Design Digest: Tom Dixon Opens in SoHo, a Robot Restaurant in Boston, and More
Tom Dixon Expands With a New NYC Outpost
Located in the heart of SoHo, Tom Dixon's new shop at 25 Greene Street will showcase the brand’s rapidly expanding catalog of lighting, furniture, and home accessories in a retail setting while also offering a bespoke service center dedicated to the trade. This month, Dixon also revealed a new lighting collection featuring styles in super-glossy black; a sharp, precise stainless; and a pop-art electric blue; as well as a new range of bathroom lights called Hot + Wet.
Formerly a chandelier shop, the new hub inhabits 6,700 square feet across two floors, and will take inspiration from Dixon's new London headquarters in Kings Cross to serve as a multi-disciplinary platform for innovation in design.
MUJI Materials Garden at NYCxDESIGN
Japanese lifestyle brand MUJI presented a large-scale, immersive installation by Brooklyn–based designers Ladies & Gentlemen Studio during New York Design Week. Commissioned to reflect and explore the essence of the brand’s ethos, the project is MUJI’s first collaboration with an American designer and celebrates the brand’s 10th anniversary in the U.S. Entitled MUJI Materials Garden, the installation was open to the public at the brand’s pop up space located on 434 Broadway in SoHo from May 19th–29th.
Taking the form of a landscaped garden, the series of vignettes displays a selection of MUJI’s well-loved products composed with the raw materials used to produce them, encouraging visitors to discover the products' material origins. Here, MUJI’s glassware emerges from a bed of sand, the main ingredient in glass.
Spyce Is the First Restaurant With Robot Cooks
What happens when four "robotics-obsessed," mechanical engineering students from MIT are hungry after water polo practice? They build a robot in their frat house basement that cooks delicious meals, serves them, and even cleans up after. Three years ago, Spyce CEO Michael Farid and cofounders Kale Rogers, Luke Schlueter, and Brady Knight did just this, raising funding to turn their invention into the newly opened, futuristic Boston restaurant called Spyce—where robots do the cooking. They even enticed star chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud to come on board as an investor and culinary director.
"When Michael and his three classmates emailed me about a robotic kitchen that could elevate fast food, I was impressed," says Boulud. "Not only had they guessed my email address correctly, the videolink to their cutting edge technology was unlike anything I’d seen before."
An Ancient Greek City Can Be Yours For $8.3M
Attention history buffs: if you have an extra $8,300,000 sitting around, you can buy an ancient Greek city—complete with ruins—in the ancient city of Bargylia, which is located in modern-day Bogazici, Turkey. The town has been private property since 1927, and recently went on the market in an effort to protect the ancient archaeological site from decay and treasure hunters.
The site’s theater, acropolis, fortification walls, and necropolis are a Grade 1 archaeological site dating back to the first century B.C. In fact, Greek mythology says the city was founded in honor of Bargylos, who was killed when he was kicked by the winged horse Pegasus.
Viking Offers a 245-Day World Cruise
Around the world in 245 days? Viking is now offering an around-the-world-cruise on the Viking Sun. The ship sails roundtrip from London, "cruising to six continents and visiting 113 of the world’s greatest cities and charming smaller ports," according to their website.
In addition to time on the water, the voyage includes overnight stays in 23 different destinations.
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