yesterday at a yard sale i scored a pair of yummy bright yellow metal folding/adjustable saw horses for a table i’ll construct in the wood shop using a 3/4″ maple plywood top.

this is a similar idea, but the fancier german designer version from schwab panther! [via contemporist]

while we’re on the subject of maple wood, here are two more things i’ve been coveting from my online travels…

the crystal collection by pour les alpes makes me want to redo my entire garden just to accommodate these in it!

then there’s the simple glass hill chair that would be a good accompaniment to studio gorm’s collection.

i’m not fancy enough to wear these, but they’re gorgeous [via notcot]!

yesterday was a perfect sunny day, a perfect day for helping plant new ecoroofs at harpoon house! some of you may remember my design sponge guest post on the harpoon house a few months back. well, the roof planting party signifies that it’s nearly complete!

the promise of seeing a huge box of succulent clippings and helping spread them on the topmost roof of this new house helped me overcome my fear of heights and ladders. it also helped that we worked mostly on our hands and knees!

meanwhile, a second crew down below on the second floor roof garden was busy planting native plants.

before the big move-in day, katherine and matt are hosting a public open house for anyone who loves modern architecture, small homes, sustainable building and ecoroofs.

so, if you’re in portland next sunday, you’re invited! 10 am to 4 pm at the corner of se 17th and ash.

more information here.

i can’t wait to see it all finished!

related to my love of simply made diy furniture, i came across enzo mari’s “autoprogettazione” furniture on the container corps blog.

roughly translated as “self design,” enzo’s 1974 book gives instructions for building easy-to-assemble furniture using rough boards and nails. above are two examples of container corps’ beautifully made versions of autoprogettazione pieces.

further google research revealed more historical autoprogettazione designs…

which reminded me of countless other designer’s work and gives me a nice historic context it didn’t have before. two examples that come to mind: piet hein eek’s work, and the studio mama pallet project.

below is a page from the autoprogettazione book and an example of studio mama’s pallet lamp, made from cast-off wood pallets.

you can buy diy instructions for some of the pallet furniture on studio mama’s website. below see how amistad o nada, a non-profit in buenos aires, has taken studio mama’s design to make and sell pallet chairs from local materials for the local market which gives people jobs as a result. diy indeed.

things to learn from Matt Edgar on Vimeo.

yup. yet another dutch designer. and yet again one of my students gets credit for finding this!

mr. borstlap did the illustrations for the “let children learn” campaign for the dutch postal service back in 2009. stamps [below] raised funds for the charity, there were also posters and a video [above].

reminds me somewhat of the one book animation i did with my friend seth so so long ago. that was so fun to see my guys come to life! maybe i should dig that out and post it on vimeo!