News

Photo courtesy New York Times.

Just a couple of things I wanted to mention before returning to the big stories. First of all, the New York Times did a really fantastic piece to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of Mies van der Rohe's Lafayette Park townhouses. They interviewed a bunch of residents on what the architecture meant (or didn't mean) to them. I don't happen to share Noam Chomsky's extreme distaste for the paper, likely because I don't grasp world politics nearly as vividly as he. Whatever your opinion of the Times, I thought it was a wonderful story.

Also, my Art & Architecture tour of Lincoln Center recently got a small mention in the San Francisco Examiner. The author unfortunately didn't go into very much detail about it, or even if she liked it, for that matter. But it was nice to see that.

Photo courtesy Interior Design Magazine.

Much more exciting is that I've now had the honor of meeting all three of the principals of Diller, Scofidio + Renfro. This past week I had a VIP group of ridiculously wealthy people from the Museum of Modern Art. At the end of it, Charles Renfro was there to tell them about what the firm has done to Alice Tully Hall.

He and I sort of did a combo tour, but I figured I should keep my mouth shut and let him talk. He was very cool and it was interesting to hear the story from the horse's mouth.

One thing he said that I hadn't heard in any of the hundreds of interviews or anything was that they were inspired for the inside of the hall by phosphorescent sea creatures. I always thought that the twisting wooden slats in the lobby looked a little bit like fish gills, but I just figured that I was imagining things. I wish I'd had an opportunity to speak with him at greater length, but there were twenty-five other people there, and he said he had to go to the gym.

Floral Presentation

As some of you will already be aware, Blogspot has a new photo upload feature that allows for a bit more flexibility in their sizing and arrangement. It's kind of a pain in the ass, to be honest, and it's taking me some trial and error to become comfortable with it. So while things may start to look a little nicer on here, there may be some glitches along the way you'll have to forgive.

I wanted to make a quick post about an inspired new light by San Francisco's Peter Stathis & Virtual Studio. They appear to be doing a number of interesting things, but unfortunately the website is quite minimal and doesn't offer much information.

This won an award at the ICFF this year, and I can fully understand why. Like all the greatest ideas, its utterly and elegantly simple. Coincidentally, it's named the same as one of Moser's vases, it's also called "Ikebana." Seems there are a lot of people inspired by the Japanese art of flower arranging.

The first thing to point out is the light source itself. It's an LED, but it uses what's called Front Light Optical Waveguide technology. Gesundheit. Essentially what it does is it spreads the light out over the underside of the flower-shaped panel, making the light quality softer and more even, rather than a single pin-point of harsh brightness.

The flower design is again simple but very nice, and a leaf-shaped switch on the cord is a wonderful little detail.

The other thing about it that's so smart is that it rests on its stand by pure gravity.

This means a few different things. It means that you can turn it in any direction you need it, raise it or lower it, take it off the table stand and move it to a wall-mounted one. You can also hang multiple lights on a single stand, especially the taller floor version. So simple, so flexible.

©2010, Ryan Witte

Five Fairs

I do love the world's fairs.  They encapsulate so much of what is brand new in ideas and forms at the times they're held, are normally spectacular, and they've also offered conceptions of the future, which, aside from being almost more representative of their times than what was going on in the present, were just campy and fun.  Though it may start to appear that I'm obsessed with them, I still felt compelled to report that Life magazine has recently unleashed an astonishing collection of high-quality images of the 1939 World's Fair.  They have the Brussels and San Francisco fairs included there, as well, but not the 1964, it appears.

Another related thing I discovered and never mentioned is that the Urban Simulation Team at UCLA has digitally recreated the entire Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893, by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmstead, amongst others.  There are also some truly exquisite platinum prints by photographer, C. D. Arnold:

--Photo courtesy Columbia University.

But the CGI walk-through is amazing.  It gives this unprecedented impression of how the whole thing was laid out.

©2008, Ryan Witte

News Items

A couple of news items before we move on to my next story.

First of all, those brilliant guys from San Francisco, CITIZEN:Citizen recently put out a crazy press release.  Right in the wake of some of their pieces being bought by the SF MoMA for the permanent collection there, Merrill Lynch deemed their work too controversial and shut down their bank accounts at First Republic Bank.  McDonalds also recently had a cease & desist ordered against them for another of their items.  I told creative director, Philip Wood, that if their work is making people this uncomfortable, then obviously they're doing something right.  But I never doubted for a second that they were.  It's actually quite poignant since their work deals very much with the ways that art and design overlap and conflict with corporate consumerism.

Then there's a new item from Brooklyn's Michael McHale Designs, who I discussed here, and who also made it onto my short list for the ICFF magazine article.  He's released his Two and Four Bulb Chandelier Table Lamps, this is the Four Bulb:

Not unexpectedly, he's taken great care with the hardware, but not only that, he's reinterpreted it for the individual nature of the piece.  The top frame is still industrial metal pipe, but for the stem he's used clear acrylic, so while it's a table lamp, it has the illusion of floating, hanging like a ceiling-mounted chandelier--very smart.  The really fantastic addition, though, is the base:

It's an acrylic base hand painted by Sublime Living to look geological or even extraterrestrial.  

