RSS
 

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Photoluminescent Furniture: Filled Wooden Voids Glow in Dark

17 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

glow dark wood table

A pair of crafty carpenters have separately arrived at the same conclusion: glow-in-the-dark resin is a really neat way to fill cracks, gaps, splits and other natural or accidental voids frequently found in wood shelves and surfaces.

glow in the dark shelf

Whether you have a small piece that needs infill or mending or a larger project in the works, one of these approaches may well be ideal for your own do-it-yourself project – some details are provided below but full instructions on each strategy can be found via links included as well.

glow shelf final product

glow knot seen from below

In the first instance, Mat Brown decided to try something other than the standard invisible-style repair to solve the problem of empty space around knots and front-facing unevenness in boards to be used as shelving.

glow dark resin mix

glow dark wood process

He provides further details on the process over at his blog, but in a nutshell: he used robust tape below and on the sides then heated up the resin, mixed in the powder and poured in the results. After a second similar round he cut, sanded and finished the pieces.

glowing infill table design

glowing cyprus power resin

Mike Warren has subsequently brought a similar idea to the table, creating a tutorial for filling in the naturally separation gaps found in a certain species of cyprus, livening up the surface with bright resin.

glow dark table detail

The full illustrated list of 25 steps for this latter version can be seen on Instructables, but in this case a similar process was used, just heavier-duty tools employed (like a drum sander) to keep the workload down. Hat tip to Chris of Colossal for finding both of these projects as well.

Share on Facebook





[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Photoluminescent Furniture: Filled Wooden Voids Glow in Dark

Posted in Creativity

 

Brilliant Brick Creations: 13 Amazing LEGO Gadgets & Art

15 Dec

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

superawesomemicroproject-designboom00

LEGOs can form the basis of all sorts of amazing things, but would you ever have imagined they could create working prosthetics, mechanical looms, drivable hot-rods and even full-sized houses? These 13 incredible creations test the limits of the little plastic bricks, proving that there’s no reason to put them aside as ‘toys’ when we reach adulthood.

Wheelchair for a Disabled Tortoise
strange LEGO tortoise wheelchair

Poor little ‘Blade’ wasn’t managing to get around very well on his own, so his human companion brought him in to local veterinarian Carsten Plischke. Realizing the turtle had a disability that made it hard for him to carry his own weight, Plischke fashioned an adorable little wheelchair out of parts from his son’s Lego collection.

LEGO x IKEA: Furniture Animals
strange LEGO IKEA 1

strange LEGO IKEA 2

strange LEGO IKEA 3

Here’s the LEGO and Ikea mashup you never knew you needed: building block animals interwoven with inexpensive Swedish furniture. ‘Venereal Architecture’ by Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro includes a lion, deer, stingray, snake, tortoise, octopus and other creatures built around various Ikea items. “As humans we are ever adapting and manipulating our environment to cope with the elements and creatures that share our spaces. We build structures that enclose and protect us from nature. Air conditioning controls the temperature and we domesticate animals so they can live with us.”

“Our control over nature (or lack there of) is central to this body of work. Lego and Ikea furniture are very similar in a sense: they are both objects of aspiration that require assembly… both products represent destruction and re-construction, which are concerns we revisit continually within our practice.”

Working LEGO Gadgets
strange LEGO gadgets 1

working LEGO gadgets 2

Officially released by LEGO themselves after a collaboration with a company that specializes in children’s tech products, this fun range of gadgets includes working electronic items like walkie talkies, boom boxes, alarm clocks, cameras and even an MP3 player.

Digitally Synced LEGO Calendar
strange LEGO calendar

strange LEGO calendar 2

This wall-mounted calendar made entirely of LEGO bricks by UK design studio Vitamins lynches with Google Calendar or iCal to synchronize schedules when users take a picture of the calendar with a smart phone. Software scans the image, notes the location of the various colored squares, and interprets the information.

