James
Striking and simple solution by Lekker Projects
We've said it before, but we must say it again: it is the simple solutions that we often find to be the most elegant.
In this case, Lekker Projects, a small environmental design firm with offices in Shanghai and Singapore, was faced with the problem of correcting bad Feng Shui while creating a distinct signage element for the 88 Xintiandi Hotel in Shanghai. The solution was to use Chinese roof tiles (the symbol of the hotel) in an inventive way to create a simple but striking result. The form of the tiles are instantly recongnizable, but their application is inspired.
Firm: Lekker Projects
Link: 88 Xintiandi
Victoria Gardens: the illusion continues in Rancho Cucamonga
Victoria Gardens is not a ground breaking step in the evolution of malls. The idea borrows from New Urbanist concepts fused with the concepts or retail design explored by John Jerde. Similar to Jerde’s work, Victoria Gardens is, to borrow the words of Margaret Crawford, "between the commercial and the artistic, the popular and the pure, and, of course, the high and the low."
But Victoria Gardens is no City Walk, its ambitions are much less hyper-realistic, and perhaps this is what sets it apart from many other themed malls that we have seen. But the result is a somewhat duplicitous place that insists it is one thing when it is actually something else.
Link: Victoria Gardens
Reference: Downtown Mauled - Part I
Victoria Gardens: suburban mall impersonates a town center in Rancho Cucamonga
This former agricultural center 50 miles east of Los Angeles was once home to sprawling groves and vineyards, but has been more recently known for the sprawl of big-box mini-malls and cookie cutter tract homes. Now a new development seeks to be the downtown that Rancho Cucamonga, California has never had.
The New York Times saw fit to cover the opening of this new mall, so we figured that it was worth the 40 minute drive to check it out. City planners had originally envisioned a more traditional mall, but the developers had a bold idea that breaks many (though not all) of the rules of the typical mall development. The idea behind Victoria Gardens is not new, pseudo-historic town centers are the core of most New Urbanist neighborhoods, but here it has been inserted into an existing tract home city.
The name of this mall betrays its form; all of the shops are located along an urban grid of streets open to vehicular traffic, complete with parking meters and sidewalks. Parking lots and service areas located in the center of the blocks, much like a traditional American town. "Victoria Gardens" fails to provide a hint of the urban space that has been created, or perhaps this was an intentional move to calm local residents who may fear density.
Link: Victoria Gardens
Article: New York Times -
A Different Sort of Mall for a California Town
Reference: Downtown Mauled - Part II
Developer: Forest City Enterprises with Lewis Retail Centers
Masterplan and Design Concept/Design Architect: Field Paoli
Executive Design Architect: Altoon & Porter
Executive Architect: KA Architects
Design Architect: Elkus Manfredi Architects
Landscape Architect: SWA Group
Geppetto Design Studio, Budapest
We're not too familiar with the contemporary Hungarian design scene... actually, we didn't really even know there was one. That sounds a bit ignorant, but apparently we've just not run across any Hungarian designers recently. Never the less, we're digging the work of Budapest based designers Elek Márton, Elek Máté, Buzogány Ildikó of Geppetto.
Their designs run the gambit of interior furnishings, fittings, accessories and interior designs. Their styles is clean and fun, and somehow familiar... could it be that we have seen Geppetto's work before and just not known who they were? Check them out... and please do take note, won't you?
Link: Geppetto
Santiago, Chile based Architect
It is always interesting for us to "discover" to work of an architect outside of our usual sphere of influence (our sphere based from Los Angeles, California).
We recently came across the work of Chilean architect Felipe Assadi and were impressed with the quality of work produced by his five person firm. We think that his work holds its own compared with work by European and American architects with whom we are better acquainted and certainly deserves some attention.
