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Long-Exposure Faces: Moody Light Art Painted with Sparks

07 Feb

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

face art factory find

Light painter Diliz has worked for three years to twist, turn and perfect his single-line sparkler sketches in urban settings around the world. Each successive shot is related to a new time and place but also reflects a fresh attempt at capturing a mood and creating a sense of site-specific interaction.

face art drawing

face light art

face art find exit

face art factory work

Diliz (aka Vincent Delesvaux) has experimented with all kinds of photographic light art. In this particular series, dubbed 60 Seconds to Find an Exit, he set up shop at night in out-of-the-way streets and alleys, abandoned buildings and deserted basements.

face art china

face art twofold

face art sparks

face art three tryptic

His travels took him everywhere from European locations (including Verbier, Switzerland and Grenoble, Franceto) all the way to cities in China, such as Lijiang, Yangshuo Fenghuang and Shanghai.

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Long Exposure Faces Moody Light Art Painted With Sparks

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

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Sensory Reading Experience Integrates Touch and Sound

06 Feb

[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

Sensory Fiction 1

Some might say that if you aren’t experiencing the atmosphere of a story while you’re reading, the author hasn’t done her job. But we’ve all read a book that we loved so much, we wished we could experience more of it, feel as if we were actually a part of the story as it was happening. That’s now possible with ‘Sensory Fiction,’ a digitally-augmented prototype book that comes with a sense-stimulating harness that’ll squeeze you or change your body temperature at the right moments.

Sensory Fiction 2

Much like 4D films, which let you feel and smell the plot with moving seats and other sensory experiences, ‘Sensory Fiction’ makes the body a more active part of the process of taking in a story. Created by students at the MIT Media Lab for a class called ‘Science Fiction to Science Fabrication,’ the book and harness set aims to bring more excitement to the average written story.

Sensory Reading 3

It works through a combination of networked sensors and actuators. The book senses which page the reader is on to flash LED lights or play certain sounds that go along with that part of the plot. Meanwhile, the wearable component senses the reader’s heart rate and offers a gentle squeeze, vibration, changing temperatures and other forms of physical feedback.

Sensory Reading 4

The story selected for the prototype, ‘The Girl Who Was Plugged In’ by James Tiptree, was chosen because it showcases a wide range of emotions in a variety of environments, providing lots of opportunities for those sensory ‘extras.’ Can you imagine wearing one of these while reading a particularly scary horror story?

[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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Spiral Architecture: 12 Swirling Building & Bridge Designs

06 Feb

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

Spiral Architecture Main

Ubiquitous in nature and mathematics, spirals are beautiful to look at and provide a structure that’s strong and stable, so it’s no surprise that they turn up so often in architecture, too. Spiraling forms offer uninterrupted panoramas on observation towers, remove the obstacles of walls and floors in a creative interior, and enable unusual stacked configurations of living spaces in skyscrapers.

Evolver by Alice Studio

Spiral Architecture Evolver

The spiraling viewing platform in Zermatt, Switzerland by Alice Studio fuses beautiful design with a function that enables uninterrupted panoramas of the surrounding landscape. It was constructed by a group of students from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and is made up of 24 wooden frames, with a tubular path offering a continuous 720-degree route to the top.

Arganzuela Footbridge

Spiral Architecture Arganzuela

A spiraling footbridge in Madrid’s Parque de la Arganzuela by Dominique Perrault Architecture links neighborhoods on the right and left banks of the Manzanares River, opening up in the center to allow access to a new urban green space. Built for both pedestrians and cyclists, the bridge is made up of two interlocking metal spirals ‘wrapped by a metallic ribbon.’

Mobius Buddhist Temple

Spiral Architecture Buddhist 2

Spiral Architecture buddhist 1

Based on a mobius strip, this Buddhist temple in Taichang, China integrates visual symbolism representing reincarnation with the basic design of the architecture interpreted as a path. Digital design and fabrication techniques enabled a building in which the entire shape is made up of two intertwined spirals, an ‘unstable’ configuration that places the beginning and ending of the worshipper’s path at the same point.

