MOST COMMENTED
Printed textiles and pattern design
Morag Macpherson is the designer behind UK based Global Guru. A graphic artist, she has turned her talents to textile design for the interior and fashion marketplace. She's got some terrific patterns which in a way, remind us of the wallpaper patterns from Flavor Paper and Timorous Beasties. Great stuff, Morag!
global guru designs and manufactures a diverse variety of contemporary collections in many different colourways and repeat sections. These surface patterns can be translated into a variety of interior accessories and fashion pieces.
Link: Global Guru
An updated site tells you where you can get 'em
People seem to be flipping out about where to find those fresh and funky Pumas by our favorite Frenchman, Philippe Starck.
Well, we have some answers... a new website lets you play with the creepy dood shown at right, sweetly tells you how couples come togethere, features a downloadable monkey mask as well as info on how to have a monkey party, AND provides a listing of stores worldwide where you can find the shoes.
Link: Starck Puma
Reference: Starck does Puma (Land+Living)
Fetching dog products
As the canine-obsessed one here at L+L (that other guy is into *gasp* felines!), it's always good to come across fun pooch products with a modern slant. With that in mind, the pooch gear from Otis and Claude fits the bill. With products ranging from tug toys, bowls, and of course bedding, they've got a great selection sure to please just about every dog owner. And for you cat lovers, they've even got a kitty condo.
Link: Otis and Claude [Thanks Peter!]
Use your imagination for this one
The other day, Harry over at Mocoloco talked about websites with little more than photos and that's certainly the case here. Damian Barton's site is full of product imagery (mostly renderings) and very little information. Amongst the renderings, we came across what looks like a finished product: the Pet(al) Chair. We have no idea what materials were used in its construction or even if it's available but we like it nonetheless.
Link: Damian Barton
Creative lighting from Brooklyn
From the Brooklyn studio of designer Jeff Weiss comes lamps in both fluorescent and incandescent flavors. From what I can gather on the site, the incandescent lights are cast in gypsum cement and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The flourescent lights are a mixed variety with some cast from gypsum cement, while others are constructed from a mixture of fluorescent tubes, plaster, and clear resin. The Particle lamp, featured at right, features four eight inch circle lights cast in plaster sphere.
Link: Jeff Weiss Studio
Modern LEGO architecture
When my niece and nephew are visiting there is always a flurry of activities… I get to go places I would never otherwise go… and yesterday we had LEGOLAND California on the agenda.
LEGOLAND on the whole was not overly impressive as a theme park (the rides and shows were just OK), but the things that they did with LEGO bricks... cars, boats, animals... you name it… oh yeah, my childhood LEGO fantasies were realized. Especially in the Miniland section which was by far the highlight of the park. Here they have recreated seven regions of the United States out of 20 million LEGO bricks.
A fair amount of modern architecture was represented, especially in the New York scene including the yet unbuilt Freedom Tower. So, what the heck. Here is a Land+Living modern tour of LEGOLAND California.
Link: Legoland
Garden-as-a-sculpture and sculpture-as-a-garden
My smart cousin who is a student at Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburg tipped me off to this new campus garden designed in collaboration by artist Mel Bochner and landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh.
The garden is a physical manifestation of Carnegie Mellon's multidisciplinary philosophy, a communal crossroads of the arts, business, science and humanities. The garden is an intimate gathering space and a foil to the large formal lawns, quads and early 20th-century Beaux Arts architecture that dominate the campus.
The University has a wonderful website that provides extensive information about the design, the players and the plantings, as well as information about how to visit.
Link: Kraus Campo
Artist: Mel Bochner
Firm: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
A simple kit of parts
We featured a different table called the Concord "plug table" a while back, but this design by Munich based designer Matthias Demacker is a totally different concept.
The form is elegantly simple, a table reduced to the minimum components. The top is made from compactforming HPL which can be made in any color. The tube steel legs can be removed by hand with no tools, and allow for two different table heights. The design also makes the table easily portable.
The table was given the Interior Innovation Award for Best Detail at the IMM 2005.
Link: Demacker Design [Thanks, Matthias!]
Studied and eclectic interiors
We featured Istanbul design firm Autoban a while back for their groovy plywood furniture and accessories shown on their temporary website. Well, their new web presence is now live and includes a more extensive portfolio of their works. Of particular note are their interior design projects ranging from clubs and restaurants to stores and offices as well as homes and special events.
Seyhan Özdemir and Sefer Çağlar have an eclectic and unique design sensibility that is modern but highly layered and influenced by historical precedent. They often mix old and new, incorporating existing architecture with new elements or using antique furnishings with pieces of their own designs such as their ply items we like so much.
