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When Every Inch Counts: 14 More Clever Small Space Hacks

22 Sep

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

Small Space Hacks Compact Kitchen 3

Making a tiny living space comfortable and practical means integrating multi-purpose furniture, custom built-ins and lots of other clever space-saving tricks. These 14 (more) small space hacks include a few DIY projects that can be achieved with components purchased at Ikea.

Incredibly Compact Kitchen

Small Space Hacks Compact Kitchen 2

Starting as a narrow dining table, this ultra-compact kitchen swings open to reveal an induction cooktop, oven, refrigerator and storage space with a sink and a work surface. Slide it under the white table unit when not in use or pull it out into its own little island – perfect for the minimalist cook working in a small space. Check out 15 more modular & multipurpose kitchens for small spaces.

Spaceflavor Mobile Cube: Office/Tea House in One

Small Space Hacks Spaceflavor Cube 2

Feng Shui expert Liu Ming created the Mobile Cube to compartmentalize his personal space in a live/work apartment that has to accommodate over 30 students during classes. The entire cube is on wheels, with a lower portion that can contain a bedroom or an office, and a loft that functions as meditation space, a sleeping area or a tea room (as he uses it.) It measures just eight feet square and has hidden stairs that double as drawers, as well as cabinets, closet space and translucent roller shades.

Fold-Out Picnic Table

Small Space Hacks Fold Out Table 2

This picnic table offered by a Brazilian furniture store has enough seating for six people, yet folds completely flat against the wall when not in use, opening up the floor for other purposes.

IKEA Closet Makeover

Small Space Hacks Closet 2

A cluttered closet in a small Brooklyn apartment now has a dedicated space for everything from shoes to handbags courtesy of an IKEA makeover. While the overall size of this closet would be luxurious in most small spaces, the setup could easily be customized to your own needs while maintaining organization.

DIY Murphy Bed

Small Space Hacks DIY Murphy Bed 2

If you’re an ambitious DIYer, you can attempt your own murphy bed, like this one at a sustainability camp in Maryland. DIY Network has plans for a simpler version, or you can try an Ikea hack with sliding doors over at Instructables.

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When Every Inch Counts 14 More Clever Small Space Hacks

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Vandalized Villa Savoye: Imagining a Modernist Icon in Ruins

22 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Photography & Video. ]

Le Corbusier’s “machine for living in” is one of the most-studied works of Modern architecture, but what would it look like if it ceased to be preserved and was left to be ransacked and ruined?

Artistic photographer (and photo-editor) Xavier Delory is exploring just this possibility, starting with the Villa Savoye but planning to branch out to other monumental and iconic works as well.

The visual devastation is breathtaking: “The ribbon windows that navigate its perimeter have been shattered, haphazard strokes of paint ornament its pilotis, and large pieces of graffiti cover its stark white free façade. The manipulations intend to make a statement about the ‘five points of architecture’, and in turn, highlight the death of modernity.”

In part, he is making a point about preservation and putting architecture on a pedestal: in reality, few buildings are so carefully and lovingly maintained and restored as those few select works that make it into the history books. Indeed, in a way, these are almost architectural fictions that do not reflect ordinary realities of construction and use.

Other manipulated photo sets by Delory explore different aspects of our built environment and raise questions about contemporary cities, including a series of mixed-material structures that question our obsession with facades and the difficulty of creating variety at scale.

A sequence of hybrid churches-and-supermarkets examines the idolization of commercial structures (have shopping malls become our places of worship?), while a collection of rural homes sans windows and doors makes one wonder if conventional architecture does enough to integrate houses and their landscapes. For fans of faux facades, this series of dissected buildings is also well worth a look.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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Big Game Hunting: The World’s 9 Biggest Board Games

21 Sep

[ By Steve in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

Biggest Game Boards
Board games may be old fashioned to some but they’re anything but boring no matter how big a board they’re played on. Here are 9 of the biggest.

