Her Majesty the Queen Presents

Britain’s Royal Mail issued a set of ten stamps celebrating 20th-century British Design classics. How cool is that!

Tape it by Swiss designer Claudia Caviezel

Very talented designer Claudia Caviezel developed a series of patterns for room dividers and walls in the Business class Lounge of Swissport International Ltd. at Airport Zurich/New Terminal Dock Midfield.

www.caviezel.cc

RUM - A DANISH INTERIOR MAGAZINE

Just discovered this great interior magazine from Denmark. Ok - I do not understand a word - BUT the images are truly inspirational.
check it out for yourself:

www.rumid.dk

Commune Community Shop opens in L.A.

Opening their workspace in West Hollywood two afternoons a week, Commune Community Shop is multidisciplinary design collective Commune's first retail venture. What's for sale reflects the group's neo-boho aesthetic—natural textiles, Native America craft, unique ceramics and metal sculpture—seen in their own collaborations with the likes of the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs and the Heath Ceramics' L.A. store to Opening Ceremony in Tokyo. Love it!

Community Shop @ Commune
650 N. Robertson Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
310-855-9080

OPEN TUE AND THU
2 – 6 PM OR BY APPOINTMENT

New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) and Grolsch present SwingArt Award 2009 winner Olaf Breuning

The SwingArt Award commissioned an artwork from a living artist to grace a limited edition collectible bottle. 1,615 bottles were gifted to Opening Preview Guests at Design Miami/ 2009, in honor of the founding of the Grolsch Brewery. Grolsch also hosted the SwingArt party to celebrate Olaf Breuning, and recent collaborations with NADA and The Green Art Center Miami.

L.A. Modernism

The L.A. Conservancy launched its 'Sixties turn 50' campaign - the program's nine months of tours, discussions and online activities are designed to celebrate and preserve L.A.'s modern architecture, cementing the notion that the sites are, in fact, historic. In the 1960s the city became the epicenter of innovation, thanks not only to the tract houses built after the Case Study House program but also to cerebral works like the Los Angeles International Airport Theme Building, the Music Center by Welton Becket in Bunker Hill, the now endangered Century Plaza Hotel by Mioru Yamasaki and the space-pod Chemosphere House by John Lautner. I love the 60s and it's wonderful to celebrate the unique style and architecture of the decade. But sadly, I sometimes get the feeling that L.A. peaked 50 years ago...

laconcervancy.org/sixties

Miya - a pop-up restaurant in Paris

How cool is that? Laurent Grasso & Everland’s Electrolux Miya, is a pop-up restaurant à Paris. Seating just 12 people, it provides a unique and intimate eating experience with all of city's beauty within sight. The restaurant will be open until July 1, 2010.

Maarten Baas - Design Miami/ Designer of the Year 2009

Who is this guy who has become an overnight sensation with his graduation collection SMOKE? Born in Germany and raised in the Netherlands, Maarten Baas graduated from the Design Academy in Eindhoven in 2002. He literally set fire to old chairs and tables before coating then in epoxy resin to preserve the charred remains. By stripping away ornament he diminishes the hand-off preciousness of design and brings the objects closer to their true purpose. The SMOKE collection was commissioned by Dutch label MOOOI, bought by museums and collectors such as Philippe Starck and subsequently further developed in collaboration with New York gallerist Murray Moss. Baas focuses on creating one new project a year, each time exploring new ideas and media. Highlights include his Hey, chair, be a bookshelf! collection, in which he combined discarded furniture elements into complex structures with entirely new purposes; his boldly colored Clay Furniture series, in which each piece is modelled by hand from synthetic clay; or his Sculpt collection in which items of furniture are based on quick sketches which are then enlarged and literally translated into finished pieces on a monumental scale.

Baas is a poster child for the the new spirit of design that has emerged at the turn of the millennium. No longer content with producing sleek designs Baas is embracing a raw, surreal and idiosyncratic approach. At only 31 years of age, Maarten Baas is a strikingly young designer who has impacted the world of design in an unprecented short period of time.

Baas is the fifth designer to receive the award, following the Campana Brothers last year, Tokujin Yoshioka in 2007, Marc Newson in 2006 and Zaha Hadid in 2005.

