Beautiful graph of Construction Activity in the U.S.A. by Bill Rankin of Radical Cartography (via). Note the dips during winter.

Artek and Tom Dixon have a new range / recycling strategy for their furniture. It’s called 2ndcycle and it is reselling used Artek furniture again. But in addition they add an RFID tag, this tag has information for access to a website which then gives the history of that item, when it was made where and how Artek found it again etc.. The item that’s new to you can then be updated by the new owner with additional information, text, photos etc, which can be in turn passed on to a new owner in the future. As well as being sustainable, its a beautiful implimentation of a real use for virtual information. It also gets to the point of what often gives antiques and design classics their value. It’s their histories and how often they tie in to your family so intimately, or have a fantastic tale to tell, which ultimately gives them their individuality and their value. (via). You can pretty much do this with your own things too with the help of thinglink.

Also see; interview with Tom Dixon, inhabitat, onefloorup.

A new quarterly magazine is due to come to Finland soon called Baltia covering Architecture, Urbanism and Design. Published in Russian and English it is based in St.Petersberg with a brief to cover Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and NW Russia, around the St.Petersberg area including Kallingrad. Why Poland, Germany and say Sweden are not covered I’m not sure but the focus looks definetly to be on the Eastern Baltic. It’s already been published in Russia, and it should be coming to Finland anytime now, I haven’t seen it yet but I will pick up a copy when it comes out here. Many of these areas are not covered generally by more well known publications so there is a chance to uncover some good obscure Architecture hopefully.

An excellent gallery of old Finnish Beer labels. Russia and the Baltic are also covered. Too bad we can’t taste them also!

I saw the Citywall installation by students at HIIT yesterday which is one of those multi-touch screens hooked up to tagged images of Helsinki from flickr (film). Played around with the photos, the closest I’ll get to a Jeff Han touchscreen for a while I guess. It’s really nice playful installation for the summer, but they should have built it 16m wide infront of the main square.

When one is involved in this process, one can sometimes despair over the inefficiency and the absence of conventional professionality. But in the end, one is obliged to concede that the non-linearity of the design process, the lack of routine or an established canon of methods or solutions are the basis for the quality of the office’s work. It is precisely the apparent chaos that constitutes the distinctly unusual quality of the office’s professionality. It is characteristic that Rem assesses a project sceptically precisely when it has developed continuously without conflicts, crises and interruptions.

Finland has established a considerable reputation in Japan. This is reflected in the increasing number of Japanese tourists on the streets of Helsinki, and also, for instance, in the new film Ruokala Lokki (”Kamome Diner”) by Naoko Ogigami. The film, which is set in the Punavuori neighbourhood of Helsinki, has achieved cult status in Japan.Design brands such as Artek, Marimekko, and Iittala also have their ardent fans. (via)

And now Kitamura have brought an exhibition of Japanese design and handicraft to the Artek shop in Helsinki at the Artek shop until 28th October.

I have a Tommy Perman print on my wall bought at analogue. He is a great artist & one day I will listen to some of his music too. But in the meantime go to his website Surface Pressure and take a look.

I went to see Habitare 05 last weekend, which is Finland’s largest interior and Furniture trade show and takes place every two years and it coincided with Helsinki design week. We went to get a flavour of what is happening here and to look for some inspiration. I have put some photos on flickr as have some others go here to have a look. A couple of companies at either end of the spectrum stood out. One was solid furniture and the other was inr (Swedish) who do showers and were showing some custom special edition shower cubicles. One has laminated between the glass panels almost invisible speakers and lights, utilising technology only ever used before by NASA apparently….I didn’t ask how much it cost. At the other end of the scale was solid furniture from Helsinki, who basically made quality solid wood pieces. They have a limited but very beautiful range. The most interesting thing to me though is that they make pieces specially and will make your design for you with the help of their specialist advise.

The Block lamp by Harri Koskinen is part of the permanent collection at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Koskinen has done some great designs for Issey Miyake and Iitala also. But the block lamp is my favourite.

Saw this in city of sound which I can highly recommend. This translucent concrete sounds an amazing material and so counterintuitive- think about it, a structural material that you can see through! I’d love to see some in real life. Optic article . Andreas bittis . Liquid stone exhibition

Syrup finland is a design agency that I really like. They did all the Koneiesto graphics etc which I loved, but not for this year unfortuneately! Anyway hopefully this year Kirsi and me can go to at least one of the days and relive our ‘youth’. Syrupnyc