See Through Desktops

Desktop...you're so vein, I can see straight through you! I'm glad there is someone out there doing this kind of thing to entertain the rest of us!

Drawers...In Staircases...Simple!

As with most design it is the simplicity of this idea that makes it so practical. Now you can not only use your stairs for going up and down, but also for storage!

This is a great space saving idea for otherwise cluttered apartments, and could be a great spot to keep your shoes if you live in an apartment with stairs right near the entrance.

Might also be a good place to hide kinky or illegal substances, but nobody really has either of those things do they?

Buraka Som Sistema Live @ Fabric

Buraka Som Sistema, or BSS, are a production trio who have gained significant respect recently with their releases on labels Enchufada and Australia’s wildly successful Modular recordings, as well as track appearances on Simian Mobile Disco’s Suck My Deck out now on Bugged Out. Whether it’s by train, bus or plane I couldn’t really say, but one thing is for sure, BSS seem to be going places.

Coming from the streets of Portugal, their sound is an unusual fusion of jackin house and kuduro, which originates in Angola, Africa. Personally BSS are a rain of sunshine and a much welcome alternative to the somewhat stale sounds that seem to be coming out under the breaks and drum & bass umbrellas.

Not just with the music, there seems to be incredible energy behind their live shows, and this video has left me waiting for their Australian tour (which at this point does not even exist). The video also reminds us all that there is so much cutting edge creativity going on at this very moment, and somewhere in the world someone is…
banging away at a drumkit,
shaking their booty in a dark club,
mixing some records in their bedroom,
and getting down and dirty and having a baby that will become a future creative pioneer!

Interview With Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

This one is a little bit off topic but extremely interesting all the same. iinovate - a podcast ran by Stanford business school students - has just recently done an interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO of the Google monster, and it is extremely inspirational & intellectually stimulating for anyone.

Anyway, I'll just let Eric do the talking...here it is!

Quirky Minimal Fuss Advertisement

Pictures speak a thousand words and so does a girl holding up placards with nonsensical words!

Clever, cute and mildly mysterious...god bless the bear headed girl and all the minimal fuss behind her!

Jantzen Thinks Outside The Box

Michael Jantzen is nothing short of a stalwart for the cliché ‘thinking outside the box’. With a Master of Fine Arts in multimedia Jantzen unconventionally blends/merges ideas in art & architecture, and creates shapes and concepts of functionality beyond the period. Spending the best part of his ‘career’ exploring alternative energy systems in architecture Jantzen founded the non profit Human Shelter Research Institute and further dedicated himself to the development of alternative human shelter systems. Alternative being the operative word! Here are my 3 favourite Jantzen works:

Wind Shaped Pavilion

Because the outer shell of the pavilion is made of lightweight fabric the wind is able to rotate the 6 levels around a central support frame. The cool thing is that as the wind continues to alter the structures shape it generates power for night time illumination, and as long as the wind continues to blow there is slim to no chance that it will ever return to its original shape!

Stairscape

The stairscape is basically a set of unusual stairs for children & adults. Jantzen says that through this work he is challenging status quo concepts of functionality, stating that the stairscape can be a public gathering place to promote communication & physical fitness.

M-House

35 years of research & experimentation went into this sustainable, recyclable, relocatable house. The structure is made up of customizable ‘cubes’ that can be shipped in flatpack and erected in a new location to suit both the environment & the M-House dwellers. Jantzen wants to see other architects designing M-House ‘cubes’ so dwellers can exchange parts. There has actually only been 1 of these houses made and it was sold in March 07 at auction for an undisclosed amount.

It’s impossible not to respect Jantzen for his nobel attempts at challenging both design and concepts of functionality, but it is also impossible not to ask how practical these designs really are. Realistically funding for these types of projects is extremely limited although this may change. There also seems to be certain functionality issues with many of his designs, for example the M-House has no utilities, and I would personally be afraid of entering a multi level pavilion made out of ‘lightweight fabric’. Putting these flaws aside though I send my respect to Jantzen for pushing the envelope and challenging all of the people who say no.

McKenna pays homage to iconic lamps

One of the more creative designs to come out of this years International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) were Mark McKenna’s ‘Designer Emulation Kits’, which are basically DIY 9-volt LED lamps.

There are 5 kits, each being a mini appropriation that pays “sincerest homage to some of the greatest modern designers of our time”;

DEK1 - Ingo Maurer’s ‘Luccelino’

DEK 2 – Castiglioni’s ‘Ario”

DEK 3 – Sapper’s ‘tizio’

DEK 4 – Castiglioni’s ‘Toio’

DEK 5 – Phillipe Starcks ‘Miss K’

Now, with only 9-volts of power you to can play chess past your bedtime!

Will the real John Howard please stand up!

Can you guess what song the Prime Minister is gettin' down to?