Oh, boo and hoo. Since the network decided to cancel our show, it’s been pretty lugubrious around Edificial HQ: tears and lamentations, long faces and short tempers. The divers stages have been gone through, and in the customary sequence—shock, denial, vodka, anger, gin, bargaining, vodka. But the time has come, the walrus said, to speak of other things, and so we present you with the last Thursday FotoShoppe (at least barring a possible revival on this or another station).

Today’s cutey-pie design is a contemporary classic, a standby of 21st century consumer cuteness: the famous “Banquete chair with Pandas” by Brazilian artists Fernando and Humberto Campana, designed for Moss in 2006. The bloody thing costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000, though whether they intend to come off that price given the ailing stuffed panda market is uncertain at present writing. Click through to see more of the Campanas’ dear, dear chairs, as well as pictures of our cat. Her name is Lulu.

Banquete Chair with Pandas [Moss]

It slices. It dices. And it makes dozens of boxing kangaroo skeletons wearing Dixie cup Navy caps in just seconds! It’s the “Hybrid Tattoo Machine” from Neuma and RKS Design. “Artist and inventor” Carson Hill came up with the idea for this lean, green tattooing machine after noting the absence of eco-sensitivity in the tattoo industry: his new Hybrid operates on air power, and it’s a pretty little devil to boot. Wait a minute—what are we saying? You know, if you’re going to insist on injecting hot ink into your own flesh, wouldn’t you want the damned thing to be operating at optimal speed, using the maximum amount of energy necessary to get the job done as soon as possible? Investing this much thought and good design into a self-defacement device is definitely WTF—which is the word of the day for Wednesday FotoShoppe, so click through and freak the freak out.

Neuma Hybrid Tattoo Machine [Gizmodo]

No it’s not, silly man! It’s Vroom Day—the FotoShoppe that’s just for cars, and the women who love them. But what you see above is a car, after a fashion: from Autoblog:

The new PUMA (aka, the Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility Project) from GM and Segway shows one way that auto companies could shift over to being transportation companies if they wanted to. At an unveiling of the enclosed Segway for two this morning in Manhattan, GM and Segway reps talked about how the PUMA represents a big evolution of the automobile.

Good on ‘em! As an object of design, however, the PUMA still needs some taming; it can hardly be a coincidence that the original Segway device is one of the most obtrusively inelegant devices now on the market, which may account for its overall lack of popularity. Let’s hope GM and friends get this one right. If they do, it won’t come a moment too soon: Autoblog is also reporting this afternoon that GM is even as we speak in possible bankruptcy negotiations. Click through for more auto-hope.

GM and Segway’s PUMA Live Reveal [Autoblog]

Monday, being Mean Day, is a chance for us to seethe—and for you, too! Today’s FotoShoppe objects of contempt, envy and derision are a couple of interiors we’ve recently spotted on the altogether-too-fabulous Design Sponge.

Two recent posts took us inside the execrably beautiful homes of two Boston-area designers, and we got curious about their practice. ColorTHEORY, as it’s called, is a wretchedly exquisite outfit, and founding partners Brad Dufton and Jeremy McElwain have predictably lavish, numbingly gorgeous homes. The latter’s hallway is at right.

They go too far, however, in the humiliatingly poor copy that appears on their website—someone simply has got to set the LingoWatch police on these guys, pronto. A brief sample:

colorTHEORY is a full-service, residential Interior Painting and Wallpaper hanging company, servicing Boston & its’ surrounding areas… We will work hard to ensure that our end result, is to yours and your clients’ satisfaction, each and every time.

Oh, dear, dear, dear, dear. Just for that, we’re gonna mean-up their houses. Click through, you dogs!

Jeremy McElwain [Design Sponge]
Brad Dufton [Design Sponge]

Whereas: Thursday is Cute Day; pursuant to which custom, FotoShoppe is to feature images of cute design; and being as Sarino Fiero, a design student at Syracuse University, has designed this, the above-pictured “Creativi*tea” teapot, recently featured on Yanko; and in deference to the aforesaid teapot, which besides being made of a temperature sensitive material that glows a brighter shade of red as the water comes to a boil, is also mega-cute, super-cute, darling and otherwise very appealing; we, the undersigned, hereby declare it to be fit for clicking though to see more, with all the rights, privileges, and honors pertaining thereto.

