www.tsunamiglassworks.com

At the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein, the Greater Amman Municipality is creating a new venue for performing arts and culture in the centre of Amman.

The architectural expression for the new performing arts centre has been inspired by the magnificent ancient city of Petra, explains Zaha Hadid and continues:

- Petra is an astonishing example of the interplay between architecture and nature, as well as the intricate complexity and elegance of natural forms. The rose-colored mountain walls have been eroded, carved and polished to reveal thePetra is an astonishing example of the wonderful interplay between architecture and nature, as well as the intricate astonishing strata of sedimentation. We have applied these principles to articulate the public spaces within the centre, with eroded interior surfaces that extend into the public plaza in front of the building.

www.zaha-hadid.com

The space is dominated by sculptural lightness as the wall hung clothes rails are combined with the visual playfulness and geometric puzzle of the floor. A lack of weight, as almost everything is suspended from the walls, allows space to dominate over furniture in spite of the relative intimacy of the rooms. Rhomboid tiles in crafted ceramic bounce light in through well-proportioned windows, providing the crystal clarity daylight of a gallery.

On the first floor the sculptures are more refined in form and coloured white. Colourful furniture in felt and ceramic stacks and unstacks like a miniature city.

Amongst all this sculptural and material playfulness is the collection of finely cut clothing in elegant fabrics.

The project was executed by Jolanda Sbrana from J+R Studio.

Lolita is avaliable as a table lamp, floor lamp and suspension lamp.

www.moooi.com

- To design one settee is difficult enough. To design another one for a company for whom you have already designed one – that’s even trickier. After Moël (2007), which belongs to the ‘all-foam’ family of seating, I wanted to take a completely different approach: a settee lifted from the ground by a simple, fine structure which supports a comfortable seat.

On her inspreation behind Ruché she says:

- I was, at the outset, inspired by swing seats, the kind of rocking seats which one brings out in the garden in summertime, made from tubing and fabric, which possess a lightness I like very much. Like them, Ruché combines rigidity and flexibility, with airy looks and sparing use of materials.

Ruché’s structure is in solid beech, either stained or natural. Upon its slim legs rests a thick mattress with distinctive quilting, a kind of boutis stitch or padding made using a cross-hatching of interrupted seams.

www.ingasempe.fr

The Swedish design company Offecct presents its new table Snowflakes, designed by the Swedish trio of architects Claesson Koivisto Rune. Snowflakes is the world’s first furniture to be both mass produced and unique. Made of Corian, the table is made by using advanced computer software. In this way each table is unique. A poetic and innovative concept.

- It began when I saw fabulous photos by the nineteenth-century photographer Wilson Bentley at a trade fair, explains Eero Koivisto. He photographed snow crystals for forty-six years! I became fascinated by his work and studied his book, which was published in 1931 and contained pictures of 2.000 different snowflakes.

The aim with the Snowflakes table is to achieve the same variation as that found in real snowflakes. A computer programmer developed software that is connected to a milling machine. The machine cuts out the table top precisely according to the instructions of the design team. In this way, the table is machine made but no two tables are alike because the milling program is changed every time within certain preset parameters. For instance, the table always has six points and the same diameter. Snowflakes is available in three different heights in order to increase the possible variations and usages. Every table top is unique.

The architectural firm of Claesson Koivisto Rune created the Snowflakes concept. Together with Offecct’s design department, the trio tested various types of material and developed the table system. This year CKR is nominated in the category of “Designer of the Year” in the prestigious ELLE Decoration International Design Awards in Italy. So far in 2010 the trio has won four international awards, including “Good Design 2010” and “Wallpaper Design Awards 2010”.

Sunday was created by designer Martina Carpelan together with Frost Produkt after being invited, by the Norwegian design magazine Design Interiør, to create a lamp within the timeframe of a week. It may be used as a bedside table or in the hallway, in the chalet or in the toilet – or actually anywhere you may need a light and a shelf combined.

A number of news for 2010
This year, the exibition will take place from Tuesday to Saturday, and has thus expanded to include one more weekday. Other news this year is the hall A which has been rebuilt and extended by 10 000 m². All exhibiting companies will have a new location and the Guest of Honor lounge, which this year is designed by Sir Paul Smith, will be located in hall A. The Fair will also look completely different with a brand new layout.

Extra focus
This year’s fair also puts an extra focus on architects, interior designers, buyers and store personnel, and has therefore arranged directly targeted seminars and exibitions, for instance the exibition Learn and Earn, Seller and the material exibition/workshop “Let’s do it!”.

I´ll start off by showing some photos of the new Godiva flagship store in Tokyo. Behind the interior design is Wonderwall, and they´ve painted and decorated the store so that it appears as if chocolate is dripping of the walls and ceilings. Yum!

Nice inspiration for the Christmas season too…

Photo by Kozo Takayama