that'snot art!

Marcel Wanders, a Dutch design guru of sorts has come up with a surprising inspiration for a line of vases. Aptly titled "the airborne snotty vase"... this design is created by digitally capturing the spray pattern of molecules that fly out of your mouth and nose when you sneeze. After the shape is captured and enlarged by 1000x, a mesh rendering is scanned into a computer (SLS machine), which produces a replica - with an end use of a glass receptacle for flowers! (aka "vase")

Digital laser cutting has become increasingly popular and this concept takes it further, by beginning with a biological expulsion, using extremely high tech methods for capturing it and producing it, but the end result returns to its misshapen, biological form... which sort of betrays the techie methods which were used in its realization.

I'm lovin' it!

Yah, so I ripped that off from Mickey D's... I'm having some fun over on the Pure Modern website, and I found a lovely solar powered Soji lamp. It comes in 3 different color styles. You simply hang it outdoors and all day it will charge up via the power of the sun, and at night it automatically illuminates. I can imagine that the regular presence of this glowing orb in your back garden would be quite a pretty sight... and even moreso at $40 USD.

bloomframe

I'm never really surprised when I find something beautiful online and it's been designed by the Dutch. The Bloomframe is no exception. In 2007, Hofman Dujardin Architects came up with an ingenious way to change the facades of buildings, old and new.. by designing a window that can be opened into a balcony in just 15 seconds.

The Bloomframe is made of sturdy steel materials, but still offers some degree of flexibility when it comes to size, materials, and appearance. The standard size though, is 250x220cm and from what I was able to find online, the cost for a single install would be around 10,500 euros. This seems a bit steep to me if their aim is to offer this for older facades, where the owner of the building has to have several installed.. but I'm sure it will still appeal to some.

I wasn't able to come up with much in terms of whether this is in production or not. The bloomeframe website still reflects data that is outdated, stating that they will be available in 2008... and because there haven't been posts made by people who have had the opportunity to use this in their home, it's difficult to offer many criticisms. What I did find though, were some comments that your ability to decorate the "terrace" with plants and furniture would be limited, since you'd have to bring it all into your home when you closed the balcony. Also, the floor of the balcony is the interior wall of your home, located below the window when it's closed.. so the issue of dirt and having a patch of wall covered with foot prints was raised.

What came to my mind is the fact that because it is a open/close design, there are no barriers to protect your home (such as doors) from the rain.. so putting this into a large scale building will place the responsibility on all tenants not to leave the bloomframe open while they aren't home. Another consideration, is the fact that this operated by pushing a button. I can see children getting into trouble with this, and wonder if it wouldn't be safer to have key code activation.

Either way, I think this is such an amazing idea and I hope that I see them dotted around the Netherlands this summer...

blue earth

Solar powered mobile phones are finally becoming a reality with news of Samsung's Blue Earth touch screen phone. It's made of recycled plastic extracted from water bottles and a charger which uses standby power, which is less than 0.03W.

So far, I haven't been able to find a lot of other information regarding the competitiveness of this phone, such as price and availability, whether or not it plays music, has internet capabilities, and other features that have become important to mobile users (although it appears to have a camera, there are no specs listed). I also couldn't locate information regarding how long it would take to charge the phone completely using solar power. Ideally, I'd be happy if I could charge my phone significantly while sitting at a cafe.. which is about an hour and a half of charging time.

I imagine that these questions and additional specifications will emerge shortly. In the meantime, you can check out this bit at Business Wire and the Samsung World Congress 2009 site.

I've always wanted a horse

For the price of a real one (6,800 euros), you can buy this polyester resin lamp, which requires no feeding or exercise. This bad boy was designed by Front of Sweden for Moooi.

a day like any other, except slightly cleaner

Today so far, has been about cleaning, dusting, "hoovering", washing the rugs, changing the bedding, wiping the glass, emptying the garbage... all that blah blah kinda stuff.

In celebration of my cleanliness, I've decided to share these 2 images which I discovered awhile ago at cibone, and found them to be quite lovely.

I tend to think that the world would be slightly more inspiring if we were surrounded by everyday products made with such care and craftsmanship.

Japanese broom, constructed of leather palm and rattan

Japanese dustpan is made from paper, which is dyed with persimmon juice

the silent artist

When you look through catalogs, magazines, websites, and even sets on TV and in movies... what you see has been carefully planned by a stylist. Naturally the stylist's purpose will vary case by case. In a film, the set may seek to evoke a feeling by its use of color and lighting.. I'd easily refer to most of the film "Se7en" and TV shows like Law & Order.

It is when we begin to flip through catalogs for clothing, we may notice a carefully planned color story. Although the items to be sold are garments, the entire image will typically capture the "feel" of either the clothing, the current theme, or the season. Anthropologie typically has beautifully styled images in their catalogs.

