A lifelong friendship with fellow chess enthusiast Marcel Duchamp inspired Man Ray to create his unique chess set in 1920. In his set, Man Ray offers a personal interpretation of each character on the chess board: an Egyptian pyramid for the King, a medieval headdress for the Queen, a flask for the Bishop and the carved scroll of a violin for the Knight. Made of solid Beech wood, each character......read more
Claudia Schneider's weekend home sits on an 180-foot cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, 90 minutes from Santiago and many miles from the electrical grid. But a variety of sustainable strategies make the home's remoteness a non-issue. Dubbed the "Casa Cuatro," the house was designed by Foster Bernal Architects, who fitted it with solar panels, a wind turbine, and a......read more
If you're a design nerd like us, you're probably familiar with Danish-American furniture designer Jens Risom. As the man who created the first-ever Knoll chair, Risom holds a prominent, if sometimes overlooked, position in the canon of mid-century design. At 96, he is “living comfortably doing nothing” with his wife, Henny, in Connecticut,......read more
A collaboration between Staach and Dwell, this assortment of wood tops can be used both for play and decoration. Each top is made of wood scraps that are leftover from the production of Staach’s furniture collection. These scraps are then hand-cut and hand-finished, featuring handles that are dipped in a range of Staach’s environmentally friendly water-based colored lacquers. These......read more
The always on-point team at Faith Is Torment reminded us about the work of Alex MacLean [previously], who has flown his own plane over much of the U.S. capturing aerial photos of man-modified landscapes, from agricultural patterns to city grids. Tapping into his background in architecture, MacLean's photo practice explores the relationship between the built and natural environments. For his......read more
The Museum of Arts and Design hosted a discussion on the cross section of home design and sustainability with a cast of characters including SHFT.com co-founders, actor/filmmaker Adrian Grenier and producer Peter Glatzer; designer Danny Seo; NY Metro Chapter President of the American Society Of Interior Designers, Jacqueline Hosford; VP of Project Sales at Grohe, Tom Santer; SVP......read more
Thank you to Cool Hunting for alerting us to this sweet system for growing greens indoors. Created by Vancouver-based entrepreneur Kent Houston, Patch brings urban agriculture into living spaces with a self-watering system that makes growing easy. The flat-folding Tyvek planter relies on capillary action in an easy-to-install, perforated grid fed through a small reservoir (these pictures explain......read more
The Profile House, designed by Black Line One X Architecture Studio (BLOXAS), is an expressive homage to the industrial character of Brunswick East, a neighborhood in Melbourne's inner north. Seeking an addition to their Californian Bungalow, the clients emphasized the sustainable performance of their future home. They also wanted a space with a feeling of openness, lightness, and visual......read more
"Something went wrong." said the lonely trailer. Along the dry creek bed and weed choked rocks lay remnants of a past life- bottles and metal thrown around like wreckage after a tornado. Brenda and I could see the trailer from the desolate highway we were rambling down. From a distance it all screamed horror stories and tv dramas. Still, drawn to it like two moths to a giant......read more
For fashion heads, Assembly New York is one of Manhattan's must-hit retail spots. But there's a lot more going on there than designer clothing. Like, for example, these handwelded glass and metal terrariums, created by Assembly in collaboration with a sculptor in Philadelphia. Inspired by abstract architectural forms, the Mini Geometric Terrariums come in a variety of shapes, each......read more