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IKEA'S CHIC NEW PS COLLECTION CALLS BACK TO THE COMPANY'S RICH 60-YEAR DESIGN HISTORY

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Pictures of working people by Anna Efverlund - $39-$99 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA TO ITS DESIGNERS: MAKE OUR OLD STUFF BETTER.

Furniture designers don’t often get the chance to correct their mistakes: Their products are on the market for a couple of years and, with few awesomely popular exceptions, eventually get dropped from their manufacturers’ catalogs to make room for new stock. But Ikea, the go-to big box for affordable Scandinavian design, has given its designers the opportunity to revise their work (as well as that of their predecessors), adding increased functionality and sustainability.   Janice Simonsen, Ikea’s design spokesperson, says.

“[We] challenged our designers to bring their designs forward with innovative products that belong in the future.” 

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Bamboo dining table by Jon Karlsson - $179 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Bamboo frame side talbes by Henrik Preutz - $29-$49 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Chest of pine wood drawers by Ehlen Johansson - $399 (Click Image To Enlarge)

The results make their debut at the Milan Furniture Fair as part of the company’s PS collection, a curated series released every three years. This time around, the 60-year-old company decided to revisit its past as a way of creating pieces that address today’s needs for more flexible solutions to small spaces: chairs stack, furniture can transition from indoors to outdoors, a children’s table contains built-in storage, and various products have been upgraded using green materials such as bamboo.

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - High-back armchair by Ebba Strandmark - $89 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Pendant lamp with LED light diodes by Henrik Preutz - $99.99 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Sofa by Nike Karlsson - $899 (Click Image To Enlarge)

Whereas the brother-and-sister design team Knut and Marianne Hagberg reimagined one of their own designs from the ‘80s, turning a children’s foam indoor chair into a plastic, stackable armchair that can also be used outdoors, Nike Karlsson updated a ’70s metal tube sofa with pocket springs, which not only add comfort but are easy to recycle.

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Three pot vertical plant stand by Nicolas Cortolezzis - $39.99 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - TV bench by Lisa Widen and Anna Wallin Irnarchos - $179 (Click Image To Enlarge)

IKEA PS Collection for 2012 - Armchair made from wood plastic composite - $59.99 (Click Image To Enlarge)

And while the inspiration for these and the rest of the 46-pieces are from the past, they should not be mistaken as being from another era. Peter Klinkert, Ikea’s PS project leader, says in the press announcement. 

“In the design world, it’s sometimes fashionable to talk about vintage and release new products in old styles.  We always said that we don’t want to relaunch old things. It’s not IKEA PS. It’s not new and developing IKEA onward.”

The PS Collection will roll into stores in August.

COMMENTARY:   Ikea's PS Collection is stylish and chick and priced just right for today's contemporary consumers.  I love the sofa an TV stand the most.  If you have a small space, and don't have a lot of money, IKEA is the way to go.

Courtesy of an article dated April 18, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design

JAPANESE DESIGNER KENGO KUMA'S MATRIX OF WOOD PLANKS RESULTS IN AN ULTRA-COOL NEW STARBUCKS IN DAZAIFU, JAPAN

Kengo Kuma's ultra-cool new Japanese Starbucks located in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan (Click Image To Enlarge)

Starbucks recently commissioned starchitect Kengo Kuma to design an outpost in Dazaifu, a small city in Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture, that, with walls covered in a matrix of wood planks, is a striking departure from the company’s typical uninspired (if familiarly friendly) interiors filled with tacky pendant lighting and faux-wood finishes.

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And that’s the point. Starbucks shares a history with a host of other American companies that have plunked its cookie-cutter stores into countries around the world. But the coffee empire is now becoming more sensitive to cultural differences--and designing its branches to reflect regional tastes. Earlier this year, it opened an experimental shop in Amsterdam, a showcase of slow-brew coffee, local craftsmanship, and eco-friendly furnishings. And according to The New York Times, Starbucks is investing millions in making over hundreds of its stores in France to appeal to coffee aficionados who favor the personalized atmosphere of cafés.

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Kuma’s interior for the Starbucks in Dazaifu is a pearl in a growing strand of customized spaces--one that is an outgrowth of the architect’s fondness for natural materials. More than 2,000 wooden batons line the 2,260-square-foot shop, creating a loosely woven lattice that extends beyond the storefront’s edge. A few signs, nestled into the wooden structure, are the only outward indicators of the brand. 

