Beneath the Surface

GPI TWeekly Archive: Good Design Generates Positive Energy

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:04:00 GMT

We love Twitter because we can always see the creativity and feel the enthusiasm in the design world, and that energy flow makes us want to keep moving forward. This week, we saw a couple of great museum designs and interesting lamps introduced by our "tweeps". Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Natural History Museum of Utah tweet via @CarterDesignInc

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Natural History Museum of Utah Interior

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Pawson Pads London's New Design Museum

"Bring on 2014 and the new Design Museum" tweet via @DesignEventNE

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Cox Architecture & Design's Helix Bridge Gives New Meaning to "Design DNA"

“Singapore's new bridge,Helix, resembles a double helix structure & is wonderfully illuminated by LED lights.” Tweet via @DreamwallsGlass

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Gudpaka Lamp by gt2P

“[feed] Gudpaka Lamp by gt2P: No Wookiees were harmed in the making of this lamp.” tweet via @Daniel_Hamilton

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Maria S.C. Lamp by Pani Jurek

“Do we have any science fans in the house? This chandelier is made from chemistry test tubes. “ tweet via @PegasusLighting

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TWeekly Archive is GPI Design's new blog column that updates every Friday to feature innovative and inspiring architecture, interior, and lighting designs that are shared through Twitter within the week. We always appreciate tweeps who constantly refresh our minds by sharing great articles, pictures, and videos. If you have something that you feel like sharing and want it featured on our blog, leave a link in the comment or simply @gpidesign on Twitter. We are always hungry for cool designs!

Thursday Salute to Originals: Paper/Origamic Architecture

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:16:00 GMT

We rarely talk about paper art in this blog, mainly because the architectural industry doesn’t generally regard paper as a material suited for construction sites and we are more excited to see designs with materials such as natural stone, glass, wood, and resin. However, paper is still important to the GPI Design team in the design and drawing phase. (Any designers who have eliminated sketching in the creative process in favor of computer programs? We move back and forth between physical model, sketches, and CAD.)

The paper art we are looking at today is called Paper Architecture, according to the artist, Ingrid Siliakus. It refers to the art of creating an object out of a single piece of paper. This particular art form, which is also known as Origamic Architecture, is developed by a famous Japanese artist Masahiro Chatani and was first used in designing greeting cards or holiday cards.

The subject of Ingrid’s work ranges from the world’s renowned architecture buildings to abstract sculptures. Each object is just one single paper and can be folded back into a flat plane. (If I’m lucky, I probably can cut out a snowflake with one piece of paper. A whole 3-D building?!). Ingrid describes the process of outlining, cutting, and folding each paper as building a real structure, the construction of which requires intense attention to detail.

‘Big City’, 2011. The lower part of one of the four sides.Pin It

‘Big City’, 2011.Pin It

Cosmopolitan third edition, 2011.Pin It

Palicio del marques de Salamanca, 2007. Pin It

Concert Hall, 2003. The actual building is a design of Frank Gehry. Pin It

When we are all busy drawing our skyscrapers on the computer, it’s refreshing to see someone who creates hers out of plain paper by hand. Ingrid’s paper architecture reminds us that dedication to craft, precision work, and unleashing the potential of material can create statement pieces.

GPI TWeekly Archive: Wood Structures Gone Wild

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:16:00 GMT

Structural wood designs were buzzing on Twitter this week! In these featured designs, the material is shaped, woven, formed, and layered into both spaces and objects.

Metropol Parasol: Largest Wood Structure in the World tweet via @threefiftyneuro

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Lucien Pellat-Finet Shinsaibashi / Kengo Kuma & Associates “It was a collaboration between fashion and plant-likened architecture.” tweet via @KUNGarchitect

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ICD:ITKE Research Pavilion / Oliver David Krieg, Boyan Mihaylov tweet via @DoreReam

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The Rise of The Designer Bakery "The rise of the Designer bakery? A great business concept for town centres don't you think?” tweet via @PlaceShaper

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“some AMAZING detailing here, ONLY in Japan ‘GC Prostho Museum Research Center / Kengo Kuma & Associates’ ” tweet via @GintasReisgys

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Thursday Salute to Originals: Incorporate Perception into Design

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:50:00 GMT

What is good design? Asking this is like asking “What’s your favorite food?” or “What’s your favorite movie”? Throw the question out there and you will hear a thousand answers. The definition of good design is very subjective and almost nonnegotiable. In the end, as individuals, we all look at the same matter from different perspectives and based on different sets of aesthetic values.

