Havaianas Sandals, created in 1962, drew their inspiration from the ‘zori’, traditional Japanese slippers made of rice straw. A product of extremely low cost, for many years they were just rubber flip-flops, a long way from the fashion icon they are today.

This is a store at one of the world’s most expensive addresses (Rua Oscar Freire, in Sao Paulo) and sell products that cost from €2.30 to €10.00 – and not more than that – was, at one time, the excitement and the joy of the work. This is Havaianas’ first store in Brazil.

The shop has a very informal atmosphere and the outcome is nearly a square – a space fully opened onto the street, practically an extension of the sidewalk, without doors or window displays, with lush greenery and intense natural lighting, only covered by a metal grid alternating glass / wooden closures and openings for ventilation and irrigation.

A transparent cylinder includes the so-called ‘new products’ (bags, socks, towels, etc.); and a high-tech cube tells the story of Havaianas. Amidst all that, a lowered area for customisation services and featuring displays for the children’s product line. At the back of the store, on a half-raised level, there is a small garden for exclusive use by staff; the underground houses offices and storage areas. Amazing store!

Are you looking for some great decorating ideas? Just right now I present a wall decoration with some great combinations of modern art and photography. Your perfect modern space,  perhaps is a mix of form, function and eclectic minimalism.

Revitalize your spread with modern art, wallpaper and other wall decor from great designers such as Campbell Laird, HZL, Identity5, Amenity, jefdesigns. From limited edition modern art prints to lighted wall art and more, embellish your contemporary space from 2Modern‘s Wall Decor shop. These are my favourite wallpapers from the huge collection. I’d like to decorate them in my house.

Right wall decoration is extremely important for every private space. Wallpapers like those ones will make your own space a lovely imaginary home, no matter in which room they are posted!

In the 2Modern shop you will find out various wall decoration. To be honest I’m a fan of future art – future photography (shown here) with astonishing filters and gradients! Your home is creative as you are, don’t forget that! The wall-decoration prices vary from $36.00 – $ 798.00. Almost every pocket is in!

The giant threads, some knitted and some not are produced industrially. The process of knitting these ‘threads’ together requires a team of up to 4 people and PVC needles up to 13 feet long. Phat Knits is a series of brilliantly over scaled furniture pieces, despite the fact that the designer claims that he doesn’t really see himself as a furniture designer.

Bauke Knottnerus is the designer of these things. He said: I’m more like a material designer,” “These things I make could end up as furniture or as textiles, it’s more like creating media that can be used to construct a coat or a carpet or a curtain.” Knit, woven, knotted or piled like spaghetti, the series includes seating, rugs, and multifunctional interior objects.  “I never really explained the Phat Knits project,” the Dutch designer admits. “People respond very intuitively to it.’

Thus the title “Phat Knits” makes complete sense.  Unfortunately, according to Urban Dictionary, this term is somewhat passe – but in this context. Regarding the knitted or knotted pieces, Bauke’s name “Knott-nerus” is incredibly appropriate.

The 6 star hotel resort Soneva Kiri is located on Koh Kood, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. At this unique site, 24H-architecture designed a series of ecological icons to contribute to Six Senses’ high ambitions in design and ecology. Most prominent is The Children Activity and Learning Centre, which will provide visiting children a wide range of entertaining activities as well as raise the level of ecological awareness with them.

The 6 star hotel resort Soneva Kiri is located on Koh Kood, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. At this unique site, 24H-architecture designed a series of ecological icons to contribute to Six Senses’ high ambitions in design and ecology. Most prominent is The Children Activity and Learning Centre, which will provide visiting children a wide range of entertaining activities as well as raise the level of ecological awareness with them. This Den provides an Auditorium/Cinema for films, lectures and plays, a library with books on permaculture and local traditions, an Art room, a Music room and Fashion room, thus giving children both creative and ecological education while playing.

The design adopts all bioclimatic aspects to suits its humid tropical environment. The roof cantilevers up to 8m acting like a big umbrella providing shade and protection from the heavy rains. The open design with the translucent elevated rooftop and setback floors allow a natural airflow inside and the use of natural daylight, limiting the building’s energy consumption.

Via: Archdaily

This spectacular villa is a sprawling 65,000-square-foot house near Phuket, Thailand. Its owner is Eric Levine, founder of the California WOW Experience gym chain in Asia, who describes the place as “James Bond meets Asia.”

Mr. Levine and his girlfriend, Varaluck Vanichkul, who is called Joy, live in Bangkok and use the villa for weekends and vacations.

Much of the rest of the house is designed for entertainment and relaxation. The home cinema has Hollywood-like pillars at the entrance, pinpoint lights on the ceiling that look like stars and living room-style seating.

The game room features a two-lane bowling alley, table tennis, Foosball, pool, air hockey and a karaoke system. There also is a bar for refreshments.

The dining room, with 16 seats.

The three guest suites have Japanese, Thai and Indian themes. Here, a suit of samurai armor decorates the entrance to the Japanese suite.

The sleeping area in the Japanese guest suite. Each suite has its own living area, dressing room and bathroom.

One of the villa’s two infinity pools. There also is a tennis court and a two-hole golf course on the four-acre grounds.

Photos by: James Robert Fuller

Ana Beatriz sometimes looks like a mere mortal: she postponed the photoshoot because of a fever, is distracted and loves to talk. She goes on vacation once in a year, always in August. The destination is what’s not the same with mine or yours. Ana Beatriz Barros is born in May 29, 1982 in Itabira, Minas Gerais, Brazil. She is of Portuguese/Spanish ethnicity, and has two siblings, Patricia and Malu (Maria Luisa).

The green-eyed beauty rocks the entire world. She was chosen the sexiest woman in the world by Italian GQ. She’s the Sports Illustrated queen, star of the most important lingerie campaigns and was the first Brazilian woman to be on the Angels’ team of Victoria’s Secret in 1999 (shortly followed by Gisele Bundchen, Adriana Lima…) and invited by actress Jennifer Lopez to speak for her brand.

Enjoy the amazing photo-session of Anna in the Vogue December Issue 2003, hiking in Rio de Janeiro.

Once she said :

”I want to go back to Brazil, get married, have lots of kids, and just be a couch tomato.”

“Americans are shy about the body. I have to remember that when I go there. “

“I hope people don’t get tired of looking at me.”

“Since I learned English, I’ve become a motormouth!”

The Greek island of Patmos is a place of wonders both natural and divine. The island has drawn solace seekers for nearly 2,000 years – without ever loosing its cool. Patmos doesn’t have an airport. So you take a seven – hour ferry from Athens of fly to a neighboring isle and then catch a catamaran.

ON ASPRONISI, A ROCK ISLAND NEAR PATMOS. VPL BATHING SUIT WITH ATTACHED PARACHUTE, SHOWPIECE ONLY. FOR SIMILAR STYLES, GO TO VPLNYC.COM. FASHION EDITOR: ANNE CHRISTENSEN

A town – Chora on the island was named by UNESCO as World Heritage Site. The monastery, a fortress rising above whitewashed Chora, dominates the island physically and psychologically. Patmos’s 3000 inhabitants feel they live on blessed ground.

WHITE OUT IN CHORA. TOMMY HILFIGER DRESS, $498. GO TO TOMMY.COM.

The photo session was taken at Agriolivado beach, where Kyria Eleni rents out sun loungers, swam in an ample black bathing suit, pearls and gold cross that bobbed in her cleavage.

GRECIAN FORMULA IN CHORA. DIANE VON FURSTENBERG BATHING SUIT, $230. GO TO DVF.COM. TIFFANY & COMPANY BRACELET.

ON ASPRONISI. MICHAEL KORS BIKINI, $270. GO TO SAKSFIFTHAVENUE.COM. IN CHORA. MAX AZRIA BLACK BATHING SUIT, $260. GO TO MAXAZRIA.COM. CARTIER RING AND CUFF.

ON ASPRONISI. HERVÉ LÉGER BY MAX AZRIA GRAY BIKINI, $750. GO TO HERVELEGER.COM. FASHION ASSISTANT: COURTNEY A. WEINBLATT. HAIR BY WARD FOR LIVINGPROOF. MAKEUP BY ROMY SOLEIMANI AT MANAGEMENT ARTISTS FOR NARS COSMETICS. LOCATION SCOUT: EMANUELE MASCIONI. MODEL: TIIU KUIK.

SWIM GODDESS IN THE TOWN OF CHORA, A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE ON PATMOS. ERES BIKINI TOP, $215, AND BOTTOM, $380. GO TO ERES.FR. CAROLEE BRACELET.

Photographs by Camilla Akrans

Along the coastline of Hawaii’s Big Island, an architect and his family exchange the fast city life for different kind of flow. Outside, the white haze rising from the horizon gives way to a deep blue mass of land. Hawaii is the island that comprises the largest mountain on earth, most of it under the sea. A muggy breeze flutters through the long open -air walkway, painted an unfashionable brown and lined with weathered olive-green.

Even the Big Island has not completely avoided the pitfalls of the modern world, adding 35,000 residents in the last 15 years and, accordingly, strip malls that could be Anywhere, USA. Architect Craig Steely, his wife Cathy Liu, a painter, and their two-year-old son Zane are three of those new residents, having first come to the island six years ago, and now splitting their time between a home base in San Francisco and what one could call a remote-access network here.

If you turn off the main route, and with the sun casting an orange glaze from low in the sky, on cue the surroundings transform from vaguely tropical to dense jungle. The road narrows to one lane, and oncoming cars veer onto the red dirt shoulder to pass. Under windswept palms a haphazard labyrinth of tents and blue tarps has taken root; a lone rooster patrols the gravel parking lot.

