The Lesser-Known Ox-Chair

Designed by Arne Jacobsen for the National Bank of Denmark in 1966.

Arne Jacobsen designed this chair over a five-year period. Large, impressive, and extremely comfortable, when it was presented in 1966 it was met with surprise and admiration. “This is also how he can be: angular and with a touch of martial temperament that we could call Germanic or perhaps more properly Japanese in expression”

- Thau and Vindum, eds., Jacobsen.

pictures by seier + seier


read more about the National Bank building here

The Rainbow House

Comparing architecture to music is quite a clichée, but with this house, considering it was built for jazz musician Russ Garcia, such an allegory isn't too far off.

This above video, featuring Devendra Banhart and his girlfriend, beautifully directed by Lisa Eisner, was made for spectacle-firm Oliver Peoples (you know, American Psycho?). It is set in the Garcia residence, also known as the Rainbow House (which was pulled down by an aussie hillbilly with a mullet and a truck in Lethal Weapon 2) on Mulholland Drive, designed in 1964 by none other the man himself - the master of googie architecture - John Lautner. It is a truly amazing house, and it only gets bettter once you see it's insides and the stunning spaces it posesses.

                                                                                                                                                     Picture by Julius Shulman

                                                                                                                                                Pictures by Francois Dischinger

The house had seen it's best days, and at the turn of the millenia, countless "improvements" had wrecked the  soul of the house, but its current owners has however had it renovated by architects Marmol & Radziner, who also worked on the restoration of Richard Neutra's Kaufmann house, and the decorator, Darren Brown, put that old-school playboy-feel to the interiors.

The binuclear floorplan of the building is as genius as it is original, and I cannot help to wonder why it hasn't been more widely copied. On the one side of the house exists the private sphere: bedrooms, bathrooms, an office and a movie room - spaces that do not demand the grand volume of the great room, situated in the other wing, along with an elevated dining area and a open kitchen. When it in 2002 came on the market, it did so at the bargain price of $1,395,000.

Everything in this picture is perfect...

by Auto Clasico

flickr: I got it

from the L'ESPRIT NOUVEAU flickr page.

Two modern interpretations of these bathrooms:

Ok the last one may not be totally obvious, but if you note the rectangular tiles are of a similair size. I think both bear testament to a renewed interest in he bathrooms of the 70's. Bravo!

Lidingö, circa 1970.

Green is the ultimate colour of a bahroom. What could be more cozy than standing under a hot shower imagining yourself in a rainforest? This also relates to Le Corbusiers ideas on colour - he basically thought that the shade of a floor/wall/ceiling should correspond to nature's palette. In this age where every bathroom is supposed to be some spa-hamam-refuge, green tiles ought to be more popular than they are.

Sadly, few people dwelve on these matters for mucher longer than it takes to look through the latest IKEA catalogue. And the two bathrooms above, with their fantastic rustic, domestically hand-made ceramic tiles so typical of he late sixties - early seventies, have a very uncertain future, now that the house has been sold. Statistically, they will not make it. And it is a great fatal irony that the possibility of the new owners having chosen exactly this house because of its spatial character, surely furnishing it with mid-century teak cabinets and Eames DSR's (Dowel legs); yet remain completely oblivious to the aesthtic kindred spirit that such bathrooms (and kitchens, mind you) are in relation to the afore-mentioned furniture that they just had to have.

But mark my words:

One day, they'll regret it. 

Fiscally or otherwise.

IT'S OFFICIAL: I'm moving to Switzerland

Strada del Roccolo, Ascona, Switzerland.

Casa Tuja, the house of Hans Grelling, created by Richard Neutra in 1961-3. Situated at the fot of Monte Verità, overlooking lake Maggiore. Does it get better than this? Me thinks not.

Upper floor as pictured below; first floor contains the garage, a guest room and another living room, or gillestuga as we say in sweeeden.

Another modern interpretation of the alpine chalet here.

from the immensely resourceful trianglemodernisthouses.com

Happy new year!

/from Berlin

Ice Cube Celebrates The Eames

This is fantastic. I watched it twice in a row. Hands up anyone who's surprised!