Companions & Sidekicks by Studioilse for De La Espada

Studioilse presents the Companions family of furniture, designed to support daily life. The family includes a bed and bedside table available in white oiled chestnut with cork bowls as storage for private bits. Also in natural oiled chestnut or painted – pure white RAL 9010 or black brown RAL 8022. In addition is a slim writing desk, proportioned to fit in the spaces in between. This also has a cork bowl for wires and plugs, and a top that can close to hide away papers and laptops.

Also launching are the Sidekicks, a series of small occasional tables that live throughout the home to accommodate our different activities. They are the right height and dimension to sit next to sofas and chairs, for drinks and snacks, papers and magazines, or a short time on the laptop. They come in 60cm dia / 30cm h, 41cm dia / 50cm h, 60cm dia / 71cm h (polished aluminium, copper, brass) and 100cm / 71cm h in polished aluminium. There is also a height adjustable table available in polished aluminium, copper and brass.

Companions, Sidekicks, by Studioilse, for De La Espada

Books: Apple Design

Apple is clearly one of the most influential design, manufacturing and software companies of our era. The forthcoming book is a comprehensive survey of the company’s products to date. The book is also a catalog for a new exhibition Stylectrical: On Electro-Design That Makes History, which examines “the complex process of industrial design in the context of cultural studies.”

Featuring over two hundred examples of designs, this publication focuses on Jonathan Ive (*1967 in London), Senior Vice President of Industrial Design for Apple, who since 1997 has been responsible for the design of all of the company’s products. Over the past decade, Ive and his team of designers wrote electronics design history with their standard-setting iMacs, iPhones, iPods, and iPads. Their user-friendly, distinct, and elegant design has made a significant contribution to the brand’s cult status.

This volume compares various approaches to design and casts light on numerous aspects of design history, deepening one’s understanding of contemporary industrial design. Following an analysis of the forms and functions of the featured products, the book provides an explanation of the innovative production methods and materials applied. Last but not least, it points out Apple design’s noticeable references to the simplified forms of the products manufactured by the successful German brand Braun, and lists the Ten Rules for Good Design promulgated by the company’s chief designer, Dieter Rams.

Exhibition: Stylectrical: On Electro-Design That Makes History, at Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, (Museum for Arts and Crafts) Hamburg, August 26 – January 15, iPhone app

Apple Design, Edited by Sabine Schulze, Ina Grätz, foreword by Sabine Schulze, texts by Friedrich von Borries, Bernhard Bürdek, Ina Grätz, Harald Klinke, Bernd Polster, Henry Urbach, Thomas Wagner, Peter Zec, graphic design by Jung von Matt, 2011. 320 pp., 542 color ills., 25.80 x 30.70 cm, ISBN 9783775730105, Published by Hatje Cantz

Buy it here: Amazon

Bulb by Minimalux

As the name suggests this new table lamp pays homage to the shape and materiality of the familiar, but soon to be obsolete, incandescent light bulb. In thanks and recognition for all its hard work over the last century, Minimalux now frees it from its customary upright and operational mode and allows it to rest on its side, relax and enjoy its retirement. Bulb is made from hand blown opal glass with a machined brass stem and cable entry.

Bulb, by Minimalux

Textile Field: An Installation by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

“During the London Design Festival, The Victoria & Albert Museum invited us to intervene in any space we wanted within the Museum: the result is Textile Field an installation 30 meters long and 8 meters wide which takes over 240m sq of the floor of the famous Raphael Cartoons Gallery.

“An invitation to lascivious reverie. Our intention is to propose a different, casual approach to freely experience what can be a quite intimidating environment, such as a museum. We conceived an expansive, coloured foam and textile piece with gentle inclinations to produce a sensual field on which to comfortably lounge while meditating on the surrounding Raphael Cartoons. Everyone can immerse into this temporary installation, for a minute, an hour or more, that is the idea. No efforts, no apprehension just contemplation.”

Textile Field, by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, in collaboration with Kvadrat, at Victoria & Albert Museum, Photography © Studio Bouroullec & V&A Images, Victoria and Albert Museum

