mercoledì 13 luglio 2011

Romolo Stanco @ SKY TV presents GreenLantern: the liquid wood vase/lamp.



NuDe is “Nu Design”: not only “new design” but also “now” design, contemporary. GreenLantern is a product of the work of NuDe, and is the first real design object in liquid wood. With the creative management of Romolo Stanco, the scientific knowledge of Politec Valtellina and the partnership of CNR-IENI, NuDe brings the public the objects of tomorrow, creating a short-circuit between experimentation, research and design. New forms and new functions for a new sensitivity: that of research in which it is not the outcome that is amazing, but the unique, incredible voyage undertaken to achieve it.

Nu Design:

NuDe (Nu-Design) is an experimental research laboratory and workshop (a spin-off of Politec Valtellina, the concentration of technological businesses in the Valtellina area in Italy, where radical innovations are developed and applied to real projects in the design sector. Romolo Stanco, Italian architect and designer – whose experimental prototypes are displayed at Future Museums like the AEC in Linz – is the Project Leader and design director, while Stefano Besseghini (who formerly managed the CNR-IENI facility in Lecco and is now the CEO of RSE – Research on the National Energy System) is the science manager of NuDe. The company also employs physicists, chemists and scientists who are able to transform visionary concepts into real project ideas, with a new view of humanity and the everyday world. Sensitive, sustainable and contemporary. “Nu” (in Dutch: “now”).

NuDeLab direction

Romolo Stanco directs the company with the scope of putting new ideas, new uses, in the hands of the “public”. He conceives, designs and proposes to concretely realize tomorrow’s objects today, through a formal study of contemporary usage and the very essence of objects, delving into fields that only seem extraneous to that of design. The structure of the “NuDe Politec” laboratory-workshop gives him the opportunity to experiment, make mistakes, toss ideas around in a “live” network with physicists, chemists, researchers and experimental structures all over the world, during every stage of his creativity. Failing, starting over again from scratch, questioning, evaluating the sensations of the general public through shared instruments, exalting the process of design and research as the most important part of the entire process that leads to the genesis of an object: this is the nucleus of NuDe’s philosophy.
GreenLantern, the flowerpot-lamp in liquid wood designed by Romolo Stanco, is the first “manifesto” object by NuDe but others are currently in the experimental stages, where they show great design and scientific promise. The V/a.g.r.a. lamp, defined in 2007 by the Chicago Tribune as “design as art” and now part (in its prototype version) of the collection at Ars Electronica Museum of Linz www.aec.at in its “Robolab: New views of Humankind” section, is in an advanced stage of development, and many other projects, also in collaboration with others, will constantly update the concrete results of the NuDe laboratory.

GreenLantern: The first in the world, as old as nature itself

GreenLantern is the first design object in the world conceived, imagined, developed and made of liquid wood: Thought and designed by Romolo Stanco it is a product that proudly celebrates the skill of companies in the Valtellina area that have never had anything to do with the world of design.
GreenLantern is a flowerpot and a lamp, intrinsically linked in an inseparable relationship.
The light produced by the lamp (a strip of LED created especially for this project with very low consumption and with a warm, sensitive luminous temperature) can be considered a symbolic representation of plant life that thanks to the light is able to perform the photosynthesis it requires to live and grow.
The formal sign that unifies these two concepts (giving light and containing a living organism) is clear and sharply defined; it develops in space as an incomplete circle hastily sketched that, through the energy of the light, falls on the plant and symbolically closes its geometry.
The two functions are connected by an organic conduit, a sort of “vessel” (in the dual sense of a vessel holding a plant and a blood vessel) that establishes the relationship between the plant’s energy and that of the light.

The Wood of the future? It’s liquid.

For all these reasons, this “vessel” has to be made of an organic material and designed with an equally organic plastic shape. The material is called LIQUID WOOD and it is an organic polymer created through a special process using wood by-products.
Lignin is the main component of Liquid Wood (especially wood the way we have been used to conceiving of it until now) mixed with wood fibers extracted, for example, in the process of paper production (in a process developed by the Fraunhofer Institute and optimized for use in injection molding by the Politec laboratories). The result is a charged polymer that, when it reaches the proper temperature, can be injected in molds just like plastic.
Natural and artificial, organic and technological coexist in a formal and functional balance made possible only by conceiving, developing and producing GreenLantern, with the unique technical and esthetic characteristics of this material in mind.
A new material cannot, and for NuDe must not, be used for an old object.
Many people have speculated on the invention and the use of liquid wood in design.
NuDe opens to the public the entire path that led from 2007 until GreenLantern materialize.
To the public, as always, the judging.

