Water and Bonsai by Azuma Makoto

A beautifully curved deadwood of Sabina chinesis is attached to java moss resembling leaves. Different trunk and leaves are combined to form Bonsai, which now rests in a new environment with water.

Within a fully glazed aquarium eliminated any excrescences, we catch a glimpse of Bonsai in its true light, from its foliage, nervure to breath. The aquarium’s internal environment follows a natural cycle, by stimulating photosynthesis with LED lights and CO2 emissions, which are reversed day and night. A filtration system runs constantly to keep clean water.

Bonsai transforms its shape through ages, now finds a life in water and continues to be alive. We can, continuously, admire its new appearance with plants from land and water within clear water.

Water and Bonsai, by Azuma Makoto

Horological Machine No.5 by MB&F

Horological Machine No.5 is the epitome of the 70’s — a time when everything seemed possible: space exploration, supersonic flight, hovercrafts, jet packs and the first supercars like the Lamborghini Miura… In the watchmaking world, quartz movements and LED displays prepared to wipe out traditional mechanical movements. And if you asked someone back then, what timepieces would look like in the year 2012, the answer was certainly not “round, white dials, with hour, minute and second hands” – like most watches still are today.

Put all those ingredients in a groovy cocktail shaker, add a strong dose of contemporary high horology, and you get HM5, nicknamed ‘On the Road Again’. HM5 is a tribute to the futuristic timepieces of the 70’s, and is built like the first supercars of those amazing years — complete with chassis, aerodynamic bodywork, rear flaps, exhaust ports and dashboard.

Horological Machine No.5, MB&F

BeoPlay A9 Speaker by Bang & Olufsen

The stand-alone speaker features a 2.1 bass reflex loudspeaker system that combines five dedicated speaker units and amps with timeless design to create a complete sound solution. The speaker also features a fine-tuned DSP (digital signal processor) algorithm that makes one’s music collection come alive and deliver surprisingly rich bass tones with the patented Adaptive Bass Linearization technology.

BeoPlay A9 Speaker, from Bang & Olufsen

Hermès M9 Special Edition Camera by Leica

Following a string of limited edition collaborations, Leica is back with a third in a line of special M-System cameras built with the help of renowned Parisian fashion house, Hermès. The partnership results in two special editions, with a total of 300 Edition Hermès digital rangefinders set to ship beginning in June for $25,000, while 100 “very special” Edition Hermès — Sèrire Limitèe Jean-Louis Dumas models will release in July for — $50,000. Both editions will be offered as complete kits, with the “cheaper” of the two built with soft calfskin leather with a silver chrome finish for its redesigned control points, complete with a Leica Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH. optic. The “other” arrives with three lenses, the Leica Summicron-M 28 mm f/2 ASPH., a Leica Noctilux-M 50 mm f/0.95 ASPH. and a Leica APO-Summicron-M 90 mm f/2 ASPH — all with an anodized silver finish.

Hermès M9, Special Edition Camera, by Leica, via Freshness

TMA-1 Studio by KiBiSi for AIAIAI

AIAIAI is set to launch a new over-ear headphones aimed at music professionals. Where the TMA-1 enhances the live performance, the TMA-1 Studio enriches the studio/production experience.

TMA-1 Studio, by KiBiSi, for AIAIAI

AB 21 Domoset by Dietrich Lubs for Braun

An unambiguously future oriented rendering of a ‘traditional’ clock and barometer combination (no reason to suppose that the future should not contain inconstant atmospheric conditions). Figures set in Akzidenz provide a connection to the earliest phase of the Braun programm, when it was first adopted as the corporate typeface. Beautifully sealed up within these perspex vitrines. Domoset is wall-mountable. Clock and barometer swivel in their cases to permit a vertical or horizontal arrangement; they can be removed altogether and hung independently. A detachable stand allows use as a desk set. The domoset forms part of the first analogue wall clock series, formed of domodisk, domo fix, domo flex and domo desk.