Link: Autoban
Reference: Autoban (Land+Living)
Wall unit and room divider
The Bibliotech from Porro is a multi-use bookshelf and storage system. It can be outfitted with a wide configuration of shelves and containers. The Bibliotech can be wall-mounted or outfitted with feet and used as a room divider. Available in a variety of finishings including anthracite grey, stained beech, natural beech, cherry-wood stained beech, bleached beech, natural or stained cherry.
Designers: Piero Lissoni & Lorenzo Porro
Link: Porro
Green Spaces in the Sky
Continuing our theme of blogs from across the pond, Urban Roof Gardens is London's only multi-disciplinary team of architects and designers that focus exclusively on roof gardens and green roofs. Their website features a portfolio with gardens from around the world including Edinburgh, Amsterdam, New York, and San Francisco. I only wish I could design my ground-level garden to look as good as these.
This is the mission of Urbanroofgardens: To raise awareness of the benefits of urban roof gardens, terraces and green roofs. To collate and publish world-class research and best-practice relating to urban roof gardens. And to offer concept to completion advice and services to both the lay and the professional citizen wishing to build urban roof gardens.
Link: Urban Roof Gardens [Thanks, John!]
Corrugated plastic: so hot right now.
I have a bit of a thing for screens and after seeing the Folding Screen over at iannone:sanderson (nice find Grace!), I just had to include it here. Their website doesn't say, but I wonder if the resin panels are available in different colors?
"Our folding screen combines ash wood with modern manmade materials to create layers of transparency and color. Corrugated plastic is bent into a graceful form and drilled with a grid of holes which allow light to pass through and project a pattern on textured colored resing panels. The projected light fades and changes as one moves about the screen."
Via: design*sponge
Link: iannone:sanderson
A compact vertical addition to a small home
Designed by San Francisco based architect Bruce Tomb, this project is an interesting modern addition to a small duplex at Tierra Nueva, a co-housing community of 27 passive solar homes in Oceano, California.
Built on a modest budget, the addition was designed to sit over the existing house with a small footprint and minimal structural alteration. Access to the new room is provided via an exterior stair and bridge over the existing roof.
Link: Bruce Tomb
Cast metal basins
Infinite Fitting makes these wonderful sand-cast, hand-detailed metal basins designed by Bruce Tomb.
The design facilitates various installations, including an available wall bracket or on-countertop mounting. Available in white bronze, silicon bronze, brass or aluminum, each basin has a rough cast texture on the outside and a satin-polish on the inside.
To borrow the words of an infamous client, "quiet elegance." But in this case, we mean it - then again, so did he...
Link: Infinite Fitting
Link: Showrooms - US & Canada (pdf)
Designer: Bruce Tomb
Your feeble CAD skills are no match for the power of the Dark Side
According to entertainment gossip that is circulating (see 1, 2, 3, etc.), actor Hayden Christensen is considering giving up acting (and the Dark Side) to become... an architect." Psst... Hayden... I've got news for you... architecture IS the dark side.
Funny, so many people would say that they would like to be an actors. And for some reason, actors want to be architects (i.e. Brad Pitt). I think that neither profession is quite as exciting as the wannabes suspect.
But, Hayden, if you want to trade your Star Wars earnings for my MArch and CAD workstation, you've got a deal... as long as I get the lightsaber too.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Marin County Civic Center - Part I
A couple of weekends ago, I was in Marin County, California, and I realized that while I have seen it from the freeway, I have never actually visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Marin County Civic Center.
Serendipitously, Frank Lloyd Wright was born on this day in 1867, and (most) of the photos I took at the Civic Center are the only ones that my malfunctioning digital camera did not corrupt. So today seems like a good day to share those photos, as well as some information about this important work by Frank Lloyd Wright.
I developed a childhood fascination with Wright's architecture nearly 20 years ago (ok, yes, I was an archi-geek even then), and spent much of my early self-guided architectural education reading as much as I could about Wright. While I continued this interest into my college years, I became much more interested in European modernism and new architecture, leaving my interest in Wright more or less latent until last week. As I began to put together what I intended as a very brief photo gallery of the Marin County Civic Center, I found myself engrossed in the research of details and history of the project. While by no means exhaustive, we have a two-part look (through photos and abundant linkage) at the Marin County Civic Center as it was planned, as it is now, and as it may be in the future.
| Visit: | Marin County Civic Center |
| | 3501 Civic Center Drive |
| | San Rafael California |
| | 415.499.6646 |
Photos: Marin County Civic Center Photographs
Book: An Architecture for Democracy: the Marin County Civic Center by Aaron Green
Part II - Marin Again
Landscapes from space
Today I saw something at Pruned, a new landscape blog that we like, that piqued my interest: satellite images of Land Art.
