Table of contents for May-12 in Dwell

This issue began to take shape the day we discussed our ideals, asking ourselves what principles resonate with us as we select and report. Essentially we started from this question: “Why do we care about design?” In the microcosm of our conference room we reveal ourselves to be very different people with varying experiences that lead us to find meaning in all kinds of places. I like our mix of opinions, because if we all shared precisely the same style we’d be producing a magazine for each other and not for you. Healthy debate and active listening is good for us all, because it challenges us to reexamine the ground on which we stand. So that day, as we engaged in a rousing conversation about what moved us, we began…

1 Pier 41 Brooklyn, NY redhookwaterfront.com A Civil War–era waterfront warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn, known as Pier 41, is a loose case study in the co-working movement. Partially converted in 2008 into a residential set for cast members on MTV’s The Real World, it’s since become a mecca for design studios large and small, from a furniture maker specializing in Japanese joinery to a variety of ceramicists and industrial designers—even a storefront selling Key lime pie. “I was working from home and realized that wasn’t going to fly. Here, I like the vibrant energy and opportunities for collaboration,” says florist Liza Lubell (below, left). A set designer friend had extra space in her Pier 41 workshop, so Lubell moved in, turning to a pair of carpenters next door for…

Danish designer Søren Rose debuted eight pieces of his Park Avenue furniture collection for De La Espada at the London Design Festival last year, and though the line is for sale its origins are highly specific: a New York City apartment Rose is designing “down to the doorknobs.” Savvy design watchers will spot the origins of the High chair’s wire base (paging Verner Panton), and it turns out a marble wall in the apartment also has a lineage straight out of the high-modernist playbook. But where do the sly nods to design history end and outright piracy begin? The wire base of the High chair looks rather like the work of fellow Dane Verner Panton. Was that intentional? It was very directly inspired by Verner Panton and the steel frames…

On the first day I got my wheelchair I was also given all my clothes for the next day, a little pile on the chair. I was so proud of myself for getting it all on—the socks and everything. Dressing is a struggle and it can take up to an hour and a half. After I got dressed I got myself into the wheel-chair and into the bathroom to shave. Now, I was told this was a hospital that boasts physical therapy facilities built by experts. So I reached to get the faucet and it was in the back of the sink, instead of the side where it should be for the people who would use that room. So I thought to myself, well, tomorrow I’ll have someone from my…

The Pritzker Architecture Prize will be given to Wang Shu on May 25th in Beijing, thanks in part to the panel’s newest jurist, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Court watcher Dahlia Lithwick tells us why, given Breyer’s jurisprudence, Shu was the perfect choice. Question Presented: When Justice Stephen Breyer agreed to join the nine-person jury for the Pritzker Prize in 2011 (laureate Zaha Hadid was another high-profile addition), some wondered what he could possibly contribute to selecting the profession’s top practitioners. Though the Clinton appointee did write the foreword to the book Celebrating the Courthouse: A Guide for Architects, Their Clients, and the Public and had a hand in choosing architect Henry Cobb for the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, doesn’t he know more about dissents than…

Design curators are not only adept at arranging pretty things on a wall, they’re the gatekeepers of the future for relevant and historically notable objets. Expanding upon the idea of “now,” we checked in with leaders from eight of the world’s most prestigious museums to find out what recent acquisitions they have added to their permanent collections. Object: Swarm by Mike & Maaike produced by Council Tibbie Dunbar, executive director A+D Architecture and Design Museum “S warm echoes the juxtaposition of the Charles and Ray Eames molded plywood screen and Harry Bertoia’s minimalist wire sculpture. A visual treat for the eyes, Swarm creates a forest of shapes and shadows that offers an intersection of natural and industrial materials that also functions beautifully as both a room divider and sculpture. As…

In our tireless search for what’s modern now, we’ve combed the globe for fresh talent, seeking out design stars in the making—our next generation of Bouroullecs, Jasper Morrisons, and Patricia Urquiolas. These 27 up-and-comers (who we’ve numbered separately from their collections in the pages that follow) are shaping the future of design, creating objects that make our world and our homes more functional, beautiful, and inspiring. We think you’ll see a lot more of them in the years to come. 50 MAX LIPSEY Eindhoven, the Netherlands lipsmax.net Max Lipsey always begins his design process by holding a material in his bare hands. He then pushes it, massages it, and experiments with it. “Before I even sketch, I need to get to know the material. Then the ideas come.” Raised in…

