Den Song hat mir Peter zugeschickt.

Hört sich gut an. Und das Video ist auch prima.

She’s In Parties

Hoy nueva entrega de ¿Versión o aversión?, sección dónde mostramos un original y una copia, unas con más acierto que otras, y algunas como ya hemos visto, que pueden tratar de “tú” a sus originales.

Hoy un gran clásico y una gran versión del mismo. Aprovechando que hoy viernes habrá un tributo al disco The Rise & Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars de David Bowie en 1972 (tributo organizado por otros dos grandes “David“, David Lleda [Hermosos Vencidos] y David [Lazy] y en el cual participa un servidor, poniendo voz a un par de temas) he escogido el tema principal, Ziggy Stardust, para esta entrega.

Sin duda alguna estamos ante una de las grandes obras maestras del glam rock de comienzos de los 70’s, y del rock en general de todos los tiempos, como bien demostraron los oscuretes after-punk Bauhaus interpretándolo magistralmente…

Ziggy Stardust - Bauhaus

Ziggy Stardust, el original del duque del rock and roll… David Bowie.

Walter Gropius, Founder of the Bauhaus

Born: May 18, 1883 in Berlin, Germany

Died: July 5, 1969

Full Name: Walter Adolph Gropius

Education: Technical Universities in Münich and Berlin

Gropius House, Lincoln, MA, 1938

Selected Works:

·         1910-1911: Fagus Works, Alfred an der Leine, Germany

·         1925: The Bauhaus Building, Dessau, Germany

·         1937: Gropius House, Lincoln, MA

·         1950: Harvard Graduate Center, Cambridge, MA

·         1963: Pan Am Building, in collaboration with Pietro Belluschi, New York

Best Known For:

Walter Gropius was a German architect and art educator who founded the Bauhaus school of design, which became a dominant force in architecture and the applied arts in the 20th century. Gropius taught that all design should be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. The Bauhaus school pioneered a functional, severely simple architectural style, featuring the elimination of surface decoration and extensive use of glass.

The Bauhaus school attracted many artists, including painters Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, graphic artist Käthe Kollwitz, and expressionist art groups such as Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter.

Related People:

When Gropius resigned from the Bauhaus School in 1928, architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became the next director. Other influential Bauhaus architects included:

·         Le Corbusier

·         Richard Neutra

·         Philip Johnson

More About Walter Gropius:

Although Gropius is best known for the Bauhaus style, his architectural reputation was first established when, working with Adolph Meyer, he designed the Fagus Works (1910-1911) and the office building for the Werkbund exhibition in Cologne (1914).

Walter Gropius opposed the Nazi regime and left Germany secretly in 1934. After several years in England, Gropius began teaching architecture at Harvard University. As a Harvard professor, Gropius introduced Bauhaus concepts and design principles - teamwork standardization, and prefabrication - to a generation of American architects.

Between 1938 to 1941, Gropius worked on several houses with Marcel Breuer. They formed the Architects Collaborative in 1945. Among their commissions were the Harvard Graduate Center (1946), the U.S. Embassy in Athens and the University of Baghdad. One of Gropius’s later designs, in collaboration with Pietro Belluschi, was the Pam Am Building (now the Metropolitan Life Building) in New York City.

Architecture Resources

Picture Dictionary of Modern ArchitectureWorld’s Tallest BuildingsArt Moderne House Style

Related Articles

·Photo-Info - BERLIN: Bauhaus Archive - English

·Foto-Infos - Bauhaus Dessau

·Bauhaus

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·American Country Building Design

Ok, the world is changing. Mine included. To say it has been a crazy past couple of days would be an understatement. I will not bore you with the details. Why, you ask? Well…because I have plenty of other things to bore you with….Ha! Actually, I do have a lot to get off my chest. It will be very therapeutic for me, so please, bear with me…..I know this is a long one….

Across the board, I think it is pretty safe to say that our economy sucks right now. Many industries throughout the country and internationally, cannot afford to stay in business and people are loosing their jobs. I work in the Design industry and have so for over ten years. It is a fairly broad industry and can encompass anything from product design, packaging design, building design, clothing design, blah, blah blah….. Let me get to the point of my little blog soapbox today. I heard someone say yesterday that “design is a luxury. In a tight economy, people will NOT pay for design”. Basically cursing my profession to failure and at the same time, labeling it as superfluous.

This really upset me. First of all because partially, I knew that what this person was saying is what most people think about design. When you pay for something that is “designer” you pay more. It is a “splurge”. You expect higher quality to come with that price tag. This thinking is not necessarily wrong. Typically you do receive a better designed, better fabricated item for a higher price. Designers or better yet manufacturers have capitalized on this way of thinking. As a designer, what I find is funny is why people pay for bad design at all? As far as I’m concerned, there is a huge error in the way our society accepts and pays for the quality of products and services…but, that is another topic for another day….   However, by allowing poorly designed items to be commonly accepted, we force good design to become a luxury because we are allowing manufacturers to capitalize on it.

What angers me most is that we are teaching people the incorrect definition of true design. “Designer” items are not the only things that are designed or designed well. EVERYTHING must be designed. Look at the smallest most typical item around you. Some skilled person spent hours observing, thinking, sketching, experimenting in order to come up with each simple item sitting on your kitchen table, in your bathroom drawer, in your refrigerator. From a common paper clip (a very ingenious and timeless design i might add) to a beer bottle to the chair you are sitting in, all of these things have been designed. Most of them designed well. As a common rule, things that are designed poorly will fail, things that are designed well, will endure. Here’s the clincher….Things that are designed well, do not have to cost more.

