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This Week in Social: Drake's New Velvet-Lined Club and A Joyride in Buckminster Fuller's Car

By Katherine Wisniewski

Welcome to Curbed's new weekly round-up of architecture and design on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and (god forbid) even LinkedIn. Collected from retweets, intra-office chats, and, well, anything that sent us into a 140-character tizzy, this is what Curbed editors actually read this week. Please be in touch if you have a recommendation for next week.


1. So, what would it be like to take Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Car out on today's streets? You'll have to ask Jamie Lincoln Kitman of Car Talk, who just borrowed one from Lane Motor Museum for a joyride. Her review? "And let's not beat around the bush. You've pushed shopping carts with broken casters that handle better."

2. It's official, SHoP architects has begun the process of installing a green roof on the top of the Barclay's Center. Among other benefits, the sedum roof will absorb noise, moderate temperature, and generally look really nice. We have one correction: You clearly meant to say "wranglin'".

3. In case you don't know about Kathleen Eileen Moray Gray, let this be the shortest of short introductions. Eileen Gray was an Irish post-war furniture designer, architect, and, generally, a person worth knowing. After much trouble and toil, E1027—her very seminal cliffside vacation home in France—is finally open to the public after much to-do. So please, enjoy it and take so many selfies in it.

4. It's Friday and you need a weekend trip. Enter Stephen Talasnik's new site-specific installation on the hallowed grounds of Russel Wright's Manitoga, a precious midcentury estate in New York's Hudson Valley. Since major renovations in 2001, Manitoga has been timid about courting public engagement, but it looks like this fragile installation could change that.

5. Drake has done the inevitable thing and opened Sher Club, a VIP-exclusive club on the third level of the Air Canada Centre. Awash in red velvet and gold trimming, Sher Club's come-hither interiors were created by "architectural high-end designer" Ferris Rafauli. To quote Drake, worst.


6. This Tuesday, The Verge posed an outlandish hypothetical, "Imagine reading Tinder messages seemingly handwritten by Albert Einstein himself." Of course, they're actually talking about a new Kickstarter-funded project that aims to digitize Einstein's handwriting, turning it into a global font for Mac, PC, Linux, and iOS. Having raised a remarkable $21,000, it seems like everyone is swiping right.

7. The woes of Bob Hope's John Lautner-designed estate are many: It's withered on the market for over year, stomached multiple price chops, and endured the indignity of misguided renovations. But, there's a light at the end of this avian-inspired, Brutalist tunnel. Wednesday evening, Nicolas Ghesquière and Louis Vuitton presented their '60s-inspired resort collection at Bob Hope's long suffering estate. So, please, go ahead and let the wondrous Instagrams transport you back to a Mad Men-era California.


8. Paolo Antonelli, lady-in-charge at MoMA's Department of Architecture & Design, reminds us that the true end-game of Japanese industrial design isn't functionality or comfort. No, it's the cocktail party.

9. If you don't follow Alice Rawsthorn on Instagram, it might be time to. Every week, the British design critic devotes her feed to themes both poignant and irreverent: Design and Time, Design and Disaster, Design and TV Titles. Spurned by the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi protests, last week's Design and Worker's Rights theme was especially well-timed. Below, Rawsthorn tells the story of how the "oak tree became a template for the radical graphics of the late 1880s."

Design and Workers' Rights - 2. The oak tree has signified strength and endurance for centuries, and is so popular a political symbol that it or its leaves have been adopted as emblems by countless countries and political parties including the Nazis in Germany and British Conservatives. It also became the symbol of Britain's first socialist party, the Social Democratic Federation, after William Morris drew this beautiful oak tree as a membership card in 1883. It was an odd choice of emblem for a party committed to improving the pay, rights and conditions of an urban industrial workforce. Yet the rustic aesthetic of Morris's magnificent oak became the template for the radical graphics of the late 1800s, including those of the Socialist League, which he founded days after falling out with the SDF the following year. #design #williammorris #radicalgraphics #oaktree #artsandcraftsmovement #socialistleague #socialdemocraticfederation

A photo posted by Alice Rawsthorn (@alice.rawsthorn) on


10. Please take a moment to drool over this elegant cubist room divider. Brought to our attention by Hunter Gather and Curbed's very own editor-in-chief Kelsey Keith, it's already reserved the first spot on our never-ending #ICFF wishlist.


· All Too Short; Didn't Read coverage [Curbed]