DESIGN MIAMI 2009 OPENS TODAY

If this is December 1st, this must be Miami. Along with the art world, which flies south for Art Basel (Dec. 3-6), design aficionados head there for Design Miami, which runs from today (the invitation-only opening) to Dec. 5.

www.designmiami.com

Mr & Mrs Smith go Down Under

One of my favorite hotel guides, Mr & Mrs Smith, comes out with a guide book featuring 33 of Australia's and New Zealand's finest boutique properties photographed by Australian photographer, Earl Carter and reviewed by Australian tastemakers such as actor Sigrid Thornton, chef Christine Manfield and media luminary Deborah Hutton in Australia and New Zealand, as well as in-the-know tips for destinations to make tracks to in 2010.

www.mrandmrssmith.com

Villa Branca in Melide, Ticino, Switzerland

This gorgeous villa on the lakeshore of Lago di Lugano in the italian speaking part of Switzerland is desperately looking for a new owner who is willing to save her! The place was property of the Branca family, traditional wine makers. The central building was built in 1912 by an unknown architect. In the 1920s the Luganese architect Americo Marazzi added the right wing of the building. Beautiful hanging gardens and pergolas were made at the higher part of the building. On the ground floor are the entrances to the wine cellars, warehouses and offices
The villa was abandoned in 1981 when Adele Branca died. There are still no exact plans for the villa. It will probably be demolished to make place for new housing.

Sales contact:
Cogepra 2000 SA
Via Marliani 3
6850 Mendrisio, Switzerland
or
contact Olga at dinnikovaolga@bluewin.ch

Folly - The View from Nowhere - MoCA at Pacific Design Center Los Angeles

Folly—The View from Nowhere, organized by MOCA Curator Philipp Kaiser and Los Angeles–based architects Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena, surveys architectural follies from around the world in an installation at MOCA Pacific Design Center, the museum’s West Hollywood venue designed by Cesar Pelli and located on Pacific Design Center’s campus. Offering a comparative overview of these structures—ranging from the Pantheon at Stourhead in Wiltshire, England, and Lucy the Elephant in Margate, N.J., to Pelli’s pavilion at Pacific Design Center—the exhibition revolves around a site-specific folly of Escher GuneWardena’s own design.

Eero Saarinen exhibiton in New York City

TWA Terminal, New York International (now John F. Kennedy International) Airport, New York, circa 1962. Photographer Balthazar Korab. (c) Balthazar Korab Ltd.

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future at the Museum of the City of New York
Nov 10 through Jan 31

Presented at the Museum from November 10, 2009 through January 31, 2010, Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future is the first retrospective of this architect’s career, which was one of the most prolific, unorthodox, and controversial in the history of 20th-century architecture. From the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport and the St. Louis Gateway Arch to the Pedestal Chair for Knoll Associates, Saarinen (1910-1961) created some of the most potent expressions of American identity after World War II. Saarinen’s clients constituted a who’s who of the era’s most prominent industries and institutions. For them he designed buildings that advanced the expansion of higher education to the promotion of automobile culture and air travel, popular forms of entertainment like television, and the newest information technologies. Featuring sketches, working drawings, models, photographs, furnishings, films, and other ephemera, the exhibition examines the architect’s career from the 1930s through the early 1960s.

www.mcny.org

Tamina thermal baths, Bad Ragaz Switzerland

I have just come back from a trip to Switzerland, where I re-discovered the stunning architecture of Zurich-based Smolenicky & Partner Architecture. Smolenicky renovated the Tamina thermal bath at the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz on site where Europe's first indoor hot baths were opened in 1871. Situated deep in the romantic Tamina canyon, the Spa design features include grand twelve metre arches and floor to ceiling oval windows. An extensive amount of glass and shades of soft whites, blues and blacks have been used together. Tamina Therme's architecture is likely to become an emblem for the Spa village Bad Ragaz and another showcase for Swiss architecture.

www.resortragaz.ch

Kappe residence published in Swiss Architectural Magazine Ideales Heim

Cube Images produced this photo feature of the iconic Kappe Residence in the Pacific Palisades in California. Completed in 1968, it's the best example of Ray Kappe's strength as an architect: his ability to answer complex design problems with inventive, beautiful buildings. The biggest problems on the project were a steeply sloped site and a running stream. His answer was a series of six concrete tower supports and a bridgework of laminated beams. The house tiptoed over he site, sparing trees, stream, and the delicate beauty of the topography. Developers at the time were cutting hills to make pads. He had been working on the idea of a system of modules to get buildings above grade. Many of his houses ended up using this system because it required the least amount of foundation. Kappe's much awarded and published work is considered to be an extension of the early Southern California master architects: Wright, Schindler, Neutra, and Harwell Hamilton Harris.