Casa Milà and MACBA

I have escaped rainy Stockholm for sunny Barcelona for a few days. Two of my favourite buildings in this fantastic city is Casa Milà and the MACBA (Museo d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona). Their expressions could hardly be more different and still they are both so representative for Barcelona. Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926) belonged to the Modernisme (Art Nouveau) movement and was famous for his unique style and highly individualistic designs. He understood architecture as a complete art form and extended his creativity to every detail of his work, from balustrades to door knobs. He was commissioned to build Casa Milà (or La Pedrera which means stone quarry) for the industrialist Pere Milà and his family and the building was completed in 1912. It can be considered more of a sculpture than a regular building. The most astonishing part is the roof with an almost dreamlike landscape of different organic shapes. I can't decide if I think it's beautiful or ugly but it's a really amazing feeling to walk around there surrounded by the funny sculptures. The Barcelonese of the time regarded it weird , hence the "quarry" nickname, but today it is a landmark of Barcelona. The MACBA I have no mixed emotions about at all! This is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever been in. It is part of a project designed to open up the scruffy back lands off La Rambla and opened to the public in 1995. During the run-up to the Olympics, prominent architects were hired for work in Barcelona and American architect Richard Meier was commissioned to design the gallery and plaza. Meier is influenced by mid-20th architects, especially Le Corbusier. Critics have said that he has built more using Le Corbusier’s ideas than anyone, including Le Corbusier himself. The museum is a well-known spot for skateboarders and often featured in skateboard videos.

Patricia Urquiola

Being in Spain I take the opportunity to show some pieces from one of the worlds coolest designers; spanish Patricia Urquiola. She has become a designer superstar in only a few years since her breakthrough with Moroso. She started studying in Madrid but moved to Milan and her pieces are Italian playful but also theatrical and full of contrasts and paradoxes.
Ola for Depadova, 2004

Springfield for Moroso, 2002
Lazy for B&B, 2003
Tufty-Bed for Moroso, 2007
T-table for Kartell, 2006 Antibodi for Moroso, 2006

Gunila Axén's Clouds

When I was little I had a special bedset that I loved. Lying in it felt like being on a cloud in a bright blue sky. I was so happy to see that this pattern from 1966 by Gunila Axén is back in production. My sister's youngest, Pontus, will soon also be able to sleep among clouds. Available from Swedish Akvi Home.

Dogproof sofa 2

The new sofa is here. At first I was a bit puzzled about the colour, from the sample it looked brownish grey but it is grey drawing a little towards plum. Hrm... But I like it!

Bohuslän

Some photos from Bohuslän on the Swedish west coast, where I'm spending my summer vacation. These photos are from the beautiful places Fiskebäckskil and Gullholmen. I'm here almost two more weeks so more Bohuslän is coming up (if the rain stops...).

Josef Frank textile patterns

The interior design store Svenskt Tenn on Stockholm’s elegant waterside boulevard, Strandvägen, has since its opening in 1924 been the definition of good taste among the Swedish bourgeoisie. Decorating your home with furniture, textiles and objects from Svenskt Tenn has been a statement about who you want to be rather than what you like and the hip-factor has not been very high. During the last years the company has managed to attach new values to this rather tired brand by working with young designers and interior decorators and targeting design conscious trendsetters worldwide. Lately I've started seeing the familiar Joseph Frank design in a new light and many of the textile patterns are charming.

Gardening queen

Some photos from my parents' garden. To me it's one of the most peaceful places on earth. My mother stubbornly claims it doesn't take much time and effort to nurse it but I'm not sure what she's comparing with...

Kooba

I just discovered the NY bag brand Kooba at Domain in Stockholm. The bags are simply beautiful - and has the perfect balance between function and fashion.

