"The Canal House is composed of three cubes: one raised at the street as a studio, two together at the canalside as the residence. In its concept and execution, the house is informed by two ideas, one embracing the possibility of the poetic, the other a more specific kind of material formation."
Link: Sander Architects
"Founded on the Oregon coast by a guy named Ted, this small handscreened wallpaper company flourished in the Age of Aquarius.
Many years later, some young designers seeking striking wallcoverings discovered Ted's greatness- just days before the designs and equipment were to be destroyed. Knowing what had to be done, these young designers headed west to save Ted's legacy...
Relocated to the Bywater District of New Orleans, Flavor Paper continues to produce the greatness of Ted."
Featured print: Cycloid
Link: Flavor Paper
Found in: Dwell
"iColor® Tile FX creates a unlimited creative canvas in the form of a sophisticated, tile-like system that may be used independently or as part of a large-scale, multi-tiled installation. Each 2' by 2' panel conceals 144 individually addressable, tri-color nodes (432 LEDs), that are powered by Chromasic™, enabling highly intricate control to create images with light - from morphing color waves, to animated objects, logos, emblems and patterns. iColor Tile FX is designed for recess and surface mounting, and is ideal for retrofitting ceiling tiles and surfaces. The system comes with an opaque lens and offers a versatile frame structure that's engineered to accept custom lens options."
Link: Color Kinetics
If you're one of those who simply can't get enough of The Frank, have a listen.
"Time magazine calls Gehry the world's most famous architect. Gehry just designed an outdoor music pavilion for Chicago's new Millennium Park, a former rail yard that's been transformed into a destination for the arts. He designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao."Link: Fresh Air (npr.org)
In Los Angeles where the population is increasing but the water supply is not, there's been a push as of late to give residents ideas on how to conserve. Back in May, we mentioned how LA's Dept. of Water & Power was offering free shade trees to residents in an effort to cut down on future power bills. Now, the Metropolitan Water District, has provided the City of Santa Monica with a $20,000 grant to help them develop a water-conservation garden experiment called "Garden/garden."
"Garden/garden is composed of two adjacent front yards showing two different approaches to garden design. The "California-friendly" garden showcases native plants, a dry creek bed and efficient irrigation. While the adjacent "Traditional" garden includes more typical features brought to Santa Monica from the east. The native garden requires about 75% less water and maintenance than the traditional garden."If anyone has any more info on this project or knows of a website with more pictures and/or information, please let us know.
Link: Garden/garden
Related: Trees for a Green LA
"During the 1930s Garrett Eckbo, Dan Kiley, and James Rose began to integrate modernist architectural ideas into their work and to design a landscape more in accord with the life and sensibilities of their time. Together with Thomas Church, whose gardens provided the setting for California living, they laid the foundations for a modern American landscape design.
This first critical assessment of modem landscape architecture brings together seminal articles from the 1930s and 1940s by Eckbo, Kiley, Rose, Fletcher Steele, and Christopher Tunnard, and includes contributions by contemporary writers and designers such as Peirce Lewis, Catherine Howett, John Dixon Hunt, Peter Walker, and Martha Schwartz who examine the historical and cultural framework within which modern landscape designers have worked."
Link: Booklounge.com
The other day, we received a Chiasso catalog in the mail. We hadn't heard of them before so we must've received their catalog through one of our design magazine subscriptions. Some of their product looks pretty good. We're guessing it's all private label merchandise similar to IKEA since we didn't see or notice any "designer brands" in their catalog or on their website. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Has anyone ever ordered from them? Which piece did you order and how was the quality? Their prices are fairly reasonable so if the quality is good, we just might have to look into them a bit further.
Link: Chiasso
Crusing around the neighborhood, we've come across some new development and remodels that have had amazingly cool garage doors installed. We've always wondered who manufactured them and short of stopping and asking the contractor, we think we've found them (well, at least one of them).
