Hat Tip to The Cool Hunters for featuring this magnificent store (VitraHaus) on their blog. Check out the very cool stacked-house style of architects Pierre de Meuron and Jacques Herzog, and reflect on how much more fun it must be to shop in Europe.
Come on in, stay a while, buy some stuff…
Here’s a Russian-doll type of post; a new building in Chicago (urban architecture capitol of the world) that isn’t just a showcase of great design itself, but is also meant as an incubator for design students and their work.
The brand-new Media Production Center at Columbia College Chicago, complete with sound stages, up-to-the-minute editing facilities, and first rate sound and video equipment:
What lies within...
The MPC is just one of about a dozen Columbia College building scattered throughout the south loop of downtown Chicago. Beyond it’s outward beauty, the building is also LEED certified, and has a lovely green roof; as in vegetation grows upon it, creating energy and serving as natural insulation (which the press file has no photograph of, bizarrely).
And they built it just in time for my graduation! In May 2009! Blerg.
If you follow this blog for any length of time, you’ll very soon become acquainted with my extreme obsession with everything Jefferson. There are a lot of things you can say about the man; Great Writer, Great Scientist, Great Inventor, Great Philosopher, Great Statesman, Great President, Great Naturalist, Great Musician, etc. But one thing you can say about him that resonates particularly well with us here at Basis is Great Architect, Great Designer, and Great Decorator. Behold Monticello, the greatest private home built in America. (Note to haterz: I said Fallingwater was the most beautiful, not the greatest).
It took Jefferson decades to build Monticello. He kept changing his plans, re-working them to incorporate new duties, new family, and new architectural models and ideas imported from his travels and extensive reading all over the western world (fun Jefferson fact; Jefferson’s personal library, donated to the government, was the foundation of the Library of Congress. The man was well-read) . He especially loved the dome in conjunction with Georgian symmetry.
He would use the dome again in his design for the world famous Rotunda at the University of Virginia, the “House that Jefferson built.” He also designed the original classrooms, grounds, and housing. The man was a stud.
This is Jefferson’s bedroom. He cut out a space in the wall for his actual bed, neatly bisecting the room into two spheres; his office and living quarters. Visible is his magnificent desk, itself featuring some extremely cool design. (That’s another post. Oh, you think this is all the Jefferson you’re getting this week? Please.)
Another gorgeous room. The furniture, the french doors, the busts and views; really breathtaking in person. A trip to Monticello is never a wasted trip, btw.
Here, finally, an aerial view of this part of the property:
Monticello, a regal and lyrical name, means “Little Mountain” in Italian. The man spoke languages.
Tune in on Monday for more Jefferson fetish objects! See you then! Oh, and just because we’re such pals, here’s some UVA architecture titillation!
We all remember LEGO fortresses, castles, ships, planes trains and automobiles, don’t we? In fact, you may even say that they were the building blocks of many gen-x and y (and millennial) households.
Anyway, for those of you too proud to continue building the ingenious little Star Wars vehicles and rugged desert outposts with 7+ printed on the corner of the box, LEGO has something new, and entirely cool: LEGO architecture.
That’s the Guggenheim, designed by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Here’s the real thing:
Here’s a slightly more accurate, and equally cool, Frank Lloyd Wright piece: Fallingwater, the most beautiful private home anywhere in the world (IMO).
The real deal:
When I say canti, you say levered!
Don’t act like you’re not impressed. In addition to just the building blocks and instructions, LEGO also provides biographical and historical information and booklets on the buildings. And there’s more; for your edification, the long-legged lasses of the LEGO Architecture skyscrapers!
Two of these buildings reside in the world capital of urban architecture, Chicago, Illinois. Or, if you prefer, the Chi.
What I’m saying is, Chicago FTW.
Just to wash the taste of that hat out of our mouths:
Gehry's early sketch for the Walt Disney Concert Hall
And the finished product:
Yep.
It gets better, and more whimsical; here is one of his building in Prague, nick named the Fred and Ginger House after the famous dancing couple.
Going into a swoon.
And the finale:
Stick to building, Frank. You're pretty good at it.
These are some excellent bedroom sets from Presotto Italia, gleaned from the completely absorbing blog of Kanye West.
Members of Broke Phi Broke need not apply.
Some Marvin Gaye, some Luther Vandross, a little Anita...
For when your degrees aren't keeping you warm.
Some Frank Lloyd Wright furniture and interior design from his “prairie style” homes:
A 100 year old design recently uncovered.
Not bad.