urban taster

Singaporean hotelier Yen Wong’s latest outing in Hong Kong is a decidedly opulent premise, filled with old-world charm. Designed by Seyhan Özdemir and Sefer Çağlar of young Istanbul-based design firm Autoban, 208 Duecento Otto delivers ‘rustic Italian cuisine from a New York perspective’. Yum.

A men’s club left to rot over 40 years and brought to life by a daring gentleman. A great story of restoration and guts and lots of love for the old world charm. This is one stunning home. via Yatzer

photo © Robert Rausch of GAS Design Center, Image Courtesy of The New York Times.

RDAI was tasked with the latest Hermès boutique in the previous swimming pool of the Hotel Lutetia in Paris. Their solution of beautiful handcrafted wooden ‘huts’ with a flowing stairway leading into the shop is beautiful, immensely crafted and perfectly befitting of Hermès. via Contemporist

A real store in actual real existence, the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies stocks top quality goods for everyday monsters, and the monsters in all of us. We Made This took the idea, and executed a perfect old-world apothecary with hand-stuck labels and painted door signs. The most interesting part of this store? Behind a cupboard lies a secret stairway to lead up to a writing school for kids, called Ministry of Stories. The store is actually a fake front for a writing centre where kids aged 8-18 can get one-to-one tuition with professional writers and other volunteers. Born out of an idea of the 826 literacy project by Dave Eggers, this is one project that is perfect all over, inside and out.

A beautiful, mechanical way of producing pulsating rainbows on your floor… by Troika for Swarovski

What a stunning way to light up a spiral staircase! speirs + major eschewed the usual and expected chandelier and instead went with a modern “lighting shaft” that uses fluorescent tubes to great effect. via designboom

Viennese/Croatian design collective Numen / For Use has created a web cocoon only out of packing tape, all 117,000 feet and 100 pounds of it. Drawing inspiration from a dancer’s movement across the space, the resulting web is strong enough to support visitors climbing into and all over it. via Fast Company

I love Tobias Putrih and his amazing body of work, spanning all areas of art, architecture, sculpture and design. He has quite an amazing ability to find the commonest of materials and being able to turn them into alluring pieces of beauty.

Beautiful porcelain lamp by Dutch designers Vibeke Skar and Ida Noemi Vidal.

Luciano is quite the maverick when it comes to amazing colours and illustrations that just simply work. Simply beautiful infographics as well, in his, frankly, stunning portfolio of work spanning quite a few disciplines. His installation proposal is my favourite.

You want to look every bit like the mad scientist you are, so when chandelier shopping, you are naturally drawn to the Bacterioptica of course. Madlab crossed petri dishes with optic fibers, just to make it that much stranger.

Canadian design studio UrbanProduct has some ‘wall treatments’ inspired by the sensuous sand dunes and manufactured in three materials; ceramic, wood and concrete. via Contemporist

Tribe Studio Architects created this little interesting “light fixture” for a temporary restaurant in Sydney. Reminds me of chinese incense, in a good way! via Contemporist

Bright colours and ethnic patterns! How very Patricia Urquiola! via Contemporist

I always love the colour of copper, and being able to tile an entire floor in this beautiful material for mere cents? Brilliant! via Re-nest

You must have read about Apple’s iPhone 4 antenna issue, but have you seen the awe-inspiring test labs? Wow. The fact that the circular one is called the Stargate Chamber? WOW!

Beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful beautiful.

Beautiful. via Gizmodo

Situated in southern Amsterdam, this beautiful house designed by i29 Architects is so simple yet structured and I am completely in love with the fragmented cupboards. via Contemporist

In a bold stroke a genius, MSK Design Group of New York gave The Vasken Demirjian Salon a bold, instantly recognisable roof filled completely with white lampshapes, interspersed with red ones. The result is one that is a visual treat, and helps soundproof the other wise noisy hairdryers.

A new boutique hotel, The Club, in the center of Singapore, designed by the ever hip Ministry of Design, with illustrations by Wynlyn Tan. Some how this one misses the mark for me, as far as Ministry of Design goes. Everything seems a little bit too contrived, and not pushed far enough. Thoughts? via Contemporist

Colin Seah, Design Director says, “Searching to ground the hotel in the context of Singapore as well as the historically rich conservation area of Club Street and Ann Siang Hill, we drew its inspiration from 2 sources.”

“The first is Singapore’s colonial past, which we have made modern tongue-in-cheek references to through art installation like features such as an larger-than-life statue of Raffles with his head in the clouds as well as through some key furniture pieces and artifacts.

The second inspiration was drawn from the area’s popularity as a remittance center for turn of the century Chinese immigrants where hard earned money and wistful letters were sent back to the homeland. We have taken the memories of these exchanges and created features that hint of this legacy in the rooms of The Club, where the modern day nomad and the nomad of yesterday cross paths for a moment.”

via Splendid Willow

This DIY project over at design*sponge caught my eye. What a ‘bright’ idea! *nudge nudge*

Part of the Pantone Universe Campaign, Pantone has decided to start being hoteliers and got Michel Penneman and Oliver Hannaert to design “the hotel of colors… showcases the color of emotion with a distinctive hue on each colorous guest floor.” My one questions… is colorous a real word or just made up marketing speak?

By simply installing lights into the back of cupboards, Jean Nouvel manages to transform the notion of cupboards being used to hide things away, into one that makes a of feature of the mess behind the doors.

Lots to say about The Wapping Project, a restaurant cum art space located midway between the City of London and Canary Wharf and situated inside what was once The Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, but take a look at the tree! Wow!

Keen observations of daylight filtering through the windows, casting trapezoids on the walls, inspired designer Daniel Rybakken to develop his light series to mimic nature, or in this case, even improving on it. via Yatzer

This is as simple as simple ideas goes. A clean white minimal spaces needed some spicing up, and designer Elding Oscarson designed a wallpaper made up of an image of stacked magazines (hopefully issues of Wallpaper*). The result is something almost patchwork like from afar, and beautifully quirky and mind-blowingly intelligent from up close. via Dornob.

What a delightfully french restaurant! I would sit here forever, and ever… sighs…. via Yatzer

Reminiscent of Shigeru Ban, Japanese firm Suppose Design Office and their cardboard tube shop in Hiroshima, Karis. Via Dezeen.

I love wood. I love it everywhere. Parliament , a design outfit based in Portland, thus have one of my most loved interiors of all time, filled with reclaimed wood from all over. And a pool table? I am sold! via Contemporist