Category: Creativity

Book of Shadows: 2D Shape Cutouts Cast Silhouettes on Pages

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

A children’s book with an interactive twist, Motion Silhouette engages readers through pop-up pieces that require lighting to animate shadow pictures on each page.

The idea is to add elements of manual animation that are necessarily subjective – each person will hold, turn and highlight the cutouts in different ways.

Secondary readers or viewers (young kids watching over parents’ shoulders) will also have their own unique experience each time.

Motion Silhouette is actually a sequel to another book, simply titled Silhouette (excerpts shown above), a work which similarly uses slightly less-developed pop-up pages to create a more basic multi-dimensional experience.

From its Japanese creators, Megumi Kajiwara and Tathuhiko Nijima: “I will begin to talk about the story and illustrations shadow falls on top of the page overlap. In this work, you can enjoy the animation of shadow phantasmagoric by you move the light. Trees and become bigger and bigger, which aims to train a distant star. Story that changes depending on the page falling shadows, shadows move around the top of the page.”

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Drinkable Book: Tear-Out Pages Filter, Clean & Purify Water

Each sheet from this life-saving tome can provide 30 days of drinkable water – all together, the entire volume is able make a total of 5,000 liters fit for …
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Static Flip Books: 360-Degree Scenes in Panoramic Pages

Like a flip book, there is no text, and each page of these volumes contains a slightly different scene. But that is where the similarities end and the fun …
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Art in the Shadows: Documenting Temporary Urban Sights

Shadows are the most fleeting parts of the urban landscape, but some artists use various methods to make the shadows last just a little longer.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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July 24, 2014
Earin: World’s Smallest Wireless Earbuds Raise $1,500,000+

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

Stripping away all non-essential functionality, these sleek audio accessories are tiny enough to be effectively invisible and entirely wire-free. No need to worry about charging, either – their small carrying case lets you power them back up on the go.

Earin just finished raising £972,594 on Kickstarter, over 5 times its original funding goal, reflecting how much so many of us wish to get rid of those pesky wires when listening to music on the move.

Beyond long battery life, ergonomic comfort, snug sport-friendly casing other essential considerations, stretch goals for the project include waterproofing, phone adapters and battery monitors.

From its creators: “No unnecessary functionality has been added. No sensors, no lights and no microphone, that’s right – no microphone! Not because we couldn’t but because we wouldn’t! We use balanced armature speakers, used in professional in-ear-monitors and hearing-aids to deliver the best possible sound and to keep power-consumption at its minimal. High-density rechargeable batteries are used to keep playback time up and size down.”

Much of the technical specs on their Kickstarter page will be of interest to audiophiles (and show just how much these makers have thought about their project), but in summary: “The architecture of the earbud is based on two main covers which are ultrasonically welded to create a water-tight seal, protecting the electrical components. The materials are carefully selected to withstand both climate and impact testing. As all project members have extensive experience of creating similar consumer products, we know what works and what does [not].”

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Smallest & Smaller: 22 Miniatures, Because Big Gets Boring

Everyone always says bigger is getter, but when big gets boring, these are the awesome miniature inventions you need to see.
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Hidden Worlds: What Goes on Behind Your Favorite Webpages

It is not often that we get a peek into the behind-the-scenes world of our favorite websites. These pictures give us a peek into what happens on the other side.
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NeoLucida: Optical Drawing Tool Lets You Trace Real Life

An update on a 19th century optical drawing tool lets artists trace the real world around them. The NeoLucida will soon be available for just $ 40.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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WebUrbanist

July 24, 2014
Cabins in the Canopy: 13 Modern Tree Houses by Baumraum

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Ranging from minimalist elevated meditation cabins to complex climate-controlled company meeting spaces, the many treehouse creations of German company Baumraum offer unconventional and often strikingly modern silhouettes in natural settings. Custom-designed and costing anywhere from $ 25,000 to nearly $ 200,000, these treehouses and treehouse hotels are places for adventure and retreat amongst the foliage.

