The Standing Desk

It would seem that standing desks are all the rage.

Well, seriously, isn't it enough that one has to work, but now we are expected to stand up and work!

New medical reports tell us that sitting is bad for us.  Are theses the same people who told us caffeine and alcohol were bad for us?

Truth be told, much of this winter was spent sitting, like 8 to 10 hours a day. Perhaps more, but who are you to judge?

As Spring approached, I decided to give the stand up desk a try.  I have a stand up farm desk at my office, but rarely use it.  It is a pain to move, so there was no way it was coming home.  Sitting under my stand up desk was a travel desk I bought many years ago. I knew that my travel desk, set upon my writing table would make a fine standing desk.

I love a travel desk!

 They are so romantic. There I am married to adventure with Osa Johnson.

 Setting at my base camp in the Himalayas.

 Standing in the hollows of West Virginia...

When I got it home, I realized why travel desks were used during war.  One needs an army to tote them around.  Porters and sherpas are a must for a travel desk.

Somehow, in my mind, I would stock my travel desk with an old typewriter, a iMac, books, a black fountain pen, and personalized stationary for proper thank you notes.  I would toss it in the back of my car, and I would ready for any occasion, when one might need to set up an office.  And how often have you found yourself in a situation while sitting in the Walmart parking lot when you needed to type up a thank-you note?

Ah, I am a hopeless romantic.  An actual romantic has a large staff.

When I opened up my travel desk, I found all the things one might imagine.  There was a yo-yo filled with candy, a yellow duck necklace filled with bubble soap, a tin of liquorice candy, old film (who has film anymore?), and a death certificate for an elderly relative.

Teddy rather likes the idea of the stand up desk, he believes it makes it easier to work together on projects, until he decides to take over. He always thinks he has the best idea!

So here I stand.  I feel healthier already.

I'm going to post this and sit down with a drink.  I deserve it.

One Man's Folly

We are a little late to the game with One Man's Folly. Most everyone had it pre-ordered.  The book is enhanced by the clever writing of Julia Reed.  There seems to be nothing on earth that Reed can't make more interesting.  One can only imagine what she does with with an engaging subject.  Well, imagination is not needed when Reed tells the story of Furlow Gatewood.

Bunny Williams, who wrote the introduction, knows Gatewood well, as he has been a business partner of  her husband.  It was Williams who introduced Reed to Gatewood and the rest, as they say, is history.

Born in a small town in Georgia, Gatewood began colleting things as a child.  WWII took the boy off the farm, but he returned home to Americus and began working on an old house on his property.  He left Americus to go to New York where the keen eye he had been developing since childhood served him well.  He opened an antiques shop that became the "go to" destination for decorators and design professionals. 

You can take the boy out of Americus, but you can't take Americus out of the boy.  Travel the world he did, but Gatewood always came back to Americus.  One building would be decorated, another rebuilt, and still another moved onto the property.  Each building has been designed and filled and refilled Gatewood.

The book is a like taking a deep plunge into the mind of a designer. 

Reddress

While we are talking about The London Design Festival... during the Festival The Finnish Institute in London installed Reddress.

Aamu Song & Johan Olin are Company, a Finnish firm of artists artists designers. In 2004, Aamu Song designed Reddress.

The gigantic dress is made of over 600 yards of Kvadrat’s classic Divina wool fabric. A performer climbs a hidden staircase and is fitted into the bodice of the dress to perform. the skirt, reaching 65 feet in diameter contains 238 pockets. Audience members climb into a pocket in the folds of the dress and become a part of the performance. Here Aamu Song discusses Reddress.

A View From The London Design Festival

In 2003 The London Design Festival was founded. It is a free flowing call to view design in a large way. Cultural as well as commercial, it has all the things a good festival needs including posters and t-shirts. The other major element of the Festival is a selection of "Landmark Projects." These are large commissioned works that spring up during the Festival. Two caught my eye.

Credit: Dennis Gilbert

The first was produced by AL_A, some say the leading architectural firm in England, helmed by Stirling Prize-winning architect Amanda Levete. Levete was chosen to build new galleries for the Victoria & Albert Museum. For The London Design Festival AL_A produced Timber Wave, a three story lattice cascade that, according to Levete, "respond[s] in some way to the entrance of the V&A. For us it was about making very explicit the London Design Festival residency there. We wanted to take the V&A out onto the street."

Credit Stephen Citrone

The second was by John Pawson. I admit from the start that I have very mixed emotions about John Pawson. At times his minimalism strikes me as kind of a joke, like a giant white box with a single chair and tiny vase. And sometimes, his work seems magical. Mostly, my attraction to Pawson came from a cookbook he did with Annie Bell, Living and Eating. I liked the book, though not Pawson's kitchen.



For The London Design Festival, Pawson teamed up with Swarovski to created a meniscus – the largest lens possible to manufacture. Pawson sets the lens Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St Paul’s Cathedral. The installation entitled, "Perspectives," shows off the rarely seen Geometric Staircase. The meniscus sits on a reflective hemisphere at the bottom of the stairwell. Suspended in the tower’s cupola above the stairwell is a spherical convex mirror.

Credit: Dezeen

According to Pawson these optical devices create an extraordinary composite image of the view up through the tower for visitors gathered around the hemisphere at the base, allowing them "to see beyond the level of the naked eye."

Credit: Philip Sinden

For Pawson, "It has never really been about what we put into the space, so much as how we enable people to see what is already there."