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…
Sometimes simplicity is best. One might even say that it is in simplicity that one discovers complexity. This paradoxical notion may have been the impetus behind Thomas Feichtner’s Drawing Lamp. As the name implies, this light is meant to illuminate the workspace, notably one’s drawing workspace, notably the designer’s own drawing workspace—“a lamp preferably used by the designer to illuminate the drawing area.” Its design enables it to be positioned in two ways: one illuminates the entire area, while the other sheds focused light in a particular spot. 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…
Leucos USA is now the exclusive distributor of Italian decorative architectural lighting brand Luxit, a company known for its forward-thinking technology—“virtually all of the Luxit merchandise offered in the US is energy-saving fluorescent or LED.” Read more…
I heard that if you spend 15 years dedicated to a cause, you’re considered an expert on the matter. For Electro-LuminX Lighting Corporation, a company developed by Robert Ponticelli Sr. and his son, Read more…
I’ve always been a bit spooked by the concept of radar. This is not only because I’ve got sort of a paranoid complex about the propensities of an unspecified “They” to keep tabs on my goings and doings, Read more…
Where the world of A & D encounters the prismatic luminosity of cut crystal, you’re sure to find the monolith known as Swarovski smiling back at you. In fact, this intersection has found multiple forms in the last year alone, not limited to Yves Behar’s Amplify, Read more…
If you thought Sand and Birch was a Bed and Breakfast on the Oregon Coast, think again. The name in fact refers to the firm of co-founders and collaborators Andrea Fino and Samanta Snidaro (which is “Sand” and which is “Birch” remains anybody’s guess). The pair works well together because they bring diverse talents to Bear. Read more…
Karim Rashid is known as much for color as he is for organic shapes: blob-like curves and splotches that take on the contours of ink blots and spilled milk. He has designed an orbiculate suite of indoor/outdoor furniture called Extraordinary Family, and a globose lounge chair entitled Blobulous. Read more…
In spite of statewide financial catastrophe; the perpetual threat of earthquakes, fires, and floods; Read more…