Pruned's post touts the merits of TerraServer, a site that I also prefer for aerial imagery and shows views of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty and Michael Heizer's Double Negative (beautifully manipulated images, by the way).
But, the post at Pruned inspired me to seek and share more sources for aerial landscape images.
Satellite Imagery Resources:
Related: Spiral Center for Land Use Interpretation
Related: Spiral Jetty Travelogue
Reference: Earthworks revealed (L+L)
Here we go again... your opening night teaser
Land+Living is glad to see CA Boom back and kicking... we (both editors Anthony and James) were on hand for the opening night kick-off. This year promises to be a worthy sophomore effort... already it is apparent that the event is a bit more mature, if a bit less ambitious.
This year's opening party was wisely not billed as the "extravaganza" that was over promised last year. The event had a more subdued build up which was fitting for the low key event that it was. Lots more food, flowing drink, mixing DJ's and mingling design-peeps was the theme for the evening, and a pleasant evening it was.
As we've mentioned before, Land+Living will be at the event all weekend providing updated coverage, so stay tuned!
Oh, and we'll try to remember to bring some sunblock for Shane. ;-)
Our summary of the first day
Today was the big first day! We ran the whole house tour circuit which included Neutra's Troxell Residence as restored by SH_Arc, Kanner Architects' 511 House, Harwell Harris' Entenza House restored by Michael W. Folonis, AIA and Associates as the highlights. Individual write-ups and photo tours of these homes are coming soon... in the mean time, some pictures below for your perusal.
I haven't heard my name over a PA system since I almost missed a flight in Dallas... until today when the speakers panel Breaking Ground which we hosted was announced.
Day One Home Tours
511 House
Entenza Residence
Troxell Residence v.2
Minimalist form with superior function
You've spent considerable time and money crafting your perfect minimalist interior space. Now that you've got the little rugrat running around, you wouldn't dare taint your interior with just any old high chair now would you? No! Fret not, oh minimalist one, as we have the perfect compliment to your Tulip Chairs, the Nest from Mozzee.
The Nest is availble in black or white and features a powder coated tulip base and an easy to clean polyethlyene seat.
Link: Mozzee
New eco-chic apparel for urban surfer girls
In an era of values-based consumerism, companies are going for integrated marketing, where aesthetics and integrity go hand-in-hand. High-end fashion companies are going green and green clothing companies are targeting hipsters. On par with this blurring of boundaries, Ailin surfwear company has just launched out of the fashion-mecca of Manhattan, hoping to present a line that brings urban sophistication to an outdoorsy industry.
Link: Ailin
Midcentury St. Louis architect
St. Louis, Missouri based architect Andrew Raimist's blog features many images and anecdotes about modern architect Harris Armstrong as part of his research for a book he is writing about Armstrong.
Raimist's Flickr galleries are chock full of great images of Armstrong's works including photos from the Magic Chef Headquarters which features a ceiling designed by Isamu Noguchi (shown right).
Link: Architectural Ruminations
Photos: Flickr - Harris Armstrong
"For one's health it is necessary to work in the garden and see the flowers growing."
Last week we Clipped an article in the Washington Post about healing gardens, and a kind reader wrote in to tell us about the Therapeutic Landscapes Resource Center.
This not-for-profit organization is dedicated to providing information to the public about restorative landscapes, healing gardens, wellness gardens, and other research-based healthcare design. Their website features a wealth of reference materials, garden locations, and links regarding landscapes for healing.
Link: Therapeutic Landscapes Resource Center [Thanks, Lara!]
Reference: In gardens, patients find a calm place for healing (L+L)
Tinted particleboard and fiberboard interior finish panels
Made by Columbia Forest Products, these eco-friendly composite panels are suitable for cabinetry, furniture, tabletops and wall paneling.
There are two products in the line, each with their own aesthetic textural qualities: either FSC-certified M3-grade particleboard or WOODSTALK® wheat straw agrifiber panels. There is
no added formaldehyde and the panels are finished with a durable, zero-emissions UV cured acrylic finish.
The material has been used by architect
Todd Saunders for the design of the BlueSkyMod prefabricated housing unit recently written up in The Globe and Mail.
Link: Columbia Forest Products
(The product is not listed on website, but they still make it
Link: EcoColors Brochure (pdf)
Via: Treehugger
Limited edition rugs designed by Akira Isogawa
Australian fashion designer Akira Isogawa has designed a limited edition collection of rugs with bold graphic patterns with a decidedly Eastern influence.
