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The Top Stitch #7

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The Top Stitch

The Top Stitch interior design

Your weekly digest of news in the world of Design, Upholstery, Furniture and Interior Design, brought to you by Global Upholstery Solutions.

Brewdog

For this post, I’ve added a LinkedIn link because the video is perfect. however, the extract content below is from a blog post so I’ve linked back to that one at the bottom.

This is a hugely challenging time for our bars. Here at BrewDog, we are all longing for the day when our team are back in our bars, serving world class craft beer to our awesome community again.

Although the future for hospitality businesses is incredibly uncertain, we remain very optimistic that customers will soon crave the social interaction and escapism of visiting pubs, bars and restaurants.

With that in mind, whilst we eagerly await official guidance from the government, our amazing bars teams have been working on various proposals, which we think will help us welcome customers back in to our bars when it is safe to do so, and offer them an environment where those customers can feel relaxed and safe.

Read more

What is The Circular Economy? – Ellen MacArthur Foundation

A circular economy is based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems.

Where we have come from

A transformation in our ability to make things changed society.

We’ve been at a turning point before. In 1684 Thomas Savery invented the steam engine and it changed everything. This invention kick-started the industrial revolution, which transformed our ability to make things. Raw materials and energy were seemingly infinite, and labour was readily available. For the first time in history, goods were mass produced.

TOP 100  INTERIOR DESIGNERS TO KNOW IN 2020 – LuxDeco

The LuxDeco 100—previously the LuxDeco 50—returns with twice the number of talent for its second issue. The annually published list highlights and celebrates the world’s leading interior designers for the creativity, positive impact and commitment to luxury design which they contribute to the design world.

Celebrating incredible interiors and sharing them as inspiration for our community is one of our duties as a leading platform for luxury interiors. The design world is brilliantly diverse and replete with interior designers who are creating waves that will be felt by generations of designers to come. The LuxDeco internal selection panel was able to narrow the field down as it focused on three criteria: creativity, industry impact and commitment to luxury design.

Kaoi studio designs modular Ebba chairs based on Ettore Sottsass’ Memphis movement – dezeen

This modular chair collection by Thai design studio Kaoi takes cues from the 1980s Memphis Group, featuring four graphic armrests that can be mixed and matched to offer different aesthetic “personalities”.

Designed in collaboration with THINKK studio, Kaoi’s Ebba chair collection is composed of three deckchair-style seats that can be brought to life with four variations of armrests.

WantedDesign Manhattan Online Conversation Series – WantedDesign

WantedDesign partners with Design Milk + Clever to keep WantedDesign Manhattan Conversation series alive!

In response to the cancellation of the 2020 fair, we put together an online program with new episodes of Clever podcast and live talks, between May 11 and May 22, 2020.

“At first, when we heard about the cancellation of WantedDesign Manhattan. we were sad, we had LIVE episodes planned, and we looked forward to seeing all our friends and absorbing all of the latest design inspiration – it’s an important hub of connectivity and community for the design industry. Then we got fired up. We couldn’t just stand by and not do anything about this – so, Clever, already adept at remote recording and digital distribution, is working closely with WantedDesign Manhattan and Design Milk to keep the Conversation Series alive!” – Amy Devers, co-founder Clever

A tribute to creative minds who changed the world – WeTransfer

WeTransfer believes creative thinking has the power to change the world. So every year, we pay tribute to the creative minds we’ve lost whose lives and work changed the way we think, the way we see and the way we understand.

Anyone from the team can nominate a figure we should pay tribute to, and our supertalented community of artists do the rest.

The Sonoran Collection Shines a Bright Light on Weaving – design milk

We’re as antsy to spend time outdoors as you are, making the Sonoran Collection release from HOLLY HUNT all the more exciting. Its second outdoor furniture collection draws inspiration from the topography and creature forms found in the Sonoran Desert in the southwest United States.

