First Annual Trade Fair and Festival of California Design in Santa Monica, August 12-15, 2004
A three and a half day event, trade fair and festival combined into one for designers and consumers. The festival will include exhibitions on design, prefab, architecture, landscape and furniture as well as home tours, speakers, bands and DJs, restaurants and lounges.
CA Boom is coming up soon! Don't forget to register early for discounted admission.
Link: CA BOOM
UPDATE:
Report: CA Boom Opens!
Report: CA Boom - Day 1
Report: CA Boom - Day 2
Report: CA Boom - Day 3
Report: CA Boom Wrap Up
Swivel armchair by Karim Rashid for Frighetto
Swivel armchair with shaped steel section frame, covered with moulded polyurethane foam. Available in leather and fabric. Swivel base.
Designer: Karim Rashid
Link: Frighetto
Reference: Karim Rashid (L+L)
Modern classics by architect Eero Saarinen
Moving right along with our Saarinen theme (1, 2), we would be remiss if we did not feature the furniture designs of Eero Saarinen.
The tulip chair is perhaps as well known as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the TWA Terminal in New York. Knoll Studio still produces several of Saarinen's modern classics.
Link: KnollStudio
Design Observer recalls Eero Saarinen's landmark TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport
Speaking of things Saarinen, the Design Observer has posted an article about Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal with a bit of history of the building along with links to photos, facts, etc. Also today, a New York Times article outlines plans for Jet Blue to use the currently shuttered facility.
Link: Design Observer
Link: New York Times
More contemporary photos at: Galinsky
Susan Saarinen, daughter of famed architect Eero Saarinen, finds her creative outlet in landscape architecture
She grew up surrounded by artists and modern design masters; her mother was a sculptor, her father and grandfather were famed architects Eero and Eliel Saarinen, and her godfather was Charles Eames. Art and design have truly been part of her everyday life.
"At dinner every night, we had discussions about art or design in some form," she says. "It was a very rich environment in terms of art and design. I didn't know until much, much later how much I picked up by osmosis."
After a series of career and life changes, Susan now runs a small landscape architecture practice in Golden, Colorado.
Link: Rocky Mountain News - Artist, designer by nature
Firm: Saarinen Landscape Architecture
Hand-knotted tibetan rugs and carpets
Beautiful contemporary rugs by a range of talented designers.
elson & company was founded with the vision of fusing custom-designed, hand-knotted Tibetan rugs with the endless possibilities of sophisticated modern design. Each collection is a delicate balance of present and past. The weavers with whom we work in Katmandu are masters of traditional techniques that reflect the rich heritage of the unique Tibetan craft. Our designers translate their innovative vision into individual works of art. The collections embrace the harmony between the established art form of Tibetan weaving and the simplicity of timeless, modern design.
Collections include "Tibetan Modern: The Architects Collection" where architects (such as Steven Holl, Greg Lynn, Michael Rotondi, Billie Tsien & Tod Williams, David Yamawere and many others) translated their impressions of Tibet into carpets design.
Link: Elson & Company
The mid-century designs of famed landscape architect Robert Royston
We love the work of Bay Area landscape architect Robert Royston who was one of the pioneers of modern landscape design. He was partners with Garrett Eckbo and Ed Williams in a firm that shaped the California School of landscape design. The firm continues to this day as Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abey. This online portfolio provides a glimpse into the early work of Robert Royston and his influential designs.
Link: Postwar Portfolio - Robert Royston
Firm: Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abey
An architect's house in East Hampton designed and built on a budget
While certainly not an inexpensive or small house, this residence by New York architect Michael Haverland was created out of a process of budget minded editing and attention to detail making it much less costly to build than the neighboring Houses at Sagaponac.
The home incorporates an eclectic mix of classic modern and antique fixtures and furnishings while the design of the architecture is also modern yet timeless.
"Modernism is really about economy of means and rigor, and how you design space. If you lose those values, it's just a superficial treatment of modern surfaces."
Link: Michael Haverland Architect
Via: New York Times - The House That Homework Built
First purchasers describe the process.
Yet another update from Jennifer and Barry detailing their LV Home build:
We installed the tallest faux wall panels first onto the Simpson strong walls, then proceeded to install the panels on the back of the house where the large sliding doors/windows will be. After lifting the parapet panels onto the roof, Kevin measured the parapet height on each panel, nailed a 2x4 onto the panel, and we were able to hang the panel onto the side of the house while Kevin nailed each into place.
This is coming along quite nicely. We're definitely looking forward to seeing the final result.
Link: Article #7
Link: LV Home Kit
Reference: LV Home - Building Update I
Reference: LV Home - Building Update II
Reference: LV Home - Building Update III
Reference: LV Home - Building Update IV
Reference: LV Home - Building Updates V & VI
Online tour of private residence in San Mateo, CA
This San Mateo family has setup an online tour of their Eichler home:
"We purchased our house in June, 2000. It's located in an Eichler devlopment known as 'The Highlands' in San Mateo, California.
