ghost building

I got down to Moss in Soho yesterday and saw the "Butch-Craft" show. The work is interesting because to me its a kind of "Brooklyn" look but as you get closer you see that the craft is super polished and fits nicely in the oh so zipped up tight Moss shop. Peter Marigold's work stands out because of his interest in molding the opposite to form the mirror of the work-the result is a "Rachel Whitheadesque' cabinet

cloud building

I think this is the manufactured version of the chair/cloud that I spied in the photographers portfolio months ago. This is a Poliform product by the ultra chic french designer Jean Marie Massaud. I like how its a homage to the Eames Le Chaise and its works with the current trend toward quilted,knitted upholstery...

building resources

The last month has been a whirl wind of exhibitions, lectures and field trips...which makes life quite fun but for me unfocused. Thinking back on last week-a highlight was visiting local furniture manufacturer
Tupolo Manufacturing. Specializing in commercial custom work,with there minimum order being #1-this company is a great resource for designers as well as inspiring.......

Monster building.............

While checking out a new favorite blog(thanks erin!) The Jealous Curator, I came upon this chair done by student Anni Arnefjord, a student at a new favorite school-Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm. I am loving these monster chairs......

"designer meets artisan"

Spotted on Style-Files, Claire Anne O'Brien knitted stools are all the rage. I love the scale difference from the bulky knitted seat to the delicate legs. Now for us middle aged types do stools really work in interiors? They are great vehicles for ideas but are they used?

Building Pink

These takes on the Hans Wegner Wishbone Chair range from using lots of imagination to using almost none the most successful is this Sara Rotman creation. The Sea anemone is always an appropriate muse......The project is in an effort to raise money for breast cancer-the wishbone chair is a beautiful starting point.

Building a look

You can not really think about Porter chairs now without conjuring up the image of Kelly Wearsler's Bergdorf Goodman's tea room. These chairs now frame the most beautiful of the beautiful in New York City.

chair building

Recent research done on the "porter chair" as a terrific example of form and function. Popular in medieval Europe and up until 18th century England-note this one survives from in the Bank of England Museum. The egg shape was needed to protect the porter from drafts that occurred in the entry way of an estate or castle, one needed a porter to answer the knocker since the estate was so large...

Building arabesque

Spotted this "Bloomsburyesque" chair in the home of embroidery designer Erica Wilson and modernist furniture designer Vladimir Kagan on The Selby. My stitching skills are not even close but I will keep this image to aspire to.

Building structural logic

A Thonet chair is made out of six components and then about eight to ten screws depending on the model number. The curves are an illustration of using the the circle shape structurally(the circle holds the legs and the arch shape maintains the back)-because its the strongest shape.

building legacy

The history of the Gebruber Thonet company is a very common industrial revolution story. The Thonet family hit upon a material condition that lent itself to a faster and more efficient manufacturing process. The look of the chairs embraced the fin de seicle and art nouveau sensibility of the 1850's. But what was unexpected was the enduring/timeless quality of the chair. Everyone knows the story of modernist master Corbusier using these chairs in all his projects more than 100 years after the birth of the no. 14-but who knew that we would using them into the 21st century without a hint of nostalgia.

Ode to Thonet

As part of "Ode to Thonet" week I get to show this Tim Hawkinson piece. Entitled "Shrink", I love the reproduction of the reproduction idea...being that Thonet chairs can be considered one of the first mass produced furniture or furniture of the industrial revolution in decorative arts history.

twisting thonet

I was included in a"twist on Thonet" round up on a Spanish blog earlier this summer and I thought I would share with you my folder of Thonets with a twist and share some history as well this week. This work was included and its some of my favorite thoughts about Thonet-Keisuke Fujiwara delicately wrapped the chair in gradated threads...........beautiful.

building forever

I would like this in my garden. This poured in-place concrete Chesterfield sofa by British company Grey Concrete has got me thinking about permanence verses impermanence..........They says its comfortable.

building fabrication

I can not seem to find this piece again on the web but as I recall its from the brilliant Scotsmen TimorousBeasties-designer and purveyors of all this slightly off in the design world. I admire this chair because I have been grappling with the same idea. This piece seems to have been made from a rapid prototype method, therefore an all in one process-so long grafting methods of construction.

building details

I am late to the party when it comes to the work of DoshiLevien studio's work. Their "my beautiful backside" sofa took many by storm a few years back-frankly was not impressed -thought it was a little inelegant formally. So to see these later pieces is really interesting to me. They are interested in changing up the structural conceit of a chair and work through it cleanly-my students take note of full scale mock up in slide show of work. The next level is the intense amount of thinking that went into the fabric/cushion...crystals? Logos? all in one????/

Chair armies

I came across this image of the porch at Washington's Mount Vernon. These Windsor chairs on runners seem to stretch across the porch for many feet...Some founding fathers ingenuity-

space making

I recently spotted this new piece by Nicolette Brunklaus. I am forever conflicted by the actually purpose of the pouf in interiors but it does function as a gateway to some great ideas. Brunklaus has experimented with the photographs on lampshades and curtains but this piece, maybe at the table scale, really is a spacial idea.

derivation........

Remodelista proposed today that the early work of Rietveld was a product of the economic crisis and his first work was from shipping crate materials. The tradition lives on with many a young designer-I think about how to go about it all the time. These are by-Gas&Air studio, Studio-mama and Kenneth Rasco

"design performance"

This morning I am all fired up about the work of Studio Glithero. A London duo; they make work that brings "process' forward it the artifact oriented design world. This piece an interesting conceit-Bamboo legs(hyper strong structural material) dipped in bronze to hold a paper cabinet...........a long discussion about stability ensues-