Concept For Living

Vitra at LIMN

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Four by Four: Vitra at LIMN

Interior Designers Re-Contextualize Classic Forms

LIMN San Francisco presents a first time exhibition with Vitra, titled Four by Four: The exhibition will take place from November 20, 2008 through January 20, 2009. The two design companies are new partners in offering a Home Collection for the consumer in Northern California.

A number of outstanding designers have been selected for the exhibition: Hella Jongerius teaming with Dana Avrish, Nicole Hollis, Charles De Lisle and Orlando Diaz Azcuy. Each will be showcasing their unique vision of Vitra for the home by assembling individual vignettes in the main entry courtyard of LIMN.

“Modern design can express warmth, charm, comfort and individuality,” says Orlando Diaz Azcuy of Orlando Diaz Azcuy Associates. “We paired works from the Vitra collection with romantic, accessible and friendly
pieces to inspire the public.”

A press reception for the exhibition will be held on November 19, from 5-7pm and an opening party for the public will be held on November 20, from 5-8pm.

For more information you can visit www.limn.com or call Sherry Apostol at: (323) 931-6500.

Future Non-Future

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

The Contemporary Unbuilt Architecture of London

6th – 29th October 2008

The Future Non-Future exhibition to be held at the Architectural Association Gallery, will showcase dozens of London architectural projects, all of which remain unbuilt. Proposals from some internationally knoown architects will be shown including; FOA, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, OMA, Zaha Hadid, Foster + Partners, and Cedric Price are just some notable names.

The exhibition gives a glimpse at some speculative, visionary and provocative designs that are constantly pushing the boundaries of possibility in London’s contemporary architecture.

Altogether the collection of designs shows architecture projects in their different life-spans; some are still in the planning stage, some are readying the building stage, while some have become relegated to their designers cutting-room floor completely.

Future Non-Future offers an alternative vision of London as it is and could have been. For anyone interested in architecture, this exhibition is bound to provoke a reaction and maybe cause a spark in your own imagination.

For information call: +1 (020) 7887 4145

Or go to: www.aaschool.ac.uk

By Land or By Sea

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

‘An architect is an artist, creator, and logician of evolving aesthetic structures: a designer of not only the visual but the internal space. I see architecture as a synthesis of logic and emotion, exploring and fulfilling the dreams, fantasies and realities of my clients.’ 

                                                               Robert Harvey Oshatz

From the very first glance at any of his finished homes it is immediately obvious that Robert Oshatz holds a unique philosophy regarding the design of his projects. This credo has led to the construction of an impressive array of beautiful buildings, including the curvaceous, floating Fennell Residence.

Architects and landscapers will often seek to utilise water for its calming and relaxing qualities, not to mention the romantic vibe it instils. Oshatz has simply gone one step further in his creation of a house that is itself a water feature. Floated on 80-foot-long Douglas fir logs, the Fennell residence can be found gently bobbing, moored to the riverbank on the Willamette River.

You can read the rest of this feature in issue 27 of Spaces.

Modern Malaysian

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

When Tan Wei Ming embarked upon this self-build project in Malaysia the expectation was that having purchased a large plot of land he would be anxious to fill every inch of it with an imposing home. However, Ming had different ideas.

Tan Wei Ming explained: ‘In Asia people tend to think the bigger the better when they’re designing houses, but I didn’t have that mindset. I wanted a large garden designed for al-fresco living and I worked with a tree architect; I’m quite proud that this house was designed around the trees.’

Ultimately, the grounds, which feature Koi and lily ponds and fragrant Frangipani trees, provide the perfect foil to the house, richly rewarding him for his emphasis on the design of the garden.

Ming describes the six-bedroom residence as being a ‘Modern Malaysian home.’ When it was being built many architects in the area were taking their inspiration from Balinese resorts, but the design  of this property, with it’s concrete stilts, large public reception area and teak shutters, defies this trend.

The rest of this article can be found in issue 27 of Spaces.

A storm in a Snow Globe

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Before we begin I would like to lay my cards on the table and confess that I have always had a bit of a thing for snow globes. There’s something strangely satisfying about cupping a tiny fairytale world in the palm of your hand and watching as the world’s smallest storm brews.

However, it wasn’t until Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz came along and gave the humble snow globe a vigorous shake up that I really sat up and took notice.

The artists have made the simple, almost iconic, glass dome their own, filling it not just with delicate flakes of fake snow, but with a series of beautiful but deadly scenes featuring elegantly rendered figures, many of whom look as if they have been torn from a Hopper painting and transplanted somewhere altogether more dangerous, without time for a change of clothes.

