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Showing posts with label dutch design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dutch design. Show all posts

The Self-Sufficient Energy Neutral Villa Kogelhof by Paul de Ruiter



Taking six years to create and construct, the design of Villa Kogelhof is based on complete autarky: the house is energy neutral. By utilizing several techniques, the villa maintains a comfortable climate all year long, while being extremely energy efficient. The goal for the villa was to be self-sufficient; to generate its own energy, to heat its own water and to recycle its own garbage.

The First Flat-Packed Wooden Bike You Assemble Yourself. The Sandwichbike by Basten Leijh.



It's new. It's cool. It comes in the mail and you put it together. Dubbed the Sandwichbike, this Dutch Design original was inspired by the concept of flat packing, home assembly and Bleigh Industries' never-ending drive to create exceptional products.

Droog's New Hotel In Amsterdam Opens September 16th. See All That It Has To Offer.




At the historical centre of Amsterdam, on September 16th, 2012, Droog will open a hospitality experience like no other. Hôtel Droog is a place where you can come for a drink, a bite to eat, exclusive shopping, exhibitions, beauty advice, a stroll in the garden, a lecture series, or even a bed for the night. Featuring the Droog Store, Gallery, Dining Room, Fairy Tale Garden, Beauty at Cosmania, Fashion at Kabinet, Products at Weltevree, and the one and only Bedroom, Hôtel Droog is conspicuously housed in 700 square metres in a 17th century building, promising to be a new cultural home in the heart of Amsterdam.




“The concept of a hotel has been reversed. Whereas a hotel is usually mostly about sleeping, here we have enlarged and emphasized all the aspects that many hotels also offer and made them central to the hotel experience—and it even has a room to sleep in,” says Renny Ramakers, co-founder and director of Droog. “Hotel Droog brings all of our activities under one roof—from curation to product design, exhibitions and lectures—and invites people to plug in as they choose.”

The new hotel, a 10-room member-only hotel, concept restaurant and exhibition space was designed by Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow.


above: a model of the building shows the inner courtyard

Leaving the canal-facing front façade intact, Atelier Bow-Wow created an intricate inner courtyard façade inspired by Amsterdam’s historic architecture.



above: an early rendering of one of the hotel's rooms

The hotel restaurant will host new concept dinners by invited designers and chefs, improvising with local market left-overs and practicing the act of eating slowly yet attentively.


above: An initial rendering of the restaurant included a smoking space

The street level will house an on-going program of Droog exhibitions and events.

EXHIBITIONS at GALLERY

The Gallery is an exhibition space curated by Droog or by specially invited curators. This prominent and beautiful 160 square metre space features the latest in design, art, and fashion and previews upcoming developments in the creative industry. The Gallery aims to create a dialogue between design and society by hosting workshops and discussions.

ESCAPE at FAIRY TALE GARDEN

Enter a magical fairy tale garden. Designed by French Designers Claude Pasquer and Corinne Détroyat, the courtyard has been transformed into a shelter for biodiversity, where natural and artificial elements intermingle.

All elements are functional, attracting, feeding, watering, and providing respite for birds, butterflies, insects, flowers, edible plants and humans alike. Mixing seamlessly with abundant plantation, synthetic turf covers the winding pathways to create a sense of stillness. The garden is a real mixture of serenity and joy.

FOOD, DRINKS & DISCUSSIONS at THE DINING ROOM
The Dining Room is a simple, elegant and airy room that overlooks the flourishing garden. Enjoy some of the neighbourhood’s finest homemade recipes or freshly made smorrebrod sandwiches.

The menu is bound by one philosophy: simple, healthy, delicious dishes created with well-sourced and seasonal ingredients.

The Dining Room is open for lunch and special events, lectures and performances. In honour of the building’s history as home of the textile guild, Droog commissioned Dutch artist Berend Strik for a reinterpretation of Rembrandt’s famous De Staalmeesters, a painting that once hung here.

