Architect's Picks - Gessato Design Store https://shop.gessato.com/gifts/architects-picks/ Contemporary Design Shop, Modern Furniture & Home Accessories Mon, 25 May 2026 08:38:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.5 Arne Jacobsen City Hall Wall Clock – Blue https://shop.gessato.com/arne-jacobsen-city-hall-wall-blue/ https://shop.gessato.com/arne-jacobsen-city-hall-wall-blue/#respond Mon, 18 May 2026 21:40:46 +0000 https://shop.gessato.com/?post_type=product&p=172812 The Arne Jacobsen City Hall Wall Clock in Blue is a clean, functional wall clock based on the design Arne Jacobsen originally created for Rødovre Town Hall in 1956.

The clock has a blue dial with polished silver hands, hour markers, and case. The layout is minimal and easy to read, with no numerals and only slim markers around the face. It reflects Jacobsen’s approach to design: precise, practical, and stripped down to what is needed.

Available in Medium and Large, the clock works well in kitchens, offices, living rooms, bedrooms, hallways, and other modern interiors. The blue dial adds color without overpowering the wall, while the polished silver details give the design a crisp finish. Made with a mineral glass lens, aluminum case, and ABS components, the clock is powered by a Japanese movement. Wipe clean with a dry cloth.

]]>
https://shop.gessato.com/arne-jacobsen-city-hall-wall-blue/feed/ 0
Arne Jacobsen City Hall Wall Clock – Green https://shop.gessato.com/arne-jacobsen-city-hall-wall-clock-green/ https://shop.gessato.com/arne-jacobsen-city-hall-wall-clock-green/#respond Mon, 18 May 2026 18:06:20 +0000 https://shop.gessato.com/?post_type=product&p=172816 Originally designed by Arne Jacobsen for Rødovre Town Hall in 1956, the City Hall Wall Clock brings one of his most pared-back clock designs into the home.

This green edition pairs a muted green dial with a matt gold case, hands, and hour markers. The color combination gives the clock more warmth than the classic version, while keeping the face clean and easy to use. Slim markers and fine hands keep the design precise, with just enough contrast to stand out on the wall.

The clock works well in kitchens, offices, living rooms, bedrooms, and hallways. The Medium size is suited to smaller rooms or tighter wall spaces, while the Large size has more presence for dining areas, workspaces, and open-plan interiors.

]]>
https://shop.gessato.com/arne-jacobsen-city-hall-wall-clock-green/feed/ 0
Unity Temple – Oak Park, Illinois https://shop.gessato.com/unity-temple-oak-park-illinois/ https://shop.gessato.com/unity-temple-oak-park-illinois/#respond Sun, 03 May 2026 10:49:54 +0000 https://shop.gessato.com/?post_type=product&p=172055 A tribute to one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most important works, this Little Building Co. architectural model kit recreates Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, a landmark of early modern architecture and one of Wright’s most radical public buildings.

Constructed between 1905 and 1908 and dedicated in 1909, Unity Temple broke with the conventions of traditional church design. Instead of a steeple, ornamented masonry, or Gothic references, Wright created a powerful composition of geometric forms using poured-in-place reinforced concrete, a material then more commonly associated with factories and utilitarian structures. The result was austere, monolithic, and unmistakably modern: a building defined by structure, light, space, and material honesty.

The design remains especially significant for the way Wright transformed concrete from a practical, economical material into an architectural language. Its exterior appears quiet and almost fortress-like, while the interior opens into a warm, luminous sanctuary shaped by clerestory windows, amber-toned skylights, and carefully proportioned volumes. Wright’s approach helped shift the focus of architecture from applied decoration to spatial experience, making Unity Temple a key work in the development of modern architecture.

This model kit captures the building’s distinctive massing, layered geometry, and disciplined architectural presence at a 1:250 scale. Designed, developed, and manufactured by Little Building Co. in Australia, the kit reflects the company’s studio-minded approach to architectural models, with carefully researched details, timber components, and clear stage-by-stage assembly diagrams.

Glue is required and not included. Little Building Co. recommends a good-quality PVA wood glue, which dries clear and allows time for careful positioning during assembly.

]]>
https://shop.gessato.com/unity-temple-oak-park-illinois/feed/ 0
National Opera House – Sydney, Australia https://shop.gessato.com/national-opera-house-sydney-australia/ https://shop.gessato.com/national-opera-house-sydney-australia/#respond Fri, 01 May 2026 19:06:28 +0000 https://shop.gessato.com/?post_type=product&p=172066 A ready-to-assemble architectural model kit of the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, one of the most celebrated works of 20th-century architecture.

Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, the Sydney Opera House began with an international competition launched by the New South Wales Government in 1956 for a national opera house at Bennelong Point. Utzon’s winning proposal broke sharply from the glass-box modernism of the period. Instead, he imagined a sculptural composition of vaulted shell forms rising from a monumental platform, creating a building that could be seen from every angle and read as part of Sydney Harbour itself.

Completed in 1973, the building remains a defining masterpiece of late modern architecture. Its interlocking roof shells, terraced podium, ceremonial stairs, and waterside setting transformed the idea of a performing arts center into an urban landmark. From an architectural standpoint, the Sydney Opera House is significant not only for its expressive form, but also for the engineering ambition required to realize it. Working with Ove Arup & Partners, Utzon’s design pushed construction and structural technology into new territory, eventually resolving the shell geometry through forms derived from a single sphere.

The result is both a building and a civic symbol: a great urban sculpture set within a remarkable waterscape. The Sydney Opera House was added to Australia’s National Heritage List in 2005 and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007.

Made by Little Building Co., this 1:750 scale wooden architectural model kit captures the Opera House’s famous shell-like roof forms, stepped podium, terraces, and harborside presence in miniature. Crafted from American Cherry, Aspen, Birch, MDF, and acrylic, the kit is a detailed tribute to Utzon’s landmark design and a rewarding build for architecture enthusiasts, collectors, and design-minded gift seekers.

The kit includes clear, stage-by-stage assembly diagrams. Glue is required and not supplied; Little Building Co. recommends a good-quality PVA wood glue, which dries clear and allows time to carefully reposition parts during assembly.

]]>
https://shop.gessato.com/national-opera-house-sydney-australia/feed/ 0
Tate Modern – London https://shop.gessato.com/tate-modern-london/ https://shop.gessato.com/tate-modern-london/#respond Fri, 01 May 2026 19:05:04 +0000 https://shop.gessato.com/?post_type=product&p=172064 A ready-to-assemble architectural model kit of Tate Modern in London, one of the world’s most important examples of adaptive reuse in contemporary architecture.

Housed in the former Bankside Power Station, Tate Modern tells two architectural stories at once. The original oil-fired power station, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, gave London a monumental brick industrial landmark on the south bank of the Thames. After the building stopped generating electricity in 1981, it stood dormant for years before Tate selected the site for a new museum of modern and contemporary art.

The transformation was led by Herzog & de Meuron, who converted the massive industrial shell into Tate Modern, opened to the public in 2000. Rather than erase the building’s power-station identity, the architects preserved and intensified its scale, material presence, and urban drama. The vast Turbine Hall became a public interior street, while new galleries, circulation routes, and light-filled interventions gave the former industrial structure a new cultural life.

From an architectural standpoint, Tate Modern is significant because it changed how museums could be made. It showed that a major cultural institution did not need to begin with a blank slate or a pristine new object. Instead, architecture could work with an existing structure, drawing strength from its history, mass, and imperfections. The later Blavatnik Building extension, also designed by Herzog & de Meuron, continued this approach with a dynamic brick form rising from the former oil tanks and connecting old and new into one larger museum complex.

Made by Little Building Co., this 1:1200 scale wooden architectural model kit recreates Tate Modern’s distinctive composition, including the long brick power-station volume, central chimney, Turbine Hall, and angular Blavatnik Building. Crafted from Aspen, American Cherry, Black Maple, MDF, and acrylic, the model offers a hands-on way to study a landmark that helped define contemporary museum design, urban regeneration, and the creative reuse of industrial architecture.

The kit includes clear, stage-by-stage assembly diagrams. A small amount of PVA wood glue, a single-edge razor blade, and masking tape are required but not included.

]]>
https://shop.gessato.com/tate-modern-london/feed/ 0
Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House – Madison, Wisconsin https://shop.gessato.com/herbert-and-katherine-jacobs-house-madison-wisconsin/ https://shop.gessato.com/herbert-and-katherine-jacobs-house-madison-wisconsin/#respond Fri, 01 May 2026 19:03:21 +0000 https://shop.gessato.com/?post_type=product&p=172063 A ready-to-assemble architectural model kit of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin, one of the most important domestic designs in modern American architecture.

