SWEET PLAY from Elsa Lambinet on Vimeo.
Developed in partnership with world-famous Swiss chocolatier Blondel, Sweet Play by designer Elsa Lambinet is a modular confectionery system that allows for the development of customizable yummies. The system is based on three components: the structural bed (available in three models and in dark, white or milk chocolate); a top-down recess for inserting an accent sweet; and an interior recess for inserting still more flavor enhancers.
Brava, Elsa!
The customizable and modular Cun Kitchen takes the idea of the food cart to an entirely new level.
Having spent most of our adult life living in an urban environment, we’ve certainly seen our fair share of small living spaces. We’re talking about the ones with bedrooms just large enough to fit the bed, kitchens with enough cooking space for an elf, and living rooms that weren’t necessarily made for actually living in.
Components are designed to be customized and swapped out for maximum utility.
Given how challenging it can be for folks compelled to reside in such circumstances, it becomes especially useful to learn about resources that might ameliorate the conflict between our needs and our spatial limitations. Here’s one we particularly like: the Cun Kitchen by Joko Domus.
The Cun Kitchen is an attractive modular cooking system made up of mobile components that can be customized by choice of materials, accessories, supports and other features. What makes it particularly suited to compact urban settings is that many of the pieces can be placed on castors and moved about as demand dictates. That’s useful when precious space has to multitask to be habitable.
We enjoy Cun’s interchangeability and handsome lines, but we must admit there’s something of a conflict in at least one respect: if you’re living in tight quarters it’s probably because you’re not among the more highly compensated sort, and the Cun Kitchen pieces are priced to reflect their apparent high quality and workmanship. Still, the concept is sound and the execution admirable, so we imagine they will find their place in the world of customizable cookware.
via Shoebox Dwelling
The six degrees of modularity as proposed by Joseph Flaherty, after the work of author Joe Pine. Diagram based on William J. Abernathy and James M. Utterback, “Patterns of Industrial Innovation,” Technology Review, June/July 1978.
Reading this blog, it should come as no surprise that we’ve spent a fair bit of time perusing the literature of modularity (we know, we know – we lead a most exciting life!). Among the things we’ve discovered over the years is that most authors on the subject feel compelled to define the term modular at the outset of their presentation, since it’s not an everyday concept familiar to a broad audience. Nor does the term appear to have a single, universally understood definition, at least in its applied usage. This derives in part from the fact that modularity pertains to a wide range of disciplines – from computer programming to product design, from mathematics to biology – which often results in definitions meaningful only to a specific field.
We traffic in art, architecture and design, of course, so the definitions advanced in the context of aesthetics and industrial design are the ones we’re most familiar with. Of those, probably the most commonly used version defines modular as the use of standardized parts that can be combined with other parts to create larger ensembles.
As useful as this definition is, it really only tells one part of a larger story. For as one encounters more and more of the design products and artwork that have been classified under the modular umbrella, it becomes apparent that there are iterations of modularity that aren’t entirely covered by this particular explanation.
Fortunately, some very smart people have been thinking about modular design and associated topics a lot longer than we have. They’ve come up with a taxonomy of modularity that elaborates on the common definition by identifying six different types of modular design. This naturally piqued our interest, and we set out to see if the contents of our own catalogue of art and design could be organized according to these same six categories.
Lo and behold, with a little interpretive and adaptive nipping and tucking it looks like it worked! Here they are, with reference to the diagrams illustrated at the top of the post.
The Garland Reconfigurable Light Shade, by Artecnica.
What It Means: A module that can be used interchangeably in combination with other products.
Like What: The Artecnica Garland Reconfigurable Light Shade, which can be fitted around light bulbs of varying shapes and configurations.
The IDAPT universal charging system.
What It Means: A set of interchangeable modules that can be used in combination with a single product.
Like What: The IDAPT universal charger has ports for plugging in one of their twenty or so adapters, each of which charges a different device. The adapters pop out of the base with the push of a button and can be replaced with other adapters from the set as needed.
WallCandy Arts repositionable wallpaper. Wallpaper rolls are modular to the extent that they can combined in multiples and cut to size to cover areas larger than a single roll while maintaining a visually coherent pattern.
What It Means: Pretty much what it sounds like. Cutting product to size.
Like What: WallCandy Arts repositionable wallpapers that are cut to fit the dimensions of the surface area to which they’re attached.
A ModulA.R.T. tapestry made by mixing differently colored hexagonal modules.
What It Means: A blend of modules that are somehow differentiated from each other but able to be mixed or joined together to form a coherent whole.
Like What: ModulA.R.T. tapestries made from felt lasercut pieces.
Hang it all: the Flensted 419 Customizable Mobile.
What It Means: Adding modules to an existing armature designed to receive the modules. The modules can be removed and replaced by other modules, like people getting on and off the bus.
Like What: The Flensted 419 Customizable Mobile lets you mount ornaments of your own choosing on its hanging mobile armature. You can change out the ornaments at will. Why is it called “Bus Modularity”, you ask? Because the modules that get on and off the bus are interchangeable and swappable, but the bus stays the same.
Granted, at first glance this category is very similar to Component Swapping, except here the modules are not necessarily first developed for the express purpose of getting ‘on the bus’, and can exist independently outside of it.
The Bodo Brick: Stack ‘em if you got ‘em.
What It Means: Inter-related modules that physically join together to form larger compositions. This is the classic ‘kit-of-parts’ concept that most people think of when visualizing the properties of modularity, LEGO being the most universally recognized representation of the sectional type in physical form.
Like What: LEGO-inspired designs, of course, like the Bodo Brick. Or the GrowFrame modular picture frame system.
Thanks to Joseph Pine and Joseph Flaherty of Replicator for funneling this nifty categorization down the information pipeline.
MODULE R is a concept store focused on transformable art and design. We collect pieces from all over the world that are customizable, reconfigurable, expandable, stackable, interchangeable, interactive and modular. Our catalogue includes accessories, books, furniture, children’s playthings, cookware, jewelry, lighting, storage systems, space dividers, floor and wall coverings, and artwork. In bringing this collection together – and authoring this blog – we hope to promote flexible design as an ideal way of making things in an age that prizes personalization, multi-functionality, economy and experience.