Thursday, August 14, 2014

Design Details No. 25 - Concave Ceiling Lights, Finland...


Concave hallway lights 'carved' straight out of the ceiling. A Finnish design doing 'the Droog' a few decades before such an approach/ sensitivity formally existed (or had a formalized label)...


Wednesday, August 6, 2014

The Kuwait Pavilion at the Venice Architectural Biennale, Italy...


A few images from the Kuwait Pavilion at the, currently ongoing, Venice Architectural Biennale. Maysaa was a part of the team that helped design, develop and construct the pavilion... 

Curated by Alia Farid, the theme of the pavilion is titled Acquiring Modernity, that, according to the text in the website aims to, and I'm somewhat paraphrasing, 'investigate the repercussions of commissioning architectural works towards the formation of the State.' 

The text later explains: 

"Kuwait’s 2014 participation at la Biennale di Venezia is artist-curated and researcher-informed. Comprised of various elements beyond the physical exhibition space, it includes a joint installation with the Nordic Pavilion and a film being produced inside of the Kuwait Pavilion, the Biennale, and in different locations around Kuwait and Venice. It is an exercise at creating connections and exchanging representation. Convened to inform the project from multiple perspectives, our researchers hail from a range of disciplines including architecture, visual and performing arts, history, literature, theology, and filmmaking. The project is obsessively local and utterly informal despite its appearance at la Biennale; its highest aspiration is to influence authorities so that when the project returns from Venice, it will have found a place inside of the Kuwait National Museum as a sort of ‘Special Projects’ program, or research and documentation center." 

For more detailed info about the exhibition please click on the following link...


Further images from the set-up and construction of the exhibit can be viewed by clicking here... 








Some of the hand drawn and painted murals...

The Kuwaiti Water-Tower Water-Fountain outside the Nordic Pavilion...

Friday, August 1, 2014

A Most Intriguing Furniture Store at the Pearl, Doha...

Austin Powers would be proud...

There's an interesting store down the street from our place at the Pearl. Called 'Altamoda' it's an establishment that sells furniture that assumedly falls under the 'acquired taste' category... 

Take a dollop of Liberace, two fingers worth of Scarface, and a sprinkle of Austin Powers and you have a conceptual summary (and the ideal clientele) for this store... 

Crescent sofa, with horses heads... 

A fluffy seat...

A table with a feathered corset...

Padded walls (with matching chair paddings)...

Lace-backed seats...

Purple glitter table...