White Fruit

red dot: best of the best
red dot award: design concept 2008

initiator:

ENSCI – Les Ateliers

design:

Swann Bourotte

White Fruit is a radio with a unique skin. The
skin has been conceptualised as an integral
part of its design, and allows tactile navigation
on the surface of the wood.

It is common practice for the mechanics of
an industrial product and the design of its shell to be approached as separate tasks. Thus, the external shell is often an “add-on” to give the finishing touches to the product. By taking the external shell or the surface of the object into account at the initial stages of the design process, the object will bear similar characteristics to a biological organism, whose
exterior envelope (the skin) and the inner
organs are intimately related.

White Fruit is a radio that has been
conceptualised with this philosophy. Made
with sycamore, which was chosen for its
acoustic properties, White Fruit has been
designed as a combination of approaches
– traditional lutherie (that is, the making of
stringed instruments), the working of timber
as a natural material, and the use of high-end
manufacturing processes and electronics. The
surface itself assumes the main functions of a radio. Sound amplification as well as visual and tactile navigation are all the extensions of the various layers carved onto a wooden block.

As the finger of the user runs along the wave-
like mouldings on the radio’s external surface,
the name of the radio station or the channel
is illuminated on a small screen, which is
placed under a thin section of the timber (with
a thickness of 0.6 mm). The luminous typeface
creates a subtle tint, which enhances the visual qualities of the timber. Sound emanates from the entire surface of the radio with the
employment of a transductor, or a magnetic
amplifier, which allows the thin section of the timber to resonate in order to amplify the
sound.

With the loud speaker of the radio made out
of a very thin (1 mm) timber membrane, the
entire front surface of the radio will vibrate
– just as an instrument would – when music is
played. The volume and choice of stations are
controlled by simply running the finger along
the upper surface of the radio. A computer-
driven machining process was chosen to
create White Fruit for its ability to carve
multiple layers of thickness directly on a solid
block of timber.