I’m currently fighting a head cold but couldn’t resist posting about this pretty cool light installation by Berlin-based SAQ. If you bear with me, I would have to partially rely on the designers’ own account of the project, and will do my best to describe the assembly:

SAQ has developed a reactive modular lighting system which propagates like cloud structures mimicking the complexity of weather patterns. This project is an extension of the exploration of architectural pluralism SAQ first began in their Bikini Berlin project, which began construction in January 2011. BotoxCloud’s’ design and physical orientation has a futuristic touch, which explores the idea of pluralistic or probabilistic architecture. In other words, the installation yields various possible structural manifestations. For example, when the light comes through the paper models, its physicality changes.

UPDATE as of March 25 ’11: New video of the installation featuring its responses to human presence

Click here to view the embedded video.

Built to respond to human presence, the lighting system consists of modular variants of papercuts which are folded and pieced together. Currently on view at Zirkumflex till February 26. More info on the project here.

Images via zirkumflex + designboom

London’s Barbican Art Gallery is currently showing Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion – a survey of avant-garde Japanese garments. Drawing from the 1980s to the present (featuring names such as Junya Watanabe and Yohji Yamamoto), the exhibition explores the unique sensibilities and notions of beauty embedded in Japanese design – with heavy inspirations from origami.

Thanks to my snap-happy, London-dwelling sister, you’ll get a peek at the exhibition through her viewfinder.

pleated skirt by tao kurihara

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photography: Shr S.

As part of the Pitti fashion fairs in Florence, fashion school Polimoda staged a video-photography exhibition of future fashion concepts generated by students in the Fashion Design and Fashion Marketing departments.

Aside from video projections, the exhibition showcased nine 4-metre high translucent canvases with images of the “Fashion Totems”: mythological and supernatural beings that abandon their tribal entity to assume real appearances, decked out in dresses, knitwear, footwear and accessories.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out Polimoda mag for more info.

Photography: Ruggero Lupo Mengoni

Greetings! Finally I’m back to the posting board after a short hiatus which took me to Shanghai, China, where I had the privilege of visiting the EXPO.

Navigating the gargantuan site was a physical challenge, let alone braving the haze, some occasional rain and a massive crowd rivaling the World Cup, but experiencing the pavilions first-hand was an absolute reward. One of the ‘hot spots’ I managed to catch was the UK pavilion by Thomas Heatherwick , which is clearly a favorite, so check out my snap-happy trek across the Seed Cathedral:

- UK Pavilion by Thomas Heatherwick -

The UK pavilion is a six-story high object formed from 60,000 slender transparent rods, which extend from the structure and quiver in the breeze. During the day, each of the 7.5m long rods act like fiber-optic filaments, drawing on daylight to illuminate the interior, thereby creating a contemplative awe-inspiring space. At night, light sources at the interior end of each rod allow the whole structure to glow. The pavilion sits on a landscape resembling paper that once wrapped the building and that now lies unfolded on the site.

The undulation created by the series of rods inside the ‘cathedral’

close-up of the embedded seeds in each rod

the pavilion seems to float on the reflective pool

underneath the ‘wrapping paper’ is a series of walkways, and one of them consists of a continuous ‘fissure’ along the side of the wall containing plant life.

Visitors who gained access into the pavilion were eventually rewarded with rest on the faceted landscape.

The cathedral on a cloudy night

Inspired by the large sleeves on Japanese kimonos, German design duo Nora Schmidt and Ines Königsmann of NOI created two types of storage systems called Haori and Yukata. Each rack consists of a system of storage sacs made from Tyvek, and is hung on a minimal wooden structure.

- Haori -

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- Yukata -

Singapore has held a special place in my heart, partly from my childhood days spent in the island/country, and partly for dear momma who still calls it home. So I’m pretty stoked about an exciting exhibit coming up at the DMY Berlin Design Festival, which will feature artists and designers from my favorite city dealing with my favorite subject – paper.