Good design is not a luxury. It is a necessity. In a poor economy, designers need to be a part of things even more. They are the innovative thinkers. I believe that things that are designed for a tight economy need to be better designed because they need to work outside of and exceed the norm. Designers need to come up with ways to use things more efficiently yet produce a product equally as effective if not more effective than current products. This includes better use of materials, time, fabrication, shipping….I could go on and on.

My point is this: This economy is the place where true designers can shine. Design as we know it can be revolutionized. Think back to the Bauhaus, International Style, where economic and political trials lead to the innovative use of new materials and methods of construction of buildings, products and furniture and changed the face of modern design as we know it. Can we not do this again?

Ok, I apologize, I will get off my little soap box….. but I need to say that if this country needs anything now, it needs better design. I am by no means an expert in economic studies or histories. I do know that better design can open new markets, while using our resources and scarce funds more effectively. I challenge all the designers out there to use this difficult time as an opportunity. At the same time, I ask businesses to realize the importance of design in their products and methods and to stand behind their designers. We need to move forward. The only way I see this happening is through new design and re-design.

Superfluous??….why I oughta……..

Have a great day! Whewww! that felt good

I dare you, to be real
To touch a flickering flame
The pangs of dark delight
Don’t cower in night fright

Don’t back away just yet
From destinations set
I dare you to be proud
To dare to shout aloud
For convictions that you feel
Like sound from bells to peal
I dare you to speak of your despise
For bureaucracy, hypocracy- all liars

I dare
I dare
I dare- you- you

FROM BAUHAUS TO
OUR HOUSE
- Wolfe,Tom, Macdonald & Co Publishers, England, 1981.

Book Review
Akshay R. Anand

Summary..

It’s a sugarfree dialogue between the ordinary man’s world and the world which Modern Architecture assumed, perceived and intended. It revolves around Architect’s own dogmatic approach towards basic human aspirations and needs, camouflaged in a certain style or mode which consequently lead the relation between the two perverse and eccentric.

It is in this eccentricity that the society and people are subjected to witness the experiments and categorization of a certain mode or style which is underlined by certain principles by certain men.
Simultaneously the book observes the principles of Modern Architecture and its origins, which categorises former work classical and bourgeoise.

The whole of Europe in the state of awakening from the flemish bonded logic of classical Architecture. The only weapon for such a colossal way of building was to judge in terms of functions. The functionalists strictly opposed to create a dishonest picture.

Besides this dialectical relationship, the atlas of 20th cent. Architecture and relative events steered its transition to a new era with necessary changes and upgradation with basic premise remained same “In search of purity”. This search was so refined, mystified, rarefied with time that the search for purity – to be non –bourgeoise was not only confined to Architecture but in every faculty of man. ( music, choreography,litreture,Arts etc.)

No applied decoration – functional approach – a pragmatic approach which leads to schematic and a characterless environment.

According to author in pursuit of being Modern and in believing in a Universal paradigm of architecture the world of architects and their architecture shrinked into a cubicle – and calls it “the edge of sensory deprivation” so the work emerged became increasingly international in nature – so much that it is often difficult to determine their place of origin.

The Parts..

1. The Silver Prince
2. Utopia Limited
3. The White Gods
4. Escape to Islip
5. The Apostates
6. The Scholastics
7. Silver-White, Silver-Gray.

1. The Silver Prince.

Walter Gropius – The Silver prince named by Paul Klee (painter at Bauhaus). The founder of the Bauhaus School, in Weimar, the German capital in 1919.Gropius sought to bring all the arts together “under the wing of Architecture” – making it the business of entire people.
The school’s approach of “starting from zero” was fundamental and subsequently brought down to functionalism. Although the underlying principles in which school is defined – it’s a commune, a spiritual movement, a radical approach to art.
The primary focus of the school was to produce original and innovative ideas, theories - something unconventional which they found initially in the assessing the classical way of building against function (devoid of applied decoration) – And defined purity as the outcome of the approach.

Which many if not schools but various movements sought at that time. But Bauhaus soon found out that existing methods and practice applied to certain class of people, not everyone could afford it. So it invited technology to form a new unity “art and technology”.

2. Utopia Limited

American psyche was dovetailed with the ‘colonial complex’ with the emergence of artists and architects from Europe which brought an avant-gardism across the globe. American architects with ‘The Skyscrapers’ couldn’t compare them with the broad sociological justification that existed for worker housing in Europe.

The Museum of Modern Art, – ‘a colonial complex inflated to prodigious dimensions’ puts the author. Because it aimed at introducing the work of Gropius and other architects of Bauhaus and thought that only Corbusier, Gropius, Mies, Oud were the great European functionalists creating architecture while others were producing buildings !.

The International Style – Henry Rusell Hitchcock, Philip Johnson defined a distinction between building and architecture.

3. The White Gods

Due to war in Europe, many artists and architects of Bauhaus migrated to America. The Gropius, the other Bauhaus architects and artists placed themselves in the architectural universities starting from zero. Their original Bauhaus methods were adopted - the universities became the American version of the Bauhaus and completely changed the notions of young minds as whole country passing through depression.

The Bauhaus principles soon became the central nervous system of American universities. But an intellectual weakness of American students was that they could not find comfort in ideology and logics and dialectics.

The similar method and approach gave identical results – universities soon got struck in that cubicle – ultimate reductionism.

4. Escape to Islip

The Worker housing, was developed with a socialist attitude by compound architects, amid the rubble of Europe in the early 1920’s but here social attitude was mild. The later half of the century saw the full - blooded development of the country which raised her as super power with wealth that reached down to every level of population. So here, the idea of housing transformed as apartments for the rich.

And even the housing concepts like streets in the air, connectivity with multiple walkways were not accepted by the people and in some cases it turned out to be complete catastrophe where it was misused with brothels, bars, and criminal tendencies.

5. The Apostates

When a movement, mode of working or a style started with certain System of Principles, when applied to constantly changing equations of people and society consequently transits into its scholastic phase or is apostatized by its own or by others. Also strictly adhering to it and making it a – the only and sole doctrinaire will lose its magnitude where the people and society are the guiding factors.

6. The Scholastics

Robert Venturi – Complexity and Contradiction

With a state of Modern Architecture undeniably missing the identity and originality of place & people - Robert Venturi with his Complexity and contradiction urged to restore it to the familiar, appealing to ordinary people, compromising, inconsistent but nevertheless rich terrain of real life.
Venturi didn’t dispute the underlying assumptions but redefined it and explained that people are perfectly entitled to have in their buildings the sort of familiar and explicit symbols that applied decoration can provide.

There were also a next generation of followers of Modern movement and still thought that returning to the original ideas was the only way of building. Their understanding of purity became refined aesthetically with all the buildings with white.

7. Silver-White, Silver-gray

The groups of architects started to have their version of Modern movement and its principles for the benefit of one another - categorized as Neo-corbu, Rationalists, Pop Architects, Post-modern etc. Charles Jencks catalogued and analyzed all new currents. But the Architectural debate was to triumph with producing theory and practicing it.

There were firms that combined the two tracks of modern architectural competitions – building buildings and theorizing about architecture. It became a necessity to have a architectural theory or ideology to remain in competition.

Critique..

It emphasizes the dynamics of Modern movement and the architectural principles for being ‘modern’. From the origins of the movement to people who acted as catalyst through their work in creating an avant-gardism which spread across the globe.
The Modern movement which took the path from architects – institutions/compounds/firms – relative events left the ordinary man and society just as observer. The book narrates each of this architects their role with schools/institution and with events that took place with utmost detail with immediate references.

The book is the critique on the staunch believers of the Modern Architecture the movements that further followed. Identifies voids in the fundamental principles of the movement and how it had been filled with time by architects who thought to have redefined the original principles and established new ‘isms’.

Modern Architecture went through different phases of transition but the basic premise remained the same in ‘search of purity’. The World War II acted as a catalyst in transforming Modern Architecture and American Architecture and acquired a scholastic world vision of Architecture.

But this book cannot be considered source of architectural theory, because the author don’t explain the buildings in detail, but when he explains building the purpose is of ironical reference –in understanding the persons role in projecting or suppressing/redefining the movement.

When a movement, mode of working or a style started with certain System of Principles, when applied to constantly changing equations of people and society consequently transits into its scholastic phase or is apostatized by its own or by others. Also strictly adhering to it and making it a – the only and sole doctrinaire will lose its magnitude where the people and society are the guiding factors.

Largely it’s a viewpoint towards Modern Architecture which allows a person to establish a point of view towards Modern Architecture. In contrary to conventional eulogistic view of Modern Architecture.

Bauhaus Archiv Museum of Design

The Bauhaus, 1919–1933

The lines, forms and function reminded me of the Bauhaus art movement as soon as I saw this.

do you have $37,500.00 handy?  if so, you may be interested in this chaise lounge chair attributed to betty joel.  it is available at newel, nyc.   i like betty joel’s style.  and she was a brit, born and raised in hong kong, like me.  so she gets extra points. 

English Art Deco maple recamier of sleigh form upholstered in white cotton with fringed edge (attr: Betty Joel), $37.000 at newel

joel was influenced by the chinese art she was surrounded by in hong kong, and though she lived through the first world war, she was not so shocked and disillusioned by war as were the europeans. her contemporary modernist designers at bauhaus were philosophically warped and became overly idealist.  millinary works, uk describes joel, on the other hand, as “a confident realist, not concerning herself with design theory, political ideology or an art movement.”   joel’s work just has a flair and fun about it that makes me smile.   

Betty Joel 1894 – 1985, british art deco designer

art deco chaise-longue, by betty joel, england 1930

hong kong, which was a british crown colony, is a great place to grow up as a brit.  it builds you up and brings you down at the same time.  you are called, to your face, a “gwai lo”, (well, you can’t spell it in english) but it means ‘white devil.’  you are on the one hand not welcome, a foreigner, part of an overlord race that is unjustified, that should not be there  (hong kong was sort of stolen from the chinese).  but on the other hand you are also admired and respected.  hong kong provided a well governed haven for chinese escapees from mao’s communism (in the 1960s and 70s, when i was there). it was also an incredible opportunity for any hard working person to reap the benefits of living at a cultural crossroad and a great hub of world commerce. people were desperate, thankful and skeptical all at the same time.  

there is something about being born and raised in a multicultural place, and especially a non-country sort of place like hong kong, that causes you not to take any national culture or human ideology very seriously.  the best way to live is to realize that every national culture has its strengths and its stupidities.

when joel and her naval husband moved to england after the war, they wanted unique furniture for their modern home.  friends asked them for duplicates and this led to their successful art deco business.  you can almost see tasseled ladies leaping up from these chaise lounges to dance the charleston.

Singapore

In the Bauhaus train of thought, LESS IS MORE. Think of how much easier life is when this philosophy is utilized? The brainchild behind the Bauhaus movement was Walter Gropius. Any and all Industrial Designers know him as the grandaddy of modern design. Look at the work and the ideas he forged in the 1930’s. WOW.

