Trend of the Week: Cindy’s in Love With… the Shape of Things
Curves are in these days, but consider straight lines too! In fact, technology is allowing you to create all the complex shapes that spring from your imagination (think 3-D printed), and even just fun ones—like building blocks as an office too, or 272 3-D curvy fins on a commercial building exterior, and a blob-shaped chair—the design industry is crazy about all the possible options! For more, head to my instagram, @thecindygram, and go forth and DESIGN!
1. X-MARKS-THE-SPOT: And what a splendid spot this is…welcome to the Mar Adentro Hotel and Residences in San José del Cabo, Mexico, designed by the multi-talented Miguel Angel Aragones of Taller Aragones. Water encircles and unifies everything, and the result is breathtaking! The minimal buildings, custom-furnished by Poliform, and a nestlike restaurant pavilion woven from tree branches whisk you away! Aaaahhhhh… Photography by Joe Fletcher.
2. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX… But work inside it! Bicoastal firm FreelandBuck renovated the L.A. headquarters for film production company Hungry Man in a mid-century warehouse. The firm created a series of room-sized boxes made with MDF surfaces incised with CNC-cut drawings to not only reconfigure private and shared workspaces, but also keep the space lighthearted and playful. Life-sized building blocks! Photography by Eric Staudenmaier.
3. SPINAL TAP: Bravo to Belzberg Architects for always pushing the boundaries, this time with Threads—the first of a series of low-rise commercial office buildings in Mexico City. Using digital design tools and fabrication techniques, and amazing collaboration with their interdisciplinary team, they designed 272 unique, three dimensionally curving aluminum fins that attach to the glazing and concrete slabs, creating unique spatial opportunities like deep balconies and interior alcoves, varying floor to floor. Photography by Roland Halbe.
4. ROOOXANNE!: An homage to the famous Police song, the Roxanne chair by Michael Young for Gufram is an organic-blob-like chair that uses polyurethane foam and shapes it in a perfect homage to the Italian discos of the swinging Seventies. The unusually shaped foam, mixed with its bright and evocative colors, takes you back in time and makes you wanna groove, baby!
5. SPREADING OUT: This Best of Year 2012 Arts winner, Espacio Fundación Telefónica gallery in Madrid by Moneo Brock and Quanto Arquitectura, twists and winds around an elegant helical staircase in Cor-Ten steel, creating an almost sea-creature with a tentacle-like appearance as you head up the atrium. The materials used in the adaptive reuse of this 1929 building were all chosen to complement and play off the art within, like Joan Miró, Eduardo Chillida, cubist works, and contemporary installations. Photography by Luis Asin and courtesy of Moneo Brock.
