Beneath the Surface Blog

Once in a while, there will be an artist who challenges our imagination and understanding of design. Some blogs call Nancy Fouts’s artworks “Surrealism” because her sculptures always comprise of two totally unrelated objects. Looking at the following images, I'm so intrigued to figure out the connection between the objects and materials she used in each work even though there might be none. Usually, for the purpose of reconstruction, objects would be broken down into elementary factors like texture, shape, size, or color before they are reassembled. Clearly, Nancy has a unique vision. She said: "I hoard stuff in boxes and then I lay it all out and many ideas happen like that." (BBC)

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Sculptures like "Butterfly Dart" or "Cactus Balloon" hold a trace of delicacy in their dominant toughness. Nancy captures the essential character of each component and marries them to create unexpected statements. For me, it is so much fun to think about the possibilities of designing backlit projects without considering technique restraints or the law of physics.

Let's imagine away. If you were given the chance to design anything you want with absolutely no rules or constraint, what would it be?

Image Credits: Nancy Fouts

In design, it’s not always what you add, but instead what you take away that makes the biggest impact. Case and point: perforations. This design trend has been taking off in all areas, and can be found on interior walls, ceilings, building exteriors, and even furniture.

Unlike simply adding elements to create visual interest, this subtractive method uses the “less is more” philosophy to enhance aesthetics. The voids create dramatic and visually light spaces that not only look sleek and clean, but fresh and dynamic. Take a peek at some of our favorite uses of perforations below. 

Leave links to your favorite perforated designs and we'll add them to the image collection!

Images compiled by GPI Design

Individual image credits: PWSteel, TheCoolHunter, GoToInteriorDesign, DesignSpotter, DesignMilk, LouiseCampbell, InteriorShowOff, ChicTip

We love Twitter because we can always see the creativity and feel the enthusiasm in the design world, and that energy flow makes us want to keep moving forward. This week, we saw a couple of great museum designs and interesting lamps introduced by our "tweeps". Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Natural History Museum of Utah tweet via @CarterDesignInc

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Natural History Museum of Utah Interior

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"Bring on 2014 and the new Design Museum" tweet via @DesignEventNE

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“Singapore's new bridge,Helix, resembles a double helix structure & is wonderfully illuminated by LED lights.” Tweet via @DreamwallsGlass

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“[feed] Gudpaka Lamp by gt2P: No Wookiees were harmed in the making of this lamp.” tweet via @Daniel_Hamilton

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“Do we have any science fans in the house? This chandelier is made from chemistry test tubes. “ tweet via @PegasusLighting

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TWeekly Archive is GPI Design's new blog column that updates every Friday to feature innovative and inspiring architecture, interior, and lighting designs that are shared through Twitter within the week. We always appreciate tweeps who constantly refresh our minds by sharing great articles, pictures, and videos. If you have something that you feel like sharing and want it featured on our blog, leave a link in the comment or simply @gpidesign on Twitter. We are always hungry for cool designs! 

We rarely talk about paper art in this blog, mainly because the architectural industry doesn’t generally regard paper as a material suited for construction sites and we are more excited to see designs with materials such as natural stone, glass, wood, and resin. However, paper is still important to the GPI Design team in the design and drawing phase. (Any designers who have eliminated sketching in the creative process in favor of computer programs? We move back and forth between physical model, sketches, and CAD.)

The paper art we are looking at today is called Paper Architecture, according to the artist, Ingrid Siliakus. It refers to the art of creating an object out of a single piece of paper. This particular art form, which is also known as Origamic Architecture, is developed by a famous Japanese artist Masahiro Chatani and was first used in designing greeting cards or holiday cards.

The subject of Ingrid’s work ranges from the world’s renowned architecture buildings to abstract sculptures. Each object is just one single paper and can be folded back into a flat plane. (If I’m lucky, I probably can cut out a snowflake with one piece of paper. A whole 3-D building?!). Ingrid describes the process of outlining, cutting, and folding each paper as building a real structure, the construction of which requires intense attention to detail.

