Milan April 16-21, 2008

No More TV House: design transforms the “hi-tech fable” into contemporary furniture

Mirrors /LCD monitors, designed by Chiho Kim for the Korean DND Casa

Milan Fuorisalone
Via Tortona 31
from 10.00 a.m to 10.00 p.m

Lewis Carroll and Alice had already alerted us to the magic power of a mirror in a room (“Through the Looking Glass”, 1871). Now, over a century later, technology and design have made that dream come true.
DND Casa products belong to that privileged class of happily indefinable furnishings which, being multifunctional, can be interpreted and used in many different ways. Are we talking about hideaway LCD monitors? Or mirrors with built-in TV screens? We certainly are, because the DND Casaproducts can be considered true hi-tech furnishings which, when switched on, clearly display the images from an LCD TV, but when switched off revert to mirrors and clearly reflect the real world.

Naturally these are special LCD active matrix screens (applied magnetically to the back of the mirror) which produce images capable of traversing mirror-finish or colored glass. So while high technology works on the back of the mirror,DND Casadesign operates on the front surface, creating the emotional interface of the object to be integrated with the furnishings. An interface so free from technical restrictions that in the DND Casa collection there are products of different forms, dimensions and materials, devoted to different settings in the home (living room, bathroom, kitchen...) but also to the contract sector, home entertainment and the office environment. In fact DND Casa products can be fitted with a computer display or DVD player. All starting from a minimum thickness of some 3 centimeters.
The models designed for the bathroom are also equipped with backlighting... so men will be able to follow the latest news during the morning ritual of shaving.


The collection is designed by the celebrated Korean designer ChihoKim (born at Seoul in 1970, he studied and worked for 11 years in Milan), who is presenting some specially


representative models of his work for DND Casa at the Salone 2008. “My idea is to give a soul to these hi-tech products, using warm materials and ancient handcrafted techniques, typical of Korean tradition ... rather as happened here in Italy, when the great designers worked together (as some still do) with the master glass blowers on Murano or with highly skilled marble workers...” These principles underpin the model Luce dal Mare, which features a large Op Art frame (though in some respects it looks almost Renaissance in appearance) and is made of two-tone plates of natural mother-of-pearl. Light from the Sea was hand-crafted by Chun-Cheol Jang, the most celebrated Korean craftsman today working in mother-of-pearl.
Dimensions: 2.6 m X 2.3 m. Thickness 10 cm. 46’ TV screen.

Chiho Kim presents an amusing reinterpretation of the tradition also in the East Soul model. “It looks just like a mirror with a youthful design and an indented outline, but in reality those lines represent the profiles of the animals which, in our tradition, infuse their spirit into the individual months of the year.” Tiger, Dog, Pig, Monkey, Horse...each of them presides over a sentiment, brings good luck, fosters work or intelligence”... and draws the profile of a mirror whose technology captures theuniversal spirit of images.
Dimensions: 1.5m X 1m. Thickness 3cm. 17” TV screen.

The Hypno Wall model can be considered, by its dimensions, a true wall of different visions. The large central surface in black glass, besides concealing a video screen, is furrowed by fine concentric circles of light from colored LEDs, whose tones slowly turn from shades of yellow to green and blue. When the screen is switched off, the circles become the “hypnotic” protagonists of the great Hypno Wall. The wooden frame conceals a series of closed containers, for books or other domestic objects.
Dimensions: 5m X 2.5. Thickness 60cm. 32” TV screen.

In Milan other models in the collection will also be presented.

DND Casa products use Mirror Image® technology.
Mirror Image® is an international patent (2001) of the German ad notam® firm.





The firm

DND Casa was founded in 2006 in Seoul (Korea) by Hyuk-Sang Kwon. He has a master’s degree in Marketing in Yonsei University (Korea). As main careers before joining DNDCASA,he was General manager of new product planning team and marketing teaminTrigem (computer company) and Sales Marketing director of Mondo System (audio/video systems).Mr. Kwon has been working as marketing specialist and CEO in DNDCASA.
DND Casa, the commercial partner of ad notam®, was set up as the distributor of Mirror Image® products in Korea and Japan, but under the guidance of the art director Chiho Kim it soon discovered its vocation for design and furnishings. This led to the creation of the first model (Luce Dal Mare) which shift the concept of the product from hi-tech to emotional design. This is the significance of the application of materials which are warm and in a sense traditional, such as wood and mother-of-pearl, to a product which actually contains a strong innovative and technological core.
DND Casa products have been selected to furnish some important apartments built by Doo-San Construction Corp which is the highest class in Korea. In February 2008 they will be become part of the Hyundai Department Store in Seoul, while they already furnish the living spaces of famous Korean actors and leading personalities.
www.dndcasa.com


The designer
Chiho Kim (Seoul, 1970) graduated in Industrial Design from the university of Kon Kuk (Seoul). After graduation he moved to Milan where he followed the course in Interior Design at the IED and the Master’s degree in Industrial Design at the Domus Academy. In Milan, where he lived for about 11 years, he was also the assistant of Alessandro Guerriero.
On returning to Seoul about seven years ago he worked for important manufacturers such as Sony and Hyundai and today for DND Casa.
Chiho Kim teaches at Yonsei University and since 2002 has been artistic director of the Seoul Design Festival.
In 2007 he won the prestigious Korean Design Award, for his coordinated space and image design for the RESFEST international film festival. In 2001 he won the Design Report award for his carpet in Technogel, presented at that year’s Salone Satellite.