r18 ultra chair – DesignApplause

Gesture chair. Steelcase.

May 4, 2013

Revolutions in office technology produce revolutions in office furniture design. The typing pool gave way to the cube farm which in turn gave way to open “team” table. The Aeron chair famously became the symbol of Silicon Valley in the dot com boom.

Now the rise of mobile phones and pads as dominant work tools has inspired Steelcase to reinvent the office chair. Based on what Steelcase design chief James Ludwig said were surveys of the habits of 2000 people in eleven countries around the world, the company will offer the Gesture chair beginning this fall. It will be shown at Neocon in June.

Steelcase looked at what Ludwig called the new environment of the office, where people work and sit more casually. The researchers talking to workers defined nine distinct new postures, such as the “swipe.” These postures conditioned the design of the new chair, with such innovations as arms that move up and down easily. The back and seat move more flexibly together; the chair, Steelcase says, encourages people to move around every so often.

[ steelcase ]

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Design miami 2012. Looking back #1.

Dec 11, 2012

snarkitecture’s ‘drift pavilion’ greets you at the entrance of design miami pavilion | click > enlarge

forthcoming interview w/ alex mustonen + daniel arsham | snarkitecture

fendi invited belgian designer maarten de ceulaer to interpret modernist-inspired pequin pattern in the design performance ‘transformations’

we chat with asif. “this exercise is a bit different in that we attempt, and succeed, to reproduce a natural phenomenom.”

main sponsor [ swarovski crystal palace ] commissions london designer asif khan to explore the relationship between crystal, light, nature and architecture using 1.3 million swarovski crystals to create ‘parhelia’

[ demisch danant ] For Design Miami 2012, the gallery presented the first show focused entirely on the works of French designer Pierre Guariche (1926–1995). Displayed in two sections, this exhibition presents rare and significant works of 1950–1955 and 1958–1962, to highlight two distinct periods of the designer’s illustrious career.

[ galerie kreo ] is dedicated to artistic exploration in design, and has exclusive international rights to remarkable limited edition pieces by such luminaries as ronan & erwan bouroullec, pierre charpin, hella jongerius, konstantin grcic, jasper morrison, and martin szekely. galerie kreo founder, didier krzentowski, is instrumental in creating the design gallery concept for design miami.

charlotte perriand and jean prouvé | galerie downtown

london/paris-based [ carpenters workshop gallery ] is here to show sebastian brajkovic, vincent dubourg, lonneke grodjijn & ralph nauta, mathieu lehanneur, nendo, pablo reinoso, frederik molenschot, robert stadler, studio job and johanna grawunder.

forthcoming ‘crack of dawn’ interview at satai with johanna grawunder

italy’s [ galleria nilufar ] seems always novel and unexpected. michelangelo pistoletto and juan e. sandoval and using existing laleggera chairs designed by riccardo blumer for alias conceive ‘i mediterranei – love difference’. the 45 seats exclusive for design miami reproduce the profile of the carribean sea. the effort supports ‘love difference’ a non-profit promoting cultural differences in the mediterranean.

forthcoming ‘mid-crack of dawn’ interview at satai with henry munoz

Henry R. Muñoz III, a San Antonio-based designer and social activist creates Mestizo City, a 6,700 square-foot site-specific installation. A playful interactive public space, created to represent the vibrant and varied Latino culture and its growing influence in the United States. Created for the Miami Design District during Art Basel Miami Beach 2012, Mestizo City will be on view and open to the public.

‘lost time’ by tim simpson and sarah van gameren of glithero for perrier-jouët

The construction is made with weighted, beaded strings that hang to form curves. The technique used is an ode to Spanish Art Nouveau architect Antoni Gaudi in designing his Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona. The concept embodies five characteristics of Art Nouveau: The Perfect Curve, Reflection, Timelessness, Organic forms and Craftsmanship. [ perrier-jouët ] is a first-time exhibitor and exclusive champagne partner.

the ‘architecture for dogs’ installation offers an interesting opportunity to explore architecture in a different way. the audi ‘r18 ultra chair’ project offers an ultra interesting opportunity to explore chairs in a ultra different way. audi uses technology from their le mans winning r18 racecar, 25 iterations of computer and cardboard models, public beta testing at milan 2012 (we tested it), a borrowed industrial robot from their production line, and incorporates folded sheet aluminum with the latest carbon composite materials used directly from the r18 racecar to make an ultra light and extremely durable [ r18 ultra chair ]. both examples remind us that innovation from concept thru execution can be so different yet so similar and mutually inspirational.

official (edited) release just in > The eighth edition of Design Miami/ saw record attendance and robust sales throughout its six-day run in Miami from December 4-9, 2012. Thirty-six of the world’s leading galleries presented contemporary and historic design, which sold well among the 31,000 design collectors and enthusiasts who attended the fair.

