curbzone

Rob

The interior/doors of the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupé are stunningly elegant.

notic

^what do you pull on when you want to close the door?

Rob

There is a small switch on the sill of the A pillar which closes the door automatically ...but I guess you could also pull it shut from the top of the door (see the opening at the top of the door)

The Diva

ummm............ your butler's sleeve?

Rob

Danish Design.

These things never loose their appeal ...they are all still in production.

In my opinion, Hans J Wegner has been responsible for some of the most beautiful furniture ever made. They unite excellent form with outstanding hand craftsmanship.

Hans Wegner died in January, he was 93.

Hans Wegner CH_24 designed in 1950



Hans Wegner CH_07 designed in 1963



Hans Wegner CH_20 desiged in 1956



Hans Wegner CH_25 designed in 1950



Hans Wegner PP501 "The Chair" designed in 1949




Hans Wegner PP56 "The Chinese Chair" designed in 1989


Hans Wegner PP250 "The Valet Chair" designed in 1953





Hans Wegner PP201 Designed in 1969



Hans Wegner PP550 "The Peacock Chair" Designed in 1947




Hans Wegner PP512 "The Folding Chair" designed in 1949




Hans Wegner PP112 Designed in 1978



Hans Wegner PP130 "The Circle Chair" designed in 1986



Hans Wegner PP19 "The Teddy bear Chair" Designed in 1951

The Diva

Lovely, lovely designs.

I know we are talking chairs... but I LOVE those pendant lamps!

Mikael

Haha, now that's awesome!

Centurion

^^
That' violin is sick!

Very cool roll up curtain:

Rob

Italian design in the last quarter of the 20th century.

Consumer product design has become a very important cultural phenomenon, well designed household objects are now viewed as cultural barometers ...and several of the most prestigious art museums now have extensive design collections

Italy rebuilt much of its economy after World War 2 from well designed furniture products. Initially made from relatively cheap materials like plywood, glass, and tubular steel, Italian industrial designers and producers have continually shifted popular concepts of good form and good taste, as well as pioneering and exploiting new technology and production techniques.
One thing Italy had in its favour was an illustrious cultural heritage of art and architecture.

The Italian Modern design was generally more expressive and colourful than the German, Scandinavian, or American counterparts. Also, many of the entrepreneurs who owned the factories were very open-minded and encouraged experimental ideas in design and production techniques.
The Italian Modern design was less constrained by the strict Germanic doctrines which ruled over much of the Modern design in Northern Europe and the United States. The Italians certainly did not ignore the tenets of form and function, but they interpreted these ideals in a more human and playful way.

Most important of all was the furniture industry. For many Italian architects, furniture and other small household objects have been an important step in their development of new ideas in architecture and socio-environmental concepts.

Asymmetrical glasses designed by Joe Colombo in 1964 for Arnolfo di Cambio


Steel and glass table designed by Cini Boeri.



Italian design in the 1970s

By the 1970s, architects and designers from all over the world were being trained in Milan ...and Milan itself had become the global center of international industrial design (and started eclipsing Paris as the center of the fashion world too). Italy's dominance of the international design world was made "official" in 1972 when the prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York, opened an exhibition entirely devoted to Italian design called ITALY: THE NEW DOMESTIC LANDSCAPE. The focus was not just on the obvious aesthetic beauty of Italian design objects but also the important social, environmental, intellectual, and philosophical aspects behind their conception.

White marble table designed by Angelo Mangiarotti.


The "Cab" chair designed in 1977 by Mario Bellini was a very innovative concept: saddle leather covers a light steel structure.


"Pileo-Mezzo Pileo" floor lamp designed in 1972 by Gae Aulenti.


"Maralunga" Sofa designed by Vico Magistretti in 1973.


Pop Design:

In the 1970s small experimental design groups were starting to look beyond the tenets of Modernism and its formal rules of form and function. These young architects were starting to question the relevance of Modernism in the late 20th century ....they wanted objects and architecture with a younger and less formal attitude.

The iconic "Bocca" sofa designed in 1971 by Studio 65 has all the cool attitude of Andy Warhol's Pop Art.



"Capitello" chair designed in 1971 by Studio 65


"Cactus" coat stand made from molded polyurethane, designed in 1972 by Studio 65


Radical design:

From the mid 1960s small groups of "Radical" designers and architects were experimenting with new design ideologies -- Anti-Modern and Anti-Design ideas were looked into by some of the most intellectual protagonists in the design world.

Anti-design bed and table concepts by Enzo Mari in 1973 -- the idea was to provide the planks of wood and nails and the owner would put them together.



Experimental architecture by Superstudio-- intended to be like warnings -- Modernism taken to its logical extreme = continuous, faceless, characterless, uniform buildings -- cities of expressionless architecture where people lose there humanity and individualism.


Quaderna by Superstudio -- Once again, a Modernist concept taken to a logical end -- in this case, a range of furniture objects made from unit-cubes -- expressionless, colourless, culture-less.

The Quaderna furniture was put into production and is still being made by Zanotta. It has achieved the status of an Italian design classic. Like so many other avant-garde ideas, its original intentions are often misunderstood -- it was never supposed to be a style-statement for fashionable interiors.

Quaderna Table designed in 1970 by Superstudio.




Anti-Modern "Electro Rose" bed designed in 1967 by Archizoom -- the beginnings of Post-modernisn in design.



Experimental kitsch design.

The designers creating concept objects for Studio Alchymia looked at kitsch (low brow/bad taste) in search of new, more relevant, forms of expression in design. Colour and pattern were seen as things Modernism had largely neglected.


