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Medica "Soft is beautiful" Project with Technogel Instructors: Andrea Branzi e Giovanni Levanti Assistant: Pascal Tarabay Our Master's project falls within the tradition of investigation of the environmental, expressive and constructive potential of a new material, in this case a material which has in the past been limited to use in sectors related to furniture design. Technogel is one of the new generation of elastic materials descending directly from the line of elastic foams and the family of latexes and elastomer resins. Its special qualities include high elastic resistance, compatibility with a range of other materials (from metals to fabrics), transparency, and extreme pliancy both in sheet form and in the mould. This set of properties entitles Technogel to membership in what we might call the neo-organic generation of materials: materials whose performance and features very nearly approximate those of the natural world. And yet Technologel's colours and transparency demonstrate its extreme artificiality in chemical terms, with an expressiveness similar to that of polycarbonates and translucent plastics. This dual nature, half natural (it is tactile, elastic, a conductor) and half artificial (chemical and industrial) lends the material its expressive and technical ambiguity. The Masters' projects set out to interpret and govern this ambiguity in the product and its setting. In a study of this kind Technogel encounters wide-ranging themes relevant to current concerns in the culture of design, corresponding to ever-greater expansion of symbiotic technologies integrating natural and artificial aspects, superstructural and structural components, fluidification of forms and functions. One of the keys to the Technogel project is therefore interpretation of the current relevance of the material, of its capabilities in terms of performance and construction, falling somewhere in between padding and elastic finish, permitting experimentation with new forms, new colours and new types of merchandise, as if the material opened up unexplored realms to design. |
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UOV(M)O
Simone Benvenuto Italy Uovo@Ingredium.it |
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Drop Chair Ilaria Costanzelli Italy ilariacostan@hotmail.com |
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Flow Maria Farjallah Lebanon maryya_fa@yahoo.com |
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Skin José Alberto García Morales Mexico betomexico@hotmail.com |
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Cocoon Dana Gelick USA danagelick@aol.com |
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Litepod Esther Jakoubovitch France Esther_j@hotmailcom |
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Submerge with the
light Chiho Kim Korea kch1@iol.it |
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Flatbath Razvan Cornel Sipos Romania rsipos@netsoft.ro |
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Piece Helmet-Earphone
(P.H.E) Lu Ying Ta Taiwan yingtal@box.tin.it denislu@pop6.attglobal.net |
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Wave Technogel Sheet
Chair Mirei Takahashi Japan mirei@tokyo.email.ne.jp |
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The New Work Uniform
Anthony Tammaro USA atammaro@hotmail.com |
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T.O.M. Two
into one into many Edmund Yeo Singapore yingtal@box.tin.it |
back to top Domus Academy via Watt 27 20143 Milano Italy tel. +39 0242414001 fax +39 024222525 infodesign@domusacademy.it |
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