Update 2007

We have changed policies... For all our Design lab research, please go to ADDICTLAB.COM and look for RESEARCH. Then click Design.

Presentation of the Universal House project: Virtual status

October 13-22, 2006>>>Addictlab.Post.Kortrijk, Kortrijk (Belgium) - in the frame of "Interieur" International Design Biennial

Presentation of the Universal House project: Virtual status. All ideas & objects are put in a virtual surrounding. PLEASE SEND IN ALL YOUR 3D FILES! (deadline: August 20)

Imagine a house where every zone should not be intended in the standard way but rather suggest a link to actions/rituals we are used to make in those areas (feeding/eating, cleaning/self-care, loving, sleeping, resting, story-telling, communicating, playing, working…) in order to point out the different approaches characterizing the universal house community.

The imaginary house is an inspirational agent for projects/reflections on coexistence of diversity, the house as container and engine of memory, innovation for a better future, enhancing quality - of life, of environment, ways of prevention, through daily gestures and habits, and not as a ‘house’ to be furnish…

1) External shelters (architecture, urbanism)
2) Internal shelters (doors/windows/walls/floors)
3) feeding/eating/cooking (kitchen) > table cultures/manners (dining room) see ongoing project of some labmembers
4) space-sharing, communicating, socializing, receiving, playing (living room)
5) sleeping/loving (sleeping room)
6) washing/self-caring (bathroom)
7) working (home-working spaces)
8) praying/meditating/relaxing
etc.


Create a 3d (standard format) >>>
you’re free to contribute with architecture, furniture, accessories projects, or other interventions following your vision/skills. We preferably ask for dedicated projects/prototypes (no products admitted). Existing projects/prototypes are accepted only in case the link to the “universal house?” is clearly pertinent and motivated by a written explanation. In view of an interactive dedicated website, we ask you to send a 3D image (standard format - maya, 3DS, CAD/CAM, ...) of your project/prototype.

universal house? open lab >>> DESIGNCITY-DMY Berlin May 18-21, 2006 - 2nd stop

After the Milan experience, that took place at NABA – New Academy of Fine Arts – last April 2006 in the frame of the Design Week, the “universal house?” participation is increasing: new labmembers but also a new networking formula. The ‘guest projects’ section is intended to enhance bridges between Ad!dict and other similar organisations or targeted projects.

At DMY, “universal house?” will include the following ‘guest projects’:

> co-housing, Milan, promoted (a.o.) by design labmember Ilaria Marelli (www.couhousing.it)
> Advento, Italy-Mexico, an initiative by Raymundo Sesma
> Nomade by Polimi, Milan curated by architecture labmember Francesca Murialdo (www.polidesign.it)
> luxury garbage by fuoribiennale.it

From the 18th to the 21st of May, the lab is open and invites new ideas by students and designers attending the Designmai-Youngsters event in Berlin.

designmai-youngsters
18-21 may 2006
Am Flutgraben 3
Open 12am - 12pm
12435 Berlin
Tel/Fax: +49.30.53 21 31 28
office@designmai-youngsters.com
http://www.designmai-youngsters.com

Press conference > Mai 17 at 6 pm
Official opening > Mai 17 at 7 pm
DM opening party > May 17, 11 pm – 6 am
DM closing party > May 21, 10 pm – 6 am

“universal house?” next stop >>>
100% design rotterdam
15-17 june, 2006

universal house?

if there is a way to create
respect for other cultures, to
enhance dialogue and innovate
through cultural diversity, then
Addictlab could be it.
in these days of drawing
borders between civilisations,
Ad!dict Creative Lab tends to
cross over any barrier that
prevents creative minds from
all over the world to create a
better world together.
a system to generate ideas
and concepts by engaging in
dialogue, organic behaviour.
[jan van mol]

a universal house: does it exist? might it ever
exist? probably not. «universal house?» is
aiming to questioning our needs, our desires,
the difference between south and north - skills,
traditions, lifestyles -, western consumerism
and southern-westernisation, southern poverty
and basic needs... let’s aim together to a house
where each furniture has an identity, a memory
(against design multinationals and globalism),
where functions correspond to real needs
and not to artificial ones, where forms are
re-thought in the name of durability, energysaving
and zero-waste... let’s aim to over-think
instead of over-produce.
[giovanna massoni]

for any urgent questions, you can reach me on skype: giovanna1402

Project Initiative : Table Cultures

Hi guys,

I am keen on doing a study of table cultures around the world and I am at the stage of collecting photos and gathering information. If any of you have (good resolution) photos of dining tables (coffeehouse tables, restuarant tables, home dining tables, fast food dining tables, coffeeshop dining tables, pub dining tables etc.) and are keen to share them, please forward them to me at greyclay02@yahoo.com
It will be cool if you can name the file by the country and type of table. Since the subject of my research is 'table cultures', it will involve c! ontents on the table (dishes, cups, biscuit tins etc). The priority is to look for photos of real table situations and not fictional/set up table situations. But, if you feel compelled to do a staged table, it will be interesting too!
I am also looking for anyone who is keen to develop this idea further as a group. If you have thoughts and ideas and want to contribute them, you can email them to me or place them on the blog so that we can open a discussion.

Cheers,
.T

Deadlines for publication & exhibits

Ad!dict 's 25th research theme, World Heritage, is taking form.
Check addictlab.com for all contributions. Please note the following deadlines.
deadline final projects: FEB 22
deadline final PDF: MARCH 20
INSPIRATION BOOK: APRIL 3
(Comes out at the Salone del Mobile, MILAN)
Yet the research continues, having an exhibition - and possible book printed in NOVEMBER. All research on the Universal House and Universal Collection will be printed as 'work in progress', as these projects will continue to grow and exhibited as 'nomad laboratories' More later!)

Step into the World Heritage project

Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. (…) What makes the concept of World Heritage exceptional is its universal application. World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. [source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/about]

Ad!dict World Heritage (long-term?) project is aiming to extend UNESCO's World Heritage mission to the creativity domain: cultural and natural tangible heritage have to become part of the creation processes, in terms of sustainable development. The World Heritage is not just a list of sites to be protected, but should become a global project, where designers' responsibility is to re-think functions, decors, materials, shapes, ways of production in the respect of our cultural, social and natural environment. Innovation in fashion & design can play a major role.

Through an adaptation of some of the World Heritage-UNESCO’s most relevant goals, Ad!dict’s World Heritage project is aiming to:

• encourage designers to get awareness of the World Heritage and to ensure the protection of their natural and cultural heritage in their way of creating;
• support awareness-building activities for World Heritage conservation;
• encourage participation of the local population in the preservation of their cultural and natural heritage;
• encourage global creative networking in the conservation of our world's cultural and natural heritage.