July 12, 2010
There’s a superb 5-part interview with radical Italian design company Poltronova on the thoughtful design blog RoLu. We’re currently at Part 4 and I’m looking forward to part five. Read parts one, two, three and four here.
May 23, 2010
From Mexican design firm Omelette: “Mexico’s culture has been sculpted by its prolific natural world and its blessing/curse of petroleum. Hotel Básico is an exploration of these twin mothers and their vastly undervalued aesthetics.
May 17, 2010
These photos of architect Luis Barragán’s Casa Eduardo Prieto Lopez were taken by pov_steve on Flickr. The house was built in 1950 and is part of the Jardines del Pedregal neighbourhood designed by Barragán for a lava-covered site in Mexico City.
May 16, 2010
This is the Mexico City house and studio of Luis Barragán, considered by many to be the foremost Mexican architect of the 20th century. Built in 1948, the house was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004 and is now a museum.
December 11, 2009
These midcentury modern houses are by the famed Los Angeles architectural firm Palmer & Krisel, which has built a phenomenal number of iconic houses in this style in California and Nevada.
September 1, 2009
Wow. Thanks to fauna for pointing this out to me. The 20 ton roof retracts in only six minutes via small, simple, quiet motors run by a few car batteries. The house was designed by owner Ross Russell and architect Alex de Rijke of DRMM.
August 30, 2009
This house is called the Yakisugi or “charred cedar” house. Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori is using a traditional Japanese technique of charring as a way to finish and preserve wood. See another charcoal house by Fujimori here.
August 13, 2009
This is the paper-based pavilion designed by Arthur Erickson for the UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlements that took place in Vancouver in June of 1976. The pavilion, part of Habitat’s exhibit, was erected in front of the old courthouse (now the Vancouver Art Gallery).
July 23, 2009
A few years ago architect/builder David Hovey designed and built this house for himself and his family in Winnetka, Illinois, just outside Chicago. Like most of Hovey’s buildings the house is constructed of relatively simple materials, including perforated steel I-beams, and all its parts are designed to be pre-fabricated and then shipped in.
June 27, 2009
This disassemblable spiral staircase by French industrial designer Roger Tallon is, not surprisingly, in the design collection of the MOMA. It is both ingenious in engineering terms and beautiful.
