H is for High-Tech

Pirelli rubber-tiled surfaces and yellow Vola faucets in architect Eva Jiricna's London bathroom (and fantastically everywhere else in her apartment), 1983. Also used as bathroom number 8 in Peter Greenaway and Alexander Kira's 26 Bathrooms,1985:

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The High-Tech Industrial look in Esquire, 1978

Here, specifically the Pompidou Center, the Shulitz House, the de Bretteville-Simon House, and the Eames House.






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Ward Bennett's Dakota Rooftop Eyrie, 1965

Ward Bennett's amazing apartment in The Dakota in House & Garden, Feb. 1965
At first glance I thought even his Rolodex was a chair.

related: Ward Bennett interviewed by Barbaralee Diamonstein for "Interior Design: The New Freedom", 1981

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Jan Kaplický's High-Tech Dinghy

Future Systems architect Jan Kaplický's self-contained living room with attached tv, telephone, lamps, and probably stereo, circa 1980. Kaplický was the architect behind Deyan Sudjic's Space Station pad and a slew of unbelievably incredible futuristic buildings, but I like this early effort, complete with all the coolest bits of the High-Tech movement (Pirelli rubber flooring, retractile cords, Plia folding chairs, and of course the billboard as wallpaper.


More evidence that High-Tech was probably Kaplický's favorite book:





Images from Decoration and Design for the 80's by Pamela Ferguson (London, 1983)

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Sergio Carpani's 1978 Hi Tech Pompidou Ferrari Pens

Sergio Carpani on his pen:

PARAFERNALIA asked for a pen that was unsellable, a courageous image. I started to work with what was HI-TECH at the time, that was to show the technical parts, the mechanism, the guts of the instrument (just like the Centre Pompidou – Beaubourg of that time) and design the shape of the fitting around it (just like Pininfarina was being asked to shape a Ferrari car around the powerful engines in order for it to perform efficiently). An innovative pen, entirely hand-made with 31 miniaturised metallic components and push mechanism just like the most complex race cars.

Pompidou, Hi Tech, and Ferrari. References don't get much cooler than this.

They're on Fab.com for the next three days

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When The Pottery Barn was Lo-Tech with High-Tech

1978 Pottery Barn insert from New York Magazine advertising all the things you can buy to style up your house with the High-Tech / Kids' Stuff design.
I wish I had a time machine.

Related: a little post on High-Tech
and
A big post on Kids' Stuff.


Muchas Gracias to David John from You Have Been Here Sometime for sending over the New York Magazine archive Google Books link! Check it out.

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Real Life

Albert Brooks with the Ettnauer 226XL from Real Life (1979), his prophetic foray into the world of reality filmmaking, and a hilarious send-up of PBS's An American Family (1971), which happens to now be showing in its anniversary edition (check your local listings!)

Thanks Kim for the heads up!

related: Austrian Futurist Walter Pichler's TV Helmets (small living rooms) of 1967.

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Think minimalist. It's more intellectual.

And other state-of-the-art advice from 1984's The Yuppie Handbook.

click to enlarge.

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Boing Boing

Awesome cantilevered hangout with springy net seats from Joan Kron and Suzanne Slesin's seminal 1978

industrial style & design opus, High Tech. 

Which, if I had to choose only two design books to have in a library,
would be one of them. 

Mezzanine into the woods made by Michael Jantzen (of Illinois, who has very lucky kids).

click to enlarge.

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Brutalism & BMWs

Brutalist pegboard- notice how the lights can be moved to any hole.

Above, from Suzanne Slesin's 1987 book "Japanese Style", including Toyo Itoh's awesome ping pong courtyard, Tadao Ando's supercool partially bermed brutalism, and Kenji Hongo's vertical bunker with its 1978 BMW 530i parked in the rock garden garage.

Below: the cover of next month's Brutus Casa (from Japan). Related? Probably not, but those older BMWs do go nicely with giant slab architecture.

Read more about the cover house above over at What We Do Is Secret

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