Posts from — January 2011

Austrian architecture firm hertl architekten recently finished this project- ‘aichinger house’, a multi-story apartment building consisting of two flats in Kronstorf, Austria. The structure, which once housed a restaurant, is treated to a textile skin which lends the building a light, curtain effect by applying a material which is normally reserved for the indoors. The project inspired by today’s use of skins for everything from phones to website design, it explores the flexibility of facades and skins.

The facade appears almost metallic from a distance, the design wraps the whole exterior of the building in the light grey fabric, rendering the layout and form of the interior hidden from the outside viewer.

Iron embraces strategically placed part the curtain at the window to allow daylight into the apartments. Much like interior draperies, the skin can be drawn closed to provide shade and diffusion of light. During the night, the fabric provides a paper lantern effect, distributing the glow from the building to the exterior.

I have to say this gives new meaning to tab tops or even rod pocket tops and bottoms!

Share/Bookmark

Here are some highlights from day 3 at Heimtextil, the world’s largest textile fair including wallpapers and a discussion on sustainabilityfrom a European designer’s point of view.

Share/Bookmark

Highlights include:

• Trend Forum
• Karim Raschad at Deco Team and a quick peek at his new line of roller shades for Velux. Finally some style and innovation in the window coverings category!
• Upholstery Awards

Copyright “Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH”.

Share/Bookmark

Heimtextil, the world’s largest textile fair held in Frankfurt, Germany opened yesterday and runs through Saturday. We’ll be posting daily reports and videos to give you an insider’s view of what this amazing and sometimes daunting fair is all about.

Here’s Day 1. Check out the BarkCloth exhibit and demo.

ADDED BONUS:

In this great interview, Caroline Till and Kate Franklin (right) from The Future Laboratory talk about how they created the new Heimtextil trend statement, RECONNECT and the creative processes involved in staging the trend show at Heimtextil 2011. Want to learn more about RECONNECT? Click to our Heimtextil trend post part 1 HERE and part 2 HERE.

Copyright “Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH”.

Share/Bookmark

“What if we turned up the volume on sense and the senses, sensations and emotions, in order to experience all the intensity of existence?”

With Maison et Objet opening in one week, this is the trend question that M&O’s Observatory has posed. In answer to the question, they chose Intensity as the theme for January’s 2011 trend edition. They noted that in a time of tension, we want to live more and better. The home has fallen in line with the desire to benefit fully from life. New energies are paying tribute to heightened, sometimes extreme experiences as we move up Maslow’s pyramid; encouraging letting go and savoring the pleasure of living in 3-D. It’s about a total immersion into a heightened, but very real reality.

As always, M&O Observatory has called on three of the best trend forecasting agencies in the world to stage their interpretations of the theme. Here’s what Design Confidential will be seeing next week when Maison et Objet opens.

Un-plugged. François Bernard

Let go

It is urgent that we let go in order to escape the pressures of our culture of speed and standardization. People are unplugging, slowing down, and cultivating the joyful frugality of ages past. The new luxury looks to simplified creature comforts. We are rediscovering a taste for the near and known and a local flavor. Period pieces are revitalizing the archives of folklore and archetypal forms. Without nostalgia, but with modesty, we are awakening the intense pleasure of the present moment.

Hypnotic. Vincent Grégoire pour NellyRodi

Time of transformation

Come enter a time of transformation without fear. Motion, light, and 3-D effects are revitalizing spaces, revealing new perspectives. An angular, fractal geometry is reconfiguring a kinetic aesthetic that is troubling our gaze. Complex, fragmented forms are mixing it up. Mirror reflections are heightening reality. Techno-sensitive engineering is programming a magical narrative that is reactivating emotions and intensifying everyday life.

Hypnotic Paper Chair- Mathias Bemgtsson

Lianna Sheppard Dress

Haute Tension. Elizabeth Leriche

Moments of intensity

We are requisitioning all the senses in order to experience moments of intensity and intensified emotions. Design is blowing hot and cold, modulating between heavy and light, varying the intensity of light and colors, increasing the tactile effects of surprising materials. Scents and sounds are stimulating the sensorial and the sensitive. A techno-poetry is ushering in enriched well-being and heightened sensuality. Another world, intense and thrilling, is on the horizon.

Invisible Design- Yoshioka for kartell

Hoi Polloi Chandelier - Ingo Maurer

Share/Bookmark