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Algae play a critical role in the sustainability of human life and our ecosystem. Algae are some of the most efficient CO2 scrubbers in the air, with ten times greater CO2 fixation than terrestrial plants. The 1974 UN World Food Conference deemed algae ‘the most ideal food for mankind,’ and NASA uses algae as dietary supplements on long-term space missions because of the rich, well-balanced nutritional content.

Even so, however, we may not fully enjoy algae's outstanding benefits in our everyday lives. Rather, we tend to dismiss it, associating it with negative feelings: mossy, slimy, gross. This isn't strange, because we usually see algae in unpleasant situations—stagnant water, with a nauseous smell like pond scum—and these contexts influence our perception of algae as distasteful. Because of this emotional rejection, we might underestimate algae's values, try to eliminate it from our everyday lives, and thus lose the potential benefit to our health and our environment.

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The Coral is an indoor micro-algae farm designed to rebuild a relationship with algae in our everyday lives.

This wall-mounted bioreactor proposes a daily ritual for algae consumption through home algae farming activities.

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Each culture cell in the four-by-four grid wall frame contains around 2 grams of algae when it turns dark green—the recommended daily intake amount. The 16 cells in the farm enable us to grow and eat algae every day because one cell has a biweekly cycle to replenish after harvesting.

Through its simple farming and harvesting process, The Coral allows us to access this outstanding food resource at home and consume algae - a sustainable alternative of supplying nutritional diets.

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The Coral also highlights the environmental benefits of algae through its coral pattern on the front. The 16 cells change color from transparent to shades of green as the algae grow and complete one vibrant coral. This transition shows the environmental importance of algae through a symbol of revitalizing coral from ‘coral bleaching,’ the worldwide phenomenon caused by global warming.

‘The Coral’ is an indoor micro-algae farm designed to rebuild a relationship with algae, critical for sustainability yet less appreciated, in our everyday lives.

Hyunseok An

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WARM CONTAINER

Lunch box / Hanji(Korean Traditional Paper) / 2011. autumn / self-production / Seoul, Korea

The warm container is designed as a lunch-box. When I was young I used to bring my lunch to school everyday. Most mothers in Korea, they had to prepare lunches everyday early in the morning for all those years through their children’s high school time. The Korean traditional paper ‘Hanji’ is soft and tender material but strong like a mother. I chose this material to illustrate the feeling of the warmth. I add- ed a layer of gauze on the casting process to give a touch of handicraft.

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OPENNESS musicbox _ ECAL × REUGE

music box / brass, stainless steel, white oak / 2015.winter / @ECAL, Switzerland / selected project by REUGE / studio photo by ECAL, Younès Klouche

ECAL × REUGE

Opening a door to music to discover a beauty. Music boxes are often closed and the movement inside is not easily seen. Fascinated by the hidden mechanism under the box. The concept of this work is to show more of the beautiful mechanism and allow customers to have a playful music box. There are two metal pieces that cover the movement and protect it.

These covers slide in one direction from one end to the other or in the opposite direction. Under these covers, you will discover a golden-colored 36 note musical movement sat on oak. The graphics on the first cover, made with holes, allow you to see the second cover and create a dynamic object with an overlay of colors and materials.

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NOWHERE

rush, hemp, wood / 2017.summer

collaboration with Nguten Thi Rhung & Tran Thi Trien / studio photos by Jandee Kim

I’ve been working with Nguyen Family in Triem Tay village, Vietnam for few years. They are specialized in making a traditional sleeping mat with the rush that grows near their house. My project for TypoCraft Helsinki’17 starts with a small hanging mat that they gave me as a New Year’s Day gift. We’ve been developing some other patterns together ever since and they came up with an idea of weaving words on the mat.

It was a special moment to realize that we all get inspired from one another in the process of making something beautiful together. In order to form the typeface on the mat, Nguyen family and myself decided to use the warp and the weft and hence the upper case and the lower case have all been mixed up. The word “NOWHERE” can either be read as “no where” or “now here.” In any cases, it will show the state of your mind.

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NEW ONGGI tableware

Earthenware, Stoneware, Half glazed, Baked in electronic-kiln / 2014.summer / thrown-wheel by ceramic artist Wondong Shin / Icheon, Korea / studio photos by Jandee Kim

The goal of the project was to create a collection of tableware by using the mixture of two different properties of soils. Onggiware(Korean traditional pottery) is commonly used to store foods in the past in Korea. Traditionally, it was made out of the earth, deep in the lye and baked in the fire in the earthen-kiln for days.

