Modern Squash by Christoph Niemann (And The Originals On Which they Were Based)

Here's a little eye candy...er, vegetable, for you. I came across this fun image created by illustrator Christoph Niemann for the New York Times and wanted to share it with you, along with the originals that it represents.

The image features mid century modern furniture classics, architecture - even a famous architect in his iconic eyewear - by well known designers crafted from squash and gourds.

In case you are unfamiliar with the originals that inspired them, I have culled them for you here.

1. Hang-it-All by Charles and Ray Eames, 1953


2. PH 4/3 Lamp by Poul Hennigsen, 1966


3. TWA Terminal in New York by Eero Saarinen, 1962


4. Philip Johnson (1906-2005)

above portrait by Luca Vignelli

5. La Chaise by Charles and Ray Eames, 1948


6. The Egg Chair by Arne Jacobsen, 1958


7. The Swan Chair by Arne Jacobsen, 1958



Christoph is best known for his work for the New Yorker Magazine. You can see more of his wonderful work at his website here.

The Arne Jacobsen Doll House, MiiBoxen, Is Now Available From Minimii.

In November 2009 I introduced you to a dollhouse design by Minimii that was a miniature reproduction of Arne Jacobsen's actual home in Charlottenlund. The post also compared the dollhouse to the original home of the famous designer.



above: the inspiration for the dollhouse, the real home designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1928

Finally, the modern dollhouse is now available for purchase.

The MiiBox
Another version, the MiiBox, that is a smaller, wall-mounted version of the dollhouse suited to both adults and children and can be used for display as well as interactive play.

above: the new Miibox is a smaller, wall-mountable version of the dollhouse

The official press release:
GET YOUR NAME ON THE FRONT DOOR OF MINIMIIS ARNE JACOBSEN MINIATURE- AND DOLL-HOUSE

MAY 26TH 2011
Many people have patiently been waiting and finally it’s ready for new inhabitants. You now have the possibility to furnish your personal and handmade copy of Minimiis miniature house with all refinements; a true copy of Arne Jacobsens villa in Charlottenlund built in 1929.



The Miniature house is suitable as a design icon for exhibition as well as a beautiful miniature- and dollhouse in your home. Arne Jacobsens sense for thorough and user friendly design is executed in scale 1:16 (3/4”) with few adjustments, which only makes the house more accessible and play friendly. An attractive and unique miniature house that encourage fascination with the detail, play and fantasy for both children and adults.




The first 300 customers who order either the Arne Jacobsen house or the MiiBoxen™ achieve special and fun features which only makes the house even more personal.

The MiiBox™
The MiiBox™ is a wall hanging Arne Jacobsen miniature house, also in scale 1:16. The MiiBox™ is an inno-vative design object for the living room, kitchen, bathroom or nursery. Use the MiiBox™ like a little dollhouse the whole family can play with and decorate, or use it to store any of your other small treasured things.


The MiiBox™ is made in the same quality as the miniature house, but is half as large. The facade is hinged enabling you to open it downwards 180° while decorating the MiiBox™.

VIP Package For The First Customers
The first 300 orders for either the Arne Jacobsen miniature house or the MiiBox™ will as an extra feature be numbered and with possibility to add the new inhabitants personal characters. The first houses and MiiBoxes™ will be made to order and can only be preordered through the Minimii online shop. We engrave your personal nameplate for the front door as well as your personal and Official certificate. Both elements ex-ecuted in brass matching the doorknob. In the Minimii online shop you will be asked to fill in the needed data for your name plates; your name, or the name of the person you wish to give the Arne Jacobsen house to.


above: rug and wallpapers for the dollhouse are available, too

Your made to order Arne Jacobsen house or MiiBox™ shall not be empty when you get it. Therefore the first lucky customers gets, included in the price, Arne Jacobsen furniture and accessories consisting of the Egg™, the Swan™, the Series 7™ as well as wallpaper and a rug with patterns from Arne Jacobsens beauti-ful aquarelle drawings. The furniture and accessory package represents a total value of € 155, - .


Play For All Ages
Minimii´s mission is to produce and market miniature- and dollhouses and MiiBoxes™ with furniture and ac-cessories in a high quality designed by international acknowledged architects and designers. Minimii wants to bring the world beautifully designed quality toys for children and adults, and to disseminate the knowledge to good design in a yet unseen and accessible manner.



Minimii produces play friendly miniature- and dollhouses, furniture, art and decor, which are true small copies of real full size solutions. Houses where real people live, who inspire to play, and preferably with an interesting architecture. With the stylish, functional and timeless design – in mini size – children’s fantasy can run wild, also with mom and dad, who let the play take place in the middle of the living room, with the Arne Jacobsen House’s beautiful toy universe and completed details.

About Minimii
The idea behind Minimii is Linda Stenberg’s. With her sense and interest for design and quality combined with a life as busy mother of three she got the idea back in 2009. Linda was hunting for a dollhouse for her two oldest daughters and she found only old Victorian styled dollhouses furnished like her grandmother’s house with terrible old brown chairs. She then got turned on by the idea of creating a Danish modern quality doll-house, which both she and her daughters found attractive.

Linda runs Minimii ApS with business partner Claus Højer Hansen, who is managing director for the company.

Order The MiiBoxen or MiiBox dollhouses here.

New Modern Dollhouse is a Reproduction Of Arne Jacobsen's Own 1928 Villa

I suppose it's the combination of being a female, a wannabe architect and having a predilection for modern design that makes me somewhat obsessed with modern dollhouses.