HOLLY HUNT worked together with a group of weavers in Southeast Asia to develop new techniques – a double weave with a vertical wrapping – and materials for a more streamlined look.

74 CREATES STUDENT AMENITY SPACE FOR SYMONS HOUSE IN LEEDS – Design insider

Multi-award-winning interiors and architecture practice 74 has completed a stand-out student amenities project for client London and Scottish Student Housing within their new-build Symons House student accommodation block in Leeds. 74 also created the project’s branding and wayfinding.

Symons House, designed by Leeds-based architectural practice Cunniff Design, takes the form of a reverse L-shape building, with seven storeys located on its lower horizontal plane and twenty-one on the vertical upright section.

Chair Times: A History of Seating – From 1800 to Today – Dexigner

Vitra is streaming ‘Chair Times’ – a film that documents the many-sided world of chairs – for free during this particular time. The film charts a course through an ocean of chairs.

In Chair Times, Vitra Chairman Emeritus and former CEO Rolf Fehlbaum speaks with experts in the design field, including designers Hella Jongerius, Antonio Citterio and Ronan Bouroullec, architects and collectors Arthur Rüegg and Ruggero Tropeano, architect David Chipperfield, Director of the Vitra Design Museum Mateo Kries, Vitra Design Museum curator Amelie Klein, Jochen Eisenbrand and collection curator Serge Mauduit.

Focusing on 125 objects from the Collection of the Vitra Design Museum, the conversations explore the development of chairs over centuries, examining them as ‘portraits of their users.’

Need a fresh perspective? See the world like a horse does (or a cow or a cat or an ant …) – Ted

Almost never, says Alan Hook, a design researcher at Ulster University in Northern Ireland: “We understand the world from a very fixed human-centric point of view … so [we] can’t really understand what it must be like to be a different creature.”

Meet some human designers who are breaking down the barriers. In Ireland, Denis Connolly and Anne Cleary have created a series of meta-perceptual helmets that allowed wearers to view the world through the stereo vision of a hammerhead shark or the separately rotatable eyes of the chameleon. To get as close to being a goat as possible, UK designer Thomas Thwaites (TED talk: How I built a toaster from scratch) built himself a prosthetic goat legs and a prosthetic rumen (goat stomach) and took to the Swiss Alps to graze on grass.

Stella McCartney in conversation with Sir David Adjaye – Clerkenwell Design week

As part of Design Museum’s continued #DesignDispatches series, next week features pioneering British designers Stella McCartney and Sir David Adjaye. Join them on Wednesday 13 May 2020 as they talk all things fashion and architecture.

A brief history of the Bubble Chair – Icon

Eero Aarnio’s iconic Bubble Chair is a clear, ball-shaped seat that hangs from the ceiling

The Bubble Chair is a true icon of the 1960s. Designed by celebrated Finnish designer Eero Aarnio, the chair was decidedly futuristic at the time it was launched. A spin-off of his earlier Ball Chair, the Bubble retained the same circular shape, but instead of standing on a leg it hangs from the ceiling.

The Ball Chair was designed in 1963, and is also known as the globe chair. At the time it was designed the Ball Chair’s shape was completely unconventional. The chair’s spherical form creates a unique acoustic around the user.

The Top Stitch #6

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The Top Stitch

The Top Stitch interior design

Your weekly digest of news in the world of Design, Upholstery, Furniture and Interior Design, brought to you by Global Upholstery Solutions.

popschema – by blackswan

popschema is the new concept designed by blackswan for Interior Designers that resets the design standard for headboards.

There are a range of poppanels so that you can create any configuration you like. There is an almost infinite variety of configurations by varying sizes, shapes and colours. See some examples here. We don’t put limitations on your imagination!

From ‘officles’ to giant sneeze guards: How COVID-19 will change your open office – Fast Company

The open office has taken over modern business. While controversial, these large, open spaces—punctuated by conference rooms and phone booths—are the design of the day, and their proponents claim they increase collaboration. But open offices are also a communal petri dish. In the age of COVID-19, they’re the antithesis of social distancing.

