Design & Lifestyle Blog

5 May ’11

Designer in the Spotlight | Jassim Al Shehab

Filed under: Interiors — Tags: , , , — Sahar @ 12:45 pm

Kuwaiti’s are most passionate about their food, this is what I learned in the past couple of years of living in Kuwait. The good thing is that they really know what they are doing, their restaurants offer the tastiest and most creative dishes, and the people behind these concepts are extremely talented. This post, however, is about one of Kuwait’s upcoming young designers, Jassim Al Shehab, who has done a great job in two very popular venues so far, one of which is the recently opened sushi place in downtown Kuwait, Tatami.

The restaurant feature a blend of finishes giving an industrial vibe at times, and another mellow ambience and clean cut structures as per Japanese norms.

The exterior of the restaurant was composed of elements that allow the venue to stand out and contrast against the glass structure of the building its located in, the colors are harmonious and soothing. The planters created the restaurants border separating it from the street.

The other project he worked on earlier, was Posh Café, located on Kuwait’s latest popular  Mall 360.

The materials used give a sense of luxury, the colors are brilliantly put together to give a sense of elegance and simplicity at the same time. This has to be one of the most well designed venues in Kuwait in terms of proportions and finishes.

Source

4 May ’11

Leaning Tower of Pisa Now 50cm Straighter

Filed under: Architecture — Tags: , , , — Sahar @ 4:26 pm

 

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site back in 1987, serious efforts to stabilize the monument were taken. The tower was originally constructed over a period of 199 years (1173-1372) and since then was tilting 1mm for every year. The project of restoring the Pisa Tower has been ongoing for the past 20 years, and now it is open to the public scaffolding-free.

The project cost around €27m  and has lessened the tilt by 50cm, making it straighter, yet still with its famous lean. It now stands at 56meters tall at its highest point.

WAN

3 May ’11

Would You Take a Trip Around the Moon For $150 Million?

Filed under: Random — Tags: , — Sahar @ 3:42 pm

 

A trip to the moon and back is not such a far cry anymore and with companies taking the space as a serious tourism destination why wouldn’t people start drawing their plans? Virgin Galactic has announced that it would soon be routinely flying tourists into low earth orbit. Space Adventures however is planning to take a bigger leap with tourist trips around the moon. The company has already sent seven tourists to the International Space Station for a few days. The estimated cost however is staggering at around $150 million, but it will definitely be a weeklong trip that will be ‘out of this world’. Plans are that the project should take off in three or five years.

What do you think? If you had the money, would you do it?

[Luxury Launches]

2 May ’11

Gabriel Moreno Illustrations | Art

Filed under: Art & Photography — Tags: , , , , — Sahar @ 10:00 am

This artist knows what he’s doing, Gabriel Moreno has an exclusive style that has caught international attention. His work has covered various projects such as campaigns, product advertising, and magazine covers. Scroll down to see some of his magnificent work taken from his website.

 

 

 

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17 Apr ’11

Hermès Furniture Collection Finally Revealed

Filed under: Furniture — Tags: , , , , — Sahar @ 4:05 pm

Checking out one of my favorite websites, Yatzer, I came across their post with the Hermès collection in details as revealed in Milan this past week. Most people were looking forward to the final debut of this long awaited collection. In my post about Hermès  Maison, the collection was still vague, with information of their collaboration with Dedar for their wallpaper and home fabric collection.

Well known architects, Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines, designed the exhibition space, the Hermès Pavillion , the furniture however was designed by Enzo Mari, Antonio Citterio and RDAI Studio.

The beautiful exhibition space was mainly made out of cardboard tubes woven with paper. The Pavilion  incorporated  rooms of different sizes resembling the spaces of a home, some private and some shared. When pieces have such simple structure and form, quality is crucial. The luxury prevails through the material used and the fine finishing details of every part of every piece.

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Former Renault Factory Now a Green Roofed School

At a time when children are confined to a world of video games, indoor activities, and less resources for a natural environment, this amazing project comes up to make it up for the lucky students who will be attending this school. Creative School play area painting will also enable different outdoor activities for  students.

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13 Apr ’11

Saudi to Build Tower Twice as High as Burj Khalifa

Filed under: Architecture — Tags: , , , — Sahar @ 4:25 pm

Why would anyone get the impression that all we need in the Middle East is higher towers? In a region whose tomorrow is at stake every second of  today, there are more constructive ways to use the money, creativity, and energy we have. Toppling Burj Khalifa as the highest tower in the world after only 18 months of its opening is not a good enough reason.

Architecture does not fall under “ the bigger, the better” category, architecture is about meeting human comfort in terms of design and function, its about the beauty of volumes and how they serve their role in the best way possible. It was never about requiring half a day to reach your destination going up the elevator, or standing out in an environment that is so incoherent from the actual structure.

Another thing that would make you wonder, why would they choose a name indicating the type of regime at such a critical political period “ Kingdom Tower” ?

The video at the bottom of the post is a more graphic approach of how odd it will look in its surrounding.

So far the press release for the project has not been officially out, but information on the project has been circulating a few sites:

“Kingdom Tower” will be one mile high. It will contain almost 12 million cubic feet of space. It will be part of a larger urban development built to house about 80,000 people, at a cost of almost 30 billion dollars.

In terms of scale, it is estimated that a lift journey to the uppermost level of this 275-floor structure will take 12 minutes, with the Burj Khalifa’s 828m shrinking in the wake of the Kingdom Tower’s 1,609m height. Similarly, the highly celebrated Kingkey Tower in Shenzhen is only destined to reach 441m, while Guangzhou’s Canton Tower stands at 610m high. Should this lofty new building been seen through to realisation, it will overshadow every other ‘tall’ tower in the world and push the boundaries of architectural design in a way many never thought possible.

 

Kingdom City| Jeddah

Source: Singularity Hub and Wan

5 Apr ’11

Open Box House : An Architectural Marvel by A-Cero

Filed under: Architecture,Interiors — Tags: , , , — Sahar @ 10:00 am

 

Architectural icon after the other, A-Cero never refrain from keeping us in awe with the amazing sculptural designs they present. I am really impressed recently with Spanish designers and their works.

The design impact of this Open Box House, as they named it, can not be missed, the open spaces, the minimal use of colors yet strong volumes are what characterized it.  The residence is located on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain and the design is inspired by Spanish sculptor Jorge Oteiza.

The interior spaces are overlapping and overlooking each other. A large mirrored partition serves as a background for a long fireplace, a glass bridge hangs over the living area and is adjacent to a large bookcase.

Natural light is plenty, tiles used are large grey ceramic tiles, furniture used is mainly from Fendi Casa. In the photo above you can see the Elisa chairs by Fendi Casa and the Canova console in black lacquer finish. The sofa is called Domino, also by Fendi Casa.

 

 

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