It no longer cuts it just to have beautiful looking home bedding. Not since Montreal designer Janna Notkin set the bar at such dizzying ethical heights. Her exquisite range of cushions and blankets — the result of five years of research and development — are made from the finest sustainable fibers on the planet and — get this — will biodegrade in a composter in one year.
In a search effort that would put American Idol to shame, Notkin spent two years scouring the globe before deciding upon “Climatex Lifecycle yarns and felt from Switzerland (free of toxic chemicals and hazardous by-products), organic cotton and Kapok, a fibre from the Rainforest in Malaysia.” Development of the chemical-free dyes took another five, but it was well worth it for a designer who believes “good design must incorporate sustainability”. The truly beautifully and utterly unique knitted cushions come in an array of eye catching designs, while the waffle-weave blankets offer a great excuse to stay in bed all weekend.
It’s no wonder Looolo Textiles have been featured in “fashion-forward magazines like Lucky, Domino and Elle.”
And then there’s the name. Those of you skilled at cracking codes may have already deciphered that Looolo is a typographical representation of 100 percent — symbolizing their commitment to wholly organic design with a minimal environmental footprint. Although Looolo’s home wares boast biodegrade properties, you’d have to be 100 percent nuts to throw these cozy items away.
Perched atop the bluffs of LA’s exclusive Pacific Palisades, the Vicino House is more than just a home; it’s an experience. Designer Timothy McCarthy of the Forma Design Group and Owner / Developer Michael Gottlieb made it their mission to create a home that would evoke the feeling of being in a high-end spa. They succeeded. Visiting the Vicino House, I almost expected to be handed a white fluffy robe and some cucumber water.
The epitome of sustainable living and luxury design, the Vicino House was recently awarded LEED Platinum certification. A modern marvel of steel, glass and wood — one of the homes most striking features is the 180-degree view of the Pacific Ocean — which can be enjoyed from almost every room in the house and many of the sun soaked outdoor decks.
Yes, it’s that time again. Time to head out with your love ones and buy all that new Christmas stuff. New LED christmas lights, a fake or real Christmas tree, stockings, fake snow and so on. It is exhausting to even think about.
I was unlucky enough to be at Target, a place I never go to. If that wasn’t bad enough, I found myself in the middle of a Christmas explosion. Christmas everything, they had Chinese cheap o stringed lights for $4, fake trees, ornaments, stockings, fake snow, fake snowflake sparkly ornaments and on and on, you get the picture. As it happens, I wasn’t alone either, I was with my very beautiful and sophisticated girlfriend, who upon laying her eyes on this mega find of Christmas bonanza, transformed into a 5 year old girl, touching and wanting nearly everything. Lucky we made it out of there without buying one of those fake trees, because, this decal idea is looking pretty good. No need to have a decaying fire hazard sitting in the living room, when you can have something as stylish as a vinyl wall tree decal… right?
All the rage in… tiny apartments everywhere, Christmas Tree Wall Decals. The decals are made from self stick vinyl and they come in all kinds of cool modern design. Way cooler than the same old live tree thing everyone does. This is original, fun and yes can be peeled off and used again next year.
Everyone knows space in Tokyo Japan is a rare thing and when you find a little, you don’t dare waste any of it. Space was obviously one of the inspirations for Architect Klein Dytham when he designed his Undercover Lab. A floating black box which seems to hover over the back alleys of Tokyo.
Undercover Lab is a building, which is undercover. Not only is it tucked away in the back streets of Harajuku but the site is also very deceiving. A 10m long narrow driveway leads to a 12m x 12m site at the rear.
The building houses a studio, press showroom, and office. A 20m long hanger rail to show the entire collection of one season was required. This is housed in a black tube running along the only 20m straight line on the site, which extends out over the entrance driveway. This cantilevered tube extends the building’s influence to the main street in a strong but stealth way.
The tube was made to look as anonymous as possible, almost like a shipping container where you have no idea of its contents. The tube also conjures up images of telescopes etc, which give the building a mysterious feel _ nobody knowing what quite is going on inside. So much so that some people may feel intimidated just walking under the tube if they are unannounced.
If your a treehugging hemp wearing greeny, you should be cave shopping right now. Forget about living in the typical stick built boxes, all the drones call home. The greenest houses on the planet are caves, ask any bat. No insulation needed, earth quake proof, extremely low energy bills, and oh so quite. But, no one but a nut wants to actually live in a cave, right. I mean you would have to be just a little off, like one of those people who actually think doing their business in a bucket is progressive. For us Monkies, we love the bonus sides of cave living and hate the down sides. The no style, no light, drippy ceilings, no right angles and bat guano. But if you could combine the cave DNA with modern architecture, we monkies would be all over it. That is exactly what the architecture firm Productora has done with their House in Chihuahua.
By Productora: The House in Chihuahua is part of a golf club community in the desert like northern region of Mexico. The dwelling was designed to accommodate the special climatic circumstances of the area, since the differences between day time and night time temperatures can vary by as much as twenty degrees. To balance these extreme temperature differences, we partially buried the house into the mountain slope to take advantage of the soil’s thermal mass.
