PLASTIC CUPS? ANYONE?

Tara Donovan is known for transforming everyday materials such as Plastic cups, straight pins, and fishing line into fabulous organic landscapes.Her work explores how massive accumulation of ordinary items can conjure associations of urban landscapes, atmospheric conditions, and geological formations.

you are looking at 3 million plastic cups :-)

ANIMAL THING

Horse lamp, Pig tray and Rabbit lamp...
Who wouldn't want a horse to lighten up your living room and a pig to serve your guests?Furniture to fall in love with at first sight, or hate forever.
Designed by Front for Moooi

LIGHT OF TADAO ANDO

ROKKO TEMPLE

ITO HOUSE

CHURCH OF LIGHT

Tadao Ando employs light in the way of Le Corbusier's treatment of the Notre Dame Du Haute in Ronchamp. He, in a deliberate manner, eat out optically and consume the seams of concrete walls, deforming the visual impression of stable volumes, and making it seem that light is pouring through the opened cracks. Flowing over, around and through the slits left between intersecting planes, light has risen to equal terms with form, and is no longer subservient to the latter as merely an illuminating medium. Light is granted its own independent shapes.
In a number of recent buildings choreographed as deftly as an unfolding film or musical score, Ando has constructed elaborate variations on the old Buddhist death-regeneration sequences. As in the ancient Zen temples, these optical experiences are concentrated around important thresholds, as passage rites, especially along main entries and stairwells, and are arranged for both religious and everyday settings, perhaps in the case of the latter to reinvest the profane with the sacred, and the conscious with the mythic life of the psyche.

EMPEROR MOTH BY ARD

Emperor Moth is a new and dynamic Russian fashion label designed by Katia Gomiashvili. Katia commissioned ARD to create a new store in Mayfair, including all the branding and packaging.
Inspired by Nikki de Saint Phalle's Tarot Garden and Robert Smithson's mirrors, ARD created a voluptuous internal space. Mirrors have always fascinated, from the Russian constructivists to the Faberge eggs. Mirrors show preciousness, dynamism, modernity and nostalgia. They are central to the concept of the new Emperor Moth store.
Shopping in the Emperor Moth is unlike shopping anywhere else in the world. Entering this space, is like entering a new environment, experiencing an emotion you haven't felt before a new type of light, a new type of space.

Image/ text source: AB Rogers Design.

I HEART JUN AOKI

WHITE CHAPEL

Built like a floating house between huge buildings in Osaka’s harbor, the White Chapel has been designed by Jun Aoki. Countless series of interlinked wrought iron steel rings constitute the walls of this sanctuary.

AOMORI MUSEUM OF ART

NARA!!!

U bis (Exhibition Work)

Absolutely flabbergasted …more of Aoki's works here.

WARHOL, WARHOL,WARHOL

Warhol's wise words

1. I believe in low lights and trick mirrors.

2. Why do people think artists are special? It's just another job.

3. I think it would be so great if more people took up silk screening,so that no one would know whether my picture was mine or somebody else.

4. An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he, for some reason, thinks it would be a good idea to give them.

5. Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery.

6. Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.

7. During the 1960s, I think, people forgot what emotions were supposed to be. And I don't think they've ever remembered.

8. Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you, because someone's got to take care of all your details.

9. Employees make the best dates. You don't have to pick them up and they're always tax-deductible.

10.I always wished I had died, and I still wish that, because I could have gotten the whole thing over with.

11. I am a deeply superficial person.

12. I have Social Disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs.

13. I keep reading about this, erm, Indian guy that turns out like three or four thousand pictures a minute...or maybe it's a day.

14. I had a lot of dates but I decided to stay home and dye my eyebrows.

15. I like boring things.

16. I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They're beautiful. Everybody's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.

17. I met someone on the street who said wasn't it great that we're going to have a movie star for president, that it was so Pop, and (laughs) when you think about it like that, it is great, it's so American.

18. I never think that people die. They just go to department stores.

19. I never read. I just look at pictures.

20. I never understood why when you died, you didn't just vanish, everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn't be there. I always thought I'd like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I'd like it to say "figment".

21. I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.

22. I went to China, I didn't want to go, and I went to see the Great Wall. You know, you read about it for years. And actually it was great. It was really, really, really great.

23. I'd asked around 10 or 15 people for suggestions. Finally one lady friend asked the right question, "Well, what do you love most?" That's how I started painting money.

24. I'll endorse with my name any of the following; clothing AC-DC, cigarettes, small tapes, sound equipment, ROCK N' ROLL RECORDS, anything, film, and film equipment, Food, Helium, Whips, MONEY!!

25. I'm afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses all of its meaning.

26. I'm the type who'd be happy not going anywhere as long as I was sure I knew exactly what was happening at the places I wasn't going to. I'm the type who'd like to sit home and watch every party that I'm invited to on a monitor in my bedroom.

27. I've decided something: Commercial things really do stink. As soon as it becomes commercial for a mass market it really stinks.

28. If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There's nothing behind it.

29. Isn't life just a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?

30. It doesn't matter if it displays Mona Lisa, a Banana or Hans Rittman's glasses - the fact is it must be pop!

31. It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.

32. People should fall in love with their eyes closed. Just close your eyes. Don't look.

33. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.

34. My idea of a good picture is one that's in focus and of a famous person.

35. People are only glamorous if you don't see them. Like the movies used to make people years ago. There is something about people on screen that makes them so special; when you see them in person, they are so different and the whole illusion is gone.

36. The most beautiful thing in Tokyo is McDonald's. The most beautiful things in Stockholm is McDonald's. Peking and Moscow don't have anything beautiful yet.

37. The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet.

38. They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

39. When I got my first television set, I stopped caring so much about having close relationships.

40.What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it...

It's the place where my prediction from the sixties finally came true: "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." I'm bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is, "In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous." - Andy Warhol

NENDO

SINKING ABOUT FURNITURE

"Furniture sinking into the floor. A chair with one sinking leg, and a sofa sinking backwards, for example. It may lose its original function, but we can always find a different way of usage. We'd like to make you rethink about the relationship between function and form." -Nendo

Giving people a small ≪ ! ≫ moment. There are so many small ≪ ! ≫ moments hidden in our everyday. But we don’t recognize them.and even when we do recognize them, we tend to unconsciously reset our minds and forget what we’ve seen. But we believe these small ≪ ! ≫ moments are what make our days sointeresting, so rich. That’s why we want to reconstitute the everyday by collecting andreshaping them into something that’s easy to understand. We’d like the people who’ve encountered nendo’s designs to feel these small ≪ ! ≫ moments intuitively.That’s Nendo’s job.

SEARCHI & ICHI

FRONT DESK OF RON ARAD'S HOTEL DUOMO

Reception Desk Exterior

Reception Desk Interior

At first the Duomo hotel was just a hazy dream. It was a place shrouded in Mystery, removed from time and space, suspended between reality and fantasy…

Rimini's duoMo Hotel is a "dream come true", according to Pierpaolo Bernardi, Marianna Chiaraluce and Matteo Sormani, the proprietor and managers of this exciting new hotel designed by Ron Arad.

Ron Arad came up with an intriguing visual provocation that plays with spatial perception, giving a new look to the original facade by covering it with a new skin to create continuity between the city and the interior. He designed an entrance that frames the perspective on the reception, making it the focal point of the hotel. a piece that looks like it comes from a distant planet, a huge glowing that is partly suspended Mid-air and partly resting on the top of a column, of which the interior is a warm, passionate color.

The rooms have soft, round lines, in which the possibility to see and communicate with the outside is directly proportionate to the desire to hide or be seen, playing with day and night in a movement of light and shadow that evokes the idea of an infinite space -that get the imagination going, taking it on a pleasurable, sensual trip through architectural space.

ANDRE LOFT LIVING= ALOFT

Picture source: Artek

Popularized in Europe, loft living began in America in New York mid-twentieth century. Lofts have a sophisticated and hip image. The characteristics of loft living include an urban setting, floor-to-ceiling windows, 14-foot or higher ceilings, beams or columns and large open spaces- showcasing modern art, furniture, and design that only a gallery could compare. Andy Warhol and his factory take most credit for popularizing the loft movement. From Andy Warhol's trademark tinfoil Factory of the '60s to Julian Schnabel's extravagant studio in the Village, the loft provides an area defined by the unique individual within its walls.

Picture source:not available

The central discipline of the lofts lies in the handling of space and material elements, the common theme being openness. The lofts reveal a developing modernity - based on a flexible spatial content - conveying and encapsulating the dual sense of both space and materiality, and the presence of fine detail. It is not about fashion, but is instead concerned with a sense of rooted settlement and the restorative values of ordered space and light within the basic structure of a personal retreat. The concepts of lofts are all very different; some are minimalist, others more lavish and sophisticated.

Picture souce:dje

Loft becomes a desirable choice for single urbanites.Warhol’s highly publicized and fantastical lifestyle made the loft desirable to emerging artists and the non-practicing art community alike. Though there is some disagreement over what defines a loft living, their popularity has made it so that loft living has developed into a certain type of lifestyle, such as open spaces, the freedom to renovate, and close proximity to the cultural life of a city.

Tips on Loft decorations (various sources)

The first step in decorating a loft is to determine the function of the space. You've got all that space; now what are you going to do with it? Walk around your space and decide the best areas for working, relaxing and entertaining. Once the functional areas have been mapped out, it's easy to divide the open space into "rooms" through the placement of partitions, large pieces of furniture or area rugs. Who needs walls, anyway?

Picture source: SteelBridge Lofts

Because of the industrial feel of lofts, they are usually decorated in a contemporary style, which is sleek. It incorporates clean lines and smooth surfaces. The contemporary furnishings combine wood, glass, chrome and stainless steel to create a really interesting look.

Picture source: 247.com

Chairs and sofas are usually upholstered in natural fabrics, such as silk, wool, linen or cotton. Leather also is a great choice.

Picture source:The Promenade

A good selection of fabrics for a loft includes textures and weaves in solids, stripes and patterns. The colors are often tone-on-tone and fairly neutral, but animal prints also make a very cool addition to a contemporary space.

Picture Source: Tower Loft

The color palette in a contemporary design is frequently a mix of neutrals. Black, grey, cream, and brown are a few possible choices, but pure white is the standard.

Picture source:DB+P

Don't forget the floor when you're decorating your loft. Area rugs are another way to add color and texture, and they can help to visually define a space.

Picture source: Continental Magazine

The right form of lighting is especially important in a loft. Suspended pendant lamps can be used to provide general lighting. A mix of up and down lighting is a good idea, but you might want to avoid using torchiere lamps if your ceilings are too rough. Canister lights are also very effective in a loft area.

Here are some of my personal favourites shopping sites for loft furnishings:

Ralph Lauren Home (US Furnishings)

Elson and company (Tibetan carpets and dhurries)

Moroso (Italian Furnishings)

Molteni & C (Italian Furnishings)

Design Gallery Milano (Furnishings and Accessories)

B&B Italia (Modern Furniture Design)

Team byWellis (Swiss Furniture)

COR (German Furniture and carpets)

Hmmmm.....Maybe I should think about buying a loft...
All my friends would be jealous....