In a Better World, Every Cubicle Would Be This Stylish and Sound-Absorbent
Photos by Johan Kauppi via Design Boom
A possible solution to the noisy open office has arrived, in the form of sleek, sound-reducing box furniture. Designers Johan Kauppi and Bertil Harström of Glimakra created their new line to help such workspaces "achieve a functional room acoustic environment," according to Design Boom. Their system of sound absorbing furniture is called the Sabine collection, after physicist Wallace Clement Sabine, who is credited with founding the field of architectural acoustics.
A Carbon-Positive Prefab Pops Up in Melbourne
There are plenty of efficient prefab home designs out there, but this latest from ArchiBlox is reportedly Australia's first, and according to Dwell, the world's first carbon-positive prefab. Not only is it efficient, but it's also pretty cool looking.
'Ultra-Luxury Treehouse' Outside Nashville Asks $3.5M
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Price: $3,500,000
This 8,120-square-foot modern mansion with a cantilevered prow was built to the specifications of the late Marvin Runyon, a Tennessee business exec who served as U.S. Postmaster General from 1992 to 1998, and according to a short item in Luxury Portfolio International, those specifications were exact. Ms. Atkinson tells the author "it must have taken the mason six tries to stack the stones in a pattern that was just right." So interested parties can be assured that these limestone walls weren't haphazardly dry-stacked.
Price: $3,500,000
This 8,120-square-foot modern mansion with a cantilevered prow was built to the specifications of the late Marvin Runyon, a Tennessee business exec who served as U.S. Postmaster General from 1992 to 1998, and according to a short item in Luxury Portfolio International, those specifications were exact. Ms. Atkinson tells the author "it must have taken the mason six tries to stack the stones in a pattern that was just right." So interested parties can be assured that these limestone walls weren't haphazardly dry-stacked.
Sink or Swim in Google's New Spa-Themed Office in Budapest
All photos by Attila Balázs via Behance
Google's notoriously quirky approach to office design has taken an intensely aquatic turn in Budapest, Hungary. While the newly-completed interiors of the tech giant's Budapest outpost lacks, say, the strange orange groves or Smurf-blue carwash brushes found in some other global locations, local firm Graphasel Design Studio makes it up with a hard-core spa theme, inspired by some 500 springs found in the Hungarian capital.
Caviar Warehouse Reborn as a Loft with a Killer Skylight
Photo by Albert Vecerka courtesy of Andrew Franz Architect
The six-story landmarked building in New York's Tribeca neighborhood once served as a warehouse for caviar and soap, complete with brick walls, 16-foot-high beamed ceilings, and clanking freight elevators. The 1884 Romanesque revival building just received a full-scale renovation by the New York firm of Andrew Franz, with elegant steel, glass, tile, and lacquer sections added to the historic shell. The top two floors, once dim and poorly ventilated, now contain a striking open-plan residence with a 150-square-foot retractable skylight that fills the home with natural light. The transition between indoor and outdoor space is rather fluid, with an inverted courtyard down below connecting to a green roof garden up above.
Remixing the Trippy Work of Britain's Prankster Architects
Sint Lucas (2006), Boxtel, Netherlands—Photo via FAT
Over the last 20 years, British architecture collective FAT (that's Fashion Architecture Taste) has caused plenty of merry mischief with their provocative postmodern buildings that tout bright colors and cartoon-like forms. Though the group announced plans to disband a year ago, the three co-founders still stuck together to teach a design class at Yale School of Architecture last fall. For one assignment in the class, students were tasked with "critiquing" some of FAT's most essential works by drawing them in the style of other architects and artists, such as Zaha Hadid and Theo van Doesburg.
Do Watch Your Step on This Loopy, Seussian 'Balcony'
Photos via Archinect
Some days, the view from the office window inspires thoughts of pastoral escape. For the designers of Poland's Zalewski Architecture Group the view inspired something a bit different—a floating, grass-covered "Walk-On" balcony.
Peter Zumthor Designs a Spectacular Rest Stop in Norway
All photos by Arne Espeland via Design Boom
Back in the late 19th century, the Allmannajuvet canyon in Norway was a zinc-mining hub that employed a large portion of a nearby village. Zinc ore stopped being extracted in 1899, and the area's mineral history was largely forgotten. But fresh off his tar-pit-inspiredredesign of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and his sexy minimalist pavilion for London's Serpentine Gallery, the Swiss architect and 2009 Pritzker winner Peter Zumthor set his sights on creating a small zinc museum in this remote part of Norway.
