New work by Sebastian Bergne that centres around wine will be featured in an exhibition called CRU, opening at the Aram Gallery in London on November 28 and running through January 10. Wine brings people together and the concepts presented in this show further enhance the social experience. Corked is a series of decanting and serving vessels that combine the traditional glass and cork in new formats like the Trousers glass after the jump. Geo Cork is a multi-pronged pin that serves as a connector for corks and works both as a plaything and a measure of consumption. Among the pieces on display, there is a Vintage Dip line of t-shirts, a case that can be used as a rack, a wine diary for samples and the conical Marcel wine rack above.

+ thearamgallery.org
+ sebastianbergne.com

Fort Knox is a single bottle wine rack in gold by Sietze Kalkwijk. The five-kilo rack is simple and stately rather than relying on ornamentation to signal its decadence. Each one is numbered by hand.

+ kalkwijk.com

We've obviously shied away from a traditionally pitched roof, however one common misconception about the house is that the roof is flat. While it definitely appears that way from the ground, it actually slopes away from the structure at around 2 degrees. We've had quite a lot of rain over the last few days, but other than a little frost (and the snow that was falling from the sky) it was essentially bone dry up there.

+ 360winnett.com

More lights that brightened 100% Design Tokyo for us were the Boschetto Table Lamp from Di Classe, Wonderful Tonight by Masanori Kadokura and the Liquid Lamp by Kyouei Design. As well, there was cosy lighting from Sungmin Kim, the Bony B by Ryuichi Sato and the nifty Lighting Package by Sdesignunit. The Curved Desk Light by &Design was a sleek design, but the Orchid by Hiroki Takada was a real showstopper.

+ 100percentdesign.jp

This week's picks:

+ dRN Arquitectos' 140 sq. meter Los Canteros Mountain Refuge at Arch Daily, "For designing this contemporary mountain refuge we proposed a monolithic volume of stone that partially fills the void left by the existing containment walls. Window openings are minimal and were placed so as to illuminate specific acts, or to frame certain parts of the surrounding landscape, keeping away the sight of the neighbours.".

+ Johnston Marklee & Associates' Sale house at Arch Daily, "The modestly scaled 2-4-6-8 House characterizes the type of early commissions that launched a generation of Los Angeles architects. The massing concept of the Sale House originated from a Morphosis drawing that multiplied 2-4-6-8 as identical quadruplets.".

+ KWK PROMES' OUTrial House at Arch Daily, "A green clearing surrounded by forest was the only context for the proposed small house. Hence the idea to 'carve out' a piece of the grass-covered site, move it up and treat it as the roofing to arrange all the required functions underneath.".

+ Replinger Hossner Architects' EB1 Home at Arch Daily, "This contemporary modern house by Replinger Hossner Architects is up for sale in Seattle, WA. Amazing views and good interior spaces.".

+ Studio Paralelo's Casa en São Francisco de Paula at Plataforma Arquitectura, a corrugated steel and wood weekend house nestled in the Brazilian jungle, "Its volume is simple: two rectangular boxes of different textures intersect.".

+ Van Noort Designs' Spoorhouse prefab at Inhabitat, "equipped with plenty of eco components, including soy-based insulation, floor heating and cooling, integrated whole-house ventilation, and water conservation technologies.".

+ Alphaville's House Twisted at What We Do Is Secret, "built on a narrow and irregular plot of land surrounded by tradesman's houses. Like W-Window House, the house is steel frame construction and sheet metal cladding. This one 'maneuvers' horizontally while the other one rises vertically - same materials, different approaches.". See the House Twisted interior here.

+ Alphaville's W-Window House in Kyoto at What We Do Is Secret, "designed and built by the husband and wife team of architects (Alphaville) Kentaro Takeguchi and Asako Yamamoto as their residence.". See the W-Window House exterior here.

+ Jarmund / Vigsnæs AS Architects' Farm house inspired by a barn nearby "Both in terms of organization, and by usage of the old wooden cladding for the new house. The continuous band of windows allows for a varied story of light and view throughout the day". At Below The Clouds.

+ Takeshi Hosaka Architects' Garden House "merges indoor with outdoor, incorporating an enclosed, two-story courtyard within the confines of the perimeter walls.". Via sub-studio design blog and CoolBoom.

