Southcott has won a number of awards and is currently among the designers featured in “Bent Out of Shape,” an exhibition at the Design Exchange in Canada, which focuses on Canadian designers from 1945 to the present.

designer: rob southcott



about perrin drumm

you tell your architect to bunch up the windows, the passage-ways, because you want immense uncluttered / neutral wall space to hang your art. on the other hand if you don’t have a ton of art you can tell the architect you wish your home to be the art statement. the armella house is such a house.






one wonders what one wears in a house like this. all white, black, or grey ? and one also wonders if after a time the color palette needs to be changed. that said, this is indeed a beautifully conceived and festive home built in mexico, rich in local colors.

Designer: bosco gutierrez cortina
Date: 1994

Designer: d’strict


thanks randy shear

It should come as no surprise that something as playful and cool as the IQ Fortis Watch would come from design master mind Rolf Sachs. With its thick, leather band and the handmade look of the watch face, the IQ Fortis is a manly watch that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

That statement can be applied to most of Sachs designs, which range from simple and conceptual objects to expertly crafted furniture and lighting, like his dome light series that debuted at Art Basel this year.





above: dome rubecula

above: dome rattus maximus

above: dome addict

Designer: rolf sachs
Producer: fortis



about perrin drumm

thanks randy shear

Fatigue control for the workplace! Looking like something out of science fiction, the MetroNaps EnergyPod actually harnesses science and NASA technology to create a space within a space.

Occupying the same amount of room as a sofa, the EnergyPod creates a cocoon from outside noise and distractions. Occupants are reclined into the optimal napping position to promote blood circulation and reduce pressure on the lower back and ambient sounds help nappers drift into light sleep. At the timer’s expiration, the occupant is gently woken with a combination of lighting and vibration.

Key Features & Benefits
* Room within a room
* Inbuilt Bose sound system
* Contemporary design
* Zero gravity technology

above: another fatigue management product from metronap is the lightweight and easily transportable “napshell.”
note: however, if you’re working for a less evolved company or not putting in 16 hour days…





above: fits easily in your desk drawer. put glasses on, crack your office door ever so slightly, prop large document on copyholder device in front of you.

Producer: metronaps ( energypod )

above: in 2006, miyake took his biggest leap yet. he and his two collaborators opened 21_21 design sight in a tokyo building designed by tadao ando. “we always dreamed of a space in Japan,” says miyake, who promises “new and unprecedented solutions” from his unusual venture.





above: tokyo midtown is a new development with a range of offices, parks, shopping malls, apartments, restaurants and museums. the area around roppongi is well known for its many pioneering galleries with contemporary art, architecture and design.





below: “xxst century” exhibition starting on the first anniversary of 21_21 design sight’s opening in 2007, the question arises: where are we headed, now that we live in the century once hailed as the future?





in this show, exhibition director issey miyake has done extensive research to prepare for the show, which includes a wide spectrum of japanese and international creators, all of whom address today’s many doubts and insecurities through their own individual form of creative expression. above: yasuhiro suzuki beginning of time tokyo, 2007 – 2008





above: koutarou sekiguchi it’s departure at a bright night. maebashi, 2007





above: the wind installation in issey miyake’s creative room





above: stickman by dui seid





above: “the outline” exhibition – the unseen outline of things. exhibition design by naoto fukasawa and tamotsu fujii.







above: an ‘outline’ is a contour of something. it is also the boundary that delineates an object and its surrounds. since that which surrounds an object is air, the outline of a hole in the air that is shaped like an object is the same as the outline of the object itself. the air is also a metaphor for the atmosphere around that object. this air (atmosphere) is composed of everything that exists around the object – elements such as peoples’ experiences and memories; customs and gestures; time, circumstance and sound; technology and culture; and history and trends. should even one of these elements change, and the outline of the object changes too. people share this outline of the air implicitly. my job is to determine this outline and to design something that slots right into it. ~naoto fukasawa





above: the “post fossil” exhibition brings together over 130 works of 71 participants. this collection poses the question, “how will the designers of tomorrow look to past in order to invent the future?” as it “excavates” and analyzes new creative trends in and for the 21st century, which are embodied in materials, colors, shapes, processes, themes, images, techniques, and other elements, this exhibition searches for clues necessary for the human beings to live and define their future.






above: post fossil curator li ddelkoort.


