Yotel - Sleep, Refresh, Work or Relax

Everything you would expect from a luxury hotel in a small space. Located uniquely inside the airport terminal buildings at London Heathrow’s Terminal 4 and London Gatwick’s South Terminal. Just moments walk from check in, arrivals and minutes from the other terminals. YOTEL opens at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam in early 2008.

You can choose between Premium (double) and Standard (large single) cabins with en suite bathrooms, flat screen TV’s, free WiFi and 24 hour in cabin service.

Book exactly what you want when you want it – from just a few hours day or night to 24 or more.

Telephone Booth

Recycling can be more than just reusing materials that otherwise would be wasted, the RE-thinking and RE-using of design itself seems valuable in both an economical/environmental and a social way. The telephone booth of the German-telecom that has been in use since the late 60´s is slowly disappearing from the streets. In all these years it has become something like a ´mental image´, a significant element in the urban-realm. We consider it as one of the icons of Germany’s post-war ´economical-boom´ with its famous high quality standard (an aspect that is in big crisis today). It would be a shame if it would just disappear forever out of our lives. Converted into a shower the new-born booth suits perfectly, production and design costs are minimal, the percentage of Recycled material is almost maximal and its ´personality´, comes for free!

Sitbag Chair

Maybe Design have designed some cool stuff but the sitbag chair and ottomon tops it. The sitbag chair is a blend between retro and contemporary and can considerably bump your cool rating when your mates come around. The multipurpose chair can be used as storage space as well to store your valuables as it comes with code locks. The sit bag is can be brought online at www.chichiqueen.com

American Apparel Opens Store in Second Life

The second biggest news of the week after Bill Gates's retirement was about American Apparel opening a store in Second Life. The store got ink in Forbes, and other mainstream media are sure to follow soon since in-game advertising is suddenly a hot topic.

So, the store is located on the Lerappa sim (that's "apparel" spelled backwards). Two floors, floodlights, a terrace. High ceilings to allow comfortable fly-ins.



Winning over the new consumer is what, Aimee Weber one of the store's creators, does best.

The first floor of the store. Aimee said the Second Life outlet is not an exact replica of any particular store because the real-life layout is not very suitable for the virtual world. Makes sense. The second floor of the store. You can't click on the actual outfit you see on the racks; you need to click on the corresponding displays.

Changing rooms. I think the images on the walls are rotating, but am not sure. Otherwise, this area seems to be more for decoration, that is, you can't touch anything here and buy it.

The screens in the left show a looping video of some dude playing an instrument. The credits say the video is AA's copyright.

Takashi Murakami

TakashiMurakami.com is a tribute to Takashi Murakami, one of the most thoughtful-and thought-provoking-Japanese artists of the 1990s. His work ranges from cartoony paintings to quasi-minimalist sculptures to giant inflatable balloons to performance events to factory-produced watches, T-shirts, and other products, many emblazoned with his signature character, Mr. DOB.

Alarm Ring

If you hate your typical loud blaring alarm, then hope and pray that this Alarming Ring from designer Meng Fandi is more than just a concept. The charging cradle is where you set what time you want the ring(s) to go off. Just put the ring on the tip of your finger, and when time comes, the ring vibrates until you wake up and put it back on the charging cradle to turn it off.

Ideal for couples who wake up at different hours. No more disturbing each other when ones’ alarm goes off. People with impaired hearing can also use it to improve their quality of life.

Hotel Puerta America - Madrid

The Hotel Puerta América will undoubtedly become renowned as one of the great five-star luxury hotels. A sensorial and intellectual feast that clearly upholds the maxims of hotels in its quest for quality and innovation.
Through a space brimming with an array of different shapes, materials and colours, the aim is for the guest to become involved, to discover a new way of experiencing a hotel without sacrificing comfort. The goal is move towards a new concept in hotels, while at the same time creating a new dimension in services and facilities in order to make visitors’ stays more pleasant.
Under the motto “A passion for excellence”, the hotel reflect this philosophy in their care for guests, always going a step further in delivering the services most important to guests, such as high quality dining facilities, leisure facilities, parking, relaxing grounds and soon.

The hotel has 342 bedrooms, comprising of 308 premium rooms, 22 junior suites (larger than the premium rooms) and 12 suites, which are located on the 12th (top) floor.

The Hotel Puerta América is a space that invites people to dream - a never been- attempted-before project that has brought together nineteen of the top architecture and design studios in the world from thirteen different countries.
Originality, luxury, innovation and formal freedom define a hotel that awakens its guests’ senses. Each of the floors showcases a different conceptin hotel rooms. All play with different materials, colours and shapes to create spaces that bring together the best in avant-garde design and architecture, where creativity and the freedom to develop each of the spaces has been the hallmark.