In interior photography, the stylist will create a space by pulling colors together and creating a work of art within the entire boundary of the shot. The photo becomes the canvas, and the art is the stylist's vision.

Here are some that I'd like to share.

This is hands down one of my favorite images. There's something so striking about the ultra modern and sleek design of the chair against the heavily textured concrete wall and dramatic lighting.

These may be hard to see, but as a set, you can certainly make a connection between them. The color story is just lovely, with a rich textural combination of natural and man made materials. My favorite is the bottom right.

Tea in a mossy forest? Yes please :)

Anthropologie's Jan '09 catalogue:
above: a rich color palette from stone to garment

Definitely one of the things that I like...

How do you like this stunning chandelier? It gives off a beautiful glow, and looks simple in its design, yet elegant. A Portuguese design company, "Studio Verissimo" is responsible for this recycle/reuse design, aptly named "spoon".

If you take a closer look, this entire chandelier is constructed of plastic coffee stirrers. I don't know if they actually used these stirrers before working with them, but since this is very concept driven it may be the idea and impact rather than the designer actually sourcing these after their use. I'd be interested to know.

Taking this a step further, if you have a look at their website, you'll see that they've come up with a few really fabulous ideas. Something that I need - is this ceramic mug, entitled, "help" which is designed to help people make rice! I cannot make rice myself, so this would be very useful...

Not all of the designs on their site seem as functional, but I don't think that's the point! The designers are Cláudio Cardoso and Telma Veríssimo and they say that they've, "set a goal of making people happy and light-filled with their designs." I definitely think they've found success.

Have a look at their clever designs and give the chandelier a read over at Apartment Therapy or inhabitat.

(photos via Apartment Therapy)

Things I like

I found this mini cassette lamp not too long ago (I stink, because I didn't write down the source!).. and I think it's just ingenious. Imagine if you were to make a huge version of this using full sized cassettes?

When I discovered this, I thought that I'd like to try making one for sure. If you find different plastic cases - the lighting will vary. Alternatively, you could use old tapes with writing on them, and get as creative as you feel inclined to... which makes this project even more fun.

Things I like - The Premiere

I'm a visual person and I read A LOT of design blogs. As a result, I have a hefty collection of imagery that I classify as "inspiration". Basically that includes anything that I look at that stimulates me. I've decided that I will try to offer a couple images every day.. maybe to share with anyone who looks and also so that I can drag them out of the file where they gather dust and see them myself.... keeps those inspirational juices flowing.

This handsome baby is called the Memento Lamp. I made something like this once with clear plastic acetate sheets. I printed words and images all related to the typeface "Helvetica". I then placed the materials over glass cylinders. I'd thought while doing it that it would look amazing as a lamp, and seeing this totally confirms it.

"Beam me up Scotty" - C. Kirk

I'm thinking about how to solve the recycling issue here in the Netherlands. It all came to me suddenly as I recalled "Earthships". How these buildings haven't caught on world wide is beyond me. Basically, they're constructed of dirt and old tires and built right into the earth. They are designed to re-use rainwater, and filter well water throughout the home based on a tier system of usage from drinking water, to sinks showers, toilets, and finally garden water.

The options for toilet waste are flexible depending on your abilities to be open minded, and if you're REALLY proactive, you can even have a dry compost toilet. Wouldn't you sleep better at night knowing that ALL of your waste is being put to good use?

Earthships are completely custom designed, so the homeowner can decide how the interior and exterior will look. I'd imagine that anyone could take the basic philosophy behind Earthships and go in many directions. You could have a hobbit house or a Barcelona Pavilion . Personally, I'd like to build an Earthship that looks like the Wheatsheaf House. :D

Home Design of the Year 2008 Edition

I spend a lot of time reading design blogs and websites, shamefully perhaps far more than I do reading the newspaper. Surely I appreciate a lot of what I see.. interiors, architecture, furniture, art, green concepts; but the other day when I opened Desire to Inspire, I broke into a sweat.

The Wheatsheaf House is hands down the most beautiful space I've seen this year. As a matter of fact, starting right now, I am going to have a best of the year list, and this is my sole inspiration.

Wheatsheaf House - I love you!

What I can't get over is the luminous, sexy, humming, toasty amber warmth that emanates from this house is stained plywood! The simplicity of this design is what makes it so stunning, and the juxtaposition of it against such a barren natural landscape leaves me dazed and giddy. This is a design based on feeling really good without being complicated. The only thing missing for me, is the mention of whether this build includes any green or sustainable technologies.

I need to move to the woods and live in a house like this (my version would have a catch basin for rainwater and solar energy :P)