This small apartment (45 m2) in Amsterdam, Holland is completely renovated because of foundation repair. In it’s new layout by i29 interior architects all the functions of the house are placed in two wall units. Entrance hall, wardrobe and kitchen equipment are hidden behind a pinewood wall. On the opposite a second wooden wall of the same material is placed. This wall integrated a bench, fireplace and storage. Floor, ceiling and walls are all white. A custom designed table and bench, together with the fireplace are anthracite gray. The simplicity of the design and choice of materials give this apartment lots of space within the limited area.

Photographer Lisa Klappe and spatial artist Joachim van den Hurk detect decay, boredom and slackness in many people. Is that blatant decadence the price we have to pay for prosperity and the so-called individual freedom in which we live?

With the exposition Decadent Pigeons both (together and separate) hold up a mirror to us. From the parallels they discovered between the behavior of pigeons and people they drew the not very roseate conclusion that if we continue this way, we will end up being exactly as those birds, grey shadows, still further removed from out nature, dismally bored and scandalously discontented.

Their works of art are unequivocally blunt and direct. Static portraits, grubby film mountings and living sculptures do confront us with their black humor and their nearly perverse overtones. In that way, they create an ‘unheimisch’ feeling that in itself leads to an immediate reflective mood.

Decadent Pigeons opens September 09, 2010 until September 30, 2010 at Gallery Fort Pienc in Barcelona, Spain. In October 2010 Decadent Pigeons will under proviso move to the former textile factory De Ploeg near Eindhoven, The Netherlands for a special exposition during Eindhoven’s Dutch Design Week.

MOTLEY is a publication created to inspire, to present creative imagery in an innovative and unorthodox way. We have no set production schedule, it is created when the mood feels correct. Each new issue of Motley will be unique in design and feature the work of new and established artists, Worldwide.

The premier issue launched in Summer 2010 and features the work of nine international photographers. To avoid producing a publication with a traditional story layout, we decided to mix the photographers work together and devised a front cover grid system code to determine each photographers images. It was important to us that the images spoke for themselves first rather than be dictated by their creators or credits.

Motley is currently available in Berlin, London, New York and Stockholm.

From 26th August to 23rd November 2010, Didier Fiúza Faustino will present ‘Agnosian Fields’ at Le Forum de la Maison Hermès in Tokyo. The exhibition comprising two new installations as well as previous work indicates the different scales and obsessions that the work of an architect is based upon. The term ‘agnosia’ – the loss of the ability to recognise objects and perceptive amnesia – sums up the state in which the architect wishes the visitor to be immersed. His work, mainly based on putting the body under tension in its environment, leads him to explore the fields of architecture and contemporary art, assuming equally status as artist, designer and architect.

Following the itinerant video projection space ‘H-Box,’ the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, which provides the Forum’s programming, has again invited Didier Fiúza Faustino for an individual exhibition. The Japanese public will be able to discover the immersive micro architecture installation, ‘Erase your Head’ (photo below), for which the English artist Russell Haswell has designed a sound landscape. A second installation produced in partnership with Hiroya Oku, author of the Japanese manga Gantz, will appropriate the piece called ‘Hand Architecture.’

The installation will be completed by the ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ discussion room, whilst three pieces will trace other paths between the body and architecture: the model of an unusual Japanese house, ‘Uncut House,’ ‘The Naked Lunch,’ a confusing object which penetrates domestic space and lastly the new seated prototype of ‘Hermaphrodite,’ which puts its user in an ambiguous position (photo above).

Maison Hermès 8F Le Forum, 5-4-1, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo. Monday to Saturday: 11am to 8pm, Sunday: 11am to 7pm.

Knowledge company Designboost is launching a new quarterly online magazine called BoostReview. The first issue is focusing on Design for Life. It’s not about the design world itself. It’s about how we can shape and design our way of life. The first issue consists of four chapters. Ten filmed interviews with some of the worlds most acknowledged designers, an interview with Ilse Crawford, a visit at the Mind-sets exhibition by Ineke Hans and a brief story about the importance of a holistic mindset when designing.

Another good thing - BoostReview is optimized for both the iPad and the iPhone.

I went with knowledge company Designboost to Milan and made a MiniBoost to explore the personal viewpoint on what Design for life is for some of the worlds most acknowledged designers. The MiniBoost resulted in ten unique interviews with personalities like; Tokujin Yoshioka, Marcel Wanders, Hella Jongerius, Maarten Baas, Christophe Pillet, Nika Zupanc, Edward Barber, Jay Osgerby, Stephen Burks, Jean-Marie Massaud and Arihiro Miyake. All interviews are available at the MiniBoost section of the Designboost web.

The questions asked looked what Design for Life is all about and how we can create better lives for the many. How we plan, produce, deliver and consume everything from cities, transportation and infrastructure to food, entertainment, products and brands. And that we together have a joint responsibility. And that we all can make a difference.

The questions are written by different Boosters at the DesignBoost 2009 key event “Design for life” in Malmö, Sweden.

