Link About It: This Week’s Picks

The only private residence ever designed by Zaha Hadid, LEGO-compatible furniture, "affordable" space hotels and more

1. Luxury Space Hotel “Aurora Station” A new luxury hotel called Aurora Station is set to begin accommodating guests in 2022. The brainchild of start-up Orion Span, this is a hotel unlike any other—as it will be in space. Founder and CEO Frank Bunger says, it’s the “first-ever affordable luxury space hotel,” but the word “affordable is questionable since a 12-day stay is going to …

Farewell Studio Ghibli Co-Founder, Isao Takahata

Co-founder of the influential Studio Ghibli, Isao Takahata has passed away at 82 years old. Takahata (who started the studio with Hayao Miyazaki) wrote and directed some of the most magical and poignant animated films of the past 50+ years—including the heart-wrenching “Grave of the Fireflies,” an anti-war film based on a short story by Akiyuki Nosaka. Heavily inspired by French literature and film, he …

Nendo’s Trippy New Hourglasses

Brilliant Japanese studio Nendo has just unveiled their trippy and unconventional new hourglass designs, created to “change the perception of the flow of time.” The four amorphic hourglasses look somewhat like an alien digestive system, with different-shaped crevasses and tubes altering the speed and angles of flowing colored sands. The beautiful and mesmerizing pieces will be on display at the forthcoming Milan Design Week. See …