Around The Home
March 30, 2005 If the aesthetic qualities of a speaker were more important than sound, the Japanese-made Solid Acoustics SIKKIM would be one of the most sought after speaker systems in the world. As it is, they sell for US$3150 a pair (including a sound equalizer, tabletop stand, and cables), so they’ll never set sales records but they are extraordinary to look at and unique in many ways. Each dodecahedron (12 sided) Sikkim speaker is created by casting aluminium and then mounting an extremely high quality 5cm speaker on each face. This enables the Sikkims to radiate sound through a full 360 degrees and produce “room-filling sound” that emanates from a single point. As each speaker within the 100w Sikkim has an opposing twin on the same axis, the units also have very low vibration, making them ideal for apartments with paper-thin walls and floors. Similarly, because the units radiate sound, they make good use of acoustically imperfect locations and give a much better result than traditional speaker systems. Read More
March 6, 2005. The theme was fortune, magic and lucky charms but with his project, Raffaele Iannello chose to probe the world of black magic with this knife set and distinctive holder. The striking result has gone through several iterations and is now to be produced in commercial form by Viceversa, so we guess Raffaele was lucky after all. The final Voodoo Knife set will be released in the near future at Viceversa. Read More
March 4, 2005 Not everyone wants to hang their flat screen teevs on the wall. Indeed, one of the major problems is where to put the speaks, because they're not necessarily big and flat. Onkyo has come up with an elegant solution for some of us - the CB-SP1200 is a video display stand with integrated left, right, and centre channel speakers for high quality audio, and no added clutter. The gloss black stand is compatible with LCD or Plasma flat panel displays, and tabletop rear projection or conventional CRT models weighing up to 250 pounds. Read More
March 2, 2005: Nespresso and Miele, have announced the launch of a new built-In Miele/Nespresso coffee machine. Gizmag tested a Nespresso coffee machine 15 months ago and we were knocked out by the quality and range of the sealed Nespresso coffee cartridges. The Miele/Nespresso CVA 2000 machine also represents a new generation of kitchen appliances offering a sophisticated design and cutting edge espresso machine technology that integrates into modern kitchen environments. Read More
March 1, 2005 danish design icon Bang & Olufsen has released its BeoVision 7 television, a 32” LCD widescreen TV with integrated DVD player, digital surround sound module and a three-way stereo loudspeaker system. The BeoVision 7 system also incorporates Bang & Olufsen’s VisionClear, a package of picture technologies designed to deliver the best possible picture in all situations. For example, if the curtains are opened, the BeoVision 7 automatically adjusts its picture to match the light conditions of the room. A special anti-reflection coating reduces the effect of incoming light, allowing the TV to be viewed even in broad daylight. Read More
February 28, 2005 We've already covered the Homelab Mirror TV, which helps get the kids to brush their teeth, the MYHeart mirror that displays your vital health statistics and Accenture's Intelligent mirror that analyses your behavioural patterns and can show you what you'll look like in five years time. Now ultra-trendy design house SUCK UK has created a mirror with a scrolling LED message board inside. The SUCK Mirror can scroll information such as time and date, or leave messages for other household members, and you can do it wirelessly from your PC - so you can have it play your Gizmag RSS news feed in the morning while you're scrubbing your vizog, and trimming the nose hairs. COOOOL!!!!! Read More
February 26, 2005 Renowned Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava is normally associated with public places on a grand scale. The Athens Olympic Sports Complex, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center Transport Hub, plus dozens of the most beautiful buildings in major cities around the world - airports, opera houses, bridges, train stations. Calatrava creates landmarks. Now he has teamed with one of New York's leading construction companies to design a visually striking, 835-foot-tall residential tower to be developed on the East River waterfront, just blocks from the World Trade Center site. Read More
Sphere house design is not new and nor is relocatable housing. We covered an ingenious design last year. The aptly-named Free Spirit Sphere offers easily relocatable housing that can sit in a cradle on the ground, or be hoisted 30 metres into the air in an old growth forest. Whatsmore, the sphere can be removed inside 24 hours leaving not a trace that it was ever there. Currently only produced in hand-crafted US$100,000 wooden versions, creator Tom Chudleigh plans to release a fibreglass version by mid-year that will sell for just US$25,000. Read More
Fancy a home for constructed from 100% sweat equity? Want to fulfil that primal urge to construct your own home from scratch? The Log Home Builder's Association of North America offers a two-day class on building log homes from scratch. The next class will be taught on February 23rd and 24th at the 7,000 square foot log home used in the filming the television show, 'Northern Exposure.' Many of the association's students have built their log home without a mortgage. One of the Association's students built a home (main pic) and sold it for US$160,000 profit immediately. He can build two such homes each year. Read More
February 7, 2005 The circular kitchen is a new approach to kitchen design based on the changing needs of apartment dwellers and modern lifestyle. After centuries of conventional kitchen design, the self-contained circular kitchen challenges many of the notions of a normal kitchen, treating it more as an appliance than a dedicated, inflexible room. It can be easily added or relocated to any space, be it apartment, office, holiday home or factory and comes complete with all the facilities and storage space of a conventional kitchen. There are no conventional cupboard doors, so access to the kitchen’s various components is by rotating the central unit through 180 degrees, or the top unit which rotates through 360 degrees. Read More
