Materialise Me, Handmade for Mass Production

We Like: Flock, the Ceiling Light Made from Preserved Sheep Stomachs

2008-05-07T09:45:00.003+02:00

When we first saw Flock at the Design Museum in London, the pure beauty of the ceiling light charmed us: irregular organic shapes, soft light a very detailed texture. Not being able to figure out the material it was made of, we read on the label next to it that it was made of fifty stomachs! How is that for an unusual material in design these days?

Flock’s designer Julia Lohmann likes to provoke with her creations, and remind people that we are using more animal products than the steaks we might eat ocasionally. She started researching the contradictions in our relationship to animals during her studies at the RCA, and found new ways to use leftovers from the meat industry as materials.

In an interview with the London Design Museum, Lohmann is asked: “Why did you decide to make lights from animal waste such as sheep's stomachs?” Her answer: “All animal parts are useful but we do not value them equally. We wear some and throw others away in disgust, probably because we do not want to be reminded of the animal we killed. I want to find out where we draw the line between what we regard as beautiful or disgusting. […].”

Read the whole very interesting interview here. To see more products by Julia Lohmann visit her web site, and check out the Cow Benched made from real leather, and the installation she did with Irish kelp at the Milan Design Week this month.

We Like: Gumnetic, a New Material Made from Used Chewing Gum

2008-01-22T13:14:00.000+01:00

British product designer Anna Bullus has created a brand new material by mixing used chewing gum with bio resin, called Gumnetic. She explains that varying ratios of the mixture enable different material characteristics to be achieved.

One such mixture, the designer used to develop a Bubble Gum Bin to collect more raw material (used chewing gum in this case), which can then be made into more bins or other objects, saving thousands of chewing gums from ending up as landfill and keeping our streets cleaner. Keep a look out for these cute pink gum bins as the project is available soon for commercial use.

Anna Bullus won the British Councils National Design Award in 2007 with the Gumnetic Bin. It is another great example where the designer has created and manipulated the raw material, resulting in a more sustainable and surprising product. Check out more projects we like under the category We Like, and find more information about Gumnetic on Anna Bullus' Web Site.

Barcelona Workshop Pictures

2007-12-10T16:04:00.000+01:00

A few pictures of the Materialise Me workshop at the Design School ELISAVA in Barcelona last month. See the video and more information here.

We Like: ANANITA, the Latex Lamp

2007-11-21T11:49:00.000+01:00

Ananita is a latex lamp designed by Anita Garcia and produced by Cha Chá in Spain. It is a perfect example of handmade for mass production. Garcia experimented on her own coffee maker, applying liquid latex with a brush. The latex could be peeled off and voilà: a lamp. She then took the handmade prototype to Vinçon and Cha Chá who went straight off to making a mould and mass producing it. The finished piece can be seen in Vinçon amongst other shops. Oh, and word has it, a whole collection of ananitaobjetosluminososparatocar (ananitailluminatedobjectstotouch) is on its way, everyday objects that are here to serve us. Keep your eyes out for the following objects: GoOoOoooLLL!!!! . . . MMmmmhhh!!!! . . . Rriiinnngggg!!! . . . For more, visit Anita Garcia’s web site.

2nd Workshop : ELISAVA Design School, Barcelona

2007-11-09T09:44:00.000+01:00

Last week we finished another workshop ,at ELISAVA Design School in Barcelona. This time, the participants were Master students whereas at Krabbesholm School in Denmark we had the pleasure to work with foundation students.
The materials changed quite a lot too. This time around, students came packed with cork, biodegradable packaging material, metal strips from construction, Magnolia leaves, substrate from the beach and even human hair!
The workshop at ELISAVA offered 1001 possibilities to explore those materials and transform them into new ones. Who would have known leaves stitched together form a funky-looking bag, human hair mixed with glue and knotted makes a strong and beautiful cord, cork dices coated with latex in a mould form swim-armbands for kids and shredded pieces of packaging plastic ironed around a mould melt together into a lampshade.
Thanks to the DIA team for incorporating our workshop into your Master course. We really enjoyed working with you.
For more information about the Materialise workshops, click here.

