Ewins participates in SingaPlural 2018 showcasing its Veromobi Alba range of high performance scratch-resistant and anti-bacterial acrylic surfaces through the installation – THE MAD HATTER.

Designed by Gabriel Tan Studio, The Mad Hatter is an installation using the three-dimensional thermoforming and light-diffusing properties of Veromobi Alba acrylic panels.

Molded “hat” shaped lamp shades were created using four different tints of dyed acrylic and with them, three pendant lamp configurations and table lamps of five different heights were further created. The installation is completed by the use of Alba’s mirror acrylic which is used for the table and ceiling surface.

A play of colours, forms, reflections and light diffusion; the result is a surrealistic installation which gives the illusion of an expanded universe of lights.

EVENT DETAILS
Date: 5 – 18 March 2018
Venue: National Design Centre, 111 Middle Road, Singapore 188969
Opening Hours (Daily): 9:00am – 9:00pm

GABRIEL TAN STUDIO
Gabriel Tan Studio is a design practice working across the borders of craft, culture and technology. Exploring new ways to interpret luxury and break archetypes, the studio works on design, curation and creative direction for international clients. Gabriel Tan Studio also creative directs the Japanese furniture brand Ariake and Singapore-based door handle brand Turn. Studio founder Gabriel Tan was an active co-founder of Outofstock from 2007 to 2016, a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural design collective.

THE MATERIAL – VEROMOBI ALBA
Launched in 2017, Ewins constantly challenges the properties of this high performance acrylic surface to discover new design possibilities. The Mad Hatter was conceptualised to test the moldability and design flexibility by staining the acrylic with a treatment similar to tinted glass.

Alba is a multi-layered composite panel made with an extruded high-gloss, high-resolution transparent acrylic layer, and a coloured acrylic layer. Its surface can be treated to achieve the desired glossiness (from non-reflective matte to mirror-finish); and to have properties such as scratch and wear-resistance, stain-resistance, UV-resistance, and resistance to yellowing.

With a better impact resistance than glass (25 times tougher than glass and 10 times tougher than tempered glass) and made to be water, grease and stain repellent, Alba is suitable for use as materials for interior walls, partitions, sliding door infills and kitchen backsplashes. Alba can also be used as vertical walls, bathroom walls and screens. It is acid and alkali resistant, leaves no water stains and is easy to clean.
For more information on Veromobi Alba, click HERE.

SHAPES, MOLDABILITY, NEW POSSIBILITIES

Veromobi Alba acrylics are normally used in flat-sheet form as furniture surfaces, partitions, or on walls. We explored the idea of thermoforming the hard-coated panels into 3-dimensional shapes, thereby creating a whole new world of opportunities for the use of the highly-durable scratch resistant acrylics in product design.

COLOURS, TINTS & CRACKLE

Veromobi Alba acrylics come in clear or solid colours. We experimented tinting the transparent acrylic sheets with dyes to create a stained glass effect. The surprising result was the porcelain-like crackle pattern on the surface of the material, which developed quite unexpectedly during the thermoforming process, bringing about a different dimension of beauty to the lamps.

MODULARITY

By working on just one mold for the hat-shaped lamp shades, and different tube diameters and lengths, we created several permutations of pendant and table lamps.

REFLECTIVITY – with the use of Alba Mirror (NEW!)

A lightweight, shatter-proof mirror with durable surface coating, Alba Mirror can reduce long term maintenance and replacement cost due to breakage or mirror rot, which is caused by oxidisation of silver nitrate in glass mirror’s coating that results in black edges. While maintaining Alba Lite’s functional qualities such as scratch-resistance (H6), high impact-resistance and water repellency, Alba Mirror offers 99% reflectivity which is comparable to regular mirrors.

For more information on Veromobi Alba Mirror, click HERE.

E-PAPER TECHNOLOGY

Showcased at SingaPlural 2018 for the first time, E-paper is an advanced colour display system that is durable, comfortable to read from, and with extremely low power consumption. Suitable for both indoor and outdoor applications, E-paper offers a paper-like digital solution that is lightweight, image stable and easy to read from even under strong sunlight. Possible applications include digital readers, digital pads for note-taking, outdoor directional signage, advertising and architectural displays.