Top designer Carole Baijings takes MASTERS world into the wonderful world of design... Oh the places you'll go and the things you'll see.Text: Carole Baijings
Online editing: Mical Joseph
Together with architecture firm Powerhouse Company, furniture company Lensvelt developed this indoor-outdoor tubular steel chair. The Coquille, handmade in Italy, looks classic but at the same time is highly innovative due to the special base that presented a technical challenge: the steel structure consists of one piece and had to form a flowing line. The starting point for the design was the bistro chair made of curved wood and rattan. On a symbolic level, the Coquille is inspired by Botticelli's painting Birth of Venus, in which the goddess of love is carried by an enormous scallop. The tub chair has the same organic shape as the shell and sits "divinely. A perfect fusion of form and function. The Coquille is fully recyclable and available in every possible color.
The Stedelijk draws attention to the greatest challenge of our time: the climate crisis. The exhibition It's Our F***ing Backyard shows that designers can make an important difference: they make us look at materials radically differently through innovative experiments or by harking back to "forgotten" knowledge, offering us design that is both responsible and aesthetic, comfortable and accessible. Designers reuse all kinds of waste materials for new products and harness the power of nature to create unusual materials. For example, design studio Bentu incorporates ceramic waste into furniture, Tamara Orjola converts pine needles into textiles, Basse Stittgen devised a dinner service made of cow's blood, Maartje Dros and Erik Klarenbeek experiment with CO2-binding micro-algae to make glass, and the Balinese design studio Space Available, together with DJ Peggy Gou, designed a chair from 20 kilograms of plastic waste collected in Indonesia. The eighty selected projects provide an overview of different strategies to achieve better use of materials. The exhibition, on view through Sept. 4, also addresses how soil depletion is linked to practices of colonialism, which are still continued by some multinationals.
Motorhome maker Tonke has teamed up with Mercedes-Benz to produce a series of All Electric motorhomes. Mercedes-Benz's new EQV is the perfect basis for Tonke All Electric. The 100 kWh battery can be used to drive over 300 km. In addition to the German carmaker, Tonke called on the expertise of top designer Carole Baijings, who took the EQV "Cyclist" and "Hiker" in hand. For these versions, Carole chose a light look with color accents executed in soft natural and, above all, sustainable materials. Examples include whitewashed poplar wood for the kitchen, the ice blue and water-repellent Haku fabric for the sofa and chairs (after swimming, you can sit on it with your wet swimwear), and a specially developed fabric for the mattress topper with a fluorine detail characteristic of Carole Baijings.
In the summer edition of MASTERS, an interview with Sven Kramer, a driving impression of the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport (> €4 million) and an examination of Max's Effect. But above all, we feature people who bring light into the darkness. Like Henk Jan Beltman, who took over Tony's Chocolonely because with a business you can make the world a more beautiful place. Chef Emile van der Staak, who has the ambition to change our food culture and therefore cooks with plants and vegetables sourced from the food forest. Designer Nienke Hoogvliet, who has introduced natural seaweed paint as an alternative to harmful textile dyes. And Anna Nooshin, who denounces the current social media culture of pretty pictures. In her documentary, she also shares the less beautiful aspects of her life. "In the hope that someone who recognizes, for example, the domestic violence or the struggle with your mental well-being, can take comfort from the fact that I've been through that too and am still standing." All of these are people who ask questions, hold up mirrors, make strides. Steps toward a healthier world and more understanding society.
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