Aether Apparel is a Los Angeles based outdoor clothing brand, offering performance sportswear with a refined modern aesthetic by utilising technical fabrics in a more sophisticated form. It is one particular piece of Aether sportswear that I would like to introduce to you today. It is the Union Bicycle Jacket – a 3-layer, soft-shell stretch fabric, waterproof. Union is designed to meet the unique needs of urban cyclists and is perfect for commutes around the city and post-ride wear. Loaded with bike-friendly features, it combines all-around protection from the elements with a clean, tailored style. The Union jacket offers a number of important features. For instance, weatherproof pit zip vents, an interior audio valve pocket, and a dual-access back pocket. All these packed into a lightweight jacket that looks just as sharp off the bike as it does on it. Perhaps the most important feature of the Union jacket is its JRC Reflex reflective strips when riding at night. This innovative material reflects bright white when lit by a pair of headlights, but remains matte black under normal lighting conditions.

I really do enjoy the work of the Swedish studio Claesson Koivisto Rune and the w126 lamp is one of their latest product designs for the fellow Swedish company Wästberg. Explaining the inspiration behind the lamp’s design, CKR writes: Historic industrial design icons such as the Starship Enterprise or the Citroën’s steering wheel were inspirational when designing the w126 uplighter. Admittedly two quite technical examples, but this is a lamp that demanded both highly advanced engineering and a bit of iconicity. It is available in a variety of colours, including white, grey and orange, and it has two different LED light sources, one up and one down, to create your desired ambience for each moment. Excellent!

The String Lights installation, created by London based designer Michael Anastassiades for Italian brand Flos, was presented during Euroluche 2013 in Milan. Thin electrical cords, arranged into laconic shapes, held pendants, fitted with LED light sources. Here is how the designer describes his inspiration: Every time I take the train, I sit by the window and watch the series of perfectly parallel strings connecting the pylons, as we move at high speed. I love the way they divide the landscape and how spheres are occasionally beaded through the wires at random intervals. I also love how, in Mediterranean cultures, strings of lights are stretched between posts to mark an outdoor space for an evening party in a village square. And finally, I love how human ingenuity works around problems created by everyday things in the house (like switches and power points) that others have chosen to position where we don’t want them. I love how these delicate pensil-thin lines create the shapes our mind finishes and makes three-dimensional. Who ever said that the electrical cord is not a beautiful thing?

Toronto based visual artist, Kal Mansur, specialises in solid acrylic sculpture. It is Mansur’s minimalist styled Pixels collection that I am delighted to share with you today. The Pixels bring to mind scaled-down architectural models. Empty spaces, walls and blocks are suggested, subtly visible through the semi-opaque acrylic. There is no point of entry, sealed completely on all six sides. The viewer gets just a hint of the interior as available light creates shadows, exposing voids. Created in 2010 and 2011, each piece is made up of solid acrylic, beautifully hand carved, featuring straight painted lines. All measuring 16 x 16 x 3 inches, it is certainly the dark canvas sculptures that I find most striking, particularly that entitled, Secrets.

London based team Studio Vit most recently exhibited their collection Globe Lights at the Milan Furniture Fair 2013. It consists of matt ceramic sphere reflectors and small globe pendants that can serve independently or together to cast light. The designers note: The collection explores how geometric volumes relate to each other and the juxtaposition of materials and light.   I love the fact that with these Globe Lights, light can be adjusted and manipulated in however the user chooses to illuminate the space in a rather unique method. Its design and form is almost poetic in the contrast and the relationship, and the experience of it as revealed in these images really makes me wish I had the chance to see them in person. Images via Studio Vit.

Letterpress – a simple word game for iPhone and iPad by Loren Brichter of Atebits. OK. We probably all know about this one by now, but this game came up in conversation with a friend this morning over coffee in regards to its innovate UI design and I’d like to reiterate here how delightful I’ve found this game since it was released late last year. As John Gruber summarised over at Daring Fireball: [Letterpress is] a cross between a word game like Scrabble or Boggle and a real estate strategy game like Risk or Go. It’s addictive. If you haven’t already given this one a go – I’d highly recommend it. For those of you who have, I encourage you to share your experiences.