Mangal City Spiraling Skyscraper Pod

Spiral Architecture Mangal City

Envisioned as an ‘urban ecological system,’ Mangal City is a concept that explores spiraling towers made up of individual pods. taking its design cues from systems in nature, such as mangrove roots. Of the project, Chimera says “The mangrove plant and its collective the mangal, provide examples of social associative principles as well as structural capacities and hybrid responses to environmental and contextual conditions.”

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Spiral Architecture 12 Swirling Buildings Bridges

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

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Virtual LEGO Blocks: Build with Chrome, Set on Google Maps

05 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

build with chrome page

Build with Chrome is the new, fast and simple model-maker in town, and this one lets you create structures faster than digital SketchUp or physical LEGOs ever could.

build lego google maps

Of course, this Chrome Experiment project would not be complete without Google Maps integration, allowing you to deploy your creations around the world and interact with others.

build lego online browser

Architecture seems the most obvious, but infrastructure, ships and other complex shapes are all ultimately possibilities as well.

build lego pirate ships

Like SketchUp (previously owned by Google), the tool set is relatively simple, except in this case the learning curve is even faster, making it possible for anyone to participate with ease.

build lego house architecture

Users can select blocks, change colors, rotate with a key click, drop them into place then keep on stacking, then save or reset at any time. From private estates to pirate ships, anything is possible.

[ By WebUrbanist in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

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Windowless House of Glass: Solid Walls Hide Invisible Floors

05 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

glass house modernist china

In a surreal reversal of modern architectural convention, this Vertical Glass House trades a tradition of solid horizontals and clear verticals for an opaque shell and see-through walking surfaces.

glass house exterior view

glass house vertical view

The design by Atelier FCJZ draws on Modernism’s celebration of materials like concrete, glass and steel, but subverts them at the same time via a 90-degree twist. The result is a surprising inverse of celebrated Modernist residences, textbook-making works like Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House or Phillip Johnson’s Glass House.

glass house stairs door

glass house seated meditation

Despite its strategic departures, the unique home is still intended in a Modernist spirit – its simplicity is just turned inward, meant to engender and focus internal reflection. Set as it is in Shanghai, and designed by a Chinese firm, one could also argue it is an Eastern interpretation of a primarily Western movement.

glass house on river

glass house bedroom bath

The building was originally designed for a competition just over two decades ago, but recently realized as an actual structure thanks to the West Bund Biennale of Architecture and Contemporary Art, which has made it a permanent pavilion and opened it to guest artists and architects in residence.

glass concrete home original drawings

glass house bathroom living

From the designers: “Vertical Glass House is a urban housing prototype and discusses the notion of transparency in verticality while serving as a critic of Modernist transparency in horizontality or a glass house that always opens to landscape and provides no privacy.”

glass house plan section

glass house living kitchen

“With enclosed walls and transparent floors as well as roof, the house opens to the sky and the earth, positions the inhabitant right in the middle, and creates a place for meditation. Vertical transparency [also] visually connects all the utilities, ductworks, furniture pieces on different levels, as well as the staircase, into a [comprehensible] system of domesticity.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Blossoming Technology: World’s First Inflatable 3D Print

04 Feb

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

Worlds First Inflatable 3D Print 1

3D printers are now making it possible to quickly and economically ‘print’ everything from haute couture to full-scale architecture, medical prostheses to cars. Now, the technology has advanced enough to blend two different materials in a single print to make them stronger and more functional. ‘Blossom,’ a project by designer Richard Clarkson, not only produced 3D-printed flowers made from two materials with properties ranging from flexible to rigid, he also made them inflatable.

RichardClarkson-Blossom

Believed to be the world’s first inflatable 3D print, Blossom is a series of flexible artificial flowers that can be inflated with air so they ‘bloom’ like real flowers. Completed in 2013 but just now released to the public, the project incorporates a rubbery black material called Tango Black for the petals and a clear, solid substance called Fullcure 720 for the center and stem.

