Category — innovation

Here are the winners of the Blue Drop Awards given for textile and technical  innovation at MoOd( Meet only Orginial Designs) this week in Belgium.

Best Innovation
Hyosung (South Korea)

The jury was unanimous about this particularly innovative achievement. This window covering is woven as a single piece on the loom, meaning that the system is ready to be hung immediately. It can be used in two positions: in the open position and in the closed position, which lets in more light. Ingenious and never seen before, in the jury’s opinion.  Window covering innovation coming from other places as the  U.S. window covering industry  cord issues and commodity challenges. We still can’t seem to get it together.

Best Window Covering
Deltracon (BE)

This window covering in 100% linen was selected by the jury for its subtleombre  print in indigo, which is produced so elegantly that it looks as though it is done by hand. The repetition of the pattern is barely noticeable. The quality is both superior and luxurious. Deltracron is one of my favorite mills.

Best Upholstery
De Poortere Frères (BE)

This fabric was chosen on account of its ingenious weaving technique that produces a very special visual effect. In particular, a slub yarn is woven into the pile and there is also a slub in the weft. This combination creates a relief that visually looks even deeper because the slub in the weft is black. The fabric is not merely a technical stand-out, but is also rich and of great quality.

Best Wall Covering
Konrad Hornschuch AG (DE)

When it is used as a wall covering, this bio-synthetic leather creates a very special effect. It looks just like real animal hide, but in actual fact is an imaginative imitation that makes high demands on the printing technique used. But for all that, there is no denying that Konrad Hornschuch is particularly good when it comes to manufacturing sustainably. The product is also well suited both to the residential and contract markets. The combination of these elements has resulted in a well-deserved Blue Drop Award.

Best Contract product
De Kabels (NL)

It calls itself one of the last companies that does silkscreen printing entirely by hand – which is pretty remarkable for a product suited to the contract market. De Kabels opted for linen on account of this material’s natural qualities. The natural colour of the linen has been retained and black was chosen for the overprint. An unusual and daring choice

Best Première
Hulshof Royal Dutch Tanneries (NL)

The first genuinely organic leather in the world. This Dutch tannery examined all of the harmful substances used during the tanning process and replaced them with organic products. The result is the first ecologically manufactured leather that is totally biodegradable.
Which is your favorite?

I am being swept into the techno world. I am not a full fledged geek yet, but do love me some gadgets and when coupled with design, I’m in. So I was sucker for Microsoft’s  home of the future:

 According to MS, the Microsoft Home is

…a place to explore technology scenarios that could transform the way we live in five to 10 years. Built as a full-scale model home in the company’s Executive Briefing Center, the Home is used to explore practical applications of cutting-edge technical trends, and exhibit futuristic prototype technologies to a variety of industry and government leaders, partners and customers.

While the space is a private testing ground accessible by invitation only, the video below provides a glimpse of what a day in the suburban future could look like in 2025. Among other advances, check out:

• touchscreen, wireless & ‘smart’ charging plates that also read sensors in your products to interpret your personal data, including vital health statistics
• interactive walls consisting of various screens – which are in turn controlled by a simple flip of a light switch
• visual analysis via image-to-image search for each image featured in your home entertainment screen (i.e., ability to search for travel schedules, restaurant information, and backback purchase information for all items featured in a travel show); this is cool – right now, we really just do text-based search
• motion-controlled digital wallpaper capturing your personal digital ecosystem, including real-time texts, Facebook status updates or Twitter feed updates

OK, so we really have to get on the stick when it comes to innovative window coverings to match up to these other elements in the room!. Any ideas?

via Engadget

Karim Rashid has partnered with Velux for a new yet- to- be named collection of blackout skylight shades. These are not your everyday drab shades. The collection includes four unique patterns, each in two different colors. Customers can choose from vibrant pink and acid yellow or more subtle designs of black and white. Inspiration from digital technology on the one hand and floral motifs on the other, adds a modern yet poetic look to the collection. The new patterns bring an abstracted ‘digital nature’ into the home. Four of the designs have decorative metallic details creating a vivid texture. The blinds are not only art on the window but the shades in the new line are energy efficient, generating a 33% decrease in heat loss when closed.

“I want people to see a blind not as a genuine standard product but as a small piece of decorated art that adds beauty and even determines the style of the interior decoration.”

Wow that’s music to my ears! The window covering industry needs to hire him as a spokes person.

Running with the “digital” theme the collection seems to have taken, Velux is crowdsourcing the names of each of the patterns. The competition runs online this month and asks anyone to propose a name for the patterns which can be viewed and voted on by others. At the contest’s close, the most highly voted entries will become the official names of each of the blinds.

Teaming up with one of the design world’s most prolific designers demonstrates a new design approach in the VELUX Group.

“Choosing to work with Karim Rashid came from the recognition that if you want to be innovative, you have to experiment and demonstrate courage in the design process. So working together with internationally acknowledged designers like the ‘King of Colors’ represents a new experience at the VELUX Group. Usually our products serve the purpose of being discrete, but the new designs by Karim Rashid attract attention and add another feature besides quality and value for money to our products.”

Austrian architecture firm hertl architekten recently finished this project- ‘aichinger house’, a multi-story apartment building consisting of two flats in Kronstorf, Austria. The structure, which once housed a restaurant, is treated to a textile skin which lends the building a light, curtain effect by applying a material which is normally reserved for the indoors. The project inspired by today’s use of skins for everything from phones to website design, it explores the flexibility of facades and skins.

The facade appears almost metallic from a distance, the design wraps the whole exterior of the building in the light grey fabric, rendering the layout and form of the interior hidden from the outside viewer. 

Iron embraces strategically placed part the curtain at the window to allow daylight into the apartments. Much like interior draperies,  the skin can be drawn closed to provide shade and diffusion of light. During the night, the fabric provides a paper lantern effect, distributing the glow from the building to the exterior.

I have to say this gives new meaning to tab tops or even rod pocket tops and bottoms!