Home
1971274192021|
Title: Things seen Pages: 78 - 81    
Author: Editorial Text: THINGS SEEN Chair shell The Armadillo chair is moulded in high gloss grp in a range of eight colours: black, white, biscuit, yellow, brown, red, blue or green. Upholstery in Ambla leather substitute, or tweed. The chair was designed by Philip Sullivan and Robert Wormleighton, and costs approximately £30. Details from Fern Hill, Hollycroft, Hinckley Essex Tile finish These non-slip tiles are the latest in an outstanding range of decorated tiles made by Sally Anderson Ceramics. The granulated stone and glaze finish is available plain or with a continuous linking pattern in a rich variety of colours. Tiles can also be designed to the customer's specifications. Delivery time is two to three weeks, from Sally Anderson Ceramics, Parndon Mill, Harlow, Essex Eccentric table The Lunario table designed for Knoll International by Cini Boeri, has an off-centre base made from two superimposed sheets of polished steel. The base supports two table tops in wood or glass: one oval, the other circular with a diameter of 140cm. Paris starts here The frontiers of Paris ebb outward, engulfing the signs still used to mark the administrative boundary. An exhibition of photographs by Eustachy Kossakowski, currently on view at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs shows how blurred and meaningless these boundaries have become. All 159 photos, one of each sign, were taken head on from a range of 6m - hence the title of the exhibition ''Six metres avant Paris". Hence, too, Kossakowski's claim that he has used his camera objectively, instead of trying to impose his own individuality on the subject matter. Churchill dish Robert Welch designed this 17in diameter sterling silver dish for Churchill College, Cambridge. The gilt rim is decorated by repoussee in-the form of irregular cobblestone patterning, the tops of the hemispheres being highly polished, the background textured. The remainder of the dish is polished silver. Grp runabout Powered by a 12V motor and standard motor car batteries, the three wheel Batric Runabout is designed for large estates, gardens, hospitals, factories, golf courses etc. The body is moulded in red, cream, white, yellow, green or blue grp, and measures 78in x 38in x 38in. There are two pedal controls, an accelerator and brake and a handbrake for parking. An electric reversing switch is fitted to the dash board. Prices start at around £300. Patchwork pictures Edrica Huws, wife of Richard Huws, fountain designer, specialises in fabric collage. She makes up her pictures from any scraps of material which come to hand, working from the centre of the picture outwards. She enjoys being forced into ''irrevocable decisions'' and is happy to work in a medium which more or less imposes its own rules Below, the Palm House. Entreaty of Utrecht The Kroller Muller museum occupies a beautiful house and grounds in a rural part of central Holland. Every second year, along with most of the other Dutch national museums, it takes a six-week stand in the Utrecht exhibition hall in order to advertise its treasures. This year's stand was designed by Kho Liang le as a simple arrangement of pine seating platforms, grouped around a white painted hollow drum on the surface of which were back projected views of some of the museum's exhibits Alternative architecture Seen recently at the Glastonbury pop festival: examples of alternative society architecture. The builder of the twig house could probably have learnt a few useful tips from local Somerset craftsmen. More professional in construction was the main stage, a 40ft high incised pyramid of scaffolding tubes, partially clad around the base he polythene sheet. Egyptian line Design in Egypt is still strongest in the traditional areas of pottery, textiles, furniture and silversmithing. Yet the faculty of Applied Arts (Industrial Design Engineering) at Cairo University offers a five year course to around 50 students, well over half of whom plump for engineering subjects. Some of the work is of a high standard, though a good deal of it, like this sewing machine by fourth year student Ezat Saad, is still rooted in traditional forms. Into the trees Denby Pottery have produced a new ten-piece range of stoneware called Trees. Two sizes of plate (6in and 8in) together with a cereal or soup bowl form the basis of the set, which also includes a milk jug, tea pot and coffee pot, mug and saucer, and a sugar bowl. The shape was designed by Gill Pemberton and the decoration - black trees set against a spotted sky and candy striped hills - was by Diana Woodcock Beckering. Polyhedral climbing frame Made in Germany, this polyhedral net structure attached to an outer frame of tubular steel makes a good