Friday, January 22, 2010

MusaDesign blog is moving to www.musadesign.net/blog

MusaDesign blog has moved to http://www.musadesign.net/blog to make it easier to follow everything that is happening at MusaDesign. Please, follow us there!

Polina Zaika and MusaDesign team.

posted by Polina Zaika @ 5:52 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, June 18, 2009

KASTHALL carpet

http://www.kasthall.com

Rug virtouso since 1889

Kasthall has been in existence almost as long as electricity has been in use. Ludvig Andersson founded the rug factory in Kinna, Sweden back in 1889. The company builds on Swedish traditions of craftsmanship, which we carefully develop and interpret in modern form. Each Kasthall rug that is made is unique and is manufactured to order. A leather label on the back of each rug shows the names of the people who designed and made it.
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posted by Polina Zaika @ 12:36 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Business trip to Seoul, South Korea

MusaDesign had visited Seoul, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan on April 2009 to visit a number of architecture company that use follow design approach similar to what we do here at MusaDesign. A number of sites that we visited there and a number of people that we met were truly inspirational for us.

The very first place that we went to was “Cultural Space” built by UNSANGDONG architectural cooperation (http://www.usdspace.com/). The concept of the building is to establish company’s brand identity (large real estate development company in this case) by constructing a futuristic building with striking exterior that defines brand cues and as both public space for displaying cutting edge design and contemporary art as well as place to show display houses and condos built by the company.

Cultural center for Development Company, this is completely new concept that developers are creating attention by showing in very futuristic designed building that they pronounced as cultural center a cutting age design and contemporary art.

The second level of the building is a combination of a large café, gathering space, and more areas for art exhibits which I am sure looks pretty exiting on the picture but cold and “empty” in reality-everything was evenly spread out in the big space evenly lead with innovative but steel florescent light. Not enough contrast in color, scale or lighting- here we start noticing the common oversight in hospitality business for most of the private and commercial places- lighting.

We can defiantly help with lighting by combining American innovations and appropriate to the particular concept aesthetics with a choice of not only decorative fixtures but up light and downright appearance.

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posted by Polina Zaika @ 12:33 PM 0 Comments

Look again, | By MUSADESIGN | Category: Architecture | Blurb

MusaDesign has recently published a book called 'Look, again' that shares our design process, philosophy, and gives details on some of our projects. Below are the screenshots, but you can always order your own copy from Blurb: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/621167



Look again, By MUSADESIGN Category: Architecture Blurb

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posted by Polina Zaika @ 11:41 AM 0 Comments

Thursday, June 11, 2009

THE DUOFLOOR COLLECTION

THE DUOFLOOR COLLECTION
The Duofloor Collection is an innovation in hardwood flooring. The concept of the Duofloor is to capture the durability and wear-layer of a solid hardwood floor with the added benefit of the stability and ease of installation of an engineered floor. Because the Duofloor is more stable than solid floors, the Duofloor can cover widths up to 12 inches & lengths of 12 feet. It is also important to acknowledge that the Duofloor construction saves more trees and is therefore more environmentally friendly than solid hardwood flooring. The Duofloor is the best of both worlds and highly recommended for high end commercial & residential applications. DuChateau Duofloors are distressed, hand-scrapped, smoked, and wire-brushed made in the customary Dutch tradition. The Duofloor is ¼ inch (6.2mm) of European Oak, European Ash, or European Larch top-layer and features 7 layers of Birch substrate.

http://www.duchateaufloors.com

White Oiled Natural MusaDesign used Duchateau floors for some of projects. - Far 4 . OLDE DUTCH (natural Oiled) Zaw Pizza. ZIMBABWE (Wire Brushed)

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posted by Polina Zaika @ 3:58 PM 0 Comments

Monday, October 27, 2008

elements of zaw: a suspended greenhouse

When a new Health Department rule called for a scrubbable and washable ceiling above the food preparation, our clients worried they would have to build a heavy-looking drywall dropped ceiling. We, instead, suggested a series of light acrylic panels dropped into a standard ceiling grid which met the new code and also filtered the simple fluorescent lighting above while a separate vertical panel would conceal the HVAC unit from the customers’ view.
The grid was set at 15” x 19” so that the resulting combination of acrylic and metal resembled a window pane. The series of “window panes” could open as ductwork needed to pass. The frosted white and metal windows hanging above the fresh ingredients mimic the appearance of a functioning greenhouse.

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posted by Polina Zaika @ 1:58 PM 0 Comments

Friday, October 24, 2008

elements of zaw: finding the right refrigeration

The refrigerators that would hold the beer, wine, and sodas would be a crucial part of the interior scheme; we sought to design a functional and striking space uniting menu and beverage display.
Finding the right look meant working around the refrigerators, which meant endlessly researching all available commercial refrigerators to find just the right look and feel. We looked at full length refrigerators with doors, half-sized with doors, integrated walk-in refrigerator and retail side glass doors, and open-air curtain units.
Meeting with dozens of product reps, studying as much about storage capacity and energy efficiency, and discussing options and dimensions and suppliers; selecting the units that accomplished all of our demands proved quite difficult. Each change to the refrigerators resulted in changes to the way the additional dry red wine display and to the menu board design, size, and information frontages.
The use of modular cubes at full and half heights stacked on top of each other allow the clients to change the size of the overall display depending on the varying sizes and layout of future store locations and allowed them to reconfigure the displays based on their changing advertising and sales needs.

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posted by Polina Zaika @ 5:52 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, October 19, 2008

zaw materials: burned wood

While the owners of 'zaw were meeting with local vineyards to find the perfect complements to their pizzas, we were looking for the right material to go with our custom tiles and complete the retail counter. Because the pizzas are served uncooked, the black and red tiles suggest the fire of the customers' burning ovens. We found a sublime companion with a wood flooring material that was burnt by hand, continuing the perception of warmth and baking, as well as the theme of the artisan's touch.
DuChateau Floors is a company that plants two trees for every one it uses. All their floors have recycled wood substrates and are finished with natural oils instead of harmful chemicals.

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posted by Polina Zaika @ 11:19 AM 0 Comments