The architectural firm of Rios Clemente Hale is known for the distinctive patterns and bursts of color that wrap the restaurants, schools and public spaces they design. But not every idea made it from the blueprints to the buildings, and the principals soon found themselves with a plethora of concepts that might work better as housewares than houses. In 2001 they launched notNeutral, a lifestyle and product design company where they could take their musings to the masses. They secured a storefront on Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue to showcase the collection, which is utterly architectural in spirit.
Example: A new furniture line named Tetra draws equal inspiration from case study housing and the Nintendo game Tetris. But a recent release named City Plates takes architecture-as-product to a new level: A series of four plates feature downtown maps of four cities—L.A., Shanghai, Cairo and Berlin —sure to evoke all sorts of geography, urbanism and planning conversations around the dinner table.
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- City Plate Berlin
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- City Plate Cairo
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- Cityplate Mexico City
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- Cityplate NY
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- Cityplate Shanghai
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- City Plate Paris
The plates’ designs portray a bold, graphic representation of four distinctly fascinating cities. Shanghai is one of the most commercially and financially powerful cities in China. Its central location on the Pacific coast has made the city a major gateway between China and the Western world. The city center has a unique organic form, dramatically bisected by the wide curve of the Huangpu River. The areas allotted to foreign powers after the Opium Wars reflect the grid-form of traditional Western city planning.
More Info : www.notneutral.com
