As soon as you thought lofts were over, God goes and makes them cool again, right? That guy/girl/all-powerful being. Well, in this case, that's not so far from reality. God's Loft could give former church sites a good name in the design world. A former Dutch Reformed Evangelism building in Haarlo was transformed into a one-of-a-kind loft by LKSVDD Architects. They retained the facade, bell tower, wooden roof, old panel doors, and stained glass windows in the church on the outskirts of a village. The designers say their philosophy: strip, isolate, and furnish helped them create a dwelling suited to its new playful, modern, and somewhat naughty occupants.
The designers kept an open floorplan to emphasize the spaciousness of the 1100 square meter space. Their stairway is multifunctional (stairs, room divider, closet, kitchen, exhibition wall, and more). Basic materials and inventive reuse give the space an honest, unpretentiousness, slightly green vibe. The original church floorboards were used as cladding on the stairway and elsewhere you'll see concrete floors, stainless steel kitchen, and white stucco walls with punches of red.
All well and good, but what makes God's Loft stand out is its sense of humor. There's a "swinging sister" swing, guardian angels flanking a wall, and "the stairway to have fun" nods to Led Zep—plus, the red-tiled WC with the toilet paper cross is known as the "holy shit."
For the first music video from his upcoming metal album, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei recreated scenes from his 81-day imprisonment in 2011 on a set modeled after his actual jail cell. The video depicts some humiliating moments from his imprisonment, such as a forced shower in front of guards accompanied by a head shaving, as well as a bizarre drag sequence. Australian cinematographer Chrisopher Doyle shot the nightmarish clip, which has already been banned in China, as has the search term "Ai Weiwei." [via BBC]
Only a French menswear label, er "collective," could get away with the name Brooklyn We Go Hard, if it is possible to get away with at all. Now, BWGH, which calls itself a collective of "members" on its blog, has a new Paris shop at Les Docks, Cité de la Mode et du Design, a minimal and sleek pop-up inspired by Yves Klein that will be selling BWGH through September.
Visit BWGH online to see its latest collection.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, Penguin UK has published a series of paperbacks related to various stops on the venerable Tube. While we're considering taking home a stack on our next trip to the Big Smoke, there's one in particular that caught our eye right away. Fantastic Man's Buttoned-Up delves into the question of why East London men tend to button their shirts all the way up. It features Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys and other notorious buttoners from the East End pondering the question.
Buttoned-Up is available via Penguin in the UK.
YOY, the Tokyo based design firm, unveiled its latest creation at the 2013 Milan Design Festival: canvas furniture. Not to be confused with furniture that is simply just made out of canvas, this furniture is actually a piece of canvas art that can be hung. Made from a frame of wood and aluminum with an elastic fabric stretched across it, each of the pieces appear to be two-dimensional from a distance. Come closer and you’ll discover that the chairs are actually functional, somewhat three-dimensional objects that can be sat on—although we wouldn't quite describe them as furniture.
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Welcome to Nothing Major, an online journal exploring new visual culture, brought to you by the folks at Pitchfork.
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Copenhagen's noma is one of the most talked about restaurants in Scandinavia. Naturally, it was redesigned in mid 2012—and Copenhagen's Space got the gig.