Triple (Size) Letter Score

Biggest Scrabble Game Board 1

Biggest Scrabble Game Board 2

Biggest Scrabble Game Board 3

Popular word game Scrabble celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1998 and in honor of the occasion, two teams from the United Kingdom’s armed forces played the biggest Scrabble game EVAR, turning London’s Wembley Stadium into a ginormous Scrabble board. The reinforced fiberglass letter tiles measured 2 x 2 meters (about 6 feet per side) and were 40cm (almost 2 inches) thick, requiring two team members to shift each one into position… and you thought soccer was a slow game! On the bright side, just be glad Welsh words weren’t allowed.

Take A Walk On The Boardwalk

Monopoly in the Park 1

Monopoly in the Park 2

Monopoly in the Park 3

Do you know the way to San Jose? Make a left at Baltic and don’t forget to bring your Get Out Of Jail Free card! We’re talking Monopoly here; Monopoly In The Park to be exact. The 930 sq/ft permanent Monopoly board offers anyone a chance to make it big on Silicon Valley real estate. I want the iron… darnit!

Ukraine Not Weak!

Biggest RISK Game Board 1

Biggest RISK Game Board 2

Biggest RISK Game Board 3

Beloved by Kramer and Newman, RISK is the classic game of world domination where the board is as big as the world… or so the players wish! Everyone from be-suited gentlemen to cosplaying geek gamers has tried to imitate Vladimir Putin playing larger-than-life RISK but there’s a drawback: the bigger the board, the harder it is to take the game with you on the New York subway.

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Big Game Hunting The Worlds 9 Biggest Board Games

[ By Steve in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

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Subtracting Art: Subjects Photo-Edited from Famous Paintings

21 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

venus-subtracted-gif

Anyone who has used Photoshop or similar programs knows these shifting dotted lines suggest a selection has been made and, in this case, something has been deleted.

scream-edited-again

As part of a series of digital art edits, Michael Guppy effectively disappeared the focal points of these works, selecting and removing key elements (while quietly filling in their backgrounds). He simply hooks the results into looped gif files a few frames long and the effect is complete.

edited mona lisa painting

edited photoshop classic art

For those of us with even a little exposure to art history, our imaginations do the rest, completing the pictures from memory by recalling a screaming figure here, a poised Mona Lisa there and seeing the man behind the apple reappear in our heads.

edited famous apple painting

Guppy has done many other pieces that play with digital culture, the internet, classics and icons, but perhaps one of his most entertaining creations can be seen in the video above, titled: The Most Viewed Image on the Internet. If you don’t ‘get it’ right away, well, just give it some time.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Low Cost House-in-a-House Made of 2 Shipping Containers

20 Sep

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Low Cost Shipping Container House 1

Two colorful shipping containers set inside a garage-like outer structure form a spacious yet incredibly affordable family home free of the issues that can sometimes come with crate-based architecture, like poor insulation and soundproofing. The containers form two private rooms with loft space on each roof, while the envelope creates a courtyard and encourages air flow.

Low Cost Shipping Container House 2

The outer structure features a section of transparent panels to bring in daylight, saving energy. Large sliding doors open the home to the air in nice weather, and translucent walls help blur the boundaries between outdoors and in a little bit more.

Low Cost Shipping Container House 3

Low Cost Shipping Container House 4

JYA-RCHITECTS designed the home for a family of seven in a rural South Korea village as an alternative to the dangerous, unsanitary housing they were previously living in. Sponsored by the Korea Child Fund, which improves living environments for low-income families, the project took on the challenge of creating a home that was large enough to make the family comfortable while sticking to an extremely tight budget.

