I always meant to initiate a regular feature about bad design but for a long time I didn’t have the heart for it. For one thing, finding insincere design is like shooting fish in a barrel.
Cringe List, Part 1: Alessi
January 20, 2009
interiors
Final Wooden House by Sou Fujimoto
January 18, 2009
This is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. It is the “Final Wooden House” by Sou Fujimoto, 2008, in Kamamura village in the south of Kyushu. It has just won Best Private Home award in the Wallpaper Design Awards 2009 and is probably on every design blog this week.
Pole shelving – turn this ugly example into something better
January 17, 2009
Yet another 60s DIY project from The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement, Greystone Press, 1970. While the bookshelf directly above is cringe-worthy (almost in the “so bad it’s good” category, but not quite), it could be very mod if it were updated and re-made properly with more attractive materials.
Egle Amaldi’s bookshelf & modernist Cado shelving
These staggered, airy midcentury modern arrangements are so much less chichi than the many fancified contemporary bookshelves you see around.
I love this simple, balanced living room belonging to Italian architect Egle Amaldi in the 1960s.
Molo
January 15, 2009
Just a few blocks up the road from my studio is the workshop of Vancouver’s Molo Design. You’ve probably seen their accordioning softseating or their softwall room dividers which are now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.
Tags:
accordion
Canada
Canadian
East Vancouver
furniture
furniture design
homies
minimalist
Molo
monochrome
natural
paper
room divider
room dividers
seating
These are the people in your neighborhood
Vancouver design
Vancouver designer
Categories:
British Columbia,
Canadian design,
design,
favourite,
furniture,
interiors,
Uncategorised,
Vancouver
Ray Eames’ workspace vs. Charles Eames’ workspace
There’s something compelling about Ray Eames’ desk area, papered with work and photographs. Many people seem to have a fierce aversion to clutter these days (driven no doubt by the storage furniture industry) but artists like to have materials and visual stimulation at hand in their studios and there’s some evidence that this supports the creative process.
Houses like spaceships, spaceships like houses
January 11, 2009
Bathroom futurism! Excellent circular spaceship thing going on here. I’m not sure about shag rugs in the bathroom, but will boldly go where no one has gone before. Still, how on earth would you clean this room?
Tags:
1960s
60s
adventurous
architecture
bathroom
brass
capture
circles
circular
conceptual design
decor
design
fantasy
Firefly
flokati
furniture
futurist
interior design
Jayne
Mal
round
screen
screenshot
Serenity
shag rug
shot
Simon
space
space age
spaceship decor
wall sculpture
Wash
western
whiteness
why are things so boring now?
Zoe
Round windows
January 6, 2009
Why are round windows so uncommon in North America? Not a rhetorical question. When you do see them here, either in house or garden, they seem magical and out of the ordinary. Round, eye-level windows are quite prevalent in many other places, including Central and South America, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe.
The “What’s In, What’s Out for 2009” list thing.
January 4, 2009
The “What’s In and What’s Out in 2009” lists are starting to appear. Not to be too protestant about it, since environmentalism in its more puritanical moment can make you want to stab yourself in the eye with a fork—a plastic fork—but these lists can get anxiety-provoking.