A Boston couple with a big extended family wanted to enlarge their brick neo-Georgian with an addition that would fit a generous kitchen and hangout space, all while avoiding superfluous detail. Or, as architecture firm NADAAA interpreted the brief, they wanted a “clean space where they can evacuate themselves from their stuff.” The architects plotted the striated addition with the owners’ primary goal in mind: to engage with the outdoors year-round. The walls of the rear kitchen and living space are virtually all glass, allowing sight lines to the existing gardens and new pool house through a series of framed vignettes onto the backyard landscape. The glass box is bookended by uniform “fins” that mark the edge of each picture window. That motif rotates 90 degrees clockwise as mahogany framing…

Truck in potted trees. Set up cafe tables. Paint in some bike lanes. The temporary streetscape might be the perfect urban fix for our times. Because popup spaces enable cash-strapped cities to create parks and plazas without spending a bundle, they’ve become a form of instant municipal gratification. Temporary parks allow cities to test-drive new public spaces, says Prema Gupta, who masterminded several instant parks in Philadelphia. “We don’t have to wait four years to get a great public space.” The concept grew out of the pavement-to-parks movements in New York and San Francisco. “We talked about using the parking lane for something other than storing vehicles,” explains San Francisco Pavement to Parks project manager Andres Power. “We liked the notion of being playful with the street.” Thus was born…

What was the first formative design object you experienced? The lightsaber. When I was a kid I was thinking about a future where a company like DeWalt was producing lightsabers for the construction world. You could go up to a rock or a bunch of dirt and carve out your dwelling that way. — Mitchell Joachim, founding copresident of Terreform ONE, see page 102 When I was young, my parents had two bright green plastic chairs. They were so much fun to climb over, sit upside-down on, and roll marbles across (around the seat, out the leg holes, and down the leg). I always liked them, and now I know they were Vico Magistretti’s Gaudi chairs. —Max Lipsey, see page 80 What material are you most excited about right this…

My son and I discovered the Burnett house (Off the Grid, February 2012) during a walk. We have always loved mid-century architecture, but the energy-efficient ideas incorporated here are above and beyond. Why do we not see more smart, uncluttered design like this? Carmel cottages are nice but are usually expensive to build and not always energy-efficient. Judith Harkness Posted on dwell.com Love the magazine and appreciate the need to design and redesign the pages; however, for the sake of my husband’s and my eyes, can you keep the typeface a dark color, unlike the print in light gray on page 81 (“Paint It Black,” February 2012)? I had to find the brightest light in the house to read this interesting information. Perhaps at my age, 58, I am not…

When it came time to partake in rituals like lighting the Shabbat candles or setting the seder plate, designer Stanley Saitowitz of Natoma Architects, Inc., saw nothing but a sea of Star of David–bedecked kitsch. Unable to find the goods that suited both his aesthetic and his practice, he set about designing a spare, modern suite of Jewish objects—on view in the exhibit Stanley Saitowitz: Judaica at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco through October 16 2012—that runs the gamut from menorahs to kiddush cups. We asked Saitowitz why he had to make what he couldn’t find. Why did you make this collection of religious and ceremonial objects? I saw a disconnect between the purity of the spiritual pursuits and the ideas that we as Jews value and the…

Even the sleekist modernist accumulates stuff in need of a hiding spot, and the hold-all furniture we spotted on recent travels to the Stockholm and Paris design fairs prove that it’s not a regional issue. Bonus points awarded for mix-and-match modular compartments and deceptively seamless facades. SaraS Wall Shelves by Jacob Granat $550 and up jacobgranat.se Swedish designer Jacob Granat fabricated this compact storage system with an eye on mid-century modern lines and a present-day solution: a place where his girlfriend can keep her phone, keys, and wallet right by the front door. Trolley Filing Cabinet by Jan en Randoald for Labt $1,670 and up labt.be The graphic design duo from Ghent rigged up a modular filing system that circles back to their print work: Some components of the rolling…

Yves Borghs and Katleen van Ammel wanted their new house to offer maximum privacy but also maximum light. The solution proposed by Tom Verschueren, of Mechelen, Belgium-based DMVA Architects, was to create a closed street-side facade with an open backside facing the garden, totally glazed from the ground up to the saddleback roof. On the street side, the only true opening is the door; the seven tall, slim windows are screened by what Verschueren calls “knitted” bricks. “In this part of Belgium, 90 percent of the houses are built with brick,” says Verschueren. “It’s a classic material that we tried to use in House BVA in a totally different way.” For the street side, brown bricks were selected to match the roof tiles, presenting a monochrome look relieved only by…

From fabrication workshops to cross-discipline business schematics, today’s university students are reaping the benefits of design considered outside the confines of textbooks and AutoCAD. And with design-focused universities positioning creative disciplines as a platform for general know-how, learning is becoming a lot more like working. In Detroit, the College for Creative Studies is going back to the Motor City’s architectural heyday by moving into a renovated Albert Kahn building once known as General Motors’ Argonaut Building. Completed in 1936 as GM’s first engineering and research building, it’s now home to several CCS initiatives, from a charter high school for art and design to an incubator for creative startups, all within a rehabilitated 11-story art deco building that also includes student housing. Other programs stress the value of design, promoting affordable…