SLEEP at THE ONE AND ONLY BEDROOM
The top floor of Hotel Droog is for guests who might like to stay the night or more. Central but quiet, the brightly-lit space, with bedroom, living area and kitchen, provides a superb view over Amsterdam rooftops.

DESIGN at DROOG STORE

The Droog Store is an open atmosphere where you can interact with the Droog experience. Featuring small and affordable products along with limited edition pieces, each piece has been designed to enhance daily life and has its own story to tell. The store also sells the ‘Friends of Droog’ curated collection, products from other labels that match the Droog aesthetic and concept.

BEAUTY at COSMANIA

At COSMANIA you will find beautiful, affordable and very special international cosmetics brands that can’t be found anywhere else in The Netherlands. All beauty brands presented have their own unique story to tell. The unique principles of COSMANIA’s brand philosophy are exclusivity to the Netherlands and an open attitude that invites interaction with visitors. Openness comes in the form of honest product reviews, valuing visitor’s opinions and experiences with the products, and inviting visitors to help determine the collections.

COSMANIA is always open to advice on international brands you may have seen on your travels or in magazines that you’d like to see and share with other cosmaniacs.

FASHION at KABINET


KABINET is an intimate place where you can find exclusive fashion labels represented within this fashion salon. KABINET features some of the best eclectic designers of recent years including Isabel Marant, Maison Martin Margiela, and Hussein Chalayan. These sit beside other hand-picked luxury brands and a carefully curated selection of avant-garde designer pieces. KABINET has introduced a collection of unique fragrances to complement the cutting edge mix of womenswear, menswear, jewellery, accessories and design brands.

PRODUCTS at WELTEVREE
Weltevree is a Dutch product label that develops and produces authentic products with a focus on outdoor living.

Whether it’s the iconic Dutchtub (shown above) that allows you to enjoy the pleasure of bathing outside, or a stove that brings the crackling fire into your kitchen, Weltevree brings rawness, sensuality and a closeness to nature into your life. Featuring products that are distinctive, original and of excellent quality, Weltevree aims to deliver a quality experience that satisfies our primary desires.

press release information and images courtesy of Droog and Weltevree

Photography of hero image: Thijs Wolzak
Address: Staalstraat 7B, 1011 JJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Opening times: Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 7pm / Sunday 12 – 5pm (Mondays closed)
Website: www.hoteldroog.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HotelDroog

Packing Foam Fashions Emulate 16th and 17th Dutch and Flemish Masters' Paintings.




In this ongoing series of quietly elegant photographs by Suzanne Jongmans, she explores textures of both the past and present. Using the foam materials from packaging and insulation, she has fashioned them into the collars, shawls and clothes commonly seen in the 16th and 17th century Dutch, Flemish and French portraits by the likes of Golden Age and Dutch Renaissance painters Vermeer, Franz Hals, and Francois Clouet.

Below are the photographs and foam sculptures by Suzanne Jongmans interspersed with paintings from The Golden Age so you can see the inspiration for her work.

Suzanne Jongmans:

Franz Hals, Portrait of a Woman, 1635:

Suzanne Jongmans:

Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a balance, 1664:

Suzanne Jongmans:

Franz Hals, Portrait of a woman, 1630-1635:

Suzanne Jongmans:


Although Suzanne does not reference Spanish painter Diego Velazsquez in her explanation of the series, she clearly was inspired by his famous 1656 painting, Las Meninas, for this one:

detail from Velazquez' Las Meninas:


Some of these photographic prints are available for purchase through Saatchi Online here

Inspired by this post on Beautiful Decay

See more of Suzanne Jongmans work here.

PURE* Computers and Amplifiers. High Tech With High Style from Amsterdam.




Four years ago, I wrote a post on these unusual ceramic encased computers and amplifiers from Plush Department. Since that time, they have updated the technical specs so that the computers and amplifiers have up-to-date capabilities like BluRay, VOIP and video conferencing.

Together with Dutch designer Vince Vijsma and Cor Unum Plush Department created the first PURE* ceramic computer cases. The PURE* line extends into many colors and metal coatings such as bronze, platinum and pure gold. This is actually one of the big advantages of ceramic as a base material. PURE*s are cubic in shape with friendly rounded edges that integrate perfectly into any style environment - only the port for entering a DVD or CD remains recognizable as a tech interface.

