Green at Heart: Dutch Designer Christien Meindertsma

Irwin Weiner ASID - I love the take on design presented in today's featured video. Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma espouses "documentary design," meaning she covers the entire lifecycle of the products she designs and produces, straight to the source. Examples of her work include the popular Urchin Pouf (top photo), Oak Inside console (bottom photo), individual wool sweaters made from a single sheep that you get to know a lot about or a range of flax products from a nearby Dutch flax field.

As the LEED certification requirements for green building and design change in the coming year, everyone will become (hopefully) more aware of where their home goods and building materials came from, how they were manufactured, and what processes were used to the original elements every step of the way, from origin to your doorstep. The goal is to see consumers and homeowners making more informed, conscious decisions that are environmentally conscious and respectful. <thunderous applause>

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Going Turkish Towel Crazy at Ottomania

Irwin Weiner ASID - Nothing is better than stepping out of the shower and drying off with a beautiful "thirsty" towel. If you love fine bath linens, too, you'll be fascinated with Ottomania, a Netherlands based business (their store is shown in the photo above) born from a love of Turkey and Turkish design. Their Hammam Towels line is particularly appealing, with delicately striped leightweight towels that are perfect for beach or travel - or everyday home use. Click on the photos for more information.

And look for their Ottomania's divine Turkish Towel line, too!

Bonus

Click here to read Pump Up Your Powder Room with Daring Styles. 

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World's Wildest Hotel Concepts Ever!

Irwin Weiner ASID - I call wild architecture "that Dubai phenomenon." It seems that this Middle Eastern philosophy of More Is More is catching on, and there are some amazing, futuristic concepts afoot for new hotels on land, in the ocean, in outer space, and - attention, Newt Gingrich - on the moon. Today's featured video will show you some of these wild hotel concepts, including The Waterworld in China (see above), an imaginative vision for a new hotel in a former quarry. 

But not all wild hotel concepts involve Dubai-style excessive architecture. Some hotels have concepts that are imaginative without being over the top, like Das Park Hotel in Austria (see photos above), where you can stay in a hotel room made from concrete pipes. In a similar recycling bent, how about staying at the Capsule Hotel in The Hague (below), where your floating hotel room is inside a bright orange survival pod?

Or how about the Hotel Everland, a single-room luxury hotel suite that is completely mobile - it's moved around from city to city, sometimes winding up on a beautiful lakefront, and other times winding on the roof of a building overlooking the Eiffel Tower in Paris or perched atop a contemporary art gallery in Leipzig?

So now that your concept of real hotels has been exploded, it won't be too much of a stretch to watch the following video and imagine staying in an undersea or outer space hotel, right?

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Trendspotting: Homes of the Future

Irwin Weiner ASID - Hats off to the architects, contractors, and city planners who are forward thinking enough to encourage dramatic bursts of new home building that, shall we say, totally breaks the mold.

We're used to seeing the vernacular box house with pitched roof and porch and a yard with the usual outdoor rooms. But today's "homes of the future" are anything but traditional. 

Here are some trends worth noting:

1. Many new communities are being built with low or no carbon footprints. Rainwater gets recycled, sometimes dramatically so as in Meixi Lake, China - a high-rise eco city filters the water that goes into this planned community's lake (below, bottom photo).
2. Dynamic modern architecture from top residential designers (top photo, home designed by architect Mark Koehler and second photo, glass house on stilts designed by Benthem Crouwel) is showcased in planned cities of the future, like beautiful Almere, Netherlands.

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