Italian-Singaporean designers Lanzavecchia + Wai have designed a collection of aids for the elderly with styling that’s more domestic than medical.

Called No Country For Old Men, the series includes walking canes with integrated trays, iPad stands or baskets, a chair that’s easier to get out of thanks to a foot bar for tipping it forward and a lamp with a magnifying screen.

Materials like wood and marble integrate the pieces in a domestic interior where their standard counterparts can feel alien outside a clinical environment.

They presented the objects as part of Salone Satellite at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan last month.

Yves Behar recently collaborated with new brand Sabi to launch a range of medical aids to tackle the stigma of products normally associated with hospitals and nursing homes for a design-conscious ageing population. Read more in our earlier story.

See more about Lanzavecchia + Wai on Dezeen »

The Salone Internazionale del Mobile took place from 17 to 22 April. See all our stories about Milan 2012 here, plus photos on Facebook and Pinterest.

Photographs are by Davide Farabegoli.

Here’s some more information from the designers:

No Country for Old Men – A Collection of Domestic Objects for the Elderly

The No Country for Old Men collection: Together canes, MonoLight table lamps & Assunta chair

During the Milan Design Week 2012, Lanzavecchia + Wai, a creative studio of Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai presented No Country for Old Men, a collection of domestic objects for the elderly.

To read, to get-up, to move yourself and your possessions around, at home; the project “No Country for Old Men” is a small family of objects that is not only attentive to the daily difficulties encountered by the elderly, but also how it can finally complement our domestic living spaces and acquired laziness.

Together Canes – T-Cane, U-Cane & I-Cane – walking aids for living, not just mobility.

The activity spheres that exist in a home become fluid and blurred with modern living habits and mobile devices. The T, U and I-canes not only provide interstitial support to the elderly, but also allow them and modern dwellers to bring along their tea-time, a collection of magazines and books and also to prop up their iPad for viewing from the sofa or typing out an email or document.

T-Cane – the cane designed for our grandmothers to keep on carrying the tea tray.

U-Cane – the container cane that can be a magazine holder, a knitting basket or…

I-Cane – the iPad cane for the Elderly 2.0.

The aging process brings about a natural decline in muscle tone and bone density that contributes to decreased mobility, stability, strength and endurance. Actions that are taken for granted can become more difficult with age. Simply standing up from a chair is difficult for some seniors due to muscle mass and strength losses. This is aggravated by our increasingly sedentary work-and-lifestyles.

Assunta assists by appropriating the user’s own body weight as leverage by stepping on the foot bar and as well as assures stability by having arm-rests that follow this tilting motion.

Informed by contemporary choices of material and expression, both aesthetical and functional, Assunta assumes its domestic role by assisting this common action of getting up from a chair as a considered and holistic product.

MonoLight Table Lamp – a lamp that illuminates & magnifies. Eye-sight deteriorates with age and long-hours in front of the computer screen.

MonoLight is a handsome table lamp with a magnifying screen and LED components housed in a CNC-machined aluminium enclosure, anchored to a dodecagon-profiled marble base, to enable various degrees of viewing angles.

The lamp comes in both portrait and landscape models to fit the reader’s viewing preference, and to change the angle, a simple gesture of tilting the aluminium frame whilst the heft of the marble piece keeps it in the desired position.

Designed in Hackney: next up in our series of stories about Hackney fashion design is the A-Lu-Ha collection by Lu Flux, combining vintage patchwork with Hawaiian details.

Pastel fabrics are layered up then laser-cut with fringes evoking grass skirts or patterns taken from Hawaiian shirts.

The collection also incorporates silk macramé and images of warrior masks.

Flux uses fabrics she salvages locally and end-of-line materials.

She studied at the Edinburgh College of Art before moving to Paris to work. Her studio is now near London Fields.

See our other stories about Lu Flux »

Here’s some more information from the designer:

For Spring Summer 2012 Lu Flux draws her influences from the expectations of a tropical British Summer and then, the reality. The idyllic Polynesian collection oozes summer fun, complete in candy colours and Hawaiian imagery.

