Mediterranean Escapes - online eye candies by TASCHEN

Leaf through "Great Escapes Mediterranean" by TASCHEN - online !

click on "leaf through"

302 pages of eye candy online - better than any magazine !

Although the writing is too small to read the book online - my eyes are more than happy !

Hotel Stella Maris, north of Portofino, Liguria, Italy

(click on above pictures to enlarge)

 Mykonos Grace Hotel, Mykonos, Greece

Did this excite you ? Please help yourself and browse this book at TASCHEN.

Taschen was founded in Cologne, Germany in 1980 by Benedict Taschen to sell his comic collection. Today his company is known internationally for producing great value coffe table books about art, architecture, lifestyle and design. I will introduce you to more soon.

Le Corbusier colour experimentation

Le Corbusier (*1887-1965), mainly known as an architect, also worked as a painter and writer. His creativity seems endless. Between planning houses, villas and cities, he designed furniture, sculptured, published books, studied and traveled a lot. He was born in Switzerland as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret and started to use his pseudonym "Le Corbusier" only in 1920 after founding a magazine.

Recently I bought a book about this fascinating artist - and I am impressed by Le Corbusier's use of colours, his choice of quantity / proportion and contrasts - thus I thought I blog some of his interior related work.

The online version of  wallpaper magazine recently published an article about Le Corbusier's Claude & Duval "Dream Factory" in France. Here an extract:

(...)
The factory, a true architectural gem, was designed according to the famous Le Corbusier modular system, also featuring his intense block colour experimentations, covering ceilings and walls, to the plumbing system, contrasting heavily the naked concrete used as the main material.

Le Corbusier’s Claude & Duval factory in St-Die-des-Vosges was built in 1952 and has been a working textile factory ever since. This factory produces today high fashion pieces for the likes of Balenciaga, Chanel, Celine and Belgian designer Ann Demeulemeester, who owns her own Le Corbusier designed house in Antwerp. 
(...)

Text and photo source: wallpaper

playing with colours

today I see rain and I see sunshine - I see huge rainbows - and colourful autumn leaves -
and I think about colours and about colour combinations - for doors, walls, rooms

since a while I am collecting, researching and observing all around colours
- and I came across Le Corbusier and his use of colours in architecture and interiors.

Here you see the 63 colours from the colour palettes LC 32 and LC 43 by Le Corbusier :

Le Corbusier’s sophisticated color theories, outlined in his Polychromie Architecturale writing (Le Corbusier Polychromie architecturale: Farbenklaviaturen von 1931 und 1959 / Color Keyboards from 1931 and 1959 / Les claviers de couleurs de 1931 et de 1959 (German, English and French Edition)), were influenced by his experiences as both an artist and an architect.

The color palettes he selected for Salubra (a swiss wallpaper maufacturer) were systematized in chromatic ‘keyboards’ with accompanying cut-out cards to isolate color combinations.

The LC 32 series are organized into groups based on mood, from which a smaller palette of three to five harmonious colors can be selected.

The stronger colors of the LC 43 series appear on one page, with color proximity and the cut-out cards enabling selection for two to three vividly contrasting colors.

This sounds like a perfect tool to find the best colour combinations, maybe some you do not even have thougt of. But the price of the book (299 Euro) scares me off and makes me try to trust my own feelings.

In case you are interested to know where to source these colours for your own painting project:
The swiss based company, kt.COLOR, founded by the chemist Katrin Trautwein, is a highly specialized manufacturer of fine paints for interior use, licensed the exclusive rights to manufacture the original Le Corbusier colors from Fondation Le Corbusier in 1999.

kt. COLOR showroom

And because I do not want just to name one colour company, I am going to link to a video that is procuced by Farrow & Ball and shows ideas how to use colour in your home :

Interesting isn't it? That's what I learned :
- dark dramatic entrance creates contrast to brighter rooms
- dark (painted) floor makes a room appear wider
- small dark room: no white but bright colour
- grey is an elegant and cosy wall colour for a bedroom

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more about Le Corbusier's colours used in interiors to come ....

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Shopping in Venice: VENETIA STUDIUM

In the heart of Venice you might come across a little shop that has beautiful silk lamps, handbags and scarf, elegant velvet cushion covers and table runners in modern and oriental style. The shop windows always magically attracts me and my husband. And you can read the magic Roman letters : VENETIA STVDIVM - which is the Venetia Studium company that has several showrooms all near San Marco square.

Fortuny silk lamp "Cesendello" on the rod and silk scarves.

We like the style of the lamp, that is influenced like all the Venetia Studium products by the "history of Venice and its links to the Byzantium and the East".  However, we have no idea (yet) where to use it. Actually we look at this lamp as long as we visit Venice together, since over 13 years!

Scarves, shawls, handbags and cushion covers made of silk or velvet - and the elaborated glass lamp Saraceno.

Another Venetia Studium shop with similar window display ...

... and another shop specialised in cushion covers and table runners

Here my friend from Bangkok needs to shop for a friend in Thailand (that's why I saw all the shops!)

Little detail: I especially liked the typical Venetian terrazzo floor

(and the interesting Italian shoes of an Italian male)

PS: Venetia Studium has a showroom in London and selected products can be ordered online

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Window Shopping in Venice

Window shopping is something I like to do - it is ispiring and joyful - and it does not cost much. Do you like to join me for a window shopping trip to Venice ?

Here we go :

illuminted lighting shop in Venice

See, the gondolier is waiting for us in the background ...

Venetian chandeliers made of Murano glass by Zanetti

a fancy shop at the end of Piazza San Marco

Can you see the red Murano glas chandelier ? (click on pic to enlarge)

Murano glass chandelier with a modern touch by Venini

Venini has a long history (since 1921 in Murano) and is famous for its modern classic style and great craftmen's skills

This shop in Mestre has more affordable products, and they are not less pretty

The pinkish Venetian chandelier is seducing, but ...

... these "Balon Venexian" caught my eyes - simply charming and affordable.

Maybe for the guestappartment's entrance that leads to the vaulted cellar?

And this artist shop caught my eyes too - love these baloons made of Murano glass !

Livio de Marchi is a Venetian artis who is famous for his carved sculptures.

Ferrari red pops up among grey and attracts the male shopper

A chair and a vase at Dolce& Gabbana ...

.... can't tell what I like better - the big stone vase with the tiny cactus is quiet interesting (having my terrace in mind)

Christmas decoration at D&G (12/2008) 

including reflections of Gucci 2m across the aley

Window shopping can be exhausting. I recommend an expresso or prosecco (anytime), cappuccino (before 11am), hot chocolat (in winter) or an aperitivo (before lunch or dinner) at Caffe Florian or Caffè Quadri, Piazza San Marco. If you feel you do not have to sit down, take your order at the bar and save some Euros. However, after a window shopping tour we can afford to sit down, right ?! Salute !

(Photo source: Palazzo Pizzo blog, all rights reserved)

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PS:

Thanks to Anita from 1richtungsblog who featured photos of our renovation project and an interview with me last week, I have received many more readers from Germany than usually. To welcome them and also just for fun I wrote a post in German language, my mother tongue. This was just a one time experiment as I do not want to loose any subscribers !!! And my German readers seem to not mind English. - Welcome back !

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