sculptural addition to a playground or garden. It is also safer than the conventional climbing frame, since children can clamber about inside the hexagonal rope meshes of the net without fear of falling through. More confident children can climb up the outside of the structure. The frame was manufactured by Berliner Seilfabrik Robert Schneider KG, 1 Berlin 51, and designed by Conrad Roland. Sea defences This precast concrete defensive wall was built to protect the soft chalk cliffs at Broadstairs from erosion by the sea: the concrete slabs were designed to dissipate the backwash of the waves. Receding water is channelled along criss-cross diagonal paths away from the relatively vulnerable jointing between slabs, and spends its force in collision with streams of water coming from the opposite direction. Consulting engineers: Nachshen Crofts and Leggatt: contractors: Willett Civil Engineering Limited. Picnic seat This lightweight injection-moulded polypropylene carrying case unfolds to form a seat with backrest, upholstered with inflatable pvc cushions. It's doubtful whether hikers really want to go to the trouble of carrying a seat into the countryside when they can relax in considerably more comfort on the grass. But the carrying case also acts as a picnic hamper, with space for flasks and food. The Containa seat was designed by David Darling and shown at this year's RCA diploma show Roll your own Hull Traders Tomotom Rolls group together to form beds, seating systems etc. Available in a single length of 27in, the rolls come in small (9in), medium (15ir;) and large (26in) diameters, weighing 61b, 14lb and 4lb respectively. They are upholstered in black, tan, cream or mulberry leather substitute, and filled with high density polyether crumble. Priced from approximately £5 for the smallest diameter, the rolls make a cheapish seating system-though they are no more, or less, comfortable than they look. Board meeting The Reed Paper and Board stand at I PEX was designed by Anthony Beams using Polyboard, a high density chipboard with a plasticised finish. Beams has also designed Polykit, a storage system using the same board and comprising a four way jointing extrusion to receive horizontal and vertical members. Clay art US ceramists no longer throw pots - they make clayworks, sculptural pieces often charged with social, political or sexual significance. A recent exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts New York, showed the work of twenty of them, including Marilyn Levine's astonishingly lifelike stoneware Knapsack, below. Cut and hold The Stanley Flower Gatherer cuts and holds flower stems in its serrated anvil and blade guard. Below the blade is a stem crusher, designed to keep wood stemmed flowers fresh for longer periods. The blade (also used on the Stanley Slimknife) is held in place by means of a rust-proof nut. Handles and shank of the Flower Gatherer are in yellow plastics. It costs 75p San Francisco splash Following hard on the heels of the successful waterscaping of Portland, Oregon, Lawrence Halprin & Associates recently accepted a commission to do the same for Embarcadero Plaza. San Francisco. The space is a generous one, towered over by some of the slab blocks which are now mushrooming all over downtown. Halprin's design looks like a pile of concrete rubble. The huge cranked water spouts are threaded with cat walks so that visitors can see, hear and feel the tumbling waters. Bendit revisited With slight modifications to its tubular steel underframe and plastics shell, the much trumpeted Bendit chair (DESIGN 254/45) designed by Anthony Hooper is in full production. On the early models it was found that the shell was apt to spring away from the frame: this tendency has been avoided by shortening the back of the shell and increasing the height of the rear part of the frame. Both these modifications have led to an improvement in the chair's profile. Shells are available in polythene. polypropylene and acrylic in a range of colours and the underframe comes in three alternative surface finishes: epoxy coated, nylon dipped or chromium plated. Price from £5, from Bendit Plastics Ltd, 1 9-21 Newbury Street, London EC1. Reeds in the wind Reeds moving in the wind on the Cromford Canal, Derbyshire, inspired this piece of mobile sculpture by art lecturer Keith Fair. The moulded grp members are kept in motion by water flowing through the structure. Triangular buckets in each base section are fed by water through the tubular frame of the sculpture, the weight making the buckets tip out their contents and vibrate the vertical "reeds". The piece was specially commissioned by Derbyshire County Council for the Henry Fanshawe School at Dronfield. It was made by Hodkin and Jones Limited, Sheffield. |
||||