Cool Hunting

Fittingly in time for winter, Lapland's famed Icebar is making its way to London's decidedly fashionable Heddon Street later this year. Joining the ranks of the world's most absurdly ambitious clubs and lounges, this 1,000 square-foot space will be constructed almost entirely out of ice shipped from the River Torne in northern Sweden. Nearly everything down to the barstools and single-use glasses will be painstakingly carved from the imported ice, said to be the world's purest. Patrons should expect to shiver (the temperature will hover somewhere around -5° C) and encounter rather over-the-top art (the Milan location features a large-scale ice-carved reproduction of da Vinci's The Last Supper). The Icebar will host 60 guests at a time in 40-minute intervals and exclusively serve vodkas by Absolut, underwriter of this outrageous venture.
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London's always calling, but right now, with the 3rd annual London Design Festival running through September 30th, the siren song is a little louder. Exhibitions, cafes, and events take over the city and, curiously, most of what caught our eye happens on the East end, like Geoff McFetridge's premiere show in the UK at Kemistry Gallery (runs through October 5th), a Rococo installation of...
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....
London-based illustration collective Peepshow has an amazing selection of art prints for sale on their website. The prints are made in a limited edition of 30 and are all signed and numbered by the artists. My favorites are Set Sail by Luke Best (pictured above center, £50), House by Lucy Vigrass (pictured above right, £50) and Vessels by Jenny Bowers (£75), which are individually...
Our friends from m ss ng p eces recently returned from making a video in Mexico City with bottles of a smoky, complex mezcal labeled "La Botica." Turns out La Botica is a small mezcaleria in the trendy Condesa section of the city that's rebranding the humble liquor for a new audience with beautifully-designed packaging and an artisinal approach. Since opening a couple years...
Carmody Groarke, a young British firm, just won an Architecture Foundation competition to design a new pavilion in Regent's Place, London. The firm is a finalist in BD's Young Architect Practice of the Year, and designed the pavilion to be made of a series of vertical rods that reflect light during the day and emit light at night. The design is further enhanced by...
The International Cut and Paste Digital Design Tournament which kicked off on 8 September has been hosting live design events in various U.S. and European cities over the last couple of months with an Asian and Australian leg of the competition still to come. Watching Cut and Paste grow from their start in NYC, we're happily impressed to see of how far they've come...
