Like certain luminaries before and doubtless more to come, designers Ana Mil and Emil Padrós of Barcelona’s emiliana design studio seem smitten with the potential of plywood. Like Alvar Aalto and the Eames duo before them, Mil and Padrós apparently love curves almost as much as they admire the blatant contradiction of the concept of bent wood. They respect it so much, in fact, that they designed an entire series of stools in different heights and finishes to showcase what ply can do for you: “The Naoshima Stool combines four identical pieces of plywood to construct the seat. The seat, together with four wooden legs, creates a solid and unique whole. The empty spaces generated in the corners of the plywood seat make Naoshima a light and visually vibrant piece of furniture.” Read more…
We’re about mid-way through the National Design Triennial exhibition at NY’s Cooper-Hewitt, and we had to do a bit of coverage owing to the intractable pull of Beijing. If that last tidbit seems like a non sequitur, I’ll point you to an article from two year’s back about the Olympic city’s infamous Aquatics Center. Turns out the distinctive cube wasn’t the only innovative construction occurring at the time, as a creation of N.Y. architect Simone Giostra graces the expansive facade of a building in proximity to The Cube. Giostra’s Sol Pix/Green Pix Zero-Energy Media Wall arose as a collaboration between Simone Giostra & Partners Architects, Permasteelisa North America, Zahner Metal Fabrication, Scheuten Solar USA, and Arup. Why so many players for one Beijing building facade? Because the thing does so darn much. Sol Pix is an energy-efficient curtain wall that houses multiple banks of LEDs and PVCs. Read more…
It seems as if designer Naoto Fukasawa can do it all. While he’s of Japanese extraction, and thus would seem to possess an intrinsic talent for clean, geometric lines and minimal adornment, he can also go full-on organic and curvaceous. Take a gander at his recent re-visiting of the iconic Grande Papilio to see whereof I speak. His latest, the AF/21 collection of taps and mixers for Aboutwater, is a synthesis of natural functionality and derived simplicity. The series of fixtures for tub and shower are crisp and cool like a drop of rain—they “embody purity through their gently curved lines and simple details.” Read more…
Way back when, I profiled the work of Giancarlo de Astis, a designer who had the inspired idea of rifling the famed “boneyard”—otherwise known as Davis-Monthan Air Force Base—for the cast-off components of retired military aircraft. De Astis re-claims these skeletal remnants to forge intriguing side and conference tables with a decidedly industrial aesthetic. Artist Donovan Fell III of So-Cal’s MotoArt shares De Astis’ admiration for these estimable artifacts. Read more…
The next time you happen to be forging through the wilds of a desk-littered office space, or sounding the depths of an artifact-laden artist’s studio, don’t dismiss the occasional thin, reedy, or bent-looking stick as wire detritus, as the mere leavings of an untidy sweeper. For the ostensible refuse just might be a sampling of designer Todd Bracher’s Stick, his series of elegant desk and floor lamps Read more…
Understanding manufacturer Caroma’s focus on intelligent use of water requires delving a bit into the mechanics of flushing. I, personally, have never thought much about the actual quantities of H2O that go down the drain with every easy flip of the handle, but perhaps we all should. As it turns out, the answer depends on the particularl lineage of your infrastructure. Read more…
Manufacturer Fiam Italia is well immersed in the “cultura del vetro”—otherwise known as the “culture of glass”—and has been since 1973, when founder Vittorio Livi first formulated his defining vision: Read more…
Fashion Designer Carolin Fieber certainly seems to have achieved a trifecta in regards to vocation. Not only does she possess a surname apropos of the material of her trade, she also has the family connections and, it would seem, Read more…
Poor, maligned plastic has the weight of the world on it, or so it would seem. With today’s growing eco-consciousness, increasing awareness of the un-sustainability of the petro-chemical industry, Read more…
In my multi-year history of perusing the web for innovative products and their equally innovative manufacturers, I’ve never come across quite as evocative a name as “Stone Forest.” Read more…
