Locksmith

A locksmith on Bethnal Green Road, London

The Roundabout: Harnessing Kid Power to Pump Water!

I don’t usually post links to other web site, but thought that this was a design worth talking about.

http://www.waternetwork.co.za/projects/play-pump.html

This as a project that gives play equipment a second function. As the children play they are pumping drinking water to a storage tank, how ingenious.

Milan Furniture Fair 2012

With Milan fair over for another year, I thought I would post a little photo diary of my three day trip.

Week before the Fair

I did my usual checks to make sure that my hotel and flights were all booked and OK, and realised that I had booked both for a day too early, after a £60 change of flight charge I was back on track to fly out on Wednesday the 18th April.

With a 4.30am alarm call, the drive to Gatwick at that ungodly hour was uneventful and the airport was unusually efficient with very little queuing. I was lucky to the get one of the 3 front row seats with the extra leg room (I’m 6″5`), and for those who know me well, it will come as no surprise that I was asleep before some people had even boarded!!!

As we taxied on the runway, I was rudely awakened by a commotion at the back of the plane, someone had stood up or something, took very little notice and went happily back to sleep.

After a nice nap that lasted almost all the way to Milan, I awoke slightly better rested. On the bus from the plane to the terminal the Captain joined us, and he was duly interrogated about the person that had caused the commotion, and why he had to be restrained and handcuffed to the seat, with police waiting for him on the runway.  He gave very little away, except that this was the 6th time they had trying to deport him back to Italy, and the disturbance was his way of trying to be removed from the flight again.

Day 1

The Fair

For those who have never been or heard of Fuori Saloni (Milan Furniture Fair), it’s in the new Milan Fair Rho Pero and it`s one of the largest shows world-wide with 8 large pavilions for indoor exhibitions and 60,000m for outdoor exhibitions space. The Milan Fair is one of the most important in the international trade fair sectors, full of the best (and some of the worst) design products you will find anywhere. Here are my picks of the good, the bad and the downright ugly…

The Good

Desalto

Alternative

TAO design

Jab

Arper

45 Kilo

Dots design studio

deCafe

Lights made with used coffee beans

IED MAD+BCN

Herb garden made with an old bed frame and plastic bottles

Snaidero

MK

The Bad

…and The Ugly

Day 2

With the fair done, it`s now the time for the satellite shows dotted around Milan city. With 367 organised exhibitions from front rooms, to large warehouses not to mention all the other unofficial Street sides shows. The hippest area traditionally being Tortona.

Following another day walking for 12 hours: here’s the best of what I found.

Valcucine & DeMode

Full circle designed kitchen, made with mostly recycled materials. Once it has finished it’s life as a kitchen, Valcucine will collect it and recycle it, free of charge

Austrian Design

Agape

  L’Invisibile

The best thing at Milan, an almost invisible electrical door… it’s amazing when you see detail working so well…

Molteni & C

  Resident

Blackbody

Day 3

Woke up to painful calf muscles, following 2 solid days of pounding the fair and streets of Milan. Another good breakfast and back to Tortona to see the rest of what I missed the night before. It’s unfortunate that the area has lost its edge. The big companies have moved in and are trying to piggy back on the coolness of the previous years. But this is the best of what I found there.

Chimere

spoil your pets

Saazs

Glass which are a heaters or that change from clear to sandblasted. Neat.

With a new area having started in the north of Milan, I worked my way up to Via Ventura; this new frontier was full of the best that Milan can offer, and the coolest young designers around.

 

Wendy Maarten

EKBB Magazine – May 2012 Edition

We have an 8 page spread in Essential Kitchen, Bedroom, Bathroom magazine (May 2012) for a project we completed in North London. I have attached a few of the images of you to have a look at, hope you like them.

 

 

 

 

Gregg Parsell

 

Designer to look out for in the future – Gregg Parsell

http://www.greggparsell.co.uk

 

 

Unusual Ferrari Car-Motorcycle

This vehicle was built by François Knorreck. Although his real job is technician in an hospital at Saint-Etienne in France, he spends all his free time to build, manufacture, modify and tune motorbikes. He spent 10000 hours of hard work, more than 10 years from time to time in the garage and about 15000 Euros to create this vehicle. Wonderful “hobby”!

 

Fire Detectors

Fed up with ugly (but essential) Fire Detectors. Well thank god someone has done something about it.