As a result, each piece shows unexpected patterns with varying colors and textures. I was inspired by the variety of sense in pottery from the traditional method. The natural tones of colors were regenerated by mixing two different soils in a modern approach.

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CLEAN SOAP

soap base / 2017. summer / with Kyusik Kim(graphic designer @studio Public Graphic)

CLEAN SOAP is one of the cleaning tools with the type inherent in the shape of letters from the word ‘CLEAN’. Hoping that users would enjoy cleaning more with this these tools, we used different forms and materials to create each object, such as broom, dustpan, soap and towel for the occasion of TypoCraft Helsinki to Seoul exhibition in January 2017. In order to continue to communicate with the word ‘CLEAN,’ we made a second version of ‘CLEAN’ with only one material, namely soap, that represents the word directly; also a product that can be used every day.

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HABIT & REFLECTION brass basket

rush, brass / 2013.summer

collaboration with Fiber Weave / Kathmandu, Nepal /studio photos by Jandee Kim

It is natural to get attracted by what is being familiar with and natural to touch one’s mind when you are away from home. This experience eventually led to looking back on myself. I was surprised to see how easily I found myself fitting into a new environment while staying in Nepal for 3months.

The combination of my previous experiences and sensibility to an unfamiliar place became a useful tool to demonstrate my own design language. The natural materials and color tones of Nepal fascinated me to create a series of baskets and rugs. Each object is influencing the others to make a range of works in series.

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COLORSCAPE HoiAn mat

rush, hemp, powder coated metal / 2014.summer

commissioned by Arumjigi Culture Keepers Foundation / collaboration with Nguten Thi Rhung & Tran Thi Trien / studio photos by JongKeun Lee

In the street of old town in Hoi An, Vietnam, lines of electronic poles make different landscapes of shadow from the morning till the night. I was inspired by these changes of the scenery. I translated it into the traditional sleeping mat, which is structured in horizontal lines. Local people have long been using the sleeping mat to cool down the heat during their sleep under the tropical climate condition .

The mat is made out of local material ‘rush’ which grows on the riverside. Two people are teamed up to produce the weaving mat. I aimed to find the possibilities of using the traditional mat in different forms of households. I proposed it could be something put next to the door, such as a side bench, a basket or different size of doormats.

Jungyou Choi works as an independent designer, is interested in trivial daily matters and locality. Recently traveled around India, Nepal, Namibia and Vietnam for a couple of years for projects.

Jungyou Choi

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With LINKKI, users can design movement whether it be for kinetic prototyping or for storytelling. The other primary usage of this toy is to draw using traces that linkage leaves behind. The drawing mechanism can be driven either by a hand crank or a motor.

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Press Play is a kinetic installation made of LEGO bricks as a group project from the course, Press Play in Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture. It was exhibited at Kluuvi gallery, Helsinki for the Helsinki Design Week from September 4th till 14th in 2014.

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Two stools Birch plywood, Willow, 2014

These are the final projects of Wood Studio Minor course @Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. The goal was to make two stools in pair with the theme of roots, branches , a trunk and a treetop as an inspiration to our design, one with and the other without the fine finishing such as sanding and glueing.

Inspired by the mathematical geometric symmetry of nature, my idea was to make the cross section interesting to remind users of that of tree trunk. It was exhibited in Museum of Finnish Architecture as a part of exhibition, ‘Annual Rings 1994–2014. A New Generation of Wood Architecture’ Oct 8 – Jan 25 2014

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Roller stool Willow, Willow skin

The willow stool made at Kari Virtanen’s workshop, Fiskars village, Finland as the final classes of Wood Studio. Kari worked as a cabinet maker with Alvar Aalto and the founder of the furniture company, Nikari. From cutting and gathering material to sawing and finishing, all the process is done by traditional hand tools without automated machines.

My idea was to continue the previous concept: make the cross section interesting in terms of the mathematical symmetry in nature so that it reminds of the section of tree trunk. To do that, I weaved willows together to make some spiral shape on top of my stool. Willow skin was used to fasten the stool. No glue was applied.

Eunyoung Park is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and researcher who enjoys working at the intersection of separate domains to come up with a novel outcome particularly between art and science. Most of all, she values play and cross-disciplinary thinking in art, design and making practices and looks forward to working towards it. She was born and raised in South Korea and have been based in Helsinki since 2013.

Eunyoung Park







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