Category Archives: Design

Christmas 2022 Views: A Design Tour Of A 17th Century Palazzo In Venice

House & Garden (December 16, 2022) – Cook and author Skye McAlpine welcomes us into her 4,000 square-foot Italian apartment — part of the 17th-century Palazzo Gradenigo — just off the Grand Canal in Venice. Layered in history,

Video timeline: 00:00 – Inspiration: “It’s imperfect perfection” 02:00 – Living Room: “It’s where the real Christmas moment happens!” 05:20 – Kitchen: “I love the way that food brings people together” 07:50 – Breakfast Room: “It feels like a chocolate box…” 08:53 – Dining Room: “It feels very ramshackle”

Skye McAlpine’s Venetian sanctuary maintains plenty of the palazzo’s original details, such as the 18th-century fresco in the living room and the decorative flowering of rocaille in the breakfast room. As we’re guided into the light and airy kitchen that is set apart by its high-beamed ceilings, Skye McAlpine reveals a staple festive treat… a snowy panettone cake from her cookbook ‘A Table For Friends’. In the grand dining room, Skye’s dinner table is layered with a mixture of small plates over larger plates from her ‘Tavola’ tableware collection, which is inspired by ‘la dolce vita’ or ‘the sweet life’. The snowy panettone takes centre stage as it is served on a cake stand which towers above the rest of the festive treats, to complete her “over-the-top” Christmas table.

“Life is slower here. It’s unchanged, it’s like a time capsule,” McAlpine explains as she contrasts between her life in London and the Venetian way of living. “I think that’s part of the charm, it really is like stepping back into a different era”. Watch the full episode of Design Notes with Skye McAlpine, as we tour her slice of an Italian palace that is expertly decorated for the Christmas holidays.

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Design: AI-Generated ‘Gaudí’ Home Appliances

AI-generated series redesigns vibrant household appliances in gaudí aesthetic

designboom (December 11, 2022) – Visual storyteller Marcus Byrne envisions regular household appliances in Antoni Gaudí’s architectural aesthetic using artificial intelligence image generator software. The graphic designer re-imagines everyday objects drawing from the famous architect’s vibrant intricate designs.

The twentieth-century styles such as neo-gothic, art nouveau, and modernism that characterize Gaudí’s designs are reflected in the AI-generated images through vivid colors and free-flowing coral-like shapes. The digital art series are illustrated through the process of combining popular text-to-image software, Midjourney, and Photoshop for additional editing. 

Homes: Interior Designers Transform Same Bedroom

Architectural Digest – We gave interior designers Lula Galeano, Laura Hodges, and Alvin Wayne a photo of the spacious bedroom – then asked each of them to create a design for it in their particular style, however they pleased. Three artists, one canvas, each bringing something different to space. See which designer comes closest to creating the bedroom you see in your dreams.

Cover: The Architectural Review – December 2022

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The Architectural Review December 2022 issue: Whether it’s a house, a room or a collection of objects, homes are the imprint of the people who inhabit them. Described as the ‘detritus of life’ by Sam Johnson-Schlee in this issue’s keynote, the remnants of our daily lives can say much about who we are, while the possessions we choose to display around us say more about how we want to be seen.

Charles Jencks and Maggie Keswick | Anupama Kundoo | Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky | João Batista Vilanova Artigas | Laurie Simmons | Kochi Architects Studio | Ekar Architects | Atelier Tho.A | Chat Architects | Fernanda Canales Arquitectura | Brillhart Architecture

Very few people have the resources to realise the house of their dreams, yet the results can be extraordinary. From the London home of Charles Jencks and Maggie Keswick, which is a manifestation of their postmodern fantasies, to the local materials and construction techniques of Anupama Kundoo’s Wall House in Auroville, this issue revisits houses designed by architects for themselves, and sometimes their families. Also celebrated are the winning projects of the 2022 AR House Awards, featuring innovative and intriguing dwellings from Mexico, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Bahamas.

Art & Design Reviews: The Best Book Covers Of 2022

Fast Company Magazine (December 5, 2022) – The best book covers of 2022 as chosen by the best designers in publishing.

[Cover Image: MCD x FSG Originals]

TERRAFORM, DESIGNED BY CHLOE SCHEFFE

Selected by Alicia Tatone

“This cover feels simultaneously classic and entirely new. It’s slightly reminiscent of 1970s science fiction covers (albeit much more restrained), and yet I’ve never seen anything quite like it. That custom type! That illustration! Is it a world? An eye? Something else? All of the above? As a reader, I don’t typically gravitate toward sci-fi, but this cover is so compelling that it made me immediately want to buy the book.”

