daniel rossi: wedge bench

'Wedge bench' designed by Daniel Rossi in collaboration with Richard Beumer and Jonny Wray, is made of a multi-plex wood with an HPL cover that is CNC milled.

It fits together by slotting flat planks for the seat and back rest into the two side panels, which are held together by eight simple wedges. no glue or nails required. http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/8950/daniel-rossi-wedge-bench.html

Cola Powered Toy Car is Fueled by Sugar

by Beth Shea

Not to be outdone by Nokia’s Coca-Cola powered concept cell phone, Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy’s soda powered radio controlled car races onto the alternative energy scene. Fueled by a literal sugar high that powers Sony’s Bio Battery, this zippy prototype is a lesson in life science for kids and adults alike, as it “generates eco-friendly electricity by breaking down sugar using processes similar to those in living organisms.” Head to Inhabitots to see the car in action, and to learn which drink gives the ‘ene Cargo’ the biggest sugar rush. http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/01/26/cola-powered-toy-car-is-fueled-by-sugar/

A Welcome Wagon

By Belinda Lanks

As any new parent will tell you, having kids will change your life in unexpected ways. For Scot Herbst, a San Francisco–based industrial designer and father of two, the event triggered a career shift. http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20100113/a-welcome-wagon

Space-age Solar Powered Pod House Unveiled

by Bridgette Meinhold

The MercuryHouseOne is a mobile lounge powered by solar panels and decked out with all the latest and greatest sound equipment and lighting. Architecture and Vision designed, built and then debuted it at the Venice Biennale, and now we have pictures of it in action.
http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/01/22/space-age-solar-powered-pod-house-unveiled/#more-82257

Living in the city

Buildings that eat carbon dioxide? Fish bacteria that light the streets? Meet the architects rebuilding our future.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/eureka/article6861966.ece

Face to Face by Ministry of Design

Singapore studio Ministry of Design have completed an office building in Singapore, which features strips of white lighting that seem to have been scribbled over exterior and interior surfaces.

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/01/22/face-to-face-by-ministry-of-design/

Inka Essenhigh Plots the Undoing of the Figure

by Noah Becker

Inka Essenhigh is a New York-based painter whose highly colorful paintings feature dramatic distortions and abstractions of figures and landscapes. Earlier bodies of work dating to the 1990s featured opaque effects, linear elements and violent painterly gestures, all in tension with the artist's rich, vibrant color fields.

http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/conversations/2010-01-15/inka-essenhigh-303-gallery/

Tree-Trunk Garden House

The Thomas Mayer archive shows a tree-trunk garden house, a log house study in Hilversum, Netherlands for dutch musical performer Hans Liberg, designed by Piet Hein Eek.
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/8772/piet-hein-eek-tree-trunk-garden-house.html

Green Walls Taking Root in Green Building Design

By Dan Nephin, Associated Press

The next big thing in green building design might be to turn an existing idea on its side.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. recently installed a green wall the size of two tennis courts on one side of its headquarters.
http://climate.weather.com/articles/ap_greenconstruction_101209.html

Matisse poetry illustrations come to Atlanta

By DORIE TURNER

In this image released by the Museum of Art at Oglethorpe University, an etching by artist Henri Matisse titled, "Eventail," is shown. The illustration is one of 63 on display at the Museum of Art at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta from Jan. 17 until May 9. (AP Photo/Museum of Art at Oglethorpe University, Henri Matisse)

http://www.accessatlanta.com/celebrities-tv/matisse-poetry-illustrations-come-273879.html

When 21 Was Still Young Enough to be a Teen Idol: Pre-Fame Elvis Presley

By Sean McCaughan

Alfred Wertheimer had never heard of Elvis Presley in 1956 when he accepted a job to photograph the singer from Memphis.

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/blogs/culture/2010-01-12/elvis-photographs/

Flying Bicycle Lane Lets You Soar Above Traffic

by Bridgette Meinhold

Bike commuting is a beautiful thing – it’s an efficient, quick way to get around an urban area and it’s great for your heart. Only problem is those pesky cars that are continually getting in the way!

http://www.inhabitat.com/transportation/

Dead or Alive

April 27 - October 24, 2010
Museum of Art & Design, NYC will showcase the work of over 30 international artists who transform organic materials and objects that were once produced by or part of living organisms-insects, feathers, bones, silkworm cocoons, plant materials, and hair-to create intricately crafted and designed installations and sculptures.



http://collections.madmuseum.org/code/emuseum.asp?style=browse&currentrecord=1&page=seealso&profile=exhibitions&searchdesc=Future%20Exhibitions&searchstring=Future/,/greater%20than/,/0/,/false/,/true&action=searchrequest&style=single&currentrecord=2

Send in the Cloud

A proposal spearheaded by MIT's Senseable City Lab envisions an inhabitable sculpture for London's 2012 olympics.

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4087

Skating on the Edge of Taste with Warren Platner

Alexandra Lange

In the late 1960s, interior designer Warren Platner, a modernist who spent his formative years in the office of Eero Saarinen, began to skate along the edge of taste, his glitz tempered by clever architectural manipulations of space, his gilt tempered with black and cream.
http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=12047

Meet Andy Warhol's Photographer

In the Sixties the beautiful and the damned flocked to hang out at the Factory — and be photographed by Nat Finkelstein

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article6976662.ece

HDA: Pylons of the Future

French firm Hugh Dutton Associates (HDA) have won the 'pylons of the future' international competition for Italian energy supplier Terna Spa.

The design refers to the form of the first tender shoots of a young plant. http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/8665/hda-pylons-of-the-future.html

A Fresh Makeover for Familiar Faces

By ROBERTA SMITH

El Greco's “Vincenzo Anastagi,” center, rules over the refurbished East Gallery of the Frick Collection. The changes there, including a new coral wall color, are transformative.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/arts/design/08frick.html

Tealight: recycled porcelain cup lamp

By- Sam Dunne

Design student Louisa Köber created this delightful little installation, entitled "Tealight", as part of an exhibition hosted by a power company in Stuttgart. The piece plays with the translucency of porcelain - cups in this outmoded material being easy to come by in second-hand shops.

Louisa is a student of Industrial Design at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart, Germany and is part of the Master of European Design programme. http://www.core77.com/blog/default.asp?p=2

Funbrella

If you love being outside in the rain with an umbrella but don't like actually getting wet, the funbrella has a solution. developed at osaka university, the funbrella is a digitally enhanced umbrella that simulatesvirtual rain, to give the feeling of rain without the actual thing.

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/16/view/8632/funbrella.html

Ducks (as found)

A project by: Ryan Connolly

Examining installations as a performative object, we examined William Forsythe’s dance One Flat Thing, Reproduced. In this dance, Forsythe inserts a grid of tables to establish a new, unfamiliar datum for which the dancers engage. At Knowlton Hall, the building is ruled by datums, with constantly intersecting ramps and floor … read moreplains. It’s materiality is known: concrete, glass, and steel. Our installation challenged both of these properties by establishing a new datum line and a new, unfamiliar and unidentifiable materiality: rubber ducks. http://www.architizer.com/en_us/projects/view/ducks-as-found/2754/

String Gardens by Fedor

Via @designklub, hanging gardens suspended with thin string by Fedor in Belgium. "Information beyond that is a bit of a mystery, but they have many lovely pictures on their site."

http://mocoloco.com/fresh2/2010/01/04/string-gardens-by-fedor.php

Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity

November 8, 2009–January 25, 2010 MoMA

The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/bauhaus/Main.html

Rainbow Eco Office

By, Diane Pham

Hamburg’s Office for Urban Development and the Environment (BSU) recently unveiled plans for a brand new eye-catching and energy-efficient office that is sure to promote their green agenda. Designed by Sauerbruch Hutton, the colorful prismatic building will combine both passive and active measures to bring the structure to the forefront of energy-efficient design in 2013. http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/01/04/office-for-urban-development-and-environment-by-sauerbruch-hutton/#more-77688

Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey

April 2 through August 1, 2010
The Morgan Library & Museum

Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey features thirty-one original Palladio drawings from the Royal Institute of British Architects. These exquisite drawings, which were exhibited only once before in America and never in New York, will be on view to the public for the first time in over thirty years. They are being presented with rare architectural texts to illustrate the journey from Italy to North America of Palladio's design principles of proportion, harmony, and beauty. http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/exhibition.asp?id=29

Rapid Re(f)use: New York City Rebuilt From Its Own Trash

New York City, much like any big city, disposes of a lot of trash — but what if that trash could be used in a constructive manner? NYC-based architects Terreform have proposed a new form of construction for the City that uses industrial sized robots to create buildings and islands from waste instead of sending it to landfills like Fresh Kills.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/01/29/rapid-refuse-new-york-city-rebuilt-from-its-own-trash/