Hasta La Ideas

We all collectively want to roast this pandemic out of existence, it has truly turned us all into Monica Geller with the constant disinfecting and cleaning things. Our phones are actually dirtier than toilet seats and we obviously use it all the time, so considering the rise of the bacteria we should make sure to also sanitize our phones along with our groceries (what a time to be alive). Combining two of Monica Geller’s favorite things, cooking + cleaning, this neat toaster actually is a smart appliance that disinfects your phone.

This conceptual toaster was designed to make disinfecting your phones a little easier and, honestly, more fun! Instead of the usual wipe down, this turns the task into a small interaction with the product that leaves you with a nice feeling instead of “I have to wipe my phone 25 times a day because there is a pandemic”. It aims to make the interaction between products and people more playful. The toaster also charges your phone while disinfecting it which is a nice way to reduce your screen time, I mean your phone is being “toasted” so you can’t take it out till it’s done! While the concept is still being developed, I assume it uses UV light to disinfect and sanitize the phone while wirelessly charging it.

The physical form is that of a minimal, modern toaster – something we recognize and value. While we are on that topic, we could also have a panini press or grill that does the same job for tablets and laptops! It reminds me of how the fresh plates at a restaurant are always warm and that leaves you with a sense of them being clean. That is the very emotion I gather when I imagine using this smartphone toaster to disinfect and charge my phone. Food and technology are evidently my two favorite things and if they are disinfecting, then its a win-win in this crazy world!

Designer: Lee Sungwook

The Waving Multifunctional Speaker is a perfect example of how form and function can help redefine a product’s design. The speaker isn’t just designed to act as an audio-playing device. It’s mindful of the objects and spaces associated with it. Given that wireless speakers are almost always used with smartphones, the Waving Multifunctional Speaker even doubles as a dock/stand for your mobile, allowing you to watch videos on it while the three mid-range audio drivers on the front pump sound out.

The Waving Multifunctional Speaker even comes with a distinct wave-texture on its top which serves as a nifty area to rest stationery. Aware of the fact that most speakers find themselves placed on workdesks, the Waving Multifunctional Speaker integrates clever and convenient solution, allowing you to rest your pens and pencils on it while you work. Pretty clever, eh?

The Waving Multifunctional Speaker is a winner of the A’ Design Award for the year 2020.

Designer: RuiWang Xiang

One artificial monolith born from hundreds of layers of molten material

“Not for the peak, but for the mountain” (2020) rises 12 feet up and stretches 12 feet across—an artwork both fragile and powerful, of the Earth and not. The sculpture, commissioned by The Chimney, is Brooklyn-based artist Andrew Erdos‘ largest work to date and anchors his second solo exhibition with the gallery. Erdos nods to geothermal energy with the artificial monolith and the transformation of natural materials with the passing of time. It also glows in the dark.

To build the sculpture (and others like it) requires the very physical process of transporting molten glass, at 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, with a roughly 50-pound utensil. Thousands of trips from the burner to the work-in-progress take place over four months. Erdos pours atop a reclaimed wood palette and two-part sub-structure of a steel armature wrapped in galvanized steel mesh. The artist conceals two water-filled metal tanks within the piece, too—in order to balance out and build tension with the associations of fire.

“In the glassmaking process, the difference between a piece cracking or melting can be a few seconds,” Erdos says. “When glass is in its molten state, it acts similarly to a living organism. It produces heat, moves and radiates light. As it cools down, it cracks and dies. The glass can then melt again and reincarnate into its next form.”

Hundreds of layers, fragments, and crystalline protrusions settle into the final piece. Beneath it all, Erdos installs bulbs to give it life and hark back to its glowing process. Altogether, it’s a metaphoric landscape built by human hands and although it stands still, it implies movement and expectation in every fissure.

The exhibition premiered as part of the Museum of Art and Design‘s artist Zoom series and will be visible online—and by-appointment at the gallery—through 28 June.

Hero image of Andrew Erdos’ installation “Not for the peak, but for the mountain” (2020), courtesy of the artist and The Chimney. Photography by Reggie Shiobara.

A screened porch is sandwiched between two cedar volumes to form this holiday home that the founders of Berman Horn Studio in New York built themselves on an island in Maine.

Maria Berman and Brad Horn, who run Berman Horn Studio, completed the Little Peek residence in Vinalhaven, an island 15 miles (24 kilometres) off the coast of Maine.

The duo designed a simple “long bar” shape with a gabled roof that segments into the three volumes.

Eastern white cedar shingles with a silvery hue clad the larger main house and a small, detached guest cottage. The patio in between has a pitched covering to match and is enclosed with mesh screen.

“The house is designed to be used in all seasons, and we do get up there throughout the year,” they told Dezeen.

“This porch, which creates a shared exterior room and frames views to the landscape, extends the profile of the roofline to tie the two houses together.”

