THE BEST DESIGN OF 1996
By CONTRIBUTORS GINIA BELLAFANTE, RICHARD CORLISS, CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY, PAUL GRAY, BELINDA LUSCOMBE, JOSHUA QUITTNER, RICHARD SCHICKEL, MICHAEL WALSH, STEVE WULF, RICHARD ZOGLIN
1 NATIONALE NEDERLANDEN BUILDING: A structure as playful as this deserves a nickname. And Frank Gehry and Croatian-born architect Vladimir Milunic's new building on the banks of the Vltava River in Prague has one. It's called Fred and Ginger, after its twin towers: one flirty and curvilinear, the other solid and upright. The staggered windows and rippled riverfront facade reflect the adjacent row houses even as the building stands apart from the rest of the city. Using some local construction techniques combined with sophisticated three-dimensional computer modeling, the two architects maintained consistency with the surrounding buildings but added Gehry's signature whimsy. Ginger isn't twirling like that just for fun, though--her kinked shape means the view of the Prague castle from a neighboring apartment house is minimally obscured. This, clearly, is the new Prague, just as the Charles Bridge is the old. Like Fred, it has some stunning moves; like Ginger, it's a lot of fun.
2 Calvin Klein Cut-Out Dress All eyes were on the wedding frock of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy this year, but this masterpiece by her former boss warrants just as much fanfare. Although minimalism and sensuality are typically fashion's warring cousins, this off-the-shoulder evening gown joins them together in an elegantly peaceful union. True to Klein form with its lean cut and absence of adornment, the shapely dress pays stunning tribute to the female body without a hint of tawdriness. It is everything that evening wear should be--dramatic but not overwhelming.
3 S,M,L,XL Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and Canadian graphic designer Bruce Mau collaborated to create this definitive anti-coffee-table book, an eccentric and exhaustive assemblage of Koolhaas' building designs, jottings and musings. It even has pages of charts showing how his practice has fared over the years. It was the first book ever to have a launch party at New York City's Museum of Modern Art. And no wonder. Squat, garishly silver and with photos that look more like they were taken for a home photo album than an architectural manifesto, it's designed to be dipped into, flicked through and maybe even used to prop open a door. In short, a visual delight.
4 Aronoff Center for Design and Art This Cincinnati design school occupies an unpromising site, shoved between two older buildings and on top of a parking garage. Nor does its central feature, an 800-ft.-long subterranean corridor, seem to be the most compelling vehicle for delivering great architecture. But Peter Eisenman, never a safe designer, pushes all sorts of boundaries, including walls, floors and ceilings, to create spaces that are bewildering, exhilarating and compelling.
5 Canon ELPH 490Z Yes, yes, this tiny aluminum point-and-shoot boasts a foolproof loading mechanism and powerful zoom lens, but what makes it truly revolutionary? Efficient design that features a swing-open lens cover, which turns the camera on and reveals a multifunction flash unit and a red-eye-reduction lamp. This canny placement of the flash inside the cover increases the effectiveness of the lamp feature by positioning the flash up and away from the lens.
6 Charles David shoe As fashion victims placed their names on waiting lists all over the country for Prada's $500 appliqued Mary Janes this fall, a tasteful sling-back sat readily available in stores for just a fraction of the cost. Women's footwear remains mired in satiric '70s references, but this shoe, from a relatively unglamorous manufacturer, bucked the trend by relying on sleek, modern lines and a truly urbane sense of romance. The lesson? People should be ironic, not their footwear.
7 Neurosciences Institute More monastic than scientific, the Neurosciences Institute, designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, commands a site in La Jolla, California, less than a mile from--and in the shadow of--the Salk Institute, which is the masterwork of Louis Kahn. But while Salk is monumental, the Neurosciences Institute is introspective, receding, barely visible from the street. It's an essay in detailing, with every surface, texture and light condition thought through. And like the nervous system, it's all about pathways, links, journeys and, most of all, experience.
8 Jos van der Meulen's paper bags The trouble with using recycled products in design is that it is almost impossible to make something useful and stylish--one or the other, perhaps, but not both. But Dutch designer Van der Meulen has solved the conundrum with elan to spare. His paper bags are made of unused billboard posters sewn together. Colorful, cheerful (all those zippy advertising graphics) and surprisingly sturdy, they can be laundry baskets, wastepaper baskets or witty desk accessories.
9 Red Kamel package Roll over, Joe Camel! While smoking may never regain the cachet that Lauren Bacall once gave to it, carrying the right cigarette packet could become the new style statement. Simple, minimal and retro, with a hint of Russian Constructivism about it, the Red Kamel box is aimed squarely at the hipper-than-thou twenty- something crowd. The brand is actually an old one that was phased out 60 years ago because of poor sales, but, hey, if the Gucci loafer can come back, what can't? Nostalgic typefaces and graphic forms may not be new in package design, but this iteration is classy enough to catch the eye of even the most aesthetically jaded smokers, and R.J. Reynolds no doubt hopes, some nonsmokers too. Is this part of the vanguard of Soviet chic?
10 McDonald's Arch Deluxe logo Brilliant in its simplicity, this elegant twist on--and of--the ubiquitous Golden Arches does exactly what it is supposed to do: belie the inexpensiveness of its product. So refined, the logo at first glance looks as though it could grace the door of a fine restaurant trafficking in nouvelle risottos and salmon carpaccio and all the right Merlots. But, then, that's the whole point. America's most over-hyped hamburger isn't the sophisticated grownup treat that aggressive marketers would have us believe; its logo, however, certainly is.