Kinetic Lights

These fascinating lamps were created by London based designer Michael Anastassiades. The configuration of each chandelier changes as its various parts move at the joints. Each piece has a different span, depending on the amplitude of the moving segments. Made from black patinated plated brass and mouth blown glass, these objects balance between fine art and design. Minimal and utilitarian, subtle and full of vitality, they call for participation and interaction…

Anastassiades’ work is featured in permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. These particular lamps were spotted at the Moss gallery, New York’s design mecca, which closes its doors later this month.

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Miya Ando

If you’re not already familiar with her work, multi award-winning American post-minimalist artist Miya Ando has produced many contemporary art pieces in recent years. Today, however, we’re featuring Ando’s incredible Steel canvas collection.

Influenced by the redwoods in Santa Cruz and the simple, reductivist and minimalist setting of the Buddhist temple in Japan, where she was raised, Ando’s paintings typically consist of steel, patina, pigment, and automotive lacquer. The result is unique, refined and subtle artwork.

Ando explains why she enjoys working with steel:

The innumerable shades of grey within the material has always transfixed me. I think it is quite elegant and refined. The steel is a cornerstone of strength and permanence and yet all things are transitory. It’s really interesting to get it to go in these unexpected ways.

There’s very little doubt in my mind that Ando’s works on steel canvas are post-minimalism at its best. Beautiful.

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The Openhouse

We are going to Hollywood Hills today, visiting home built in 2008 by XTEN Architecture. As always I particularly love the integration of architecture into the landscape while opening it to the city below.

There is a lot to notice but let’s have a closer look at the materiality throughout: steel beams, glass in various renditions (such as fixed clear plate panels, mirror plate walls, light gray mirror glass panels), dry stacked granite (fireplace), charcoal concrete (cantilevered stair), floor to ceiling rift oak panels, dark stucco, cut pebble (flooring). The repetition of building elements deepens the continuity of space but with the right amount of interest, don’t you think?

The house opens on every side “to capture the prevailing breezes to passively ventilate and cool the house” and I can easily see myself spending warm Californian afternoon here.

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Kaico Series

Tokyo based Japanese designer Makoto Koizumi has created this beautifully simple and award-winning cookware series – Kaico. The series includes a tea pot, coffee pot, pasta pot with a steel strainer insert, as well as various sauce pans.

Created in white enamel coated steel with maple wood handles, the Kaico series certainly has a classic yet rudimentary aesthetic to its pieces, as well as being durable and thermal-efficient. Because of the smooth, semi-gloss finish, the cookware is also easy to clean.

These would undoubtedly be a welcome addition to my kitchen from a visual perspective, but I’d be interested to know if anyone has previously bought any pieces from the Kaico series and what their thoughts are.

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T-723-X1

Looking for a nice minimalist desk? Switzerland based furniture manufacturer Colin SA created a plain desk, named T-723-X1, which is easy to move and simple to assemble. No tools or screws are needed to assemble the desk of FSC certified multiplex plywood.

The T-723-X1 is available in a raw version, natural planed and grinded plywood, and a lino version, desktops covered with black linoleum.

There is also a brother: the T-723-X3. The cross-beams of this version go through the table top and are visible on the desk top, whereas with the T-723-X1 they end right under the table top.

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Aesop Nolita

NYC-based architecture firm Tacklebox is behind the design and concept for skincare brand Aesop‘s store in Elizabeth Street.

Succintly filled with oak shelves stocked with products aligned with spartan precision, the main feature of this space, however – and nearly unseen due to its very subtle texture - is the the concept of newsprint walls (stacked strips of newspapers held within a continuous oak wrapper), covering nearly every surface of the shop. Like paper, they will age over time, as the architects affirm:

Just as oak is commonly used to store and age wine and spirits, so too will the newspaper age, turning a light tan, thus marking the passing of time.  In this way, the history of Aesop North America will be recorded within the very walls of this first store.

Photography by Gianluca Fellini and Tacklebox.

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Apartment in Carcavelos by Hugo Proenca

When size matters, good design takes action. And when it comes to a 65sqm apartment, everything needs a little more attention, in terms of design. The flat is located in Portugal, in Carcavelos an area near Lisbon and the architect Hugo Proenca transformed it into a contemporary and adequate, despite its size, single residential home.

The use of simple lines, the minimal aesthetic and the smart choice of three, basic, design elements, resulted in a bigger looking space without making any functional compromises. A feeling of whole is achieved by removing any useless interior doors, except from those that lead to the bedroom and bathroom. A mirror wall, just opposite the apartment’s entrance maximizes the illusion of space and depth while the need of storage is solved by transforming two of the living room walls into cabinets. I cannot overlook the concept behind that black carpentry. Lacking height (only 2.10m tall) enters the kitchen’s space, intensifying the sense of continuity.

Photography by FG+SG

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Sharing Watch

Sharing Watch is a work of Cho, Eun Whan and Shin, Tai Ho of studio MAEZM. They have equipped this unusual timepiece with something more than a reliable mechanism and an air of elegant simplicity. They gave it a communal spirit! Instead of the traditional arrangement of numbers on the dial, there is a slight shift, allowing you to see the time from the side. By simply extending your hand forward or raising it, you can share the time with others. Designers explain:

Such a small change of idea enabled sharing of time with others nearby or others standing opposite site. Through this sharing in this unfamiliar change, we can newly experience the relationship with others by way of time, and that is how Maezm wanted this watch to serve.

The faded numbers make the dial look minimal and uncluttered. They are also quite readable, which is essential for a piece designed to be looked at from a distance.

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Catena Wall Clock

Designer Andreas Dober brings us back to tradition with this unique mechanical clock. Though it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before, the Catena Wall Clock produced by Anthologie Quartett, still seems familiar in its analog mechanical nature.

The Catena — named after the Latin word for chain — rotates a vertical bicycle chain with attached brass numbers in a clockwise direction. At the top of every hour the time appears at the zenith of the rotation. Between hours you can eyeball the amount of chain between numbers and get a surprisingly accurate estimate of the time. In the above clock photos, for example, it is approximately 11:05.

I love the clever simplicity of the Catena’s design, as well as the look.

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Tina

Tina is a great bathtub designed by the multidisciplinary and successful Spanish studio Lavernia & Cienfuegos Design for Sanico. They clearly explain the objective they were looking to achieve with Tina:

It responds to the new idea of bathroom, which has evolved from pure functionality into being a room where we spend more and more time and where the symbolic, entertaining and aesthetic side gets more importance.

Considering the importance of this, the designers have developed an interesting contrast between rounded and comfortable shapes and others squared and straight. It is made of mineral resin, which makes the solid and smooth appearance possible, resulting in a beautiful design.

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