Designed by A. Quincy Jones, it's an atrium model with four bedrooms, two baths, and 1,660 sq. ft. of living space. In 1959 when new, the house sold for about $24,000. We paid just a bit more in 2000.
The lot is rectangular, 68' wide by 110' deep, set on a slight slope, with the rear of the house, which is almost entirely floor-to-ceiling glass, facing east.
The front door is to the side of the central carport, and opens into an atrium space which provides access through three different sliding glass doors to the living room, dining/kitchen area, or home office area."
Link: Eichler Home Tour
Architect: A. Quincy Jones
Photo: Ernie Braun
"The Michael Graves-Target partnership is the very model of a successful designer-retailer collaboration. But getting there was an occasionally bumpy ride."
An an interview with Michael Graves by Linda Tishler in Fast Company about his partnership with Target to create an affordable line of designer products. The arrangement with Graves paved the way for Target's future collaborations with other designers and making Target the budget outlet for designer products.
Article: Fast Company
Link: Graves at Target
An innovation in seating
LCP - "Low Chair Plastic" - is a fitting name for this low lounge chair, created with a single piece of molded transparent PMMA plastic which spirals around itself to form a radically innovative seat. Thanks to an exclusive technology, LCP is elastic, soft and resistant in spite of its light and transparent appearance. This sophisticated chair, for the most attentive connoisseurs of design is available in four colors and fits with elegance into any environment.
Link: Kartell
Link: MoMa Online Store
Gear for the modern baby and beyond
Babygeared features essentials for the urbane parent from world-renowned designers and manufacturers--everything from the Karim Rashid Kapsule Chair to Lulu DK luxury crib linens, chic diaper bags, sporty strollers, gives, and more.
Link: Babygeared.com
A specialty shopping and entertainment complex in Shanghai (however you spell it)
The upscale outdoor urban shopping complex can be found these days even in China, complete with Starbucks and Haagen-Dazs. The photos seem to show a very high quality project beyond many that we have seen in the United States. We are kind of fascinated by this project as it seems to do a pretty nice job of combining historic architecture and landscape with modern additions, but even more so because one of the restored houses in the project was the site of the first Communist Party meeting in China... hello irony.
Link: Xihu Tiandi
Article: Straits Times
Firm: Wood + Zapata
Firm: Nikken Sekkei - Planners Architects Engineers
Firm: Cicada Landscape Architecture
Smart Products. Modern Living.
"A collaborative design and product showroom featuring sustainable products and modern design.
Three architects developed alterego to make environmentally sensitive and modern products otherwise inaccessible to the general public available through a showroom environment. The design aspect of the company delivers a functional approach, providing clientele with the aesthetic of modern products and the design expertise of licensed architects."
Link: Alter Ego
An opposition between studio and residence
"The Canal House is composed of three cubes: one raised at the street as a studio, two together at the canalside as the residence. In its concept and execution, the house is informed by two ideas, one embracing the possibility of the poetic, the other a more specific kind of material formation."
Link: Sander Architects
Modern furniture outlet and full service design studio contemporary lifestyle store and interior design studio in Atlanta, Georgia.
Space is a contemporary lifestyle store and interior design studio in Atlanta, Georgia.
Representing more than 30 manufacturers of modern contemporary furniture, lighting, textiles, and accessories, our 8,000 square foot showroom affords our clients the opportunity to view in person many of the products that we specify.
Our design projects include commercial, corporate, and residential interiors both on a local and a national level. We can offer a variety of design solutions, from the most basic initial consultation to fully developed interior design presentations including color-rendered floor plans.
Link: Space
Deere hosts exhibit of modern buildings to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their landmark building
The company is hosting an exhibit at their Saarinen designed headquarters in Moline, Illinois entitled Structures of Our Time: 31 Buildings That Changed Modern Life. It is a special architectural exhibit celebrating buildings that have received the American Institute of Architect's 25-Year Award. The Deere Administative Center was one of Saarinen's last designs. The surrounding pastoral landscape setting was designed by Stu Dawson of Sasaki Associates.
Link: John Deere & Company
Link: Eero Saarinen bio (via USNPS)
Link: Sasaki Associates
Via: Quad-City Times - "Deere’s World Headquarters is centerpiece of new exhibit"
Via: Quad-City Times - "Landscaping was dear to their hearts"
The greatness of Ted
"Founded on the Oregon coast by a guy named Ted, this small handscreened wallpaper company flourished in the Age of Aquarius.
Many years later, some young designers seeking striking wallcoverings discovered Ted's greatness- just days before the designs and equipment were to be destroyed. Knowing what had to be done, these young designers headed west to save Ted's legacy...
Relocated to the Bywater District of New Orleans, Flavor Paper continues to produce the greatness of Ted."
Featured print: Cycloid
Screens: 3
Colors Achieved: 3 to 7
Screen Repeat: 48 inches
Pattern Repeat: 48 inches
Side-to-side Match:
straight across
Link: Flavor Paper
Found in: Dwell
In-sink diswasher by KitchenAid
This combination sink/dishwasher is perfect for small kitchens and washes with half the water in half the time of traditional dishwashers. The lid can be used as a cutting board or removed for a full function double sink.
