cool cakes

i watched a food network challenge yesterday on turning architecturally significant houses into gingerbread masterpieces and watched a guy turn 225 pounds worth of ingredients into frank lloyd wright's fallingwater.



LOVIN lovinsullivans cakes too....they're so cute! [especially the guggenheim and this nest cake]

lovinsullivan


knit cupcakes anyone?

[veganyumyum]

too little, too much

i've been back from asia for two weeks, still trying to decipher my experience in hong kong. the city and the opportunities were GREAT; we got to do a lot of sightseeing on the weekends, stay at the shangri-la hotels in beijing for research all-expenses paid, and get exposed to a lot of new projects and ideas through the international mix of dutch, french, american, and cantonese people. 

for this 6-week project our 6-person team collaborated with the shangri-la, [hotel group in asia] to design a 4-star business hotel room for the future, ending in two groups/projects for the final presentation and an end result i wasn't so happy with. 

what i can conclude though at least from my experience is that group trust is the root of all things, a common vision, the next- once people are too set in their own ways and refuse to compromise, and once people begin to resent one another or make their own agenda, the cameraderie quickly falls apart. [or in more colorful terms, 29-year old french product designers who wear farmer outfits and take frequent 30-minute smoking breaks and emo-ed out cantonese guys who give silent treatments as vengeance are TROUBLE! they are wildly conceptual and propose designs like movable bathtubs and workdesks in framed, wheeled boxes LOL!]

the days are jarringly still now, compared to my stay in hong kong. i'm reverted back to the time before college began, when summers used to connotate glorious free time used to sit around home all day watching tv or going to the mall- when doing nothing seemed like everything. now doing nothing is simply, doing nothing. i've been watching clean house episodes, facebooking, trying to finish up unfinished projects and household chores which've all ended up with hollow satisfaction. i crave good conversation and purpose in life, but most of all i just crave a balance in activities again. i was too busy in hong kong and now i'm too lazy here in LA. ah, but maybe a quick getaway to vegas this weekend will spice things up....0:)

i haven't really updated this thing in a while, partly because i've become majorly burnt out by my workload, and also because my interests have started to shift from just "cool" design which is what i first started this for. this semester i worked on:

• programming and designing a flagship store based on the analysis of the culture and website of a company that didn't have a physical store yet in the US [in my case koziol]
• putting together a LEED document/presentation for the architecture firm working on the new MVR north wing as suggestions to more sustainable building construction
• reassessing the program breakdown/space planning of a four seasons spa and resort in vail
• drafting plans and construction details for a hypothetical A/V conference room in MVR; and lastly,
• analyzing different business strategies by apparel brands and learning about new technologies/materials like mass customization and bamboo fibers.

all of these classes have left me to some revelations: is it worth killing myself for some of these classes? am i not interested enough in design or am i just being put off by some of these boring steps that are simply part of the necessary process? how will what i want to do impact the world?

lately i've been picking up magazines like Wired, U.S. News, Business 2.0, National Geographic. i skip past my once-coveted daily design feeds and magazines to get to new marketing ploys and niche products by brands. and i guess while i'm not necessarily abandoning all interest in interior design [after all, i'm still really looking forward to hong kong this summer for a hotel design program], i'm beginning to pick up a new interest in consumer trends, brands, and product development. what does it take for a product like ipod to reach iconic status? what will it take to turn sustainability/eco-friendly products and methods from trend to lifestyle? how long will this obsession with yogurt and bottled water last? how does the advancement of mass customization influence younger generations? and since when was bratz a popular enough toy to spur the creation of a movie ABOUT bratz??

from now on i'll be branching out a little more. not that anyone reads this anyways, i'm just trying to put some more fun back into a former hobby. some posts about my stay in hong kong, stupid anecdotes, cool products, weird findings, maybe even a little more personal stuff mixed in too. hmm..

dessert chains

is it just me or are new dessert and pastry chains popping up like crazy? usually i'm not one for sweet foods but i can't help but to drool over these. 

pinkberry
the new frozen yogurt craze. i've been craving for more ever since i had some in westwood last january, and the store design made me even more appreciative [the green dot counter pattern, minimalist aesthetic, funky plastic furniture including starck's ghost chairs(!)]. the yogurt comes in either natural or green tea flavor, and actually has the sour taste of real yogurt which compliments the fresh fruit and toppings that are methodically arranged. i can definitely see this blowing up and can't wait until it hits new york.





the taste that launched a thousand parking tickets [la times]
pinkberry website


sprinkle cupcakes
these cupcakes are sickeningly adorable. they look like something i would nibble on at first, then inhale immediately afterwards. the store originated in beverly hills but seems to be opening up stores nationwide in the near future. dark chocolate, ginger lemon, and mocha all sound like pretty good flavors though i think after the icing is put on i don't have much preference, they all look so tempting. i dig the clean lines and natural wood for the display/counter in the pictured store, but there seems something just off to me about it. or maybe it's just the inexplicable paranoia that those precious cupcakes could suddenly fall off the edge or get sneezed on without the glass immediately in front of it.





