1st year of BA: blog posts

BLOG Rosanne Schuurmans 1B, 18-5-2018

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https://rosannetzalwel.wixsite.com/blog

Architecture meets Food This may not come as a surprise to you if you know who I am, but for me as an interior designer, I love architecture. What you might didn´t know about me, is that I also really love food. So, what happens if you combine these two things?

Well, you will get the best-looking food in the world. This concept is captured by a new project called: Edible Archetypes.

What? And why?

You as an designer of as an chef can design for food or with food, but Edible Archetypes is an attempt to trigger a new collaborative understanding: designing through food. The designers are drawing a methodological parallelism, combining techniques and procedures belonging to different creative fields. According to the designers of this project, architects recognize that the blurred lines between disciplines like art, music, cinema, politics, anthropology and gastronomy create new fertile grounds for unexpected assemblages. They believe that this approach helps other architects design and shape the contents of our contemporary world.

Future potential In the Future, humans are going to use architecture as a methodology to the way patisserie is made. Each recipe will have its own assembling process, where the morphology of each new dessert is treated as a dome prototype: the result of architectural suggestions, mistakes and trials. It will be the new way of designing.

This project will be basically the future if you have to ask me. Edible Archetypes is not only really well thought out, but they are beautiful looking too! This is a new trend according to Studio Bordewijk. And I fully agree! These days it's all about being unique. Even your food has to look 'perfect' and 'authentic'.

All information based on the following websites: Foodtrends 2018. (2018). Geraadpleegd van https://mariellebordewijk.nl/foodtrends2018/

Trend: Imperfectie & perfectie gaan hand in hand. (2015, 25 juni). Geraadpleegd van http://pro.pergo.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/imperfectie-en-perfectie-gaan-hand-in-hand EDIBLE ARCHETYPES REIMAGINE FAMOUS ARCHITECTURAL DOMES IN CAKE FORM. (2018, 19 maart). Geraadpleegd van https://thisismold.com/process/cook/ediblearchetypes-reimagine-famous-architectural-domes-in-cake-form

Is this your new favourite store?

“Where do you buy your basic items for your wardrobe and what do you pay for them?" I asked around in my surroundings and they are all telling me the same thing. People buy their basic items for a little money and in stores like Hema, Primark and H&M, but the quality is so bad that they have to buy them several times a year. That's why they want them for a little money. So, then I asked my surroundings: "Why do you buy your clothes in those stores? Are there stores that just sells inexpensive basic items for with reasonable quality in the Netherlands?"

The answer was no, until Arket opened its doors in Amsterdam.

Arket The store Arket just opened in Amsterdam.

It's a new concept designed by H&M Group.

This store is designed by the same designers, who designed the concept of H&M which we know today. So, what is Arket exactly? Arket themselves describe it as follows: “Arket is a modern-day market that offers essential products for men, women, children and for your home. Arket stores also include a café based on the New Nordic Food Manifesto.

Arket's mission is to democratise quality through widely accessible, well-made, durable products, designed to be used and loved for a long time.” (Arket, 2018) Why Arket?

People can go to Arket for many reasons. The clothing is less frivolous than H&M and other stores like Primark and more fashionable than COS. As a customer, you can even go to Arket and enjoy a good flat white. But the main reason for me to write this blog, is because of their clothing collection, which has the right amount of good quality basic items we all need in our wardrobe. In mid-2015, the H&M Group started the new concept with a team of five members during a trip to London. "We found that there was little exciting in fashion, but another area was developing: food & health. That is more than interesting to many people. So, the idea was born to shop and eat with a good café in every store." (H&M Group, 2018)

Future potential Another thing that is different form this concept is the appearance of the store. Not only is everything perfectly organised and minimalistic (which is still a trend by the way), but the store also has lots of space to walk around. That's something you won't see a lot in cheap clothing stores where profit is maximized by stowing everything together in a small space. If you had to ask me, as a future trend researcher: The future of clothing stores itself will consist of a more minimalistic approach. It will give the items inside the store a better-looking quality and thus more value for its money. And that's what the people want according to recent research. (Trend rapport, 2018)

All information used is based on these sources: [Arket webshop]. (z.d.). Retrieved June 28, from www.arket.com Tjepkema, R. (2018, March 1). H_M nieuwste winkelconcept opent in Amsterdam en het is prachtig. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from www.vogue.nl/fashion/nieuws/artikel/h-m-nieuwste-winkelconcept-arket-opent-in-amsterdam

[Trend rapport]. (2018, Februari 5). Retrieved from http://www.agf.nl/artikel/169136/In2018-draait-het-allemaal-om-kwaliteit,-ethiek,-transparantie-en-gemak

If you want to learn more about the trend and lifestyle 'minimalistic', I recommend reading this website: www.theminimalists.com

