Beijing Design Week 2011: French artist Niko de la Faye could be found cycling around Beijing Design Week with a rotating map of the universe on the back of his tricycle.

Top and above: photographs by Raphaël Fournier

Eight monochrome balls on the corners of the cube-shaped M2B sculpture illustrate Yin and Yang symbols to represent the Taoist map of the cosmos.

Above: photograph is by Mathias Magg

Primary coloured cubes, prisms and spheres at the centre of the sculpture are meant to symbolise the elemental particles that fill the universe. These twelve coloured shapes are attached to the pedals and spin when the cycle is moving.

Another tricycle on show during Beijing Design Week could write temporary messages on the road with water - see this project here and see all our stories about cycles here.

See more from Beijing Design Week here and see our snapshots from the festival on our Facebook page.

The following text comes from de la Faye:

M2B reflects both tradition and modernity, and combines Eastern and Western influences.

The sculpture is made of:

• A traditional Chinese three-wheel bike
• A 1.4m cubic stainless steel structure. Its design is based on the Yin~Yang symbol, with a perfect balance between shapes.
• Eight black and white balls (fig.3) are set on the corners of the cubic structure. Each ball represent a trigram from Taoist cosmology. Trigrams consist of three lines representing Yin and Yang symbols. Each one has a specific structure that determines its location in space and its particular meaning. They are often presented in an hexagonal shape. Taoists believe that the eight trigrams are a map of the cosmos.

The whole structure is a representation of the universe.

3 axels placed Inside the cube, linked together by belts and connected to the back wheel axel by another belt. When the bike is moving it animates the whole system. The three axels move simultenaously, each one at a different speed. Four shapes are attached to each axel. There are twelve stainless steel moving shapes in total, plus four stationary ones. They are basic geometrical shapes: spheres, prisms and cubes, each in a primary color. The shapes represent the elementary particles that make up our Universe.

The black geometric structure, and the colorful elements inside, recall the aesthetic of the Dutch abstract painter, Piet Mondrian.

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Beijing Design Week 2011: a menu charting the water footprint of different dishes was presented to diners at a Beijing cafe during design week.

The how much water do you eat? menu displayed silhouettes of existing popular dishes at the Tian Hai cafe alongside a calculated breakdown of water used to produce the ingredients for each.

Information boxes in the booklet explain why roast duck uses the most water and why candied banana uses very little.

Elsewhere in the menu, graphs illustrated the water consumption of China compared with the global average and a chart showed customers the water footprint of an average person.

The Beijing Design Week event was a prelude to another that will take place at World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 and was curated by Helsinki Design Week founder Kari Korkman and design consultant Jane Withers.

A research group at Aalto University produced the information.

See more projects from Beijing Design Week here, including a pop-up teahouse with a heat-sensitive colour-changing table, and see our snapshots from the festival on our Facebook page.

Here's some more information from the festival organisers:

Wonderwater Café at Tian Hai

The Wonderwater project is a series of events that will be seen and experienced in and around Helsinki in 2012.

The masterminds behind the concept are Helsinki Design Week’s founder and producer Kari Korkman and consultant, curator and design journalist Jane Withers who is also a member of Helsinki Design Week’s advisory board.

For Beijing Design Week, Helsinki Design Week and Aalto University Design Factory will bring a preview of the project to Dashilar with Wonderwater Café, achieved through a collaboration with the local Tian Hai restaurant.

Among other things, Tian Hai’s menu will be redesigned such that customers will be able to see how much water goes into producing the ingredients of many of its most popular dishes, so as to to raise awareness of the water footprint and inspire the visitors to consider the environmental effects of locally and globally produced and distributed food.

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Kari Korkman and Aalto University appeared first on Dezeen.

Beijing Design Week 2011: London designer Paul Cocksedge installed giant pages of poetry made from rolled steel sheets outside the China Millennium Monument during Beijing Design Week.

Both Chinese and English poems were inscribed onto the curled sheets of the 20 metre-high metre-wide sculpture, entitled Manuscript.

Visitors could sit or lie down on the individual pages.

Paul Cocksedge showed another new project at the recent London Design Festival – see our story about vinyl records warped into amplifiers for smartphones here and see more projects by the designer here.

See all our projects from Beijing Design Week here, including our roundup of highlights, and see our snapshots from the festival on our Facebook page.

Photography is by Mark Cocksedge.

Here's some more information about the project from Paul Cocksedge Studio:

Manuscript -­ An installation by Paul Cocksedge Studio for Beijing Design Week

Paul Cocksedge Studio has been selected by 2011 Beijing Design Week and the First Beijing International Design Triennial to exhibit a major installation set to be a key highlight of the festival which this year features London as its guest city.

Entitled ‘Manuscript (Seats of Poetry)’, Paul Cocksedge Studio's sculptural design celebrates a wonderful Chinese invention, manuscript paper, the foundation of global literature and communication. It follows Cocksedge's ongoing interest in this inspirational material, and his investigations into its morphological potential.

At 20 metres long by 6.7 metres high, the sculpture's impressive scale also presents itself as a monument to the industrial capability of China. The individual sheets making up this complex structure are precisely fabricated and assembled by local manufacturers.

Upon closer inspection the piece is made up of rolled steel pages inscribed with poems carefully curated from Chinese and English sources. ‘Manuscript' is about the exchange of words, poetry and knowledge between Beijing and London.

Sited on Chang’An Avenue, the main east-­‐west axis of the city, this temporary piece has been designed to be explored visually and physically by visitors to the China Millennium Monument, a cultural and events complex built to celebrate the turn of the millennium. Passers-­‐by can sit and rest on the curved sheets and absorb the pages of poetry in one of the world's most impressive public spaces.