I’m a Little Teapot [Yanko]

Wow. That’s far out. Industry leader Wacom changes the game again with this graphics tablet, “an essential tool of the trade for graphic artists, photographers and designers.” It’s a classic piece of truly necessary and socially useful industrial design, and surely there can be nothing more earth-shatteringly important than that. That’s what we do here at Edificial: give you meaningful thoughts on meaningful design that really means something. Click through for more amazing images of this fabulous product featuring absolutely no random interjections of poetry whatsoever.

Wacom Intuos4 Next generation Pen Tablet for Digital Content Creators [Gizmag]

We would be wasting a perfectly good Vroom Day if we didn’t take on the week’s most widely-covered automotive design story; but, being as it’s the week’s most widely-covered automotive story, we won’t take it very far. We won’t bother telling you, for example, that the Model S has a fully electric engine with a 300-mile range, 45-minute fast charge capability, and a zero-to-sixty time of five and a half seconds. We will not insult your intelligence by reminding you that the design, originally the work of Fisker Coachbuild, has been entirely overhauled by non-designer Elon Musk with help from Lotus, or that production is set to start in the third quarter of 2011. And we certainly won’t recount the tired tale of how Digg founder Kevin Rose “accidentally” broke the carmaker’s embargo on images late last week, or bore you with the second-hand pabulum regarding the fact you won’t have to be quite as rich as Kevin Rose to afford the $60,000 vehicle (less a $10,000 tax incentive). By god, we will not—we’ll just give you the images, a plain and simple FotoShoppe for a plain and simple Tuesday.

Telsa Model S Concept [Jalopnik]

Monday. Grrr! FotoShoppe. Bah-humbug! Architectural Digest’s 2009 Home Design Show. Snarl, grimace and scoff! The four-day cataclysm of tasteful interiors ended yesterday, but 3rings has posted various images, including the above “Wave Bench” by Stine Woodworkers, for us to drool over hate hate hate hate hate! Monday means Mean Day—click through, peasant!

Highlights from the AD Home Design Show 2009 [3rings]

Aw, isn’t that cute? That is so precious. It’s positively delicious. No, It’s scrumptious! But really, it’s actually a delight. Or is it absolutely marvelous? Obviously it’s marvelous, and it may be so absolutely, but in either case it is almost certainly delicious. And precious. Designer Yw Li (Chinese and really, really bizarre) created this MP3-playing pillow (seen above, under head of giant baby) to keep the mewling, puking infant quiet while mother huffs down three or four Winston Lights in the adjoining room. The soothing sounds of mother’s recorded voice, emanating from the pillow’s twin speakers, lulls the child into a false complacency, affording an opportunity for the monsters hiding in the closet to launch a brutal coordinated attack. Click through to watch.

Music Pillow Concept [Ubergizmo]

As per usual, Wednesday is Freaking us the Freak Out, but this time it’s personal. British engineering outfit/”multidisciplinary consultants”/evil scientists BMT Group has designed the robotic carp pictured above, an unspecified number of which will be released off the coast of Spain in an attempt to measure water pollution levels. Really, we can’t improve on the firm’s copy:

The life-like creatures, which will mimic the undulating movement of real fish, will be equipped with tiny chemical sensors to find the source of potentially hazardous pollutants in the water, such as leaks from vessels in the port or underwater pipelines.

The fish will communicate with each other using ultrasonics and information will be transmitted to the port’s control centre via WiFi from the “charging hub” where the fish can charge their batteries… Unlike previous robotic fish [previous robotic fish?] that work with remote controls, these will have autonomous navigation capabilities, enabling them to swim independently around the port without any human interaction.

This is how it begins! Click through for more postcards from the apocalypse.

Robotic Fish to Act as Water Pollution Police [Gizmag]

We know what you’re thinking: Jesus, not another iGimmick concept car. Put those fears to rest. The “i”, we understand, is an actual Mitsubishi commercial model, and this is its electric counterpart, “MiEV” meaning “Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle.” The latest in sparky concept cars to come from this year’s Geneva Motor Show is a kittenish little wagon, which (as we learn from AutoBlog Green) “uses an aluminum space frame to carry its lithium ion battery and electric drive system, which help limit mass to just 2,072 pounds.” “Adequate if not exhilarating” performance, sez AskMen (and they should know), who listed the iMiEV among its ten best Geneva debuts. That doesn’t make it sound too enticing, but why not click through and make sure? After all, Tuesday is Vroom Day comes but once a week.

