Archive for October, 2011
White Line Hotels Welcomes Villa Flor: THE HOUSE OF NOUVEAU
The arty enclave of Upper Engadin perfectly contrasts the rather glitzy bling of St.Moritz, here mature elegance and intellect has always played refuge to the creative scene, celebrated by artists and writers.
Where better then to build a house of patrician, celebrating a return and what better style than that of the ornate Art Nouveau to echo your shared worldliness and presence.
Restored with a passionate hand, today peacock turquoise, warm ochre and vivid reds cloak the stenciled walls with ornate flowing motifs, which dance across the airy rooms in syncopated rhythm. This is truly a snapshot of the playful Jugendstil with a very clever style intervention borrowed from the 50‘s- all balanced by the solidness of the warm parquet floors.
This is a very richly decorated, irresistibly comfy urban villa that whispers confidence, style and utter sophistication – this is Upper Engadin.
You can find Villa Flor now in (Y)our Hotels.
Bathroom Culture at Roca Gallery
Mention the words “pavillion” and “Barcelona” in the same breath and undoubtedly you’ll think of Mies Van Der Rohe’s magical project erected for the Barcelona International Exhibition in 1929 (demolished in 1930 and subsequently rebuilt by these wonderful people between 1983 and 1986). Whilst I couldn’t help but draw a parallel, this wasn’t actually the pavilion I had in mind when writing this post. Being heavily into interiors and always on the lookout for interesting and unique products, a recent visit to Barcelona lead us to the much talked about Roca flagship building on the Carrer de Joan Güell. Distinguished Barcelona architects OAB completed the Roca Barcelona Gallery in 2009, creating a luminous showcase “representing the company’s past, present and future” over 3 floors. To interpret and convey a brand’s values by means of a building, can’t be easy; an architectural challenge that Borja and Lucìa Ferrater of OAB managed to achieve with impressive grace and eloquence, however. For those not familiar with Roca, they are world leaders in bathroom spaces and very relevant in design and architecture terms for the likes of us who are “in the trade”.
Cabinet Home: Not Your Average Mobile Home
Rintala Eggertsson Architects have created a transportable home that was installed close the MAXXI museum in Rome during 2010.
The house is composed of three units, an ensemble of large ascending steps, each one of which the size of a shipping container that could be potentially transported anywhere. Cabinet Home is a wooden construction with a 10 m2 garden that collects rain water and sun, inspired by the idea of building an ecological one-room house. The aesthetic is minimal, and it opposes the clear exterior that reflects the sun and blends with the surroundings against the dark and shadowy interior that offers shelter for the sometimes-excessive Mediterranean light.
On the ground floor there is a kitchen and a dining room, which open to the garden. On the first level, a living room (or library) with a small terrace overlooks the garden. Finally, on the second level there is a bedroom, with access to the rooftop and a view to the sky.
Sami Rintala and Dagur Eggertsson conceive contemporary architecture as “the theatre of our primeval social and private behavior, fulfillment of our biological true needs, whether we realize, accept and implement this fact or not. Cabinet Home is based on a simple idea of combining three nature elements that are freely there to be used for no one’s loss and everybody’s gain: trees that grow by themselves, rain and sunshine that come rain or shine.”
With this project, the Finnish-Norwegian office is encouraging the use of solar energy and is proposing a model for a discrete use of space and resources in Western culture; with it they consider it relevant to promote the idea that quality of life can be achieved through excellent design and simple materials, and not necessarily through more square meters.
The project was jointly supported by the Norwegian and Finnish embassies in Rome. Whatever it is about the country they come from, Norwegian architects are taking pioneering leaps in blending inside and outside, sometimes nearly erasing the line completely. If you like the look of Cabinet Home, you’ll definitely need to go see White Line Hotels edit Juvet Landskapshotell.
