Category: Design

saneihopkins.co.uk

In England, we call these things Wendy Houses, so named because Peter and the Lost Boys built Wendy a little house in Peter Pan. In the US they are rather unpoetically referred to as just playhouses. At least I think so, we built one for our daughter Amy, and we called that Amy’s house (although she only went into it twice and it now houses decaying headless Barbie dolls and crawly things with excessive numbers of legs). While usually an opportunity for unrestrained kitsch and revolting cuteness, I thought this example both witty and of considerable charm. Particularly gratifying is that it is in this year’s Royal Academy show in London, organized by my old flatmate Peter Cook, who has been encouraging some new and younger talent to submit projects. It was designed by Amir Sanei (who studied at the AA like myself) and Abigail Hopkins (who studied at Columbia, where I later went on to teach).

Their Website www.saneihopkins.co.uk

Four years ago, a German high school graduate with no previous experience but with an avid passion for design knocked on our door looking for an internship for the Summer. Her prodigious talent was immediately apparent, and in the few months she was with us we were glad to be able to help a little with her application to design school in Berlin. Now she has graduated with this accomplished monothematic magazine about funerals as her Thesis. Congratulations again Jasmin Mueller-Stoy, Diplom Designer.

Her website www.muellerundstoy.de.

I seem to be on a street furniture bender this week, but in case you hadn’t noticed, there is still one genuine (not cutesy-poo pastiche) early Fifth Avenue lamp post standing alone, albeit overshadowed by an aggressive cobrahead, facing the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street and Broadway. This particular design dates from the early Twentieth Century, and had replaced an even earlier and more ornate gas fitting featuring massive hanging globes. Sadly, there are cables taped up it and a discarded Heineken bottle jammed in the access panel at the base. I believe that this is the last remaining example and yet it seems to be treated with casual disregard rather than being recognized as a real piece of design history. Shame on us.

Being located in Times Square, it seems entirely appropriate that the newspaper convention of continuing the story on the next page should have been appropriated by the Department of Transportation in the context of regulatory signage.