One of my dreams has always been to be able to live in a nice modern styled house, preferably somewhere in Japan. But then when I saw this I realize that I don't have to move to find architecture like this, but I'd still rather live in Japan of course. This house is located in the archipelago of islands in Stockholm, a place where I certainly do not want to live since I'm not a boat person nor do I like the attitude of rich people around there (especially when it comes to the kids, ugh). But then again, some rich kids are not going to keep me from living where I want to live when I finally find my (affordable) house of my dreams.
Photos by Åke E:son Lindman, and thanks to Dave over at the CONTEMPORIST for letting me know about this great piece of... wood.
Widjedal, Racki, Bergerhoff house in Stockholm, Sweden
What time is it?
My watch says it's 5 PM at the moment and I guess that's about right. But did I have fun checking the time? Not at all. My point is that my clocks are boring, and your's are most likely just as boring as mine. So I'm going to show you some really neat designs that might make you appreciate checking time a bit more, and for god's sake, throw out that old clock you bought 3 years ago on IKEA.
So first off we have the CUBE clock by Constantin Boym. This is an aluminum silk screened Ø 8" (20.32 cm) clock and takes 1 AA. I think this is a really interesting design, though it might be hard to actually understand it without looking straight at it. But hey, it's cool so who cares? Also worth to mention is that you can get it for just $18 from greenergrassdesign.
Next on the list is this beautiful clock, I'm not sure about who made it but it looks a lot like a George Nelson clock. However, the pictures speak for themselves, it's a classy yet modern looking clock crafted from brass with shiny blocks of wood surrounding a classy face. The face looks a bit like something I'd find at my grandmas, but the mix of classiness and modern design is amazing. You'll find it at UrbanOutfitters, but it'll cost you $98, but I'd go for it!
Unfortunately I couldn't find the designer's name for this amazing clock, all I know is that it's Italian, and it's expensive. The face is made of frosted glass and the numbers are made of laser cut metal with a black finish. The price however is $228, but we all know that if you like it, $228 is nothing. You'll find it at Chiasso.
Here we have a watch made by Ilya Yakovlev. This is just a concept but I had to include it in this post anyway. The digits on the LCD display is made of gemstones and the colors may vary depending on the colors of the gemstones (which is cool!). The hard part is deciding on if this is a men's or a women's watch, maybe it's unisex, it's a tough call.
Lastly we have the Blow Up Wall Clock designed by Campana Fratelli. Very creative, though I'd have trouble understanding it, it makes me a bit dizzy. It's pretty cool though, you can get it at ALESSI for $220.
My favorite out of these is definitely the George Nelson clock (now, please correct me if I'm wrong since I'm not actually sure that it is a George Nelson clock).
Which one is your favorite?
Sano Loves Coffee
And what he also loves is when coffee and modern design is combined. You see, I don't see coffee as "the drink that keeps you awake", oh no. Coffee is something special, something that words can't explain. Ok, I think you get the point, I love coffee.
During the past two weeks I've discovered three really cool designs, which you probably have realized by now, has to do with coffee.
The first one is a cup designed by Sunman Kwon. This design was made for those who doesn't like the very last sip of the coffee, I totally love it though. By making the cup's inside shaped as a heart, it's easier to treat the last sip with the love it deserves. The really interesting concept of this cup is that the whole cup isn't shaped as a heart. When the cup is full it looks just like any other cup, but the more you drink, the closer you get to reveal the hidden message. It's like a journey of love, and if you don't finish that last bit of wet and dark grinds, you'll never find your true love! (Ok, I'm just making that up).
The second design is made by Hye-Yeon Choi, and is a new easy way to enjoy a cup of FAST coffee. This very simple, yet amazing design holds both the instant coffee and the sugar (or creamer) in one straw-looking package. It's intended to be a simple solution for smaller diners and places that are less service oriented. This could also be the end of the spoon, you see, after you've poured the contents out, you simply use the package itself to stir your brew.
I'm a lazy guy, when I'm home I drink instant coffee. And when they start using these here in Sweden, I'll say good buy to the... less tasty big cans of instant coffee I have at home now, ugh. Of course, when I'm at a café I'm definitely not looking for instant coffee, but I would bring a couple of these home every time I had the chance.
The third and final design is made by Lina Fischer, and this is is where the magic comes in. It might look like a normal, yet very nice coffee maker at first sight. But I promise you, even though it looks like an hourglass, it's not as boring as the The Days of Our Lives hourglass.
What makes this coffee maker so special is that it pretty much violates the laws of gravity. You see, it lifts the boiling water into the ceiling and when it's done, black magic pours out. And what's even cooler is that it looks like it's coming from the floor. So, the ceiling sucks the water up, and magically transfers everything to the floor, I'm impressed.
If you know of any other cool coffee related designs, I'd be glad to hear about them. Or if you just love coffee like I do, leave a comment!
And remember, there is no spoon.
House in Minamibōsō, Chiba
This house is not new, actually is was designed between 2004.08-2006.05, and was constructed 2006.06-2007.02. But even if it's an old design I felt like writing about it, cause it's one of my favorite designs. It was designed by Susumu Kiyoshi from Kiyonobu Nakagame Architects and Associates. I love modern design, especially when it comes to houses and interior design, and this house is really something.
I love the huge glass windows and doors, and the white concrete looks really clean. I like the big garden, even though in the pictures they haven't really done anything with it. And the view from this place is simply stunning!
So how's the interior? Well, there's a pool table in the living room, what else do you need? Ok, a pool table isn't very special, but I like the simplicity in this house. I don't want too much furniture, that's one of the worst things a lot of people do when furnishing their apartment or house.
