September 13th, 2011
London Design Festival
From 22-25 September I will presenting latest designs during the London Design Festival as part of Tuttobene at the Aubin Gallery, 64-66 Redchurchstreet, E2 7DP London. Tuttobene is selected for the Icon Design Trail, a selection of the 100 best presentation of the Design Festival.
September 12th, 2011
Decorative Concrete Award
Concrete Lace is participating in the Decorative Concrete Award, if you like it you can help us to win here: http://www.concreteconstruction.net/awards/decorative-concrete-project-of-the-year/2011.aspx
August 30th, 2011
Exhibition in Paris, London and Eindhoven
Please come and visit us at:
Maison&Objet Paris | 9-13 september | Scenes d’Interieur Hall 7 Stand E108
100% Design London | 22-25 september as part of Tuttobene | Aubin Gallery, 64-66 Redchurchstreet, E2 7DP London
Dutch Design Week | 22-30 October | Location to be announced
I will be presenting new work, for example I – You, Concrete Candle Holder with a Message in six languages made from Quantz – let’s bring concrete home.
August 16th, 2011
Concrete Design – The Making of Conrete Lace Curtain
Once in a while i get asked how i made Concrete Lace. Therefore i would like to share with those who are interested the making of Concrete Lace which is based on an old lace pattern from Belgium. This pattern i first had to translate into a digital file. The next step was to cut out with a laser machine the entire pattern (i used a sheet of 1cm thick plexi-glas). All the pieces i layed out on the floor, i built a little edge around it and poured in the silicone to create the mall. When the silicon is hardened the plexi pieces can be removed.
I cut within 1.5cm distance from each other half way through the the silicon layer the openings where i later would embed the suspension; the ribbons or steel wire running through the concrete lace pieces. Laying in the wire actually takes half a day but once they are in there i can start pouring in the concrete (a special mix called Quantz developed by G.tecz). Quantz hardens completely in 3-4 days then the mall can be removed and the first piece of lace is finished.
more about Concrete Lace: https://doreenwestphal.com/projects/concrete-lace-2/
August 9th, 2011
Another visit at the Concrete Lab
I just returned from another visit at concrete developer G.tecz. Again they supported me a great deal while experimenting with their own high tech material Quantz. Quantz already exists some time but now they took it even further. It is possible to roll out the material in a sort of giant pasta machine. This way it becomes very flat 3 or 6mm and then use a folding technique to make concrete products with unbelievable thin walls and a surface that shines like glazed ceramics. This will take concrete design to a new level.
I designed some small concrete furniture and living accessories which will be presented in september at Maison&Objet in Paris and 100% Design London.
July 18th, 2011
The Measure – Set
Finally, the ‘Measure Set’ is photographed. The Measure bag i have already some time in the collection, now it becomes a small and a big friend. The large bags are made from the left over leather of the company in Bulgaria. The small purse is made of the left over leather of the left over leather, one could say. Two color settings, shabby green/purple and brown/blue.
July 8th, 2011
New Bags made in Bulgaria
I just returned from almost a week in Bulgaria where i designed and developed new bags and purse models for the winter season. I traveled together with the guys from OAT shoes, worlds first biodegradable sneaker. So what’s new: There will be a back pack made from inner tubes with just one strap, easier to put on then a back pack with two straps. And the measure bag will get a big friend; the week end bag as well as a small one; the phone purse. Especially about the phone purse i am very exited. For quite some time i was thinking about a phone cover which can also carry some business cards and maybe a few euros. Thanks so much to Elena and Georgi who where great to us. More to come….
June 29th, 2011
Mars der Beschaving
On Sunday night a lot of people walked the ‘mars der beschaving’ | ‘the march of civilization’ from Rotterdam to The Hague to protest against the latest measures of Hollands current right wing government to cut back on culture – too much and too soon. And that this is done by a minister who admits to have no clue about it at all but who is also ignoring the recommendations of the cultural advising commission ‘Raad voor Cultuur’. I was surprised how many people joined. On the photo you see the first aid people taking care off the giant blisters after we arrived in The Hague at 3 o’clock on Monday morning.
