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Photography: Relics by Amir Zaki
Relics, is a series of lifeguard towers that populate the beaches of Southern California’s Pacific coast, by LA-based photographer and artist Amir Zaki, who is careful to categorize the work as portraiture rather than typology, casting it in an interpretative rather than documentary light.
Relics by Amir Zaki
Rietveld LEGO Buffet by Minale-Maeda for Droog
Dutch based design duo Minale-Maeda (Kuniko Maeda and Mario Minale) playfully reprise Gerrit Rietveld’s grace to reconsider his de Stijl masterwork, Buffet for dutch design company Droog. The Rietveld LEGO Buffet uses over 25,000 pieces of LEGO, updating the de Stijl’s call for simplified materials through the use of the iconic toy building blocks known to us as children, creating a re-iteration of one of modern design’s most relevant historical suggestions.
Rietveld LEGO Buffet, Limited Edition of 5, by Minale-Maeda, for Droog
via: designboom
The Glass Pavilion by Steve Hermann
High-end Hollywood property developer Steve Hermann has completed The Glass Pavilion, designed inside and out for buyers that include A-list stars and entertainment executives. The house comes complete with a personal showroom with enough floor space to house a respectable car collection.
The Glass Pavilion, Montecito, California, by Steve Hermann Hermann Design & Development
Jet-Kitchen by KINZO
The radical functionality of jet fighters and the elegance of supersonic aircrafts like the Concorde have inspired the style of the Berlin based architecture and design office KINZO. For a young family in Hamburg, KINZO has created a kitchen, reflecting the streamlined aesthetics, but also the spatial economics of aircrafts: The upper cabinets are reminiscent of the overhead compartments of aircrafts – and they swing open just the same way. The kitchen elements seem to float in space, cleverly arranged lights enhance the bright, airy and slightly “clinical” impression – but first of all, they create an illusion of space in a room of barely 20 square meters. What’s more, this bespoke kitchen didn’t cost a fortune.
Jet-Kitchen, Hamburg, Germany, by KINZO
Apartment 50 Installation by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
It all started early this year when Jasper Morrison introduced us to the owners of one of the apartments in the housing block unit of the Marseille-based Radiant City by Le Corbusier. The Apartment 50 is not a museum; it is a lived-in space that we remodelled – just for the time of the summer season. We decided to feature a selection of objects from our collection of designs which seemed to rightly fit in this apartment and match the way the owners are living in it. As an echo to Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé’s original furniture of the space, it seemed natural to us to articulate the remodelling around the SteelWood collection, Magis – including a table, some chairs and a shelving system. Additionally, while remembering that Le Corbusier had a special interest in tapestries, we felt comfortable with the idea of installing a group of Clouds, Kvadrat up on the wall. Finally, a Zip carpet, Vitra and two of our latest lighting designs, including Lampalumina, Bitossi and LightHouse, Established & Sons and Venini, complete this ephemeral remodelling project.
Apartment 50 Installation, by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Cité Radieuse Unité d’habitation Le Corbusier, Marseille, France, Apartment 50
Books: Michael Reisch: New Landscapes
At first glance, the photographs of landscapes by Michael Reisch look very real. Upon closer inspection, however, the viewer senses that something is not quite right. On the one hand, we are fascinated by unspoiled nature, which suggests wilderness, or perhaps even paradise. On the other hand, the images seem artificial, too immaculate to be true. The landscapes appear strangely frozen, as if they have been permeated by an invisible geometric structure. The pictures create a sense of uncertainty, because they are based on real, existing landscapes that Reisch has photographed with a digital camera but later processed. This combination of realism and manipulation gives rise to some questions: how do we put together our contemporary concept of landscape and nature? And are our ideas of landscape and nature at all salvageable now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century?
Michael Reisch: New Landscapes, Texts by Duncan Forbes, Rolf Hengesbach, 100 pp., 35 color ills., 34,70 x 28,60 cm, Hardcover,
Published by by Designer, for Hatje Cantz, ISBN 9783775726351
Buy it here: Amazon
The Scent of Crystal by Tokujin Yoshioka for Swarovski
Tokujin Yoshioka has designed a perfume bottle concept, in collaboration with Swarovski, with a throughly new approach which is to affect the senses; rather than by rearranging visual shapes, the intent of the symbolic design is to bottle crystal within perfume, and to let the crystal fit in the scent. The concept is “wearing the scent of crystal.”
