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Your Next Interior Designer: Your iPhone

Kelsey Keith — 2010-03-15T14:03:00 00:00

Filed under: Design

Appealing to a generation who built imaginary homes on The Sims instead of playing with dollhouses and are now obsessed with documenting life's moments with a 3.0 megapixel cell phone camera, MyDeco has released an iPhone app that augments the reality of one's living space with fancy digital furniture.

"Furnish Your Photo" -- available for free in the iTunes store -- lets users scroll through over 500 3D models of home decor objects from the stylish-yet-generic to the designer (think Eames loungers, Arco lamps, and B&B Italia modular sofas). Ever wanted to see what your sunroom would look like with a pool table? Curious about how a Chesterfield loveseat might work in an urban loft? Need to find a suitable lamp for that drab kitchen? It's got some kinks, but MyDeco has a lockdown on good, clean digital fun.
In a word, it's addictive.

Once you pick an item, say the spiffy 50s-style tripod table lamp, you transpose it onto a photo of a room, snapped with the program's camera (no filters as of yet, so they may come out grainy or blurred). Then the fun part!

Five controls allow you to move the item from foreground to background, up and down on a vertical plane, zoom in and out, rotated 360 degrees on the horizon, and what I like to call the Wild Card Rotate function. Be careful: This one flips that piece of furniture any which way, and it's hard to align it back into a functional position.

Once satisfied with the placement of a Gehry-for-Emeco chaise, you can save the resulting image (which, in a small size, is quite convincing, no?) in the photo library, export it via email or even post it to your Facebook.

So what's next? MyDeco has grand plans to expand the 3D furniture database to a whopping 5 million items to mirror what's already available on its Web site. Apple may have to come out with a heftier operating system for that to work, but in the meantime I'll be over here, fiddling with my toy phone and playing with fake furniture.

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Oprah Eco-Expert Simran Sethi Moves to...Kansas?

Kelsey Keith — 2010-03-09T16:32:00 00:00

Filed under: Design,How To,Lifestyle

Simran Sethi is one laid-back warrior (eco-warrior, that is). Sethi offers smart tips for greener living in a way that's both effortless and efficient, which is the likely reason she was chosen as Oprah's very own sustainable living expert. Once a week, Sethi blogs for the world's most influential woman on the topic of greening one's home on a budget, a subject close to her heart after the purchase of a 1925 home in Lawrence, Kan.

Sethi relocated to Lawrence in 2007 after snagging a tenured position at the University of Kansas, bringing her experience in social media and environmental communications to the Midwestern campus after living in urban areas like Mumbai, Los Angeles, and New York. Relishing the chance to "put down some roots," the North Carolina-raised educator has embraced the challenge to update a historic home to modern environmental standards while maintaining its unique history. She's also pretty savvy on everything from chopsticks and sustainable footwear to soda pop and energy-efficient appliances. (Another fun fact: her mortgage payment on a two-story house is equivalent to her rent on a studio apartment in Harlem three years ago!)

We spoke to Simran about making the leap from renting to owning a home, and how homeowners can make their abodes more energy-efficient without dropping a ton of dough.

Can you fill us in on the project you're doing in conjunction with "The Oprah Winfrey Show"?
I saw moving to Kansas as a chance to become a part of a community. I wanted a home with some character, and at first I was looking for a certain kind of turn-of-the-century regional bungalow called an airplane bungalow, prominent in both a part of India and Kansas. There's just something about a house with history. And it was a smart time to buy a house based on tax credits and the Obama administration... I drove by [this one] and didn't see anything special at first, then went in with a friend and made an offer 24 hours later!

It's a two-story house with sturdy bones that's 84 years old; it's only had two owners, the first of which was born in the house. It's been cared for. It's not like someone came in and painted over all the fixtures, and put down wall-to-wall carpeting. It has really nice fixtures and wooden floors throughout, and I've filled it with antiques collected over the years: old cabinets from Indonesia, spice cabinet from Malaysia, a dowry chest from India.

What are your goals in renovating your home?
The biggest goal is to make it something that fits my budget, while being more energy-efficient. The case with old homes like this is poor insulation. People didn't consider the cost of heating back then, because natural resources weren't a problem. I also want my home to be beautiful, because it's my refuge from travel and the office. It's a sacred place to me. Investing time and energy into a home makes a big difference.

The first thing I had done was insulate the ceiling. Next stop is the basement. Think of insulating a house like you would your body, it's like keeping your heads, hand and feet warm.

What are some eco-friendly choices you've made in outfitting your house?
I've used low-VOC paint for the walls [Ed. note: VOCs are volatile organic compounds, potentially carcinogenic carbon-based chemicals that evaporate easily and contribute to indoor air pollution], and a paperstone countertop for the kitchen made of compressed paper. Water efficiency is crucial. We are feeling the absence of water everywhere -- did you know: 40 states in America are going to experience some level of drought in the next five years! That's why I have a low-flow showerhead and a dual-flush toilet.

I don't have the resources to do it all at once, but I can put in my own sweat equity.