There was a notable increase in the number of collectors, personalities and designers visiting the fair, including Peter Brant, Delfina Delettrez Fendi, Maxine and Stuart Frankel, Pharrell Williams, Wendi Murdoch, Will Farrell, Todd Eberle, Patrick McMullan, Leonard and Jane Abess, Kanye West, Don Soffer, Silvia Fendi, Donna Karan, Lady Victoria Harvey, Fernando and Humberto Campana, Joshua Rechnitz, George Lindemann, Terry Richardson, Joseph Altuzarra, Ricardo Tisci, Wendell Castle, Martha Stewart, David Adjaye, Cecilia Dean, Juan Montoya, Kelly Wearstler, Jamie Drake, Waldo Fernandez, Steven Volpe, Alex Gorlin and George Yabu.

Museum representatives attended from the Metropolitain Museum of Art, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, the Victoria+Albert, the MAK Vienna, the Vitra Design Museum, MCA Denver, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Walker Art Center, the Carnegie Museum and the Guggenheim among many others.

Design Miami/ welcomed thirteen new galleries to the fair this year including, Galerie BSL and Galerie Jacques Lacoste from Paris, Jason Jacques from New York, Galerie Rossella Colombari from Milan, Gabrielle Ammann // Gallery from Cologne and Moderne from Philadelphia.

“Design Miami/ 2012 has been our most important fair in Miami to date in terms of program, exposure and attendance,” says Marianne Goebl, director of Design Miami/. “With a 25% increase in the number of participating galleries, exceptional site-specific design collaborations and a strong educational program of talks, tours and online presence, we continue to expand our cross-disciplinary approach to design at the intersection of culture and commerce.”

This year, visitors to Design Miami/ were welcomed by Drift, a pavilion created by New Yorkbased collaborative studio Snarkitecture at the entrance to the fair tent located next to the Miami Convention Center. A floating environment comprised of massive inflatable tubes was visible from a distance of several blocks.

Once again, Design Miami’ partners actively contributed to the fair by commissioning sitespecific design installations from emerging design talents: Audi presented the “R18 Ultra Chair” designed by Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram. Asif Khan designed “Parhelia” for Swarovski Crystal Palace, the Design Performance “Transformations” by Maarten de Ceulaer was supported by Fendi, and the installation “Lost Time” by Glithero was commissioned by Perrier-Jouët.

The Miami Design District played host to several of the Design Miami/ Design Satellites, unique exhibitions with strong curatorial and educational perspectives, including Architecture for Dogs, curated by Kenya Hara, and an exhibition by Acconci Studio, Design Miami’s Designer of the Year 2012.

The fair enhanced its educational offering with an engaging Design Talks series featuring the Design Pioneers Diane von Furstenberg, Vito Acconci and Wendell Castle. The BE OPEN Forum series of profile talks featured conversations with designers practicing outside the boundaries of traditional product design, utilizing food, scent, biochemistry and haptic technology to make research accessible to the global community and showcasing design through sensory exploration.

Design Miami/ enjoyed its strongest online presence to date with record social media activation. Thousands of people followed the show unfold on Design Log, Design Miami’s blog while Art.sy, the digital partner of the fair, created for the first time a digital experience to discover the work from the participating galleries online. Design Miami/ 2012 on Art.sy will be on view for the next week for those who missed attending the fair.

Tours by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, an ARTBOOK – Cooper Hewitt shop featuring collectible books and objects related to the exhibition program of Design Miami/, a bespoke scent by 12.29 New York I Paris, the Collectors Lounge hosted by Regalia and designed by Cassina and a Pop-Up Café by Michael’s Genuine Food and Drink rounded out
this year’s visitor experience.

