Dollhouses have come and go in many shapes and sizes - but most of them have been stuck in the last century or even before that.  The most popular styles were Victorian, Colonial or Classical.  The modern era has sadly been largely ignored.  Until now.

Modernistas and Minimalistas - rejoice!   Danish design house, Minimii, has recreated a very modern and minimal dollhouse that is a replica of the villa of famed designer, Arne Jacobsen.  The 1928 villa - stark white, spacious, and minimalist - is reproduced at 1:16 scale and ready to be furnished with matching modern furniture like Jacobsen’s Egg chair.

Its sprawling interior and minimalist white color make it friendly to many different design ideas and only limited to a child’s imagination.  For more information take a look at the Minimii site.

Trust James Dyson to come up with the bladeless fan.  Dyson, designer extraordinaire and the inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaners, has come up with a different method of blowing air to your face.

Using a turbo-charged motor, pressurized air is forced through a narrow aperture and accelerated along the ring-like structure. This creates a jet stream that sucks in the air from all around the fan and multiplies the air flow, hence the name “Air Multiplier”.

Without blades, the air flow doesn’t have the usual choppy effect and travels smoothly to fan your face.  The minimalist ring structure also results in a sculptural effect - a beautiful addition to any tabletop.  Take a look at the Dyson Air Multiplier at their website.

The Vipp Collection at Design Within Reach

Ever since first laying eyes on a Vipp refuse can, I was in love. The Danish company’s cans are unmatched in their combination of aesthetic appeal with functionality - sharp lines and neutral colors with an easy-to-clean finish and a wide rubber foot pedal. It helps that they have been hand-constructed from quality materials since the company’s inception in 1939.

This month, Vipp is once again teaming up with DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS) and Design Within Reach for CAN IT!!!, an effort to raise awareness and funds. They have asked a group of significant artists, designers, entertainers, and celebrities to transform Vipp bins into art objects, with amazing, and amazingly varied, results.

The final bins are on display at the DWR Tools for Living Store at 142 Wooster Street in Manhattan until October 28th, and are available for advance bidding. On the 28th, the celebration gala and final auction hosted by DWR, Vipp, and DIFFA will take place at the DWR flagship store at 110 Greene Street, with proceeds going to DIFFA’s important work. Bidders will be invited to this otherwise private event.

I had a chance to visit the DWR Tools for Living store last night, and was truly impressed with the bins and the store (which I learned from delightful salesman Steve has only been open a little over a year). If you are in the area, I recommend a visit!

Here are some of my (somewhat biased) favorites:

Jes Gordon

Avi Adler and John Baldessari

David Rockwell

Cole Garett and Yves Behar

All images ©Vipp via If Its Hip, Its Here. More information and images are available there.

You’re just about to drop off to sleep in your darkened bedroom, when you’re stuck by a sudden need for just one more sip of delicious tap-water. And, no longer a six-year-old, you can’t just call for Mommy. You reach for the cup on your night stand, knocking it over into the lamp, setting the bed on fire… well, okay, maybe it’s not that disastrous.

But wouldn’t it be really, really cool if you had a cup that was also a night light?

Now you can.  Just by taking a look here:

http://www.litecup.com

How do we measure the passage of time? Digital numbers changing, hands on a clock turning, shadow on a sundial?

How about ink spilling forth from a bottle?

Get a load of this “Ink Calendar” by Oscar Diaz. He is really one of the most inventive, interesting designer/artists we’ve encountered lately. He’s in London.

Here is his own explanation of it, from his website:

“The ink is absorbed slowly, and the numbers in the calendar are “printed” daily. One a day, they are filled with ink until the end of the month. A calendar self-updated, which enhances the perception of time passing and not only signaling it.

The ink colors are based on a spectrum, which relate to a “color temperature scale”, each month having a color related to our perception of the weather on that month. The colors range from dark blue in December to, three shades of green in spring or oranges, red in the summer.

The scale for measuring the “color temperature” that I have used is a standard called ‘D65’ and corresponds roughly to a midday sun in Western / Northern Europe.

The “Ink Calendar” was developed for “Gradual “, an exhibition featuring works, which were evolving during the exhibition time at the London Design Festival 2007.”

See more of his very cool work here: http://www.oscar-diaz.net/

One of the students at the Sheffield School of Interior Design found this very cool, very useful-looking organizer for design projects, in which you can keep paint chips, fabric samples, and work your way through a design project. Could be a really useful assistant to the Sheffield Complete Course in Interior Design!

How do we measure the passage of time? digital numbers changing, hands on a clock turning, shadow on a sundial?

How about ink spilling forth from a bottle?

Get a load of this “Ink Calendar” by Oscar Diaz. He is really one of the most inventive, interesting designer/artists we’ve encountered lately. He’s in London.

Here is his own explanation of the Ink Calendar, from his website:

“The ink is absorbed slowly, and the numbers in the calendar are “printed” daily. One a day, they are filled with ink until the end of the month. A calendar self-updated, which enhances the perception of time passing and not only signaling it.

The ink colors are based on a spectrum, which relate to a “color temperature scale”, each month having a color related to our perception of the whether on that month. The colors range from dark blue in December to, three shades of green in spring or oranges, red in the summer.

The scale for measuring the “color temperature” that I have used is a standard called ‘D65’and corresponds roughly to a midday sun in Western / Northern Europe.

The “Ink Calendar” was developed for “Gradual “, an exhibition featuring works, which were evolving during the exhibition time at the London Design Festival 2007.”

See more of his very cool work here: http://www.oscar-diaz.net/

One of the great jewelry designers we mentioned recently has two shows coming up: Emanuela Duca will be at the Craft Expo 2009 at the Guilford Art Center in Connecticut July 16, 17 and 18, and then she’ll skedaddle to Seattle (well, to Bellevue, Washington, but “Bellevue” doesn’t rhyme with “skedaddle” ) to the arts fair at the Bellevue Art Museum July 24, 25 and 26

More info:

 http://www.guilfordartcenter.org/

http://www.bellevuearts.org/

Continuing the theme of art and wood from the previous post, at the Uptown Art Stroll this weekend, the Stylehound came upon the work of Michelle Bernard, who makes jewelry out of ceramic and colored stone, and sometimes wire, too. The necklaces are big, strong, earthy pieces. It’s unique, eye-catching stuff that seems to have emerged directly from the natural world.

This ring reminded me of our previous post about the work of Emanuelle Duca’s rings.

Check out Michelle Bernard’s work here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6923129

And her blog, which will alert you to upcoming gallery presentations and art fair gigs:

http://www.thewanderingpebble.blogspot.com

This just in from The Sheffield School of Design’s own wedding planner, Wedding Belle: the site of Emanuela Duca has an amazing range of styles, each distinctive, interesting. Wedding Belle likes this one best, the Musica Engagement Ring:

And The Stylehound loves this funky, twisty tied up metal ring, which makes her think of twisty branches of a climbing fig or something equally exotic.

And there are more designs of rings, necklaces, you name it, at Emanuela Duca’s website at  http://www.emanueladuca.com.