Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Bjarke Ingels Group’s latest project is a museum and visitor’s center in a subterranean bunker built by the German occupiers during World War II. The abandoned bunkers dot most of Europe’s coastlines, barnacle-covered hulks that remind us of the embattled continent of our grandparents’ childhoods. Other architects have thought to repurpose them, as temporary camping sites or even data storage centers. Denmark’s largest bunker, called Tirpitz, was left incomplete by the Germans in 1944. Right now, concerts and art shows are held within its moss-covered walls. Soon, if all goes according to plan, the bunker will be part of a 7,500-square foot development called the Blåvand Bunker Museum.

Tirpitz is embedded into sandy, coastal hills next to the coast of the North Sea. BIG proposes maintaining the continuity of the natural landscape by embedding most of the proposed exhibition space beneath the dunes. Four open-air troughs will connect the four subterranean spaces, terminating together at a square courtyard space nestled below the sand. Each of the cut-outs leads to a separate exhibition hall, which will function independently when the museum opens.

As for the hulking bunker itself, the architects imagine something more obvious: a glass-and-steel recreation of the stationary gun that might have sat on its concrete turret. Inside, the gun’s two barrels will host telescopes, rather than artillery. It’s a “ghost or reflection of the war machine it was meant to be,” write the architects, “at once critical and respectful of the bunker architecture.” More pragmatically, it’s also a skylight, flooding the bunker with light. A transparent staircase leads down into the gloom below.

Some are questioning whether the museum’s four-pronged plan could have been better chosen, suggesting that the cut-outs are reminiscent of a swastika. That seems a bit hasty, since right now in plan we see only a square courtyard with a straight line jutting from each corner. The past two years have been filled with similarly unintentional faux pas, like MVRDV’s “9/11 tower” scheme in South Korea. But in both cases, any shared likeness with symbols of tragedy seems completely unintentional. Some might argue that if contemporary architects should be condemned for anything, it’s their devotion to such unironic literalism. Someone needs to get Robert Venturi or Denise Scott Brown on the horn and ask them to weigh in on this.

H/t DesignBoom

“In a nutshell, it’s about the dream of flying.” That’s Jussi Ängeslevä, creative director of German design office ART+COM, speaking on video about the firm’s new installation in Singapore’s Changi Airport.

Kinetic Rain is an installation made from 1,216 aluminum raindrops, coated in gleaming CNC-milled copper. Each of the droplets is suspended from the ceiling by a thin steel rope, connected to a system of individual motors embedded in a drop ceiling. Hanging in a 30-foot-high atrium of Changi’s newly renovated Terminal 1, the copper bells rise and fall in sequences programmed by ART+COM’s computational designers. At certain moments, they converge into shapes–a parabolic arc, or even a sketch of a jet plane. At other moments, they fall through the atrium like actual raindrops. “We are in Singapore,” adds Ängeslevä in the making-of video, “in a way, it’s a tropical theme, in the form of rain.”

ART+COM used custom-developed software to choreograph the droplets into elegant patterns and volumes, which coalesce and dissolve over 15-minute intervals. Each droplet acts like a pixel, creating an extremely low-res 3-D screen (Core77 calls it “a mechanical hologram!”). The effect reminds us of another recent piece of public art–Jim Campbell’s 2010 light-bulb-as-pixel screen in Madison Square Park. In that installation, Campbell used advanced computational software to produce incredibly lo-fi 3-D drawings. Could a DIY version of these high-tech, low-res 3-D screens be far behind?

Images courtesy of ART+COM; h/t Colossal

Dieter Rams is best-known for his work at Braun–where he revolutionized the design of electronics–and his indelible influence on Apple’s Jony Ive. But he has had a decisive hand in another, much smaller company: Vitsœ, a British manufacturer that has been producing Rams’s modular shelving system for 50 years. To mark his 80th birthday, the German master has allowed Vitsœ to release the transcript of the speech he delivered in New York in 1976, in which he articulates his ethos of user-centered design and some of his famous 10 commandments. In 2012, they feel as if they were written yesterday. Enjoy–Ed.

