Inspiration

As you may have noticed, our latest e-magazine has hit the virtual stands. We’re talking interiors, hotels, Scandinavian design and fabulous prefabricated houses. From the recent Pop Up House to Jean Nouvel’s prefab precursor, we selected seven noble representations of the genre. But there were many to choose from, and we couldn’t include them all, so we have created a l...

Summer is almost here, and it’s becoming impossible to move without breaking a sweat. ‘Tis the season to slow down and relax, and for that, there is always the ever practical, always reliable hammock. But what if we went above and beyond the hammock? What if? Let’s check out 10 suspended seats with an unusual twist. Tropicalia by Patricia Urquiola for Moroso Colorf...

At last year’s Design Miami, we were captivated by the beautiful and perplexing light installation from champagne house Perrier-Jouët and designer Simon Heijdans presented. This year, Perrier-Jouët has commissioned a installation from Vienna-based design duo mischer’traxler that also leaves visitors scratching their heads. ‘Ephemerā’ is the first in a series of work tha...

Not a run-of-the-mill design manufacturer, Incipit chooses to be defined as a training laboratory or as a workshop that supports young designers in their craft. Similar to organizations such as VIA in France, Incipit’s ultimate goal is to give designers a chance to succeed by supporting them through the entire process. Initiated by Roberto Hoz and Marta Bernstein in 2...

A modular greenhouse/storage shed combination is the result of a collaborative effort between two Finnish companies: Avanto Architects and Kekkilä Garden. With potential use as a beautiful green space or an enchanting natural escape, the versatile structure of half wood and half glass panels can be enlarged or contracted based on the model and the owners’ needs. The cove...

Inspired by traditional African tribal masks, Amsterdam-based conceptual designer Lisette Appeldorn created her own contemporary interpretation with Raster. A minimalist rendition of various animals, including a fox, bear and crocodile, the masks are made from thin plywood. The designer used different folding techniques to create 3D geometric forms and patterns (that inc...

Staying power is a particularly rare thing. Collections of tables, chairs and mirrors slip in and out of our memories like dreams. Even the biggest sensation of the year frequently becomes a vague imprint mere months later. What determines a design’s ability to mark a generation? Universal appeal? Exclusivity? Luck? Perhaps all of the above, but a handful of designers...

Rebecca Louise Law is a British artist that has been working with flowers for 17 years. In addition to several large-scale installations, she has worked on visual merchandising for brands such as Hermès, Mulberry and Cartier. Her most recent installation, entitled ‘The Flower Garden Display’d 2014′, was commissioned by London’s Garden Museum for the current exhibition ‘...

Breaking up is hard to do. Unless you are Elsa Boch. Well, perhaps the lovely French designer also finds breaking up hard to, however her modular lamp, Rising, makes breaking up and making up seem eternally easy. Made from steel, aluminum and glass, the table lamp consists of a tray, a light source and several trundle tubes that can be arranged and rearranged according ...

For his first time exhibiting at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, Olafur Eliasson presents 3 ambitious spatial installations within the architectural context of the museum. Among these installations is Riverbed, an indoor river perfectly imitating nature. The artificial landscape created by the Danish-Icelandic artist is breathtaking. Rocks cover the floor...

The Stockholm Furniture Fair is officially in full swing! Each year, the Greenhouse serves as a “Garden of New Ideas”, displaying new talents from around the world. For the second year in a row, Stockholm-based Note Design Studio designed the hall. Intent on representing the social aspect of the event, the Swedish design studio put participant and customer interaction a...

With the Tetris House, the famous Brazilian architecture firm Studio mk27 achieved another tour de force and broke some new ground in the world of modern architecture. Mixing the classics (geometric elements materialized in a perfect mix of wood and stone, an amazing balance between organic and unnatural elements in the design), the Brazilian architects came up with a wi...

If prefabs are fabulous, containers are pretty cool too. It’s funny to see how in a few years, containers then prefabs have taken over the architectural world. These simple and economical construction methods have provided an answer to our growing need for adaptable and quick architecture. One country that has shown such need over the last few years is China, so it is no...

Villa Kugelhof by Paul de Ruiter Architects is a self-sufficient, carbon-neutral home that has won the prestigious Dutch ARC13 Architecture Award as well as a FIABCI Prix d’Excellence Award in the Sustainable Development and Residential (Low Rise) category. Situated in Noord-Beveland in the southerwestern Netherlands, the residence is located on 25 hectares of protected ...

How to make storybook-like stool? Easy! First, grab some scrap wood and some wool from a newly shorn sheep. Now, put it all together and have a seat! Okay, it’s not quite that easy, but 0304 makes it seem as such. Using simple and sustainable materials, they create fun and funky designs. A collaboration between former Design Academy Eindhoven classmates, Tanja Kole, Raym...

Teamlab is a collective of Japanese designers and creative talents based in Tokyo. Their Floating Flower Garden installation, which was originally showcased at Tokyo’s Miraikan National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, was recently reassembled for Maison & Objet in Paris. Over two thousand orchids, suspended in midair, create a softly undulating canopy that int...

Black houses hold a certain intrigue, perhaps due to the pure rarity of their existence. Black houses are the unicorns of the architecture world. That being said, we’ve managed to wrangle ten black houses that hold the intrigue for which they are known. Enjoy. Black Desert House by Oller & Pejic Architecture Oller & Pejic’s Black Desert House is located in the extr...

Handcrafted design isn’t just for DIY Pinterest projects, we promise. In fact, we dedicated an entire e-magazine to the topic! And with the help of associations like Crafts Council Nederland (CCNL), craftsmanship is rising up the design ranks to become a category of its own. Dutch Darlings is a competition organized by CCNL to encourage, exhibit and reward sustainable c...

