MAY 18 BUBBLE ME THIS?
The Finnish designer Eero Aarnio (b.1932) is known as an international super star…in the design world. Specifically, industrial design because Aarnio, early in his career, explored materials often not considered conventional on the interiors front. Yet, with persistence and revisions, Aarnio introduced the world not only to materials such as brightly colored injected and molded seating but to the now iconic “Bubble Chair”. Offered on the open market in 1968, no designer’s presentation boards would be the same. Till this day, the uniquely shaped chair one could say is the ultimate subliminal nod to modernism, in that every design student recognizes and pays homage to in one way or another. Riddle me this? or better said in 2014, Bubble me this? How has the simplest expression of seating sparked generations of imaginations in architects, industrial designers and interior designers since 1968? Perhaps the comforting shape/ perhaps the play of refuge and prospecting out though a world of plexi? Or perhaps it is one being suspended in reality literally by a chain above. Whatever the formula, Aanio bottled it and blew a bubble… "the bubble chair"… still adored and still emulated 45 year later.
Image/history below: http://www.eeroaarnio.com/bubbleframes/index.htm
Image/history below: http://www.eeroaarnio.com/bubbleframes/index.htm
I myself included, could not resist adding the bubble chair to a design or two.
Below, I incorporated the bubble chair into a lobby/reception area design/rendering.
Below, I incorporated the bubble chair into a lobby/reception area design/rendering.
The bubble is ever-changing and reflective of light. It can be quite mesmerizing and familiar at the same time. From art installations to architecture. Digital fabrication and modeling has opened up new innovative possibilities inspiring new uses for the bubble form.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/richardbarnett/6298786036/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/richardbarnett/6298786036/
Whether grounded, suspended or contrasting its welcoming form against an untouchable experience-as below still beckons us to get close and explore the fascination of simplicity of form. Perhaps, the bubble which captivates toddlers to adults, maintains its draw because it just is.
Below..."MAD’s proposal for the future Beijing 2050 was first revealed at its exhibition MAD IN CHINA in Venice during the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale. Beijing 2050 imagined three scenarios for the future of Beijing—a green public park in Tiananmen Square, a series of floating islands above the city’s CBD, and the “Future of Hutongs”, which featured metallic bubbles scattered over Beijing’s oldest neighborhoods. Three years later, the first hutong bubble has appeared in a small courtyard in Beijing." What fascinates is the interplay and contest with a vintage and revered structure the shinny materiality creates an instant permanent exhibit and bond with the past.
http://www.designboom.com/architecture/mad-architects-hutong-bubble-32-beijing/
http://www.designboom.com/architecture/mad-architects-hutong-bubble-32-beijing/
Yet, before complex interior or architectural design planning can begin, initial dialog and conceptual planning often starts with "bubble diagramming" a mental charrette of sorts to start adjacency planning for a client's interior spacial needs. The rounded gestural shapes butt up against one another affording approximation of square footage and prioritizing area needs.
Post a charrette, spacial bubbles may help better define an office layout or an interior space within a stand-alone pavilion as seen below. "The Thirst Pavilion, situated
in the middle of an Expo ground, looks like a bubble with mirrors on the
façade. Designed by architect Enric Ruiz Geli, Cloud9 and designer Martin Azua, the Igloo represents a mountain of salt inspired
by the structure of the salt molecules. The inflated, transparent bubbles
represent the water drops on top of the salt mountain. The whole structure is
screwed and knotted together in order to be able to be moved or recycle after
the Expo. The main material is ETFE, the same
fluorocarbon-based polymer the Eden Project domes are made
of. The dome measures 36.7 metres in diameter and 10 meters high, creating an
exhibition area of 820m2 to accommodate some 75 people every 5 minutes."
Source & image: http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/the-thirst-pavilion-using-innovative-architecture-and-solutions-to-combat-global-water-issues.html
Source & image: http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/the-thirst-pavilion-using-innovative-architecture-and-solutions-to-combat-global-water-issues.html
Below: "Design Crew for Architecture have created an incredible water purifying skyscraper that looks like dozens of soapy bubbles stacked one on top of another. According to the design brief, “There is only about 1% left of liquid freshwater and the UNO and the World Water Council estimates there might be a crisis affecting half the worldwide population by 2030.” Capable of making freshwater efficiently and sustainability using a series of bubbles filled with water-filtering mangroves, the unconventional building pushes the envelope of what a skyscraper is capable of doing.
