design academy eindhoven at milan 2010 (part 1)

during milan design week 2010, the design academy eindhoven presented an exhibition entitled ‘questions’.co-curated by ilse crawford (british designer and head of the design department ‘man and well being’), and anne mieke eggenkamp (chairwoman of the design academy eindhoven), the show was comprised of the most recent work of the academy’s graduate students. this year’s presentation was held in lambrate as opposed to the regular venue within zona tortona.

questions are the start of everything, and the exhibition addressed a number of issues – asked in the form of questions – through design solutions:

‘personal fresh air’ by julio radesca de carvalho image © designboom

with ‘personal fresh air’, designer julio radesca de carvalho tried to answer the following questions:can we purify toxic air with plants? how can you improve the air quality inside the home in a simple way? offices especially suffer from poor air quality. are we slowly poisoning ourselves? through her research, julio discovered that twelve house plants per person would be enough to filter the air indoors. a dozen of three very ordinary species – the areca palm, the sansevieria and the epipremnun aureum – can keep us alive even within an enclosed space. radesca gave twelve air filterers a place of their own inside a desk with a hydroponics system. a maintenance free, oxygen-making solution for a healthy workplace.

‘personal fresh air’ by julio radesca de carvalho image © designboom

‘personal fresh air’ detail image © designboom

‘personal fresh air’ detail image © designboom

‘fragments of nature’ by lex pott image © designboom

‘how can furniture be reproducible yet retain its connection to nature?’ ‘can a tree’s original, organic structure be combined with the industrial, geometric shapes used in the wood processing industry?’

lex pott‘s ‘fragments of nature’ attempts to answer these questions through a range of furniture. here, the tops of his tables join to meet its legs which are in the shape of a tree trunk. reproducible pieces, yet still remaining as fragments of nature. ‘fragments of nature’ by lex pott image © designboom

‘shaping oral knowledge’ by jihyun ryou image © designboom

jihyun ryou asks: ‘how can we use oral knowledge in our design? new technologies offer quick and easy solutions, but they also mean losing a great deal of traditional knowledge, which is seen as old fashioned.

her project ‘shaping oral knowledge’ focuses on food preservation, in which people primarily have handed over to their refrigerators. her design tool is meant to implement oral knowledge which has been accumulated by experience and transmitted verbally from one person to another in a tangible way. the idea behind the tool is meant to restore our connection with food, ourselves and different living beings. it also addresses issues such as energy consumption and food wastage. here, ryou tries to get people to rethink and create new traditions and rituals, which can contribute to the larger picture of our changing world. ‘shaping oral knowledge’ detail image © designboom

‘badkast’ by anna van der lei image © designboom

‘where do you like to take a bath?’

anna van der lei believes that the bathroom as a fitted room is too restrictive. she tries to resolves this issue with ‘badkast’ a dutch version of a finnish sauna which can be placed outside as well as indoors. anna believes that a bath is more than a physical cleanse, and that with the right location, a good bath can be had. this sauna is comprised of a larchwood cupboard with custom-made joints that expand as they get wet, making it completely watertight. you can also hang your clothes over the bath, where steam will freshen them up as you sit back and soak. ‘badkast’ detail image © designboom

‘badkast’ by anna van der lei photo by rene van der hulst courtesy of the design academy eindhoven

‘from fable to table’ by amélie onzon photo by rene van der hulst courtesy of the design academy eindhovenamélie onzon‘s ‘from fable to table’ responds to the following questions: ‘can design confront us with our double standards?’ ‘do you use these pieces to produce foie gras, or to give the ducks a better life?’

researching the consumption of meat, onzon became fascinated with the relationship between man and animal. ‘people will pamper their pets, yet at the same time they will eat meat from other animals. this meat will have an abstract appearance, because we refuse to associate it with the living creature it once was.‘ orzon wants to show us the inconsistencies of our relationships with animals. ‘from fable to table’ by amélie onzon image © designboom