The Coop is Matt Gibson’s winning entry for the 2009 Australian Interior Design Awards. Taking out the Retail Design category, Gibson’s entry sits between an experimental installation and a retail tenancy ‘incubator’.

Designers Philippe Simon and Pillard Rosetti customized their IKEA kitchen island by covering it with over 20,000 LEGO pieces.

For quite some time now, global warming has inspired designers to make conscious choices and use sustainable materials. It’s interesting then, to see this frozen yogurt shack in Jakarta that is inspired by melting ice floes. As the world heats up, the Indonesian architects of Budi Padono probably think you should cool down with some icy treats, while pondering the state of the earth.
The Blu Apple Frozen Yogurt Café is schedule to open next month.
[via: Dezeen]

Architect Daniel Ferrer of Mobile M recently renovated the Alicante-based Conde Lumiares drugstore, taking an innovative, non-traditional approach to pharmacy design.  Removing the suspended ceiling, the Ferrer raised the roof from it’s former “suffocating” two meter height to around five meters.  To prevent the large space feeling too open Mobile M installed 256 suspended cylinders, ranging from two to four meters in length.   Ferrer also created a second level to the Spanish drugstore for use as laboratory, warehouse and employee training.
[via Arch Daily]

An interesting look into the creative spaces of fantasy and science fiction authors, including multiple Hugo and Nebula award winner Joe Haldeman, novelist Margaret Weis, and two-time Nebula recipient Samuel Delany.  See more here.
[via Super Colossal]

Greek design firm Archvirus has created a curious house that is essentially one big skatepark. The rooftop dwelling is a fully skate-able  environment, with ramps and curved surfaces connecting the traditional living spaces.
[via Limité Magazine & Environmental Graffiti]

WANT is an interactive (anti) retail experience created by the the University of Washington’s Environmental Design class. The exhibit is designed to make learning about saving money a pleasurable experience. Actual goods are replaced with lookalike objects that preach the benefits of thrift. It’s an interesting subversion, encoding a message at-odds with the  inherent nature of the retail environment.
More at Core 77

Looking to revitalize its brand image in Southern China, Ogilvy & Mather relocated their Guangzhou office to the growing artistic fringe of the city and hired M Moser Associates to design an inspiring workplace.  Playing on the theme of “Carnival of Ideas,” the office features various theme park environments, complete with merry-go-round horses and life-sized nutcrackers.  A central, branded staircase connects the marketing department on the ground floor with the creative staff above, aiming for a free flow of creativity within the office.
The office has been selected as one of the recipients of China’s Most Successful Design Award 2008, sponsored [...]

New York Magazine brings us some nice visual inspiration, and great advice from ad agency Chandelier Creative. Founder Richard Christiansen was inspired to design his office in an unusual style by events from his childhood that shaped his thinking for years to come.
New York Magazine explains:
Growing up on a sheep farm in rural Australia, Richard Christiansen was immersed in saturated colors and landscapes that stretched as far as the eye could see. His family were always creative—his mother grew fantastic topiary and planted flower beds of camellias and azaleas that spelled out the property’s name so large it could be [...]

When viewing architect Gary Chang’s Hong Kong dwelling in any of it’s stationary modes, it looks like an ordinary modern studio apartment. But hidden behind the surface of the current room is a whole house worth of spaces. Compressed into a mere 344 square feet, Chang’s “domestic transformer” living space holds 24 possible configurations. Move a wall, pull out a table and the room’s now a kitchen – or pull out the hidden Murphy bed, and it’s a bedroom. Sliding wall units and fold down furniture come together in various formations to create a kitchen, library, laundry room, dressing [...]