Exhibition: Fiona Banner at Tate Britain

“I remember long sublime walks in the Welsh mountains with my father, when suddenly a fighter plane would rip through the sky, and shatter everything. It was so exciting, loud and overwhelming; it would literally take our breath away. The sound would arrive from nowhere, all you would see was a shadow and then the plane was gone.
At the time harrier jump jets were at the cutting edge of technology but to me they were like dinosaurs, prehistoric, from a time before words.”
– Fiona Banner

Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2010, by Fiona Banner,
at Tate Britain, 28 June 2010 – 3 January 2011

Axor Bouroullec for Axor Hansgrohe

Who wouldn’t want a bathroom designed entirely according to one’s own personal preferences? With Axor Bouroullec, Axor offers the freedom to create individual designs – allowing this space to be tailored to suit the personal needs and wishes of the user perfectly. Axor Bouroullec is a collection that is not constrained by a rigid pattern. In fact, more than 70 bathroom products – from mixers, accessories and wash basins to the bath tub – give you the freedom to compose the ensemble that best suits your individual needs. The position of the mixer is not predetermined: you can decide where to locate the spout and handles above, on top of and around the wash basin. Shelves integrated into the wash basin permit flexible positioning of the mixer or provide space to store your personal items.

Axor Bouroullec, by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, for Axor Hansgrohe

Mandarin Oriental Barcelona by Patricia Urquiola

While the 1950s Catalan façade has been left untouched stylistically, architects Carlos Ferrater and Juan Trias de Bes have made some major changes to the former bank while retaining its symmetrical simplicity. The nine-storey building’s unassuming façade opens to a light-drenched atrium, around which the hotel rooms have been designed. Crossing the atrium via a floating catwalk, guests pass into a lobby before being drawn to a split-level mezzanine platform – flanked on one side by Moments restaurant and on the other by Banker’s Bar – from where they view the central Blanc lounge below. “Previously visitors walked down into the building, so we designed an elevated ramp for the gallery entrance to make it feel as though you are walking on air,” says de Bes. “By placing black reflective stone at floor level, there is a multiplying effect to the perceived height of the windows and atrium.”

The building’s character also provided much inspiration to Patricia Urquiola, who knew she must come up with a visual story specific to Barcelona while hinting at the Oriental roots of the Mandarin Oriental brand. “I noticed all this light flooding into the building, and wanted to harness it to mirror the light that shines in this Mediterranean city,” comments Urquiola. “Then I thought of how a white glove represents elegance and service. Closing my eyes, I knew there had to be a continuity of design flowing through the spaces; one point of view. But I also wanted there to be a sense of memory here.”

Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona, Spain, by Patricia Urquiola
Read more: Sleeper

Minox CLX 60th Anniversary Special Edition

This is the 60th anniversary of the first production of one of the most revolutionary cameras in photographic history and it has inspired Minox to bring out the Minox CLX, the latest in the 8×11mm camera series. Walter Zapp’s legendary idea to design and make the Minox originated way back in 1922. The camera “was to be so small that it would disappear in a closed hand”. Although very much inspired by this idea, Walter Zapp was hindered again and again by various financial squeezes, and it took 13 years before he was able to file a patent application for the “Ur” Minox in 1935. The camera comes with a dark grey leather case, film, batteries as well as the famous measuring chain for close-focus shots.

Minox CLX, Special Edition, by Minox

Home 07 by i29 | interior architects

The original structure, with rooms for staff, a double hall and long hallways with lots of doors has been transformed into a spacious, transparent single-family apartment for four people, full of light and air.

A kitchen in combination with cabinets from floor to ceiling has laser-cut front panels, all spray painted white. This pattern results in a dynamic mixture of open and closed cabinets, the holes also function as integrated handgrips. The transparency of the object’s skin gives depth to the volume which is complimented by furniture like the Grcic chair one. An atrium with open staircases brings natural light from a large roof light into the living area. Along the open staircase a wall of two stories high is covered with clear pine wood, and connects the two levels. Upstairs the master bedroom is situated next to a large bathroom with a finish of structured tiles from Patricia Urquiola, glass, and wooden cabinets.

Home 07, Amsterdam, Netherlands, by i29 | interior architects

Birds by Matti Klenell for Iittala

Inspired by the magpie, Matti Klenell has created a new addition to the Iittala Birds collection. The magpie is well-known for stealing jewellery and other shiny objects and hiding them in their nests. Klenell wanted to incorporate the same idea of hiding something into his new pieces. In the process, he has given his glass birds a practical use alongside their aesthetic one – drawing on the varied skills of the glassblowers and craftsmen at Iittala’s Nuutajärvi glassworks.

Klenell has designed two bird families for Iittala: the Harakka (Magpie) family and the Korpi (Deep Forest) family, both with two generations of members. Klenell’s birds comprise two or three parts, which adds to their sculptural qualities. They also include a functional feature that is unique in the Iittala Birds collection, as the hollow bottom sections of his birds can be used as handy little containers to keep treasures, such as jewellery, notes, and memories, just like the magpie.

“There’s a long tradition of using glass objects as hiding places, and there are many examples in mythology and history of urns and vases being used for this purpose. The stolen diamonds in detective stories are often thrown into a Ming vase, and people playing computer games often need to look inside an urn to find further clues for the game.”
- Matti Klenell

Buy it here: Birds by Matti Klenell, for Iittala

Montecito Residence by Olson Kundig Architects

Montecito Residence is a single-family home set in the fire-prone Toro Canyon. The owners wanted a house that minimized its use of scarce natural resources and recognized the challenging environmental conditions of the area. The design solution is a house that functions as an umbrella to shield the house from the sun and allows naturally cool offshore breezes to move through the space. The house is made of simple, fire resistant materials. Steel will be allowed to oxidize and concrete will be toned to allow the house to blend into the landscape.

Montecito Residence, California, USA, by Olson Kundig Architects

Kulango Pounder Spoon at Sotheby’s Auction

The recent Oceanic and African Art Auction at Sotheby’s in Paris included this Kulango Pounder Spoon from Côte d’Ivoire.

Kulango Pounder Spoon, Hammer Price: € 78,750, Oceanic and African Art Auction,
Sale PF1017, Sotheby’s, Paris

House on Lake Okoboji by Min | Day

“It’s all about the lake,” was our clients’ direction when we began designing this vacation home. Located in rural Iowa, Lake Okoboji is a part of a glacial lake system surprisingly located amidst endless cornfields, 2.5 hours from the nearest metropolitan area. The house sits on a diminutive lot on the dense shoreline where old cottages and new McMansions sit tightly together. Our strategy resulted in a deceptively simple footprint that minimized the size of the house on the site while allowing for a series of spatial frames within the house that focus on the view while excluding the neighbors. This allowed for a sense of total privacy within the house itself. Additionally, the lake itself is ringed by numerous oak trees which form beautiful a canopy around the lake, separating it from the corn fields.

Volumetrically simple from the exterior, opaque and slatted vertical Ipe clads a stacked set of spatial tubes (the primary living spaces) that are open to the lake and woods views, but visually closed to neighbors on the sides. We formed the house’s spatial tubes around view axes running through the site, perceptually linking the lake through the forest to the fields beyond.

House on Lake Okoboji, by Min | Day, Photography by Paul Crosby Architectural Photography, via: Arch Daily

Mangier by Smarin

Smarin have created a collection of objects of celebration, in collaboration with celebrity chef Mauro Colagrec. Mangier is a tree that can be decorated with various types of food, and is made of untreated wood. The range consists of three different models from 20 to 100 ‘branches’.

Mangier, by Smarin Design, for Mauro Colagrec