We Like: Cohda Revolutionises Recycling in Design

2007-11-09T09:32:00.000+01:00

We like the way these guys turn waste plastic into something other than mostly ugly looking, colourful sheets of recycled plastic. With the RD4 chair by Cohda, a new aesthetic for recycling plastics was born. How does it work? It start with a pile of domestic HDPE waste (bottles, bags, food packaging,...) which needs to be shredded. The flake material gets heated in Cohda's own extruding machine, transforming the HDPE into a soft ribbon of recycled plastics. This is hand-woven around a specially designed mould. Once the plastic has cooled off and turned hard, you can remove it from the mould, and voilà: the chair. Watch the video for an amazing example of handmade for mass production.

We Are Looking For Your Design!

2007-10-08T18:46:00.000+02:00

Are you a designer, architect or maker? Are you passionate about materials? Are your designs influenced by the material? Have you got some interesting projects you would like to share with us? Do you fancy the possibility of being published in a book? If the answer is yes, tell us about your project in a comment under this post or email us! We would love to hear from you.

First Workshop Stop: Denmark, Krabbesholm School

2007-09-28T10:17:00.001+02:00

What happens to a CD when you put it in the oven? How do you turn the organic waste from the sewage into an object? What can you do with 1000 coat hangers? A week of materializing! A hands-on workshop gave students the opportunity to not only explore all sorts of substances but to make their own original material. Finding the raw material to begin with, discovering what it can do as well as testing its physical limits and trying out various combinations was part of the process. New techniques to shape the material had to be thought of in order to produce new material samples.
Finally these were turned into a design proposal for product design or architecture.
Thank you everybody at Krabbesholm School for making this workshop happen, it was great working with you.
For more information and photos, check out the Krabbesholm School web site.

the Materialise Me workshops

2007-09-26T17:38:00.000+02:00

As part of the book, we do a series of workshops, based on the idea to (re)design materials within product design and architecture.

PROJECT BRIEF

In this workshop the design process will not just start with exploring the material; you will make your own material.

TASKS:

Find the raw material(s).
Explore what you have found. Apply different techniques, try out combinations, and test its possibilities.
Shape the material. What are the physical limits? What tools/techniques can you use on the material?
Develop a new material. Make samples. Form them.
The design proposal; What is your material’s properties ?
Turn it into an object and/or an architectural feature.

FINAL PRESENTATION

Present the material and final design, its label* & 5 photos (one from each day). We also like videos !

*the label should hold essential information of your new material.

TIME + PLACE

Workshops should last at least 5 days. If you are a design school, have workshop facilities and think your students could benefit from our project- contact us!

Where the idea for the book came from

2007-09-26T17:32:00.000+02:00

During the last decades, CAD programs have revolutionised the way we work. Complex shapes and volumes that previously represented weeks of sketching, drawing and model building can now be done in a much shorter time. Most young professionals and students master a series of programs that will help them from the start of the concept to the final rendered images.

Learning new things is great, but our fascination with everything virtual has created a situation where the material for the formalisation of the product becomes a necessary evil that has to be applied at the end of the design process.

A large part of the identity of a well designed item lies in the materials and in the production method used: It is what makes it strong, waterproof, environmentally friendly (damaging), durable, light etc.. When the designer ends up relying entirely on the knowledge and advice of technicians and manufacturers for this formalisation, the result is the loss of control of the design process and, ultimately, the outcome of the product.
The intention of this book and the workshops is not to go back to the craftsmanship of earlier times, but simply to close the “missing link” to production, which materials have now become to many designers.

So we invite you to take back what belongs to you as a designer; the right to decide the properties of your product. Turn a corner of your studio in to a small workshop, test and explore the materials, find the ones that you believe have good properties and use them. If you do not find what you are looking for, then create it.

- and please make something sexy with recycled material now!

What Materialise Me is all about

2007-09-26T17:20:00.000+02:00

The designers Petz Scholtus and Mette Bak Andersen are presently writing a book that is aiming to focus designers and architects on the importance of the material in the design process.

Petz is an eco-designer and brings with her the knowledge of life-cycle analysis, recycling and biodegradable materials. Mette designs primarily for the yachting industry which means that she works with high tech materials, textiles and composites.

We like it when the material creates the object. We get excited when the material influences the design process from the beginning. We are psyched by new materials that have been created especially for a new design. We love designers who share their design process with us and don’t just show the finished piece. This is what makes us tick, what makes us designers say ‘wow’! The material is a much too important part to be left until the end of the design process, and some designers got this right. We are working on collecting those examples.

To give you a rough content idea of the book:

• Interviews with designers/architects/artists that develop or manipulate their own materials for their designs.

• Results from our workshops on materials.

• Products where the material has determined the design. (Pictures of end results and processes)