AF-Decom Offshore is an engineering company decommissioning oil platforms and other structures in the North Sea. To facilitate internal communication in the planning process, we suggested using physical models such as this one. Objects that you can touch and turn around are easier to relate to than paper or computer screens. This is especially true when coordinating a larger team of workers.

This large polyamide SLS model (approximately 70 cm tall), describes a discarded structure ready to be decommissioned. The model can also be picked to pieces like a puzzle, describing the process chronologically.

Location: Hosle in Bærum, Norway

Date of completion: Fall 2012

Client: Open Competition – Notodden Council
Status: Not Awarded
Collaboration: Pivot Produktdesign AS & Ctrl+N Arkitekter
Team: Christian Brunsvig – Pivot
Fredrik Wenstøp – Pivot
Liam Wooley – Pivot
Kristian Wenstøp – PivotAlexandra Danielak – Independent Designer

Johnathon Lloyd Little – Ctrl+N Arkitekter
Erik Brett – Ctrl+N Arkitekter

The building creates a new context by connecting the city and the waterfront, giving the city a center both during events and in the daily life.The overall shape creates different situations: to the north a welcoming main entrance and a plaza, to the east: service entrance. The south connects the building, the public and the water in a generous integrated seating area. The west facade, exposes the internal life of the library to the public. Add a pathway over the roof and you have a welcoming building full of life and movement.

Our culture is changing continuously. Both music and the book format is changing in beat with society. An important challenge for the next generation will be to participate in this evolution and at the same time keep in touch with the traditions of the past.

Every summer Notodden places itself on the world map. The blues makes its presence and the world of blues looks towards the town of Notodden. Notodden Bluesfestival attracts many of the biggest international names, and thousands of enthusiasts from all parts of the world.

Shading

A strategy for shading was integrated in the concept and the aesthetics of the building. Using a parametric definition, the wooden structure creates a framework wrapped around the main body of the building. The framework is used to fix dynamic textile shades. Analysis was then performed to verify the efficiency of the shades on the southern facade.

Interior from the cafeteria

We designed the seat arrangement of Nelo’s new line of Surfskis. The ergonomics of the seat arrangement is one of the biggest challenges when designing a sit-on-top style kayak, such as a surfski. It is the physical user interface of the boat and transfers all energy from the paddle blade into forward motion of the hull.

Nelo wanted the best possible seat arrangement, and we gave it to them!

The lines of these new boats draw heavily on the Foilkayak design we did earlier. It is essentially the same design but with more volume in the bow, and of course without the option of attaching hydrofoils.

This new range of boats incorporates the same basic guidelines as for all of Nelo’s boats: a fine balance between performance, stability and comfort.

A good prototype is always essential in product design. The form was milled by Shape and the prototype is made by vacuum bagging carbon fiber and epoxy.

Einar Rasmussen took a total of ten medals in paddling World Championships, four of which are gold medals. He is also an inventor with a major in physics; A good combination for driving the sport of kayak paddling into the future. In the 80′s, he took the kayak paddle to the next level by designing a wing shaped blade. In fact, the same level they remain today, 30 years later. His design was quickly adopted by other athletes and is the standard racing paddle today. There is numerous copies of the Rasmussen Paddle on the market today. Some good, some bad, but none like the original. Today, all major brands such as Braca, Epic and Zastera produce so called Rasmussen paddles. What they didn’t manage to copy however was the production technique. For that recipe you will kindly have to ask him yourself. All we know is it takes two hands, carbon fibers, epoxy, patience and a lot of practice.

As the molds used to produce the original paddles were handmade, we knew they were probably not identical. Therefore we reverse engineered both right and left blade. At comparing the two CAD models, we found them to be surprisingly similar. Specially for being hand built! Then an average of the two surfaces was modeled. Finally we sat down together with Einar and removed any undesired curvature to ensure the highest quality class A surface ready for production.

Foilkayak.

The Foilkayak was invented by Peter Ribe and Einar Rasmussen, both world class paddlers, and produced by Nelo. Pivot made the commercial design, surface modelling for production, and assisted in developing the extruded foils and steering mechanism. We worked close with the inventors to achieve a pleasing design ready for production.

The invention uses the hydrofoil principle in combination with a racing  kayak hull. At a speed of roughly 10 kmh, the entire hull lifts out of the water, creating minimum surface resistance. The hydrofoil concept reduces the wetted area to a fraction, by utilizing the wing effect. Theoretically, the Flyak can achieve speeds nearly twice as fast as an conventional championship-level racing kayak.

The design is almost entirely driven by performance related issues. Light weight, high strength and robustness were the main criterias. Surface and curvature optimization is
essential. The rendering shows isocurves and Class A surfaces reflected in the smoothness of the hull.

The cockpit area needed special attention to ensure good ergonomics and the least possible amount of water-gathering. The Flyak is a completely water-tight body that cannot take in water or sink. This makes it much easier to learn the technique, as the paddler can just climb back on without having to get the boat out of the water to empty it. The bottom surface of the boat’s 5200 mm carbon-fiber hull is not dramatically different than other racing kayaks. By removing the foils, the craft can be used as a normal racing kayak.

For some parts, like the cockpit area, we used a digital scanner to record points directly off hand-sanded prototypes. The whole process was a true mix of manual workshop work and digital manufacturing like cnc milling and 3d-printing.

We were sourced by Innovation Norway and Box Office in helping them design part of the installation for the Norwegian pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo 2010. The pavilion was designed by Helen and Hard Architects.

As part of an arctic corner, Pivot designed the installation and the most interesting part of this was reverse engineering casts of actual footprints of a polar bear. This was milled out of aluminum plates, which were cooled down to create an illusion of the arctic climate.

Savo office chairs are designed and manufactured for the international market. Savo holds a high standard when it comes to build quality and functionality. Their guiding principle in every development project is the total experience: the satisfaction of being able to sit comfortably – and for extended periods of time.

The Savo S3 is the company’s new flagship chair. We were happy to participate in the design development of this outstanding chair. We enjoyed working together with one of Norway’s most recognized designers, Johan Verde and Chief Designer at Savo, Ralph Schmidt.

The S3 features a new patented back function. The articulated lamella backrest is attached at two points, one upper and one lower. As a result, the upper and lower parts of the backrest move in a natural relation to each other. Combined with Savo Floating Tilt®, the Savo S3 follows the natural movements of your back.

Even though the seat cushions are soft, they are what the end user touches, feels and beholds. The seat surfaces were modeled to a high standard to ensure a flawless finish in the end product. Controlling the final shape of the cushion was a challenge. After molding, it would be fitted with tailored fabric that would compress sharp corners and alter the shape slightly. We had to compensate for this in the CAD model before the production tools for the seat and back support were made.