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According to Kengo Kuma and Associates, the design is meant to blend with the other buildings along the road to Dazaifu Tenmangu, Fukuoka’s most famous shrine, dedicated to the god of learning. “Along the main path to the shrine, there are traditional Japanese buildings in one or two stories,” the firm’s press release states. “The project aimed to make a structure that harmonizes with such townscape, using a unique system of weaving thin woods.” And yet with such a strong sculptural focal point, one can hardly imagine it blending in.

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COMMENTARY:   Kengo Kuma's use of natural wood in a beautiful and intricate matrix of wooden planks is an artform that is so very Japanese.  It's almost as if you were inside a giant wooden basket or tornado pattern looked sideways.  It definitely gives this Japanese Starbucks artsy class, something you just don't find in any Starbucks here in the U.S.    In a blog post dated March 8, 2012, I covered Starbucks new store in Amsterdam.  That store made liberal use of natural woods throughout the store. The ceiling was absolutely beautiful.  When is Starbucks going to start doing the same thing here in the U.S.?

Courtesy of an article dated April 9, 2012 apparing in Fast Company Design

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669480/an-ultra-cool-japanese-starbucks-leaves-the-seattle-vibe-far-behind

ZEITGUISED'S 'CONCRETE MISPLOTS' ARE NOT ACCIDENTS OF MARGINAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE FUTURE, BUT CONCRETE ART ON STEROIDS

Featured in the Swiss architectural magzine Hochparterre’s “Raumtraum” section, these visualizations of future architectures employ the accidental in computer driven manufacturing processes.

Based on iconic housing shapes, these buildings were intended as prototypes for mass-customization. Yet, as things go with computerized manufacturing, there have been misplots. The cartridge was not loaded properly. The concrete was set to the wrong parameters or scale. The printer module falsely translated a data set…

These misprints are the rejects of this early process, and they are now being used as shared homes by elderly people from the former squatter scene.

Concrete Misplots - Marginal archictures of the future by German designer Zeitguised (Click Images To Enlarge)

COMMENTARY:    I love the beauty of designs of all times, but when I first saw Zeitguised's "Concrete Misplots," I knew that I had write a piece about them in my blog.    

Zeitguised describes his monolithic "Concrete Misplots" as the random outcome of an accident in computerized design of the architecture of the future.  However, there is nothing really random in the art form itself.  

Concrete Misplots took some work on the part of Zeitguised.  We are so used to pouring concrete into slabs or using cement in stucco to cover the outside of homes, then adding some texture to give it surface tone, character and uniqueness, but Zeitguised is on the very outer edge of "concrete design," if there is such a thing.  

The textures in Zeitguised's Concrete Misplots are not minute or subtle, but thick, robust, undulating, powerful and definitely not uniform straight angles as we are accustomed to seeing, but everything still fits together whether its the stacked clay balls design of image #2, the deflated rubber inner tubes of image #4 or the undulating intestinal tract design of image #5.  All of it has form and purpose, so it is definitely not "misplotted" by any means.  This is true concrete art on steroids for lack of a better description.

I do hope that Zeitguised will not stop with just designing Concrete Misplots prints, but actually take his concrete art to the next level--building full-scale concrete housing that incorporate his concrete art form.   Certainly there must be a gifted architect out there who can colloborate with Zeitguised and build the real thing.  

Courtesy of Zeitguised in Behance Network   

FACEBOOK’S NEW MILLION-SQUARE-FT CAMPUS IN MENLO PARK IS BORING, WHAT ZUCK SHOULD'VE DONE TO SPRUCE IT UP

Facebook's famous "Like" logo is prominently displayed on the front entrance sign of its new corporate HQ in Menlo Park, CA. (Click Image To Enlarge)

To set the scene for Fast Company’s cover feature on Mark Zuckerberg, E.B. Boyd takes us on a walk-through of Facebook’s giant Menlo Park HQ.

A Tour of Facebook's New Corporate HQ in Menlo Park, CA

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To an outsider, Facebook’s one million-square-foot Menlo Park campus, opened in Dec. 2011, might look like just another tech geek’s toybox--full of touchscreens and graffiti and free bikes and liquor and gear. But it’s all designed to serve creativity and make navigation and access to people and tools as easy as a Like button (and to provide a few creature comforts). As part of our research that lead to Fast Company's April cover story on Mark Zuckerberg, we took a stroll through the new Facebook Friend factory--still a work in progress--and asked a few questions about the features that make it a hackers haven.

