In commemoration of the company's 100th anniversary, Japanese rail operator, Seibu, recently unveiled a new commuter train designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Kazuyo Sejima. Sejima is a founding partner in the Tokyo-based firm SANAA, which has started branching out beyond buildings. She recently designed a neat and multi-functional bag for Prada.

One of the key features of the "Laview" commuter train is its unusually large 1.35m x 1.58m windows. They're designed to maximize views, as this particular route travels from the city and into the mountains. It's a simple design move, but it's one I have never seen before. The overall result is quite beautiful and it goes to show you just how much the Japanese value train travel.

Images: Dezeen

For this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, artist Carsten Höller collaborated with Fondazione Prada to create a 3-night-only pop-up club called, The Prada Double Club Miami.

By time you read this post, the pop-up is likely to be over. But it is an interesting space nonetheless.

The installation made use of an old 1920s film studio and was comprised of two distinct spaces – hence the double club reference. 

The interior bar and dance floor were entirely monochromatic.

Höller wanted all color to instead come from participants within the space. 

The exterior bar, on the other hand, was “hyper-polychromatic.”

Perhaps some of you might find inspiration here for your next condo sales office. That would be fun.

Photography: Casey Kelbaugh, courtesy of Fondazione Prada and via The Spaces

Architect Rem Koolhaas recently unveiled a backpack that he designed for Prada’s autumn winter 2018 menswear collection. 

It looks like this: 

It’s more of a frontpack. Actually, maybe the right name is chestpack.

What stood out for me, though – perhaps more than its frontality – was the way that Rem Koolhaas described his reasoning behind the design.

Here is an excerpt from Dezeen:

“Today, waiting in line for a typical airport check of carry-on luggage, it is surprising to note how the shapeless container of the backpack, is inhabited by strict, orthogonal devices like the laptop, the charger, books, toilet bag, and how awkward it is to liberate these objects from their containment in the backpack,” he said.

“This project proposes a reinterpretation of the backpack, more suitable to the contemporary urban citizen,” he continued. “The frontal position gives a more intimate sense of ownership – a better control of movement, avoiding the chain of oblivious collisions that the backpack inadvertently generates.”

Leave it to an architect to talk about a backpack like the wearer is about to go to war.

P.S. I’m a fan of Koolhaas. I just found this funny.

Image: Prada

In commemoration of the company's 100th anniversary, Japanese rail operator, Seibu, recently unveiled a new commuter train designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Kazuyo Sejima. Sejima is a founding partner in the Tokyo-based firm SANAA, which has started branching out beyond buildings. She recently designed a neat and multi-functional bag for Prada.

One of the key features of the "Laview" commuter train is its unusually large 1.35m x 1.58m windows. They're designed to maximize views, as this particular route travels from the city and into the mountains. It's a simple design move, but it's one I have never seen before. The overall result is quite beautiful and it goes to show you just how much the Japanese value train travel.

Images: Dezeen

For this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, artist Carsten Höller collaborated with Fondazione Prada to create a 3-night-only pop-up club called, The Prada Double Club Miami.

By time you read this post, the pop-up is likely to be over. But it is an interesting space nonetheless.

The installation made use of an old 1920s film studio and was comprised of two distinct spaces – hence the double club reference. 

The interior bar and dance floor were entirely monochromatic.

Höller wanted all color to instead come from participants within the space. 

The exterior bar, on the other hand, was “hyper-polychromatic.”

Perhaps some of you might find inspiration here for your next condo sales office. That would be fun.

Photography: Casey Kelbaugh, courtesy of Fondazione Prada and via The Spaces

Architect Rem Koolhaas recently unveiled a backpack that he designed for Prada’s autumn winter 2018 menswear collection. 

It looks like this: 

It’s more of a frontpack. Actually, maybe the right name is chestpack.

What stood out for me, though – perhaps more than its frontality – was the way that Rem Koolhaas described his reasoning behind the design.

Here is an excerpt from Dezeen:

“Today, waiting in line for a typical airport check of carry-on luggage, it is surprising to note how the shapeless container of the backpack, is inhabited by strict, orthogonal devices like the laptop, the charger, books, toilet bag, and how awkward it is to liberate these objects from their containment in the backpack,” he said.

“This project proposes a reinterpretation of the backpack, more suitable to the contemporary urban citizen,” he continued. “The frontal position gives a more intimate sense of ownership – a better control of movement, avoiding the chain of oblivious collisions that the backpack inadvertently generates.”

Leave it to an architect to talk about a backpack like the wearer is about to go to war.

P.S. I’m a fan of Koolhaas. I just found this funny.

Image: Prada