‘Big City’, 2011. The lower part of one of the four sides.Pin It

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Cosmopolitan third edition, 2011.Pin It

Palicio del marques de Salamanca, 2007. Pin It

Concert Hall, 2003. The actual building is a design of Frank Gehry. Pin It

When we are all busy drawing our skyscrapers on the computer, it’s refreshing to see someone who creates hers out of plain paper by hand. Ingrid’s paper architecture reminds us that dedication to craft, precision work, and unleashing the potential of material can create statement pieces.

Maybe it's time for more late night office sessions, the multitude of windows leads to endless inspiration! Playing with our backlit onyx samples late in the day, a quick glimpse out the window at the dramatic clouds reminds us why we love working with natural stone materials.

Evening view from the GPI Design Westlake office

Much like this sunset, the colors and patterning in natural stone are entirely organic and specific to a certain point in time.  While the composition of the sunset is fleeting, the patterns formed in an onyx panel are stamped for eternity; a tangible piece of nature turned into a building material. Both the sunset and the onyx are gorgeous because of the components that constitute their forms and patterns, but lighting brings a whole new layer of warmth and dimension to their perception.

12" x 20" sample of backlit Iranian Blue Onyx Pin It

Admittedly, the thought of placing color gel filters over the windows to tint the sky to our exact liking DID cross our minds. (And what if that cloud moved left just a little bit? Ooh, I would love to see more gold just above the horizon.)  We constantly remind ourselves to run with the randomness of nature. Sometimes you just can't design beauty.

Twitter was abuzz this week with developments in design - looks like 2012 is off to a creative start!

Interior Design

Skim Milk: Strelein Warehouse by Ian Moore Architects: a converted warehouse tweet via @designmilk

Exterior Design

COFCO Tianjin Showroom / L&A Design Group: dual layer hexagon shape glass façade tweet via @ArchDaily

(for more hexagonal design inspiration, read our blog post about this geometric trend)

Lighting Design

Sky-Mimicking Ceilings: LED lights tweet via @trendhunter

Technology

Google Cooktop Ushers in An Era of Smart Stoves tweet via @designbuzz_com

Furniture Design

5 Creative Bookshelves to Kick Off the New Year tweet via @DesignUpdates

TWeekly Archive is GPI Design's new blog column that updates every Friday to feature innovative and inspiring architecture, interior, and lighting designs that are shared through Twitter within the week. We always appreciate tweeps who constantly refresh our minds by sharing great articles, pictures, and videos. If you have something that you feel like sharing and want it featured on our blog, leave a link in the comment or simply @gpidesign on Twitter. We are always hungry for cool designs!

As we voyage into 2012, the hexagonal geometric form is appearing everywhere. The way in which this relatively simplistic form can be manipulated into patterns, textures, and overall structures, makes it a popular and versatile choice for a graphic aesthetic. Here are some of our favorite uses of hexagons that create truly dynamic and intriguing designs.

While most often treated as a flat plane in graphic motifs, the spatial possibilities of the hexagon shape are most interesting when it is extruded or modeled into three dimensions.

Images compiled by GPI Design, individual image credits: TheCoolHunter, ArchitecturalDigest, DesignMilk, TrendLand, Tang Chan via Flickr

Here we are, marching boldly towards a brand new year. Our GPI team is all geared up and excited to discover new lighting trends, innovative cool surfaces, and many more developments in this ever-changing interior design world. So what will happen in 2012? A global economy recovery? Some catastrophe that might extinguish humankind according to the Mayan prophecy? Whoa, let’s not get into that. At least we know clearly that in the lighting world, 2012 is all about LED.

Over the past years, many countries are taking steps to phase out the traditional incandescent light bulbs for use in general lighting. LEDs are taking over because they are more energy-efficient and carry more possibilities for design purposes. This collection called Liquid Light by Tanya Clarke is a great example of the lighting trends for 2012.

Born the daughter of environmental activist Tony Clarke, Tanya was raised with a strong consciousness and deep concern of the environment and natural resources. She precisely expressed her viewpoint in this beautifully installed light collection - the idea that light is just like water, or the other way around, water is just like light; both precious resources that we cannot afford to waste in daily life.

