Architects Graça Correia and Roberto Ragazzi designed this concrete house in Portugal.

From the architects:

As a half-buried house in its relation to the main access it appears diminished; on the other hand, from the river, it appears as a glass frame dissimulated on the vegetation. This weightless intervention is enhanced by the overhanging part that shoots off the riverbank cliff maximizing its transparent appearance from the river reducing land occupancy and preserving all trees.

Visit the website of Correia Ragazzi Architects – here.

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The Andrea Meislin Gallery in New York is featuring the Wounded Topographies exhibition by New York-based artist Itamar Jobani between January 24th and February 28th, 2009.

Blending mythologies from multiple traditions, Itamar Jobani always arrives at a conclusion uniquely his own. Adapting the technique of building topographic models to depict the human body, the very foundation of Jobani’s work speaks to the deep confluence between bodies of land and the bodies of men.

Visit the Andrea Meislin Gallery’s website – here.

Visit Itamar Jobani’s website – here.

A2 is a new Swedish furniture brand that designs and produces all their furniture by skilled craftsmen in Småland, Sweden. One of their first creations is the Pile chair family, which come in a regular upright version, as well as an easy chair that is more relaxed.

From A2:

The Pile family is based on an idea of creating an extremely clean and distinct family of stackable chairs. The Pile chairs have straight and simple lines in combination with a contrast between metal and soft materials to create a very comfortable and stackable chair.

Visit the A2 website – here.

The Pile Easy Chair:

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Principal architects Michel Weenick and Brian White of the architecturew practice, designed this modern minimalist house in Nagoya, Japan.

From the architects:

Responding to limited street access and a cliffside site, the residence is designed to make the most of its unique site. A top floor living area, cantilevered over the entry, is enclosed on both the north and south facades by sliding glass walls that allow the space to open to the sun, breezes and distant views afforded by the site.

Visit the architecturew website – here.

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Dutch designer Tord Boontje has created the Future Flora lighting series for Artecnica.

From Tord Boontje:

Although I started by looking very closely at flowers, it became a project from memory, to imagine shapes which are like flowers but not exactly, a new kind of species – a flower and light hybrid.

From Artecnica:

Precision-etched metal sheets that transform into three exotic bloom-shaped forms. Future Flora inhabits the intersection of nature and technology. Future Flora’s contoured openings, fine details, and silver matte surface all conspire to illuminate space by casting poignant radiance. Packaged flat, Future Flora is assembled by connecting intricate metal sheets that comprise each design.

Visit Tord Boontje’s website – here.  Visit Artecnica’s website – here.

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February 13th-22nd, 2009 will see the “Valentine to Times Square” sculpture installed in the new Duffy Square at the center of Times Square, New York City.

Designed by New York based Gage/Clemenceau Architects, the heart-shaped, ten-foot tall sculpture reflects the lights and energy of New York’s Times Square on a delicate latticework of stainless steel. Inside, LED lighting pulses in reds, pinks and purples across robot-carved shelves of horizontal luminescent Corian in Strawberry Ice.

Visit the website of Gage/Clemenceau Architects – here.

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Simone Micheli has designed the CROSS+ collection for Italian lighting manufacturer La Murrina.

From La Murrina:

The CROSS+ collection is conceived as a combination of Murano glass modules in different colours, and metal modules with different finishes. Through the combination of the modules various shapes and versions can be designed and produced, following the requirements of the customers and or of the project.

A luminous column in the centre of a large space or a wall light that creates atmosphere and décor, or a transparent and coloured wall that divides without
separating one or more areas of the same space.

A versatile product standing in strict relation with the interior where it is placed: hotel lobbies, entrance halls, main stairs, retail spaces, private residences, being an everlasting model with a magic effect. Featured in the photo the suspended circular version,
presented at the recent Sia Guest Fair in Rimini with diameter 100 cm and 270 cm length. Red and transparent glass modules and polished nickel metal elements.

Visit La Murrina’s website – here.  Visit Simone Micheli’s website – here.

Studio Urbano, a young architecture, interior design, and furniture design office in Guadalajara, Mexico, have sent us photos of their San Bernardo house renovation project.

