Sauna Box by Castor Design, who are currently featured at the Interior Design Show as part of the 10 Innovative Canadian Designers exhibit.
Given my long-time love affair with converted shipping containers and all things prefab, I was naturally thrilled to first see Castor’s Sauna Box at the Toronto Interior Design Show back in 2006. It caused quite a buzz and they were continuously surrounded by very curious people at the show.
The Sauna Box is a traditional wood-burning sauna that is cleverly and efficiently built into a shipping container. “It is completely self-contained with solar power and a wood fired stove. The box comes standard with iPod stereo, guitar hook-up, Castor Stool, magnetic truck light, wool toque and bronze antlers. The Sauna Box can be customized to suit the site.”
Really? An iPod stereo and a guitar hook up in a sauna?! Yes! I saw it and I didn’t want to leave it. If I could have put it in my pocket and taken it with me, I’d be living in it right now.
::more Sauna Box pix on Moco Loco here::
Sauna Box by Castor Design.
I love this video for the shipping container-converted Sauna Box by Toronto’s Castor Design. The track is “Thresher’s Flail” by Nashville’s Be Your Own Pet. Castor’s signature big-headed [and beer-lovin’, half-nekkid] beaver makes its cameo appearance.
![Bio photo for Castor Design, who are currently at the Toronto Interior Design Show, displaying their works at the 10 Innovative Canadian Designers exhibit.
How could I not love a design studio from my home city of Toronto whose official bio pic portrays its principal designers as big-headed beavers [the Canadian symbol for which the studio is named], uses punk bands like Be Your Own Pet for the video of their shipping container project and then calls one of their post-modern creations This Is Not A Fu**ing Droog Light?
If you know about my love for Toronto and its edgy artist culture, my previous life as a music publicist and alternative DJ, my obsession with converted shipping containers and the fact that Droog Design are one of my all-time fave collectives… well, then, it’s obvious to you that I am head-over-heels Castor-smitten. Really now, who can say that they love all of the above and have found it all in one genius studio in their own city? It’s almost too good to be true.
Under those happy beaver heads are three dynamic talents with a quirky sense of humour: Brian Richer, Ryan Taylor and Kei Ng, with diverse backgrounds ranging from stone carving and architecture to digital media and film art direction. “From conception, fabrication to installation the studio combines technical knowledge, craftsmanship and design sense to create uncommon objects.”
Full disclosure to the Castor crew: I did think of Droog when I first saw your fixture and laughed aloud when I saw its fitting name. However, when I examined your overall work, I was convinced: the original talent and Canadian influences are clearly there. I was done with comparisons. Thanks to you, I need not go Dutch all of the time.](http://29.media.tumblr.com/JEVcJTTe65rgl8qeft9GdDRw_500.jpg)
Bio photo for Castor Design, who are currently at the Toronto Interior Design Show, displaying their works at the 10 Innovative Canadian Designers exhibit.
How could I not love a design studio from my home city of Toronto whose official bio pic portrays its principal designers as big-headed beavers [the Canadian symbol for which the studio is named], uses punk bands like Be Your Own Pet for the video of their shipping container project and then calls one of their post-modern creations This Is Not A Fu**ing Droog Light?
If you know about my love for Toronto and its edgy artist culture, my previous life as a music publicist and alternative DJ, my obsession with converted shipping containers and the fact that Droog Design are one of my all-time fave collectives… well, then, it’s obvious to you that I am head-over-heels Castor-smitten. Really now, who can say that they love all of the above and have found it all in one genius studio in their own city? It’s almost too good to be true.
Under those happy beaver heads are three dynamic talents with a quirky sense of humour: Brian Richer, Ryan Taylor and Kei Ng, with diverse backgrounds ranging from stone carving and architecture to digital media and film art direction. “From conception, fabrication to installation the studio combines technical knowledge, craftsmanship and design sense to create uncommon objects.”
Full disclosure to the Castor crew: I did think of Droog when I first saw your fixture and laughed aloud when I saw its fitting name. However, when I examined your overall work, I was convinced: the original talent and Canadian influences are clearly there. I was done with comparisons. Thanks to you, I need not go Dutch all of the time.
Recycled Tube Light by Castor Design at the Interior Design Show in Toronto this week.
This industrial looking fixture is brilliantly made from recycled burnt-out fluorescent tubes and is lit using centrally placed lightbulbs. Of course, I’d like to think that one could use CFL’s to light it, but I couldn’t find any specific info about that on the Castor site. Still, I’m giving them full eco.props for recycling all of those old fluorescent tubes “from architecturally significant buildings” and giving them a new and landfill-free life.
The Recycled Tube Light is available in “lengths of 15inches, 2ft, 3ft, 4ft and 8ft” and depending on the model, “they are capable of hanging horizontally, vertically or free standing.”
:note: the 8ft length fixture is featured above.
A shorter version of the Recycled Tube Light by Castor Design, who are at the Interior Design Show in Toronto this week.
