Hasta La Ideas

Eight inspired updates to classic door hardware

Italian designer Diego Amadei’s highly-unusual door handle, Kobu, follows the maxim “bend it to your needs.” The lever’s flexible stem attaches to a more standard stiff brass core, allowing users to modify the stem into virtually any shape—from loops to stash mail to abstract squiggles—while still serving its main function. Available in a variety of finishes, the hardware welcomes visitors with a whimsical design statement before they’ve even crossed the threshold. Inspired by Kobu’s inventive approach to such a tone-setting accessory for the home, we set out to find other handles that stand out not only for their functionality, but also for highly imaginative and ergonomic designs. Below is the refined work of six other designers who have opened new doors with their unconventional ideas.

An addition to Umbra’s sleek and smart product designs, the Orb Door Handle updates the classic lever by inviting users to “push down on an orbit.” The truly ingenious element is the handle’s integrated LED light ring, usable as anything from a nightlight to a bathroom vacancy indicator.

Rethinking the concept of a handle as an integrated element of the door, industrial designer Karim Rashid partnered with door manufacturer Albed for the Ring Door. In place of the classic door handle, a raised area, or “volcano,” houses the door’s opening mechanism. Reaching inside and pulling the metal ring hidden within opens the door.

A play on today’s ubiquitous form of communication,Gionata Gatto’s
SMnS series—meaning “Short Message non Superfluous”—is an ode to handmade messages and a reminder about non-technological methods of interaction. Inspired by the wishful message-in-a-bottle tradition, Gatto’s SMnS Clip is an oversized fastener that opens doors and holds notes. The less obvious SMnS Cone has a hollow metal handle with a widened end optimized for sliding in slips of paper.

Purveyor of modern doorknobs, ModKnobs creatively reuses hockey pucks to make The Puck Pivot. Inset with premium Baldwin locks, the minimalist knobs come in nine vibrant colors with pivots either at- or off-center.

Designboom’s recent collaboration with Italian handle manufacturer Colombo Design for the international Hands on Door Handles Competition produced several worthy designs. Among them is Amos Marchant’s Door Handle with Wedge, which integrates a solid wood doorstop into its sleek stainless steel handle. The aesthetic of the two contrasting materials becomes functional when the stop is removed for use.

Another noteworthy product from the competition is Shmitz Thomas’ Possibilità. Based on the notion that “life is always a state of improvisation,” the hardware design leaves a slot for users to assert their own identities by inserting the handle of their choice. Adaptable to a range of objects (try sticks, pencils, sausages…), Possibilità is flexible in appearance and functionality depending on your age, mood or taste.

Punchdrunk Theater Company’s designer talks to us about creating an immersive and interactive set

An intensely detailed set, we took a minute to find out more about the challenges and excitement of Punchdrunk Theatre Company’s Sleep No More‘s decor from the Associate Designer Livi Vaughan. Check out our video for an in-depth look at what it takes to create such an enigmatic ambiance and read on to learn more about the immersive theater’s experience.

Wandering, disoriented and alone, no two people will ever experience Sleep No More in the same fashion. This choose-your-own-adventure sets audiences in a dark and stormy, detail-obsessed mash-up of film noir and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. This is not a play you take a seat for. In fact, you might just find yourself running through a forest chasing after a blood-soaked witch. Defying category, this immersive experience blends ambiance, dance, and elements of a carnival fun house for three hours of interactive theater.

Sleep No More takes place in The McKittrick Hotel—three Chelsea warehouses, gutted and linked together in a labyrinthine manner. From its exterior, McKittrick wouldn’t warrant a second glance. Once inside, the performance begins immediately as guests meander through a dark maze, finding their way into a gaudy cabaret, complete with a full bar and jazz band.

Masked and regrouped, everyone’s experience diverges from here. A bellhop lays out the rules and from then on, nothing can be taken at surface value. The McKittrick Hotel dictates your course, much the same way the Overlook Hotel lead to the unraveling of Jack Torrance in The Shining. Dull, throbbing mood music fills every room and floor, and each turn casts a unique sense of awe or mystery. Walls yield. One moment guests are in a grand ballroom, the next at the remains of a castle foundation. You can indulge in a candy shop, or admire the taxidermy. Everything can be touched. All the while, a loose adaptation of Macbeth, circa the 1930s, breezes around you.

