Cirkel by Daphna Laurens at Galerie Gosserez

The new pieces designed by Daphna Laurens and presented in the Cirkel exhibition at Galerie Gosserez are all based on the same shape: the circle. ‘Fantasy embellishes the object by encircling it, and, as it were, illuminating it from within with those precious images of which it reminds us or to which we feel an instinctive connection.’ Luigi Pirandello, 1904. The two designers tested their ideas by playing with this elementary shape for months in their studio in Eindhoven thus producing their preliminary drawings. Basic forms and lines inspired them. Bauhaus was of course one of their sources of inspiration, and Laszlo Moholy Nagy in particular inspired the wall lights. Daphna Laurens wanted to create a wall light which was an art piece during the day when not lit, and of course a functional wall light once switched on. This double formal and functional language best characterises the two designers incidentally. Their pieces do not immediately reveal the function of the object. The form comes first, through the design, the function is second. The mirrors and the coffee table thus result from a meticulous collage of forms, adding or removing lines, volumes and surfaces to accomplish these objects which have formal beauty as well as being functional of which the table is emblematic: the circle is manipulated here in every form, extruded, twisted, … to offer a double function: storage and a table. Whilst the lamp for leaning against the wall is a little creature which is looking through the walls to the other side, completes a collection with humour reserved for strangely inhabited everyday objects.

Cirkel by, Daphna Laurens, at Galerie Gosserez, November 24 – January 14, Paris, France

JKC1 House by Ong&Ong

Singapore-based practice Ong&Ong has recently completed JKC1, a single family residence in Bukit Timah, Singapore. Visitors enter through a series of elevated wooden platforms which lead to a swimming pool deck. A void within the stacked stone perimeter wall leads into the ground level dining and living area. Resting above the windowless solid enclosure, textured concrete bands beginning at the first level floor plates and roofline frame an upper level veranda which extends to overlook the front and back yards. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows border the bedrooms, providing privacy with moveable wooden screens while sliding doors allow direct access to the continuous balcony. On the first floor, a vegetated outdoor courtyard partitions with glass panels introduces streams of natural light to the surrounding interior corridors as well as the staircase from the dining and living areas. a spiral steel stair within the rock garden leads to a roof terrace with panoramic views into the canopies of nearby trees.

Jkc1 House by, Ong&Ong, via: designboom

Airline_009 Chair by Cory Grosser for Walt Disney Signature

In 1938, with the success of, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney began to plan the construction of the ultimate animation studio in Burbank, California. Walt wanted his studio designed to facilitate optimum production, which is why he commissioned the design of the Airline Chair (1934). The chair was used by the animators throughout the studio including the screening room. Produced in limited quantities for Walt, the original Airline Chair has become one of the most sought after Art Moderne products ever designed. In 2007, Walt Disney Signature, Disney’s adult lifestyle brand, contacted Cory to imagine a new armchair and ottoman inspired by the original chair from 1934. Through careful design choices, the chair references the past but appears light, elegant and unmistakably modern.

Airline_009 Chair, by Cory Grosser, for Walt Disney Signature

Hotel Missoni Kuwait

Every detail designed by Rosita Missoni to create an exhilarating sensory experience.

Hotel Missoni, Kuwait

ATG IT-Department by Note Design Studio

Note Design Studio has completed the design for the Swedish company ATG and their new IT department. The requirements from the client was a high functioning, professional open work space for 50 more co-workers, with good acoustics and lighting, but also with spaces for both informal meetings and conference rooms. The inspiration came from aerial photography with the typical distinct pattern of varied land surfaces connected to each other. In the interior design we used different flooring to create individual spaces in the landscape. the interior should give the visitor a visually stimulating journey around the office. There are small meeting rooms for one, two or three people that should give a relaxed, intimate feeling, in soft warm colors with comfortable seating and a more homely feeling. The conference rooms are a bit more formal in their grayish color scale and solid wooden tables, but still offering glances out to the open office with it’s strong colors and the movement going on there. the color scale ranges from soft white and grey tones over to pitch black with bright colored details in green, yellow, blue and high energy luminous orange. The office covered an area of 1500 square meters just beside the Swedish national arena for trotting.

