Underground movement in Naples

I was sent a press release showing this new metro station in Naples, at Università, with designs by Karim Rashid, using Corian. My last experience of the Naples metro was of people walking across the tracks to get from one platform to the other, because they couldn’t be bothered to use the long way round. I wonder how much things have changed? Perhaps Naples is the only city where the students show the greatest discipline.

Cool LED lamp

At the new SCIN gallery last night, designer Jake Dyson talked about his CSYS lamp, a beautifully designed LED desk lamp with lots of technical innovation.
Dyson was particularly concerned about cooling the LED in the lamp to achieve maximum life, and went for the heat pipe technology used to rapidly cool electronic components. His heat pipe is then contained in the arm of the lamp, and he calculates that, with 12 hours’ usage daily, the LED should last for 37 years. The mechanism is beautiful – the arm not only slides forward and back, but also up and down.
The SCIN gallery is a wonder too. Not just a great library of materials in the basement, but all sorts of great makers exhibiting, from established companies such as Burlington Slate to a new company importing wall tiles made from coconut shell waste. These are surprisingly lovely to look at and, with multiple indentations, should have interesting acoustic properties.

Aaargh it’s a rabbit

This frankly terrifying giant rabbit was part of an installation during Paris Designer Days to showcase the work of Tai Ping Carpets and its marble-look carpeting. It reminds me of the ludicrous 1972 horror story Night of the Lepus, in which mutant rabbits larger than people terrorise a community, twitching their noses menacingly. It was once introduced on TV as ‘a bedtime bunny story for big people’. Here’s a bunny nightmare.

Banish the bale

We are becoming used to buildings constructed from straw bales, but I just love this one which relies on absence of bales: It comes courtesy of that great website Dornob, and is of a house built by excavating a pit and then filling it with straw bales around which concrete was poured. Then a cow was imported to eat through the bales and hey presto, a new home – after clearing up somewhat I imagine.

Sustainable crop

The hallmark of a good set of awards entries lies not in what has been shortlisted, but in what missed the cut. If really fascinating projects fail to get in, you know it is a good year. This is the case with this year’s Wood Awards. The organisers invited views of all the entries on the day that shortlisting was completed. The shortlisted projects looked great, but so do many that were left out. Why couldn’t that lovely stair be included? That intriguing table? That so desirable building. Fortunately, all the buildings and furniture that have been shortlisted look really good. My tip for the overall winner? Adam Khan’s floating visitor centre at Brockholes nature reserve in Lancashire. Wood and water – what a combo!

Happy fliers

Does flying always have to be a nightmare? Apparently not. The refurbishment of Terminal Two at San Francisco airport by Gensler as a domestic terminal, is unlike any I have ever encountered.
Soft colours and music in security? Check. Gourmet food influenced by the slow food movement? Check. so much art it is designated as an art gallery? Yup. A nice cafe where you can wait for arriving friends? Yes. Drinking fountains where you can refill your water bottle after going through security? Oh, yes. And all this in an existing building, with low headroom and a need for earthquake proofing. Flying may never be green, but refurbing an airport in this way is at least a start. And by upping its game, San Francisco also becomes more competitive. You can read more about it here.

A prickly subject

I would always have thought that a field of nettles was an abandoned field, but apparently they are grown commercially. Fabric company Camira, which was exhibiting at Clerkenwell Design Week, is using them in its furnishing fabrics. 

Fibres from the nettles are mixed with wool, and have natural fire-retardant and anti-microbial properties. Take up of dyes is at a different concentration from the wool, creating an attractive speckled finish. And I was relieved to learn that harvesting and gathering of fibres is all done mechanically – no stings!

Getting away from it all in Japan

I love this peaceful escape on the Dornob website, a get-away-from-it-all refuge in the woods in Japan, designed by HSWSG.

The space underneath is protected from rain, and therefore liveable for much of the year, and the interior is enchanting. Let’s just hope it is still there, and can be enjoyed in the future. This is such a contrast to the terrible stories from Japan at present.

Scots get cross

I have just been talking to Peter Wilson who runs the Wood Studio at Napier University about research into cross-laminated timber. I always assumed that UK timber was not high enough quality, because it grows too fast, but apparently this is not the case. The main issue, Peter says, is to do with drying the timber sufficiently without it twisting, because we harvest trees with relatively small-diameter trunks. But it is an issue that he believes could be overcome, and it would be a great added-value product to see produced in the UK. (This image comes from Binderholz, a company based in Austria and Germany).

Stark stairing mad?

I found a company called eestairs on Facebook, on one of those small ads that pop up. I must say, it was far more intriguing than being told how to lose belly fat, or having suggestions for ‘mature men’ I might want to date.

eestairs is a pretty dreadful name, but they might some intriguing staircases, as well as some that are downright terrifying, like this one: