Minimalist lighting from Lutz Pankow. The lights use an innovative magnetic joint creating a freedon of movement and modular combination of different bases, arms and light sources.




A Designer Looks at Art, Architecture and Everything
Minimalist lighting from Lutz Pankow. The lights use an innovative magnetic joint creating a freedon of movement and modular combination of different bases, arms and light sources.




Orcas Stage on the Green, winner of the AIA Seattle 2008 Peoples Choice Award.







Construction photo sequence here.
Architect Fiona Dunin is doing great things at FMD Architects. Her work incorporates unique details – take a look and you’ll see what I mean.

Interesting use of mirror. Love the snow white kitchen and the bookshelves. Must have books near the kitchen.

Unique faceted detail above window, L shaped protrusion and angular shelf.

I’m enjoying the sculptural qualities of her walls.

Another sculptural wall treatment, the additive wall element is in the form of cabinetry.

Big beautiful doors bring the outdoors in.


Great website. Design by Monkii.
Enticing. There is something quite alluring about seeing multiples grouped into categories. You’re drawn in by the neat displays, you want to get closer, handle. I admire the architect designed collaborations Aesop uses for their retail stores.

Unforgettable use of corrugated materials for product display. Aesop Flinders Lane designed by March Studio.

Aesop @ Strand Arcade.
Lovely.
James Cameron worked with Universal Design Studio to create a space of classic institution, referencing aesthetics and colours from 1960’s French spy films and giving it a timeless approach for the circa 1920’s building it sits in.



62 Smith Street Collingwood, Victoria, Australia – PH: 03 9419 2400
I like this lamp — inspired by SANAA’s design for the New Museum.



Each piece is hand made using laser cut translucent white acrylic with a cool-white fluorescent bulb. Available at the website. $1200
Masters of Modernism offers lighting, silver, jewelry and hardware from the masters of modern design. I picked a couple of things that caught my eye.

Flexible Arm Wall Lamp, Eduard-Wilfrid Buquet, 1927


Door Levers, Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1927


“Le tre steghe” Pendant Lamp, Guenther Leuchtmann, 1981

You might think this fixture is strange, even ugly. It’s really a gorgeous piece and you can see it on display at Siematic Seattle.
Online here.
SieMatic Seattle opened recently and I stopped in to look over their showroom today. My client, AOME Architects, worked with the showroom operator, Elaine Pagones, to design her own home.




Thought of this interior today, designed by Michaelangelo ca. 1520. I was obsessed with this space after learning about it in school. It’s an early example of renaissance mannerism exhibiting a sort of minimalism. The interior is quite challenging to photograph due to the intimate scale of the building. After I tracked this down I had a coffee and headed over to the Laurentian Library.

Thinking about this house today.


Designed by Glenn Murcutt and located along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Moonlight Head Private Lodges are surrounded by pristine national parkland and have panoramic views of the Twelve Apostles and beyond.






ORO Editions just put out a book featuring 3 projects from the Seattle architecture firm Suyama Peterson Deguchi. If you view the book at Amazon.com or many other online sites, the cover looks dark green/blue. Maybe this was a pre-production version because the final version I have has a deep dark-brown cover. 112 pages, hardcover. Oro Editions (November 11, 2008)





I’ve always thought the existing Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney looked a little rigid; the building could do with an injection of modern architecture. Given the quayside location this new addition looks promising. Trash or treasure? Cast your vote at The Sydney Morning Herald website poll here.

From the Bocci Collection, no.22, flush mount power-point.

Retail remixed by Ksubi. Walking by the outside you wouldn’t know it was a shop. No signage. Doesn’t look like a store. Maybe a gallery. Maybe it’s still under construction? Can I go in? Confusing signals. Which is the point. Ksubi manages to create a retail environment that fuses retail rules with no rules. Constructed entirely from cardboard and tape, the stores location is upscale Armadale so it’s quite a contrast to the surrounding shops which include themes and galleries.






1021 High Street – Armadale – VIC 3143
Arguably the most recognizable building in the world, The Sydney Opera House, was designed by architect Jorn Utzon in 1957. The inspirational series of roof shapes create a monolithic form that draws visitors toward it from land and sea. The view of the sail-like roof forms from the Manly ferry is undeniably beautiful as the building appears to float on water. It is approximately 185 m (611 ft) long and 120m (380 ft) wide at its widest point. The highest roof vault (above the Concert Hall) is 67m (221 ft) above sea level. Approaching the Opera House by foot is just as rewarding. The stairs cascade down the front of the building are faced with pink aggregate granite which was quarried at Tarana in New South Wales.


There are a number of restaurants on the bridge side of the Quay with a view of the Sydney Opera House, however Aria has an amazing, sweeping view of The Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from their main dining room.
Woodnotes manufactures paper yarn for a variety of architectural and interior design applications. The company began with their pure modern designs in floor coverings, today they feature numerous products including carpets, blinds & partitions, table textiles, furniture & upholstery fabrics and accessories. The clarity of materials and aesthetics produces the perfect minimalism.

Woodnotes Carpets

Woodnotes Blinds

Woodnotes Table Textiles

Woodnotes Furniture
Woodnotes is a Finnish design company founded by Ritva and Mikko Puotila in 1987.
Notre-Dame-du-Haut is the architect Le Corbusier’s chapel in Ronchamp, France. I had to make the pilgrimage as I was obsessed with this building ever since studying it in Architecture school. Now to describe the building and the experience getting there: the building is surreal. Sublime. Ironic. While getting there was an adventure in train schedules, bus stops and hitch-hiking. The sailing concrete forms were definitely unlike anything I have seen before or since. Well worth the trouble to visit in one’s lifetime.






Sad to see this house under water, again.

Maybe the foundation needs to move the house from the flood plain rather than perform another refurbishment?