A company called CountyComm designs and manufactures specialty equipment for government agencies, the aerospace industry and Silicon Valley clients. They then sell their overstock to the general public, and their random library of wares perfectly intersects with the EDC market. I’ve often marveled at that market (which I am not part of) and find CountyComm’s creations fascinating.

This Topo Slide Box is made out of Ultem, a high-strength plastic with high heat resistance. It features “ultra secure dual locking ball detents,” and is a bit of a mystery—while CountyComm was contracted to make the thing, they have no idea what it’s for:

“Original government use unknown. We have a limited overrun of [these] boxes. We are not quite sure what Uncle Sam is putting in his lightweight capsules, but we are using ours to keep small important items close and secure. Brand new, never used, overrun from government contract.”

I’m not sure why these Composite Resin Disposable Tweezers are billed as disposable; the company says they’re made of “UV stabilized resin so they can last decades if needed in harsh environments.” Reviewers like them for handling magnetized parts.

This peculiar 8″ Titanium Long Arm Tweezer Kit is like an extreme pair of helping hands. It was reportedly fabricated on a contract basis for a Silicon Valley client, precise purpose unknown.

The design is such that it offers precise holding power a good distance away from the base, and seems it would be handy for soldering:

These silicone Tinker-Man DIY Trays, which come in International Orange and glow-in-the-dark, “are used by military and civilian small arms armorers to keep all those pins and parts from rolling off the work bench and getting lost,” the company writes. “Avionics technicians also use them to those tiny screws from magically disappearing. Features non-slip (inverse golf ball pattern). High semi-rigid walls prevent pins from rolling off the tray surface.”

This 12-Inch Titanium Adjustable Wrench is used by technicians and Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Airbus. Furthermore, its origin story provides the kind of credibility the EDC crowd drools over: “Members of the U.S. military Explosive Ordinance Disposal teams,” the company says, “keep asking for us to make lightweight, non-magnetic wrenches for working on magnetically sensitive devices, and this is what we provide them.” Despite its massive size, it weighs just 14.2 oz.

This TPSK Brass Precision Screwdriver Kit features a “ball bearing concave swivel top.” I can’t figure out what they mean by that; by “concave” are they referring to the dimples in the ball end? In any case, it’s one of those objects I want to touch.

This Abrams Unibody Whistle is also made from Ultem, machined out of a solid block of the stuff. It puts out “an ear-blistering 122 decibels.”

You can see more of the company’s unusual offerings here.

Dezeen Showroom: designed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte for Parla, the Palm A chair is created to be used both inside and outdoors.

Part of the Palm collection, the Palm A chair has a powder-coated metal tube structure set at angles, which is intended to create a silhouette both archetypal and compelling.

The collection is offered in both indoor and outdoor versions, with optional leather arm-wraps or solid Iroko wood armrests for the indoor version and a removable upholstered, water-resistant seat and back cushions for the outdoor version.

Perfect as part of a garden dining set, the Palm A chair has a powder-coated textured finish and is available in colours including White, Black, Green Olive, Deep Blue, Bordeaux and Carbon Grey.

It is made utilising the metalworking expertise of Parla Design and reveals delicate welding and joinery when observed in close-up.

The Palm collection is designed to marry heritage, craftsmanship and technology, and includes seating and tables.

Product: Palm A
Designer: Jean-Michel Wilmotte
Brand: Parla
Contact: info@parladesign.com

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Rental website Airbnb has designed Shrek’s Swamp, a grass-and-mud-covered hut underneath a tree in the Scottish Highlands.

The small house, which has a bare-earth floor, is described as “a stumpy, secluded haven fit for a solitude-seeking ogre”.

It is being hosted by Donkey, Shrek’s best friend, who is swamp-sitting while Shrek himself is away for Halloween, according to an Airbnb description written as if by Donkey himself.

In it, he says: “I love everything about the swamp: the boulder out front, the modest interiors, the seclusion (ideal for singing karaoke late into the night), you get the picture”.

The holiday home, which sleeps up to three guests, has an open-plan design, with a sturdy wooden bed leaning against one wall.

A matching table and two wooden chairs sit in front of an open fire on the opposite side of the house, which is held up by large tree trunks.

Shrek’s Swamp Airbnb also features decorative touches, including a green “earwax candle” – a nod to a scene in which Shrek pulls out a stick of earwax from his ear and lights it.

It also has a bedside lamp that looks like a stuffed pufferfish.

Visitors can also make use of Shrek’s outhouse, a well-known location from multiple Shrek films, which is located about 20 metres away from the swamp itself.

