Apartment in Carcavelos by Hugo Proenca

When size matters, good design takes action. And when it comes to a 65sqm apartment, everything needs a little more attention, in terms of design. The flat is located in Portugal, in Carcavelos an area near Lisbon and the architect Hugo Proenca transformed it into a contemporary and adequate, despite its size, single residential home.

The use of simple lines, the minimal aesthetic and the smart choice of three, basic, design elements, resulted in a bigger looking space without making any functional compromises. A feeling of whole is achieved by removing any useless interior doors, except from those that lead to the bedroom and bathroom. A mirror wall, just opposite the apartment’s entrance maximizes the illusion of space and depth while the need of storage is solved by transforming two of the living room walls into cabinets. I cannot overlook the concept behind that black carpentry. Lacking height (only 2.10m tall) enters the kitchen’s space, intensifying the sense of continuity.

Photography by FG+SG

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Sharing Watch

Sharing Watch is a work of Cho, Eun Whan and Shin, Tai Ho of studio MAEZM. They have equipped this unusual timepiece with something more than a reliable mechanism and an air of elegant simplicity. They gave it a communal spirit! Instead of the traditional arrangement of numbers on the dial, there is a slight shift, allowing you to see the time from the side. By simply extending your hand forward or raising it, you can share the time with others. Designers explain:

Such a small change of idea enabled sharing of time with others nearby or others standing opposite site. Through this sharing in this unfamiliar change, we can newly experience the relationship with others by way of time, and that is how Maezm wanted this watch to serve.

The faded numbers make the dial look minimal and uncluttered. They are also quite readable, which is essential for a piece designed to be looked at from a distance.

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Catena Wall Clock

Designer Andreas Dober brings us back to tradition with this unique mechanical clock. Though it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before, the Catena Wall Clock produced by Anthologie Quartett, still seems familiar in its analog mechanical nature.

The Catena — named after the Latin word for chain — rotates a vertical bicycle chain with attached brass numbers in a clockwise direction. At the top of every hour the time appears at the zenith of the rotation. Between hours you can eyeball the amount of chain between numbers and get a surprisingly accurate estimate of the time. In the above clock photos, for example, it is approximately 11:05.

I love the clever simplicity of the Catena’s design, as well as the look.

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Tina

Tina is a great bathtub designed by the multidisciplinary and successful Spanish studio Lavernia & Cienfuegos Design for Sanico. They clearly explain the objective they were looking to achieve with Tina:

It responds to the new idea of bathroom, which has evolved from pure functionality into being a room where we spend more and more time and where the symbolic, entertaining and aesthetic side gets more importance.

Considering the importance of this, the designers have developed an interesting contrast between rounded and comfortable shapes and others squared and straight. It is made of mineral resin, which makes the solid and smooth appearance possible, resulting in a beautiful design.

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Shift by Scholten & Baijings

Minimalist product designers Stefan Scholten and Carole Baijings have created this contemporary and sophisticated storage unit, Shift, for Dutch furniture brand Pastoe.

Introduced during the IMM Cologne at Design Post Keulen from 15-22 January 2012, Shift offers a beautiful blend of simplistic form with an expressive and carefully considered use of colours. Due to the translucent acrylate sliding doors of the cabinet, the colours create a play of reveal, conceal with tinted overlays when the cabinet is opened and closed. It is available in two widths and can be either frame or wall-mounted.

Scholten & Baijings describe the design:

Shift’s clear design appears timeless, while the bold use of colours provides the cabinet with a contemporary look. This meant creating a clear design with an emphasis on surfaces and volumes. The body has been crafted from very thin materials and the handles have been recessed.

Not only is it a great way to subtly introduce colour to an interior, but the finish really impresses.

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Doug Wheeler

If you happen to be in New York, do consider seeing Doug Wheeler’s light and space installation at the David Zwirner Gellery in Chelsea. It might reveal many new and fascinating things about the way you see, experience and perceive reality. And the best part: you will participate in this experiment both as a subject and as an observer…

Doug Wheeler (b. 1939) is a pioneer of the so-called “Light and Space” movement that flourished in Southern California in the 1960s and 1970s. His works appeared in such venues as Tate gallery, London (1970), Salvatore Ala Gallery, Milan (1975), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1983), Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2000) and many others.

