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It's easy to fall for a pretty package. But when it comes to transportation, Patricia Urquiola and Giulio Ridolfo believe it's the inside that counts. So when the two designers were asked to create an installation revealing the new BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo at this year's Salone del Mobile, the result was The Dwelling Lab, an exploded sculpture in the Kvadrat showroom that aimed to transform the way we think about cars.   MORE >>

It's easy to fall for a pretty package. But when it comes to transportation, Patricia Urquiola and Giulio Ridolfo believe it's the inside that counts. So when the two designers were asked to create an installation revealing the new BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo at this year's Salone del Mobile, the result was The Dwelling Lab, an exploded sculpture in the Kvadrat showroom that aimed to transform the way we think about cars.

Upholstered in a quartet of thermo-welded Kvadrat textiles and lit with bespoke OLED versions of Urquiola's Chasen lamp for Flos, the car forms the nucleus of five conical protrusions that draw onlookers to the roadster's monotone interior. Each exploded surface is covered with suitcases, jumper cables and other gadgets likely found in a car, post-road trip. Inside, the designers sought a user-focused, living-room environment with easily accessible storage compartments fitted to seatbacks-giving new meaning to the mobile home.

The accentuated chamber explores the emotional connection we make with the objects we travel in. After all, it's the vehicle's cabin that protects and comforts us during a journey-doesn't it too deserve our loving attention? bmw.com, flos.com, kvadrat.dk   << LESS

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In a season of discontent, 41 Cooper Square reminds us Yanks what we're capable of. The icon broke ground in '06, before "The Great Recession" was uttered, and welcomed students this fall.   MORE >>

In a season of discontent, 41 Cooper Square reminds us Yanks what we're capable of. The icon broke ground in '06, before "The Great Recession" was uttered, and welcomed students this fall.
 
Likely to achieve LEED platinum status (the first for an academic space in New York), the full-block building by bicoastal firm Morphosis has replaced more than 40 percent of the college's teaching spaces, merging previously divided departments. The building's glass and stainless-steel double skin boosts energy efficiency, while the roof harnesses rainwater and cools the eight levels below. Furthermore, symbolizing the architecture and engineering school's ethos of an accessible education (all students get a full scholarship) are the building's sweeping atrium, flexible labs and transparencies that expose its frantic East Village surroundings. "The design is about intellectual, not material capital," says Morphosis' Thom Mayne. "To influence what students will build 30 years from now…I couldn't ask for anything more."
 
Here, finalist Zachary Bako twists the Cooper into something otherworldly, further pushing the architecture into a work of art. Looking into 2010, let’s keep this spirit of openness alive. The alternative isn’t nearly as interesting. morphosis.com   << LESS

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