Romain Guillet and Louise de Saint Angel, the Parisian duo behind STATUE, use design to reinvent objects and spaces in unexpected ways. They chose STATUE as both the name of their design studio and as their mascot due to its architectural, artistic, decorative and epic attributes. The pair often takes antiquated objects and profoundly revives them. Despite their acousti...

A staple of architecture for centuries, the facade has a long history as a decorative element of both private homes and public buildings. Facades play a clear decorative role, with new facades frequently being used to “dress up” existing houses, but they can also contribute to the energy efficiency of a building. As energy becomes a greater concern, the facade has adapt...

Carl Kleiner’s Postures series is a collection of pictures of tulips held in various positions with wires. Documenting the surrounding world with his camera, he lets his photography serve as a medium for bringing his insightful visions to life. The fragility of the flower figures contrasts with either a black or white background, and as they hang in the air the flowers ...

“My photographs are all that remain of the sculptures.” Environmental artist and designer Martin Hill makes sculptures in nature that return to nature. His designs illuminate the idea of a new model of progress where the living world on which life relies is not destroyed. Using local materials running on renewable energy, waste is eliminated and multiple benefits and job...

Navid Baraty examines the world from the top down. Dangling over the edge of skyscrapers, he captures society as few would ever see it. The Brooklyn-based artist began the series while living in Tokyo where he discovered that the dizzying views provided a lot of insight into a society’s character. His work has been featured in several major publications, including Nation...

Nuances are perhaps the highest level of language. We rarely stop to consider how beautiful it is to understand the subtle shades of a phrase or word. Paying homage to these linguistic subtleties, Japanese studio Nendo designed a series of Rain Bottles. The Japanese language has dozens of different words for the English word ‘rain’ – variations that depend upon condit...

Do you pay an exorbitant price for a dwelling that serves only for sleep? If so, you might be a modern nomad. Fortunately, Studio ARTE gets it. With their NOMAD Living project in Algarve, Portugal, the design ensemble explores the boundaries and flexibility of the modern wayfaring lifestyle. Born out of a disused shipping container, the project is a cheap and obtainable ...

Small confession: we are deathly afraid of heights. Our paralyzing fear is the reason that Object Élevé by Dutch designer Mieke Meijer strikes terror in our hearts, yet we would put it in our house without hesitation. Despite the vertiginous heights, combining a staircase with storage and a desk is brilliant, and the design is gorgeous. The oak and steel structure was...

In an ideal world, work would be so much fun that extra hours would feel effortless. Unfortunately, the majority of us spend our weeks slogging through until Friday. Depressing? Perhaps. But we’ve rounded up a few objects that may not necessarily make work more fun, but their convenient multiple functions will definitely make it easier. Islands by Jordi Blasi Islan...

The work of Berlin-based artist Eva Berendes invokes a beguiling effect on the viewer, which is imposed by intentionally blurred lines between product and art. Geometric forms and pops of bold colors permeate her creations which include room dividers, folding screens and wall units. Her pieces recall real functionality, yet certainly stand on their own as art. Grid lines...

We don’t want to speak to soon, but it seems to be warming up. The trees are in bloom and our vague memories of the sun are becoming more vivid. We may not have completely shed our winter skin, but we can’t help but dream of sunscreen, barbecues and swimming pools. The last frost may not have yet thawed, but we’re already compiling our wishlist of poolside lounging mater...

This small creation by the Japanese design studio is nothing complicated, but it works extremely well. A simple and fun idea that yet perfectly sums up nendo‘s philosophy of thinking out of the box, while remaining innocent and childlike. This set of paper blocks was created as an insert for a Japanese lifestyle magazine. It consists of a series of flat paper forms print...

Brazilian specialist of wood sculpture, Henrique Oliveira is back with a new sensational piece or, rather, a new multisensory piece. Presented in Frankfurt, at the Schirn Kunsthalle, this wooden cave confuses the visitors’ sensations by playing with their senses. Entering the small doorway, the visitor looses track of the actual exhibition space, and gets sucked into thi...

For this year’s London Design Festival, the American Hardwood Export Council and Benchmark Furniture have sponsored the Wish List: What I Have Always Wanted, a project that brought to life the wishes of ten iconic designers. Fashion design legend Paul Smith’s wished for a garden shed and worked with custom furniture designer and maker Nathalie de Leval to create the 3...

New York-based, Israeli artist Daniel Rozin creates interactive digital art that turn the idea of passively viewing artwork on its head. His work, such as his recent PomPom Mirror, gets the viewer involved by responding to their presence and movement. The interactive “mirror” is composed of no less than 928 spherical puffs of faux fur. The beige and black puffs are disp...

In 2014, Saint-Gobain‘s Parisian gallery, A Glass House, welcomed Dyson and French architects Didier & Fabrice Knoll as part of an unprecedented collaboration that reinvents essential spaces in the home. Dubbed Projet 1, 2, 3, the innovative capsule was developed in response to the increasingly limited space in which we live. The project was on display at last week’s Equ...

Roadkill is pretty disgusting. That said, whenever we spot it, we’re overtaken by mixed feeling. On one hand, the repulsion forces you to look elsewhere, but on the other, a certain fascination makes you want to look – even though you know it’s wrong. In creating the Roadkill Carpet, Dutch designers Oooms play with that side of us. Both repulsive and kind of funny, th...

For last October’s Science Festival, French photographer Romain Giusiano was able to capture an unusual performance. During the visit of a waste processing plant, comedian and dancers started interacting with the extraordinary venue, exposing the plant from a brand new angle. The photo shoot resulted in a series of almost surreal images. But the interesting aspect of Gi...