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Mood walk: Showing the city in a new light

Words: Jonna Dagliden
Visuals: Natalie Jones

London – Designer and film-maker Keiichi Matsuda is imagining what the future of Augmented Reality (AR) might be like in his latest film, screened at London’s 3D Film Festival at the Barbican.

The Augmented City video shows a man with multiple choices in an environment overlaid with digital data such as personal information about his mood or beliefs. Graffiti appears on the wall when he is walking along the street and adverts from brands pop up next to him. ‘The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply about the physical space of buildings and landscape,’ says Matsuda.

Look out for our forthcoming trend on Future Media Landscapes to find out how AR will rewrite the rules of consumer intimacy.

The One Room: Menswear shop is here to stay

Words: Jonna Dagliden
Visuals: Natalie Jones

London – Only a select few will have the chance to spend the night in The One Room Hotel inside the newly opened Hostem menswear shop in London’s Shoreditch.

Designed by duo JAMESPLUMB, founded by Hannah Plumb and James Russell, the room will act as an exhibition during the day and by night anyone can spend the night there.

The room comes complete with a library and a selection from Plumb’s own film collection. A dressing room will feature traditional suitcases as drawers and bespoke standing mirrors. Bed linen is supplied by Matteo and products for hair, skin and body from Aésop.

For more on how retail spaces should move beyond product, read our Beyond Retail report.

Study in style: Hotel offers shades of glamour

Words: Jonna Dagliden
Visuals: Natalie Jones

Singapore – Entrepreneur and hotelier Loh Lik Peng, the founder of hotels such as Town Hall hotel and apartments in London and the Waterhouse hotel in Shanghai, has opened the Wanderlust boutique hotel in Singapore’s Little India.

Once again Peng has experimented with design to turn an old building, a former school from the 1920s, into a stylish designer hotel. A Bleisure aesthetic is evident throughout, with concrete floors and white walls in the Industrial Glam lobby by Asylum on Level 1. In the Eccentricity lobby by art and design collective :phunk Studio on Level 2 neon lights and a rainbow corridor greet guests, while on Level 3 DP Architects has created a Black and White look.

Luxury hotels are explored further in LS:N Global’s Travel Trends report.

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Up your street: A video from your childhood

Words: Jonna Dagliden
Visuals: Natalie Jones

Montreal – Your childhood address is the focus of indie rock band Arcade Fire’s latest music video. The Wilderness Downtown, a collaboration between the band,video auteur Chris Milk and the Google Creative Lab, gives listeners a personal experience when they hear the We Used to Wait song from The Suburbs album.

It is an interactive music video built in HTML 5, using Google Maps and Street-view for Google Chrome Experiments. Users type in their home address on The Wilderness Downtown website and Google Maps and Google Street integrate the address into the video. Multiple screens appear. In one, as a reflection of the album a man, meant to be the user, is seen running on his childhood home street. The LS:N Global team tested several addresses from Kingston in Surrey to Linnégatan in Gothenburg. In the end, we were encouraged to send a postcard to our younger self.

Arcade Fire is on fire. In one clever way to attract consumers they recently released a digital artwork for the same album, which gives listeners a visual experience.

Bob’s Your Uncle: A wine in a beer bottle

Words: Jonna Dagliden
Visuals: Natalie Jones

Stellenbosch, South Africa – Next time you walk into a shop to buy wine, head for the beer department. That’s the idea behind the design of The Red Brew Bob’s Your Uncle wine by visual communications studio Fanakalo.

The Boer & Brit red, a merlot and tempranillo blend, comes in an old brown bottle with a crown cap from beer brewer SAB Miller. The designers say that the wine in a beer bottle is ‘perfect for picnics’ and is aimed at bringing people together, as we have seen with the Rurban Revolution.

The wine industry has adopted an imaginative approach to wine labels in a bid to appeal to a younger, less stuffy consumer. Another example is The Blonde Bombshell by wine company Total Beverage Solution.

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Mountain pass: Tracking skiers on the slopes

Words: Jonna Dagliden
Visuals: Natalie Jones

Broomfield, Colorado – Skiers will experience an EpicMix when they check in at the Vail Resort slopes this winter. The EpicMix location-based application enables users to earn rewards via Facebook Place when they check in, view the location of family and friends, and automatically track ski routes and vertical distance travelled via the radio frequency-enabled chip embedded in season passes and lift tickets.

The service, which also offers weather forecasts, traffic information and updates on mountain conditions, can be accessed online or via a smartphone. ‘Ultimately, it’s about creating loyalty,’ says Rob Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts.

For more on how location-based social networking, read our micro trend on Check-in Culture.

Bleisure space: Mobile workforce finds a home

Words: Jonna Dagliden
Visuals: Natalie Jones

Buenos Aires – Mobile workers in the Palermo Soho district in Buenos Aires now have an ideal place to stop.

The Urban Station in the Argentinian capital has conference rooms, desks and electricity points. Visitors can use their laptops, relax in comfortable armchairs and read business and arts magazines. ‘It’s not a coffee shop, and it is not an office. But if you are a mobile worker, it is something much better than both things combined,’ say its creators.

To access the facilities, workers rent a desk at an hourly rate. Food and drink as well as use of printers, fax machines, scanners and even a few bikes, are included in the price.

For more on how to reach the increasingly on-the-go workforce, read our Bleisure report.

Less is more: Design range is simply quality

Words: Jonna Dagliden
Visuals: Natalie Jones

London – Mark Holmes, former design director of Established & Sons, will launch a new collection for his Minimalux brand on September 23.

Described by the designer as ‘basic yet precious’, the minimal items include ‘Conical’ vase, the lean ‘Fork and Knife’ and ‘Pill Tube’. They all highlight what LS:N Global reports in our Minimal Luxury Inspire: simplicity with quality.

Look out for our forthcoming Luxury Futures report in which we will further explore this minimalist luxury landscape.

Hel, yes: Finnish showcase pops up

Words: M. Astella Saw
Visuals: Nicola Churchward

London – Campsite chic, foraged food and a grouping of Wild Things come together at a temporary restaurant showcasing Finnish food and design this month. Hel Yes!, the pop-up project, has been organised by Helsinki restaurateur Antto Melasniemi with designers Mia Wallenius and Klaus Haapaniemi to serve as a Finnish pavilion, of sorts, during the London Design Festival.

Alongside classic pieces by design houses Iittala and Artek, Hel Yes! will include new furniture, lighting and clothes by fashion designer Heikki Salonen, interior/furniture designer Linda Bergroth, sculptor/video artist Maria Duncker, and furniture and product designer Harri Koskinen. In true Rurban style, most of the ingredients used in the restaurant’s meals will be foraged from around London.

More than a place in which to eat, drink and be merry, the two-week installation, backed by the Finnish Institute in London, demonstrates a clever way to wield soft power and extend brand reach – way out of Hel.

Hel Yes! will run from 15 September to 3 October 2010.