Vienna Design Week 2011: a rotating arm deposits spirals of quartz sand on the showroom floor at crystal company Lobmeyr in Vienna this week, thanks to Canadian designer Philippe Malouin.

The Time Elapsed installation moves in precise hypotrochoid patterns, gradually building up a ring of sand over the course of the week.

Resembling a scaled-up chandelier component, the intricate machine was manufactured by Lobmeyr's craftsmen in Austria according to Malouin's design, right down to the detailing of the screw heads.

Malouin collaborated with Lobmeyr as part of the Passionswege project, where Vienna Design Week commissions young designers to collaborate with traditional and highly skilled Viennese companies.

Lobmeyr have participated in Passionswege every year, collaborating with Mark Braun, Claesson Koivisto Rune and Maxim Velčovský in past years.

Vienna Design Week continues until 9 October. See all our stories about the event here.

See all our stories about Malouin's work, including our own offices, here.

Here are some more details from Malouin:

Time is a quality that makes Lobmeyr so special.

Not only do their glass objects posses timeless designs, independent of changing fashions, but the calibre of the crystal itself means they stand the test of time. Great investments of time are taken in producing and decorating the crystalware, up to 100 hours for a single object, and this investment differentiates Lobmeyr from other glass manufacturers. We have used the theme of time here to illustrate how unique Lobmeyr is.

The flow of sand through an hourglass is traditionally used to keep track of elapsed time. It is also physical representation of the fine line between the past and the future. Through the machine in this room, the deposition of sand forms not minutes and hours on a clock face but abstract and changing patterns, illustrating the link between time and decoration. The sand also holds a physical connection with Lobmeyr, since it is the raw material from which the crystal is created.

See also:

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The Hourglass by Marc Newson for Ikepod	Night Night by Vanessa Hordies	Sand by Yukihiro Kaneuchi

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Vienna Design Week 2010: Berlin designer Mark Braun presented a series of carafes engraved with images of lakes, glaciers and rivers of Austria for glass company Lobmeyr in Vienna earlier this month. 

Top: Pasterze glacier
Above: Stubaier Ferner glacier

Developed as part of the Vienna Design Week Passionswege project bringing together young designers and companies with a long tradition, Braun's project involved etching the glass with three different processes.

Above: lake Rinnensee

The resulting pieces were displayed filled with water collected from the relevant site over the last year by the organisers of Vienna Design Week.

Above: lake Traunsee

Graphic designer Anna Sartorius created postcards showing each lake, river and glacier with images from Google Earth and information comparing the area of water with the amount of time the engraving took.

Above: river Mur

The installation at the Lobmeyr showroom was entitled Reichtum (wealth), and refers to the different prices of each carafe based on the time taken to engrave them.

Above: river Donau

See all our stories about Vienna Design Week »

Above photo is by Kollektiv Fischka

Here's some more information from Vienna Design Week:

The company J. & L. Lobmeyr has been working with the material glass for almost 200 years and continues until this day to rely on handcrafted perfection in creating its chandeliers and other lighting objects, its hand-blown and hand-cut crystal, and decorative glass.

Above photo is by Kollektiv Fischka

Starting from the Lobmeyr tradition of personalising glass objects with engraving or decorating them with eloquent patterns or ‘paintings’, the German designer Mark Braun has realised a series with the emphasis on water on the one hand, and glass on the other.

Two substances that are at least strongly related visually.

Using the copper wheel engraving technique, archetypical water carafes especially designed for this project have been decorated with the outlines of Austrian lakes, rivers, and glaciers.

For Mark Braun the sum total of these makes up the symbol of the essential wealth of everyday life.

The installation ‘Reichtum’ [Wealth], also the title of the presentation, stages the carafes filled with original water!

The PASSIONSWEGE format, a core component of the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, brings designers together with Vienna shops and manufacturers with on-the-spot experimental projects and interventions.

Above photo is by Kollektiv Fischka

See also:

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Basket by Marco Dessí for Lobmeyr	Grip by Marco Dessi for Lobmeyr	More about Vienna Design Week

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Designer Marco Dessí of Vienna will present a light made from glass tubes woven with silk rope with Vessel Gallery at SuperDesign in London, which opens tomorrow.

The tubes are bent into hexagonal shapes and slotted onto the silk cords, while a double-helix of halogen bulbs extends from a single stem inside.

Called Basket, the piece was created with Viennese glass company Lobmeyr.

SuperDesign takes place 14-17 October at Victoria House Basement, Bloomsbury Square, London WC1 B4DA.

