcelis (31) finished her studies at Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) in 2011, preceded by two years in a bachelor’s programme for industrial design at the Victoria University of Wellington in the land of her birth, New Zealand. Maybe it was the department she chose at DAE – Man and Activity – that blurred our field of view, allowing Marcelis to slowly but surely, and on her own terms, brew her magic in Delfshaven, a backwater borough of Rotterdam. Marcelis makes products, installations and interior objects that share only two constants: her unceasing fascination for materials and production processes and her intensive involvement with industry specialists. Her self-initiated work is sold…

YOU WON’T FIND an explicit style, a pat formula or a system for success. Instead, Stuttgart-based Ippolito Fleitz Group (IFG) uses collaging – combining ideas and images, atmospheres and feelings – to create situations that are sometimes ambiguous, sometimes straightforward. You might call the members of this multidisciplinary design studio shape-shifters or masters of morphing. From project to project, their work can be described as minimalist, eclectic or even overwhelming. That’s because, says Gunter Fleitz, ‘we don’t think in styles’. He goes on to say that ‘building abroad and being international are very important to us. We love to meet other cultures and gain new perspectives. Curiosity is at the core of what our studio stands for.’ Peter Ippolito takes up the thread: ‘It’s a question of telling a story…

COPENHAGEN — Apparently, nowhere in Europe do people buy more candles than in Denmark. Danes fully embrace the concept of hygge. If you haven’t already read one of the nine books published about this phenomenon last year, hygge means something like ‘cosiness’. We all have a good idea of how a Danish home looks, an image conjured by the warmth and quality of the nation’s furniture. The mid-century-modern design of heroes like Jacobsen and Wegner was an offspring of the more sterile and rigid functionalism of 1920s Bauhaus. It’s important to keep this comparison in mind, because hygiene, bright lights and white walls (no place for dirt to hide) have always been at the core of modernist design – including the Danish variety. The Cabinetmakers’ Autumn Exhibition is an annual…

Simplicity and speed The click-and-connect culture is changing how orders are placed and deliveries are dispatched. VR headsets and wearable tech could make ordering quicker and easier, while new delivery channels could include partnerships with GrubHub and Uber. Virtual and physical Omni-channel retail will dominate all tech-driven channels and spark several new ones. Virtual e-commerce will become more prevalent than physical retail and eventually inspire its own bricks-and-mortar counterparts. Conspicuous but invisible In-your-face branding will disappear as retailers make brand messages much more intuitive, more individual and less specific. As retailers pare down product marketing, they will boost brand loyalty by encouraging consumers to participate on AI-, AR- and VR-driven platforms.…

Strooop! is your take on the sweet Dutch biscuit for which it was named. What ingredients does it contain and where do you get them? CHLOÉ RUTZERVELD: I use 100 g of carrots for each waffle. It’s about turning carrots and beetroots into something else – to show what’s possible with vegetables. The project also addresses food waste and sustainability, as I’m using a by-product of the vegetable industry. I’m supplied with the raw material, including the upper and lower parts, and some of the peel. I also receive third-class carrots, which I turn into juice; what’s left behind after juicing is pure fibre. I make a syrup by boiling the juice and reducing it. You can see how much natural sugar is in the root vegetable. I turn the…

customers’ expectations changing? MICHAEL CAHILL: These days, the customer is looking for a functional piece of art when buying a new kitchen sink. We see our products as handcrafted pieces of functional Literally handcrafted? Yes. All our products are either hand-carved from solid blocks of stone or hand-pressed and hammered from large sheets of thick-gauge copper. After using hand machinery, we finish each piece manually – whether it’s polished, honed, chiselled or hammered. Everything You specialize in high-impact sinks. What trends are you noticing in this area right now? Natural materials are big in the kitchen, and we think this trend will continue for some time. Granite is used quite often, as are natural woods and raw metals, often along side indoor container gardens. Farmhouse-style sinks are also on the…

? BLADE RUNNERS Ask any chef what their most important kitchen tool is, and the answer will always be: their knife. So with the increasing professionalization of the domestic kitchen, it’s no surprise that the artisanal kitchen knife has become an object of desire. Specialized, hand-forged and certainly not cheap, today’s best knives are both covetable and collectable. Hence the current spate of simple yet stylish single-product stores that look as sharp as the goods they sell. ? HIVE MINDS The global plight of bees has triggered an astonishing rise in beekeeping, in both urban and rural areas. Coupled with the growth of other domestic adaptations of food farming and preserving – from raising organic crops to pickling, smoking and brewing – the boom in small-scale honey production has led…

