Category: Creativity

Vegan Antlers: Mount Wall Trophy Plants Instead of Animals

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

Combining a Japanese floral arrangement tradition (ikebana) with the hunting convention of mounted trophies, these plant holders allow for clever, colorful and ever-changing organic displays.

The Elkebana consists of a pair of glass flower holders set into a familiar wooden wall plaque, designed by Fabio Milito & Paula Studio and hand-crafted in Italy.

Its creators have had quite a bit of fun naming some of their experimental arrangements, including Nora the Angora, Girgenta the Goat, Jason the Aries, Isidoro the Oryx and Frank the Buck.

Unlike the more morbid mounts that inspired this creation, there is also a greater degree of flexibility – change the flowers or their organization and you change the piece.

And unlike traditional tabletop vessels for botanical displays, this one works well for small living spaces where surface area cannot be sacrificed.

Made of high quality birch plywood, solid walnut, solid oak or cork shield, the wall mounts hold your botanical arrangements in the two hand-blown glass vases.

From its makers: “The ‘ikebana is the ancient Japanese art of arranging floral elements in harmonious compositions. Elkebana brings the ancient art of ikebana to the wall, in order to transform the wall trophy idea into a continuously mutating, colourful creature.”

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100+ of the World’s Weirdest Plants and Animals

Here are over 100 of the most strange and amazing plant and animal species in the world – highlighting both the most beautiful and terrifying sides of Mother …
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Flowerworks: Pictures Capture Plants Exploding Like Fireworks

A novel take on a New Year’s staple, crafty photography and flower power, these bright botanical arrangements (set against dark night-like) …
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Flowering Potholes: Lovely Tile Plants Fill Ugly Street Voids

An uniquely elegant solution to a dirty everyday problem, these gorgeous handcrafted tile mosaics are turning unfilled potholes back into functional pieces …
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September 14, 2015
Taking Their Lumps: 12 Bitter Sweet Abandoned Sugar Mills

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Obesity epidemic notwithstanding, the world boasts more abandoned sugar mills than you can shake a peppermint stick at.

The former Delta Sugar Company mill in Clarksburg, Yolo County, California was constructed between 1934 and 1936… it took two years because the mill was transported by railroad, piece by piece, from its original location in Utah. By the early 1990s the mill became uneconomical to operate and in 1993 it was closed.

After lying abandoned for over 7 years, the “Old Sugar Mill” began to show some signs of life when some sections were upcycled into a grape-crushing and wine-tasting facility for several local wineries. Kudos to Flickr user Mark Brooks (cal_gecko), who exquisitely photo-documented the complex in late July of 2010.

Falling Like A Domino

The iconic Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn, NYC’s Williamsburg neighborhood was built in 1882 on the site of an even earlier sugar mill that opened in 1856. At one point the plant employed over 4,000 workers and supplied half the sugar consumed in the United States. By the year 2000 when the factory closed, however, only 225 employees still worked there. The Domino Sugar Refinery was sold to developers in early 2014 and the wrecking ball began swinging in October.

Sugar Beaten

The Great Western Sugar Company mill in Longmont, Colorado closed in 1977 and – possibly due to the dearth of wineries in the region – has sat derelict and abandoned for well over thirty years.

The factory opened in 1903 and processed locally-grown sugar beets. Rumor has it the mill is haunted, perhaps by sweet-toothed ghosts. Flickr user Sheila Dee (sheiladeeisme) visited the decrepit factory in January of 2013.

American Paia

Paia, on the island of Maui, Hawaii may be “The World Capitol of Windsurfing” but the town of 2,668 (as of 2010) has another claim to fame: it’s where the once cutting-edge Haiku Sugar Mill processed sugar cane into brown sugar.

Opening in 1861 and powered by a steam engine, the mill only operated for 18 years and has sat abandoned for well over a century. These days its ruins are a popular wedding photography and reception venue. Flickr user Maria Caridad snapped some of the more obscure areas of the abandoned mill on June 28th of 2009.