Anonymous, a Singapore-based design firm who is the chief curator of the paper exhibit, called on 12 creative individuals to transform the humble material into objects of their imaginations. The result is Help Save Paper, which I regretfully would miss, but is a must-see for all you paper-crazies if you happen to be in Berlin! Below are some of the works to anticipate.

Much thanks to Felix Ng of Silnt for providing the images.

– Untitled by Ying Hui of demisemiquaver –

Project description:

This is a story about death. Almost.
For sure, it begins with death, which gives birth to many things: Fear, ingenuity and life.

Once upon a time, paper was an important aspect of every part of our lives. It gave us privacy when it was a screen, it sheltered us from rain as an umbrella. It was an expression of artistry in the hands of skilled paper-makers.
Thanks to digital proliferation, paperʼs numerous variants and breeds are dying out, leaving only the dull A4 copier paper, most commonly found in offices. In such dire straits, weʼve called on twelve individuals from all artistic disciplines to create an object using only paper – to create things of beauty, things of usefulness or anything else they can imagine, as long as it elevates the status of paper – from a surface for printing, to a versatile medium of brilliant creativity.

——

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– White by Mike Foo of Moof –

– n. 275 Waves by Grace Tan of kwodrent –

– Dear Alice by Yanda –

– Paper Tray by O.K. –

– Wound by Jonathan Yuen –

Project Credits

Initiated by: Antalis (Singapore)

Curated by: Anonymous Pte Ltd

Design & Art Direction: Felix Ng (silnt)

Photography: Jae Hann

Thanks to Lucie Hallenstein, a Fine Arts student at Australia’s RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), who recently sent some images of the Fold and Field exhibition where her lovely paper construction was displayed.

Based on a repeated triangular fold, Lucie’s paper constructions create spaces the viewers can enter, both physically and imaginatively.

Sascha Akkermann of confused direction recently informed us about their recent exhibition of the la melle lamp at Blickfang. The lamp was hung in the middle of a tipi structure whose wooden lattice is partially exposed. Read the previous post on la melle, and here.

Photography by Tanja Leonhard

Dutch designers Wendy Plomp of WND and Edhv teamed up to construct the Paper Cave installation at the exhibition space of the Verger shop in Milan. The whimsical space consists of hundreds of paper cones pasted on the floor and ceiling to re-create the look of ‘icicles’ in a limestone cave.

images via edhv

New York-based Softlab (Jose Gonzalez and Michael Szivos) designed CHROMAesthesiae – 9 packed funnels constructed from laser cut chromatic paper panels held together with binder clips. The effect is a quilted gradient of color seen from below looking up.The installation is currently shown at Devotion in Williamsburg. For more information, check out Softlab.

detail of the funnel shell made up of panels held together with binder clips

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plan of the installation

Photography: Alan Tansey

Les Danseuses or ‘The Dancers’ aka ‘The Whirling Dervishes’ is an installation at the Vitra showroom in Zurich by Swiss designers from Atelier Oï. The cut-out textiles resemble dancing skirts as they twirl while in suspension. Check out the video for a piece of the action after the jump.

Click here to view the embedded video.

images via dailytonic + “Z” magazine

Design Miami 2009 just began, with a bang! Click for some found images:

images via soulellis + miami new times

This is the only time I wish I could be in Antwerp Belgium to view the PAPER FASHION exhibition at the Mode Museum. This is an excerpt from the description of the exhibit:

Paper has been used in fashion in various cultures and historical periods, but it is still a little known and little studied phenomenon. With the exhibition, PAPER FASHION, the Fashion Museum, in collaboration with Atopos Cultural Organisation, reveals this exceptional niche in the history of fashion. Beginning with a unique collection of 1960s paper dresses from the Atopos collection, PAPER FASHION focuses on the use of paper and related materials in modern and contemporary fashion.

PAPER FASHION brings together the most remarkable of these creations. In addition to the historic objects, the exhibition includes designs by Hussein Chalayan, A.F. Vandevorst, John Galliano, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Van Saene, Issey Miyake and many more.

The exhibition runs till August 16 in Antwerp, but in case you miss it, catch it next at London’s Design Museum in winter 2009.

Images via Mode Museum & Adam T Tappman’s Flickr