More Herzog & de Meuron

A car park that is beautiful, even sexy!! Not a statement i thought i would be writing any time soon but Herzog & de Meuron have done it. They just refuse to be constrained by a 'house style',  unlike some contemporary architects who creations are instantly recognisable, (in keeping with the Brand identity).

Wendy Plomp

A snapshot review of a recent Wendy Plomp piece via Frame magazine.

Tam Tam

Konstantin Grcic's Tam Tam table has now been reissued by SCP some twenty years after its conception. Grcic is famous for, (amongst other things), his 'Chair One', which for me has always felt a little cold and technical. I like the DIY, low techness of these though, exposed Wing Nut included. Simple can be good.

RIBA

The Riba Bookshop, on Portland Place, is Very Good indeed.

Around the World by Zeppelin

A visually sumptuous film about the Zeppelin round the world journey. I think there is inspiration here for everyone; designers can admire the sheer size and bravado of the creations, makers get that "how the hell did they bulid that?" feeling, graphic heads get the briliant GRAF ZEPPILIN font to drool over and visual artists can just see every frame as a picture. Needless to say, i thought it rather good. However, there is a slight caveat; it is essentially a love story, but just turn the sound off if you need to, it looks stunning anyway.

PIURRA

I am on the verge of being blown away by Piurra, the way Rui Viana talks about the work is sublime.."The creation of furniture departs from the development of concepts based upon the personal experiences of demanding, innovating, recalcitrant people." Recalcitrant? The definition being: difficult to manage or operate b : not responsive to treatment c : resistant < this subject is recalcitrant both to observation and to experiment. 
I am very interested in personality within form, and so into the way '7 skirts shelf' explores this, with its Folies Bergere exuberance versus french country kitchen aesthetic, giving such open results. 
But some of Piurra's other work is a bit too surface obsessed for me, which is a shame. I know we all have to sell things, make money, but when you think clever, like Piurra do, its good to run with it and go mental sometimes. I can't help but wonder what sort of brilliant and interesting objects could be realised if they did.

Happy Stuff

Some primitive childlike fun, in keeping with the good Spring Vibe. Herzog and de Meuron design VitraHaus, which is home to Vitra's collection. Extruded simplified 'house' shapes, seemingly dropped on top of one another from a great height. The oversized windows providing huge amounts of light into the internal sections at all times of the day.
And with the Happy stool, A2designers get the colour (just) on the right side of retinal overload with their Aalto inspired stacker.