The glossy acrylic reflects the sparkling crystal above it to look like a planet traveling through the heavens.

There's also a couple of new items from Viable London worth mentioning.  I discussed them here, and they also made it onto my short list.  They've delved into some great sustainable designs, like their Spiral Stools:

They're rolls of cork--which is sustainable, of course--felt made from shredded, unwanted clothing, and wrapped up in wool yarn.  They're reportedly quite comfortable, which I don't find hard to believe, the color choices are beautiful, and I thought they'd be perfect for a clothing store or dressing room.  When they reach the end of their life, all the materials can be unraveled and reused.

Last but not least, I'm very excited because two of the greatest minds in the world of architecture, Peter Eisenman and Greg Lynn, are coming together to give a talk at the 92nd Street Y on Thursday the 23rd.  This is a lot of synchronicity for me.  First of all, I'm right in the middle of profiling this great architect named James Merrell, who studied under Eisenman.  Merrell's philosophies in his own work seemed in some ways not too far afield from Eisenman's, leading me to revisit and refresh myself on some of his writings.  Lynn has always had my utmost respect, and I plan to make a bigger post about him eventually.  In the meantime, I'm set to review Lynn's book, Form, which has just been released, exquisitely bound, by Rizzoli.  I'll be sure to report on the event here.

©2008, Ryan Witte

Ghosts of Furniture Future

This is the second post resulting from Council, who obviously have extremely good taste.  But I wanted to break it up to talk about this team they represent, San Francisco's One & Co.  I thought they deserved their own post.

Here's the stuff they're doing for Council, their "Aura" credenza:

Interesting things with light and shadow, opaqueness and translucence, it's a suave piece for sure.

Here's their "Chrysalis" stool:

Very simple, but great sleek angular lines, delicate but strong.  The seat is soft leather.

When I saw this one at the show, my mouth gaped open--the "Periodic Table":

Four giant slabs of wood, and looking at them now, I suppose they could very well be railroad ties, soaked in actual molten silver.  The silver soaks into the wood, though, so you can still see the grain.  This is likely way too heavy for me to ever get it into my apartment (if they wanted to give me a free sample), but it's truly unbelievably gorgeous.  It's hard to see here, but it has a real mirrored finish to it, it's quite striking.

Here's a couple chairs they did exploring new ways of using plastics to come up with surprisingly comfortable results.  I gather the name ADKD Furniture is their own for the case study:

Click them.  That second one has a pattern of little Man symbols perforating it.  I can't be certain, but it appears to me that the pattern of them responds to the support required by a person sitting in it, so it will flex and tighten in all the right places.

This concept is from their Welcome line.  There's a number of really amazing ideas that reinterpret the experience of inviting people into your home, but I most liked this one:

It's a coffee table and a digital jukebox, wired into your mp3 collection.  Guests can also download their own music into it, but it allows them to choose music from the library to play while you hang out.  There appears to be text scrolling around the outside edge of it, so I'm thinking maybe that's touch-sensitive.  In any case, a wonderfully interactive, social solution.

One & Co also appears to have a feel for watches.  Here's the Triax S line for Nike:

And these last ones completely blew my mind.  They were entries in the Timex 2154 Competition, which asks for visions of what watches will look like in the future.  This one was a runner-up:

It uses a magnetic field to exploit the metallic content of the wearer's blood to hover above the wrist, and never actually touches it:

And this one was so awesome, but then, I just love nanobots:

In the morning, you stick it onto your wrist (or wherever) for a few minutes like a Band-Aid.  It embeds nanobots right under the surface of your skin, and then you peel it off and go.  Your skin actually becomes the readout.  Organic nanobots dissolve after a few days, and then you can put on a new one.  I also love how they make a decorative pattern in the skin, also, like a tattoo.  I see no reason why that couldn't keep changing, as well.  I wonder what it would feel like, like would you constantly be feeling these tiny robots moving around under your skin?  I suppose you'd get used to it after a while and forget all about it, right?  Anyway, that's incredibly cool.

One & Co

415-621-6214

©2008, Ryan Witte

Bon Appetite

This is another post that will be sort of like many posts in one, but it all stems from a group called Council from San Francisco (of course: truly some of the most astonishing design work is coming from there lately), but the designers are potentially from anywhere in the world.

First up is Mike & Maaike from San Francisco, who I spoke to and wrote about for the magazine last year.  I'm not going to go into the stuff I saw then, but if you don't know about them, I highly recommend looking through their website, because they really are brilliant.

Anyhow, for Council, they've designed the "Mute" chair and ottoman, which is just peaceful, simple, and lovely:

Next is Nendo, working out of Japan.  For Council he's designed this bookshelf called "Radial":

Sorry about the weird image, they don't have the images from their photo shoot, yet.  But basically it forces its perspective with the vertical panels.  I think it's very smart because it would make itself, and therefore your room, appear far, far bigger and longer than it actually is.

