Some of the bone vases comprising Tidal Ossuary, an exhibit commissioned by Gallery Libby Sellers
Lohmann's Flock (2004), a series of lights made from sheeps' stomachs.
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Archive for the ‘Architecture’ Category
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Julia Lohmann’s interest in design began during childhood walks with her father, during which they’d collect abandoned objects to create small figurines and creatures. In the past, her interest in the natural world centered on our relationship to animals as sources of food and materials (consider Flock, a series of translucent lights made of sheep’s stomachs, and Cow Bench, a boar-shaped leather bench she dubbed “a bovine momento mori”). Tidal Ossuary, which debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach and will be shown Feb. 5 – March 4 at the Jacqueline Rabun Gallery in London, continues the theme of elegant objects of beastly origins. For the exhibit—commissioned and financed by Gallery Libby Sellers—Lohmann and her partner, Gero Grundmann, created a series of vases from bones they discovered while walking along London’s river Thames. The relics’ location, when figured in with the water’s current, suggests that they were by-products from London’s Smithfield meat market, either thrown into the water or washed up from the city’s Victorian-era sewer system, which emptied into the river. Once deemed as rubbish, these remnants from meals long past have survived their supposed use-by-date and, now in Lohmann’s and Grundmann’s hands, return to objects of use and even greater worth.
Tidal Ossuary Vases by Julia Lohmann and Gero Grundmann
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Oh Dallas, you have so much to answer for, between the assassination of J.F.K. and those hotpants-clad Cowboys cheerleaders. But the Texas city is making amends with the AT+T Performing Arts Center, a 10-acre, four-venue facility that’s the largest cultural institute to be built in the U.S. in 50 years. The initial two components, with a connecting urban park, opened Tuesday. The 575-seat Wyly Theatre, designed by OMA and REX, is a stage manager’s dream, featuring a fly system that can retract the balconies, proscenium, and floor; rotate or remove the orchestra seating, and even open part of the transparent exterior curtain wall. The idea was to “eliminate the distinction between stage and auditorium”—and in turn, performer and audience—says REX principal Joshua Prince-Ramus. Similarly, the desire to break down the barriers between a traditional high art form and the public at large shaped Fosters + Partners’ Winspear Opera House. Passersby may picnic beneath the structure’s solar canopy, dine in its lobby-level restaurant and café, or attend a show in the 2,200-seat performance hall, which is enclosed by bright-red glass. Foster + Partners are also designing the Center’s Annette Strauss Artist Square, an outdoor venue that will open in 2010, while Skidmore, Owings & Merrill will complete the final piece, the City Performance Hall, in 2011. 
Wyly Theatre by OMA and REX, Winspear Opera House by Fosters + Partners
The new Wyly Theatre.
Winspear Opera House - It's so new, we still have to use the rendering.
Monday, October 12th, 2009
“Experiments in tactile wayfinding”: That’s what architect Emily Fischer calls her series of Soft-Maps, a series of blankets superimposed with hand-stitched maps of neighborhoods. According to Brooklyn Based, this idea for the textural take on cartography came to her about seven years ago, when her mother’s eyesight began failing. “All of my projects after that were about the other, [non-visual] senses,” she says. (Haptic Lab, the name of Fischer’s company, refers to the sense of touch, as well as the mechanism we employ to situate our bodies in space.) Soft-Maps began with a map of Detroit, where Fischer went to school; upon relocating to New York (for a stint working with Frank Gehry), she returned to the project, concentrating on the neighborhoods around her Brooklyn apartment. (She currently offers designs based on eight Brooklyn ‘hoods, with Manhattan ones to be added starting next month.) The cotton quilts come in three sizes—crib, twin, and queen—and two types. The first, which are mostly machine-stitched, include hand-embroidered bridges and up to five landmarks of your choosing, range from $300-$800 and take about a week to complete. The second—which are completely hand-made and bespoke, with you choosing the place, border, design, and thread color—are $600-$3,200, with a waiting time of 4-5 weeks.
Soft-Map Quilts by Emily Fischer
Soft Map quilt.
Soft map quilt by Emily Fischer.
Soft Map (detail).
