Sauce

Elion headquarters, Estonia newly renovated office may be largely white and grey, but architects Jan Skolimowski and Peeter Loo of Kamp added a fresh note, not to mention a hint of humour, in the form of 50-mm-deep artificial grass, a swing made of wood and rope, and cartoonish faux trees. They didn’t choose green by accident, as it’s one of Elion’s company colours, which are green and blue. The architects felt that using both colours, which had appeared in the former office, would weaken their concept for the new interior design, a plan that relies on simplicity, spaciousness and clarity.

The previous space was a bit ‘too serious’ for their taste, which explains the playful components of the refurbished workplace. 

And the obvious link with nature? ‘It’s a concept I started using two years ago in other projects,’ says Skolimowski. ‘It’s cold in our country most of the time. For about four months each year, everything is light and green. Translating the green in Elion’s logo into the interior as grass, trees and play equipment evokes the feeling of spring year round and contributes to a pleasant working environment.

Designed by Pearson Lloyd’s link was developed in response to a commission by ARPRO to investigate potential new uses of expanded polypropylene (EPP) within the contract furniture and interiors market. EPP is a lightweight high-performance material traditionally used in the packaging and automotive industries.

Pearson Lloyd have come up with a modular system, based on a couple of similar elements. They can be used to create room dividers and small containers, for plants for instance.

Stimulated by the MAK in Vienna, Ross Lovegrove designed urban lighting fixtures to brighten up the Austrian neighbourhood. 

 Solar Tree is a solar-powered lighting fixture for Vienna’s urban lighting based on a design by Ross Lovegrove, created on the initiative of Peter Noever. 

Produced by Artemide, the Solar Trees bring nature to the grey-ness of today’s urban environments.

The installation is realized through a collaboration between Sharp Solar, Artemide, Ross Lovegrove and MAK (Austrian Museum of Contemporary Art).

London-based designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby go artistic with a whale-like sculpture. 

 Dubbed The Fluke, the object refers to the lobe of a whale’s tail and the palm of an anchor. Having a height of 3 meters and a width of 4 meters, The Fluke even matches a real whale.

The Old Royal Naval College in London will exhibit the sculpture from 15 - 30 September. With their sculpture, Barber Osgerby surely give the visitors of The London Design Festival something to talk about, animating the neverending discussion about design versus art.

Innovative thinking for Malibu by Damien Fournival, Kheireddine Sidhoum and Martin Roche.

For those that saw Dave Brown flashing this book about…

The Reptile collection by Çanakkale Kalebodur & Seramik, has won an award from the Annual Design Review. 

 The Reptile Collection is produced by one of the world’s biggest ceramic manufacturers Kale Group. Çanakkale Kalebodur & Seramik is one of the group’s brands. 

Product designer Can Yalman’s tile line was inspired by the scaly skins of snakes and crocodiles. Also Yalman aimed at recalling Turkey’s ancient tradition of tiling and shingling buildings in repeated geometric patterns. The collection consists of two series named Snake and Crocodile. Each diamond-shaped snake piece has a molded central ridge, and each crocodile square a high rim; the colors and finishes are based on reptilian pelt variations.

What did the Jurors say for Reptile?

The furniture category was viewed by Dave Alhadeff, John Dunnigan and Matilda McQuaid. Dunnigan called the products ‘refreshingly unpretentious’ and about their choices, ‘the more appealing references the piece had, the more we appreciated it,’ he said.

Juror McQuaid: ‘They could easily have called this ‘teardrop’ or ‘shingle’ to appease reptile-phobes. As a grouping, with the interlocking system and overall texture this would have a transformative effect on a room.’

David Carlson was commissioned by Absolut to develop a new series of glassware. Carlson got Konstantin Grcic on board. 

 We asked David how it all came about.

Carlson: ‘I have been working quite a lot with Absolut during the last 10 years with different projects.’ 

’This project started with a research concerning designer and together with my friend Mårten Knutsson we scanned the design community. Quite soon we understood that Konstantin Grcic would be perfect for the assignment. The brief to Konstantin was to develop a glass where the function should define the shape. The glassware should reflect the Absolut core values: clarity, simplicity and perfection.’

’What’s interesting is that there are a lot of factors the glass needed to meet regarding design, durability and production process. Bartenders want the glasses to be stackable, for instance. The branding needed to be subtle for use at the high-end of the market. The series will be produced in more than 1 million glasses a year.’