Fresh Ideas

Last week the BiniChic team went up north to the effervescent and inspiring metropolis of Paris. Great design was everywhere. The streets, the shops, the flea-markets and the trade show Maison et Objet were brimful of new ideas. Today we’d love to share with you some of the ones that caught our attention.

The above is an image of Molo Design’s softwall + softblock modular wall with LED lights. Molo is an innovative Vancouver-based design studio dedicated to the research of materials and the exploration of space making. We love the contrasts in the modular paper projects — delicate and full of poetic beauty, they are surprisingly sturdy and comfortable. Molo sets out to create objects that define intimate temporal spaces.

The urchin lamp is a fluid and sculptural shape shifting light that provides ambient diffusion of energy. Its elastic and malleable qualities invite to a playful interaction, creating a movement akin to a sea creature.

Making use of unusual materials — or rather, materials not usually used in that form — Ango designs lamps (and furniture) fabricated in a sustainable way using human scale production methods to a world class standard.

One of their most intriguing lamps are made with silk cocoons left in their original state. The lamps are constructed by attaching the silk cocoons to strands of wire which are then attached to a steel frame. The finished product has a soft, ethereal look and gives off a warm light. The same cocoons are also used in their silk-thread form or mixed with other materials such as silicon, polymers, tapioca skin, tree bark or or rattan to create fantastic and quirky lamps that nearly seem to have a life of their own.

Chillart‘s creations are developed with respect for the environment using mineral and organic materials as their basis. With a sleek design and wonderfully smooth finishes, they are physically and metaphorically fresh and cool. Their bold and sophisticated range of colors give the cement furniture an unusual pop.

Lidewij Edelkoort is a true trend forecaster. She not only perceives the trends which may appear in fashion or design magazines, but detects the long wave trends — the ones which approach organically and globally, affecting our perception of our surroundings. On her blog, Trend Tablet, she shares a range of those long wave trends.

One of those long-wave trends is Mohair wool. Since 2009, Lidewij has been counted on by Mohair South Africa to conduct special forecasts about mohair trends to inform, inspire and innovate the fibre in the fields of fashion and lifestyle. Mohair South Africa was established to advance the entire mohair industry, realizing the responsibility that goes with being the most reliable and largest international source of quality mohair (South Africa currently produces 50% of the total world production).

“One of the oldest textile fibres in the world, mohair’s snug sustainable warmth fits precisely with our needs for making a nest, motivated by an ecology-driven climate. Yet its authentic and animalistic characteristics bring us back to the intuitive creativity of a more primal nature; all with its generous, shaggy folds and wisps of hair.” Lidewij Edelkoort

Fresh ideas can be completely new concepts, or new ways of looking at something we already knew. We hope that the new ideas we proposed here today inspire you, and we encourage you, our reader, to send or comment on fresh ideas you perceive.

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4 Responses to Fresh Ideas

  1. thayer says:

    very inspiring stuff..leave it to binichic to find the “edge” in how we live!
    show us more!

  2. antonio gabriel monjo says:

    Ideas sorprendentes a partir de algo simple.

  3. maria josé ventura - Zé Ventura says:

    Very nice work. I like. Thanks

  4. Luis says:

    Starck is an intuitive but it also follows the compass of tendanceurs. For Lidewij Edelkoort, the most famous tendancers (dancers on trends), largely inspired the dutch design Eindhoven, the future of western european design is in London and . in Eindhoven .Starck has just signed on with the dutch Marcel Wanders for Yoo and with the BBC in London to recruit new designers

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