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Taking Their Lumps 12 Bitter Sweet Abandoned Sugar Mills

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Deserted Industry: 7 Abandoned Factories, Mills and Mines

Our factories and other industrial buildings tend to outlive their primary use. What happens then? These 7 factories, mills and mines were left to crumble.
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Meltdown: 10 Semi-Sweet Abandoned Chocolate Factories

Chocolate factories were once fragrant masters of their delicious domains but many have fallen victim to high costs, cocoa shortages and changing market tastes.
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Blocked Out: 10 Closed & Abandoned Hat-Making Factories

The golden age of hats – what George Costanza called a “bald paradise” – has long passed and along with it, so have hundreds of huge hat-making factories.
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[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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September 14, 2015
Stacked Ceramics: Shop Floor Made from 25,000 Pieces of Pottery

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

A 400-year-old ceramics studio in Japan has completely remodeled their store with a most remarkable addition: a walkable surface constructed from a stack of tens of thousands of scrapped pieces of crockery.

Yusuke Seki (photos by Takumi Ota) collected plates, saucers, bowls and cups for this creative endeavor, all to create a display platform for Maruhiro Ceramics in Hasami, Nagasaki.

To facilitate a more intimate experience, a pair of stairs is placed by the display platform, allowing visitors to walk up and peruse wares, all while enjoying a sense of wonder from the layers of history right beneath their feet.

Traditionally, flawed ceramics are simply thrown into dedicated landfills, while this rethought application brings pieces of history back up to the surface.

Since the discards are eliminated before the coloring and glazing process, there is an aesthetic consistency to the materials reused in this creative context.

Individually fragile, the tableware was turned into modular bricks by being filled with concrete, but their individual shapes and sizes still made this a daunting endeavor to actually deploy. Still, the result is compelling and interactive – not so much of a crackpot idea after all, as it turns out.

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From Pottery to Portraits: 20 Amazing Works of Garbage Art

Why waste money and add to the world’s waste by buying art materials when there are so many strange and interesting objects out there to use for design …
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Room in a Box: 10 Pieces of Clever Transforming Furniture

From tetris tables to sofa beds on steroids, shelves that fold down into seats or that double as decor and much much more.
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Fantastic Floor Coverings: 13 Unusual Rug Designs

These 13 modern rug designs break out of the Oriental rectangle with unexpected patterns, perforations, prints and materials.
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September 13, 2015
Ghost Church: Creepy Statues Invade Abandoned Czech Chapel

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

If you just happen to stumble upon the dilapidated St. George’s Church in the Czech Republic, passing through the crumbling entrance to glance around at the shadowy interior, you might just be in for the most terrifying moment of your life. Abandoned since the 1960s, the church has long since been devoid of human worshippers, but that doesn’t mean it’s empty. Ghostly shrouded figures line its pews, some hovering in doorways and in the aisles.

Located in the northwestern Bohemia town of Luková, the ‘Church of Nine Ghosts’ first fell into disrepair after the ceiling caved in during a funeral service in 1968. Locals took that as a bad omen, and boarded up the 14th century structure, holding services outside instead. But many residents saw the church as an important part of the town’s history, and wanted to see it restored.

“The figures represent the ghosts of Sudeten Germans who lived in Lukova before World War Two and who came to pray at this church every Sunday,” says artist Jakub Hadrava, who was commissioned to create the installation. “I hope to show the world that this place had a past and it was a normal part of everyday life, but that fate has a huge influence on our lives.”

Made of plaster, the ghosts were put in place over the summer of 2014 in the hopes of drawing more tourists to the region, raising money to rehabilitate the historic 1352 church. The plan worked, as people have come from all over the world to see the statues in this unusual environment, and the church will soon be restored to its former glory.

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Abandoned Church Becomes Brilliant Urban Art Installation

Street artist HENSE turned an abandoned church in Washington, D.C. into a massive abstract mural that stands as a symbol of hopes for the neighborhood’s future.
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Light Lines: Stunning String Installation Inside Abandoned Church

What seems at first to be narrow rays of turquoise light streaming in through the stained glass windows of a vacant Gothic Revival church turn out to be over …
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Church ‘Champing’: Spend a Night in a Historic British Chapel

Spend an entire night climbing bell towers, composing your own sermons from a pulpit, examining historic artifacts up close or virtually anything else you want …
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[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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September 11, 2015
Hello World: Precise Aerial Art Drawn by Light-Painting Drones

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

Highlighting the capabilities of high-precision aerial drones, this series of LED words and patterns could be the future of everything from midair advertising to digital fireworks displays. Entertainment value aside, there is a practical purpose behind this teaser trailer: to illustrate possibilities for 3D aeria documentation.

