There’s a great line towards the end of 1993’s Tombstone when an emaciated, tubercular, and moribund Doc Holliday (played without a false note by a whisper-thin Val Kilmer) glances at his exposed feet at the end of his hospital bed and says to no one in particular, “I’ll be damned. This is funny....
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Mason Gray makes furniture right here in the United States. Designed in New York, built in Connecticut, their products evince good workmanship and environmental stewardship. Pieces are built with sustainably harvested hardwoods and finished with non-toxic, water-based glazes, paints, and stains. ...
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If you’ve ever attempted to expand your understanding of the eminently talented and omnipresent Patricia Urquiola, then you surely know about her minimalist website, which features only an Italian address, a couple of telephone numbers, and a pair of email contacts. In fact, the site’s only flour...
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Murals are making a comeback. The James, for instance, an über chic boutique hotel in downtown Chicago, is decked out in bold blown-up photographs: huge birch trees en route to the elevators from the lobby, abstracted textures at each floor level. In the minimal setting, they create a big impact....
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No need to compromise with modular, one-size-fits-all “solutions”: Berkeley Mills can customize a kitchen to your precise needs and desires. ”Beautiful to look at, satisfying to use, they blend superior European technology, functionality, and ergonomic design with the Berkeley Mills tradit...
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Sometimes it’s better to work with what you’ve already got. If you’ve ever decided to strip tile or remove flooring to the subfloor, then you know what lurks beneath. It can be ugly. It can make you think about your house in ways you never even wanted to. I liken it to uncovering the upholstery o...
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Kyouei Design likes to play around with everyday objects. The CEO and designer Kouichi Okamoto spent over six months creating Composition Chair, which is fashioned from aluminum wire. The lounge chair has no bolts or other hardware—just wire bent by Okamoto’s hands (and his pliers). Kyouei Desig...
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LED technology is enabling energy-efficient lighting to spread into households the world over—but it is also sparking innovative design. Not long ago, we covered Sanyo’s Eneloop Lamp, a table lamp that converts into a flashlight—so you always have light available during an emergency. There is a s...
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Floor lamps take up precious floor space. If you disagree, you live in a luxurious abode. City living inevitably leads to confined spaces for all but a very wealthy few. Beyond the significantly smaller spaces urbanites inabit is the lack basements and attics. Every square foot counts and floor ...
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Bloxels are a combination of blocks and pixels. Created by electrical engineer Jinha Lee as his senior thesis for the University of Tokyo, this new technology sought to answer an interesting question: “What if pixels escaped the monitor screen and became controllable by people?” Returning to an a...
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The water bubble has been the inspiration for some fascinating architecture as of late. A study of the structure of bubbles led to the impressive National Aquatics Center in Beijing, which the world lovingly dubbed the Water Cube. Now the fascinating globule is showing up in the form of a floatin...
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The ornamentation of old Baroque style combines with modern materiality in Luciano Santelli’s Royal Coffee Table. A recent material of choice, acrylic has been used to produce everything from turntables, wall clocks, vases, and lighting to seating, side tables and large scale furniture. Th...
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Since Toshiba has chosen to name their new pint-sized vacuum cleaner after a French delicacy gleaned from none other than the versatile gastropod of genus Helix, family Helicidae, a brief look at the biology of the humble snail is in order: “a snail’s body consists of a foot (sole), a head, and a...
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While it’s true that Spanish kitchen and closet company Spazzi gives exotic names to many of its models, today’s focus is simply called L-01. In lieu of Cuba or Java, L-01 offers much in its look to counteract its somewhat uninspired moniker—unless the “L” stands for Labas...
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As we saw a while back with Sing’s Structural Panels and Bencore Composite Panels, the six-sided-spheroid we know as the honeycomb has inherent structural advantages: in addition to being exceptionally strong, it’s also soundproof, incredibly lightweight, and enviably efficient (its ratio ...