“A-Lu-Ha” clings to the anticipation of a scorching summer in the mind’s eye of Britain. Then, as forecast, there is an interruption with a downpour of British showers.

The hope for paradisiacal blue skies, endless days of sunshine lying on a pure white sandy beach complete with grass skirts, Tiki masks and leis is crushed by rain, to be replaced with jam making and macramé potholders at a car boot sale in a field in Kent.

As expected Lu has incorporated her trademark pastiche of patchwork, which includes a dress made from vintage silk scarves in a collage of round Suffolk puffs – a traditional decorative technique consisting of gathered circles of fabric sewn together at their edges.

A modern twist on the Hawaiian shirt sees crisp laser cuttings of hibiscus flowers and Tiki-masked warriors dancing round campfires teamed with elegant laser cut crepe de chine Tahitian grass skirts. Tiki masks emblazon teeshirts and apron dresses, appliquéd with even more patchwork puffs and embroidered Hawaiian mementos embellish pockets.

The collection sees the introduction of macramé techniques using reels and reels of silk thread sponsored by Alchemy Yarns. Alchemy creates luxury hand painted all-natural yarns which subtleties cannot be commercially re-created nor made by a machine.

Each yarn type responds uniquely to each individual colour value, making nuance, sophistication and intense colour magic. The silken straw in the collection is knotted in complex sequences and echoes the grass skirts of dancers at a luau.

From dresses to raincoats this sugarcoated collection demonstrates at its best the ever-present playfulness to Lu Flux. “A-Lu-Ha” SS12 travels beyond last season’s inky colour palette and heavy fabrics towards a delicate hued potpourri of soft silhouettes and floral fancy.

Lu Flux will be exhibiting the new SS12 collection “A-Lu-Ha” in the Embankment Galleries at Somerset House during London Fashion Week from 16th – 20th September 2011. The collection will also be exhibited at Rendez-Vous Femme during Paris Fashion Week from the 29th September – 2nd October and at the Zeniya Inc showroom at Tokyo Fashion Week from the 18th – 31st October 2011

Designed in Hackney map:

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Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands

See a larger version of this map

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.

When photographer Paul Raftery sent us his timelapse movie of The Shard yesterday, one of our very first reactions was how great the soundtrack was. So we thought we’d post it up in full here on Dezeen Music Project.

The track is by SuN (aka George McCleod), and we think it more than holds its own as a standalone track. But make sure you check out the movie it was composed for as well.

About Dezeen Music Project | More tracks | Submit your track

Finch explains how indigenous building techniques had to be retaught to the South African community that built the centre because they were more familiar with modern construction. See our original story about the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre here.

This year’s World Architecture Festival will take place in Singapore from 3-5 October and will be the event’s fifth year.

Dezeen is media partner for World Architecture Festival 2012 and readers can save 25% on the early rate cost of entering the WAF awards. Simply enter MPVOUCH25 in the VIP code box when registering to enter online (see voucher above for more details).

Here’s some info about WAF:

World Architecture Festival is the world’s largest live architecture festival and awards programme.

Now in its fifth year, the World Architecture Festival has attracted over 8000 attendees to date. 2012 is a landmark year for the Festival, heralding our relocation to the Asian gateway and design hub, Singapore. WAF’s move brings with it unparalleled opportunities for east to meet west and for you to obtain inspiration, develop your global network and plan new exciting projects.

In 2011 over 400 architects from across the globe were shortlisted and battled for a WAF award. The festival saw over 30 international practices become winners of a revered WAF yellow W trophy.

To be at the centre of all WAF has to offer, and that includes global PR, doors opening, new connections and a celebration of your fervour for the power of life changing architecture, you need to enter the projects that you want to shout to the world about. You have less than six weeks to enter, so start yours today.

The World Architecture Festival Awards offers you multiple opportunities to showcase your best work and most exciting ideas to the world, including the most influential names in the design and development community. All you have to do is decide which projects will be representing your practice at the world’s largest, live architectural awards programme and festival.

