Cool Hunting

Wallpaper Design Awards 2008
Wallpaper unveiled its “Design Awards” series recently with some interesting results. Though we're not sure about their cred since they proclaimed Los Angeles “Best City” (air quality and gun violence were obviously not strong criterias), otherwise the periodical (along with judges that include Tadao Ando, Wong Kar-wai and Donatella Versace) really pulled it off. Best domestic appliance goes to the "Katamari 01" speaker by...

Metropolis Magazine's 25th Anniversary
Hitting newsstands today is the 25th anniversary issue of Metropolis Magazine. With the original mission of bringing architecture and design to a savvy New York audience, this independent has only changed course to expand its breadth and become a national publication. Their ability to stay on point for so long is founded in their publisher's dedication, "he's our first reader and biggest fan" says...

Tropolism: Your Hidden City Grows
The biggest recent news on Tropolism: Your Hidden City, the first open-source architectural contest, has produced about 560 entries! Over 160 entrants have submitted, rumors of a gallery show are circulating, and you still have until 5pm on 10 March 2006 to jump in by going to Tropolism's Flickr pool. For full details, check Tropolism....

This Week in Tropolism
Tropolism explores the outer fringes this week. First, it reviews the designs for the first two commercial spaceports for humankind and finds them, well, awful. Next it reviewed a winning (finally) competition entry by Zaha Hadid for a library in the remote city of Sevilla and finds it, well, underdone. The remote inner city regions of Detroit are being rediscovered by an activist group...

This Week in Tropolism
Tropolism's Your Hidden City contest is off with a bang, with over 250 entries so far. The Tropolism Flickr pool is bubbling with wonderful pictures and captions. We invite you to enter into the first open-source architectural competition! This week is all about density. OMA's new hyper-dense skyscraper in Kentucky, the breaking news on Madison Square Garden's possible relocation to the Farley Building across...

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...