Intéressante pièce de mobilier contemporain imaginée par le designer Caspar Lohner sous la tutelle de Mathias Bernhard et Manuel Kretzer et produite en collaboration avec la société Kläusler Acrylstein AG, qui est le distributeur exclusif du Hi-Macs en Suisse, découverte de la « SleepBox », une étonnante création à mi-chemin entre l’art et le design qui se veut être une réponse à notre environnement de plus en plus urbanisé. Conçue à partir de ce nouveau matériau baptisé Hi-Macs , un Solid Surface de nouvelle génération, la SleepBox offre une sorte de refuge où se reposer et se relaxer à l’abris du monde extérieur. Tous les détails dans la suite !

Pour rappel, le Hi-Macs est un Solid Surface de nouvelle génération. Ce matériau minéral est composé d’environ un tiers de résine acrylique ( polyméthacrylate de méthyle ou PMMA) et de 5% de pigments naturels. Son élément principal (70% ) est l’hydroxyde d’aluminium (ATH), qui est extrait du bauxite, un minerai d‘aluminium – lui confère un rendu « Arctic White » inégalable. Découvrez d’autres réalisations en Hi-Macs par ici !

Plus de détails en images dans la galerie

Description originale

SleepBox represents a contemporary and organic piece of furniture, designed for the demands of an increasingly urbanized environment. A sinuous life-sized object which creates a place of comfort and relaxation within airports, offices or other semi-public spaces, providing peace and quiet in busy urban environments. The solid, smooth and uniform shell is made of HI-MACS, and contains a leather covered mattress.

The project was designed by Caspar Lohner at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design [CAAD], Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich, supervised by Mathias Bernhard and Manuel Kretzer and produced in collaboration with Kläusler Acrylstein AG, who is the exclusive distributor for HI-MACS® in Switzerland.

The free-form shell is made from HI-MACS®, the architect choose the material thanks to its extraordinary properties: it’s extremely robust, but it can be thermoformed and visually seamlessly connected – which was essential for this project.

Caspar Lohner was in charge of each stage – from design to fabrication – of his first project using Solid Surfaces. He was both managing the project but also producing it with a team of students from the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich with constant assistance of Kläusler Acrylstein, who supported with their expertise and technical resources. “Every day was a challenge for me, but when something didn’t work, we tried and tried again until it was resolved. I learnt a lot about HI-MACS® fabrication possibilities thanks to this project” says the designer.

The necessary MDF moulds were produced on a three axis CNC milling machine at ETH Zürich’s in-house facilities Raplab. The flat HI-MACS sheets then were thermoformed into shape using a vacuum membrane press. After the material cools down it exhibits the same properties as before and can be further processed in a similar way to wood. The eleven individual pieces were finally glued together to create a single seamless homogeneous object.

SleepBox will be exhibited from 17th to 21th January at Swissbau 2012.

Design: Caspar Lohner
Fabrication: Kläusler Acrylstein AG
Supervision: Mathias Bernhard, Manuel Kretzer
Photos: Manuel Kretzer
Material: HI-MACS®, Nordic White 12mm – via