Dwell in a minimalist modernist new house designed by Replinger Hossner Architects. Uncompromising design, masterly attention to detail and total livability. Kitchen with Bosch and Bertazoni designed for entertaining. Floor to ceiling commercial quality windows with views of West Seattle Golf Course, Elliot Bay and the Seattle skyline. Custom VG Fir built in cabinetry. Dynamic steel, glass and ebonized oak stair system. State of the art systems and green without green washing.
Looking to spend a few winter weeks in the Swiss Alps skiing, eating, hot tubing and oh yeah, living underground? Fantastic, I just found the place for you. An ultra modern designers military bunker wet dream of a villa which sleeps 10 hmm un-comfortably. Yes, the Villa Vals has opened up their hill for you by designing a very eco-earthen dwelling, with all kidding aside, isn’t to bad. I love the circle entrance, but it’s just the concrete cold hard interiors which are throw me.
The location couldn’t be more stunning, why design something with such hard interiors? Couldn’t the designers some how bring in the coziness of nature or at least make it feel open and spacious? Some of these photos remind me of a hip MTV style Juvi Center. I am just saying. Would you fork over $4000 a week to live a Swiss underground bunker? Is it just me?
Maybe in person it has that seemingly missing homy feeling and for some reason the photos just can’t represent it accurately. If any of you flesh monkies out there in “G” land end up doing time here, please share your thoughts and experiences. Oh and photos if you got them. Also, let us know if you spent some time in the Third Reich, which might explain your preference for this underground kind of thing.
The dutch house was designed by Bjarne Mastenbroek and Christian Müller, respectively of the architectural offices SeARCH and CMA. Lots of photos after the jump.
A while back we featured a small but well designed house in Houston Texas of all places, made out of mostly shipping containers. This version of a container house was different that most because it actually feels good. I don’t know what I mean by that other than a lot of container house are how do you say… hard, bare… build without design in mind. I mean the images of this place stand up to any well designed home and I am sure that is what the Dwell Magazine editors saw too and decided not only to do a story but to feature this special home on the cover (featured story on dwell.com).
Yes, the magazine issue came out back in 2009 but I just saw it. I know sad. But better let than never is what I say. So here it is, a little snippet of the dwell article, a few photos and yes a link back to our post On the Cordell Shipping Container House.
This is an Orange Alert for all you West Siders living L.A. The center of our green universe is about to lose it’s anchor. I am talking about Abbot Kinney, and all those greenish businesses which are starting to dominate the street. The anchor company epOxyGreen on the corner of Venice Blvd and Abbot Kinney is pulling up it’s roots and heading North. Well, only a few blocks North, to the traffic chocked artery of Lincoln Blvd. They are moving in with our friends at Sander Architects in the belly of the Orange Office. From the email Catherine sent over, it sounds like they leased the bottom two floors.
epOxyGreen over the last few years has transformed their business to focus on green design and home improvement. opOxyGreen grew out of opOxybOx which is a gallery and event spot. Some time ago, the gallery started filling up with green paints, bamboo floor samples and assorted furnishings. Now with a larger space and a prime location on one of L.A. busiest streets, maybe epOxyGreen is about to transform it’s self once again. Photos after the jump
I love a beautiful G bathroom where I can treat myself to some private, personal, spa- like luxury and nothing would go better in my dream bathroom than designer La Chanh Nguyen’s live Moss Carpet. My feet would feel worshiped if greeted by this beautiful patch of living moss after a nice bath.
The Moss Carpet elegantly lays nature at your feet. There are three types of moss (ball moss, island moss and forest moss) that go in a tray of imputrescible foam called plastazote.The humidity of the bathroom and the drops flowing from the body, water the mosses.
Aside from being gorgeous, practical and eco-friendly, you may also be able to derive some of the health benefits that studies have shown that walking barefoot on grass can have such as strengthening your immune system, improving circulation and lowering the risks of health problems such as arthritis.
But I mostly want one because it is incredibly cool.
Would you go to a hotel which has no rooms? A hotel designed using only 4 colors? A hotel which stacks it guest into pods to sleep for no more than 9 hours. If you have said yes to all the above, welcome to Hotel 9h Tokyo Japan
A home designed to live on the edge, literally. This house by Porto-based Correia/Ragazzi Aquitectos sits on the edge of many things. Edge of design, edge of a cliff and within the borders of a very special national park.
The owners, Mica and Eduardo Pinto Ferreira, have been Correia’s clients for more than a decade, and gave her carte blanche to create their dream house on the 5,000 square-meter site by the Cevado river – as long as no trees were cut and the 60 square-meter house (maximum allowed footprint for the site) was made of concrete. The house is located in Peneda-Geras National Park, along the Spanish border in northern Portugal, so the environment and its inviolability were crucial and the rules strict.
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