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Hiding in Plain Sight: 17 Secret Spaces from Safes to Pubs

23 Feb

[ By Steph in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

hidden gun safe 2

If you don’t have a Narnia-themed playroom hidden behind a wardrobe, a zombie-proof shelter accessible via your kitchen island or a gun safe under your 900-pound bulletproof couch, you just aren’t living. Some of these hidden rooms, secret passageways and cleverly concealed storage spaces are probably a bit excessive, but who doesn’t wish their house contained at least one of these cool features?

Real-Life Bat Cave: Hidden Garage in San Francisco

hidden garage

In San Francisco, where private parking spaces are just as rare and precious as affordable housing, one house in Haight-Ashbury took the situation into their own hands in a way that wouldn’t upset the city council. The base of the Haight-Ashbury house is indistinguishable from the rest of the historical Victorian facade, but at the push of a button, it reveals a hidden four-car garage.

Narnia-Themed Playroom Hidden Behind Wardrobe

hidden wardrobe narnia 3
When building a new house, the parents of one particularly lucky nine-year-old girl realized there was some extra space next to her bedroom and decided to have a bit of fun with it instead of just using it as storage or sealing it up. A tiny doorway concealed in the back of a wardrobe leads to the small Narnia-themed playroom complete with a mural that stretches up onto the ceiling.

Storm Shelter Under a Kitchen Island

In some parts of the country, having a storm shelter is just as essential as having a bedroom. A company called GFS Storm Shelters came up with a brilliant way to fit one into a home – by placing it under the kitchen, with the entrance hidden under an island. While its actual usage might be a bit mundane, it’s fun to imagine it functioning as a hideaway during the zombie apocalypse or just a fun secret. Hopefully there’s another exit that leads directly outdoors in case a real tornado takes the entire house down on top of it.

Porthole to a Playroom

hidden porthole 2
A circular porthole that blends right into the faux wood floor of this modern home spits you out onto a slide that curls down into a colorful playroom.

Covert Concepts: Fireplace Door & Storage

Anyone searching your home for valuables probably wouldn’t think to check the usually-decorative panels on a wooden fireplace surround, making this a pretty safe place to keep items you’d like to conceal.

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Hiding In Plain Sight 17 Secret Spaces From Safes To Pubs

[ By Steph in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

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Under Cover: Secret Swiss Military Bunkers Hide in Plain Sight

13 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Travel & Urban Exploration. ]

swiss bunker under cover

Throughout the rolling hills of rural Switzerland, tucked inside idyllic works of regional vernacular architecture, lie disguised fortifications of a country always ready for war. Some of these bunkers conceal gun caches, communications infrastructure and even anti-aircraft artillery.

swiss bunker camouflage

The camouflage is incredibly convincing: a worn wood-sided barn, countryside home with cracking paint or a cute small-town cottage could all house militarized surprises.

fake chalet window painted

The public is not privy to precise numbers, but estimates suggest the country contains 250 or more such structures variously disguised as buildings or parts of the natural landscape.

villa rose bunker

painted window

The Swiss are world-famous for their perpetual state of military preparedness, but few outsiders (as well as many citizens of Switzerland) are unaware just how much they are surrounded with infrastructure of war.

swiss bunker cannon

Christian Schwager’s relatively recent book on Fake Chalets helped make these buildings an open secret, in turn aiding preservation efforts for many of these facilities that no longer serve an official purpose.

fake chalets

Reporter Anneke Bokern has also delved into the history of these buildings, many of which date back to the 1930s and 40s: “Theatre painters were in charge of the paint jobs, supplying each bunker with a customised skin inspired by the local chalet style.”

fake chalet hillside military

fake chalet interior

“As the results prove, they went about their job with Swiss precision – although the bunkers only had to deceive at a minimum distance of 20 metres. They painted realistic window shutters, created perfect imitations of wood grain, and even took the position of the sun into consideration.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Travel & Urban Exploration. ]

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Secret Speakeasies: 6 Bars & Clubs Hidden in Plain Sight

15 May

[ By Delana in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

speakeasies

Prohibition, otherwise known as the Volstead Act or the Eighteenth Amendment, barred the manufacture, transportation, and sale of all alcoholic beverages in America from 1919 to 1933 – but for some people, the appeal of the “forbidden” remains today. Despite the illegality of drinking establishments during prohibition, hidden bars could be found in just about every major American city if you knew where to look. Today, speakeasies are making a comeback in a very big way.

Blind Barber – NYC, Brooklyn & Los Angeles

blind barber culver city

barbershop blind barber

The name of this establishment may sound like a cruel joke or even an anti-advertisement, but it’s all part of a brand that has come to represent a simpler time. Past generations have enjoyed gathering and socializing in barber shops, and even today customers trade gossip as they get a haircut and enjoy a glass of wine in upscale salons.

blind barber back room

blind barber

This type of community gathering place is recreated in Blind Barber. An old-timey barber shop up front provides a bright and friendly place to sit and shoot the breeze as you enjoy a shave or a trim. Take a little walk through the secret door in the back and you’ll enter an a very different type of space.

blind barber bar

seating in blind barber bar

The bar is outfitted in rich wood, low lighting, and period-appropriate black and white tiles on the floor. The owners wanted to create not only an enjoyable drinking establishment, but a place where people could get together to socialize, relax, and maybe pretend for a bit that they are part of a small crowd of those who are “in the know” about a secret club.

