David A. Greene
Dave has contributed to Dwell since its inception. He's a CalArts dropout, a former art critic for The New Yorker, and a producer of comedies on TV. He lives in, and writes from, Los Angeles.
Cookin' with IKEA
Most appliance-buyers in the U.S. are prisoners of big-box and old-school retailers like Sears, Home Depot, and Best Buy, but over the past few years, Swedish furniture superstore Ikea has been slowly (and quietly) introducing a full line of appliances to go with their well-priced, design-it-yourself kitchens.
Titanium Spork
When it comes to hard-wearing, utilitarian consumer goods, there are a few acknowledged design classics: Emeco's Navy Chair comes to mind:
The Latest from Michelle Kaufmann
Michelle Kaufmann's new mkHearth is a semi-prefab house that evokes old-timey barns and vacation-destination chalets. Like all of Kaufmann's celebrity-architect-branded housing products, the mkHearth is a panelized, earth-friendly building that essentially costs the same as similar (if less sophisticated) custom-built homes, but due to efficiencies in transportation and manufacture, saves time (and ergo, money) from contract to construction and completion.
Eames Gossip
In the wake of InStyle Magazine's feature on the TV show "Gossip Girl" and its modern-mashup Manhattan apartment set (aka the Bass/Van der Woodsen residence, if you're a cognoscento), mid-century modernistas have been buzzing about the show's brash design move—reupholstering a classic Eames lounge chair and ottoman in a Missoni Chevron pattern.
Uniformity of Design
Where do typography, fashion, and history come together every spring, summer, and fall? On pro baseball uniforms, is where.
Built Like a Concrete House
Dorit Mizrahi and Oliviero Godi, working in Bergamo, Italy, as the firm Exposure Architects, have designed a house using prefabricated panels made of pollution-eating TX-Active concrete.
A Case Study Case Study
Meltdown, shmeltdown: If you've got a spare $14 million, you can have a genuine Case Study house, a Pacific Ocean view—and a 1990s mansion to boot.
Be Your Own Marimekko
Does the lack of Jar Jar Binks pillow shams make you want to design your own Star Wars bedsheets? Do plain ol' red-or-blue-bandanas make you crave more creativity for your hobo bindles?
