product*obsession : two timer by industrial facility

{i want one....}



Milan 08: designer Sam Hecht of Industrial Facility launched his Two-Timer clocks for Established & Sons, which allow the time in two time zones to be displayed on one clock face.



"It’s as if everyone these days has come from or is going to somewhere else… ” explains Hecht. “Two-Timer is a useful expression of this modern condition, merging two different time zones into one clock.”

See more from Established & Sons in Milan in our previous stories:

New work at Established & Sons
Maarten Baas for Established & Sons
Pole by Paul Cocksedge

The following text is from Established & Sons:

–

TWO-TIMER
Many cities, with London no exception, continue to experience the mass movement of people. It’s as if everyone these days has come from somewhere else. The Two Timer clock acknowledges this modern condition with two clocks sharing the same dial.

How curious an idea - it’s as if a finger has stretched a round clock to form a little corner – an offspring, if you like. Two quartz movements, with a carefully devised dial, are housed in a steel frame.

Designed in two sizes, it will sit happily in the home, the office, the hospital, the hotel, the airline lounge, or the foyer of a financial building. It illustrates that even with different time zones we are of one world.

–

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/04/30/two-timer-by-industrial-facility/

art*obsession : wood work by Karen Ryan}

Milan 08: designer Karen Ryan installed her Wood Work lighting installation made from wood and acrylic offcuts at Spazio Rossana Orlandi.



The assemblages were lit with independent lamps also made from offcuts which could be moved around the composition, altering the shadows and reflections.




“I use discarded materials in my work out of necessity, poetry and politics,” says Ryan.

See more work by Karen Ryan on Dezeen:

Untitled lights
Unmade 07

Here’s some text about the project from Ryan:

–

‘WOOD WORK’ Lights — a series in offcuts by Karen Ryan

‘WOOD WORK’ Lights is an intuitive response in my own obsessions, derived from my fascination and intrigue with offcuts and their inherent beauty. An intrigue that started at school in my wood work class as I conformed in the making of a coffee table with a tiled insert top, practising my skills with mortise and tenon joints while day dreaming of unstructured structures.

These unstructured structures that I have made with wood and Perspex offcuts are lit externally by light boxes that can be placed anywhere, creating multiple reflections both in colours and forms.



'WOOD WORK’ Lights contain the negatives discarded by other designer makers and artists. The accidental; the unwanted; the discarded is my starting point.

















{this looks like a hybrid of graphic design + fine art}

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/05/01/wood-work-by-karen-ryan/

montras e lojas · shops + shop windows

{i just love this store front... beautiful!}


The Fabrico Próprio book can already be bought in 4 shops, and the list keeps growing by the day… Not only in bookshops, but in points of sale which we want to be special. We would already like to thank Rute Arnóbio in Porto, Susana Parker in Alvor, Paula Lázera in Évora and Ricardo Ribeiro and Catarina Barros in Lisbon (from Trama, where the book is actually on the shop window!) for the “shared bet”. We believe that “Books Make Friends”, so we invite everyone interested in looking for the book in these shops, and get to know the people who also support our project.

The shop list is on the left-hand side of this post, or here.

http://www.fabricoproprio.net/

art*obsession : the rotators by Masanori Ikeda}

This is so cool.



The Rotators. Photo: Masanori Ikeda, Courtesy of Muneteru.

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/art_from_japan/index.php?page=2

art*obsession : get it louder (part 2, japan)

Just a tiny add-on focusing on the Japanese Chapter of Get It Louder.
Curator Mami Kataoka selected 4 emerging artists:

Akino Kondoh works in various media including acrylic and graphite paintings, sculptures, hand-drawn animations, and mangas.

There were screenings of her animations in the exhibition space, and it was lovely to see how much they mesmerized anyone passing by. Some of Akino Kondoh's videos are on you tube, i love the one below, it's called Densya Kamo Shirenai:



By Regine
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/art_from_japan/

fashion*obsession : bathing ape | BAPE interview

studio {love} : happily ever after

Happily Ever After.

design*obsession : NE apartment by Yuji Nakae, Akiyoshi Takagi + Hirofumi Ohno

April 3rd, 2008



Japanese architects Yuji Nakae, Akiyoshi Takagi and Hirofumi Ohno have collaborated on NE apartments, a block of eight apartments for motorcycle enthusiasts in Tokyo.



The C-shaped apartment block features a circular courtyard that allows residents to rotate their motorbikes.

NE apartment

This 8-unit rental apartment house complex was designed to house motorcycle enthusiasts, with a built-in garage included in every unit.

The building is located on a flag-shaped plot near the apex of a triangular block, with a certain degree of open space toward the main road to the south.

The c-shaped design was a practical decision to allow the residents to access their apartments through a common alley that leads right to the center of the complex.



The wall on the entrance side was curved to provide maximum space on the outside, while guaranteeing sufficient volume for each apartment unit and wall length to fit 8 entrance doors.



The resulting little square avoids giving the impression of a narrow and dark dead end, and allows the residents to rotate their bikes easily.



The walls separating each apartment unit were disposed in a radial pattern, each with a gentle curve that leads them to meet the external wall at a right angle. By connecting the angles of each room, the curved walls contribute to give the impression of a more spacious environment.



The entire structure is designed as an extension of the road, smoothly following the movement of its residents as they drive through the alley, enter the central square, park their motorcycle in the garage and move upstairs to their living quarters.

About the use of curved walls

The building is a reinforced concrete structure composed of seven walls and a slab. The main characteristic of the structure lies in the fact that the reinforced walls, composed of an in-plane rigid frame of columns and beams, were disposed in a radial pattern. The walls rely on the transfer of horizontal force from the slabs instead of using perpendicular beams.

They are in fact vertical cantilevers fixed in the foundation of the building. Although the centrally-oriented radial displacement is vulnerable to rotational forces, the changing angles of each wall reinforce the structure’s resistance.



Because the structure of the building relies on the seven interior walls, the exterior wall was handled using a dry construction method. This allowed us to continue studying the emplacement and size of the wall openings in accordance with the uneven surroundings until the very last moment of the construction process.



The functions of each wall are also enhanced by a clear division of their roles: structure and sound insulation for the interior walls, openings and thermal insulation for the exterior walls.

Despite their curve, the interior walls always meet the outside wall at right angles, preventing the presence of sharp corners and thus improving livability.

On the entrance side, each floor is fitted with a continuous strip of curved windows, with a comparatively wider opening on the second level. The orientation of each room was set to avoid a direct view of the opposite apartment. Combined with a double-paned window, this setting provides a peculiar feeling of privacy.

Posted by Marcus Fairs

http://www.dezeen.com/2008/04/03/ne-apartments-by-yuji-nakae-akiyoshi-takagi-and-hirofumi-ohno/

design*obsession : bansky on essex road

Street artist Banksy has painted a mural on Essex Road, London, depicting two young children saluting while another child raises a Tesco carrier bag on a flagpole.


Banksy’s preparatory Sketch for Essex Road (shown top) sold for £195,000 last month, at the artbid4ken auction to raise money for London mayor Ken Livingstone’s re-election campaign.



Posted by Marcus Fairs http://www.dezeen.com/2008/04/06/banksy-on-essex-road/