Also known as Jacobs I, the house was designed for Herbert and Katherine Jacobs as a modest, carefully considered family home. Rather than creating a grand residence for wealthy clients, Wright used the project to refine his vision for a more affordable, distinctly American way of living. The result is widely considered his first Usonian house: a compact, single-story design shaped by efficiency, natural materials, open planning, and a close relationship to the land.

From an architectural standpoint, the Jacobs House is significant because it helped redefine the modern home. Its simple L-shaped plan, low horizontal profile, integrated living spaces, and clear structural logic moved away from traditional domestic layouts. The house brought together ideas that would become central to Wright’s later Usonian work, including human-scaled proportions, warm material expression, and a fluid connection between interior and exterior space. Its open arrangement of living, dining, and kitchen areas also anticipated ideas that would influence postwar American residential design.

Made by Little Building Co., this 1:100 scale wooden architectural model kit captures the home’s disciplined geometry, distinctive L-shaped plan, raised platform, horizontal wall panels, and brickwork details. The model also reflects Wright’s organic approach through cherry timber cladding and a landscape base that emphasizes the house’s relationship to its site.

This kit marks Little Building Co.’s first model of a Frank Lloyd Wright domestic work, making it especially suited to collectors, architecture enthusiasts, and anyone interested in Wright’s residential legacy.

The kit includes clear, stage-by-stage assembly diagrams. Glue is required and not supplied; Little Building Co. recommends a good-quality PVA wood glue, which dries clear and allows time to carefully reposition parts during assembly.

]]>
https://shop.gessato.com/herbert-and-katherine-jacobs-house-madison-wisconsin/feed/ 0
SC Johnson Headquarters – Racine, Wisconsin https://shop.gessato.com/sc-johnson-headquarters-racine-wisconsin/ https://shop.gessato.com/sc-johnson-headquarters-racine-wisconsin/#respond Fri, 01 May 2026 19:01:45 +0000 https://shop.gessato.com/?post_type=product&p=172058 A ready-to-assemble architectural model kit of SC Johnson Headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, featuring two Frank Lloyd Wright-designed landmarks: the Administration Building, opened in 1939, and the Research Tower, opened in 1950.

Commissioned by H.F. Johnson Jr., the complex is one of Wright’s most important works of corporate architecture. At a time when office buildings were often designed as practical, repetitive containers, Wright created a workplace shaped by light, movement, structure, and material expression. The Administration Building’s low horizontal profile, curved red-brick walls, streamlined forms, and bands of Pyrex glass tubing give it a distinctive presence without relying on traditional windows.

Inside, Wright transformed the office into an organic, almost landscape-like environment. The famous Great Workroom is supported by slender dendriform columns that rise from narrow bases and spread into circular, lily pad-like concrete capitals. These columns, combined with filtered daylight from above, helped create one of the most memorable interiors in modern American architecture.

From an architectural standpoint, SC Johnson Headquarters is significant because it reimagined the corporate workplace as a human-centered environment rather than a conventional office block. Wright’s design brought together engineering ambition, organic form, and a carefully controlled experience of light. The later Research Tower extended these ideas vertically, with floors cantilevered from a central “taproot” core, making the building one of Wright’s most daring structural experiments.

Made by Little Building Co., this 1:500 scale wooden architectural model kit recreates the complex in miniature, combining the Administration Building and Research Tower into one detailed composition. The model highlights the headquarters’ low, sweeping geometry, tower form, layered rooflines, courtyards, and material contrasts.

The kit includes clear, stage-by-stage assembly diagrams. Glue is required and not supplied; Little Building Co. recommends a good-quality PVA wood glue, which dries clear and allows time to carefully reposition parts during assembly.

]]>
https://shop.gessato.com/sc-johnson-headquarters-racine-wisconsin/feed/ 0
The Guggenheim https://shop.gessato.com/the-guggenheim/ https://shop.gessato.com/the-guggenheim/#respond Fri, 01 May 2026 18:59:21 +0000 https://shop.gessato.com/?post_type=product&p=172057 A ready-to-assemble architectural model kit of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, one of the most recognizable works of 20th-century architecture.

