Products in Brief: Branching Out
New architectural building solutions redefine their product types, including a visually arresting collection of clothing racks for retail, residential, and gallery spaces.

Pictured: Les Ailes Noires Rack System

Glazing Helps Keep a Glass Box Cool for Students
Completed in late 2012, the all-glass building was designed by Denver-based Studiotrope, which collaborated with sustainability consultants YR&G to incorporate various efficiency strategies.

Photo: © Kevin Eilbeck Photography

Product Roundup
The newest shades, screens, and glass technologies help control solar heat gain and glare throughout the year without sacrificing access to light or views. 

Pictured: Cortina and Siena Roller-Shade Fabrics

A look at some of the latest LED technologies and systems on display at Lightfair International, North America’s largest annual architectural and commercial trade lighting show, held in Philadelphia in April. 

Pictured: AR Series LED Architectural Troffer; courtesy Cree

Product Focus: Home Base
While not all strictly for residential use, these new furnishings, finishes, and technologies offer a personal touch that makes them particularly well suited for domestic life.

Pictured: Patricia Urquiola

A roundup of the latest products on the market, including a new integrated-sink system for tidier public restroom.

Made of the Right Stuff?
New disclosure tools highlight data on the sustainability of building products.

Image courtesy International living Future Institute

Helsinki’s Year of Design
Last month the city of Helsinki wrapped up its year as the World Design Capital. We highlight some of the new products, projects, and events presented in and around Helsinki during its reign.  

Pictured: Kamppi Chapel of Silence; Photo © Marko Huttunen

2012 Holiday Gift Guide
RECORD presents its fifth annual holiday gift guide for readers looking for affordable, well-designed presents for clients, family, or friends.  — Rita Catinella Orrell

Pictured: Kaikado Canisters

Cersaie Review 2012
The 30th edition of the Cersaie tile exhibition, held in Bologna last fall, featured the latest designs of bold geometries and colors with a focus on the sustainable technologies.

Pictured: Azulej; Manufacturer: Mutina

2012 Record Products
Our 2012 roundup of the year’s best new building products.

Pictured: Tom Kundig Collection

Shopping the Mart
June marked the 44th edition of NeoCon, North America's largest design expo and conference for commercial interiors. Nearly 41,000 interior designers, architects, and trade professionals walked through more than 1 million square feet of exhibition space in Chicago's Merchandise Mart to check out the latest products and resources for corporate, hospitality, health-care, retail, government, institutional, and residential interiors. Here we present a few highlights, including a new concept for using video in the office and a conference table with a split personality.

Pictured: Video Concept Spaces

Products in Brief: NY Design Week
Although New York City doesn’t yet have a massive citywide design festival comparable to those in Milan and London, this year’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) at the Jacob K. Javits Center made up for it with a solid showing of new and returning exhibitors.

Pictured: Volk Furniture Collection; Volk Furniture

Lighting Products
We look at the newest design and technology on the market.

Lighting products - May 2012
Lighting products - February 2012
Lighting products - November 2011

Photo of Linealuce Compact LED, courtesy iGuzzini, North America

Humanitarian Products
Product designs that improve the health, safety, and dignity of those in need, including a shelter concept that easily adapts to its environment.

Photo courtesy Molo Design

Learning Tools
Products that help K–12 grade students see, hear, create, and make the most of their learning environments.

Pictured: Tools at Schools; Photo © Connor & James Steinkamp

Snapback
Industry experts share their techniques and solutions for different product types from flooring to roofing.

Photo © Eduard Hueber courtesy Baumschlager Eberle

Native New Yorkers
The current state of manufacturing building products within the five boroughs.

Photo © 2011 Google Earth

2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge
We present a few of the 21 semifinalists of this year’s challenge. The winner of the $100,000 prize will be announced at a ceremony in New york in June.

School of the 21st Century
A range of new building products for K-12 projects help specifiers, educators, and students achieve their goals, both in and out of the classroom.

Pictured: Lees Carpets

Kitchen and Bath Review
Our annual review of kitchen and bath design includes a Manhattan apartment finished in local materials, a challenging kitchen renovation in Montreal’s Habitat 67, and a land-worthy kitchen and master bath for a private yacht.

Photo: © James Brittain

Each month RECORD reviews building product related web sites and blogs that might be of interest to our readership. We visit each site, kick the tires a bit, and share what it is about and how it functions.

Pictured: Hansgrohe Group

Ingo Mauer and Osram ally for a visionary OLED
Celebrated for his avant-garde approach to illumination, Munich-based lighting designer Ingo Mauer was tapped by Osram Opto Semiconductors to develop an actual fixture using the company’s pioneering OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology.

Featured Tradeshow Interview: Patrick Jouin
During the 2007 Salone del Mobile in Milan, French-born designer Patrick Jouin sat down in the Kartell booth with RECORD to discuss his new chair design for the Italian plastic furnishings company.

Listen in as Jouin explains the technology that gives his new Thalya chair for Kartell new levels of strength while remaining lightweight, as well as why he became a designer, and what his firm is working on next.

Image courtesy of Patrick Jouin

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