Paris Style Video: Karl Lagerfeld Crystal for Orrefors

 

Irwin Weiner ASID - Greetings from Paris! Jay Johnson and I are in the beautiful French capital on vacation, and that of course means that we're on "assignment" for Design2Share. We never go anywhere without reporting back on residential and home trends, and that includes the latest international hotel scene and other looks in public spaces that will soon influence the shape of home style. While we're gone this week, we thought it would be fun to focus on different elements of French style in select videos. First is Paris-based fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld showing off his crystal designs for Orrefors.

Go to the Karl website for more information about Karl's world of design. We definitely checked out his recommendation of favorite Places and hope to check out several, e.g., La Societe restaurant and shops like Sennelier and Colette. 

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Debut of Zaha Hadid Architects New Roca London Gallery

Irwin Weiner ASID - What better way to communicate to the public and the trade that your bathroom brand is sculptural, contemporary, and luxurious than to have Zaha Hadid Architects design your new showrooms? That's exactly what Roca did with their new Roca London Gallery, the third project built in London by Ms. Hadid and her organization. Here is how she describes it.

Our work imbues architecture with the intricacy and beauty of natural forms. Using a formal language derived from the movement of water, the Roca London Gallery has been eroded and polished by fluidity, generating a sequence of dynamic spaces carved from this fascinating interplay between architecture and nature.

The space is not only going to be used to display Roca's product lines, which match the sculptural functionality of their new gallery space; this will become a place for many public activities, including meetings, conferences, receptions, seminars, and exhibitions that will afford the public a wider use and appreciation of this thoughtful creation.

Today's featured video shows how the architectural concepts of the Roca London Gallery, derived from the fluidity and motion of water itself.

Next Week

Irwin Weiner and Jay Johnson are in Paris, on assignment for Design2Share, and D2S will feature a week of Paris design and style videos. Don't miss a single moving image! When they return, Irwin and Jay will file regular Paris updates on their style finds.

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John Reeves, Designing the Antique Furniture of Tomorrow

Irwin Weiner ASID - I found a video of a furniture maker with a philosophy that's in perfect synch with my decorating and interior design ethic. UK furniture designer John Reeves tries not to follow design trends. Instead, he insists on designing clean, contemporary furniture with nods and twists to past periods and styles, but all with an attempt to create "antiques of the future," decor elements that someone can live with for a lifetime.

I'm tired of disposable decorating and furnishings. They insult homeowners and my clients. Good quality pieces hold or gain value over the years and, when mixed with more moderate priced pieces, add impact and timelessness to a room unlike anything else.

Reeves isn't buying into the disposable culture where you purchase a mass-produced item that will last only a few years and must be disposed of. And if you're making furniture for the long haul, it better be sustainable, too. Reeves only uses sustainably sourced timbers and he also uses discarded materials in his work, like scrap marble.

In his Sketch collection, Reeves uses old aluminum engine blocks from Vietnam and melts them down into recycled furniture (beautiful sand cast pieces that have a finish not unlike rough, washed river stones). Click on each image for more product information, and visit the Reeves Design website.

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Video: Discovering Design Through Furniture

Irwin Weiner ASID - The thrill of designing a piece of custom furniture is almost indescribable. When I'm creating a custom piece for a client, I'm looking at many elements, including scale, materials, period, detailing, sculptural quality, and utility. I recognized this familiar (to me) process in today's featured video from the University of Tasmania (Australia); UTAS faculty and students in their furniture program put together an exhibition entitled Discovering Design Through Furniture. I enjoyed hearing each designer talking briefly about their discoveries, their process, how they chose materials, what inspired them, and what they learned in the process. One of these students just may be producing a piece for your home in the future! (Pictured above, program director of furniture design at UTAS and exhibit curator Simon Ancher's Clipped Wing bench.)

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