Projects by this year's W Hotels Designers of the Future Award winners - Markus Kayser, Philippe Malouin and Tom Foulsham - have been unveiled at Design Miami/Basel.

Kayser presents an office tube-light (above) that mimics modulations in daylight by changing its intensity and colour while moving 360 degrees over the course of a day.

Malouin's wall-mounted lamps (above and below) imitate light from windows by bouncing LED light off the wall behind and through shutter-like slats.

Foulsham (below) shows an elaborate structure balanced on a single point so that visitors can move it using hairdryers, fans or just their own breath.

Design Miami/Basel opened today and continues until 17 June.

See all our stories about Philippe Malouin here and all our stories about Markus Kayser here.

See projects by last year's winners »
See projects by winners in 2010 »

Here's some more information from the organisers:

This is the third year that W Hotels has worked with Design Miami/ to present this award, which gives emerging designers a global platform to showcase their work. The projects debut at Basel and then travel to W Hotels around the world.

This year’s theme, “From Spark to Finish,” encouraged designers to create work that sheds light on their own creative process, demonstrating how the spark of inspiration evolves into material designs. The projects involve an interactive element, encouraging visitors to experience the creative impulse for themselves.

LIGHTzeit by Markus Kayser

Kayser’s LIGHTzeit explores how natural light constantly changes through motion, intensity and color rendering, whereas most artificial light sources are entirely static. LIGHTzeit is a minimal light installation resembling the ever-static tubular lights widely used in offices and public spaces. But this light picks up the notion of light in transition by constantly, but unnoticeably, travelling in a 24-hour cycle, 360-degrees around its axle like clockwork. While the position of the light changes, the light’s qualities adjust in color temperature and intensity throughout the day, reconnecting it to the natural rhythm. The user can set the place and time of day by an interactive switch in the form of an abstract world globe.

Daylight by Philippe Malouin

Malouin has unveiled Daylight, a series of lamps or artificial windows inspired by plantation shutters. Rather than mounted, the shutters are secured to a bare wall and contain an artificial light source. Each individual slat is lined with LEDs that replicate the color temperature of daylight. The light emitted is reflected back from the wall on which the window is mounted to produce the impression that a real window lies behind. Light intensity can be adjusted by manipulating the angle of the shutters. The shapes of the lamps are based on the Tangram: a Chinese dissection puzzle. Each geometric shape of the Tangram shares a set of common proportions, allowing the lamps to be arranged in multiple, complementary configurations. Also on display from Malouin are a selection of drawings; failed and working prototypes, artefacts and pictures; which map out the design process timeline from the "spark" of the initial concept to "finished" design.

Go-Round by Tom Foulsham

Interpreting the idea of a spark as the generation of energy, Tom Foulsham has created Go-Round, a device that balances on a single sharpened point. The simple act of breathing produces small, usually unseen forces, and Go-Round attempts to visualize this energy. Visitors can propel themselves with everyday objects, such as hairdryers, fans, balloon dresses, or by simply exhaling. Foulsham describes his project as “delicately balanced, nothing fixed, a point of rest, just at the edge of slipping apart.”

The post W Hotels Designers of the Future
at Design Miami/Basel appeared first on Dezeen.

You can see a couple of projects by Kayser here, including his 3D-printing machine that uses sunlight and sand to make glass, or click here to see all our stories about Malouin, who designed Dezeen's offices.

Here's the full press release:

DESIGN MIAMI/ BASEL AND W HOTELS WORLDWIDE ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS OF THE 2012 W HOTELS DESIGNERS OF THE FUTURE AWARD

MILAN, ITALY - April 19, 2012 - From the 51st edition of Salone del Mobile, Design Miami/ Basel and W® Hotels Worldwide today announced the 2012 W Hotels Designers of the Future Award winners in Milan, Italy. The 2012 winners include Tom Foulsham from the UK, Markus Kayser from Germany, and Philippe Malouin from Canada. This event marks the third occasion that W Hotels and Design Miami/ Basel have collaborated on the Award.

