2Modern Design Talk - Modern Furniture & Design Blog

Silk Bubbles

Margo Selby designed these luxurious cushions with such great eye for detail and quality. Margo started her own business some years ago after having spent many years working as a textile designer. She initially launched her own label in 2003 and not without success!

The use of special colors together with the best materials make Margo’s designs sought after interior products. These Sea Biscuit & Nut pillows are from the Silk Bubble series. All designs are handmade with fabulous finishing. You can see Margo’s delicate touch in all of her designs, check out her website for more….

Jailhouse Rocks

Once the Charles Street Jail, in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, is now The Liberty Hotel. Richard L. Friedman is the Boston developer resposnsible for the jails reinvention. He worked on the $150 million project with Kennedy Associates of Seattle.

There are iron bars on the first two floors of the building and the prison guards' catwalks, overlook the lobby (bringing people watching to a different level). The hotel restaurant is called 'The Clink' and the bar is called 'Alibi'. Even the waiters and waitresses will have numbers on their shirts.

The majority of the 300 guest rooms are in a new tower adjoining the jail. 18 rooms are in the old jail building and have original details such as exposed brick and bars. The rooms in the new tower have interior design references that alude to the old jail. An example of these details are the draperies which have beautiful imprints of jail bars.

Simple Beauty

Founded in 2003 by Swedish designer Lotta Helleberg, Inleaf brings the simple beauty of nature into your everyday life. Natural fabrics and eco-friendly dyes are used to create linens, bags and pillows inspired by the intricate patterns of a leaf. Lotta is currently working on several one-of-a-kind products, including wall hangings and beadspreads.
 

Shaken Not Stirred

Non-cooks are under pressure, not only from entire networks of cooking shows that turn the heated, ingredient-laden ordeal into fodder, but from shiny kitchen gadgets that tug hard at your 'eating at home is healthier' sensibilities. As your resistance weakens and you warm up to possibly someday maybe trying to cook something that's super easy, it's okay to invest in a few of the seductive cooking tools that seem to be popping up everyday. These microplane zesters and graters for instance, they're simple, cool and oh so tempting.

Koda

Koda Lighting brings us one of the most beautiful pendant lamps I've seen. I think the best part about Mary is that it showcases the strongest part of light design, the fine details in the construction which is usually hidden behind a shade.

The lamp can be dropped down to about 2 meters and is suspended by stainless steel aircraft cable. The canopy is satin nickel and compliments the machine finished aluminum body. The subtle diffuser comes in aqua, chartreuse,clear, steel and wheat.

--sdotg--

Thomaspaul

Thomaspaul has a great new Lighting Collection! Beautiful finch pattern on the Goldfinch Orange Pendant or the Louis Table Lamp. Classic flock pattern on the Flock Brown Pendant or the Marie Aqua Table Lamp. And lovely floral patterns on the Marie Brown and Kelly Table Lamps. Great for any room in the home or office!

Amenity Nursery

Amenity has expanded it's collection to the Nursery. Cuddle up with the soft Woods and Meadow Blankets. Nap or watch a movie on the floor with your little ones with comfy Floor Pillows. Or add some style to the nursery, or any room, with a Meadow Wall Print or a Woods Stretched Canvas. The Amenity Nursery Collection is all Eco-Friendly.

Fancy This

I don't usually blog about jewelry here, I leave that to my esteemed sunday co-blogger, Annie. But I am totally digging the modern styles of Sally Brock and her jewelry line Fancy.

Here are some of my favorites:

The Grid Cuff

The Bad Song Collection Ring

The Cloud Earrings

All images from Fancy.
posted by Alison.

Melanie Bilenker

Oh, how I would love a Melanie Bilenker piece in my collection.  Soft moments captured perfectly.

ring available at Sienna Gallery.

Until next week,

annie

Karlsruhe Mensa Hall by Juergen Mayer H.

Founded in 1996 in Berlin, Germany, J. MAYER H. focuses on works at the intersection of architecture, communication and new technology. From urban planning schemes and buildings to installation work and objects with new materials, the relationship between the human body, technology and nature form the background for a new production of space.

One of their recent projects is the dining hall at Karlsruhe University. Mensa Karlsruhe is an elastic space, that sits in the centre of the Karlsruhe University Campus. As an extension of the already existing facilities, the city of Karlsruhe wanted a canteen that would serve the growing number of students. The building became the new address of the campus, negotiating between the identities of three universities as well as between the urban fabric and the Hardtwad forest. The building reacts to this special condition with different stages of porosity.

The entire frame of the building is made of laminated wooden beams and pillars. These are clad with a polyurethane skin which is yellow on the outside and green on the inside. It conceals the seams while emphasizing the project’s abstract and graphic appearance...  

The porosity of the facades depends on their orientation. The building contains the dining rooms, kitchens and an array of public spaces. This implies a spiral circulation through the building, which rises to a terrace overlooking the soccer pitch where the German national team played several matches at the beginning of the 20th century.

The concept of the design is taking two slabs stuck together and detaching them by the effect of a force. The connections left between the two planes allow a modulation of different levels of porosity on the exterior, thereby linking the building to the campus’s surrounding area and to the forest opposite.

The interiors are painted in various shades of green to underline the different uses of the rooms. Complementary colors are used for specific furniture. In the words of the architect, it is hoped that large numbers of students may cross paths, get to know one another and maybe even fall in love. That people should associate the heart with a designed place is the best reward for an architecture conceived to be a part of contemporary life.

The construction period was from December 2004 up to January 2007. Mensa Karlsruhe started operating on March 12th 2007

Team J. MAYER H.:
Jürgen Mayer H., Andre Santer, Sebastian Finckh, Julia Neitzel, Wilko Hoffmann, Jan Stockebrand, Marcus Blum
with the following collaborators:
ARUP, Berlin (structural engineering)
Martin Scherer (Kitchen Engineer),
Uli Wiesler (Works supervisor),
Klaus Wiederkehr (Landscape Architect),

Photos courtesy of J.Mayer H.