Designers understand the meaning of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” better than most. Today we highlight two designs that cleverly play with the viewer’s perspective in their artistic expressions.

In this installation CT Umbra created by Nondesigns for Lexus, viewers are invited to walk around and experience the sculpture from all sides. It was comprised of 2,500 half-inch anodized aluminum bars. When seen from the front, it’s a luxurious golden Lexus. When you walk to the rear, the car gradually turns into light green and blue appearing more eco-friendly. The two concepts that define the Lexus brand, luxury and hybrid, are well-perceived.

CT Umbra by Nondesigns Pin It

In the interior design world, designers and artists are also considering how to make their design unique from their audience’s viewpoint. The following installation by Matt Bilfield will make a signature décor piece on any living room wall. It is named “Peggy” and is a recreation of Roy Lichtenstein’s pop art painting. The painting technique, divisionism, is taken away from its traditional medium paper to be applied in a 3D form. Over 2,700 hand cut, sanded, and painted dowels are used to create this art piece. The physical installation is right there and the final step to turn it into a complete artwork all depends on you, the viewer. How exciting is that!

Peggy by Matt Bilfield Pin It

In our last blog post, we mentioned that we love to work with natural stone materials because they remind us of so many beautiful things in nature. From one certain angle, this particular pattern looks like the sunset sky, and from another, it is the roaring ocean. Perception generates inspiration. Our brains are looking forward to being stimulated by our eyes more often.

Image credits: TheCoolHunter, Matt Bilfield

Textures in Sky + Onyx: Letting Nature Be Natural

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:10:00 GMT

Maybe it's time for more late night office sessions, the multitude of windows leads to endless inspiration! Playing with our backlit onyx samples late in the day, a quick glimpse out the window at the dramatic clouds reminds us why we love working with natural stone materials.

Evening view from the GPI Design Westlake office

Much like this sunset, the colors and patterning in natural stone are entirely organic and specific to a certain point in time. While the composition of the sunset is fleeting, the patterns formed in an onyx panel are stamped for eternity; a tangible piece of nature turned into a building material. Both the sunset and the onyx are gorgeous because of the components that constitute their forms and patterns, but lighting brings a whole new layer of warmth and dimension to their perception.

12" x 20" sample of backlit Iranian Blue Onyx Pin It

Admittedly, the thought of placing color gel filters over the windows to tint the sky to our exact liking DID cross our minds. (And what if that cloud moved left just a little bit? Ooh, I would love to see more gold just above the horizon.) We constantly remind ourselves to run with the randomness of nature. Sometimes you just can't design beauty.

GPI TWeekly Archive: 5 Unconventional Recycled Designs

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:04:00 GMT

This week's featured stories treat recycling with an air of creativity and tons of fun color.

1 Starbucks takes recycling/adaptive reuse to a whole new level tweet via @perkinswill_CHI

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2 1,000 recycled doors find a new life as a building's façade tweet via @dwell

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3 David Joseph Goteiner Created Recycled Traffic Sign Furniture Pieces tweet via @helenavstudio

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4 Beautiful recycled skateboard deck sculptures by artist Haroshi tweet via @brainpicker

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5 Salvaged Chinese Riverboat Furniture by Shipwood tweet via @TradUR

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Thursday Salute to Originals: Lacquer Wares, An Ancient Art Invention

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:15:00 GMT

On Tuesday of this week, we shared on Twitter some amazing three-dimensional goldfish art pieces painted by a Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori and we all loved it. There’re always some ancient oriental art forms and techniques that just never fail to wow us. I came across this collection of Japanese lacquer wares which was on exhibition during New York’s Asia Week 2011 and was totally blown away.

Lacquer is a liquid exuded from certain lacquer trees growing in East Asia that dries and darkens in color (another definition is "a liquid made of shellac dissolved in alcohol, or of synthetic substances", according to the dictionary). It produces a durable coating for wood or metal and can be polished in any sheen level desired. Modern application of lacquer onto furniture can add a hint of exotic touch to highlight those pieces and make them stand out.

