Arts + Science

Photo Source: New York Times Magazine

I love the industrial, yet natural looking interiors of Art & Science, a “general” concept store in Tokyo, Japan that offers up functional luxury items “to wear, to dwell and to eat”.

Photo Source: Think Silly

Sonya Park, the well known Korean stylist and owner of Arts & Science, has done a wonderful job curating a collection of high quality and well designed items for her five stores in Tokyo.

Photo Source: 1, 2

Happy Pills

Man, am I craving some candy from Happy Pills in Barcelona.  Have you heard of this place?

They need to expand.  I love them, their design and their concept.

When I visited Barcelona in September, I went back to Happy Pills twice to make a little take-away box of gummies to enjoy while walking around!  Their concept is adorable-In a tiny storefront, they offer different sized boxes, and jars at the entrance for you to fill with all the gummy, colourful candy that fits in.

Their website creatively states that Happy Pills is a radical solution for a) Lovesickness b) Work Problems c) Friendship Damaged d) Sustained Sexual Effort.  I say, whatever your reason, if you love gummies, there is no better way to enjoy than eating them out of a take away container or a plastic “pill” bottle.

Photo Source: 1, 2, 3, 4 (me), 5, 6

They have four shops in Barcelona, one in Bilbao and one in Zaragoza, should you find yourself needing a candy pick-me up during your travels of Spain.

Here are some other people who seem to be happy with Happy Pills:

1. Kikki.K Candy Happiness

2. We Are Private Happy Pills Candy Store (Barcelona)

3. Mocoloco BCN: Happy Pills

Vins i Licors Grau Could Just Be the Greatest Wine Store in the World

I spent about four days in Girona province, about an hour and a half north of Barcelona during my honeymoon in September.  We had a car, so we covered lots of little towns from La Bisbal d’Emporda (the home of porcelain manufacturers), Palamos (where we finally found some decent gelato), Begur, Pals, Regencos, Fornells and Aiguafreda.  However, it was Palafrugell, where we stumbled across Vins i Licors Grau that blew us away.

Coming from Ontario where we are stuck with the LCBO (love hate relationship with this monopoly), I thought I died and went to heaven when I set foot in this family run wine and liquor business, which dates back to 1951 and apparently carries 9000 products.  How could something so modern, with so much choice and so well organized (on the inside) exist in this tiny little area in Spain?  Was I missing something?  Why are we being punished in Ontario when something so magical can exist? I live in Prague for goodness sake where the entire city seems to revolve around alcohol and beer and I can’t think of one store that is as impressive as this.

Vins i Licors is so large that it posts its own maps on signs around the store so you can navigate your way around and find what you are looking for and has special zones dedicated to each geographic origin of wine, with boards providing information and explanations of what you are looking at.

Not only did they have the largest selection of Spanish wine and cava that I have ever seen (of course) in full and half bottles, they also had a great international wine section, plus interesting liquors, plus olive oil, plus wine glasses, plus coffee table and cook books, plus a tasting bar, plus sommeliers, plus, plus, plus!

Photo Source: 2

I hope you don’t read this thinking I am an alcoholic.  I guess I am just easily impressed by modern, well organized, retail environments that bring together selection, education and pleasure together.

To tell you the truth, I was so overwhelmed and sick of drinking wine by the time I arrived to Spain after just over a week in France that I purchased a small, half bottle of cava at Vins i Licors Grau and didn’t even drink it!  However, I could only imaging, living within close proximity to a place like that, you could learn and taste some interesting wines from that store.

Just in case you happen to find yourself in that part of the world….

Vins i Licors Grau can be found at Torroella, 163 · 17200 Palafrugell · Girona Spain

Eco Olive Oil Factory

I am back from my honeymoon and in the process of playing catch up and getting back into the swing of schedules and work.

I thought I would write a quick post to say hello.  While travelling through France and Spain, I consumed olive oil daily.  It was wonderful.  I ate it on salads, on fish, with bread and cheese and even took some sips straight up at a tasting bar.  So it is only appropriate to share a photo related to olive oil.  Here it is: An eco olive oil factory located in Chile which is quite impressive from an architectural standpoint.

Believe it or not, I have visited my fair share of factories and industrial properties both in Canada and in China and I don’t recall any of the factories I visited looking like Guillermo Hevia’s design for the Almazara Olisur Olive Oil factory in Santiago, Chile.

Photo Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Is this what happens when architects get involved in industrial real estate spaces? Why don’t all factories look like this?

Architruc + Baltaz’art

Architruc and Baltaz’art is a very cool design store with two locations in Beziers, France.  While staying in the Languedoc region for three nights, it was recommended that we visit Beziers to dine at le Chameau Ivre, a local wine bar/store/tapas hot spot that sells and samples wines from up and coming vintners in the region.  After a lunch of salmon tartar with basil, olive oil and lemon juice and mackerel in some sort of delicious creamy sauce, we decided to take a tour of the neighbourhood and walk off lunch.

With no map, we randomly wandered up and down streets in this interesting city and stumbled across a design oasis on some street.  I didn’t realise I accidentally visited both of Architruc + Baltaz’art’s locations which are in the same neighbourhood but I am happy I did as the larger location would make any contemporary design/home design/decorator weak in the wallet.

Their second location is the larger of the two- it almost looks like a design compound with a patio and a courtyard and several rooms/buildings attached together.  Architruc + Balthaz’art carries contemporary home pieces and sculptural conversation pieces for the home from brands such as Bloom, Fermob, Alessi, Hay, Kartell, Tivoli and Parrot to name a few.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

On a side note, it looked like at one point, Beziers was an architectural stunner.  Today, there is a lot of vacant, crumbling real estate, however there are pockets of revitalization that seems promising.  More pictures of Beziers in the next couple of weeks.

The Hotel that got Away: Moli del Mig

I am on my honeymoon right now which is why my posts have been a bit more sporadic, but thought I would write a quick post about a spectacular hotel that got away….

I love the hunt for hotels when prepping for a vacation or travel as I consider hotels to be an important component of my stay.  While I do not spend every waking hour in the building, I appreciate a well designed, well thought out space with excellent customer service, unique design touches and a solid breakfast.  Over the past week and a half, I have stayed in some pretty spectacular properties all over the spectrum ranging from mountain lodge, vineyard, castle, city hotel and rustic house.  However, while flipping through some old issues of Conde Nast Traveler, I found out about a hotel that was no more than 10 minutes away from where I am currently staying that I am disappointed I didn’t find earlier!

Moli Del Mig is a boutique hotel located in Torroella de Montgri, (Girona) Spain and was converted from a mill into a hotel in 2006.  Since it was a conversion, half of the hotel is located in the old mill that has been restored, and the other half is located in the newly built section.  The interior has a rustic, yet modern feel with a lot of exposed brick, unfinished wood beams, large glass windows looking out over the property, steel and concrete.  It is not overly dressed up with furniture or art, just simple statement pieces of furniture sporadically placed here and there.  The hotel itself is located in a rather remote feeling area.  It is located just outside the town of Torroella de Montgri in the middle of a farm area with bamboo,  corn fields and apple trees in the adjacent properties.

Moli Del Mig also has a spa and a phenomenal restaurant that my husband and I dined at for lunch.  Since it is moving into off season, we were the only ones in the restaurant for lunch today, but what a lunch it was.  I will blog about the meal in the next two weeks when I have better access to technology but I will say that the tuna I had will go down as some of the best tuna I have ever had.  In the mean time…. I would have loved to stay at this property had I known about it before when I was making my travel plans.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4