Natural wood trim—as opposed to laminate—is gaining steam in luxury car interiors. Various veneers are stores in a carefully monitored humidor before they're applied to models for armrests or dashboard and door details.
Here are some of the seat patterns for the various parts. Unlike a lounge chair or sofa found in your living room, this chair is made from many separate components, each positioned to optimize the piece.
The seatmaker sculpts a form out out of the foam. The more dense foam offers rigid support while the less dense sections conform more to a driver's body.
Seating is a large component of car interiors and evaluated on comfort, looks, and functionality. Very specific compositions of foam exist underneath the surface. The different densities create the support and comfort that's needed to make quick trips around town and long road trips equally enjoyable. Here's an example of the different foams in a seat.
Here's an example of all various wood accents one might see within a car. After the shape is contoured and refined by the designers and woodworkers—the same way as the steering wheel stitch is—it's then ok'd for production.
This is just a glimpse of what goes into three components and similar processes occur for other parts.
Inspirational spaces
After the foam configutation is set, the seat is upholstered and assembled.
The color, texture, and grain of a piece of leather is taken into account for upholstering an interior. Each car GM produces needs to be consistent and uniform in look and customization options. For example, if a buyer sees a caramel leather in a showroom car and wants it in their own, it needs to look the same. The studio makes sure that tanneries will be able to provide the right shade for a piece of leather and will be able to reproduce that on a large scale.
British artist Hannah Sawtell and technologist Avi Flombaum created sawbaum.com, where users can create visual collages using multiple vine streams. "We wanted it to look like a visual comic book, with overlapping panels," said Flombaum. "And we wanted it to be fun!" Photo courtesy Rhizome.
For example, a designer specifies a certain stitch pattern. A sewer then creates the same pattern by hand giving feedback on reproducability. If it's too complex, he or she will offer feedback to the designer; the designer then takes another stab at the stitch's look. The back and forth happens until the detail is refined and meets the aesthetic standards and manufacturing capabilities at GM.
The automotive design process at General Motors involves countelss talented people from ideation to production. After designers come up with ideas for interior and exterior styling—think: the shape of seats, the contouring of a console, the overall look and feel of a cabin—craftspeople create life-sized prototypes at the Interiors and Exteriors Studio. They evaluate the design to see if it's something that can be produced on a large scale given the tools and machinery that's readily available. Even the most minute stitch.
Spanning 10,000 square feet, the subterranean museum is comprised of 10 galleries (seven indoor and three outdoor), a cafe, and a reading room.
One of the witticisms found on livethesheendream.com.
Nearly 10,000 hours went into the planning of the Kasita, which comes with home automation, modular furniture, and endless stowaways.
The heavy hitters in the kitchen budget were the cabinetry, quartz counters, and a suite of appliances, including a refrigerator, wall oven/microwave unit, induction range, and dishwasher for $10,000.
Ulysses word cloud poster from beautifulwordsbeautifulart.com.
The home was prefabricated in Turkey and delivered to the site on the back of a flatbed truck. Thanks to the small size, simple design, and carefully selected palette, the project cost just under €10,000.
The home was prefabricated in Turkey and delivered to the site on the back of a flatbed truck. Thanks to the small size, simple design, and carefully selected palette, the project cost just under €10,000.
The smaller GM 15 Pendant Light is made of powder-coated lacquered stainless steel. The minimalist, classic pendant light hangs from a white fabric cord. It can be used on its own, or grouped with other GM Pendant Lights.
Shown with Menu’s Bottle Grinders Set.
To keep the project close to their $10,000 budget, the family looked for bargains whenever possible. The circular window was a misorder they snagged for 90 percent off from a local building supply store. The mahogany siding is a mix of Craigslist purchases and Dumpster finds.
A closer look at the copper GM Pendant light, shown with Menu’s stackable glasses.
The adjacent volume houses the galley kitchen; the Ball clock is by George Nelson Associates.A portion of Jack’s massive collection of more than 10,000 records is displayed in a low-slung walnut shelving unit built along the upstairs stairwell entry.
Illustration Play 2 goes on sale September 6. For more information, visit victionary.com or gingkopress.com.
The book cover. Courtesy of Princeton Architectural Press (papress.com).
Robertson--with the help of developers Katie Nichols and John Walker, who were heavily involved in the design process--finished the guest bathroom with Modwalls tiles and a sink they found on eBay. They used a piece of marine plywood, leftover from building the front-porch steps, to create a counter on which the sink could sit--and where the family can rest their toothbrushes. To the right of the sink is a Toto dual-flush toilet, which is great for conserving water but has proven problematic for toilet training, as American potty seats aren't designed to fit these Japanese basins.
The GM—Grethe Meyer—Pendants are balanced pendant lights that can be used for overhead lighting in a dining room or kitchen, and can also be grouped together to create a graphic lighting installation. Shown here, the GM 30 Pendant Light in Copper is made of lacquered solid copper and is suspended from a black fabric cord.
Shown with Menu’s Afteroom Chair, Kaschkasch Mirror, and Marble Wall Clock.
Mmm... the final results, ready for enjoying. Photo courtesy amyskitchentable.com.