October 20, 2012
There is a particular type of contemporary design that I deeply despise but for which there is no terminology. About six years ago, out of frustration, I started calling it “contempo.” It is a deliberately cheesy term for a cheesy aesthetic, an aesthetic of dumbed-down, cutesy faux-modernism.
February 16, 2012
This ant, seen at a roadside restaurant near the border of Goa and Maharashtra States in India, appeared at our table the moment the condensation did. There’s a famous quote from Diana Vreeland that hot pink is the navy blue of India, but that’s equally true of orange—human, animal and mineral.
January 15, 2012
I have nothing to add to 1000 Words: A Manifesto for Sustainability in Design by designer Allan Chochinov. To preface his manifesto Chochinov writes:
I don’t like the word manifesto.
September 21, 2010
Via Williamson.
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 19, 2010
Just a cement parking garage, but look how much care has been taken with the design of the concrete forms used for this building, and also with the lettering. Though clearly someone felt the subtle sign was a little too subtle for business.
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 8, 2010
More design from Mexico City. These are just four benches out of the scores of original designs found all over town.
February 23, 2010
The Göbekli Tepe temple near Şanlıurfa, Turkey, about 20 miles from the Syrian border and not far from Mesopotamia, was discovered by a Kurdish shepherd. It turns out to be 11,500 years old, many thousands of years older than any other known human temple building, and apparently it is radically altering archeology’s understanding of the origins of human civilization.