"Proust" Chair designed in 1978 by Alessandro Mendini for Studio Alchymia.


"Kandissy" (Kandinsky) Sofa by Alessandro Mendini and “Le Strutture Tremano” (The Structure Trembles) table by Ettore Sottsass -- both designed in 1979 for Studio Alchymia.




1980s New Design (Italian "New Wave" Design)

Despite all the great success of Italian design, ironically, some designers felt the Italian design industry was becoming far too restrictive. The big manufacturers were delighted that Italian Modern design was internationally regarded as the "best" and most "tasteful". High quality Italian design started to become more and more dictated by what manufacturers felt was "safe" and salable -- products that adhered to an accepted Italian style and sold well on the international market. Materials like glass, marble, brushed steel, clean forms, fine leather, high-tech style -- these were the hallmarks of "good" Italian design.

Unsurprisingly, some designers were becoming increasingly unhappy with this situation, they wanted design that reflected youth culture and the real world. The 1970s in Europe was a time of radicalism and protests, the youth were far more cynical of the world than their parents had been ...and this tasteful Italian "glass, chrome, beige leather, and marble" style seemed completely out of step with the world. They felt that the role of the designer had been reduced to creating attractive consumer products which appealed to the conservative tastes of the upper-middle classes. They wanted product design to be reinvigorated with the excitement of popular culture, they wanted design to be liberated from the constraints of accepted notions of good and bad taste. They wanted design that didn't take itself so seriously ...and wasn't so obsessed with function, innovation, reliability, ideology, intellectualism, and longevity -- in short, the anathema to everything Italian design had come to represent. They wanted design to be radical and exciting, bizarre, ridiculous, colourful and expressive -- a design that was about life and everyday living ...rather than academic ideals of architecture and design.

Memphis Milano

On the 18th of September 1981, the design gallery Arc ’74 (now called Design Gallery Milano) opened an exhibition of furniture objects designed by some of Italy's leading designers. The central figure of the group was Ettore Sottass, who was 67 years old. The collection of furniture objects was called "Memphis" -- apparently the name was taken from the title of a Bob Dylan song the group were listening to on the radio during one of their meetings.

There had been much hype prior to the exhibition so there was a lot anticipation surrounding the whole event ....and many of Milan's most important designers and company representatives were there along with the Media and passers by who got caught up in the commotion. It is a small gallery so the crowd was spilling into the street.

The furniture objects inside were the result of many of the ideas generated at Studio Alchymia -- they were more refined and commercial versions of what Sottsass, Mendini, Branzi, and others had been experimenting with for a few years prior (Mendini was not initially involved with Memphis though). The furniture was brightly coloured and with bold contrasting patterns. They were inspired by Rock music, cartoons, Pop Art, Hollywood, fast-food, toys, urban street culture, kitsch. The materials were diverse and juxtaposing: wood, plastic, glass, silver -- a deliberate desire to create "Hybrid-objects" of high and low culture -- objects which expressed the fast-paced lifestyles of the early 1980s -- they were intended to be fleeting objects of their time and place -- not Utopian or timeless like ...say, a Barcelona chair.

The Memphis Milano designers sitting in one of the furniture objects for the first 1981 collection ... a seating object/Tawaraya boxing ring designed by the Japanese architect Masanori Umeda


Some of the objects designed by the Memphis Group in the 1980s.


















































Memphis was an immediate success with the younger designers -- they felt liberated by what it represented -- more freedom to be creative and expressive. However, there were also many older designers who did not like it at all ....considerring it a farce ...and an insult to everything the Italian design industry was built on ....even a threat to Italy's design reputation.

Memphis Milano was extremely influential right throughout the 1980s, it was a turning point in design history -- it was a small part of a greater movement, but it changed Italian design forever.

Rob

Contemporary
British
Design:

Lord Norman Foster is a true giant of world architecture. Foster + Partners has been responsible for several of the most high profile projects around the world over the past 20 years.

British Museum redevelopment, London


Reichstag redevelopment, Berlin (German Parliament building)


A900 Chair designed by Norman Foster






Nomos table designed in 1986 by Norman Foster


"Three sixty" task light designed by Norman Foster


James Irvine:

Vitamin Bar






Mercedes-Benz city bus for the German city of Hannover


Public seating


"Radar" armchair and footstool


S 5000 Sofa


Pens (below) and "Hold it" (right)


Jasper Morrison:

"Luxmaster" light


"Air" table and chair


"Hi Pad" chair


"Porcini" lights



"Low Pad" chair


"Lima" chair


Electric kettle


"Glo-Ball" lights




"XX" file system






TOM DIXON:

A selection of objects designed by Tom Dixon














Ross Lovegrove:

"Supernatural" chair


A chair made from injection-molded magnesium.


An interior with a staircase inspire by a strand of DNA


A chair with a light


Wireless lights


"The Land of Lu"


Table


Outdoor furniture


Amanda Levete
(Future Systems):

Amanda Levente is one of the key architects in the London based architectural and design practice Future Systems.

Selfridges department store in Birmingham, United Kingdom.


"Glide" table


"Drift" furniture object


"Drift in, Drift out" furniture object


Zaha Hadid:

Room with "Vortex" ceiling light




Exhibition


"Crest" furniture object


"Gyre" Furniture object


"Serif" wall furniture object


"Swash" furniture object


"Swarm" suspended lighting object


Sterling silver tea and coffee tower




Ron Arad:
"Misfit" seating system


Chair


Swarovski crystal chandelier which displays text messages

Chair


"Bodyguards" collection Milan 2007