Eos flys Into the Sunset

Eos Airlines, whose first flight took place in 2005, has filed for bankruptcy. The airline purchased three Boeing 757s and reconfigured the with just 48 business-class seats, fully-flat, of course. The press loved the concept of an all business class airline with great service — flying profitable international routes, but critics saw more than a few holes (refurbishing out of date planes for one). Back to Virgin Atlantic for now.

Eos Airlines

UNStudio Theatre

Plenty of angles — the building’s envelope is composed of an overlapping multi-faceted surface that, because of perforations, creates a moiré effect.

Theatre Agora, Lelystad, Netherlands, by UNStudio

Marcel Wanders’ South Beach

Mondrian South Beach Hotel Residences on Biscayne Bay, Miami are being designed by Dutch designer Marcel Wanders. Owners enjoy all the privileges of an exclusive hotel, including a five-star restaurant, sunset bar, room service and a private boat marina. Opens early 2008.

Residences, by Marcel Wanders, From $500,000, for Mondrian South Beach Hotel

Icon: Bugatti Veyron

Build your own Bugatti Veyron, the quickest accelerating production car in the world, able to achieve an staggering top speed of 407 km/h — if you have the open space and are into that sort of thing.

Bugatti Veyron, € 1.1 million, by Bugatti

Icon: Isamu Noguchi

Isamu Noguchi, American (1904-1988), was the illegitimate son of Yone Noguchi, a Japanese poet who had gained great acclaim in the United States. More of a sculptor than a designer, the everyday objects he created are best seen as sculptures with a practical value, “things for everyone’s pleasure”. His sculptural style exerted a lasting influence on the whole organic design language of the 1950s. The furniture he designed for Herman Miller Vitra and Knoll are still in production today.

Isamu Noguchi Products: (top to bottom) Herman Miller Table, Knoll Cyclone Dining Table, Radio Nurse Speaker, Akari lamp

Vertical Garden

Vertical Garden, by Patrick Blanc

Minted British Coins

The new British coin designs have been chosen via an open competition. The winning designer is 26 year old Matthew Dent, who lives and works in London as a graphic designer.

British Coins, by Matthew Dent, for The Royal Mint

Nokia Prism Collection

The brief was to create a fundamentally different DNA for a family of progressive mobile phones from nokia. designed by khodi feiz in collaboration with Nokia Design, the Nokia 7500, is based on a simple notion of a pattern permeating throughout the product.

Prism collection, by khodi feiz, for Nokia

Waterfront Villas by Piero Lissoni

In addition to the Mandarin Oriental hotel, this private island in the Turks and Caicos will also offer a selection of villas designed by Piero Lissoni. Other well known architects, including Shigeru Ban, David Chipperfield and Zaha Hadid will also design neighborhoods. Paradise!

Piero Lissoni for Dellis Cay, Mandarin Oriental Hotel

Icon: Olympus XA

 
I have recently retired my Olympus XA — it has served me well for over 15 years, the flash unit was stolen during a mugging in Belgium in the early 1990′s. The quality of the photos are excellent. One of the smallest 35mm rangefinder cameras ever made, with total control over F-stop and manual focus. The original model, the XA, was sold from 1979 to 1985.

Olympus XA, by Yoshihisa Maitani, for Olympus