Hasta La Ideas

Swedish architects Tham & Videgård Hansson have completed an apartment refurbishment in Stockholm with a colour scheme representing the changing seasonal colours in a nearby park. (more…)

Danish designer Johannes Torpe has completed work on SUBU, a restaurant in Beijing, China for South Beauty Group.

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For interior designer Jamie Drake, known for his decidedly unbeige aesthetic, the global economic crisis is no reason to retreat to a neutral palette. “I don’t think this is a time to flee color,” Drake told The New York Observer‘s Max Abelson in a recent interview. “I’ve been predicting a move away from fully saturated colors—the intense citrus orange, the intense chartreuse green—to more pastelized colors, to colors that are a little more springlike fresh. And I think that’s perfectly appropriate in a time when, you know what, you need a little optimism, and especially in your home.”

Drake notes that the recession has “majorly affected” the interior design industry, and while clients haven’t halted in-progress projects, “We’re all concerned about what will come down the road in six to nine months to a year, when projects that are currently in the works are completed.” How are his clients tightening their Hermès belts? “A client a year, year and a half ago, who was considering a high-six-figure desk—which did end up selling at that time, not to my client—we’re now looking at a desk in the low five figures.” Recession or not, Drake likes to mix it up: “What I find exciting is working on different things,” he said. “If I worked on the same thing day in and day out I would fall asleep, go into a Rumpelstiltskin 100-year nap. Was it Rumpelstiltskin who went into a 100-year nap? Somebody took a 100-year nap.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

Dutch architects Merkx + Girod have designed the interiors for a chain of fast-food restaurants serving fresh pasta, to be located at railway stations across the Netherlands. (more…)

As your calendar surely notes, Monday is a big day for Barbie. March 9 marks the 50th anniversary of the grinning plastic blonde’s introduction at the New York Toy Fair, and Mattel is pulling out all the stops to celebrate. In the wake of last month’s New York Fashion Week extravaganza, Barbie has undergone a face lift. The results will be revealed on Monday when Mattel debuts the 2009 Black-and-White Bathing Suit Barbie doll, “designed as a modern interpretation of the original 1959 doll” and unveiling “a brand new face sculpt for Barbie.” Prepare to get yours at the one-week “throwback price” of $3.

Meanwhile, in Malibu, Mattel will throw Barbie a pink-carpet birthday bash (masterminded by event planner Colin Cowie) in a 3,500-square-foot “Malibu Dreamhouse” decorated by Jonathan Adler (and depicted in the sketch pictured above). Among the Adlerian touches: skirted, corseted, lace-up “dress” chairs; a chandelier made of Barbie hair; a closet filled with thousands of shoes; a sunburst mirror made from 65 Barbie dolls; and a garage that includes a real Barbie Volkswagen New Beetle car (can you guess what color the car will be?). Those visitors freaked out by the idea of a Barbie hair chandelier can focus on the Dream House’s Barbie museum, various Barbie-size Dreamhouses, and “several noteworthy pieces of Barbie art,” which could mean pretty much anything.

Previously on UnBeige: