Technology never ceases to amaze me. Right now my wife and I are on the small island of Panglao, just off of Bohol in the Philippines. We are enjoying beautiful beaches, amazing diving, and lots of visiting with the people.
Most of our trip has been spent visiting friends in Cebu. In the Philippines most of the people don’t have a lot of money, so you can imagine modern architecture and design is not a hot topic. I have however been admiring the DIY style of housing here.
For our transportation we have been riding around on tricycles, which are old motorcycles with elaborate sidecars. They cram the people on them, sometimes as many as 9 per tricycle, which leaves me riding on the roof of the sidecar. If that makes no sense, just wait for the pictures to come. Speaking of pictures I have taken a lot, some of them of the Guerrilla Architecture I alluded to before. Pictures to come.
I will be getting back into the states this Sunday, so look forward to a flury of new posts next week, including an exclusive interview with MAKR.

I am not sure if there is anything modern and contemporary about the Philippines, but I will let you know. My wife and I, and her parents are leaving for the Philippines, to visit a couple of their 7000+ islands, and try and avoid some monsoons. If I come across an internet cafe in my travels, I will try and post a little something. If any of you know of a site (modern or otherwise) in the Visayan Islands, drop me a line and let me know about it. If you are looking for some fresh content, make sure you visit the other blogs.

Give up bad design for good, thats their moto, and I say more power to them. There is plenty of bad design out there, especially in the kitchen, so it refreshing to find a company like Bodum that offers well designed products for a resonable price. Bodum has been in the press a lot lately for their double walled drinking glasses, rightfully so, might I ad They were awarded the red dot design award this year for their inovative glasses, and have recieved press from many magazines, including Time. More recently they have been making their ciruit around the blogs, so I decided to check out their website, and I was plesently suprised. All of their products have that nice clean minimalist feel to them that looks great in any modern kitchen. Their double walled drinking glasses are fairly affodable at $19.95 for a set of two. If the idea of sipping on a hot latte in the summer heat makes you sick, remember they work just as well at keeping your iced drink of choice nice and cold. Available in 3, 9, and 12 oz sizes.
They have a whole lot more than just glasses too. They have some very nice glass oven ware too. Perhaps best of all, the prices were not overly inflatted, especiall considering the high quality that you are getting. Three cheers for giving up bad design for good!

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If you haven’t heard about Normal yet, then you have been missing out. They may have only been around for a year, but all their well deserved news coverage just goes to show that they have some great ideas, and products. The whole company was started with the idea of designing for the future. No we are not talking space aged plastic Jetsons style products, but good old modern design that considers the future of our environment.
For example the Juice Clock($39) is made of reclaimed and recycled HDPE (mostly detegent bottles). The Square Daisy($59) is made of sustainably harvested carbonized Bamboo ply with formaldehyde-free, low VOC satin finish.
Its great to see that someone is up to the challenge of making an affodable modern product that is eco-friendly as well.

Make sure you check out their Website for other cool products that are all as nice on the environment as they are on your eyes. They have a great funky Trashcan that is made from 99% recycled car tires that would look great out in the garage.

Via Treehugger

I have always been a fan of bent ply furniture. There is just something about the way it looks, so natural and yet clean and fluid. To Charles and Ray Eames the bent ply technology embodied what this website is all about, affordability. They saw it as a way to mass produce well designed furniture, with the intent on making it readily available to the masses at an affordable price. Unfortunately for us, somewhere along the line the definition of affordable got skewed. But don’t despair, many new modern designers have caught on to this technology that started in the 1850’s and applied it to our times, and they haven’t forgotten about affordability.
One such designer is Eric Pfeiffer. I first descovered him while reading his latest book “Bent Ply: The Art of Plywood Furniture” which is a must have for any bent ply lovers. In it he covers the process of designing and manufacturing his Wave Desk. He has done some great stuff while with Offi, and lucky for us, Target has picked up a big piece of the Offi line, all of which are quite affordable.

Here are some example of his wonderful, and affordable works.

The Wavos Table $79 and Scoop TV Stand $99.
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There is a new baby store in town, and its called Modern Mini. It seems like modern kids stores are the hot new thing, but its about time right? It used to be impossible to find something modern for the little tikes, but its getting easier. Modern Mini has many of the same products that the other modern kid stores have, most at pretty good prices too. Ok, not Target good, but at least not DWR prices. One of the things that I was very excited to find were the Premaxx baby carriers. I read about Premaxx a while ago, and was sold on their baby carriers, but I haven’t been able to find them stateside until now. Modern Mini has a couple basic colors from the Premaxx line, all at a very reasonable $55. The slings can be used to carry your little lima bean in the fetal position until 5 monthes, and them after in the sitting position. Pics and instructions after the jump.

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If you think that Holdeverything is only for storage containers and solutions, then you are wrong. The have some great furniture too, some of which just happens to be on sale. Some of my favorites were the L Base Desk for only $199, the Nuo Chair on sale for $129, and the Linea Dining Chairs for $79. The best deal though are the Pocket Collapsable Chairs on sale for only $29. They have a metal frame and come in either four different colors of plastic, or my personal favorite wood with a golden oak stain. With the free shipping on all of their chairs, that makes a cheap couple of extra seats for your loft. I also liked the Metal Table Lamps too. The base is $38 and then you can pick from the three differnet colored shades at $8 each. I have added them to our Modern Link Database

L Base Desk $199

See the rest of the pics after the jump.
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I have always been in love with wooden kids toys. There is just something about them that is intrinsically satisfying. So of course the first time I saw Playsam’s modern wooden toys, I was in love. Apparently I am not the only one that likes them either, since their Streamliner line of kids toys was Selected by Swedish National Museum as a Swedish Design Classic. They also have a really nice line of activity toys, my favorite of which is the Roadster Saab Car. Its not the most affordable at $315, but is definately better than the alternative.

We can’t help but notice how much the icar looks like the new Apple mouse. Maybe thats why we like it so much!

Leave it to computer design masters Apple to come up with a new mouse that is not only supper cool, but affordable. Introducing the new Mighty Mouse. From day one, Apple has had a one button mouse, not to be swayed by a two button world… until now. The mighty mouse isn’t a total sellout, there is still just one button that you can see. What is new is the two touch sensative buttons that are invisibly positioned on the top, a 360 degree scroll button, and two side buttons, all of which are custom programable to do whatever you want. The most impressive thing about it may be the price, it’s available for $49 at Apples online store.

Ok Ebay junkies, here is a new resource that may help you to get some chic furniture and accessories without breaking your budget. Portero is a Ebay powerseller that focuses on “luxury online auctions”. They are actually an ebay auction listing service aimed at serving the upperclass. For a $20 fee, and 30% of sales, they will stop by your house and pick up your no longer wanted luxury items, and list them on ebay. So, what does that have to do with affordable? Many of these items sell on ebay for a very reasonable price. For example, a quick glance through their ebay store found this Tacchini Sofa Bed. The reserve is not met yet, but the price is currently at $100, local pickup only. Via Apartment Therapy