COMMENTARY:    I have to be frank and say that I am underwhelmed by Facebook's new corporate headquarters campus in Menlo Park, CA.   I really expected to see something spectacular, a corporate HQ that Zuck, Facebook staffers and outsiders would be proud of.  The Facebook HQ is just not that impressive.  I wanted to see a symbol and monolith of architectural design befitting of the world's largest social network. 

Zuck has been on a quest to change Facebook's culture from casual and fun to something more corporate and serious, especially on the eve of its IPO scheduled for sometime in May 2012.  Let's face it, Facebook's HQ is a hand-me-down from Sun Microsystems who previously occupied the site.  

If Facebook truly wanted to make a splash they should've let me do the entire interior design and layout.  I would've recommended something that is truly "social" and "collaborative" like Steelcase's Media-Scape office system.  I wrote about it in a blog post dated September 26, 2011 and got a lot of great feedback.  

Steelcase's Media-Scape 'Cafe-like' videoconferencing setup (Click Image To Enlarge)

Steelcase's Media-Scape collaboration and videoconferencing setup (Click Image To Enlarge)

Steelcase's Media-Scape lounge units (Click Image To Enlarge)

Steelcase's Media-Scape Team-Theater setup with canopies creates an informal semi-enclosed meeting experience.  This puts Facebook's "pods" and "cozies" to shame (Click Image To Enlarge)

For Zuck's army of workaholic code hackers I would recommend Herman Miller's ergonomic 'Envelop Desk'.   You can read about them in my blog post dated September 30, 2011. I think Zuck and his hackers would love them.

Herman Miller's 'Envelop Desk' in a workstation configuration (Click Image To Enlarge)

Herman Miller's ergonomic 'Envelop Desk' is super-comfy for those working in front of a computer display all day (Click Image To Enlarge)

Herman Miller's ergonomic 'Envelop Desk' reduces neck pain from working in front of a computer display all day (Click Image To Enlarge)

A lof of Zuck's hackers work very long hours, and many work through the night, so I would recommend Dream & Fly's "Bubbles" sleeping pods.  These would be perfect for short powernaps and could even be used for overnight sleeping.  

Dream & Fly "Bubbles" sleeping pods

Dream & Fly's "Bubbles" sleeping pods include a combortable bed and slideout shelf for a laptop and can even be equipped with a bathroom 

In a blog post dated February 10, 2012, I profiled Lego PMD's fantasy playroom office.   Lego PMD has a slide tube that allows its employees to slide down to the floor below.  I think Facebook employees should enjoy the same thrill.  

Lego PMD's fantasy playroom office has a slide tube that allows employees to slide down to the floor below.  Talk about fun.  (Click Image To Enlarge)

Zuck should take the same advice that Steve Jobs gave the CEO of Nike when he said, "Just get rid of the crappy stuff."    Give me a call, Zuck.   Let me redecorate your new corporate headquarters.

Courtesy of an article dated March 21, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Create

A FIRST LOOK AT NEW YORK CITY'S THE HIGH LINE AT THE RAIL YARD'S INCREDIBLE FINAL PHASE

High Line at the Rail Yard - the High Line will cut through another new development.  Here, the park passes under a skyscraper that's expected to be nearly as tall as the Empire State Building. (Click Image To Enlarge)

WITH EACH ADDITION, THE DESIGN ELEMENTS OF THE HIGH LINE HAVE GROWN BETTER. THIS THIRD PHASE SHOULD BE THE BEST BY FAR.

Initial details of the third and final leg of the High Line were released at a community meeting yesterday evening. Slated to open in 2014, the estimated $90 million extension of Manhattan’s madly popular railroad-turned-elevated park includes easy access to public transportation, breathtaking views of the Hudson River, and a climbing structure designed explicitly for kids.

Aerial view of High Line at the Rail Yard (Click Images To Enlarge)

But the most noticeable feature will be the one that’s missing: the 360-degree panorama of gritty old New York that provides a cinematic backdrop to the High Line’s lush first and second stretches. The third leg starts at 30th Street and cuts west toward the Hudson River, then north to 34th Street, around Hudson Yards, the proposed commercial development of a massive rail yard. Today, the yard is a no man’s land--just a lot cross-hatched by train tracks and sleepy LIRR cars. In a few years, it’ll be the new end point of the expanded seven-subway line. Ten years from now, it could be covered in towers, one of which might nearly rival the mind-boggling height of the Empire State Building. In other words, the designers are planning for an urban environment that doesn’t exist yet. But when it does, it’ll be huge.

