April 18, 2018

3D-printed bridge for Amsterdam takes shape

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 5:53 pm

mx3d-robot-printed-steel-bridge-completes-span-amsterdam_dezeen_2364_col_16-1704x2573

Back in 2015 we told you about Amsterdam getting a 3D-printed steel bridge, and apparently printing the structure is now finished. The 12-metre-long bridge will eventually cross a canal on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal in Amsterdam’s Red Light district and you bet we’ll check it out once it’s installed.

MX3D aims to have finished the printing, placing the deck and coating the bridge by October 2018 in time for Dutch Design Week. In the mean time, you could sneak a peak at their workshop in Amsterdam North at the NDSM wharf if you’re in the neighbourhood.

(Link and photo: dezeen.com)

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December 2, 2017

Colourful puzzle hotel unveiled in Eindhoven

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 10:24 pm

mvrdv-2017

In October 2017 during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, design firm MVRDV unveiled (W)ego, a “concept for accommodation that can adapt to the different needs of any future inhabitants – whether they be families, students or refugees.”

It looks like the game Tetris hung out with Lego and created colourful rooms for students. Co-founder of MVRDV Winy Maas, who was one of Dutch Design Week’s three ambassadors, said “Through gaming and other tools, (W)ego explores participatory design processes to model the competing desires and egos of each resident in the fairest possible way.”

(W)ego is basically a hotel where guests have to deal with the dream spaces of other occupants. It was exhibited downtown Eindhoven last October back when the weather in the Netherlands was still nice.

(Link and photo: urdesignmag.com)

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December 11, 2015

Slaughtered, infected chickens now design objects

Filed under: Animals,Design by Orangemaster @ 6:24 pm

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Not a month goes by in the Netherlands without some sort of animal-related scandal. Why not then be a glass hall full kind of person and take bird flu-infected chickens to create an urn, for starters?

Dutch designer Emilie van Spronsen researched that if you heat a dead, infected chicken up to 70 degrees celsius for just three seconds, you’ll kill the H5N8 bird-flu virus it has. The country has killed a lot of chickens to prevent this disease from spreading, but Van Spronsen felt like the dead chickens might be of some use. “I brought a last homage to these H5N8 bird-flu chickens by transforming them into design materials and ultimately by designing objects with the materials.” Her work was displayed in October during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.

The H5N8 urn was printed in 3D using a combination of ash collected from cremated chicken remains and clay, and features a spiky exterior that resembles the virus as seen under a microscope.

Back in 2009 we wrote about a book that lists 185 uses for a dead pig.

(Link and photo: www.dezeen.com)

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October 20, 2015

Earphones steer your phone while driving

Filed under: Design,Technology by Orangemaster @ 10:16 am

During Dutch Design Week, designer Pieter Husmann presented ‘Hélo’, a 3D-printed wireless in-earphone, a very classy wearable that helps car drivers answer text messages and calls while hopefully keeping their eyes on the road.

We’ve all been in a car where the driver is so addicted to checking their phone that the passenger has to interfere before the car hits the guard rail. Some drivers are addicted to the point of risking death for next to nothing, which makes you wonder if new technology is the solution or better awareness. New technology should help, but I still believe that leaving your damn phone alone is the safest option.

Husmann’s creation combines technological innovation and hearing aid technology that fits into one’s ears, with which you can answer your phone with your finger. It has four buttons for four different configurable functions from answering your phone to opening an e-mail. These earpieces can also be used for running and I would imagine cycling, skating, etc. That sounds like a useful invention even without the driving.

A while back we told you about satirist Johan Vlemmix who had thought of a free app that sends replies when driving because he admitted being addicted to checking his phone and answering people straight away. However, that was just an idea, and clearly Husmann has a real solution for addicts like Vlemmix.

(Link: www.bright.nl, Photo by Hello Turkey Toe, some rights reserved)

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October 29, 2014

Dutch bike designed and made in the Netherlands

Filed under: Bicycles by Orangemaster @ 9:43 am

EPO-bike-by-Bob-Schiller

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Bob Schiller has launched Epo bicycles with the hopes of seeing bicycle manufacturing make a come back in the Netherlands. His goal was to design a bike that could be both built and used here. “Even our prime minister uses his bike to get to work. Cycling is part of our culture and it has been for centuries. However, an affordable, contemporary Dutch bicycle disappeared from our streets.”