Low Cost Shipping Container House 5

The solution is a single-story home with both private and communal spaces, making use of unwanted, cheap, prefabricated and readily available materials. While the envelope was custom-created for the project, it’s easy to imagine this idea being replicated with garage or shed kits, putting possibilities for affordable DIY housing in the hands of people of all walks of life, all over the world.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Magnetic Furniture: Modular Blocks Connect via Unseen Forces

19 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

bob modular magnetic boxes

Magnetized to stick together when you arrange them, these boxes take LEGO-style furniture construction to a new level by leaving exposed surfaces connector-free in any configuration.

cube box chair design

Dubbed the BOB system by its creator, Paul Kelley, the component cubes themselves are durable but light and clad in copper that will weather differently over time depending on which surfaces are exposed.

magnetic cantilever

The magnets inside them are designed to let you create anything you can imagine, from chairs, benches, stools and tables to interior space dividers or simply abstract sculptures. Their attraction is strong enough (and the boxes sufficiently lightweight) to allow limited cantilevers as well.

bob magnet box system

bob modular boxes stacked

This work is being publicly displayed as part of the London Design Festival (via Inhabitat)- hopefully its creator will also allow the public to play with and reconfigure the exhibit, keeping it fun and interactive. Fans of magnetic furniture designs should be sure to check out this tensile floating table as well, which works on similar but reversed principles, repelling rather than attracting the constituent boxes.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Clever Land Artist Copyrighted Earth to Beat an Oil Pipeline

19 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

land artwork surface copyright

Canadian land artist and sculptor Peter von Tiesenhausen occupies a stretch of land in Alberta covered with his artworks, but it was not until he turned the top six layers of the soil on his 800 acres of land itself from private to intellectual property that he was able to fend off encroaching corporate interests.

land sculpture water figures

In Canada, a landowner has surface rights but must allow the government to grant paid subterranean access, allowing companies to create or mine passageways, pipelines, minerals or other natural resources below the ground.

land art hole breach

They are compensated, per This.org, and “this compensation is usually for lost harvests and inconvenience, but, Tiesenhausen reasoned, what if instead of a field of crops these companies were destroying the life’s work of an acclaimed visual artist? Wouldn’t the compensation have to be exponentially higher?”

land artwork gallery bridge

Effectively, by contacting a lawyer and protecting the surface of his land as intellectual property, he has prevented anyone from breaching that surface without compensation, which, for a work of art, could be essentially any amount. While oil companies could contest his claim, so far they have settled for costly reroutes, perhaps to avoid losing and setting a precedent that could hurt them more in the long run.

land art gallery installation

“I’m not trying to get money for my land, I’m just trying to relate to these companies on their level,” says Tiesenhausen from his home near Demmitt, Alberta. “Once I started charging $ 500 an hour for oil companies to come talk to me, the meetings got shorter and few and far between.”

land art hanging museum

Now an artist, Tiesenhausen has a great deal of experience with natural resource companies, having worked in oil fields, mining gold and even crushing boulders for airstrips earlier in life before turning to large-scale works of land and installation art and sculpture.

land art wood sculpture

Cantech Letter notes of the clever strategy, “This is eerily similar to the defense Portia deploys against Shylock in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in which he is legally entitled to extract a pound of flesh from a debtor who can’t pay, so long as he doesn’t extract a single drop of blood or marrow or bone.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Dancing Traffic Signal Makes Crossing the Street More Fun

18 Sep

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

dancing-traffic-signals

Impatient pedestrians eager to get across the street stop, point and laugh when they realize that the usually-static human figure in the crosswalk signal is dancing maniacally, waving its arms and legs. Not only is the figure dancing, it’s mimicking the real-time movements of passersby in a nearby booth.

Dancing-traffic-signals-5

Dancing-traffic-signals-4

The ‘WhatAreYouFOR’ campaign by Smart aims to make intersections safer by providing some attention-getting entertainment.

The people waiting to cross often can’t help dancing right along with the little figure, unaware that a real person is busting moves in an adjacent plaza, their dancing captured on camera and translated into the red pixelated silhouette.

