The 47-year-old self-taught designer, originally from Israel but now living and working in Venice, Calif., calls his chairs and tables “lush minimalism.”

“They’re made of as few parts as possible,” he says.  “They’re about durability and lasting a long time.”

Dei once worked as a commercial fisherman in the Atlantic Ocean, and also served as an apprentice to master Japanese woodworker Kai Ito.  He was introduced to the digital world during his tenure with metal fabricator Tom Farrage and Company, where he produced work for architects Frank Gehry and Thom Mayne.

His new streamlined assortment is a playful mix of plastic and powder-coated metal that includes his Leaf dining tables, his Lilyside table and his Lemonade chair. They can be easily rearranged to accommodate any entertaining needs, no matter the weather, he says.

His Leaf table is inspired by old board tables, he says, and can grow incrementally from three leafs to six.  They’re ideal for dining and for small spaces, and can seat from two to twelve people.  Plus, they move about with ease in a garden, and they’ll withstand the elements.

“They’re easy to maintain over time, even in a harsh environment,” he says.

He’s developed two color palettes to appeal to two different audiences.  One is bright, and the other subdued, to disappear into the background.

“There’s orange, yellow and lime green, and then there’s battleship gray, mauve, white, and black-on-white or black-on-black,” he says.  “They’re pretty much the same shape, but completely different colors.”

All his pieces are manufactured by an environmentally-aware staff in Venice.

And each is snappily modern.

For more information, go to http://www.ilandeivenice.com/

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Zoning restrictions prohibit any more towers there, driving potential buyers to the 20-story high-rise called GLASS.  It’s been designed by Rene Gonzalez and developed by David and Pedro Martin of Terra Group.

It’s the architect’s first residential high-rise, and with it, he delivers new meaning to the word transparency.

“The building is very much about connection to the environment – sometimes it uses clear and sometimes reflective glass,” Gonzalez says.  “The glass railings have a pattern that dissipates as they go up to sky, so as the building ascends, it becomes more and more at one with the environment.

GLASS is composed of ten full floor units, with a three-floor penthouse atop.  The condominium units range in size from 3,500 to 9,000 square feet.  Owners will have a 360-degree view of the Atlantic Ocean, Miami Beach and the Miami skyline.

Its site at ocean’s edge influenced the design, with an entrance that’s immersive, evoking the beachfront setting.  Porous Coquina stone, containing fragments of shell and coral, are interspersed gradually with small rectangles of blue Macauba coral, mimicking the transition between sand and sea.

“The stone becomes more repetitive as you get to the elevator wall, which is mirrored,” he says.  “It tends to make you feel the qualities of action, retraction and receding waves on the beach.”

In the apartments themselves, entry foyers feature ceilings with lighting effects that are equivalent to different kinds of night skies, from the intensity of stars in rural regions to those of an urban area.

With supply limited, the prices at GLASS are not for the faint of heart.  The smallest is listed at $9 million; the penthouse is tagged at $35 million.

So are they worth it?

“Absolutely,” says Gonzalez.

Ground breaks in August.

For more information, go to http://www.terragroup.com/

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He’s also chairman of the board for Architecture Omi, which, not coincidentally, is dedicated to exploring the same debate.  It’s a non-profit institution that offers a 60-acre site to fosters and cultivates the production of physical installations like pavilions, earthworks, landscape interventions, constructed environments.

In addition, the program encourages the integration of all varieties of related media, ideas, propositions and theoretical musings in a laboratory-style setting.

“Architects come up and do installations on the land,” he says.  “It’s a way to do what can’t do in professional life, and that’s experiment.  You can do it in school but not in the real world.”

Last year it was a pair of Cuban architects.  This year, it’s a group of students from the Architectonics Design Studio at the Cooper Union School of Architecture.

“We met with the first year design studio, and they went up to site early in the semester,” he says.  “They completely documented the site, brought that to Cooper Union to construct it in the studio.  Now they’re constructing it at Omi, and it opens this weekend.”

Their project itself is homage to Leddeus Wood, their professor of architecture and an architect who passed away this year.  His work, Skolnick says, was about drawing, fantasy and reality, and creating an ideal world.

It’s project designed to orient visitors within the site.  There are lines of sight and a procession through the site and a wooded area, with axes.  It’s also a functional program about the mission of art Omi, with dancers, musicians, visual artists, and writers. Conceived as a place where they can share their work with the public, the students have designed venues for musicians and a pavilion in the landscape.

“It’s hard to describe,” Skolnick says.  “It’s a laboratory for architectural education and an intervention in nature for people to experience and to think about their relationship with nature.”