Sharing a vacation home is a common arrangement. But sharing an architectural and conceptual experiment—as well as a linked basement, sprawling deck, and utility bills—takes more imagination, and that’s the idea architects Melana Janzen and John McMinn developed for their “cottage” near Toronto. Together with a couple of friends they built a complex, not quite one house and not quite two, that can accommodate both families at once under the shelter of a giant covered porch. The idea of a rustic second home was attractive to the couple, who live with their kids—five-year-old Soren and two-year-old Annika—in an apartment in downtown Toronto. McMinn’s friends Graham Barker and Karina Inzunza became their partners after Barker and Inzunza got the chance to buy a rare waterfront lot on Georgian Bay, “a community…

It’s the design version of a meet-cute love story: Boy and girl meet at prestigious master’s program, fall in love, work for corporate architects, and then move from Manhattan to Brooklyn together and chuck it all to launch their own atelier. In this particular case, the gamble is paying off: Robert Andrew Highsmith and Stefanie Brechbuehler have grown their firm, Workstead, from a line of customized chandeliers to a holistic enterprise with a tailored, service-based approach to architecture and lighting. In 2008, after both had completed their master’s in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), they sold their first ceiling fixture—cobbled together from spare joints, knuckles, and metal pipe in their 387-square-foot apartment—for a “surprising” amount of money on eBay. Next step: dropping $1,000 at the Brimfield…

What are the most pressing issues in housing today? Green technology has to be more affordable. We have to find systems that will leapfrog previous ones and are actually cheaper at the point of purchase. Moreover, we have to accept that we can’t change the American value system. Everyone wants to own property and have a sovereign or autonomous lifestyle. We have to react by innovating. Whose responsibility is it to do so? I’d put the burden on designers. We shouldn’t rely on politicians or bankers or developers. We should be educating designers in policy, economics, and building methods as well ways to improve space, materials, and the science of construction. What is your vision for the house of the future? Houses have to get smarter. You should know where…

While still studying architecture at Eindhoven University, Servie Boetzkes and Jeroen Helder landed a commission through “friends of friends” to build a home in a suburb of Arnhem. “The clients asked for a ‘different-looking’ home,” says Helder. “They also asked for a loft-style interior.” To fulfill the first requirement, the architects opted for a perforated and expanded aluminum facade. Enticingly tactile, it attracts attention, while screening much of the interior from view. Inside, a spacious, minimalistic interior fulfills the second request. It also contrasts with the more flamboyant exterior, giving the house a split personality. Outside, the facade is rendered even more unique thanks to a special metallic powder coating on the aluminum that changes color, from gray to blue, according to changing light conditions from the sun. But isn’t…

João Canziani New York–based photographer João Canziani shot designer Søren Rose for “Mining Modernism” (p. 36). “Søren reminded me of a charming and perhaps more photogenic version of actor Michael Fassbender. He was disarming, and I could tell why he had had such success in New York City. The more I took his picture, the more I developed a sort of man-crush,” Canziani says. “We went to the stone yard where Søren sources his marble and one slab became the perfect backdrop for a portrait. Its pattern made it it look as if he had angel’s wings.” Tiffany Chu Boston-based writer Tiffany Chu has a background in architecture and comparative media studies. Besides writing and designing, her passions include photography, cartography, bicycling, and all things Scandinavian. Interviewing emerging designers from…

After creating the Blur sofa for Moroso in 2010, New York–based designer Marc Thorpe collaborated with Jos Pelders, of the Dutch textile manufacturer Innofa, to conceive a fabric capable of pulling off a disappearing act. To do this, the duo developed software to translate a 2-D design into a 3-D piece of material. The process, which took nearly two years to perfect, begins at the top of a complex sewing machine that resembles a miniature vertically oriented Large Hadron Collider. There sits a ring of needles containing an assortment of colored threads. When the software calls for a hue, a needle drops into the piece and the resulting stitch becomes a square “pixel” in the design. While this is occurring, the fabric is simultaneously knit (not woven) into layers, creating…

In 2002, when Tom Givone bought a toppling 200-year-old farmhouse peeling with outdated neon blue paint, his new neighbors in upstate New York advised chucking it straight into a pit in the house’s equally rundown backyard. Instead, the experience helped define the homeowner-turned-contractor’s love of the picturesque and channel it into a newfound talent for renovation. A former advertising copywriter, Givone cheekily gives credit for his roundabout career to the “quintessentially awful” landlord who ejected him from a rent-stabilized studio in the late ’90s, which spurred his first home purchase. His self-described "strange and delightful" path to architectural design thus began on a narrow cobblestone lane in the upper reaches of Manhattan in a dilapidated row house, built in 1882 among a double row of identical clapboard abodes. From there,…

