Future of Architecture

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Irwin Weiner ASID - Ignore the fact that our featured video is a video advert for Hewlett-Packard; we love the cinematography and the vision of what's happening today in the professional design world. The video's message underscores what's happening at an increasing rate with architecture and interior design: more collaboration with teams and clients all over the world, and a demand for a mobile office reliant on simple, efficient technology to transmit drawings and sketches, plans, and feedback in real time. My goal this year is to migrate from paper to tablet-based technology. My drawing skills will be much better utilized if I were to use a tablet-based drawing program on a client's job site, make my sketches right there - or sketch on top of an architect's blueprints - in front of my client and their vendors, then email copies right away to everyone. It's time to embrace technology for its mobility, freedom, and efficiency. 

Here are some of the architects and firms represented in this video; looks like they're doing fantastic, imaginative work (an example is in the above photo showing a housing project from Span in Vienna):

Field Lines Architecture, New York

BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group, Copenhagen

Span Architecture & Design, Vienna 

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Architect Nathalie Wolberg

Irwin Weiner ASID - French architect Nathalie Wolberg likes to experiment, and she's created a high tech home for she and her family to live in. Love being a lab rat? Well, that's not exactly the case here, as I'd gladly volunteer to live in Nathalie's amazing world of sophisticated lighting, slide-away partitions, stow-away seating and nooks - and even a relaxation net stretched out over a missing section of floor (reminds me of the net at the prow of a catamaran I sailed in last January in the Bahamas). You'll see in the following video how the architect loves to have her Maison NW spaces function on many levels: comfort, beauty, utility, and multiple functions. When something is not in use, slide it away and out of sight! When you want to add drama, change the lighting, color, and mood with the flick of a switch. I predict many more homes will be built following Nathalie Wolberg's practical and aesthetic vision. 

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DK Home

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Irwin Weiner ASID - I like the raw, sometimes crude, handmade feel of many decorative accessories, furnishing, and lighting from DK Home, a Dutch home design firm that's making its mark with a 600-piece collection. Look at their recent home show video and you'll find a sophisticated line based on natural materials like stone and mother of pearl. Hampton's accessorizing, anyone? 

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Is Furniture Art?

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Irwin Weiner ASID - Plato talked about the ideal "form" behind the reality of things - and without wigging out on philosophical theory, he talked about how no two tables are alike, but that they each shared a quality which he called "tableness." This Plum TV video goes to the DesignMiami show and asked artists and furniture designers if furniture is art or not. This is the same argument that Plato made. If you have a sofa, but it looks cutting edge and "artistic," is it art or is it furniture? The video says there's a degree of "artness" about some furniture as well as a degree of "sofaness" or utility as a piece of furniture. Dali once made a polished brass chair (see photo above of his Leda Chair). Is it art or furniture? You can definitely sit in it, but an artist made it - so there's a conundrum to mull over!

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