Indice dei contenuti per Feb-12 in Dwell

I grew up in a Tudor-style house with good bones but seriously questionable arteries. Errant nails, billowing tarps, and exposed wires were simply facts of life, which means I came of age in a home in a near-constant state of renovation. Rather than tackling everything at once, we’d hack away at a laundry list of desires and needs, slowly accomplishing one job at a time. With every refinement, new challenges would arise and fresh setbacks would occur. This maddening ebb and flow is the reality of renovation—numerous moments of stress and consternation, tempered by increments of progress. Check in with anyone undergoing a renovation project in their home, large or small, and you’re likely to hear a rueful laugh and a heavy sigh. This reaction certainly reinforces the old adage…

In the days before “advertising art” became “graphic design,” Saul Bass was already a leader in the realm of visual iconography. A new monograph celebrates his life’s work, which spanned decades and media. Chances are you’ve seen the work of Saul Bass in the last 24 hours. Whether you’ve opened a phone bill from AT&T, consumed a bowl of oatmeal, or watched the shower scene from Psycho, you’ve encountered the powerful language of filmmaker, designer, and artist Saul Bass (1920–1996). A new monograph, compiled by his daughter, Jennifer Bass, and design historian Pat Kirkham, highlights the reductive, colorful style of Bass, and his wife and constant collaborator, Elaine. A. Bass in his Hollywood office, 1960 B. Symbol for a veterinary hospital and pet insurance plan, 1954 C. Logo for Silverlake…

We trekked to Feria Habitat Valencia to get an eyeful of what those crafty Spaniards are producing on the Costa del Azahar. Designers such as Patricia Urquiola, Jaime Hayon, Vicente García Jiménez and Nani Marquina are leading a Spanish design renaissance that’s gaining steam, a fact evident at expos in Barcelona, Madrid, Stockholm, Milan, New York, and last fall, at the annual Feria Habitat Valencia. In a region of the Mediterranean where opulent, traditional furniture used to be the norm, hints of black Spanish lace, Ottoman patterns and color coupled with conceptual ingenuity shone in the work of seasoned as well as new talents. Even modern plastic outdoor furniture by Vondom, lit from within and displayed like lanterns atop the 14th-century Torres de Serrano gateway to the center of Valencia,…

February is smack in the middle of Scotch season. Single malts are fine for an evening tipple, but mixing in just a hint of smoky flavor will turn your after-hours drink into an afternoon delight. The mixologists at Tasting Table created this twist on the classic Blood and Sand exclusively for Dwell. Ingredients 1½ ounces fresh grapefruit juice ½ ounce cherry Heering (or cherry brandy) ½ ounce red vermouth ½ ounce Old Tom gin Scotch, for rinsing 2 to 4 ounces sparkling wine Grapefruit twist Method (makes one drink) 1. In cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine the juice, Heering, vermouth, and gin and shake well. 2. Rinse a rocks glass with the Scotch. 3. Strain the contents of the shaker into the rocks glass. 4. Top with the sparkling…

Welcome to 2012 and what many believe will be the year in which “contextualized commerce” will define our most compelling shopping experiences. This is great news for us at Dwell, because we have a decade of expertise creating exeptional content for the two million design seekers who touch Dwell on one or more of our platforms, not the least of which is the magazine you are reading right now. Our social-media following is equally formidable, with 400,000 Twitter followers and Facebook fans, to whom we continuously bring the best in modern design and from whom we receive a wellspring of ideas and inspiration. Always focusing on you, our valued community, we have planned some exciting new ways to bring even more great design into your homes in a richly contextualized…

Photos by Mathew Scott Driving by Jason, Melissa, and baby Sebastian Burnett’s home in the quaint coastal town of Carmel, California, you’d never know it’s LEED Platinum–certified. The 3.44-kilowatt solar array and rooftop vegetable garden are tucked out of street view and the recycled-denim insulation is hidden in the walls. Inside, the Control4 and Lutron lighting smart-home systems manifest only as a small touchscreen placed unassumingly in the office. Sustainably renovating their home was a matter of common sense for the couple. “It was an opportunity to push the envelope and practice what I preach,” says Jason, a former energy and climate-change policy advisor at the Environmental Protection Agency; a founding partner of Clean Fund, a company that finances renewable-energy projects; and a Carmel city council member. “We went through…

Photos by Christoffer Rudquist Project: Ochre Barn Architect: Carl Turner Architects Location: Norfolk, England WALKING THROUGH THE DOOR OF OCHRE BARN, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO AVOID AN ALMOST cartoonlike intake of breath. The sheer scale of Carl Turner and Mary Martin’s former agricultural building is certainly a surprise, but it’s the use of materials that provokes the most reaction among visitors. Everywhere you look in the 5,000-square-foot 1850s threshing barn, you can see oriented strand board (OSB), a medium associated more with shuttering around large construction sites than with interior decor. “We had seen straw bales in here and we started thinking about OSB,” says Turner, who heads up Carl Turner Architects in London. “The idea of using that as a predominant material gave us the idea that everything should…