More views of High Line at the Rail Yard (Click Images To Enlarge)

Lisa Switkin, of the landscape architecture firm James Corner Field Operations, which codesigned the High Line with the designers Diller Scofidio + Renfro says.

“The context is very different.  The existing High Line mainly runs mid-block, north-south along historic buildings and some new buildings. Here, the High Line is running east-west mostly on 30th Street. On one side there’s the street; on the other, 21st-century development. We had to ask, how do we respond to the new conditions?”

High Line at the Rail Yards children's playground and walkway (Click Images To Enlarge)

The answer: Maintain the design DNA of the High Line that’s already there, while embracing the unique western orientation and the ginormous scale of the proposed Hudson Yards development. In the “DNA” camp, there will be additional “peel up” benches--seats that look like they grow out of the ground elsewhere on the High Line--only they’ll be more elaborate. There will be peel-up planters, peel-up picnic tables, peel-up water fountains, and even peel-up desks (so you can whip out your laptop and toil away to the soundtrack of urban mayhem?).

In the “embrace the surroundings” camp, there’s a proposed elevated lookout point around 11th Avenue for gajillion-dollar views of the Hudson River. (Prediction: Many, many wedding photographs will be taken here.) There will also be lounge chairs in a 70-foot-tall tunnel, where one of the proposed Hudson Yards towers passes over the High Line. Lie back, and you’ll get a dizzying view of the mammoth skyscraper above--an effect that’s all the more exhilarating (or frightening, depending on how you feel about heights) because the chairs cantilever over the street below.

The design scheme is limited by the complexities of building a park and a large mixed-use development at the same time. Most notably, the designers have proposed a temporary walkway (“a simple path through the existing landscape,” according to press materials) that’ll serve as a placeholder until nearby construction on Hudson Yards lets up. Switkin says, so you can’t build a permanent park right away. 

“That area will be a construction site.  Instead, we’ll create a walkway over the landscape, and people will get to see the High Line the way that it was [before the new development].”

Other design moves were informed, at least in part, by public feedback. People demanded play space for kids. In response, the designers came up with the idea to rip out concrete planks just west of 11th Avenue, then cover the beams underneath in thick rubber, creating a climbing structure that lets kids literally play inside the old railroad.  Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s Matthew Johnson says. 

“That’ll be really the first design feature truly designated for kids."  

People also asked,

“Can we continue to embrace the historical components of the High Line?”

So the designers plan to develop a “rail walk” where visitors can traipse around on train tracks. The walk might even incorporate old switchgear. “Whether it will be fully operational remains to be seen,” Johnson says.

Another big request: more open space. One of the primary complaints about the second leg of the High Line is that it’s too narrow and jams up with wide-eyed tourists fast. The designers hope to turn a large swath of section three--a platform freight trains used to carry mail to and from the post office loading docks--into either an amphitheater or an open gathering space. Along the park’s narrower tracts, they’ll sacrifice dense plantings for wider paths.  Johnson says.

“People wanted relief from heavy traffic, especially on the weekends.  The section between 11th and 10th avenues has a lot more hardscape than previous areas.”

In some ways, Part III is shaping up to be the toughest installation in the HL trilogy yet. Switkin says.  

“Section three has posed some of the more complex problems.  Not only do you have to live up to the success of the first two sections, but also there’s a desire to do something different that’s about the new New York. Sections one and two were partially about responding to the historic Meatpacking District and Chelsea. This is a gesture toward a historic relic, but it’s also moving into the future.”

[Images courtesy of Friends of the High Line]

COMMENTARY:   Love how New York City has redeveloped the Rail Yard into a modern, high-tech and beautiful development for business use and the people of New York to enjoy the outer fringes of the city from an era past. 

Courtesy of an article dated March 19, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design

STARBUCKS NEW CONCEPT STORE IN AMSTERDAM IS A LABORATORY FOR REINVENTING THE BRAND

A NEW COFFEEHOUSE IN AMSTERDAM WILL BE THE TESTING GROUND FOR IDEAS THAT WILL FIND THEIR WAY TO THE REST OF EUROPE.