“Walter Gropius (1883-1969) was a celebrated German architect and teacher, founder of the school of design known as the Bauhaus in Germany, and a leading proponent of modern architecture. “

“This house was his first architectural commission in the United States, built in 1938 as his family home after coming to the US to teach at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. This was Walter Gropius’s home from 1938 until his death in 1969.” (Text courtesy of The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities).

Well I was fortunate enough to be a guide at this house in the early 1990s. Situated in a very conservative and traditionally wealthy Boston suburb (Lexington MA), the Gropius House sits amongst traditional, colonial style mansions. It is a sore thumb- however it is a piece de resistance, a piece of beauty. It exemplifies simplicity.

Less is more…

Trip Allen of the Egyii team

Gibraltar Furniture (800 416 3635) is furniture nirvana for wholesale classics”- Yahoo News! $995 is the price for the Barcelona 2 seat bench at www.gibraltarfurniture.com .

The Barcelona seating series was designed by the legendary modernist architect, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, for the German pavilion at the 1929 International Exhibition held in Spain. The Barcelona series has become an icon of important chair design.

Gibraltar is based in Beverly Hills California and can be found on the web at www.gibraltarfurniture.com. This firm has been in operation for five decades, and is an insider secret weapon for blue chip merchandise at warehouse prices. Yahoo reports that Gibraltar Furniture has “The best prices, models, and service of any site on the internet. This store is nirvana for people who want Bauhaus, art deco, modern, mid century, or designer furniture at wholesale prices.”

All purchases are fully covered by Lloyds of London and the Yahoo buyer’s protection plan. The Yahoo! Buyer Protection Program covers any item legitimately purchased through Yahoo! This protection covers purchases of up to $1000 for material defects and other issues.

Gibraltar Furniture is a good resource for design addicts looking for top-rated  originals at popular prices. All of the materials, design lines, and specs for all of the Gibraltar releases are the same as the European manufacturers. Gibraltar out-sources the production of these design classics to our overseas factories in order to cut labor costs. We use the same high quality  leather and stainless steel frames that Knoll uses.

We created this bench as a high quality reproduction using premium solid-core stainless flat steel, fully welded. Our frames are NOT made using lower cost chrome-plated hollow tubes and then bolted/screwed together. Multiple colors and grades of premium full top grain Italian leather are available for your design requirements. Each square of leather is hand selected, piped, tufted and individually sewn by expert leather craftsmen. Three types of highly resilient foam are used to provide the proper amount of plush comfort and firm support. The cushions rest upon a suspended network of saddle leather straps.

There are 3 different types to choose from depending on your preferences, which are explained below.

Deluxe is our highly durable Top Grain Leather that is grain-corrected and color pigmented. The grain surface is slightly abraded to remove imperfections before a protective surface coating is applied. A decorative leather-grain pattern is then embossed into the surface for a finished look.

Primo is a top grain Semi-Aniline Leather that has just a small amount of pigment or clear finish added to its surface, thus allowing the natural unique characteristics of the hide to still show through while offering some of the benefits of color consistency and increased durability.

Exquisíte is the softest and most expensive leather. This Full-Aniline Leather is left in its most natural/naked state after the aniline-dye process. The leathers reveal different grain patterns, healed scars, and other natural markings. Dyes are absorbed differently between each hide so there may be tonality differences in each piece of leather. Full Aniline means that it is UNPROTECTED with no pigments or top coatings sprayed on after the aniline-dye process

-Design is true to form and mirrors the original! -Solid steel frame will not rust, chip or flake like some inferior versions -Soft, Italian leather -Squares are individually sewn with raised piping -Saddle leather straps -Comfortable foam cushioning

The design is exactly like the original at a fraction of the Knoll price! The main difference is that the official Knoll release comes with a certificate of authenticity and our copy does not.

All of the world class leather that use on this piece is 100% European luxury grade material. Each high quality stainless steel frame is also imported to insure that you get only the very best resources that money can buy. Only the best Italian leather is used to construct this masterpiece!

We ship factory direct so that you don’t have to pay a middle man for a mark up. This means you get the wholesale price and a great product at an unbeatable price!

All of our Barcelona editions are made of 100% Italian leather, manufactured in Italy, by the Mastrotto Group. Based in Arzignano (Vicenza, Italy), the Mastrotto Group is the gold standard for world wide hide production and one of the most important global sources for the creation of upholstery, furniture, and leather goods. They are the exclusive source for all of the leather used in Mercedes Benz and BMW automobiles!

Frame: Medium Walnut finish wooden frame. Steel legs, polished to mirror shine, will not rust or chip. Unlike inferior versions with open joints and exposed screws, all joints in our reproduction are fully welded, sealed and sanded.

Leather: Features top grain Italian leather from cattle hides processed in Italy to a soft, buttery finish. (Beware of inferior products using vinyl on the sides and backs, as well as lower quality leather from pigs and water buffalo).

-52″ x 19″ x 16″

-Manufacturers Warranty of 1 Year against defects or workmanship errors.

Our Barcelona Benches are high quality reproductions, inspired by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. Multiple colors and grades of premium full top grain Italian leather are available for your design requirements. Each square of leather is hand selected, piped and tufted by expert leather craftsmen. The cushion is suspended upon a network of leather saddle straps fixed to a solid hardwood frame. Polished stainless steel legs add to the timeless modern design. Excellent at the foot of a bed, a homes foyer, office and retail store waiting areas. Available in two popular sizes.

Our bench is a high quality reproduction using premium solid-core stainless flat steel, fully welded. Our frames are NOT made using lower cost chrome-plated hollow tubes and then bolted/screwed together. Multiple colors and grades of premium full top grain Italian leather are available for your design requirements. Each square of leather is hand selected, piped, tufted and individually sewn by expert leather craftsmen. Three types of highly resilient foam are used to provide the proper amount of plush comfort and firm support. The cushions rest upon a suspended network of saddle leather straps.

