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Happy Christmas from 2DM /
It’s about that time to gather around a fire, eat a few kilos of sugary treats and wait for Babbo Natale or Santa Claus (or whoever it is that normally drops by your ‘hood) to pay a visit. So Happy Holidays, safe travels, warm wine and fuzzy feelings to all!
From everyone here to our wonderful talents, clients, collaborators, bloggers and friends we wish you an inspired finish to your 2010!
Tag Christof.
Tiny Houses
It could be the eggnog, the ungodly amount of sparkly tinsel or the fruitcake and pannetone, but whatever the case, we can’t help but feel a bit queasy and overwhelmed this holiday season. There’s just so. much. stuff. While you’re wading through masses of anonymous shoppers in the next few days we know you’ll know exactly what we mean.
And while a splurge and binge here and there probably keeps us all sane (and employed), the state of the world today calls for some radical reconsiderations and even more radical behaviour shifts. Maybe even a healthy dose of sobriety. Considerations of looming population explosions and climate change and finite natural resources can do the head in, but in practice, answers lie in well-measured alterations of our own behaviour. Real solutions often come disguised in the simplest, most elegant packages.
Enter the tiny house, pioneered by the accidental visionary, Jay Schafer, founder of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. From the yurt to the Airstream, it seems we’ve always had an oblique fascination with tidy glove-tight dwellings, but these are meant as far more than simple shacks or ramshackle mobile outposts as they ideally offer all of the creature comforts of a traditional home without the possibility of hoarding – 6 to 77 square meters (65 to 835 square feet)! This is living essentially, not poorly, and the vanguard of this mini movement (no pun intended) is picking up steam. And while in its more semiotically safe incarnations, its shape and scale may cause snickers about its eerie similarity to the particle board dwelling your father nailed together for you as a child, just imagine your playhouse decked out with Sub Zero appliances, a few choice artworks and some fancy furniture, and the misconception vanishes. As BMW’s ingenious MINI and its numerous copycat pretenders have taught us, quality and size most definitely aren’t doomed to an inextricable inverse relationship. The key, as always, is skilful execution and considerate design.
Urban housing considerations are altogether different than the quarter-acre grid and cul-de-sac standard of suburban America, yes. And it would be sheer folly to expect millions of well-heeled, eco-aware urbanites to abandon their comfortable flats and townhouses for tiny, decked out pods, yet these almost revolutionary reconsiderations of space should provide a valuable impetus for the future of home design in general. While the Japanese have been the masters of modularity and efficiency since pretty much forever, those lessons in efficiency mostly just translated into an ability to amass more junk in less space. These pint-sized paradigm benders from the land of the Big Mac and Hummer offer up a refreshing change of emphasis. In an out with the baby and the bathwater scenario, if even the McMansion can be reconsidered, imagine what a true rethink of urban dwellings could amount to! And who wouldn’t love to live in one of these on the leafy green roof of an LA skyscraper or London warehouse?
The cherry on the sundae, furthermore, is that instead of being off-the-shelf kits for Ikea easy 1-2-3 construction, you have to build your own. Tumbleweed is based on a model of education and facilitation, providing expertise, plans and workshops to encourage creative execution of one’s own mini-mansion. The result is an infinitely customisable, open ended, bespoke creation. All probably without mortgage payments, endless metres of floor to clean or negligible maintenance and utility costs.
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Bigshot Camera
Designed by Columbia University professor Shree Nayar first and foremost as an educational toy, the Bigshot camera project is turning out to be something altogether more alluring. The camera is, in the vain of Lego and IKEA furniture, to be built from scratch from pre-fabricated pieces. But quite unlike the iconic Scandinavians (especially the latter), its building fosters an understanding of a process, which despite its ubiquity, remains an opaque demi-mystery to the greater majority of humanity. Quite simply, the plastic and silicone components that make up this elemental DIY digital camera teach principles of optics and mechanics and thereby help to demystify the black boxes that are most point-and-shoot digital cameras.
