Arnout Meijer, a designer in Amsterdam, made this desk lamp that he calls Get Ready for Launch. It’s a minimalist design that neatly mimics the image of a rocket launching off the surface of a planet, presumably on its way destroy Earth with a doomsday device. It’s ideal for workspaces that need inspiration and enthusiasm — via Neatorama
These 1960s Pascal Hausermann-designed bubble houses in Raon-l’Etape northeastern France are on the market. The history starts in the mid-1960s, when a hotelier read about a young architect and his bubble house
concept, which promised affordable dwellings made out of concrete. The result was nine domed houses around a central building. Essentially creating a small village. In 1967 that idea became reality. If you want to be the next custodian of this place, the asking price is €800,000 — via WowHaus
No one seemed to notice him: A dark figure who often came to stand at the edge of London’s Hammersmith Bridge on nights in 1916. No one seemed to notice, either, that during his visits he was dropping something into the River Thames. Something heavy.
Over the course of more than a hundred illicit nightly trips, this man was committing a crime—against his partner, a man who owned half of what was being heaved into the Thames, and against himself, the force that had spurred its creation. This venerable figure, founder of the legendary Doves Press and the mastermind of its typeface, was a man named TJ Cobden Sanderson. And he was taking the metal type that he had painstakingly overseen and dumping thousands of pounds of it into the river.
As a driving force in the Arts & Crafts movement in England, Cobden Sanderson championed traditional craftsmanship against the rising tides of industrialization. He was brilliant and creative, and in some ways, a luddite — because he was concerned that the typeface he had designed would be sold to a mechanized printing press after his death by his business partner, with whom he was feuding.
So, night after night, he was making it his business to bequeath
it to the river, in his words, screwing his partner out of his half of their work and destroying a legendarily beautiful typeface forever. Or so it seemed.
Almost exactly a century later, this November, a cadre of ex-military divers who work for the Port of London Authority were gearing up to descend into the Thames to look for the small metal bits—perhaps hundreds of thousands of them — that Cobden Sanderson had thrown overboard so many years ago.
They were doing this at the behest and personal expense of Robert Green, a designer who has spent years researching and recreating the lost typeface, which is available on Typespec. As Green told me over the phone recently, the Port of London Authority had been hesitant about letting him pay its diving team to search for the lost type. They were actually concerned that I was some crazy bloke looking for a needle in a haystack and throwing a couple grand away,
he laughs.
It’s not hard to imagine how crazy he must have seemed. A civilian offering to pay the city’s salvage divers to troll the depths of the muddy Thames, possibly for weeks, looking for tiny chunks of metal that were thrown there by a deranged designer more than a century ago? Yeah, that’s pretty crazy.
In the end, it only took them 20 minutes to find some — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Photo: Sam Armstrong, courtesy of The Sunday Times
At a scale of 1/1,000, these beautiful little models bring famous buildings to life but can also be fitted into whole blocks or assembled to form micro-metropolises. Available on Shapeways, IttyBlox features everything from stereotypical New York town houses to world-renowned works of architecture, including a lovely rendition of the Guggenheim at a thousandth the size of the original. Illumination from below and different thicknesses of materials above combine to allow these neat buildings to light up at night as well — via Urbanist
Kutarq Studio have designed Carved, a set of solid wood trays that were inspired by the texture left in yogurt when eating it with a spoon — via CONTEMPORIST
Truly meant for children of all ages, Tegu’s range of hardwood toys equally encourage imagination and architectural exploration in adults who aren’t afraid to sit down and build something fun. Their newly released, first-ever themed line of magnetised building blocks, Future Set: Magnetron Solar System, includes an assortment of interstellar blocks, solar panels, multipurpose wheels and even a charging plug
. As with their other products, each is constructed from sustainably sourced FSC-certified Honduran hardwoods with an embedded magnet, and illustrated with non-toxic, water-based lacquers. A latent charm encourages creativity and their want to stick together makes for adventurous assembling — via Cool Hunting
Crane Through Glass originally uploaded by Red Wolf
You might love the records or you might simply appreciate the designs, either way these record label and album cotton bags at Ace Records are a great thing to own. The bags feature designs of either classic labels featured in the Ace Records catalogue or equally classic compilation albums, taking in everything from early R&B, soul and jazz through to early punk and of course, much in-between. Checking all the range out is the best thing you can do. If you see one that’s ideal for carrying round your long players (or a small top-up shop), you can buy any of the designs for £10 — via Retro To Go
A 300m long rainbow underpass in Zhengzhou, China is designed to help drivers’ eyes adjust from daylight to a artificial lighting and back again. Break out the Skittles, it’s time to drive the rainbow! Well, almost… the Cheng Avenue rainbow tunnel isn’t quite ready for prime time — via Urbanist
Architectural Lego artist Adam Reed Tucker has summoned a team of kids to help him rebuild Taliesin West as the largest Frank Lloyd Wright Lego structure in history. The eight by four foot model is comprised of more than 180,000 standard Lego parts. Tucker spent 40 hours researching and studying the project, 120 hours designing and 260 hours constructing the final model. Taliesin West, nestled in Scottsdale, Arizona’s Sonoran desert, was the winter home of Wright and is home of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. It remains one of the most visited Wright sites in the world — via ArchDaily
We suspect they don’t come cheap, but when you see the work that has gone into these vintage car lights for the home by Urban Light Factory, you will perhaps understand why. The company is based in Berlin, turning unrestored old car (and motorbike) lights into working lighting for the home — tripod lights and ceiling lighting. Very eco-friendly, but also incredibly stylish too. All the lights come in wonderful wooden boxes and each light also comes with the custom tools and instructions needed to change a bulb, along with details of the light’s history. All are individual designs and as such, you’ll need to ask for the price of each via the site — via Retro To Go
Second Crane originally uploaded by Red Wolf
Latvian pop singer and model Viktoria Modesta recently released her first music video and became known as the world’s first amputee pop singer. Seen in her video and in promotional shots wearing several cool, futuristic prostheses, Modesta is making a bold statement about not letting such a disability be a limitation, but rather a benefit.