LEGO Prosthetic Arm
strange LEGO prosthetic arm 1

strange LEGO prosthetic arm 2

This fully-functional prosthetic limb by student Max Shepherd is made entirely from LEGO and can replicate a full range of human movements including an extending elbow, flexing movements in the wrist, rotation of the thumb and opening and closing of the fingers. The prosthetic is mounted to a ‘skeletal’ base containing all of the wires needed to power it, so we don’t get to actually see it in action on a real live person, but it’s a pretty interesting concept.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Amazing Lego Gadgets Art

Share on Facebook





[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Brilliant Brick Creations: 13 Amazing LEGO Gadgets & Art

Posted in Creativity

 

Fungi Farm Prototype Turns Waste Plastic into Edible Treats

15 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

fungi muratium toxic waste

Breaking down one of the most difficult types of trash, this incredible working incubator turns sterilized plastic remnants into nutritional biomass humans can consume and digest, in short: food. Texture, taste and flavor depend upon the strain of fungus, but reportedly can be quite strong as well as quite sweet.

fungus growth system

fungi plastic utensil set

fungi eating good

Livin Studio, an Austrian design group known for innovative work on insect farms, has built a working model of this growth sphere (dubbed the Fungi Mutarium) that takes parts of mushrooms usually left uneaten and grows them into fresh snacks.

fungi eating growth sphere

From the creators: “We were working with fungi named Schizophyllum Commune and Pleurotus Ostreatus. They are found throughout the world and can be seen on a wide range of timbers and many other plant-based substrates virtually anywhere in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australia. Next to the property of digesting toxic waste materials, they are also commonly eaten. As the fungi break down the plastic ingredients and don’t store them, like they do with metals, they are edible.”

fungi incubation chamber diagram

In terms of the process, “Fungi Mutarium is a prototype that grows edible fungal biomass, mainly the mycelium, as a novel food product. Fungi is cultivated on specifically designed agar shapes that the designers called FU.  Agar is a seaweed based gelatin substitute and acts, mixed with starch and sugar, as a nutrient base for the fungi. The FUs are filled with plastics. The fungi is then inserted, it digests the plastic and overgrows the whole substrate. The shape of the FU is designed so that it holds the plastic and to offer the fungi a lot of surface to grow on. “

fungus diagram design

For now, the digestion is a relatively slow process, taking up to a few months for a set of cultures to fully mature, but by the standards of plastic biodegrading in nature this is still an extraordinary feat. The team continues to work with university researchers to make the process faster and more efficient. “Scientific research has shown that fungi can degrade toxic and persistent waste materials such as plastics, converting them into edible fungal biomass.”

fungi edible grown creaiton

fungi plastic eating design

This novel application comes just a few years after a group of Yale students discovered a species of fungi on a trip to Ecuador as part of a Rainforest Expedition and Labratory led by a molecular biochemist. Even in the absence of light and air, the species they examined thrived in landfill environments, suggesting potential near-future and larger-scale solution for existing waste sites as well.

Share on Facebook





[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Fungi Farm Prototype Turns Waste Plastic into Edible Treats

Posted in Creativity

 

Racked: 10 Abandoned Pool, Billiard & Snooker Parlors

15 Dec

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

billiards_pool_inala_1
No doubt these abandoned billiard parlors & snooker halls are in trouble… trouble with a capital “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for pool!

billiards_pool_inala_2

billiards_pool_inala_3

The Thien Tien pool hall in Inala, Australia may have had a “grand” opening but it seems the good times didn’t last for long. Flickr user Feeeeeeee (burntfeather) photo-documented both the inside and the outside of the now-decrepit snooker hall on October 28th of 2012 and by the looks of it, vandals and graffiti artists have had plenty of time to rack, er, wreck the facility.

billiards_pool_inala_5

billiards_pool_inala_4

Inala, a suburb of Brisbane in Queensland, was established after the Second World War in response to a severe housing crisis. Homes and accompanying commercial/recreational buildings were constructed of local materials and reinforced concrete, which in the case of the Thien Tien pool hall resulted in some very attractive buildings. It’s a pity the vibrant, multicultural population of today’s Inala isn’t able to relaunch or repurpose this cool abandoned pool hall.

