Intriguing lamp design by Japanese Arihiro Miyake, where the balance has been reversed: the base has become the main interest point and the source of light seems very modest. The right angle can be adjusted by turning the polyhedron-shaped base. Less is definitely more...
Khai Liew's career is truly exceptional - it began in his forties, without formal education yet at once with fully formed, mature aesthetic sense and practical knowledge. Before establishing his own design studio in 1996, Khai Liew had worked as a renown restorer of vintage
furniture for over 20 years. His first antique shop in Adelaide was filled with early Australian pieces, mid-twentieth-century Danish designs and Chinese antiques.
“Years of taking furniture apart in the restoration process has enabled me to examine and study the techniques of furniture construction from various countries and cultures, from different artistic movements and centuries. This has been the principal factor in the formation and development of my design vocabulary, and has greatly shaped the way I assess what good design is and how I apply this assessment to my own work.”
Chinese-Malaysian Khai Liew incorporates craft tradition from both Asian and mid-century European cultures. And still leaves a lot of space for creative invention. His beautiful, handcrafted pieces were presented in numerous exhibitions including a group show at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Living in a loft... I guess I'm not the only one that dreams of it. But if you entered an old woodworker's shop, with all the walls and ceilings covered with thick layer of sawdus, could you imagine your dream apartment there? The couple that lives in this beautiful loft transformed it from the very begining, and had to solve many adaptation problems, like for example a lack of functioning kitchen. Before all was neatly painted white, they had to struggle with cleaning all the dust - it was necessary to hose down the walls and ceilings with a power washer! Furnishing was the pleasant part: a mixture of vintage and new, high and low feels perfectly at home within old brick walls.
Short reportage from "Gone With The Wind" exhibition presented at Milan Design Week 2010. Slovenian designer Nika Zupanc is talking about her latest project and relationships between design art and fashion. Read more about the designer here: Nika Zupanc.
Unusual office building of Selgas Cano architecture bureau was designed by architects themselves and build in the beautiful forest area nearby Madrid. The tunnel-shaped office with curved windows is a perfect example of uniting interior and exterior space. The interior opens to the surrounding nature, but stays pleasantly enveloping and cosy. And notice the cool, air-suspended writing desks!
For everyone, who just like me,
shivers at the thought of the real ones stuffed: cute and cuddly,
hand-made wooden sheep-stools by Hans-Peter Krafft (design: 1982,
manufacturer: Meier)
... or something from surrealist art world: Les moutons created by amazing 60's artist François-Xavier Lalanne. I discovered his animal sculptures recently, quite captivating!
Japanese design studio Nendo presents an exquisite collection entitled Thin Black Lines at the Saatchi Gallery in London. The exhibition is open until October 31st, so if you are around, drop by!
Ora-Ïto's apartment seems like an imagination laboratory where anything can happen: designer furniture, geometric art, Japanese antiques and... a giraffe - all enclosed in 17th-century mansion with original, beautifully ornamented wooden ceilings. The building is located in the atmospheric, trendy northern part of the Marais district in Paris.
The London Design Festival brought new inspiring discoveries, and I will definitely remember Hungarian studio A+Z Design as one of the most interesting this year. Creative, fresh thinking and fascination by the beauty of disappearing local traditions - these make the design duo from Budapest truly unique. Attila F. Kovacs and Zsuzsa Megyesi founded A+Z Design last year and Gipsy Furniture Collection was launched at The London Design Festival in september.
The collection is inspired by the folk culture of Hungary and Transylvania. A+Z Design revives traditional objects into contemporary context, but preserves their original identity. All the furniture pieces are made with use of traditional craft techniques such as enamel, embroidery or woodcarving, and I think this is the reason why we experience them in a very emotional way.
