SleepBox is a contemporary lounge/sleeper made from sustainable Hi-MACS material. Designed for in home or office, the furnishing provides a comfy surface for lounging, or an interior hideout for napping. The inside, lined with leather cushioning would be a great cave to escape to after a heavy lunch or after a long day of work!
“The project was designed by Caspar Lohner at the Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design [CAAD], Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich.”
Remember those brilliantly put together illustrative paper ads and art displays designed by Moscow-born illustrator and artist Yulia Brodskaya that we happened to featured on our blog a few months back? Well she’s at it again and we couldn’t wait to showcase her newest piece. Her talented ability to merge together the art of origami, textile painting and collaging has proven beneficial in allowing her to create her own signature of memorable works filled with stunning imagery overflowing with bold graphics and colors. Spotting one of her newest pieces “Loves Doves,” a collage made from strips of colored paper glued onto a surface, I immediately was take aback by the incredible amount of depth and dimension that was incorporated into the works by the various use of shades and hues. The image, a rather compelling picture of an elderly man surrounded by doves, seems to almost jump out at you off the page. Oddly enough every time I see this picture my mind drifts to the Mary Poppins scene of “Feed the Birds.”
Have you ever imagined how much easier it would be if slides replaced staircases in your house? Well let us take you back to the days of sliding down your stairs in a sleeping bag, and make this dream a reality. House of Slide, designed by Japanese studio Level Architects, is perfect for small children as the Tokyo-based three-story house is connected by slides. For grown-ups, though stairs connect the floors on the opposite side of the house. Living areas are on the first floor, and lead out to an enclosed terrace that doubles as a ball pen for the kids. Overall, the house is definitely a place where little ones can make memories!
Check out more of Level Architects’ portfolio
American painter Cayce Zavaglia has recently began to take on an all together different medium of choice for creating impressive lifelike portraits, wool. The amount of detail in her workings is undeniable as the realistic pieces are threaded using a multitude of colors and sewn together with precision to give the impression of tonal value and depth. The images are quite complex and it’s a collection, currently consisting of fourteen pieces, that I would love to be able to study up close and in person.
” Initially, working with an established range of wool colors proved frustrating. Unlike painting, I was unable to mix the colors by hand. Progressively, I created a system of sewing the threads in a sequence that would ultimately give the allusion of a certain color or tone. The direction in which the threads were sewn had to mimic the way lines are layered in a drawing to give the allusion of depth, volume, and form. Over time the stitches have become tighter and more complex but ultimately more evocative of flesh, hair, and cloth.” – Cayce Zavaglia 
25 year-old Olivier Rousteing is taking over as creative director for the 66-year old fashion label, Balmain. When Rousteing’s predecessor, Christophe Decarnin recently stepped down, the young, albeit talented designer was left with a heavy load to carry. But never fear, he definitely delivers! For Balmain’s Spring/Summer 2012 fashion line, Rousteing brings modern, androgynous flare to the runway. “Mixing the tailoring of Mexico and the glamour of Vegas” is how Olivier describes the new direction, citing his inspirations as being Oscar de la Renta and founder Pierre Balmain himself. Classically chic button downs, gold embellishments, leather separates, floral prints, and even a casual denim are magically all cohesive in the upcoming line. I would definitely rock all of these pieces!
It’s a dramatic collection of colors entitled Aqueous Fluoreau that’s all together incredibly visually stunning. The intense colors look like an explosion of sorts, echoing out into a colorful cloud of smoke. Taken by artist Mark Mawson, the images are brought to life through the application of underwater ink and a clever use of photography. The vibrant ink takes on somewhat of a sculptural appearance and I just can’t seem to look away!
Check out this very unique and functional book case designed by Hyunjin Seo from the Seoul-based design group Kam-Kam. Entitled The Motion, the book shelf doubles as a giant rocking chair, so those lazy days of lounging and reading are all the more merrier. Quite the focal piece addition to any sitting room, The Motion combines two pieces of furniture that otherwise would have taken up double the amount of space. Throw a cushion on that baby, give me a good book, and I’ll feel like I’m 5 again, rocking myself to sleep!
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Through books you can escape to foreign lands and enjoy the scenery of sights you may never actually be able to physically occupy. These books, used by artist Guy Laramee, do the same thing, just in a slightly different way. Taking old books, dictionaries and encyclopedias, he uses them as the bases for these stunning landscape carvings. Who would have thought that with the help of a book you could see other worlds without even reading a word? From rocky hilltops to plush greenery and plateaus, his works have a way of drawing you in and captivating your imagination much like that of a good book.
“…I carve landscapes out of books and I paint Romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are.”