World's First Inflatable 3D Print 3

While this project may not be as immediately practical as many other 3D printing demonstrations, it gives us an intriguing look at what might be possible in the future, pushing past limitations that have held innovation back in this field.

Worlds First Inflatable 3D Print 5

“As in nature, materials can be distributed seamlessly within objects for structural and functional advantage,” says Clarkson. “The variation offers an opportunity to generate complex forms and dynamic structures that are impossible to make by any other means.”

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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Ostrich Pillows & Energy Pods: 15 Nap-Worthy Inventions

03 Feb

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

Napping Furniture Main

Everybody knows that there’s no better place to take a nap than a hammock hung in a scenic location, but what about when you’re stuck at home, or at the office, or on a city bus? Instead of making do with an upright chair, the hard surface of your desk or a stranger’s shoulder, try these 15 nap-worthy (and sometimes ridiculous) loungers, sleep suits and head-supporting pillows.

Energy Pod

Napping Furniture EnergyPod

Among the perks of working at Google is escaping every now and then to take a nap in one of these bizarre-looking EnergyPods, which cost about $ 8K each. Reclined at just the right angle for optimal blood flow throughout the body, the pod has a visor that flips down to envelop the user in a private, soundproof space, and it even has built-in Bose speakers if you’d like to drift off to music.

Vitrea Living Tower

Napping Furniture Vitrea 1

Napping Furniture Vitrea 2

This classic design, first introduced in 1969, is an organically shaped seating tower that allows you to recline in a variety of positions. The unit can be used alone – either freestanding or pushed up against a wall – or put together to create a sort of seating cave.

Human Burrito

Napping Furniture Blandito

Turn yourself into a human burrito with the Blandito, a transformable pad for lounging in virtually any position you can think of. The pad can be rolled, bunched and scrunched in all sorts of different ways. The idea was to make the simplest possible product – essentially a sofa with no arms, legs, back or any real structure whatsoever – as multi-purpose as it can be. That’s achieved with just a little bit of fabric, foam and some elastic connectors.

DIY Hammock Bed

Napping Furniture Hammock bed

A fun twist on the conventional hammock design, this DIY creation is simply some net strung across an open space leading from one level of an office to another. Would you be able to get any work done if this thing was installed right next to your desk?

FEEL Seating System

Napping Furniture Feel Seating System

Over 120 soft foam balls make up the ‘Feel Seating System‘, which can be bunched up in any number of configurations to reflect “the ever changing emotional state of the body.” Sit on it, lay on it, or wrap it around you like a cocoon.

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Luxe Lounge 15 Tempting Places To Take A Nap

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Guerrilla Upcycling: Public Furniture Made of Parisian Trash

03 Feb

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

guerilla art paris france

As darkness descends these guerrilla activists hit the streets, not to protest or graffiti but to build and install community infrastructure from the discarded roadside scraps of Paris, France.

guerrilla street furniture build

guerilla seating space

Chapitre Zero is a project led by Duccio Maria Gambi and Mattia Paco Rizzi, furniture designers with a higher purpose in mind for the urban refuse they find, but with no license from the city to install their de facto illegal creations.

guerilla mixed bench chair

guerilla bent wood seats

The evolving team of nocturnal participants uses leftover palettes, old doors and other pieces of wood to shape seats and tables which they deploy into carefully-chosen spaces, leaving local residents to wake up surrounded by useful surprises

guerrilla urban public construction

guerilla shaded chair design

Their process has evolved over time, from prefabricating their pieces to working onsite with portable power tools to build with whatever waste is at hand, bending, fastening, screwing and nailing as they go.

guerrilla scrap wood chair

guerilla palette love seat

This trash-taking approach naturally requires a degree of planning and preparedness but also a sense of the impromptu – much like other forms of ad hoc guerrilla street art.

guerilla street seat use

guerilla recycled community zone

If there is a twist to this particular tale, though, perhaps it is as follows: you can get away with a great deal in public if you seem to be doing something to improve the context you are working within. For their part, the community has responded warmly, throwing impromptu picnics, meetings and birthday parties in these unexpected new spaces.