Photos by Gunnar Knechtel Project: Tagliabue House Architect: Benedetta Tagliabue and Enric Miralles Location: Barcelona, Spain In the midst of Barcelona’s medieval core, a short walk from the city’s famous cathedral, sits a market like no other. Its graceful undulating roof, featuring a multicolored, pixelated pattern made of tiles, seems to float over the main volume, parts of which belong to the original 19th-century structure. Santa Caterina Market is the work of EMBT, a Barcelona-based studio founded by the architects Benedetta Tagliabue and her husband, the late, great Enric Miralles. The market, and the reorganization of its immediate surroundings, is not their most famous work—that title would go to the poetically unmonumental Scottish Parliament building, a project that was only partially completed when Miralles died in 2000. Nor is it…

The products, furniture, architects, designers, and builders featured in this issue. 38 My House Troppo Architects troppoarchitects.com.au Interior Design by Enoki enoki.com.au Paul Gardiner, Builder 61-418-508-314 Custom cabinetry by Axis 61-8-8244-5299 Tulipwood veneer on living room cabinetry by Woodstock Veneers woodstockveneers.com.au Koura bamboo pendant lights by David Trubridge davidtrubridge.com BBQ by BeefEater beefeaterbbq.com Il Bagno Alessi sinks and toilet by Laufen laufen.com Concrete work by Adelaide Marble and Cement 61-8-8346-3921 46 Dwell Reports FSB 1063 by Christoph Ingenhoven for FSB fsbna.com 5041 Knob by Baldwin Hardware baldwinhardware.com Carmen Handle by Doriana and Massimilliano Fuksas for Manital eng.manital.com Code Handle by Valli&Valli vallivalli-us.com ModKnobs modknobs.com Neutra Numbers by Design Within Reach dwr.com House numbers by Architectural Numbers westonletters.com Eames House Numbers by Heath Ceramics heathceramics.com Number and Letter Stencils by Hy-Ko…

I loved “Hot Houses” (Super Structure, October 2011). I plan on tearing that page out of the magazine and sending it to my father, Bill Brady. I wish I could see inside the fire stations, though. The story brought back fond memories of visiting my dad at work at the 34th Street Firehouse in Bayonne, New Jersey, back in the day. We would stop by on the way home from church on Sunday when he was working. I got to sit in the truck and ring the bell, but I never got to go upstairs (or slide down the brass pole either). Upstairs was for “boys only.” I was so jealous when my two brothers would run up the wide wooden staircase and go find our dad. Thanks for prompting…

Not many architects can state that their father invented a new way of building. Nicoló Bini, however, has adapted his dad’s 1960s air-formed Binishell concept for a new generation. Nicoló Bini went to architecture school to figure out an effective way to provide low-cost housing to developing countries. In the end, the concept that made the most sense was, in fact, the most obvious. His father, Dante Bini, was the brains behind the Binishell, a 1960s innovation in which ground-up building meant inflating a concrete-covered balloon into a uniquely rounded edifice. “My father was interested in the structural innovation—his goal was to go bigger and bigger,” Bini says. “We took on the challenge of making these buildings smaller, simpler, cheaper, greener, and faster to build.” The development team, which included…

In a German town known more for its medieval castle than its modern architecture, the JustK Haus is a prefab home fit for a family of six. Project: JustK Haus Location: Tübingen, Germany Architect: Amunt amunt.info The world owes Germany a Danke schön for its green standards, but the JustK house does zero-energy with unusual style. Amunt incorporated a geothermal heat exchanger and triple-glazed windows into the strict planning regulations, which dictated the pitched roof and narrow structure (the asymmetric profile accommodates a neighbor who asked that her view of nearby Hohentübingen castle be left intact). Built for Dominik Bless-Martenson, Katrin Martenson, and their four children, JustK (the name comes from its location on the Justinus- Kerner-Strasse) can be divided into two separate units, giving options as the family grows…

Baby, it’s cold outside. We recommend slipping into something comfortable and spending time with these accessories designed to keep you cozy. A. Dyson Hot Fan Heater by James Dyson Slender and unobtrusive, this attractive little guy exudes a continuous jet of hot air that’s funneled through an ovoid aperture, dispersing warmth about the room quickly and efficiently. dyson.com B. Aeris Fireplace by Federico Otero for Cocoon Fires If there’s anything more inviting than a crackling blaze on a crisp eve, we’ve yet to find it. This stainless steel hanging hearth offers a sleek alternative to a floor-bound fireside. cocoonfires.com C. T.B.T. Radiator by Ludovica and Roberto Palomba for Tubes Radiatori Radiators can be central heating’s ultimate eyesore. These tubes, however, streamline the system to a series of simple lines. tubesradiatori.com…