Scott's_Pool_Hall_Middlegrove

You’d have to go to George Costanza’s old bedroom at his parents’ house in Queens to find a pool parlor smaller than Scott’s Pool Hall in Middlegrove, Illinois. The image above is part of DOCUMERICA: The Environmental Protection Agency’s Program to Photographically Document Subjects of Environmental Concern. Perhaps the copious clouds of cigarette smoke emitted by countless pool sharks over the decades turned Scott’s into a Superfund site.

Wheaton_and_Hollis_Hotel_&_Pool_Hall_Bodie_1

pool hall, Bodie State Park

Check out these timeless shots of the abandoned Wheaton and Hollis Hotel & Pool Hall in Bodie, California – and dig that funky pool table! We say “timeless” because like most of Bodie’s buildings, the pool hall remains in a state of semi-suspended animation since the Mono County town officially became Bodie State Historic Park in 1962.

abandoned_pool_table_Russian_ship

According to the photographer, Flickr user Pigeoneyes.com, this is a single-table “pool room” on board an abandoned Russian ship. Presumably the table was equipped with a sophisticated gyroscopic balance system or games were only played when the waters were mirror-calm.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Racked 10 Abandoned Pool Billiard Snooker Parlors

Share on Facebook





[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Racked: 10 Abandoned Pool, Billiard & Snooker Parlors

Posted in Creativity

 

Blacking Out BLU: World-Famous Berlin Mural Erased in Protest

14 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

blu middle finger black

A huge multi-building work of art has been painted over in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, reportedly at the behest of the artist BLU himself as a reaction to the clearing of an adjacent tent city and plans to build condos next to (and with views of) the mural.
blu-black-alternating

In the course of painting the walls black, a hand was temporarily left in place with its middle finger up (as shown in the first image above) – this aggressive gesture can be interpreted as a broader commentary about gentrification in the neighborhood or a specific reaction to the residential project next door.

As with any controversial act, this whitewashing (or black-washing as it were) has drawn both praise and criticism. On the one hand, it can be viewed as an attempt to fight development and change, but it also represents the destruction of an iconic work and arguably an act of egotistical self-sabotage.

The mural itself was originally created in 2008, with part of its progress captured in the timelapse video above. It was, from the start, a commentary on economic and social justice as well as gentrification – now it is again, perhaps, but in a different way.

Share on Facebook





[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Blacking Out BLU: World-Famous Berlin Mural Erased in Protest

Posted in Creativity

 

Shop in a Swimming Pool: Neglected Space Turned into a Store

13 Dec

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

swimming pool store aoyama 1

Until recently, this indoor swimming pool on the vacant ground floor of a 1970s apartment building in Tokyo was just an empty space, dry and disused for years. Now it’s a pop-up shop by Nobuo Araki known as ‘The Pool Aoyama‘ hawking clothing, accessories and swim-themed promotional items. The designers left the pool almost entirely intact, installing a glass floor that mimics the look of water.

swimming pool aoyama 5

swimming pool store aoyama 8

The shell of the abandoned pool and its steel ladder have become key elements of the final design, with the pool walls defining the space of the shop. Wooden stairs on either side of the pool meet to create a sort of bridge across the glass. White shelving units are mounted along the edges to display goods, and U-shaped stainless steel clothing racks hanging from the ceiling echo the look of pool hand rails.

swimming pool store aoyama 2

swimming pool store aoyama 3

The designers were drawn to the soft light, charm and quirkiness of the space, and the shallow depth of the pool lends itself well for adaptation into a showroom. A newly installed glass ceiling floods the room with natural light, and the bathrooms were turned into fitting rooms.

swimming pool aoyama 4

swimming pool store aoyama 6

swimming pool store aoyama 10

Entering the shop feels a bit like gaining access to a secret underground space that few are savvy to, as the door is simply marked with an inconspicuous sign reading ‘The Pool.’

