Vitra Sponsors Hacking Arts at MIT Digital Media Lab
On Saturday November 19th and Sunday November 20th, Vitra will sponsor a garage-inspired environment at the 2016 Hacking Arts Festival held at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The festival will culminate in a ‘Hackathon’, where interdisciplinary teams of over 300 students and professionals will take on challenges at the cutting-edge of arts and technology. Teams get 24 hours to design, build and present to a panel of judges with all-star mentorship. Vitra – a top-tier 2016 Hacking Arts sponsor alongside Adobe and Autodesk – will install a ‘Garage’ environment, anchored by the newly released Hack system, composed of new furniture concepts and classics. Vitra will challenge conference participants and hackers to adapt the furniture landscape, facilitating connectivity and creativity during the festival.
About the 2016 Hacking Arts Festival
Igniting cross-disciplinary innovation, Hacking Arts brings together artists, engineers, hackers, creative technologists and entrepreneurs to take on challenges at the intersection of the arts and technology. In its fourth year at the MIT Media Lab, the 2016 Hacking Arts Festival will feature a tech expo, a conference line-up of eight panel discussions, augmented reality gaming, live performance experiences, as well as a Hackathon. More info: http://hackingarts.com/
Vitra Garage
Vitra maintains that tomorrow’s forward facing companies will be driven by creativity. At the heart of a creative work culture is a creative space, made up of components that can be personalized and optimized by individual workers. These spaces are the dynamic environments that will attract the next generation of talent and facilitate their growth. Vitra recognizes the next disruptive business models will be born in companies that foster a ‘garage’ frame of mind to encourage agility and entrepreneurship culture. To positively facilitate these outcomes, Vitra assembled a Garage furniture portfolio featuring design icons and new products, including Hack, Allstar and the Stool-Tool (design study) by Konstantin Grcic; the HAL Studio Chair, Superfold Table and Cork Stools by Jasper Morrison; the Artek E60 Stool by Alvar Aalto.
Garage Spirit Video (41s) – https://vimeo.com/172382868
Vitra Hack
The foundation of Vitra’s Garage concept is Hack. Designed by renowned Munich-based industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, Hack is a table system that anticipates the requirements of companies and employees – a provocative solution which can be understood as a ‘hack’ of the office environment. Grcic counters traditional desks with an innovative functional approach that satisfies the demands of today’s high-tech companies.
With its OSB panels, Hack presents an unfinished aesthetic much like a snapshot of an experimental project under development. Each Hack unit forms an autonomous element whose adaptability allows it to satisfy various needs: companies value Hack for its flexibility as it can be folded up into a practical, flat ‘box’ in just a few simple steps. These features make Hack easy to dismantle and transport, enabling space-saving storage and anticipating the needs of fast changing office spaces. The height adjustment feature offers standing, sitting and lounge options and thus defines distinct niches for work, meetings and relaxation. In the lowest position, Hack can be outfitted with cushions for use as a sofa.
The term ‘hack’ was inspired by the idea coined at MIT in the 1950s, describing a clever and resourceful solution devised by a hacker. A typical hack is quickly executed and often inelegant, but highly effective. It achieves the desired result without transforming the system architecture in which it is embedded, even though they often stand in contradiction to one another.
Hack Stop-trick Video (15s) – https://vimeo.com/167842950
Hack Close Up Video (15s) – https://vimeo.com/169224939
Vitra Stool-Tool (Design Study)
For the first time in North America, Vitra will present the Stool-Tool, a design study by Konstantin Grcic. Stool-Tool resembles a monolithic sculpture and invites users to spontaneously try out its many options, including multi-rotational sitting, straddling and perching. With its lightweight and stackable design, Stool-Tool is suited for a wide range of office and educational applications; from presentation venues and mid-floor zones, workshop and meeting areas to otherwise unused corners and niches. Design studies provide a preview of product ideas being explored by Vitra in collaboration with designers, which might one day be introduced as standard products.
About Vitra
Creating innovative products and concepts with great design talent is Vitra’s essence. They are developed in Switzerland and globally specified by architects, organizations and individuals to build inspirational environments for working, living, shopping and public spaces. With its classics Vitra represents groundbreaking 20th century design. Today, in combining technical and conceptual expertise with the creativity of contemporary designers, Vitra seeks to continue pushing the boundaries of the design discipline.
A family business for eighty years, Vitra believes in lasting relationships with customers, employees and designers, durable products, sustainable growth and the power of good design.
Both the Vitra Campus, with buildings by some of the world’s leading architects, and the Vitra Design Museum, with its exhibitions on design and architecture, design archives and a comprehensive furniture collection, are all part of Vitra. They inspire visitors, inform the design process and create an atmosphere in which innovation flourishes.
For more than fifty years, Vitra has developed office furniture that is innovative, functional and aesthetically appealing. The role of the office has grown in importance over the years, with intelligent spatial solutions making a significant contribution to the identity and success of today’s companies. Vitra works with the client to devise customized concepts that help reconcile the growing demands of daily life – acceleration, technical advancements and social change – with the unique corporate culture of the company.