Whenever I come across a new one, which is rare and infrequent since the discontinuance of the Bozart Kaleidoscope Dollhouse, I get very excited.

So, when I saw that Inhabitots mentioned a new dollhouse by Minimii that is a small scale reproduction of the world famous architect Arne Jacobsens' Villa in Charlottenlund, I simply had to investigate further.

Of course, I'm going to provide you with images of the dollhouse AND the original house that inspired it... because... well, that's what I do.

While other blogs and magazines are excitedly reporting that the house can be purchased... truth is, production of the item has been delayed due to lack of investment capital. They continue to be optimistic about planning to offer the house prior to the summer of 2010 and are hoping for a retail price below 1200.00 USD. I certainly hope so because this is one cool dollhouse.

The dollhouse exterior:






Exterior photos of the original Arne Jacobsen house:








Comparing the details of the original house to that of the dollhouse:


As Inhabitots reported, "the house was designed by Linda Stenberg and Claus Hojer Hansen, the Danish creative directors of Minimii and features a roof and four walls that may be mounted and dismounted, allowing more children to play at once. A small collection of designer furniture (Egg and Swan chairs courtesy of Fritz Hansen) as well as tiny commissioned modern art pieces, and many more chic amenities which stay in place via magnets.

Stenberg and Hojer Hansen will furnish the dollhouse with the aforementioned furniture, as well as Vipp trash cans, an exclusive miniature art piece by artist Poul Pava, kids play furniture from Bobles, kitchens and bathrooms from Design by Us, and lighting from Normann Copenhagen! They are also collaborating with the famous doll maker, Maileg, to create the very fortunate, design savvy family who will live in the miniature Jacobsen home.

In addition to providing kids with an amazing dollhouse and all the furnishings, the Minimii team offers, “We want to talk to adults who have an interest in design and who see the dollhouse as a design object in itself.”


above: Minimii creative directors Linda Stenberg and Claus Hojer Hansen

Dollhouse interiors:








Architectural plans of the original Arne Jacobsen Villa located at Gotfred Rodes Vej 2, in Charlottenlund:






I really hope they meet their goals because I'm dying for one of these as well as the miniature versions of the Arne Jacobsen Ant, Egg and Swan chairs that fit within it, also produced by Minimii:






Please don't let this go the way of the Bozart Kaleidoscope Dollhouse, if you are interested in being an investor, contact them at:
Claus Højer Hansen, partner, managing director: +45 2812 1383 claus.hansen@minimii.com
Linda Stenberg, partner, creative director: +45 2084 2009 linda.stenberg@minimii.com

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A fan of modern dollhouses and miniatures? I have written these other posts as well:

•M112 PODS & Mini Modern Furnishings By Paris Renfroe

•Modern Interior Design. On a Different Scale.

•Bauhaus Mini-modernist Doll Houses Promote Karen Walker Paints For Resene

•Kathy Osborn Has Big Talent With Little Things And Little Ones.

Scrambled Eggs: 50 Egg Chairs By Tal R for Fritz Hansen

The Egg chair was first designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the chair, The Republic of Fritz Hansen had Danish-Israeli artist Tal R reinterpret the chair in 50 unique patchwork editions.


above: The classic Egg Chair

Okay, so some of them look like "Your Grandmother's Egg Chair" but when seen all together it's really quite a compilation.



Using everything from denim, leather, corduroy, cotton, cartoon icons and pop culture imagery, some are aesthetically pleasing while others are hideous, but all are unusual. The odd names of the chairs are based on Sigmund Freud's writings.

Über Coca:

front detail:


Golden Sigi:

front detail:


Association:

front detail:


Taboo Of Virginity:

Front detail:

Back detail:


Psychiatric Association:

front detail:


Therapy:

front detail:


The 50 unique artist Eggs were launched and exhibited at Galleria Carla Sozzani from in April of 2008 and are now traveling and exhibited in museums and galleries around the world through 2009.



The colorful patchwork Egg chair designs are a combination of materials collected from around the world. Some of the fascinating locations include Istanbul, Berlin and New York as well as second hand shops in Denmark and washed out work clothes from a kibbutz in Israel.

"The whole point was to make a chair that tells a multitude of stories. So the pieces of cloth had to be full of life. It should look a bit as if it was homemade." Explains Tal.

Inspired by the word ‘Egg’, its shape and references to fertility combined with Tal R’s fascination with the Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, the classic chair has been completely transformed.

Tal R has chosen to name the 50 unique chairs with inspiration from the writings of Sigmund Freud as the Egg is also a symbol of the forces of reproduction and the ability to create new life. Martha (Freud’s wife), Irma (Freud's 'classic' early dream analysis) and Adler (a close friend, medical doctor and psychologist to Freud) are just some of the names selected by Tal R. Each chair has been inscribed and signed by Tal R on its underside.



In addition to the above project, Fritz Hansen had a few other ways to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the chair, another of which was to create 999 limited editions:


Learn more about that here at Dezziny.


The Book:

See the book (or buy the book) here.

About the artist:
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel into a Jewish family and raised in Copenhagen Denmark Tal R graduated from the Royal Danish academy of Arts and is now a professor at the Dusseldorf Academy of Arts. Tal R has held solo exhibitions in New York, Dublin, Berlin and London. His works are enjoyed by the likes of the Danish Royal family who have commissioned Tal R to decorate their winter home, Amalienborg Palace in Denmark.

Relevant posts:

Check out Helen Amy Murray's unique custom leather upholstered egg chairs (shown above in "peony" fabric and more here.