Mass Studies

Mass Studies was founded in 2003 by Minsuk Cho in Seoul, Korea, as a critical investigation of architecture in the context of mass production, intensely over-populated urban conditions, and other emergent cultural niches that define contemporary society. Amid the many frictions defining spatial conditions in the twenty-first century, namely past vs. future, local vs. global, utopia vs. reality, and individual vs. collective, Mass Studies focuses on the operative complexity of these multiple conditions instead of striving for a singular, unified perspective. For each architectural project, which exist across a wide range of scales, Mass Studies explores issues such as spatial systems/matrices, building materials/techniques, and typological divergences to foster a vision that allows the discovery of new socio/cultural potential.

Be sure to check them out at their site, and everywhere there´s one of their projects.

Akka

AKKA is a design studio from Sweden by Petter Danielson and Oscar Ternbom, they work in every area from graphic design to indstrial and furniture, and have come out with really awesome stuff, check them out at their site and any place you can.

A Matter of Tag

Maybe at some point we have wondered how come a pair of Levis' are $ 70 while a pair of jeans from Seven or Dior sport a tag from $ 200 to $ 400+, well, pretty simple, it's all about what they stand for. The all american hard working on the mines origin versus the "haute denim". Now don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of both and consider them as valid as anything, besides, it all comes down to style, and that you cannot put a price tag on.

Fashion, Style, Trend

We often confuse these words and merge them like they´re the same, maybe they are at times but, more often than not, they are light years apart.

Fashion is ephemeral and is created to have a life span depending on the market and whatever whims we have as consumers. Some may prevail and some may just live to become a memory of something that once excited and defined us in some way.

A trend is something of the moment, a song, a person, a song, a movie, a movement or color that comes to play a part in Fashion but that inevitably will fade.

Style, now that is something that many claim to have but only some can really carry on, it´s what reflects what we´re made of, what we are, want to be and want to show the world in order  to define ourselves like part of something without loosing our individuality, it´s our identity and it shifts from time to time depending on so many things.... what we see, what we listen to, what we experience, what life throws at us, but always coming back to the root of it all, our nature.

We can always combine these terms, define them what suits us best, rely on them to make decisions, but lets never loose sight of them as elements that are, as us, individuals that collide when it feels right.