Starbucks is known for its unwavering consistency, from its unoffensively homey store décor to its burnt-coffee smell. But this Thursday, the brand that normalized the $4 latte is opening an experimental concept store in Amsterdam that offers a glimpse of the Starbucks of the future--at least in Europe.

The historic Amsterdamsche Bank, a landmark building on Amsterdam's famous Rembrandt Square is the site of Starbuck's concept store (Click Image To Enlarge)

Close-up of the historic Amsterdamsche Bank, which has been redeveloped into a commercial center, and is now the site of Starbuck's concept store in Amsterdam (Click Image To Enlarge) 

Located in the former vault of the historic Amsterdamsche Bank on Rembrandtplein (Rembrandt Square), on the ground floor of The Bank, a commercial and retail development, the new Starbucks concept store will be a showcase for sustainable interior design and slow coffee brewing, with small-batch reserve coffees and Europe’s first-ever Clover, a high-end machine that brews one cup at a time. But the most radical departure is in the aesthetic: the multilevel space is awash in recycled and local materials; walls are lined with antique Delft tiles, bicycle inner tubes, and wooden gingerbread molds; repurposed Dutch oak was used to make benches, tables, and the undulating ceiling relief consisting of 1,876 pieces of individually sawn blocks. The Dutch-born Liz Muller, Starbucks concept design director, commissioned more than 35 artists and craftsmen to add their quirky touches to the 4,500-square-foot space.  The new concept store will officially be open for business on Friday, March 9, 2012.

Click Images To Enlarge

The designers took great care to retain some of the building’s original details, such as the 1920s marble floor and the vault’s exposed concrete. But while the design respects the bank’s architectural history, the store’s overall look approaches that of a theater, with the baristas visible from every vantage point of the multi-tiered spaces (which also cameo as stages for local bands, poetry readings, and other cultural events). The coffeehouse will also use social media to communicate relevant moments throughout the day--for example, by sending out a tweet when warm cookies roll out of its in-house bakery. The concepts that go over well in Amsterdam will find their way to other stores across Europe. They may even filter into the highly individualized local concept stores that Starbucks has been stealthily opening in the United States, including one made from shipping containers outside of Seattle.

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This isn’t the first instance of a quintessentially American brand revamping its approach to appeal to foreign tastes and markets. Check my other blog posts dated December 6, 2011 about the new Burger King concept restaurant in Singapore and November 22, 2011 about the new McDonald's concept restaurant in Paris, France.

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COMMENTARY:   Now that's my idea of what a Starbuck's store should look like.  BIG. Roomy, beautifully decorated, slick, modern and definitely a social watering hole.  Not the little 1,100 square foot stores we are accustomed to here in the U.S.    If you are ever in Amsterdam, and want to checkout the new Starbucks concept store in Rembrandt Square here's the location on Google Maps.

 Click Image To Enlarge

I love the location for Starbucks new concept store in The Bank located on Rembrandt Square. I can definitely see myself sitting under a tree doing my blogging while drinking a cup of my favorite brew. 

Courtesy of an article dated March 6, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design and the press release dated March 6, 2012 issued by Starbucks

 

DANISH DESIGNERS ROSAN BOSCH AND RUNE FJORD DESIGN A FANTASY PLAYROOM OFFICE FOR LEGO PMD THAT IS FUN LIKE THEIR LEGO TOYS

The aggressive playfulness that characterizes a lot of office spaces nowadays, from Facebook to Google, has always struck us as vaguely infantilizing and, above all, misguided: Your IT guys don’t need a beach-themed break room, they need a quiet place to work so they can fix your damned computer. But here’s one company where a fun environment makes complete sense and, in fact, it’d be counterproductive any other way: Lego.

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These are folks who play for a living, after all. (Lucky jerks.) So for Lego PMD in Billund, Denmark--where the toy giant develops new products--Danish designers Rosan Bosch and Rune Fjord created a 21,500-square-foot big-kid funhouse. There’s an aerial walkway covered in blue padding to resemble a puffy cloud. There are cartoonishly oversized wall graphics, including one of the Lego man, and lush bonsai gardens built into the tables. There’s even a slide. (For getting to meetings faster?)

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The idea is to evoke in employees the same sense of wonder that illuminates childhood, the better for understanding their pint-sized customers (and, in turn, designing for them).   The designers say.