Geneva 2009: Mitsubishi iMiEV Sport Air [AutoBlog Green]

Edifavorite English critic Tom Dyckhoff’s current piece for the London Times Online will annihilate you with laughter. It’s a nostalgic if queasy tour down the mixed-up memory lane of Britain’s lost decade, the one that saw Arne Jacobsen’s rust-colored Danish Embassy, Norman Foster’s muddy-windowed IBM offices near Portsmouth, and a lot of regrettable orange wall-to-wall carpeting. Yes, the 70’s were a strange time for the Brits—but Dyckhoff’s message is that some buildings from the period, however eccentric, are worth saving. Is it any different in the States? Heck no! Here’s five buildings, right off the cuff; some may not be easy to love, but all deserve our respect. At left, number five, M. Paul Friedberg’s Waterside Plaza, at 25th St. on the East River: a massive ensemble with a jagged silhouette, on a plinth sticking right out into the river. It’s boss! Read our list, then trash it and tell us your own.

1970s Architecture: What Would You Save from the Decade Style Forgot? [Times]

Viewers on the eastern seaboard will be getting a double shot of FotoShoppe tomorrow, but for those of you maxin’ out on the left coast, consider this Late Night with Monday is Mean Day. Following up on Friday’s video, here’s some more landmine humor to put a little spring in your step. (Hi-oh!) It’s a simple enough premise, earnest and well-meaning: Frankfurt-based design firm Leo Burnett (and if you want to be driven slowly insane, click through to their website) dreamed up these stickers for UNICEF’s anti-landmine campaign. The gimmick won them a special Grand Prix Commendation last year at the first annual EACA Care Awards. These adhesive images stick to the soles of your shoes—just like landmines! And they teach you a valuable lesson—just like landmines. Still, we’re grouchy, so we declare it stunt-ish, and not a little morbid—mostly stunt-ish, like those dollar bills you pick up on the street only to find they’re actually advertisements for mattress stores. Joke’s on you, lame-brain! But if you want morbid, just have a look at some of Burnett’s other projects. We mean stunts!

UNICEF Landmine [Frederik Samuel]

You know what’s cuter than cute? That’s right: Cute Day. And the only thing cuter than Thursday Fotoshoppe is the waterproof K-95 USB Flash Drive from Manworks Design (above). (Oh, you remember Manworks. They invented the crucifix iPod.) This little honeydoodle can pull 1GB or 2GB of info at 8 MB/sec of sheer digital cuteness—but it’s got some pretty tough competition, viz. after the jump.

There’s No Yellow Submarine In Here [Yanko]

Dear Reader: We promise this is the last showy, over-sized, borderline insane proposal for Dubai that we intend to display in these pages—hereafter we will confine ourselves exclusively to yurts and cat furniture. But soft—is it possible that this project is something more than just a megalomaniacal pipe dream? Italian visionaries Studiomobile present their Seawater Vertical Farm: water, conducted through a network of internal pipes, induces condensed moisture around the pod interiors which then drips onto the waiting beds of alfalfa and romaine and kale, making the desert flourish at last. It’s infrastructure with just a streak of WTF. This Wednesday, give your FotoShoppe the gift of clicking though.

Seawater Vertical Farm in Dubai by StudioMobile [Tuvie]

Competitors in the 2008 Desire Design Competition, sponsored by Domus Academy and the Audi Group, were called upon to “rediscover the fundamentals of car design” by divining what, exactly, makes a car desirable. Of course, we your trusted bloggers try do do the same thing once a week, and every Vroom Day we come a shade closer to the truth—but this time, baby birds, we feel we’ve made a giant leap. The competition’s winning entry, the Audi Shark, is lust concentrate. It’s not real, unfortunately; the concept is for a flying car, but its creator, Turkish designer Kazim Doku, is deserving of praise in the highest for making it look almost plausible, staying within the design idiom of VW Group design chief Walter Maria de’Silva while distilling his aesthetic to its most compelling essentials. It’s pure auto eros, and we want. Click through for more, more, more.