The stainless steel brivaTM in-sink dishwasher is a first-of-its-kind product that reflects the quality and quite performance you've come to expect from our legendary dishwashers
Link: Briva
As structured visual record of the contents of one person's house.
Ever take a look inside someone else's medicine cabinet? How about rummaging through someone's entire house online? Not exactly the usual L+L fare, but it is quite an interesting anthropological kind of cross section of a contemporary American home.
mc.clintock.com was originally developed as a way to test Apache configurations.
Really.
But it also comes down to an appreciation for documentation and lists, as well as a keen appreciation for the absurd aspect of "revealing" the contents of my home to the entire world. There isn't much in my house that isn't also in everyone else's house, and precious little that's not visible to the casual visitor, but almost everyone I've spoken to sees this project as either an incredible intrusion, or as an invitation to be robbed.
Link: McClintock.com
Easy chair with integral tabletop
One is the loneliest number, but maybe not when you are sitting this chair. If only we had this chair in high school world history... we may have been comfortable while taking that snooze. Actually, it reminds me of a project in first year architecture studio where we had to design a table and chair for one... if only I had thought of this...
"SOLITAIRE, designed by Alfredo Häberli for Offecct, is an upholstered chair with an organic shape that is designed in one piece. One of SOLITAIRE's armrests is like an integral tabletop, for reading or writing or as a side table. The chair is equally suitable for the home and dynamic workplaces."
Designer: Alfredo Häberli
Manufacturer: Offecct Interiör
Amorphous silicon solar technology
Moving right along with the green theme: a building material.
PV-TV is a revolutionary new building material that transforms any glazed surface into an environmentally sound power station by day and a full colour screen by night.
Whoa! Now THAT is cool.
Via: Metropolis
Manufacturer: MSK Corporation
A Search for Environmental Harmony
Continuing our green theme here and going with yesterday's blog about Losing the lawn, here is a book that sheds light on the problems with lawns and provides good sustainable solutions.
"The authors in this book argue that our dedication to maintaining beautiful lawns is contributing to the serious environmental problems facing the planet, and they offer strategies for creating and caring for aesthetically pleasing and ecologically sound lawns. This new edition updates the original text and adds a chapter and illustrations showing what progress has been made in the ecological management of landscapes over the past decade."
Link: Amazon
"Green buildings" sound great. But can we afford them?
A brief article by Neal Peirce answers these questions by looking at real projects as well as the attitudes and policies that shape our built environment.
Link: Washington Post Writers Group
The movement to reduce the use of lawns and to minimize the environmental damage they inflict
The lawn is a deeply rooted "need" in the minds of most Americans, but we have been advocates of "less lawn" for some time. There are lawns that are useful (for playing sports, for pets, for kids) and then there is the landscape filler; broad emerald green swaths of land dedicated to nothing but grass for the sake of grass... because it would be (somehow) weird not to have a lawn. An article in the Journal News takes a look at the lawn and some slowly changing attitudes.
"Scientists say these lawns come at considerable environmental cost, and for at least a decade there have been efforts to rein them in."
Link: The Journal News
Designer/fabricators of custom enviro-friendly furnishings/objects
We like the work and playful spirit of this New York based design-build firm.
Brave Space is a triad of independent minded designer/fabricators with the goal of bringing you modular, multi-functional, and durable objects. We design custom furniture for the home and office setting. Our form follows function and our pricing follows integrity.
Link: Brave Space
"Kansas City deserves a Frank Gehry"
An article in the Pitch (Kansas City's local news and entertainment weekly) makes the pitch (ha) for "Gehry Glitter" when it comes to the design of the proposed downtown arena. Kansas City is home base to four well known for sports-architecture firms -- HOK, Ellerbe Becket, CDFM2 and Heinlein Schrock Stearns -- who have banded together to land the commission.
The Pitch
An unlimited creative canvas
"iColor® Tile FX creates a unlimited creative canvas in the form of a sophisticated, tile-like system that may be used independently or as part of a large-scale, multi-tiled installation. Each 2' by 2' panel conceals 144 individually addressable, tri-color nodes (432 LEDs), that are powered by Chromasic™, enabling highly intricate control to create images with light - from morphing color waves, to animated objects, logos, emblems and patterns. iColor Tile FX is designed for recess and surface mounting, and is ideal for retrofitting ceiling tiles and surfaces. The system comes with an opaque lens and offers a versatile frame structure that's engineered to accept custom lens options."
Link: Color Kinetics
"World's most famous architect" interviewed on Fresh Air
If you're one of those who simply can't get enough of The Frank, have a listen.
"Time magazine calls Gehry the world's most famous architect. Gehry just designed an outdoor music pavilion for Chicago's new Millennium Park, a former rail yard that's been transformed into a destination for the arts. He designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao."
Link: Fresh Air (npr.org)
Via: Core77