“Where does work stop and imagination start? Through the physical design, the children’s fantasy worlds become part of the everyday, creating the setting for the creation of new design for new games and play.”

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And it’s not like Lego PMD is all play and no work. The office has a mix of collaborative spaces (open meeting rooms, show-and-tell podiums) and private rooms (individual offices, enclosed meeting rooms, a “Fun Zone” where Lego’s tiniest employees test new models) to support the different stages of product development. Because in the end, creating fun is serious business.

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[Images courtesy of Rosan Bosch; h/t to Dezeen]

COMMENTARY:   That's what I call a really cool place to work.  I bet the software engineers and hackers at Google and Facebook would get a bit jealous knowing that Lego PMD did one up on them.  I love that slide tube from the mezzanine to the lower fantasy room office area.  

 Courtesy of an article dated February 10, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design

NANO HOUSES: SMALL, MINIMALIST AND ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY HOUSES WITH ALL THE COMFORTS, COULD BE THE FUTURE OF HOUSING

"Nano House," a new book by Phyllis Richardson, compiles outstanding examples of small-scale living.

Studio-apartment dwellers may feel reasonably content living a small-scale existence. But if transplanted in the country, how many would opt for a similarly sized house?

Driven by a commitment to reduce energy consumption and built space, there’s a growing trend among the eco-conscious to build tiny homes. A new book, Nano House by Phyllis Richardson (Thames & Hudson), gathers 40 of the best-designed examples from around the world--all of which showcase an appreciation for the efficient use of space, materials, and resources.

Will they inspire “real housewives” of Beverly Hills to abandon their McMansions, short of a foreclosure notice? Not very likely. But they may get a few die-hard city slickers wistfully contemplating a simpler life.

Check out the slideshow of 7 houses from the book. And if you want more, it's available for $20 from Amazon.

Fablab House, IAAC with MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, Spain, 635 sq. ft.

The pointof Fablab House is to get as much solar energy and provide as much living space in a compact, thermally efficient, and low-cost structure. According to the team, it's a "paraboloid section positioned for suitable solar tracking and deformed in appropriate steps aimed towards an optimal orientation for summer (narrowing to the west, widening eastward, and flattening towards the zenith of 70˚)." Since the project was designed for the hot Madrid summer, the group created shaded outdoor space by raising three legs of the building off the ground. 

Since the project was designed for the hot Madrid summer, the team created shaded outdoor space by raising three legs of the building off the ground. The legs contain services, equipment, and water.

The house is built solely of wood, cut from laminated timber using CNC technology.

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Blob dmvA Architecten, Antwerp, Belgium, 215 sq. ft.

It took a contractor six months to hand-craft the ovoid shape of Blob, a guesthouse out of polyester. The interior is lined with a gridlike storage system, which also has compartments for lounging and sleeping. The nose of the blob and a side door can be opened to create an airy pavilion.

The interior includes 360 degrees of shelving stacked four levels high, skylights and windows to let in natural lighting and a built-in shower.

Click Images To Enlarge

Blob looks a lot like a big Easter egg.  Here's the exterior view with the sidedoor and front open to let in air and sunlight.  The bottom image shows Blob fully-closed to reveal its egg shape, almost spaceship-like in appearance.  Imagine a cluster of Blobs in different colors.  Just wished there were more windows.   

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Villa Hermina HSH Architekti Cernin, Czech Republic, 635 sq. ft.

This box on a hill has two attention-grabbing features: its Pepto-colored exterior and its interior slant. The color refers to the designers’ favorite building, Ludwig Leo’s Versuchsanstalt fur Wasserbau und Schiffbau, in Berlin, whose external pipework is painted pastel pink. The steep incline is in part a response to the client’s request for a movie theater with raked seating. The lower level is connected to the upper by bright-green ramps, which provide more floor space than traditional stairs. The floors are covered in an anti-skid material common in sports facilities.

The steep incline is in part a response to the client’s request for a movie theater with raked seating. The lower level is connected to the upper by bright-green ramps, which provide more floor space than traditional stairs. The floors are covered in an anti-skid material common in sports facilities.

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Roll-It Institut fur Entwerfen und Bautechnik University of Karlsruhe, Germany, 6 ft., 6 inch x 10 ft.