What are some of the smallest, simplest, most affordable changes people can incorporate into their daily patterns to help "green" their home?
Right after I closed on the house and Oprah asked me to write for her Web site, I figured it would be interesting and humbling to take my own advice. Energy, because of its high cost, is something I've focused on [in my renovation]. I wrote for Oprah about five small things anyone can do in ten minutes, like swapping out a regular thermostat for a programmable one. Twenty-five percent of our energy bill comes from lighting -- it's so easy to just swap out your bulbs! And now it's nearly affordable for everyone to use compact fluorescents instead of incandescent bulbs. I would also consider an aerator for the faucet, which adds more pressure without using more water.

Also think about what kinds of products used in your home -- the less toxic or non-toxic cleaners only cost $1 more. The quality of your indoor air is worth it. It all ends up in contact with skin, or a paw, or on your food. Are those chemicals what you want in your house? (The EPA has determined indoor air quality is twice as polluted as outdoor air!)

Another good reference is a report by Paul Stern that ranks the most effective things one can do within a household.

How did you first get inspired to become what Vanity Fair calls a "green messenger"?
What I care about most deeply are people and communities. I studied Women's Studies and Sociology in college. Actually, the only environmental class I took, I failed! Well, it failed me.... we mostly talked about tectonic plates.

As a news anchor and documentarian for MTV News [in Mumbai, India], I saw the impact of corporations on poor people. I wanted to talk about the ability of businesses to help people, so I got my MBA with a focus on sustainable business. Then I did a PBS series that ended up being canceled... I guess it was before its time! Then writing for Treeehugger.com got me back into the environmental conversation.

Having that television background and the MBA has helped people to understand when green became "hot" that I had held an interest in this for a long time.

What are some tips for finding a like-minded community of eco-warriors in one's own community?
I'm of the belief that everyone cares, you just have to figure out how they express their cares. Moving to Kansas made me re-evaluate who is "greener," the woman who works for an environmental website and wears an organic t-shirt (aka me)? Or the farmer who shops at Wal-Mart, isn't wearing or growing anything organic, but works on the land every day with his hands? How am I the environmentalist?

I didn't have the language to talk to businesspeople until I got my MBA. Now it's about communicating in a common language based on what you care about. Here [in Kansas], there's a movement based around the church. Every faith talks about caring for creatures and being stewards of the earth. Every business talks about being sustainable long term. Whether it's getting involved with chamber of commerce or joining a co-op or a congregation, you have to find that common interest.

What other projects are you working on in the near future?
I'm currently teaching two classes at the Universtiy of Kansas, taking students from my Green Reporting, Green Jobs, Green Justice course to Oakland this spring break to install solar panels on low-income housing. I'm also working on a book for Harper Collins on the psychological barriers to social engagement. I'll be blogging weekly for Oprah through November, on my first anniversary of buying the house. And I'm also working on a yard share with friends, starting to get my hands in the dirt.

Read more about Simran Sethi on her official website, and follow along on her green renovation adventures on her blog for Oprah.com.

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Libeskind Hops on Pre-Fab Playground with 'Artist's Residence'

Kelsey Keith — 2010-02-25T15:15:00 00:00

Filed under: Design

Architect Daniel Libeskind is not shy. The famously outspoken architect has been tapped for a spate of museum projects in the past several years: first, the Jewish Museum in Berlin that put him on the proverbial map; and more recently Dresden's National Military Museum, a modification of an existing weaponry arsenal that's drawn criticism for its nouveau Brutalist addition onto the 19th-century facade. Libeskind has defended his design, explaining that German history cannot be seen as a seamless chronology; instead "there is an interruption, a fundamental dislocation -- particularly when it comes to the Nazi period."

Taking a break from explaining German history to its citizens, Studio Daniel Libeskind has undertaken a smaller-scale residential project, a friendlier canvas on which to apply the architect's signature triangles of glass and steel. The pre-fabricated house defies convention: it's not designed on a grid; the materials are luxe, not cheap; and the exterior is an undiluted version of a Libeskind original. The Villa is also not for the faint of heart. The structure resembles a cut crystal, with silver zinc-sided facets triangulating from a central point. Even the interior plan is experimental, intended to blur the line "between a residential home, a museum and a beautiful villa."

The first of the Villa prototypes was built in Datteln, Germany, roughly one hour northeast of Dusseldorf in Westphalia (literature geeks may recall that nomenclature from a certain 1759 satire written by Voltaire). Built for entertaining, the pre-fab house is a sizeable 5,500 square feet, with four bedrooms, a sauna, and a cellar. (Though try as we might, it's difficult to envision a pre-fabricated cellar.) The outré "Libeskind style" comes with glossy white floors that would make a gallery proud, though more subdued buyers can select wooden parquet.

Of course, most new home buyers with a budget between $2.8 and $4.1 million aren't traditionally in the pre-fab market. The advantages? The construction estimate is only six months, and only 30 housing packages are being sold by Libeskind's Berlin-based company, guaranteeing purchasers a certain exclusivity. And for hardcore fans of the emerging starchitect, it's a small price to pay for a work of art.

Libeskind explains further: "I have actually just designed [The Villa] for myself -- I thought about how the shower should be, how I would like to wake up, how the front door should look. Seen from this angle, the house has become an artist's residence."

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