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Design

Swiss Doll House

12 Jan 2010
Culture, Design
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If Heidi didn’t have to go live with her grandfather in the hills of Switzerland, she’d live here. I recently discovered this fantastic dollhouse on The T-Cozy, a wonderful blog written by Susan. The exquisite miniature chalet belongs to her friend Leslie whose grandmother bought it for her at FAO Schwatz in the 1960s. I want one, and I’m thinking that it’s about time I get my own dollhouse out from my own grandmother’s attic ASAP.

See close-ups of the interior including tiny four poster beds, a hand painted wardrobe filled with fluffy blankets, and a framed painting of an Alpine peak at The T-Cozy.

Maps and More: Gift Wrap for the Wall

05 Oct 2009
Culture, Design
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San Francisco Map/Gift Wrap

My mom is an enterprising lady. Recently, she opened a shop on Etsy where you can buy sheets of gift wrap depicting intriguing images. Some of them feature reproduction vintage maps of cities like Paris and New York, while others depict natural history charts of butterflies, selections of fine cheeses, and assortments of “Sweet Treats.”

She gave us this map of San Francisco when we moved out to the Bay area in August. It dates from 1909, just three years after the devastating earthquake of 1906

See her collection at Futopiaco on Etsy.com. They can be easily framed and look great dry mounted!

Star Dome

17 Jul 2009
Art, Culture, Design
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There’s an art exhibition opening tonight in LA that I sure wish I could go to. Drew Denny and Kyoung Kim made an eight-foot-high geodesic dome, wrapped it in a quilt of recycled paper, and installed a hand-cranked bulb that projects constellations on its interior. It’s the first project in their series called Reclamation, which presents works that look at the environment without harming it, while employing kinetic energy generated by people. Planetarium sounds like something every kid needs. Could Denny and Kim’s planetarium be the new back yard tree house? Or why not turn it into a tent? Sleeping under the stars never sounded so good.

The Bauhaus Celebrates 90 Years

26 Mar 2009
Architecture, Art, Culture, Design, History
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{Photo by mhobl (off for a while)}

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the legendary art and design movement called the Bauhaus. It was 1919, World War I had just ended, and Germany was in a sorry state. Everyone was eager to move on and build a better future. Unfortunately, as the 1920s came to a close and the Nazi party rose to power, the nation took an ugly turn. Though the school was forced to close, and many of its founders emigrated, the legacy of the movement lives on in the furniture and buildings that surround us today. But what’s so fascinating about the Bauhaus is that it went beyond mere aesthetics, delving into philosophical and societal issues.

I recently spoke with the Dessau Bauhaus Foundation’s new director Phillip Oswalt on the occasion of the anniversary. Read my article on The Local to see what he had to say.

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