The client wanted both the exterior and interior of the house to be remodeled in a contemporary style in contrast with the more traditional rustic style that existed before. Studio Urbano provided the architectural design, interior design, and some furniture designed for the house.

Visit Studio Urbano’s website – here.

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Miami based designer Facundo Poj has sent us photos of his Ofidio Dining Chair.

From Facundo Poj:

I always start conceptualizing my pieces from a single line. Put the pencil down, give the paper a single stroke, pick the pencil up. I emulate the infinite freedom of the line of the snake. Structural strength, stability and ergonomics must all be solved with this one line; a minimal solution.

Visit Facundo Poj’s website – here.

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Camilla Waldal and Janne Helen Bulling, design students at Norway’s Oslo National Academy of the Arts, have created the Zipp Lamp.

Zipp consists of zips that have been put together to form the supporting component of the lamp. The lamp comes in different heights and in plain colours or multi-coloured, according to choice. The zip itself creates an interesting play of light and allows the lamp to be taken apart for transport. The collection consists of a table lamp, standard lamp and pendant lamp.

Waldal and Bulling will join their fellow students from the Academy when they present their latest work at the 2009 Stockholm Furniture Fair (February 4th-8th).

Visit Camilla Waldal’s website – here.  Visit Janne Helen Bulling’s website – here.

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London based design agency Jump Studios created the Blueroom on the lower ground floor of mobile phone provider O2’s shop on Oxford Street in London.

The Blueroom is a ‘lounge bar’ where O2 customers are invited to take a break, enjoy some internet access, and download media content, such as MP3 files, and the latest sports or concert clips.

Visit the Jump Studios website – here.

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Christian Elverhøi Thomassen, a design student at Norway’s Oslo National Academy of the Arts, has created the Stave Side Chair.

If, besides always satisfying our need for a good rest, a chair also has an appearance that encourages you to question your own preconceptions about the composition of the physical objects that surround you, then it will, at the very least, make you stop up and take a rest. By means of its proportions and special character, or the sentimental associations it awakens, a chair can talk to you and so instigate a dialogue between you and your surroundings.

Stave’s character is the result of the encounter between the homogeneous framework of its back and sides on the one hand, and the eclectic seat composed of scrap pieces of wood on the other. The framework gives the chair a look of uniformity, while the seat makes each individual chair unique and gives it personality – a personality that might make you think of barcodes or a pile of macaroons, or that can even awaken feelings of national identity.

Materials: Untreated ash, lacquered birch, stained ash, pear tree, yellow oak, maple.

Thomassen will join his fellow students from the Academy when they present their latest work at the 2009 Stockholm Furniture Fair (February 4th-8th).

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South African interior designer Stephen Falcke created this wall of baskets.

Design words of wisdom from Stephen Falcke:

“The trick is to build visual layers, just as one might do with a painting”

Visit Stephen Falcke’s website – here.

The Lucy Cole agency recently listed this new riverfront 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom house for sale that is located in the Benowa suburb of Australia’s Gold Coast.

A towering two-storey atrium forms the heart of the design, with living and sleeping areas fanning out over two spacious levels. Expanses of glass bathe the interior in natural light, while serene river and hinterland views impart a sense of quiet seclusion.

Visit Lucy Cole’s website – here.

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Isaac Monté, a design student at Norway’s Oslo National Academy of the Arts, has created the Plastic Dandy chair.

Plastic Dandy is a sitting sculpture designed by the Belgian designer Isaac Monté, but produced in Norway. The cold, naked plexi-plate contrasts with the warm, woollen plaid.

The transparent piece of furniture is formed in such a way that light accentuates the curves. It is been made in one piece of plexi that has been folded by heat into two triangular forms, symbolising the male figure. The triangular forms are echoed in the pattern of the plaid.

Although the sculpture and the plaid are two different objects, they have been designed together and should be seen as one object. Both pieces evoke different feelings: warmth and cold, nudity and serenity, the old-fashioned and the modern. This combination of both objects is innovative.

Isaac will join his fellow students from the Academy when they present their latest work at the 2009 Stockholm Furniture Fair (February 4th-8th).

Visit Isaac Monté’s website – here.

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