Gianni Cavaler had a dream. He had a dream of reinventing the utilitarian stair into one of design significance - to each his own, right? He followed that dream and his Italian company - because all sexy products come from Italy - Edilco has done just that. They started with precast concrete and were able to create a single element that includes tread, riser, and in the design below even the balustrade. All the concrete designs are even self supporting via the "inner spiral well."
In the 80's they started looking at other materials including metal and glass...
And have experimented with other things such as plexiglass and That has got to defy a handful of codes.
Being in New Orleans, I am all too aware of the AIA Conference going on right now. Along with speakers and CEU's and tours, there is, of course, a products expo. There are hundreds of companies showing products and I'm sure plenty of them are very cool. But a lot of those booths are also going to tend toward the technical side of building. Don't get me wrong, I like flashing membranes as much as the next guy but it's just not really POW worthy.
So we're going to go to another "new" city on another coast for another product expo.
ICFF - International Contemporary Furniture Fair - is taking place this weekend in New York City. As the name suggests there will be furniture makers and manufacturers from all over the world represented. But the fair will also show finishes and accessories as well. If you go to the website, there is a fun way to explore the different exhibitors. At the bottom of the home page there are four "Exhibitor Profile" links. Pick one. Pictures of products (most times) will show up along with a small description, a link to a website and a link to a contact. Then when you scroll down to the bottom of that page, you have four more profiles to choose from. You can get lost in it for a while so watch out. You can follow those links to the actual websites and look at other projects those exhibitors are working on as well.
You might find Jordi Mila and their smooth carved wood benches.
Or these tiles with embedded LEDs by Hyomi Kim (sorry, sight is in Japanese)
Andarina Designs and their glass rod light fixtures
Or these super fun partitions from Razortooth Design (check out all their stuff!)