True, most mass-produced bicycles are manufactured in Asia as labour costs there are lower. Gazelle and Batavus brand bikes are Dutch and there are more, but yes, the fancy new ones are usually expensive designer bikes like VanMoof or BlackStar Bikes and not the kind you ride to work every day for fear of them being stolen for starters.

It’s a nice idea, but unless labour costs go down, which they won’t, many designer Dutch bikes will continue to be a luxury item.

(Links: www.dezeen.com, www.madpac.nl)

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October 10, 2014

Chair translates body motion into on-screen cursor

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 9:45 am

dynamic_chair

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Govert Flint has designed a chair that allows users to control the cursor with a range of body movements. He designed this dynamic chair so one could move in all directions, and worked with programmer Sami Sabik to translate the motions of users into on-screen actions.

“I started to think about how we make chairs that are disconnected from their activity. Working in the office is an activity we sit for. From then on I tried to design a chair based on body movements.”

Three accelerometers positioned around the chair measure movement in X, Y and Z directions. Collected data is then transferred along wires to a computer, which is programmed to use the information to move a cursor around a computer screen positioned at a user’s eye level. One sensor located below the seat calculates the chair position relative to the X and Y planes. The user’s shifts forward, backward and side to side move the cursor in corresponding directions on the screen

The dynamic and chair and much more will be on display during the
Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven from 18 to 25 October.

(Link: www.dezeen.com, Photo www.lisaklappe.com)

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October 31, 2011

Mirrors that look like holes in the wall and other Eindhoven Design Academy graduation projects

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 3:27 pm

Yesterday was the last day of the Dutch Design Week. Part of the event was the graduation show of the Eindhoven Design Academy, which was visited by Trendbeheer (we already mentioned Michael Kluver’s chairs).

Latvian Germans Ermics graduated with these mirrors that look like holes in the wall.

Other projects included cat videos from show cats by Thalia de Jong, a meltable dinner table by Tom Gottelier (complete with built-in heater to help you melt it back into shape), a self-photographing room by Monique Habraken, a leather holster for kids instead of guns by Elise Metekohy, a cargo bike that can roll like a regular bicycle by Alexander van Diggele, and much more.

Trendbeheer visited the exhibition and took lots of pictures.

(Photo by Trendbeheer / Jeroen Bosch, some rights reserved)

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October 29, 2011

Michael Kluver reimagines classic chairs

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 12:22 pm

The designers of the classic chairs of the twentieth century did not just manage to come up with a striking look for furniture, they also tried to reinvent the chair. Michael Kluver, a 2011 Eindhoven Design Academy graduate, decided it was time to turn these iconic designs back into “Just Chairs“.

Shown here from left to right are the Mackintosh, Rietveld, Breuer and Eames inspired chairs. Trendbeheer has handy links to the originals, and mentions that they are on display at the Graduation Show of the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven—the last two days of which are taking place now.

(Photo: Michael Kluver)

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October 23, 2009

Shopping tank

Filed under: Art,Design by Branko Collin @ 8:51 am

Wessel van Offeren seems to think shopping is war. His shopping cart with caterpillar tracks was spotted at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven by Trendbeheer.

(Photo: Trendbeheer / E.Rosie, some rights reserved)

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October 17, 2008

The future still looks like the sixties

Filed under: Architecture by Orangemaster @ 9:50 am
Villa by Powerhouse

“Set in the Dutch woodlands, the program of Villa 1 by Powerhouse Company is optimally oriented towards the views on the terrain and the sun. Half of the program is pushed below ground to meet local zoning regulations, creating a clear dichotomy in the spatial experience of the house: a glass box ground floor where the mass is concentrated in furniture elements and a ‘medieval’ basement, where the spaces are carved out of the mass.

The interior of Villa 1 has been nominated for the category ‘best private interior’ of the Dutch Design Award. The villa is said to “ruthlessly position itself within the tradition of modern (interior) architecture”. The award will be granted on 18 October 2008, during the Dutch Design Week, in Eindhoven.”

Do follow the link below for more dreamy pictures.

(Link: dezeen.com)

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