2Modern Design Talk - Modern Furniture & Design Blog

TaTu

Enrico Bressan and Tahmineh Javanbakht are a design team that believe in sustainability.  "Over the years, we've become more and more interested in sustainability in everything we do. For us, the matter of sustainability is not just the question of the environment, but also of the humans living in the environment".

What they've done is got some of the best design talent out into areas where local people have a particular skill, worked with those people, and created something that will they can produce using that skill. They sent New York-based Stephen Burks out to South Africa to work with wire-weavers, and they produced the TaTu table and chairs.

Lovely stuff. The tables and stool work as baskets, side tables, all sorts of multi-purpose functions, and elegantly brings urbane and traditional together. You can do some shopping here... or go to the Artenica website.

MCA Denver by David Adjaye

The New MCA, designed by David Adjaye, one of the leading architects in the world today, is at once bold and refined, meeting all the criteria set forth when a permanent home for MCA was first envisioned:

A design that supports rather than defines the museum's mission. The design clearly articulates the Museum's exhibition and program requirements. The museum features five galleries and a rooftop pavilion, and also education, office and retail spaces, designed in three units of different heights. The majority of spaces are enveloped in an exterior grey-tinted glass curtain wall. The choice of quiet, monochromatic materials, and the building's calm shapes and clean lines, underline the architect's decision for the design to support, rather than define the museum's mission.

An environmentally-efficient building. MCA is actively pursuing LEED certification, which would make MCA the first contemporary art museum in the country to achieve such status. Plenty of natural light, 20% of recycled construction content, and the use of light coloured, highly reflective concrete are only some of the points to support the MCA Denver's aim to become the first Gold LEED certified contemporary art museum in the States.

A fiscally responsible project. The construction cost for the new building is $16.3 million. Apart from being Adjaye’s first US public building, it is also his first contemporary art museum worldwide. David Adjaye is recognized as one of the leading young architects of his generation in the UK, building a reputation as an architect with an artist's vision.

In 2000, he reorganized his studio as Adjaye/Associates and has gone on to win a number of prestigious commissions, including the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, and The Idea Stores, two new libraries in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which were recently selected by Deyan Sudjic for the exhibition highlighting 100 projects that are changing the world at the VIII Venice Biennale of Architecture 2002.

MCA's new facility is visionary and elegant. It will be a 21st century city landmark and a tourist destination. It will contribute to the revitalization of Lower Down-town, in particular the Central Platte Valley district near the historic Union Station building.

All photos courtesy of Ed Reeve.

Inhabit

Fun new designs from Inhabit now on 2Modern! The simple Leaf Stretched Wall Art is a great touch to accent any room. The wonderful Brush Triptic Slat will make any indoor space lively and woodsy. And new versions of old favorites: new Sky Rhythm, Amber Nourish, and Amber Soak Studio Pillows.

Modern Middle East: Part i, Louvre Abu Dhabi by Jean Nouvel

This is my first time posting for 2modern, so Hi!  My name is Danielle and I writing from my flat in Dubai UAE, and I am so appreciative of Greg and the 2modern team for giving me a place to spill my creative energy - other than onto the consciences of my architect husband and our families back at home...
                                                                                                                        
Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island (“Island of Happiness”) is soon to be home to four of the world’s most famous and prominent architectural accomplishments, including 3 museums and 1 performing arts center by 4 of the world’s most renowned architects: Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry and Tadao Ando.  In addition to being an uninhibited, ambitious, pedestrian-friendly developing island, Abu Dhabi is about to add to it’s roster of accomplishments: one of the world’s culture capitals of the world.  If Dubai is like L.A., glitz and glamour galore, then Abu Dhabi is like San Francisco.  It’s got roots.  It has history.  It has culture that is inherent and not manufactured.  And it is about to have a whole lot more culture to speak of.

Over the course of 15 years, this 'happy little island' will phase into a mecca of art-meets-architecture, quenching the hunger for a large portion of eye – and brain – candy.  That is sure to make many people very happy.

Slated to open in 2012 is the Louvre Abu Dhabi, a sister satellite to the Louvre Paris, designed by Jean Nouvel.  What can I say, this museum is like art come to life.  A canopy of different patterns interlaced into a translucent ceiling allow for dispersed web-like shapes to bounce around every space like a million Tinkerbells.  Magical, light-infused and organic all come to mind when trying to describe what Nouvel himself refers to as "an archaeological field revived as a small city, a cluster of nearly one-room buildings places along a leisurely promenade...covered with a large dome, a form common to all civilizations."

                                                          

It is a whimsical micro-world beautifully reflected in the surrounding water oasis; the conceptual renderings are so dreamlike, one experiences them as though it is photography of an already-realized museum.  I can only imagine what the reality will be.  On a more factual-basis, the museum, 24,000 sq. meters in size, will rotate between 200-300 pieces of the most influential and priceless works of art over 10 years and 4 temporary exhibits per year for 15 years.  With the full support of France, French President Jacques Chirac says the agreement allows for the bridging of what the "world considers a clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West."  If the universal language of art can't bring the globe together, what can?

Cotton Monkey

Cotton Monkey has two fun new items for the little ones; the Gift Set and the Hooded Towel. The Gift Set includes a bib, burp cloth, and bag. The Hooded Towel is perfect to drape around the kids at the pool or beach!

Once is not enough...

This little ad for Banc de Sang ( by minnim ) is pretty damn original and to the point ! 

Check out the ad here.

Thanks YTD

--sdotg--

Ruffled and Laced

It's not hard to envision devoted holiday decorators whose aspirations go far beyond the extra mile, loving the richly carved, curved, upholstered and textured designs of Brocade Home. Their products--never without a pattern or laser-cut--are no less display worthy than the bright, bold and blinking Christmas ornaments currently in high demand. Check Brocade Home's new holiday catalog for their Laser Cut Holiday Tree (page 14) and the rest of their baroque-inspired gifts, furniture and accessories at brocadehome.com.

Yabaco Chair

"The Yabaco Chair's minimal use of material of a bar stock steel frame and an upholstered shell, designed in a classic style, will assure its longevity and enhance any public space or  private interior.

The Yabaco was designed by Ryann Aoukar and Damien Robache for Nienkamper.  Soy-based foam is now used in all of Nienkamper's seating, replacing petrochemical foams. This is an investment you can feel good about!

Ceramic Flowers

Astrid Dahl's ceramic work is sculptural. She creates work inspired by plant forms, and the results are astonishing.

Astrid lives and works in the picturesque countryside of Notthingham Road, in South Africa. She uses a traditional African pot-making technique,  coiling the clay from the bottom upwards, creating vases and sculptures that are anything but traditional.

You can find more of her work at Amaridian.

Wood Toys

I love the wooden toy sets that have come out recently. They are retro and modern at the same time, plus they remind me of the wooden building blocks and 'Lincoln Logs' I grew up with. They'd make a great gift for a child or perhaps for the desktop of that adult you know that is really still a kid.

'Arctic Expedition' is available at moderntots.

'Countryside in a Bag' by MUJI is available at MoMAstore.

'New York City in a Bag' by MUJI is also available at the MoMAstore or at your local MUJI store. For those of you that live in NYC, one just opened in SOHO yesterday.