Finnish Architect Vesa Honkonen Heinola Reading Lamps
Design week with a capitol “D” began in Stockholm, Sweden yesterday. The annual event expanded with a full week of furniture and lighting. There are citywide events to amp it up including museum, gallery and showroom programs. Some of the highlights include Illuminated by Magnus Wastberg, Smaller Objects by Claesson Koivisto Rune and Monica Forster who was awarded Designer of the Year 2006-2007.
If you happen to be in Sweden and are into design, this is where you should be.
Pre-fab two story house architects Claesson Koivisto Rune
No. 5 House by Swedish firm Claesson Koivisto Rune
Project by Swedish firm Claesson Koivisto Rune
Magnus Wastberg Lights
Monica Forster Ominous
Monica Forster Ominous
Monica Forster Wardrobe Vases
The Aqua Tower in Chicago literally flows like water through the already dense downtown landscape. The building houses hotels, apartments, and condos and features a roof garden (the 2nd largest in Chicago). Over 720 households will be living in the Aqua Tower. Studio Gang Architects considered such factors as views, solar shading and function to derive a vertical system of contours that gives the structure its sculptural form.
Its vertical topography is defined by its outdoor terraces that gradually change in plan over the length of the tower. These terraces offer a strong connection to the outdoors and allow inhabitants to occupy the building façade and city simultaneously. The result is a highly sculptural building when viewed obliquely that transforms into a slender rectangle from further away. Its powerful form suggests the limestone outcroppings and geologic forces that shaped the great lakes region.
In this video, the architects describe the sustainable building in detail:
Aqua Tower
Your coffee table, wait, pause for a moment of its magnitude, has the power to say much about your taste and your interests without you having to utter one word to a new guest sitting in your home or office. Do not be mistaken; there is much to be said for a careful selection of reading materials piled casually yet artfully on your table. Is your coffee table sans books? Or is it full of books shall we say remise of a certain vibe which you would wish to project outwardly to the world.
Don’t Panic, we here at Modernica want to help, let our obsession with creating the perfect room be the raw materials for your decorating endeavors. So with that said from time to time Modernica will post “Coffee Table Essentials” a guide to interesting books to pile high in your living rooms and offices to let the world know what a disgustingly interesting person you really are.
Here is a book that is visually beautiful and àpropos of our new economy and the rise of the freelance workforce, Gypset Style. Gypset a term author Julia Chapin coined to fuse the ease and carefree lifestyle of the gypsy with the panache of the jet set. The book explores the unconventional, wanderlust lives of these high-low cultural nomads and the bohemian enclaves they inhabit, as well as their counterculture forbears, such as the Victorian explorers, the Lost Generation, the Beatniks, and the hippies. A smart and quirky choice for your coffee table.
How many of these have you opened in your life?
Well say good-bye to the original Heinz ketchup packets which debuted in 1968. The new design is optimized for “dipping”or “squeeze and pour” and contains three times as much ketchup. This is actually a super welcome re-design. I usually need about 6-7 of those packets just to create a nice pile of ketchup for dipping.
Some factoids for the curious: Heinz sells enough packets per year to get to the moon and back and the halfway back there again. That’s enough packets to circle the world 26 times or travel coast to coast 216 times. 23 million single serve packets are produced each day.
As part of a celebration of the release of the Eames Century Modern font collection, House Industries will be drawing three names for an exclusive look into the inner sanctum of one of 20th century’s greatest design teams. Sitting high atop the Pacific Palisades and overlooking Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean, the Eames House was built in 1949 as number 8 in the series of Case Study Houses and is still recognized as a revolutionary use of space and materials. Interior tours of the Eames house and studio are normally only available to members of the Eames foundation.
This exclusive tour will be hosted by Eames Demetrios and Lucia Atwood, grandson and granddaughter of Charles and Ray Eames. You can fill out an entry form here. Also with your entry your can receive a free House Catalog and free fonts to download. Free and free, yeah.
A still shot of the kitchen sink from the film House: after 5 years of living. Courtesy of the Eames Office, LLC, from the Collections at the Library of Congress
Lucia Atwood in the house today. Photo: Misha Gravenor
After moving to LA from Chicago, where I first became a huge fan of vintage, I am still impressed with the treasures you can find here. If you are also a vintage connoisseur, now’s your chance to find original,1950-60’s era, mid-century modern furniture, music and fashion all in one place. The Inspiration Event is offering all of this at the Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport this Friday, February 12, and Saturday the 13th.
As a sponsor, we are giving away tickets for you and a guest to shop til your heart’s desire. Just email a photo of your favorite inspiring vintage furniture, art, interior along with why it inspires you to WIN! Email to inspiration@modernica.net by Thursday. Tickets are $85 for both days or $35 for just Saturday. Purchase by Wednesday for a discount: $65/2 days or $27 for one day.
Something to consider while you are flipping through color swatches is the theory of Chromotherapy or sometimes referred to as light therapy. Several ancient cultures, including the Egyptians and Chinese, practiced chromotherapy and it is still used today as a holistic or alternative treatment. Colors affect us in a myriad of different ways. Colors can influence our moods and emotions. They can have an impact on our sense of well-being or uneasiness. One could even use or avoid certain colors as a way of self-expression; a window into our personalities, our souls.
But more to the point and far less subjective, colors affect our perception. For example, light colors make a space look big; a high ceiling looks less high when painted in a dark color, etc. And often that is the criterion which one uses when considering color options. But have some fun with your choices, expand into the psychological realm. With that said, let’s see what you have been revealing to the world with your color palette as the ancients have deemed.
Red is associated with love, passion, great energy, courage, adventure, danger, revolt and revolution.
Orange is associated with celebration, great abundance, comfort, and enjoyment of the senses.
Yellow is associated with vitality and energy. Youth.
Green is associated with peace, rest, hope, comfort, nurturing, calmness and harmony.
Blue is associated with cool, soothing, dreamy and magical. Peace and rest.
Violet/purple is associated with contemplation, mysticism and spirituality.
White is associated with purity, cleanliness, freshness, simplicity, oneness and completion. Truth.
Pink is associated with softness, sweetness, innocence, youthfulness and tenderness.
Grey is associated with neutral and indifferent, Non-expressive.
Black is associated with seriousness, darkness, depression, death, mystery and secrecy.
This wall exudes ambition.
A serene kitchen which suggests a flare for excitement and passion.
A fun playful gesture for the purist. Shows open mindedness.
Antiques in China are the latest stars on a popular reality TV show, “Collection World.” It’s essentially their version of our appraisal show Antiques Roadshow where fortunes are made and hearts are broken. Collection World’s disappointing fakes are treated a little differently. After the judges, some not so qualified, appraise the guest’s would be antique and find it is a reproduction the host gets violent and smashes it to bits with a mallet! Now that’s some good TV. Read more from the NYTimes.
Shopping the Panjiayuan antiques market
Worker with a refurbished trunk
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With children ranging in age from eight to fourteen, Ben Gile’s clients has only one request with their 1965 Pettit and Sevitt home: more room! The lovely Pettit and Sevitt design from 1965 lay atop a verdant hillside in the wooded suburb of Bilgola Plateau, Australia. A two-story pavilion was added to mesh perfectly with the topography of the hillside. The home is open and allows for optimal social interaction between the family. Daylight sweeps into the room and over the surface of a plywood ceiling, subtly shifting the hue from a light green to a soft honey yellow.