Treehouse Halle

Stairs ascend through a hole in the roof of a garage on a German property, spiraling around an oak tree to reach the Treehouse Halle. Baumraum set this zinc and wood structure 11 meters above the ground as a sleeping and relaxation space, supported by two steel stilts anchored to the lower part of the tree. A double-sized bed peeks out a large window onto the surrounding landscape.

Almke Treehouse

A lucky scout group in Wolfsburg, Germany gets to meet at this elevated clubhouse constructed around a pine tree, with two almost-identical wooden volumes set at staggered heights within the forest canopy. The Almke Treehouse provides a place to gather, eat and sleep, with the lower volume full of bunk beds for eight.

Treehouse Djuren

An elliptical volume with egg-like sides seems to float above a wooded family property in Northern Germany, supported on a series of four stilts around two are oak trees. Sleeping benches covered in gray felt offer a comfortable perch from which to look out onto the trees.

Treehouse Solling

Treehouse Solling hovers above a pond like something out of a fairytale, an unusual two-story structure with a rounded roof punctured by a skylight. The treehouse serves as a sleeping place and observation point connected to a nearby forester’s cabin via a cable-suspended bridge. Like most of Baumraum’s structures, the outside is covered in zinc plating and the inside is lined with timber.

Treehouse in Belgium

This treehouse was envisioned as the perfect place for a paper company to brainstorm about sustainability among nature. Located in a forest in Belgium, the climate-controlled space is a lot more like a conventional building than most treehouses, containing a kitchen, lounge and restroom as well as a ventilation system and motion-sensor LED lights. It offers all the comforts of a meeting space within an office, but in an environment that’s a lot more conducive to creative thinking.

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13 Modern Tree Houses By Baumraum

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Modern Tree Houses: 14 Awesome Arboreal Dwelling Designs

Some tree houses are crafted in organic shapes and materials to blend into their environments or designed as veritable castles in the sky, but these 14 are as …
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Rural Urbanism: Forest Community of One-Pole Tree Houses

Pristine nature versus urban development seem ever at war, but this designer proposes a low-impact, small-footprint approach for cross-kingdom co-habitation …
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Sky High, But Grounded: 16 Incredible Tree Houses

A rickety platform in the backyard is no longer a tree house. A real tree house, is a real house built around a tree. Here are some awesome examples.
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[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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WebUrbanist

July 24, 2014
WTF Is Street Art? Poster Boy Hacks NYC Sign by High Line

[ By WebUrbanist in Drawing & Digital. ]

If you have spent any time along the High Line Park in Chelsea, you will recognize this extremely prominent billboard that one artist had the audacity to climb and hack.

The original message (WTF is alternate side of the street parking anyway?) was selectively deleted to make way for a replacement question.

Working at night, Poster Boy risked discovery by people parking and picking up their cars in the directly adjacent lot, not to mention being highly visible from the street.

During the day, visitors sitting in the over-street theater seats within the elevated park have a direct view of this huge black-on-yellow poster. It is doubtful the change will survive long, so check it out while it lasts!

Known for his creative edits of local signage and hacked infrastructure, Poster Boy has a huge collection of photos you can browse of his work, ranging from small stickers added in unusual contexts to whole-billboard transformations.

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Zaha Hadid’s Apartment Block Overlooking NYC High Line

A glittering glass apartment block with volumes flowing into each other in dynamic stacked arrangements will be architect Zaha Hadid’s first building in …
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15 High-Dollar Hacks: Steampunk Home Hacks & Vehicle Mods

Steampunk is moving closer to mainstream. Some people drop buckets of money on steampunk hacks. Here are 15 high-dollar hacks to thoroughly steampunk cars and …
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Urban Nest: New Round Amphitheater Section for High Line

New York’s elevated park is expanding in new directions both physically and proverbially, its new addition a stark circular shift from the overall linear …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Drawing & Digital. ]

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WebUrbanist

July 23, 2014
All Terrains: 3 Futuristic Land, Sea & Air E-Vehicle Designs

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

This amazing all-terrain land variant is just the first of three compelling electric vehicles conceptualized with lightweight materials and green technologies and designed, respectively, for overground, aerial and underwater travel.