Above: Sun and Moon Box,Yoshio Okada (b. 1977)

This elegant-looking cherry blossom writing box (intended to store ink stone and brush) is coated with high-quality polished black lacquer with a décor of cherry blossoms all over its five sides. Cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan and it stands for transient beauty. The flower petals are painted with gold lacquer of two tones.

Above: Cherry Blossom Writing Box, Anonymous lacquer artist

The Deer Writing Box is painted in a gold lacquer ground and the deer are formed in carved mother-of-pearl and pewter. The inside cover is decorated with a stylized current in inlaid pewter.

Above: Deer Writing Box, Soeki (ac. Meiji period)

The Japanese seem to have a special interest in goldfish. What’s a better medium than black lacquer to bring this little creature’s color and movement to life? The contrast in color and the placement of the swimming goldfish on top and sides make the whole tea caddy playful yet graceful.

Above: Koi Tea Caddy, Mushu Yamazaki (b. 1966)

I’m very intrigued by the glossy finish lacquer creates on these wood surfaces, reflecting light and making the object appear more rare. Here at GPI, we are all about innovative surfaces. So I can’t help thinking maybe lacquer can be applied to certain translucent surfaces to be used for backlighting and it may produce unexpected results. Have you ever seen any backlit panels that incorporated lacquer? Or do you think it would be a possibility? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

(To read more on this Japanese lacquer ware collection, please visit http://www.erikthomsen.com/catalogue and download Erik Thomsen’s article “Golden Treasures: Japanese Gold Lacquer Boxes”)

Image Credits: Erik Thomsen, “Golden Treasures: Japanese Gold Lacquer Boxes”

GPI TWeekly Archive: The Design World is Off to A Good Start

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:12:00 GMT

Twitter was abuzz this week with developments in design - looks like 2012 is off to a creative start!

Interior Design

Skim Milk: Strelein Warehouse by Ian Moore Architects: a converted warehouse tweet via @designmilk

Exterior Design

COFCO Tianjin Showroom / L&A Design Group: dual layer hexagon shape glass façade tweet via @ArchDaily

(for more hexagonal design inspiration, read our blog post about this geometric trend)

Lighting Design

Sky-Mimicking Ceilings: LED lights tweet via @trendhunter

Technology

Google Cooktop Ushers in An Era of Smart Stoves tweet via @designbuzz_com

Furniture Design

5 Creative Bookshelves to Kick Off the New Year tweet via @DesignUpdates

Thursday Salute to Originals: Cubic Kite Sculpture Takes Flight

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:15:00 GMT

Snow just started to accumulate here in the Cleveland area but somehow I’m already picturing myself embracing the spring breeze, like jogging in my shorts or flying a kite in the lake park. [Ok, I lied. I don’t fly kites, not since I was a little kid. Maybe that’s why I was attracted to this weighty-looking cubic kite created by artists Heather and Ivan Morison.] How did they manage to do it?

This type of 3D kite that actually flies has a bit of history and it was originally called Tetrahedral Kite when first developed. In 1903, innovator Alexander Graham Bell published an article in National Geographic magazine proving that large-scale kites are possible. Instead of constructing one big wing, he built a kite in a tetrahedral structure with a number of small wings. The more small wings it has, the stronger the kite becomes because the surface to weight ratio is optimized.

Today, Heather and Ivan Morison recreated the tetrahedral kite with a modern name, the 3D-Printed Little Shining Man Kite. They used carbon fiber rods, nylon connectors, and Cuben Fiber to “achieve the perfect combination of strength and weight”. The final sculpture would be comprised of three such structures and expected to fly once a year in the Jersey bay area.

The deceptive visual effect of Little Shining Man reminds me of how our team works with systems of delicate surfaces and technologically advanced LED lighting, creating structures that appear effortless once complete. Just like flying the 3D kite, we are looking forward to changing the impossible to the possible on more of our projects in the new year, and reminding ourselves to infuse our work with a bit of playfulness!

