Iittala at Designboost.
Long Live The City. The overall Designboost 2008 theme is “The Sustainable City”, which does not only concern the environmental aspect but also...well, neither questions nor answers are given, there is also no truth. The important thing is to look upon things from new angles and get a push forward, which the word boost implies. When it comes to sustainable design there are probably many things that need to be questioned, left could very well be right. It’s about how we build houses, roads and parks. How we consume, live, commute and educate ourselves. How we integrate the social, economic and cultural parts to create a sustainable city – a city for the good life.
ABOUT DESIGNBOOST. Designboost is a company with focus on sharing design knowledge. We help companies and organisations to learn more about design in general and sustainable design in particular and how to use it as a competitive weapon and turn it into a business advantage. Designboost can be seen as a process to create greater competitiveness. Designboost is a fusion of the two words design and boost. Design can help us create a better world. Inspiration, injection or more power - that’s the meaning of boost. Through our annual Main Boost profile event in Malmö and several Mini boosts around the world Designboost arranges so people can meet, discuss and challenge the meaning of design. The different boosts always consists of three parts; “Boost chats”, “Boost talks” and “Boost shows”.
THE PROJECT. Designboost asked seven creative designers/design groups if they were interested to do a personal interpretation of compatibility based on products from the Iittala portfolio. We asked them to be open-minded and see compatibility as to be part of a bigger coherence; connect history/present/future, connect brands, common platforms and human releationship.
Ilkka Suppanen Suppanen’s constant interest in production techniques and new materials and usages can be seen in many of his works. His expression is light, forward looking and yet classically Scandinavian. Ilkka Suppanen once formed together with his colleagues the successful Snowcrash design community. Ilkka Suppanen is based in Helsinki, Finland. For Ilkka Suppanen design is based on several factors: human experience, social behaviours, global, economic and political issues. These quantitative constructs shape business, identity, brand and value. This is what he is doing. Something that is poetry of manufacturing and life; Design.
Family is a perfect model of compability. Compatibility could mean: ”… the capability of two or more items or components of equipment or material to exist or function in the same system or environment without mutual interference...”. In a way this sounds like a family to me. The idea was to play with same type of idea of compatibility as there is in a family. I created families first as couples. Next step was to think about how their children would be. So I created Iittala family trees to show and express possibilities of the Iittala range to be compatible to each other. These family trees are playful ideas of what kind of parents and children and children’s children we could have in a virtual Iittala family.
Satyendra Pakhale International designer, born in India, now lives in Amsterdam, describing himself as a ’Cultural Nomad’. He studied Bachelor of Engineering, Master of Design in India and Advanced Product Design in Switzerland then worked at Philips Design. In 1998 he set up his own design practice in Amsterdam. Renowned companies and organisations such as Alessi, Bosa, Cappellini, Magis, Moroso, Offecct and Material ConneXion rank among his clients. He works in wide range of disciplines, bringing to his design a set of fresh perspectives, a diversity of strong cultural influence. His design emanates from cultural dialogue, synthesizing new applications of material and technologies with great ingenuity. Recently the Design Academy Eindhoven, The Netherlands, has invited him to art-direct and head the Master Programme in Design for Humanity and Sustainable Living.
Urban Compatibility for Iittala Having been invited to create an installation using Iittala products on the occasion of Designboost 2008 with the core theme “Long live the city – Sustainable City”, I feel we ought to take a fresh look at urban settings in an innovative manner. How can we return to the idea of humanizing our cities without segregating ‘work’ from ‘play’ and ‘entertainment’ from ‘life’? I felt like giving a playful answer and thought it was appropriate to try to visualize an urban setting to illustrate a humanistic point of view using Iittala products. For me Iittala embodies this humanism in a profound way and over a period of time, they have beautifully created a unique sustainable range of products. For this installation, I chose mainly the classic Iittala products created by the great humanist Alvar Aalto and Aino Aalto along with some of the contemporary Iittala products. Playing with scale and the iconic character of each chosen Iittala products, I conceived this playful yet almost real urban architectural setting.
Ilse Crawford ilse Crawford is head of the department of man and well-being at the Design Academy Eindhoven, author of two books and regularly speaks at international events. She has created the vision for the soho house brand, has worked across product development and regeneration as vice president of Donna Karan Home and as creative director of the Swarovski Crystal Palace project where she brought together visionary designers to reinvent the chandelier, showing in Paris, Milan and New York.
Growing City As the modern city continues to grow, more and more energy, food and materials are needed to keep it alive. This in turn makes the city inefficient and vulnerable. By �building� the food, energy, and resources into the city, the city will become independent and self reliant. As well these new spaces can be used to increase the livability of the city by introducing more green spaces and life.
Stephen Burks Stephen Burks is one of the most recognized American industrial designers of his generation. He and his New York studio, Readymade Projects, have been responsible for creative direction and industrial design on projects ranging from retail interiors and events to packaging, consumer products, lighting, furniture and home accessories. He has developed innovative concepts for renowned international brands as well as continuing his commitment to sustainable design in the developing world.