Here’s the historic speech in its entirety:

Ladies and gentlemen, design is a popular subject today. No wonder because, in the face of increasing competition, design is often the only product differentiation that is truly discernible to the buyer.

The introduction of good design is needed for a company to be successful. However, our definition of success may be different to yours. Striving for good design is of social importance, as it means, amongst other things, absolutely avoiding waste.

Unwavering emphasis on functionality

The ideas behind my work as a designer have to match with a company’s objectives. This principle applies to my work not only at Braun but also at Vitsœ. I have been working for these two companies for about 20 years and–I like to point out–only for these two companies.

I am convinced that design–at least in the terms I understand it–cannot be performed by someone outside the company. I am absolutely convinced that this is true if products are designed as part of a larger system, like we do at Vitsœ.

In 1957 I began to develop a storage system that formed the basis of the company Vitsœ, which was founded in 1959. Thus the ideology behind my design is engrained within the company.

Ladies and gentlemen, design is a popular subject today. No wonder because, in the face of increasing competition, design is often the only product differentiation that is truly discernible to the buyer.

Rams’s famed shelving system for Vitsœ. Good design is of social importance, as it means absolutely avoiding waste.

I am convinced that a well-thought-out design is decisive to the quality of a product. A poorly designed product is not only uglier than a well-designed one but it is of less value and use. Worst of all it might be intrusive. The development and changes that we have initiated with our work at Vitsœ are, I believe, positive for the development of good design as a whole.

The introduction of good design is needed for a company to be successful. However, our definition of success may be different to yours. Striving for good design is of social importance as it means, amongst other things, absolutely avoiding waste.

What is good design? Product design is the total configuration of a product: its form, color, material, and construction. The product must serve its intended purpose efficiently.

A designer who wants to achieve good design must not regard himself as an artist who, according to taste and aesthetics, is merely dressing up products with a last-minute garment. The designer must be the gestaltingenieur or creative engineer. They synthesize the completed product from the various elements that make up its design. Their work is largely rational, meaning that aesthetic decisions are justified by an understanding of the product’s purpose.

I am convinced that people have an interest in what we are doing at Vitsœ since our products are useful; I expect they also appreciate the aesthetic that follows. These qualities are the result of progressive and intelligent problem solving. Functionality must be at the center of good design.

You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people.

A product must be functional in itself but it also must function as part of a wider system: the home. Vitsœ’s 606 Universal Shelving System is successful due to its high functionality and its ability to adapt to any environment. Vitsœ’s furniture does not shout; it performs its function in relative anonymity alongside furniture from any designer and in homes from any era. We make the effort to produce products like this for the intelligent and responsible users–not consumers–who consciously select products that they can really use. Good design must be able to coexist.

You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is made for people. It must be ergonomically correct, meaning it must harmonize with a human being’s strengths, dimensions, senses, and understanding.

Vitsœ’s direct contact with its customers has led to a deep understanding of people. Over the years, our understanding of how you use a shelf or an armchair has increased. We have educated and diligent people worldwide who understand how to plan systems in configurations that our customers may not necessarily have thought of at the beginning.

Order and proportion: Only orderliness makes a product useful

All objects that are to be used must be subject to a clear order. The remarkable order of design at Vitsœ has the purpose of communicating the function of the object to the user. The design of a Vitsœ product clearly points out its purpose and its use–and facilitates them. The order of the elements–their arrangement, their shape, their size, and their color–is based on a thoroughly planned system. This system is the language of Vitsœ design.

The majority of products try to impress us with their magnificence or miniscule size.

But this order is not self-serving; and I would not call it ideology because it is a practical necessity. For design to be understood by everyone–which good design should strive to do–it should be as simple as possible. Design at Vitsœ brings all individual elements into proportion. An often-cited feature of the Vitsœ collection is its balance, its harmony, its belonging together. All structures, components, and finishes coexist as a well-balanced and harmonious design that gives it usability.