Dancing-traffic-signals-2

Dancing-traffic-signals-3

dancing-traffic-signals

As a result, according to the creators, 81% more people stopped at the red light, increasing safety all around. “And they even had more fun doing so.”

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Occupy Parking Spots: 15 Projects Reclaiming the Streets

18 Sep

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

Parking Spot Hacks Bikes 3
In the asphalt-covered space that would normally be occupied by a single vehicle could be a bike rack, a dance floor, an outdoor cafe, a kiddie pool or a beautifully landscaped public park. Sometimes guerrilla and sometimes officially city-sanctioned, these 15 projects occupy urban parking spots for uses that are undoubtedly a lot more fun.

Bike Parking = Superior Efficiency

Parking Spot Hacks Bike 2

Ten bicycles can easily fit within a single parking spot, and many cities have started to take advantage of this fact with specially-sized bike racks. Buenos Aires installed a few car-shaped racks in parking spots throughout the city, an idea that caught the attention of Washington DC’s transit authority, and San Francisco’s 40th street parklet (seen top) was created by adjacent business Manifesto & Subrosa. They’re also occasionally unsanctioned, with citizens taking it upon themselves to occupy a spot with bikes for a day.

Car-Shaped Tents for Urban Camping

Designer Michael Rakowitz created a car-shaped tent made just for parking spaces, making it possible to camp in urban locations while (kind of) blending in. A similar tent used a car-shaped frame and a standard car cover for an even more convincing effect, offering affordable housing virtually anywhere in the city.

Sao Paulo’s Permanent Parklets

Parking Spot Hacks Sao Paulo 1

The city of Sao Paulo, Brazil has some of the world’s prettiest and most colorful parklets, which are parking spots transformed into mini public parks. While many parklets are temporary, this one is permanent, with the spot fully paved and heavy-duty urban furniture in a bright shade of red.

Noriega Street Parklet, San Francisco

Parking Spot Hacks Noriega 1

Diagonal wooden benches with built-in greenery take up three parking spots in San Francisco in this design by Matarozzi Pelsinger Design + Build. The seating was designed around the awkward shape of the available space, and the rule that it had to be at least three feet away from adjacent parking spots. Says the firm, “The acute corners are embraced as areas for planting and “chaise lounge” seating, where tight plan geometry becomes an excuse to put your feet up.”

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Occupy Parking Spots 15 Projects Reclaiming The Streets

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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NYC Skyway: From Brooklyn to Manhattan in 4 Minutes by Air

17 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

east river skyway tram

Building on the strategy of the Roosevelt Island Tramway (connecting to Manhattan over the East River), this proposal promises record commuting times, bypassing subways, streets and ferries to use the sky instead.

east river skyway above

The East River Skyway project aims to make the jump between Boroughs faster, cleaner, safer and cheaper, all while reducing the load on the subway system, already packed to more than capacity under the ground below.

east river skyway cars

The design proposal calls for an initial connection between Williamsburg and and Lower Manhattan, followed by extensions deeper into Brooklyn and, ultimately, links to Queens and Long Island City as well.

east river skyway diagram

skyway project high speeds

Beyond the ultra-fast transit time boasted by the system there are some non-financial considerations as well: tourists and locals alike can also take the tram (as they already do to and from Roosevelt Island) in part simply to get a better view of the city from above.

hovering skyway project design

east river skyway design

Its designers cite other major international cities deploying and contemplating similar initiatives, from Singapore to London, England and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

360Photography

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

When Every Inch Counts: 14 More Clever Small Space Hacks

Incredibly Compact Kitchen

Spaceflavor Mobile Cube: Office/Tea House in One

Fold-Out Picnic Table

IKEA Closet Makeover

DIY Murphy Bed

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
When Every Inch Counts 14 More Clever Small Space Hacks

Vandalized Villa Savoye: Imagining a Modernist Icon in Ruins

Big Game Hunting: The World’s 9 Biggest Board Games

Triple (Size) Letter Score

Take A Walk On The Boardwalk

Ukraine Not Weak!

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Big Game Hunting The Worlds 9 Biggest Board Games

Subtracting Art: Subjects Photo-Edited from Famous Paintings

Low Cost House-in-a-House Made of 2 Shipping Containers

Magnetic Furniture: Modular Blocks Connect via Unseen Forces

Clever Land Artist Copyrighted Earth to Beat an Oil Pipeline

Dancing Traffic Signal Makes Crossing the Street More Fun

Occupy Parking Spots: 15 Projects Reclaiming the Streets

Bike Parking = Superior Efficiency

Car-Shaped Tents for Urban Camping

Sao Paulo’s Permanent Parklets

Noriega Street Parklet, San Francisco

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Occupy Parking Spots 15 Projects Reclaiming The Streets

NYC Skyway: From Brooklyn to Manhattan in 4 Minutes by Air

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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Incredibly Compact Kitchen

Spaceflavor Mobile Cube: Office/Tea House in One

Fold-Out Picnic Table

IKEA Closet Makeover

DIY Murphy Bed

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: When Every Inch Counts 14 More Clever Small Space Hacks

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Small Space Hacks: 24 Tricks for Living in Tiny Apartments

Prototype to Reality: Super Space-Saving Bedroom Set

Compact Cube Home: Storage Unit Turned Micro Apartment

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Villa Savoye: Classic Corbu House Comes to Life in LEGO

Dissected Buildings: Sliced Facades are All Appearances

Architecture Icon: Steven Holl’s Award-Winning Designs

Triple (Size) Letter Score

Take A Walk On The Boardwalk

Ukraine Not Weak!

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Big Game Hunting The Worlds 9 Biggest Board Games

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20 Million Sq Ft: World’s Biggest Building Opens in China

Good Clean Fun: Interactive Games Tidy Urban Spaces

Interact with Escher-Like Architecture in This iPad Game

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Microcosmic Art: Famous Paintings from Tiny Drawings

Emoji-Nation: Famous Paintings Revised for the Internet Age

Art Remix: 26 Modern Takes on Famous Historical Paintings

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Stacked on Silos: Shipping Containers Reclaimed as Dorms

Alley Stack: Brooklyn Home Made of 5 Shipping Containers

20 Shipping Container Cities, Apartments & Emergency Shelters

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GoGo & Multiplo: Modular Building Blocks for Kids & Adults

3D Cat Furniture Set: Modular Hangouts for Walls & Ceilings

Modern, Modular & Transforming Kids’ Furniture: 13 Designs

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Floating on Dry Land: 17 Derelict Houseboats Find New Home

Zen-Like Artist Creates Intricate Pencil Tip Carvings

Mirage Muralist: Street Artist Bends Surfaces Using Illusion

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Art Brake: OZ’s Awesome Traffic Light Signal Boxes

Marvelous Muralist Makes Giant-Sized Street Art Illusions

Sideways Street Art: Muralist Makes Figures Walk on Walls

Bike Parking = Superior Efficiency

Car-Shaped Tents for Urban Camping

Sao Paulo’s Permanent Parklets

Noriega Street Parklet, San Francisco

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Occupy Parking Spots 15 Projects Reclaiming The Streets

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Permanent Parklets: São Paulo Turns Street Parking to Parks

Drop Spots: Share Secret Objects With Strangers in Cities

Porta-Park: Mobile Urban Square the Size of a Parking Spot

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Banksy Tags Manhattan: Fresh New Graffiti Live from NYC

Incredibly Intricate 2.5 Ton Carved Marble Manhattan

LEGO Brooklyn: Artist Recreates Borough with Plastic Blocks

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When Every Inch Counts 14 More Clever Small Space Hacks

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Big Game Hunting The Worlds 9 Biggest Board Games

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Occupy Parking Spots 15 Projects Reclaiming The Streets