The Scent of Crystal, by Tokujin Yoshioka, for Swarovski
Tua Table Lamp by Marco Zito for Foscarini
A table lamp with which you can create a personal relationship; surprisingly simple, because it has been thought out with a great deal of care. Tua is inspired by the palm of the hand containing a light: a gesture interpreted in a single, shaped metal plane that is both the support and shade of the lamp. The light source is hidden inside the range of the curve, whose aesthetic has a characteristically fine cut. When the light is on, it creates a pleasantly intimate glow, perfect for all those spaces dedicated to the single person (bedside table or work table). The lamp lends itself even to a multiple interpretation: interior-exterior, two-dimensional/three-dimensional, a graphic sign and a functional lamp, which is always elegant, reassuring and friendly.
Tua Table Lamp, by Marco Zito, for Foscarini
Liechtenstein Parliament by Hansjoerg Goeritz Architekturstudio
Following the success of the Hansjörg Göritz Architekturstudio in an international European competition in 2000, seven years of planning and implementation are now completed. Today the built exterior and interior spaces manifest not only his interpretation of democratic separation of powers within the Alamannic cultural region of the Alps’ Rhine River valley. They also stand for a conscious understanding of an architecture of urban contiguity, whereby the original masterplan of Luigi Snozzi has been newly reinterpreted.
National Parliament, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, by Hansjoerg Goeritz Architekturstudio
Photography by Jürg Zürcher, via: Arch Daily
Malva Lights by ett la benn
Malva is a series of lights inspired by the natural qualities of cellulose and viscose: the objects are generated by the forming of moistened sponge cloth and its subsequent hardening by air drying on a mould. The translation of this customary material into individual design pieces through basic processes of forming and drying measures up to the highest demands in sustainability and eco friendliness: all objects are compostable.
Malva Lights, by ett la benn
Design Icons
Eames Lounge Chair
A modern interpretation of the traditional English club chair, created in 1956 it is now a classic in the history of modern furniture. [more...]
Suggested Reading
MoonFire: The Epic Journey of Apollo 11
A unique tribute to the defining scientific mission of our time, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. [more...]
Buy it here: Amazon
Cars
Freedom Style Sex Power Motion Colour Everything. This lavish and beautifully designed book is the gift book for all car enthusiasts and design aficionados. [more...]
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The Eames Lounge Chair
The book examines the evolution of a design icon and places it in its cultural, historical and social context. [more...]
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Marcel Wanders
Behind the Ceiling is the first monograph on one of the most influential, prolific and celebrated international designers today. [more...]
Buy it here: Amazon
The Design Hotels Book
Indispensable directory of impressive hotels and destinations for those who like to travel in style. [more...]
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Editor's Picks
Vitra Polygon Wall Clock
George Nelson’s clocks embody the joie de vivre of the 1950s, Polygon clock is made from solid walnut with Quartz clockwork. Collection Vitra Design Museum. [more...]
More Books
Case Study Houses
“It’s a huge coffee-table book, which analyses each of the houses in chronological order, with plans, sketches and glorious photographs.” [more...]
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Wonderwall: Masamichi Katayama
introducing over forty recent projects by Japan’s hottest retail designer with an extraordinary selection of interior designs for boutiques and retail outlets. [more...]
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The U.N. Building
Symbol of world humanitarianism, a beacon of unity after the Second World War. More than 50 years on, the 39-story building is regarded as one of the pinnacles of mid-century modernism. [more...]
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Loblolly House
Including a DVD of the film "A House in the Trees", a real-time documentary of the design, fabrication, and assembly of this amazing house. [more...]
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Desire
The Shape of Things to Come. An up-to-date comprehensive survey on furniture and object design today, showcasing the crème de la crème of designers. [more...]
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Moholy: Vision in Motion
New Bauhaus founder László Moholy-Nagy was a painter, typographer, photographer, stage designer, and architect... one of the most creative intelligences of our time. [more...]
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How to Wrap Five Eggs
A mid-60s classic of Japanese design. Stunningly laid-out paean to traditional Japanese packaging is rife with sumptuous black and white photos of all manner of boxes, wrappers and containers that appear at once homely and sophisticated, ingeniously utilitarian yet fine and rare. [more...]
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Daily Icon features extraordinary Designers, Architecture and Products, with a special focus on furniture, accessories and lighting for the home.
