Interior Design articles from February 2006

Interior Design archives from February 2006

Catch these events in March and April.(update)
February 1, 2006... 1. "Barnaby Hosking/Matrix 155," opening at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, focuses on a 2004 graduate of London's Royal College of Art. For Reclining Figure, 2005, the young multimedia artist drew a model's figure in chalk,...

Suddenly Sottsass.(news desk)
February 1, 2006... From architecture to furniture, household items, and office equipment, this design legend has done it all, winning two Compasso d'Oro awards to prove it. Still, despite international fame, his work has never been the focus of a solo museum...

Go West.(news desk)
February 1, 2006... With a slew of events and resources--plus all that product--the two-day-tong NeoCon West trade show at the LA. Mart kicks off L.A. Designweek. The stellar lineup of keynote speakers at the show includes Office for Metropolitan Architecture...

Blue and green.(news desk)
February 1, 2006... At the Largest sustainably minded resort in Mexico's Baja California, snowbirds will be walking-distance from the Sea of Cortez and surrounded by ecologically innovative architecture and 5,000 acres of nature preserve. The $3 billion project,...

In the hot seat.(news desk)
February 1, 2006... Apology time! The 2005 Future Furniture contest coverage in our October issue omitted Barrett Studios, which won for a series of cleverly punning benches named We've. Inspired by the way that windblown reeds weave together, protruding from the...

Group effort.(news desk)
February 1, 2006... Antiques shops tend to cluster in New York. (East 60th and Duane Streets come to mind.) Still, when the snow is fatting and the wind is howling, that's not quite the same as browsing under one roof. So Center44 on East 44th Street is stepping...

Maria, full of grace.(news desk)
February 1, 2006... As art galleries continue to jump on the design bandwagon, New York's Lehmann Maupin is collaborating with Demisch Danant to present "Maria Pergay: New Work" at both venues. The 15 pieces prove that this Parisian designer hasn't lost her touch...

Telfair so fair.(news bites)
February 1, 2006... After unveiling New England's Peabody Essex Museum, Moshe Safdie and Associates headed south to Savannah, Georgia. The firm's 64,000-square-foot addition to the Telfair Museum of Art comprises two volumes clad in white Portuguese limestone and...

Tom Dixon and friends.(news bites)
February 1, 2006... London's Design Museum has announced its shortlist for the 2006 Designer of the Year. The museum is exhibiting work by all the nominees: industrial designer Tom Dixon, Architecture for Humanity cofounder Cameron Sinclair, the Guardian...

Made for walking.(news bites)
February 1, 2006... Athletic-shoe company Converse has teamed up with textile designer Lucienne Day, whose 1954 pattern Trio appears this month on Limited-edition Jack Purcell sneakers--winners in their own right. Look for them in green, yellow, and red...

Bauhaus and beyond.(news bites)
February 1, 2006... Josef Albers and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy followed parallel paths through 20th-century art and design. The pioneers moved toward abstraction after World War I, taught at the Bauhaus, and eventually emigrated. "Albers and Moholy-Nagy: From the Bauhaus...

Architects rising.(news bites)
February 1, 2006... Xefirotarch, the MoMA/P.S.1 Young Architects Program winner just last year, already has a solo museum exhibition. Opening March 31 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, "Xefirotarch/Design Series 4" will display the multidisciplinary...

Snuggle up: tactile textiles embrace the winter chill.(pin ups)
February 1, 2006... 1. Cambon cotton-viscose blend in 03 by Liberty Furnishings. circle 300 2. Churchill polyamide-cotton blend in brick, orange, purple, and beige by Christopher Hyland. circle 301 3. Volterra cotton-viscose blend in 35 by Prismatek. circle 302 4....

Warming trend: what could be toastier than mocha, ocher, and sienna?(pin ups)
February 1, 2006... 1. Pitagora cotton-viscose in 03 by Rubelli. circle 306 2. Kabuki cotton-polyester blend in Beni Rower by Brentano. circle 307 3. Limbo acrylic-polyester blend in Salsa by Architex International. circle 308 4. 8597 silk in Cedar by Flourishes....

Work strong.(walk through)
February 1, 2006... DAVID MECKLEY'S PROJECTS usually start out as a dean plate--on which he serves up furniture, fixtures, and colors to suit a client's taste. But designing the San Francisco office of digital-marketing and interactive-media agency AKQA was not a...

Raising the roof.(walk through)
February 1, 2006... IF YOU'RE TALKING CURB appeal, this ivy-covered Los Angeles house looks like it hasn't been touched since its inauspicious birth in 1950-something. Step inside, though, and Griffin Enright Architects's succinct but dramatic gestures tell a...