Completed in 1959, the Guggenheim challenged the traditional idea of a museum as a sequence of separate gallery rooms. Wright designed the building as a continuous spatial experience, organized around a spiraling ramp that rises around a central rotunda beneath a skylight. Its sculptural concrete form, horizontal bands, and circular geometry broke from the rectilinear language of Fifth Avenue, giving the museum a presence as memorable as the art it was built to house.

From an architectural standpoint, the Guggenheim is significant because it turns movement into the central design idea. The visitor’s path, the structure, and the exhibition space are fused into one fluid composition. Rather than treating architecture as a neutral backdrop, Wright made the building itself part of the museum experience. It remains a defining example of his organic architecture, combining geometric abstraction with forms inspired by nature.

Now recognized as a National Historic Landmark and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright,” the Guggenheim continues to influence museum design and architectural thinking around the world.

Made by Little Building Co., this 1:500 scale wooden architectural model kit captures the museum’s iconic spiral volume, layered horizontal form, and contrasting rectilinear elements. Designed, developed, and manufactured in Australia, the kit offers a hands-on way to study one of Wright’s late masterpieces in miniature.

The kit includes clear, stage-by-stage assembly diagrams. Glue is required and not supplied; Little Building Co. recommends a good-quality PVA wood glue, which dries clear and allows time to carefully reposition parts during assembly.

]]>
https://shop.gessato.com/the-guggenheim/feed/ 0
Farnsworth House – Plano, Illinois https://shop.gessato.com/farnsworth-house-plano-illinois/ https://shop.gessato.com/farnsworth-house-plano-illinois/#respond Fri, 01 May 2026 18:57:51 +0000 https://shop.gessato.com/?post_type=product&p=172056 A ready-to-assemble architectural model kit of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, one of the clearest and most influential expressions of modernist residential architecture.

Conceived in 1945 and completed in 1951, the house was commissioned by Dr. Edith Farnsworth as a weekend retreat along the Fox River. Mies reduced the idea of the home to its essentials: two horizontal planes, a white steel frame, floor-to-ceiling glass, an open interior, and a close visual relationship with the surrounding landscape. The result is a house that appears to hover above the ground, light in form yet rigorous in proportion.

From an architectural standpoint, the Farnsworth House is a landmark of the International Style. Its radical simplicity, transparent glass enclosure, and open plan helped define the language of mid-century modern architecture. Rather than separating domestic life from nature, Mies created a structure that frames the landscape from every side, turning the house into both a shelter and an architectural lens.

The building’s influence extends far beyond its modest scale. It became a reference point for glass-and-steel modernism, minimalist residential design, and the idea of architecture as an exact composition of structure, proportion, and space. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, the Farnsworth House remains one of Mies van der Rohe’s most studied and debated works.

Made by Little Building Co., this 1:150 scale wooden architectural model kit recreates the house’s floating planes, raised terrace, slender supports, glass volume, and surrounding site. The kit is crafted from Aspen, American Cherry, Black Maple, MDF, and acrylic, and includes the Black Maple tree that once grew on the Farnsworth House property.

The kit includes clear, stage-by-stage assembly diagrams. Glue is required and not supplied; Little Building Co. recommends a good-quality PVA wood glue, which dries clear and allows time to carefully reposition parts during assembly.

]]>
https://shop.gessato.com/farnsworth-house-plano-illinois/feed/ 0
Stainless Steel Set Squares – Pair https://shop.gessato.com/stainless-steel-set-squares-pair/ https://shop.gessato.com/stainless-steel-set-squares-pair/#respond Thu, 30 Apr 2026 09:15:26 +0000 https://shop.gessato.com/?post_type=product&p=171950 From architecture and engineering to technical drawings and creative work, the Makers Cabinet Set Squares Large provide the perfect solution to measure, cut or draw accurate angles. These precision tools are milled from 2mm-thick stainless steel to provide durability and reliability for long-lasting use. Beveled edges allow for accurate and easy drawing or cutting, while screwed-in brushed brass knobs provide more control for extra precision. This set comes with a Set Square of 90° / 60° / 30° – Hypotenuse 288mm, and a Set Square of 90° / 45° / 45° – Hypotenuse 250mm.

]]>
https://shop.gessato.com/stainless-steel-set-squares-pair/feed/ 0