Design professionals—from architects to academics, graphic designers to textile artists—draw from a wide variety of influences to shape their everyday oeuvre. In a world of parametric modeling and internet memes, there’s still room for historical precedent in a designer’s cabinet of curiosities. How do we know? We went straight to the source for six recommendations on must-haves for the ultimate design library. Here are their A-level suggestions. 27 “A forgotten classic of the pedagogy! Written like a dream. Our own Whitman or Emerson.” Kindergarten Chats and Other Writings by Louis H. Sullivan (Dover Publications, 1979) —Philip Nobel, architecture critic and author Points + Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City by Stan Allen (Princeton Architectural Press, 1999) —William Prince, principal architect, PARC Office 28 ”This is a go-to when I…

If you’ve been anywhere near Twitter in the past year, you’ve probably gathered some essential nuggets from @Brainpicker (a savant named Maria Popova, a “curiosity architect” for a social networking firm in New York). Likewise, if you’ve clicked on a piece of art, previously unknown to you but resonant just the same, there’s a strong chance it’s already crossed the pages of @itscolossal, a visual diary run by Chicagoan Christopher Jobson. These two represent a growing force of online content curators, educators for the 21st century who go light on thesis-length explications and heavy on digestible factoids—Popova is known for tweeting tidbits every 15 minutes. We talked to the two supercurators about how people best obtain intel and how to retain it. Be astute; attribute! Brainpicker’s latest campaign is called…

In 2007, as eager young architecture students in Trondheim, Norway, Andreas Gjertsen and Yashar Hanstad won a competition to renovate a house for under $200,000. Seasoned travelers who had witnessed firsthand “a way of building that made important architecture for a fraction of the price,” as Hanstad puts it, they became disillusioned with their supposedly “tight” budget and with the conventional Western approach to residential architecture. “We wanted to use what we know to make things that have meaning,” says Gjertsen. Driven by restlessness and a desire to live differently, they purchased an old boat named the TYIN and lived on it together for a year as they sussed out how to use their architectural talents for good. Soon they realized that what they wanted to do was create “architecture…

“I knew at 16 that I would be a designer,” says Aldo Bakker, son of the late avant-garde jewelry artist Emmy van Leersum and Gijs Bakker, cofounder of the influential Dutch conceptual design collective Droog. The 40-year-old designer, who has been teaching for a decade at the Design Academy Eindhoven, has only recently gained acclaim for his experimental forms that blur the lines between art, ritual, and function. It took many years to establish a following because, he explains, “I am a control freak,” and each design took a long time. At his studio in a 1930s brick warehouse in Amsterdam, Bakker tries “to refine the posture of an object,” sometimes intermittently for years. He began by tinkering with tableware and in 1998 had drinking glasses blown to laboratory beaker–like…

Cranbrook student Kate Daughdrill started Detroit Soup in 2010 as a way to empower her community—young creatives eager to help reverse the negative image that plagued their beloved city, but who lacked a way to connect and circulate concepts. Instead of relying on planners, architectural critics, and politicians for a top-down course of action, Daughdrill organized monthly dinners to help Detroit’s denizens band together to offer their version of good old-fashioned grassroots gumption. “Who we are as a city and what we want to become are common topics here in Detroit,” says Amy Kaherl, the current director of Detroit Soup. “Our parents left this city in decay, but we see hope, not a place left in the lurch. We’re all looking forward to something better.” At Detroit Soup’s Sunday dinners,…

The products, furniture, architects, designers, and builders featured in this issue. 28 Modern Ritual Stanley Saitowitz saitowitz.com The Contemporary Jewish Museum thecjm.org 34 Neo Knits Marc Thorpe marcthorpedesign.com Innofa innofa.com Moroso moroso.it 36 Mining Modernism Søren Rose Studio sorenrose.com Park Avenue collection by Søren Rose for De La Espada delaespada.com Barcelona Pavilion miesbcn.com Arne Jacobsen arne-jacobsen.com Egg chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen fritzhansen.com Radisson Hotel radissonblu.com Verpan verpan.dk Prada prada.com Salone International Furniture Fair cosmit.it 40 Compartment Furniture Trolley filing cabinet by Labt labt.be SaraS wall shelves by Jacob Granat jacobgranat.se Princess dressing table by Process process.cz La Secrète desk by Ligne Roset ligne-roset-usa.com REK coffee table by Reinier de Jong reinierdejong.com 42 Hope Floats Tom Givone, Givone Home givonehome.com Loungers by Ikea ikea.com Tizio classic table lamp…