ATG IT-Department, Sweden, by Note Design Studio, Photography by Jason Strong Partners, via: designboom

1958 Venice Biennale Floor Lamp by Flavio Poli

The upcoming Important Design Auction at Wright includes this rare lamp, designed for the 1958 Venice Biennale. This example comes from the collection of Maruizio Albarelli, the director of Vetri Seguso d’Arte. Sold with original framed drawing and framed vintage photograph of this work.

Floor Lamp, by Flavio Poli, Exhibited: Venice Biennale, 1958, Italy, Estimate: $20,000–30,000, Auction at Wright

AB 21 Domoset by Dietrich Lubs for Braun

An unambiguously future oriented rendering of a ‘traditional’ clock and barometer combination (no reason to suppose that the future should not contain inconstant atmospheric conditions). Figures set in Akzidenz provide a connection to the earliest phase of the Braun programm, when it was first adopted as the corporate typeface. Beautifully sealed up within these perspex vitrines. Domoset is wall-mountable. Clock and barometer swivel in their cases to permit a vertical or horizontal arrangement; they can be removed altogether and hung independently. A detachable stand allows use as a desk set. The domoset forms part of the first analogue wall clock series, formed of domodisk, domo fix, domo flex and domo desk.

Braun AB 21 domoset, by Dietrich Lubs, Available at das programm

Villa Veth by 123DV Architects

Between forest and meadows lies a varied landscape. High, dry, sandy dunes interspersed with heather, willow bushes and grasslands. An ideal setting if you like the outdoors, like the inhabitants of this villa in Hattem. The living area of this bungalow with woodland is orientated to the south. So lovely, that sun out on the terrace. The glass wall of the living area towards the spacious patio is designed transparent to minimize the boundary between inside and outside. From the inside of the house this provides a maximum experience of the garden and the rest of the surroundings. Because of the large canopy and floor heating, it is also nice to be on the terrace on autumn days.

From the entrance side the carport of the bungalow appears to be hovering. It is a simple architectural approach with a great visual effect. The house looks sleek and abstract on the outside, but has a warm and cozy interior. The furniture in the living room is all custom designed. The kitchen, storage space, fireplace, piano and audio equipment form an integral part of the wall unit.

Villa Veth, Hattem, The Netherlands, by 123DV Architects, Photography by Christiaan de Bruijne, via: contemporist

Celato Storage by De Castelli

Monolithic storage units with birch drawers and surfaces available in maistral copper, acid-etched iron and acid-etched brass.
As a living object, its material is cut by the nature which emerges from it. And so Nature turns into the main character.

Celato, R&D De Castelli, for De Castelli

Private House by Strom Architects

The client was aiming for country house – ‘a dream in a wood’, a peaceful place to relax, regenerate, and think of new ideas. So the architects created with a linear design that has picked up on the building form – the ‘long cottage’ found along Iken Common, and one can see the design as an evolution of the longitudinal cottage. The site is located in Suffolk two miles inland from Aldeburgh, and lies within the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site itself forms part of an overall land ownership of 2.5ha surrounded by agricultural land.

The current site has foundations, ruins and some low walls from a house that burned down eight years ago. There is also an existing outdoor pool. Immediately to the west of the pool and ruins, there is a small area of open grass that runs up to the edge of a beautiful copse of mature oak trees. The site is located on the edge of flood zone 2 and 3, and requires a raised floor level 1.5m above the old cottage. The existing site with the pool, its ruins and low walls has a very strong presence, and we wanted to keep this as an important part of the site.

The building sits above the ruins and the edge of the pool, as to respect the current site, but also to deal with the floor level that is required, due to the potential flood risk. The building is also set like this so that it can be read on its own, and thus touch the existing site lightly. The building is orientated towards the west-south-west, and sits on an angle above the existing ruins facing the best views as well as creating a clear juxtaposition of geometry to the ruins.

Private House, Suffolk, UK, by Strom Architects, Rendering © Peter Guthrie, via: ArchDaily