The majority of products that we encounter in our day-to-day lives scream for attention or try to impress us with their magnificence or miniscule size. These objects try to dictate our relationships with them. Good design creates powerful long-lasting relationships with products as good design creates objects with balanced proportions; at Vitsœ we go further by trying to create objects in balanced proportion with people.

Good design means to me: as little design as possible

To use design to impress, to polish things up, to make them chic, is no design at all. This is packaging. When we concentrate on the essential elements in design, when we omit all superfluous elements, we find forms become: quiet, comfortable, understandable and, most importantly, long lasting.

Vitsœ products are in constant evolution. We do not limit our products to the manufacturing technologies available at the time of their design. Built into the language of Vitsœ products is adaptability–adaptability for the user in the home and adaptability in design and manufacture.
We are constantly looking for new and better technical solutions for our products. As technology and production processes are always advancing, innovations are not only possible but they are necessary for a product to continue to be considered good design.

We have experienced that people are more willing than ever to change their lifestyles; that they accept innovative solutions–not fake ones–and are able to rid themselves of old and cemented habits with our products. They expect such innovative solutions, particularly from Vitsœ.

***

Ladies and gentlemen, our environment is changing rapidly. How will these changes affect our design concepts? Can design that claims longer-range validity be reactive to current circumstances or must it be proactive for the future?

In a room where the proportions are noticed we feel better and we think differently. A neglected and uncared-for landscape will have a different effect on our lives than one that is natural and orderly. There is a lot of work to do on the topic of our physical surroundings affecting our psychological functions. This is the work we do at Vitsœ.

People are more willing than ever to accept innovative solutions. Not fake ones.

But Vitsœ only makes furniture today. There are larger questions that we need to answer about our urban environment and how it affects us as individuals and as a society. What effects do electricity pylons, skyscrapers, highways, street lighting and car parks, for example, have on our psyche and relationships? We know that the residents of anonymous concrete blocks can become depressed as a result of their surroundings. But who is researching these things systematically? Who takes all of this really seriously?

I imagine our current situation will cause future generations to shudder at the thoughtlessness in the way in which we today fill our homes, our cities, and our landscape with a chaos of assorted junk. What a fatalistic apathy we have towards the effect of such things. What atrocities we have to tolerate. Yet we are only half aware of them.

This complex situation is increasing and possibly irreversible: there are no discrete actions anymore. Everything interacts and is dependent on other things; we must think more thoroughly about what we are doing, how we are doing it and why we are doing it.

Indeed, the collapse of the entire system may be impending.

I have spoken of our surroundings but let us look at the wider environment: the world we live in. There is an increasing and irreversible shortage of natural resources: raw materials, energy, food, and land. This must compel us to rationalize, especially in design. The times of thoughtless design, which can only flourish in times of thoughtless production for thoughtless consumption, are over. We cannot afford any more thoughtlessness.

The complexity of systems and shortage of natural resources should compel a change of individual attitudes and attitudes as a society. We learn as individuals and we learn as a group. We are beginning to understand the changes that we are only just seeing. We must take notice with increasing soberness and, hopefully, with growing alertness and rationalism.

Ladies and gentlemen, if we at Vitsœ have contributed towards intelligent, responsible design and a higher quality of objects, I believe we owe our thanks to a great degree to the unselfish enthusiasm and the always-consequent attitude of one man: Niels Vitsœ. At the same time, thanks to all the members of staff, who sense that they have done a little more than just produce another short-lived consumer product.

Good design is a reality!

Via FastCoDesign: http://www.fastcodesign.com/

Photo: Damon Lavrinc/Wired

When the 2012 BMW M5 was launched, there was a communal chuckle from the the gearhead cognoscenti after BMW revealed it piped artificial engine noise into the cabin to maintain the sports sedan’s visceral experience. It’s an aural cheat, but a good one executed in fastidious German fashion. Unfortunately, everyone can’t afford a twin-turbocharged bahn-stormer, and if your aging Accord has more wheeze than roar, 2XL Games has a solution: the XLR8 app for iOS and Android.