Unexpectedly, guests catch sight of a sole unmasked figure. It is an entry point, with the option to follow. Taking place, simultaneously throughout, the characters of Macbeth interact. You can follow one character through the entirety of the production, or stray and seek a point of reentry. The dialogue is minimal, but if chance or preparation allow, you can glimpse Lady Macbeth and her iconic, “out, out damn spot!”

Physical, dance-driven performances illuminate character and plot points. Murder, betrayal and sex are all choreographed elements. Without much warning the performers disperse, leaving the guest to pick a direction and scramble among throngs of onlookers.

Playing off one another, the McKittrick and the actors vie for guest attention. Macbeth has been adapted over and over, but this site-specific production embodies a striking breed of theater where the guests themselves are an active component. All attendees, losing identity behind their masks, are ghosts populating the magical realism. With balletic grace, performances erupt and cease. Plot points may fall to the wayside, but the text is so familiar that it bears no influence. The space shifts and performs, leaving no moment unfilled. Therein lies Sleep No More’s greatest ally—unbridled, consistent stimulation uniquely yours.

A hotel chain tailors their new spot to the world’s “live music capital”

Even Austin’s airport food—local famed BBQ and Tex-Mex rather than soggy tuna sandwiches—touts the city’s pro-small business attitude. So when the chain known for hipping up the mid-range hotel experience came to town, they had to step up their game to make it in a place known as much for its nocturnal winged residents (there’s even a bat hotline) as for its indie music scene.

The new W Hotel Austin’s design features cater to the cultural phenomenon that put the city on the map with a collection of over 8,000 vinyl records and an extensive four-room bar. Eschewing an ordinary hotel lobby, guests enter in the Living Room, which doles out the hits over a vintage McIntosh sound system. Separate spaces (the Tequila Bar, Records Room, Secret Bar and Screen Porch) reflect the vibrant surrounding streets.

Beyond the mark it makes for urban nightlife, the W Austin has also become a new landmark in city’s skyline. Rising above the generally even horizon line, the primarily glass tower stands just above the heavy, low-lying City Hall building in contrast to nearby architecture.

“The last thing Austin needs is another beige building,” says Heather Plimmer, half of the local team behind the hotel’s design. Plimmer, along with architect Arthur Andersson, are responsible for the design of five components of the block—on the aptly named Willie Nelson Boulevard—a development which in addition to the hotel includes office and retail space, condos and some of the best acoustics the city has to offer at Austin City Limits.

The color doesn’t just define the W visually but elegantly takes the effects of harsh Texas weather into consideration, particularly evident in the way the designers dealt with the intensity of the sun. Anything bright or white can be blinding and the average brown building blends in with the surrounding landscape. “I think that came from a tradition of the Spanish adobe, and all that kind of stuff,” says Andersson. “It’s really bizarre to try and translate that into 500-ft tall structures.” Opting instead for a dark gray palette that takes on the color of the sky, the LEED-certified structure also reflects the clouds at night.

Andersson also used a Swiss Pearl material to serve as a ventilated façade over the exterior of the building. An air space runs through the entire outer exterior, creating shadows to help cool the building while large windows catch the breezes coming over from Lady Bird Lake.

Unlike some other conspicuous glass buildings downtown, the W appears both graceful and understated. “I think it has its own kind of presence,” says Andersson. “It’s like this sort of little, calm poem.” The Zen balance shows up in the hotel’s wabi-sabi style interiors too, with exposed concrete support beams.

Overall the feeling of staying at the hotel is not unlike a sense of being at home, as the designers took cues from typical residential decor. But the cozy feeling most clearly comes through in the breaking up of space in the hotel’s rooms, which creates an entry moment. Creating the illusion of a larger space, a burlap-covered tower separates the sleeping chamber from the rest of the hotel room. “What happens when you walk into a typical hotel room,” says Andersson, “you look at some crappy piece of furniture, and a side of a TV. We flipped it.” The burlap-covered tower is reminiscent of a Barnett Newman canvas; the minimalist painter’s work was a major source of inspiration for the designers.

Austin’s strong musical story plays a role too, making a literal nod with original signed Scott Newton photos in each room, as well as vanity mirrors encircled with guitar strap patterns. “We grabbed onto kind of the Bohemian lifestyle, of the laid back rock and roll feel,” says Plimmer. “We really wanted it to be an oasis. The colors in there are really calm, with the exception of the red pop of the chaise.”