The house is impossible not to notice, thanks in part to its siting on a lava flow. The Big Island is the youngest island in Hawaii’s chain, and is in a constant process of expansion and regeneration. The flow here in Kehena occurred in 1955, after a vent from the Kilauea volcano unleashed a slow coastal-bound pour of molten lava. In the same era, lava flowing from other vents covered a famed six-mile-long black-sand beach; more recently, during the 1990s, a flow destroyed the main road linking this side of the island with the Kona side.

The concrete floor takes on a silky appearance in the kitchen and dining areas. The Gideå table is from IKEA, the Karim Rashid Oh chairs are from Umbra, and the Erik Magnussen kerosene Ship’s lamp is by Stelton.

Eddy Uritani (or Uncle Eddy, as he’s known to Zane) did all the tile work in the kitchen and bathroom. The tiles come from a Canadian company called Interstyle.

The screen around the lanai is made from extrene, a material used by the military for radio towers. The welded-steel sculpture, set atop a pile of a’a rocks, was made by Craig.

A vintage suspended wall unit serves as a home office. Cathy demonstrates the “third bedroom”—a three-person hammock from Oaxaca.

When Cathy and Craig bought the land, it was completely bare. With plenty of sun and rain, these palms have grown a lot in the last two years.

The lava rock used for the steps was cut on a giant saw near Hilo. Craig finished assembling the staircase just in time for Zane’s one-year baby luau.

Botanist Patrick Blanc has been bringing the wilds of the rain forests to Parisian walls for over 30 years, most recently at the Jean Nouvel–designed Quai Branly museum. One lucky family, however, doesn’t have to go any farther than their living room to take in the wonders of Blanc’s vertical gardens. Oh how jealous Henri Rousseau would be!

Patrick Blanc is a radiant evergreen, bedecked in Peter Pantone snakeskin shoes, khaki safari trousers, and a lime disco shirt, with mescalin highlights in his blond hair. Even his vice is green: He smokes menthols.

The creator of the “plant wall,” a living canvas for indoor and outdoor vertical space, is in high demand. His trademark technique for a top-down, no-fuss, no-muss irrigation system, not to mention the 30 years of botanical research on three continents under his belt, have made him an urban garden guru. Recent creations include the hip Pershing Hall hotel and the Fondation Cartier in Paris, the swanky Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok, boutiques in New York and Paris, and restaurants in Los Angeles and beyond.

Though he always kept a flat in Paris to be close to the communications agency he runs, his wife, Vivette, and their children moved from outside Rambouillet, 
an hour’s drive from the city, where they had renovated a longère, an ancient, low-lying elongated house nestled into a garden. “Basically, when we moved our house shifted 90 degrees, and so did the garden,” Dimanche says. “This house, for us, has meant a whole new life, a new lifestyle,” adds Vivette. “It’s not a purely conceptual house. It’s all about le vivant, le vécu,” she explains, the living, the lived experience.

For all its urban delights, Paris is one of the densest world capitals—two million residents packed into only 40 square miles—and it just cries out for a green manifesto. Blanc’s plant walls may be part of that, producing spaces that don’t deny the urban grid but weave it into the realm of the living. From homes and museums Blanc now wants to move on to the city’s least attractive spots—parking lots, public housing, train stations, “all those places where we don’t expect living things.” “The plant wall is not a criticism of the city,” he adds. “I’m only trying to reconcile it with nature.”

Due to recent move-outs and downsizing of government offices, Kanchogaidori, the central avenue of the city which literally means “government office street,” has noticeably become desolate despite its name.  In an effort to revive the street, Towada City has begun the Arts Towada Project, for the improvement of the cityscape and future town planning in Japan.

In this project, an outdoor space, namely Kanchogaidori, is transformed into a museum, with a variety of artworks all along the street.  Such a project is very unique and rare, even when considered on a global scale.  Furthermore, with the harmony of the artworks and Towada’s beautiful nature and rich history, as well as the local vitality, Towada aims to be recognized as “City of Arts” and “City of Inspiration and Creation.”

The Arts Towada Project is planned to be completed in the spring of 2010; events leading up to the completion includes: the 2008 opening of the Towada Art Center, the central facility for the project; renovation of the former tax office site; and installation of the artwork symbolizing the project.

Arts Towada is a project to place various works of art in the Towada Art Center and Kanchogaidori over a period of 5 years. The concept behind the project is the “symbiosis of the city, nature, and art” and “experiences through art.” In the Towada Art Center, there are 22 artworks by 21 artists in and outside Japan, inspired by the dialogue with the local cityscape, nature, and people.

Each artwork was created exclusively for the Art Center, and the design of the building was catered to the works; thus, there is an unmatched intimacy between the building and the artworks. You will find art throughout the facility, not only in exhibition rooms; the Art Center is full of surprise for a new art experience.