Image Credits: vms3d.com

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Design Inspiration: Hexagonal Trends

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:23:00 GMT

As we voyage into 2012, the hexagonal geometric form is appearing everywhere. The way in which this relatively simplistic form can be manipulated into patterns, textures, and overall structures, makes it a popular and versatile choice for a graphic aesthetic. Here are some of our favorite uses of hexagons that create truly dynamic and intriguing designs.

While most often treated as a flat plane in graphic motifs, the spatial possibilities of the hexagon shape are most interesting when it is extruded or modeled into three dimensions.

Images compiled by GPI Design, individual image credits: TheCoolHunter, ArchitecturalDigest, DesignMilk, TrendLand, Tang Chan via Flickr

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GPI TWeekly Archive: 2011 Design Year in Review

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:31:00 GMT

Lists are contagious. So are criticism and analysis in the design industry. Here are our favorite compilations that recap this year in culture and design - strange, surprising, innovative, and projects gone awry.

Time’s most surprising pictures of 2011 tweet via @trendplanner

From the world's largest home to tiny printers, here are the strangest and silliest designs of 2011 tweet via @TreeHugger

11 most meaningful architecture moments of 2011 tweet via @bligh

Design Week’s review of the year in retail design tweet via @Design_Week

Azure 2011 in Review: Hits and Misses tweet via @AzureMagazine

Thursday Salute to Originals: Don’t Cry for Me, Tap Water (or LED lights)

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:45:00 GMT

Here we are, marching boldly towards a brand new year. Our GPI team is all geared up and excited to discover new lighting trends, innovative cool surfaces, and many more developments in this ever-changing interior design world. So what will happen in 2012? A global economy recovery? Some catastrophe that might extinguish humankind according to the Mayan prophecy? Whoa, let’s not get into that. At least we know clearly that in the lighting world, 2012 is all about LED.

Over the past years, many countries are taking steps to phase out the traditional incandescent light bulbs for use in general lighting. LEDs are taking over because they are more energy-efficient and carry more possibilities for design purposes. This collection called Liquid Light by Tanya Clarke is a great example of the lighting trends for 2012.

Born the daughter of environmental activist Tony Clarke, Tanya was raised with a strong consciousness and deep concern of the environment and natural resources. She precisely expressed her viewpoint in this beautifully installed light collection - the idea that light is just like water, or the other way around, water is just like light; both precious resources that we cannot afford to waste in daily life.

LED lights, recycled plumbing fixtures, hand sculpted glass water drops, and even found objects are utilized to form the Liquid Light. The LEDs shine through translucent glass drops and create a soft lighting effect that is visually dramatic.

Its unique form and experimentation with colors also speak for the trend in 2012. LED technology is so compact that it can basically be used in any size, shape, and structure, opening its potential across many industries. The material pairings and artistic expressions made possible with LED lighting technology are vast.

We’ve already seen so many stunning lighting designs in 2011 (you can find them in this blog or follow @gpidesign). We look forward to LEDs, echo-chic, and expressive structures that will lead to more illuminated creations and continue to wow us in the New Year.

Image Credit: liquidlightsite.com

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Thursday Salute to Originals: O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, Where the Heck Are Your Branches?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:40:00 GMT

Gone with the Wind (Image Credit: hookedonhouses.net)

Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind could never image a Christmas tree lit up in the color of a rainbow that blinks and that could last for days without causing fire. In her days, the best you can do was to carefully glue candles with melted wax to a tree branch, light it up, and put it out before it burned the whole tree down.

Technology has done to change our world into a much more colorful place. Before 1900, only a few American families would light their Christmas tree with candles, and the others just didn’t do it at all. But in 1882, Edward Johnson, vice president of Thomas Edison’s Edison Electric Light Company, took a big step forward. He ordered 80 electric incandescent light bulbs especially made for him and lit his Christmas tree electrically for the first time in history. Guess he not only had the resources and the technology, but also good decorating taste!

Christmas lights became more widely used in 1930 when their price dropped, making them more available to the standard household. For the past decades, merchandisers, governments, organizations, and families in this country were obsessed with lighting for Christmas. Everyone has a unique interpretation of what holiday lighting means to them. The National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony held near the White House has been around since 1923, expressing “our local and national communities coming together to celebrate the season and to share the message of peace.”