The PURE* Computers and amplifiers are available in Delft Blue, White, Black, Bronze, Gold-plated and a special edition by Graffiti artist Zender, all shown here.


PURE* Delft Blue


The Koninklijke Delftsche Aardewerkfabriek (Royal Delft Pottery) “De Porceleyne Fles Anno 1653” N.V. (Royal Delft) is the leading producer of authentic Delft Blue ornamental earthenware and modern earthenware. The Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles is the only remaining factory of 32 earthenware factories that were established in the 17th century.



Plushdepartment’s PURE is a piece of modern earthenware with a retro authentic view. Plush Department gave De Porceleyne Fles the assignment to create a motif that really fitted the shape of the PURE* and a Dutch design look. Very recognizable all over the world, but never seen on a computer, ever.

The Plush Department PURE* Delft Blue numbered, signed and certified by the Royal Porceleyne Fles and are rare collector items.

PURE* Gold
126 grams to be exact. The factory has to be emptied of all workers since gold is a heavy metal and only trained people are allowed to handle it under this conditions according to Dutch law.



In the Netherlands there is one such person. The gold layer is a 100% gold glazing, there is no dilution of any kind. It is actually one of the purest forms of the rare metal.




PURE* Bronze
Many cultures produced works of high art using bronze. In Africa the bronze heads of the Kingdom of Benin, in Europe; Grecian bronzes typically of figures from Greek mythology. In East Asia chinese bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasty - more often ceremonial vessels but including some figurine examples.



Bronze was significant to any culture that encountered it. It was one of the most innovative alloys of mankind.




The bronze glaze comes alive in every lighting situation, a unique quality hardly found in any other material.


PURE* White
An object of excellence combines form and function.




The big advantage of ceramic is the sheer endless possibilities one has with glazing.
Because of that it is possible to create the perfect color for each interior design.

PURE* Black



PURE* Zender


The modern artist Sander Pappot, also known as Zender, is based in Amsterdam and well known for his multilayered art that is very hip and stylish with retro influences.




Zender used to be part of the underground Amsterdam graffiti scene and known for his own unique style. Nowadays he runs his own graphic agency and has clients worldwide.




Plushdepartment asked him to go back to his roots again, and gave him a PURE computer and amplifier to handpaint in his own streetstyle.

About the computers:
The Plush Department PURE* computers are built for high definition media usage. With a PURE* you can watch BluRay disks, DVD’s, listen to CD’s and MP3's and present your photo’s and video’s. The Plush Department PURE* computers can also automatically “rip” those disks to your hard drive for easy access later on.

The PURE* computer is also perfect for each form of communication like email, chatting, voice over IP and video conferencing. Of course you can use your PURE* also for surfing the internet and all the office applications that you usually use.

Combine the PURE* computer with the PURE* amplifier and you possess also a audiophile sound environment. The combination enables you to replace all those HiFi installations, set top boxes and the half dozen remote controls one needed up to now with more possibilities and better image and audio quality.

The ceramic casings:
Cor Unum is the Dutch company that is world famous for their ceramic production for artists. Their mission is to produce the most beautiful pieces of earthenware, drawn by the national and international respected designers of today. Quality without compromise, technical expertise almost without limitation. All to provide their clients with the pleasure of enjoying ceramic art at the highest level. When Plush Department started the search for the case producer, no other company dared to touch the design, since square forms are extremely difficult to create in ceramic material. It took one year to realize the PURE* cases.

Computer Technical Specs:
Inside the Plush Department PURE* lineup you will find balanced highend components. Each selected part is chosen for it's excellence in it's field. Some parts even had to be developed like the PSU which is designed by the electrical engineer of ichbinleise.de.