Not for Council, but to be found on his website were a couple of other cool items, these are "Polar" tables for a company called Swedese:

They're basically nesting tables, but the glass is polarized in just such a way that, when it overlaps, it creates these really interesting floral patterns.

Conceptually, it's a great idea, but I'm sure that seen in person, the optical effect of this--where you can't quite tell where the flowers are coming from, would be quite magical.

And this pitcher and tumbler set:

That's not necessarily cold.  It has nubbly blobs of glass on the outside and the glass is smokey toward the bottom.  It would look like that even with a hot liquid in it.  I think that's a fantastic optical illusion.

And lastly, here's Khodi Feiz from the Netherlands.  For Council he's created this "Peel" line, which is fantastic--the ottoman:

But it's hiding something:

Such a simple idea, but I think very clever, streamlined, and flexible.  Here's the chaise:

Not for Council, but for the Dutch Embassy in Berlin, Feiz designed these chairs:

It's carved very geometrically out of one solid block of polystyrene foam.  Its lines are so Space Age and sleek, but I think it looks totally comfortable--it bends under your weight--and evidently perfectly fine for outdoor use; it sounds like it was designed for a park-like space.  Here's the upholstered version, which is interesting in its own unique way:

He also did these portable speakers for Nokia:

He did an especially tiny speaker set--as in you could wear it around your neck like a pendant--but I thought these were awesome.  They can be hooked up wirelessly to any bluetooth device.  They click together with magnets, protecting the speakers:

The heavy duty cable becomes a carrying strap.  Now that's seriously clever.

Council

415-550-1750

©2008, Ryan Witte

Products Schmoducts

Here's another company I really truly love, called CITIZEN:Citizen out of San Francisco.  To this day it's some of the smartest work I've seen.

I featured them in my first coverage of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in @home seattle, and they liked so much what I said, they mentioned me on their blog, saying I "gave a really intelligent review" and that they "wish there was more intelligent critique out there."

Please don't take this to mean I'm bragging, although I do think I know my business.  More than that, because I truly respect this group of designers, I was extremely, sincerely flattered that they liked so much what I wrote.  I was really happy with the article, too.

Here's what I said:

            San Francisco’s CITIZEN:Citizen is a fascinating group of designers whose work may more closely resemble conceptual art or art objects than conventional furniture or housewares. In proper context their pieces could be amazing conversation openers. In other cases, they’re ridiculous extravagances that serve only to make a thoughtful or humorous statement about consumerism, consumption, and product value.

 

            

Take their coffee tables as an example. Unit #3 Monochrome is a glass box that looks like a paint bomb exploded inside it. The duality here is probably between the sloppy mess on the inside and the smooth, clean, glossy surface of the glass on the outside. Unit #3 White is the same glass table, but filled with down. Here we seem to be talking about a soft, natural, warm material encased uselessly inside a cold, hard synthetic one. And the last one, Unit Ice, is the same table, but made out of ice, which they sell in a limited edition for $3,000. I think it’s hilarious. And it did occur to me that if your private ski lodge has an outdoor hot tub, you could use this one safely for at least several months or so out on the back deck. Just don’t put your coffee cup on it. This one has to be set up by C:C on a custom, case-by-case basis.

 

            Then there are the equally amusing and thought-provoking housewares. Rug #1 is glossy black urethane but is intended to look like the one thing you’d least like to see on your floor: a big puddle of crude oil. It’s true, too: I wouldn’t even know how to begin cleaning that up. Another rug, The Lovers, is also urethane. This one is sort of romantic, but very morbid at the same time. Each of the two halves of it is made of 4.8 liters of red urethane, the exact volume of blood contained in the average human body.  And a dozen roses? How sweet!

            Their Aalto Doorstop is cast inside one of the pinnacles of 20^th-Century design, the Savoy vase by Alvar Aalto. Unfortunately, in order to remove the cast cement from the vase, the vase has to be completely destroyed. Something tells me they’re not using original vases from 1936, but even replicas of them go for around $110. The irony of paying homage to a master by destroying his work I think is delicious.

 

Making a similar statement about consumption and value are their candles. It’s a classic candlestick and candle, all made of wax but sold for $72. The manufacture of these pieces is somewhat intensive, but the price makes this interesting. If it were the price of a regular candle, say, $15 or so, you could say, “Cool, a candlestick candle!” But at over four times that price, it’s more like you’re buying a fairly nice candlestick only to burn it down—consume it—with the candle it’s holding.

 

[Here was a paragraph about their totally Surrealist and awesome vases, which needed to be edited out for page space.  You can see them on their website.  Also check out their coke spoons: they're hilariously Pop, but I didn't think the readership would appreciate them, particularly.]

 

[The Ballastic Rose corsage is made of bulletproof textile, so you give it to your lover to wear over his/her heart, in case s/he gets shot at.  LOL]   Just one more thing for the lovers that I truly thought was so romantic. Hidden Eternity is a gold ring with a single .75 karat diamond hidden on the inside. Only you and your significant other will know how much the ring is really worth.

CITIZEN:Citizen

415.695.7748

©2006, Ryan Witte