The 25 Rooms That Influence the Way We Design – The NY Times Style Magazine

On an October afternoon, our six-person jury — Tom Delavan, the design and interiors director of T Magazine; Gabriel Hendifar, the creative director of the Manhattan-based lighting and design studio Apparatus; the architect Toshiko Mori; the architect and designer Daniel Romualdez; the veteran design journalist Suzanne Slesin; and the interiors photographer Simon Watson — assembled in a featureless conference room at The New York Times to discuss the most influential rooms of all time.

10 movies with striking interior design to watch under lockdown – dezeen

The coronavirus crisis means we’re spending more time indoors than ever before, so Dezeen’s Natasha Levy has selected 10 films with stand-out interiors that can offer some escape from your own four walls.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Key to Innovation – Farnam Street Blog

Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Doers and thinkers from Shakespeare to Jobs, liberally “stole” inspiration from the doers and thinkers who came before. Here’s how to do it right.

***

“If I have seen further,” Isaac Newton wrote in a 1675 letter to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, “it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

It can be easy to look at great geniuses like Newton and imagine that their ideas and work came solely out of their minds, that they spun it from their own thoughts—that they were true originals. But that is rarely the case.

Innovative ideas have to come from somewhere. No matter how unique or unprecedented a work seems, dig a little deeper and you will always find that the creator stood on someone else’s shoulders. They mastered the best of what other people had already figured out, then made that expertise their own. With each iteration, they could see a little further, and they were content in the knowledge that future generations would, in turn, stand on their shoulders.

Standing on the shoulders of giants is a necessary part of creativity, innovation, and development. It doesn’t make what you do less valuable. Embrace it.

cadus – blackswan

Office Booth Reconstructed.

Presented by design agency blackswan, the Cadus is a new concept for the office environment, which creates a statement to your customers and employees.The pseudo-industrial design with rough hewn wood, exposed ply and visible fixings are complemented by beautiful leather upholstery with contrast stitch details. The product is treated with hard wax-oil to create a used appearance to blend in – or clash – with your existing office space.This aesthetic shape displays your credentials as a design-led, premium business that is not afraid to stand out.

The Minimalist Cross Chair Tube by PearsonLloyd for Takt – design milk

Cross Chair Tube is a minimalist chair designed by London-based studio PearsonLloyd for Takt, that shares a visual language and assembly method to its predecessor. While the original Cross Chair features a solid oak frame, the Cross Chair Tube incorporates a recycled tubular steel frame.

JIM BIDDULPH & ROB NICOLL, CHIP[S]BOARD IN CONVERSATION – Design Insider

There have been countless material innovations over the past decade, with big brands, independent design studios, graduates and students all getting in on the act. The desire to create new, never-seen-before materials has gone hand in hand with the burgeoning of both industry-focused material libraries and universally available social media platforms, which offer the opportunity to showcase and discover such materials. What’s more, the appetite to reuse waste materials and products inline with the post-war “mend and make do” attitude, has rapidly expanded towards a shared desire for circular-economies. In a bid to curb climate damage and create a more sustainable and cleaner relationship with our planet, many designers strive to create material alternatives that are desirable for their functionality and eco-credentials.

Watch all eight episodes of Netflix’s Abstract: The Art of Design series – dezeen

Netflix has made all eight episodes of its documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design, which features set designer Es Devlin, architect Bjarke Ingels and interior designer Ilse Crawford, available to watch for free during coronavirus lockdown.

Streaming company Netflix has made season one of its design series available on Youtube as part of an initiative to make its documentaries free to watch during the coronavirus lockdown.

The One Club for Creativity Announces Creative Month 2020 – Dexigner

The One Club’s annual in-person Creative Week in New York has transformed into Creative Month 2020, with more than 60 sessions with creative leaders from around the world streaming free of charge May 4-29.

Sessions will feature a wide range of original creative inspiration and professional development content specifically developed for a global online audience.

“In light of how the pandemic has hurt the industry, we’ve doubled down on upholding our nonprofit mission to support the creative community,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club. “We worked with our Board of Directors to reimagine and expand Creative Week and the awards into multiple weeks of inspirational programming that stream free of charge worldwide. This year more than ever, it’s critical that we provide the platform to inspire the creative community and give recognition to those who have done the best work in the world.”

Pajama Lounges Are Taking Over Houses Everywhere and We Love It – redbook

Pajama lounges are having a serious moment and they’re the dreamiest home trend of all time — there, we said it. If you haven’t heard of a space like this before, it’s essentially an upstairs living room that’s very private and the perfect place to gather as a family after rolling out of bed in your (you guessed it) pajamas.

This concept is part of a growing trend of living spaces moving upstairs, where it’s more secluded. “They’re designed to be a place where the family can gather and hang out away from the high-traffic areas of the home,” Paul Fischman, principal designer at Choeff Levy Fischman in Miami, told Realtor.com. Still can’t picture what we’re talking about? This Massachusetts room, designed by Frank Roop, is one strikingly gorgeous example of a pajama lounge.

THIS TRANSFORMATIVE FURNITURE LETS YOU LOUNGE ON YOUR DESK DURING WFH – Yanko Design

I am a huge foodie, and I have noticed this in both cuisine and design that the French love taking what you know, flipping it on its head, and giving you a crazier yet better version while you just sit there wondering “How do they do this every time?!”. The latest product to fall in this category is the ‘Chaise Renversée’ – a desk that can also transform into a long chair by the famous French architect Pierre-Louis Gerlier. The literal translation of Chaise Renversée is ‘chair overturned’, I love how simply the French put everything.

Since we are all cooped up in our homes, we are constantly finding ways to optimize space. Especially if you live in a city, you are likely to have everyday objects that are modular so that you have a functional space. Our current situation and the need to be flexible within a small space is exactly what inspired Gerlier to design the Chaise Renversée. It is the perfect blend of work from home and Netflix from home into one piece of modern furniture, it provides a stable table area to work and can then transform into the ‘Chaise Lounge’ when you want to relax.

Around our little group

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We have a number of updates from around our group that you might have missed. Here’s a miniature digest.

blackswan

https://blackswancreative.co.uk/bespoke-fabric-design-made-easy/
Global Upholstery Solutions and Panaz have long shared a strong relationship and have collaborated on various projects over the years. We were therefore delighted when our Account Manager, the wonderful June George, visited us to introduce ReMake, a new piece of design technology developed by Panaz. This progression in technology is extremely exciting for designers, generating endless possibilities for us and resolving design dilemmas that may arise on projects and the exact reason why we created blackswan. Panaz describes ReMake as a ‘turning point in bespoke fabric design. By putting the ability to recolour and rework any Panaz print design directly into your hands’
https://blackswancreative.co.uk/cadus/
Presented by design agency blackswan, the Cadus is a new concept for the office environment, which creates a statement to your customers and employees.The pseudo-industrial design with rough hewn wood, exposed ply and visible fixings are complemented by beautiful leather upholstery with contrast stitch details. 
https://blackswancreative.co.uk/popschema/
popschema is the new concept designed by blackswan for Interior Designers that resets the design standard for headboards. redesign The popschema headboard has two components. popgrid provides the structural back for the headboard to match the bed size. 

Reupholstery Limited

https://reupholstery.uk/bring-them-back/
Antimicrobial fabrics are the new normal for hospitality – migrating from the healthcare sector.
As soon as the starting gun goes to get the country back up and running again, wouldn’t it be great to get out of the starting blocks quickly? As someone wise once said, a day lost at the start is a day lost at the end. The sooner your customers start coming back, the earlier you’ll start on the recovery curve.

The Top Stitch #5

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The Top Stitch

The Top Stitch interior design

Your weekly digest of news in the world of Design, Upholstery, Furniture and Interior Design, brought to you by Global Upholstery Solutions.

