Hotel Marqués de Riscal
The Hotel Marqués de Riscal is the newest design created by Frank O. Gehry, the renowned architect who designed the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. Located in Alava, Spain, this ribbon like construction is the roof of a luxury hotel which boasts 43 modern suites, all with wireless internet, LCD TV’s, marble bathrooms, a fine restaurant, a tourist centre. This amazing building is well renown in the area for its remarkably unique architecture which is most impressive from the rear angle of the building.
Cable Jewellery by BLESS
The cables that connect an electronic device with the source are often an annoying interference factor that we always try to hide away. With BLESS’ cable jewellery, these undesirable appendices will be transformed into glamorous and decorative objects. From a large scale of different styles, reaching from crystal stones, pearls and bangle busters over wooden cubes and lace braids to fur and sand toppings, you can bring your own cable and order from the provided styles the one that fits your environment.
Frederic Malle’s Smelling Tubes
This new fragrance boutique in Paris is the proof that perfumiers can be considered as true artists. This perfume workshop belongs to cult perfumier Frederic Malle. It features smelling tubes which are the ultimate technology to ‘taste’ the fragrance. Shoppers will also be able to see Malle at work. With this delightful atmosphere, I’m sure you won’t resist taking home a bottle of his latest scent.
Candida Hofer Libraries
Candida Höfer Libraries is a book that features photographies of the world’s most magnificient libraries. Those are not your common school libraries but true cathedrals of knowledge housed in some of the most beautiful buildings ever created. The libraries featured include the British Library in London, the Escorial in Spain, the Whitney Museum and the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris, the villa Medici in Rome and the Hamburg University Library, among others.
Floating Island by Chaoran Zheng, Fu Yetao and Zheng Chaoran
Floating Kitchen Island concept from Chinese designers Chaoran Zheng, Fu Yetao and Zheng Chaoran is a kitchen that hangs to the roof with stable steel cables and that can be adjusted according to the user’s height. The steel cables create the magical night sky feel with the distributed lamps along the cable that glows like stars in the night sky. It is designed to maximize the kitchen space by utilizing the limited space, which assigns the traditional kitchen’s tools into three ecological islands.
Digital Beijing 2007
Digital Beijing 2007 is an impressive futuristic building that will be the control and data center for the 2008 Olympic Games. Studio Pei-Zu will build this almost totally digital building which will look like a bar code, with its surface ressembling a giant circuitboard. Aside from being a control and data center, there will be exhibits by design products manufacturers.
Fruitree by Chia Shee Loh, Antonietta Fortunato, Elena Godenzi
The Fruitree concept designed by Chia Shee Loh, Antonietta and Elena Godenzi is a new vision of the fruit basket. This fruit basket keeps your fruits fresh in evidence instead of being hidden in the fridge. It includes a system of diffusion and treatment which eliminates the bacteria and delays the natural oxidation of the fruits, giving them a greater freshness and a better conservation.
Dude Wrap by Whimsy
Whimsy’s Dude Wrap is a good alternative if you’re tired of the same old ugly gift wrap. Let the Space Invaders find a new home on the paper with the “Paper Invaders” gift wrap or let them know you fought like a pirate to find that special gift with the “Sticks & Bones” gift wrap. Arrr!
Loop the Cube by Andrew Tye
Seating aside, storage is another typical use for modular design. Extremely fashionable and with a retro flavour, Loop the Loop cubes are the brainchild of hot young designer Andrew Tye. Freestanding or mounted on the wall, these elegant rectangular and square rings have smoothly-curved corners, and can be stacked in any order to provide a cool platform for hi-fi systems and ornaments. Available in black or white gloss, the cubes also come in walnut or maple veneer finishes for the height of retro chic.
9tubohouse by Makoto Masuzawa and reintroduced by Makoto Koizumi
Reknowned Japanese architect Makoto Masuzawa designed this small, elegantly simple house in 1952. The reason for its tiny size is that after World War II, the housing corporation of Japan would only provide loans to build homes that were no larger than 50 square meters.
Kitchen of the Future By Terence Woon
This kitchen of the future, designed by Terence Woon, seeks to make the kitchen experience a more pleasurable one. The aim is to seamlessly integrate information technology into conventional kitchen appliances that will be at once ubiquitous and invisible. This ultra-slim series of modular wall-mounted appliances preaches honesty in design where needless operations and controls are eliminated, keeping visual clutter to a minimum.
Ravello Chair by Ricardo Antonio for Poltrona Frau
Ravello chair is designed by Ricardo Antonio for Poltrona Frau. The seat and back are in soft high-quality leather, with its base in curved and chromed steel. Ideal as a showpiece for the living room or study.
“I am not attracted by a right angle nor by a straight, hard, inflexible line, created by man. What attracts me is the free and sensual curve. The curve that I come across in the mountains of my country, in my favourite woman, in the clouds of the sky and in the waves of the sea. The universe is made of curves: it’s Enstein’ s curved universe.”
Pod Living by Jagger
Boho Pod, designed by Jagger, is a free standing pod structure which appears as polished jewel boxes when closed. When opened, they reveal tightly laid-out kitchens and bathrooms as efficient as you might find on a yacht. Some contain closets, and they can be specified in four different colors. Below is a rendering of the pod with it’s fold-away doors open to the kitchen side.
Fluttua Suspended Bed by LAGO
The Fluttua bed is only supported by a single beam attached to the wall, thus creating a cool levitation effect. When your friends will see your bed floating in the air, they will think you’re the next David Copperfield. Now I have to learn learn how to transform an elephant into a mouse because I don’t know if this bed could support 300lbs.
Tide Chandelier by Stuart Haygarth
Tide Chandelier is designed by Stuart Haygart. All the objects of the chandelier are normally collected in large numbers and assembled in a way that transforms their meaning. The results take various forms such as large one off chandeliers, installations, sculptural and functional works. The Tide Chandelier pictured above is made from a collection of clear and translucent objects, all collected on a specific stretch of the Kent coastline.
Piano Lessons
Piano teachers, here’s a very creative way of promoting piano lessons. Leave your name, phone number and adress on a piano note and potential Mozarts probably won’t forget to call you. Nice!
[via Adgoodness]
Apple Launches Movie Site, New Ipods
After years of speculation, Steve Jobs has finally launched the movie store on Apple itunes 7, hoping it will do for motion pictures what the music store did for music. Movies are available for download at $9.99 to $14.99 apiece.
The iPod was also updated to make use of the new movie store. The 30GB and 80GB models go for $249 and $349 respectively, and both models will now play games that are available on the iTunes music store for $4.99. Jobs also announced that Apple shrunk the iPod Shuffle, which is now barely bigger than postal stamp, making it the world’s smallest MP3 player. The iPod Nano was given the iPod Mini color treatment. It now comes in silver, pink, green, blue and black. Smaller and lighter with a 24 hour battery life, the Nano is priced as follows: 2GB silver is $149, 4GB silver, pink, green and blue are $199 and the 8GB black is $249. The iPod and iPod Nano are available now, and the iPod Shuffle will ship in October.
Sorrento Sideboard by Allesandro Elli
Sorrento is designed by Allesandro Elli. The modular sideboard comes in different versions and sizes. It is available in wengè, natural, tinted, oak and differents colors.
