Cool Hunting

Denver: Art Museum Addition
The Denver Art Museum is getting quite the grand and futuristic expansion--They're calling it the Frederic C. Hamilton building. It's going to be an impressive geometric shaped explosion made of glass and over 230,000 square feet of titanium all designed by Daniel Libeskind. Libeskind designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin in '99, and in '03 he was selected to design the World Trade Center...

The Architect's Bird Feeder
Designed by architect Doug Patt (he's also one half of bi-coastal firm Rootphi), the Architect's Birdfeeder is made of eight interlocking polycarbonate (think bulletproof glass) pieces. Like Rootphi's Flat Pack housing, the structural elements ship flat and require no tools or fasteners for assembly. The upshot is product that's fun to put together, easy to refill and clean and eco-friendly. It also looks like a...

China Design Now
A look at the creative energy in modern China, China Design Now chronicles the recent cultural rebirth brought on by a combination of global influences and the rediscovery of China's pre-Socialist traditions. Opening 15 March 2008 at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the exhibit explores three cities beginning with Shenzhen, where graphic designers have been experimenting with new concepts since the 1990s....

Thomas Heatherwick East Beach Cafe
We cannot claim to be experts on beach cafe architecture, but one look at Thomas Heatherwick's East Beach Cafe and one can't help but think that this is a woefully under-explored area of building design. Surely it's rife with exciting and innovative possibilities, but then that's the British designer's great talent, creating unexpected forms in unexpected places which, on sight, make you reevaluate all...

Rocio Romero: LV Series
It's an all-too-common complaint that modern prefabricated homes don't fit the utilitarian or economical requirements of the average Joe. Fortunately, these Joes have a sympathetic ear with Rocio Romero. The Missouri-based architect built her first prototype in 2000 as a Chilean vacation home for her parents, and in the last few years has seen a boom in construction of her efficient, inexpensive kit homes,...

Skate Study House
Paris-born skateboarder-turned-entrepreneur Pierre-André Senizergues, whose company developed skate shoes like Etnies, teamed up with interior designer Gil Le Bon de LaPointe, a fellow skater, to create the Skate Study House, an exhibit that pays homage to both the skateboard and modern design. A play on Los Angeles' famed Case Study Houses project that tasked architects and designers with building and furnishing model homes, SSH...