Unlike a traditional skyscraper, the freshwater factory is proposed not for the city but for the Almeria province of Spain for its sunny weather and favorable growing conditions. A special mention in the 2010 eVolo Skyscraper competition, the bulbous building would house a freshwater factory filled with mangroves that would convert saltwater into drinking water which could then be used to grow food crops.
In order to facilitate water purification, the tower will be made up of several circular tanks filled with brackish water (water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater), which will be enclosed in spherical greenhouses. Using tidal powered pumps, the brackish water will be brought up into the tower and circulate through the mangrove plants, which have the unique ability to thrive on brackish water and perspire freshwater. The freshwater sweat then evaporates and condensates into dew on wall of the greenhouse and is collected in a freshwater tank. The resulting freshwater can then be distributed to the fields using gravitational flow.
According the designers, one hectare of mangroves should be able to produce 30,000 liters of freshwater a day. In other words, the tower would be able to irrigate a one-hectare field of tomatoes per day."
http://raddblog.wordpress.com/category/planning/
Unlike a traditional skyscraper, the freshwater factory is proposed not for the city but for the Almeria province of Spain for its sunny weather and favorable growing conditions. A special mention in the 2010 eVolo Skyscraper competition, the bulbous building would house a freshwater factory filled with mangroves that would convert saltwater into drinking water which could then be used to grow food crops.
In order to facilitate water purification, the tower will be made up of several circular tanks filled with brackish water (water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater), which will be enclosed in spherical greenhouses. Using tidal powered pumps, the brackish water will be brought up into the tower and circulate through the mangrove plants, which have the unique ability to thrive on brackish water and perspire freshwater. The freshwater sweat then evaporates and condensates into dew on wall of the greenhouse and is collected in a freshwater tank. The resulting freshwater can then be distributed to the fields using gravitational flow.
According the designers, one hectare of mangroves should be able to produce 30,000 liters of freshwater a day. In other words, the tower would be able to irrigate a one-hectare field of tomatoes per day."
http://raddblog.wordpress.com/category/planning/
As the design field takes more and more into account water saving initiatives, it seems the bubble or inspiration thereof is never far away. Below: "The architect Renzo Piano
shows his great ability in creation such a new creation through The “Glass
Bubble” Located on the harbor in Genoa, Italy. This Bubble is A biosphere filled
with plants and animals. Renzo Piano Designed this “Glass Bubble” on the
occasion of G8 Meeting held in Genoa on July 2001. This Glass Bubble is close
to the Acquarium and hosts different types of ferns."
http://www.archithings.com/bubble-in-genoa-by-architect-renzo-piano/2011/07/24
http://www.archithings.com/bubble-in-genoa-by-architect-renzo-piano/2011/07/24
Below, a sculpture, an artful interpretation of the "bubble".
http://itdoesnthavetoberight.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/bubble_car.jpg
http://fatherof4-familyof6.blogspot.com/2012/02/original-bubble-car.html
http://itdoesnthavetoberight.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/bubble_car.jpg
http://fatherof4-familyof6.blogspot.com/2012/02/original-bubble-car.html
Designer Yuji Fujimura’s concept for European automaker Peugeot comes in the form of a bubble for one.
http://stephenbrammer.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/roundup-2nd-march-2010/
http://stephenbrammer.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/roundup-2nd-march-2010/
Above all uses and applications for the bubble, none is more stunning then its simplest form elevated in lighting fixtures.
Little is needed to capture instant fans. Now with the onset of LED, colorplay adds a new dimension within.
Little is needed to capture instant fans. Now with the onset of LED, colorplay adds a new dimension within.
"Jean Pelle developed the first Bubble Chandelier. She met her future business partner (and husband) Oliver about ten years ago at the Yale School of Architecture, and each went on to work for major firms before setting out on their own."http://www.core77.com/blog/lighting/
Video below: Surface Tension Lamp by FRONT for BOOO-- A bubble is brief, and bursts at your touch. But while it lasts, it catches the light and reflects the room like a multi-coloured temporary structure. "We wanted to create a constantly changing lamp that combines the most ephemeral of lampshades with an LED light source that will last for 50000 hours. In the time it takes the LED to burn out, the lamp will have had 3 million different globe shades."
www.frontdesign.se www.booo.nl In collaboration with Loligo
www.frontdesign.se www.booo.nl In collaboration with Loligo
The phrase "You must live in a bubble" often conjurers up a negative meaning, but I disagree. To be in bubble and looking out is the ultimate refuge to prospect relationship and if the bubble is just the right size an entire universe inspires within and outside. The ultimate idea generating experience and better yet it does'nt POP.