Fake fashion the real fashion These days, fake designer clothing is almost everywhere, for example on the streets and in online stores. ‘But why?' you may ask yourself. Well, in plain and simple terms: there is a huge market demand for fake clothing according to the Dutch article which is linked at the end of this blogpost. It's because of the low costs of these products in our mass production society. Copycats just copy-paste the design someone already created. It's that simple to fake it and at the same time totally wrong, if you have to ask me. Imagine yourself as a designer. You've put hours and hours in a beautiful and well thought out design which you are so proud of and then suddenly there are little stores popping up everywhere selling your design. Sometimes even with bad quality materials , for very little money or in some extraordinary cases even more expensive than your own clothing. So, what would you do as a designer to fix this problem? Are you starting a fight with those stores or are you ignoring them? Well, neither did Diesel. Diesel decided to come up with their own fake brand called: Deisel.

Wait, what?

Renzo Rosso (founder of Diesel) and his new creative team have set up a new pop-up store in New York City USA. According to Renzo Rosso (2018) himself, he did this to let the world know that Diesel is back and fresh. They are selling some basic jeans, sweatshirts and T-shirts with the logo of the brand. He chose this, because these items are within the so called logotrend that is very popular nowadays and therefore is most frequently being faked. The logotrend comes from the 90s fashion that we saw making a huge comeback for the last couple of years. "The Italian style capital truly confirmed that it’s all about being brazen with your penchant for big-name brands." (Vogue, 2017) The brand Diesel has a bold logo which definitely corresponds to the above chain of thought, if you have to ask me as a trend watcher.

The only difference this time, is that Diesel is spelled 'wrong'. He has done that on purpose, because there are so many fakes of Diesel clothing. Therefore, he has decided to ‘slap them in the face’ and make fake products of real products and sell them for bargain prices to undercut the ‘real’ fake clothes sellers. It's the quality

that we as customers are used to from Diesel, but not the same price point and definitely not with the same logo.

Future potential Some people will see this as a joke, others as a marketing trick, but both are kind of right. Diesel is putting their brand out there again and I think it's remarkable that a big designer brand is selling their own fakes. But, for me as a trendwatcher, I see this as a new behaviour within the design industry. Diesel is the first that sells their own fakes as a reaction to the amount of fake fashion. What if more brands are willing to do this? And I'm not talking about yet another brand in the fashion industry. What if every brand in the entire world from every industry is selling their own fakes? Will this just decrease the amount of fakes or will this mean that fake items will no longer exist? Or are we as customers making it easy for the fakers to sell their stuff, since no one will see the difference.

And finally, what will happen to the logotrend? Well, if you have to believe Vogue (2017), then I'm sure we're not going to say goodbye to any of this real soon, but how it turns out, will be a mystery for everyone.

Highsnobiety. (2018, February 15). Renzo Rosso Explains why Diesel bootlegs with “Deisel” Pop-Up in NYC [Video file]. Retrieved February 18, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvyaR9kaD6w Vogue article: Morgan, P. (2017, December 27). How To Wear The Logo Trend.

Retrieved from https://en.vogue.me/fashion/logo-trend-spring-2018/ Waarom nepkleding echt een probleem is. (2016, November 30). Retrieved from https://retailtrends.nl/item/46916/waarom-nepkleding-een-echt-probleem-is

The pink chicken project Do you as a human love to eat a piece of chicken next to your potatoes and vegetables? If you don't love it, it's because you probably dislike the taste or texture of it or you just don't eat meat in general. This blogpost is for the people who eat chicken and for the people who don't eat chicken.

Now let me introduce you to the pink chicken project: The Pink Chicken Project (2017) suggests changing the colour of the entire chicken species Gallus Gallus Domesticus to pink. According to the Pink Chicken Project (2017), the bones of the 60 billion chickens that we as humans kill and eat every year leave a distinct trace in the earth's crust and therefore forms an identifier for the new geological age: the Anthropocene.

To re-occupy this identifier of our age, the project suggests genetically modifying a chicken with pink bones and feathers using a gene from the insect cochineal to produce a pigment that will be fossilized when combined with the calcium of the bone. Spreading this gene with the newly invented CRISPR gene-drive technique causes the species to be permanently altered on a global scale in just a few years.

But why?

According to the Pink Chicken Project (2017), Human actions have altered the Earth so profoundly that we as humans have entered a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene. The stability of the biosphere is threatened, with an uncomfortably high probability of an uninhabitable planet within the next century according to the Pink Chicken Project.

