Royal re-formation from Paul Nicholls

ROYAL RE-FORMATION from Paul Nicholls on Vimeo.

A stunning CG animation by the 4th year student of Unit15 in the Bartlett school. I especially like the space of the parcel library 

ROYAL CABINETS

In an age of progressively automated manufacturing and fabrication processes, the Royal Cabinets are an aggressive expression of labour. Assembled from a contractor led design approach, the cabinets draw on highly skilled local craftsmen and artists to produce the fantastical. Staged within the proposed baron 'facadescape' of a financially fragile Canary Wharf, the Cabinets are programmatically charged with the loss of yet another great British labour force, Royal Mail. With the privatisation of this service and the closing of the old London sorting offices, the company now exists solely to store, manage and eventually sell its backlog of lost and undelivered mail, inside the cabinets themselves. Sorted by day and publically accessed by night, the cabinets are constructed from salvaged/lost/unwanted materials as well as being ornamentally re-branded with the objects of former mail operations, which include mail carts, postal sacks and even delivery vehicles. These unlikely combinations of materials form an intricate bricolage of sculptures at various scales, forming storage areas, display cases, chandeliers, and even the fabric of the cabinets themselves. 

ROYAL RE-FORMATION

The film attempts in part to graphically abstract the construction of the Royal Cabinets, In a dream-like labour of love. This abstracted reformation is a metaphor for this labour as well as representing the 'architecture of pieces' nature to the project. With the obsession for the object the film focuses on an assemblage of immense intricacy as the material slowly clusters to form the sculptural mail markets. Once formed the focus stays with the object, now in the form of the ornamentally re-branded building parts, before the nocturnal mail markets come to life, transforming into red jewels in the urban cityscape, becoming misplaced curious objects in themselves which have a strange visual balance of fragility and aggression.

Exb_Design of the year 2010

Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2010 is held by Design Museum London every year to explore the most innovative, exquisite or new-looking project in design all over the world. It includes 7 categories: architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport. 

In this exhibition the selected works are balanced between applicable and conceptual. Besides the architecture part which are built and less interesting, the furniture, product and transport are more intriguing. It includes the public bicycle sharing system Urbikes that is designed in Spain to offer door to door services has already fully working in one Catalan city. Chirnside’s Polytopia seating system designed in Australia strikes the balance between aesthetics, comfort and concept of contemporary furniture, it examines how people interactive and communicate when sharing the chairs. An repair project by Linda Browthwell is an unique case, which concept is to use traditional craft techniques to repair everyday objects within the public realm, it intervene the public space by patching not replacing. 

Other work like the lightest Carbon fiber chair designed by Shigeru Ban Architects, the low-cost sports wheelchair and I consider as the most revolutionized product for Britain is the Folding Plug that is designed by Min-Kyu Choi, as there must be people struggling buying mini size electronics but end up with the chunky UK plugs that is even bigger than the product itself. This is the best example of the design with simple idea, but balance the conceptual, applicable and also aesthetic. The last must seen and indeed very cutting edge, eye catching conceptual product is the BMW - Light Visionary Model. From the appearance, It’s a convention handsome looking sports car, but instead of build in tradition rigid frame with aluminum or steel plate, its composite with hi-tech fabric skin stretched over a moveable wire frame which enables the car to change shape and form. The headlight is the most exciting part, its like human eyelid, with hidden and blinking apertures that hides in the fabric. It’s a whole new idea beyond the solid robotic transformer type of thinking, a car body that is intangible, elastic like a flesh with a dressing. 

Vertical Garden on Building Walls in Osaka

Vertical Garden on Building Walls in Osaka: "n a world of tight spaces and growing pollution, one has to be creative. Italian architect Gaetano Pesce designed this amazing organic building in Osaka, Japan. The walls of the construction feature interesting extruded pockets with plants, thus creating an impromptu vertical garden. This idea also contributes to the overall original look of the building which made it become one of the city’s landmarks in the past years. The 80 types of plants and trees were selected by asking help from specialized local horticulturists, but the main species is Bamboo. In case you are wondering what this structure houses, know that is is a nine-floor building with 7,052 square meters of interior space. Restaurants and many business offices are headquartered here.-via Inhabitat"

Watch out

UK Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010

The UK Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010 is one of the people’s favorite (if not the most). We featured yesterday the pavilion’s details with some amazing photos and plans. Now, we could not pass the opportunity to show you this amazing video of the pavilion made byChannelbeta.

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More on Pole Dance, SO-IL’s winning entry for the P.S.1
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