Hasta La Ideas

The v-shaped roof of this Illinois tea house by architect Jeffery Poss funnels rainwater to a spout over the adjacent pond.

Called Victor, the wood-panelled hut sits on four stilts and is accessed via a ramp.

A full-height window provides views of the surrounding trees, while the interior contains a cabinet for making tea and three tatami mats.

More architecture on Dezeen »

Here’s some more information from the architect:

Meditation Hut III “Victor”
Champaign, Illinois, 2008-10

The owners of a forested property wanted a quiet space to observe the surrounding nature and have a cup of tea. A naturalized understory leads to a visually kinetic approach ramp that contrasts to the subtle interior. Entry to the hut is through an obscured door detailed like the cedar walls.

Inside an oversized window opposite the entrance immediately pulls the view back outside to a composed view of mature trees. Adjacent to this is a miniature tea cabinet. A raised platform in the main space supports three tatami mats.

The location along the north pond edge allowed the development of several effluvial sensations. Throughout the day water reflections are projected onto the soffit. The roof channels rainwater to a central spout over the pond. A horizontal window in the tatami room frames a meditative fragment of water. The floor of glossy ebonized birch has the sensation of a deep still pool – the grass tatami mats become and island within an island. The result is an interior volume that is protective and serene but alive with subtle energy.

The client, Dr. Mary Kalantzis, Dean of the University of Illinois College of Education writes: “I wake up to the vision of your hut every day. There is something about the proportions that makes it appear heavenly like a Greek temple”.

See also:

.

Tea house by David Maštálka	Takasugi-an by Terunobu Fujimori	Meditation House by Pascal Arquitectos

Artist Agathe Snow teams up with Mykita on a pair of “monumental” sunglasses for her Guggenheim Berlin show

Aliens might’ve constructed Egyptian pyramids, but the bigger question according to artist Agathe Snow is our relationship to such towering structures. She takes up the question in her current show, an homage to monuments at the Guggenheim Berlin dubbed “All Access World.” The Corsica-born, NYC-based Snow has already made a name for herself with artfully messy sculptural works and a penchant for interactive art, with this show exploring “a more democratic approach to monument ownership and distribution.” Filled with an array of mobile sculptures, large-scale wall collages, video works and more, the exhibit examines the identifying the factors that bind people to places.

Accompanying the monumental mixed-media works, a pair of sunglasses designed by Snow and Berlin-based framemaker Mykita plays off the theme with subtle references to iconic landmarks. The neon pink- and black-hued shades feature a handpainted silhouette of either Manhattan’s skyline or the Pyramids of Giza, applied so finely to the inner side of the lenses in gold that the wearer barely notices.

The sunglasses, limited to an edition of 200, play off Snow’s idea that visually omnipresent monuments should be “available as products” sold through her fictional company All Access World. Snow explains in an interview with Deutsche Guggenheim magazine, “Monuments are a contradiction. Things that depend on the act of remembering cannot be static. How can you be of a moment in history yet speak of timelessness?” Nailing the point home, the Mykita model that Snow chose for the project (called Cyrus) riffs off the classic Clubmaster style that everyone from JFK to surfers has sported.

Assembled entirely by hand at the Mykita workshop, each pair is individually numbered on the temple and comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by Snow. They sell from Museum Shop of the Deutsche Guggenheim (and within the next few weeks at Mykita stores and other dealers) for €370 each.

Running through March, the Design Loves Art show, hosted by the Pacific Design Center, is an emerging arts program inviting galleries, local artists, curators and filmmakers who, “reflect particularly on design as an extension of artistic practice, spanning a variety of disciplines and mediums” to utilize currently unused space in the Blue Building of the PDC.

As a lover of both art and design I respect the idea that an artists’ process can be an extension of design practice. As I see it, in a family of three children, engineering may be the oldest, design the middle child, and art the youngest who, as any one in a large family can tell you, gets away with everything. The Design Loves Art show is a Los Angeles party thrown by this youngest sibling, possibly making use of its older brother’s popular name as promotional material. Once you’ve arrived, artists had a good time, designers too (possibly left wanting a little something more) and engineers are still wondering if they’ve been adopted into this modern family. The below projects represent some of the highlights from this year’s family get together.

(more…)

Alessi’s latest wind-inspired design helps prop up plants

We’ve long been fans of the way the playful confetti-like geometry of Mario Trimarchi’s La Stanza dello Scirocco line for Alessi lends striking looks and surprising shadows to an interior. Now, with the introduction of a cachepot, the designer brings the beautifully asymmetrical design to indoor gardening. The new design even adds a bit of innovation with the rectangles reaching up to help prop up plants—particularly perfect for the typically top-heavy stems of orchids.

Available in white or black finish, the pot will sell through the
Alessi store.

“I love history. I love art. I like to mix it all together, but in the end it somehow has to all make sense. I mean I love ’60s psychedelic posters, but those were originally inspired by the whole Art Nouveau movement. So it’s important for me when I see something I like to go back and find out where it really came from. That’s also a way of educating myself and understanding what I love.”

-Fashion designer Anna Sui, whose spring 2011 collection was inspired by “the dreamy twilight mood and vast heartland lanscapes” of Terrence Malick‘s 1978 film Days of Heaven. Sui will show her fall collection on February 16 at Lincoln Center.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.