Cool furniture, design objects and desiderata

[1969]

^ Thanks, yeah I actually dialed in on that fabric a while ago and was looking for the right chair to use it with. There's a couple nice variations of it but I like the 'cabin on the river' vibe of the red.

 

[Lionel Hutz]

I like to look at houses like this but I don't think I could live in one

A Mondrian-Like Craig Ellwood Midcentury Home Hits the Market For $2.95 Million

Built in 1956 by influential Los Angeles–based architect Craig Ellwood, Casa Kundera is currently on the market after a full remodel in November 2018.

www.dwell.com

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I really could. Wouldn't work in my climate though...

 

[Van Veen]

I really could. Wouldn't work in my climate though...

Yeah, I look at all the glass (I’m assuming it’s single pane, too) and think about the utility bills.

 

[Gibonius]

You have to be careful about upgrading from the single-pane too, it can spoil the visual effect unless you get the right product.

I visited some Frank Lloyd Wright properties, and they made the point that FLW didn't believe in double-pane glass for that reason. He wanted as few barriers as possible between the interior and the exterior views. A lot of the windows don't even have frames, they just meld into the walls. It does make a difference, visually, but the livability has got to suck.

I saw a property where they had some kind of anti-reflection coating on all the windows in a MCM design like that. It was stunning, could barely tell there was glass (when they were clean). I hate to think how expensive that would be.

 

[venessian]

I like to look at houses like this but I don't think I could live in one

A Mondrian-Like Craig Ellwood Midcentury Home Hits the Market For $2.95 Million

Built in 1956 by influential Los Angeles–based architect Craig Ellwood, Casa Kundera is currently on the market after a full remodel in November 2018.

www.dwell.com

I sure could.
The Eames House = Dream House for me, bar none.

Yeah, I look at all the glass (I’m assuming it’s single pane, too) and think about the utility bills.

In Los Angeles, not that big an issue, either cold or hot. Elsewhere (including LA) people who can afford these homes probably don't stress over utility bills much.

I visited some Frank Lloyd Wright properties, and they made the point that FLW didn't believe in double-pane glass for that reason. He wanted as few barriers as possible between the interior and the exterior views. A lot of the windows don't even have frames, they just meld into the walls. It does make a difference, visually, but the livability has got to suck.

Hmmm.... FLlW died in 1959 at the age of 91. Double-glazed windows were not really produced (for Pullman train cars first, post-war, ~1945 by PPG) for residential/architectural work commercially until circa 1950/52 (Andersen, Welded Insulating Glass, 1952), first in repetitive-unit towers in NYC etc (the UN headquarters was one of the first US buildings to utilize d-g)., so it's not as if Wright was throwing out d-g windows catalogs right and left (although he likely would have).

I have no doubt that he was not fond of the "further visual interruption" of double-glazed, but since he was a supreme pragmatist I suspect that he "rejected" d-g also and primarily because the available residential-scale, custom-fabricated double-glazed products of the era, in the years he was doing private residential work, especially in his aesthetic and detailing, simply did not provide that significant an energy savings, if any, over single-glazed solutions.

But, people (tour guides, sales persons, etc) love telling FLlW myths all day long. For a truly bizarre experience, visit Taliesin West some time, where they still speak of "Mr. Wright" in such hushed and reverential tones that you half expect him to come strutting around the corner at any second....

 

[Kaplan]

This seems like a perfect opportunity to post this shot from Hitchcock's magnificent North by Northwest.

 

[venessian]

Just imagine what Hitch would have been able to do if Frank had in fact built the "Mile High Illinois"....

Triple-glazed from bottom to tippy-top, no doubt.

 

[Loathing]

I sure could.
The Eames House = Dream House for me, bar none.


In Los Angeles, not that big an issue, either cold or hot. Elsewhere (including LA) people who can afford these homes probably don't stress over utility bills much.


Hmmm.... FLlW died in 1959 at the age of 91. Double-glazed windows were not really produced (for Pullman train cars first, post-war, ~1945 by PPG) for residential/architectural work commercially until circa 1950/52 (Andersen, Welded Insulating Glass, 1952), first in repetitive-unit towers in NYC etc (the UN headquarters was one of the first US buildings to utilize d-g)., so it's not as if Wright was throwing out d-g windows catalogs right and left (although he likely would have).

I have no doubt that he was not fond of the "further visual interruption" of double-glazed, but since he was a supreme pragmatist I suspect that he "rejected" d-g also and primarily because the available residential-scale, custom-fabricated double-glazed products of the era, in the years he was doing private residential work, especially in his aesthetic and detailing, simply did not provide that significant an energy savings, if any, over single-glazed solutions.

But, people (tour guides, sales persons, etc) love telling FLlW myths all day long. For a truly bizarre experience, visit Taliesin West some time, where they still speak of "Mr. Wright" in such hushed and reverential tones that you half expect him to come strutting around the corner at any second....

Secondary glazing has been used in cold parts of the world for as long as glass windows have existed. Maybe the guide was referring to this rather than double glazing.

 

[venessian]

Secondary glazing has been used in cold parts of the world for as long as glass windows have existed. Maybe the guide was referring to this rather than double glazing.

Who knows.
Gibonius wrote this, above:
"...and they made the point that FLW didn't believe in double-pane glass...".
Since I am neither Gibonius, nor "they", nor FLW, I have no idea as to what was said specifically, nor what was intended.

But I do highly doubt that "the guide" was referring to FLlW's opinion on how Norse tribes and/or the Picts and their friends and enemies utilized Anglo-Saxon glass.

 

[Gibonius]

Secondary glazing has been used in cold parts of the world for as long as glass windows have existed. Maybe the guide was referring to this rather than double glazing.

Could be. They didn't much elaborate. I interpreted it as "double pane," but it certainly could have been glazed.

 

[Darkside]

Any recommendations for modern but tasteful living room area rugs? My fiancee is set on Nanimarquina (and there is a sale coming up), but I am trying to steer her towards something much less expensive.

 

[venessian]

Any recommendations for modern but tasteful living room area rugs? My fiancee is set on Nanimarquina (and there is a sale coming up), but I am trying to steer her towards something much less expensive.

5 thoughts (+ a free added bonus thought):
1) Your fiancée has excellent taste.
2) If you can actually afford it (save on other stuff) you really should endeavor to please your fiancée.
3) Nanimarquina rugs are both beautiful and excellent. There is very little being done so well in that "elegantly restrained but wonderfully vibrant" aesthetic. That aesthetic will be current and versatile for decades, and rugs are important memory-stages.
4) Your fiancée has excellent taste.
5) If you can actually afford it (save on other stuff) you really should endeavor to please your fiancée.

I urge you to carefully and seriously ponder points 1,2,4,5 especially.
Far better to share, for years and years, a beautiful NM rug with your fiancée/future wife than to eat cold pizza alone over a second-rate kilim, crying over your ex-fiancée....
HTH.

 

[sugarbutch]

Never heard of Nanimarquina, but clicking through it seems like this is where Ikea get their rug ideas.

 

[venessian]

Never heard of Nanimarquina, but clicking through it seems like this is where Ikea get their rug ideas.

Nani Marquina is the middle (her father, her, her daughter) of three generations of very good Spanish design talent. Rigorous and disciplined, never over-extended.