"Bryce Parker Company's glass garage doors offer an attractive alternative for Architectural, Residential, & Commercial applications. Our models: BP-350 & BP-450 HD offer a unique aesthetic appeal, maximum light transmission - without letting anyone see inside your garage - and durability. If these characteristics are important to your design, Bryce Parker is your solution!"Link: Bryce Parker Company
Continuing our recent trend of furntiure blogs, we've come across this chaise lounge designed by Christian Nordsiek for Bart Design Italy. The chaise is made from oak plywood and features a chrome steel frame. A model with cushions is also available.
Designer: Christian Nordsiek
Link: Bart Design
"Reinventing the classic U.S. Parks Dept. Bench, the playful Parks Dept. 47-B is a postmodern triumph of technical form and historical style. Translating the long, splinter-ridden lines and informal geometry of its predecessor into a shorter, splinter-less masterpiece, the 47-B is a robust chair sturdy enough to handle even Smokey the Bear's generous girth."
Materials: Hardwood (Baltic Birch)
Designer: Shawn Bruce
Link: Parks Dept. 47-B
This pine table from Felix de Voss is constructed of Oregon pine. The table top and seats are made of MDF, PUR laquered. The table is also includes stainless steel fittings.
Designer: Felix de Voss
Link: P.G.A.L.W.
"Chaise Lounge in naturally painted solid oak, wood seat with strips, adjustable back rest, with small wheels in black rubber."
Link: Armani Casa
Found over a Domus:
"In the Palio suspension lamp, bright halogen light is reflected from its glossy interior surface and is diffused by the bronze parallelepiped with gold reflections. Palio is suited for use as an individual lamp, but when in multiple compositions, it produces amazing effects. The shade is hung from a copper wire. Openings with staggered corners prevent glare."Designer: Ernst Strassacker
If you're in search of 50's, 60's, and 70's modernist books, then DigModern is the place for you. We're always browsing their selection and just noticed this great book from 1972:
"One of the best landscape do-it-yourself guides from the period. Profusely illustrated with drawings and photos, both color and black and white. Well organized with wonderful modernist examples and directions for how to acheive them. Douglas Baylis, Armand Benedek, Thomas Church, just a few of the contributors. Many examples inspired by Japanese gardens. One of our favorites for thoroughness and style."Link: Dig Modern
We fell behind in keeping up with Jennifer and Barry and their journal of the LV home. They've entered their 5th and 6th updates and the house is coming along quite nicely.
"Saturday morning, my brothers and I were greeted by a smiling student volunteer, Corey Barnes, a second year architectural student at UVa. Corey asked for my tool belt and worked beside Kevin for the rest of the day. Two more volunteers soon arrived. Nancy Coulter (third year landscape architectural student at UVa) and her husband, Jonathan, who works for Advanced Energy in NC. Nancy spent some time sketching the property."
Link: Article #5
Link: Article #6
Link: LV Home Kit
Reference: LV Home - Building Update I
Reference: LV Home - Building Update II
Reference: LV Home - Building Update III
Reference: LV Home - Building Update IV
Stressed? Need to squeeze something? Made from polyurethane resin, these squeezable heads are just what the doctor ordered for relieving stress.
Kinda creepy lookin, too.
Designer: Makiko Yoshida
Link: Moss Online
"Hella Jongerius' interest in plastics has led her to utilize a poly-urethane rubber, normally adpted by the metallurgical industry for making moulds, which lends itself with remarkable flexibility to artisan experiments. In her approach, it is not the form that is the subject of design: if anything, the form is a means enabling the material to disclose its inner nature. Thus, in the bathroom mat, the ninety semi-pheres that make up a superscale testurization emerge from flatness to capture like drops of water the surrounding light. They exercise an immediate and irresistable appeal to the foot, which receives unusual tactile sensation from the mat."
Link: JongeriusLab
From Angela Adams comes the Mod Pod. The Mod Pod is made from either ash, cherry, walnut or oak and features aluminum legs. The legs are beveled and plugged with solid pvc for smooth traction on hardwood surfaces. The Mod Pod is also available with wood legs.