The cedar covers the entirety of the main house and guesthouse, including the roof and doors, for a uniform look. Gridded windows and doors puncture the facade and provide expansive views of the surrounding nature.

The house is rectangular in plan aside from a portion that accommodates the entry and juts out at a perpendicular angle. This is intended as a reference to the shape of nearby New England farmhouse buildings known as Ells that date back to the 1800s.

“The house is a contemporary reinterpretation of the New England connected farmhouse,” the studio added.

“Along its length, the house transforms from cape to saltbox to create the traditional ‘Ell’ found in historic buildings in the area,” the studio added.

A large dining table occupies the patio with two French doors providing access to the adjoining open-plan kitchen, dining and living room.

Two bedrooms, a bathroom and a foyer are also in the main house, while the guesthouse contains a bedroom and bathroom. A door from the enclosed patio provides access to a deck with folding chairs for sunbathing.

White walls, cabinets and pale floors in yellow birch painted with a glossy paint feature throughout the interior.

The decor comprises an eclectic mix of pieces, including American and French antique furniture and floral textiles. A wood table painted green anchors the dining area, and varying shades of blue-green are then duplicated on a stool, coffee table and the front door.

“Within the whitewashed interior, the decision was made to limit the visual presence of wood to give nature the chance to enter uncontested through the large industrial windows and bring focus onto the textures and colours of the stone, huckleberry, bay and lichen that surround the house,” said the studio.

A fireplace is flanked by a sofa upholstered in a cream fabric and a bench is placed opposite, while an island nearby serves as the only demarcation of a kitchen.

The one-storey house called Little Peek is located on a rocky cliff complete with a steep path down to a dock for enjoying Penobscot Bay on the western side.

“Perched atop a Rhyolite outcropping overlooking one of the island’s many coves, the project is named for its unique siting, which offers only glimpses of the house as one climbs a meandering footpath from the water,” said the studio.

In addition to designing the house, Berman and Horn also oversaw the landscaping, which features lush plantings and wildflowers. The property includes untouched ledges to the east with evergreen trees and views of Maine’s Camden Hills state park to the north.

Vinalhaven, which is accessible by ferry from the town of Rockland and famous for its granite. It is home to about 1,000 full-time residents and its population nearly triples in the summer.

Design-build firm Go Logic has also built a house on the island, called Little House on the Ferry, which is based on a trio of units linked by decks.

Photography is by Greta Rybus.

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Design studio Vidivixi has teamed its furniture collection with works by US artists and designers to create a series of moody sets in its Mexico City showroom.

Vidivixi, which is led by British designer Adam Caplowe and American designer Mark Grattan, transformed a “messy artist’s studio” in the Colonia San Rafael neighbourhood to create its first showroom.

Grattan acted as a “matchmaker” to find suitable designs that would complement the studio’s furniture collection, which it describes as a “reflection on warm voluminous forms and bold graphic contours”.

Furniture from the 2020 collection is used to form different home-like setups across the showroom with complementary designs and artworks.

For example, an abstract painting by Atlanta artist Kristen Giorgi picks up the shapes and hues of Vidivixi’s pale leather, tubular Club Chair placed in front.

Two versions of the sofa are arranged around the Cafe Con Leche, a table with an American walnut base and a mirrored top that reflects Giorgi’s artwork.

Tatami mats with thick black lines pick up on the black leather piping that wraps one of the sofas and the dyed-black oak trim on the Switch sideboard.

The credenza has an undyed leather body and is topped with table lamp by New York furniture and lighting designer Adam Otlewski.

Walls are painted a dark hue while natural light filters in through a series of sheer curtains, a reference to traditional Japanese fabric dividers known as Noren, that hang from bronze rails in front of gridded black windows.

In another space is the Docked en Rio bed, which has a green and black velvet that wraps the bedframe, paired with the black Figure of 8 Side Table, named after its interlocking base.

The table, which has a glass top, is complemented by an S-shaped light by Brooklyn designer Farrah Sit.

Vidivixi also collaborated with Brooklyn design practice Bower Studios to create two mirrors that take cues from Mexico City’s Luis Barragán. Shaped like large fork ends, each is topped with three prongs that are detailed to give the illusion of depth – a recurring feature of Bower Studios‘ work.

The mirrors adorn a wall in a space dedicated to the dyed oak dining table called Vivien’s.

As part of the project, Vidivixi worked with both Sit and Bower Studios to produce their pieces in Mexico City.

“Through its showroom collaboration, Vidivixi is organically manoeuvring itself in ways we had not predicted; we now help designers from the states move their production to Mexico City, allowing for learning and expansion on both sides,” said the studio.

Vidivixi is named after the Latin phrase vidi vixi that translates as “I saw, I’ve lived”.

Co-founders Caplowe and Grattan, who were both previously based in New York, moved to Mexico City in 2016 to produce work free from financial stresses.

Previous collections include designs influenced by Japanese furniture and saddlebags.

Photography is by Pia Riverola.

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