2Modern Design Talk - Modern Furniture & Design Blog

Stylish Fireplaces by Safretti

If you love the ambiance of a fireplace but aren't lucky enough to have one in your home, you can still enjoy the benefits with these modern alternatives. They run on bio-alchohol eliminating the need for a flue, so you can place them just about anywhere from your living room to your patio. Visit Safretti for more info.

            
 

Go! Pet Design eiCrate.

We recently adopted a puppy, and despite the fact that he has a little crate to sleep in (we like to call it his den), we'd still like to get him a more elaborate cage to transition into. So naturally, I've been on the hunt for the perfect (nice design, not too expensive, safe, etc.) solution. Yesterday, I think I found it.

From Go! Pet Design, meet the eiCrate. I love the shape, and it's actually the perfect size for our pooch. Plus, Go! Pet offers a starter package for customers, which includes the crate, a cushion, and a crate cover -- all for $330. Not too shabby. And let's be honest, what dog wouldn't love to call that snazzy dome its home?

Olympic Stadium in Russia

Populous, are the designers for the 2014 Winter Olympic Stadium in Russia. The stadium which can accommodate upto 40,000 people and features a crystallized translucent skin that will envelop it when full.

Read more about the stadium here.

Cloud Gate

The “Cloud Gate” sculpture referred to as The Bean in Chicago’s Milliennium Park is a wonderful contrast to the dramatic skyline that surrounds it and is reflected on its surface.

Inspired by a drop of mercury liquid, the 110-ton Cloud Gate sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly-polished stainless steel "plates" that create an elliptically-arched, highly-reflective work.

Visitors fully experience the majestic nature of the work by literally walking through and around, as it was designed for public interaction.  The sculpture is among the largest in the world, measuring 66-feet-long by 33-feet high.

The artist, Anish Kapoor,  has referred to the sculpture as “a gate to Chicago, a poetic idea about the city it reflects.”  Kappor's pieces are frequently simple, curved forms, usually monochromatic and brightly coloured. Most often, the intention is to engage the viewer, evoking mystery through the works' dark cavities, awe through their size and simple beauty, tactility through their inviting surfaces and fascination through their reflective facades.

Have an infinitely modern day!

'04 Lofts

 

Austin's unique '04 Lofts, by local architecture firm Dick Clark Architecture.

Sustainable trophy

I`m so proud of my friend Danilo Conti. Not only he`s an excellent designer, but also he firmly supports sustainable living, and that`s why he only works with the right materials and the good producers. Danilo`s last work was a range of trophys for a very popular sports event in São Paulo, Brazil, the "Megarampa".

The result couldn`t be any better. He was clever enough to combine the elements of the sports envolved (such as rollerskating and cycling) with the beauty of a FSC certificated wood. Other than that, the pieces were made by youngsters who are learning a new skill (and doing that they are kept out of the streets).

 

 

New from Spot on Square!

Two new collections from Spot on Square! From the minimalist Eicho collection--which features the Eicho Crib and the Eicho Changing Station--to the elegantly modern Roh Collection--featuring the Roh Dresser and Roh Crib--Spot on Square has upped the ante on quality and design, while keeping an eye focused squarely on eco-friendly, sustainable furniture.

Mutina Dechirer

While I can always find something lovely from the Mutina collection, I have fallen in love with this series in particular. Designed by Patricia Urquiola in 2008, the Dechirer line is subtle beauty at its best. Hardly noticable unless the light hits it just right or you look closely, each texture is like a lovely surprise, begging to be touched. Made of porcelain stoneware, the line comes in square, rectified, and brushed slabs. At 12mm thick, it is available in a range of 5 neutrals, both warm and cool. It also works beautifully as a floor application!

New Materials & Products...

One of the really interesting things for me has come from the green materials and products developed in response to sustainable design and the effect these have had on our developing design aesthetic.  Fifteen years ago the green materials we had were few and generally “green equivalents” to the standard catalog of building products & materials (and usually lacked a level of quality).  In the last 6 or 8 years there’s been an enormous number of green materials and products introduced into the marketplace and many of them have no equivalents in the standard catalog of products & materials.  Many of these new products are based on new ideas, new technology and new materials. 

These new green products have changed the design equation entirely. Manufactured wood, stone and plastics are a big part of this and have evolved around the green marketplace.  One that I really like are the plastic resin panels inlaid with a choice of different materials, wood, grass, twigs, leaves,…most anything, developing a great visual texture in a translucent plastic panel (also available in other colors).  An interesting design tool and one that has affected the way we can consider a space and light.  This was used at the new Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and brings together an inlaid wood grain with curves in the molded panels-  really nice.  The walls/seats/ceilings in the hall were done in the resin panel which is inlaid with a thin wood grain, creating a translucent material- 40% recycled (by 3form).  It’s still strange to think I like plastic but… it’s a different material now!

The traditional materials we have used are by no means in the past but I do believe that they suggest a way of thinking and a way of designing.  Certain issues and concerns have to be dealt with (like moisture) and are often designed for in similar ways.  Bricks and concrete work pretty darn well and I like ‘em but some of the new green materials push us to think and design in new ways.  We now have buildings rapped in sheets of metal, filled with plants for purposes of air filtration and people are excited about buying furniture based on modern ideas.  This is exciting!

Ningbo Historic Museum By Wang Shu of Amateur Architecture Studio, China

The Ningbo Historic Museum sit on a massive unpopulated plaza in Yinzhou, a district in the city of Ningbo that has a 5000-year history but looks like it was established last year. The building was designed by Wang Shu, an architect from the Amateur Architecture Studio, a practice that has some very interesting projects under its belt: the Xiangshan Campus and the Vertical Apartment at Hangzhou, the Wenzheng Library at Suzhou, the Sanhe House at Nanjing and the Five Scattered Houses along with the Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum again at Ningbo.

The museum occupies three floors in a total of 30.000 square meters. It looks like a skewed box with missing parts, made of a hodgepodge of materials that do not sit well together. The facade, embroidered with small, seemingly random placed windows, does a great job of concealing what's inside. It looks like it avoids any contemporary style - in fact, people in Ningbo were against the style of the building because it looked so different from the modern edifices occupying large plots of the area. But modern is defined in quite different terms from any architect and Wang Shu is no exception. He admits in designing with nature and specifically mountains in mind, as it is part of Chines tradition. But the use of traditional building techniques and materials is nothing but modern here.

Using the rich Chinese heritage as inspiration is of course not something new. In fact, it is almost expected from local architects. But Wang's inspiration from nature is much more well thought and executed than simple mimicry. Using fragments of older demolished buildings to make up the walls of this new one, collected from destruction sites all over the region, is in fact an old technique called wa pan, developed by local farmers to cope with natural disasters. Wang had used this one before in the campus of the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou, but now it is being used in its birthing place.

The design is meant to evoke three valleys crossed by large stairways, two inside and one outside. The internal walls, made of concrete, were moulded using bamboo canes instead of wooden planks. This unusual technique is traditional but rarely used these days. This meant that they had to train builders to make this kind of wall, which looks so much different, almost made of natural stone. The main internal courtyard of the museum cuts through the building and reaches the roof terrace. Its skin of U-glass gives an otherworldly aura to it, as it comes into striking contrast with the opaque brute building materials.

Photos courtesy of Iwan Baan