Despite being drawn to architecture and landscapes, FULVIO GRISONI declares fashion photography his ‘calling’. Born in Trieste, the Italian sees his work appear regularly in such glossies as Elle, Grazia and Vogue. Naturally drawn to the human figure, he visited Slovenian designer Nika Zupanc for ‘A Day With’. Italian writer MONICA ZERBONI specializes in architecture communication and criticism. After bouncing from Milan to the Netherlands and Germany as an editorial correspondent, she arrived in Rome, where she currently resides. Zerboni uncovers the lessons learned by Piero Lissoni on page 60. ‘Team Sabine and team Floor complemented each other well, improvising and brainstorming how to best combine materials and products – and in which location’ FLOOR KNAAPEN Photographer and stylist FLOOR KNAAPEN is a regular fixture in the creative scene, shooting…

‘THIS IS A WORKING POSTURE ,’ says Koray Malhan, drawing up his knees and folding his body into the mouth of a periscope-shaped sofa. He leans back into Boccaporto’s sheltering interior – its upholstery clad in a fabric from Kvadrat – and, with a brush of his fingers, switches on a half-hidden strip of LED lights. Malhan is the brand and design director of Koleksiyon, a Turkish furniture label whose modern green campus accommodates the company’s Istanbul headquarters, its laboratory of ideas and its showroom. The most recent Koleksiyon introduction is the aptly named Self-Organised Workplace, a collection built on principles that have emerged in Koleksiyon’s products and evolved over the past decade. Malhan is championing the idea of a workplace in which employees have choice and agency in personalizing…

PIERO LISSONI 1956 Born in Seregno, Italy 1978 Graduates from the Polytechnic University of Milan with a degree in architecture 1985 Joins Boffi kitchens as art director and designer 1986 Establishes Lissoni Associati in Milan, together with Nicoletta Canesi. Later additions include Lissoni Architettura and New York City-based Lissoni Inc. 1996 Sets up GraphX, the graphic-design department of his studio 2006 Presents the book Liquid Space: 70 Years of Boffi Design 2010 Designs the Audrey chair for Kartell 2012 Converts Amsterdam’s former music conservatory into the Conservatorium Hotel 2014 With GraphX, designs the global corporate identity for Glas Italia 2015 Designs the Fantini showroom in Milan 2016 Realizes the Roomers Hotel in Baden Baden, Germany PIERO LISSONI: ‘I was born on the outskirts of Milan, in the industrial village of…

NIKA ZUPANC: I get up at 7 a.m. Generally speaking, I have two types of day: one is when I think up new things and need to focus on being creative. I like to be totally isolated from other people while I’m thinking. I have a big open studio in Ljubljana, but I tend to stay home on those days, sometimes even in my pyjamas. I’m in deep concentration for seven or eight hours. I try to work constantly on a project – a chair, a lamp, whatever – it needs my complete attention. I want to understand it. To break up the day, I go to the gym or take a walk. One of the reasons I’ve stayed in Ljubljana is due to a hill that’s part of my…

MIAMI — If shopping and art have anything in common, it’s a process of discovery. Efforts to imbue retail space with a sense of finding oneself in the merchandise on display have cycled in and out of fashion since Harry Selfridge began choreographing his Aladdin’s cave-like department store in the early 20th century. To design Kith NYC’s retail outlets, owner and designer Ronnie Fieg chose a studio that has long been interested in building revelation into space: in 2011, as he was launching the fashion and footwear brand, artist Daniel Arsham and architect Alex Mustonen – aka Snarkitecture – were busy chiselling their way through a vast block of styrofoam that eventually became a series of explorable caves in New York’s Storefront for Art and Architecture. Each of Snarkitecture’s five…

Boundaries between the real world and virtual domains are blurring as consumers become accustomed to the convenience of click-and-connect retail yet continue to rely on existing supply chains to fulfil their orders. One of the first examples of this was Miadidas, which provided (and still provides) consumers with interactive online tools for customizing Adidas shoes with personal designs, images or logos. Although the design innovation took place in cyberspace, the best methods of production and delivery proved to be the traditional ones. Some physical stores may struggle to compete with e-commerce portals, which offer speedy delivery, free shipping and customization via an app. Other retailers are encouraged by e-commerce giants such as Amazon, who responded to crowdsourced feedback by opening its first real-world bookshops in Seattle in 2015. Following suit,…

TIMBER IS IN HIGH DEMAND, and the world’s forests are suffering. Abundant in Europe and Asia, the pine tree is a common source of inexpensive wood. In Europe alone, nearly 600 million pines are felled annually. Unfortunately, not enough trees are planted to keep up with industry demands. The pine needles that are left behind litter hectares of wild terrain, leaving a carpet of carnage where thick forests once flourished. Enter Design Academy Eindhoven’s Tamara Orjola, who set out to find an alternative use for the industry’s sylvan scraps with her graduation project, Forest Wool. ‘The pine tree has a long tradition,’ she says. ‘It has a lot to offer. In the past, it used to be used as food, for remedies, and to build homes or furni ture. Today,…

