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Posts Tagged ‘Sculptural’

Cheap Seats: Sculptural Furniture Showroom Facade Made of 900 Black Chairs

19 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

Using cheap and repetitive materials sounds like a recipe for kitsch, but this furniture-oriented facade clad in generic black chairs (at around $ 5.00 USD a piece) manages to pull off an elegant and refined look.

The clients, MY DVA (a furniture company), were looking for something additive, layered onto the existing bland building, but also reflecting their function (to showcase office and school furniture). The ideal solution would promote their wares while also entertaining visitors. It also had to be inexpensive.

Versed in product and urban design, Ondrej Chybik and Michal Kristof of studio CHYBIK+KRISTOF, took these concerns into account when designing the facade. Tapping into their respective backgrounds, they came up with cladding literally composed of product designs that also fits a neighborhood theme of repetition (filled with identical blocks of flats).

In total, the team used 900 Vicenza seats, a regular offering of the company, to form an undulating black box around the showroom, which functions well with the reduced light provided by these exterior shading elements.

Inside, the space was pared down to expose a raw concrete ceiling, from which suspended curtains hang to create little galleries — adjustable lights in these zones simulate different lighting conditions for furniture client spaces.

Staff offices are located along the edges, off to the sides and out of the way behind translucent partitions, leaving a large, open, blank-slate showroom for furniture buyers.

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Stepping It Up: 15 Spectacularly Sculptural Modern Staircases

31 Jan

[ By SA Rogers in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

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More than just a means of advancing from one level of a building to the next, staircases are an opportunity for drama and sculptural flair, like a permanent art installation built into the structure. Spiraling toward skylights, carved into a building’s exterior or planted with lush gardens, these incredible modern staircases are the defining feature of the houses, museums and offices the occupy.

Experimentarium by CEBRA, Denmark

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This incredible 328-foot-long helix staircase by CEBRA at one of Denmark’s top science centers is made of 160 tons of steel and 10 tons of copper, spiraling up through the four-story atrium.

Salvador Dali Museum by HOK, St. Petersburg, Florida

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At HOK’s Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, a stunning surrealist design befitting the artist being honored contains a spiral staircase that curls up toward the skylight even when the stairs end, like a vine stretching toward the sun.

Victoria & Albert Museum Stairs by Stuart Haygarth, London

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Pieces of colorful framing typically used to frame art in museums becomes art in and of itself in this staircase installation by UK designer Stuart Haygarth at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Nearly 2,000 feet of cut-off framing pieces are joined, sanded and painted “to create a work akin in 3D graffiti on a traditional staircase reminiscent of the yellow brick road in ‘The Wizard of Oz,”” as the designer explains.

Interrobang Building by Bang by Min, Seoul

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Rarely is a modern structure – particularly one shaped like a tower – so defined from outside by its exterior staircases. The firm Bang by Min ‘carved’ a staircase into the concrete block of the Interrobang mixed-use building in Seoul.

The Living Staircase by Paul Cocksedge

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Commissioned for the creative office development Ampersand in London, ‘The Living Staircase’ by Paul Cocksedge features integrated planting areas along the balustrade as a functional garden.

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Stepping It Up 15 Spectacularly Sculptural Modern Staircases

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Creative Currency: 33 Sculptural Works of Art Made From Coins

31 Oct

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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These works of art are literally made of money, yet worth more than the sum of their parts – but do they support or negate the argument that coins should be obsolete as currency? Artists use pennies, nickels, half dollars, Eurocents and other coins to craft murals, mosaics, sculptural busts and benches, or just carve into their faces, modifying them into pop culture icons like Frankenstein and E.T.

Hand-Engraved Coins by Shaun Hughes

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UK-based engraver Shaun Hughes etches decorative designs onto coin faces, embellishing therewith curlicue and floral patterns or adding flowing hair.

Hobo Nickels by Paolo Curcio

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Following in the hobo nickel tradition, an inexpensive and highly portable art form involving the modificationn of coins, artist Paolo Curcio adorns a variety of coins with pop culture imagery, skulls and more, including the heads of clowns, Frankenstein and E.T.

Geometric Coin Sculptures by Robert Wechsler

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Artist Robert Wechsler cuts slits into coins that enable him to build complex three-dimensional sculptures, including a series for The New Yorker. The sculptures can consist of as few as four coins, up into the thousands.

Welded Euro Sculptures by Gabriel Rufete

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Whether stacked on top of each other or welded at their edges, coins provide the basis for surprisingly detailed sculptures of human forms by Gabriel Rufete.

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Creative Currency 33 Sculptural Works Of Art Made From Coins

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Vessel: Climb This Sculptural NYC Landmark to Look Out Onto Hudson Yards

17 Sep

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Unlike most of New York City’s standout architecture, this sculptural, almost alien-looking structure set to rise above the new Hudson Yards development will be open for the public to explore. Architect Thomas Heatherwick envisions this centerpiece as a way to take all of the visitors to the square and “sort of sprinkle them into the air,” encouraging them to interact with each other and with their surroundings in a new way.

Influenced by images of Indian stepwells, which use hundreds of flights of stairs to descend beneath ground level, this observation deck uses flights of stairs almost like building blocks to reach into the sky.

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The ‘Vessel’ design is made up of 154 interconnecting flights of stairs, with nearly 2,500 individual steps and 80 landings, and if you want to walk the whole thing, you’ll travel an entire mile while remaining in the air above Hudson Yards. It’s 50 feet in diameter at the feet, blooming into 150 feet at the top, and gleams appealingly in polished copper.

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The square at Hudson Yards is a collaboration between Heatherwick Studio and landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz, set to feature 5 acres of trees, perennial gardens, pathways, seating and a 200-foot-long fountain mimicking a flowing river.

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The square will be surrounded by a whopping 16 brand new skyscrapers containing nearly 13 millions square feet of office, residential and retail space. The largest development in New York City since Rockefeller center was built in 1939, it’s currently under construction, and estimated to be fully completed by 2023.

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“We put ourselves under this vast pressure because we felt, intuitively, that it should be something that you haven’t experience already before,” says Heatherwick. “It has no commercial job to do. It’s not based on electronics. It’s not based on advertising. it’s extremely interactive but it’s properly using your physicality. There’s something that is timeless about humans and our physicality. The project, in a way, is a big invitation. It’s just there to hopefully mean things to different people, to not tell you how you’re supposed to think. It’s like a platform for life.”

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Real Underground Art: Secret Sculptural Installations Below Paris

14 May

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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There’s a good chance that no one, other than an errant worker, will ever even see these highly symbolic (not to mention illegal) installations hidden far beneath the streets of Paris. Tucked into tunnels that have been disused for decades, Radouah Zeghidour’s sculptural creations have a furtive feel, each one requiring hours upon hours of investigative preparation as the artist slinks around the subterranean spaces to find locations that will be undisturbed as long as possible.

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“I place cigarette butts inside door locks, wedge things underneath the door, and place objects along hallways and passageways,” Zeghidour says. “Then I come back later to see if they’re moved, and when. I also research the locations extensively, and try to see if any construction work is planned along the subway lines. I try and find out workers’ hours and those of security as well. I also plan an emergency exit, in case something goes wrong.”

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The Paris-based urban explorer maps out these ideal spots and enters them at dawn, spending around ten hours at a time building his installations in place. Most are made using materials he finds within the tunnels, like branches, pallets, pipe, string and the remains of old structures. Most of his locations aren’t disclosed, but Zeghidour says 2014’s Radeau échoué (Sunken Raft, below) was placed along a subway line, while Désenchantement (Disenchantment, above) occupied an underground room beneath the contemporary art space La Maison Rouge.

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There’s definitely risk involved – the artist one spent three days in jail after he was caught in a restricted area, and has been escorted back above ground on other occasions. But Zeghidour finds the whole process to be healing and restorative, telling the Creators Project, “I explore underground when I feel blue. It soothes me.”

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The secretive nature of the process is a fitting complement to the work itself, which often evokes images of camps for refugees and the homeless. Accessed and utilized without permission, these often wasted spaces are temporary homes to surreal architectural creations, if not to the humans who could actually use them.

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World’s Longest Tunnel Slide Opening at Sculptural London Monument

30 Apr

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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Experience monumental sculpture like you never have before with a new 15-story tunnel slide that spirals around London’s ArcelorMittal Orbit monument, set to be the world’s longest. The UK is really pushing its public art to the next level by adding a record breaker to a record breaker, as the sculpture already holds the title of tallest in the nation. The slide wraps around the sculpture 12 times, and it takes forty seconds to get from the very top to the bottom in a trip through the tube.

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Opening to the public on June 24th, 2016, the Carsten Höller-designed slide features both opaque and transparent sections so riders get brief glimpses of the London skyline before plunging back into darkness. A tight corkscrew section snakes its way around the red geometric structure, ending in a straight run to the ground. The slide’s total length is 584 feet.

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London erected the strange and rather controversial ArcelorMittal for the 2012 Summer Olympics, offering panoramic views of the city from its location in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Tickets for the attraction are already on sale for £15 ($ 22), with a limited number available each day, and you can book more than one ride at a time.

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Popping Off the Page: 15 Sculptural 3D Paper Art Creations

04 Feb

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Defying the typically two-dimensional and impermanent characteristics of paper, these artists cut, sculpt, glue, twist and fold the material into fantastical and unexpected forms. The notoriously thin and fragile material transforms into baroque wigs, complex architectural scenes, cars, animals, religious iconography and even rollercoasters, some retaining a sense of fragility and ephemerality while others seem surprisingly solid and strong.

Baroque Paper Wigs and Costumes by Asya Kozina

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The elaborate towering hairstyles of yore are recalled in a new form by Russian artist Asya Kozina, who sculpts the wigs from sheets of paper. She also created a series of paper dresses inspired by Mongolian wedding costumes. “This is art for art’s sake, aesthetics for aesthetics – no practical sense, but they are beautiful. In this case, paper helps to highlight the main form and not be obsessed with unnecessary details.”

Interior Impressions by Simon Schubert

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Looking like rubbings from a more permanent relief sculpture, these paper impressions by Simon Schubert are actually relief sculptures in their own right, mimicking intricate interiors through careful folding. Says the artist, “The works often show interiors from the end of the 19th century reminding the spectator of ‘haunted mansions.’ The pictures of the endless hallways with closed doors, the blind windows, the empty halls and the winding staircases appear to be single views of tremendous, labyrinthine building, which seems to continue ever further into the white.”

Cut Paper Rollercoasters

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Known for spectacularly detailed paper cutouts that take on three dimensional form, artist Bovey Lee is back with a new series depicting the culture clash she experienced after a move from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles. “Speaking to the motivation of my relocation, the works also feature imagery associated with romantic relationships, and wedding bouquets, engagement rings, cakes, and eternity symbols populate the pieces. In these works, I draw parallels between one’s romantic relationship and our relationship with nature.”

Abandoned Architecture Paper Collages by Lucy Williams

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We’ve seen abandoned architecture incorporated into or transformed into art in a variety of different ways, but never before in the form of cut and layered paper. British artist Lucy Williams creates amazingly realistic-looking reproductions of deserted mid-20th century modernist architecture, from homes to swimming pools.

Religious Iconography by Carlo Fantin

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Artist Carlo Fantin combines religious imagery with social media culture in a series of meticulously cut paper illustrations. “I want people to have a physical relationship with my art that tis not just confined to the distance of their arms. I want people to experience how the image changes as they walk away from it. At a very close look the piece seems to be abstract, when you step back the image comes to life.”

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Popping Off The Page 15 Sculptural 3d Paper Art Creations

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Architecture as Art: 13 Unusually Sculptural Buildings

19 Jan

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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When fine art and architecture intersect, especially in our modern era of parametric modeling and 3D printing, the results can be strikingly different from the structures that surround them, in some instances seeming like sculptures were given growth serum and expanded to mind-boggling proportions. Eschewing the ordinary, these buildings feel like a chance for architects to flex their creativity and bring some interesting colors and proportions to their settings.

Melbourne Theater Company
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Abstract shapes glow against a solid black mass on the exterior of this striking complex by Ashton Raggat McDougall, making the Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC Theater some of the most visually unique buildings in the city. The black and white color palette is accented by a vibrant red, with the geometric pattern continuing into the interior, looking three-dimensional when viewed from certain angles.

Tschuggen Grand Hotel
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Rising from the Swiss mountainside like shards of ice, architect Mario Botta’s Berg Oase is a sculptural extension of the Tschuggen Grand Hotel. Serving as a wellness center and spa, the arrangement of towering glass wedges bring light streaming into the interior spaces and almost seem like natural structures themselves among the trees and rocks when viewed from afar.

Cloud House
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A house shaped like a cloud? Why not? It may look like the occupants would be severely lacking in privacy, considering the two glazed facades, but this building by Australian firm McBride Charles Ryan is actually an extension to a more conventional street-facing home, and is shielded from neighbors’ views by the curved cloud-mimicking sides.

Suzhou Science & Cultural Arts Centre Facade
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One way to give a building a dramatic makeover (or just ensure that it stand out from the very start) is to add a parametric facade, like the intricate screen covering the massive Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Centre in China. Developed by Studio 505, the curving screen is shaped like a parabolic moon crescent and consists of a weatherproofing layer and an outer ornamental mesh screen that provides shading.

Palais Bulles
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A classic example of sculptural housing with an aesthetic that’s so outside the norm, it’s almost alien, is Palais Bulles (“Palace of Bubbles.”) Created by architect Antti Lovag in 1989, the curvilinear house is set into a rocky hillside overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in Cannes, France. It’s often used for film festival parties and fashion editorials.

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Architecture As Art 13 Unusually Sculptural Buildings

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Sculptural Skyscraper: Ornate NYC Design Redefines Tower Decor

11 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Architect Mark Foster Gage has unveiled stunning plans for this 100-story, skyline-defining structure for Midtown Manhattan with views of Central Park. Commissioned by a developer to explore a statement-making skyscraper, the work includes carved figures and ornate balconies.

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No expense was spared, at least in this conceptual stage: limestone-tinted concrete cladding and hydroformed sheet-bronze details are accompanied by brass-tinted alloy wrapping structural extrusions and enclosures. The program features ballrooms and restaurants at various heights as well as a mid-structure retail ‘sky lobby’.

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Early skyscrapers puzzled architects initially, and many were envisaged as lower-height buildings (featuring a plinth at the base and crowned with decorative roofs) with the central portion stretched vertically. Then Modernists came along, smoothing out lines and discarding sculptural effects for glass and steel. This design goes a step behind recalling early towers, including iterative and undulating embellishments from top to bottom.

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Of course, there was a logic to architectural predecessors with elongated central zones – they were street-friendly at the bottom, and sky-friendly at the top, saving cost and complexity in the middle.

Whether such an extravegant reinterpretation of skyscrapers as this represents is indeed desirable or even feasible remains an open question. Still, there is something to be said for attempting to bring non-minimalist beauty back to tall buildings.

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In many ways, this approach represents a hybrid of old skyscrapers and new city-in-the-sky attitudes championed by contemporary architects, mixing programs at various levels to create a sort of self-contained structure for living, working and recreating.

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Form Follows Function: 18 Sculptural Home Furnishings

27 May

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Turn your home into a gallery with functional furnishings that double as sculpture, like cabinets in the form of human torsos and beds shaped like roller coasters. These 18 designs blur the lines between furniture and art, blending gallery-worthy aesthetics with practical purposes.

Enignum Chairs, Tables and Beds by Joseph Walsh

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Artist Joseph Walsh strips wood into thin layers to create incredibly delicate-looking sculptural forms that also function as an array of practical objects. “Using free form design allows the material to dictate the composition,” reads Walsh’s artist statement. “Tables, chairs, entire walls that don’t just straddle the universes of art, architecture and function but unify them into a beautiful equation.”

La Montaña Rusa Roller Coaster Bed

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The shape of this communal bed and lounging area by artist duo ‘Los Carpinteros’ echoes that of a rollercoaster, the pink padded surfaces rising and falling in a reference to “the cycles of life, rest, dreaming, sexuality, birth and death.”

Human Figure Cabinets by Peter Rolfe

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The nude human form becomes more than just a visual to admire in the hands of woodworker Peter Rolfe, who has created a series of figurative sculptures that are also cabinets. Drawers pull out of some unexpected places, the seams sometimes hidden so you have to paw around a bit to find them.

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Form Follows Function 18 Sculptural Home Furnishings

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