Technological primitivism.

“It looks like horn!” “Its strange, it seems alive” “What it is?” “What an unusual odor…what is it made of?” “It’s lovely. Does it come in white?” “It’s so simple…” “Where’s the switch?” These are just a few of the comments that have appeared on Facebook, in blogs, or observations overheard or expressed by the media about GreenLantern even before it became a real product.
It aroused curiosity, stimulated an innate sensitivity in people making them want to explore and discover more: these are the poetic aspects that contribute to the philosophy and production of NuDe exalted by its continuous interactive work with prestigious research centers in addition to the laboratories that are part of Politec: the CNR-IENI (National Council of Research in Lecco) and the Fraunhofer institute.
But NuDe prefers not to engage in the technological transfer of a new material to the design of an everyday object: an “old” chair made out of a new material does not interest it.
The research and experiments that laboratories perform every day on unconventional materials and production processes (like composite textile fibers, metals with shape memory, thermoelectric and electro-luminscent materials, lasers and, last but not least, liquid wood) integrate in osmosis with creative thinking stimulated by new needs of use, new functions and new shapes, expressing themselves in unusual objects, often essential and humorous.
Stimulation of senses like that of smell (GreenLantern in liquid wood has a particular aroma of toasted wood) touch (it is by touching the wood bowl of the pot that GreenLantern lights up by means of a specially designed capacitative sensor) sight (when it lights up, the “tendrils” of GreenLantern come to life and move in space) is guaranteed by a careful design that focuses on the user’s sensitivity outside the orthodoxy of the minimalist school or classical approach of the masters of “old design”.

GreenLantern: what is it?

GreenLantern is the sum total of a “new” way of interpreting the creation of a design object, a “manifesto”.
Effectively it is not, in the classical interpretation of design, an object that performs a function, but combines different technologies of objects in an unusual formal solution, and develops concepts inspired by the contemporary culture of the crossover. The formal immediacy of GreenLantern, typical of Stanco’s design, is expressed in a rapid, firm line that takes shape in space enabling two functions to “interact”, explicitly declaring its technical and conceptual identity as a “hollow container, for passage”.
It is designed like a conduit that draws force and material consistency from the roots of the plant and gradually grows slimmer, bending around itself until it disappears and turns into energy (light).

Customize it!

GreenLantern is available in a natural finish (mod. Natural) of liquid wood: a dark brown similar to the shading of natural teak. Its external texture is random and not uniform, like that of a natural root, and renders every piece unique and different because every piece depends on how the liquid wood blend is mixed in the polymerization and injection stages. It has an intense, characteristic odor reminiscent of burnt wood or freshly roasted coffee.
It does not contain ANY type of chemical binder or other polymer. It is wood: 100% wood. Just like wood, it burns and it has the same physical and chemical characteristics as wood. But it has a shape that wood, as we have known it until now, could never have achieved for mass production.
The “Natural” version comes in three types of finish: matt wax, oil or water-based high-gloss paint
It is also available in a “Standard” or “Custom” painted version with the possibility of combining different colors for the different parts of the structure and even to choose the color of the power cord. These options can be simulated by means of an online configuration program and an “app” for iPhone and iPad.
It is possible (optionally) to equip the GreenLantern with a rechargeable (recyclable) internal battery that ensures about 3 hours of autonomy with a charging time of about 2 hours.
The lamp switches on when its bowl is touched, or even only brushed without direct contact (capacitative sensor).
The LED strip (operated and managed by a proprietary electronic device) has very low consumption (4.8W) high luminous output (about 298 lumen) and a warm color temperature, suitable for growing plants.

Art Custom

They are some unique versions of GreenLantern. From the first prototype to test the mold pieces unique and unrepeatable up to the interpretation of some artists of international level (by Mr. Wany V3rbo, Emiliano "Stand" Cataldo Diamond) with the artistic coordination Valerio Ciampicacigli and the creative supervision Romolo Stanco that is also the author of one of the pieces in the exhibit.

And V/a.g.r.a. ?

In the Fuorisalone event was presented also some pieces of the “new concept” projects of the The V/a.g.r.a. lamp, defined in 2007 by the Chicago Tribune as “design as art” and now part (in its prototype version) of the collection at Ars Electronica Museum of Linz www.aec.at in its “Robolab: New views of Humankind” section, is in an advanced stage of development, and many other projects, also in collaboration with others, will constantly update the concrete results of the NuDe laboratory.

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