Why we need creative confidence – Ted

In 2012, IDEO founder and longtime Stanford professor David Kelley took the TED stage in Long Beach and shared a deeply personal story. It was the tale of his own cancer diagnosis, of finding a lump in his neck and being told he had a 40% chance of survival. This was clearly a sobering moment, but he wasn’t sharing the story to seek our sympathy. Rather, he wanted to talk about his resulting epiphany. “While you’re waiting for your turn to get the gamma rays, you think of a lot of things,” he said drily. “I thought a lot about: ‘What was I put on earth to do? What was my calling? What should I do?’”

VDF and Ron Arad present an exclusive video showing the development of Arad’s Don’t F**k With The Mouse chairs – dezeen

VDF teams up with Ron Arad for the video launch of a new series of sculptural chairs – including one that commemorates Brexit – followed by a live interview with the designer at 2:00pm UK time.

The London-based designer and architect created the movie for VDF to explain how he developed the chairs, which were originally supposed to be exhibited at the OTI Gallery in Los Angeles. However, the show was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

New chairs are based on Arad’s classic Big Easy

International Womens Day

Earth Day 2020 Sustainable Fabrics – Global Upholstery Solutions

Eco Fabrics and Sustainability in the Upholstery Industry

It’s plain to see that we are in a growing world and industry where sustainability, recycling and repurposing is at the forefront of projects and is becoming more and more an important credential or specification. With this being the case, the information gathered below will enable us to assist those customers who are required to include such accredited fabrics to their portfolio.

Ybox Offices – Tel Aviv – Office Snapshots

Alex Meitlis Design was tasked to design the offices for Ybox, an entrepreneurial and construction company, located in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The concept was to build a gold box in the open-plan office that created the interest in the large open space without competing with the view.

The box is facing the “living room” an open space with various seating and an active bar serving as the center of the office.

From the living area you can see the developing skyline of Tel Aviv and this view is perfect for a construction company.

We decided to use only natural materials that come from the construction world – concrete, wood, glass and metal (brass).

Surviving The New Normal – LinkedIn Pulse

While it is difficult to predict the future, it seems probable that food delivery will become a more permanent feature in many hospitality businesses. The demand for food delivery has increased and it seems likely that once the government-imposed lockdown is over, many customers will continue to remain apprehensive about visiting pubs and restaurants. This apprehension may well continue until an effective vaccine or treatment for Covid-19 is developed.

Moroso Presents the Multifunctional Taba to Live, Sit, Talk, and Work – design milk

With every design fair and event shelved for the foreseeable future, Italian furnishings brand Moroso just released a new collaboration with Swiss-Argentinian designer Alfredo Häberli – the Taba collection – online. Häberli created the collection of multifunctional seating for public and private spaces as destinations to live, sit, talk, and work. Taba includes eight pieces – a sofa, two armchairs, a bench, and four ottomans – featuring soft curves and overlapping organic lines that embrace comfort and conversation. Each sculptural piece can stand alone but configured together they play off each others meandering curves.

Interior Design Industry: Life in Lockdown – SBID

With lockdown measures extended and social distancing continuing to impact industries world-wide, we’re sharing more industry perspectives from across the interior design profession. SBID Accredited designers and manufacturers provide their personal insights into how they are dealing with daily life and work in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I tweaked a few things” – Seth’s Blog

The easiest way to get a contribution, advice or feedback is to present something that’s 90% done.

If you ask too early in the process, if you’re hoping for conceptual insights, you’ll probably be disappointed.

Style steal – modern desert – Fabric of My Life

The ‘desert decor’ trend has been an undercurrent in interiors for the past few years but has really come to the fore for Spring Summer 2020, so there are plenty of accessories out there just now that can help you achieve the look. The basis for the trend has to be the current obsession with houseplants – in particular cacti – which is certainly one of the quickest and easiest places to start, but I’d also recommend embracing the soft arid tones of the desert (think sun-scorched hues such as warm terracotta, creamy saffron and burnt adobe red), woven rattan textures, handcrafted wicker-style baskets, and chunky handmade pottery and ceramics.