High profile.(seating)
February 1, 2006... If a man's home is his castle, Dandy makes a dandy throne. Meritalia's regal chair has a 52-inch-high back and sharp-angled wings to keep courtiers at bay. The cotton-upholstered body rests on aluminum feet. Studious sovereigns will appreciate...

Jiun Ho.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... The Gobbi club chair's deep seat and stout back cushion invite the weary sitter to sink in and relax--while the boldly curving lines beckon the eye to travel. Custom upholstery conceals a walnut frame, resulting in dimensions of 32 inches wide,...

Andre Joyau.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... Who knew that the ascetic life could be so indulgent? The solid-walnut Floating Angle bench has a 3-inch-thick seat that looks like something on which monks from a particularly austere order would sit in moments of contemplation. At 56 inches...

SuperLimao studio.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... This quirky design studio has come up with an unusual rift on recycling chic: tubes made to hold kraft paper have been pressed into service as stools. Take a tube 17 inches across, slice it into segments about 17 3/4 inches long, cut out...

Reveal designs.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... Cutler Anderson Architects designed this chair for an award-winning building near Seattle. Bent-plywood Grace is available in beech, white oak, cherry, and maple veneers, in measurements of 21 inches wide by 20 deep by 34 high. Comfort and...

Eco 21.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... For anyone who has ever yearned for sharp design with a playful edge, behold the Quatro by Jacqueline Terpins. Like something out of the "shapes" corner in preschool, the chair is constructed of four squares of 3/4-inch-thick transparent red or...

Victoria Hagan home.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... Go ahead and admire the graceful lines of the Panther. It won't bite--though the updated cabriole Legs appear ready to leap. Finished in a super-shiny gloss, the chair's mahogany frame is 18 inches wide, 17 deep, and 36 high, with a seat height...

Perobell.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... Tired of boxy sofas? So is Lluis Codina, whose modular Athos isn't realty curvy but isn't all straight lines either. The separate back and seat, attached by internal screws, together measure 28 inches high by 38 deep. The coordinating...

Vivero Oy.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... Lefties, take heart! Oppi, a jaunty design with serious flexibility, has a tablet arm that swings from the right hand to the left. The slim tubular legs come in chrome-finished or powder-coated steel and the back is plywood. Measures 33 inches...

Poltrona Frau.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... X marks the spot for the snappiest director's chair this side of Hollywood. Jean-Marie Massaud's Aster X glamorizes the clean-cut frame with steel arms and legs in a gunmetal finish. The 24-inch-wide seat and back--filled with polyurethane...

Fixtures furniture.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... It may Look Like bent paper dips, but Pulse's welded-steel frame is hardly a craft project. Peter Haas engineered this ergonomic chair to move with the sitter's weight leverage. Plus, the lumbar support panel flexes with the user. Available in...

Neutral posture.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... Available in a wide range of fabrics and leathers, Balance has all the features that an ergonomic task chair should: adjustable back and seat angle, seat tension, and seat height, all on a synchronous knee-tilt mechanism. But here's the...

Tonon.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... Gamma, by Martin Ballendat, dresses up the side chair with a slim, curved plywood back available in beech, cherry, oak, or black-walnut veneers. The seat comes in myriad fabrics and feathers. For the base of chrome-plated steel, choose among...

Bontempi casa.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... Like its namesake, Felix is nothing if not tidy--a wafer-thin chair that stacks neat as a pin, up to three at a time. The methacrylate seat is available in shiny transparent orange or Rouge and sanded blue or green. The frame comes in lacquered...

Odue concepts by Oasis.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... The mod shape of Talya begs to be noticed. One corner of the roomy glass-reinforced plastic seat twists like a link in a paper chain--though Giorgio Gurioli and Marco Maggioni see their design as a life-cycle metaphor. (Don't ask.) The seat...

Muebles Doce.(market: seating)
February 1, 2006... Perched on bent stainless-steel legs, the upholstered seat of Jose Manuel Ferrero's stackable Messo has a custom cover that can be easily removed and changed, making the chair ideal for home and hospitality venues alike. (The manufacturer...

La Belle Ruse.(fabric & wall covering)
February 1, 2006... Silky luster rendered in polyester is the subterfuge behind Fabricut's Ruse pattern. Offered in 37 colorways, this jacquard passes flammability testing and wears to 15,000 rub cycles, an ideal combination for light hospitality use as well as...

Sense of place.(market: fabric)
February 1, 2006... When she was working as a color consultant for Crypton, textile designer Kristie Strasen guided photographer WiLLiam Wegman's gray Weimaraners through design development. At F. Schumacher & Co., she raided the Tatiesin archive to create a...

