Coopa-Roca has opened a store in the São Conrado Fashion Mall, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On display is one of our Come Rain Come Shine chandeliers, which are handmade by the craftswomen the cooperative supports.
Coopa-Roca is a cooperative that trains, manages, and coordinates the work of female residents of Rocinha, who produce artisanal pieces for fashion and design markets.
After a great opening party with all our friends, the Tord Boontje Shop is now officially open!
In the shop, we have all the products I have designed for clients such as Swarovski, Moroso, Kvadrat, Artecnica, Authentics. These range from crystal chandeliers to mass-produced tableware, textiles and lighting; from the extravagant and experimental to everyday affordable products.
The design studio is located in the same space and it is also where we will be making one-off pieces of furniture and lighting. We will be creating special items that will be exclusive to the Tord Boontje Shop. I hope the presence of myself and my team will create a friendly atmosphere, where people are welcome, can browse, ask questions, share thoughts and get an insight of the workings behind the scenes and into the making of products.
I see the shop as a new way of working for myself, a place where independent experimentation can take place; where we can create special products, either as oneoff or production pieces. To me, forming this method of working reflects the time we live in, a time in which it is good to think about making by hand and by machines, the local and the global, creativity and freedom, presentation and independence.
The shopʼs unique interior is an installation of furniture, lights, textiles, objects, jewellery, and projection, creating a rich environment and a complete experience; a fulfilling place to come and visit.
We look forward to seeing you here!
Tord Boontje is one of seven curators from around the world invited by Kvadrat to nominate their pick of emerging and established design talents in their region. Curating for the UK, the designers selected were then asked to reinterprate the fabric and create a new piece for the exhibition Hallingdal 65.
The exhibition will be presented at the Jil Sander Showroom, Milan during Salone del Mobile, April 17 - 22 2012.
Hallingdal was designed by Nanna Ditzel in 1965. Since then it has become as famous for its durability as for its rich colour palette. Today, more than forty-five years later, it remains one of Kvadrat’s best-selling products and has earned its place as a design classic.
Cacophony is a doorbell that performs a cacophony of sound and movement. Developed in collaboration with Laikingland, Cacophony is part of their exhibition With Movement at Ventura Lambrate, Milan from 17 - 22 April 2012.
Through the gap in the shutters, I can see him coming up the path, he is past the gate already. Quick, can I hide? Why, would I? Should I not be glad that he is coming? What if…
Too late, I can see his hand reaching out for the buzzer, I know I have only a few seconds left.
The finger presses the button, the wireless connection is made, I look up at the ceiling.
The hammer on wheels is released, with hesitation it starts to move along the fine metal wire track. It picks up speed and rushes down the first steep slope of the track, it crashes into a steel watering can, BANG. Without slowing down the hammer keeps moving towards a glass bottle, the sound of impact is a glassy PING. Onwards through the steep corners towards the dried leaves, the doll, the tin can, CRUSH THUMP TING and finally heading towards the bell, where it ends with a loud CLANG.
Although, it does not quite end there, the weight of the hammer now tips the balance of the precariously hung track and the whole thing starts to tilt over. Slowly the hammer on wheels starts to move again, exploring new forces of gravity. Giving in to a new sliding motion as the track changes shape again and the hammer reaches it’s starting point again where it comes to rest.
The noise, the cacophony is still echoing through the house, while I wait for him to press the buzzer again.
- Tord Boontje
Laikingland is a creative label whose fundamental theme is movement. Each year, kinetic objects are developed collaboratively with invited artists and designers. The exhibition With Movement acknowledges both the objects and the collaborative process developed with each artist and designer.
See more on Cacophony and watch a video of it in action.
The Tord Boontje Shop will be opening in Shoreditch, London.
It will be the one place where all our designs will be presented together and, as our design studio will also be there, we’ll be selling special items made by us that will be exclusive to our shop. It promises to be a very dynamic, exciting and fantastical space!
We look forward to seeing you there!
Our Wednesday Light features in the Crafts Council’s 40:40 – Forty Objects for Forty Years a major exhibition celebrating 40 years of the Crafts Council Collection.
40:40 – Forty Objects for Forty Years is part of an exploration into ambitious digital online presentations and gateways, seen in the online exhibition programme and the new online Collection catalogue and images library, launching in early 2012.
The exhibition features 40 works from the Collection, each selected by an invited commentator: These friends and colleagues of the Crafts Council have a personal and professional relationship with us and the Collection and consist of makers, curators, and critics, who have contributed a personal interpretation or response to their object of choice. The objects are showcased with supporting films, audio clips or previously unseen archive material.
The Wednesday Light, part of the Wednesday Collection first presented in 2001, lead to our iconic Garland Light, first available from Habitat in 2002 and then Artecnica in 2004.
We’ve collaborated with Philips for The Pop-Up Generation - Design Between Dimensions an exhibition by Lidewij Edelkoort, trend forecaster and visionary from Paris, which is currently on show at MOTI, Museum of the Image in Breda, The Netherlands.
In the exhibition The Pop-Up Generation, the design curator and former director of the Design Academy Eindhoven presents designers and artists who embody this movement, some of whom have worked in collaboration with industries from the province of Brabant, are doing research into new ways of working and techniques.
At the start of the 21st century, the world is a cacophony of different cultures, destitute economies, innovative mass media and hyper technology. Old structures disappear and are replaced by a longing for synergy that flourishes with the new worldwide means of communication. In the practice of design, disciplines merge and worlds are linked together; 2D & 3D, analogue & digital, culture & capital, science & art, nature & technology and local & global.
Edelkoort explains that “Nestled in that no man’s land, a new era with new work is being prepared; artistic and elastic statements that without a doubt are shifting between all disciplines and all dimensions.”
In both the exhibition and the book entitled The Pop-Up Generation - Design Between Dimensions (Bis Publishers), Edelkoort has selected designers who make transience and the immaterial visible; as an apparition; from pop-up shops, pop-up events and guerrilla brands to moving merchandising and architecture. Moving in the sense of motion and action, but also in the sense of the emotional, aimed at the senses.
The dynamism of pop-up is reflected in the exhibition: its flexibility and versatility is a source of inspiration for many disciplines. Visitors will experience multi-media installations, see films and performances that become clocks, chairs, graphics, songs and lights, meet new characters animated by technology, witness computer programmes that make books magically come to life, and encounter cardboard and textiles that pop-up into animals, mushrooms, fashion, furniture and masks. Roles shift, connect and merge to the extent that there seems to be only one universal and elastic discipline that pops up, moving constantly between dimensions, and possibly trying to define a new one.
The Pop-Up Generation - Design Between Dimensions runs from 13 December 2011 to 12 April 2012 and will then tour to other destinations.
The carafe, shaped like a droplet of water, has been designed for Triflow. It launched last month and is available to buy now from their online store.
More images can be found here
Four new wall decorations have been launched as part of Bisazza’s 2012 Collection: Day Vision, Night Vision, Dark Water and Clear Water.
Tord Boontje has designed limited edition speaker surfaces for Yamaha’s ISX-800, a new audio system launched this Autumn. The two designs will be presented at the Yamaha showroom in Ginza, Tokyo, from 7th – 16th October as part of the design exhibition Resonated Yamaha.
Read Yamaha’s news release (in Japanese) here