Designed by students Christian Zwick and Konstantin Jerabek as a competition entry, Roll-It is the ultimate mobile home. Not only does its barrel shape allow it to be easily transported but its interior rotates like a round Rubik’s cube. It’s broken into three rings: at one end is a sleeping/living area, at the other is a kitchen and bathroom hub, and in between is the “corridor,” which can the user can turn by walking up its slope like a hamster wheel. Apart from providing exercise, the middle wheel functions as a dial to rotate either of the outer rings into the desired position.

The interior is broken into three rings: at one end is a sleeping/living area, at the other is a kitchen and bathroom hub, and in between is the “corridor,” which can the user can turn by walking up its slope like a hamster wheel. Apart from providing exercise, the middle wheel functions as a dial to rotate either of the outer rings into the desired position.

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Sunset Cabin Taylor Smyth Architects, Lake Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, 274 sq. ft.

Sunset Cabin's architect Michael Taylor describes this one-room house, located on the southern shore of Lake Simcoe, as a “simple but sophisticated Canadian bunkie.” Despite its seemingly complex pattern of louvers, the entire structure was constructed from prefabricated sections in four weeks.

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Lumenhaus, Virginia Tech University, Solar Decathlon Europe 2010, Spain, 667 sq. ft.

Lumenhaus beat out 17 other research universities for the Solar Decathlon title. This unit adapts to changing weather conditions with high-grade insulation, solar panels, and a centrally controlled energy system. A series of sliding doors was inspired by the mushrabiyahfound on traditional Arab houses. The stainless-steel screens feature a sophisticated pattern of disk-shaped cutouts; The rotation of each of the 9,000 disks was determined by Grasshopper software, which was used to calculate the angle of the sun and the degree of visibility in different areas of the house. The higher the disk placement, the more light is let in.

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House Arc Joseph Bellomo Architects, Hawaii, 753 sq. ft.

The idea for this house has its origins in a bike shed. The eco-minded California architect Joseph Bellomo partnered with the cycling enthusiast Jeff Selzer to design a bike-storage unit that could be installed in parking lots, parks, and city centers. The result was the Bike Arc, a structure made of curved steel ribs and covered in semi-opaque polycarbonate. Bellomo adapted the model for housing, using the same basic shape but with the addition of cedar cladding (which can vary depending on what’s locally available) and sliding glass doors. The house can consist of two modules--one with a kitchen and living area, the other with sleeping quarters--that are joined by a breezeway. Bellomo envisions the Arc being used as a prefab housing solution for people who have been displaced by natural catastrophes.

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COMMENTARY:  Now that's what I call compact living at its finest.  The Nano Houses are sleek, modern, minimalist in their design concept and designed to optimize limited space.  Small by normal home standards, but sufficient for a single person willing to live in tight quarters, but at a very low price.  If you can find a small plot of land, let's say somewhere on a bluff overlooking the sea or valley below, that has plenty of trees, plants, flowers and shrubbery, now and that would be heaven for a guy like me.  I could blog there all day in absolute comfort.  Bar-B-Q on the wooden desk or small balcony, and we are in business.  

So instead of having to buy a new house when you have to move, you simply take your Nano House with you.  Now that's what I call mobile housing.

Courtesy of an article dated November 12, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design  

 

SWEDISH DESIGNERS ROSAN BOSCH DESIGNS THE VITTRA TELEFONPLAN SCHOOL, A "SCHOOL WITHOUT WALLS"

Vittra Telefonplan School is a school designed without walls by Swedish designer Rosan Bosch

Sweden loves its experimental education, but here’s a venture that’s far-fetched even by Swedish standards: It’s a school without walls.

That’s right. Vittra Telefonplan, in Stockholm, was designed according to the principles of the Swedish Free School Organization Vittra, an educational consortium that doesn’t believe in classrooms or classes. So instead of endless rows of desks, it’s got neon-green “sitting islands” and whimsical picnic tables, where students and teachers gather. Instead of study hall, it has “Lunch Club,” a smattering of cafeteria-style tables on a checkerboard floor for working or eating (or both). And instead of an auditorium, it has a faceted blue amphitheatre that rises up in the middle of the school like a giant floating iceberg. The place resembles a mini amusement park, only with laptops (yes, each student gets his or her own laptop).

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Sounds great for the kids, but yikes, I feel sorry for their teachers. There aren’t any walls for them to order naughty little boys to face.