sprinkle cupcakes website


kyotofu
kyotofu opened up last november in hell's kitchen in new york city as a "dessert bar serving up traditional japanese desserts and cocktails with a modern twist", using ingredients that include green tea, bean paste, and homemade tofu. from the menu online, toasted walnut tahitian vanilla parfait is on the top of my list and hey, perhaps the warm chestnut mochi chocolate cake could be a cheaper alternative to my unfulfilled 2-year craving for nobu's bento box dessert [curse you, generous older siblings and in-laws! gack...i miss nobu's lobster salad too]. hiromi tsuruta's interiors provide a nice backdrop for the food too.





kyotofu website


tisserie
venezuelan brothers morris and ronald harrar have recently embarked on making tisserie the next generation in the pastry/bakery/coffee world. their food looks delicious, including the sandwiches- everything seems delicate and made with care. i think it might find itself quite a cozy niche...the closest chains that are comparable are probably starbucks and au bon pain, both which aren't as known for a big pastry/dessert selection.






new chocolaterie franchise- max brenner line
i read a new york times article a while back on how chocolateries/dessert bars were taking over and becoming one of the next big things. well, max brenner's chocolate by the bald man opened up last year and looks like a sanctuary for serious chocoholics. even though i like it, i'm glad now i burnt out in eating too much chocolate as a kid and now can only handle it in occasional doses. i have to say i was sort of meh about the store. so maybe it was successful in its intention to give it sort of an industrial, old new york undertone with some pop culture references but even this store doesn't quite evoke my sense of lust for chocolate enough for me to be sold.





pics of the store [offthebroiler]
max brenner's site

miwa koizumi

i lovelovelove this artist for her aquatic creatures and would love to get my hands on a piece. part of the PET project (water animals made from plastic water bottles), these were made only using a heat gun, soldering iron, and cutting utensils.


[san pelligrino water bottle]


[poland spring bottle bottom]


[san pellegrino]


PET project

skin obsession

skin seems to be a commonly used term nowadays- here are a couple i've stumbled on that use it:

skins footwear



a relatively new company that has rethought the traditional shoe by breaking it down into two components: the support section "Bone" and the collapsible and interchangeable "Skin" surrounding it that comes in different variations the consumer can by. that way the wearer can keep the fit and structure of the shoe without having to buy a whole pair for a different look. sounds ingenius and plain conceptually mind-blowing. check out the video for a flythrough of the whole concept.



skins footwear site


skin+bone: parallel between fashion and architecture



"Architects and fashion designers produce environments defined through spatial awareness—the structures they create are based on volume, function, proportion, and material. Presenting the work of international fashion designers and architects, the exhibition examines themes such as shelter, identity, tectonic strategies, creative process, and parallel stylistic tendencies including deconstruction and minimalism."

i visited this in january at MOCA in los angeles and even though the theme did highlight the interdisciplinary trend between fashion and architecture, it didn't seem to connect as well as i would like it to. the exhibit just didn't seem to visually mirror common techniques and concepts both fields used...rather it approached them individually. anyways, the exhibit was still impressive in bringing so many avantgarde designers' works under one roof. viktor and rolf's russian doll collection which built layers of clothing onto a model into a shelter-like cocoon, preston scott cohen's vision for the new Tel Aviv Museum of Art, issey miyake's Pleats Please collection...the list goes on.

SKIN + BONES Gallery Guide

live within skin



a living wall panel inhabited by plants and used as a biofilter for indoor environments by improving air quality and reducing energy use. while the idea isn't new, it looks cool and quite an untacky, user-friendly green installation.

greenmeme living walls

los angeles river gets a new makeover

i first saw this at the venice bienalle last fall and was really wowed by the possibility, but i didn't realize it could be implemented so soon! the LA river, the channelized concrete waterway which has pretty much been neglected and regarded as unsafe and ugly over the past few decades, has finally been given a chance for a new makeover that would turn it into a recreational and communal space. LA officials released the master plan for its revitalization a few days ago and while it's costly and ambitious, would dramatically improve the urban landscape and bring back value into the river itself and surrounding greened neighborhoods. los angeles has never had a public space such as nyc's central park and needs one that serves as a retreat from city life and a common destination. the master plan includes 4 major goals: revitalize the river (improve water quality, make it publicly safe/accessible, restore the ecosystem), green the neighborhoods (create a continuous green riverway, incorporate open space and recreation into neighborhoods), capture community opportunities (educational/public facilities), and create value (develop housing, employment opportunities, commerce). check out their website; though the renderings are kind of bad the proposal is still put together well. this one hits close to home for me. as much as the LA river has been recognized famously as the concrete channel in countless movies like the racing scene in Grease...that man-made atrocity of a channel needs a new face.


la times article: costly LA river plan brings a raft of new ideas
la river revitalization master plan

iPad: architecture docks in to the iPod craze

omniyat properties recently announced its future launching of projects in 2007 starting with iPad, a 23 story residential and office building with a slim shape and smooth, metallic surface with rounded corners [think iPod mini]. designed by james law cybertecture international (hong kong), the building will sit at a 6 degree angle on top what resembles a docking station and is rumored to be installing iPod docks into each unit upon completion in 2009. first the artificially built palm islands hotel, then the hydropolis underwater hotel, what will developers in dubai think of next?



via uaepropertytrends