The rugs are hand-knotted cut and loop pile of 100% New Zeland Wool or New Zealand Wool & Viscose. Naturally, the rugs come with a designer price tag starting at $4990 Australian (approx. $3,800 US).
Link: Designer Rugs - Akira Range
Designer: Akira Isogawa
Via: The Age - Rugging up
Three firms selected as finalists for the former El Toro Marine
Corps Air Station
The field of seven firms selected from the original thirty-eight has now been narrowed to three finalists for the design of what would be one of California's largest urban parks. The finalists are EMBT from Barcelona, Spain, Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abey from Mill Valley, California, and Ken Smith Landscape Architect from New York, New York.
Closed in 1999, El Toro was originally slated to be the site for a new international airport. After voters killed the highly contentious airport proposal in favor of parkland, the City of Irvine spearheaded the effort to create "one of the finest metropolitan parks in America."
The Navy recently sold the property to Miami based Lennar Communities who will develop 10% of the seven square mile property and contribute money towards the development and maintenance of the Great Park.
Larry Agran, Chair of the Orange County Great Park Corporation:
Fredrick Law Olmstead designed New York’s Central Park in the mid 19th Century and inspired the creation of great metropolitan parks throughout the United States. We are conducting an international search for the Fredrick Law Olmstead of the 21st Century, and are confident that we will find a designer of his caliber for the Great Park.
Link: Orange County Great Park
Link: EMBT Arquitectes Presentation (pdf)
Link: Ken Smith Presentation Doc 1 Doc 2 (pdf)
Link: RHAA Presentation (pdf)
Link: Video of public presentations
Via: Archinect
Planar landscape phenomena
This installation by Griffin Enright Architects featured at SCI-Arc (12/03 - 2/04) consisted of over 1,000 square feet of sod laid on an hovering armature.
The concept resonates with me on a variety of levels, not the least of which is that it reminds me of a project by Nicolas and me from SCI-Arc where we created a warped landscape plane called the "Berm-Bender" which was lifted and sliced to create openings to the parking structure below... hmmmm... were they on that jury, Nico? ;-)
The ubiquitous lawn is the subject of a heuristic exercise about our cultural relationship to that thin plane of suburban carpet... exploring the tectonic nature of this plane by emphasizing its tissue-like thinness, flexibility, and texture, while commenting on its negative impacts on our larger environment.
Link: Griffin Enright Architects
Link: SCI-Arc
One Small Project, one big impact
If leftover people, leftover spaces and leftover materials are part of your life, then One Small Project would like to hear from you. The architects, students, designers and artists contributing to One Small Project are working towards helping and profiling the conditions of people known typically as squatters, self-builders, slum dwellers, informal settlers or displaced persons, and are highlighting the unique projects that help some of the 1 billion people who find refuge and community among the spaces that people forgot about, and the materials they threw out.
In an upcoming book called Building More Wanting Less, Wes Janz PhD, RA Associate Professor of Architecture, Ball State University will feature the stories and projects that aim to draw attention to an unfortunate reality. A call for submissions is currently out.
Link: One Small Project
Today Japan, tomorrow......
Danish design company, Essey, was recently honoured with the Good Design Award 2005 in Japan for their intricate wastebasket, Bin Bin. The competition is through the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization (JIDPO), which is apparently the countries only comprehensive design promotion body.
With Bin Bin, designer John Brauer has definitely created a wastebasket that easily stands apart from it's contemporaries. Made of high density polyethylene, Bin Bin was designed to look exactly like the crushed paper it was meant to contain. It's a case of re-thinking an everyday object that normally gets taken for granted, and breathe some new life into it.
Link: essey
Design Rises in the East
The first annual Singapore Design Festival takes flight this month with a truely broad range of design avenues such as furniture, photography, graphics, toy design, textiles and many, many more. All of which is meant to celebrate the best of design that the city has to offer.
The inaugural Singapore Design Festival, scheduled for 9 to 23 November 2005, is a multifaceted experience focusing on the design process and the conceptualisation of ideas. In essence the Festival aims to build upon the design culture in Singapore and around the world, making it an interactive and “live” experience of the design process and its end products.
From designers to design policy makers, agencies, schools, media, related industries, businesses and the general public - all are welcome to participate, enjoy and learn.
This event has great potential in only it's first year. I really like the fact that they chose to display so many diciplines of design and help create a 'community' atmosphere. Definitely one to keep an eye on every year.
Link: SDF
