The Festival of Lights is one of the largest illumination festivals in the world. Every year for twelve days in October, Berlin's world-famous landmarks and monuments are dressed in spectacular light. German and international artists and lighting designers present extraordinary illuminations, light art and creative designs. The festival is accompanied by numerous cultural events, all exploring the theme “Light”. The festival is an admission-free, top artistic event for an audience of millions. It generates massive media interest worldwide, and as a result, promises real sustainability.

Time guards, image courtesy Manfred Kielnhofer

Time guards by Manfred Kielnhofer

The constant struggle with concepts of space, sculptures and installations as well as the engagement of mysticism and primal religions led the Austrian artist to create “timeguards”. The first timeguard was built in 2007 and is reminiscent of a withdrawn monk. Kielnhofer likes to present his sculptures at exciting locations. They appear and disappear. You can never anticipate where they will show up next time, reminding us that we are never unobserved. Every one of our actions is seen by the guards and evaluated. They were already in existence a long time before humans populated the earth.

+ See more projects by Manfred Kielnhofer here.

Time guards, image courtesy Manfred Kielnhofer

Time guards, image courtesy Manfred Kielnhofer

The Visitor Concept Wins International Designer Competition for Prague Taxi

Diego García, Spain, has become the winner of the Dassault Systèmes Design Challenge with his concept named 'Visitor'. The participants were given the task to design a new taxi for Prague. The second place in the competition – held under the auspices of the Mayor of Prague – went to the 'Call-e' project from the Czech designer Josef Ludvík Böhm who decided to combine the benefits of a car and a bus. The daring futuristic concept 'Cheers' by Jakub Jodlowski, from Poland, using tram lines and unusual cork material, placed third.

In case of the ‘Visitor’ concept the jury acknowledged the relevant, accurate and easy-to-understand design solution, which includes exterior, interior and graphic rendering but also sense for reality and feasibility. When assessing the entries we were looking for the best solutions also from the perspective of potential users. Consistency with the Prague environment was also very important for us.

Anne Asensio, Vice President, Dassault Systèmes

1st place, Diego García, Visitor Taxi

In total, 80 designers from 23 countries joined the international competition for under-35 designers, held by Dassault Systèmes and AutoDesign&Styling. Their task was to present an environmental vision of a taxi that would become another prominent symbol of Prague. Twenty-three top projects went through to the final round where the jury, chaired by the car designer Anne Asensio, chose the winners who divided the total prize fund of EUR 1,800.

The main criteria evaluated by the jury included simplicity, uniqueness, consumer modesty, aesthetic quality and connection with Prague. Our ambition was to find such a design that would show how young designers from all over the world imagine Prague taxis looking in the near future.Radek Laube, the editor-in-chief of the original Czech car magazine AutoDesign&Styling

2nd place, Josef Ludvík Böhm, Call-e Taxi

The victorious electric taxi project, Visitor, meets the needs of Prague visitors who do not want to miss anything during their journeys to the hotel or the airport. Large windows and a basic simple shape offer maximum space for passengers. Thanks to its generous height it is easy to get on and the perspective is great too, since passengers can stand up during the ride. The friendly design of the exterior is connected with Prague by a colour scheme, which has been inspired by the beige facades of the old Prague houses and their darker foundation walls. As far as the size is concerned, Visitor corresponds to the C segment of cars.

The design of Josef Ludvík Böhm, the runner-up in the competition, maximises the use of the interior, as it can take as many as six passengers and can be adapted for cargo transport. The passengers get on through a sliding door and there is even a ramp for a wheelchair. The large glass darkening boards reflect the city. The free parts of the car's body can serve as a communication tool to project advertising and other messages. The wheels are covered and they are hinged on swivel axles. They are driven by electric motors powered by batteries and solar cells placed on the car roof. The project won the attention of the jury by the clean and modern design of its exterior and by its emphasis on the environment.

3rd place, Jakub Jodlowski, Cheers

Prague has one of the densest tram networks and this was something that Jakub Jodlowski made use of in his Cheers project, which came in third. Whenever his taxi drives along the same route as the trams, it is powered by the tram lines. The driver is seated in a 'tower' which reflects the unique character of 100-spire Prague but has a practical implication too. The Skoda Fabia-long car has a unique interior dominated by cork. The combination of the cork and the dark cabin glass, evoking Czech crystal, creates an interesting contrast. The jury appreciated this complex and well thought-out solution, as well as the professional way in which it was presented.