And the proper place for a debate about its relationship to art and architecture.

For more information, go to http://www.artomi.org/

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With affordable, modern art.

“I come from a design background – in clothing, furniture and home design,” he says.  “I wanted to create a design collection for historical, modern art.”

And he did.  When you walk into his showroom in Bridgehampton, you’ll find 250 different works of art, printed on canvas and inspired by movements, styles or trends of the past century.  His collections are edited down for a limited selection.  The emphasis is on quality and affordability.

“It’s nice, modern and contemporary art but at a price point that makes it available to all,” he says.

Indeed.  A five-foot by three-and-a-half-foot canvas sports a price tag of $389, with free shipping.  It’s printed with oil-based paint, so it’s waterproof and will not fade. The same image is available in small and medium sizes as well.

“My team is always thinking about how to democratize the art experience,” he says.  “We’re a direct marketer – there’s no middleman.”

The artwork at Modern Digital Canvas is all original, though certainly inspired by trends familiar to most decorators.

“If I were painting I’d be a minimalist – I’m very influenced by Rothko,” he says.

So what you’ll see in his showroom will be versions of certain styles, rather than copies.  It might be Hollywood Regency or Mid-Century Modern.  What’s most interesting to him is the style that looks best for interior decorating.

His newest foray, called the Paris Apartment collection, is eclectic and influenced by Gertrude Stein’s apartment and art, as well as by Coco Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, and Philippe Starck.  Some of the 32 designs explore Cubist and Impressionist themes, while others were inspired by the Musée D’orsay and the Mediterranean coast.

But they’re all bold – and they’re all affordable.

For more information, go to http://www.md-canvas.com/

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“Whatever I’m working on now, I want it to be efficient and airtight,” she says.  I can’t think of any other thing that would change your practice so much.”

Unless it’s her new book from Princeton Architectural Press.  Called The Greenest Home, it features photographs, text and drawings of 18 passive solar projects in the U.S., Europe and Japan.  One, named Tighthouse, is her own design.

“It’s a fairly typical brownstone in Brooklyn, and a good one because it shows what you can do with this kind of existing home,” she says.

What she did was totally gut the entire 1899 home in the Park Slope neighborhood, then finished the basement with a double-height studio, and added a third floor for a master suite.  But it’s the energy-saving measures of airtight insulation, rooftop solar panels, and use of passive heat and light that impress most.

“We have to be aware of where the sun is, and where the heat and light come in,” she says.  “It leads to great natural light and reduces artificial light – you’re just hyper-aware of lighting and the ability to use sun for free lighting and heating.”

She’s been e-monitoring the home since January.  Thirty percent of its energy is derived from the solar panels, and she’s working with her clients to improve energy efficiency further over time.

“Our goal is 90 percent in heating reduction, and 75 percent overall,” she says. The owners are interested in getting to zero if we can – that’s the most exciting part .”

Among others included in the book are the Bamboo House in Bessancourt, France (featured in A+A in August, 2010), the Carraig Ridge Project by Olson Kundig, and the Prescott House, created in a year by design-build students taught by Dan Rockhill at the University of Kansas.

“If you can teach student to build in a year, then contractors with experience can do it too,” she says.

Her book is dedicated to educating those contractors and developers, as well as architects and clients, about the benefits of air-sealing a new home and using the sun to its advantage.

“The idea is to get a more general audience interested in green design, and getting involved in renovation or building a home,” she says.  “I want to get architects or engineer interested in passive houses too, with technical info on each project for them.”

Each of the homes she’s highlighted is not only energy efficient, but speaks to a modern aesthetic, both inside and out.

“I wanted to have really nice interiors, plus a passive house – from designers who go that extra step to make it efficient,” she says.

In the process, she identified 18 icons of beauty and thrift.

For more information, go here.

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The sisters of the Carmelite Chapel, the last in the city, use the structure mostly for their own purposes, but open it up to the public on Easter and Christmas.

So when they wanted to refresh the interior of the neo-Gothic chapel for use at night, they called on lighting designer Gilles Arpin and his associates at Eclairage Public.

“It was originally meant to be used in the daytime only,” he says.  “Only two of its windows are real, so we lit the rest of them so that when you’re seated, it looks like sunlight is coming through.”

The windows, false windows and stained glass are lit with 4000K linear projectors, their optics outlining the frames and enhancing their visual congruence with the nave. On the altar, two 3000K linear projectors upwardly graze the wall, making the canopy stand out. For its part, the canopy is outfitted with 2700K linear projectors that backlight the ornamental spikes and accentuate the “Virgin and Child” on top of the altar.

“We wanted to express something smooth and spiritual,” he says.