Project data:
location: Maxxi Museum, Via Guido Reni 4, Roma
size: 28, 5 square meter interior + 10 square meter garden
materials: wood; sawn timber structure, board exterior façade, plywood interiors
construction time:16.-26.5.2010
construction team: Sami Rintala, Rintala Eggertsson Arch., Rinchard Barriteau, U2 Arkitekter, Jani Rintala, Tuomalan Tekniikka Ltd, Tony Karlsson, Tuomalan Tekniikka Ltd.Politecnico di Milano: professors: Paolo Mestriner, Massimiliano Spadoni, Giuseppe Cusatelli students: Chiara Cabrini,Clara Ferrari,Veronica Grazioli, Marta Bartolini, Emanuela Baldissera, Alessandro Parise, Giacomo Grazioli, Edoardo Giancola, Federico Zarattini
sponsors: ONYX Solar, Spain – Tuomalan Tekniikka, Finland – Iguzzini, Italy – ACER, Italy – Finnair Cargo, Finland
support:Norwegian Embassy in Rome – Finnish Embassy in Rome
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Contributing Writer: Gabriela Galati
Images: Rintala-Eggertsson Architects
Grizzly Ghouls From Every Tomb, Are Closing In To Seal Your Doom
At the beginning of the month, cycling through a park, I came across a flash mob doing a silent rendition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The movements — and in particular the “raised-monster-hand twist” move — have become so ubiquitous, that it took me about 5 seconds to recognize what they were doing. If that. Now that’s what I call a case for Collective Memory! And maybe even Meme Theory…
With 7 days to go until All Hallows’ Eve, and even fewer until the best parties this coming weekend, you could sit at home with a copy of this cocktail recipe list (you’ve never seen a Martini like an Eyeball-tini!), find the Thriller video on YouTube, and channel some sort of zombie-Tom Cruise from Cocktail – OR — you can just make that the pre-party and head out to some of the more interesting Halloween parties White Line Hotels destination cities have to offer.
In London? Maybe you’ve found yourself strolling down Mare Street and seen the Last Tuesday Society Shop. If you have, then you already know why any Halloween party they’re throwing is probably pretty awesome. Their Danse Macabre is this coming Friday. The dress code: “the beautiful and the damned”. The Venue: a forgotten Art Deco picture palace in Elephant and Castle. Need more persuading? Check out the video on their shop’s website.
In New York? Spend at least one Halloween in your life at the famous vortex of artistic death and destruction that is the Hotel Chelsea. Once again this year you can pull up your bar stool next to the ghosts of Dylan Thomas and Nancy Spungen at the Chelsea Room for a $10 cover charge (and an open bar until 10pm). What night? Halloween itself, of course — the 31st.
In Vienna? Not so into going out drinking and dancing all night? Craving something frightfully refined? Then book for the Halloween dinner at Palais Esterházy. Enjoy a themed buffet dinner alongside music and readings.
Anything but frightening, at White Line Hotels picks The Ampersand Hotel, The Greenwich Hotel, and Hollmann Beletage you can lay your head down in peace.
David Cabra – Analytical Menswear
The fashion industry, despite being easy enough to get involved with, is one of the hardest to be successful in. Yet, regardless of any bleak economic predictions that would advise most people to do otherwise, some still dare to follow their creative dreams. This is the case for fashion designer David Cabra, who, though being aware of the challenges he will have to face to become a successful fashion designer, is driven, talented, and ambitious enough to shake the Spanish menswear industry from the inside.
David Cabra was born in Bogota, Colombia, in 1986. As he became older, he gradually veered towards the world of industrial design, though it wasn’t until 2004 that he decided to explore fashion as a creative art. After watching Helmut Lang’s catwalk on TV, whose collection included the mane of a horse, he truly realised how much creative potential lay in fashion. Two years later he decided to move to Barcelona to study Fashion Design at Felicidad Duce School of Fashion and Design.
He started off, as most designers do, with women’s wear, but soon realised that that was a world that offered perhaps too much freedom. Volumes and shapes are often exaggerated and highlighted, on the other hand menswear focuses on the structure and functionality of the garments. By bending and reinventing established sartorial restrictions, David Cabra is able to bring clothes back to life through a more subtle and analytical eye.
His first collection Monsieur Primitif A/W 2010/11, winner of MODAFAD Best Men’s Collection, was inspired by perennial, colossal icebergs. Similarly to the ever-changing nature of these icy structures, his garments revisit traditional tailoring, materials and details, to present them under a modern, minimalist vision. David Cabra, by employing an utilitarian and vanguardist approach, reconstructs the most basic forms into innovative and functional menswear clothing.
In Barcelona for a few days and want to know more about the life of an emerging designer in Spain? Get in contact with him through his website.
Structured, and highly functional, White Line Hotels edit Hotel Omm has gotten all the details right, but is anything but dry and utilitarian. More like a perfectly tailored suit in an ideal fabric weight, Hotel Omm is a pleasure, season after season.
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Contributing Writer: Fier Management
Photo credits: Manolo Menendez (topmost photo), otherwise, Raul Tejero