Michelle Obama Modernizes a Fusty White House Dining Room
Photo by Amanda Lucidon courtesy of White House Photo
After six years in the White House, Michelle Obama has finally embarked on a major redecorating project for the late 18th-century neoclassical mansion on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The First Lady decided to set a striking, contemporary tone for the Old Family Dining Room, a small room for private events that is adjacent to the official State Dining Room. The room, which was previously furnished with Kennedy-era antiques and painted yellow, now has gray walls hung with bold modern artworks by Robert Rauschenberg, Josef Albers, Anni Albers, and Alma Thomas, whose 1966 painting "Resurrection" is the first work by an African-American woman to be incorporated into the White House's permanent collection. Ms. Obama also added burgundy window treatments and bronze sconces.
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Behold the Most Spectacular Aerial Shots of Las Vegas Yet
Photo by Vincent Laforet via Sploid
Vincent Laforet, the Pulitzer-winning photographer who recently shared some breathtaking aerial shots of New York City taken from 7,500 feet up in the air, has flown even higher to capture the desert city of Las Vegas. This new collection of photos, called "Sin City 10.8K," was taken at an unprecedented elevation of 10,800 feet, using cameras that only very recently gained the capacity to process this type of night-time aerial shot.
A Short History of Tall Buildings in 'New Yorker' Cartoons
Screengrabs via New Yorker
"It really took my breath away, but a kind security guard retrieved it," jokes New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff about walking up to the magazine's new home. As spotted by Architizer, in a new episode of The Cartoon Lounge, Mankoff commemorates Condé Nast's move to One World Trade by taking a look at how New Yorker cartoonists made fun of skyscrapers in the 1920s, when New York "went up because it couldn't really go out."
Some Mad, Enterprising Genius Designed an Upscale Ikea Bag
Photos courtesy Herman Cph
A visit to IKEA is a source of great pleasure or great anguish, both made possible by the FRAKTA, that huge trash-bin blue tote bag. Though it's not much of a looker, it has a max load of 55 pounds (bigger and sturdier than your average tote) and has a lot of uses in the world beyond Ikea's shelves and showrooms. In a kind of surprising move, Copenhagen studio Herman Cph recognized that functionality and gave it a much appreciated redesign.
Smallpox-Vaccine Wallpaper is a Real Conversation Starter
Print by Vik Muniz via Wired
Here's a place we didn't expect the vaccine debate to take us: Bill and Melinda Gates recently launched a project called "The Art of Saving a Life," inviting over 30 world-renown artists to demonstrate how "vaccines continue to positively change the course of history." One of these commissioned works, Brazilian artist Vik Muniz's "Flowers," looks like it could make some fancy floral wallpaper. When zoomed-in, however, the print reveals itself to be an intricate composition of tiny liver cells that have been infected with a smallpox vaccine virus.
20 Photos That Capture New York City's Free-Spirited Seventies
Welcome to In Focus, a feature where writer Hannah Frishberg profiles some of the great street photographers of New York City's past and present.
[Central Park, Couple Kissing, NYC, 1972. All photos courtesy of the Sasha Wolf Gallery.]
Brooklyn-based photographer and ex-painter Paul McDonough is a New Hampshire native, but he's lived in New York for the past 40 years. He teaches at the Pratt Institute and considers the street his studio. "There are no pictures out there," he says, "only events that could lead to possible pictures." Humble McDonough considers himself "just another tourist," albeit one whose work is in the MoMA's collections. Below, he speaks candidly about his career, technique, and chronicling a changing city. Plus, he shares a selection of 20 favorites—offering insight into how many of the compositions came together.
Sliding Metal Panels Make for a Super-Adaptable Workspace
Photos courtesy LIKEarchitects
Porto-based LIKEarchitects have added another one to the budding cannon of transformable offices with the space they created for the Porto, Portugal headquarters of IT company Kinematix, designed to enable "multi-use scenarios." The idea seems to be: why have a play room or a gym where you work, when your entire workspace can become a playroom or a gym?
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