Biomega renews its curatorial commitment to cherry picking the world’s top designers to design its bicycles. Ross Lovegrove displays his organic essentialist sensibility through his fresh vision of an integrated bicycle. His integrated solutions and groundbreaking design makes the LDN bicycle a true urban tool. While Danish design group KiBiSi stirs things up with an innovative newcomer NYC, following Biomega’s heritage of chainless bikes featuring a belt drive for smooth urban commuting and an integrated mudguard. Biomega once again combines groundbreaking design with strong urban references and technical features to accommodate modern city lifestyle.

The LDN is designed by London based Ross Lovegrove. Its frame is made from carbon fiber sheets formed and layered to make a stiff and lightweight one-piece monocoque structure. LDN’s form is derived from a wishbone, linking all the necessary components of the drive steering and drives systems in the most direct and economical way possible. The hole is there to lighten the bike’s mass and to provide a detail from which to hang the bicycle on the wall, thereby saving space in restricted urban interiors. All moving parts of the bicycle are state-of-the-art selections designed to make LDN a true urban tool.

The NYC takes its cue from the iconic Biomega bicycle CPH, reinvigorating Biomega’s status as a pioneer of chainless bikes - this time with a smooth, quiet carbon fiber belt drive. The NYC’s sleek and no-nonsense look integrates a front mudguard in the aluminum down tube complimenting its aggressive, yet reliable urban driving properties. The NYC is designed by the three creative forces of Danish design group, KiBiSi, with the ambition to create an honest means of transport with the potential of a classic. Biomega dedicates this ultimate bicycle to the ultimate city - NYC.

Bukowskis first autumn sale is a themed auction called Eclectic. The auction contains interior design objects out of the ordinary. The Eclectic auction presents a wide range of objects inspired by the decades around 1900, the golden era of great adventure and when the old world transformed into the new industrialism.

The auction contains unique objects of the world famous Cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Proceeds from the sale will be used to establish the Sven Nykvist Cinematography Institute.

This camera was used by Sven Nykvist, among many films, on the set of Ingmar Bergman’s “Sawdust and Tinsel,” which was filmed at Grand Hotel 1953. Sven Nykvist later on got the camera for his 60th birthday 1982 by Ingmar Bergman.

The first camera that Sven Nykvist obtained.

Participating actors were, among others, Joe Mantegna, Kenneth Branagh and Judy Davis. This was Sven Nykvist last movie.

The first eclectic auction at Bukowskis takes place Berzelii Park 1 in Stockholm on August 24 at 5-8am.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the city of Detroit developed rapidly thanks to the automobile industry. Until the 50’s, its population rose to almost 2 million people. Detroit was the 4th most important city in the United States. It was the dazzling symbol of the American Dream City with its monumental skyscrapers and fancy neighborhoods.

Increasing segregation and deindustrialization caused violent riots in 1967. The white middle-class exodus from the city accelerated and the suburbs grew. Firms and factories began to close or move to lower-wage states. Slowly, but inexorably downtown high-rise buildings emptied. Since the 50’s, “Motor City” lost more than half of its population.

Nowadays, its splendid decaying monuments are, no less than the Pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum of Rome, or the Acropolis in Athens, remnants of the passing of a great civilization.

If you by any chance will pass Stockholm in the next coming weeks you have the possibility to see the exhibition “The Ruins of Detroit” by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre at The Gun Gallery, Runebergsgatan 3, Stockholm. The exhibition opens August 27 and runs until September 19.

Completing its trilogy of housing projects in Oerestad with the same client, BIG + green roof contractor Veg Tech receives the award for 8 House’s 1.700 m2 sloping green roof.
The Scandinavian Green Roof Association based in Malmo, Sweden today honored the Best Green Roof in the Scandinavia, at an award ceremony at the 8 House in Oerestad, Copenhagen. Since 2000, the association has promoted an increased use of green roofs in Scandinavia and created numerous working examples at its Malmo address. In addition the association and its members educate the positive impact of green roofs on urban ecology, and provide inspiration for legislation and building standards.

“BIG has demonstrated a very clear and conscious use of the green roof successfully integrating it into the visual identity of the building ‐ something which was seen in BIG’s green roof award application last year with the M2 houses, but on a much grander scale”, Louise Lundberg, Scandinavian Green Roof Association’s Superintendent.

The moss‐sedum roof covers an extraordinarily long, steep and sloping roof surface descending 11 floors downward to the edge of a canal in Oerestad South opening up the interior courtyard to a view of the protected open spaces of Kalvebod Faelled. The 60.000m2 mixed‐use development is designed in the form of a figure 8 by manipulating the housing typology most often found in Copenhagen. The massing steps up and down depending on access to daylight and views and is broken into four programmatic bars of retail and housing. Green spaces upon the roof and within the courtyard are strategically placed to reduce the urban heat island effect as well as providing a visual relief to the inhabitants. The first residents have already moved in while the building will be finally completed by 1st of October.

“The parts of the green roof that remain were seen by the client as integral to the building as they are visible from the ground. These not only provide the environmental benefits that we all know come from green roofs, but also add to the visual drama and appeal of the sloping roofs and rooftop terrace in between”, Bjarke Ingels, BIG