Frank Lloyd Wright is generally considered to have been an arrogant, irascible curmudgeon, whose voracious egotism was and remains legendary. But he could be a gingerly grandfather as well. Case in point, the Jim Berger doghouse. As Architects & Artisans reports, Wright designed the canis domus in 1956, after the 12-year old project’s namesake wrote the famous architect asking if he would fashion a house for the Berger family’s then 4-year old black Lab, Eddie. The boy, who specified in his letter that he would cover the expenses of the plans and materials with wages he earned from his bike route, wrote to Wright in June of 1956, saying that he “would appreciate it if you [Wright] would design me a dog house, which would be easy to build, but would go with our house.”
Could your day use an extra dose of punk rock? (Note: The answer to this question is always “yes.”) If so, you’ll want to check out Teenage Wasteland, Berlin-based designer/illustrator Niklas Coskan’s fun collection of teen-outlaw character drawings. Each image features a cigarette-smoking, occasionally weapon-wielding juvenile delinquent uttering classic punk lyrics, from the Runaways fan singing, “Hey boy, you’re my good time” to the Bowie T-shirt-clad gent surrounded by Iggy Pop’s immortal words, “No fun.” Check out Teenage Wasteland after the jump, and then visit Coskan’s website to see more of his work.
The 1970s was an exciting time in the world of design. Architects and engineers were competing to build the tallest building in the world. Buckminster Fuller perfected “Spaceship Earth.” Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers “turned the architecture world upside down” with the inside-out Centre George Pompidou in Paris. And as we discovered via our favorite passport to another time, Retronaut, Graystone Press published a massive, eighteen volume anthology known as The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement. Arranged alphabetically by topic, the books cover everything from “how to select chairs that are comfortable and durable” to “how to arrange collections to create focus and visual rhythms” to “why the ancients used color.”
We were so inspired by the quirky range of entries that we had to make our own abridged version of our new favorite design reference. Let us know in the comments what has you wanting to invest in some avocado green accent pieces or give couching a whirl.
Since launching back in 2000 with Zaha Hadid, the Serpentine Gallery’s annual pavilion series has featured work by some of the most noted architects in the industry — from Oscar Niemeyer to SANAA. Today it was announced that controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will be reteaming with the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron (his collaborators on the iconic “Bird’s Nest” stadium in Beijing, pictured here) to create this year’s temporary structure. What can we expect to see in Hyde Park? Their vision calls for “a bowl-shaped auditorium carved into the earth and protected by a flat, circular steel roof raised five feet above ground level.” Supporting that roof will be “columns that thematically echo the designs of the previous eleven pavilions,” as well as a “wild card” column reflecting their own contribution.
“As we dig down into the earth we encounter a diversity of constructed realities such as telephone cables and former foundations,” the trio said in a cryptic statement. “Like a team of archaeologists, we identify these physical fragments as remains of the eleven Pavilions built between 2000 and 2011.” Look for the finished product to open to the public in June, when the Serpentine Gallery will host a major exhibition of Yoko Ono’s work. [via ArtsBeat]
Editor’s note: Welcome to Dear Costume Department, a bi-weekly feature brought to you by our fashion-minded friends from Of a Kind, a curated shopping site of limited-edition goods by emerging designers. With each installment, they’ll bring you a head-to-toe look inspired by a buzzed-about pop culture personality — complete with info on where to grab the pieces for your own closet. Enjoy!
It’s hard not to get excited about a new Paul Rudd movie — even when the dude is playing opposite of Jennifer Aniston. In his latest — directed by David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer! Role Models!) and produced by Judd Apatow (every man-child comedy ever!) — Rudd’s character George trades life as a Manhattan power player for some time at a hippy-dippy commune that they thought was a B&B. Fingers crossed, laughs ensue. Here are our suggestions for what he should put on when he opts to wear clothes at all.
A quick perusal of the latest Tumblr to poke fun at the lifestyles of those for whom design is within reach — F*** Your Noguchi Coffee Table — has us wondering, when exactly does a trend become a cliché? When does something that we once deemed original and inspiring become tired and absurd? Is mainstream appeal the death of design?
Salvador Dalí offers a few thoughts on the subject in the preface to Pierre Cabanne’s Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp. Dalí says, “the first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.” It’s a statement that speaks as much to originality and authorship as it does to poetic license and a knock-off’s taboo.
We might not know all of the answers to our existential musings, but we do know that we love the guilty indulgence of quietly judging the interiors and objects dominating our Pinterest page. Click through to see our own collection of design to uninspire, along with a few favorites from the Tumblr that started it all. Leave your own nominations in the comments.
Back when you were a kid, picking out Valentines was a much simpler task. Now that we’re all older — and in many cases, selecting a card for a very special person, as opposed to an entire classroom full of people who, let’s be honest, really only cared about the candy — finding the right one can prove tricky. To make things easier, we’ve rounded up 20 solid options for you after the jump. While the sentiments they convey run the gamut from “you’re my best friend forever” to “I love you even more than my iPhone,” these tiny missives have one thing in common — they’re all incredibly adorable.
We’re always fascinated by the way advertising and product design has evolved over the years, so we were excited to see this roundup of cereal box evolution over at Retronaut. Like so many other design aesthetics, cereal boxes have gotten smoother, more “3-d” and more, well, ecstatic across the board — characters who used to smile contentedly now invariably have their mouths wide open in wild excitement at the sugary flakes they are about to consume. The colors have become garishly bright (though in some cases, we admit, more appealing), and everything is just so much shinier. To us, the character development is the most interesting — we love seeing the 1950′s Tony the Tiger, who has morphed from a friendly-looking, almost shy cat into a striped pseud0-bodybuilder. Click through to see a few of our favorites, and then be sure to head over to Retronaut for even more.
Editor’s note: Welcome to The Fug Report! Each week our fashion blogger friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the sartorial geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself, will feature some of the most memorable looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!