Share on Facebook





[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Shop in a Swimming Pool: Neglected Space Turned into a Store

Posted in Creativity

 

Last Stop: Photo Book Documents 150 Vanishing US Rest Stops

12 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & History & Travel. ]

rest stop photo montage

For the last five years, this photographer has been traveling around the United States and capturing an eclectic but dying breed of roadside architecture: the American rest stop.

rest stop brick wood

rest stop simple a frame

the last stop big bend

rest stop waggon cannon

Ryann Ford of Austin, Texas, who has taken 150 pictures of  these to date, notes that this architectural typology has been associated with ” rest, relief, hospitality, and nostalgia” for the last half-century. The shots shown here include Big Bend National Park, Texas (FM 170), Walker Lake, Nevada (U.S. 95), Thackerville, Oklahoma (I-35), Clines Corners, New Mexico (U.S. 66/I-40), Monument Valley, Arizona, and more.

the last stop photo book

the last stop picture pages

the last stop cover page

Though The Last Stop has just reached her crowdfunding goal on Kickstarter, there is still time left to support the project in return for this oversized coffee table book which will be filled with 100 pages of images and stories. It represents both an aesthetic treat but also a critical archive of these structures, many of which are being abandoned or destroyed. Polaraids, prints and other prizes are also available.

rest stop map image

rest stop abandoned deserted

rest stop desert roof

rest stop picnic area

“When interstate highways were first built, passing up many small towns, rest stops were a way to reconnect people to the places they were traveling though. They gave small towns a chance to show their cultural significance. Rest areas have become relics of America’s roadside past. These sites not only illustrate a unique period in the American travel experience, but are significant for the architectural forms found within them.”

Share on Facebook





[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & History & Travel. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Last Stop: Photo Book Documents 150 Vanishing US Rest Stops

Posted in Creativity

 

Vertical City Farming: Undulating Mixed-Use Urban Community

12 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

urban farming city concept

Designed to provide a spaces for public gardening as well as senior living, this hybrid complex has a rich array of green roofs, terraces and facades allowing for locally-grown produce as well as civic interaction.

urban farm terrace plan

urban farm gardening community

Responding to the fact that by 2030 a full 20% of Singapore’s population will be retirement-aged, SPARK Architects sought to address high-density housing, sustainable architecture and urban agriculture in this complex.

urban farm design concept

urban farm walkway singapore

The layered concept involves ground-level farms and gardens open to the citizenry as well as individual, upper-level plots that retired persons can work at their leisure.

urban farming design section

urban farming aquaponics module

urban farming design diagram

Further, “the environmental sustainability and efficiency of ‘Home Farm’ [is] enhanced by proposed features such as the collection of rainwater, for use in aquaponic systems, and the use of plant waste for energy production.”

urban farm ground floor

urban farm undulating form

The curvilinear master plan provides maximum sun exposure and variegated views throughout the complex, encouraging residents to walk around to exercise, interact with neighbors and experience a diverse set of internal and city views.

Share on Facebook





[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Vertical City Farming: Undulating Mixed-Use Urban Community

Posted in Creativity

 

Future Materials: Lightweight Carbon Fiber Architecture

11 Dec

[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

carbon fiber architecture 3

The buildings of the future might just look as lightweight as a spiderweb, seeming as if they could blow away at any moment, while actually being incredibly strong. In the past, architects had to choose between delicate looks and durability, but the development of new composite materials unveils all sorts of possibilities. The c-LITH research project demonstrates the strength of digitally fabricated carbon fiber filaments stacked in small sections.

carbon fiber architecture 2

carbon fiber architecture 6

The team created a prototype that’s 14 feet tall and 8 feet wide at the base, yet uses only 30 pounds of material. It’s made of 143 wound carbon fiber filament ‘bricks’ that can be scaled up for architectural production. The use of carbon fiber has been fairly limited in architecture, as it usually comes in panels like those used for airplanes, and isn’t exactly cost-effective.

carbon fiber architecture 4

carbon fiber architecture 5

Michigan-based architecture firm Area used inexpensive cardboard molds to create the sections using carbon fiber filament pre-pregnated with epoxy resin to keep it malleable until baked. They built their own low-heat oven to cure the sections at 260 to keep the cardboard from catching fire. Once finished, the pieces were soaked in water so the cardboard could be removed.

carbon fiber architecture 7

The resulting bricks are stacked into a tetrahedral geometric shape, and pins connect the components, making them easy to assemble and disassemble. The designers see the possibilities as virtually endless, and it’s fun to imagine what could be made with this material at a larger scale.

