Janelle Zara
You spend all day staring at screens. Wouldn’t it be nice to occasionally look up and see a friendly face? Going against the current tide of all-too-smart automated kitchens, Moscow-based designers Tanya Repina and Misha Repin go low-tech with LO-LO, a simple suite of wooden “microkitchen” units ideal for storing refreshments around the office. Each…
News flash: Houses on the numerous Mulholland Drives throughout the United States are worth 235 perc ent more than the national average. Meanwhile, houses on the literally thousands of Main Streets list for 58 percent less. We still wouldn’t move in. Despite the often random nature by which streets get their names, there seems to be…
Thanks to innovations in material and process, the age-old light bulb ain’t so bulbous anymore. Thes e days it twists, it oozes, it pops, it surveils. Netherlands-based designer David Graas, who specializes in quirky material experiments like flat-pack cardboard furniture and recycled-PET bottlecap tabletop accessories, just added a new form to the mix. His Stalaclights are…
“Architecture may not necessarily cure personal unhappiness,” English architect Nick Elias tells Arc hitizer via email, “but it may provide the framework for it.” This is the guiding premise of PoohTown, Elias’s RIBA President’s Silver Medal-winning conceptual overhaul of Slough, a middling English town where industry rules — the likes of O2, Mars, Blackberry, Sara Lee,…
Thomas Edison’s light bulb is arguably the single most influential invention of the last several hun dred years. That doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement. Shanghai manufacturer Sengled has taken the bulb and brought it up to speed with our modern multi-tasking, energy-efficient sensibilities. The newly unveiled Sengled Snap, winner of the 2015 Consumer Electronics…
After dabbling in the interiors of New York’s Balenciaga flagship and a creating few small home acce ssories, fashion designer, icon, and darling Alexander Wang has officially made the big crossover into the world of industrial design. Italian furniture empire Poltrona Frau just launched a new Wang-designed collection that evokes the monochrome glam-banality of his eponymous…
In Canada’s Yukon territory, where temperatures can regularly dip as low as -58 °F, a tiny case-stud y house is a model of efficiency even in the harshest climate: Laird Herbert of Leaf House Small Space Design and Build recently completed the third iteration of his tiny house design. While the house only occupies a 97-square-foot…
The canary yellow L.A. home where “Fahrenheit 451” author Ray Bradbury resided for more than 50 year s was demolished last week, according to the Los Angeles Times. The culprit: none other than Thom Mayne. The Pritzker winner has never been known to be nostalgic; in the wake of MoMA’s decision to raze the Tod Williams…
The frustrations of turning on a traditional ceiling fan may include (but are not limited to) the fo llowing scenario: Tug the light. The light comes on. Oh, you tugged the wrong string. Tug the other string. Nothing happens. Tug it again twice and the speed is too low. Tug it again once and the speed…