FRAME: The polished stainless steel frame will not rust or chip. All joints are fully welded, sealed and sanded.

We only accept the very best, imported, quality items at Gibraltar! This applies to the quality of hides as well as the fabrics that we use on all of our Barcelona sofas. Consequently, we have chosen the finest suppliers for all of our raw materials. For instance, we insist on using only 100% imported Italian leather. The hides must be of superlative quality. We insist that every manufacturing detail conforms to the original lines. Craftsmanship, sewing and upholstery are a huge priority to us. In the end, the biggest difference that you will notice is the large sum of money that you will save via Gibraltar vs. the European makers.

Gibraltar offers the entire line of products from Compar, David Edward, Davis Furniture, Fabulux, Firefarm, Girari, Gordon International, Grey, Havaseat Chairs, Innovation, IQMatics, Janke, Jet Age, Kenshoma, Litto Kids, Lunar Lounge, Malik, Ooba, Oeuf, Offi, OFM, Ogus Design, The Phillips Collection, Serralunga, Studio4LA, Touch Design/Lighting, Trevi Outdoor, the Vessel Architectural Pottery collection, Zuo Modern, and 100 Times Better, among others.

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release, please contact Bradley Friedman, Director of Pubic Relations, via email.

Images for all products can be obtained at www.gibraltarfurniture.com.

“Gibraltar Furniture (800 416 3635) is furniture nirvana for wholesale classics”- Yahoo News! $1695 is the price for the Barcelona 3 seat sofa at www.gibraltarfurniture.com .

The Barcelona seating series was designed by the legendary modernist architect, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, for the German pavilion at the 1929 International Exhibition held in Spain. The Barcelona series has become an icon of important chair design.

Gibraltar is based in Beverly Hills California and can be found on the web at www.gibraltarfurniture.com. This firm has been in operation for five decades, and is an insider secret weapon for blue chip merchandise at warehouse prices. Yahoo reports that Gibraltar Furniture has “The best prices, models, and service of any site on the internet. This store is nirvana for people who want Bauhaus, art deco, modern, mid century, or designer furniture at wholesale prices.”

All purchases are fully covered by Lloyds of London and the Yahoo buyer’s protection plan. The Yahoo! Buyer Protection Program covers any item legitimately purchased through Yahoo! This protection covers purchases of up to $1000 for material defects and other issues.

Gibraltar Furniture is a good resource for design addicts looking for top-rated  originals at popular prices. All of the materials, design lines, and specs for all of the Gibraltar releases are the same as the European manufacturers. Gibraltar out-sources the production of these design classics to our overseas factories in order to cut labor costs. We use the same high quality  leather and stainless steel frames that Knoll uses.

The design is exactly like the original at a fraction of the Knoll price! The main difference is that the official Knoll release comes with a certificate of authenticity and our copy does not.

All of the world class leather that use on this piece is 100% European luxury grade material. Each high quality stainless steel frame is also imported to insure that you get only the very best resources that money can buy. Only the best Italian leather is used to construct this masterpiece! We ship factory direct so that you don’t have to pay a middle man for a mark up. This means you get the wholesale price and a great product at an unbeatable price!

All of our Barcelona editions are made of 100% Italian leather, manufactured in Italy, by the Mastrotto Group. Based in Arzignano (Vicenza, Italy), the Mastrotto Group is the gold standard for world wide hide production and one of the most important global sources for the creation of upholstery, furniture, and leather goods. They are the exclusive source for all of the leather used in Mercedes Benz and BMW automobiles!

We created this sofa as a high quality reproduction using premium solid-core stainless flat steel, fully welded. Our frames are NOT made using lower cost chrome-plated hollow tubes and then bolted/screwed together. Multiple colors and grades of premium full top grain Italian leather are available for your design requirements. Each square of leather is hand selected, piped, tufted and individually sewn by expert leather craftsmen. Three types of highly resilient foam are used to provide the proper amount of plush comfort and firm support. The cushions rest upon a suspended network of saddle leather straps.

There are 3 different types to choose from depending on your preferences, which are explained below.

Deluxe is our highly durable Top Grain Leather that is grain-corrected and color pigmented. The grain surface is slightly abraded to remove imperfections before a protective surface coating is applied. A decorative leather-grain pattern is then embossed into the surface for a finished look.

Primo is a top grain Semi-Aniline Leather that has just a small amount of pigment or clear finish added to its surface, thus allowing the natural unique characteristics of the hide to still show through while offering some of the benefits of color consistency and increased durability.

Exquisíte is the softest and most expensive leather. This Full-Aniline Leather is left in its most natural/naked state after the aniline-dye process. The leathers reveal different grain patterns, healed scars, and other natural markings. Dyes are absorbed differently between each hide so there may be tonality differences in each piece of leather. Full Aniline means that it is UNPROTECTED with no pigments or top coatings sprayed on after the aniline-dye process

-Design is true to form and mirrors the original! -Solid steel frame will not rust, chip or flake like some inferior versions -Soft, Italian leather -Squares are individually sewn with raised piping -Saddle leather straps -Comfortable foam cushioning

-71″W x 30″D x 31″H

-Manufacturers Warranty of 1 Year against defects or workmanship errors.

