06/12/08
Text: Christine Noblejas
If you flip through my piles of Dwell magazines, you'll notice a trend of dog-eared pages occurring in the "Products" prologue to the rest of the magazine's editorial articles and architect profiles. I do eventually get to the meatier pieces on sustainable cities that appear in later pages, but putting those product pages in the beginning is like serving desert before the main course. Call it my guilty pleasure, but I can't help but salivate at the beautifully crafted furniture, the candy colored kitchenware, or the elegant vase-du-jour.
So when Dwell revealed that they were going to cover over 55,000 square feet with their choices for modern design, I started counting down the days until I could stroke and ogle the lovely modern products I had only seen in 2D. Here's rundown of a few of my favorites things:
Architecture/ Prefab/ Landscape Design: By far the most impressive section in the Dwell Exhibition showroom, Dwell managed to construct this section as a small cul-de-sac of full-scale, pre-fabricated structures. The group that received the most attention was LA's pre-fab favorite Marmol Radziner and their steel-frame, customizable, factory-built, deliverable modules. My eye wandered down the street, particularly at the notched plywood design of Gregg Fleishman's Comeback Cube, a playful example of Fleischman's playground modules that are constructed without the use of a single nail. The pre-cut panels are delivered in flat packages with simple assembly instructions for fitting together the slotted, puzzle-like pieces.
Fleishman uses the same building strategy for his more adult efforts, including his DH1 model, designed for hurricane relief. I was also romanced by theNomad Yurt Ecoshack , a circular, fabric tensile structure that looked more like a Burning Man festival hut than anything else. I could easily imagine some mary j smoke circles wafting out of the shack's oculus.
But stoner references aside, the simple structure was marketed as a venue for outdoor fetes, a chic pool house of sorts, which its clean design could easily accommodate. Personally, I will continue to fantasize about having the structure as a mini party fort in my loft.
While I enjoyed these inventive redefinitions of pre-fab, I was humorously befuddled by HOM's "Escape in Style" Series. Despite its simple materials (wooden paneling and an aluminum roof), the luxuriously spacious floor plan and countless patios seemed to defeat the modest principles of eco-friendly design.
My biggest complaint is function. Who and where would you ever use this part-log cabin, part-resort? It seemed to be out of place in any setting, and to overcompensate, HOM used ridiculous printed scenic scenes as the landscapes outside their windows.
Note the creepster children playfully hiding behind the forestry in the accompanying images. Anthem Web fashion contributor, Stacy Saunders and I couldn't help but chuckling at the production of such an ineffectively produced wilderness site.
Furniture/ Accessories: Frankly, I was under whelmed by this section, especially knowing the amazing design that Dwell showcases within their publication. I was hoping to see more conceptually rigorous design, but I suppose Los Angeles vendors are to blame. The city's furniture and product designers simply can't hold a candle to most European counterparts. Nonetheless, I was glad to find a few more design shops to add to my ever-dwindling list, which is down to OK on Third, since Fitzsu in Pasadena has closed shop.
I satisfied my craving for great chair design upon visiting Ford Brady's booth. Their chair trio included an interesting stainless steel wire spin on a plastic poolside classic, an ingeniously proportioned wooden block chair formation and a cast aluminum silhouette chair with organic cut outs.
I was also treated to some of those nifty European designs at Huset's booth, which handpicks Scandinavian design to showcase at their Santa Monica boutique. I especially enjoyed their Adam and Eve illustrated dishware, which somehow managed to be biblical and fun at the same time.
I was also charmed by Wilkerson Furniture's homage to television's first incarnation, with their updated, slim walnut casing with speaker slits.
While I approved of Wilkerson's appropriation of sixties design, I was unbearably turned off by the Case Study inspired, Skate Study House―a literal translation of classic modern furniture using the molded plywood forms of skateboards.
Granted, I get the thought process: a low brow meets high brow mixture of California's modern design legacy with SoCal's legendary underground sport. But this undercooked design scheme by an Etnies Shoe designer is much too one-to-one for my taste. All they did was take the classic shapes and proportions of the untouchable Eames lounge chair or the Noguchi table, and replace what they could with parts from a skateboard. What's most disturbing is the fact that these pieces cost just as much as their original muses. The Eames Lounge Chair and ottoman has a current (on sale!!!!!) listing at Design Within Reach for $4,049.10, while its Skate Study counterpart is $4,595.00 at retail. I don't know who they expect to prefer their novelty rip-offs over the timeless classic, but I suggest they stick to their day jobs and bloated looking skate shoes.