The demonstrations in this launch video for PRENAV, a seed-funded drone venture, are meant to show potential investors and clients the power of centimeter-precise flying robots. “The precision comes from custom software and hardware we’ve created, including a robot on the ground that’s equipped with a camera and laser rangefinder to guide the drone along a predefined path.”

Some of these scenes were filmed in close to 20 MPH winds in the Bay Area, which is critical since the company’s mission is to document exterior infrastructure (from wind turbines to cell phone towers) for review and repair. Instead of sending people to do potentially dangerous recon, automation saves time, money and reduces risk.

“The video was a fun and playful way for us to highlight the capabilities of our system, but the precision that we’re demonstrating is essential for industrial use cases like cell tower and wind turbine inspections. For this type of work, a drone needs to fly extremely close to the structure to capture imagery and build a 3D reconstruction of the asset.”

“Flying this close is challenging, even for the most skilled drone pilots who today try to do this manually (since GPS can’t provide the accuracy needed for autonomous guidance). Our system makes it a breeze to get complete coverage of the tower with hi-res images. And those images then get stitched together into an accurate 3D reconstruction that can be rotated, measured, and analyzed.”

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Aerial Urbex: 7 Difficult Deserted Places Filmed with Drones

Drones have changed the landscape of urban exploration and building infiltration, allowing their navigators access to toxic, irradiated, forbidden and …
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Collaborative Construction: Aerial Drone-Built Architecture

Unmanned aerial vehicles can do more than just take pictures, pick up and drop off objects – they can also work together to create solid structures, …
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Drones for Life: 13 Fun & Positive Flying Robot Functions

Instead of raining death and destruction, these 13 drones deliver defibrillators and piping hot pizza, save drowning victims, mix the perfect cocktails, clean …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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WebUrbanist

September 11, 2015
Telescoping Trailer: Expanding Teardrop Camper Triples in Size

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

The 3X trailer deploys with the push of a button, tripling its interior space in a matter of seconds, turning a cramped road can by day into an expansive set of rooms at night.

Designed by French company Beauer, the nesting camper is about 8.5 by 6 feet in its travel-ready configuration, but the shorter dimension turns in the longer one (15 feet) when deployed.

Its fixtures conveniently slot into place, unfolding to become parts of a set of bedroom, kitchen, living and dining areas (complete with refrigerator, stove, microwave, sink and toilet).

Portable tanks for potable and gray water systems are also included. Its compact configuration is ideal not just for taking it on the road but storing it in parking spots, driveways or garages when not in use.

With a price tag of around $ 25,000 USD, the units may not be cheap but come packed with amenities. Currently for sale in France, plans are in place to expand sales throughout Europe and eventually around the world.

A larger variant with built-in towing vehicle (shown above) is also in development, utilizing similar space-saving and expansion strategies in addition to other caravan buildouts. Perhaps one model or another could take the action as its name: the Tripling has a nice ring to it.

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12 Futuristic Mobile Homes: Trailer Trash Turned Treasure

With global warming threatening coastal cities and a new era of mass migration on the horizon, going mobile just might be today’s bright idea – and tomorrow’s …
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Fold-Out Life: 13 Space-Saving & Expanding Room Elements

Murphy beds and small table surfaces aren’t the only interior elements that can pop out of walls or freestanding cabinets to offer extra function when …
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Eco Capsule: Mobile Grid-Free Home Harnesses Sun, Wind & Rain

With stylistic nods to classic rounded Airstream trailers, this next-generation mobile pod dwelling is powered by solar and wind energy and provides drinkable …
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September 11, 2015
Climbing Cocoon: Ascend Gallery Atrium Through Net Tube

[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

Test your climbing skills with a vertical ascent through three stories of a gallery atrium with the newest interactive installation by design collective Numen/For Use. Occupying Austria’s Architekturforum Tirol, ‘Tube’ is a network of connected safety nets suspended from the walls and ceiling, inviting visitors to crawl, slide and scramble until they hit various dead ends providing vantage points out the windows or onto other areas of the installation.