Utilizing your smartphone’s built-in accelerometer and GPS, the XLR8 app gives you the burbling engine and exhaust noise of a big-bore V8, without the constant maintenance and dismal fuel economy. Even better, the audio gets plumbed into your car stereo through Bluetooth, your headphone jack or – in the case of iOS – via the 30-pin connector fitted to iPod-ready vehicles.

The concept is brilliantly silly, as long as you don’t take it too seriously.

We tested it with the “Classic V8 Muscle Car” engine tone included in the app, and after a quick and painless calibration, we were chugging along to the dulcet tones of a snorting eight-pot.

Syncing the sounds with our own acceleration and braking proved a bit difficult at first, as the accelerometer responds better to heavy throttle and brake inputs, and not putting around town at a constant speed. But flying up an on-ramp and braking heavily into a corner, the XLR8 app matched our car’s movements surprisingly well, even simulating the chirp of tires when we mashed the gas out of a corner.

Playing with the sliders in the Options menu allows you to tweak shift points, gear ratios and brake pressure, along with “drift” and “burnout” tones. And if you’re more of a supercar fan, you can purchase Ferrari and Lamborghini engine noises in the app for $2.99 a pop (automaker licensing departments on line one), or get the NASCAR engine, Ford GT40 and both Italian exotics for $4.99. All of them sound true to their inspiration – no surprise since each is pulled from recordings of actual cars 2XL uses in their racing games.

Considering all the cr-apps in the world, XLR8 stands surprisingly outside the annals of bad ideas. And if it’s good enough for BMW, it’s good enough for your dilapidated commuter.

Hallingdal 65 is one of those upholstery fabrics you’ve probably used dozens of times without knowing you were parking your rump on a design classic. Developed in 1965 by Danish furniture designer Nanna Ditzel (one of few women to penetrate the boys’ club of mid-century design), it has a unique wool-and-viscose composition and a rich, tweedy texture that’s been rolled out everywhere, from airports and hospitals to museums and private homes. The manufacturer, Denmark-based Kvadrat, has reportedly sold more than 13 million feet of the stuff. Today, you’ll find Hallingdal 65 between the hallowed walls of MoMA and in the tasteful showrooms of Fritz Hansen and Moroso.

But nearly 50 years have passed since Kvadrat first released the textile, its first ever. Amid an ever-expanding roster of sleek, technologically sophisticated upholstery, Hallingdal lacks the novelty of its competitors. So to mark the fabric’s relaunch this year in almost two dozen freshly issued shades, Kvadrat tapped seven curators–including design powerhouses Tord Boontje and Ilse Crawford–and dozens of young designers to “reinterpret the classic textile… in a modern context.” The updates were featured in an exhibit during the Salone del Mobile, a furniture fair in Milan, last week.

Our slideshow above shows off some of the best reuses. Brooklyn-based Todd Bracher created eye-popping string art by lacing the fabric around a hoop chair. Spain’s Mermeladaestudio designed a turquoise tepee, and Singapore’s Ministry of Design sewed together bolts in assorted candy colors to create Moroccan-style poufs, which look like oversized lifesavers. For sheer cleverness, BLESS, a German studio, takes the cake: They used Hallingdal 65 to fabricate a big, soft chair in the shape of a car: a car seat. Ya’ get it?

The point was to show other designers–the fair’s primary audience–how much new life they can breathe into a classic design. And while I don’t suspect anyone will feel inspired to build a car out of wool, surely Kvadrat has achieved something no less extraordinary: It made us write an entire post about 47-year-old fabric.

Images courtesy of Kvadrat; h/t Wallpaper

Countless fashion magazines and websites tantalize readers with promises of flawless beauty: Get the pout of a supermodel! The doe eyes of a starlet! The abs of a pop singer! Here’s what we’d look like if we actually took our beauty cues from the glossies:

Twenty-four-year-old German designer Meike Harde collaged masks out of the eyes and mouths of various celebrities and models she found online. These “correspond to the current ideal of beauty,” she says. “When put on, however, they cause contortions of the face. This is meant to show that artificially produced beauty is not always beautiful.”