Designtex.(market: fabric & wall covering)
February 1, 2006... From the Abstract Matters collection, tone-on-tone Astratta owes its glistening, meandering Lines to the granular glass beads on the paper backing. Among the type I wall covering's 12 colorways are Naples Yellow, Raw Sienna, and Flemish White....

Paul Brayton Designs.(market: fabric & wall covering)
February 1, 2006... Judging by their Lighthearted Looks, you might never guess that these textiles are made of steely Crypton. Bubbly Ellipsis is offered in six nature-minded colorways: Pomegranate as well as New Fern, Cool Sage, Clear Blue, Candy Corn, and Fig....

Imagine tile.(market: fabric & wall covering)
February 1, 2006... Simulate the texture of woven natural fibers--on restroom walls. Polynesian ceramic tile, from the Nature series, is finished in either a smooth or an abrasive texture. The tiles are offered in two sizes, 8 and 16 inches square, and two colors,...

Textile arts.(market: fabric & wall covering)
February 1, 2006... Supersize vines, Leaves, berries, and fruit swoop across the cotton sateen surface of Paratiisi, from the Marimekko collection. Pulsating over a yellow, orange, red, blue, aqua, or natural ground, this large-scale botanical print is ideal for...

Lee jofa.(market: fabric & wall covering)
February 1, 2006... Patterns and colors have always announced the work of William Diamond and Anthony Baratta--though their second collaboration with this manufacturer is relatively subdued. The 25-piece trove features cotton-linen Bazaar in blue and taupe,...

Creation Baumann.(market: fabric)
February 1, 2006... Based on air, water, earth, and fire, the Elements collection comprises delicate Lines, masterful stitches, and thick weaves. Luana, a sheer Linen, is offered in three colorways, polyester-viscose Valerie in eight, and cotton-polyester blend...

Silver state fabrics.(market: fabric)
February 1, 2006... These full-bodied fabrics from the Modern Elegance collection take their cues from geography. Made of solution-dyed acrylic, Venezia damask features large-scale scrolling Leaves in five colorways, including Rosewood; San Marco's coordinating...

Greeff.(market: fabric)
February 1, 2006... Textiles take flight with Quail. Meadow. Inspired by classic English patterns, this printed cotton-linen blend is offered in four seasonal color harmonies. Summer comes alive in green on yellow; Autumn is rendered in earthy red, gold, and...

Keleen leathers.(market: fabric)
February 1, 2006... With the addition of 28 intoxicating Wet Martini colors, this manufacturer now offers a palette that ranges from a bouquet of pinks to a feast of deep browns. Each skin yields 50-odd square feet suitable for both commercial and residential use....

ArcCom fabrics.(market: fabric)
February 1, 2006... Vibrant partners in Zeftron nylon, Tango and Salsa can heat up any hospitality or health-care interior: Inspired by the structured movements of the dance. Tango is a grid filled with regimented circles in eight colorways; the fabric tests to...

Say it with flowers.(furniture)
February 1, 2006... Opulence is the order of the day at Design by Us, thanks to the MDF Variety cabinet's 1960's flower-power chic--mixed with a splash of Goth. The milled-out doors' happy daisy pattern echoes in a lining that combines vintage Technicolor...

Usona Home Furnishings.(market: furniture)
February 1, 2006... Banish clutter with the Maxima wall mounted credenza. Finished in teak, rosewood, wenge, oak, pear, or maple, this minimalist piece has two drawers, plus either four side-hinged doors or two pull-down ones. It measures 94 1/2 inches in width...

David Brunioardi.(market: furniture)
February 1, 2006... Bond Girl-worthy curves and environmental appeal? With surface striations that result from multiple laminations, the Wave cocktail table measures 20 inches wide by 46 long by 15 high. It's part of a collection that also includes a side table...

Sellex.(market: furniture)
February 1, 2006... Get rid of that sardine in a can feeling with this smart idea: Bunk style Murphy beds designed for dorms, hotels, and apartments alike. La Literal twin beds fold against the wall, to which they're attached with steel connectors. Choose among...

Country gear.(market: furniture)
February 1, 2006... Inspired by the changing rhythms of home life--particularly the way one piece of furniture is called on to perform several functions--the Gear Modern buffet has a slightly mission style vibe. Offered in light or dark walnut and custom finishes,...

Moxbox.(market: furniture)
February 1, 2006... Privacy the Ionic screen won't deliver, but it does make a statement. Studded with oval perforations, the panels come in oak, cherry, Baltic birch, wenge, natural or amber bamboo plywood, and a bio-composite available in myriad lacquer colors....

