Italian designer Domenico De Palo has created the Havana outdoor seating collection for the furniture manufacturer Dimensione Disegno.
The aluminium structured seating is covered with removable Cordura® fabric for outdoor use.
Visit the Dimensione Disegno website – here.
Visit Domenico De Palo’s website – here.
Caroline Havag, a design student at Norway’s Oslo National Academy of the Arts, has created the Aperto Chair.
Four straight legs, a comfortable seat and an unpretentious, straight back: how to design a chair along these lines that is simple, yet at the same time exciting to look at? The solution was to use only one type of material, in one coherent form.
The chair Aperto looks as if it has been cut out of a solid block of plywood, but is in fact constructed of many layers, like a sandwich. The holes in the back and seat, inspired by Le Corbusier, help to lighten the appearance of its otherwise very compact form. The holes are emphasised with a choice of colours. The plywood gives the chair the strength it needs in order to retain its slim shape.
Caroline will join her fellow students from the Academy when they present their latest work at the 2009 Stockholm Furniture Fair (February 4th-8th).
On Saturday November 29th, the successful transportation and installation of the world’s first heavy traffic road bridge made from Accoya wood took place. The bridge, located in Sneek in the Netherlands, is the first wooden bridge in the world that can support the heaviest load class of 60 tons. An official opening ceremony and celebration is planned for April 15, 2009.
Spanning 105 feet and rising more than 50 feet in the air, the structure will serve as a grand entrance to the city of Sneek. The €3.5 million bridge was commissioned after a 2005 design competition, and is designed by OAK Architects (a collaboration between Achterbosch Architectuur and Onix architects) and constructed by German firm Schaffitzel Holzindustrie.
Visit the website of Achterbosch Architectuur – here.
Visit the website of Onix architects – here.
Camilla Hounsell Halvorsen, a design student at Norway’s Oslo National Academy of the Arts, has created the Drops Chair.
Drops consists of legs of stainless steel and an inner tube covered with recycled upholstery material. The seat is not permanently fixed to the underframe, but the inner ring in the seat fits over the outer ring of the underframe so that the chair can be tilted into the desired position by the user. The seat can also be removed from the underframe for use as a pouffe. The chair’s design has been inspired by the process behind making tassels. Drops introduces elements of childish delight and colourfulness into the user’s everyday life.
Camilla will join her fellow students from the Academy when they present their latest work at the 2009 Stockholm Furniture Fair (February 4th-8th).
Visit Camilla Hounsell Halvorsen’s website – here.
Chris Doray and Arno Matis from Vancouver, Canada’s Iconstrux Architecture provided a complete redesign for this 1960′s “Vancouver Special” house in Vancouver’s Dunbar neighbourhood.
The term “Vancouver Special” refers to an architectural style of houses that were built between roughly 1965 to 1985 in Vancouver. The relatively cheap and easy to build houses were popular with house builders looking to fill the demand for new housing in the fast growing city. So many of the houses were built, and became such a common sight, that they were given the nickname of Vancouver Special.
Although thousands were built, the homes have never enjoyed much love from Vancouver residents for the way they look, and the term Vancouver Special is usually used as a derogatory reference meant to reflect the cheap tackiness that the style is known for. Today, the home’s are all 20 to 40 years old, and many are being torn down or renovated. One of those lucky enough to survive, is this 1960′s Vancouver Special that underwent a complete contemporary renovation.
Read more about the house in an article from the Globe and Mail – here.
See lots more photos of Vancouver Specials – here.
Visit the Iconstrux Architecture website – here.
Drawing inspiration from the beauty of the pig, Imaginarte offers a space for creative people to generate big ideas.
From Imaginarte:
Located within the offices of this Communication Agency, the space brings together all you need to ensure a flood of creative ideas. The set up was conceived to enhance teamwork. In order to remove all those barriers to communication, there is not a single desk in sight. Instead, Warren (a sculptured pig) presides over this evocative room, with its LED lighting.
The upholstery was designed exclusively for use in this pigsty and shows Warhol-style ham textures. In similar style are the chrome-plated aluminium light fittings and of course, the highly-original sliding door, with its remote control, in the form of a huge pink snout, all in an effort to honour Warren’s fine looks. Even he seems to have understood that this is an area to promote communication, judging by the size of the Oink Oink, seen on the wall.
Visit Imaginarte’s website – here.
British designer Elliot James Barratt has sent us his SYNC seating system.
From:
SYNC consists of a number of highly engineered cubes situated on gas springs finished with the client’s preferred material. When appropriate, pressure is applied, and the seat descends to reveal the arms and back rest regardless whether it is the middle or corner cube.
The seating can be arranged in multiple configurations with the least amount of cubes required being four. The minimalist design means it is at home in both larger scale living and design-inspired areas such as public spaces, foyers, hotels etc. The seating system is designed and configured to suit its surroundings. Whether a long line to fit a narrower layout is required or if the piece needs to work round corners of an interior, SYNC’s bespoke design can suit all.
Available with endless upholstery options, Base plate covers available in a range of different finishes and materials, upholstery shown in cowhide with base covers in mirrored steel.
Dimensions per cube 450mm x 450mm x 700mm (at starting height)
Visit the ElliotJames website – here.
Stephanie Knust, a student at the University of Art and Design Halle at Burg Giebichenstein in Germany, has sent us photos of her Stella Lamps that she recently exhibited at the 2009 IMM Cologne furnishings show.
Visit Stephanie Knust’s website – here.
Zira Zero Island is a 1.000.000 m2 master plan for a carbon neutral resort and residential development on Zira Island located along the Caspian Sea. As a young post-soviet democracy, Azerbaijan is rediscovering its national identity by imagining Zira Island as an architectural landscape based upon the country’s dramatic natural setting. Located within the crescent shaped bay of the capital city Baku, Zira Island includes the Seven Peaks of Azerbaijan which is envisioned by its designers BIG Architects and the engineers Ramboll to be a sustainable model for urban development, and an iconographic skyline recognizable from the city’s coastline.
Visit the BIG Architects website – here.
Overlooking Lake Wakatipu near Queenstown, New Zealand, is the Drift Bay house that architects Bronwen Kerr and Peter Ritchie designed for themselves and their three children.
Visit the website of Kerr Ritchie Architects – here.