Our sofa is a high quality reproduction using premium solid-core stainless flat steel, fully welded. Our frames are NOT made using lower cost chrome-plated hollow tubes and then bolted/screwed together. Multiple colors and grades of premium full top grain Italian leather are available for your design requirements. Each square of leather is hand selected, piped, tufted and individually sewn by expert leather craftsmen. Three types of highly resilient foam are used to provide the proper amount of plush comfort and firm support. The cushions rest upon a suspended network of saddle leather straps.

FRAME: The polished stainless steel frame will not rust or chip. All joints are fully welded, sealed and sanded.

We only accept the very best, imported, quality items at Gibraltar! This applies to the quality of hides as well as the fabrics that we use on all of our Barcelona sofas. Consequently, we have chosen the finest suppliers for all of our raw materials. For instance, we insist on using only 100% imported Italian leather. The hides must be of superlative quality. We insist that every manufacturing detail conforms to the original lines. Craftsmanship, sewing and upholstery are a huge priority to us. In the end, the biggest difference that you will notice is the large sum of money that you will save via Gibraltar vs. the European makers.

Gibraltar offers the entire line of products from Compar, David Edward, Davis Furniture, Fabulux, Firefarm, Girari, Gordon International, Grey, Havaseat Chairs, Innovation, IQMatics, Janke, Jet Age, Kenshoma, Litto Kids, Lunar Lounge, Malik, Ooba, Oeuf, Offi, OFM, Ogus Design, The Phillips Collection, Serralunga, Studio4LA, Touch Design/Lighting, Trevi Outdoor, the Vessel Architectural Pottery collection, Zuo Modern, and 100 Times Better, among others.

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release, please contact Bradley Friedman, Director of Pubic Relations, via email.

Images for all products can be obtained at www.gibraltarfurniture.com.

I fixed my other computer..  and I found interesting video footage on a dying harddrive. I made this video.. nothing special. i like the song. ‘all we ever wanted’  by bauhaus.

folding british campaign chairs inspired the basculant and wassily chairs.   

this is an interesting connection. 

a late 1800s roorkhee chair reproduction

the british military were the spearhead of empire, of world commerce, christianity and civilization (british style).  they did a lot of camping, of living on the frontier, of folding their lives up and moving on.  this was not the whole picture, though.  behind it all was the victorian and edwardian leadership, the bankers and ceos in london, the plush english houses with their rose gardens, the educators fighting to bring the possibilities of the next generation to the children of the slums of manchester and the african bush, and radical missionaries with bold and kind hearts reaching millions for the gospel. it was one package: a powerful, prosperous, piratical machine.  

Basculant Chair LC 1 by Le Corbusier (1928)

marcel breuer's 1925 wassily chair

le corbusier and breuer of the 1920s bauhaus set were champions of the modern style of that decade, their furniture design reflected an attempt to cope with the newly industrialized world, crowded unsanitary urbanism and disorder. they focused on clean open geometric form and new industrial materials, rejecting the soft, complex and rich forms and ideas of the past.  

yet they were also camping on the edge of possibilities as they saw them.  you cannot escape the world with your design style, but you can create a refuge of sorts from the elements of life that you wish to reject.

caution: when you go out the door, the world is still there.

Ok, Jackson: é hoje que os maracatus luchadores entrarão em cena… 

 Dentro da pesquisa sobre o corpo, espaço e arquitetura, um texto do diário de Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943), artista da Escola Bauhaus, tem nos envolvido de inspiração. Vale reproduzir aqui:

“A receita pela qual se norteia o teatro da Bauhaus é muito simples:que a gente seja tão descomprometido quanto possivel; que a gente se aproxime das coisas como se o mundo tivesse acabado de ser criado; que a gente não reflita determinada coisa até a destruição e sim que a gente conserve, livre, permitindo seu desdobramento. Que a gente seja simples, mas não pobre (”a simplicidade é uma grande palavra”), que a gente prefira ser primitivo a ser vaidoso, complicado e inchado; que a gente não seja sentimental, mas que a gente em vez de sê-lo, tenha espírito. Com isto está dito tudo como não está dito nada! Mais que a gente parta do elementar. E o que quer dizer isto? Que a gente parta do plano, da linha, da superfície simples, e que a gente parta da simples composição de superficies: a partir do corpo. Que a gente das cores simples como são: branco, cinza, vermelho, azul, amarelo e preto. Que a gente parta do material. Descubra as diferenças de tecido dos materiais como vidro, metal, madeira, e assim por diante, assimilando-o interiormente. Que a gente parta do espaco, da sua lei e do seu segredo, deixando-se “enfeitiçar” por ele. Com isto, novamente, está dito muito e não é dito nada, até o momento que estes conceitos tenham sido sentidos e preenchidos. Que a gente parta da situação do corpo do ser,, do estar em pé, do caminhar e somente no fim do saltar e do dançar. Porque o dar um passo representa um importante acontecimento:e nada menos do que isto  levantar uma mão, mexer um dedo. Que a gente tenha tanto respeito quanto consideracão diante de cada ação do corpo humano, de vez que no palco se manifesta este mundo especial da vida, do aparecer, esta segunda realidade na qual tudo esta circundado pelo brilho do mágico.”

