Metropolis Magazine - Metropolis Magazine May 2008
Looking for a Restaurant in Downtown Chicago?
Every year Chicago stakes a new claim on America’s dining map. In repurposed architectural spaces, indoors and out, large plates and small, the Windy City just keeps getting tastier. Check out our listings online and be sure to pick up your own copy of Taste of the Town at NeoCon.
Charlotte von der Lancken
One-fourth of the Swedish firm Front answers a few questions on industrial design, inspiration, and process—using her thumbs.
Soft as Steel
Kengo Kuma finds a poetic alternative to concrete in the iron alloy.
Poster Children
Metropolis’s art department helps raise money for California wildfire victims.
2008 Next Generation Runners-up: Water Works
This year’s competition looked for solutions to a global
problem that many experts are calling the next big
environmental crisis.
A More Perfect Union
An international cast of talents orchestrates one Finnish couple’s trip down the aisle.
Minimal Makeover
Perhaps best known for his pop forms (think butterfly, tongue, and tulip), Pierre Paulin has a more functionalist past. In 1954 he turned out the Bauhaus-inspired CM 141 desk, which Ligne Roset will rerelease in September as Tanis. The name isn’t the only change—the original melamine surface is now Corian or laminate, and walnut has replaced ash veneer on the…
Trickle-down Architecture
New York’s tiny Gage/Clemenceau Architects put their fanciful competition ideas to work in built projects.
On Dry Land
The water czar of Las Vegas talks about balancing rapid development with smart land-use and natural-resource planning.
Light in the Attic
Noel Clarke, of 2C Design Studio, recently transformed the neglected attic of his Victorian house in Somerville, Massachusetts, into an immaculate modern work space. Rather than bury the room’s past under layers of Sheetrock, he integrated most of its existing features. “There are ways to make interventions that develop a dialogue between old and new so they feel like they…
Craft on the Dial
Looking to create sustainable jobs for the skilled workers of his hometown, one Indonesian designer produces a handmade radio.
A River Runs Through It
It was four years in development, but this summer an idea for a pool on the Hudson finally comes to life.
Stamp of Approval
The post office issues an unusually rich offering in recognition of an unusually rich career.
Spanish Armada
The next international design stars will come from the Iberian Peninsula.
Modern Paradise
Though largely unknown outside of Hawaii, architect Vladimir Ossipoff created a singular body of work that fully utilized the lush tropical climate of his adopted home.
Mobile Home?
The relocation of an early Frank Gehry design raises questions about the nature of architecture.
Invited to the Table
When design competitions reach for relevance, they can lead to discussions that move our thinking forward.
Eternal Sunshine of the Elastic Mind
A new MoMA exhibition captures our era’s giddy moment of convergence.
Classic Revival
This month Rosenthal, the 129-year-old china manufacturer, expands its classic repertoire with Landscape, a tableware series by Patricia Urquiola. Though the cutlery may have been modeled on a seventeenth-century marrow spoon, the collection— which debuted at Ambiente, in Frankfurt—showcases the designer’s penchant for tweaking tradition. The all-white dishes feature geometric patterns that form irregular handles and asymmetrical rims while highlighting…
Moment of Reckoning
Faced last year with severe droughts and floods, we must now embark on a new understanding of our relationship to water.
