DWR: Tools For Living

by Evan Orensten

Opening today in Manhattan and 2 October 2008 in Santa Monica, Design Within Reach's new Tools for Living stores not only feature awesome products (nearly 800) that you can buy in the store and take with you. These smaller items are also available on the Design Within Reach site, but the experience of seeing them all in the store and leaving with them is much more satisfying. And so are the prices—with items starting at just a few dollars there is a practical item or simple gift for most household, office and gift needs. We took a tour of the new SoHo location (formerly the first DWR store in Manhattan) the other day and have a few favorites.

The Picnic Trunk with Table features everything you need to enjoy a civilized meal outdoors—plates, cutlery, glasses, napkins—and a table to put them on. $200.

The Cuboro Standard Building Block Set set is still one of the best toys around. The set comes with 54 beech wood blocks that allow you to create Rube Goldberg-esque constructions that marbles can travel through, and is as great on the desk as it is in a kid's room. $275.

Shunji Kurimori's Cedar Sake Cups and Cedar Sake Bottle (below, left) are made in the Japanese wood craft style called Magewappa. They are a beautiful example of traditional technique (Kurimori is a sixth generation artisan), modern style, sustainable design and practicality. Their unique construction and natural material maintain sake at your preferred cold or warm temperature. The bottle is $140, and a set of two cups is $80.

Another Japanese design, the Water Pitcher (below, right) uses mountain stones and charcoal to filter and enhance the water naturally. $85.

The Rainwater Hog (below, left) provides a simple and practical means of capturing 47 gallons of rainwater from the roof of your house which can be repurposed for multiple uses. Designed by Sydney-based architect Sally Dominguez because she couldn't find a similar product, the versatile Hog can be installed in many ways and joined with other Hogs if a large volume of water is collectible. True to its nature, the product is shipped without any packaging. More information available at the Rainwater Hog site. $450.

The Dave Ellis designed Tepee (below, right), one of the 150 or so products sold in the stores that are not available to take with you, provides a viable outdoor sleeping solution with a bit of character. $2,200.

These nesting Rubber Tubs (below) provide a useful product imagined from the vast quantities of used tires thrown away every year. Hand sewn as if made of leather, these unique tubs are great for storage and lugging stuff around the house. Set of three for $350.

DWR: Tools for Living SoHo
142 Wooster Street
New York, NY 10012
Tel: +1.212.471.0280

DWR: Tools for Living Santa Monica
332 Santa Monica Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90401
Tel: +1.310.458.0543

Os Gemeos

by Ami Kealoha

The world of Brazilian street artists Os Gemeos (aka identical twins Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo) is a slightly surreal, colorful and wildly-patterned one, populated with people and animals, boats and pyramids and cars and music. In this video we visit their world, interviewing the brothers at work on an installation that took place earlier this year at Deitch Projects in downtown Manhattan. They discuss how they first started working together, the show and the free-form way they make art.

Untethered

by Jacob Resneck

We're always fascinated when the surreal and the practical intersect. That would explain our past delight with Blendie, a blender that responds to growling noises and is included in the upcoming group show, Untethered.

Opening at Eyebeam next week in Manhattan the exhibit is promises a myriad of creative curiosities.

With 15 artists on display, this season's offerings include a a photocopier that reads the night sky; a PDA turned guitar; and a piano that plays the Internet. Kind of sounds like a page out of CH.

Untethered
Opening reception: 25 September 2008, 6pm
25 September-25 October 2008
Eyebeam
540 West 21st Street
New York, NY 10011 map
tel. +1 212 937 6580

La Noche en Blanco: Graffiti Virtual

by Max Gold

After being wowed by the Deambulants and other sights of La Noche en Blanco, I made my way to the Caixaforum building of Madrid to see more. Pushing through the crowd to get closer, I gaped in awe at the enormous exhibition called Graffiti Virtual created by the Catalan collective Omnivor Lab. Consisting of a series of animated digital graffiti projected onto the building's facade, the effect of these ominous projections, depicting graffiti of people doing graffiti, contributed to the dream-like quality of the nocturnal festival.

Quinta da Romaneira in Northern Portugal's Winelands

by Tim Yu

by Juliet Kinsman

Cobbled and colonial but also contemporary and quirky, I recently had the chance to stay at the brand-new Douro Valley hotel, Quinta da Romaneira. From one look at the interior design it's clear that super-picky attention to detail is paramount.

Thierry Teyssier, the creator of Quinta dos Sonhos (Romaneira's Portuguese name) considered every color, visualized every view, procured the highest spec fixtures and then sprinkled the 13-room hotel and working wine estate with imaginative artworks. Demonstrating an excruciating eye for detail, it comes as no surprise that the Parisian party planner took three years to finely tune this latest high-concept luxury hideaway in the craggy hills of Portugal's wine region.

It's nothing new for hotels to gush that each room is individual, a "selling point" that's usually tantamount to drab drapes in the same patterned fabric but in a different shade. However, the furnishings in every idiosyncratic enclave of this Maisons des Rêves property (there are two sister resorts in Morocco) have been cherry-picked from around the globe. Teyssier's search for special pieces started years ago with trips to Asia and Africa, reaping treasures such as one bedroom's 19th-century day bed from Macao.

Dark wooden flooring and original tiling lend a classical elegance to Dona Clara, the more traditional of Romaneira's two villas. In the library, muted natural purple and green tones echo the landscape of grapes and vines, and mingle with unexpected antiques such as a Victorian tailor's display cabinet of collars, a row of paint brushes and an old phonogram. Despite dating from 1854, Romaneira's more modern-styled villa, 'Quinta Velha,' is even more out-there in its arty objêts. A russet-colored, cement-floored lounge showcases Damian Hirst-reminiscent butterfly-laced screens, a collaboration with artist Francis Guerrier. Venture further and discover New Guinea-inspired frescoes and Teyssier's Amazonian finds — feathered tribal headdresses.

What was once wine cellars now contains a slender 25-meter pool, suspended above which are old rabelos, or riverboats. Another annexe, "Les Comptoirs," is a homage to Portuguese trading posts of centuries past, wherein lies the "Chocolaterie," where teatime treats are displayed in cabinets previously used by Goan tea sellers. Eating and drinking at this style hotel is amazing, right down to carefully choreographed different-every-mealtime dining locations. Unique crockery, linen, glassware and cutlery have been hand-selected to complement each setting, be it in a traditional azulejos-tiled dining room or fragrant lemon grove.

For more info on Romaneira, including a list of other boutique hotels in Portugal visit Mr & Mrs Smith.

Quinta da Romaneira
Cotas
5070
Douro Valley
Portugal