The designer competition “Dassault Systèmes Design Challenge” was announced by the provider of 3D solutions Dassault Systèmes in partnership with AutoDesign&Styling magazine in February 2011. Besides Anne Asensio and Radek Laube, the jury was made up of the DS manager for the car industry, Miloš Korvas, the designers Stanislav Hanuš and Jan D?dek, Ji?í Hulák of the National Technical Museum in Prague and Jana Vinšová of the civic association Czechdesign.cz. The seven-strong jury met in the National Technical Library on September 5. You can find the video from the jury meetings here. The detailed presentations of the winning projects can be seen in the latest issue of AutoDesign&Styling.

+ About the organizers

Dassault Systèmes

As a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Dassault Systèmes brings value to more than 130,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes applications provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance to recycling. The Dassault Systèmes portfolio consists of CATIA for designing the virtual product – SolidWorks for 3D mechanical design – DELMIA for virtual production – SIMULIA for virtual testing – ENOVIA for global collaborative lifecycle management, EXALEAD for search-based applications and 3DVIA for online 3D lifelike experiences.

AutoDesign&Styling

AutoDesign&Styling is a visually oriented premium magazine. Established in 2005 it offers its readers a unique perspective on the car design. The passion for beautiful shapes is what connects the readers of the original Czech journal. On its pages, you will find often unexpected connections across the whole design industry or the sources of inspiration of successful designers. Since its fourth year, the journal has been published in Czech and in English. In every issue, the readers will find exclusive interviews with leading designers, best car news, reports from interesting events, portraits of legendary creators and many more inspiring articles.

+ Facts about Dassault Systèmes Design Challenge

600 registered designers, 80 entries, 23 nationalities
1st prize € 1,000, 2nd prize € 500, 3rd prize € 300

Orproject have just completed the installation Anisotropia, which will be on show at the China National Museum, Tian An Men, Beijing, until the 17th of October 2011.

A FROZEN PIECE OF MUSIC

Anisotropia is based on Klavierstück I, a composition for piano by Orproject director Christoph Klemmt. The piano piece uses a twelve tone row which is repeated and altered by the different voices, in order to create complex rhythmic patterns.

Anisotropia, image courtesy Orproject

Anisotropia becomes the physical manifestation of Klavierstück I, a frozen piece of music. The installation is based on a simple strip morphology instead of a twelve tone row, which creates the structure, openings and rhythm within itself, its repetition happening in space instead of time. Layers of the strips form the wall system, and the shifting and alteration of these patterns results in the formation of complex architectural rhythms which are used to control the light, view and shading properties of the structure. The system has also been used for our design proposal for Busan Opera House.

Anisotropia, image courtesy Orproject

SHIFTING TONES

Klavierstück I uses a twelve tone row which starts with the lowest key of the piano. After its first cycle the row gets repeated, though shifted up by a halftone. However rather than translating up every tone by a halftone, only the lowest tone of the row is translated up by one octave. Like this the row remains the same, but its range has been shifted.

Anisotropia, image courtesy Orproject

Anisotropia, image courtesy Orproject

In the next repetition this shift continues, but the range now also gets reduced in its size: The lowest tone gets translated up by one octave again, and the second lowest tone gets dropped out, so that only the remaining eleven tones of the row are played. Instead of the twelve tones the range now only covers eleven tones, and also its length is reduced accordingly.

The range of the twelve tone row continues to be reduced and shifted upwards until only one tone is left in each repetition of the original row. Then the range grows again, and still moving upwards goes through further modulations: The different voices of the piece are starting to separate, the size of the different parallel ranges starts to diverge, they move around each other, until finally they grow together again, still moving up and their range fading out with the highest key of the piano.

Piano Piece No.1 is based on a simple row of the twelve tones, but by shifting and translating its range of influence, complex and continuously evolving rhythmic patterns are generated and turned into a floating field of sound.

STRUCTURE AND LIGHT

The proposed façade system becomes the physical manifestation of Klavierstück I. It uses parallel bamboo lamella which are creating the rhythmic structure. The basic unit of two strips is creating form into two dimensions, and becomes a straight extrusion into the third dimension. Like this it gets multiplied into the first two dimensions, where it develops and gets modified in the same way in which the twelve tone row gets repeated and modified in time.

Anisotropia, image courtesy Orproject

The extrusion in the third dimensions allows for a horizontal modification during the development of the wall, which is used in a linear direction similar to the continuous upwards movement of the piano piece. In the piano piece always only the upper few tones of each twelve tone row are audible and create the floating field of rhythmic transformations. Similarly in the installation, only the peaks of each strip become visible and create a floating field of structure, shadow and light.

+ For more information please visit www.orproject.com.

Anisotropia, image courtesy Orproject

+ Project credits / data

Title: Anisotropia
Designed by: Xin Wang and Christoph Klemmt
Project Team: Shuai Yang, Duan Duan, Haobin Lee
Material: Bamboo

+ All images courtesy Orproject