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It’s true that ‘Made in New York’ doesn’t have the same ring to it as ‘Made in Italy.” But maybe it should. For woodworking in particular, I have more confidence with the longevity of many Brooklyn-made products than with brand-name Italian designs (though I&...
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Here’s what we know about the project proposal/prototype called “Lighthouse Tower” by Paris’ Mikou Design Studio: 1. It’s 35 stories high, 5,000 square meters, and 20 million USD; 2. it intends to expand the notion of “lighthouse” into an emblematic civic icon housing “observation points, an audi...
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Imagine viewing an entire country, from an aerial perspective, at night: from brightly lit cities to positively dark countrysides, and of course everything in between. With fog and the logistics of space travel (among other things), viewing space images is potentially as good as it gets. Cool a...
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Designed by V12 and Arkispazio, the Katana Floor Lamp is available through ITRE USA, Inc, distributor of Italian contemporary lighting for over 20 years. Although conceived in 2008, the new white version was unveiled at the 2009 Salone Internazionale del Mobile. The carbon fiber and steel floor l...
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Iconic architect and designer Robert A.M. Stern is outspoken about his contention that what goes on inside a building is just as important as the exterior. The collection of library carrels for David Edward is the proverbial money for Stern’s mouth, since the handsome furnishings are designed to ...
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Since I happen to be an itinerant of sorts this year (in the past three months I’ve lived in Colorado, Upstate New York, and South Miami), I’ve taken a special interest in the landscape of cities and assorted public spaces. My observation is that, generally speaking, very few people realize the g...
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You’re likely familiar with the Cherner Chair Company for their famed Cherner Chair, the 1958 molded plywood armchair that is now a midcentury icon found in design collections worldwide. Designed by Norman Cherner, it consists of a molded plywood seat constructed of laminated plywood in gra...
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Like Andy Kem’s Breakplane and Casulo’s Life in a Box, Ismail Özalbayrak’s Wireframe table has a flatpack aesthetic. The piece is an excellent exercise in minimalist aesthetics—from conception to final product, from choice of materials to ease of assembly, Özalbayrak’s table speaks the language o...
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Fashion meets art. Handbag designer Katherine Fleming’s $800 signature Jane clutch, available exclusively at Barney’s New York (and several other locations worldwide), was transformed into 17 unique pieces of artwork by 17 artists, all invited by Fleming herself. Katherine Fleming w...
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It is difficult if not impossible to create design that will last without feeling dated. Time goes on, and nobody can predict the future. Certain ideas, however, take this into account by allowing for change. Such is the case with FRAME, a furniture concept designed by Marcus Abrahamsson and Kris...
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Perhaps in an effort to avoid the unfamiliar cédille, Brazilian furniture company ESPASSO used two of the letter s instead—the true word for space in the Portuguese language would be espaço. Whatever the case, ESPASSO maintains showrooms in New York and Los Angeles, where they showcase both class...
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Those of you who have seen my past posts on Bram Geenen’s Gaudí stool, Francesc Rifé’s Nord Collection, and Javier Mariscal’s Los Muebles Amorosos, may suspect that I’m enamored of all things Barcelona, and, by extension, all things Catalán, and so I am… at least when it comes to the auspic...
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Winner of a Red Dot Award for Product Design, the Bedouin Bookshelf is a little piece of book heaven. Described by its manufacturer as “an elegantly designed bookshelf that can be transformed into a compact, easy-to-transport piece of luggage,” Bedouin gets its name from the nomadic d...
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Andy Kem’s Breakplane Furniture reminds me of one of those flat, “assemble-it-yourself” pieces of cardboard they hand to you at the post office, in which (provided you succeed in putting it together) you can send anything, anywhere (provided it fits) for a certain low low price. The difference i...
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Yoox + Established & Sons? It doesn’t get much better. Think of it like a digital shop-in-shop with Jasper Morrison, Sam Hecht and Committee available at the click of a button. Shortly thereafter (and thousands of dollars later), said object or objects arrive at your doorstep: For those...
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