‘The globes became a way of diffusing and articulating some of our apprehension in regards to our setting. It is therapeutic, somehow, to imagine a fully realised dystopia.’ 

You can read the rest of this feature in Spaces issue 27.

Boxing Clever

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

When most people go house hunting it’s a pretty safe bet that features like a paper-thin 1960’s portakabin, dated decor and vintage electrics won’t figure highly on their wish list. However, for architect and interior designer Gregory Phillips a house blighted with all these afflictions was just what the doctor ordered.

Gregory Phillips, who runs a successful architecture firm, speaks with undisguised relish about the quirks and challenges of the 1930’s North London semi which he bought several years ago with a view to transforming it into a versatile family home. 

‘It was in a terrible, terrible state’, he chuckled; ‘the extension was very fragile and the rest of the house hadn’t had a major refurbishment for decades.’ Sounds like an estate agent’s nightmare, but Phillips is quick to point out that it was also an architect’s dream. ‘I was looking for a house that I could remodel’, he explained, ‘and this fitted the bill. It’s also very spacious.’

One of Phillips’ signatures is his clever use of big sheets of glass in a way that quietly complements period buildings. He treads the line between old and new deftly – a skill that has won his firm a host of prestigious renovation projects – and clearly enjoys the process of gently nudging period properties into the 21st century.

The rest of this article can be read in Spaces issue 27.

A Winning Design

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Award-winning architecture firm Twenty Two Over Seven explores the vernacular of Northern Ireland’s modern and traditional dwellings in one of their recently finished projects, the McGonigle House.

Hidden away down a narrow lane in East Belfast, this modest house may not astound at fi rst glance. But on your second viewing of the private residence, you soon begin to see why it has swept the boards in 2008’s architecture awards.

The McGonigle House is the brainchild and home of Twenty Two Over Seven lead architect Kieran McGonigle. To date, the house has been the winner of a RIBA award, the residential award in the Royal Society of Ulster Architects awards, as well as winning the prestigious ‘Liam McCormick prize’ for the best overall project. The house may be modest but this warm critical reception speaks for itself. ‘I am extremely pleased that the house has won a variety of awards,’ says McGonigle. ‘It makes the effort from everyone involved worthwhile.’

Already, 2008 has been a good year for McGonigle. Their success has been compounded by winning a second RIBA award for a building restoration project in Belfast. ‘The second RIBA award makes us the only practice from Northern Ireland to win two RIBA awards in one year,’ says McGonigle. ‘We are thrilled that we have received recognition from our peers for all the hard work.’

The rest of his feature can be found in issue 27 of Spaces.

Multi-Medium Axis Mundi

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Design comes in many different forms. We at Spaces often find ourselves dealing with designers who work solely in one medium, be it architecture or interiors, furniture or art. Rarely do you come across a firm that transgresses these individual fields to work in all areas at once. But Axis Mundi is one such company.

Founder John Beckmann explains that the New York-based Axis Mundi is a multi-disciplinary design studio. ‘I don’t draw divisions between different disciplines, they all inform each other,’ says Beckmann. ‘The same thinking goes into any of the fields. It’s a continuum.’

Essentially the studio works in three fields: architecture, interior design and furniture design. When you look at the projects the firm undertakes, every aspect of their work is treated as a separate entity. But these individual areas seem to inform and enhance each other, creating a cyclical design process, but one that is always moving forward to create something new.

You can read the rest of this article in issue 27 of Spaces.

A Thoroughly Modern Menagerie

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Most chichi London hotels take a pretty dim view of guests who arrive with pets, but things are very different at hotel-cum-art gallery, the Jones.

Since September the Jones hotel in Bayswater has been hosting a groundbreaking exhibition bringing together a number of talented avantgarde artists and designers whose work has been inspired by our furry friends.

Curators Marcus Fairs and Rupinder Bhogal have managed to find exhibits that are simultaneously familiar but slightly disturbing and radical yet nostalgic; designers showcasing their work include Swedish collective Front, leading Dutch designer Hella Jongerius and Londoner Julia Lohmann.

Front will be showing their spectacular Animals series of life-size horses, pigs and rabbits that double as lamps and tables as well as new pieces that have not previously been seen in the UK.

This rest of this feature can be found in issue 27 of Spaces.

Microbot & the World of Tomorrow

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

With the digital age well and truly underway, computer-based art and design has become a staple creative form for the new millennia. With perfect timing, relative newcomer to the scene David Fuhrer, the graphic artist behind the website, Microbot, has quickly laid the foundations for an illustrious design career ahead.

At only 22-years-old David Fuhrer has already illustrated his versatility, working on a broad range of projects, from his more client-specific logo work to the creation of personalised large-scale images like Blue Moon, Metal Heart and Drug Free Zone.

