In the wake of a collaboration initiated in 2011, Baccarat and ECAL are pursuing their joint reflection in 2013 around the iconic Harcourt range. Under the supervision of designer Camille Blin, five pairs of students in the Product Design Master and Master of Advanced Studies in Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship designed the “Lights of Harcourt” collection for Baccarat — a panorama of intriguing, contemporary lamps.
“From molten matter to the end-product, via crystal cutting, we sought to light up — in the literal and figurative sense — the qualities of this material rife with a unique historical past”, Camille Blin explains. Questioning all aspects of the glassmakers’ know-how and reinterpreting the 6-facet motif of the famous Harcourt glass, each project diverts the Baccarat emblem from its original function to delve into the magical mysteries of crystal. You discover a tribute to the sculptures of Ettore Sottsass with a modular lamp with multi-faceted effects. In the subtly playful dance-hall spirit, a traditional light bulb is robed in facets, mounted as a garland or magnified on a lamp stand. Hinting at the surrealist universe of Salvador Dali, a project diverts the crystal’s properties to turn it into a coat with a bevelled lining which wraps around a metal structure. Enshrined in a crystal goblet, a spotlight allows you to freely position the light. Available in an infinite variety of colours, another concept focuses on the refraction phenomena displayed by crystal. Boasting the obvious look of a child’s masterpiece, a lamp makes the traditional Harcourt hexagon at its heart beat with emotion.
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MA PRODUCT DESIGN
by Adam Friedrich
Airy is a research project that explores the use of air as a primary resource. It uses inflatable structures to protect valuable devices during travel. The design employs contemporary materials and pays particular attention to detail to offer relevant, everyday solutions for safeguarding increasingly fragile and valuable electronic devices.
MA PRODUCT DESIGN
by Alicia Stricker
Folly approaches the craft of beaded embroidery from a product design perspective. It explores the value of tactility above the visual aspects that the technique is traditionally valued for. Consequently, the project manifested as something that is experienced by the body - a sofa. Scaling up the traditionally small beads and applying principles of beaded embroidery in the development of a textile sofa cover allowed for the sofa to transcend its classic typology, creating a three-dimensional surface with a biological sculptural presence - an object that breaks the mould of what we expect of something as familiar as a sofa and begs to be experienced through touch.
MA PRODUCT DESIGN
by Brice Tempier
Due to limited housing capacity in urban areas, more people are living in small dwellings. At the same time, renting has become a common form of housing in many countries, including among adults. These conditions, sometimes marked by instability, frequent moves, and a feeling of not truly belonging to the place where one lives, led the designer to reflect on our relationship with domestic space, its temporary nature, and the difficulty of making it one’s own. This project takes the form of a small, mobile structure, the size of a bed, conceived as a personal spatial frame within a room. Péninsule is a dense and flexible living space, a micro-architecture open to appropriation.
MA PRODUCT DESIGN
by Carl Johan Jacobsen
In the U.K new court ruling threatens trans-people while the US government is doing a full assault on trans and female bodies. Hardwear is a collection of wearable objects offering a sense of protection in urban environments, as a response to a growing tendency of hostility towards the body. Hard surfaces become flexible armor, protective shields transform into high heels. Whether to preserve personal space on public transport or to create cognitive distance Hardwear aims to create a sense of security. By using hard materials, the feeling of being safe inside a car is transformed to the outside resulting in a line of wearable objects made for for everyday resistance. Drawn on protection typologies from sportswear, Hardwear is made of 100% recycled plastic with 3D printed elements.
MA PRODUCT DESIGN
by Cedric Zimmerman
DUCTUS is investigating how tangential fans can be reinterpreted in combination with spiral ducts, which are normally used in industrial HVAC systems, in a modular, energy-efficient ceiling ventilation system. The galvanised sheet metal is perforated locally using a specially developed laser manufacturing process and then processed into spiral ducts in an industrial standard procedure with almost no material loss. These ducts serve both as air ducts and as a supporting structure for the fan unit. The system, manufactured in collaboration with the Lausanne-based company Air Ventil, generates a wide, quiet air flow while also adding architectural accents.