National Christmas Tree Lighting 2011 (Image Credit: huffingtonpost.com)

So how far can Christmas tree design go? We’ve heard of Christmas trees made out of books, bicycles, shopping carts, beer bottles, and we’ve seen Christmas trees illuminated in every bizarre color. This year, the tree commissioned by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the designer trees displayed in Paris really stand out from the crowd, mostly for their restraint in color, material, or lighting.

The Victoria and Albert Museum Christmas tree is designed by Danish designers Sophie Nielsen and Rolf Knudsen. It is constructed of 1500 strands of elastic cord. Within each bundle, the suspension creates the geometric shapes which resemble Christmas ornaments. Then the shadows on the floor created by the single light source and the ornaments resemble the structure of a huge snowflake. The whole structure has completely conceptualized the idea of a Christmas tree in a magical way. It captures the core shapes of two objects, reinventing the tree icon using minimal construction and reimagining a snowflake with light and shadow.

Victoria and Albert Museum Christmas tree (image credit: Studio Roso)

The designer Christmas trees on display at the Hôtel Salmon de Rothschild, Paris are even more eye-catching. Expressing the individual design sensibilities of each fashion icon, the traditional form of the Christmas tree is preserved while its construction and materials depart from tradition.

Left: Tree by Dior / Center: Tree by Louis Vuitton / Right: Tree by Jean-Claude Jitrois and Jonone (image credits: mydaily.co.uk)

--> If you celebrate Christmas, how are you decorating your tree this year? Do your choices reflect your design sensibility? Send us photos!

Happy Holidays to you all, my dear Beneath the Surface readers!

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From the Field: Backlit Wood Panel Mock-Up

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:17:00 GMT

For the National Cancer Institute project which we’ve been working on for months, GPI had the pleasure of presenting our mock-up of the very unique backlit wood system last week in Washington, D.C.

Above: Initial project rendering by HOK

Over three years ago, Bill Hellmuth of HOK envisioned these unique backlit feature walls to bring light and texture to the long lobby hallways at the main entrance to the National Cancer Institute. To translate the initial rendering of the backlit wood lobby feature walls to the photographs of the mock-up taken just last week, there have been countless hours of coordination between the surface, structure, and lighting elements. Our team has become quite captivated with the project.

Above: Mock-up photograph by GPI Design

The surface was the driving element in the conceptual design of the wall. GPI Design sourced an exotic Redwood burl (yielding large panels), sliced the wood to under half of a millimeter and laminated between glass. The seamless LED backlighting environment keeps the wood surface as the primary visual focus, pouring through the translucent wood material in an unexpected pairing of the newly redefined material with backlighting illumination. Next came the custom structural hardware components engineered to hold the wood and lighting systems safely and in a complementary relationship. The majority of this testing and detailing has occurred internally, communicating with the project team in D.C. via shop drawings and conference calls, so there was much anticipation built up over the unveiling of these illuminated wood panels.

Above: Mock-up installation progress

The GPI Design crew spent a full day assembling four of the wall panels to demonstrate our system (over 250 panels will be installed in the final project). The mock-up was designed so that pins, joints, lighting controls, and accent lighting were all crafted to represent their appearance in the final installation. As the project team (owner, architect, lighting designer, general contractor) in D.C. arrived to the mock-up the next morning, sentiments of quiet contentment and satisfaction were in the air - a successful review with great dialogue generated.

Above: Mock-up review meeting

It’s creative surfaces and great project teams like these that make us fall in love with our job all over again.

THANK YOU to: HOK, MCLA, James G. Davis Construction Corporation, TSI Architectural Metals, Cleveland Marble, and The JBG Companies

GPI TWeekly Archive: Lighting Designs You Don’t Want to Miss

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:55:00 GMT

chieh ting huang: urban camper lighting objects tweet via @Lighting_Jedi

eL Masterpiece: Daniel Libeskind Designs Limited-Edition Chandelier for Zumtobel tweet via @VALOAdesign

Mind Blasting Lighting Show By Saks Fifth Avenue tweet via @Studio_EM

Americans Waking Up to Light Bulb Changeover tweet via @WilliamsSupply

Living Daylights: Remarkably Sophisticated Sun-Lit Home tweet via @dornobdesign