Weather Frogs

This set of small plastic creatures was hand-molded from a self-made color-changing plastic. As the environmental temperature increases the frogs slowly adjust their color and become white. Great for fun in the bathtub, too!
Instructions and information on the material can be found on the materiability research network

Oooglow

Oooglow is a lampshade made from phosphorescent polyester resin.
It's shape is generatively designed based on the same principles as the Tong-Zi-Dan series.

Defined by certain preferences an unlimited amount of forms can thus be produced.



In the present case, the dimensions of the shape and amount of faces were determined by the bed-size of the available laser cutter and foldability of the polypropylene sheet which was used for the mold.








The production is based on a rotational molding technique, also similar to the Tong-Zi-Dan gypsum vases.
However the polyester plastic makes for a much more durable and solid object. The procedure involves mixing 700ml of polyester resin with 100g of phosphorescent pigments. When the pigments are fully dispersed 28ml (4%) of hardener are added and the solution poured into the mold. The mold has to be continuously rotated for about 20 minutes until the resin has solidified. The mold can be removed after 12 hours of curing. It takes another few days until the object is completely hard.




The lamp is equipped with a LED light which doesn't heat up the plastic but sufficiently charges the luminescent pigments.



Once the light is turned off the lamp emits a greenish glow over a period of several hours.



Big Thanks to Achilleas Xydis!

KISD Open Factory

Together with Marcel Odenbach, Hans Sachs from responsive design studio runs a workshop 2D>3D at the KISD Open Factory at the Köln International School of Design.

The 2-day event with various workshops and panel discussions on Nov 29th and 30th addresses the open scource and maker movement and brings people from different professional fields together to experiment, develop and fabricate. Students can still register for several workshops on the conference's webpage (above).

Folded PenCup

this folded pen cup was developed by exploring simple curved foldings with HyLite® by 3A Composites. The composite material is usually milled on both sides of a sheet to have a flexible fold but here it resulted perfectly for a fixed, one-side-milled folding in terms of stiffness, material stability and bendability.

for any inquiries please mail to info@responsivedesign.de

The Thought Exchange by Parker Hannifin

A number of Chick'n'Egg Chairs were exhibited at an event on 22nd & 23rd January 2013.
The exhibition, "The Thought Exchange by Parker Hannifin", was designed and photographed by Clarity Creative, UK.

Tong Zi Dan

Tong Zi Dan is a series of generatively designed vases made from dental gypsum.

The objects were produced during the CAAD Wahlfach Praxis Course Chinaware, ETH Zürich. The shapes were designed together with Knut Brunier and produced with the help of Tom Roberts.

The initial egg design gets randomly populated by a cloud of points which form the center for surfaces that trim the shape perpendicular to its curvature. A generative algorithm (Galapagos) is then used to create the area of all faces within a certain min/max range. Finally the faces are unrolled and laid onto a flat sheet to allow the production of the mold with a laser cutter.




In our experiment the gypsum gets enhanced with thermochromic pigments in one mixture and phosphorescent in another. It is then poured into the sealed molds and pivoted for a few minutes until the gypsum solidifies. The process is repeated for two more times to ensure a minimum wall thickness



After the mixture has dried the vases can be removed from their enclosing molds. Since thermochromic pigments are heat sensitive, they change their color in response to a rise in temperature. The previously blue vase turns to white, the gypsum's base color, when exposed to a fan heater.



Another interesting effect is generated by the phosphorescent pigments. During daylight the vase looks normal, but in darkness it starts to glow and create a different atmosphere.

Editors' Collection

Editors' Collection opens its Online Concept Store and we are proud to be represented with some of our finest products: Floater, Durian and possibly Chick 'n' Egg Chair.
For those of you residing in and around Munich, Bavaria, a temporary showroom will be open to the public from Tuesday, 27.11.12 until Saturday, 01.12.12.
The vernissage takes place on Monday, 26.11.12 from 18:30 - 22:00 at Widenmayerstraße 34, Munich.
According to the organizers the Shop will cover a large variety including furniture, lamps, bicycles, toys, etc... so go ahead, check it out!

Chick 'n' Egg 2012

We have revised the original Chick 'n' Egg Chair! The form has been improved for stability and comfort. The grasshopper script has been reprogrammed for speed and reliability to allow changes in size, material thickness or resolution of the waffle grid. And the machine setup has been setup for on demand production.

Still looking for a Christmas present? The chair can be ordered via email to shop@responsivedesign.de. Price available on request.

All pictures were kindly made by Pix Fotostudio, Tübingen.

x_shelf

x_shelf is a generatively designed bookshelf, made entirely from CNC-milled Alucobond boards, that were folded into modules to form a self-supporting system.

The design is based on David Rutten's "Substrate" component in Grasshopper, the Rhino McNeel Plugin, which has in turn be inspired by the processing works of Jared Tarbell.
The component was then coupled to Grasshopper's internal solver Galapagos, in order to adjust the minimum and maximum volume and height of each cell based on average book sizes.

Once the cells were defined the overall geometry was extruded towards three intersecting planes that provide the shelf with additional depth and stability. All parts were digitally fabricated and joint into three parts, each color representing one, to allow for simple dis- and reassembly.