The Design Ark

This is magnificent – the beautiful Baker Cookstove has been carefully designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune for use in developing countries.

The majority of women in the developing world prepare food using a technology called a three-stone fire – three rocks that support a pot with an open fire in the middle. This cooking method is inefficient and leads to environmental and health problems. The redesign by Claesson Koivisto Rune sympathetically references the existing methods whilst providing an updated stove that burns wood as efficiently as possible, it only needs one third of the wood. The approach to increase functionality and usability whilst producing a product manufactured locally in Kenya using sustainable and recycled materials is fantastic and the result is a beautiful and functional piece of design.

(via Designboom)

Baker Cookstove

Baker Cookstove

Baker Cookstove

Baker Cookstove

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Forms in Nature tree shadow light by Hilden & Diaz looks interesting.

(via Inthralld)

Forms in Nature

Forms-in-Nature-Tree-Shadow-Light-by-Hilden-and-Diaz-2

Forms in Nature

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Designed by MDS for an elderly couple looking to leave the city behind, the Yatsugatake Villa has a farm allowing the homeowners to grow their own vegetables. The house is situated at the foot of Mt. Yatsugatake, where it gets really hot in the summer and very cold in the winter, making for specific adjustments to the design plan.

Being located in a place with harsh weather conditions, the architects paid special attention so that the residents wouldn’t have to rely on air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter. The structure is fan-shaped and opens up towards the south allowing the home to be flooded with sunlight throughout the day. Come the hot summer months and the extended roof provides a shade for the interior.

(via Design Milk)

Yatsugatake Villa

Yatsugatake Villa

Yatsugatake Villa

Yatsugatake Villa

Yatsugatake Villa

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Black and White Underwater Photography by Hengki Koentjoro.

(via Colossal)

Underwater Photography by Hengki Koentjoro

Underwater Photography by Hengki Koentjoro

Underwater Photography by Hengki Koentjoro

Underwater Photography by Hengki Koentjoro

Underwater Photography by Hengki Koentjoro

Underwater Photography by Hengki Koentjoro

Underwater Photography by Hengki Koentjoro

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This resin furniture and kitchenware collection by Canadian designer Martha Sturdy draws reference from the ocean, forests and rugged mountains of the Canadian west coast.

Each piece is an investment, in aesthetic and function. It is what keeps us connected with our selves and creates resolution in our designs – we admire nature most for the dichotomy of its resilience and delicate balance. This is reflected in the materials that are core to our brand; beyond being merely beautiful, our materials consider durability and are deeply connected to the elements.

(via Designboom)

Resin Furniture & Kitchenware

Resin Furniture & Kitchenware

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Learn to Unlearn by Lina-Marie Köppen.

Man shapes his environment and the environment shapes man.” I am fascinated by this mutually evolving relationship, and as a result of my thesis, I have sought a way for individuals to start afresh and redefine themselves by reshaping the things around them. This response is critical of society for supplying and demanding objects designed to complement our human limitations. Could we instead make things that empower us through their in-built fallibility? By ridding objects of a predetermined “perfect” function, we can be free to discover them and rediscover ourselves in the process.

“Learn to Unlearn” is a design ideology expressed in a series of ambiguous objects that overthrow the unconscious learned behavior and expectations governing our perception. The family of objects that developed from my thesis is largely based on the redefinition of furniture archetypes. Each object is an open invitation to the human to determine its use. The bottomless containers demand a new strategy to be filled, while the two-legged stool encourages us to rethink the act of sitting. The lamp challenges us with its weight and unseen mechanism, the tall shelf can only be reached by interacting with the direct environment, and the broom lets us not only clean but also develop a personal bodily response. Some objects are even less defined and invite the user to imagine an entirely personal interaction. Only when objects become alive in this way are we stimulated to explore new possibilities.

Learn to Unlearn

Learn to Unlearn

Learn to Unlearnv

Learn to Unlearn

Learn to Unlearn

Learn to Unlearn

Learn to Unlearn

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This beautiful identity for Solis was recently designed by designer Richard Baird.

Solis is the fashion label of Tel Aviv-based Lisa Grishakova, a women’s clothing designer who balances texture, colour and pattern to create her collections. The label’s new identity draws together and subtly conveys the high quality detailing of Lisa’s garments, the warmth and radiance of the brand name and familiar fashion sensibilities, through the combination of a weighty material choice, surface treatments, foil print finish and light, consistent, single line weight letters and illustration.

Rather than attempting to distil the rich and colourful patterns of Lisa’s print work into the identity, the solution cuts through these with a dark tag which frames, with plenty of space, the delicate foil and stitch-like finish of a logo-type built from fine elements – a reference to pattern cutting guides which shares a similarity with astrological maps – bound by a radial composition and tall, light, sans-serif characters.

An uncoated, 540gsm ebony Colorplan substrate with a sandgrain emboss – an element that will change between each piece of printed communication – introduces a subtle, tactile sense of craft and reflects the mixed texture of the garments while a gold deboss adds a more conventional but clear sense of luxury that catches the light as the card is tilted making the disk appear to rotate.

A neutral, generously spaced secondary logo-type – for smaller applications – and typographical detail on the reverse draw from established fashion conventions and deliver a more restrained contrast to the front but with small ‘stitched’ line elements to tie them together.

Solis Branding

Solis Branding

Solis-03

Solis Branding

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