I know these 2 stories
His famous truck for Mercedes heated up so extremely because of the huge glass screen that it could not be used on warm, sunny days. Also drivers of the few produced show cars complained that it was a pain to climb into the cabin.
Another small company (forgot the name) build a prototype of one of his sleek sports car designs. The aerodynamics were so bad that it was completely uncontrollable over 100 kmh.
A lot of his transportation design is really just eye-candy. His idea of aerodynamic, bionic design was good but Colani failed to develop his concepts into working products, among other things because he never found a partner in the industry.
Personally I like some of his 70s furniture most in his (huge) portfolio.
Sorry for not responding...
Sorry for not responding earlier. I planned on doing more research myself and contributing, haven't gotten around to it. Really apprecaite the little bit that you shared. I'm not preoccupied with the downside of Colani's designs, just attempting to reconcile his vision with the realities of physics.
I'm more familiar with his industrial designs than furniture. Another thing to tudy up.
Colani & aerodynamics
Thank you for sharing this Claus, I allways wondered about what happened with his aerodynamic designs for cars, ships (and did he not design a plane at some point as well ?). So apparently the biodynamic form in itself did not automatically translate to the desired properties. Guess it takes the combination of an engineer as well as a designer. Last year there was a very interesting series on Belgian television about an international competition to build a solar car (they followed the engineering "solarteam" from Belgium in their design/ testing/ racing adventures). In the consequential episodes they also showed a little bit about the testing in a wind tunnel (how testing results lead to fine tuning), how/ where they try to save on weight when the car is designed, how they calculated the seat dimensions, how to design the steerwheel, etc. etc. I can't find it straight away, hope they put bits up on the internet as it was very entertaining (& informational) to watch. (I put in the link to the team below)
Woofwoof, that happens to me all the time ! So glad I am not alone on this. I always intend to write some long post, or to check back quickly to a certain thread, and then things start to come in between and I have other work to finish. Before I know it the discussion is already over, the thread has sunk deep down into depts of pages, it simply starts to slip my mind if it has been a long while.. I used to read almost all posts & check virtually daily, now I only read some of them, and check only a few times a week.
I know it's not what you asked, but are you familiar with this clever design by Colani -I brought it back from an exhibition in London ? If you are not, can you guess what it is :o) ?
(PS: please just ignore the mess on the table)
http://www.solarteam.be/node/1241
Is it a pipe rack and ashtray...
Is it a pipe rack and ashtray? Nice in a bone like way.
The truck design looks a bit Geiger-ish and unpleasant to me, the comments about the biological form not translating into the desired properties are good. Things like this really benefit from computer modelling, when was the truck designed?its easy enough these days to simulate physics on the computer.
I heard a radio show awhile ago (the bioneers?) and there was some good stuff about bio-mimicry, things like new adhesives made from the same compounds that clams use to attach themselves to rocks and small bumps on whales backs that improve fuel efficiency in aircraft.
Heath, that clam-adhesive sou...
Heath, that clam-adhesive sounds very interesting. Could you post the link if you find it back ?
Nope, it's not a pipe rack/ ashtray 🙂 Oddly, when i did first see the design, i did not know what it's use was either. But actually, when you know it, it is very practical to use:
.
The long leg to the right serves as a spoon rest (so the egg- remains on the spoon do not stain the table). The ear on the left is a handle: for right handed persons (holding their spoon in the right hand) it is the logical place to hold the egg cup with (it's a bit like an ear on a normal coffee cup). But I never guessed what it was..
Did like the shape though - as you said, it looks a bit like a highly polished weird animal bone.
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