m i d s t r e a m ?

S U R P R I S E !

A bonus for you all!
Yes - I know - it's been only two weeks since the last issue, 4•5. My dilemma is what should this number be? I suppose it will have to be 4•5-1 - make sense?
Speaking of sense(s) - I may come again to my senses and not repeat this folly. Unless, of course you all want me too. So, if you do, then you must send an email to: michael@DesignReview.International and in the Subject field, type:  STOP! Don't Stop!
Okay? If I do not receive at least 50 positive replies for this mid-month issue it will likely be the only time we do this.  Let's see who's listening/reading out there. . . . .

On a related note, this is a part of a greater experiment. The hosting provider through whom DR•I is published has recently developed a pretty cool newsletter function - and it is by using the newsletter link that you will be reading this issue now. Enjoy!  

I LOVE furniture! I know I don't showcase a lot of it - probably because there is either far too much sameness or lack of fresh design thinking. But when I come across something that is fresh, different - striking - then it will appear in DR•I. This chair is from a company, DMITRIY....and this model is called the ZERMATT swivel chair. 
What do we like about it? a beautiful simple form/shape, wonderful proportions - a luxe tailored appearance. Would be perfectly at home in a living room, a hotel room or an executive office. 
What would we change about it? I'd provide the option of a matching ottoman/footstool - and you know - you just know, it should be round with a muffin top .......
What do we not like about it? The price - at $4125.00 (USD) each it is way outside almost anyone's  budget.

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Dmitriy & Co is a modern furniture and upholstery atelier dedicated to timeless design and exquisite craftsmanship. The brand’s history of producing bespoke furnishings can be traced back to the Lower East Side of New York, where artisanal mastery was hard-earned over three generations. The compulsion to design and create by hand serves as a vehicle of artistic expression and pays homage to an age-old craft that remains embedded in our culture.

The company’s latest collection pushes the boundaries of aesthetic innovation. New technologies coupled with new ways of seeing things drive the language of form in unexpected and sublime directions—a warm modernism that is at once familiar and wholly new.

And for much the same reasons we adore the ARP chair.
Very elegant, very simple, very expensive.

​At $4250.00 (USD) - what can I say?

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This slideshow is rather interesting because it shows how a curated selection of artwork, in the same setting, can really change the mood and timbre of the space. Some of you - mostly those who were students of mine - will remember something I tried to imbue in you when it came to fine residential interior design ........ when you work with a client in their home you have two primary responsibilities - the first is to be as good an interpreter of your client as possible - the second is to strive to be a 'mood architect'. In that sense, mood, is the sixth, or seventh, sense...... wonder how many of you can list all the others. And so, study these photographs - you can pause the slideshow - and ask yourself 'How has this painting modified or changed the mood?'. You may surprise yourselves.

S I G H !

Doesn't this just compel you to - s i g h ?
It does me. . . . Man, I could sit/lie/snuggle down - right here - for days on end.
When I worked for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines in Miami, my first apartment was on the rooftop of a six storey building - right on the beach - in Hollywood. Yes! I would walk out of my building and literally be 6 feet away (across the Broadwalk)  from the sand of the beach. And since my living room window faces east, I spent hours and hours just staring out at the Atlantic Ocean. Many an early morning was spent watching tramp steamers traverse the horizon.

​SOUTH KINGSTOWN BEACH HOUSE, RHODE ISLAND
Quarantining might be a little more bearable if you were held up in a private seaside sanctuary like this South Kingstown Beach House. Situated on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, the contemporary cottage boasts a boxy form clad in timber planks. Its interior takes on a reverse-level layout, placing the three bedrooms on the ground floor and the communal areas above. The open living space features a kitchen and sitting room with painted beadboard ceilings and oak beams while floor-to-ceiling glazing highlights the coastal views. Step through the sliding class doors and enjoy the ocean breeze or retreat to the back porch for sunset drinks overlooking Green Hill Pond.

Such a gem! Sited between Charlestown Beach & Green Hill Pond, with panoramic Atlantic Ocean views to Block Island, Charlestown Breachway and beyond, this truly unique, custom-built home is seaside perfection!

Of course, it's a bargain at $2,500,000.00 USD. Do you think the ZERMATT chairs might find a suitable home here?

T W I S T Y  / T U R N Y  -  round 'n round she goes. . . . . . so cool! EE Stairs company are brilliant innovators. They always rise to the challenge put in front of them by madly crazed architects, designers. This is an example of absolute purity of form and of form following function!

Staircase at One Bank Street in London

Asymmetrical Ribbon Staircase at One Bank Street London
Design: tp bennett, Adamson Architects
Location: One Bank office tower, Canary Wharf, Isle of Dogs, east London, England, UK
The design of the 730,000 ft2 One Bank office tower at Canary Wharf is unusual in two ways. Developer Canary Wharf Group’s base-build architects, KPF, produced a receding convex main elevation which sits on a cantilevered lower segment. This bold architectural geometry takes an even more dramatic turn – several turns, to be precise – inside the building. Here, tp bennett, Adamson Architects and EeStairs collaborated to produce a remarkable asymmetrical ‘ribbon’ staircase linking three floorplate balconies.
      ....... the full article is here.

To me, this is exciting architecture - bold, imaginative, trail-blazing.
​A wonderful articulation of a vision that actually makes great sense architecturally and structurally.

OMA's CMG Qianhai Global Trade Center aims to blur boundaries
​between building and cityscape

​A new mixed-use development in Shenzhen, China designed by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) ambitiously pushes the "traditional boundaries between building and the urban context." 

OMA's CMG Qianhai Global Trade Center project is described as a compressed "Micro City" that the firm believes will be an example of "a tower, a cluster, a neighborhood, and a city."

The clustered volumes aim to visually and physically connect two main towers, a cube-shaped volume in the center, and a lower building complex all into one harmonious development. 

From an article in Archinect by  Madeline Amhurst ~ Georgia Tech Campus (Historic) Housing Renovation

The KODA House : : A wildly hyped 'Loft' tiny home will be available in the US soon.

​Koda will begin shipping the Koda Loft, the company's tiny movable home, to US customers this summer.
The Koda Light can be moved on a trailer in one piece, though a crane is required to fit the home into place.
The 310-square-foot home has a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and upstairs bedroom.

Estonia's Koda will begin shipping the Koda Loft, the company's tiny movable home, to US customers this summer.
Koda, which is a part of Kodasema OÜ, said it received constant messages from US clients requesting that the company deliver its movable tiny home overseas. The positive response from prospective customers prompted the company to do just that.
Koda has satellite offices in Europe and Canada and is now focusing the majority of its production and sales on the Koda Loft.
The Loft's steel-reinforced timber frame allows the movable home to be lightweight and environmentally friendly, according to Koda. At about 11 tons, the wooden loft is half the weight of the Koda Concrete, the company's concrete movable tiny home.