A new Brazilian beauty
CARLOS JUNQUEIRA wants Angelenos to recognize Brazil as home to more than just supermodels. His showroom, Espasso, is dedicated to Brazilian furniture designers, including midcentury master Sergio Rodrigues and contemporary architect Isay Weinfeld, the man behind the acclaimed Fasano Hotel in Sao Paulo. “Brazilian modernism is not as well known as it should be,” Junqueira says. “The furniture from that era made from jacaranda and other exotic woods has an organic but very sophisticated and sexy look.” Contemporary pieces, such as stainless steel and cowhide benches by L.A.-based Antonio da Motta, also are an integral part of Espasso’s rich blend of periods. In the stark white gallery, Ricardo Fasanello’s 1970 glass-topped Arcos coffee table ($2,642, center) is a natural companion to Claudia Moreira Salles’ new Sao Conrado sofa ($12,337). Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., Suite B433, West Hollywood; (310) 657-0020; www.espasso.com.
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INNOVATIONS
Box seats for the lobby
They may not have been sexy, but the ingenious seats crafted by Cornell University undergraduates won the national Chair Affair competition to build furniture using only corrugated cardboard and glue. The design, shown here, by Nicholette Chan, Andrew Kim and Jean You beat 175 other entries from 56 schools last week in the annual contest run by the American Institute of Architecture Students. Whereas the third-place Spectrum chair by University of Louisiana at Lafayette students mirrored the irreverence of Frank Gehry’s Wiggle chair (see Page 1), the Cornell team took a more pragmatic route: By providing space for corporate logos, their public seating (think airports) encourages companies to recycle and becomes “more than just a place to sit,” Chan says. www.aias.org/chairaffair.
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FINDS
Too pretty to be just a rug
Prized for its bright colors and geometric patterns, the thick, flat-woven Indian rug known as a dhurrie has gotten an Urban Outfitters makeover. The youthful alterna-department store has just unrolled a collection of these low-cost cotton carpets in striking graphics that pay homage to Art Nouveau florals and peacocks as well as midcentury Scandinavian design (shown here on the Woodcut Feather rug).
A 3-by-5-foot dhurrie costs $28; a 5-by-7-foot version is $68. The silk-screened rugs are not recommended for high-traffic areas and machine washing; savvy home stylists can enjoy these beauties longer by fashioning them into wall tapestries. www.urbanoutfitters.com.
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MADE IN CALIFORNIA
A gauge of his interest
Paul Loughridge says he is “no Al Gore,” but the graphic designer and vintage toy collector is re-engineering old machines and appliances as eye-catching, grin-inducing robot sculpture. Unlike the muffler men found outside car repair shops, Loughridge’s pieces are meticulously crafted with movable parts such as the arms on Devry ($350), shown here with his best friend, Yellow Tail ($240). “I lust after old battery chargers and anything with a gauge,” says the resident of Morgan Hill, Calif., who gets his materials from a flea market that’s “one step away from a landfill.” His work is at Reform School in L.A., (323) 906-8660, www.reformschoolrules.com. See more designs at www.flickr.com/photos/lockwasher.