The angles are as irregular and organic as if they’d been woven by a spider or silkworm, creating a sort of human cocoon. The cables attaching the installation to the wall are elastic so the whole thing gently bobs up and down with the movement of its occupants at any given time. The structural support is designed in such a way that anyone climbing inside experiences the sensation of free-floating.

Stretching upward through an oculus in the gallery’s second floor, ‘Tube’ is an abstract composition, its jagged black form like a brushstroke against a network of erratic geometric lines. Contrasting against the white surfaces of the space, the installation stands out in stark relief, placing the emphasis on the shape of the nets and the bulges created by the people moving around inside.

Numen/For Use previously created a grid of climbable strings, a bounce house for adults and a network of translucent tunnels made of packing tape, humans crawling around inside like trapped insects.

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Tape Tunnels: Crawl Inside a Human-Sized Spiderweb in Paris

Stretching from one end of the Palais de Tokyo gallery in Paris to the other, these strange translucent tunnels look like human-sized versions of the …
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Gravity-Defying House Gives Visitors Climbing Power

Some London residents have recently acquired an incredible ability to scale walls with ease. They climb the facade of a building, sit quietly on windowsills, …
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Surreal Art Spaces: 15 Stunning Gallery Transformations

These 15 art installations transformed galleries and other spaces into surreal, often interactive environments with amazing visuals and optical illusions.
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[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

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WebUrbanist

September 10, 2015
Zenith of Zen: 13 Nontraditional Takes on Japanese Gardens

[ By Steph in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

Broken down to its most basic characteristics, the traditional Japanese zen garden inspires innovative design in everything from toys and candy to the most impossibly relaxing modern bathrooms you’ve ever seen. These unexpected takes on the traditional play on the meditative activity of dragging a rake through sand, the pleasingly minimalist aesthetic of the resulting lines and the sense of tranquility a zen garden can bring to a built environment.

Sugar Art: Edible Zen Garden

This miniature zen garden is entirely edible, with sugar standing in for sand and rocks made from black sesame candies. Created by designer Tomonori Saito, the Shinan-ji Temple Rock Garden provides you with a tiny wooden rake so you can play with your food before you eat it.

Kinetic Drawing Machine Creates Sand Art

Instead of a rake in the hands of a human, the patterns of lines in these circles of sand are created by steel marbles controlled by a kinetic drawing machine. The Sisyphus Machine by Bruce Shapiro produces mandala-like designs that swirl and change as the marbles move.

Interactive Zen Garden Installation in Quebec

This new take on the traditional Japanese zen garden replaces sand with gravel and uses three spinning tools inspired by agricultural machinery to create the patterns. Created by Talmon Biran Architecture for the International Garden Festival in Quebec, the ‘Dry Landscape’ installation requires participants to work in tandem to create their own circles without bumping into each other.

XYZen Garden Works Like an Etch-A-Sketch

Create your own relaxing DIY zen garden game with a tutorial at Instructables, which even includes shop drawings and templates. The XYZen Garden by Jonathan Odom works like an Etch-a-Sketch toy, using a pulley system to move the stylus across the sand.

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Zenith Of Zen 13 Nontraditional Takes On Japanese Gardens

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Modern Design Meets Tradition in 12 Japanese Homes

These twelve homes balance Japanese traditions like recessed lower levels, adaptable interior rooms and transitional garden spaces with modern sensibilities.
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Sleek Internet Logos Echo Metal-Etched Japanese Cameras

There is something simply elegant about type-embossed metal – in part the association with classic high-end manual cameras, reprized in this classy logo series.
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Smart Space Solutions: 14 Innovative Japanese Home Interiors

Extremely narrow lots and busy urban locations are no big deal for ingenious Japanese architects creating comfortable, daylight-filled residential interiors …
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September 10, 2015
Tube Travelators: Replacing London Trains with Moving Walkways

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

A proposal by an international architecture firm would reduce travel time in the London Underground, not with faster rail cars but by using people movers of the kind generally found in airports. Closing the loop on questions of congestion, this strategy would stop trains in their tracks.