Benjamin Moore releases 2020 Colour of the Year palette – Pippa Jameson

Benjamin Moore releases their 2020 Colour of the Year palette containing ten harmonious hues. The unique group of ten versatile shades, including First Light, ranges from the dark and mysterious, to soft and playful. The palette seamlessly delivers modern paint colour pairings that combine optimism with understatement, a timeless way to lighten up a home and embrace a modern look. For more 2020 paint trends

A brief history of Marcel Breuer’s Wassily chair – Icon

First a student then a teacher at the Bauhaus, Marcel Breuer designed many innovative pieces. His Wassily chair is the most iconic.

Hungarian-American architect Marcel Breuer was known for his innovative furniture design and use of tubular steel. Though he created many pieces of furniture in his time, the Wassily chair is his most iconic piece.

The chair was designed in 1925, inspired by a bicycle frame. It is made of curving tubes of steel and leather slings that create a seat that is ergonomic and comfortable, yet still highly sculptural and minimal in form.

Ten Beautiful Pieces Of Furniture To Spend Your Stimulus Check On – Forbes

In mid-March, congress passed the CARES Act, which set aside funds to give approximately 140 million Americans up to $1200 per adult in a household plus an additional $500 per child under seventeen years old, to help stimulate the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

If you aren’t using your check to stay afloat, purchasing new furniture is a great way to use it. Even when social distancing mandates are lifted, most of us are still going to be spending a lot more time at home for the foreseeable future. So what better way to stimulate the economy than to improve your living space?

The Top Stitch #4

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The Top Stitch

The Top Stitch interior design

Your weekly digest of news in the world of Design, Upholstery, Furniture and Interior Design, brought to you by Global Upholstery Solutions.

The plastic debate: what to consider when changing material supplies – Supply Management

Businesses are under pressure to replace, reduce or remove packaging to fight climate change – but the practicalities are more complex than many ever imagined.

If plastic was invented today, rather than in 1907, it might well be marketed as a new product with enviably ‘green’ credentials. After all, it is lightweight, readily available, affordable and – compared to other materials, when analysed on a full lifecycle basis – can be relatively frugal when it comes to carbon emissions. Instead, thanks to its durability when leaked into the environment, it is almost universally synonymous with pollution.

Managing The Big Risk Of Bringing Your Employees Back To Work – Chief Executive

Every organization is being challenged and stressed by the Pandemic. Every leader is being called upon to lead others through this complex human horror. Many leaders that I talk to are focused on “what” we should do – running lots of financial scenario planning exercises preparing for the “what if’s”. When do we furlough or fire more people? When do we start bringing back people? That is necessary but not sufficient in my view.

Bring Them Back! – Reupholstery Limited

Antimicrobial fabrics are the new normal for hospitality – migrating from the healthcare sector.

As soon as the starting gun goes to get the country back up and running again, wouldn’t it be great to get out of the starting blocks quickly? As someone wise once said, a day lost at the start is a day lost at the end. The sooner your customers start coming back, the earlier you’ll start on the recovery curve.

THE FUTURE OF BOUTIQUE HOTELS -Design Insider

The idea of using “boutique” to describe a hotel category originated in the USA almost 40 years ago. Since then, boutique hotels have evolved from being largely independent owner operator hotels to include branded concepts from larger hotel groups. A combination of consumer desire to seek a unique experience, the power of global hospitality groups to invest in new brands and the ability of developers and operators to secure investment has driven growth in this sector.

Here’s What The Post-Coronavirus Office May Look Like – Forbes

Though much of the world is still under some degree of coronavirus lockdown, one real estate firm has already proposed a way for office workers to mitigate the risk in returning to work through a workspace concept called “the six feet office.”

