Posts Tagged ‘Eco Living Room’
Sustainable Design For Everyday Living
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Sometimes when I sift through design magazines and marvel at spread after spread of elaborately laid out living rooms; an overdose of crystal and glass and heirloom sculpted figures, I do wonder whether these are homes where people lead busy, everyday lives and where children play or just museums filled with collectibles?.
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To me, a great design is one that works its way into our life, in a manner that’s both practical and beautiful. This is one of the reasons why some of the best contemporary designs are created in such a way that you can make it a conversation point in your living room and use it for your everyday needs..
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See the Santo Media Tower. If you have a den or an entertainment area in your living room this is ideal. You can store your equipment and CDs and DVDs and adjust the tower according to your needs. This is sustainable design that you can play with and that truly suits everyday living. Media stands can have multipurpose usage when it comes to today’s somewhat small apartment spaces..
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Choose an elegant, wood finished media stand and you have space not only for your television but also a display area for your books or artifacts if required.. |
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Eco Living Room, Home Entertainment Center, Contemporary Furniture
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Doshi and Louis Kahn – Sustainable Design Life
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Moving from Srilanka, I made a long due visit to India. I have been meaning to do an architectural tour esp. on the work of Mr. BV Doshi. Being modern and far-sighted does not always mean going off the league. This probably has been the mantra of visionary architects like Bal Krishna Vithaldas Doshi. I dedicate this blog to this well-known figure in Indian architecture. His work is inspiring for its sheer originality, sustainability, India ness and greenability. Born in Pune, India in 1927, he is an alumnus of the J. J. School of Art, Bombay. He was appointed as a senior designer on Le Corbusier’s projects at Ahmedabad and Chandigarh in 1950. Doshi worked closely with Louis Kahn and Anant Raje, when Kahn designed the campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. In 1958, he was a fellow at the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
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B.V. Doshi started his private practice in 1956 at Ahmedabad, known as Vastu-Shilpa, followed in 1962 by a firm called the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Environmental Design. He also founded and designed the School of Architecture and Planning in Ahmedabad. Doshi worked for a partnership firm known as Stein, Doshi & Bhalla since 1977. Over the years Doshi’s sustainable architecture has gained momentum, he masters the adopts principles of modern architecture within the Indian context. It is what makes his thoughts on environment and urban concerns relevant. One of his key strengths has been architectural scaling and massing, and his designs are marked with a well-defined sense of space and community. Doshi’s architecture provides is a gateway to modern Indian architecture.
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His work is a fusion of contemporary vision merged with old form. Much like his office building Sangath. In his words, “Sangath is a design laboratory where professionals from diverse disciplines are invited to explore new visions, concepts and solutions integrating arts, crafts, engineering and philosophy of life. Sangath to see that each individual in the coming millennium is benefited from its visions and design solutions”… well, we are with you…
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Dining Table and Chairs, Eco Living Room, Contemporary Furniture
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Geoffrey Bawa and Sustainability
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Last year on my visit to Srilanka, I had the chance of witnessing the work of the great Geoffrey Bawa. It was one thing to read about his architectural aptitude (and see his work on paper) and quite another to actually see what it means to tie modernity within the roots of a rich architectural culture. Unique to his work, one of his earliest buildings, a courtyard house built in Colombo for Ena De Silva in 1961 is an excellent example of this merger.
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Bawa has fused elements of Sinhalese domestic architecture and effortlessly blended it with concepts of open planning, indicating that an outdoor life can be equally viable on a tight urban plot.
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Some of his prominent buildings include the Bentota Beach Hotel of 1968 which was Sri Lanka’s first function-based modern resort hotel that looks into the needs of tourist with a rare sense of place and continuity. And it’s awesome! Then the famous Parliament house that is a spectacular sequence of copper roofs floating above a series of terraces rising from the water (an artificial lake). The Ruhunu University near Matara is again a masterpiece showcasing a matrix of pavilions and courtyards, mastered with a strong sense of theatre across the rocky hills with a look out over the Southern ocean. The Kandalama, another unique hotel amidst austere jungle around a rocky outcrop was amazing; and so was the Lighthouse at Galle which got destroyed in Tsunami 2004. Bawa also designed hotels in Bali and Bintan, I was told, and a few houses in Delhi and Ahmedabad, and a Cloud Center for Singapore.
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I missed the house he designed for the Jayawardene family in 1997 on the cliffs of Mirissa, leaves me with something to come back for, a country as scenic and beautiful as some of finest architectural wonders (Bawa)works….the thought makes me smile…again…
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Eco Living Room, Outdoor Furniture, Modern Furniture
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Milan Highlights—AntiDiva
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More on Milan Show, I abs. loved the Janitor, eight rung ladder. The ladder equipped with a brilliant light bulb and short hanging switch at the very top, a ticker that allows the climber the time to think about use of energy consumption.
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The next in focus is the designer furniture store AntiDiva. AntiDiva’s Fluetta and Bloob won the Young design award in earlier Milan Furniture Shows. A baby of Maurizio Giodani, I think the Confident grabbed attention as a fine piece of furniture. A great one-piece structure frame construction in Pine, the squares are homogeneous, and the effect is stunning.
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The structure uses polyurethane padding with a polyamide velvet support. Seat and back in polyurethane foam can be filled with sterilized duck down (great for people allergic to synthetic fiber, like myself) or regular acrylic fibers. Looks like the thing for hotels, office receptions and contemporary homes.
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On modern living room furniture, the au courant Sally is an armchair that strikes as highly sophisticated design. The swivel-based chair in satinized stainless steel, the internal frame in metal with injection of flexible and polyurethane Doow covered with a polyamide velvet support. Choice of upholstery—removable fabric or leather—made my day—just a look at the ultramodern design.
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Tukama is a fantastic sofa designed by Francecsa Donati. A fresh breeze of air away from linear designs with petty deviations here and there, this evolutionary piece of furniture rocks! This curved sofa had many breathe in and notice. If space is not a constraint, group interactions and eye-to-eye contacts become effortless (thanks to the great design details). And we so need innovations in the sofa segment…. it is a well-timed change.
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There is Tukama and a full circle Mikama…a concept in luxurious seating, each of the contemporary sofas offers optimum comfort….call it innovation at its best. The cushions been filled with polystyrene and waterlilly! The removable covers are available in fabric/ leather.
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Leather Living Room Furniture, Eco Living Room, Modern Furniture
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