We like the simple materials and delicate lines of the Deckhopper, an adjustable lounge chair for use indoors or out. Claerhout has also designed several accessory pieces which vary from the practical (Side Table) to the whimsical (Lightsprinkler).
"Knock, knock. The Green Matrix has you, Neo." Sorry... bad, bad, bad.
"Landscape architecture today is one of the most active and revolutionary areas of design. With environmental awareness at an all-time high, landscape designers are reshaping our surroundings, from small-scale private gardens to large-scale public squares. Drawing on a broad palette of ideas and concepts, and presenting entirely new ways of seeing, interpreting, and designing a "landscape," the book is organized into seven themes that comprise today's most important issues and techniques: light and color, movement, order and objects, interaction, new contexts, urban interventions, and narrative. Each chapter is illustrated with works by such internationally known designers and architects as Fernando Caruncho, Adriaan Geuze, Janis Hall, Reiser + Umemoto, Peter Walker, and Makoto Sei Watanabe."
Are you suffering from Frank Gehry withdrawals? Not to fear, his projects are still sprouting up everywhere these days.
The commanding campus will include the Museum of Tolerance, a Theater complex, an International Conference Center, a Grand Hall and an Education Center and Library. The Center is forecast to become a stimulant for the economic, cultural, and educational growth, as well as a boost to tourism resources of the city and is expected to be completed in 2006/7.Link: Museum of Tolerance
Here's a little project for you to tackle this weekend: The Sunset Chair. Not too sure about the little decorative diamond shaped cutouts on the chair back... we're thinking of just skipping that step. Designed by architect Stephen Kanner for Sunset Magazine.
Los Angeles interior designer Jackie Terrell and her Park La Brea apartment featured in the Home section of the LA Times.
In the earnest, too often self-important world of interior design, Jackie Terrell's irreverent take has helped her stand out.Link: Los Angeles Times
Her three-bedroom apartment works as an airy artist's statement against excess, and as a ringing endorsement for cleverness over cash.
"The tea lantern by Todd MacAllen and Stephanie Forsythe is clearly a model of product design in the great tradition of Mies and Jacobsen. The Canadian designers have used latest glass technology to create a transparent teapot with an integral vacuum jacket, which conserves heat and allows the simple cylinder to be picked up by hand."
"Modernist quilting," who knew there was such a thing? "Traditional craft meets minimalist design."Walker, the Las Vegas landscaper, said he has obtained a contractor's license in California in case he is forced to relocate. "The only way we're going to solve this problem is water conservation," he said.Hate to tell you, buddy, but water is a precious resource in California too... you should try that conservation thing.
And on the left coast, the weekend's edition of The Los Angeles Times Magazine is dedicated to the swimming pools. (No photos in the online version... get with it, LA Times.) Among the articles are:Fly over L.A., and you see them—mile after liquid mile of dots and squares pressed like jewels into the landscape. By the latest count from the American Water Works Assn., between half a million and 700,000 pools adjoin single-family homes in Southern California. And yet as suited as they are to our hot, dry climate, they weren't always so common here.
Link: LA Times
"Charles Eames (1907-78) and Ray Eames (1912-88) gave shape to America's twentieth century. Their lives and work represented the nation's defining social movements: the West Coast's coming-of-age, the economy's shift from making goods to the producing information, and the global expansion of American culture. The Eameses embraced the era's visionary concept of modern design as an agent of social change, elevating it to a national agenda. Their evolution from furniture designers to cultural ambassadors demonstrated their boundless talents and the overlap of their interests with those of their country. In a rare era of shared objectives, the Eameses partnered with the federal government and the country's top businesses to lead the charge to modernize postwar America."
"The ReUse People of California reduces the solid waste stream and changes the way the built environment is renewed by salvaging building materials and distributing them for reuse."