The Connected Series – Country and Town House

Whilst it may be far from business as usual, it’s so important that we look after not only our friends and loved ones, but our design community and industry as a whole. We’re also of the mindset that if we all come together to work, not as individuals, but as communities looking out for each other; helping with whatever skills we can offer – this will see us through.

Creating a sense of togetherness, community and connectivity for makers, designers and craftsmen and women. ‘The Connected Series’ will be hosted weekly by Country & Town House and by Carole Annett, Interiors Editor, in a bid to keep our design community connected.

Cottonwood Canyon Experience Center is built out of wood nobody wants – Treehugger

Juniper is an invasive species that’s tough to work with.

Whenever we write about wood construction and mass timber, we get complaints about deforestation and questions about whether it is really green and sustainable. This building, the Experience Center at Oregon State Park, may well become our poster child, our demonstration of wood done right.

Virtual Design Festival – Dezeen

This week on Dezeen we launched a Virtual Design Festival featuring a live video interview with Li Edelkoort and messages from architects and designers from across the world.

Virtual Design Festival, the world’s first online design festival, launched this week to help unite and uplift the industry during the coronavirus pandemic.

The event kicked off with a compilation of video messages sent in by scores of creatives from around the world sharing their situations and their hopes for the future.

10 Reasons You’ll Want to Add Geometric Patterns to Your Home Design Milk

Thankfully, geometric patterns are here to stay. Artists and designers continue to come up with fresh designs, and in new and inventive ways, making it impossible not to love them for years and years. If you’re afraid of too much pattern or want to take it slowly, it’s easy to incorporate one or two things to help invigorate a space. If you’re on the opposite end of the spectrum, geometric patterns can definitely cater to the maximalist in you. Read on for 10 ideas on how to add in geometric patterns into your home without going overboard.

INDUSTRY INSIGHT: The meaning of hospitality in a hostile world? – Hotel Designs

Designer Peter Mance, who the director of MAAPS Design and Architecture, takes a thorough look at why design in hospitality will change post-pandemic… 

Me: “Alexa, define ‘hospitality’.”
Alexa: “The definition of hospitality is the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.”

Postmodernism: The flamboyant rejection of Modernism – Icon

Popular between the 1970s and 90s, postmodern architecture featured houses with curving forms, bright colours and humorous ornamentation

Modernism, which was popular in the years after the second world war, was defined by its emphasis on simplicity and the adage ‘form follows function.’ While it strove to create urban utopias and was influenced by the ideas of socialism, postmodernism was nominally unideological but quickly becmae associated with corporations and capitalism.

Working From Home – Banksy

My wife hates it when I work from home.

The Top Stitch #3

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The Top Stitch

The Top Stitch interior design

Your weekly digest of news in the world of Design, Upholstery, Furniture and Interior Design, brought to you by Global Upholstery Solutions.

GLOBAL UPHOLSTERY SOLUTIONS, BLACKSWAN AND PANAZ REMAKE – Design Insider

Global Upholstery Solutions and Panaz have long shared a strong relationship and have collaborated on various projects over the years. They were therefore delighted when Panaz Account Manager, the wonderful June George, visited their team to introduce ReMake, a new piece of design technology developed by Panaz.

WHY THE COFFEE TABLE IS THE SECOND MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF FURNITURE IN YOUR HOUSE – MAD about the HOUSE

I have written before (if not on these pages then in the first book) about how it is not the kitchen that is the heart of the home but the kitchen table. By which I mean that this table, which symbolises where a family comes together to eat, to work, to meet – perchance to row – and, at the very least,  least to talk of many things (but probably not, these days quite so much of cabbages and kings) is the beating heart of the home. It matters not what the table looks like but more that it exists. The kitchen table is where it all comes together and is perhaps, after a mattress and a sofa, the most important piece of furniture you will buy.