Started in 2006 by Design Miami/ Basel, the Designers of the Future Award honors up-and-coming designers and studios that are expanding the field of design. Each year, three designers or studios are recognized as a way to honor a variety of approaches in the constantly evolving landscape of contemporary design. The Award moves beyond pure product and furniture design to acknowledge technologically and conceptually vanguard pieces that work across multiple disciplines, offering the next generation of design creatives the opportunity to present newly commissioned works to an influential audience of collectors, dealers, and journalists at Design Miami/ Basel.

The W Hotels Designers of the Future Award also draws attention to design practices that exemplify new directions for the design field, and as W Hotels continues to transform into a global design powerhouse, the Award provides the W design and innovation teams with access to the world's brightest talent in contemporary design. The objective for W Hotels is to create a vision of how guests in the future may conceptually interact with cutting-edge and technologically advanced design solutions throughout their W Living Rooms (re-interpretation of the staid hotel lobby) and guestrooms globally.

Qualifying candidates for the W Hotels Designers of the Future Award must have created original works in the fields of furniture, lighting, craft, architecture and/or digital/electronic media. Candidates must have been practicing for less than 15 years and have produced a body of work that demonstrates originality in the creative process, while also exhibiting an interest in working in experimental, nonindustrial or limited-edition design.

The winners have been selected by an international jury that included Tord Boontje of Royal College of Art; Wava Carpenter of Design Miami/; Aric Chen of Beijing Design Week; Ilse Crawford of Design Academy Eindhoven; designer Konstantin Grcic; Xiaowei Hu of Surface China; curator and writer Benjamin Layauté; Zoe Ryan of Art Institute Chicago; and Mike Tiedy of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, parent company of W Hotels Worldwide.

For this year's commission, the winners have been given a brief entitled "From Spark to Finish." The goal of this brief is to encourage the designers to create work that sheds light on their own creative process, demonstrating how the spark of inspiration evolves into material designs. The projects will involve an interactive element, encouraging visitors to experience the creative impulse for themselves.

2012 W Hotels Designers of the Future Award Winners

Tom Foulsham - Born 1981, Tom Foulsham received his MA in Design Products from the Royal College of Art in 2009, after graduating with a degree in Architecture from the Bartlett, UCL in 2004. He has worked in the practices of both Thomas Heatherwick and Ron Arad. His studio is based in London.

Markus Kayser - Born near Hannover, Germany in 1983. He studied 3-D Furniture and Product Design at London Metropolitan University and continued graduate work in Product Design at the Royal College of Art, where he earned his Masters in Arts and Design in 2011. That same year, he founded Markus Kayser Studio, with workspaces in both London and Germany.

Philippe Malouin - Born in 1982 in Québec, Canada, Philippe Malouin completed Industrial Design studies at the University of Montréal, the ENSCI in Paris and the Design Academy Eindhoven. Following his studies, Philippe Malouin freelanced for designer Tom Dixon.

The winners' works will be unveiled at Design Miami/ Basel, which will be held 12- 17 June 2012 from 11am-7pm daily. A press conference will be held on Monday, 11 June at 2:30 pm, followed by a press preview from 3-6pm (registration required for press conference and preview). The Collectors Preview will be held the same day from 12pm to 6pm; Vernissage will be from 6-9pm and the Nocturne will be Thursday, 14 June from 7-9pm (all are invitation only).

The post W Hotels Designers of the Future
Award winners appeared first on Dezeen.

This film shows Kayser testing the Sun Cutter in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt.

The Sun Cutter uses a spherical lens to focus a beam of sunlight that's strong enough to burn through paper, card and thin plywood.

Two cams can be programmed to move the work along an x and y axis, controlled by a solar-powered motor.

Kayser used the Sun Cutter in Egypt to make a series of sun shades.

Testing it led him to develop the Solar Sinter, a 3D-printing machine that uses sunlight and sand to make glass objects.

