October 8, 2009
Viktor & Rolf make cheeky fun of the crisis by taking a chain saw to the tulle of their 2010 Spring and Summer collection. Style.com has the whole story + more photos.
You really ought to see that second dress against a dark background.
(Source photos: the viktor-rolf.com video of the show)
Tags: crisis, Fashion, Viktor & Rolf
September 24, 2009
Rotterdam based company Metrological hopes to introduce a set-top box in November which will enable users to browse the Internet on their television sets.
Yes, that sounds very 1980s, but apparently the device also works as a regular TV tuner. At a price of around 400 euro, the Mediaconnect TV is somewhat expensive for a peppy tuner, the inventors admit, but they hope to sell the device to cable companies who can package it with subscriptions.
Inventors Jeroen Ghijsen and Albert Dahan have a background in designing telemetry systems for airports, and their new device is indeed based on software they wrote for controlling video cameras and lights on landing strips.
(Link: a fawning Parool. Photo: Metrological.)
Tags: Internet, Rotterdam, television
September 22, 2009
The Key Card Hotel (tons of pics here) was recently opened in New York City, a hotel entirely made of key cards, designed and built by world record holder of card house building, Bryan Berg, aka The Cardstacker.
The hotel is 37 m2 in size and has a bedroom, bathroom and lobby, entirely made of Holiday Inn key cards. Berg says that it is his biggest challenge ever on a human scale.
(Link: telegraaf.nl)
September 20, 2009
Christien Meindertsma documented 185 products contributed to by a single pig in an exhibition at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam last year, and in a book (also available in a pigskin bound version, of course). Pig 05049 won her one of the five 2009 Index design awards in August.
The list of good things coming from a pig includes bacon of course, yoghurt, pudding, paints, enamels (bone china!), cigarettes, brakes, bullets, and washing powder. The distinct smell of crayons is pig.
The Index Award prize money, 100,000 euro, will go in part to making the book available on the web, but if you want print copies you can buy them via Amazon and so on. The print version shows all the products life-sized.
(Via Jason Kottke. Source photo: Indexaward.dk.)
Tags: arms, awards, cigarettes, farms, industrialization, pigs, specialization
September 1, 2009
Stefan Oerlemans, a student from the University of Twente, discovered a way to reduce the ‘noise source distribution’ of modern wind turbines. For those of you who may not know, people living near these wind turbines have to deal with the loud ‘swishing’ sound they make. Yes, there are downsides to green energy.
Oerlemans figured out that the sound level could be reduced by half by fitting jagged edges, or teeth on the blades of the turbines. Now all I need is some black, red, yellow and orange to paint some flames and make them look cool as well.
(Link: depers.nl)
August 31, 2009
Guus Oosterbaan, a Dutch designer living in Denmark, is looking for somebody to take these boxes into production for him.
The boxes can be used to store all kinds of things, and when stacked can be combined into huge toy robots. On his blog, Oosterbaan says that his “kids find it very amusing to build robots that are much taller than them and then knock them over while shouting superhero stuff.”
(Link: Bright.nl. Photos: Guus Oosterbaan.)
Tags: boxes, children, furniture, robots, storage, superheroes, toys
August 24, 2009
Premsela and Waag Society are organising the Unlimited Design Contest from August 13 to October 12 in the categories form, food and fashion. The idea seems to be that the design must be reproducible in one of three Fablabs (Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht), places where you can use things like laser cutters and 3D printers for free.
Workshops to inspire you will be given by Marije Vogelzang (food), Frank Tjepkema (form) and Zelda Beauchampet (fashion), with the price of entry covering the materials you will be using.
One of the rules is that when you release your design for the contest, you must release it under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Share-Alike license.
See also: Looking for open source furniture.
(Link: Bright. Still of Joris van Tubergen creating a lamp by Unlimited Design Contest.)
Tags: contests, Fashion, Food & Drink, forms, HAR 2009
August 22, 2009
Dutch department store chain HEMA has added an audience award to its famous design contest. Now you too can vote for the product you would most like to see in HEMA stores. The winners of the jury award are already known (shown here), respectively Marloes van Geel with a raincoat made of recycled brochures and Saskia Kappers with a lid made from party balloons.
You can vote until August 31.
(Link: Bright. Source photos: HEMA.)
Tags: Hema
August 1, 2009
Kubikids is an inflatable, square bath tub for children. It works by placing it in the shower stall, and then filling it with air, water and children, in that order. It’s not uncommon for our tiny Dutch apartments to lack a bathtub, in which case this device could add a luxury to an otherwise cramped place for at least part of the family.
Plus, anything that makes it look like you are cooking children just looks nice, but maybe that’s just me.
Tags: bathing, baths, children, inflatable
July 30, 2009
Although the Bikedispenser has been around since 2007, designed by Dutch firms Springtime and Post&Dekker, we thought it was high time to point it out, being the cycling fans that we are. We recently wrote about the modular Bike & Chill, which also shows how important cycling is as a mode of transportation.
“Bikedispenser noticed that bike use once people got to their destination by train was really taking off, which is why the lack of bike storage at train stations is a huge problem. Bicycles are just 17 cm apart in the Bikedispenser, while in regular bicycle racks they are 37,5 cm apart, or more like 75 cm, as they are in the Vélib system (see photo below) in Paris.” In a land with more bikes than inhabitants (more than 16 million) and a population density of 395/km2, space is everything in the Netherlands.
The Bikedispenser site also explains how interested it is in foreign markets. Convincing the Dutch to cycle to work or school is a no-brainer, but getting people to do the same in much bigger cities like Paris, Brussels or Barcelona requires having inexpensive, freely accessible bikes around town at people’s disposal.
The system in Brussels ressembles the one in Paris, but there, cyclists are required to wear specific glow-in-the-dark construction worker vests, an indication of how uncommon and even dangerous cycling around town still is. Paris took to their Vélibs and own it, cycling rather carefully but proudly the few times I was there. In Barcelona, the bike loan system together with the amount of Dutch-owned businesses renting out bikes to tourists has contributed to the sharp decline in stolen bikes.
(Link and photo: BikeDispenser.com, via The Presurfer. Vélib photo: Orangemaster)
Tags: Barcelona, bike dispenser, Brussels, Paris, storage
