It seems impossible to find completely unadorned industrial design like this new (or even pseudo-industrial, since this lamp was probably made for the domestic market). It’s a vintage midcentury modern lamp from Furniture-Love.com via plastolux. It is here if you just need one, and can afford it. I need two matching lamps, is my problem, and for less than a kajillion dollars. These days the industrial style seems to have disappeared in lighting design and has been replaced by a style I call for lack of a better term “contempo.” That is, design that likes to see itself as contemporary, that pretends to be minimalist but isn’t really, that’s full of overcomplicated shapes, compound curves, weird finishes or brushy nickel, and that barely disguises its secret hankering to be jazzy. If anyone knows where I can two matching articulated wall lamps, white preferably or white and silver like this one, please advise.

This is the Mi Casa VolB showroom in São Paolo, by Marcio Kogan. I love cast concrete, especially here where there’s no attempt to embellish or hide the structure. Via Wallpaper: “The concrete is visible throughout, free of detailing, with even the construction workers’ chalk markings left intact inside. Outside, one facade is an exposed steel frame, normally used to reinforce concrete. Rough-textured surfaces lit from above and via the low shop window, make the space, as Kogan says, ‘almost an X-ray of the materials’. This may be an elite, upmarket boutique, but the design of the building would not be expensive to emulate considering the simplicity of its shapes and materials. It would be so nice to see something like this in Vancouver.

This is artist Donald Judd’s loft in Soho, maintained as a museum but only open infrequently. It was one of the first artist’s lofts in Soho – not to mention in New York – and is now almost the paradigmatic example of loft living. Judd bought the entire 1870’s industrial building for 70,000 in 1968 and moved in with his family. One of the central figures in minimalist art, Judd clearly lived his own aesthetic. His interest in industrial materials and engineering methods is evident here in the lack of any attempt to domesticate the space as well as in the simple, unadorned furniture he built for it. The NYT ran an article a while ago which included an interview with Judd’s son Flavin, who was 6 months old when he moved into this loft and who nostalgically described the Soho of the 60s and 70s as a small town smelling fragrantly of the cigars manufactured nearby. These days there’s a certain huffiness out there about modernism and minimalism’s supposed kid-unfriendliness, but Flavin Judd remembers this space – ground zero of minimalism – happily and even nostalgically (there’s a small image of the Judds at home, below). “There were “the best Swedish breakfasts on the second floor — 50 people would come over — ham, cheese, weird flatbreads, salmon,” Flavin Judd said. “It was a great place to grow up.” To read the whole story, which includes information on the heritage restoration of the whole building, see the NYT. See also this blog’s previous post on minimalism.vs. maximalism in interiors. There’s a good shot of the a reproduction of Judd’s famous daybed on AT , and lastly, Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change by Sharon Zukin provides a really fascinating portrait and social history of artist’s lofts, including 101 Spring Street. According to the Judd Foundation website, tours of the Spring St. building and loft are suspended during restoration but will start up again in 2010.

Photos from the NYT and from DiscoContinental on Flickr. Take a fun quiz (is it a Judd or a piece of cheap furniture?) here.