Link: Angela Adams
Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days. While one half of us was out of commission due to food poisoning from some improperly cooked chicken quesadillas (shame on you, Islands!), the other half was out backcountry camping and hiking for snowboard turns in the Hoover Wilderness (sort of near Yosemite for those of you not familiar with California's High Sierra). Anyhow, we're back and feeling much better so we'll have some cool stuff to show you in the next few days. In the meantime, I've included a few shots from my trip. Post Islands dinner photos Ok, back to the design-related posts now....
Back in May, we blogged about the construction of the Dwell Home. Well, as of July 10, the house has been completed and the results are stunning. Follow the links below and check it out.
Firm: Resolution: 4 Architecture
Link: The Dwell Home
Link: Dwell Magazine
Reference: Dwell Home (L+L)
With all the talk in the news today about Martha's sentencing, we thought we'd highlight one of the items we like from her. A few months back while running errands, we stumbled across her Newsroom Clock. With a brushed aluminum (?) finish and a cool retro font, we decided we had to have it. And for less than $25 we figured it was quite the bargain (I'm thinking that we may have lucked out on the aluminum finish because I can only find the bronze finish online). Of course, if we were pulling down a salary like Martha's, we'd opt for the Max Bill Wall Clock from DWR. But, alas, we're not.Know of any other cool clocks? Post a comment and tell us about it.
Link: Newsroom Clock (Bronze)
Link: Max Bill Wall Clock
M&A is a research center dedicated to pushing new and underused ideas for landscape and architecture into view. Twice a year, they hold experimental installations in their courtyard.
Their current installation, created by designer Rob Ley, is titled Serial Departure:
"With your fingers, squeeze your laptop screen. That disturbed pressure pattern you see represents the contact point between multiple parallel planes, an interruption of coexisting systems. Where your fingers squeeze, the exterior plastic layer is compressed against the liquid crystal strata, and a new condition is created.In addition to their installations, M&A also hosts a series of lectures and workshops throughout the summer. If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area, check out their website for dates and times.Serial Departure explores the space of this phenomenon by applying pressure to typical construction processes to see if they can create unexpected ripples of new possibilities. Architecture has alsways been based on a logic of stacking and assembly, but how does bending, as an operation, change our understanding of shingling and framing? Serial Departure capitalizes on the understanding of modulation and distortion beyond that of design concept and metaphor. Through both the surrogate use of molds and more interestingly, by applying forces directly on the materials through a variable jig, techniques of material coercion, teasing, and manipulation are integrated with the grid of aggregation, creating new effects in both the visual and the spatial."
Link: Materials & Applications
Designer: Rob Ley, Urbana
We're not sure about you, but we don't have acres upon acres to create our manicured garden. Living in La-La land, we're pretty much stuck with a 10x10' patch of dirt. So we have to make the best of it. David Stevens provides plenty of clues and ideas in his book, Small Space Gardens.
"A small garden can be beautiful, low maintenance, sheltered, intimate and fun. Good design, both inside and outside the home is timeless and is based on sound principles. Small Space Gardens takes you through the entire planning sequence, providing a progressive organizational sequence that melds interior, exterior and borrowed landscape into an elegant, practical and integrated whole."Link: Small Space Gardens
These chaise lounges from Italian manufacturer Sturm und Plastic come in both aluminum and wood. The length of each chaise is 200cm and the width is 67.5cm.
Link: Sturm und Plastic
Designer: Gigi Rigamonti
When we first saw the MD 100 by Edgar Blazona in ReadyMade magazine, we were intrigued by its simplicity and clean modern lines. Here was a simple structure that just about any person handy with a hammer and saw could build in their spare time using simple off-the-shelf materials. Kent Holden is one such person and while he chose to stray from the plans and alter the structure to meet his needs, the results are still quite impressive.
