Morning all

And there we are !  Congratulations to TVNewsroom for getting first picture of the new Good Morning Britain set. Desk it is...

0910 Sunday update: Or, as this official shot reveals, table top on a desk....

Furniture

Congratulations (so far) to the launch team for Good Morning Britain for keeping their new set secret.

I'll place an each-way bet that tables feature more than sofas.

Below - Good Morning America, NBC Today, and CBS This Morning sets.

Bean juice

It looks like the coffee shops of Great Portland Street will not suffer in trade after the departure of current BBC Trust Director Nicholas Kroll. His successor has just been announced - Jon Zeff, who, like Kroll, comes from the Department of Culture Media and Sport. Indeed Zeff was batting for the Department in the last interminable Charter renewal running from 2004 to 2006, as Kroll lobbied for the BBC.

Mr Zeff has had entertaining times at the DCMS - trying to steer Jezzer Hunt through the tricky and eventually unsuccessful Murdoch/BSkyB bid, where Sky lobbyist Fred Michel was being briefed by Special Assistant Adam Smith who suddenly resigned; it all became of interest to the Leveson inquiry. He's also looked after National Lottery negotiations, and is thought to have been involved in conversations with S4C. More recently, he's led on the pastoral pleasures of rural broadband.

On the coffee front, I was idly browsing the online version of f-b.no, the noted Norwegian interior design organ, and spied Jon and parter Ali taking some java in trendy Islington cafe/furniture shop, 2 & 4.

Apologies

.. for the break in service; Google's Blogger operation was down around the world all day, and posts from yesterday seem to have been wiped.   I might try to rebuild them, but while I do, here's a sneak shot of furniture testing currently underway at the BBC's production offices at MediaCityUK, Salford.

Testing

Work continues testing installations at the BBC's new production offices at MediaCityUK, Salford Quays. 

Playtime

A visualisation of meeting pods inside one of the BBC buildings at MediaCityUK.  Presumably they roll away at night for hoovering purposes.  On the other side of the atrium, there are some X's that can be wheeled into place for a giant version of Noughts and Crosses.

Balls at Arsenal

It's not often we can combine design, furniture and football in a post, but there's news that fits from Arsenal. Independent strategic design consultants 20/20 are refreshing the Club level areas at the Emirates Stadium in the close season. They're using mainly Tom Dixon furniture, selected by suppliers Viaduct.

No pictures yet, but here's where it gets a bit alarming. The former Woolwich suite has been split into a buffet area and a restaurant - and the consultancy has "introduced a pervasive theme based around Herbert Chapman and Arsène Wenger - the club’s two most successful managers - using hanging chain mail impressions of them to divide the buffet and à la carte spaces." There's more. "Tom Dixon chairs have been sourced by Viaduct with herringbone upholstery referencing player’s flat-caps from the early 20th century".

"Timber panelling has been applied and booth seating installed in buffet area The Foundry, using Tom Dixon copper lights that cluster over an adjoining stairwell to suggest cannon balls, referencing the club’s history as an armoury". Mmm. Balls.

The restaurant is to be named the WM Club, after Herbert Chapman's 3-2-2-3 WM formation, which should clearly have been adopted by Capello.

It's a concept

Why not make the power bar work as a table leg as well ? Red Dot gave their 2009 home furniture design concept award to this idea from Choi Won Seok and Kim Do Yeop. Found via Gizmodo.

Small meetings

Islington-based designers Pearson Lloyd are launching a new flexible workplace furniture range called PARCS, which includes what's claimed to be the world's smallest conference room. The mix and match system was developed in conjunction with Austrian manufacturers Bene.

The conference "rooms" are the cylindrical objects, just left of centre. Found via Design Week.

Metal Boxes

The Miami Herald reports that school lockers (where Screech hid in Saved by the Bell; where Britney danced in Baby One More Time; where things are still hidden in High School Musical) are on the way out, as textbooks migrate to cd, or online.

I know a couple of workplaces that would hope this trend continues...

Drop down bath

Space-saving award-winning all-in-one-module bathroom CIRRUS, designed by Australian Michael Trudgeon - which cleverly judges which sort of water to recyle around the system.

Found via Gizmodo and DVICE.

Retro instant kitchen

We haven't done furniture for a while. Here's a space saving instant kitchen, concealed in what we'd probably call a dresser, but in the States (and France) it's an Armoire. Found via Gizmodo and Small Space Living.

Island unit

Neat small space, reconfigurable kitchen island, from Toyo of (where else) Japan. Three ceramic hobs, sink, drawer space and lots of LEDs. Wouldn't that look better than your standard tea-point around the office ?

Concept desk

Interesting approach to flexible office furniture - concept only at this stage - from a Danish student Thomas Broen, at the University of Aalborg... desk can be reshaped with slot-in elements.
Hat-tip to Product Design Forums.

Cassette storage

Wondered what to do with those old cassettes - at least, now you get nowt for them at the car boot sale ? Creative Barn made this cupboard. Photo by Wouter Walmink. All timed to coincide with Dutch design Week in Eindhoven.

Space problem solved....

Opening an office looks easy here....