Explore
Resource Types
Filter by article type:
Filter by author:
Filter by eras:
Filter by event types:
Filter by home cost range:
Filter by location types:
Filter by lot types:
Filter by post date:
Filter by product categories:
Filter by structure types:
Filter by topics:
Filter by section:
Latest Articles
-
Package
After more than 100 steps, the completed parts are ready for packaging. Workers assemble the upper container, filter funnel, gasket, and boiler in much the same way that the eventual user will put...
01.01.09 -
Shear and Coin
The metal-punching facility is down the road from the Magis headquarters in Motta di Livenza, in northeastern Italy. Steel sheets, 191⁄2 inches high, 45 inches wide, and less than 1⁄16-inch thick,...
01.01.09 -
Perimeters
The next tool makes a perpendicular fold around the sheet’s perimeter, which allows the hard edges to be folded away from the smooth backrest. Parts of this fold will become armrests. &ldquo...
01.01.09 -
Cuts, Curves, Cuts
The tool that folds the curve of the back of the chair is the most dramatic, but it is no more essential than the others, which trim the edges, cut the holes, and add a final soft angle to the...
01.01.09 -
Fitting Wood
Four straight legs and a round seat are CNC-milled out of solid beech, bolt holes and all, ready for fixing to the punched and painted steel. As the chair began production in early 2008, the...
01.01.09 -
Molten Dust
Piombino Dese, a drab industrial town between Venice and Verona, has many small glass companies, including Vetrerie New Glass, founded by Franco Pellizzon in 1991 and one of several Glo-Ball...
01.01.09 -
Blow Mold
When the blob has reached a diameter of about six inches, it has already been handled by two or three blowers, who multitask like chefs.
01.01.09 -
Cool and Cut
Vetrerie New Glass can make 18 Glo-Balls per hour—Pellizzon keeps the operation tight in order to guarantee exceptional quality. The balls sit in a slow-cooling kiln for two hours; otherwise, they...
01.01.09 -
Put Together
West of Piombino Dese, in Bovezzo, the well-tended Glo-Balls meet the other parts of the lamp: laminated tubular steel stands, bases, and electronic components sourced in Milan. At first glance the...
01.01.09 -
Sketching
Little Field of Flowers was first conceived in 2005, when, in the cyclical course of design trends, flowery was at the height of fashionability. Nani Marquina says, “We thought it would be nice to...
01.01.09 -
Prototyping
“We ordered the first prototypes in an embossed pattern,” explains Marquina, who works with several Indian manufacturing facilities. The Nanimarquina team instructed the manufacturers to use a...
01.01.09 -
Die Cutting
As Boontje’s signature style is often associated with cutouts, Marquina’s solution was a good fit. Sheets of felt from Rajasthan go into a die cutter, which is essentially a combination of a waffle...
01.01.09 -
Weaving
Depending on the size of the rug—they come in three sizes—one or two technicians at SPN operate the loom, which involves painstaking manual labor. “Every two or three lines,” Marquina explains, “we...
01.01.09 -
Cut
Organic merino wool arrives from Vermont, woven and mounted on rolls over a yard and a half wide. When asked what makes the wool organic, Notkin explains that the sheep grazed on pesticide-free...
01.01.09 -
Prep
Zippers, buttons, and other add-ons are rendered unnecessary by Looolo’s pillowcase closure system, which uses a tried-and-true technique: overlapping flaps on the back. “Zippers and...
01.01.09 -
Pattern
Notkin, who started her career making costume jewelry, has a knack for romantically contrasting hues and textures. In fact, her favorite part of the creative process comes before anything is made...
01.01.09 -
Stuff
The fronts and backs are sewn to each other inside out and then turned right side out—“we just make sure the corners are nice,” says Notkin. Each pillowcase is hand-stuffed with a...
01.01.09 -
Concept
On every scale, from cottage industry to mass market, production starts with research. Johnstone begins by scouring the globe for team members who have the right skills and design sense to match a...
01.01.09 -
From 2-D to 3-D
“Very aggressive” is how Johnstone describes the design schedule. They move quickly from a few rough sketches to a virtual 3-D model. AMOI and HWL take advantage of the time difference, working on...
01.01.09 -
Prototyping
After the sketch-overlay and technical-design phases, AMOI provides a 3-D model. In the nine months that follow, the shape is subject to intensive prototyping before delivery to the factory line. ...
01.01.09 -
Finishing
When finishes are chosen and every-one has signed off, the factory line begins to churn. “We do a short production run of about 500 phones,” says Johnstone, “and use them heavily to gather feedback...
01.01.09 -
Dumpster Diving
The first step in the Scrapile process is to acquire raw materials. Salgado and Bettencourt are beggars, not choosers: Any wood—from cherry to walnut—will do. With help from a local...
01.01.09 -
Building a Block
With raw material in hand, they painstakingly assemble their scraps into a solid, ten-foot-long block that is eight inches square. To achieve the striated pattern of cascading bands that is...
01.01.09 -
A Design Emerges
All of Scrapile’s sharp modern forms come from the solid block of wood. The pieces have evolved from basic, boxy shapes to more complex lines as Salgado, who does most of the design, has...
01.01.09 -
Putting It Together
With a design in place, the block is trimmed down to size, planed, sanded, and edge-cleaned. Planks are cut with precision, to ensure the waterfall pattern aligns exactly, and pieces are glued and...
01.01.09