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

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Out Of Services: 8 More Amazing Abandoned Churches

03 Feb

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Abandon faith all ye who enter here… and in the case of these 8 amazing abandoned churches, don’t even bother entering as faith, hope & charity left long ago.

Spaca Moskalyk – Alberta, Canada

abandoned Spaca Moskalyk Ukrainian Catholic church Alberta Canada (images via: Darren Kirby, John Lucas, Edmonton Journal and Ray van der Woning/Photographi-ca)

The Transfiguration of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church (known as Spaca Moskalyk), located in northern Alberta, Canada, was built in 1924 and stands 20 meters (about 66 feet) tall. The wood-framed and partially boarded-up building is definitely showing its age and the unstable soil below isn’t helping. By October of 2011, concerns about the church’s safety and estimated costs of $ 400,000 to $ 775,000 to rectify the problems forced parish members to consider the most economical solution: salvaging anything useful and burning the gutted church to the ground.

abandoned Spaca Moskalyk Ukrainian Catholic church Alberta (image via: Hong Kong Photographic)

Publicity over the plight of Spaca Moskalyk has (as of December 2013) postponed its fiery fate several times while kinder options are entertained. Meanwhile, photographers alerted to the possible loss of an historic icon of western Canada’s pioneer spirit have rushed to preserve the site’s oft-haunting beauty. One of these is Flickr user Randall van der Woning whose image appears above.

St Remigius’ Church – Testerton, England

abandoned St Remigius' Church Testerton England overgrown (images via: Geograph, Adrian S Pye and Norfolk Churches)

Norfolk in eastern England is home to a remarkable number of severely overgrown and abandoned (obviously) churches. Some, like St Remigius’ Church in Testerton, are all that remains of medieval villages themselves abandoned in the chaotic time of the English Reformation almost 500 years ago. A curious parallel can be made with rediscovered Mayan cities long-overtaken and disguised by jungle vines and vegetation; surprising indeed considering these relics are located within a reasonable drive out of London!

Abandoned Church – Bidong Island, Malaysia

abandoned church Bidong Island (images via: I Am Bidong, Neil Ta and Ee Lin Wan)

Between 1975 and 1991, the tiny (1 square kilometer) Malaysian island of Pulau Bidong became a transit camp for refugees from the Vietnam War. As many as 250,000 “boat people” passed through so-called “Hell Island” and the population peaked at a staggering 40,000! In 1991 the camp was closed, with the last 9,000 or so refugees forcibly repatriated to Vietnam.

Pulau Bidong abandoned church (image via: HENG FU MING)

While Malaysian authorities have allowed nature to gradually restore the island to its original state, many reminders of the refugee era remain. Flickr user HENG FU MING brings us the eerie image above of a ramshackle yet lovingly crafted church slowly moldering away in the tropical heat and humidity.

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Out Of Services 8 More Amazing Abandoned Churches

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Topographic Interiors: Pair of Stacked Plywood Storefronts

02 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

wood storefront

This set of two spaces in Osaka, an information hub and public cafe, each employs layers of horizontal wooden sheets that stack up vertically to form seating, shelves, standing desks and work surfaces.

wood plywood design japan

Japanese architect Kengo Kuma worked with their client, a regional restaurant guide requiring a physical presence in a space open to the public, to shape both essential elements and opportunities for unexpected interactions.

wood interior custom space

wood layered ply seating

Alternating layers of recessed and black-edged boards create a heightened contrast with their bright, naturally wood-colored counterparts sticking further out from the walls.

wood layered desk shelves

wood separated storefront japan

Both rooms are set in the bottom of the same structure but are separated by outdoor space, so their common (and unusual) material language helps them connect across the void.

wood layered exterior view

wood custom casework system

By using light colors and through bright illumination, people passing between the rooms are meant to find them surprising, distracting and engaging. The composition was made, in part, to draw in pedestrians on their way through the central passage that bisects the spaces, a visual ‘hook’ for busy commuters in the bustling city.