Located in a forest in the Scottish Highlands, the hut is surrounded by signs reading “Stay out”, “Beware Ogre” and “Danger!” though these are “probably for decoration”, according to Donkey.

The home will be available to book from 13 October for a two-night stay between 27 and 29 October and comes with an on-site concierge who will arrange meals for the guests – including morning waffles and parfaits.

“This mud-laden, moss-covered, murky-watered oasis is a perfectly snug spot to escape from village life and embrace the beauty of nature,” Airbnb said.

The company will make a one-time donation to the HopScotch Children’s Charity as part of the project.

Airbnb also recently helped Ken rent out Barbie’s Malibu Dreamhouse and listed a 1970s wood cabin located in the iconic Sea Ranch development in California.

The photography is courtesy of Alix McIntosh.

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The interior stylist shares thoughts on his debut book with Rizzoli

Oftentimes, the aesthetic influence of one object is only fully realized when it’s placed in dialogue with something else—whether that’s a series of complementary pieces or the atmospheric framing of empty space. An inspiring guide to accessing the beauty of the objects we display at home, Arranging Things is the debut book from acclaimed interior stylish Colin King. Written with Sam Cochran, the global features director of Architectural Digest, the recent Rizzoli release pairs artful visual references with intuitive insight culled from personal experience. Throughout, King provides compelling counsel—and makes clear that as one elevates their space through the arrangement of vignettes, they explore their relationship with every object therein.

When you set out to create Arranging Things, what did you hope to offer readers?

My goal was really to demystify styling and to help people look at their home with fresh eyes and create a space for beauty by arranging the things that they love in unexpected ways. It’s about offering a fresh perspective on things. It’s also about sharing the joy I feel in the daily practice of arranging things. It’s not about buying new stuff. It’s about creating compositions and vignettes that change your relationships to the objects already around you.

What was your process like for brining this book together?

I thought it was going to be very intuitive. I don’t want to say “easy,” but I thought it would be a version of what I do for a living. It ended up being quite the process so I brought my dream team together. I sometimes have trouble differentiating the true from the false with my own work. It’s hard to see the work from an outside perspective because I am so in it.

I reached out to Sam. I love the way he can pull out exactly what you want to hear. I asked him to help me write the book that he would want to read and he did that. We were able to put vocabulary to a process that felt so intuitive to me. I brought on Javas Lehn, who is an incredible graphic designer and creative director. He had done the Kate by Mario Sorrenti book that sits on my coffee table. I love it—the font, the sensibility. I knew if I were ever to do a book, I would do it with him. All of my work is so collaborative. I find that if I can hire up and bring people around that I want to learn from, I get the best results. That’s what I did.

You touch upon it in chapter five, but I’d like to begin with your use of light. You embrace natural light and the application of shadow.

It came from asking myself what I like about certain images. I would experience paintings, like those from Dutch masters, and I would ask myself “what is it that I am drawn to in these images?” It would always be the light. Even in non-photographic form, it was about how the artist captured light. It’s the first thing that I notice when I walk into a room, as well.

It corresponds to my dance background. As a dancer, we were never front lit, we were always side lit. We were always going in and out of the wings. When you are lighting multidimensional spaces, you always light from sides so that you can see the layering. With dance, there was this natural understanding of how light works and how it lends dimension and texture. I brought that with me into this field, as I transitioned from dancer to interior stylists. The best work captures a feeling. It’s an emotion. It evokes a mood. There’s a stillness, as well as a power that I try to achieve.

Do you feel that the aesthetic of the book is a reflection of your aesthetic as a stylist?

I feel like it’s a moment in time. As a creative, I’m always pushing forward. I am always asking myself new questions and checking in on my intentions. I hope to always be evolving. I never want to be still. This book is a great representation of how my career started—but I hope it is the first of many books.

I don’t want to give the book’s secrets away, but you nod to the fact that styling should be a daily practice. Can you speak to me about what this means to you?

I don’t realize I am doing it. I have an intuitive need to change things, to move my surroundings. I go into a room and it’s almost a track that I fall into, something that’s guiding me. I realized this most when I was home alone in Brooklyn, during quarantine, as a single person. I made this promise to myself, that I would creative a still life every day. That was my job when I didn’t have much else to do. It became a meditative practice. It empowered me to see things in new ways. I was abandoning the intended use of objects: a pear became a sculpture, a vase because a pitcher. Objects became paint.

You encourage people to accept constraints and utilize the power of emptiness. What would you say to a person who is a big collector?

I love collections. I went to Jack Winter Larson’s Long House in East Hampton. He was such a collector. The thing I will tell you about his collection is that it is all in incredible arrangements. Arranging things is not limited to one or two objects—or what I like to do with my own work. I want to encourage trial and error. Get in there and move your things around, even if your environment is maximalist.