Here's some more information from Dessí:

BASKET

The starting point for this project were Lobmeyr's very traditional “Schloss Hof” chandeliers from the glass arm-family.

This approach not only reinvents the use of glass tubes but also draws upon the vast variety of different types of chandeliers to carry over the glass arms to an altogether new application.

I selected the shape of traditional lanterns as a template and used hexagonally bent glass tubes in combination with silken cords creating a structure resembling a typical woven basket.

The lighting unit was selected to be a twisted spiral on a slim pole with halogen bulbs. This resembles a double helix further stressing the natural look and feel of this item.

Brass, glass, silk ropes; finish: gold or silver in a limited edition, 2010

See also:

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Grip by Marco Dessi for Lobmeyr	More stories about glass	More stories about Marco Dessí

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Italian designer Marco Dessi has created a set of glasses and decanters for Austrian brand Lobmeyr.

Called Grip, the collection features a ring of incisions where the base and walls of each piece meet.

The text below is from Dessi:

Marco Dessi, an Italian designer who studied in Vienna, designed a series including tumbler and decanter, which should attract people to a joyfull everyday use.

2010 the series has been expanded to 8 items. One of Dessi's ideas was to show how a rather technical looking design comes to life, if it is produced by skilled craftsmen.

A special lamella cut has been developed, which should suggest a technical aesthetic and functionality. Similar to the series Adolf Loos designed for Lobmeyr, visible scratches on the glass bottom are prevented by this ornament.

At least the same importance is assigned on the haptic pleasure when drinking from the glass -literally the "grip".

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Czech designer Maxim Velčovský of Studio Qubus presented an installation and a new collection of glasses for Viennese crystal brand Lobmeyr during Vienna Design Week last month.

The installation, in Lobmeyr's showroom, featured four "magic lantern" skylines composed of elements from Lobmeyr chandeliers representing Moscow, London, New York and Medina.

Each arrangement of crystal components, placed inside stacked packing cases, was backlit to project the skyline onto a screen.

As a part of the project, Velčovský also designed a series of new glasses which are a combination of  traditional Lobmeyr glass shapes with found chandelier parts.

The following is from Velčovský:

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Maxim Velcovsky / studio Qubus for Lobmeyr

Part of Passionswege during Vienna Design week
Curated by The Neigungsgruppe Design

Ten interventions of the “Passionswege 2008″ (Paths of Passion) are one key element of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK. Being invited by Neigungsgruppe Design, ten designers or design teams create site-specific installations in Viennese shops.

On a curious trip through Vienna the public can discover places with charm as well as young, international design. Designers this year include - amongst others: Nicole Aebischer (CH), Maxim Velcovsky/studio Qubus (CZ), Bartosz Mucha (PL) and Marco Dessi (Italy) as well as Austrian stars such as EOOS and Gregor Eichinger.

Maxim Velcovsky from studio Qubus about his project:

Working on a project with a company of Lobmeyr’s caliber is a unique experience. I had to return to Vienna several times to see everything from the company’s shop, collections and storage rooms.

The biggest surprise came when Leonid Rath took me to the cellar, where I found hundreds of boxes full of chandelier parts designed by Lobmeyr for customers from almost every corner of the world.

I inspected the parts manufactured for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, for the Kremlin, for Arabian palaces or for projects one knows only from photographs. I had voluntarily locked myself up in this cellar and carefully examined this mass of unusual parts.

I was fascinated by the detail of craftsmanship. I browsed through the photo archive and found various expressions that had been used in different contexts all around the globe.

Lobmeyr has been a carrier of light for centuries and its strength lies in perfect craftsmanship and loyalty to tradition.

It is a ‘lighthouse’ that guides our path.

In Vienna’s cellars, I started unpacking different chandelier parts, comparing them and examining them in detail.

Some of these spare parts have been ‘waiting’ on the shelf for decades and may never be used.

It occurred to me that I could use these parts in a new context and revive their functions.

My idea was to use and combine the principles of Laterna Magika and Shadow Theater.

I decided to build various compositions and project them, by means of light, onto the screen.

I have created three-dimensional installations that cast shadows representing pictures of cities where Lobmeyr designed their great projects.

Thus, the resulting product is a kind of ‘Fata Morgana’ of places where creations of the Vienna-based company are situated.

The projection itself has become a luminous object in the interior.

Cities you can find on the screen are New York, Moscow, London, Medina.

Part of the project was serie of glasses. New glasses are combination of  traditional Lobmeyr glass shapes with chandelier parts.

This unique serie is based on the lightness of a glass with a contrast of the base coming from different chandeliers across history.

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Maxim Velčovský for Lobmeyr appeared first on Dezeen.