Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright’s house, renovation

In 1988, Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino bought a run-down house in the Millstone borough of New Jersey. A house that was designed by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright. Turns out, that Wright had been thinking of the environment back then. The home, along with about 100 others, was designed in his “Usonian” style– a style that utilized admirable green building principles, including smaller footprints, lower cost, passive solar and radiant heating. The couple, principals of architecture and design firm, Tarantino Studio, renovated it, which won an award from the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architecture.

Sawdust of today

Light, recarried structure with dimension of 60 x 90 metres, space for 3500 spectators of new multi-medial show, that should cross the world in 2009. Norwegian architects and designers from Various Architects created inflatable envelope compound to the final form from little parts in a shape of „bicycle wheel“. Sustainability and compaction is then assured by indoor central aluminium stage-structure.

Lighting design

Former entertainment lawyer-turned-lighting designer Michael McHale creates chandeliers that are as much about structure as they are shimmering crystal.Born from the seeds of a DIY project, Michael McHale Designs is drafting a new vision for the chandelier, utilizing such rough and ready materials as patinated brass pipes and fittings, refrigerator bulbs, and appliance tubing in concert with the finest crystal available. The effect is at once jarring and oddly beautiful.

Architecture in shadows

The Kimbell Art Museum unveiled Renzo Piano’s design for its new building opposite Louis I. Kahn’s 1972 landmark. While the site plan and section don’t reveal a heck of a lot about the design, it made me wonder why Piano is chosen not only for every other museum design (it seems) but for additions to important, and in some case iconic, pieces of Modern architecture.