Processor: Intel Dual Core 2,93GHz with Hyperthreading this CPU is very powerful yet very energy efficient.
Motherboard: Intel P57 chipset hightech board of superb quality.
Graficcard: High Definition 1080P with DVI HDMI connection
Harddisk operating system: INTEL SSD 80GB X25-M G2 Postville 240MB/s very fast SATA II interface.
Harddisk datastorage: 2TB (2000GB) with fast SATA II interface.
Memory: 4GB (2x2048MB) highend Dual Channel RAM.
Sound: 8 channels with HD audio and Digital SPDIF
Network: 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN connection including a fast wifi N solution.
Connections: 8xUSB 2.0, LAN, eSATA and WiFi.
Optical: Bluray player CD DVD writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

All this makes the PURE*computers very powerful and reliable and enables you to work fast, enjoy emerging graphics, store thousands of files, MP3's, data, photos or movies. You can easily connect to other computers in your network.You can play at home or online.

PURE* computers contain the same technology that you find in the ikbenstil.nl computers. Ikbenstil uses the best available cooling technology to create extremely silent highend computers. At the same time those computers are very stable, energy efficient and fast.

Because of this technology it is possible to use Plush Department computers in every living or working space.

Amplifier Specs:
What do you look for in a power amplifier? Bet it's the sound. The amplifier modules used in the PHONO are designed from the ground up for true fidelity by Hypex Electronics.

Features
Flat, fully load-independent frequency response
Low output impedance
Very low, frequency-independent THD
Very low noise
Consistent top performer in listening trials including class A and SET amplifiers
Runs on unregulated +/- rails
Pop-free start and stop control
Differential audio input
Overcurrent and overvoltage
LM4562 National buffer op amp
Audiophile capacitors

Technology:
The amplifier modules circuit is based on phase-shift controlled self-oscillation, with only a single voltage feedback control loop taking off at the loudspeaker terminals. The control function is constructed fully out of passive components, with only the comparator standing in for gain.

Item Symbol Spec Notes
Output Power PR 180W 4Ω, THD=1%
Distortion THD <0.1% typ Po< PR/2 <0.008% typ Po=1W Noise Un 30uV typ Frequency Response <10Hz-50kHz +0,-3dB Output Impedance Zo <20mΩ f=1kHz <150mΩ f=20kHz Efficiency η >92%
Supply Ripple Rejection PSRR 65dB Both rails



Plushdepartment

Visit them at:
The Plushdepartment Store
Dukdalfweg 30
1041BE Amsterdam
The Netherlands

E-mail: info@plushdepartment.com
Telephone +31-20-3301345

Nicholas Galanin Paper Sculptures Inspire Dutch Book Week Ad Campaign Posters.




Advertising and marketing agencies are often inspired by fine art. Such is the case with Etcetera's wonderful promotional posters for Dutch Book Week.


above: the computer generated image of Kader Abdollah used in the campaign

above: An actual 3D paper sculpture of Kader Abdollah by Nicholas Galanin was the inspiration for the computer generated campaign

A couple of blogs and design sites have featured the compelling ad campaign, but not all of them have entirely accurate information. The images were created entirely with CGI but were inspired by an artist who actually crafts similar three dimensional sculptures.


above: What Have We Become, a 3d paper sculpture by Nicholas Galanin

Each year, the Collective Promotion Dutch Literature (CPNB) organizes Dutch Book Week to promote Dutch literature and every year a specific genre is featured. This year the Book Week is featuring autobiographies, ‘GeschrevenPortretten’, which roughly translates into 'Written Portraits’.

Marketing agency, Etcetera, created the campaign which features CGI created posters of faces crafted from book pages representing the autobiographies of Anne Frank, Vincent van Gogh, Louis van Gaal and Kader Abdollah (writer of the biographic Book Week give away).

Souverein created the CGI artwork, because of time constraints, which was based on the work by artist Nicholas Galanin.

Kader Abdollah, Anne Frank, Louis van Gaal and Vincent van Gogh:




Concept for the campaign by: Markus Ravenhorst, Maarten Reynen

Here's some more of Nicholis Galanin's three dimensional paper sculptures:





images courtesy of Behance.net and Nicholas Galanin

Nicholas Galanin

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