Modesta was born with a dislocated hip and leg, which had a negative impact on her mobility and social life as a youth. She went through 15 surgeries in her country of origin before moving to London in the hopes of superior medical care. She endured several more surgeries in London before opting to amputate her leg, a move which she says changed her life for the better. Now Modesta enjoys being an inspiration to others with physical setbacks.
Visit Victoria’s website, Facebook and Instagram to learn more about her — via Neatorama
The classic Tube map dates back to 1931 and is still an iconic price of work. It is also still influencing designers today, as the Umbra Subway coat hooks show. The hooks are of course based on the diagrammatic map of London’s Underground network and as such, are instantly recognisable, as well as being quite a bold / retro design statement for your hallway. There are two options, a plain black version or the much more eye-catching coloured version. Both consist of metal strips with 10 raised hooks, with each hook able to hold 2.26 kg in weight. Mounting hardware is included too, you’ll be pleased to know. £28.75 is the price online — viaRetro To Go
In the past quarter century, recycling has moved from a new concept reserved mostly to hippies to something most people do, but new variations on the themes recycling and upcycling keep popping up. The newest twist in industrial recycling is Boeing’s new addition to their Custom Hangar
online gift shop. Starting this holiday season, Boeing is making vintage parts from their airplanes available for sale on the website. You can now buy engine blades from various models for $200 to $400, windows from 747s and 767s for $600, a table made from the core of a jet engine for $9,600, the control stick from a P-51 Mustang fighter for $1,250, a full galley beverage cart for $1,900 and similar pieces of air travel engineering and history — via PSFK
JDS Development Group is currently developing Stella Tower at 425 West 50th Street, New York. Much like Walker Tower, Stella is a residential conversion and historic restoration of a Ralph Walker designed art deco office and telephone equipment building into luxury condominiums. When completed, the property’s 51 residences will feature top tier finishes including hand-laid oak flooring, Waterworks fixtures, Nanz hardware, and custom millwork throughout
This Melville Aubin-designed Sunpark 1930s art deco property in Brixham, Devon is grade II-listed and dates back to 1935, when it was but for a Mr GB Jordain. Amazingly, the property is still the possession of the family now, which perhaps accounts for how well preserved this place is. English Heritage described it as an almost perfectly preserved example of a Modern Movement house
. If you love the style this is (and has been for some time) the dream house. The price has steadily dropped over the years and at £550,000 — via WowHaus
If you want something a little swinging and a little sixties on your walls, check out this Funky Flora wallpaper by Barbara Hulanicki. Barbara Hulanicki = Biba and this design is said to be heavily influenced by an original Biba print from around 1962 (although we actually had Mary Quant in our heads when we first saw it). There are four variations to choose from, but we think the more colourful lime green, angering and pink show it off best. The rolls are 10m long and 52cm wide, selling for £54. Samples are available too — via Retro To Go
It is in one of the more affluent suburbs of Melbourne. But even allowing for that, you suspect that this 1930s four-bedroom modernist property in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is still a stand-out build. The agent doesn’t give much detail about its background. They do, however, refer to it as a modernist landmark
and judging by the photos, it is one that has been well looked after and significantly renovated. We know all of that but we don’t know the price, which is on application. We suspect you’ll need to have more than a little something in the bank to secure it — via WowHaus
Broken China originally uploaded by Red Wolf
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