Watch a movie of the Solar Sinter on Dezeen Screen »

Kayser graduated from the Royal College of Art in London earlier this month. See all our stories about Show RCA 2011 »

Here are some more details from Markus Kayser:

Sun Cutter by Markus Kayser

This project explores the potential of harnessing sunlight directly to produce objects.

The Sun Cutter is a low-tech, low energy version of a laser cutter. It uses pure sunlight, focused by a ball lens, to repeatedly cut programmed shapes in up to 0.4mm thick plywood as well as paper and card.

The project also explores the merit of analogue mechanised production that draws on the machine technology found in pre-digital machinery and automaton.

It uses a cam system, moving an X & Y- board to control the shape of the cut. The cams are set into synchronised motion by a small solar-powered motor driving a timing belt.

The Sun Cutter produces products with a unique aesthetic as a result of the rawness of the machine and the brute power of the sun. They are machine-made yet the cut, unlike a laser, has a raw ‘wobbly’ almost cartoon-like quality with its burnt outlines.

Once the capabilities of the machine had been established I elected to put it to the test with an appropriate product: sunglasses. Each pair of sunglasses made, even though very similar in shape, is still unique, creating a juxtaposition between the machine-made, repetitive and individual, unique object.

In the case of the sunglasses there is the added paradox and humor of the sun’s rays being used to create protective wear to be used in defence of those same rays.

The post Sun Cutter
by Markus Kayser appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Screen: this movie by Royal College of Art graduate Markus Kayser shows his Solar Sinter 3D-printing machine at work in the desert, making glass objects by melting sand with sunlight. Watch the movie »

The post Dezeen Screen: The Solar Sinter
by Markus Kayser appeared first on Dezeen.

Called The Solar Sinter, the device uses a large Fresnel lens to focus a beam of sunlight, creating temperatures between 1400 and 1600 degrees Celsius.

This is hot enough to melt silica sand and build up glass shapes, layer by layer, inside a box of sand mounted under the lens.

Solar-powered motors move the box on an x and y axis along a computer-controlled path and a new layer of sand is sprinkled on top after each pass of the light beam.

Light sensors track the sun as it moves across the sky and the whole machine rotates on its base to ensure the lens is always producing the optimum level of heat.

Once all the layers have been melted into place the piece is allowed to cool and dug out from the sand box.

Kayser developed the project while studying on the MA Design Products course at the Royal College of Art.

Graduate exhibition Show RCA 2011 continues in London until 3 July.

See all our stories about Show RCA 2011 »

Here are some more details from Kayser:

In a world increasingly concerned with questions of energy production and raw material shortages, this project explores the potential of desert manufacturing, where energy and material occur in abundance. In this experiment sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3D printing process, that combines natural energy and material with high-tech production technology. Solar-sintering aims to raise questions about the future of manufacturing and triggers dreams of the full utilisation of the production potential of the world’s most efficient energy resource - the sun. Whilst not providing definitive answers, this experiment aims to provide a point of departure for fresh thinking.

In the deserts of the world two elements dominate - sun and sand. The former offers a vast energy source of huge potential, the latter an almost unlimited supply of silica in the form of quartz. Silicia sand when heated to melting point and allowed to cool solidifies as glass. This process of converting a powdery substance via a heating process into a solid form is known as sintering and has in recent years become a central process in design prototyping known as 3D printing or SLS (selective laser sintering). These 3D printers use laser technology to create very precise 3D objects from a variety of powdered plastics, resins and metals - the objects being the exact physical counterparts of the computer-drawn 3D designs inputted by the designer. By using the sun’s rays instead of a laser and sand instead of resins, I had the basis of an entirely new solar-powered machine and production process for making glass objects that taps into the abundant supplies of sun and sand to be found in the deserts of the world.

