Archives for the month of: September, 2009

Italian Idol

September 25, 2009 //

OK I admit it, I have a thing for older men lately, especially passionate, talented, distinguished ones like the Milanese Maesto Angelo Mangiarotti, still going strong at 88, and whose ethos includes “happiness comes from correctness”…  The Mangiarotti anthology exhibition now showing in Mantova at the Casa del Mantegna until November 8 includes sculpture, architecture, design that looks like sculpture and the poignant, evocative free-hand drawings for which the architect is famous – and so well loved.

9ex AT Casa

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Categories architecture, design, design stories, Italy, travel, vintage

The Light Thing

September 20, 2009 //

As virtuous as they are beautiful, Arba are a new family of environmentally responsible lighting designed by Matteo Thun and Antonio Rodriguez for Belux. Choosing sustainable maple wood for both the shade and the base, Thun isn’t shy about highlighting the struggle many of us have with low-energy lamps, describing the aim for the project as creating light that is warm, natural and familiar, ‘despite state-of-the-art sources’.

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Categories design, lighting, materials, new technology, products

White On Time

September 16, 2009 //

White walls and oak floors: the ‘little black dress’ of the modern interior design lexicon works its magic on the (very wearable) Gio’ Ponti-inspired loft conversion by Rome architects na3.

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Categories architecture, interior design, Italy, materials

Love Hotel

September 10, 2009 //

Design terroir for travellers:  The new Michelberger in Berlin and the Ace Hotel in New york might be pitching to the same young-minded, fiscally-aware demographic, but there’d be no mistaking which city you’re in when you wake up in the morning.

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Categories design stories, fashion, interior design, travel

Bare Essentials

September 6, 2009 //

The Japanese master minimalism all over again with the reopening of the Pleats Please Issey Miyake store in Aoyama. Light, surface, space as art, as just about only the Japanese can.

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Categories fashion, interior design, lighting, materials, new technology