There are 30 categories to choose from and projects can be completed buildings, future projects, landscape projects, masterplans or interiors. You can enter a project into more than one category (which will of course increase your chances of walking away with that rather handsome WAF award).

With 35 awards and prizes covering 100+ different building types, World Architecture Festival is your opportunity to promote your latest completed building, interior, landscape or masterplan globally.

How to enter the WAF Awards:

Entering the World Architecture Festival awards is easy. All entries must be submitted through our website www.worldarchitecturefestival.com

Just follow these simple steps:

»Open your WAF account or if you have entered WAF previously just log onto your existing account – log in here.
»Choose the section and category that you want to enter – remember you can enter a project into more than one category.
»Tell us what project you are entering
»Pay for your entry
»Create your online entry by adding images for the project, your details, a description and any professional credits – all entries must be completed by 30th June 2012.

Promotion: entries are now being accepted for the Wood Awards 2012.

The annual awards showcase outstanding design, craftsmanship and installations using wood, including furniture, small projects, staircases, large-scale public buildings and more.

The main categories of the Wood Awards 2012 are:

» commercial and public access
» private
» small project
» structural
» repair and adaptive reuse
» bespoke furniture
» production-made furniture

Enter for free via the Wood Awards website. Deadline: 1 June 2012.

Here’s some more information from the organisers:

The Wood Awards 2012 – Calling for entries

The Wood Awards is once again open for entries for the UK’s premier award scheme for the world’s only naturally sustainable material. The Wood Awards is free to enter, with no administration charge, and entries are now open via the website www.woodawards.com. The closing deadline is 1st June.

As Britain’s premier architecture and furniture competition celebrating excellence in design and craftsmanship using timber, the aim of the Wood Awards is to recognise, encourage and promote outstanding design, craftsmanship and installation in wood. Over the last nine years since its re-launch, the projects entered in the Wood Awards have ranged from exquisitely designed and executed staircases, furniture and timber frame buildings, to iconic public buildings from the UK’s leading architectural practices.

Previous Gold Award winners include the Weald and Downland Museum by Edward Cullinan Architects, Norwich Cathedral Visitors Centre by Hopkins Architects, Pinions Barn by Simon Conder Associates, The Savill Building by Glenn Howells Architects and last year, the Rothschild Foundation, using European oak, by Stephen Marshall Architects.

The categories for the Wood Awards have been updated for the 2012 competition with the introduction of ‘Small Project’ as a main category, the renaming of the ‘Conservation / Restoration’ category as ‘Repair & Adaptive Reuse’, and the extension of one ‘Furniture’ category into two: ‘Bespoke Furniture’ and ‘Production Made Furniture’. In separating the small projects from the ‘Private’ category this year with their own ‘Small Project’ category, the Wood Awards has the opportunity to give much smaller projects, from bespoke staircases to garden buildings, the specific recognition they deserve. The category ‘Repair & Adaptive Reuse’ still incorporates both the careful conservation and ingenious restoration seen every year, but intend to encourage entries where the decision to repurpose an existing building has been made over simply moving or rebuilding completely. There will also be a more specific focus on the wood species and timber products used in each project. Commenting on this evolution, chairman of the judges, Michael Morrison of Purcell Miller Tritton, said: “Both judges and sponsors wanted to respond to the interesting challenges the awards often present, and these changes will help give us another fascinating year.”

Canada Wood, the joint initiative between the Canadian government and timber industry association partners representing producers in Canada, and the timber industry’s sustainability and promotion campaign Wood for Good, have both this year become lead sponsors of the Wood Awards, alongside long standing supporters the American Hardwood Export Council and the Carpenters’ Company. Other sponsors include TRADA and American Softwoods. The Wood Awards is a showcase, a flagship for wood in the best of British architecture, furniture and design, and with the enthusiastic commitment of its sponsors, the Wood Awards, and excellence in design and craftsmanship using wood, is thriving.

With permission from the owner, anyone associated with an eligible building or furniture project can enter. Visit www.woodawards.com for more information on how to enter, criteria, details on each of the categories, and inspiration.

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