LED lights, recycled plumbing fixtures, hand sculpted glass water drops, and even found objects are utilized to form the Liquid Light. The LEDs shine through translucent glass drops and create a soft lighting effect that is visually dramatic.

Its unique form and experimentation with colors also speak for the trend in 2012. LED technology is so compact that it can basically be used in any size, shape, and structure, opening its potential across many industries. The material pairings and artistic expressions made possible with LED lighting technology are vast.

We’ve already seen so many stunning lighting designs in 2011 (you can find them in this blog or follow @gpidesign). We look forward to LEDs, echo-chic, and expressive structures that will lead to more illuminated creations and continue to wow us in the New Year.

Image Credit: liquidlightsite.com

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For the National Cancer Institute project which we’ve been working on for months, GPI had the pleasure of presenting our mock-up of the very unique backlit wood system last week in Washington, D.C.

Above: Initial project rendering by HOK

Over three years ago, Bill Hellmuth of HOK envisioned these unique backlit feature walls to bring light and texture to the long lobby hallways at the main entrance to the National Cancer Institute.  To translate the initial rendering of the backlit wood lobby feature walls to the photographs of the mock-up taken just last week, there have been countless hours of coordination between the surface, structure, and lighting elements. Our team has become quite captivated with the project.

Above: Mock-up photograph by GPI Design

The surface was the driving element in the conceptual design of the wall.  GPI Design sourced an exotic Redwood burl (yielding large panels), sliced the wood to under half of a millimeter and laminated between glass.  The seamless LED backlighting environment keeps the wood surface as the primary visual focus, pouring through the translucent wood material in an unexpected pairing of the newly redefined material with backlighting illumination.  Next came the custom structural hardware components engineered to hold the wood and lighting systems safely and in a complementary relationship.  The majority of this testing and detailing has occurred internally, communicating with the project team in D.C. via shop drawings and conference calls, so there was much anticipation built up over the unveiling of these illuminated wood panels.

Above: Mock-up installation progress

The GPI Design crew spent a full day assembling four of the wall panels to demonstrate our system (over 250 panels will be installed in the final project).  The mock-up was designed so that pins, joints, lighting controls, and accent lighting were all crafted to represent their appearance in the final installation. As the project team (owner, architect, lighting designer, general contractor) in D.C. arrived to the mock-up the next morning, sentiments of quiet contentment and satisfaction were in the air - a successful review with great dialogue generated.

Above: Mock-up review meeting

It’s creative surfaces and great project teams like these that make us fall in love with our job all over again.

THANK YOU to: HOK, MCLA, James G. Davis Construction Corporation, TSI Architectural Metals, Cleveland Marble, and The JBG Companies

During the winter season, nightfall approaches a lot faster than you expect. Well before you are able to finish off a day’s work and leave for your cozy home, it’s already darker than black outside. When you take the exit off the high way, image a garden of colorful light spots to your right, a garden of light that’s sparkling delightfully and that looks almost like starring sky on earth. Stunning, isn’t it?

Bruce Munro, the creator of the installation Field of Light, had this vision during his trip through central Australian Red Desert fifteen years ago. He felt the desert held “an incredible feeling of energy” and “ideas seemed to radiate from it along with the heat.” Immediately, Bruce was inspired to jog down a sketch and for the years to come, he couldn’t let it go. “It just had to be done”, he said.

Field of Light has been on exhibition in five different projects since 2004. The installation, or the “Planting”, changes according to each location’s specific landscape. It was made of 6,000 acrylic stems crowned with a clear glass sphere. The stems themselves didn’t require any electronic power. They were lit by a total of 11 projectors through fiber optic cables that were wrapped inside. Singapore Airlines magazine once commented: “A spectacle of sheer magic when, as night falls, Field of Light comes to life”. The design is unique in a way that the light bulbs blossom like flowers at the wake of each night and quietly manifest the energy flow of our mother earth.

The vitality of the acrylic stems created through lighting really echoes with our designers. One of our goals in designing and installing backlit panels is to create a dynamic and vigorous atmosphere with the right design and the right material. We understand how important a role lighting plays in defining a certain space, and in this case the transformative powers of lighting are pushed to their full potential.

Image Credits: http://www.fieldoflight.co.uk/