Link: Felipe Assadi
A must read for anyone interested in modern landscape design... we here at Land+Living borrow liberally from Church's philosophy. This text contains the essence of Thomas Church's design philosophy, as well as practical advice. It is illustrated by site plans and photographs of some of the 2000 gardens that Church designed during his career. Called "the last great traditional designer and the first great modern designer", Church was one of the central figures in the development of the modern Californian garden. For the first time, West Coast designers based their work not on imitation of East Coast traditions, but on climatic, landscape and lifestyle characteristics unique to California and the West. Church viewed the garden as a logical extension of the house, with one extending naturally into the other.
Author: Thomas D. Church
Link: Amazon
A design-theory rant at WorldChanging.com
Interesting read...
...Green design is the real post-modern movement: because it is the first movement after modernism that has something new to say and yet is still a kind of modernism, a fulfillment of some of modernism's central goals: functionalism and future-fetishism.
Check it out.
Link: WorldChanging - Why Green is the Real Postmodernism
Via: Archinect
Street graphics meet Nepalese textile traditions
An unlikely pairing creates some very nice results in Rugged Art's collection of hand knotted carpets designed by young graphic artists such as Romon Kimin Yang and José Parla. Not to mention the fact that the prices (while not cheap) seem to us to be very reasonable for this kind quality.
Founded by London based antique textile specialist Nat Turner, and collaborating with some of World's most exciting graphic artists, RuggedArt has launched a groundbreaking new collection of hand knotted rugs, available in limited editions of ten.
Instead of Ephemeral art on a wall, or hollow conceptual statement, RuggedArt rugs are a painting for your floor, a strikingly beautiful piece of furniture.
Link: Rugged Art
Australian Year of the Built Environment showcase of prefabricated housing types
Six prototype houses each designed to be constructed of a different material - concrete, steel, cardboard, timber, glass and clay -
were designed by an architect in collaboration with the appropriate trade association or research institute.
The objective of the exhibition is to promote new ways of providing affordable, environmentally sustainable, prefabricated housing in Australia that are also futuristic and innovative in their design.
The idea of an exhibition or prototype house is to break the boundaries of convention and to offer a vision of what the House of the Future might be like.
Link: YBE2004 Houses of the Future
Article: Infolink.com.au - Houses of the future on show in the present
Hand crafted wood table
It's an aircraft carrier! It's a plane! No, it's a table!
We like the strong presence and wonderfully simple design of this piece by Staten Island based modern craftsman, James Murphy.
I try to build pieces that promote a sensation of balance through the use of subtle proportion and line as adornment.
Crafted of solid American walnut.
Link: James Murphy Design
A house that floats
A Weekly Dose of Architecture is featuring a modern Boathouse in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Lots of text and images (including construction photos and plans)... plus there are more photos on the firm's website. Check it out, won't you?
Firm: Eindhoven Architecten BV
Link: A Weekly Dose of Architecture
Wallpaper collection
"Created by Amsterdam-based interior and landscape designer Petra Blaisse, Touch explores the relationship of interior space to the limits of the walls which contain it and expresses those boundaries as soft, sensual and ambiguous ‘edges’.
In aiming to create depth within the two-dimensional wall surface, Blaisse engages a play with layers, unexpected materials, natural and artificial colors, as well as an exaggeration of scale to indicate unusual contexts. Photographic prints of soft materials, based on previous textile design testing, are transformed in the medium of printed vinyl."
All inks & adhesives used are waterbased.
Designer: Petra Blaisse / Inside Outside
Link: Wolf-Gordon
Handles, pulls and locks design by Pierluigi Cerri
Here is a beautifully designed line of handles from Italian handle maker Valli & Valli. The design speaks for itself... very nice.
Designer: Pierluigi Cerri
Link: Valli & Valli Fusital Collection
Series of adjustable light fixtures
We've seen this light fixture concept before, but we like the execution of design and the many configurations and mountings available in the Multi series by Prima Lighting.
Choices are seemingly unlimited with nine, six, four, three, and two light configurations available as wall sconce, pendant, floor or table lighting and many are compatible with cable and monorail systems. Available in silver or chrome finish.