And with analog photography’s recent explosion into the zeitgeist as an indispensable branch of photography for connoisseurs (as opposed to an anachronistic form of it), companies like Lomography and, more recently, The Impossible Project have sprung up to answer the call of the legions of nouveau-analog warriors. Along these lines in the parallel digital world, a quiet low-fi movement has also taken place, with serious photography being done on mobile phone cameras, with cheap fisheye lenses and with specialty cameras that replicate everything from Quaker Oatmeal pinholes to Soviet rangefinders.
Analogue or not, however, Bigshot is a break-the-mould original, that despite its stated target, is sure to be one rugged, elemental and satisfying image-making tool. For everyone interested in a more direct relationship with their images, regardless of age. Cheeky touches abound, such as a way-cool manual crank that allows for its use even if the main battery is drained, and the camera’s website provides how-to advice for using the camera as a periscope, kaleidoscope and basic pinhole. Most interesting in its functionality, however, are its three lenses that give the little pistol a virtuoso versatility.
There is, however, one gigantic catch: although it continues to undergo continual development and refinement by its creator and his team, the Bigshot project has yet to secure financing (or a corporate sponsor willing to commercialise it) and thus, remains a prototype in search of a home. Anticipation has mounted as the good word spreads, and we’re crossing our fingers and throwing in our voice in praise. We’ll take one for the Bureau in basic black, and can’t wait to tinker and tape. And toy around. (Ha!)
Tag Christof, Images courtesy Bigshot project.
Lino Sabattini the Film
Our penchant for the artisanal had us drooling – with popcorn – over Kid Dandy‘s fantastic documentary of Lino Sabattini by Gianluca Migliarotti and Porzia Bergamasco. Part designer, whose prolific imagination has driven a lifetime of original, thoroughly inventive objects, part artisan-craftsman whose hands know and work the materials those objects are made from, Sabattini’s conceptual prowess and craftsman disposition have secured him a place in the world’s pantheon of great designers. Known for being entirely self-taught, he preaches and truly believes (and practically coined the adage) “s’impara facendo…e anche sbagliando” (learning comes through doing…and through making mistakes). And like any self-respecting design great, he not only creates beautiful objects, he also attacks niggling problems (and shows his formidable sense of humour) with objects like his infamous jellyfish-esque fork-spoon-hair accessory.
The documentary is a long talk with Sabattini and highlights his acquaintances with several bigwigs of Italian design, most importantly Gio Ponti, who presented his metal work in the 1950s on the pages of Domus and introduced him to the world outside Italy in a Paris exhibition soon thereafter. Working most prolifically at the vanguard of 1950s and 1960s design, his creations have become iconic of the time and many remain in production.
Sabattini’s intimacy with his materials – an organic progression from first working with silver to a later passion for ceramics and glass – is a refreshingly quaint dose of expertise in a computer crazy industry in which designers more often than not create objects in pixels, without ever tinkering with the materials they will eventually be made in. The go-deeper attitude embodied by Sabattini, furthermore, has been conspicuously absent in sometimes mercurial contemporary design education, but which is increasingly being soaked up by schools as diverse as the Royal College of Art, ECAL and Stanford’s d.school. We hope Sabattini’s legacy of doing – and intensely knowing his craft’s ins and outs – inspires generations of designers to come.
Tag Christof, Images courtesy Kid Dandy and Artnet.
Design In Italia: L’Esperienza del Quotidiano
We’ve finally gotten our hands on Ottagono and Giunti‘s new design book, Design in Italia: L’esperienza del Quotidiano. Written by Porzia Bergamasco and Valentina Croci, and curated by the indefatigable Aldo Colonetti, the nearly 300 page volume is a sprawling, comprehensive adventure through design in the Bel Paese. The particularly salient nature of Italian design’s creations and contributions are clear on a walk down any of the world’s high streets, or in a passing glance at any would-be sports car unable to ape the magic lines and proportions of a Ferrari. And while its more iconic objects have been disseminated far and wide (or at least emulated and lusted after, as in the cases of architecture and interior design), this book is, in any case, squarely focused on the more narrow sociological context of design as a primary shaper of Italian life, Italian habits and Italian identity. This is design as patrimony, and a complex look at the pervasive creative fertility that has made the country not only a perpetual hotbed of clever innovation, but also a particularly nice place to live.