I wonder where they hid the kitchen though, oh well, they didn't take pictures of every room (which is sad since the kitchen is very important). But you haven't seen the best part yet, this is why I'm in love with this house:
Look at that view, it's like a visual orgasm!! I could spend my whole day in that tub, no doubt about it. Just imagine yourself sitting there on a nice summer evening, or how about a snowy night? And add your favorite drink and some nice jazz/lounge music, and how about your girlfriend too? Just free your imagination...
Photos by: NAKAGAME
Structural design: Ohno Hiroshi
Yanko Design hacked!
Tokyo Girls Collection 2008 Fashion Show
The 6th Tokyo Girls Collection (for 2008 spring/summer) took place on Saturday. Dozens of popular models participated in the fashion show, and CHEMISTRY gave a special performance.
This time, the event established a new award to honor the female celebrity who had the most successful year. The recipient of the "Best Girl of 2007" title was actress Yui Aragaki, who said she was nervous as she appeared on stage. Although she used to primarily be a model, she has reportedly walked a runway only once before. -Tokyograph
Congratulations Gakki!If I were the one to choose, I'd pick Gakki too. Actually I haven't seen any of her stuff from 2007 yet, but I got to know her in 2007 and I've seen 2 of her doramas, and I love her album.
Worth to mention is that one of the hosts was in fact Yaguchi Mari. Other well known people who participated were Sada Mayumi, Hoshino Aki, Leah Dizon, Nakagawa Shoko etc.
Check these sites out for pictures, videos and information:
• Official site's stage report
• About the fashion show
• TGC in Beijing 2008
• 2ch photo gallery
• Gakki Fanlisting
• yaguchimari.org
LowKey Stand
Slim for the win! And Apple + slim equals even a better win, right?
This is the LowKey Stand by Macessity, made for fans of Apple's slim keyboards. The stand offers storage for your keyboard and has 4 built in USB ports, basically everything you need. With this you don't have to reach to the back of your iMac or Apple Display, and you can throw away your ugly USB hub. It also helps organizing your desk like never before, now we just need a place to put the mouse in and then everything has it's own place. The only flaw I could find is that it requires it's own power adapter, it would be so much nicer if you could just plug it in the iMac. But hey, as long as you hide the cables it doesn't really matter!
The price for this thing is $59.99, and it's definitely worth it. Here's the rest of the features:
Canvas by Kyle Cherry
More sweet 21-century industrial design! This is Kyle Cherry's new concept of a laptop made for artists and designers with little or no computer experience. With new controls and features this PC makes everything more natural and familiar for non digital designer and artists. The touchpad allows you to use both your hands and a pen (no more external tablets = yay!), and there's a scroll wheel on the left side which allows you to navigate through documents, but it could probably be used for a lot of stuff. Above the scroll wheel there's toolbars and auxiliary to give you an extra hand and lastly there's an extra touchpad or easy rotation of... whatever you want to rotate.
For me, this is probably a bit too much, but it looks really nice! I bet it would be a success if someone made a laptop like this, but we can't really expect anyone to do it, and especially not with a design like this.
Laptop Desk by Sung-kyu Nam
Another concept, this time by Sung-kyu Nam and it's called "DesCom". It's simply a Samsung laptop concept integrated in a desk, and it's really neat! I've seen similar stuff before, but not with laptops. I've seen people modding their computers into shelves and other furniture but a dock for laptops like this is definitely something special. But is it any good? Well, I'm not sure. It looks damn hot but I don't see the point of using a laptop in a concept like this. The laptop is huge so it's nothing you'd take with you, and when you don't want it docked in the desk, what's left is an empty uneven desk.
However, the thing looks really cool, but I'd rather have a desktop computer built into the desk instead of a laptop. Also, a good solution for all the cords would be nice, there's a touchpad but most people prefer to use a mouse at home. It would be cool if you could put in new hard drives into the desk, kind of like you do in the Mac Pro to get rid of all the cords.
So what do you think of this concept, except for it's nice looks?
iMac . iView
Ever been to one of those cinemas with wrap-around movie theatre screens? Now you can have one of those at your home too! (well not really). This is a cool concept of an iMac designed by Nuno Teixeira. It includes a touch-screen, pop-out remote control, built-in 3G modem and an LCD projector.
It even has an LCD-screen on the back, as well as a webcam both on the front and the back (don't know if that's useful or not though).
Maybe this is possible with the new OLED-screens? I know I would definitely get one if they made it! I don't know how useful the webcam and the LED-screen on the back is for home users though, since there's usually a wall behind the desk. This must be very interesting for people who now use 2 screens, I mean there's no gap! Imagine how neat it would be if you could curve it yourself, damn this is just too cool.
"Doodle While You Doodie"
According to the designers of this toilet paper/pen holder, your “best ideas come to you when you’re in the bathroom.” I always thought the best ideas came while influenced by certain “herbal remedies,” but who am I to judge? “WCNotes” by designers Marc Graells, Miquel Monfort & Victor Viñamata, is a simple mash-up design of pen holder and toilet paper holder. Featuring silhouetted pen-shaped die cuts and made of 2mm thick stainless steel, this brain fart design is perfect for when nature calls and inspiration strikes. – Yanko Design™
So what do you think of this? Is it a good idea? I mean, every time you're doing something hard and can't find the solution for something, go take a dump, it seriously helps! The only problem with this is that it's not very easy to write on that type of paper... but well, who cares when it's such a good invention?
So the next time you're taking a dump, bring a pen and paper unless you have bought one of these already! ;)