Audi Shark Concept [Car Body Design]

In between checking out Dror for Tarjay and pondering the mysterious relationship between Storefront for Art & Architecture and the ultra-luxe Dellis Cay development, we slipped in for coffee with Official Edificial Top-Five-to-Seven and watchable person Jerry Helling, Bernhardt Design mastermind and ICFF mascot. He was in town to introduce the design world to his company’s latest Global Edition piece, in this case a sofa produced by Claudia and Harry Washington, two lovely and delightful El Salvador-based designers who won a local competition last year, went to ICFF through a USAID program, and got snapped up into Jerry’s flock. Which has, just to put it into context, included Fredrikson Stallard, Ross Lovegrove, and XO designer Yves Behar. Which pretty much explains the Claudia/Harry high-five vibe we were picking up.

The sofa, called Calibra, is kind of based on the idea of a ballerina pig. In that it’s a really sturdy body on tiny little legs. Which are shiny. Which we like. We talked to Jerry about having furniture on the floor (we got a ew-face in response) versus having it raised up on legs (and dunk), and Calibra’s cast-aluminum ones create just that right amount of distance. Best of all is the V-shaped notch on the side, which gives this otherwise big—“it’s really really huge,” Claudia told us, bright eyes wide—mass a little bit of a visual and practical breather.

A breather is exactly what this year’s lead-up to ICFF needs. We’ve been hearing murmurs about party cancellations here and there (speaking of Bernhardt, word is their usual fancy-flash dinner is off) and it seems like this year’s going to be far less of a three-day bacchanal and far more of the trade show it always is once you’re actually inside Javits. Claudia and Harry are perfect for this iteration: humble, interested in furniture, focused on one and one thing alone. Furniture, and its creation.

See you at ICFF. And in the meantime…

Ick. It’s Monday, we’re cranky, and we’re going to take out our frustration on some relatively harmless product design. Fortunately, we’ve got an easy target this week: Korean-born, London-based Baek-Ki Kim’s lounge chair gone mad, the “Seatub”, above, which is just clever enough to bother with (and to get picked up by the UK’s Designer magazine), but just disgusting enough to reject as almost completely horrid. We can’t help but think of scuzzy soap scum pressing against our backs, even as our clothes picked up various exfoliated flecks and foul dark hairs. Shudder! Funny thing is that Kim’s background is more in electronics design. We’re wondering if he’s got a plasma TV framed in a toilet tank. Click through, baby birds, click through!

Seatub: Hold the Water [3rings]

Oh, now that is cute. That is awfully goddamned cute. It’s cuter than a bag of kittens. It’s cuter than a duck’s butt. It’s Ibsen Caldas’ Gota dishwasher, and but for what we assume to be its outrageous price it’s the perfect domestic solution: an energy efficient portable dishwasher. Explains Yanko the All-Knowing: “In its pre-wash cycle the dishwasher steams up the dishes and recycles the cooled down residual H2O for the later-on cycles… The body of the Gota is crafted from ABS polycarbonate and the internal tank stores sufficient enough water for a round of cleaning.” Yes! It’s also sleek and nifty and cuter than a fat country baby eatin’ peaches off a hardwood floor.

Teeny-Tiny Dishwasher [Yanko]

Wednesday we freak you out with product design that makes you wanna close your eyes and pretend it’s not happening. Sorry: this is no dream. For years, the capering morons in the film industry (pace, Jeffrey Katzenberg) have been telling us that 3D is the way of the future. Hopefully they’re wrong—but somebody in the tech world has heard the call.

A group of British designers would like to introduce you to Minoru, above, whose name means “reality” in Japanese. Reality being a concept with which the Japanese have a rather casual relationship, it’s no surprise that this “reality” device brings you the latest in bizarre simulacra: Minoru will carry your 3D image across the web, projecting it in YouTube videos, Instant Messenger, or Skype, where it can be viewed either with 3D glasses or using the newly available 3D-enabled screens. Minoru is definitely kind of cute, but he sorta creeps us out, looking at us quizzically as if to say, “Why aren’t playing with me?” Click through for more reasons to retreat into radical Ludditism.

3D Webcam [Technology Review]