Split into sections covering spaces places, objects and people, the volume is curated through the lens of standard, everyday life – the experience of the quotidian, as the story goes. It is filled with spaces that continue to inspire, essential objects, and some of the major protagonists behind them. The objects within are the industrial, inclusive, quintessential icons of the day-to-day in the country, from the indispensible Bialetti moka to Barilla’s iconic pasta boxes and Campari’s tiny tasty jewel-like bottles, all the way to Milan’s metro cars, the diminutive Lancia Y, Castiglioni’s Arco lamp and Ponti’s Superleggera chair. All strokes of genius, none terribly exclusive or terribly rare.
Adeptly written, fresh and thorough, the book paints a picture of a very particular dynamic, a perfect storm of social, geographic and economic scaffolding that continually results in exceptional design, and which, extraordinarily, remains relevant to everyone, design fiend, Italian or not.
Tag Christof.
Wooliweiss + Casarialto at Verger
We met designer Catherine Urban, créatrice behind the complimentary Casarialto and Wooliweiss lines, at her temporary shop inside Verger this weekend. The French-born, Institute Français de la Mode alumnus, who worked for more than a decade at Louis Vuitton and Chanel, has a well-honed penchant for detail and a conviction that finer things shouldn’t be relegated to occasional use. It is precisely this aversion to prohibitiveness that has driven the creation of a truly welcoming, everyday luxury brand. Urban partially credits her success to the the unique Italian business ecosystem, which defies economics to remain a patchwork of small, focused and nimble companies. This along with its unrivaled manufacturing savoir-faire, enables responsive, detail-driven boutique businesses to emerge, and allows companies like Urban’s to personalize, quickly adapt and maintain superfluous quality.
The at once cosy and luxurious Wooliweiss was born of a delightful children’s line (doesn’t the name even the name sound warm and inviting?) but has grown to include womenswear, as well as cashmere “Cashpets” and a squeezable and engaging “Hug Me” line, which cleverly encourages the re-imagination of forgotten cushions. The dovetailing Casarialto line, on the other hand, includes deceptively svelte Murano-made glassware, linens, cushions and sumptuous merino blankets. With a word-of-mouth impetus, a real familiarity with her clients and a well-deserved reputation for quality, Urban’s clientele has steadily, organically grown to stretch from end to end of the globe. And with a fountain of fresh ideas on tap, a continuing evolution of product, a new line of kitchen accessories in the works, and the possibility one-offs and personalisation, we see good things in store!
Text and photo Tag Christof
apartamento #06
The new issue of apartamento has arrived! As always the nearly pocketable little rocket packs a punch with more than 230 pages of refreshing anecdotes, poetry, interviews, interjections and excellent photography. Most importantly, this “everyday life interiors magazine” exposes the fascinating and extraordinary habitats of some particularly inspired individuals. It feels charmingly like a well lived-in home itself, so carefully curated are its bounty of contents.
This time around you’ll find a whimsical reflection on plastic (which amounts to a half lament for a utopian past that never came), an ingenious New York penthouse shack, fornicating frogs, kitchenware robots, a colouring book, mushrooms, and sizzling Paz de la Huerta. Miranda July even makes a cameo! Creative direction (and many of its photos) comes from 2DM’s Nacho Alegre.
This one’s staying on our coffee table for a long time.
Find it at cool bookshops, design stores and boutiques the world over. Like colette and Post Poetics.
Tag Christof, photos from the bureau. Special thanks to Marco Velardi!