Link: Prima Lighting
New public park built on the site of a former gas works
Westergasfabriek is a culture park in Amsterdam created on the brownfield site of a former gas works. The master plan and landscape was designed by Kathryn Gustafson with Francine Houben of Mecanoo. Landscape elements include a large events field and theatre square as well as many promenades, gardens, forest and ponds.
Unlike most brownfield reclamation projects, Westergasfabriek incorporated the existing buildings and structures into the project retaining the history of the site. The project is also ecologically sensitive; all soil was retained and reused on site, and solar panels now grace the frame of the former gas plant.
Link: Westergasfabriek
Firm: Gustafson Porter
Firm: Mecanoo
Link: Archined - images and text (Dutch)
A modern day Zen priest who strives to express his spiritual self through landscape
Shunmyo Masuno is not only a Zen priest, but also president and founder of Japan Landscape Consultants, an firm founded inb 1982 and known worldwide for their landscape designs.
When asked what the garden means, Shunmyo explains, the garden is a special spiritual place in which the mind dwells. The gardens he creates are the places which hold his expressions of mind.
Shunmyo refers to gardening as his spiritual training ground in his quest of a higher understanding of himself.
Link: Shunmyo Masuno + Japan Landscape Consultants Ltd.
Article: International Herald Tribune - Zen and the art of landscaping
Via: Archinect
Corten inspired tiles by TAU Cerámica
Easy there you head banger you, we're not talking about the mavens of heavy metal rock music, we're talking ceramic tile here... whaaa? You read right, porcelin tiles that replicate the look of naturally oxidized steel.
Rock on.
Link: TAU Cerámica
Light sconce
The power cord is often an afterthought when it comes to the design of electric devices... in fact the cords are often omitted from product photos. But this simple little light fixture turns the tables on this way of thinking making the cord a prominent feature of the design by placing it right out front.
Designer: Jakob Gebert
Link: Belux
Premiers this Sunday
In June we discovered that one of our favorite magazines, Dwell, was being translated into a television show. And since that time, we have waited with baited breath to see if Dwell the TV show can live up to Dwell the magazine... and the wait is nearly over.
Tomorrow (Sunday, October 3rd) Dwell will premier on the Fine Living network. There are only two episodes currently listed, but both sound promising.
Link: Fine Living - Dwell
Reference: Dwell Television (L+L)
Los Angeles landscape architecture and urban design firm
Here is some nice regional landscape design by Michael Schneider of Orange Street Studio.
Their expertise lies in transforming stylish conceptual designs into elegant outdoor spaces. And their designs are distinctively Southern Californian. From modern and minimal, Mediterranean, to tropical and desert; steel pergolas are complimented by mass plantings of ornamental and native grasses or sculptural vines and trees; cooling water elements are interwoven with succulents and aromatic plantings; spectacular pools are highlighted by playful or sophisticated lines. Orange Street Studio is valued by their clients for an eye for the unusual, attention to detail and creating the extraordinary.
Link: Orange Street Studio
Photo tour of residence in Poissy, France designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Janneret
Saphenia features a very nice photo tour of this 1931 Corbu masterwork... the most comprehensive collection of photos I have seen of the Villa Savoye anywhere.
The Villa is a physical manifesto of Le Corbusier's "five points of the new architecture" with its grid of supporting pilotis, horizontal window bands, free facade, open interior plan and roof terraces. The articulated circulation system also exemplifies Corbu's idea of the "architectural promenade."
Link: Saphenia - Villa Savoye
Via: Things Magazine
10-storey Paris apartment building by Edouard François
"Flower Tower" is a bit of a misnomer since bamboo isn't a regularly flowering plant (bamboo generally dies after flowering, and most species are long lived, so you connect the dots), but it sounds better than "Bamboo Building" I guess. This Parisian apartment block features a green facade of bamboo planted in 380 large concrete pots embedded in the balconies.
Article: Guardian - Flower power
Firm: Edouard François
Concept conference table design by GRO
While we have visited GRO's website many times before, we have always overlooked this little gem. Though this design is not being produced, it just struck us as worth sharing.