Gebruder Thonet Vienna.(market: furniture)
February 1, 2006... Silvia Suardi and Sezgin Aksu's slight Butterfly rooks as ethereal as its name. Offered with a top of plastic Laminate--silk-screened orange or white--or plain bleached oak, this tight-as-air table is supported by bent metal Legs 29 inches...

Baker Furniture.(market: furniture)
February 1, 2006... If you haven't yet seen a table as lovely as a tree, set your sights on Bill Sofield's side table. Inspired by Mother Nature but realized in glass and steel, Twig features a 27-inch-high organic base finished in silver and rubbed to a patina....

McGuire.(market: furniture)
February 1, 2006... Intended by designer Robert Kuo to shed Light on Long-ago China, the Toad Skin cabinet incorporates craft techniques that date to the Ming dynasty. The doors are copper re-pousse, decorative relief hammered into sheet metal; the joinery is...

Gallotti & Radice.(market: furniture)
February 1, 2006... The office of the Fortune 500 CEO has taken over the home. Studio GR's President series comprises a work surface and side panels in tempered glass, reinforced by stainless-steel connectors and supports. The mirrored file pedestal, set on...

Porro.(market: furniture)
February 1, 2006... Ferruccio Laviani's TL1 dining table is equal parts minimalist sculpture and engineering feat. The base and 79-inch-long top can be lacquered in a selection of high-gloss colors. 35 Via per Cantu, 22060 Montesolaro, Italy; 39-031-780237;...

Time traveler.(flooring)
February 1, 2006... Here's something brand-new from Beauvais Carpets, a dealer in historically significant antique rugs. Jed Johnson Associates has designed Malachite, an abstract inspired by French modernism and made of gun-tufted wool in Thailand. Personalize...

Brintons.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... Inspired by mid-century patterns, Las Vegas designer Tracy Brookes is betting on Classic Pop, her collection of 12 custom wovens. Scaled for casinos, geometric flew pattern 64091 has a 4-foot repeat that readily translates into subtler shades...

Liselotte Watkins.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... This Swedish fashion illustrator and Wallpaper magazine graduate introduces her bespoke rug Daria. Because its New Zealand wool is loomed by hand, custom colors and sizes are available, albeit with a lead time of approximately 10 weeks. Space...

Liora Manne.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... Kuba mats start as solution dyed acrylic fibers, felled by hand. A thin liquid latex binder is applied; then a robot wielding a water jet cuts the doily-style edges. From neutrals to vibrant blended solids, the finished rugs won't fade indoors...

Martin Patrick Evan.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... For variegated cross-weave Agadir, this manufacturer tufts a blend of cotton chenille and rayon loop pile in a choice of colors. Customize designs for wall-to-wall installations and area rugs suitable for luxe residences or high-powered...

Robyn Cosgrove Rugs.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... Finding the most intriguing ethnic rugs once meant spending more than a little time digging. Among the unusual, colorful pieces stocked by this rug specialist is an old-fashioned Moroccan wool design from her Nomadic collection. 168 Queen...

Tufenkian artisan carpets.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... Kevin Walz celebrates minimalist artist Eva Hesse with the Designers' Reserve collection's Eva H. rug. Hand-knotted in Nepal, the pile mixes Himalayan wool and up to 30 per cent silk. This colorway is Azure; others are Blackstone [dark...

TibetSydney.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... What do you get when an Australian architectural, photographer meets a Tibetan exile with a background in comparative religion? Try Bloom a floral that elaborates and abstracts its motif to mesmerizing, practically transcendental, effect. The...

Designtex.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... Part of the Abstract Matters rug collection, based on art in the collection of the Guggenheim Museums and designed by Loophouse, Radiate interprets Alexander Calder's legacy as decorative swirls on a striped tonal. ground. The 98-by-118-inch...

Garrett Leather.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... With Singapore, from the Natural. Rugs collection, leather borders frame woven strips of bamboo to create durable mats suitable for high-traffic areas. Woven leather, steer hide, and wool, are options, too. (A backing of monk's cloth ensures...

Mohawk Group.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... Forward enough for creative environments but plenty buttoned-down for the boardroom, I-Dot and I-Block are both textured-loop weaves embedded with subtle nondirectional, dot and block patterns. The solution-dyed nylon carpet comes in 10 neutral...

Michaelian & Kohlberg.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... Hibiscus rugs in ivory and heliotrope introduce a naturally dyed strie element to the memory of 1940's bark cloth. To produce the chenille texture, the nubby yarn is spun by hand from unbleached Himalayan wool, then hand-knotted in the...