My first manually operated solar-sintering machine was tested in February 2011 in the Moroccan desert with encouraging results that led to the development of the current larger and fully automated computer-driven version - the Solar-Sinter. The Solar-Sinter was completed in mid-May and later that month I took this experimental machine to the Sahara desert near Siwa, Egypt, for a two week testing period. The machine and the results of these first experiments presented here represent the initial significant steps towards what I envisage as a new solar-powered production tool of great potential.

The machine

The Solar-Sinter machine is based on the mechanical principles of a 3D printer.

A large Fresnel lens (1.4 x 1.0 metre) is positioned so that it faces the sun at all times via an electronic sun-tracking device, which moves the lens in vertical and horizontal direction and rotates the entire machine about its base throughout the day. The lens is positioned with its focal point directed at the centre of the machine and at the height of the top of the sand box where the objects will be built up layer by layer. Stepper motors drive two aluminium frames that move the sand box in the X and Y axes. Within the box is a platform that can move the vat of sand along the vertical Z axis, lowering the box a set amount at the end of each layer cycle to allow fresh sand to be loaded and levelled at the focal point.

Two photovoltaic panels provide electricity to charge a battery, which in turn drives the motors and electronics of the machine. The photovoltaic panels also act as a counterweight for the lens aided by additional weights made from bottles filled with sand.

3D printing process with sand and sunlight

The machine is run off an electronic board and can be controlled using a keypad and an LCD screen. Computer drawn models of the objects to be produced are inputted into the machine via an SD card. These files carry the code that directs the machine to move the sand box along the X, Y coordinates at a carefully calibrated speed, whilst the lens focuses a beam of light that produces temperatures between 1400°C and 1600°C, more than enough to melt the sand. Over a number of hours, layer by layer, an object is built within the confines of the sand box, only its uppermost layer visible at any one time. When the print is completed the object is allowed to cool before being dug out of the sand box. The objects have rough sandy reverse side whilst the top surface is hard glass. The exact colour of the resulting glass will depend on the composition of the sand, different deserts producing different results. By mixing sands, combinatory colours and material qualities may be achieved.

Machine and man

With the scenario of a single person’s utilisation of the machine in the desert, I play with ideas of how an individual could use the machine to produce objects.

In this first instance the creation of artefacts made by sunlight and sand is an act of pure experimentation and expression of ‘possibility’, but what of the future? I hope that the machine and the objects it created, stimulate debate about the vast potential of solar energy and naturally abundant materials like silica sand. These first experiments are simply an early manifestation of that potential.

Machine and community

In the context of a desert-based community, the Solar-Sinter machine could be used to create unique artefacts and functional objects, but also act as a catalyst for solar innovation for more prosaic and immediate needs. Further development could lead to additional solar machine processes such as solar welding, cutting, bending and smelting to build up a fully functioning solar workshop.

The vibrant and global ‘open-source’ community is already active in developing software and hardware for 3D printers and could play a key role in the rapid development of these technologies. The Solar-Sinter could simply be the starting point for a variety of further applications.

Machine and manufacture

In 1933, through the pages of ‘Modern Mechanix’ magazine, W.W. Beach was already imagining canals and "auto roads“ melted into the desert using sunlight focused through immense lenses. This fantastical large-scale approach is much closer to reality today, with ‘desert factories’ using sunlight as their power a tangible prospect. This image of a multiplicity of machines working in a natural cycle from dusk till Dawn presents a new idea of what manufacturing could be.

The objects could be anything from glass vessels to eventually the glass surfaces for photovoltaic panels that provide the factories power source… and, as Mr. Beach imagined 78 years ago, the water channels and glass roads that service them.

Dreaming of architecture

Printing directly onto the desert floor with multiple lenses melting the sand into walls, eventually building architecture in desert environments, could also be a real prospect.

Experiments in 3D printing technologies are already reaching towards an architectural scale and it is not hard to imagine that, if partnered with the solar-sintering process demonstrated by the Solar-Sinter machine, this could indeed lead to a new desert-based architecture.

The post The Solar Sinter
by Markus Kayser appeared first on Dezeen.