Blood pack of Santa Claus by Kiseung Lee

Designer Kiseung Lee of Helsinki wants people to fill stockings with more vital gifts this Christmas: donations to the blood bank.

His conceptual stocking-shaped blood packs were on show as part of Helsinki Design Week in September, although they were filled with red pigment rather than actual blood.

Lee wants to stimulate donations as a generous gesture that’s easy to make but could mean the difference between life and death to someone else.

Here are some more details from Kiseung Lee:

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“Put your present in the socks, somewhen it will be back to you”

In generally, people tend to show a stiff motivation and response to donation. This phenomenon has caused passive dedication to society and human being lives. Naturally, it has weaken a bond between mankind. I suggest new blood bag design and hope to inspire active blood donating boom or event across the world and dedicate to improve a quality of our lives. By donating warmness with pleasure, people would feel being a “Santa-claus” alike . Also, the socks shape welfare and sharing love – written by Kiseung, Lee

The richest countries in the world suffer from overproduction and goods bulimia. The biggest problem is no longer a lack of possessions, but homes changed to warehouses for them. The question from the beginning of the 1970s, “Necessary or not?”, is more timely than ever. What do we really need? Goods and product design have developed through different eras and isms, but we people, whether we are millionaires or not, always and forever have but one heart. Neither has the number or shape of our hands changed over the millennia. Whether we want to be or not, we are all anatomically ancient in the midst of all these novelty products. The act of being brings inevitable vulnerability and uncertainty. Our only certainty is our daily trade in dreams and lies. The important things are always very simple. The greatest gift is to just at the right moment find a personal unquestioning and intimate closeness in another human. Santa’s stockings has not been filled with useless Chinese plastic junk – written by Kaj Kalin, Exhibition “to declare” curator, Helsinki design week 2011.

Rollercoaster by Interval Architects

Chinese studio Interval Architects have completed a pavilion that snakes around a school square in Beijing like the tracks of a roller coaster.

The continuous timber belt folds up and down from the ground to create louvred walls and a roof, which are supported by a series of metal columns.

Where the chunky edges of the structure meet the ground they create benches and surround new patches of grass.

As well as providing a seating area for students, the pavilion can also be used as an outdoor exhibition area.

Some other timber pavilions we’ve published recently include one with a swimming pool inside and another for observing reindeer - see more stories about pavilions here.

Photography is by GU Yunduan.

The following text is from Interval Architects:

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Rollercoaster

Situated in a tranquil environment of one of the best vocational schools in Beijing, the project aims at providing an iconic image to the institution as well as redefining the use of an existing public space on the central square of the campus.

Initially, the client wanted to put on the square a themed sculpture with a monumental effect and scale. A huge pedestal was even already built for the sculpture to put on. However the obvious problem of the square is actually a severe lack of effective public space that would allow students to gather and communicate. What the school really needs is not a monument in the center of the campus, but a humanistic and functional gathering space for students and an event space for school activities.

Therefore, with the intention to create an efficient public space, we proposed a continuous self-folding belt structure that resembles the image of a “roller coaster”. The structure folds three-dimensionally to create a series of spaces such as open gardens, shaded pavilions and exhibition corridors. The entire belt bends around and in-between the existing trees on the site so they are well-preserved and maximally utilized for shading.

The rollercoaster-like structure presents a highly recognizable identity to the school as well as a fun image that was widely welcomed by the students.

Credits:
Project Title: Rollercoaster

Location: Beijing Huangzhuang Vocational School

Architect: Interval Architects
Project Architect: Oscar KO, GU Yunduan

Lighting Consultant: MIAO Hailin

Recession Chair by Tjep

Dutch designers Tjep. have reduced part of a mass produced Ikea chair to a skeletal form to evoke the receding state of the global economy.

One corner of the standard chair has been carefully sanded so that hardly any material remains.

The fragile chair can no longer support the weight of a person as, like the economy, it too is diminished.

Sarpi Border Checkpoint by J. Mayer H.

Drivers crossing the coastal border between Turkey and Georgia will now pass below a knobbly observation tower by Berlin architect J. Mayer H.

The bumpy tower, which sits atop the Sarpi Border Checkpoint building, houses a series of elevated terraces within its folds.

Above: photograph is by Beka Pkhakadze

The curved two-storey building beneath the tower integrates customs facilities with a café, staff room and conference rooms.

This year architect J. Mayer H. also completed a controversial timber canopy across a public square in Spain – see readers’ comments on the project here and see more projects by the architect here.

Photography is by Jesko Malkolm Johnsson-Zahn, apart from where otherwise stated.

Above: photograph is by Beka Pkhakadze

Circle or Dot by Giha Woo

No more searching around for a pencil sharpener in the bottoms of pen pots or backs of drawers: this waste-paper bin by Korean designer Giha Woo has a sharpener in the lid so it’s waiting right where you need to use it.

Called Circle or Dot, the trash can has a large circular aperture in the top for normal waste and a tiny hole (or dot) to push pencils into the sharpener, so the shavings fall directly into the bin below.

Woo’s design also allows you to conserve your efforts for more essential work in the studio by honing your pencils with just one hand.

It might prevent colleagues walking off with your pencil sharpener too, unless it’s the sort of office where your whole bin tends to go missing and mysteriously reappear beside another desk, in which case you’re robbed of two items in one fell swoop.

If that doesn’t float your boat, check out our stories on a wooden bin that’s burnt along with its contents or a waste-paper basket with layers of liners like cup-cake cases or a very minimal version here.

Other projects by Giha Woo include an MP3 player combined with an electrical plug, a clock with batteries in place of hands and another clock with a single spiralling arm to indicate the time in cities around the world.

Here are some more details from the designer: