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Posts Tagged ‘Transforming’

Adaptive Architecture: 12 Transforming, Breathing Buildings

12 Mar

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

transforming buildings sliding house 2

The exterior walls of homes slide back to reveal transparent volumes, the facade of a parking garage ripples like the surface of a nearby river and individual rooms rise high into the sky at the push of a button in these transforming, adapting, kinetic works of architecture.

Kinetic Parking Garage Facade

transforming buildings kinetic garage 1

transforming buildings kinetic facade 2

The entire 8-story facade of the Brisbane airport seems to ripple like a vertical body of water thanks to the kinetic effects of 118,000 suspended aluminum panels that shift in the wind. A collaboration between American artist Ned Kahn and Hassell Architecture, the installation makes reference to the city’s most iconic natural feature, the Brisbane River. In addition to its visual appeal, it provides shade to the inside of a parking garage.

Sliding House by DRMM

transforming buildings sliding house 1

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An ordinary-looking residence in the archetypal gabled house shape reveals itself to be a kinetic work of astonishing genius, almost like a performance piece in itself, when the protective outer wood facade slides forward to open a transparent volume to the sky and create new indoor/outdoor spaces. The 20-ton mobile roof/wall structure traverses the site, creating new combinations of living spaces depending on how far it’s pushed on its tracks via electric motors. The tracks could even be extended further in the future to accommodate an indoor/outdoor swimming pool, if the clients desire.

Cafe-restaurant OPEN, Amsterdam by de Architekten Cie

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cafe buildings transforming 4

The accordion-like pivoting windows on this unusual reclaimed restaurant in Amsterdam transform the facade in wave-like patterns when they are opened in certain ways, adding visual interest to what would otherwise simply be a steel and glass box. De Architekten Cie built the restaurant upon one of the last surviving pivot railway bridges in the Netherlands, making use of a striking historic feature with panoramic views.

Shapeshifting Sharifi-Ha House

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transforming buildings sharifi-ha 2

Three dynamic inner volumes sheathed in wood pivot nearly 360 degrees within a concrete shell at the Sharifi-Ha House in Tehran by design firm nextoffice, orienting these rooms in new ways to provide varying degrees of natural daylight and privacy. The push of a button sends the guest room, home office or dining room cantilevering out over the street, spinning to face a new direction or pulling them protectively back into the envelope. When facing straight out, they open up new terraces on each level.

Elevating Towers on Villa Hush Hush

transforming buildings hushhush 1

transforming buildings villa hushhush 2

transforming buildings villa hushhush 3

Sections of this incredible morphing home by Marks Barfield Architects can go from ground level to high up in the sky within minutes. Push a button and two of Villa Hush Hush’s four rectangular zones elevate far above the canopy of the adjacent forest, up to 130 feet into the sky.

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Adaptive Architecture 12 Transforming Breathing Buildings

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Transforming Tables: 16 Smart Space-Saving Surface Designs

13 Jan

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

Space Saving Tables by Resource Furniture (animation)

In increasingly small urban apartments where every inch counts, a piece of furniture that transforms from a coffee table to a dining table in seconds, hides a lot of storage or folds up to just one inch thick can open up a lot of usable space. These transforming table designs completely rethink the simple surface, sometimes using complex engineering to expand and contract.

Coffee to Dinner Tables by Ozzio Design

transforming tables ozzio 1

transforming tables ozzio 2

Anyone with a tiny studio apartment can appreciate the convenience of a piece of furniture that functions as a coffee table for most of the day, but raises up to dining level when needed. These two convertible tables by Ozzio look clean and modern, have adjustable heights and come in various colors and sizes for maximum adaptability.

Tree Ring Table Cuts Itself in Half

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A table that resembles the cross-section of a tree trunk when compact and placed against a wall opens up to become fully round, a third leg swinging to the side to offer support. Designer Isariya Boon took inspiration from onion rings to create this hardwood and steel table with multiple personalities.

Flip Table Hides Six Stools

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The wooden casing of the Flip coffee table opens up to become a three-sided dining table, the storage underneath transforming into six stools.

Kaleidoscopic Capstan Table Spins to Enlarge

transforming tables capstan

Is this the world’s most highly-engineered dining table? The Fletcher Capstan features six wedge-shaped leaves that pull back to reveal a star shape that grows as the table expands from about 6.5 feet across to a maximum width of 30 feet. The process of transforming it is almost like a performance as the table opens to show off its inner components.

The Daily Shelter: Table to Child’s Fort

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Only those who ‘know its secrets’ would ever guess that this ordinary-looking dining table by Ingrid Brandth doubles as a tiny house. Says the designer, “… it can be transformed into a shelter where one can hide from scary sounds, ghosts or family members. Just like a snail feels safe in its house.”

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Transforming Tables 16 Smart Space Saving Surface Designs

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Transforming Transit: 13 Compact Scooters, Skates & More

02 Oct

[ By Steph in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

Urban Commuting Chariot Skates 2

Zoom past backed-up traffic and crowded sidewalks on an electric unicycle, motorized skates or a fold-up scooter/backpack combo. Urban personal transit is going electric and ultra-compact so you can reach your destination faster and then pack up your wheels and slide them under your desk or into your locker.

Olaf Scooter Backpack

Urban Commuter Olaf 2

The Olaf is a carry-on suitcase, trolley, kick-scooter and skateboard in one, with an instant ‘pedal transformation system’ enabling the switch from one function to the next. It has everything a business traveler needs in a compact, airline-approved suitcase, but it’s also suited for urban commuting, with a soft wooden longboard that flips up and down with a kick of the foot. The creators are currently raising funds on Kickstarter to bring it into production.

Motorized Skates

Urban Commuting Motorized Skates 1

If you find roller blades too dorky or slow to be a real option for travel around the city, maybe you just need a little boost. SpnKiX are motorized skates that strap on over your shoes, operated by a hand-held remote control so you can control your acceleration at the press of a button.

Snap Folding Skateboard

Skateboards may be portable, but they can be annoying to carry around all day. Enter the ‘SNAP,’ a foldable skateboard designed with students and commuters in mind. The full-sized longboard fits inside any locker with hinges that fold the deck in thirds. According to the designers, dividing the deck in three makes each individual section much stronger and more durable than a full-length wood deck.

Urban Glider

Urban Commuting Glider 2

This lightweight single-wheeled cycle will get you around town quickly, but is as easy to transport as a suitcase. The Urban Glider uses a gyroscopically-stabilized electric mono-wheel to keep you upright as you stand on the pedals, and you control it by leaning back, forward or to either side. While it only goes about 13 miles per hour at most, it’s faster than walking, and the battery lasts up to 6 hours per charge, taking just 30 minutes to juice back up.

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[ By Steph in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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Modern, Modular & Transforming Kids’ Furniture: 13 Designs

04 Sep

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

Kids Furniture Klou 1

Why spend a fortune on a virtually endless array of aesthetically questionable kids’ furniture, from birth to their teen years, when you could choose customizable, transforming, modern furniture elements instead? These 13 smart space-saving solutions are just as well-thought-out as furniture made for adults, and can keep up with kids’ growth.

Rubik’s Cube Modular Kids Furniture

The Magic Module is a bunch of colorful foam and fabric cushions that can be clipped together to resemble a giant Rubik’s cube, or disassembled into seats, lounges, footrests and beds.

Smart Kid Bedroom in a Box

This kids bedroom-in-a-box starts out as a solid birch and plywood crib and then reconfigures into a variety of items that can be used throughout childhood. Take it apart once your toddler is too big for it and re-assemble it into a playpen, junior bed, desk or chalkboard and book rack.

Dumbo Double-Tuck Bed

Tuck Beds by Casa Kids are ‘modern murphy beds for kids,’ with the ability to be mounted horizontal or vertically to practically any wall. It takes up just 13 3/4″ of floor space when it’s all closed up, leaving lots of space for play. An integrated shelf doubles as leg support.

Convertible Crib Turns into Toy Bin & Bookshelf

The Yiahn Bassinet is another design that goes from birth to late childhood, starting out as a safe place for baby to sleep and transforming into a toy bin and bookshelf for toddlers, and then a chair and table for kids aged 4-8 years. If the family has a second baby, it can be reclaimed for its original use.

SPOT All-in-One Wooden Furniture Series

Free of all the visual clutter typically associated with children’s bedroom sets, SPOT by Polish designer Wiktoria Lenart is a space-saving furniture set with a neutral look and highly customizable character so kids can craft their rooms according to their own personalities and needs. Lofted beds, sliding compartments and a bed frame that doubles as a play space make it fun and easy for kids to create their own personal spaces.

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Modern Modular Transforming Kids Furniture 13 Designs

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Transforming Houses: 13 Homes Slide, Unfold, Spin & Expand

26 Aug

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Rooms rotate, roofs open to the sky, facades slide away to reveal glass walls and interiors literally turn inside out in these 13 transforming, highly customizable home designs. Some close up into impenetrable fortresses for maximum security while others unfold to blur the boundaries between indoors and out.

The Sliding House by DRMM

The outer walls and roof of this house in Suffolk, England by DRMM slide back and forth on rails to reveal a glassed-in static structure, opening the house to the outside world to a highly customizable degree. Deceptively simple-looking when it’s all closed up, the house practically transforms into a greenhouse when the 50-ton mobile roof and wall enclosure is pulled back via electric motors charged by solar panels.

Bedrooms That Can Be Wheeled Outside

Ever wish you could move your bed outside on a particularly nice day? The lucky residents of this house in Sazeau, France by Raum can go one step further, wheeling their entire bedrooms out of the house and onto a wooden terrace to interact with the surrounding landscape. A large doorway makes it easy to move the lightweight wooden cubes outside.

Push a Button, Change Your House Layout

Three wooden boxes within a fixed volume rotate and extend outward with the push of a button at the Sharifi-Ha house in Tehran by nextoffice. The volumes contain a guest room, home office and dining room that can either be aligned flush against the static parts of the home or rotated so the glassed-in ends face a variety of angles.

M-Velope Transformer House

A 230-square-foot mobile living space expands in surprising ways with slatted wood panels that bend and angle in surprising ways. Extending out from a steel frame, the walls fold to reveal interior benches, sleeping platforms, work surfaces and small shaded rooms.

Shed-to-Beach-House

What looks like no more than a wooden shed at first glance is actually a mobile beach house that can be towed off the sand before severe storms. Located on the northern coast of New Zealand, the ‘hut on a sled’ by Crosson Clarke Carnachan features a large wooden shutter facade that opens to reveal a two-story glazed wall facing the sea. The glass is operable, as well, opening the entire interior up to the ocean breezes.

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13 Transforming Houses Slide Unfold Spin And Expand

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Transforming Furniture: Fitting 5 Rooms into 640 Square Feet

21 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

transformingspaces2

With a mostly-open floor plan tucked into 60 square meters of space, the design challenge was to effectively fit the functionality of five rooms into the footprint of two.

transformingspace

The De Rotterdam project by star architect Rem Koolhaas, a Netherlands native and head of OMA, is the biggest building in the country but, being all about density, sports some of its smallest apartments as well.

A series of convertible furniture designs by Clei Italia makes it possible to expand side surfaces into dining tables, hang spare chairs on the wall and turn both desks and sofas into beds on demand.

de rotterdam apartment complex

The project’s developer, Wim De Lathauwer, explains that the Dutch are used to thinking in multi-functional terms – making the most of every inch (or rather: centimeter) of available area.

transforming chair design wall

The approach not only to makes these small apartments livable for singles or couples, but also to allow the units to support surprisingly large gatherings and overnight guests as well. The living room and kitchen combination becomes a bedroom, dining room or office as needed.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

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Transforming Dhaus Designers Announce Origamic DTable

03 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

dhouse unfolding architecture

As featured previously on WebUrbanist, the Dhaus is a radical transforming building with eight specific configurations and all kinds of deployments in between. This time around, we have even more from its creators, from models and videos to a new piece of furniture based on the same concept (video and images of the latter at the end!).

But first, a refresher and new details on the house design: “Conceived for the harsh, climatic extremes from ‘Lapland to Cape Horn and Aleutians to Auckland’ The D*Haus concept can respond dynamically to its environment by controlled adaptation to seasonal, meteorological and astronomical conditions.”

dhouse real life prototype

Imagine a view you can control on demand, and exposure centered around annual weather cycles: “The flexibility of the D*Haus allows adaptation from winter to summer, and day to night by literally moving inside itself.”

dhouse modular season models

Aside from the seasons, there is also security and open-plan versatility: ”The thick heavy external walls unfold into internal walls allowing glass internal walls to become facades. Doors become windows and vice versa.”

dtable modular rotating design

Their most recent design is a table based on the same modular principles of the house – something more people have space for and can afford to own. The D*Table launches on Kickstarter tomorrow. Like its larger counterpart, it consists of four pieces that can be swung inward, out and around into various functional settings fit for different uses and interior layouts.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Transforming Decor Reveals Secrets via Spills, Wear & Tear

25 Aug

Kristine Bjaadal creates objects with hidden stories to tell – everyday objects with secret tales shown only under strange circumstances, such as tabletop spills or time-worn seating.

A small change making a big impact on the future is known as the butterfly effect. In this case, the accidental tipping of a glass reveals a flock of butterflies lying invisible but in wait right on your tablecloth, titled Underfull.

Or consider the inevitability of fabric wearing thin on your favorite upholstered chair – what if that almost-invariably negative process were turned into something positive, via, say, a pattern that emerges as the surface material layer gets slowly stripped away, named Underskog.

Along similar lines, but requiring less time (but perhaps some until you or your guest notices it), are these so-called Undertone dishes with out-of-sight rings of color below their raised edges. It is only when picked up – or better yet: spotted in reflection on the top of a table – that these tones become clearly visible.

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Wild Wallpaper: Interactive Decor You Can Rip & Color

Hanging wallpaper is made much more fun when you get to paint and peel it, revealing intricate geometric patterns that won’t be found on any other wall.
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10 (More) Pieces of Clever Transforming Furniture: From Tetris Tables to Rooms in a Box

Be sure to scroll all the way down: the best (pictured briefly above) has been saved for last!
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Posts Tagged ‘Transforming’

Kinetic Parking Garage Facade

Sliding House by DRMM

Cafe-restaurant OPEN, Amsterdam by de Architekten Cie

Shapeshifting Sharifi-Ha House

Elevating Towers on Villa Hush Hush

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Adaptive Architecture 12 Transforming Breathing Buildings

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Aerodynamic Avian Architecture: 12 Bird-Inspired Buildings

Black Buildings: 15 Examples of Monochromatic Architecture

Transforming Houses: 13 Homes Slide, Unfold, Spin & Expand

Coffee to Dinner Tables by Ozzio Design

Tree Ring Table Cuts Itself in Half

Flip Table Hides Six Stools

Kaleidoscopic Capstan Table Spins to Enlarge

The Daily Shelter: Table to Child’s Fort

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Transforming Tables 16 Smart Space Saving Surface Designs

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Resource Furniture: Convertible Designs for Small Spaces

Prototype to Reality: Super Space-Saving Bedroom Set

Fold-Out Life: 13 Space-Saving & Expanding Room Elements

Olaf Scooter Backpack

Motorized Skates

Snap Folding Skateboard

Urban Glider

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Transforming Transit 13 Compact Scooters Skates More

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Urban Glider: Compact Portable Electric Unicycle for Cities

Odd-Wheel Wonders: 11 Novel Vehicles with 1 or 3 Wheels

Rockin’ Chairs : 12 Concept Personal Mobility Scooters

Rubik’s Cube Modular Kids Furniture

Smart Kid Bedroom in a Box

Dumbo Double-Tuck Bed

Convertible Crib Turns into Toy Bin & Bookshelf

SPOT All-in-One Wooden Furniture Series

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Modern Modular Transforming Kids Furniture 13 Designs

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Complete Series: 90 Awesome Modern Furniture Designs

Resource Furniture: Convertible Designs for Small Spaces

10 Awesome Pieces of Modern Furniture for Kids & Children

The Sliding House by DRMM

Bedrooms That Can Be Wheeled Outside

Push a Button, Change Your House Layout

M-Velope Transformer House

Shed-to-Beach-House

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: 13 Transforming Houses Slide Unfold Spin And Expand

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Adaptive Architecture 12 Transforming Breathing Buildings

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Transforming Tables 16 Smart Space Saving Surface Designs

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Transforming Transit 13 Compact Scooters Skates More

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Modern Modular Transforming Kids Furniture 13 Designs

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13 Transforming Houses Slide Unfold Spin And Expand