Designwire Online Exclusives

Mark McMenamin and Meghan Edwards -- Interior Design, 1/1/2009

First Class

The U.K. offers new hope in the fight against e-mail addiction—courtesy of the Royal Mail, which just gave all BlackBerry-dependent Brits a terrific excuse to take pen to paper now and then. It's the British Design Classics, a series of first-class stamps depicting 10 modern milestones. Spanning furniture, fashion, transportation, and more, the selection is a tiny tutorial.

Did you know, for instance, that Mary Quant is credited with the invention of the miniskirt? One stamp captures a particularly flirty version. Quant named the mini after her favorite car, developed by Sir Alec Issigonis—and pictured on another stamp. You probably already knew, meanwhile, about the interiors-related products featured on two additional stamps: the Anglepoise task lamp by George Carwardine and the Polyprop chair by Robin Day. And we just learned that Foster + Partners, Aston Martin, and Capoco Design have won a competition for an eco-conscious, wheelchair-friendly London bus to replace the double-decker Routemaster, designed in 1956 by A.A.M. Durrant and Douglas Scott. Thank goodness it will be immortalized on envelopes. >> More

Coming Up Roses

Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art heats up this winter, starting February 28, with "Laboratory of Architecture/Fernando Romero." The first half of the exhibition title is the name of a Mexican firm; the 37-year-old who founded it is of course the second half. After cutting his chops in the Netherlands, working at Rem Koolhaas's Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Romero returned to his native Mexico City to establish an office near the home of the late Luis Barragán—which may explain the pink tint of a bridge-teahouse that Romero recently built in China. He's also working in Poland and the U.S. as well as Mexico and, simultaneously, heading up the Laboratorio de la Ciudad de Mexico, which investigates urban problems and possibilities. >> More

That's the Spirit

Although eco-minded artwork can't score you LEED points, it's still worth installing in commercial and residential projects. That's what McGovern Design House, an interiors firm and art consultancy, is banking on as it launches Spiritus Mundi, an ecological art-advisory program. "Public spaces offer an invaluable opportunity to raise awareness through art," founder Claire McGovern says. Her new concept draws on the talents of hundreds of international artists whose pieces contain natural and recycled materials or focus on nature and the environment. A digital rendering by Mark Fischer, for instance, represents the frequency of sound waves created by dolphins, while Cindy Bennet photographs endangered mustangs. >> More