Cool Hunting

Interview with Amanda Levete
Size + Matter, it could be said, was one of the most viewed events of the London Design Festival last month. Two installations by two of the U.K.'s leading architects—both women—were placed outside the cultural hub that is the Southbank Centre that thousands of people walk by everyday. Urban Nebula by Zaha Hadid used pre-cast concrete to create a darkly dramatic public seating sculpture....

The London Design Challenge
A participatory highlight of London's Design Festival, the London Design Challenge tasks members of the design community and general public with imagining ways to make London a better place to live and visit. With transport, entertainment, street-life, environment and housing themes, ideas so far include Poke's painting London white (an homage to This Boy's Life?), as well as Tom Dixon's electric bus and Barbara...

Great British Design Quest
If you had to name countries famous for design, Italy or somewhere in Scandinavia would probably be the first places that spring to mind. But what about the U.K.? In the past century, British designers have hit the form/function bullseye more regularly then you might realize. London's Design Museum and the BBC's Culture Show are collaborating on the Great British Design Quest to discover...

Web House
The London architecture firm m3 has designed a temporary living structure that can be attached to the side of a building. Perhaps a cross between the Aero Bed and a Tent Caterpillar, the Web House is meant to be an office worker's refuge between a late night meeting and an early morning presentation. We all joke about sleeping under our desks, now we really...

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...

Clay Ketter: Gulf Coast Slabs
A show of new work by the American artist Clay Ketter opened in London this week at Bartha Contemporary. Ketter, who has lived in Sweden for over 20 years, is renowned for creating art works through the investigation of construction techniques. His work on the surface has a beautifully minimalist aesthetic, but the real interest lies beneath the layers in a "truth to materials"...