Share on Facebook





[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Future Materials: Lightweight Carbon Fiber Architecture

Posted in Creativity

 

Grottos to Game of Thrones: 16 Jaw-Dropping Restaurants

11 Dec

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

Amazing Restaurants Cave Italy 1

You’ll have a hard time chewing with your mouth closed as you dine at these incredible jaw-dropping establishments around the world, from a hanging cliffside restaurant in China to a cantilevered overlook at a ski resort in France. Forget minding your manners, because whether you’re at a slightly silly theme restaurant that feels like being dropped into Game of Thrones or an all-white cafe decorated with 10,000 bones, you won’t be able to help gawking at your surroundings.

Hueso Bone Restaurant, Guadalajara, Mexico

Amazing restaurants 1000 bones 1

Amazing Restaurants 1000 Bones 2

amazing restaurants hueso 3

As long as you’re not squeamish about looking at hundreds of bones as you eat, you’ll have an incredible meal at Hueso (‘Bone’), a stylish modern Guadalajara restaurant with a very precise 10,000 bones tucked into every available nook, niche and wall surface. The concept restaurant, located in a 1940s home, features a graphic black-and-white tile exterior inspired by stitching and sewing patterns. The design, by Cadena + Asociados, was “inspired by a Darwinian vision.”

Labassin Waterfall Restaurant, Phillippines
Amazing Restaurants waterfall 1

Amazing Restaurants Waterfall 2

Amazing Restaurants waterfall 3
Guests at Villa Esucdero in San Pablo City, the Philippines had better be wearing water-resistant shoes when they take a seat at the Labassin restaurant, where bamboo dining tables await beside a roaring waterfall. Only a few inches of water stream over the artificial waterfall, making it safe to walk right up to it and lean against it if you so desire, so guests often mix their dining experience with water play. The restaurant is attached to a church converted to a museum, and located in an area with some of the richest biodiversity in the world.

Medieval Tavern Brabant, Prague, Czech Republic

Amazing restaurants medieval tavern

Amazing Restaurants Medieval Tavern 2

You could go to Tavern Brabant for the somewhat silly historical medieval show, or just to gawp at the surroundings and pretend like you’re in Game of Thrones. You pay a flat fee to enter, watch the show, feast on all you can eat, and enjoy two large drinks. It’s located along Prague’s Royal Way in Old Town and features (presumably) fake skulls set into the stone walls.

Ithaa Undersea Restaurant, Rangali Island, Maldives
Amazing Restaurants Ithaa Undersea 1

Ithaa Undersea Restaurant

The world’s first all-glass undersea restaurant sits 16 feet beneath the surface of the sea just off Maldives, offering a 270-degree view of a coral reef. Expect to pay at least $ 120 for lunch as a hotel guest – and you’d better have a reservation. The restaurant is accessed via a spiral staircase descending from a pavilion at the end of a jetty.

Restaurant in the Sky

Amazing restaurants dinner in the sky 1

Amazing Restaurants dinner in the sky 2

Amazing Restaurants dinner in the sky 3

Amazing restaurants dinner in teh sky 5

The traveling ‘Dinner in the Sky‘ restaurant brings a 29-foot table seating 22 people to stunning locations all over the world, suspending diners hundreds of feet above the ground. Dangling from a crane, the table is entirely open-air, so you’d better not be afraid of heights. Dinner packages typically start at around $ 300 per person. The company also offers special packages like ‘Party in the Sky,’ ‘Wedding in the Sky’ and ‘Meeting in the Sky,’ if you’re so inclined.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
16 Jaw Dropping Restaurants

Share on Facebook





[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Grottos to Game of Thrones: 16 Jaw-Dropping Restaurants

Posted in Creativity