Wall Mounted - Shadow Clock

Milan Furniture Fair 2013

This Clock was created by fixing cardboard cuttings, which represent the hour, minute and second hands respectively, to the mechanism. The placement of a light source creates shadows against a wall, which enables one to read the time.

Images from the Milan Furniture Fair 2013



A Quick report of the Milan Furniture fair, Isalonica Milano

The scene was set on the first day of the Milan furniture fair at Artigianato Rho Fiera as anticipation and excitement filled the air. The prospect of experiencing the best product designs the world has to offer on an international stage of this magnitude was something beyond belief.

The first day took us on an exploration through the lighting exhibition section of the fairgrounds. The 3D experiences and volumes achieved with these temporary mobile stands were unimaginable and executed with incredible detail. Not only did these stands demonstrate unconventional ways of using various light sources, it swept you into another world, a transformed reality where principals of gravity was questioned and optical illusions managed to both entice the imagination and achieve interaction.

The following two days were spent meandering through the extensive design sections. The experience can only be described as walking through the pages of a world class design magazine that was being brought to life with every step.

The most inspiring section was the Salone Satellite, which was depicted as the meeting place for excellence. The most promising young designers from all over the world, under the age of 35, exhibited their work here. The theme for this year was to integrate the tradition of craftsmanship with the technological possibilities offered by contemporary industrial planning and production.

Along with a wide selection of demonstrations and seminars on offer, there were many off site exhibitions that formed part of the fair. Most of these took place in and around the many historical buildings within the CBD of Milan.

In conclusion, the fair presented this young designer with a fascinating journey through the thoughts, processes and products that contemporary design has to offer. It was a creative adventure and an experience that will be remembered with great fondness.

I wish to thank PG Bison for this tremendous opportunity and extend my gratitude to all involved with the organization of the Prestigious 1.618 competition. It is an invaluable platform for any designer.  

Earth Day is an annual holiday, celebrated on April 22, on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. In 2013 the day is 43 years old. It is celebrated in more than 192 countries every year
Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award in recognition of his work. An organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took Earth day international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations. Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

Architecture and interior design should be an art aimed at satisfying social needs. Define function not in terms of visual effect alone but as the arrangement and enclosures of spaces to make human activities more productive and enjoyable. The materials need to be considered as tools for enclosure, not as symbolic labels for fixed style (WILL 1961: 159).

Point of view: Bill buxton. “Great experiences don’t happen by accident. They are the result of deep thought and deliberation”. Rotman Magazine winter 2005.

Eco-infrastructure

Eco-infrastructure is the continuous green substructure that runs throughout a building integrating its inorganic mass with the organic content of the green eco-infrastructure, imitating the balance of biotic with the abiotic constituents present in an ecosystem. The approach is mimetic of a natural ecosystem. The eco-infrastructure may consist of several of the following ecological components and devices: ecosells, vegetated ramps, vertical green walls, green sky-courts, roof gardens and terraces. Its purpose is a continuous nexus of biotic components that blend with the inorganic elements of the built forms, and with the surrounding landscape and its hinterland (Van Schaik 2009: 144).

Dr. Ken Yeang states that an analogy might be drawn between ecodesign and prosthetics in surgery. Ecodesign is essentially design that integrates our artificial systems, both mechanically and organically, with their host systems’ ecosystems. Similarly, a medical prosthetic device has to integrate with its organic host being the human body. Failure to integrate well will result in dislocation in both. By analogy, this is what ecodesign in our built environment and in our businesses should achieve a total physical, systematic and temporal integration of our human-made built environment with our organic host in a benign and positive way (Van Schaik 2009: 142).

The City of The Hague is filled with Public art throughout the Central area and along the public walkways. These art works prompt reaction from citizens and visitors alike, and often serve as more prominent beacons for location than street names.

 Sustainable street furniture in The Hague outside a popular restaurant. They have used the shiping containers for wine to create a couch outside the restaurant on which patrons can wait to be seated at a table inside. In the bottom figure the label of one of the crate supports are visible. It is of the South African wine manufacturer Culemborg.  

Urban Greening on Milano Malapenza Airport. The image was taken through the window of one of the international lounges.