The veritable youngster of computer graphics, who is self-taught, explained: ‘In 1989 when I was about four-years-old we bought our first computer with DOS 2.0. I finally found out about some new kind of digital art online back in 2002; that’s when I realised what I wanted to do. Computer graphics.’

Now, most teenagers at this point would look into classes or courses they could take in order to teach them what they needed to know to develop their art, but not Swiss-born David who took a much more challenging and precarious, but ultimately more rewarding path.

You can read the rest of this feature in issue 27 of Spaces.

Panoramic Perfection

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Anyone who has travelled to gaze upon distant lands knows that opportunities abound to capture the image of something unique and beautiful. Long standing artist Peter Jansen has taken this idea to heart as he continues his own worldwide odyssey. The results are nothing short of astounding.

Jansen’s illustrious career started in 1963 when he trained in fine art at the Royal Academy at The Hague. Since then his experimentation with new media and the use of computers has defined his art. Jansen proclaims, ‘I used computer techniques at a time when computers were only used in offices.’

The development of new media over the years has now paid Jansen back, offering up the chance to travel along with his wife, and his ‘virtual studio’ while still being able to create these wonderful panoramic art works.

The rest of this feature can be found in issue 27 of Spaces.

Roll up! Roll Out!

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

This is the century of affordable art and of a generation that values and rejoices in past traditions with an eclectic twist.

I am one of the millions currently trawling the internet for my art obsessions, visiting websites such as ‘Etsy’ where the public can display and sell their creative wares and independent online galleries where you can purchase works by emerging artists. These days there is no joy in chasing the established artist, no particular kudos in bathing in their reflected glory – it’s all about the buzz you get when you stumble across something unique.

Rollout is the on-trend company that has sprung up to cater for those who demand something a little more challenging than the usual mass market ranges by big name designers or artists. You can choose between their thrilling and ever-evolving wallpaper collection, which allows you to select your own art, or can make your selection from an existing range printed onto wallpaper for your home or office.

With art and illustration at the forefront of interior design and the growing trend for accent walls and wallpaper to create statements in modernist homes, Rollout mixes affordable art with bold statements.

The rest of this feature can be read in issue 27 of Spaces.

Bioscleave House – A Path to Forever?

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Throughout history, one of the most common themes in art and religion has been the quest for immortality. Now artists and architects Arakawa + Gins have joined scientists in the current search.

After the invention of writing in the fourth millennium BC, the search for immortality was more or less the sole province of poets, mythmakers, conmen, and religions. At least until the start of the 20th century. That is when the hard sciences outside of archaeology began to investigate.

Today, the question still remains. Is immortality really possible for the human animal? At the moment no one can say yeah or nay with any scientific certainty. But restate the question and ask ‘can we extend the human lifespan to almost unimaginable lengths?’ and everything changes. That query, it turns out, is an entirely different matter.

The husband-and-wife team of Arakawa + Gins are an indivisible amalgamation of artist, philosopher, poet, and architect. Arakawa, 71, dropped his first name more than 40 years ago. He grew up in Nagoya, Japan, and studied both medicine and art in Tokyo before moving to New York in 1961. Two years later, he enrolled in art school in Brooklyn (for the visa he says, not the education).

There, he met Madeline Gins, a fellow student, who had grown up on Long Island. Within days, they had become a couple and have been collaborating ever since on a body of work that includes architecture, conceptual art, poetry, painting, and philosophy. They are both adamant that the principal aim of their work has always been ‘how to reverse the downhill course of human life.’

To read on, this article can be found in issue 27 of Spaces.

Age of Innocence

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Alyson Fox is a great many things: an artist, a photographer, a clothes designer, a visual merchandiser and all-round source of inspiration. For now, though, we are mainly going to focus on her wonderfully simple but emotive illustrations. She was catapulted into recognition by Design Sponge, one of the primary online design blogs and has produced work for the New York Times.

Alyson’s work is a smattering of lines and block colours somehow effortlessly forming a narrative across a blank piece of paper, giving the impression of new forms developing each time you blink. She works simply in ink, coloured pencil and watercolours.

Her artistic style was developed in childhood, when she liked to use her mother’s make up pencils to draw all over the walls. However her style really evolved in university where she worked mostly with found objects. ‘I had a professor in sculpture tell me that he wanted me to pile all the information on and then just strip it away to the essentials. So I began to draw as simply and as thoughtfully as possible. I did a lot of blind contour drawings and drawing with my right hand (I am left handed). All of it just stuck’ says Alyson.

The rest of this article can be found in Space issue 27.