Sounds like someone’s been studying her Cindy Sherman! Harde developed Too Beautiful To Be True for an exhibit in Saarbruecken. At the opening, she invited visitors to strap on masks and mill around as they would at any other event. Needless to say, this produced “many unsettled reactions during the evening.”

Images courtesy of Meike Harde

Photo: Mercedes

Researchers at Mercedes have found that a quick power nap may be the cure for drowsy driving, lower back pain and even low fuel economy.

Using data gleaned from Daimler’s TopFitTruck program, a study designed to create a healthy working environment for long haul truckers, Mercedes has found that power naps — known as “nickerchen” in German — are a key component of health and wellness on the road. So, under the banner of “Active Comfort,” a bevy of new technologies will soon debut on passenger cars to help drivers take a break and relax.

During the TopFitTruck study, Mercedes found that drivers who have not had a good night’s sleep drive more erratically and drive in a manner that wastes more fuel than their well-rested counterparts. In addition, drivers who feel tense behind the wheel have trouble making good decisions in stressful situations and over time tend to develop back problems.

Armed with that data, Mercedes is designing future generations of passenger cars with the same concern shown for long-haul truckers. A key component is encouraging power naps, 20 minutes of deep sleep while the car is safely pulled over. “The possibility of making effective use of ‘power napping’ for recuperation purposes will play a key role in the Active Comfort concept from Mercedes-Benz,” said the automaker.

On the TopFitTruck, power napping was encouraged by an audio system that can determine whether songs are relaxing or uptempo. During a power nap, the audio system can play soft music to lull the driver to sleep and then gently wake him or her up with more energetic tunes. The TopFitTruck also has an atomizer that dispenses a soothing orange scent when the driver is sleeping and an invigorating menthol scent when the driver is on the road. Should the driver want a more comfortable place to sleep, the seat reclines and raises and a cushion can be placed over the steering wheel for a lie-flat bed.

Additionally, the TopFitTruck included exercise equipment for use by the side of the road, encouraging the driver to maintain physical fitness. “The Mercedes-Benz becomes a personal coach,” said Jörn Petersen, Daimler’s head of human factors. By encouraging relaxation, comfort and fitness, the automaker is hoping to also improve driver performance — hopefully without the help of the creepy-looking spa ninjas in the photo.

It sounds outlandish for some of these technologies to make it into the cabin of a passenger vehicle, but Mercedes promises that Active Comfort will be inspired by the findings of the TopFitTruck. “Some of the ideas explored in this vehicle will soon feature on board series-production vehicles from Mercedes-Benz,” the automaker said.

If anything, we can definitely expect some improvements to the interiors of future vehicles. Mercedes found that uncomfortable seats and warm temperatures can decrease driver attentiveness and performance, so they’re promising to improve seat comfort and adjustability, insulate against noise and improve the flow of fresh, cool air — all in the name of safety, of course.

Since 2009, Hamburg photographers Andre Giesemann and Daniel Schulz have been waltzing into German nightclubs just before close, as the last few sots and pie-eyed candy kids trickle out, to snap pictures of what remains. And let us tell you, it’s downright apocalyptic.

Giesemann and Schulz photographed the last night of “Rechenzentrum,” before the building, an old East Berlin communications center, was torn down.

The absence of the sweaty masses coupled with all the crap strewn on the floors–bottles, cigarette butts, mysterious liquids that may or may not be someone’s regurgitated dinner–evoke the eerily quiet aftermath of some horrific blast. (An appropriate analogy for how a lot of club-goers feel the morning after.)

Giesemann and Schulz use a 4×5-inch large format camera, and have shot the series Vom Bleiben in Frankfurt am Main, Offenbach, and, of course, Berlin, where nightlife is something approaching organized religion. “We are interested in the marks and emptiness in these kinds of rooms,” Giesemann tells Co.Design. Though the clubs aren’t always as empty as he’d like: “Sometimes it’s funny when wasted people try to be a part of our pictures.”

To buy photographs from the Vom Bleiben project, go to www.schulzdaniel.com and www.andregiesemann.com.

Images courtesy of Andre Giesemann and Daniel Schulz; h/t Visual News