The designers were subtle and discreet, using shadow fixtures on top of the vertical columns to avoid breaking into the sacred space.

They installed two 3000K LED projectors, with a fixture on each side of the nave and choir.  Light sources are directed at the pulpit, the lectern and the altar, with the latter now receiving cross-lateral beams for better task lighting levels. Volume lighting from atop the columns comes from 3000K linear projectors that cross the nave while giving the ceiling presence in a uniform manner and highlighting its patterns. The lighting from the base of the columns accents the sculpted elements, refining the column and its verticality.

“We wanted to focus on the altar, and leave the rest as it was,” he says. “We wanted to maintain the space, when it’s lit, as it was.”

It’s a masterful job for a tiny chapel.

For more information, go to http://www.eclairagepublic.ca/

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Now, 127 years after its founding, the Boulle school was renovated by the City of Paris, which invested 86 million Euros in restructuring and expansion, all designed by architect Pascal Sirvin.  A+A recently interviewed the architect via email:

What’s important about the architecture of this project?

The search for spatial coherence. It was a guideline to build a clear and legible architectural landmark organized around a strong north-south axis. The harmony of the oldest lines has been preserved and each respects the other building and working in a spirit of mutual appreciation. That is what was important also to keep the highly structured lines of the Jules Ferry Building and the return on the facades of the new building.

One of the major changes is the new building dedicated to the wood workshop that brings together the entire industry that was previously scattered around the school building and the bridge in the center of the architectural figure. It is a concrete building with large litters. So we had very fine carved facades and to balance the massive side. A dual skin, shadow box, was used because it has a feature to allow night ventilation and avoid thermal bridges.

The challenges?

The school is spread over an entire block.  It was settled first in the Jules Ferry Building in 1891, and its first extension was in the 1950s, by architect Albert Laprade and structural engineer Jean Prouvé. The challenge was to create two new buildings to incorporate in this block and restructure all.

New buildings were required to provide a clean new space as taught with wood crafts workshop which was dispersed in several areas of the school and have been grouped into a new building. And by integrating these new buildings in a manner consistent with the former buildings.

Then restructure the old building to accommodate more students and allow better working conditions with the upgrading to align the new buildings that are of high environmental quality and provide accessibility for people with reduced mobility. It was also a challenge because the inner layout was changed and had to think through a new distribution of rooms and corridors.

In terms of style, the challenge was to successfully create a new identity while maintaining the style of previous architectures

The intent of the design?

The architect decided to build new buildings, minimalist architecture representing a contemporary style to keep a stylistic continuity in time. This style has the effect of returning the architecture school in the twenty-first century as did Laprade and Jean Prouvé in the twentieth and the first building in the nineteenth. One of the intentions was to the Boulle school with a recognizable style and a certain scale.  This style also was chosen because it allowed enough horizontal present to create a driver that gives unity to the whole thread..

Who will use the space, and for what purpose?

The space is used for workshops for students and classrooms as well as all the necessary life of the school as the dining room and showroom areas of student projects. The administrative part is further down the street to another building exclusively for management services. It was important that the renovation help create space for workshops and remains focused around the trades taught.

The background of  the architects?

Pascal Sirvin, born in 1954, is a graduate of Fine Arts in 1971 and graduated in architecture at the University of Paris VI in 1981. He was appointed architect and advisor to the Ministry of Equipment and since 2000 he has held the same post at the Ministry of Culture.

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For more information, go to http://www.ecole-boulle.org/

Who was Lucien Herve?

He was of Hungarian origin, and French (living in France since 1928), and a self-taught photographer. At the beginning of his career, he worked as a painter and a fashion designer. He became one of the most recognized architectural photographers on the world, but was known also for his humanistic photographs.

He photographed Le Corbusier’s work in India?

During 16 years Lucien Hervé collaborated with Le Corbusier and took thousands of photographs of the architect’s projects. Among those, he also photographed his constructions in India.

How many of Le Corbusier’s works there did he photograph?

He photographed several of the most important – public and private – buildings of Le Corbusier in Chandigarh and in Ahmedabad, and some under construction.

Which are the most significant?

The Capitol (High Court of Justice, Secretariat, Ministers’ Office, Parliament building) in Chandigarh. Mill Owners’ Building, Villa Shodan in Ahmedabad.

What was the intent of this photographer’s work?

To understand the architect’s intention and to communicate it to the public.  Also to make a living from this profession.

His inspiration?

From the Russian and German expressionistic pictures and paintings as well as geometric abstraction (Malevitch, Mondrian). And his humanistic world vision.

The challenges of working with Le Corbusier?