[ main gallery program ]
Caroline Van Hoek/ Brussels
Carpenters Workshop Gallery/ London & Paris
Cristina Grajales Gallery/ New York
Demisch Danant/ New York
Didier Ltd / London
Gabrielle Ammann // Gallery/ Cologne
Galerie BSL / Paris
Galerie Downtown-François Laffanour / Paris
Galerie Jacques Lacoste/ Paris
Galerie kreo / Paris
Galerie Patrick Seguin / Paris
Galerie VIVID / Rotterdam
Galleria Rossella Colombari / Milan
Gallery SEOMI / Seoul
Hostler Burrows / New York
Industry Gallery / Washington DC & Los Angeles
Jason Jacques Inc. / New York
Johnson Trading Gallery / New York
Jousse Entreprise / Paris
Magen H Gallery / New York
Moderne Gallery / Philadelphia
Mark McDonald / Hudson
Nilufar Gallery / Milan
Ornamentum / Hudson
Pierre Marie Giraud / Brussels
Priveekollektie Contemporary Art|Design / Heusden
R 20th Century / New York
Venice Projects / Venice

[ design on/site ]
Antonella Villnova / Florence presenting Delfina Delettrez
Booo / Eindhoven presenting Front
Carwan Gallery / Beirut presenting India Mahdavi
Design Space / Tel Aviv presenting Michal Cederbaum and Noam Dover
Erastudio Apartment- Gallery / Milan presenting
Victor Hunt Designart Dealer / Brussels presenting Slyvain Willenz + CIRVA
Volume Gallery / Chicago presenting Snarkitecture

[ schedule of events ]
public show | 5 > 9 december 2012
preview day | 4 december | collectors preview 12 > 6p | vernissage 6 > 9p
Design Miami’s cultural programme, including Design Talks, Design Performances, and Design Satellites, as well as the 2012 Designer of the Year, will be announced in the coming weeks.

[ about design miami/ ]
Design Miami/ is the global forum for design. Each fair brings together the most influential collectors, gallerists, designers, curators and critics from around the world in celebration of design culture and commerce. Occurring alongside the Art Basel fairs in Miami, USA each December and Basel, Switzerland each June, Design Miami/ has become the premier venue for collecting, exhibiting, discussing and creating collectible design. [ design miami/ ] [ design log ]

R18 ultra chair public beta. Milan 2012.

May 8, 2012

click > enlarge

R18 Ultra Chair Public Beta designed by Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram for Audi. For their groundbreaking new venture, the designers are developing a chair within a public testing environment at the Salone del Mobile Milan 2012 in collaboration with Audi’s Lightweight Design Centre using methods borrowed from the future of automotive manufacturing.

The R18 Ultra Chair consists of three main components: a carbon composite seat, a carbon-rubber composite back rest and aluminium alloy legs which can be compacted and transported in a lightweight flat-pack box.

The chair incorporates crowd-sourced data acquired through thousands of testing sessions using advanced industrial sensors whose data is processed by custom algorithms to adjust the final geometry and construction of the end product accordingly.

Visitors to the installation are invited to use the chair and view their unique physical impact on it displayed via a video wall inside the testing booth. Hundreds of industrial sensors integrated into the prototype capture every movement and simultaneously display it as a realtime false color force simulation, thus exposing and visualizing the flow of forces normally hidden from the human eye. The purpose of this live laboratory is to gather user data in order to optimize the final product and shed every gram of excess weight.

Every testing session will be documented as a personalized video and sent back to each visitor by email link to watch and share with friends. After the public beta phase, all crowd-sourced data will be fed into the chair’s design parameters and its production adapted as necessary. Above> Barbara is donating her body to science – well Audi really.

The installation took place in the courtyard of the 18th Century Palazzo Clerici, Milan from April 17 to 22, 2012 during the 51st Salone Internazionale del Mobile. The final product will be presented to the public in December 2012 at Design Miami. Above> r!8 photos and palazzo clerici by tom vack.

The chair’s namesake is the 24 Hours of Le Mans winning Audi R18 race car. Audi has dominated Le Mans with its cutting edge technology for the past decade and won 10 races since 2000. As part of the installation the Le Mans 2011 winning Audi R18 will be exhibited alongside the public beta testing lab. The carbon fibre monocoque chassis with an Audi TDI 3.7 litre V6 engine and total weight of only 900kg (1980 lbs) represents the ultimate in lightweight construction.

[ palazzo clerici ] [ tom vack ] [ audi r18 tdi ultra ]