The Peel light has been created by Tokyo based designers Naoki Ono and Yuki Yamamoto of the studio YOY. The piece is a witty fixture that imitates a light beam, shining through a peeling wall (hence the name). It blends with the wall during a day and creates a surprising optical illusion at night, almost becoming an architectural detail. Designers explain the mechanics of the piece: OLED is used to make the light source as thin as possible and the electric cable is let to stay along a corner of walls so that it doesn’t stand out. Clever. I also love the effect of sunlight Peel creates. The piece can be attached to the wall with a regular hook.

Completed in 2000, the simplistic beauty of Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates’ Glass Temple still stands unwavered. Located in Kyoto, Japan at foot of Mount Funayama where the hills are burnt to suggest souls entering paradise, this temple stands as a accompaniment to the existing Reigenko-jj, an imperial temple built by emperor Gomizuni-o in 1638. As a place of worship, the reaction to the site by Takashi Yamaguchi & Associates is one based on working with the flow of time. The architects sought to overlay our own time on the past in a way that would render it distinct. There is an overt and obvious appreciation for the sacred-ness of the site through the still-ness of the materiality and form. There is an obvious quiet-ness imposed also. Purposely sunken into the site, this Glass Temple represents a retreated respect to the existing temple, the site and its spiritual importance. The architects, when visiting the site, commented that they saw clearly how the building had lived and breathed within the flow of time from past to present. The emphasis then became to engage in a built outcome that would also breathe; have a sense of purity and embody an ethereal core. The...

Last week, we featured a stunning collection of leather bags by TSATSAS, and I have recently been introduced to another of equal beauty – this time by the Polish clothing accessories brand Slava Varsovia. Slava Varsovia aim to highlight the significance of traditional craftsmanship. Hand-made by local artisans, Slava accessories are designed with passion that rises from a tradition with a modern edge, down to the tiniest detail. Designed by Anna Szydlowska, the Slava accessories features a number of beautifully crafted leather bags, designed with a notable simplicity and very subtle brand logo. The series includes several meticulously crafted shoulder and oversized bags, totes and elegant clutch bags of varying sizes and colours. Photography by Zuza Krajewska

Designed as a residence that also serves the practice of a physiotherapist, House D-Z was designed by Belgian architects Graux & Baeyens located in Oudenaarde. The blocks that form the volume of the house cleverly stagger to bring in sunlight and optimize views while carefully protecting the privacy of the owner from the neighbors in such close proximity. It is a relatively simple concept yet the architects have delivered it with such beautiful proportions, details and finishes. The monolithic form of the volumes naturally support the intention of the window wall that frames the view of the garden. What I enjoy most is the unique series of stairs which repeat in the cross section, defining the separated volumes of the private and public spaces in this minimalist residence. Photographs by Luc Roymans.

Hold On is a modular desk and shelving system developed by the great Belgian designer Xavier Lust for the Dutch furniture company Gispen. Its elements are fixed on the wall with vertical supports that rest on the ground, producing a fantastic feeling of simplicity and lightness because of the reduction of the structure to the essential elements. Hold On is made in lacquered steel modules that create working surfaces, console tables or shelves, according to their dimensions, allowing multiple combinations and configurations to be use in private, professional or commercial spaces.

To mark its 75th anniversary Knoll joined forces with OMA, co-founded by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. At Salone del Mobile 2013 in Milan earlier this month they launched a new collection of kinetic furniture called Tools for Life. The collection features adjustable tables, swivel chairs, a stool, an executive desk, and other items. The minimalist material palette makes the furniture compatible with a range of residential and workplace interiors. I would like to highlight one of the collection pieces named 04 Counter. A horizontal stack of 3 timber blocks that can be transformed from a wall-like unit to cantilevered benches that swing around a central axis. A metamorphosis from a spatial partition to a communal gathering place. We wanted to create a range of furniture that performs in very precise but also in completely unpredictable ways, furniture that not only contributes to the interior but also to the animation – Rem Koolhaas