First of this series by Eduardo Galvani, the Nimbus features an electrical engine powered by a lithium-ion battery that works in parallel with a combustion micro-generator for recharging.

Its structure is composed of carbon-fiber, titanium and aluminium, lightening its load. It also features rooftop solar cells and a regenerative brake mechanism helping it recover and save kinetic energy. Panoramic wraparound windows allow for views out in all directions, while key design elements are picked up in the dramatic sky and sea variants shown below.

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All Terrains 3 Futuristic Land Sea Air E Vehicle Designs

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Sustainable Speed: 15 Innovative Green Vehicle Designs

From human-powered to coffee-powered here are fifteen curious green vehicle designs that break with conventions to go green in unique and innovative ways.
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Top Models of Tomorrow: 5 Retro-Futuristic Car Designs

Though times and vehicular technologies change, at least one thing remains the same: concept cars drive vehicle design, both on and off the drawing board.
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Flying Robots: 6 Stunning Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Projects

From the MIT Senselab quadcopter and ETH Zurich self-assembling multicopter to DIY drones mounted with paintball guns, toy rockets and automatic weapons, …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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WebUrbanist

July 22, 2014
WTF Is Street Art? Poster Boy Hacks NYC Sign by High Line

[ By WebUrbanist in Drawing & Digital. ]

If you have spent any time along the High Line Park in Chelsea, you will recognize this extremely prominent billboard that one artist had the audacity to climb and hack.

The original message (WTF is alternate side of the street parking anyway?) was selectively deleted to make way for a replacement question.

Working at night, Poster Boy risked discovery by people parking and picking up their cars in the directly adjacent lot, not to mention being highly visible from the street.

During the day, visitors sitting in the over-street theater seats within the elevated park have a direct view of this huge black-on-yellow poster. It is doubtful the change will survive long, so check it out while it lasts!

Known for his creative edits of local signage and hacked infrastructure, Poster Boy has a huge collection of photos you can browse of his work, ranging from small stickers added in unusual contexts to whole-billboard transformations.

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Zaha Hadid’s Apartment Block Overlooking NYC High Line

A glittering glass apartment block with volumes flowing into each other in dynamic stacked arrangements will be architect Zaha Hadid’s first building in …
Click Here to Read More »»

15 High-Dollar Hacks: Steampunk Home Hacks & Vehicle Mods

Steampunk is moving closer to mainstream. Some people drop buckets of money on steampunk hacks. Here are 15 high-dollar hacks to thoroughly steampunk cars and …
Click Here to Read More »»

Urban Nest: New Round Amphitheater Section for High Line

New York’s elevated park is expanding in new directions both physically and proverbially, its new addition a stark circular shift from the overall linear …
Click Here to Read More »»

[ By WebUrbanist in Drawing & Digital. ]

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WebUrbanist

July 22, 2014
SCADpads: Parking Garage Turned Tiny House Village

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

Just how livable can a 135-square-foot micro-house really be? That’s what an interdisciplinary group of students, faculty and alumni at Savannah College of Art and Design set out to learn with ‘SCADpad,’ an experiment that has turned a parking garage into a village of tiny houses.

The larger question that the team wanted to answer was, how can design change the world? SCADpad is an example of transforming an uninhabitable space into sustainable and efficient housing using the millions of parking spaces in the United States that are typically vacant at any given time.

Each of the three SCADpad units has its own theme and visual identity reflecting the college’s global footprint, with a common green space fostering a sense of community. It took 10 months to design and develop the project, from its architectural footprint down to the remote home controls.

Artists from SCAD helped design and decorate the interiors, including large-scale paintings, making these tiny houses visually dazzling, but it’s clear that they’re pretty practical, as well.

