Stereo music systems in the 1980s and 90s were often composed of a stack of individual components such as an amplifier, a radio tuner, a record deck and …a tape deck. Each component was housed in a box around 400mm x 300mm x 60mm. The individual boxes were tethered to the amplifier and usually stacked on top of it. Remote from the stack were a pair of speakers that were sized in direct proportion to the size of the owner’s ego. The idea was that if you wanted to add more functionality to your system, such as a reel to reel tape player, and later a CD player, you could simply plug-in another component to the stack. Yes, I know this sounds bizarre in the age of the smartphone where all this functionality resides in a couple of apps, but I promise you it is true!
Well the same idea has been revived in this heating system designed by Adriano Design. Read more
Photos: Peter Bristol.
Looking at these products, both designed by Peter Bristol in the USA, one is struck by the clear continuity of thought running through them, that contains humour and sophistication.
The products themselves have extraordinary power in their simplicity, and seem to represent a touchstone from which the designer draws inspiration for much of his work. Read more
People living in tight spaces have been waiting for a sofa like this. It is designed by Matthew Pauk and is known as the Slot sofa. It combines the Ottoman, drinks table and a comfy sofa that seems to epitomise a fashionable urban lifestyle. It would certainly grace any modern city apartment. Read more
When young architects and interior designers first enter practice, they often despair when they are put on “bog duty” that is when they are called upon to design the tile layouts of the WCs adhering to the doctrinal position that tiles should never be cut! It is tiresome to untrained minds because it means drawing every tile and stop bead usually at twice real scale. It is rigorous training and repetitive, … “and well, it is only the bathroom”. So much to learn!
It soon dawns however, that time in the bathroom well spent, and in the hands of masters, this extraordinary vision of how bathrooms could be has emerged. Read more
Photos: Society for Community Organisation/Publicis Hong Kong.
A Hong Kong Chinese human rights organisation, the “Society for Community Organisation” (SoCO), has commissioned a series of photographs of overcrowded living spaces in the city. The results show the shocking living conditions that some individuals are forced to endure in order to survive. Read more
