One of Takeshi Miyakawa's 'I LOVE NY' light sculptures which were intended to promote NY Design Week 2012

Earlier last Saturday (19 May 2012), while trying to display his love for New York, the city which for the past 23 years has been his hometown, via a new light sculpture installation, the renowned Brooklyn-based designer and artist Takeshi Miyakawa was arrested for reportedly ’planting false bombs.’ Inspired by the iconic I LOVE NY plastic shopping bags, the designer intended to install the light ‘around the city in trees and on lamp posts as part of NY Design Week 2012.’ Following his arrest, a judge has decided on Sunday to hold Miyakawa for a mental evaluation, extending his detainment for an additional 30 days.

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Healthcare Centre for Cancer Patients by Nord Architects Copenhagen

Coincidentally, today’s second featured project also comes from the Danish capital, this time in a form of a recently-completed convalescent centre for patients battling or recovering from one of the most fundamental of diseases, cancer. Realised in 2011 by Nord Architects Copenhagen near the Copenhagen city centre and Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet), the striking, white-clad centre comprises a number of individual, yet interconnected by a common multifaceted roof houses, which ‘provide the space needed for a modern health facility, without losing the comforting scale of the individual.’ (more…)

The woollen cushion is held in place by a leather lace which has been simply tied around the seat

Born to a Swedish mother and Danish father, the Copenhagen-based designer Christina Liljenberg Halstrøm‘s designs are characterised by the quintessentially Scandinavian simplicity, lightness of form and effortlessly casual flair. Now, following her Gym the Luxe, Beddo and Norr projects, all of which feature a sombre, minimalist colour palette limited to charcoal grey and natural wood hues, she has created this equally reduced stool named after designer’s eldest son, Georg. The four-legged ash wood and wool stool was developed for Danish Crafts‘ MINDCRAFT12 exhibition which was organised on the occasion of Milan’s Salone del Mobile 2012 fair and showcased 16 new works by 12 contemporary Danish artists and designers. (more…)

Detail of the 'Bamboo-steel' table by Nendo for HAN Gallery

A result of a research on the history of Taiwanese bamboo furniture, these intricate, delicately hand-woven stainless steel tables were realised by the acclaimed Japanese practice Nendo as part of HAN Gallery‘s ‘Yii Designers’ series. Presented earlier in April at Milan’s Ventura Lambrate, the series features traditional hexagonal weave pattern which, instead off bamboo, has been achieved by weaving a number of thin steel strips into adjoining triangles. (more…)

Detail of the 'A Chair' from Steve Oh's 'A Collection'

A young Korean-American designer Steve Oh has just unveiled his latest collection of maple furniture during this year’s edition of New York’s ICFF. ‘A personal interpretation of classic Shaker furniture’ which is known for its ascetic simplicity and use of innovative joinery, Oh’s equally pared-down, functional ’A Collection’ has been developed in its entirety using natural materials: solid maple wood and 100% wool felt and comprises a chair, a barstool and a table designs. (more…)

Kastanienbaum Twin Houses by Lussi + Halter Partner AG; photo © Leonardo Finotti

Earlier last year, a Swiss architectural practice Lussi + Halter Partner AG have completed this 618-square-meters semi-detached residence located near the city of Lucerne. Overlooking the picturesque Lake Lucerne and set among lush woodland area surrounded by oak, birch, chestnut and evergreen trees, the two-storey house features a dark grey concrete façade and an overhang while ‘continuous glass facade on the ground floor makes it possible for the inhabitants to enjoy a direct connection with their surroundings’. (more…)

'Maritime S' chair by Benjamin Hubert for Casamania

Following his 2011 solid timber ‘Martime’ chair design, the award-winning British industrial designer Benjamin Hubert has updated the last year’s version of the chair by lining its inner shell with upholstered panels in either leather or Kvadrat’s 100 % wool Divina MD textile. Launched earlier in April at Milan’s Salone del Mobile, the chair is manufactured by the Italian furniture brand Casamania. (more…)

Graph of the educational curriculum at the Bauhaus, 1923 by Walter Gropius; image courtesy of Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

Following our last week’s Friday Food For Thought post about the excellent ‘Bauhaus: Art as Life’ exhibition which recently opened at London’s Barbican, this week we revisit the famous art and design school once more but for a different reason. Thus, coincidentally, today marks the 129th anniversary of the birth of its founder, Walter Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969).

To celebrate the birthday of one of the most influential and pioneering masters of modern architecture, here are some extracts of the then-revolutionary and hugely influential ‘Bauhaus Dessau – Principles of Bauhaus Production’, coined by Gropius in 1926:

‘The Bauhaus wants to serve in the development of present-day housing, from the simplest household appliances to the finished dwelling.

In the conviction that household appliances and furnishings must be rationally related to each other, the Bauhaus is seeking-by systematic practical and theoretical research into formal, technical, and economic fields-to derive the design of an object from its natural functions and
relationships.’ (more…)