Looking at the traditional Victorian facade of Kylie Brammy and George Kyprianou’s home, you would never imagine it hid such a voluptuous and modern derrière. Physiotherapist Brammy and entrepreneur Kyprianou bought the North Adelaide house in 1999 because they loved its charm and location on the city fringe, close to parkland. Less desirable was its tiny kitchen, dark living spaces, and badly positioned toilet, just three feet from the dining table. Engaging both an architect and an interior designer to collaborate on a renovation and two-story extension, the couple managed to open up the interior and transform the back of the house into an improbably airy and light-filled retreat. Kyprianou: The longer you live somewhere, the more you learn about its idiosyncrasies and potential. We lived here for several years…

Photos by Nicholas Calcott From the exterior, Ligne Roset’s complex in Briord, France, is little to look at, just workaday cement-and-metal factories near the base of the Alps. But once you step inside, the operation bursts into colorful life, with dozens of workers hefting gigantic bolts of fabric, manning robotic sewing machines, and operating cartoonish foam cutters and glue sprayers. The family-owned company has been making furniture in this location for 38 years. On a recent fall afternoon, the cavernous Briord 1 factory was running full throttle, all the workers focused on turning out French designer Inga Sempé’s Ruché sofa, introduced in 2010 and already iconic. The sofa’s simple form—a slim beech frame draped with a cushiony quilt—belies the effort it takes to produce one: ten-and-a-half hours of labor and…

Photos by Chang Kyun Kim Project: Braver House Architect: SsD Architecture Location: Newton, Massachusetts Roof of Concept Previously, the house had just a small screened-in porch as its only outside space, “unless you wanted to put plastic chairs on the front lawn, which some people did,” Braver says, laughing. A generous roof deck atop the garage was a winning way to allow a survey of the neighborhood during Massachusetts’ Indian summers. Great Outdoors A pair of large outdoor rooms projects off the glassed-in living room at the front of the house and the kitchen in the back. By better connecting the home to the outdoors, SsD further increased its livable area. “For the part of the year that they’re usable,” Braver says, “they’re wonderful spaces in which to read and…

Photos by John Horner Project: Saunderstown House Architect: 3six0 Architecture Location: Saunderstown, Rhode Island Katie and Scott McDonald—she’s a self-described “holistic health coach and raw food chef”; he’s a psychiatrist—were living the architectural high life with their son, Sage, in Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1908 E. E. Boynton House in Rochester, New York. Alas, a desire to return to New England and inhabit a space that more actively incorporated the outdoors prevailed. “The 228 leaded-glass windows were beautiful, but they separated us from nature,” says Katie. Add to that the couple’s shared love of serene, clean interiors, and the McDonalds realized they were ready to exchange Wright’s inward-looking world of crafted ornament and heavy oak furniture for an Eastern-influenced, minimalist environment that embraced nature. They purchased the house Katie’s parents had…

When Levitt Goodman Architects tackled the renovation of a turn-of-the-century Tudor-style house in Toronto, they decided to take it from the top. The home’s second-story hallway, which serves as an open office and library, was suffering from a severe lack of light. Lifting up one side of the old pitched roof made room for a linear skylight, which faces south to allow in as many rays as possible, and the modification transformed the top floor into a loftlike double-height space. Inexpensive detailing then added texture and scale: Simple plywood panels attached to cold-rolled-steel frames serve as guards along the stairs and extend down through a slim gap that cuts through the corridor to the first floor. Overhead, hanging fixtures made from Ikea extension cords and wire bring color and knotty…

Iain Aitch London contributing editor Iain Aitch took off to the rural flatlands of Norfolk in the east of England to visit Carl Turner and Mary Martin’s unique Ochre Barn (“Bans Ennobled,” p. 70). “As I was organizing my visit to the barn there was a spate of rioting happening in London and across England,” Aitch says. “I kept seeing oriented strand board very similar to that used in the project, but it was mostly protecting the windows of looted sportswear stores. The barn was a real contrast to the recent chaos of the city; it had the feeling of a retreat or a peaceful gallery, yet it still felt homely.” Nicholas Calcott For this issue, photographer Nicholas Calcott traveled to Briord, France, a small town just outside Lyon, where…

Dante Bini wasn’t the first to experiment with pneumatic structures. Wallace Neff, a Southern California–based architect practicing in the 1930s and 1940s, was perhaps an unlikely dome proponent. He specialized in Spanish-style mansions characteristic of the area but saw potential in developing a “revolutionary method providing for a low-cost, labor-saving process of extremely rapid production”—one that could be achieved by his innovative Airforms. The technique itself was relatively simple: Inflate a large-scale, foundation-bound, rubber-coated fabric balloon; cover it in an even, top-down spray of gunite, or “shot-crete,” a layer of insulation, and then one more stratum of gunite. Once all the tiers were dry and the interior balloon collapsed, the construction—simultaneously earthly and futuristic—was ready for residents. Thousands of these “bubble buildings” were erected through the early 1960s—from Arizona to…