Aimed at the congested Circle Line looping through the heart of the city, the design from NBBJ Architects incorporates three parallel walkways moving at different speeds (up to a maximum of 15 miles per hour). That may sound slow until you consider that the top speed of the trains currently running these sections of Tube is around 20 MPH due to congestion.

Commuters and travelers would step from the slowest-moving walkway across to increasingly faster lanes, using the replacement paths to connect to work or other (generally faster) lines of the Underground. People walking down the fast lane could actually end up moving more quickly than a train. Others could potentially sit down along one side on fold-down seats (as with an escalator railing, these would speed along at the same pace as the track below).

While the odds of implementation are slim, the data is compelling – the system could accommodate more passengers than the current trains and would eliminate the frustration of waiting in queues. The Circle Line in particular is infamous for delays, with an average of 10 reported per day.

Christian Coop of NBBJ cites a challenge from think tank New London Architecture for the inspiration to create these strange proposal. If nothing else, it might be something to consider for the vast expanses of derelict underground rail space running through the city.

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The Under Line: Derelict London Tube Tunnels as Public Paths

Transforming unused sections of the London Underground, this bold proposal envisions a network of subterranean paths for pedestrians and cyclists as well …
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Non-Stop Rail: 2 Future Trains Pick Up Passengers in Motion

Saving time, energy and bridging the gap between high-speed rail and local-only service, these proposed solutions (each in their own unique way) let people …
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View Forward: Driverless London Train Cars Arriving in 2020

Called the New Tube, the next phase in London’s Underground system will feature partially and entirely automated cars, including ones that let passengers …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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September 9, 2015
Animal Overpass: LA Wildlife Crossing to Be Largest in US

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

Set in urban Los Angeles over a calculated spot along the 101 Freeway, an audacious freeway overpass has been designed to reduce deaths among mountain lions, pumas and other wild species populating the area. While such wildlife crossing exist in various forms around the world, this would be the biggest of its kind in North America at 165 by 200 feet, and perhaps the largest urban example on the planet.

The crossing is set to connect two areas of protected public land, in the Santa Monica Mountains to the south and the Santa Susana Mountains to the north, stitching a fragmented habitat back together. Covered in native greenery, it would provide a safe passage for animals across the busy freeway below and could double as a crossing for hikers and mountain bikers as well.

Backed by local politicians and wildlife protection organizations, the project was vetted for feasibility by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and is set to be funded with public money. It is intended primarily to protect animals, but also benefits motorists who can also be harmed in wildlife-related accidents.

There are smaller-scale precedents around the US and the globe, variously set above or below roads help animals both large and small. Some are larger, including tunnels or bridges for bears, cougars, deer, elk but others are smaller and species-specific, like the above aerial trellis for mice and squirrels in Australia. In some cases, as with a certain species of crab (below, also: Down Under), the crossings are essential to maintaining balanced ecosystems and supporting local economies.

Many of these kinds of structures can be found in more rural states around the country, while very few bridge metropolitan highways. “I don’t know anywhere where people have tried to put such a large wildlife crossing over such a busy highway in such an urban landscape,” said Seth Riley, a wildlife ecologist with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service (additional images via Wikipedia).

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Well Rounded: 7 Animal Murals on Abandoned Buildings in Africa

Using the unique regional shapes of structures to his advantage, street artist ROA has created a series of large-scale works as part of a neighborhood art …
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Creature Comforts: ARK Luxury Terminal for Animal Passengers

Swimming pools, private suites, flat-screen televisions, medical facilities and luxury lounges – all these amenities cannot be yours, but can be enjoyed …
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Animal House: Woodland Creatures Adopt Deserted Cabins

These interior photos by Kai Fagerström depict wild forest inhabitants who have made derelict human-owned dwellings their own – domestic …
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September 9, 2015