Students, faculty and special guests lived in the SCADpads from April through June of 2014, documenting the experience on Instagram.

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Baroque Parking Garage Challenges Blind Civic Historicism

Challenged with designing something to fit a historic city-center context in “baroque, classic, neo-classical, romantic and neo-romantic style” is …
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Can a Parking Garage be Sexy? Miami’s 1111 Lincoln Road

1111 Lincoln Road isn’t just a parking garage. It’s a destination in itself, serving as a desirable events space for weddings, photo shoots, concerts and more.
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Crowded House: 5 Silly Small Homes & Cheap Tiny Houses

As the population expands and more of us look for affordable and available housing, architects and designers are making the move toward cheaper, greener, …
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[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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WebUrbanist

July 22, 2014
Subway Cars to Churches: 15 Creatively Converted Offices

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

Anything from a graffiti-covered subway car to a Route 66 gas station can become the setting for creative modern offices. Architects and intrepid homeowners have converted junked buses into home offices, $ 20 construction trailers into backyard studios and subterranean garages into company headquarters.

Slice of an Old Bus Turned Home Office

One creative thinker in Hungary saw something most of us wouldn’t when he gazed at an old bus sitting in a junkyard: a corner office. That is, a home office in the corner of his bedroom, made from a sawed-off section of the bus. A new paint job and working lights give the bus a fun update.

Former Steel Plant to Light-Filled Work Space

The existing shell of a former steel plant has become a wide-open industrial setting for the offices of engineering firm IMd, with sections in the two-story structure linked by foot bridges. Translucent volumes set within the large space provide quiet and private places to work and meet without sacrificing the spacious feel.

Underground Garage to Architecture Studio

Half-hidden by an overgrowth of ivy, all that’s visible of this architecture office from ground level are a few desks and some unusual lighting. Architect Carlo Bagliani remained an underground car garage as an inhabitable workspace filled with industrial accents. A long glass wall facing the lawn prevents the subterranean space from feeling dark and cramped.

Low Budget House-to-Office Conversion

Austrian architecture firm Bad Architects turned a house in Innsbruck into their own office on a tight budget using sliding-wall systems made of foam to divide the interior spaces. The foam panels feature cut-out patterns that let light pass from one space into another, and give the office visual appeal from the street.

Graffiti-Covered Subway Cars to Rooftop Offices

Graffiti-covered subway cars (or ‘tube carriages’ as they’re known in the UK) were hauled onto a rooftop and stacked together to create offices for international arts charity Village Underground. The spaces are leased to creative small businesses and art-related start-ups, who’d naturally feel right at home in a reclaimed urban space decorated with vivid street art.

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Subway Cars To Churches 15 Creatively Converted Offices

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Work It: 30 Cargo Container Offices, Stores & Businesses

Shipping containers are ideal for commercial buildings. Stores, offices, shopping malls, and more are using recycled cargo containers for low-cost construction.
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Holy Beer: 12 Pubs Converted from Churches, Urinals & More

If knocking pack a pint in a subterranean Victorian urinal doesn’t sound like a good time to you, read on. Extensive renovations have transformed the …
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Cargo Architecture: 10 Shipping Container Homes & Offices

Cargo containers are of increasing interest to architects who plan to make them into homes, offices and other buildings through simple modifications and …
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[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

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WebUrbanist

July 22, 2014
Spinning Canvas: Color & Gravity Create Brush-Free Paintings

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

Calculation meets chaos in the work of Amy Shackleton, a painter who works without brushes to create masterful yet whimsical urban and natural landscapes.

Her dynamic paintings are the result of an active process of dripping and pooling paints poured out on a canvas that is rotated in place while the artist pours on colors.

Some of the works are inspired by views of real-life places like the High Line in New York City, while others seem taken from impossible perspectives, like the bottom of a puddle along an urban street.