Lucien Hervé considered Le Corbusier as his master. During the 16 years of collaboration, they had a rich dialogue, sometimes sharp.

Why did the architect choose him as his “official” photographer?

As he wrote in his first letter to Hervé, after having seen his 600 photographs taken about the Unité  d’habitation in Marseille:

“Not only your remarkable vision of my work makes it more complete, but you have the soul of anarchitect and know how to look at architecture.”

For more information, go to http://www.50howardstreet.com/

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What’s the history of this site?

In the port of Saint Goustan in Auray, this is the bottom area the city and it’s protected because of the ruins of the castle of Auray, and half-timbered houses. The property is on the heights but not far from the port.

What is the intent of the design here?

It is an almost passive bioclimatic house – a wooden house with high thermal inertia.

Where does it draw its inspiration?

From architect David Pearson’s proposed list of rules toward organic architecture, known as the “Gaia Charter” for organic architecture and design.  I also appreciate the work of the Belgian and Hungarian schools, and in particular Imre Makovecz

What were the challenges involved?

The search for energy efficiency with minimum heat input, good air-tightness with a vapor barrier, a sunscreen with wooden sliding shutters, and a clear path to an ecological insulation in cellulose and mud brick behind the stove.

How were the principles of Feng Shui applied?

Through the entrance opening of the house, the ground floor and the first floor, as well as views  augmented by mirrors.  I was looking for warm and harmonious volumes by the house.

Materials used?  How and why?

A priority was thermal inertia for mass effect!  Bulkheads with tiles that plaster walls to the north and sheer concrete blocks covered with traditional plaster.  On the ground: “Land of Burgundy” mud brick, cellulose wadding, wood frame structure and cladding, and lime paint.  Why?  I seek to use a little industrial material and beuacoup green at the same time, for a more natural and healthy home.

How was passive solar used?

Solar gain for the maximun comfort in winter, but being careful about overheating, for summer comfort.

What influence did Frank Lloyd Wright have on the project?

A vision of fluid spaces. Construction according to the place, and respecting nature.  His work on the forms in architecture seeking warm places, and of course, organic architecture.

For more information, go here.

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What Los Angeles needs are more art trucks – like the flotilla of moveable galleries that popped up in a parking lot at Temple and Alameda in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon.

Five U-Haul trucks, each 14-and a-half-feet long, cruised up at noon for a six-hour exploration of in-the-moment design in the city.  It was the first installment in a year-long series of events called “On the Road,” aimed at creating dialog about contemporary architecture, art and design.  Eighteen studios and participants were paired up, to work inside and outside of the trucks.

“Each was invited for a show-and-tell about a project that they’re working on,” says Danielle Rago, organizer of the event.  “It was designed to give voice and vehicle to young designers and architects.”

But why trucks?

“We needed physical space and we needed something mobile,” she says.  “We knew we wanted to do it in a parking lot – we want to exist in impermanent spaces, popping up every month in different locations, and signifying this journey that we’re starting in Los Angeles.”

Besides, the price was right.  Total cost for the event was under $500.  Compare that to the on-again/off-again exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles known as “A New Sculpturalism.”  Delayed and in limbo but now slated to open on June 16 (with participants like Frank Gehry), it boasts a somewhat heftier budget of $450,000.

That exhibit is designed to look back at the past 25 years, while the deliberate focus of “On the Road” was toward the next 25.

Its organizers did look to the past for precedent, however.  They specifically acknowledged Thomas Mayne’s series of 10 exhibitions at “Architecture Gallery” in 1979, as well as The Charlottesville Tapes conference, and the 1982 founding of Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, each as important and influencing projects.

About 150 people came out for the inaugural event, among them Christopher Hawthorne, architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times.  In addition, Jimenez Lai of Bureau Spectacular flew in from Chicago to create a 6-hour endurance drawing on one of the exterior facades of the U-Haul trucks.

The event featured emerging architects and designers based in Los Angeles, including Andrew Kovacs, Bryony Roberts, Curt Gambetta, First Office, Foundation for Architecture and Design, House of Style, Joe Alguire Workshop, Jonathan Louie, Maxi Spina Architects, Michael Faciejew, Paul Stoelting, Studio Bonner + Stayner Architects, Rowen Studio, T8projects, Vacation Projects, Wedgeworthy, and WELCOMEPROJECTS.

Rago curated and organized the event, with Courtney Coffman as editor, Jonathan Louie as protagonist, and James Michael Tate as instigator.

Jack Kerouac, of course, would have been intrigued and flattered.

For more information, go to www.ontheroadprojectla.org

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Images © Jaime Kowal