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Grzywinski+Pons’ Stories_NY
Perspective at grade, courtesy of Grzywinski+Pons
Good to know that in a few places in New York, the tired and poor can still find a (relatively) inexpensive hotel bed. Grzywinski+Pons, the architects behind the Lower East Side glass box known as Hotel on Rivington, has been tapped to design the more budget-friendly Stories_NY. The 12-story, 48-room hotel, to be located on 163 Orchard Street, will feature a street-level restaurant and lounge (just like Rivington) as well as a second-floor bar and terrace. The group is being quiet about the expected finish date, but it’s a coup for Grzywinski+Pons, who are also currently working on another LES hotel, the Nolitan, going up at Elizabeth and Kenmare Streets.
Elevation detail, courtesy of Grzywinski+Pons
Perspective at grade, courtesy of Grzywinski+Pons
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
We like to tell the stories behind products, but hear it from the designers themselves at Product Placement 1.3, happening Thursday, May 28, 7-9 p.m. at Designtex’s New York showroom, located at 200 Varick Street. Our theme this time is sustainable design, and our presenters are Harry Allen, MIO, Andrea Ruggiero, Karl Zahn, and Boa/Object Interiors. Each will give a five-minute rundown on the influences behind one of their products, followed by audience questions. $5 admission includes cocktails and various surprises. Space is limited, so it is essential to RSVP to thisisproductplacement@gmail.com.
Product Placement 1.3: Sustainable Design - May 28, 7-9 p.m. at Designtex
Harry Allen's Uruku refillable lipstick case for Aveda, which is molded from recycled aluminum and a new material composed of recycled plastic resin and natural flax fiber.
Biodegradable UFO plates by Andrea Ruggiero
MIO's multipurpose Loop by the Yard textile, which the company will recycle for you
Karl Zahn's Vladimir mirror
Console by Boa/Object Interiors, which features 3form panels, water-based lacquers, and recycled aluminum
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Olive Chair by Claesson Koivisto Rune
Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto, and Ola Rune are superstars in Stockholm. Not only are the three in-demand architects and interior designers, but they also teach at Konstfack (the Eindhoven of Sweden) and create products for Offecct, Wastberg, and Sultana in their spare time. Their latest innovation, Olive, straddles the line between bespoke and mass-produced furniture. Featuring five different backrests and seats randomly paired together during production, the chair, produced for Swedese, was inspired by a bowl of the delectable drupes that the three designers were sharing. They noticed each fruit had a distinct shape but was related to the others, which got them thinking about ways to convey difference and similarity. Available in metal or wood, and with or without armrests.
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Wonderwall’s Fred Perry Store in Moscow
Interiors firm Wonderwall trafficks in receding architecture and monochromatic walls. These minimalist tendencies have been the ideal foil for retail projects like Uniqlo’s New York flagship and A Bathing Ape’s global cache of outlets, as they bring quiet order to the riot of colors and patterns on offer. But Wonderwall broke out of its mold with its first project in Moscow, a store for British sporting wear company Fred Perry. The layout features a main area and sunken room, which is located a few steps down from a long hallway. Wonderwall principal Masamichi Katayama imaged that in an earlier life, the sunken room had been a secret salon where the young Soviet elite gathered. So he decorated it in a traditional Russian style, with brick walls, tufted leather sofas, and tapestries featuring regional designs from around the country. He contrasted these elements with white plaster expanses and modern materials like stainless steel, which appear throughout the rest of the space. But lest he forget his client, he also had the ceiling beams designed to form a Union Jack, as a nod to Fred Perry’s origins.
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
SANNA’s 2009 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion
Ah, summer in England: Strawberries are on the menu, Wimbledon on the telly, and the annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion makes its debut. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of Japanese firm SANAA are building this year’s structure, which will stand on the London gallery’s lawn from July until October. Unveiling the design yesterday, the duo revealed it will resemble a “reflective cloud or a floating pool of water” placed atop of a series of columns. The roof will be of undulating metal sunshade that wraps around the trees in the park, while the building will incorporate other shiny, translucent materials. Much like Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate” in Chicago’s Millennium Park, the structure’s appearance will change according to weather and the light, and will reflect back the environment rather than detract from it. As SANNA said, “It works as a field of activity with no walls, allowing views to extend uninterrupted across the park and encouraging access from all sides. It is a sheltered extension of the park where people can read, relax, and enjoy lovely summer days.” Areas within the pavilion will also house a cafe and auditorium for public programs.