Creativity « 360Photography

RSS

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Real 3D Sketches: 3 Furniture Sets that Draw on 2D Doodles

15 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

3d sketch furniture set

Like photo-realistic art in reverse, these three-dimensional objects are carefully crafted to look like rough-edged, hand-sketched representations. If the approach looks familiar, you might be recalling our previous coverage of work by Daigo Fukawa from the Tokyo University for the Arts.

3d chair doodle art

3d furniture design detail

In this series, Jinil Park indeed also with sketches of this chairs, table and lamp set. The artist then hammered wires to create variegated metal lines in the air that look convincingly like those one would expect to find where pen meets paper. These pieces were then welded together to form the finished products.

3d line minimalist vases

If the first set seems to have too fine a point on things, you might prefer the subtler work of Maya Selway instead. This designer has crafted a series of vessels made to look like minimalist outlines. Each piece is perfectly balanced to create the illusion of incompleteness while still being able to stand on its own.

3d furniture design process

Speaking of the intersection of 2D and 3D, any article would be remiss not to mention the remarkable work of FRONT, a group that takes virtual 2D-captured sketches (drawn by hand in the air) and turns them into 3D-printed models.

3d printed chair design

3d printed sketch furniture

A camera-linked computer program extrapolates the form from the gestures of the designers, then extrudes a corresponding shape with surprising (and increasing) accuracy coupled with a strong touch of whimsy (like a 3D Doodler writ large).

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

20-Hour House: How to 3D-Print 2,500 Square Feet in 1 Day

14 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

3d printing building day

Combining ancient earthen-architecture approaches and cutting-edge robotic technologies, this contour crafting process promises a revolution in how we address one of our most basic and universal human needs: shelter.

Inventor and teacher Dr. Behrokh Khoshevis of University of Southern California points out that residential construction is labor-intensive, inefficient and hazardous. In short: it is overdue for a paradigm shift, one that not only automates and speeds up processes but also allows for mass customization and individualization.

3d printed architecture model

His Counter Crafting system “is a fabrication process by which large-scale parts can be fabricated quickly in a layer-by-layer fashion. The chief advantages of the Contour Crafting process over existing technologies are the superior surface finish that is realized and the greatly enhanced speed of fabrication” in part through the use of additives for faster hardening times.

3d building prototype printer

Steel reinforcement, plumbing and electrical can all be installed by robotic attachments as the concrete walls are poured. In turn, conventional shape and style limitations need not apply – curves are as simple to program as right angles. Part of the beauty of this system is that it cuts out the middle man – designs can go straight from the digital drawing board (CAD software) to the on-board computer.

3d printing on moon

Nor is this simply one man’s fantasy: “Contour Crafting has been under development under support from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. Also, the application of CC in building adobe structures using inexpensive materials is being pursued in conjunction with the CalEarth organization.” Contour Crafting is also working with NASA to explore possibilities for 3D-printing structures in space.

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Hose To Home: 10 Reverently Restored Firehouses

14 Jan

[ By Steve in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

firehouse homes
America’s urban firehouses combine form with function in solidly-built structures, making them ideal candidates for respectful residential restoration.

Anderson’s Coop

Anderson Cooper restored home firehouse New York (image via: Daytonian In Manhattan/Alice Lum)

Architect Franklin Baylis, designer of the 1906-vintage Fire Patrol House #2 in New York City’s Greenwich Village, would no doubt be pleased to see his original work revealed after so many years. Bland and unappealing painting, re-painting and over-painting had obscured the firehouse facade’s intricate detailing but all that would change when media celeb Anderson Cooper bought the building for $ 4.3 million and embarked on an extensive (and doubtless expensive) restoration.

Anderson Cooper firehouse home NYC Greenwich Village (images via: Curbed)

The term “restoration” shouldn’t be taken literally – Cooper was looking to LIVE in the building, not fight fires from it. Even so, the new owner of the 8,240-square-foot former firehall at 84 West 3rd Street intends to restore the old fireman’s gymnasium for his personal use and although the front garage door is now black, the station’s iconic bust of Mercury is looking pretty good for a dude going on 108!

Newport Renews

Hose 8 firehouse restoration Newport RI (images via: H + A)

The town of Newport, Rhode Island was founded in 1639, which makes the historic Hose 8 firehouse one of the burg’s newer structures. When structural issues appeared to consign the late nineteenth century building to the wrecker’s ball, Boston-based Hacin + Associates architecture and design firm stepped in with an intriguing plan: completely dismantle the three-story firehouse and rebuild it, brick by brick, with a flexible modern interior suitable for homeowners. Upon completion of the three-year-long project, The Newport Restoration Foundation awarded H + A the Doris Duke Preservation Award honoring the firm’s “heroic efforts to save a building that would have otherwise been lost”.

Ravenswood; You Would Too

Ravenswood Chicago home firehouse (image via: Your Windy City Guide)

Chicago Fire anyone? The Windy City found itself chock-a-block with redundant firehouses in the late 1950s when the many competing private fire protection companies were absorbed by the municipal government. Some, like the restored Ravenswood beauty above, found themselves in revitalized residential neighborhoods where their form took precedence over their former function.

