We’ve all probably experienced the kind of unholy combination of cats and apartments that results in an unstylish concoction of shredded furniture, and more than a hint of ammonia stink.

However, cat lovers will be pleased to know that their love of felines doesn’t necessarily sentence them to a domestic landscape of sisal-carpeted scratchposts, and Japanese architect Asahi Kasei’s Plus-Nyan house is more than enough evidence of this.

Everything in this house has been designed from the start with the integration of cats’ and humans’ needs in mind, resulting in an extraordinarily good looking home-slash-cathouse!

Sorry, dog owners, I don’t think this would catch on with your canine companions. Somehow, I can’t imagine a Sharpei galumphing around in the rafters!

Via Modern Cat

Are they vertebrae? Coral? Insect pods?

This week I introduce you to the ceramic artwork of Peter Lane, who shares a studio with the subject of last week’s post, Pamela Sunday.

Lane will soon exhibit ‘Seabed III’ and IV - a much larger version and a smaller, half-scale version - at the Pavillon des Arts et du Design in Paris in April. He will be represented there through Chahan Gallery, whose sleek modernist furniture presents the perfect counterfoil to Lane’s rough-hewn aesthetic.

Rough in texture it may be, but Lane’s piece has a poetic quality captured in his artist’s statement accompanying ‘Seabed’:

I love the vision of a school of fish and their mysterious, silent coordination, of ghosts, or spirits, the ghosts of whales, their bones lying in peaceful patterns of the floor of the ocean, the demon spirit of Nature that we try to shelter ourselves from, but can only rejoin, hopefully as something rich and strange.

You can read about how Lane came up with the idea for the piece, and how he made it, on my blog, The Brooklynist.

Lane exhibited a number of pieces at Chahan Gallery in Paris last September. He is known for his “birch bark” lamps, vases and drum tables using a ceramic process that happened to turn out looking like, well, you guessed it, birch bark.

The lamp base on the table above is part of his ‘Scholar’s Rock’ series, amorphous masses of clay that he stacks up and squeezes into shape. They are named after Chinese scholar’s rocks that are chosen because of their uncanny resemblance to things like tigers or clouds.

“I’m experimenting and trying new things. I don’t have a specific style,” says Lane. “My favorite things are most spontaneous and come directly from the clay itself.”

The circular sculpted mirror frame hanging above the table is a spin-off of a larger project that Lane is currently working on, called ‘Homage a’ Palissy.’

This piece, above, is a preliminary study for this work-in-progress, which will ultimately be a ceramic relief 8 feet tall and 12 feet wide.

“Bernard Palissy was an important artist and folkloric character,” Lane told me. “He was a stained-glass artist originally who basically had to invent ceramics from scratch. He burned all the furniture in his house trying to fire up his kiln to the right temperature!”

Apparently, Palissy’s masterpiece was a grotto that he made for Catherine de Medici. “The walls were encrusted with sculptures of seaweed, salamanders and shells to resemble an ancient Roman ruin underground.”

Clearly, Lane’s imagination is up to the task of capturing this fantastical underground cave, as these other studies and tests for ‘Homage a’ Palissy’ show.

French-made Jieldé work lamps have been around since the 1950s, when Jean-Louis Domecq grew tired of searching for a reliable lamp to equip his own machine-tools, and made his own articulated Standard lamp.

Over the years, Jieldé work lamps have gained iconic status, as they excel in both form and function, and are now available in a variety of shapes and forms.

If you’d like to get your hands on one, get in touch withTonic Design in Joburg, as they have the agency for Jieldé in South Africa.

At the end of last year, Japanese fashion label minä perhonen had an exhibition exploring the forms and uses of ribbons. For the show, architect Ryuji Nakamura put together this ribbon installation, called Catenarhythm, using ribbons designed by minä perhonen.

You can see a vimeo of the installation here, and see more pics here. Read more about Ryuji Nakamura at the website.

via Ah-yi

I for one, have had enough of the plastic Puppy by Eero Aarnio. To me, it’s a little too ubiquitous to be considered the icon it appears to be held up to be. I propose that it gets replaced by a new plastic animal, and would like you to consider Jaime Hayon’s chicken.

What do you think - reckon it’ll catch on in the same way?Via Orange you Lucky

“A hobby that consumed my life” is how Pamela Sunday describes the exquisite ceramic sculptures she makes in the studio in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn that she cycles to every day. Her iconic pieces have been embraced by the interior design world here in the U.S. and as far afield as India, Japan and Singapore.

Pamela studied economics and math at college, did a stint working on Wall Street, and then became a stylist and art director at Bergdorf Goodman. She discovered she loved clay while taking a class with some colleagues. “We decided to try different classes after work instead of going for drinks,” she said.

She’s been at it full-time for eight years, during which her style has refined itself into a bold, highly crafted expression of her love for natural forms. Her current work was inspired by microscopic forms such as plankton and algae.

Pamela often uses metallic glazes fired to a high temperature. The result resembles metal more than clay.

“I’m working on the edge of my materials,” she said. She works very methodically, labouring over her pieces for weeks sometimes.

While some pieces are lustrous and glossy, others have a more matt texture. “I play mad scientist with the chemicals,” Pamela explained while showing me the different kilns she bakes her pieces in.

The beauty of her pieces to me is that they evoke so many different kinds of forms. Many of her orbs look like intergalactic objects.

“Everything starts with an orb and then I either add or subtract elements,” she said.

Pamela is experimenting with oval forms now, so watch her website for updates on those. And read about her husband Paul Sunday’s paintings on my own blog here.

Cole & Son has recently released their Contemporary III wallpaper collection with more archive designs from the 1950s and 60s together with original designs.

Just a warning: should you spend some time visiting the Cole & Son website, you’ll probably start eyeing the blank walls in your house appraisingly. I know this, because that’s what’s happened to me!

February is Design Indaba month, and I’ve no doubt that the diaries of design-savvy types are already blocked out form 25 - 27 Feb to attend the conference and the Expo too.

I’ll be covering the Indaba, letting you know what I heard from the impressive lineup of international and local speakers, which includes Patricia Urquiola, Bruce Mau, Barber Osgerby, as well as the “best chef in the world” El Bulli’s Ferran Adrià.

I’m getting very excited about the Design Indaba conference, and also about all the fresh new design on show at the Expo. Hope to see you there.

“Wood” you like to take a seat, madam?

Actually, this tree stump by designers Ilona Huvenaars and Alissia Melka-Teichroew is not what it appears at all! It’s made of soft foam, and comes in colours certainly never seen in nature!

And unlike a real wood stump, these are light, soft and waterproof, so you can take them outside without making the trees in your garden feel nervous.

Available at Kikkerland (with sooo many other cool things!)

This Red Flash wallpaper (above) is the design that first woke me up to the amazing work of design duo Eley Kishimoto, and when I spotted their Red Damask design (below), I became a dedicated lifelong fan, prepared to save a wall in my home for the day when I could afford to paper it in an Eley Kishimoto print.

While I’m saving up for my wallpaper, I thought I’d share some of the fab new furnishing fabrics from Eley Kishimoto:

Chains

Beasts of the Night

Domino Butterfly

Tapestry

See more of this talented duo’s work at the Eley Kishimoto website.