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Hot Design Goes Cool by Cathleen Bond
Or it could have been the simple
fact that there just wasn't anything really exciting on view. I had my credit card in my right back pocket and it didn't start humming or buzzing. Not even once.
However I did notice a few interesting trends on the interior frontier. Here are some highlights of a low-energy show.
Taylor Hariri Pontarini's most successful experiment was a study in living in
smaller spaces. They transformed 600 square feet into an urban paradise,
complete with a faux fireplace sporting a series of very sexy electric
flames, and a bedroom that reminded me of what it would be like to sleep in
Marlene Dietrich's steamer trunk. Very sophisticated, and you had no idea of
what to expect next.
Hi-tech, low-presence toys like these ultra slim television sets were married for the most part with Bang and Olufsen sound systems. I don't know if B&O bought out the rights to the show, but their nearly invisible systems were everywhere. And they worked extremely well with the timeless zen aesthetic of simple, clean and uncluttered.
A few other trends:
Some links:
Powell & Bonnell Design has a virtual tour of some of their work at the Design show.
Planatron: The way to experience television in an exciting new way
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I attended the press day for the much-anticipated Interior Design Show 2000. It was, for the most part, a major yawn.
It could be because it was a press event and the note-taking crowd was less excitable than the general public.
Or maybe it was the Rolls-Royce price
tags on the bits of sushi in the food pit.
Anything zen is in, and less is definitely more. Taylor Hariri Pontarini Architects (the coolest architectural kids on the Canadian block) created a series of rooms or structural installations reflecting their vision of the future of interior design. When you walk in, you're greeted by a gorgeous, minimalist, slate-based fountain complete with a copper waterfall straight out Frank Lloyd Wright. The fountain runs through a Miele applianced kitchen with a leather tiled floor and a stainless steel bathroom with an aluminum shower pod, that make George Jetson's pad look passe.
Living simple and living small was the most emphatic message of this show. Powell & Bonnell Design took this motif one step further with a mind-boggling, groovy revamp of a 1931 Airstream Trailer. For colour they used creams, vanilla and a spectrum of off-whites. This was combined with a more masculine edge of mahoganies and cool steel. Once again everything was highly
functional, minimalist with very clean, simple lines.
While making every square inch count was definitely the defining communiqué, the secondary trend for the new millennium was the presence of hi-tech toys -- in particular the plasma screen TV. Now I know that they're way too expensive, break easily and will most definitely plummet in price over the next few years. But if you want to have the most happening home this year,
think plasma. You'll be the envy of your block.
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