PROCESS – The beauty of handmade furniture is undermined by the laborious journey an artisan must take to master woodworking techniques, plus the difficulty of manufacturing the pieces on an industrial scale. The dilemma has led to the growing prevalence of robots replacing humans in a multitude of trades. Mark Laban’s Digital Daiku project acts as yet another example of machines infiltrating the realm of design. Laban’s Rustic Stool is his interpretation of a Japanese teahouse with linear supports and a curved maple roof. Laban called on computer-aided modelling to replicate hand-carved details and entrusted traditional work done by mallet and chisel to the expertise of a CNC milling machine. The stool’s smooth woodgrain surface is disrupted by a relief pattern produced by the designer’s (intentional) experimentation with the presets…

MATERIALS – It took Studio Sebastian Herkner over a year to develop the Font series together with furniture brand Pulpo and German manufacturer Magna. The reason behind their lengthy process was a desire to create and use a completely new material. Although Glaskeramik is made out of recycled glass, it has the appearance of something far more precious. When combined with a special fusing technology, the waste product – left over from industrial glass production – forms solid slabs that can be cut and polished in the same way that sculptors and designers work with various types of engineered or natural stone. Glaskeramik offers a wide range of applications, but Herkner is the first to transform the eco-friendly material into a furniture collection of which no two pieces are alike.…

SENSES – Science teaches us that human olfaction – or ‘sense of smell’ – is sometimes stronger than vision, but since smell is less vital to the survival of modern man, priority goes to the eyes, fingers and ears. Even so, the psychological power of smell is deeply profound. From online fashion platforms to portable ‘perfume playlists’, we see a rise of projects that enhance the world around us through scent. ZUZA MENGHAM Exhibited during London Design Week 2016, Zuza Mengham’s collection of resin sculptures for Laboratory Perfumes gives a tangible form to fragrance. Entitled Sculpting Scent, the series encapsulates the essence of the brand’s five signature products: Samphire, Tonka, Amber, Gorse and its latest release, Atlas. zuzamengham.com LEANNE WIJNSMA AND FROUKJE TAN A design by Leanne Wijnsma and Froukje…

What was your starting point for this challenge? JENNA KAËS: I wanted to address ageing, and an increasingly ageing population, in a positive way, without speaking about death. Because I think that everyday activities in the future will become calmer and our goals more blurred, I investigated ways in which to keep the mind active. But you’ve concentrated on a time during which our minds are generally perceived as dormant . . . Yes. The importance of dreams remains ignored in Western societies, but we spend a third of our lives sleeping, dreaming and building our second lives. I strongly believe that our ‘awake’ and ‘asleep’ lives continuously nourish and stimulate each other. Tell us about your Visual Dream Machine (VDM). It makes dreaming a goal in itself, a daily…

Instead of developing a product for the elderly, you’ve decided to target the young? GOVERT FLINT of Enrichers: Yes. An increasingly elderly population means that healthcare expenses will rise in the future. We propose a sustainable design movement based on the use of environmental stimulation to increase wellbeing. What’s wrong with contemporary environments? In today’s world, we spend more than 90 per cent of our time indoors. Interior spaces have characteristics that are very different from those of the fields and forests that human evolution intended for us to experience. The way we live now stimulates different parts of the brain, making it a tool that doesn’t fulfil its original function. Why is this? Most or our information comes from screen-based media, so we are primarily ‘messaged’ through our sense…

DOWN THROUGH the ages, builders, architects and artists have pictured a uniquely designed stairway as the ultimate challenge. To protect themselves from attacks by wild animals, primitive tribes often settled on higher ground. One day, tired of climbing on vines and clutching branches to make his way home, a clever cave dweller came up with the idea of stairs – an idea that turned out to be beneficial to humans born many epochs later. A perfect godsend for adults who want to watch TV in peace and quiet is the simple command: ‘Go upstairs and play’, with an emphasis in this case on stairs. And we all know how vital stairwells in skyscrapers can be when the electricity fails and elevators grind to a halt. To please his wife, an…

‘I felt liberated by Sol LeWitt’s approach to his work’ DIVIDING HER TIME BETWEEN Seoul and Berlin, Haegue Yang makes conceptual work using everyday materials, which she employs in abstract and subtly narrative ways. The results range from compositions featuring envelope security patterns to sculptures built around products like clothing racks. The 45-year-old artist has made sculptures and installations out of Venetian blinds since 2006. You first used Venetian blinds in Series of Vulnerable Arrangements – Version Utrecht, your multisensory installation from 2006. How did your interest in blinds develop? HAEGUE YANG: That installation was a mute sensorial field, composed of devices such as lights and scent emitters that were juxtaposed with a ‘voice’ from video essays in the same space, which was demarcated by Venetian blinds. The obliqueness of…

