50 anni di incastri perfetti: LEGO
Nacque nel 1932 dalla fantasia di un falegname danese. Cinquant’anni e non sentirli. Il mattoncino colorato, che ha accompagnato e accompagna i giochi di milioni di bambini, lunedì compie mezzo secolo e si prepara a essere festeggiato in pompa magna in tutto il mondo fino a Natale con mostre, eventi speciali e prodotti esclusivi.

Eletto «gioco del secolo» dalle associazioni dei commercianti, il vecchio Lego, nonostante gli acciacchi, non teme la concorrenza dei nuovi giochi elettronici, che a confronto sono dei poppanti. Anche perché negli anni si è riciclato più volte, sottoponendosi a lifting e seguendo mode e filoni cinematografici (da «Guerre Stellari» a «Harry Potter»). In Italia, la prima esposizione dedicata alle costruzioni è allestita al museo del giocattolo di Zagarolo (www.museogiocattolo.it), dove si potranno ammirare oltre 30 realizzazioni in Lego dalla struttura monumentale: dai prototipi delle auto di Formula 1, alla riproduzione in scala del campanile della cattedrale di Lecco.
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[LEGO official web site]
NYCB: New York City Ballet

Bellissima, a mio parere, la nuova campagna pubblicitaria del NYCB! Elegante, minimale, sobria e comunicativa: praticamente perfetta, bella e funzionale.
del designer Paula Scher.
Jackson Pollock
Sto riscoprendo un particolare interesse per le opere di Pollock…

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Il piacere del caffè
La forma segue veramente la funzione nello sviluppo della tazza da caffè.

Riporto alla luce questo esempio, a mio parere molto bello, che coniuga design, arte e funzionalità.
Di Matteo Thun & Partners, Illy Cup 1990-2004.

Styrofoam Sofa: Kwangho Lee
Styrofoam Sofa del designer coreano Kwangho Lee è un divano fatto di Styrofoam, che è un materiale tipicamente usato per i pannelli isolanti nelle architetture.

Ha realizzato il divano tagliando il materiale con un cavo metallico incandescente.
Di seguito l’abstract di Lee:
“Styrofoam is something easily exposed and quite familiar in our daily
lives. Not to mention how often art or design students use it so often
for its reasonable price and manipulation.
It was also one of my best
toys in childhood and thus the memory of playing with it was the
biggest inspiration.
For its materialistic merit of getting warmer as
you sit or keep hold of it, I sculpted a sofa out of the most raw
form - a whole block of it - of Styrofoam with heat wires. It is a
study/experiment of a material so raw and familiar, transforming it
into something different, giving it another meaning.
I sculpted it out of a whole block of styrofoam with heat wire. The pieces are ‘cut off’ by melting from the heat.
The wires are adjusted with handles on both ends which is connected to the adoptor. It’s a lot better than cutters or knives. The cut is very clean with no styrofoam powder dusting and produces a certain texture that ‘coats’ the surface.”
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Padiglione Polacco per Expo2010 Shangai

Un piccolo accenno a questo progetto che utilizza patterns floreali (in entrambe le versioni proposte) per il Padiglione Polacco di Orchard Road, Singapore per l’expo2010.
Le proposte di progetto sono firmate dallo studio di architettura basato a Singapore U:phoria.

La struttura sarà costruita usando acciaio leggero e rivestita in pannelli acrilici stampati con pattern.
Le informazioni seguenti da U:phoria:
“Prize winning entry for a pavilion in the heart of Orchard Road, Singapore.
The concept is to create a structure that is light and elegant looking. It will be a place for quiet resting and dining, while evoking a sense of peace & tranquillity as an antithesis to the urban flurry that surrounds it.
This pavilion will exemplify the use of lightweight steel framing to create a structure that appears to defy its own weight, and seemingly looks as if it is floating above the ground. It is an urban manifestation of the ephemeral quality of the city life.
Steel Design StrategyThe strategy is to utilise a simple component: an l-shaped lightweight galvanised steel section. This steel section will be placed in consecutive additions and in pairs, in perpendicular directions at each end of the section, thereby causing a curved nature of the form created, without physically bending the steel members.
Through the additions, the steel sections will form a lightweight roof frame that itself acts as a structural component. The frame itself will encompass both the wall and the roof as structure, therefore eliminating the need for columns. A series of similarly placed vertical steel bars will form the entrance screen and also support for the cantilever of the steel frame.”