(oskar schlemmer, diário maio de 1929)

Some say that the obsession that Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry have had for instruments that have faded away with ancient cultures is the reason why they are collectively known as Dead Can Dance. Their music defies all the descriptions available for today’s genres. They are eclectic with a certain degree of austerity in the way they craft mesmerizing rhythms. Having started off their respective careers under the legendary 4AD Records label, some of Dead Can Dance’s earlier material drifted nervously between gothic pop and post-punk rock. Later on, they adopted a seemingly less cautious approach by going all out in their efforts to strangulate all signs of normalcy in their music. The result was both breathtaking and vulnerable; sort of like cherubic dementia. Born in one of the multi-ethnic suburbs of Melbourne, Lisa Gerrad has been one of Australia’s best-kept secrets since 1981. With influences from various countries, tribes, manuscripts and even bands like Bauhaus, Silent Stream of Godless Elegy and Cocteau Twins, her haunting and sometimes soaring vocals mesh beautifully with the eerie soundscapes created by multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist Brendan Perry. Released in 1981, their self-titled debut created quite the buzz. In 1985, their sophomore album - Spleen and Ideal – adopted a more ethereal twist and kept the post-punk influences out of the mix. Incidentally, the lyrics of the songs in this particular album were based on the writings of controversial writers Charles Baudelaire and Thomas de Quincey.

With Air Supply and Phil Collins ruling roost for most of that part of the decade, Dead Can Dance’s first two albums forced music fraternities all over to conjure up the spirit of Jimmi and ask themselves, “Are we truly experienced?” Six albums, two compilations and 14 movie soundtracks later, Gerrard and Perry still weren’t done answering the question. Having worked up a voracious appetite for change, much like Radiohead, they remained deeply committed to chopping and changing their sound. Even the environment wasn’t spared as Brendan Perry moved back to Ireland and bought a 150-year-old church to record their final album - Spiritchaser. Strangely enough, there was a strong presence of African tribal influences in the music they created for this album, as opposed to the Middle-Eastern rhythms that were known to permeate their previous efforts.

By 1997, the duo separated to pursue their respective solo careers and well, called it quits.

Despite being vastly experimental, their sounds are no less accessible than that of Pink Floyd. And much like Pink Floyd, there is a particular way of getting closer to their music. I would recommend that you start off by listening to Arabian Gothic, The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove and then finally, Desert Song. And if you don’t like, any of them…don’t go any further, it seems that the dead are not in favour of dancing for you.

Watch

Dead Can Dance – The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove

Dead Can Dance – Desert Song

Download

Dead Can Dance – Arabian Gothic

Buy

Dead Can Dance’s Awake

It would be hard for Obama to screw things up more than Bush. The problem, of course, is that Bush had a compliant Republican legislature snapping their heels at his every asinine brain fart. And now the legislature is even more Democrat - very very pissed Democrat.

I thought at first that this was a good thing. The reason that Congress has been so ineffective since the Democrats took control was because their majorities weren’t even close to veto-proof. So the Republican minority teamed up with a George W. Bush who suddenly remembered that he had veto power… which is why the Democrats, now with more robust majorities, are pissed. And with a Democratic president, they’ll want some payback.

The Republicans brought this on themselves. The problem is that they also brought it on us.

It’s going to be an interesting four years. I wonder if that remote and easily defensible cabin that I saw in Montana is still available.

Anyway, since we’re doing 70’s music for a while…

Bauhaus’ Bela Lugosi’s Dead is technically a 1970’s song, since it was released in 1979 (on a 12″ single with Boys). But it’s about as far as you can get from your songs, Shanoah, and still be called pop music. Bauhaus is considered one of the first goth bands - although Bela Lugosi’s Dead is as much New Wave as goth - and you can almost hear the distant thunder of goth rock in it.

Courtesy of mojofilter2.

There’s just one problem with this video. It’s a the only one that I could find with the full 9+ minute version of the song. mojofilter2 apparently transfered this to digital from this original single, for which he/she/it/they deserves lots of credit. But since Bauhaus (to my knowledge) never made a video, we have to make do with a slideshow.

And that’s the problem with songs made before MTV or out of the mainstream: no professionally-made videos. You have to make do with slideshows on YouTube. Not that I’m complaining; slideshows have saved my bacon on this blog more times than I care to count.

Still, I want to give you more than that. I Want To Offer You, The Valued Customer, Value-Added Musical Entertainment Content. Luckily, the people who made the 1983 vampire film The Hunger were Bauhaus fans, and they made the wise decision to build their trailer around Bela Lugosi’s Dead. It straddles the seemingly incompatible worlds of New Wave and goth very nicely.

Courtesy of ylais.

DESCRIÇÃO: Matéria sobre a apresentação da Reconstituição do Ballet Triádico de Oskar Schlemmer, publicada no Portal Senac, home do Centro Universitário.

MEU TRABALHO: Texto e fotos

DATA: 30/10/2008

Jesień jest sentymentalna… Idolami w tym czasie są: trzaskający w kominku ogień, ciepły pled i lapka wina. Czytamy książki, polegujemy i wspominamy… I planujemy….
A może by tak zacząć pisac pamiętnik? Albo bloga? Ot - terapia. Blogoterapia

Fajnie jest mieć taki osobisty, cichy zakątek w krórym można na spokojnie zebrać myśli. Rolę tę doskonale odegra biblioteczny zakątek, bo zgromadzone książki mają magiczną moc… I inspirują! I ja chcę Was zainspirować! A prezentowana dzisiaj aranżacja ma bez wątpienia swoją magię!