Trestles by Aurélien Barbry for Eno

Trestles, by Aurélien Barbry / design studio, for Eno

Icon: Manzù Lounge Chair by Pio Manzù from Alias

Alias revisits a key archive project by Pio Manzù, the brilliant protagonist of Italian automobile design during the sixties. The idea materialised at the GAMeC of Bergamo where the archives of Pio Manzù’s work are stored. It is here that Renato Staffaucher and the designer’s son, Giacomo Manzoni, met in 2010. Together they studied sketches, projects and materials until their attention was drawn to a prototype chair designed for the Rinascente department store, clearly taking its inspiration from the automobile industry. Unfortunately, the chair base was missing and only one photograph had survived to tell its story. So began an exciting journey of research and reconstruction. Three-dimensional systems were used to redesign the five-star base originally created in Pio Manzù’s day by a collaborating Japanese artist. At the same time, the leather prototype, which had been damaged over the course of time, was carefully restored. The re-edition began to take form and finally reach its completion. The decision was made to integrate a footrest on a four-star base, designed to be wholly coherent with the design and proportions of the chair. This journey of culture and design has given Alias the opportunity to discover a deep-rooted affinity with the historical figure of Pio Manzù. One of the first designers to have conceived the man-machine relationship beyond mere function, considering aspects of safety and well-being, Manzù’s uncompromising approach to design and his familiarity with technology made him a genuine pioneer in the sphere of ergonomics.

Manzù Lounge Chair, by Pio Manzù, for Alias

Southern Highlands Residence by Katon Redgen Mathieson

This house is located in the Southern Highlands district of New South Wales and is set amongst rolling pasture with views to adjoining rural properties, escarpments and national parkland in the distance. An existing 1970′s face brick bungalow was extensively remodeled to create two linked pavilions. The principle living spaces are interconnected and are located to capitalize on aspect to the terraces, lawn and the view. Painted white internally, a dark brown color exterior references the beautiful old dry stone walls. Gardens were re planned to open up vistas and panoramas from the house.

Southern Highlands Residence, New South Wales, Australia by Katon Redgen Mathieson

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Origo by Alfredo Häberli for Iittala

Winner of the IF Design Award, Origo dinnerware collection features bold, modern color combinations allowing for unlimited combinability of the cups, bowls, and plates. Origo is made to combine with other Iittala collections including Teema, classic Scandinavian dinnerware, designed by Kaj Franck in 1952 and Bottna with its strong lines and a botanical-inspired pattern by Anna Danielsson, a well known Swedish textile designer who works with Marimekko of Finland. Durable as it is attractive, Alfredo Häberli designed Origo to stand the test of everyday use over a long period of time.

Iittala Origo Dinnerware, by Alfredo Häberli

House in Camps Bay by Luis Mira Architects

The house is used as a holiday home by a single person, who often invites guest to stay. It needed to be a space that could be used as a controlled studio with the feeling of being open, as well as to be able to morph into private and individual spaces when the house is full of visitors.

Our gaze is on the ‘geographical room’ of Camps Bay; the Atlantic Ocean, Lion’s Head and Table Mountain in the backdrop. The design intent is applied by framing views towards the sea (rooms) and opening up spaces (terraces) to look up at the mountains.

The concept rests on creating a subtle journey through the open spaces and through the interior that constantly glimpses at the landscape and merges within the Architecture that never reveal the entire building in one instant.

In order to allow all rooms in the front of the house proximity to the sea, and to bring fresh air, light and circulation into the back of the house, two glass walled courtyards were introduced on the ground floor. One courtyard, built around the passage, connects the bedrooms and the other one is built inside the main bedroom as part of the en suite area. These two courtyards are reflective of sea views.

The use of neutral and natural materials is the response to the desire of bringing the outdoors inside, achieved by contrasting the exuberant landscape with the ‘blank canvas’ of the interior. The ultimate concept of luxury is the constant extending and opening of the inside spaces to meet in full the unique and exquisite South African climate.

House in Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, by Luis Mira Architects
Photography by: Wieland Gleich, Luis Mira Architects
via: ArchDaily

Photography: Tokyo Architecture Stéphane Laniray

A renowned photographer in the fashion industry, Stéphane Laniray travels to Tokyo twice a year. Stuck for long hours in his hotel room, waiting for the next runway event to be shot, the French artist decided to stave off boredom in going out and taking pictures of the city. The Tokyo Architecture series resulted of his wanderings around town. Private dwellings, government buildings and offices, public lighting or factories attracted the eye of Laniray, particulary fond of architecture, and a great admirer of Mies van der Rohe’s achievements.

Tokyo is stripped bare of any explicit representation (crowded and extremely lively, but also suffocatingly hot at the time the series was shot). Each image is multiplied, distorted into a renewed evocation, unleashing imagination. Far from cliché representations of Tokyo, Laniray’s quest for urban poetry reveals the raw beauty of a wall covered in graffiti, and turns a glass building into a finely shaped diamond. In most of the photographs, human beings are nowhere to be seen; a line of trees or tangled electric wires design a whole new urban story. Focused on actual details, the artist depicts a fantasied rendering of Japan’s capital city. Stéphane Laniray, whose pictures can regularly be seen in prominent Interior decorating magazines, owns and runs the Anorak Gallery in Paris.

Elodie Palasse-Leroux
(Journalist Elodie Palasse-Leroux is the founder and editor of Sleek design)

Tokyo Architecture, by Stéphane Laniray