Angles, curves and swirls play into the colorful resulting representations, often featuring elements of liquidity and other twisting organic forms. Some of the pieces are quite large, spanning a single panel or multiple canvases and requiring a good deal of space for the colors to channel and spread.

Elements of intention mingle with unpredictable effects: “Thorough planning, measuring and layering is involved, but she’s at the mercy of gravity, [leading to] refreshing unpredictability that helps illustrate the organic elements in her work. To combat the natural, she uses a rotating easel and a level–creating straight lines, controlled curves, and eventually, concrete buildings.”

From her press release: Vibrancy, precision and a mesmerizing technique set her apart, but the combining of such varied landscapes as Cincinnati and Yosemite National Park into one fanciful image make her work truly unique. “I envision post-industrial worlds where healthy, sustainable relationships exist between man and the environment,” says the artist. “My paintings are intended to portray urban life at its best, demonstrating ways that we can work with nature rather than against it.”

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Intoxication, Captured: Frantic Head-Spinning Oil Paintings

A disorienting sense of intoxication amidst the frantic, vivid life of the city is captured in these kinetic oil paintings by Alexandra Pacula.
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Sand Paintings: Temporary Street Art Will Blow (You) Away

After 650 such works, it is perhaps no wonder that this artist generates each new sand painting spontaneously on the spot, letting the pattern evolve as he …
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No Canvas Too Small for Intricate Masterpieces by Hasan Kale

Artist Hasan Kale paints incredibly intricate scenes from his native Istanbul onto delicate butterfly wings, narrow cactus spines and tiny grape seeds.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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WebUrbanist

July 21, 2014
No Sweat: 10 Abandoned Gyms & Deserted Fitness Centers

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Gotta be at the gym in 26 minutes? Don’t get bent outta shape but no amount of blood, sweat or tears can rejuvenate these abandoned gyms & fitness centers.

Weight Of The World

The long-abandoned European Health Spa in Westchester, New York has seen better days but on the bright side, the statuesque Atlas out front must enjoy having the weight of the world lifted off his shoulders. One wonders, though, who would – or COULD – make off with a massive metal globe? Obviously the gym worked miracles for someone before it shut its doors for good. A tip of the hat to Urban Landscaped for capturing the images above on a crisp, frosty day in December of 2010.

Aww, Phuket

When its American owner abandoned the Chalong Gym on Chao Fa East Road in Phuket, Thailand, members with pre-paid memberships likely cursed up a storm. Luckily for those eager to keep their bronzed bods buff for the beach, the gym re-opened under new management in July of 2009. All of this isn’t especially noteworthy but hey… check out the ridiculous amount of overhead wiring in the image above!

Ultimate FAIL

Ultimate Fitness, formerly located at 1603 Broad River Road in Columbia, SC, advertised “24 HOUR ACCESS TO OUR FACILITY”. Sounds legit. According to Columbia Closings, “This 24 hour gym was in Boozer Shopping Center on the Bush River Road side just a few slots down from Dunkin’ Robbins.” Yeah, they never stood a chance.

Unfitness Center

Florian from Abandoned Kansai must have worked up one heck of a sweat exploring the abandoned Asahi Sports Center in the depths of an oppressively humid (aka typical) Japanese summer. No doubt the complex’s putrid green outdoor pool provided billions of mosquitoes – not to mention the odd, possibly rabid bat – that made his task that much more miserable. The things urban (and rural, in this case) explorers go through to make your net browsing experience so enjoyable!

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No Sweat 10 Abandoned Gyms Deserted Fitness Centers

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No Child Left: 10 Eerie Abandoned Daycare Centers

Won’t somebody please care for the children? Sorry, Helen Lovejoys of the world, these 10 eerie abandoned daycare centers just don’t care any more.
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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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24 Revealing Photos & Stories of Deserted Buildings

What is it about the cracking paint, the crumbling brick and the ominous silent of abandoned buildings that attracts urban explorers interested in building …
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[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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WebUrbanist

July 20, 2014