This devastation will leave traces in the earth's crust for geologists of the future: such as plastic pollution, soot from power stations, nuclear fallout, and surprisingly, the fossilized bones of the global proliferation of the domestic chicken. But the most mind-blowing thing is that the people behind this project will put a hidden message in the chickens. The pink chicken will carry a message in their DNA, encoded into A’s, T’s, G’s, and C’s, a time capsule readable for thousands of years. The message says:

“We the humans of planet earth, write this message at the beginning of the Anthropocene.

The current devastation of the planet is not the result of activities undertaken by the whole species Homo Sapiens: instead it derives from a small group of humans in power. We urge you to fight this oppression: for it enables and aggravates the anthropocentric violence forced upon the non-human world.

Sent in hope that you have re-imagined us as a biological organism, joined in symbiosis with each other and the planet.” (The Pink Chicken Project, 2017) With the power of the CRISPR gene-drive technique, the traces of humanity are no longer in the hands of powerful companies like Monsanto and Dupont, the radiation of nuclear bombs or the oil spills of Exxon Mobil, but also in yours, because you as an ordinary human can order your own egg and start ‘growing’ pink chickens yourself. What do you want to leave to planet earth? If you have to ask me as a trend watcher, I think this is an amazing innovation because this a permanent change within the DNA of the chickens and will leave a powerful message for the future.

All information used for this blogpost is found on this website: The Pink Chicken Project. (2017). Retrieved from pinkchickenproject.com What to do when you fall into the water?

By reading the title of this blogpost your human instincts might be saying: The answer is 'swimming' off course? Well, the children from the Netherlands will

learn so much more than just simple swimming when they fall into the water due to the new focus on surviving within the Dutch swim- ABC diploma.

First of all, what is the swim- ABC? The Swimming ABC consists three National Swimming Diplomas: A, B and C. It’s that simple. The Swimming ABC is aimed at children from the age of 4. The swimming diplomas A and B are valuable intermediate steps, but those who have the completed Swimming ABC in their pocket, have become a true ‘friend of the water’ according to the swim-ABC organisation (2018). With the National Swimming Diploma C you will meet the complete national standard for swimming safety.

What did the program look like?

In the beginning of the swim-ABC, a lot of attention is paid to making children ‘water free’. Here the foundation is laid for learning how to swim. Children learn to float on their chest and on their back, go into the water, look under water and search in the water. According to the swim-ABC, these matters ensure that children get to know the water and feel comfortable. After this period of so called ‘water-freeing’, it is time for the next phase: the swimming strokes.

At the Swim ABC children learn four swimming strokes from the beginning: single backstroke, breaststroke, front crawl and back crawl. Attention is paid to all kinds of exercises in deep water, such as different ways of going into the water, swimming underwater, climbing on a raft and swimming to the bottom. These skills teach a child to be able to survive in unexpected situations and to have fun in the water, but that isn’t the main focus, at least not yet.

What does the program look like now?

Previously, the main attention was focused on a ‘perfect’ stroke: It had to be ‘nicelooking’ and tight, what we as humans call beautiful. This will change in 2018, because according to an article by the NOS (2017), from now on the focus in swimming lessons will be on survival in the water in unexpected situations and not so much on 'beautiful swimming'.

The requirements for swimming diplomas are also being tightened up: a child no longer has to learn the ‘start dive’, but instead they have to know what to do if they fall backwards into the water.

To get the A-diploma nowadays, the student must also be able to swim with long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Previously, short pants were allowed in combination with a simple t-shirt. And for the C-diploma, the student must be able to swim through an underwater hole in a much thicker jacket than they had to before.

Why? When I, as a trend researcher, looked at the statistics by CBS (2016) I saw a descending line in the amount of ‘drowning children’ in the Netherlands. Which is a good thing of course, but something striking about these statistics is that the number of drownings of nonWestern residents in the Netherlands is more than twice as big in comparison to native Dutch people.

The new requirements are written down in the National Standard for Swimming Safety. So hopefully, the tightened standard will lead to fewer people drowning in general.

Future potential We as rational compassionate human beings all wish for absolutely no drownings in the world, right? Is this going to happen after this little change? I personally don't think so unfortunately. What I do think is that it will decrease a lot. A beautiful swim stroke is always something that is nice to look at if you have to ask me, but it isn't necessary. Swimming lessons should be something we all should have had. Starting already at the young age of 4. No matter what country or culture you are born in: surviving is key. Maybe this chain of thought is needed in our human behaviour before anything else. For example: What if you are starting your car driving lessons with a car crash? Not a crash you as the driver of the car made yourself, but a made-up crash in a river or something similar. Then you might not know how to survive this crash.

Everything that will decrease the number of casualties is a step in the right direction, so we are on the right track if you ask me.

