While it's great to have a cool, crisp, carefully delineated living space, full of machined surfaces, clad in the colors of nature, sometimes even the most ardent minimalist craves a shock. Margaret Elman's Chair Couture takes vintage chair frames (more Louie, Louie than Louis XVI) and dolls them up with paint, gilding, and gaudy fabrics.

The result--seating that calls for cocktails One blast of an aqua bergère will turn even the most Zen space into a lava lounge.

If Elman's creations are too much for those with major taste but minimal funds, a brisk tour of 2nd-hand shops might turn up a chair that just needs a jolt of color. Try an auto painting shop, (Candy Apple Red), and grab a staple gun. And then--relax and mix a Tequila Sunrise to match your settee. If you spill--trust me, no will notice.

Link: Chair Couture [Thanks, Rachel!]

Throughout the timeline of human evolution, humans have built tools,sculptures, and inscribed Art on rock walls attempting to understand our existence. Hoodoo Series is a postmodern approach that continues that search for truth, revealing natural design elements from the prairie landscape. While producing a genuine prairie style, Cesar and Ball dig through visual layers of historic sediment, exposing traces of an evolutionary world past millions of years.

Conceptual research project in rural areas of England such as Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. In partnership with local planning authorities and property developers we aim to develop a modular tree house concept. This could, with a flexible planning arrangement, encourage a more organic approach to country living. Architecturally, the design direction evolves from the underside, to the interior and then outwards concentrating on views and aspects above the tree horizon. The ‘belly’ of the tree house accommodates undulating kinetic baffles that utilise wind power to generate electricity. The plan form also meanders to the extent that modular sections can be prefabricated so that the overall size can vary from a single bedroom house up to a five bedroom model. The prefabricated design can be installed on site within two weeks, is extremely lightweight, uses many recycled products, is part self-sustainable and low on maintenance.

With the name MARTa fronting the triad of design (M standing for Möbel/furniture), art (ART) and architecture/ambience (a), the museum aims to provide fresh inspiration for art, design, architecture and business both in the local region and far beyond. An extraordinary complex of buildings designed by Frank Gehry houses a novel combination of a museum, centre of excellence and event forum. It is here that exhibition curator and museum director Jan Hoet displays contemporary aspects of art and design. The main idea behind MARTa Herford is to highlight and redefine the contradictory links between art and business.

In addition, out in in California's Coachella Valley, they are in the process of developing a residential community chock full of Krisel Modern homes. This community should be open to viewings in late 2006.

Link: Maxx Livingstone [Thanks, Bob]

The Pivot Screen designed by Jacek Ostoya of Mebel Furniture in San Francisco. The screen is made up of frames with interchangable acrylic pieces. You can configure your screen with as much opacity as you choose and arrange colors or pictures to fit your mood. Ostoya was named by the LA Times as a furniture designer to watch in 2006.

Her design features a striking composition of a red "carpet" extending from the theatre into and over the dock crossed by a lush green "carpet" of paving with lawns and vegetation. The red “carpet” will be made of bright red resin-glass paving covered with red glowing angled light sticks. The green "carpet" of polygon-shaped planters will offer ample seating and will connect the new hotel to the office development across the square. The planters will feature marsh vegetation to soften the space and to act as a reminder of the historic wetland nature of the site. These will bring colour and variety to the space and act as a setting for the new buildings.

Many outsiders think this is a terrific, artistic career, but they don't realize how long it takes before an architect gets to design a building.

Because most landscape architecture projects don't have as many components as the design for a building, young landscape architects may get to design entire projects. Also, the training is shorter.

Busting a key economic myth, Interface Engineering of Portland, Oregon (has) engineered a top-level green building on a conventional budget, opening the way for other large scale projects to achieve high performance at standard cost. The firm also released an illustrated guide sharing the secrets and principles behind the project, formally known as The Center for Health and Healing at the River Campus of Oregon Health & Science University.

As a collective, Loyal Loot strives to create designs with a natural quality by staying true to materials. The inherent value of these designs is meant to last a lifetime ensuring that they retain a non-disposable presence and remain precious to their owner, becoming more and more meaningful as they age. Loyal loot exhibits their work together and aims to create community in design, within the collective as well as with fellow designers. Members of loyal loot are involved in several creative facets, specializing in furniture, products and clothing.