Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Frank O. Gehry

Showing posts with label Frank O. Gehry. Show all posts

Monday, June 6, 2016

Exhibit - @ The Musée des Confluences

For anyone wondering about the newly inaugurated Musée des Confluences in Lyon (France), you will find below a small video of the museum coming alive with an architectural sketch.

Musée des Confluences : un croquis prend vie from Musée des Confluences on Vimeo.

The Musée des Confluences opened on Dec. 20, 2014. It is a science and anthropology museum including Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Technology collections. The museum was built by the Austrian cooperative architectural firm Coop Himmelb(l)au on the tip of a peninsula (the Lyon historical Presqu'île), at the confluence of the rivers Saône and Rhône.

If the Musée des Confluences looks a bit like a spaceship with some unusual curves, it is because it was built in a deconstructivist architectural tradition that also includes such other great architects as for example Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid. 👠

References

Coop Himmelb(l)au

http://www.coop-himmelblau.at/
Coop Himmelb(l)au - Musée des Confluences Sketch (Youtube)
https://youtu.be/KkGqImZ0I3U

Musée des Confluences
http://www.museedesconfluences.fr/
Musée des Conflunces - L'architecture
http://www.museedesconfluences.fr/fr/larchitecture
Musée des Confluence - Le projet
http://www.museedesconfluences.fr/fr/le-projet
Musée des Confluences - Les collections
http://www.museedesconfluences.fr/fr/les-collections

A history of architecture - Deconstructivism

http://www.historiasztuki.com.pl/kodowane/003-02-04-ARCHWSP-DEKONSTRUKCJA-eng.php

Oh, patents! Gehry architectural technologies

http://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2014/08/oh-patents-gehry-achitectural.html

Monday, August 4, 2014

Oh, patents! Gehry tubular acoustics

One more utility patent for this phenomenal architect of the turn of the 21^st century.

US3672463 titled Acoustic system employing tubular resonators discloses an improved sound dispersion system, towards the audience, for an orchestra, using a tubular structure all around and above the orchestra. The invention effectively eliminates sound dead spots from an orchestra and reinforces low frequencies which are otherwise lost or reduced without means of amplification.

Below appears the patent abstract for US3672463 titled Acoustic system employing tubular resonators and one of the patent drawings as well as an image of a spectacular embodiment of this sound system invention, arising in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles designed by Gehry. The organ appearing like a bouquet of 6134 curved pipes at the center of the concert hall was also designed by Gehry in collaboration with Manuel J. Rosales, a Los Angeles based organ designer. [AD classics]

Improved dispersion of the sound from an orchestra toward an audience and reinforcement of the lower frequencies in said sound are achieved through the use of tubular resonators positioned around and above the orchestra. Resonating chambers are formed in the ends of the tubes by means of transverse partitions. Electrically-driven speakers may be positioned in said tubes. [US3672463]

Reference

AD Classics: Walt Disney Concert Hall – Frank Gehry

http://www.archdaily.com/441358/ad-classics-walt-disney-concert-hall-frank-gehry/

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Oh, patents! Gehry achitectural technologies

Just in case you are not quite impressed enough with the lattice and corrugated cardboard Gehry furniture design patents, the picture to the right is one of the landmark Frank O. Gehry buildings: the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (Spain). Built with a titanium-clad exterior using patented modeling technology influenced by aircraft engineering, this museum has become as much a destination site, as it is inspiration for the artists that bring it alive.

The architectural modeling patents listed below, assigned to Gehry Technologies, are some of the inventions connected with these extraordinary signature Gehry buildings, such as for example the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California (see third image on right); The Dancing House in Prague (Czech Republic); 8 Spruce Street in New York city; the Frederick Weisman Museum of Modern Art at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (second image right) and The Gehry Tower in Hanover, Germany --each with its own curves and gravity-defying appearance:

US2014195963 - Method and apparatus for representing 3D thumbnails
US2014180641 - Method and apparatus for detecting interference in design environment
WO2013116859 - Computer process for determining best fitting materials for constructing architectural surfaces
WO2013106803 - Method and apparatus for presenting differences between 3D models

Below appears the abstract for WO2013116859 titled Computer process for determining best fitting materials for constructing architectural surfaces, and one of the figure drawings connected to the patent and curved lines of the Gehry buildings.

A computer process for fitting construction materials to an architectural surface modeled in CAD divides the surface into domains, and defines sample points on each domain surface. Low accuracy then high accuracy iterations match a domain to a surface portion of a regular curved solid. The low accuracy match limits the type and orientation of the curved solid. The high accuracy match derives a central reference for the curved solid by defining vector pairs from among the sample points and calculating multiple resultants as cross products of vector pairs that share a common origin. Reference points are located wherever the distance between any two resultants is minimum, and the central reference, e.g. an axis, is derived from the reference points using regression analysis. The match to the domain may be iteratively improved by adjusting a parameter such as a radius until a desired accuracy is achieved. The result is compared to stored specifications to identify construction materials capable of forming the domain. Parallel processing may be employed to reduce time for solving fitting problems for large architectural projects having multiple surfaces with complex curvatures.[WO2013116859]

-----

Pin the Gehry landmarks on Google Earth to take a peak, or include them in your globetrotting itineraries…! These are buildings to see!