Casamica / Verso Nord
Corriere Della Sera‘s latest issue of Casamica, Verso Nord, has just hit newsstands. A holiday special of wintry design, architecture and treats, the issue maintains the fresh, airy art direction of its previous issue thanks to SM Associati.
Along with the usual feast of gorgeous objects, inside there is a special on grand urban spaces of the Nordic cities, a feature on Tokujin Yoshioka, a look at ’60s looks from Finish fashion house Marimekko and a nifty look at toasty fireplaces for the snowy season.
Inside you’ll find portraits of the magazine’s protagonists by 2DM‘s illustrator Marco Klefisch, including design great Stefan Diez Design Miami/Basel’s Ambra Medda, architect Hermann Kaufmann, artist Olafur Eliasson, the late great Ralph Erskine, and desigher Kasper Salto among several others. 2DM’s Ricardo Fumanal also makes a grand appearance with two architectural illustrations and a brilliant portrait of Piero Gandini, Marco Ferreri and Maria Vittoria Backhaus.
Treviso-XYZ: Skill To Do Comes Of Doing
By definition, design is meant to enhance and improve the lives of those who interact with it. As per Bauhaus and the Modernism it spawned, it’s also supposed to do this for as many people as possible, with mass production and mass functionality at its core. Today as a result, we’re able to fill our homes and pockets with brilliantly conceived, well constructed objects thanks to the incredible progress of the most industrial of design. Nevertheless, in the century since William Morris (perhaps prophetically) decried design’s obliteration of intimate relationships with our objects, our lives and landfills have become tirelessly filled with assembly-line drivel.
Weeding through the mess it helped to bring about, design seems only recently to have discovered that it should devote more attention to its capacity to create an experience and less on a design’s ability to create that experience for everyone. From Marian Bantjes’ gorgeously constructed, hard-to-come-by graphic books to a clever piece of furniture entirely cut, planed, sanded and painted by its creator, the special power of a something well-designed and then brought to life by the same person is formidable. Especially in a world of grey widgets anonymously produced by the hundreds of thousands each.
Treviso XYZ, having sensed this critical shift have brought together a host of young craftsman innovators, a “niche of tenacious designers” who work their hands alongside their brains to bring ideas to life. The appropriately named “Skill to Do Comes of Doing” hopes to nurture artisanal talent and further the discourse and appreciation of craft in the industry. Its gallery/temporary shop is “enthusiastic praise for the cult of doing,” and sure to be a feast for the senses and a refreshing break from our Ikea chairs. And tables. And lamps. And coffee cups.
Starting the 17th of December at Via Inferiore 31 in Treviso, Italy.
Tag Christof, graphic courtesy Treviso XYZ.
Spazio Rossana Orlandi – JAMESPLUMB Opening
Tucked into a quiet niche just steps away from Milan’s city prison, Spazio Rossana Orlandi is an almost Seussian space in design, packed to the brim with whimsy, imagination and contradiction. In recent years it has become a place of pilgrimage for the design world during Salone, and its labyrinthine space is a veritable crucible of creation. Designers are housed, nurtured and encouraged to create free from the constraints of commerce. The latest of such grand experiments was conducted upon James Russell and Hannah Plumb of England’s JAMESPLUMB, who lived since mid-October among the space’s fractured whimsy of rumpled, multicoloured furniture and imposing Marten Baas masterworks.
In keeping with the nature of the space, the work was carried out in the open over the course of their stay, using a collection of antique and industrial furniture as a starting point. The result is a feast of textures, textiles and subverted forms. From their almost trademark block seats to a wardrobe stuffed with old leather suitcases, skilful artisan hands are evident throughout. In all, the adeptness with with which the two are able to so seamlessly integrate cosiness and imagination into every object is formidable, yet their works never come within miles of the obvious or quaint.
At last night’s opening, The Blogazine brushed elbows with the brilliant designer duo, as well as Ms. Orlandi herself, who spread her good design word to a very pleased crowd. We look forward to the next outing!