Of course, there’s power in peeling away noise so that an object can be felt. As powerful as an object, is the space created around it; it almost makes a frame from the atmosphere. But for avid collectors, it’s about experiencing their objects in different ways.

In Arranging Things, you also speak about objects in dialogue with one another. Do you think people should take risks here?

I am such an advocate for just buying things you like. You don’t have to explain yourself. There should be no hierarchy to design. I collect rocks all the time and place them right next to a beautiful Japanese vase. I think there’s something interesting about forging relationships with all of these objects. One might lift one up, the other might balance both out. There’s a dialogue that can be created without having too much pretension around it.

What do you think your book cover conveys about what’s inside?

There’s a jacket which shows my home, which is my greatest teacher. I basically took all my learnings from years of styling and experiencing other peoples work in my space, all through trial and error. For the cover, I didn’t want to make any clients favored or feel less than others so it made sense to use my own place.

On the interior, there’s a small moment of objects that I made with Menu Space that just kind of shows a very simple arrangement. People can see that it’s step by step, small moment by small moment, that makes a home. It doesn’t need to be something grand.

Before Arranging Things, we had the opportunity to see your rug collaboration with Beni at Alcova during Milan Design Week. What drew you to Beni Rugs as a collaborator?

I admire them. They saw a niche in the industry in Marrakesh. It came from this very simple task where they were trying to select a Moroccan rug for their home but they couldn’t find the right size or color or design. They began to wonder “how do we keep this ancient craft but find people who can make rugs in the size and shape that we need, in the colors that we want.” This is what started it for them.

They are raising up their weavers, these talented women, paying them double the national average and giving them access to benefits, healthcare, childcare and transportation. They came to me and said “what would a rug collection look like if you designed it?” and I said “this” and gave them a series of designs. I saw something in them that I see in myself, this insatiable desire to create.

Dutch studio WillemsenU has completed a house that is partially buried underground to blend in with its rural surroundings in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Appropriately called The House Under the Ground, the home is designed by WillemsenU to “enhance the beauty” of its site and act as a retreat for the couple who own it.

Its design also offers privacy to its occupants, with the sleeping spaces lowered six metres into the ground and the protruding living spaces blanketed with a hill covered in wildflowers.

“The surrounding bocage landscape with its small height differences was a huge inspiration,” project architect Marrit Winkeler told Dezeen.

“The house is designed as part of this landscape, being part of a hill,” added Winkeler. “It is playing with visibility, alternately shielding and opening the view of the nature reserve, creating privacy and shelter from the elements.”

Located in a meadow on the edge of a protected nature reserve, The House Under the Ground fits within the parameters of a former goat shed.

The part of the house that is visible above ground is defined by its arched shape, which is designed to limit the building’s height and merge with the landscape.

Its structure is built from concrete cast in situ, while the facades that are left exposed are clad in vertical timber boards.

“The use of wood is inspired by the vernacular materials used for sheds and barns in this area, and is used internally and externally,” Winkeler explained.

“By using different patterns of wooden slats in the facade, [the design] very subtly references the old goat shed that used to be on the plot.”

On approaching the house from the field’s edge, a path bordered by wildflowers leads to a Corten steel-clad corridor that cuts into the hillside.

Here, a large pivot door opens into an expansive dining room and kitchen that offers generous views over the valley beyond. The arch of the curved roof directs the eye to a void that goes down to the basement.

The House Under the Ground is arranged around this central void, which houses a glass platform lift. This brings light to the rooms below the ground while ensuring the home is wheelchair-friendly in the future.

“The curved roof opens up above the stairs and the lift, so that the light penetrates deep into the home to offer stunning sky views framed by the hill’s vegetation,” said Winkeler.

The underground level has a living room that opens onto a terrace bordered by wildflowers, while the floor below contains the main bedroom.

Internally, the concrete structure forms smooth walls, floors and ceilings. Light and translucent materials are used to allow daylight to penetrate the lowest floor.

WillemsenU’s partial placement of the home underground helps it to achieve a high energy performance, with heat extracted from the earth by a heat pump to warm internal spaces.

Burying the house also increases its thermal mass and creates a consistent internal environment that is cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

WillemsenU is a Dutch architecture studio founded by Frank Willems in 1989. The House Under the Ground has been longlisted in the rural house category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.

Elsewhere in the Netherlands, Francois Verhoeven Architects recently used interlocking blocks finished with contrasting timber and plaster for Villa K340 and Chris Collaris Architects created a home formed of lime-washed bricks crowned with an oversized roof.

The photography is by Rob van Esch and Stijn Poelstra.

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