Designed by U:phoria Architecture+Design.
Principal Architect : Tan Wee Meng
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St.Peter, the final squeezer
E’ appena stato prodotto e ha stuzzicato il nostro interesse, con quell’ironia un po’ irriverente che tanto piace ai designers e architetti di mezzo mondo!

Questo oggetto si chiama St Peter Squeezer ed è un progetto dello studio Giulio Iachetti di Milano. E’ un fantastico spremiagrumi che riprendere quasi totalmente le forme stilizzate della Basilica di San Pietro a Roma. Prodotto da Pandora Design, forse non è proprio l’oggetto più funzionale, ma volete mettere col piacere di usarlo?
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Lagrange34 chocolate by Jjuice

Jjuice, interior e product designers italiani, ha disegnato una serie di barrette di cioccolata chiamate Lagrange34 per la Pasticceria Gertosio di Torino, tradizionale per la cioccolata.
Le lastre di cioccolata sono disegnate in 6 modi, inclusa una mappa di Torino.

Di seguito qualche informazione sul progetto date da Jjuice:
“In a world where technologies become more exciting by the day, sometimes it may be nice to relax and be cuddled by tradition. But then, when a design studio and a historic confectionery company join forces to create something new, it may happen that even tradition may spur new stimuli.
Since the XVII century, Turin is a city that has been considered one of the Italian realms of chocolate. It is here that, at the end of the XVIII century, Mr. Doret invented a revolutionary machine that could solidify chocolate, allowing it to be moulded in shapes. It is also here that architects Sergio Viotti and Giuliana Succo were born and graduated in architecture.
After their degree they decided to take their chances and left for Tokyo, where they successfully designed corporate offices and trendy shop interiors. This led them to open their own office, Jjuice Architecture and Design, now located in Milan.
As a result of an intense professional experience, they felt the need to embrace a unique challenge: making the cultural heritage of their hometown join forces with the trends of the contemporary design, and produce a new line of innovative products. So they proposed to their long time friend Max Gertosio, heir of what since 1890 was the artisan shop of another great chocolatier, Pietro Viola, to collaborate on the manufacture of a new line of chocolate bars called Lagrange 34 - just like the address of the confectionery shop, named after the mathematician Luigi Lagrange.
This line combines high quality chocolate together with a contemporary design approach, to exploit the potential of chocolate as a design product. “Chocolate” Jjuice says “as an industrial design material has shown astonishing and striking characteristics. Furthermore, it lends itself to the freedom of being transformed in a temporary product, medium of emotions and sensations. It frees the product from being a mere “design-lovers only” object, and moves it into a poetic field: a more humble object that everybody can enjoy”.
Following an intense period of testing, Lagrange34 has been introduced at CioccolaTo’ 2007, the Turin’s International Chocolate Fair. It is available in six basic shapes: four square-shaped (14×14 cm) and two more conventional shapes (14×8 cm and 13×3,5 cm), but new shapes will be introduced periodically.
Gertosio is enthusiastic at the chance of pushing its 100-plus years of experience towards new directions. “Our wish” Jjuice concludes “is to create products that can stir emotions the same way as music or movies do, and we are currently working to create new families of products with a similar philosophy.
We are looking forward to new challenges, so we are now selecting other great manufacturers with whom join forces in the future. As for Lagrange34, it’s thrilling to notice that the more we experiment, the more it mingles into the tradition of this city, always looking for creative and revolutionary creations, but still capable of lingering on small, everyday things to savour their most hidden secrets”.”
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