Will Design Within Reach survive the downturn?

An interesting saga of "pure" design in Fast Company: "The Rise and Fall of Design Within Reach" is worth reading in this age of authenticity. Will the company survive their attempt at knocking off their lifeblood designs or not is the question. A tough call in this downturn, as they return to their roots, after the investors fired the CEO who brought in shameless knockoffs.

Man Space continues to take on more importance

I recently discovered The Smart Set, an independent online magazine generously supported by Drexel University."The Smart Set is published for people who enjoy reading, and enjoy thinking about what they read. The Smart Set feels that what unites its readers is their intellectual curiosity, and this cuts across age, gender, income, and education level."

I have found quite a few amusing pieces to contemplate there. This week there is a piece called "A Room of one's Own" about those all-important man spaces that have found their way into our homes and culture. This is a trend that will continue to grow despite the current economic climate.

I wish that I were half as clever as Paula Marantz Cohen, who writes regularly. My favorite piece is her take on the International Contemporary Furniture Fair: "Perused Furniture." While I never miss this show, as it is important from a trend perspective, I have often had some of the irreverent thoughts that she expresses so well. At this year's ICFF, I though about her article as I gingerly dropped myself into a clever looking chair - with trepidation and instant regret. How the hell was I going to get out of this thing? Getting out turned out to be about as attractive a proposition as my trying to get on a horse. Definitely not a pretty sight!

Affordable, Energy-efficient, Attractive? Modular Home

The press has, of late, been enamored with contemporary modular homes. As I mentioned in a previous post, they will become interesting when they become affordable. Clayton Homes recently introduced their affordable, energy efficient "i-home" (will Apple be suing? No, because "i" stands for "innovation, inspiration, intelligence and integration.") at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. (Available in two packages: $74,900 for the 723-square-foot and $93,300 for the 1,023-square-foot unit.) The interior is every bit as attractive as some of the expensive homes, but the outside still looks like temporary restrooms in an urban highway rest stop. (While the good looking one is under construction) We are in the 21st century, why the continued reliance on the cold and foreboding 50's modern idioms?

After affordability, I would include emotional livability as a requirement for the success of this concept. We may use rest stop restrooms and loved the original MickieD's as iconic, but we don't want to live in either one. (Even Walter Gropius's house is a museum, not a home.)

The Intelligent Kitchen: The e-House

Kitchen trends to come are showcased here in this on-going laboratory for building science designed by Michael McDonough. He is a pioneer in sustainability in the built environment. His kitchen features a loft-like aesthetic with lots of natural light, beautiful light fixtures and integration with the out-of-doors. The e-house is a high-performance website-controlled building, and was developed with a team of engineers, scientists, environmentalists, and over 100 manufacturers.

Disney House of the future...very "Twilight Zone"

It is interesting to contrast this 1957 version of Disney's "House of the Future" with today's. Product placement is certainly not a new idea.

More musing on ICFF 2008

I took the pictures of HansandFranz stools for their wonderful collection of colors, but walking the sterile Bernhardt Design space I was left in a quandary. Above to the left is a collage of fabulously and shamelessly decorative furnishings from young entrepreneurs showing - often for the first time at the show. It seems corporations are commissioning the same sterile looks that those of us "of a certain age" have been seeing our entire careers. Does the future of design really hold more of this? We do live in a time of "anything and everything," but I can't help but be more inspired by the more hand-crafted looks presented by the entrepreneurs rather than the machine-age modern also still prevalent in the Italian booths at ICFF. I do think it is time for a change.