ross lovegrove’s in-formation edifice for alcantara at imm cologne 2017

imm cologne: for a second year, italian manufacturing company alcantara celebrates art and design at the 2017 imm cologne trade show by introducing a special project in partnership with the award-winning british designer ross lovegrove. renowned for being a visionary, he explores innovative concepts in technology, material sciences and intelligent bio-forms to create high-end contemporary designs. his latest collaborative installation, titled ‘in-formation’, is exhibited during the month of january at the international interiors show.

ross lovegrove in-formation for alcantra at the imm cologne 2017 trade show

constructed using alcantra fabric stripes, this large-scale installation by ross lovegrove at imm cologne has been a great proving ground for advanced computational design techniques — including surface development. in order to achieve that, lovegrove has collaborated with italian architect and computational designer arturo tedeschi. extending about 3 meters in height and 20 meters in length, in-formation is an abstract depiction of geological formations that highlights the depth and richness of the alcantara material. 

detail of alcantara stripes assembled as a continuous wave, depicting rock stratification

‘alcantara has a rich saturated depth of colour’, says lovegrove. ‘for me, it is not a superficial material but one that feels solid and massive. so my reaction has been to display it horizontally as if one was encountering a rock formation at petra or the grand canyon, with its layered strata in beautiful natural colours. my installation, of course, is a conceptual abstraction of this phenomenon — also creating a sensual acoustically soft environment that defines space. to achieve this, I worked closely with arturo tedeschi, whom I also collaborated with on the ILABO 3D-printed shoes for united nude a couple of years ago“.

technical drawing – front view

technical drawing – top view

curvature analysis

fabrication stage
image courtesy of baecher bergmann

concept sketch by ross lovegrove

andrea boragno (alcantara chairman) and designer ross lovegrove 

project info: 

client: alcantara
design: ross lovegrove
computational design: A>T (arturo tedeschi, maurizio degni, davide lombardi)
fabrication: baecher bergmann (installation), plotini allestimenti (seatings)

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.