+ Marmol Radziner Prefab's RINCON 5 at Jetson Green, "RINCON is the moniker for their latest modular series, a line of homes that can double as a small prefab dwelling or ancillary living structure, you name it. The name is inspired by the Spanish word for "nook" -- an apt description for this little accessory structure. The largest model in the series is RINCON 5, and it's a 660 sf model with full kitchen, living room, bedroom, and deck area.".

+ Tezuka Architects' Big Window House at rolu|design.

+ HHF Architects' Global Summit house at the NYTimes TMagazine, "The house, which looks like a series of boxes, is elegant and slightly forbidding on the outside but expansive and light-filled on the inside.".

+ The Tom Kundig: Prototypes and Moving Parts video via AMNP.

As some of you may know, in addition to MoCo Loco, I also work for a small start-up called Praized Media. Today Praized launched a new web tool that may be of interest to anyone looking for recommendations for local places and services in the US and Canada (ie., restaurant, coffee shop, or even a mechanic, plumber, etc). It's called Praized Answers and you can use it to broadcast your question to your friends in Twitter and Facebook, as well as the Praized network. You can ask your question here. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Harry

Among the many designs that had the floor during 100% Design Tokyo were some innovating pieces of audio-visual equipment like the KAGU-TV by Masashi Yonemoto, the compact wall-hanging CD player by 1/10 and the Tube-1, vacuum tube audio by Supercent. The likes of the calendar by Snaefrid and the installation by Hwaseon Lee & Wonho Jin drew people in, while furniture such as the Gibbous Moon by Koji Miyazato, the UFO+Table by Kazuo Adachi and the Root by Masafumi Mizutani & Tomoko Kinugasa showed off simple, clean lines, balanced by the whimsy seen throughout 100% Futures and in pieces by Florence Broadhurst.

+ 100percentdesign.jp

Who knew that electrical wires and lampposts could be so lyrical? Jill Simonsen's paintings suggest we look at things differently.

Lisa Breslow's NYC landscapes are so much softer than what we have come to expect of the real thing.

We've always heard that clowns are only putting on a happy face, and the group exhibition at the Corey Helford Gallery might well further attest to this.

LeMishka's work includes vague figures that only hint at what they are up to.

Amy Casey's houses reflect an uneasiness about the world around us.

More at Art MoCo.

Tracy Kendall creates wallpaper that is rich in depth and dimension, ranging from huge single images to stacks of repeated images and now to layers of text and paper in a variety of formats. From piles of books and magazines to umpteen sequins or jigsaw puzzle pieces laid out on a background, Kendall's work does not fail to attract. Tracy Kendall brings new meaning to the term "wallpaper.".





Working with text rather than images to create a graphic is something new for you, and text-based papers figure highly in your latest collection if what we saw at ICFF was anything to go by. While anything with text used as image will catch my eye, choosing words over pictures seems to represent more of a commitment. Do clients express similar hesitation?
Clients have been responding to the text wallpapers very well. Whilst I've recently added more text designs, the very first wallpaper I ever did was the text paper shown at ICFF this year talking about South American politics. I did it for myself at home, for my toilet wall about 14 or 15 years ago. I never showed it and it was only when I had some press features of my home that others saw it and wanted it too.

I design with the text then and now because it has so many layers of meaning. You have the straight forward read, but then by changing the fonts and spacing, it then becomes a design pattern tool. Mixed up, these 2 pathways often give a third, almost unknown, direction to the work, and often it is this unknown path that I want to tread with the work.

There was a strong showing of chairs and lighting at this year's edition of 100% Design Tokyo. Among the many examples of innovative chair design were the Ouch! by Yutaka Yanagisawa, Bambi chairs by Books, and Moya Moya Hiroshi Yoneya. The Balloon by Ken Yokogawa is a very inviting piece of seating with a huge down-filled cushion, Tessen by Tetsutaro Nakabayashi is an interesting perch, and Pocket #3 by Katsuhiko Togashi was one of the sleeker finds. Akiro Soga showed Circolo, there were chairs from Pure Austrian Design, and Hover by Masaki Takayama. Masaki Imamura and Nahoko Sakuma showed the Mchair & Wchair and Noboru Inove featured the Awaza dining chairs.

+ 100percentdesign.jp