Zestaw tworzy tradycyjna zabudowa pomalowana na niebanalny kolor jasnego bzu. Do tego biurko vintage z kontenerem na dokumenty, tapicerowane krzesło retro, piękna lampa w stylu bauhaus, a pod stopami zebra… To lubię!

tubular steel and wheelchairs.  an unfair association?   

mies van der rohe D 42 bauhaus armchair

i should be impressed by the strength of the steel frame, especially the cantilevered form.  i am sure the 1920s-30s bauhaus generation that first saw the chair must have been suspicious, then most impressed.  then the clean smooth steel and simple fabric seat are inviting.  maybe this style is what you are looking for in your interior design.  i am not sure it is for me.  what is behind the like or dislike of this style?  

chaise-longue by mies van der rohe, germany 1931

the designs that came from the bauhaus school (germany, 1919-1933) like the people who worked there, were rejecting adornment and frivolity.  they were german, french, and russian, reeling from the shock of the mud and trenches of the first world war, rejecting the aristocracy and the mess the world had become in their hands.  this is understandable.  my father’s family never recovered from the loss of uncle hugh, my granny’s brother.  we have settled down now into the normality of mechanized war, but that one was a particularly weird and prolonged horror.  in the cultural freedom of that once off lull time, between that war and the next big shock, the great depression, bauhaus designers made their clinical statement about life.  the radical politics of the far left and the far right were emerging as the would be salvation of the world.  this led to communism and fascism, the second world war and the subsequent cold war. so much for man’s big ideas to save us.  

sadly, we seem to be repeating history.  if adornment and frivolity are to be associated with riches and power, and we are just angry with the rich and powerful because they are not one of us or we are not one of them, we are on a dangerous road.  but this may explain our reactions to these chairs.  i am not a proponent of clutter, but nor do i want a totally unadorned or unfrivolous life that tries to exclude, somehow, the fantastic variations of people and places and the beauty of this world.  maybe you are impressed more by the messiness of life, the upheaval of our times, and a more clinical look to your interior design gives you hope.  pay attention, though, to your view of the world.  is it religiously clinical?  this will not save you and your life will be sadly crippled.

i found an interesting blog about mies van der rohe’s greenwald house.  i include here just one of several great pictures on that blog.  the huge windows and openness to nature is the best part of the design.  (i would stick a few rose bushes in the gardens, at least….)

Mies Van Der Rohe Morris Greenwald House

dG Nordhorn/ Weimar. “Diese Evangelisten, die arbeiten auch an Sonntag!” ereifert sich Markus Hirtenheim. Getreu seinem Motto “Dreht es sich um Bier und Wein, lassen fromme Menschen Klagen sein” ist der 56jährige Geistliche aus Nordhorn als Begleitschutz nach Weimar gefahren.
Dort musste sich nämlich der Vorstand von Nordhorner Brauhaus gegen den Erben von Bauhaus in Weimar, Malte Gropius, verteidigen tun.
Gropius, mit ne Emskopp-Lädi verheiratet, hatte sich da wohl wat flüstern lassen. Dass Brauhaus, so der 36jährige Janksta in Gerichtssaal, habe seinen Namen eindeutig von Bauhaus stiebitzt.
Doch die Brauhaus-Deligation hielt gegen den heiklen Vorwurf: “Ich kannte das Bauhaus bis heute gar nicht, Herrgott von Bentheim!” regt sich etwa Franz Dörmekart auf. “Kunst intressiert mich nicht, dat machn die Nachbarn inne Alten Weberei von!”
Gropius, der immer wieder verliebte Blicke mit seine Emskopp-Schlange austauschte meinte zwar, dass gerade die Alte Weberei mit ihren Bildergalerien vonne Bauhaus-ähnlichen Namen proftieren täte, doch die Richter ließen sich kein Nichts für ein R vormachen. Der oberste Richter, Ronny Malchow, befand schließlich auf Freispruch: “Die Öhnlichgeit ist nüsch gegeben!”

De Grafschafter findet: Weimar, die Stadt die Gerechtigkeit schafft, verdient die Nordhorner Städtepartnerschaft!

von Dr. Bernhard Lehenkamp, der sich vor Ort auch das Goethe-Haus ansah und dort Hinnerk Harmkötter-Bücher anpriesen tat.

O Keane, uma das minhas bandas favoritas, acabou de lançar Perfect Symmetry, seu terceiro álbum. No material de divulgação os membros aparecem representados pelo artista coreano Osang Gwon, famoso por suas esculturas figurativas cobertas por fotografias.

As esculturas demoraram 6 semanas pra ficarem prontas e foram tiradas de 1000 a 3000 fotografias de cada integrante. Olha o processo do cara:

A direção de arte, desenvolvida pelo escritório inglês Tourist, foi inspirada pela estética Bauhaus (a banda conheceu o movimento durante a gravação do álbum, em Berlim). Lindo, né?

Halloween is consistently my favorite holiday to celebrate.  The custom for the past two years has been to throw a party in Jamie’s basement:

Dead Man's Party '06: Cocaine, anyone?

Nuclear Fallout '07: Dr. Stangelove & Nikolai with the briefcase nuke

This year, however, most of the boys are out of town, and I’m feeling like my Halloween spirit is a bit lacking.  Tonight, some of us are going over to Kit’s house to watch The Strangers, which looks scary as hell, but that’s about all I’ve got on the menu.  In fact, upon seeing the following, Strangers was my first thought…because, to paraphrase a quote from Michael Copponex, “Zombie movies and slasher films aren’t too scary to me.  But you know what is terrifying?  To walk out your front door and find someone standing in the yard with an effing bag on their head”:

That’s one of a collection of old photos found in the Flickr set “Halloween in the Time of Cholera”, viewable here.  This stuff is way creepier to me than anything people do nowadays…even with Peter Murphy being a real-life vampire…maybe it’s the homemade aspect of most of the costumes, or maybe it’s wondering if any of these people are still alive, and if they’re looking back at me through the photos….ahhhhh!  Thanks go to Eileen for passing the link along.

So, other than that, I reckon it’s time to listen to a lot of spooky 80’s music, in mourning of the loss of The Haunted House of Retroplex one year on, and keep digging that hole in the backyard for….later….mua-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!