"Here are a couple of shots of my new shed. I haven't put the Plexiglas in yet but it will go across the top and down the right side as in the original plan. As you can see I changed the front to a sliding door and put a small door on the left side. I didn't put any interior panelling in (it's just a shed) and by changing the plywood from 3/4 to 5/8 I think it cost me less than $1000 for the whole project. If you take a look at Lowes or Home Depot I'm sure you'll agree you don't get much of a shed for that price."Looking good, Kent!
Have you built or do you know anyone that has also built an MD 100? If so, drop us a line and tell us about it.
Link: ReadyMade
Link: Modular Dwellings
Article by Linda Baker over at Salon.com that discusses the relevence of green building techniques on super-sized homes:
"Here's what the green residential landscape looks like in the 21st century. In the United States, advances in green-building technologies have to compete with the proliferation of 3,000-square-foot-plus homes -- simultaneous trends that underscore one of the key paradoxes of sustainable development in the United States.Continue reading at Salon.com (get the free day pass to read)"In spite of everything we've done to make the building envelope more efficient," O'Brien said, "we're still using more energy in our homes." Nadav Malin, the editor of the monthly newsletter Environmental Building News, agrees. Most of the green features people are incorporating into their homes represent ecological improvements in the 10 to 50 percent range, he said via e-mail. But even a 50 percent reduction in the ecological footprint, Malin noted, "would be totally offset by a doubling of the house size."
Link: Salon.com (Registration Req'd)
A while back in a blog about the Viking Mixer, we posted about how you always see KitchenAid mixers and Dualit toasters on the countertops of kitchens featured in the architecture and design rags. You could also add the FrancisFrancis! X1 espresso machine to that list as we've noticed it on more than a few countertops as well.
While browsing a skiing related website today (we're into snow sports, remember?), we came across a post about some guy getting a new Isomac espresso maker. A quick Google search later and we found a "first look" review of the Millenium over at CoffeeGeeks.com.
"One of the most visually appealing machines to hit the market in recent years has to be the Isomac Millennium, a semi automatic, heat exchanger equipped espresso machine. From the polished E61 grouphead right up front to the beautifully sculpted sides and extra thick metal housing, the machine is a head turner. The question is, does it have the performance to back up those good looks."We've never had the opportunity to brew a cup of espresso on the FrancisFrancis! and we certainly haven't brewed a cup on the Isomac, but based on looks alone -- yeah, we know, how shallow of us -- we'd have to say that the Isomac wins the good looks contest hands down. Check out the rest of the article at CoffeeGeeks.com
Via: CoffeeGeek.com
"Packed with ideas for every type of garden - large, small, town and country - this book demonstrates Arne's imaginative approach and comprehensive understanding of building gardens; it is the essential guide to good garden design. Whether you want to remodel your entire garden or just a small part of it, Garden Design Details has hundreds of ideas to spark your creativity. From walls and paving to lawns, topiary, water features and even tables and chairs, this book shows the huge variety of materials and forms and explains how to choose the best for you."
Author: Arne Maynard
Link: Amazon UK
"Those irritating ringmarks that mugs and cups leave..... well, you can turn them into a nice floral pattern now with a set of Stamp Cups. The pattern on the base of the cup match up so you can join as many marks as you want."
Via: Sensory Impact
Link: Thorsten Van Elten
Designers: Valeria Miglioli & Barnaby Barford
Coming in Fall 2004 to the Art Center Wind Tunnel:
In September and October 2004 the Art Center Wind Tunnel will become the stage for diverse experiments creating a micro-ecosystem. Prominent local artists, architects, designers, writers, film makers, performers, educators, politicians, activists, pacifists, scientists, academics and thinkers will be invited to take over some part of the wind tunnel for the six week period. Responding to this unique space and the context of the show, participants will have complete freedom to propose anything: site specific installations, film screenings, lecture series, information booths, performances, seminars, exhibits. This event will be a fusion of exhibition / fair / convention / party / meeting / classroom / exhibit / town square / performance.The GardenLAb experiment opens to the public on Tuesday, September 7 and runs through Saturday, October 16.
Link: GardenLAb
Designers: Fritz Haeg & Francois Perrin