Fabriken Furillen

Gotland is an extraordinarily beautiful island in the middle of the Baltic Sea. It is one of the sunniest places in Sweden and a holiday paradise. The ever-shifting light, sandy beaches and fields of wild flowers made photographer Johan Hellström with family decide they wanted to live here permanently. In 1999 they left the west coast city of Gothenburg for Gotland and their recently purchased limestone quarry on the four square kilometer island of Furillen off the north-eastern coast. The Hellströms bought the property from cement company Cementa AB. They decided to build a guest house and ended up creating an 18-room hotel with a restaurant. Johan Hellström is the main designer and he has combined industrial shades of gray with Scandinavian design. The result is austere and luxurious and unique.

Anna

I just returned from a week in Marbella and Tangier with my friend Anna who earlier lived in Marbella for four years. Sweet and fun Anna is a girl who knows how to dress for every occasion and she always looks stunning.

Dinner at Victor's Beach in Marbella. Dress from Mint, flats from Miu Miu, Botkier handbag, Buddha Jewels necklace.

Dinner at Relais de Paris in Tangier. Top from J Lindeberg, Yohji Yamamoto pants, flats from Prada.

Tangier

We spent two days in this grand but faded city on the north coast of Morocco. It has been passed from empire to empire and along the way acquiring, like Casablanca and Marrakesh, a reputation for the exotic and the romantic. It was after Delacroix that Tangier became an obligatory stop for artists seeking to experience the colors and light he spoke of - Matisse made several trips to Tangier. The city has also been a playground for eccentric millionaires and attracted in the 1940s and 1950s a circle of writers including Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Mohamed Choukri, and later Jack Kerouac.

Bantie

Bantie is a rather new textile company started by Ulrika Gyllstad and Wilhelmina Wiese. They already got a lot of attention in magazines and blogs and I can understand why. I really like their first collection which consists of five patterns available in different colours. All the patterns have a nice retro feeling. They design cushions, table cloths, table mats, bags and trays and if you rather create something yourself they also sell the fabric by the metre.

Eileen Gray

The other day I saw a documentary about Eileen Gray. This amazing woman is one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early 20th century and her work still inspires. While at the time most designers were male and members of different style groups like De Stijl in The Netherlands she remained independent and for most of her career she worked in relative anonymity.

In the early 1920s she decided to concentrate on architecture and in 1924 she began, together with the Roman-born architect Jean Badovici, to work on the construction of the house E-1027 on a steep cliff overlooking the Mediterranean at Roquebrune near Monaco. With its L-shape and flat roof and floor-to-ceiling windows facing the sea it was both open and compact. Gray designed the furniture and worked with Badivici on the structure. Her E-1027 glass table (originally designed for one of her sisters so she could have breakfast in bed) and the Bibendum armchair was designed for this house, inspired by Marcel Breuer at the Bauhaus. Her friends participated in the project and the main entrance has a mural by Le Corbusier.

Gray refined many of the ideas developed there in Tempe á Pailla, a smaller house she built for herself in the beginning of the 1930s further along the coast at Castellar. For this compact home she designed the foldable S-Chair and a double-sided chest of drawers.

Images of Eileen Gray from the 1970s shows this remarkable little woman, full of energy, still working on new projects in her nineties.

E-1027

E-1027 glass table

Bibendum armchair

Tempe á Pailla

Stripped

The renovation budget of this 1960s condo in Houston, Texas was all spent on taking things out. The raw concrete of the floors and walls makes an interesting setting for modern design and works of minimal artists, which the owner Barbara Hill began selling more than 30 years ago. Hill has lived in many different styles but minimalism is where her heart is. In the 1970s she turned her Houston house into a gallery and represented artists such as Daniel Buren and Sol LeWitt early in their careers. Photos from Dwell.

Design by Anki Gneib

Pac, multipurpose object, glitter red


Spike, wall hangers


Bombay, handmade glass vase


Not, shelves inspired by Persian calligraphy

I really like these products from designer Anki Gneib, they are so simple and yet so playful. She is educated at the University Collage of Art Crafts and Design in Stockholm, department of interior architecture. She works as an architect and designer in Stockholm and runs her own studio. Her design can be seen and bought for example at ROOM and Asplund.