The American Institute of Architects is once again proving that diminutive architecture can still deliver with its selections for the sixth annual Small Project Awards.
Established to recognize small-project practitioners and to promote excellence in the field, the awards program is divided into three categories: Architecture in the Public Interest, Small Project Objects for entries with construction budgets of $50,000 or less, and Small Project Structures for entries with construction budgets of up to $500,000. Visit Full Article.
Above interior featured on Lonny, an online magazine created by
Michele Adams and Patrick Cline of Domino.
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
NEW YORK — Die-hard do-it-yourself interior designers spend hours flipping through glossy magazines, carefully tearing out pages showing a pillow or paint color they like and filing them away for future inspiration. What do they do if their favorite print magazine folds?
Michelle Adams, 27, a former market assistant at Domino, and Patrick Cline, 34, a photographer and photo retoucher, were talking about that in May 2009 after Condé Nast closed Domino, its sprightly home magazine. Over dinner at Chili’s, they mourned the loss of the magazine and other design magazines, like Blueprint and House & Garden, and joked that they should start their own.
Read Full Article and visit Lonny
Cameron writes:
As a design editor, I see an ongoing parade of mass-produced furniture, so it’s sometimes easy to forget Modernism’s long craft history. Sure, Charles and Ray Eames performed furniture miracles with bent plywood and fiberglass, and those kinds of material experiments live on in contemporary feats like Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s Slow Chair. To me, minimalism is uniquely lovely when it bears the fingerprint of the human hand — think of Hans Wegner and George Nakashima, whose poetic ways with wood helped mainstream the movement. Another of my favorite Modern traditions is the clever repurposing of materials: no one did it better than Achille Castiglioni, who made an art of using off-the-shelf industrial parts to fashion his unforgettable product designs. Happily, there are plenty of examples of the handcrafted and the reinvented on Etsy — my digging even turned up a few pieces by the masters themselves! Click here to visit article.
Proceeds from the new designs by Shanan Campanaro,
the artist behind Eskayel, will be used to help wildlife
Eskayel’s announcment:
This is a small capsule we put together early this year with two new wallpaper patterns in two color-ways each and pillows. Everything in the capsule is made to order locally and 20% of the proceeds go to wildlife organizations. This is our first foray into soft goods- Pillows! Our pillows are made from 100% organic denim and stuffed with feather down. The 25 x 25 inch oversized overstuffed pillows are great floor cushions.
We are also offering this fabric with any of our other wallpaper patterns on a custom basis.
Please check out the Natives capsule at our brand new and improved website www.eskayel.com!
Metropolis Writes:
As you may have read in the New York Times the other day, Metropolis’s editor in chief, Susan Szenasy, was one of several design mavens to comb the recent ICFF in search of the very best products for the annual ICFF Editors Awards. This year, Szenasy toted along a Flip video camera for part of her rounds. Click the play button for a sample of her unofficial ICFF video diary; to watch the full videos, visit our Multimedia page.
The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t be able to attract an audience for a “Brooklyn Manufacturing Expo” outside of their own staff so every year they host the BKLYN DESIGNS exhibition. Walking around the exhibition though you are struck by how design, and by extension designers, drive manufacturing. With the collapse of manufacturing in the United States over the last few decades it’s hard to fathom just how many jobs we had in Brooklyn making things. All of the work was not only designed here in Brooklyn but as a matter pragmatism, most of it is made here.
Here are a few of my favorite things.
Tree table and stool by April Hanna
April Hannah gets the chutzpah award. She’s an artist who three months ago when she applied for a booth, saw a need, had an idea, and a couple of cardboard models. Twelve weeks later, her Tree Table Collection is debuting here. The collection, shown with a few of her artworks, as a sort of visual DNA, is smart, cohesive, well crafted (thanks in part to a brother who according to Hannah “can make anything”),and built with kids and the environment in mind.
Jeff Mayer’s bench and growing family
Jeff Mayer’s 718 Made in Brooklyn is “form follows environment”. His design and manufacturing is a direct outgrowth of his lifestyle and Brooklyn aesthetic. He’s a former professional bmx racer, a lifelong skateboarder, and denizen of the public transportation system. All of these things come through in the objects, clothing, and furniture he designs and manufactures.
Christina Fesmire’s Fugle Swing
Pratt Institute seeks to instill in all graduates aesthetic judgment, professional knowledge, collaborative skills, and technical expertise. Their booth there was evidence of a promise fulfilled. The quality of the designs and the execution did not suffer by comparison with their professional counterparts by any means. I was particularly taken by Tobin Spann’s spare, simple, beautifully executed Surface Series furniture. My other favorite work was Christina Fesmire’s Fugle Swing. Both of those students have bright futures ahead of them as long as we can get this economy moving again.
Posted a few days ago on Abitare about the very talented Scandinavian designer:
One of his idols is Jean Prouvè, he creates things sparkling without being “glossy”, he doesn’t look for a precise aesthetic but he above all designs starting from the materials… He works because he can’t stop himself and he can’t avoid making things, it comes naturally. All considered it is possible to say he is not an instinctive creator. He never stops thinking…
Here is Piet Hein Eek investigated by Fabio Novembre starting from his “lazy laces”, his sneaker he never laces up… Check his site here: http://www.pietheineek.nl/
Sit and Read, a very tasteful blog that sells vintage furniture, has an opening this week with Unis.
Invite Details:
To coincide with the launch of its Spring 2010 line, Unis is proud to offer an exclusive collection of furniture and housewares from Sit and Read. The collection includes a limited series of vintage chairs reupholstered in remnant fabric from the Unis Spring collection.
Please join us for cocktails and music at the Unis Flagship Store, at 226 Elizabeth Street in Manhattan, on Thursday, April 22, from 7 to 9 p.m. to preview the collection and help celebrate our collaboration!
East Village Studio; New York City
Cameron writes:
