Here’s a chap named Nils Solana doing his best to recreate Pixar’s famous pre-credit scene:
“I thank all the people who have made the success of this intro possible,” Solana writes (translated from his native Catalan). “Anyone who needs a good intro, contact me.”
And just so you come away from this entry having actually learned something, Pixar’s Luxo Jr. character from the sequence is based on the Angelpoise Lamp, a piece of industrial design with a fascinating back-story. We wrote it up earlier, here are the links:
Named Nordic Light, the building will contain a concourse for travellers in its base and offices above. At 110 meters high, the tower will echo the height of two nearby buildings to become one of the tallest structures in the Norwegian capital.
Designed to provide better connections between various modes of transport, the project will also involve re-landscaping the surrounding area. The installation of a wooden pergola at its base will help guide passengers towards the station entrance.
The 45,770 square metres of floor space within the tower will be spread out across four stacked blocks, which decrease in scale towards the top.
Plentiful windows will flood the office levels with light. Meanwhile larger panes will encase atriums planted with trees, and display the building’s concrete and timber framework.
Planting will spill out onto a series of terraces and continue beneath the latticed pergola. Broad flights of steps descending from the walkway to a plaza will double as a resting spot.
The Scandinavian firms – CF Moller headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark, and Reiulf Ramstad in Oslo – are working with engineers from Bollinger Grohmann and Transsolar on the project, which is expected to begin in 2020.
Here in the northern hemisphere, we are in the midst of midwinter blues. At this point in the year the cold and lack of sunshine has started to get me down and without a single break work-wise until Easter, the horizon is indeed bleak.
So, it’s time to cheer myself up — and nothing makes me happier than doing some planning, specifically summer vacation planning.
This year for the first time in a while, my husband and I may actually have the time and money to take a major vacation. In the past few years, we’ve had to book our vacation at the last minute and take what was available.
Being able to organize a longer trip in advance is like heaven for me. Before getting married when I traveled with friends, I would be The Organizer, coming up with the most interesting train routes, looking for quaint places to stay, and finding those off-the-map places that really make a trip memorable.
I’ve never done it, however, with an actual vacation planner in front of me. I just tend to make notes in a document on my computer. Out of curiosity, this time round, I may pick up a planner and see if it helps in any way, because there’s always something I forget and sometimes it is the thing that makes the difference between a good holiday and a great one.
With or without a vacation planner, this is my process for dreaming up ideal holidays:
Decide the maximum budget. There’s no point in looking at holidays in the Maldives if we aren’t going to spend more than a thousand euros each.
Come to an agreement on what type of vacation we want. If my husband is thinking sun and sand and I start planning a train tour of eastern Europe, no one will end up happy.
Look at dates. For us, this is usually what delays planning. My husband often doesn’t know when he has free time in the summer, so in my midwinter plans I need to be flexible about when we can take a trip.
Dream. I say dream because it makes me stretch and imagine possibilities that aren’t typical. For example, renting a camper and driving down the center of Italy.
Come up with a variety of options. The fun in vacation planning is letting the brain go in various directions at once. Plus having several different destinations means we can spend cold, wet Sunday afternoons discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Since this is only the planning stage, there is no need to make any firm decisions, which is the best part for me. The excitement of what’s possible doesn’t have to end (until the spring when we start firming up our plans).
When it comes to that firm planning stage, I will take a good look at vacation planners. And for that I’ll turn to you: any recommendations on vacation planners (either in print or digital)?tag=unclutterer-20
Having a 20-month old is a bit like taking care of a drunk friend. They don’t really know what they are doing, but they are having fun while they do it. My daughter is getting into the “terrible twos” a bit early, so hopefully they’ll end early.
One thing that seems to get worse as she gets older is the toy accumulation. I’ve mentionedthisproblem in some priorposts and I must say that my wife and I continue to struggle with it. I’m always on the lookout for new ways of curbing clutter that is kid specific. Years ago I read an article in the Detroit News that had a long list of kid specific clutter tips such as:
Divide and conquer: Big toy boxes make it too easy for toys to get jumbled together. Better: a bin for Lego, another for action figures, another for dollhouse furniture, etc.
Toss the flimsy crayon boxes: Same goes for the marker and colored-pencil boxes. Instead, put drawing tools into lidded boxes or bins. And don’t bother saving every free crayon you’ve collected from restaurant visits. Teachers say most younger kids just grab the top two or three anyway.
Craft supplies: Keep a vinyl tablecloth with the art supplies. It’ll be on hand to protect the table or rug (skip disposable ones: not sturdy enough).
These tips aren’t earth shattering, but they are helpful. The accumulation of toys is the hardest thing to get under control, in my opinion. Forces beyond our control are at work. These forces, often grandparents, are unrelenting. Be vigilant in your removal of old and unused toys, and your toy clutter will stay manageable.
This post has been updated since its original publication in 2008.
Pitsou Kedem Architects has used fully glazed walls and an extended pergola-style roof to link this home with its garden in the Savyon district of Israel.
The local studio designed the single-storey house to maximise its connection with the garden, forgoing a traditional facade and installing glass panels held in place by thin black iron frames on all four sides.
M House sits at the centre of its plot, surrounded by mature trees, lawns and overflowing herbaceous borders and an agate-green swimming pool.
According to the architects Pitsou Kedem and Tidhar Becker, the glass walls, pergolas and patios create the impression that the house has “grow[n] from within the garden”.
Arranged along the length of the plot, the property is split into two zones under two gabled roofs with two cutaways for patio areas.
Flat roofs project over the main footprint of the building at the front and back, covering these courtyards and creating shaded walkways.
Supported by wooden beams, the flat roofs extending over the dining area and master bath have transparent panels to allow daylight in and further integrate the indoor areas with the outside.
“The continuing pergola and long, horizontal lines cause the structure to be successfully absorbed and integrated throughout the large plot so that the outside areas and the inside areas look as if they have become intertwined,” said Kedem and Becker.
The Tel Aviv-based architects have regularly employ floor-to-ceiling glazing in their projects, allowing their clients to make the most of the abundant sunlight afforded by their Mediterranean location.
The open plan areas facing the main courtyard of M House facilitates various “meeting spaces” for the family, centred around the kitchen area, dining table, bar and spots for lounging either side of the wood-burning stove.
More private areas of the house such as some bedrooms and a family room face the pool, with the master bedroom and bathroom looking directed towards the rear courtyard.
“The building’s spaces are open to the outside and one to the other,” explained the architects. “They successfully create the feeling of an interconnected group of intimate, warm and family spaces whist, at the same time, creating an effect of continuity and space.”
Light curtains can be drawn around all the windows to give privacy, although the lush garden growing on every side already provides a natural screen.
Kedem and Becker selected raw materials to execute the modern house and its interior.
Perforated panels of weathering steel form a wrap-around fence and rough stone has been used for the outdoor courtyards and indoor bar area. Wooden boards and exposed whitewashed beams make up the floors and ceiling.
These natural materials “soften the contemporary, architectural lines and provide the architectural building a feeling that it is an integral part of the garden and its natural plant life”, according to the architects.
The lattice-like pattern punched into the steel screens is reminiscent of features used in other Pitsou Kedem projects.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve never seen a BBC Documentary talking about the octopus’s obsession with oranges. However, that shouldn’t stop your imagination from running, now should it? OTOTO’s Octo is probably the world’s first and only citrus-friendly sea creature. Its shape is designed to resemble the octopus’ eight-tentacled form, but at the same time, it’s perfect for gripping, and also for juicing, allowing you to use its organic tentacular base to squeeze fresh juice out of all citrus-based fruits, from oranges to limes, to the occasional grapefruit.
OTOTO’s products always embody a certain familiar friendliness. Designed to be appealing to the child in you, the Octo, and all of OTOTO’s products possess a storytelling quality, connecting form and even sometimes name to something out of our imagination, letting you build complex wonderlands by just owning and using their products. Great job, OTOTO! You’ve won our hearts again!
Celebrating their beloved North, Askov Finlayson and Target (both founded and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota) have teamed up for a limited edition winter collection featuring all kinds of goods to keep you warm. Available in 38 Minnesota……
With projects for some of the world’s biggest luxury brands under their belts, Toronto designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg fly the flag for Canadian design globally. In this interview, the duo discuss how their home city is now becoming an important creative hub, and their plans to help it along.
Yabu Pushelberg told Dezeen that Toronto is experiencing a boom in creative energy, with its design scene burgeoning as part of a wider influx of young talent across a range of cultural fields.
“There’s something amazing happening in Toronto,” said Pushelberg. “The music scene – Drake, The Weeknd – the culinary scene is happening; the design scene.”
Yabu Pushelberg is the go-to interior design studio for high-end hotel brands like the Four Seasons
The city is also attracting international talent, according to the duo, who say their Toronto studio is currently employing designers “from around the world”.
With the current political climate in the US, the duo said that the impression of Canada as a progressive, liberal country – helped by prime minister Justin Trudeau’s recent endorsement of creativity – is proving particularly attractive for designers from south of its border.
“All of a sudden people are going ‘I can’t stay [in the US], let’s check out what’s in Toronto’ and they realise there’s stuff happening here,” said Yabu.
“[Toronto] is a kinder, gentler place,” added Pushelberg. “There’s a lot of people migrating here.”
Hospitality company Marriott employed the studio to create this moody interior for its Moxy Times Square hotel in New York
While acknowledging that there is plenty already happening in their city – including a host of ambitious urban developments – the Canadian designers believe it still needs a little help to compete with other creative nexuses.
“We want to put Toronto on the map as a creative place to come to,” said Yabu who, with his partner, plans to help establish the city as a design hub as a way to “give back” to Canada.
Up until now, said the duo, the country’s design scene has struggled because home-grown talent has moved away to cities like New York, which offer better platforms for establishing careers. The lack of competitive projects that would attract highly desired studios like their own is another problem Canada has so far faced, they added.
While the designers have plenty of projects overseas, like this hotel in Napa Valley, they say they struggle to find projects in Canada
“Canada is such a small market, so the opportunities for exploration and experimentation are far greater outside,” said Yabu. “We don’t have any work in Canada, only because there are so many great [projects] outside of Canada.”
Yabu and Pushelberg met while studying at Toronto’s Ryerson University during the 1970s, and established their eponymous studio in the city in 1980. The pair, who are also romantically linked, then set up a second office in New York in the 1990s to capitalise on the success of their interior for the Bergdorf Goodman store in the city.
The studio’s understated yet elegant design aesthetic has become a go-to for luxury brands across the world, with projects including Four Seasons, Marriot and Park Hyatt hotels, and world-famous stores: from Paris’ Printemps and Hong Kong’s Lane Crawford, to New York’s Barneys and Tiffany & Co.
Yabu Pushelberg is also known for its furniture and lighting design, and recently created a collection of lamps with Czech glass manufacturer Lasvit
By gaining international recognition, the pair credit themselves with boosting Canada’s reputation as a place of design interest.
“The curiosity was never there about Canada,” Yabu told Dezeen. “We made people ask ‘what’s going on in Canada?'”
Yabu Pushelberg was the guest of honour at this year’s Interior Design Show Toronto, recognising their contribution to the country’s design industry and making them the first Canadian designers to receive the accolade.
The design duo spoke to Dezeen during the four-day event, which took place 18-21 January 2018. Read on for an edited transcript from our interview below:
Eleanor Gibson: Congratulations on being picked as guest of honour at the Interior Design Show Toronto this year. Why do you think you were selected?
George Yabu: It’s kind of significant for us to do this year, not only with it being the 20th year of the show being established, but we don’t have any work in Canada and we want to give back. How do we give back when we haven’t done anything in a long time?
Our last Canadian project was the the flagship of the Four Seasons hotel in Toronto. Ever since that we never had the opportunity, because there are so many great ones outside of Canada.
Only because Canada is such a small market so the opportunities for exploration and experimentation are far greater outside. But at the same time we still tell the world that we started from here, and so it was nice to be asked.
We don’t have any work in Canada and we want to give back
Eleanor Gibson: Why is it that you aren’t finding much work here?
George Yabu: The better projects are elsewhere, it’s just by social economics that when you’re New York-based as well as Toronto-based the budgets are greater. The philosophical outlook or project goals and problem solving are more complex and challenging [in New York].
Eleanor Gibson: So you are the first Canadian designers to receive this honour, is this a special moment for Canadian design?
George Yabu: Very special, because Canadians are hard on Canadians. Canadians are tough critics of our own peeps and so when you think of not just design, the world of architecture, industrial design, you think of other creative arts, like theatre, like acting, you have to leave.
A lot of great Canadian talent leaves the country to make their mark and then they come, or they come back forth and they do their thing. I guess it’s sort of what happened to us too.
We sort of left, but we didn’t leave Toronto, as we have a presence here, we have our studio.
New York was a stage, as they say in that song “if you can make it there”. It’s a really important city, everyone wants to be at their best, there’s no time for resting, they’re always on it to be on top. That’s the challenge that we like, we like the rush, that adrenaline rush that motivates us.
A lot of great Canadian talent leaves the country to make their mark
Eleanor Gibson: Do you think there is a Canadian design aesthetic?
George Yabu: There is, I think that traditionally it has been a very young country and it has been based on industry and commerce. And then we ship the timber out to make hardwood floor planks and then they are imported again. And so we have limited resources to add value to the products that we produce on our own ground.
There’s a parallel to that in Scandinavia, there’s limited resources and limited materials, limited ways of making things. So there’s a Scandinavian aesthetic, there’s a parallel Canadian aesthetic.
It’s a little dry, so it may not have too many bells and whistles on it, but we would consider the surface of it, or the cut of the grain, so it’s not, maybe as effervescent as. Sometimes it may not have that editorial wow to it, but there’s a lot of integrity and thought to the modesty of design.
Glenn Pushelberg: I think our work has more emotional content than a lot of these northern climes, Nordic designers. To me there’s a sensuality to it.
Eleanor Gibson: There seems to be a big wave of emerging Canadian designers, is there a real moment here?
Glenn Pushelberg: I think so and I think that we helped generate that moment because of our stature in the world today.
George Yabu: I think we made people ask “what’s going on in Canada?”. The curiosity was never there about Canada. I think it was a 10th of the population of the US. When you have 300 or 350 million people you have the opportunity to make things for people. When you only have 30 or 35 million people spread across it’s hard.
We helped generate that moment because of our stature in the world today
Glenn Pushelberg: There’s something amazing happening in Toronto, the music scene, Drake, The Weeknd, the culinary scene is happening, the design scene.
George Yabu:Google city, this huge park they’ve been planning to cover all the railroad.
Glenn Pushelberg: It’s kind of an ugly city today but there a lots of community-minded people thinking about how to make it beautiful and diverse. People have civic pride but not through physicality.
George Yabu: There’s no civic pride in Toronto. There’s no Las Ramblas or Champs-Élysées. We have nothing so we’re going to get into urban scaping and stuff like that. We’re going to try and do that with one of the best boulevards.
We want to put Toronto on the map as a creative, resource place to come to.
Glenn Pushelberg: We want to help.
Eleanor Gibson: Why do you think that Toronto is just catching up now?
Glenn Pushelberg: Because it’s a young city. It’s a kinder, gentler place. There’s a lot of people migrating here.
There’s no civic pride in Toronto, there’s no Las Ramblas or Champs-Élysées
George Yabu: It’s a young city and it’s a reaction to the current political situation in the US. All of a sudden people are going I can’t stay here, let’s check out what’s in Toronto. And they realise ‘oh there’s stuff happening here’.
Our newest employees and designers are all coming from around the world, from France, from Syria, Lebanon, Australia. They’re coming from everywhere and a lot of them are applying specifically to come to Toronto.
Americans, everyone is asking for transfers from the New York team to come to Toronto – there’s something going on.
Spotted, dotted and covered with pure exhilarating design, the McLaren Special Operations X (MSO X) is a bespoke collection of ten road-legal race cars, built for speed. Aesthetically edgy, and mean to look at, the MSO X is McLaren’s division, dedicated to helping push McLaren owner’s precise tastes and dreams to the edge. Having launched in 2011, the MSO program is somewhat of a most elite group of individuals – and you would have to be in order to purchase one of these bespoke road demons.
MSO offers five tiers, and the MSO X is easily the most exciting. Focused primarily on track racing, the road-legal race car has all the trims and details of something that should be covered in sponsorship. The large swoop along either side of the car breaks up this otherwise flawless body. While the drips of red that are carefully placed around the car help to highlight and accentuate features like the rear fins and the front hood lock. Quite a low body, and well evened out, the MSO X models look mean, and I’m sure they’re ready to do business.
The Ressence slogan reads “Beyond Hands”, and does so for a reason. Look at the Type 2 watch and you’ll notice it’s a traditional watch but has no hands! The hands are painted onto the curved face of the watch, which itself rotates, thanks to its fragmented design. A complete pleasure to watch, the Ressence Type 2 comes with a hypnotic domed face that is said to have the curvature of a tennis ball. The face comes with a domed glass above it that almost feels like it isn’t there. Once your eyes move away from the unusual design of the watch dial, you also notice that it’s missing a signature crown. This is because the Type 2 features an E-Crown, allowing it to automatically synchronize with your smartphone to give you the correct time, every time, without the hassle of calibration.
Flip the watch over and you have a manual dial built into the back, allowing you to tune/calibrate your watch, need be. The watch knows when it’s being worn and goes into sleep mode when taken off. Just double tap it and it will immediately recalibrate and give you the correct time with its patented dial dancing to your time-reading needs. I honestly could watch this forever…
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