As one of the last surviving architects of the Case Study House program, Killingsworth, 86, is a quiet hero in the architectural community. His whole career he has consistently been stable, modest, thorough and relatively unknown in comparison to his Southern California contemporaries. Along with well-known figures such as Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig, Craig Ellwood and Raphael Soriano, he was one of a handful of optimistic, social-minded architects who tested unconventional concepts of plan, form and structure in residential architecture. Conceived by John Entenza, the editor of Arts and Architecture magazine, the Case Study Houses provided affordable yet progressive prototypes for living.
"Greenwood Gardens is a new nonprofit, public garden located in Short Hills, New Jersey, approximately twenty miles west of New York City. Since the early twentieth century, the twenty-two acre Greenwood Gardens has been a private retreat of formal Italianate gardens graced with colorful Arts and Crafts tiles, mossy pebbled walks and vistas stretching into the lush surroundings of South Mountain Reservation."
The prefabricated Glidehouse by architect Michelle Kaufmann is being featured at the Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend. Several Glidehouses have already been sold and will be heading for sites across the west.
"All KEIM Liquid Mineral Coatings are harmless to the environment. They are not a health hazard and contain no organic solvents or toxic substances."
"In 1953 he began building one of his most significant designs, the Rose residence in Ridgewood, New Jersey (which is now open to the public, see link below). The design clearly expresses Rose's idea of fusion between indoor and outdoor space as well as his notion that modern environmental design must be flexible to allow for changes in the environment, as well as in the lives of its users."
"Created in the 1960s, this often overlooked urban gem is still a work of artistry and breathtaking vistas."
"Guided by this principle, McDonough and Braungart explain how products can be designed from the outset so that, after their useful lives, they will provide nourishment for something new. They can be conceived as "biological nutrients" that will easily reenter the water or soil without depositing synthetic materials and toxins. Or they can be "technical nutrients" that will continually circulate as pure and valuable materials within closed-loop industrial cycles, rather than being "recycled" -- really, downcycled -- into low-grade materials and uses. Drawing on their experience in (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, McDonough and Braungart make an exciting and viable case for putting eco-effectiveness into practice, and show how anyone involved with making anything can begin to do so as well."
Authors: William McDonough, Michael Braungart Link: Amazon
German based Dedon offers several collections of contemporary hand woven wickerwork furniture covered with Hularo® fiber. Hularo is a "synthetic fibre, comining the best characteristics of natural materials with the advantages of innovative technology."
A small design/build landscape firm in the Los Angeles area that does some interesting work. And check this out... sounds like it could have been written by Land+Living:
The rising cost and decreased quality of lumber for traditional "stick" framing is forcing the construction industry in the United States to look towards alternative materials and methods. This flexible concrete finish system has many benefits.
Sculptor Adam Distenfeld uses reclaimed rock from construction projects in New York City for his creations; custom fountains and sculptures for indoor and outdoor spaces.
"Rift sawn white oak framed table with reversible top. Top is rift sawn white oak on one side and white high pressure laminate on the other. The table top rotates easily and it locks into place with a steel tube. It's a perfect multifunctional solution to get the most out of your space."
Made from Ipe (a high quality sustainable wood), stainless steel and natural composite materials, Modern Outdoor has three lines of chairs, tables, benches, carts and planters.
The Netherlands has been leading the charge in the world of architecture over the last several years, and the landscape work of this firm is right out in front as well producing some of the most interesting contemporary landscapes.
Clever designs for the home by Nicolette Brunklaus. Those Dutch know how to design, don't they?Brunklaus criss-crosses across the line between an item's art and an item's use. Screen printing with delicate images of reshaping an item gives an ambiguity and serves to infuse the eye with that sought for spark, that grasp of the unexpected to look again and see what we've seen."Link: Brunklaus Amsterdam
"Nationwide our modern built landscapes are in danger. The designs of Lawrence Halprin, a leader in landscape architecture for decades, are particularly vulnerable at this time. Halprin recently received the National Endowment for the Arts gold medal from the President Bush. Despite this national recognition for design excellence, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts included demolition of Halprin's sculpture garden in its $100-million building expansion plan designed by London-based architect Rick Mather."