Aric Chen, creative director of Beijing Design Week, said of the selection process:
‘In cooperation with the British Council, we solicited nominations that were narrowed down to three very talented London designers and firms who were invited to submit proposals for the installation. While all of their concepts were strong, Paul's brilliantly combined poetry -­‐and not just in the literal sense -­‐ with technical confidence in a way that truly celebrates design.’

Paul Cocksedge said : ‘I am very honoured to have been able to contribute this work, ‘Manuscript’, to the 2011 Beijing Design Week. This structure speaks to so many different aspects of Chinese and British history and culture: poetry and writing, the power and beauty of nature, and, of course, man-­‐made engineering and design. At heart, though, ‘Manuscript’ is simply meant to inspire people to look, listen, and make new discoveries...’

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Beijing Design Week 2011: Beijing architect Naihan Li presented crates that unfold to become a collection of furniture at a pop-up disco lounge for Beijing Design Week.

The largest crate at Concierge in Dashilar Alley folded out into a mini cinema and karaoke box, while others became chairs and tables.

Other crates from the collection conceal folding sofas and beds, while some contain dressing tables, kitchens and wardrobes.

One of the wooden storage boxes folds into a table football.

Lee teamed up with curator Beatrice Leanza as part of the collective think-tank BAO Atelier to create the Concierge installation for the festival.

Folding stools from the collection were also on show at the WUHAO teahouse during the week – see our earlier story here, see more stories about Beijing Design Week here and see our snapshots from the festival on our Facebook page.

Another range of furniture designed around packing crates was presented by Dutch designers Studio Makkink & Bey in London last year - see more about this project in our earlier story.

Here's some more information from the festival organisers:

BAO Atelier for Beijing Design Week 2011

Architect and designer Li Naihan’s latest series of home and office furniture The Crates (2011) is inspired by the volatile and exuberant spirit of a contemporary urban habitat like Beijing and its epic detournment of building construction, decay and regeneration.

Li’s mobile creations accommodate with poetic comfort the moody impracticality of globe-trotting, and always on the move lifestyles.

Sofas, beds, bookshelves, workstations, and foosball tables pop out of their own shipping shell to form a unique spatial language that is whole with a ‘total’ concept of dwelling.

Wooden crates become carapaces to contain the body, objects and memories we carry with them: situational freeplay and sculptural abstraction blend here to make room for a design practice which is intrinsically relational and open-ended.

In this occasion, a brand new all-in-one media box is going to be presented, inclusive of a mini- cinema, a dj deck, lights and karaoke appliances, multimedia screens and a seating area.

Concierge is developed in collaboration with Beatrice Leanza, curator and co-founder with Li of Beijing-based studio BAO Atelier, a creative lab integrating curatorial, editorial and design production to promote new encounters and transversal research among the visual arts, design and architecture.

This special installation materializes an inexistent part of an actual building dubbed ‘The House of Leaves’, a semi-private/semi-public residence located on the edge of the 5th Ring Road in Caochangdi village.

Drawn upon an intimate image of both action and reflection, this serendipitous space represents an antechamber of no definite time or spatial confines, a public retreat and an interior garden activated by a politics otherwise known as ‘meeting’.

Daily talk-shops and presentations are accompanied by impromptu cooking sessions kindly provided by local food lovers.

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Beijing Design Week 2011: visitors were served tea at a heat-sensitive colour-changing table in a pop-up teahouse for Beijing Design Week.

Design retailer WUHAO moved into the two-storey building in Dashilar Alley to host a sequence of installations, including plastic yellow canaries disguised as growing lemons and an arched opening lined with green paper butterflies.

The table by designer Huo Yijin could be found in a downstairs room and changed colour from brown to green when hot water was spilt onto its surface.

This excess water naturally drained into a disposal container through curved recesses that indented the tabletop.

Folding stools provided seats around the table, while wisps of bamboo formed lampshades that hung overhead.

Read our Beijing Design Week highlights here, see more stories about the festival here and see our snapshots from the festival on our Facebook page.

Here's a little more text from WUHAO:

WUHAO’s special Beijing Design Week Project WUHAO @ The Teahouse

WUHAO Curated Shop prepares to go from its 'secret' peaceful surroundings of 35 Mao’er Hutong, to 'public' in-the-bustling-streets with an exciting pop-up project created especially for Beijing Design Week.

Set in Beijing's historic Dashilar district, WUHAO @ The Teahouse will display an array of unique installations and lifestyle experiences with an everything-on-display-for-sale concept from cutting-edge fashion to unique tea products to playful toys.

These will include established WUHAO’s partners like Hangzhou-based Innovo design studio, exciting new furniture designer Zhang Chen, and exclusive labels like Kiroic from Shanghai. It will also go from 'exclusive' to 'affordable' with many products available in the 10 to 500 RMB range.

Located in a former teahouse, WUHAO has partnered with socially responsible tea company Tranquil Tuesdays to offer a new vision of this traditional space. Local creative talents will join, including designer Huo Yijin and his custom-made tea table, and designer Li Naihan with her new foldable furniture.

In keeping with its key values, WUHAO @ The Teahouse will continue the ‘5 elements’ concept of ‘fire’, ‘metal’, ‘water’, ‘wood’ and ’earth’. The space promises to offer a unique selection of WUHAO’s products and labels, a collection of 'Beijing souvenirs', a brand new installation, a variety of cross-branding experiments with companies like Beijing Sideways - a specialist of motorcycle sidecar tours who will customize a special Beijing design tour linking Mao’er and Dashilan - and much more.

It is once more a fine balance between traditional Chinese content and a consistent contemporary design experience. Let’s spread south towards the summer fire dynamics!

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