Natural Wool Felt Room Dividers From WoOL Amsterdam – Design Milk

Meet WoOL Amsterdam, a Dutch independent label making high-end, sophisticated room dividers that absorb sound and feel so good to the touch. These room dividers are works of art and made from wool felt, a renewable material that fascinated Dutch designer Ingrid Heijne, the founder and art director at WoOL.

Eight egg-shaped buildings from around the world – dezeen

Just in time for Easter, here are eight buildings shaped like eggs, including a golden sauna in Sweden, beach huts in South Korea and a micro home in Slovakia.

THE 50 BEST INTERIOR DESIGNERS – Country & Town House

The C&TH pick of the 50 best interior designers…

This is the only A-Z you’ll ever need, putting the best UK-based creatives at your fingertips, whether you want to commission bespoke cabinetry or an in-home cinema, restore a Roman palazzo or redesign an avant-garde apartment. By Emma Love

More than 60 years on the Eames Chair is still a classic – Icon

A modern take on the nineteenth-century club chair, the Eames Lounge Chair has become a classic.

The Eames lounge chair and its matching ottoman were design by the husband and wife team for the Herman Miller Furniture Company.

For most of their partnership, Charles and Ray Eames dedicated themselves to designing furniture that could be mass produced at affordable prices. They wanted to develop interior design and decor that was accessible to the average American, but didn’t compromise on aesthetic for its price tag. The Eames Lounge Chair was designed as a luxury item, but one that could also be reproduced easily.

How make-shift solutions are reshaping our future – onOffice

The act of making binds together all cultures and all peoples across all time. Making fire, making bread, making tools, making homes – making describes the simple universal acts that have allowed humans to live and thrive across millennia. The word ‘make’ holds a powerful place in our language; make believe, make space, make sense, make progress, make do, make friends, make love.

ACG WARNING ON COVID-19 ONLINE FRAUDSTERS – Anti Copying In Design

The Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG) has joined the Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade (TRACIT), in warning consumers about the risks and growing availability of fake, falsified and substandard medical and healthcare products and medicines. ACG, the UK’s premier anti-counterfeiting trade association, representing over 3,000 international brands, reports a surge in ineffective, fraudulent products that threaten both public health and efforts to stem the COVID-19 pandemic.

Showcase of Gusto – Spacestor

As a San Francisco-based startup that helps small businesses manage their payrolls, benefits and human resources, Gusto is always up to date with the latest trends in work, technology and design. Their gigantic new office in the former Union Iron Works machine shop at Pier 70, in the up-and-coming neighbourhood of Dogpatch, has been designed by architects and interior designers Gensler, with whom we’re very happy to have an ongoing collaborative relationship – and as you can see, it’s absolutely stunning.

Home libraries on trend! – O&A Design

In our digital era, the idea of “real” comes to the fore. People are tired of Instagram filters, idealised images, and e-books. In interior design we can track people’s instinct to seek out the “real” by the growing popularity of highly tactile finishes, natural materials, patterns inspired by nature and the return of real books into our homes. There is something so special and real about the quietness suggested by a wall of books – and of course the smell of old books transports us to another world.

IS ONLINE INTERIOR DESIGN PART OF OUR FUTURE? – Interior Style Hunter

I’ve written about online interior design services before, a few years ago there were a few tech startups that tried to get into the online design market but seemed to have changed tactics. One of them started as an affordable service for homeowners but I see has now pivoted their service and targeting landlords, Airbnb and property developers.

Personally, I think that online design is only just starting, it’s just that the current offerings don’t really work for the audience. These services are currently very cheap – under £200 a room and in some cases, just £75 for a room design. While I do understand that there are some very talented interior designers working for these companies, but at these rates they don’t have enough time to connect with a client, understand and interpret a brief and set about designing and sourcing.

Dyson creates engineering challenges for kids in lockdown – Design Week

Designers working with the James Dyson Foundation have devised a series of science and engineering tasks they say can help keep kids entertained during lockdown.

The initiative, which is made up of 44 Challenge Cards, aims to provide young people with ample stimulation as families adjust to spending more time at home because of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shut down of schools.