Totemcollective

We where interviewed for the #19 edition of the Brazilian fashion magazine, FFW Mag!

Find us on pages 291 – 292.

We spent the winter 2010 at The Grand Bahama Island researching for our latest project, Mall of the Caribbean.

The mall is designed with the intention to involve the local community from the area. The architecture is developed from analysis and observations of the island and its culture. There is app. 100.000 sq. ft. of shopping area, 47.000 sq. ft. of supermarket and 22.000 sq. ft. of food court.

Mall of the Caribbean consists of six joint buildings, each with a color that symbolizes the inspiring use of colors throughout the island.  The six buildings are a symbol of the Caribbean Islands and the corridors between them symbolizes the bridges of culture that lies between the islands. The courtyard is the treasure of the Caribbean that is social, light and positive living.

Overview of the buildings

The six buildings on the site enclose a park. Each building opens up towards the exterior in each end so the visitor is able to connect with the outside area with its people and nature. The buildings have open areas for exhibitions for schools, shops, paintings, Port Authority, boat shows, beauty shows, markets etc.

The outside temperature normally reaches up to high levels during summer in Bahamas. Spaces of shadow is therefore of great importance to the mall.

Light Study Movie

The Norwegian first aid company, Snøgg, asked us to design their dispenser for bandage. This design is now under construction and we are looking forward to see it on the market.

Forest of Light

TotemCollective was at Columbia College Chicago from the 10^th to 18^th October 2009 that entire week conducting workshops and lectures in addition to discussions of design and copyright.

The two worlds of design and copyright have quite many surfaces of contact and rises some interesting questions regarding the world of ideas and their rightful owner, if such a one exists.

- Can you own an idea?

- Where lays the difference between inspiration and copying?

- Which position do we take as designers in a world where everything is being copied?

- How do we survive as designers in a copy-world?

- Are we basically pro or against copy?

- In which way can we make use of copies in our world?

- Can we create designs that people are able to copy without being criminalized?

Download program

We participated in a workshop held by Digital Urban Living, CAVI and Martin Professional on media facades at Danish Design Center (DDC) in Copenhagen. The aim of the workshop was to develop visual and interactive experiments to explore the potentials of large media screens in public space. The experiments were conducted on six large screens – making a total of 24 square meters – installed in the windows at DDC in the center of Copenhagen.

TotemCollective created an installation using the human body as a curser to navigate in Google earth. A camera located on the roof of DDC was tracking people’s movements within a marked zone.

Collaboration with architect Mikkel Kjærgård Christiansen.

TotemCollective have been working as consultative designers for the City of Copenhagen in optimizing the workflow at the Citizen Service Centers.

The Totem Design System was centered on dialogs with the employees and the citizens. Through observations, workshops and interviews we adjusted the workspace and created a new flow in the interior.

ddc.dk

In 2008, The artist group, Superflex, invited us to do a new set of furniture for “COPYSHOP” – a project that was hosted by The Art Gallery of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Warning display at dangerous junctions

We have designed a warning display to prevent right-turn accidents involving bicycles and lorries.

The See-mi technology facilitates communication between lorries, bicycles and traffic lights at dangerous junctions. By means of this communication, the driver of a right-turning lorry is made aware of the risk of cyclists on his right side. This gives the driver an additional chance of avoiding dangerous situations.

Watch video

This is a new way to use prefab construction in architecture.

Light and images can travel through the concrete by integrating fiber optics. This opens up a whole new world within architecture.

Designed in collaboration with Innovation Lab

Watch video

Copylight is a lamp, which challenges problematics concerning intellectual property rights by the exposure of motifs from commonly known lamps.
Copylight’s take off starts from Superflex’ project, “Biogas PH5 lamp”, which is a copy of Poul Henningsens PH5 lamp from 1958.
Copylight seeks the boundaries between originals and when copies become new originals.

Installation for a photo exhibition

The big challenge of this project was to reveal only one picture at a time out of a series of four pictures in each element. We decided to create a box in which a strip of pictures rotated in a sequence that showed a new picture every five minutes. The boxes enlightened the garden and created a poetic ambience.
more

Scenarios for The Alexandra Institute

We were asked to give a lecture about the future of urban life seen from a digital perspective at the Computer Science Department, University of Aarhus.

Cultural Conference

Participants from Aarhus and Copenhagen researched the potential of increasing the collaboration between the two cities. Politicians, officials and other prominent people from cultural communities were set together to generate and enlarge the already existing network between cultural players in Aarhus and Copenhagen.

The installation was designed as a collaboration between:

Christina Okai Mejborn, Carina Rosenbech Thybo, Maria Maj Hansen, Liselott Stenfeldt and Rune Wehner.