MILAN — The result of the fortunate reclamation of an early 20th-century gin factory in Milan, Fondazione Prada represents the convergence of culture, politics and place. Since its opening in 2015 – amid Milan’s expo-driven renaissance – the OMA-designed complex has already established a relationship with the less-than-exciting Ripamonti area in which it sits. It’s no surprise, then, that its peculiar architecture is inviting more and more site-specific work. The Slight Agitation series involves four artists whose work concerns physical space as well as its influence on people and society. ‘The ability to define, engage and play with the material space around our bodies is the first and most crucial step towards understanding how identities are formed and manipulated,’ explains Tobias Putrih, who was first in line to insert three…

GUANGZHOU — Like pop-up shops, trade-fair stands offer virtually boundless room for experimentation – apart from the designated this-by-that footprint, of course – as well as the chance to immediately gauge an audience’s response. That doesn’t mean you’ll find a line-up of exploratory booths at such an event – it’s a risk not everyone is willing to take – but occasionally a stand does stand out. It’s undoubtedly much easier for designers to experiment when they’re representing themselves, not a client. Pone Architecture is a case in point. The firm’s recent Guangzhou Design Week pavilion deliberately broke traditional spatial limitations with sweeping structures. More than that, it pushed tactility and interaction to the forefront. While many are perplexed by how to incorporate digital experiences into their presentations, Pone reaffirmed the…

‘FUTURE-CRAFTING’ IS the term used by Carlo Ratti, head of MIT’s Senseable City Lab and director of Carlo Ratti Associati, to define his work. Ratti uses interventions and experiments in his visionary scenarios for urban life, which explore the potential of big data. It’s an approach that’s discussed in his publications, such as The City of Tomorrow, a book coauthored with Matthew Claudel and published in 2016 by Yale University Press. It’s the experiential projects that connect to daily life, however, that make Ratti’s work so approachable. Hospitality, workspace and retail – he addresses all urban-related industries. And what often seems to be a flash from the future is just as often rooted in reality. The technology he and his team developed for the Future Food District, a pavilion at…

Instant gratification Consumers are hungry for information, and they want it to be available at all times. Online customer assistance has to be immediate. Consumers are more likely to shop where same- or next-day delivery is offered. Individual customization One-of-a-kind merchandize and personalized products are huge drivers for consumers. Shoppers are loyal to brands that store their individual preferences, not only to customize merchandise but to personalize the level of service they receive. Conversational commerce Brands can leverage the power of messaging and chat apps to reach more consumers. AI-driven applications can answer questions and provide personalized recommendations through messaging and voice commands. Experiences transcend products Brands striving to harness the power of emotion to increase sales will make shopping as multisensory and interactive as possible. Branded events will emerge…

#Missguided Online fashion brand Missguided forayed into bricks-and-mortar retail with a new store at London’s Westfield Stratford City shopping centre. Designers Dalziel & Pow talk about an ‘Instagrammable’ shop with a ‘live stream of dynamic content’. The result is sizzling enough to stop the Snapchat generation in their GPS-guided tracks. Brand followers and fashionistas are encouraged to ‘hashtag your look’ with tags ranging from #babesofmissguided and #asspirational to #thefutureisfemale and #girlalmighty. As social media becomes an increasingly essential part of how we live and communicate, selfies and hashtags are emerging as the defining symbols of our age. Along with tweets, pins, likes and shares, they enable us to say more about who and where we are. Nearly 75 per cent of social-media users add a hashtag, with most tweets and…

How is Yoghurt Clock relevant to the food industry? DIGNA KLOSSE: The project is a thinking model for analysing the yoghurt-making process. We dissected the method into smaller steps, which led to the discovery of other potential products along the way. Our model shows how a yoghurt factory could also be connected to the manufacture of cosmetics and sports-nutrition supplements, or even to a cooking lab. What personal interests led to the conception of the Yoghurt Clock? We have always been fascinated by differences between artisanal and industrial food production. Both have their benefits. We are exploring ways to combine these two seemingly opposing production methods. What do you think tomorrow’s kitchen will look like? The future kitchen will have smart connections. It will be high-tech to a degree, but…

Sybold van Ravesteyn (1889-1983) After studying civil engineering at the Delft University of Technology, Sybold van Ravesteyn worked as a civil engineer for the Dutch Railways for 40 years, while also running his own architecture practice. Between 1925 and 1935 he was a prominent representative of the New Objectivity movement in architecture. Later he favoured a neo-baroque style with ornament and curving contours. He believed that ‘people expect architecture to be a source of visual beauty’. Sometimes referred to as an ‘idiosyncratic’ architect, Van Ravesteyn designed train stations, chairs, the Rotterdam Zoo (Diergaarde Blijdorp), service stations and lamps. THE REISSUE of the SVR01 represents a highlight in the history of design, especially for those who realize that the eight prototypes of lamps made by Sybold van Ravesteyn in 1926 no…