Designer Rosan Bosch points out that Vittra Telefonplan isn’t totally wall-free.She tells Co.Design 

“There are both smaller and larger closed rooms for different purposes, such as the sound-isolated Dance Hall for dancing, singing, and exercising, the sound isolated Multimedia Lab for working with film, sound, and music, as well as administrative areas and group rooms.”

 There are also assorted interior decorations and fixtures that cleverly double as partitions, like the “conversation furniture,” a towering study nook that’s tall enough to pass for a wall.

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That was the trick of designing a “school without walls”: It had to be open enough to accommodate the free-wheeling aspects of Vittra’s approach to education (no set classes!). But it also had to include some spatial divisions that could promote different ways of learning--another key part of the Vittra method--such as group work, concentration work, show-and-tell, and so on.

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When planning the school, Bosch reached out to both teachers and students. “From the children we learned that there were different types of design that didn’t appeal to them,” she says. To wit: Because they work primarily on laptops not blackboards, they like seating arrangements that let them steal a peek at each other’s screens. Bosch says,  

“We therefore created special furniture that gave them more flexible ways of working side by side and together with their laptops.  For example: spread out on rugspots, sitting side by side on a sitting island or in the organic conversation furniture.”

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Now, the big question: Does any of this actually help kids get a better education? It’s impossible to know for sure. But as Bosch tells it,

“The differentiated spaces allow the children to learn on their own terms, creating different types of learning scenarios. In that way, the design lets the school unfold its potential.”

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COMMENTARY:  I don't know of any young children (or parents) that would not fall in love with the Vittra Telefonplan School. It's a wonderous environment for education and social development. Rosan Bosch is an incredible designer and this school interior design concept demonstrates how far ahead they are.  I love the open school interior design, the furniture, props, private and social gathering areas and limited walls. I wished that U.S. schools could adopt this type of school interior design for the children.  Learning becomes fun again.  The children can form groups and create enduring friendships and relationships without the constrictions of a traditional classroom. The school also uses the latest technology such as Apple laptops.  I am sure iPads will be next.  The next wave of Apple evangelists, no doubt.

Courtesy of an article dated January 24, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design 

HOLLOW RESTAURANT, BRINGS THE NATURAL BEAUTY OF THE OUTDOORS INSIDE WITH FLOWERS, NATURAL LIGHT, WOOD AND STONE

Our new restaurant concept is called Hollow Restaurant and was conceived by two Russian designers Sergei Makhno and Vasiliy Butenko.  What do visitors expect from the new restaurant?  Delicious meals? - No doubt.  Comfort? - Of course.  Coziness? – is a must!  A place where you want to spend time with family, loved ones, friends and colleagues.  Come to Hollow Restaurant!!

The concept of Hollow Restaurant is defined by its interior.  After entering, you will feel the merger with nature.   The "Hollow" in the name is the key of the interior. The restaurant is divided into two floors.  

• First Floor - This is the dining area with a spectrum of delicious cuisine that will delight even the most refined tastes.
• Second Floor - This is the lounge area that conveys a feeling of comfort and complete security from the outside world.  Here you will feel peace, solitude and seclusion from the bustle of everyday life. 

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Hollow Restaurant's decorative elements include large windows to allow lots of natural light, high vaulted ceiling with a skylight drenchs the restaurant with lots of natural sunlight,  decorative flower art pieces hanging from the ceiling, and cone-shaped lighting fixtures to lightup each table.  Everything in Hollow Restaurant was designed to meet the aesthetic tastes of the client. 

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Authorial lamps from Vasiliy Butenko complement the flower decorative pieces and remind visitors about the generous gifts of nature. Materials used in the design are wood and stone to give a sense of natural rest and comfort with the environment.

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The interior has another one pleasant feature. There you can fully devote yourself to reading your favorite book, especially as everything is available: natural light, comfortable chairs, delicious coffee and of course a wide variety of books for every taste.  In the Hollow in every detail you will feel the personality, which is so lacking in today's world.

Main Floor Dining Area (Click Image To Enlarge)

Upstairs Lounge Area (Click Image To Enlarge)

COMMENTARY:   I have showcased the restaurant design works of Sergei Makhno and Vasiliy Butenko before, and they have really impressed me with their unique restaurant interior ideas. I hope you like Hollow Restaurant.   Looks like they gave Apple some free promo with the iMac in the upstairs lounge bar.

Courtesy of a "Hollow Restaurant" by Sergei Makhno and Vasiliy Butenko appearing in Behance