u/MercatorLondon

I just received a lovely vintage pen recommended by u/roady57 (thank you for the tip!)
It is a West German Elysee Line gold-plated fountain pen with barleycorn and takes standard ink cartridge.
It is very slim (only about 9.2 mm in diameter and 137 mm long) when capped.
I took a close look at its structure and it is quite similar to the slim pen prototype we have been working on. I am not that surprised since we are designing around existing components (converter or ink cartridge) so we were running into the same physical constraints. I actually do love designing within limitations.
The barley pattern is made of fine engraved lines (not a deep V-shaped cut), but given the pen's small size it looks neat. Again, I think that pattern can lift the pen but also it can make it look dated.
I will give it a good clean and see how good the nib is. It is F size which matches the thinness of this pen nicely.. I will try to take it apart and compare it with the prototype we made.

One of the most outstanding figures of modernist Hungarian architecture between the two world wars, Lajos Kozma designed several villas for the Lupa Island at the outskirts of Budapest. Perhaps the most well-known is the reinforced concrete holiday home at Platán line 8 built in 1934, which has become a symbol of modern architecture. The geographical limits of the island and seasonal floodings of Danube river, the scarcity of building materials met with the progressive architectural guidelines of the era, the Bauhaus’s man-scale and functionalist aspirations.

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share a short video from the workshop.

You may recognise the loop. Most of the components are made on our sliding-head CNC lathe which gives the accuracy and consistency we need. However, the final finish and surface quality (whether polished or brushed) is a very different story and still very much the result of a manual skill and experience.
I am sure many of you making/turning pens are fully aware of this. It takes time, preparation and experience to achieve the finish we are after.
One of the advantages of stainless steel is that it is forgiving material. If it picks up marks through use but can usually be polished back (up to certain level) It also wears very well over time in my opinion..

A little oasis in the middle of hi-rise buildings.

Hi everyone,

As promised yesterday please find attached some photos of the slim pen prototype we have made. (ignore the fingerprints..)

The pen is made entirely from stainless steel. Both the grip section and the cap feature a machined barley pattern. There is not much going on regarding of colour or shape so adding a pattern seemed the option here. The barley pattern is also linked to our Barley collection as well as the Pocket Pen.
I am aware that the barley pattern may make it look traditional? Let me know if you want to see some other options.

The clip still needs a bit more work (as well as the finial). We are keeping the clip mechanism. One idea is to incorporate our small dog at the top or keep it simple with a piece of mother-of-pearl (MOP) for customisation. This is still work in progress.

Surprisingly it doesn’t feel too thin when I hold it..

Hi everyone,

I hope you all managed to survive the tropical temperatures over the past few weeks! Now that the heatwave is finally over, we've started working on some new prototypes.
The workshop is still clogged up with production of the Pocket pen but there was a b

Some of you (u/CadillacGirl) have asked us to develop a very slim pen. So I wanted to explore just how thin we could make one while still using standard components, such as universal converters, standard refills, and our TS nib (or Schmidt) size 5 nib or rollerball nib. Having our own workshop is a luxury that allows us to experiment (between production runs)

There is also an ergonomic limit. If a pen becomes too thin it is not comfortable to use. There is a good reason why most pencils are around 7–8 mm in diameter.

With those constraints in mind, I wanted to see what was possible within this relatively tight specifications/brief. The length and the diameter of the pen will be driven by the nib, refills and converter. We want to keep the clip mechanism.

Please find attached a few screenshots of the 3D model. This is study in size and not showing much of the design features. Hopefully, I'll be able to share photos of the working prototype tomorrow.

The Melopee School in Ghent, Belgium, provides a study in how urban architecture can exploit even the tightest of spaces to maximum utility and functionality.  Designed by XDGA Architects, the school is located on a narrow stretch of land along a dock, bordered by a green area to the south, the dock to the west, a square and housing block on the north, and the harbour road to the east. 

It is rare that architects summon up the notion of disappearing when designing their projects. The very essence of architecture is the exact opposite. It is there to be seen, displayed, to make an impression. Sometimes, a site dictates the need to adopt a strategy where things are buried or hidden. This programme, at the heart of the Confluence district in Lyon, was intended to renovate and extend an electrical substation, which led the Rue Royale Architects to imagine ways of making the object disappear. The project took up the challenge of producing something that would actually fade from memory and vanish over time.

The need to expand the existing Biomedical Research Center, located in the Granada Health Technology Park and promoted by the University of Granada.

Facade on historic building in Cihangir, Istanbul, Turkey

The garden of this detached house by Marta Carraro Architects on the western Ligurian Riviera embraces a variety of distinct identities.

The spaces immediately surrounding the house are devoted to outdoor dining beneath a generous pergola crowned by a magnificent mature wisteria. The lawn in front of the pergola is framed by an informal composition of colourful planting beds featuring rudbeckia, santolina, lavender, and dwarf pittosporum. The alternating sequence of planted and open spaces creates a gently flowing pathway leading to a scenic viewpoint.

The project by Marta Carraro architect involves the redevelopment of a terraced garden previously used for agricultural cultivation. The introduction of new functional and compositional elements, while fully preserving the existing planting, forms the foundation of the design approach.

The absence of a building adjacent to the site prompted a reinterpretation of the traditional role of the gazebo, giving the design multiple layers of meaning. The essential need for a shaded place to rest is complemented by the ambition to create a space that is both functionally articulated and spatially complex. The result is an architecture that is perceptible through its boundaries yet devoid of solid enclosing surfaces.

In the context of the 200^(th) anniversary of the city rights of Tilburg, a Landmark Textile Museum monument by NEXT architects has been realized that represents the growth and prosperity of the city. The Growth Monument is located on the site of the Textile Museum and is designed as a transparent ensemble of pipes with plants growing around them, inspired by the repetitive structure of the factory buildings.

The entire Henville Street House by Philip Stejskal Architecture is contained within a rectangular prism that has had an outdoor space subtracted from it, leaving only a skeletal outer frame and rough-sawn timber clad walls at the threshold with interior space.

Over time, the framework will be overgrown with vegetation. In the meantime, retractable fabric shades provide protection from the elements from above.

https://www.schwarz-architekten.de/projekt/neckarpark-q8/