more about 21_21 design sight

Resources:
architoniciconeye
dezeen
architectural record

40 acre bike park in boulder


4. Seattle
5. Eugene, OR
6. San Francisco
7. Madison, WI
8. New York City
9. Tucson, AZ
10. Chicago
11. Austin, TX
12. Denver, CO
13. Washington, DC



san francisco


14. Ann Arbor, MI
15. Phoenix/Tempe, AZ
16. Gainesville, FL
17. Albuquerque, NM
18. Colorado Springs, CO
19. Salem, OR
20. Scottsdale, AZ
21. Louisville, KY
22. Chattanooga, TN
23. Long Beach, CA
24. Cary, NC
25. Milwaukee
26. Boston
27. Philadelphia
28. Pittsburgh
29. Charleston, SC
30. Arlington, VA
31. Sioux Falls, SD
32. Boise, ID
33. Kansas City, MO
34. Columbus, OH
35. Tulsa, OK
36. Grand Rapids, MI
37. Billings, MT
38. St. Louis
39. Cleveland
40. Greensboro, NC
41. Lexington-Fayette, KY
42. Omaha, NE
43. Salt Lake City
44. Miami
45. Indianapolis
46. Fargo, ND
47. Anchorage, AK
48. Baltimore
49. Little Rock, AR
50. Rochester, NY

left: amsterdam top 10 cities via reuters

1. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2. Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Bogota, Colombia
4. Curitiba, Brazil
5. Montreal, Canada
6. Portland, Oregon
7. Basel, Switzerland
8. Barcelona, Spain
9. Beijing, China
10. Trondheim, Norway





sorry, can’t find the source for the following list…


1. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2. Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Trondheim, Norway
4. Lund, Sweden
5. Berlin, Germany
6. Basel, Switzerland
7. Tokyo, Japan
8. Paris France
9. Ottawa, Canada

Producer: apple

[source]

while researching danish light artist, olafur eliasson, we come across a home by architect tadao ando. it is the tokyo guest house — gallery of businessman takeo obayashi.

above: note the N-shaped plan placing several courtyards in the middle of the house.





Located on a quiet residential street of unremarkable homes, the private and public faces of Obayashi’s house are clearly delineated by a wall of vertical laminated-glass panes. There are no visible doors. Behind the glass wall is an enclosed corridor with doors at both ends.

This is a critical space, an interlude between the inside and outside body of the house. “The entrance corridor is similar in concept to the engawa, or veranda, of a traditional Japanese home,” says Ando. “It is like the divide between the inner world of the house and the outer world of nature. I realized that Japan is the only place where this link between exterior and interior spaces was developed into an important architectural feature.”

Along the sky-lit corridor, rhythmic, almost hypnotic, shadows form geometric patterns. “I hope that as guests enter the house they feel a sense of expectation and excitement,” says Ando.





above: ando (left) and obayashi within the entrance corridor.


Ando’s houses favor centrally placed courtyards that illuminate dark interiors with light. As the natural light changes throughout the day, night and seasons, so do the interiors. “Nature is a crucial element of my residential designs,” he says. “It’s my intention to always introduce nature to its fullest extent.”

Interestingly the courtyards are often purposely placed in a way that requires inhabitants to walk through them between the main arteries of the house. Despite the inconvenience, residents say they enjoy the rain and snow falling within their home and don’t mind carrying an umbrella or even getting wet.

In the middle of the N-shaped plan the courtyard here is a dynamic space activated by Eliasson’s 6,800+ platinum-glazed ceramic tiles, a contrast Ando’s signature spare, concrete-and-glass spaces. The tiles surfaces changing in color and intensity depending upon the conditions of light. During the day a monochromatic gray.

The tiles could symbolize the multi-faceted life of the businessman-cum-art collector.





above: the tiles during the day a monochromatic gray.





above: one of two galleries on the subterranean level of the house holds pieces from obayashi’s collection of works by young Japanese artists. from left are paintings by aya takano, naofumi maruyama, kyoko murase, hidekazu tanaka and torawo nakagawa. at left a honey-pop chair by yoshioka.





above: on the subterranean level juxtaposing the contemporary lines throughout the home is a tea ceremony room created by ko uehara that was designed after konnichian, a historic kyoto tea room.





above: for the bar, designer tokujin yoshioka created a table and bench out of slabs of optical glass. The LED piece on the wall is by tatsuo miyajima.

Obayashi commissioned a collaborative effort between artists and architect, including Danish-born light artist Olafur Eliasson, Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka and Japanese lighting architect Shozo Toyohisa, who has designed lighting for exhibitions at MoMA in New York. “When Eliasson came up with the idea of working with the courtyard using ceramic tiles, I really liked it,” says Obayashi, who was hesitant to propose the idea to Ando. “Many architects want minimal change within their design. They want to speak with their own language. In Mr. Ando’s case, his language is glass, steel frames and concrete.”


Designer: tadao ando/architect, olafur eliasson/light artist


[via architectural digest] — photography by robert mcleod