Flask and The Press – Shanghai

flask and the press sandwich shop

coca cola machine hidden door

It might be surprising to learn that there is an American-style speakeasy in China (although if you’ve been there you will have seen quite a few), but it’s even more surprising to witness someone actually entering the bar. The building’s front contains a bright, cheery sandwich shop with a classic Coca-Cola machine on the back wall.

flask bar

flask and the press hidden speakeasy

Pulling a lever on the soda machine reveals a “secret” passage that leads to Flask, an intimate and delightfully mysterious bar designed by Alberto Caiola. An eclectic mix of furniture calls to mind the furtive nature of assembling these establishments during prohibition.

flask and the press

flask and the press whiskey wall

A floor-to-ceiling display of 25 liter jugs filled with whiskey is a visually stunning detail which may or may not be historically accurate – speakeasies were generally designed to be easy to disassemble if the cops came sniffing around, after all. Regardless, it is still a charming deviation from the loud, crowded urban bar.

Williams & Graham – Denver

wg-outside

The first thing that will strike you as unusual when you walk into the small Denver “bookstore” called simply Williams and Graham is that it’s only open from 5 pm to 1 am. Good news for insomniac bibliophiles, perhaps…or maybe there’s a little more to this story.

williams and graham bar

wg private room

At the back of the shop, a heavy curtain swings open to reveal a very cozy little space with scarce seating, low lighting, and vintage furnishings. One can imagine the hoodlums and society folks alike lining up in the 1920s for a tasty libation while always keeping a wary eye trained on the door.

williams and graham denver speakeasy

wg-wide-bar-shot

The bar serves cocktails straight out of the prohibition era – though admittedly, not with liquor made in clandestine basements distilleries or delivered only under the cover of night. The establishment emphasizes its mission to replicate the speakeasy with its fancy drinks, relative exclusivity (reservations are recommended), and general air of mystery.

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Secret Speakeasies 6 Bars Clubs Hidden In Plain Sight

[ By Delana in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

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Civic Camouflage: Hiding a Huge Urban Stadium in Plain Sight

13 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

secret stadium hides urban

Sports stadiums can be contentious, particularly when located in the heart of a city, but this design works in various ways to reduce disruptions to urban fabric, slotting seamlessly into its surrounding context.

urban fabric stadium design

Designed by international architecture and engineering firm Arup, the AC Milan 48,000-seat soccer club stadium in Italy is wrapped in commercial (shops, bars, hotels and restaurants) programmatic elements that work with but also independently of sporting events. Additional public-purpose elements include rooftop decks, micro-parks and playground for children.

Reinforced with soundproofing and a plan to sink its base into the ground, adding these architectural buffers on all sides helps reduce noise pollution for blocks on all sides as well as providing street-level continuity for those walking and driving through the city. Mark Wilson compares it to a combination of historical fortifications and suburban shopping centers: “around the stadium’s heart, architects will build a castle-like perimeter of restaurants, a hotel, and a sports college. From the street, the stadium just looks like a block-wide mall.”

stadium interior space design

The stadium itself features a spectator-optimized design intended to provide the best view possible for all visitors as well as a removable roof to allow for play in various conditions.

stadium side view

There are many structures that arguably should stand out from their surroundings – civic buildings like city halls, for instance – but sports stadiums rarely look good in and of themselves, and far too frequently interrupt what is going on in the cities around them. Typically, “even the most beautifully designed stadiums are an eyesore. They’re sprawling moles protruding from the skin of an urban environment, distended to accommodate a wide footprint of seats low to the ground.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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How To Achieve Nice Bokeh [In Plain English]

03 Feb

By Annie Tao

Want to take portraits that have nice bokeh? First, what is it?

BOKEH = noun. a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image.

Below is a photo I took just the other day. It is an example of an image with nice bokeh and how to use it effectively.

Annie Tao Photography bokeh Ex1

By blurring out the background, the entire image looks visually pleasing. You can’t even see she is standing on a sidewalk next to a parking lot!

HOW TO ACHIEVE NICE BOKEH (in plain English!)

1. Use the right lens.

All lenses can create some kind of bokeh, but the REALLY nice, drool-worthy bokeh is from prime lenses with large apertures, like f/1.4 and f/1.8.

2. Select a large aperture.

The larger the aperture (the smaller the aperture number) = a narrower depth of field and more bokeh! Usually f/2.8, 1.8 and 1.4 create the best results.

3. Get close to your subject.

4. Focus on what you want to have sharp.

I know, I know…. duh. But there may be someone out there who isn’t sure!

5. Put your subject far from the background you want blurred out.

In the image above, there is beautiful green bokeh because there were bushes on the far side of the parking lot. I took the shot from a lower angle (shooting upwards) to intentionally miss the cars in the parking lot, which were directly behind her.

The result is a deliciously smooth wash of color in the background, which made it look more like the little girl was standing in a meadow than a parking lot.

MORE EXAMPLES OF BOKEH

Annie Tao Photography bokeh Ex2

Annie Tao Photography bokeh Ex4

Annie Tao Photography bokeh Ex3

Sometimes I create bokeh in the FOREGROUND because it tells a different story…

Annie Tao Photography foreground bokeh

And sometimes I don’t want any bokeh at all. I want to see all the details, like the textures of these walls, so I place my subjects close to the background and have my camera set at a smaller aperture.

Annie Tao Photography No Bokeh Ex2

Annie Tao Photography No Bokeh Ex1

Annie Tao is a lifestyle, commercial and event photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can get more tips or inspiration at www.annietaophotography.com and stay connected with Annie at https://www.facebook.com/annietaophotography

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

How To Achieve Nice Bokeh [In Plain English]

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Posts Tagged ‘Plain’