360Photography

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Long-Exposure Faces: Moody Light Art Painted with Sparks

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Long Exposure Faces Moody Light Art Painted With Sparks

Sensory Reading Experience Integrates Touch and Sound

Spiral Architecture: 12 Swirling Building & Bridge Designs

Evolver by Alice Studio

Arganzuela Footbridge

Mobius Buddhist Temple

Mangal City Spiraling Skyscraper Pod

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Spiral Architecture 12 Swirling Buildings Bridges

Virtual LEGO Blocks: Build with Chrome, Set on Google Maps

Windowless House of Glass: Solid Walls Hide Invisible Floors

Blossoming Technology: World’s First Inflatable 3D Print

Ostrich Pillows & Energy Pods: 15 Nap-Worthy Inventions

Energy Pod

Vitrea Living Tower

Human Burrito

DIY Hammock Bed

FEEL Seating System

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Luxe Lounge 15 Tempting Places To Take A Nap

Guerrilla Upcycling: Public Furniture Made of Parisian Trash

Out Of Services: 8 More Amazing Abandoned Churches

Spaca Moskalyk – Alberta, Canada

St Remigius’ Church – Testerton, England

Abandoned Church – Bidong Island, Malaysia

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Out Of Services 8 More Amazing Abandoned Churches

Topographic Interiors: Pair of Stacked Plywood Storefronts

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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

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Painting with Light: 15 Long-Exposure Light Art Photos

Geometric Projections: Light Art Radically Reshapes Nature

Exposure: 10 Amazing Light Graffiti Artists & Photographers

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Tactile Technology: 13 Off-Screen Touch Input Inventions

Space-Age Home: 5 Futuristic Sensory Appliances

Gripping Book Art: 31 Sculptures Worth Reading About

Evolver by Alice Studio

Arganzuela Footbridge

Mobius Buddhist Temple

Mangal City Spiraling Skyscraper Pod

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Spiral Architecture 12 Swirling Buildings Bridges

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15 Cool High School, College & University Building Designs

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Test Your Geography Skills with Google Maps Game

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Invisible Homes: 7 Glittering Greenhouses & Glass Houses

House of Glass: Cabin Facade from Antique Window Frames

A Tree Grows Inside This Modern Cylindrical Glass House

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3D Printing Goes Giant: Print Your Own Home?!

Blow-Up Building: Inflatable Concert Hall Tours Japan

Factory to Self-Fabrication: 14 3D-Printed Design Objects

Energy Pod

Vitrea Living Tower

Human Burrito

DIY Hammock Bed

FEEL Seating System

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Luxe Lounge 15 Tempting Places To Take A Nap

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No Mere Puff Pieces: 30 Clever Cushions & Crafty Pillows

Fold-Out Room: 12 Ultra-Compact Living Pods & Systems

A’ Design Award: 10 Worthy Winners from Around the World

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Simple Brackets Make DIY Furniture Dreams Come True

Throw a Bouquet: Guerrilla Seed Bombs & Flower Grenades

Street Seats for the People: Bold Guerrilla Furniture

Spaca Moskalyk – Alberta, Canada

St Remigius’ Church – Testerton, England

Abandoned Church – Bidong Island, Malaysia

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Out Of Services 8 More Amazing Abandoned Churches

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Empty Pews: 7 More Amazing Abandoned Churches

Faith Alone: 7 Stunning Abandoned Churches & Chapels

7 Haunting Abandoned Hotels, Hospitals, & Churches

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12 Offbeat Office Interiors & Innovative Desk Designs

Fine Faux Finishes: Awesome Plywood & MDF Architecture

Slices of Home: Modular Mobile House-Shaped Micro-Rooms

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Long Exposure Faces Moody Light Art Painted With Sparks

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Spiral Architecture 12 Swirling Buildings Bridges

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Luxe Lounge 15 Tempting Places To Take A Nap

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Out Of Services 8 More Amazing Abandoned Churches