Braun AB 21 domoset, by Dietrich Lubs, Available at das programm

Primer V2 by Masahiko Yamaguchi

Japanese roboticist Masahiko Yamaguchi has designed a robot capable of riding a fixed gear bicycle without brakes.

Primer V2, by Masahiko Yamaguchi

Icon: Brionvega Algol TV by Richard Sapper & Marco Zanuso

The Brionvega Algol TV is a design classic designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso in the 1960s has has proved to be one of Brionvega‘s more successful products. The company was founded in Milan in 1945 by Giuseppe Brion and specialized in manufacturing televisions. Brion’s televisions used cutting-edge technology and advanced manufacturing techniques. Many of Brionvega’s products have become collector’s items and are often exhibited in design museums around the world. Part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Brionvega Algol TV, by Richard Sapper & Marco Zanuso

Bisiluro Racing Car by Carlo Mollino

More than half a century after its debut, Chris Bangle, former chief of design at BMW, reviews the Bisiluro, the legendary but ill-fated racing car designed by Carlo Mollino for the 1955 Le Mans 24-hour endurance race.

They say that the earliest design language for the primitive is that of repetition and symmetry. Regarding the design of “things that move”, history gives us quite a catalogue of proposals to improve the breed by echoing a form across some sort of bridging element. With names like “twinpod”, “twin-boom”, “twin-fuselage”, “doublehull”, or “catamaran”, the designer’s fascination with mirroring a good idea has been around ever since the Garden of Eden, when God decided two breasts looked seriously cooler than one.

Car Designers owe the origins of their craft to the hull-lofting techniques of naval architects, and while it is true that for centuries there have been parallel-hull designs for boats (from a Tahitian out-rigger to a divided hull that Da Vinci sketched), the real inspiration for modern twin-fuselage wheeled machines are the aircraft of World War II. (To be fair, the twin-boom Fokker M.9 was of World War I vintage.) Pilot and aircraft aficionado engineer Mollino must have been highly influenced by innovations from the War, and perhaps he knew that German engineers had prototyped a Messerschmitt Bf 109Z-1 “Zwilling” with a single pilot flying a two-fuselage fighter. Certainly, the sexy Lockheed P-38 inspired his generation of Car Designers as did the F-82 “Twin Mustang”, which was built from 1946 to 1953.

Read more at domus: The Asymmetric Racer by Chris Bangle, Bisiluro Racing Car, by Carlo Mollino, for the 1955 Le Mans 24-hour Endurance Race.

Icon: Manzù Lounge Chair by Pio Manzù from Alias

Alias revisits a key archive project by Pio Manzù, the brilliant protagonist of Italian automobile design during the sixties. The idea materialised at the GAMeC of Bergamo where the archives of Pio Manzù’s work are stored. It is here that Renato Staffaucher and the designer’s son, Giacomo Manzoni, met in 2010. Together they studied sketches, projects and materials until their attention was drawn to a prototype chair designed for the Rinascente department store, clearly taking its inspiration from the automobile industry. Unfortunately, the chair base was missing and only one photograph had survived to tell its story. So began an exciting journey of research and reconstruction. Three-dimensional systems were used to redesign the five-star base originally created in Pio Manzù’s day by a collaborating Japanese artist. At the same time, the leather prototype, which had been damaged over the course of time, was carefully restored. The re-edition began to take form and finally reach its completion. The decision was made to integrate a footrest on a four-star base, designed to be wholly coherent with the design and proportions of the chair. This journey of culture and design has given Alias the opportunity to discover a deep-rooted affinity with the historical figure of Pio Manzù. One of the first designers to have conceived the man-machine relationship beyond mere function, considering aspects of safety and well-being, Manzù’s uncompromising approach to design and his familiarity with technology made him a genuine pioneer in the sphere of ergonomics.

Manzù Lounge Chair, by Pio Manzù, for Alias