Interior Design Show

Here's a preview of the Interior Design Show happening this weekend at the Metro Convention Centre.

By Sarah and Theo Richardson

Commutehome.com

TIRE-E By Haniyeh Khosravi Fard and Farhad Shabani

By Lynn Jackson

also on 5th avenue

Louis Vuitton storefront...

Apple cube

Apple Store, 5th ave, NYC

Toronto really needs some architecture like this to make it a true international city.  This is the entrance to an Apple Store in New York City which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In the middle of the cube, there's a spiral staircase winding around a cylindrical elevator, by which you descend into the basement store.

Take that, Louvre Pyramid escalators! I like the simplicity of the cube, but considering Apple's design aesthetic, I wonder if they even considered rounding the edges.

earthship

Apparently there is a movement to make houses that sustain themselves independent of public utilities like power, water supply, and water treatment. So in the US,  there came the Earthship, a solar-powered home insulated with tires packed with earth and decorated with recycled materials like bottles.

 Would I live in a house like this? Yes, I would.  Do I think it has to look like a hippie spaceship? No, I don't.

a skyscraper that rotates

Architect David Fisher is building a "dynamic" skyscraper. Every floor can rotate independently of the other floors, and if you're wealthy enough to own one of these floors you can control the speed and direction of rotation by touch or voice command. Each floor can rotate at a maximum speed of 1 complete rotation per 90 minutes (I feel sick already). Also you can drive your car into an elevator and have it carried up to your apartment. Fancy.

This building is also an eco-innovation. It generates its own electricity via wind turbines between the floors and solar panels on the roof. It will even generate enough electricity to power other buildings!

The first skyscraper built in Dubai is supposed to be finished later this year, while the Dynamic Architecture website proposes more be built in London, Paris, New York, and Moscow. I'm a little unclear as to whether these projects are really underway or if they're just a dream.

This shows some different possible configurations of the buildings. I imagine it would really look like the third picture once everyone starts the rotating, but I wonder if sometimes they will lose control of their rotations so that the building can look awesome.

awesome bedroom

Why live in a box when you could have this?  There's something universally appealing about hidden compartments and elevated surfaces like your own stage.  I like how you'd be completely hidden in the elevated bed, but there's still a little peephole to facilitate communication (and spying).  Also, the stairs are so surreal. This is a child's bedroom created by H20 Architects in Paris, but give me a bigger bed and more closet space integrated into that wall and I'd live in it.

 More pictures

geekologie

I can't believe that I never knew this site existed. I found it while google-imaging "tent" and ogled a picture of a tent shaped like a car being used for urban camping. Then I found other strange things like this - a tunnel built into a house. You've got to wonder what motivates a person to complete a project like this.

asia architecture

I love this kind of design. You know when you're stuck in rush hour and you just wish there could be another highway? We have plenty of sky. Why not build up?

Fukuoka, Japan (highways)

Bangkok, Thailand (walkways)

Busan, South Korea (public transit line)

Yay Canada

So I hear that Canada won the most gold medals, like, ever. I'm not a big sports fan but there is a certain amount of pleasure in seeing the US come second to us. We should also be proud that we created the most innovative medal design I've ever seen, however ugly it may be. Who would've thought to create an "undulating" surface but British Columbians. I'm torn between appreciation of the unique design and the undeniable reality that they look like a manufacturing error. Maybe the varied plane could have been a little more subtle, or just plain flat like most of the great Canadian landscape. What I love is the imagery on the front of the medals. It comes from an orca image drawn by aboriginal West coast artist Corrine Hunt. The image on each medal was "hand-cropped" from the greater image so that each medal is different and unique. I guess that's what you might call a modern (they were drawn onto the medals using a laser) form of handicraft.

More on the medals

green roofs

In Japan, I came across the ACROS building and thought it was an excellent way to reconcile technology with nature. With trees running all the way up one side of the building, it goes far beyond the rooftop garden idea. The other side just looks like a glass building, but the green side merges with the greenery of the park and becomes part of the landscape. As it slants upwards, its like a human-made mountain. Imagine how awesome our city would be if all its buildings supported a forest for a roof. Let there be green roofs!

ACROS Fukuoka Building, Japan

converse extension

A new take on footed pajamas. I'm a little surprised this hasn't been mass produced and sold at Stitches to punky teenagers. I would have worn it, back in the day.

Converse Extension by Daryl van Wouw, Virtual Shoe Museum

future shoes

There were crocs, and then there was this. These shoes are a collaboration between a Brazilian plastic shoe designer and a female British-Iraqi architect. I recommend watching their futuristic promo video.

Melissa + Zaha Adid

I might add that the shoes bear striking resemblance to Adid's design for the Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre. The latter makes a little more sense to me: I think I'd rather explore it than wear it.

this is a shoe

These shoes are from fashion hero Alexander McQueen's Spring 2010 Collection.

lamp chair

I saw the Cut/Paste exhibit at the ROM on Friday. It featured various objects designed from unexpected materials. My favorite was the lamp chair which looked like this except without the pattern, and there was a pully chain for turning it on and off. I couldn't find an online image of the exact chair but googling "lamp chair" and "light chair" led to some interesting results. I don't even know where to begin, so here's Elephant Chair with Lamp by Alexander Calder from the MoMA collection.

love letter to a tree, fragmented by design

Hello, tree chair, I think I love you. Yes, I do want to be reminded that I am sitting on a tree when I am, and you achieve that so perfectly. Your spindly unkempt legs reminding me of the very essence of your being. Let's live harmoniously together in my kitchen. Won't you be mine?

I am slightly less impressed by the designer's skills of construction after discovering that the bases of these objects were made from found chair and table parts, not made specially for the objects. The parts being "salvaged" are nevertheless in keeping with the simple yet excellent concept, however impractical it may be for a table to have that many legs.
 

Canadian Artist/designer is Ryan Legassicke and I found this on the MADE Design online gallery.

P.S. Toronto International Design Festival is on now (Jan 19-24).

random

Jeju Island Artpark

I tend to believe that when creating, we should ask "why". Why am I doing it this way and not some other way? But when we're really bored, it may be sufficient to ask "why not". For lack of direction, why not create something rather than nothing. Though we look for intentions and make explanations, I sometimes think nature takes the same strategy.

Jeju Island, Hallim Park

window walls

It's really hard to get motivated being indoors all the time, and the alternative (braving the snowstorm) isn't actually that tempting at all. That's why I need one of these.

In Jeju Island Artpark

The perfect place to work if you're at the top of a mountain. A professor in sustainability at OCAD mentioned that research was done showing that students learn better when there are plants in the room. Apparently even a nature themed image on your desktop helps. Maybe in the future, schools will be built in the center of a forest and have windows for walls.

One more time

Here is the original key dude (back and front). I like how one side looks suspecting. And I used the J and L because they kind of look like legs with feet at the bottom.

it's kind of amazing what people can do with felt

In my bacon webtravels, I ended up discovering food made out of felt. I'm impressed, but really surprised that Etsy designers sell their patterns in PDF form for $6 but don't sell the real things. Who wants to make a felt apple for oneself?

Bugga Bugs

Umecrafts

Sweetie Pie Bakery