The table features two circular sockets in the center of the table that can accept any number of modular plug-in pieces including electrical outlets, light fixtures, and various containers.
Link: GRO Design
An Interview with Bert Gregory
"BetterBricks talked with Bert Gregory, President & CEO of Mithun, a Seattle-based architecture, design and planning firm and a national leader in resource sensitive and sustainable design."
"Mithun is probably best known for its design of the REI stores and IslandWood, the innovative environmental learning center on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Bert served as design team leader for both of those projects."
Link: BetterBricks
Firm: Mithun
Master plan seeks to encourage environmental sensitivity and celebrate cultural diversity
The concept for this master plan consists of four interrelated themes - A Water Synthesis, The Cultural Connection, The Green Connection (or sustainability), and Plants in Community (Plants in natural associations or ecosystems). Each of these themes are a facet of the underlying idea for the master plan, which only together form a cohesive vision of enduring sustainability.
The scope of work includes a new 15,000 square foot Reception and Administration Building by BKSK Architects.
Firm: Conservation Design Forum - Lead consultant landscape and planning (PDF)
Firm: BKSK Architects - Architecture
Firm: Atelier Dreiseitl - Water specialists
Link: Queens Botanical Garden
Via: NY Times - A Queens Garden Gives New Meaning to 'Green'
Hotel designed by Los Angeles and Berlin based Graft
Designed by more fellow SCI-Arc grads, the new Q! new hotel on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin is a 4 star hotel with 72 rooms, four studios, one penthouse and a bar and spa (wellness area).
The interior of Denari-esque undulating planes was designed to fit into the shell of the new building designed by another architect. Continuous surfaces (where floors wrap up to become walls, seating areas, beds, counters and ceilings) are used throughout the hotel providing a "cocoonlike" effect.
Firm: Graft
Link: Q! Berlin
Via: Architectural Record
Location: L+L Maps - Hotel Q!
Clip spot lamp
We've always liked the simple utility of binder clips (hmmm... maybe we need to do a "101 uses for the binder clip" blog someday). Anyway, here's one for the less is more category. We really dig this little fixture by Jonas Damon for Habitat that strips down the clip lamp to its bare essentials using the binder clip as inspiration (without being cutesy about it).
Designer: Jonas Damon Office for Design
Link: Habitat
"The issue of landscape is of increasing concern to us as the twenty-first century begins, not only as an area of design and study but also as it is affected by building development and the maintenance of eco-systems. This important and highly topical book extends the existing debate to examine recent projects and their part in our growing concern about the maintenance and enhance-ment of our natural spaces."
"Modern Landscape features over thirty international projects, including schemes by both architects and landscape architects, often working in collaboration. Following an introductory essay, the book is arranged into four sections of extensively illustrated case studies, each of which deals with a different aspect of landscape design - Parkland, Architecture as Landscape, Garden Landscapes and Urban Interventions - relating it directly to historical and contemporary precedents."
Author: Michael Spens
Link: Amazon
The green alternative to drywall with 10x the strength
"From floors to ceilings, walls to roofs, Durra Building Systems' breakthrough products deliver a better way to build."
"Starting with a long overlooked agricultural byproduct, Durra creates an innovative and environmentally sound building material. The patented Durra process uses both high heat and extreme pressure to coax out the fiber's resins, which act as a strong and permanent bonding agent. Durra dry extrudes and finishes the panels with a strong, water-resistant liner paper."
Link: Durra
Kinetic light fixture
This is the kind of thing we love, a product that is unique without trying too hard. Amsterdam based Tjepkema studio adds movement to a light fixture by using the heat generated by the bulbs. The concept is not new, but the execution here above and beyond.
Heat generated by halogen lights activates a propeller and thus movement in the Dancing Shades lamp. The lamp projects shadows on the wall that create the same type of relaxing and hypnotic atmosphere that reflections of moving water create.
Unfortunately, this is a prototype and is not available for purchase at this time.
Link: Tjepkema studio
