Archive for September, 2010
Trust a city as cool as Berlin to have a museum housing letters salvaged from store and factory name signs. The Museum of Letters, better known as Buchstabenmuseum, is a non-profit organization founded in 2005 with the goal of preserving and documenting typography and signage. They collect letter forms from all origins and languages for their public exhibitions, and to promote typography and signage rescued from a rubbish dump death, they host events to develop appreciation for the items they display. It is heart warming to know that at least some of the beautiful signage disappearing from old shopfronts end up in a safe new home.
Tags: berlin, Buchstabenmuseum, typography
Posted in Exhibitions, International | No Comments »
The ‘treehotel’ has been opened this summer in Harads, Sweden about 60 km south of the arctic circle. The first six structures were designed by five different architects: Sandell & Sandberg, Interior Group Ab, Marten Cyrene, Inredningsgruppen and Tham & Videgard Architects. Currently four rooms are already open: the Cabin, the Blue Cone, the Nest and the Mirrorcube. The project was conceived by tree hotel co-founder Kent Lindvall, a former guidance counselor who came up with the concept with his wife Britta. Two additional structures are scheduled to open in October: the UFO and a Room with a View.
Via designboom
Tags: andell & Sandberg, Inredningsgruppen, Interior Group Ab, Marten Cyrene, mirror cube, sweden, Tham & Videgard Architects, tree hotel, tree house
Posted in Hotels, International | 1 Comment »
Sara Leonor, associate designer at B3 Designers, will launch her first piece of functional art at Tent London tomorrow.
Sara’s desire to create sculptural volumes from geometric shapes and patterns resulted in Zeed, a striking chair that replicates a seed’s ability to grow by stacking. The unusual chair is currently available in oak, beech and steel, but can be manufactured in a range of materials. It features strategic magnets, giving stacked chairs stability.
I recommend going over to stand E26 of Tent tomorrow to see this one of a kind chair for yourself, in the mean time check out www.saraleonor.co.uk for more details.
Tags: chair, functional art, product-design, Sara Leonor, Zeed
Posted in Exhibitions, Products | No Comments »
Petri dishes and fibre optic cables are the stuff of this strangely beautiful custom chandelier by New Jersey design outfit MADLAB. Named Bacterioptica, as if in homage to some Sci-fi comic villain, its stretching and swirling forms hover ominously over its owner’s dinner table.
Its creators say:
Bacterioptica is designed to be adaptive, not only in its form and mechanics, but more importantly, in the way it evolves. Bacterioptica is not your typical chandelier, just as no family is a typical unit of interactions. Its on/off switch does not control it. Bacterioptica is alive. It grows. It is itself a household organism. It is living and breathing the same air and bacteria we are.
The award-winning architecture firm explore everything from interior fixtures to urban environments and was founded in 2003 by Petia Morozov and Jose Alcala.
Tags: chandelier, custom, fibre optic, lighting, MADLAB, New Jersey, petri dishes
Posted in Products | 2 Comments »
This is the most amazing craft project that I have seen in a long time, and therefore I find it worth to mention it also here: Dalton Ghetti from Connecticut, USA is a carpenter and creates sculptures. Sculptures made from pencils, in particular from the pencil lead. To achieve his amazing results, he only uses three tools: A razor blade, a knitting needle and a knife. The longest time so far he took for making the interlocked chain links – it took two and a half years to finish this micro sculpture. So far he didn’t sell any of his sculptures – he just gave them away as presents to friends. Dalton, I wanna be your friend please!
Via Telegraph
Tags: Dalton Ghetti, Micro Sculptures
Posted in Exhibitions, International | No Comments »
Smiljan Radic and Marcela Correa from Santiago de Chile were invited to participate in the 12th Venice Architecture Biennale under the theme ‘People meet in Architecture’ curated by Kazuyo Seijima. As soon as you enter the Arsenale space you’ll spot the beautiful sculpture ‘the boy hidden in a fish’, a large stone with a space carved out for one person to fit into.
The minimal sculpture seems to refer to the grimm brothers story ‘the sea-hare’. The team aims to offer hope for a serene future after the earthquake in chile on 27 february 2010. After earthquakes, people need to rebuild a future that is protected, perfumed, and peaceful.
Pictures by designboom
Via designboom
Tags: Marcela Correa, Smiljan Radic, the boy hidden in a fish, venice architecture biennale 2010
Posted in Exhibitions, International, Public Spaces | No Comments »
Who knew military buildings made good hotels. Architects NHDRO proved this to be true when they converted disused Japanese army headquarters in the South Bund District of Shanghai into a luxury hotel. The Waterhouse hotel features exposed concrete and brickwork, staying true to the structure’s previous function and resonating with the industrial past of the docks it borders, while clearly contrasting old and new. The architects added a Corten steel extension to the roof, new circulation and narrow interior windows, surprisingly allowing glimpses into private rooms. Apart from the beautifully raw architectural fabric, the building offers views onto the the neighbouring Huangpu River and the breathtaking Pudong skyline.
(Images by Pedro Pegenaute)
Tags: architectural-fabric, Hotel Interior Design, NHDRO, Shanghai, The Waterhouse
Posted in Hotels, International, spaces | 2 Comments »
The Institute of Fine Arts Vienna have very successfully integrated new classrooms, a computer lab and a photo studio into a former imperial stage set production building by Gottfried Semper and Karl Hasenauer. The 1877 building is beautifully complemented by ‘pods’ constructed of CNC-milled plywood, using roughly 1600 individual elements. Although each unit is geometrically unique they are derived from a common prototype. The cleverly designed rooms not only add a contemporary feel to the space, they also integrate seating, workstations and storage into their structures, unifying structure, function and aesthetics.
(images via roots)
Tags: Conversion, Education space, Institute of Fine Arts, Studio Gruber, Vienna
Posted in International, spaces | 1 Comment »
Vacant NL is the Dutch contribution to the Venice Architecture Beinnale 2010. The installation, commissioned by the Netherlands Architecture Institute and curated by Rietveld Landscape, is interestingly executed and features a cityscape suspended overhead and a drawing made of threads and pins. It aims to draw attention to government spaces that are often temporarily vacant and have huge potential for creative use, marrying architecture with ideals it sparks thinking around the intelligent reuse of these spaces. Along with the installation, visitors experience space left intentionally empty to highlight that it is unoccupied nine months of the year.
(images via designboom)
Tags: Rietveld Landscape, Vacant NL, Venice Architecture Biennale
Posted in Exhibitions, International, spaces | No Comments »