Collaboration was key in creating the Tasting Table Test Kitchen & Dining Room in New York, a paradigm of efficient—and effective—culinary design. Geoff Bartakovics believes there’s one important question every home chef must ask herself—and be brutally honest in answering—before a renovation: How do I use my kitchen? In 2008, the self-proclaimed “obsessive entertainer” launched Tasting Table, a daily email service that serves up food and drink news from across the country. When it came time to create the company’s first experimental test kitchen and dining space, he envisioned a multitude of uses: prepping staff meals, producing new recipes, and hosting dinner parties, cocktail events, and cooking classes for subscribers. He called upon the expertise of his editorial staff in addition to seven other colleagues—each are classically trained chefs—plus designers…

Without altering its turn-of-the-20th-century facade, architect Christopher Polly transformed the rear of this Newtown, Australia, home from bleak to bright. Project: Haines House Location: Newtown, Australia Architect: Christopher Polly christopherpolly.com Material Pleasures Floor: Polished concrete Walls: Pine shiplap boards with Dulux paint in black; Laminex laminate finishes Windows: Viridian ComfortPlus; Breezway Altair louvered windows Lighting: Sonora pendant lamps by Oluce Furniture: Grasshopper chair by Modernica; Stool 60 by Alvar Aalto for Artek When the Haines family approached architect Christopher Polly to renovate their home, they gave him an enviably open-ended directive: “See what you can come up with—we don’t want to restrict you.” The only caveat: The home’s facade, which dates back to 1890 and whose renovation would have to meet stringent conservation requirements, had to remain the same. Polly’s…

Photos by Justin Fantl • FSB 1063 by Christoph Ingenhoven for FSB $300–$800 per set We love the look and feel of this oak–and–anodized-aluminum handle. It also comes in rich wenge and white, black, or red Corian. FSB sells complete lock sets in the $300 to $800 range—not the most economical. fsbna.com • Carmen Handle by Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas for Manital $161 per set A subtle red, yellow, white, black, or copper stripe zips through this design by Italian hardware manufacturer Manital. The grip feels sturdy and the handle has enough heft to pull the weight of heavier doors. eng.manital.com • 5041 Knob by Baldwin Hardware $144 for the knob and rose set Some designs scream to the heavens and others, like this forged-brass model that’s finished in polished…

Project: Bubeshko Apartments Architect: Rudolph Schindler Renovation Architect: DSH Architecture Location: Los Angeles, California PHOTOS BY JESSICA HAYE AND CLARK HSIAO ON SCHINDLER Though architect Rudolph Schindler (1887–1953) was best known for his dramatic single-family homes, he also completed several multifamily projects, including the Bubeshko Apartments and the nearby Manola Court and Falk Apartments. In fact, his own home, the iconic Schindler House, was a duplex that he shared, for a time, with Richard Neutra. (It’s now open to the public through the MAK Center.) Schindler liked the idea of communal living and often designed wide terraces and open windows to encourage interaction among residents while still including strategic details to aff ord privacy. For the Bubeshko Apartments he envisioned a Greek village, a bohemian community for artists built in…

Project: Black Villa Architect: Drewes+Strenge Arkitekten Location: Hamburg, Germany PHOTOS BY MARK SEELEN WHEN Hinnerk Ehlers and Katja Winterhalder moved their family to Hamburg, Germany, after seven years abroad in Canada, they knew what they wanted: a supercool, minimal, modernist house. Ehlers and Winterhalder were after lots of light, lots of functionality, and something durable enough for the kids to run around in. Ideally, they’d also get a chance to implement some of the ideas for better everyday living they’d aggregated over the years. Integrating state-of-the-art energy efficiency was nonnegotiable. Everything they found, however, was too old-fashioned, and it was all too expensive. So the couple—he works for a large frozen-foods company; she was a creative in an ad agency—went back to take a second look at a tiny 1907…

Photos by Ben Anders Adam Hills and Maria Speake met in architecture school in Scotland and bonded over not what they saw being erected but what they observed being destroyed. The couple honed their ability to identify treasure in what others considered trash by establishing Retrouvius, a small salvage business, in Glasgow in 1993. Five years later, they moved to London and developed a unique twofold approach to the industry: Hills identifies and collects raw materials, while Speake works directly with clients to realize complete domestic, retail, and restaurant projects, sourcing everything from furniture to final touches like curtains and accessories. The firm now occupies two neighboring 2,500-square-foot storefronts (with another warehouse down the street) full of rescues, many of which have storied lineages—like a recent collection of mahogany panels…