Compatibility Compatibility is the ability of two things to coexist. I sought to challenge this notion by selecting various models of the same Aalto vase. The selection pre-assumed that Aalto vases were compatible; stacked inside one another vertically. But what if we don’t allow them to stack so nicely and force them into various positions together? When the system is subverted, compatibility becomes secondary and left to a separate outside system of rubber bands, which like a spider’s web, bonds the vases together with one another in a constant state of compression. Two very different materials are compatible in completely new way for the Aalto vase.
Folkform / Chandra Ahlsell and Anna Holmquist The young Swedish design collective Folkform is based in Stockholm and was founded by industrial designers Chandra Ahlsell (b.1973) and Anna Holmquist (b 1978). Since the start in 2004 they have participated in numerous international design fairs and exhibitions, including Salone Satellite Milan, Stockholm Furniture Fair, Tokyo Design week and Design Mai Berlin. In 2006, the duo received the prestigious Future Design Days Award and they have been nominated for the 2008 Swedish Design Award. Folkform`s work challenges prevalent design codes. They transform simplicity into all its complexity and give the obvious an underlying and ambiguous meaning. They have a strong focus on finding new applications for materials and are constantly experimenting with how materials are used.
Sampling Aalto Vase The installation consists of a sound recording from the iconic Alvar Aalto Savoy Vase. The curve of the Alto vase has been transformed through the vase into a tune, a music sample ”as part of a bigger coherence- the composition of the song”. In collaboration with Stockholm based music collective: Coup d’etat.
Claesson Kovisto Rune The Swedish multi-disciplinary design and architecture partnership Claesson Koivisto Rune was founded in 1995 by M책rten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune. Their work has earned numerous awards and, among other distinctions, they were honoured by being the first Swedish architects ever to be exhibited in the international section of the Venice Architecture Biennale. On the list of completed architectural projects are; the Sfera Building culture house in Kyoto, Operak채llaren gourmet restaurant in Stockholm and Ingegerd R책man house and studio. Current projects include several private houses in Sweden and abroad. Furniture and objects are produced by companies such as Asplund, Boffi, Cappellini, David design, Iren Uffici, Iittala, Living Divani, Offecct and Swedese among others.
NEO Cooking can be a precise exercise. Modern kitchen design and its materials are often reminiscent of laboratories. But the people cooking and the food that’s prepared is anything but dry science. It’s organic. It’s human. So we made it our mission to combine these two opposites. Our working name for this project became “organic precision.” Our pots have a unique ergonomic feature that also became the aesthetic feature. Two handles, positioned vertically. Handling an empty pot is no problem. But a pot filled with boiling water is something else. With the two handles, one on either side, you can easily control lifting, carrying and pouring with both hands. Issuing first horizontally from the pot body, then continuing in a distinct, downward angle, our handles are better suited to the natural position of your hands. Thoroughly researched and tested with prototypes, of course. At first glance the handle is flat, slender-looking, but once grasped reveals itself to be rounded on the inside. It sits comfortably in the hand – wet or dry. A similar open handle on the lid allows it to be hung on a wall-mounted rail. The pot’s body opens towards the top from an angle midway up. This makes for easier pouring, as well as affording a safe distance between the handle and the warm surface of the pot body.
NEO With Neo our aim was to improve cookware on several levels, especially in functionality and ease of use, without loosing its identity. Our contribution shows the qualities that make this particular series of cookware unique in its expression and function.
Apocalypse Apocalypse is a design studio based in Malmรถ founded by industrial designers Petra Lilja and Jenny Nordberg. Apocalypse works in the field of sustainable design and uses materials with a history when designing for the everyday life. The first product is Apocalypse The Soap, a soap made from recycled cooking oil from the numerous falafel kitchens around Malmรถ. Their method Past Present and Future, along with their Manifesto, result in sustainable products, systems and services. The next project released by Apocalypse will be a unique labelling system for sustainable consumption.
Loudspeakers Four loudspeakers are constructed out of Iittala objects. We specifically asked for second hand or defect pieces. The deconstruction of the objects can be seen as an illustration of our method Past Present Future. Past Present Future, or PPF, considers the big picture; everything is a part of a bigger context. In this case the loudspeakers would represent the future.
Four different sound pieces containing recycled elements are played in the glass speakers: Andres Corazón; – Apocalypso now, Iris Piers; – Undervattensmässing, The Gertrud System; – The Gift Åsa Ståhl – Tape Salads (Born Again). The sound collection is served at the table, free of charge.
Iittala’s aim is to design for a lifetime by producing high quality objects, which continue to complement each other and fit together irrespective of range and collection. Iittala designs and produce objects which care for you and serve your needs and desires in a way which induce trust and comfort. In this aim, they have learned the importance of trusting designers to use their inherent experience and their senses when developing compatible objects. The Iittala way is not only environmentally sound but also cost efficient: they design for somebody and something and try not to waste resources on developing products nobody needs and wants.