June 17th, 2011
Concrete Cup
Delicate, architectural and intelligent are the Concrete Cups from Doreen Westphal. A stripe of three ribs is running around the outside of the cups. Those ribs keep your fingers cold while your coffee stays hot. The cups from concrete (Quantz by G.tecz) are lacquered with the same paint which the Chinese are using for 6000 years to treat their wooden table ware. The lacquer is 100% natural and still becomes as hard as polyester and is suitable for the dish washer.
Photography: Jeroen van der Wielen
June 10th, 2011
Black Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge
Black Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge, License no. 4 “Defense Lines”, Hannah Hurtzig/Mobile Academy, organized under license by Bik Van der Pol, Anne Beeksma and Susan de Heer on Saturday June 11 from 2-5 at Kunst Fort Asperen.
Doreen Westphal will be one of the experts and speak about ‘Design as a defense strategy against waste and dissipation’.
If you manage to be there already at 11 you can witness ‘The First International Pigeon Race for the Cup of Fort Asperen’, by Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas.
http://www.kunstfortasperen.nl/page/English
June 10th, 2011
Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers
Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers is a delicate, sculptural lamp, made from Ultra High Performance Concrete (Quantz), and based on the first weather forecast following the fall of Hosni Mubarak. The lamp metaphorically presents Doreen Westphal’s vision uniting ecology and politics in strong esthetic design. The lamp is part of the collection Concrete & Detailed, which consists of ceramic concrete products all made from Quantz.
Concrete & Detailed by Doreen Westphal is designed using new ethical and ecological standards. Today one can no longer intuitively decide if a design is good or not, but one needs specialised knowledge of available production materials and assessment skills to monitor the impact of one’s own products. The collection Concrete & Detailed is exemplary on both accounts. It is made of the unique Quantz developed by G.tecz: a German leading company in concrete innovations. This concrete can be cast as fine Arabic script and is as strong and light as conventional ceramics. Next to this, the sustainability consultant Except has analyzed that producing a ceramic product from Quantz reduces the energy consumption in the production process by fifty times. Doreen Westphal is now able to use this material to make mid-price products accessible by those with a moderate budget.
Westphal’s lamp Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers is the forerunner for Concrete & Detailed. Its inspiration came from watching news broadcasts during February, 2011, and realising that the events in the Arab world were representative of many of the concerns of today’s designer. The authoritarian regimes that are now crumbling were empowered primarily by the West’s addiction to fossil fuels. This reliance produced not only the ecological, but also political imbalance in the world. Reducing energy consumption is therefore both an environmental and political statement.
Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers of Doreen Westphal metaphorically brings all these lines together: poetically reflecting the uncertain, but hopeful future through the first weather forecast for Egypt after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, cast in concrete. In the weather forecast one reads: ‘one should guard the young crops against frost in the night,’ a reminder of the precarious state the world is in. This guarding has to be done globally by all those who make and use products and as such participate in the consumption of scarce resources that affect both environment and societies everywhere.
CV Doreen Westphal
After being trained a tailor in former East Germany, Doreen Westphal studied stage and set design at the Nottingham Trent University. She started her artistic career in the Netherlands as a freelance set designer for various large theatre productions. In 2007 she founded her own design company, which became famous for its unique line of bags and accessories – Krejci – made from used bicycle inner tubes. She now has a wide range of products that combine beautiful, playful design with innovative use of material and make discrete suggestions on the ecological and political state of the world.
photography: Wouter Walmink
June 10th, 2011
Living & Design Osaka, Japan
Designer and colleague David Gras curated the exhibition of the Dutch pavilion at the Living & Design fair in Osaka in October 2010. From Doreen Westphal Studio the textiles ‘Thinking of Holland’ table cloth and tea towel where selected. Also David Gras chose to use the design of the tea towel for the decoration o the entire roof of the pavilion.