[Cover Image: Knopf]

NO LAND IN SIGHT, DESIGNED BY JOHN GALL

Selected by Henry Sene Yee

“There were so many eye-catching covers this year, but the one that constantly stood out for me because of its stunning simplicity, beauty and mystery was designed by John Gall: No Land in Sight. In a sea of gorgeous covers exploding with kaleidoscopic colorful backgrounds, with elements twisting and intertwining, with the title and author type set in sans-serif condensed fonts, Gall’s cover was refreshing for its clean layout, tasteful typography, elements that are balanced and non-overlapping, in an austere monochromatic palette. Timeless.”

[Cover Images: Picador]

MRS. DALLOWAY & THE HOURS, DESIGNED BY PABLO DELCAN

Selected by Grace Han

“The whole package is stunning and smart—words I use a lot to describe Pablo Delcan’s works. The covers evoke introspectiveness and intimacy in such a beautiful way. Everything from the type to the flower placement feels considered and intentional. I love how both sides mirror and work with each other visually and conceptually.”

The best book covers of 2022

ASCESIS, DESIGNED BY DAVID PEARSON

Selected by Jack Smyth

“This cover is a feast of dualities: both a figurative scene and an abstract texture; a figure seen far off in the distance and a marbled paper viewed at almost 1:1 in scale; a formal, rigid, block colored layout, and a big, expressive interruption in the middle. The slightly muted colors are so refreshing, especially in a year when we’re reaching peak ‘pop,’ and David shows us here that you don’t need neon Pantones or massive type to create a big, bold, absorbing cover. I love that the type is almost pushed to the peripheries by the sprawl of the illustration, as if it’s something that’s happened over centuries; it makes everything feel massive in scale. Also, the silhouette of the figure is from a photo of the author, which is a perfect Pearson point of detail! There are worlds existing in this book cover, and I find it very easy to get lost in them.”

Top Design Fairs: Walking Tour Of Design Miami 2022

VernissageTV (December 2, 2022) – Design Miami 2022 in Miami Beach, Florida, presents the 18th edition of its design fair. Design Miami features 50 gallery and Curio exhibitions. This is a walkthrough of the show, which features works by designers and artists such as Arthur Elrod, Jean Royère, Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Jeanneret, George Nakashima, Drift, Andile Dyalvane, and Lin Fanglu.

Aquarium Design: Sea World Abu Dhabi (2023)

The B1M – ABU DHABI has built some of the world’s most striking construction projects. And it’s not done yet. Work is underway to build a record-breaking aquarium, one that will blow all the others out of the water.

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago holds about 19M litres of water. Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China holds 49M, and is currently the world’s largest – but when Sea World Abu Dhabi completes, it’ll likely contain a whopping 58M litres of water. That’s the same as 23.2 Olympic pools.

Designing and building a tank this big poses an extreme engineering challenge. It has to withstand immense water pressure, let in the right amount of light for tens of thousands of species to survive and immerse millions of visitors in an underwater world.

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Los Angeles Architecture: Inside The Broad Museum

Dezeen – Architect Elizabeth Diller explains how The Broad Museum in Los Angeles was designed to feel “extremely welcoming” in the next instalment of Dezeen’s Concrete Icons series produced in collaboration with Holcim.

The video features The Broad in Los Angeles designed by Diller’s studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, a three-storey museum that houses an expansive collection of contemporary and post-war artworks. Speaking to Dezeen in an exclusive video interview filmed at the Diller, Scofidio + Renfro office in New York City, Diller explained how the building was designed to feel inviting to visitors with a porous facade that allows light to be gently diffused into the gallery.

“It doesn’t really feel like a traditional museum,” Diller said. “There’s no sense of authority. When you step off the street, no one tells you where to go. There’s no information desk, there’s no admissions desk. You don’t pay, it’s free. It feels extremely welcoming.”

Museum Exhibits: ‘Objects Of Desire – Surrealism And Design 1924 – Today’ (2022)

Dezeen – Curator Kathryn Johnson explains the story behind surrealism and its impact on design in this video Dezeen produced for the Design Museum about its latest exhibition.

Titled Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 – Today, the exhibition features almost 350 surrealist objects spanning fashion, furniture and film. The exhibition, which was curated by Johnson, explores the conception of the surrealist movement in the 1920s and the impact it has had on the design world ever since. It features some of the most recognised surrealist paintings and sculptures, including pieces by Salvador Dalí, Man Ray and Leonora Carrington, as well as work from contemporary artists and designers such as Dior and Björk.

the Design Museum – “Surrealism was born out of the horrors of the first world war, in a period of conflict and uncertainty, and it was a creative response to that chaos,” Johnson said in the video.