Mirage.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... Plywood strip flooring veneered in North American maple or red oak now comes in Merlot, a wine-dark stain. The Mirage Engineered Collection's tongue-and-groove strips are 3/8 inch thick, 2 9/16 inches wide, and 13 3/4, to 33 1/8 inches long....

Mannington commercial.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... Like paintings, no two ArtWorks modular carpet tiles turn out exactly alike. Each durable 18-inch square contains 20 percent recycled content--a level that's in line with this manufacturer's intention to take in more waste materials than it...

Peddada.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... With Taupeshape from Raju Peddada's Tex-Mix collection, hand-knotted shag dots and lines, from 5/8 inch to 1 1/2 inches deep, are strewn over a 3/4-inch-deep gun-tufted ground. The rug is made in India from New Zealand wool and comes in a...

Classic Rug collection.(market: flooring)
February 1, 2006... We're definitely not in turn-of the-last-century Vienna or Glasgow. Barbara Barran's handmade wool flat-weave has an Italian name, Intermezzo, and Peruvian manufacturers. The rug is 10 feet square, but custom sizes and colors can be ordered....

Branching out.(lighting)
February 1, 2006... Bare and sculptural as a tree in winter, CPlighting's newGrowth aluminum chandeliers are tipped with glowing halogen buds. Christopher Poehlmann models each custom fixture on a different fallen tree branch, capturing its natural composition....

Andromeda International.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... The Venetian heritage of this manufacturer shines through in Diego Chilo and Fiorenzo Valbonesi's glass Aega floor lamps. Part of the DesignAlive collection, the luminous white, amber, red, blue, and gray fixtures measure 71 inches in height...

Ingo Maurer.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... Originally designed for a Luxembourg bank, the Big Dish pendant has a fiberglass diffuser that's realty a big dish--7 feet 6 inches across--illuminated by 150 watts of metal halide. The halogen floor-lamp version, called Satel.light, is...

Elettrica Rotaliana.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... Multitask with MultiPot, Dante Donegani and Giovanni Lauda's innovative concept combining lighting with came management, a key holder, and several electrical sockets for European-style plugs. Just 4.2 watts of LEDs set the pot alight. 35 Via...

Zuii.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... Marcel Sigel and Alana Di Giacomo twist plastic shopping bags around wire, enhancing the bags' essential took and feel white reaffirming their usefulness--through recycling. Thanks to the draped plastic, light from the experimental Winter...

Fire Farm Lighting.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... Fixtures from Adam Jackson Pollock's Kyoto family sit on tables, mount as sconces, or hang in dusters from his three-pendant chandelier canopies. The pendant's 16-inch tall bronze-finished steel latticework frames a diffuser of flower-petal...

Resolute.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... For a tortoiseshell effect, artisans roll hot glass bubbles in crushed colored glass, a technique that produced Douglas Varey's Jack ceiling fixture. It's available in tortoise or ivory, as are companion versions for walls and floors. 2101...

Bilumen.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... Marco Zotta's shiny chrome or opaque nickel Astrislim is a cosmic spray of low-voltage 20-watt bulbs powered by direct current. (Transformer not included.) Diameters range from 2 feet 1 1/2 inches to 3 feet 11 inches. A. Bianchi, 41 Via...

FontanaArte.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... Two concealed 75-watt halogen bulbs highlight the die-cast, hand-finished aluminum diffuser of the 14-inch-high Mobius sconce by Lanzillo & Martinengo. The mount is brass, the wall bracket pressed steel. 64 North Moore Street, New York, NY...

Murano Designer Lighting.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... The Sole chandelier intersperses 60-watt candelabra-base incandescents with a sunburst of ribbed Murano glass rays, all suspended from wires or a thin tube finished in nickel or gold. Lengths for the rays range from approximately 7 inches to 2...

Barovier&Toso.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... From Forma Veneziana's archival Line, Erfud chandeliers are festooned with cut-crystal drops. The glass arms--six, eight, 12, or 18 of them--come in spun-sugar green, yellow, violet, and red as well as colorless and black versions. Heights...

Modiss Iluminacion.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... Alfonso Fontal says he endowed his Matrioshka floor Lamp with feminine "intimacy"--the name refers to Russian nesting dolls. Available in three sizes, from 16 1/2 to 37 inches tall the fixtures combine a glass globe in white with a glass base...

Artemide.(market: lighting)
February 1, 2006... The Talak collection's fixtures use 13-watt miniature fluorescent tubes and thermoplastic resin diffusers. Tavolo, the table lamp, has a ZAMAC base also covered in thermoplastic resin, while Parete, the wall-mounted model, has a die-cast...