This summer one more obvious addition to the lyrical architecture—a statue of the man himself, Willie Nelson, at the entrance to the neighboring Austin City Limits, will make its debut, keeping Austin weird in more ways than one. Make reservations online with prices varying depending on rooms and availability but rack rates starting around $300 per night.

A renaissance man with an intrinsic sense for color and shape boldly redefines modern interiors

by Meghan Killeen

Rafael de Cárdenas‘ signature blend of saturated colors and stark geometry turns classic architecture into a common language of striking patterns and eye-popping hues. “Graphics lend themselves to a very immediate reception, which I’m very drawn to,” he recently told Cool Hunting. With an impressive roster of diverse projects in his portfolio, de Cárdenas’ ability to translate color and form across platforms stems from his varied background, which began in the fashion world. Shortly after graduating from RISD, de Cárdenas worked for Calvin Klein as a menswear designer, but he reflects, “I never explicitly set out to pursue any one thing. I was fairly schizophrenic in my various pursuits as a young boy and teenager. But more importantly, I was interested, and always have been, in moods and generating atmospherics.”

While completing a Masters in Architecture at UCLA, de Cárdenas became acquainted with progressive architect and mentor, Greg Lynn—who he later collaborated with on a proposal for the redesign of the World Trade Center, a finalist for its beautiful series of interconnected buildings reminiscent of a cathedral. “Every time I left a meeting with him, I felt like something I’d previously not known was revealed to me. The WTC competition was a dream-team and possibly one of the most awe-inspiring projects ever,” he enthuses.

After working as creative director of experience design at Imaginary Forces, de Cárdenas opened his own design firm called Architecture At Large, where he continues to take “note of the past while daydreaming the future,” with projects focused on the conceptual design of residential and commercial interiors. His ingenuity has been the leading force behind customized interiors for celebrities and CEOs alike. He explains, “I don’t think about things going or not going. I think if something has an interesting story it will work.” For supermodel Jessica Stam, de Cárdenas returned to the referential silverscreen theme of decadence, styling her lavish apartment in monochromatic jewel tones, specially curated eBay finds and vintage wallpaper.

De Cárdenas’ ability to personify spaces is as iconic as it is personal, as encapsulated in his design of Nike’s experiential store, Bowery Stadium. Integrating his own interest in running and love of Brazilian culture, de Cárdenas created the space using vertigo-inducing zig zags and illuminated pegboard, accented by yellow and green flooring. De Cárdenas elaborates, “With Brazil as the theme and a soccer field as the visual start, I played with visual ideas of gravity and space through the use of everyday materials. The stadium’s disorienting stripes and floating elements are key in bring out a sense of actual play within the sport rather than competition. The aim of the stadium was play for the sake of play. We used pegboard as the unsung hero emblematic of the amateur athlete.”

His brazenly dynamic aesthetic continues to make its mark, appearing at the many OHWOW galleries and concept shops popping up around the world. De Cárdenas cites diversity and atmosphere over set style as the key to artistic longevity, adding “I like to bend the rules of traditional architecture to produce moods and elicit emotional response.” This can also be seen in his work for Cape Town’s new men’s store Unknown Union, where he used a gradient of bold colors and square shelving units to create depth.

Stepping outside interiors, de Cárdenas recently co-curated an exhibition entitled “New York Minute” with Kathy Grayson, director of NYC’s The Hole. The exhibition features fifty New York-based artists and is on view at Moscow’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture through 5 June 2011. He will also debut his first furniture collection, a neon colored homage to Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Goff, at NYC’s Johnson Trading Gallery from 13 May to 25 June 2011.

The Audi Icons series, inspired by the all-new Audi A7, showcases 16 leading figures united by their dedication to innovation and design.

The Audi Icons series, inspired by the all-new Audi A7, showcases 16 leading figures united by their dedication to innovation and design.

GM’s head of interiors on the difficulties and rewards of automobile design

We recently caught up with David Lyons, the Executive Director of Interior Design for General Motors North America, at an event for Chevy’s new on-board technology system, MyLink. David gave us the scoop on the difficulty of designing a car interior and how a focus on specific consumer needs is essential for a successful product model.