All information used for this blogpost: Het nieuwe zwemmen: overleven belangrijker dan mooie slag. (2017, 17 november). Retrieved November 17, from https://nos.nl/artikel/2203283-het-nieuwezwemmen-overleven-belangrijker-dan-mooie-slag.html

Waarom zwemmen we eigenlijk? (2009, 8 oktober). Retrieved October 8, from https://sport.infonu.nl/diversen/43891-waarom-zwemmen-we-eigenlijk.html [Zwem- ABC]. (z.d.). Retrieved June 28 from, https://www.allesoverzwemles.nl/nationalezwemdiplomas/zwem-abc/

Minder kinderen verdrinken [Dataset]. (2016, 3 augustus). Retrieved August 3, from https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2016/31/minder-kinderen-verdrinken

Functionality equals beauty (cluster blog) We attach as much value to functionality as to beauty. In the past, this was different. The function of a product was often more important than its appearance. Now we see that beauty has become just as important as the function. We call this: form over function. In this blog post I will tell you why this is the case.

"Making the world a better place" is the goal of many people and companies at this moment. This is partly because of climate change, environmental pollution and poor living conditions in the world that keep coming closer to our own lives.

Every day there are stories in the news about these topics. The stories are often negative, so you’ll get the feeling that something needs to happen since this makes you feel bad. So, what happens now, is that little by little you see an increasing number of small projects that are being started in order to make the world to make the world a better place. Better as in, safer and more environmentally friendly and also more beautiful. Something that looks beautiful is seen as something positive for the world. Let me show you: Via Verde Project For example, there is a project in Mexico called the Via Verde Project.

One part of this project is to transform highway pillars into vertical gardens. It helps this citizens' initiative to fight air pollution, make the city more beautiful and reduce the stress level of motorists.

The initiative was started because the city had to deal with air quality problems; there is too much pollution, which means that the inhabitants literally get sick of it.

Previously, the pillars simply had to be concrete pillars with their only function being to support the structure above. This meant you had to look at boring grey pillars, it didn’t look 'nice' but it surely was functional. Now, there are new functions: air purification, anti-stress agents and beauty.

MEXICO-STAD VECHT TEGEN LUCHTVERVUILING DOOR SNELWEG PILAREN OM TE TOVEREN TOT VERTICALE TUINEN. (2018). Geraadpleegd van https://brightvibes.com/904/nl/mexico-stad-vecht-tegen-luchtvervuiling-door-snelweg-pilarenom-te-toveren-tot-verticale-tuinen

Turn Signal Commuter Backpack

And what about this product. Safety first, style second. If there is no style, there won’t be safety, because nobody will use it.

The Turn Signal Commuter Backpack is a backpack that cyclists can wear at night when they are cycling around the city. The bag is embedded with LEDs that form directional arrows which alerts surrounding drivers and other cyclists to the riders' intentions. The bag looks like a normal modern backpack you see everywhere. If that was not the case, the bag would not be used as much by the majority of the cyclists, since people care about how they look and are perceived. So, the value of the bag is not only in the fact that you can also use it as a bag, but also have a safety system in it. This means function and looks equally matter in this product.

Haar, J. (2018, 17 januari). Signalling Commuter Bags. Geraadpleegd van https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/turn-signal-commuter-backpack

So, what first had the function of just being functional, now also gets other secondary functions like beauty. This can also be different. Just think of glass, for example. Something that had the function of allowing light in the house also has an appearence function. Glass is used, among other things, in residential construction to allow light from outside to inside. Glass can also have a luxurious or decorative appearance, such as glass walls or stained glass. Nowadays, you see a lot of glass in modern architecture. If there is so much of it in the world, then it's a shame that it does not do anything with the current environmental conditions, right?

Smart Glass That is what the Delft entrepreneurs Willem Kesteloo and Ferdinand Grapperhaus thought so too. They have come up with a project that involves a powergenerating window. The technology is now being used on a small scale in the Netherlands, soon it will go abroad. With a special coating, light can be transported to the side of the glass. In the window frames, the solar collectors absorb that light and convert it into energy. So, something that has the function of allowing light in a room and has a nice appearance also has the function of generating electricity in an environmentally friendly way.

Blotenburg, S. (2018, 9 mei). Delftse ondernemers halen 1,5 miljoen op voor stroomopwekkend raam. Geraadpleegd van https://www.rtlz.nl/business/delftseondernemers-halen-15-miljoen-op-voor-stroomopwekkend-raam

Future potential Imagine if this is further developed in the future and used all over the world. Then maybe we no longer need to use solar panels or windmills at all. Would this reduce the view pollution of wind farms? If you ask me, then I would say yes.

Environment and living conditions need to be improved and that doesn’t have to be in an ugly way. I find this movement a real plus and it will add something to the quality of life. A positive appearance has a positive effect. Do not forget that!

Photography: Juhasz Imre & Joey Kyber