The Abner Toolbox takes a necessary household accessory and makes it into a work of art. Designed by Aaron Poritz, the toolbox is crafted entirely in teak, including the comb joints that hold the box together. Although designed as a toolbox, this multi-function accessory can be used to hold paints, jewelry, and other small items needing organization.
The sunny Tool Box by Line Depping melds beauty and utility.
Tools by Jakob Jørgensen is a series of handcrafted woodworking tools intended to explore craft traditions and act as a counterpoint to machines.
The wooden box is as functional as it is finely crafted, with room for clothes up top. Each niche holds treasures from travels, family keepsakes, books, and more.
Clothing can play a vital part in post-disaster comfort and survival. Be prepared with lightweight, versatile items that are appropriate for the highs and lows of your region—bonus points for bright colors like neon yellow or orange that might help emergency workers spot you. Make sure you have clean underwear, layers (including a light jacket), and a hat that would protect you from the sun. Extra blankets, shoes, boots, socks, and bug spray might be necessary depending on where you live.
HotBox: Michaela MacLeod and Nicholas Croft (Toronto) A mysterious monolith on the landscape, this warming hut, a cubic room wrapped in rubber and egg shell crate foam, provides a space for socialization.
Architect William Carpenter, glimpsed in his second-floor design studio, built Lightroom 2.0 to sit unobtrusively among its 1920s neighbors in Decatur.
When the Casali family gave Michael Krus and Prishram Jain of TACT Architecture free rein to work with unconventional materials, the architects responded by creating a geometric 4,300-square-foot smart home encased in aluminum panels by Agway Metals. The front facade features Cor-Ten steel fabricated by Praxy Cladding.
The resident, a Tokyo transplant, commissioned architect Tadashi Murai to create a fully-equipped structure that comes with its own power, heating and cooling, water, and waste-disposal systems.
Tools of the trade.
In addition to the aforementioned designers, catch work from artisan textiles and apparel studio Small Trade Company; textile artist Llane Alexis; handwoven apparel and textile maker Voices of Industry; and jewelry maker Liz Oppenheim. "It's a very diverse group, which we like," Chiang says. "What unifies the participants is a deep relationship with both design and material. Great craft is not complete without design."
Architect Joaquin Castillo blends inexpensive materials, the odd splurge, and a refined modernist sensibility to create an affordable weekend house for brothers Alfredo and Guillermo Oropeza. The facade is a juxtaposition of rough-hewn local stone, smooth concrete, glass, and steel—the material palette used throughout the structure.
Light Box Peter created a simple uplight at the top of the wood box by wiring together energy-efficient fluorescent fixtures typically used under cabinets and countertops. “The cheaper magnetic models hum unacceptably loudly, so make sure you get the electronic ballast types,” he warns. He then painted the cavity white to reflect light and covered them with quarter-inch-thick acrylic from TAP Plastics. homedepot.com tapplastics.com
Narigua House (El Jonuco, Mexico) Architect: David Pedroza Castañeda Category: House
Modern Sprout’s planters were designed by Nick Behr and Sarah Burrows, two Chicago apartment dwellers who wanted to grow their own garden, but didn’t have the space. Struggling to maintain plants in their apartment, they tried hydroponic planters, which yielded results, but were expensive and unappealing to look at. As a result, they designed their own planter—a hydroponic, self-watering system that hides its mechanism beneath a reclaimed wood planter box.
North Carolina firm Skram Furniture Company has created a flexible and functional line of containers that can be utilized in various spaces, from offices to kitchens.
“We edit to what’s most essential and what will highlight the product best.” —Pearl Schenkel, graphic design manager at Finell
IITTALA TOOLS SAUCEPAN $295 Developed with the insight of professional chefs and the material mastery of designer Björn Dahlström, this range of highly designed cookware was created for people with a large appetite for life. The generously sized pieces are perfect for even the most demanding occasions, adding ease and control to every aspect of cooking and serving.
Song waxes poetic about her medium. "Wood is constantly in flux, even when it has been felled," she says. "It is a breathing material. It expands and contracts, depending on its environment. I work with wood because it primordial to me. It feels like an intuitive process to study wood. I need to understand and work with it and allow it to become what it wants to be." The round cole jaw and chucks she uses on her lathe hang on a wall in her studio.