Would like …

… to be sitting here.

Neutra House photography by Julius Schulman

The universe surrounding AESOP

Always amazingly tight boutique concepts at Australian skincare brand Aesop‘s stores.

VMan’s Scandinavian summer

The next issue of VMan#18, which will be on sale in Europe late May, is dedicated to the Danish underground scene. It promises to delve into the lives of artists, musicians, architects and anarchists from Copenhagen’s (quote) “burgeoning creative scene” … we can’t wait to see it! No doubt there will be some  familiar faces, as (contrary to popular belief) (that was ironic!) Copenhagen is veeery small … nonetheless, we excited to see how they are all portrayed. Here is a sneak preview from a series of photos Hedi Slimane has taken here called “Youth in Revolt”.

20-year-old artist Victor Nuno by Hedi Slimane

Details

Beautiful details from Stella McCartney’s boutique in Paris. Created by architects APA London … more of their work here.

Vitrahaus

Recent addition to the furniture manufacture company Vitra’s campus in Germany is the Vitrahaus built by famous architects Herzog & de Meuron. The house functions as an inspirational showroom (or several actually) for the furniture, which is arranged in different style genres. Beautiful building!

All images from Vitra.com

Cecil Balmond

Astonishing geometric visions by Sri Lankan architect Cecil Balmond. Read more about him here.

Images via designboom.com

SEOUL: Dominique Perrault’s ‘Université féminine d’Ewha’

In Seoul they value education with an immense intensity. In 2008 EWHA Womens’ College, located in the center of the campus district, welcomed the brand new building designed by acclaimed French architecht Dominique Perrault. Maybe you are familiar with his national library buildings ‘Bibliothèque nationale de France’ (1989-1995) located in Paris. Mr. Perrault’s buildings hold a certain poetry and warmth, even though they are characterized by many straight lines and steel + glass structures. He often includes nature in form of unusual internal forests or rooftop gardens. Take a look here

All images from perraultarchitecte.com

Glass work

Really nice staircase wall in gradient coloured glass panels. Done by Peter Saville Studio in collaboration with architect David Adjaye for Danish texile producers Kvadrat’s (relatively) new showroom in London.

Photos by Ed Reeve via Dezeen

Shigenobu Twilight – The scent of Radicalism

In the beginning of 2009 Anicka Yi (artist) and Maggie Peng (architect) introduced their perfume Shigenobu Twilight. The scent is based on cedar wood, both in the bottle design as well as the key fragrance notes. But most important: This perfume has the Japanese, female terrorist Fusako Shigenobu as main inspiration. Fusako Shigenobu was the infamous founder of the Japanese Red Army, who carried out various attacks around the world in the name of world revolution. She was on the run for more than 30 years before she was captured and imprisoned in 2000.

More about the perfume here

Archigram

Archigram (architecture + telegram) was an avantgarde group of architects making their impact in the sixties. Mostly known for their thoughts and conceptual models more than actual buildings, they still inspirere with their cartoon and Beatles inspired visions of megastructures and walking cities. Some would say that Europe’s largest museum of modern art, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris has it’s architectural roots in the Archigram-mindset – allthough it doesn’t move.

Walking City in New York, 1964 © Ron Herron, Archigram. Courtesy Ron Herron Archive

Plug-In City, City Synthesis, 1963, Archigram/ Dennis Crompton.
Conceptual model made of metal rods and wire, plastic and paper.
Courtesy of Archigram Archives

Plug-In City, Max. Pressure Area Section, 1964, Archigram/ Peter Cook.
Enlarged print from original ink on tracing monochrome drawing.
Courtesy of Archigram Archives