The installation I saw on the weekend was ambiguously titled SA MI 75 DZ NY 12. It is a large scale exhibit that brings you as close to stepping into the void as a person can get without enduring any imminent danger. You enter the white oblivion and walk toward what you know is the back wall. The shape of the room and the special way it is lit eliminate any depth perception. You feel that your eyes are failing you, all you can see is the infinite whiteness. The experience is thrilling and unsettling at the same time. People’s reactions to the room vary. Some linger on the edge, some freeze in the middle, some reach out, trying to feel the space around them. I kept going forward, and eventually my feet felt the curve. And this was the moment when I saw the room for the first time, its size, its shape, its texture. It was quite a discovery! The light in the room changes gradually from bright to dark in a 32-minute cycle, so you can test your senses within fluctuating light modes.

Doug Wheeler’s SA MI 75 DZ NY 12 installation is on display at David Zwirner through February 25, 2012.

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Bubble Calendar 2012

Designed in Brooklyn, NY by Bubble Calendar LLC, this poster-sized calendar (122 x 46 cm) has a bubble to pop for every single day of the year.

Set in Helvetica Neue and with a very simple and elegant design,  it’s a very appropriate tool for both design-conscious and modern homes or offices as well as a fun learning tool for kids (who are we kidding, adults would love to pop those bubbles too).

Days of the week and all major holidays and weekends are marked in bold for easy reference (there is also a version with weekends marked by black backgrounds) in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. The calendar is printed on thick paper (80 pound cover stock) and can even be customized with a personal logo.

I’m very sure that I’d have a hard time not popping all the bubbles in one go…

Photography by Alex Kotlik.

Gang of Collection by Proudrace

Gang of is the new, Spring/Summer 2012 collection of the Manila based label Proudrace. Pat Bondoc and Rik Rasos – and industrial designer and a T-shirt designer – the people behind the label, started their fashion journey creating a small T-shirt brand which was gradually developed into a full-fledged label with national and international recognition.

This collection, just like the majority of Proudrace’s clothing, is inspired by the 90’s and according to them

it’s a gang of nomadic skaters and their trophy girlfriends.

But it is more than this; it is a game of textures and materials within the simplicity of an achromatic palette, a curiosity with the uniform dressing of various religious groups and a nostalgic look to their teenage youth. Maybe more; but what they also say about their clothing is that,

it’s all about the use of different materials, textures, details and silhouettes to come out with pieces that are unique and subscribes to no particular trend. Proudrace creates hand made minimal pieces and re interprets traditional garments into their own aesthetic.

Photography: Everything We Shoot

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Fobe House

The Fobe House by Guilhem Eustache graces the otherwise empty two-hectare plot of land, located near Marrakech. This featureless landscape is a perfect backdrop for the pristine white architectural ensemble, which is comprised of four parts – main home, pool house, caretaker’s residence and garage. The facade features two overlapping walls that conceal the staircase to the roof between them. The opposite side of the main building is overlooking the swimming pool and the rest of the premises. Here is how the architects describe the concept of the house:

In this 2.5 hectares area the buildings occupy only 240 sqm. The volumes and their arrangements permit to avoid a floating effect in this empty space. Before discovering the layout we first need to go along the clay walls, which remote the neighbours away while allowing the sight of whites geometries.

I like how the unobstructed sunlight brightens the white cubic structures and creates sharp shadows through the patterned openings. All these elements play off of each other, accentuate the emptiness of the land and focus the eye towards the house.

Photography by Jean-Marie Monthiers.

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Yuna Kim

The purpose of minimalism is to expose the essence of a design by eliminating all non-essential forms, features and concepts. In web design, minimalism erases potential distractions and strips away elements into their most basic forms.

Yuna Kim‘s use of elementary shapes helps to organize her portfolio and goes perfectly with her personal logo. This minimal web site design experiments the use of geometric shapes that makes design so effective. The simplicity is also carried through the navigation making it enjoyable to explore.

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