-----

And patent-wise, notice again that computer code cannot be patented, which is the reason why it appears as a method and apparatus in US2014195963, US2014180641 and WO2013106803, or as a multiple-step process in WO2013116859. (For more detailed explanations and the history of this fascinating issue, see post on The patentability of the QR code)

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Design patents and Utility patents - What’s the difference?

Just to clarify the differences between design and utility patents, beyond statutory form since design patents only have one claim and an optional description or specification, here is an explanation of the conceptual differences per US Code Title 35, Sections 101 and 171, as stated in a USPTO brochure intended for applicants.

In general terms, a “utility patent” protects the way an article is used and works (35 U.S.C. 101), while a "design patent" protects the way an article looks (35 U.S.C. 171). Both design and utility patents may be obtained on an article if invention resides both in its utility and ornamental appearance. While utility and design patents afford legally separate protection, the utility and ornamentality of an article are not easily separable. Articles of manufacture may possess both functional and ornamental characteristics. (USPTO, p. 2)

It follows then that a single artefact can be patented both for its utility or function and its visual or ornamental properties, depending on whether these separate aspects of invention fulfill all the conditions of patentability. This is the case, for example, with the Frank O. Gehry wood lattice furniture where the visual or ornamental appeal of the furniture is patented as design patents, and the manufacturing process of the interlocking wood lattice is patented in utility patents.

Specifically, the Gehry wood lattice furniture is patented in design patents such as: USD344191 titled Dining chair, USD334098 titled Chair or USD341263 titled Club chair, and the wood lattice manufacturing process of this furniture is also patented in two utility patents, US5284380 and US5154486, both titled Furniture comprising laminated slats and methods of manufacturing such furniture

Included below is the abstract for the utility patent US5154486 titled Furniture comprising laminated slats and methods of manufacturing such furniture, and a patent figure with corresponding image of the marketed product -- just to anchor the beautiful basket weaving of this line of furniture into something you can see!

Furniture comprises a strong, aesthetically appealing, woven lattice of interlocking slats. The slats are made of wood laminate having indentations allowing fitting of the slats across one another so as to form the lattice. Advantageously, the furniture may be manufactured of a single type of material, that of the bent wood laminate slats. No other supporting structural material is needed to make the furniture simultaneously possess the advantages of being sturdy, aesthetically appealing, economical to manufacture, and light in structure and appearance. The methods of manufacturing such furniture has also been included. [US5154486]

Reference

USPTO: Guide to filing a design patent application

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/iip/pdf/brochure_05.pdf

Friday, August 1, 2014

Oh, patents! More Frank O. Gehry designs

Here are a few more beautiful Frank O. Gehry patented design figures with their marketed images -- just in case you need to furnish your residence or have already started your xmas list of wishes!

USD346293 – Coffee table

USD338579 – Café table

USD357185 - Lamp

USD533364S - Chair

-----

As for the famous Frank O. Gehry corrugated cardboard Wiggle chair… I could only find the 2014 price USD1140.00!

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Oh, patents! Frank O. Gehry designs

So you thought that the great American architect Frank O. Gehry only designed fluffy-looking buildings that appear to defy gravity, that transform cities, and whose outside walls, upon closer inspection, appear like twisted metal sculptures. Well...try again…There is much more Frank O. Gehry, who also designs hundreds of everyday objects and artifacts, such as furniture and jewelry – and especially seating!

A search for Frank Gehry patents returns 239 US design patents, in addition to the utility patents for sheet metal bending and rendering proper to the manufacturing processes of the everyday objects and to architecture.

Frank Gehry design patents for furniture include, for example:

USD341264S – Diamond chair (See fig. 2)

USD344191S – Dining chair (See fig. 1)

USD525041S – Chair

USD518657S1 – Chair

USD530936S – Chair for theatres, auditoriums and the like

USD533364S – Chair

USD334488 – Chair

USD422424 – Chair

USD334098 – Chair

USD333738 - Chair

USD341265S - Café chair

USD341263S - Club chair

USD513910S1 - Seat frame

USD663558 – Seat frame

USD530530 - Left twist stool

USD530529 - Right twist stool (See fig. at EOF)

USD528808 - Three sided stool

USD528816 – Sofa

USD529303 - Bench

USD346924 - Seat cushion

USD529303 - Bench

USD357185 - Lamp

USD523166 - Lamp

USD513677 - Coffee table

USD346293 – Coffee table

USD338579 – Café table

USD344856 - Ottoman

USD510251 – Handle

USD509422 – Handle

USD521355 - Handle

You will find enclosed design patent drawings and corresponding marketed products, as an illustration of some the Frank O. Gehry seating, and the breadth of this design palette -- exploring the intersections of form, function and materials, from corrugated cardboard to bended wood and metal, and injection molding!

Take a seat and enjoy!...