Chicago restored firehouse Ravenswood (images via: Hall Of Flame, StrawStickStone/Cragin Spring and Chicago Scanner)

In its previous life, the structure was Patrol #8 of the Chicago Fire Insurance Patrol. Listed for $ 1,275,000 in 2006 (just before the national financial crisis clobbered the housing market), the cozy firehall features two bedrooms, two baths, a wine cellar and an expansive first floor formerly reserved for parking fire engines. The building looked almost naked without its current covering of ivy, though the “before” photo above from StrawStickStone does reveal some of its architectural highlights.

San Francisco Treat

117 Broad St. fire station 33 SFFD home (images via: Zillow)

Give my regards to Broad Street… San Francisco that is! Operating from 1896 to 1974, Firehouse 33 enjoyed an eventful life that included the Great San Francisco Earthquake when it was just a decade old. These days, the station does double duty as a two bedroom/2 bathroom home and a working business: the San Francisco Fire Engine Tours & Adventures company – it even has a 1955 red Mack Truck fire engine parked in the garage. Kiss those traffic jams goodbye!

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Hose To Home 10 Reverently Restored Firehouses

[ By Steve in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Space in Miniature: Tilt-Shift Effect Shrinks Galaxies

14 Jan

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

Tilt Shift Space Photos 1

The scope of all that exists beyond our own planet is so large, it’s mind-boggling to contemplate. Yet a simple Photoshop trick can seemingly reduce shots of outer space, including those taken by powerful Hubble telescopes, to miniature scenes.

Tilt Shift Space Photos 5

Reddit user TheScienceLlama took a bunch of space imagery from NASA and ESA and transformed it with the Tilt-Shift filter in Photoshop, including the Horsehead Nebula, Crab Nebula, Meathook Galaxy, Thor’s Helmet Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy.

Tilt Shift Space Photos 3

Tilt Shift Space Photos 2

The tilt-shift effect blurs the top and bottom of an image to mimic a shallow depth of field, making it seem as if life-sized scenes are actually miniatures.

Tilt Shift Space Photos 6

The effect is especially effective on urban scenes, making planes, city buses, cruise ships and people look like toys.

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Car-Free City: Hamburg Announces Audacious 20-Year Plan

14 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

car free green city

Germany may be known for its green political party and sustainable energy focus, but this daring plan to eliminate the need for automobiles entirely across the country’s second-largest metropolis is fresh and bold by any standard.

car free signs colors

Hamburg’s Green Network Plan (Gruenes Netz) is a two-decade strategy to connect the whole urban center and its outskirts via bicycles and pedestrian routes, rendering vehicles redundant and bringing green space effectively right to the doorstep of every city dweller.

car free urban layout

Major parks, playgrounds, gardens already make up 40% of the city and many form contiguous axes accessible without motorized transit, so this direction is in many ways an extension of their existing approach. At the same time, this proposal goes beyond green rings or environmental zones toward a new type of environment-first urban planning.

car city context paths

Hamburg is well aware of the dangers of climate change, having experienced a nearly 10-degree Celsius rise in temperatures in just over half a century, as well as water levels that have gone up by close to 20 centimeters (expected to increase another 30 by 2100).

car free connections images

Beyond climate change-combating benefits, however, its architects note “It will offer people opportunities to hike, swim, do water sports, enjoy picnics and restaurants, experience calm and watch nature and wildlife right in the city, [reducing] the need to take the car for weekend outings outside the city.” Effectively, the vision is of a city that serves all needs and makes traveling to escape its cramped urban confines a problem of the past.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

By a Thread: 31 Excellent Works of Embroidered Art

14 Jan

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

Embroidered Art Main

This ain’t your grandmother’s cross-stitched bible verses. Contemporary artists exploit, subvert and otherwise manipulate the traditional craft of embroidery with hyperealistic portraits, surreal seemingly LSD-induced additions to old photos or pretty flowers added to actual x-rays. Some even use bread – or their own skin – as the canvas for their threaded creations.

Family Portraits Sewn into the Palm of an Artist’s Hand

Embroidery Art Palm Portraits 2

Embroidery Art Palm Portraits 1

Combining visual and performance art, David Cata sews portraits of his family members into the palm of his own hand, poking the thread through the topmost layer of skin. The series symbolizes people who have ‘left their mark’ on the artist’s life, just as the portraits leave their mark on his skin. “Their lives have been interwoven with mine to build my history, every moment lived stays in the memory to finally be forgotten. Somehow, this fact is painful, since there are only material things and traces that people leave behind.”

Traditional Temari Spheres by 88-Year-Old Grandmother

Embroidered Art Tamari Spheres 1

Flickr user NanaAkua shares photos of the 500-odd, incredibly intricate temari spheres embroidered by her 88-year-old grandmother. Temari balls are a form of Japanese folk art (of Chinese origin), often made from the thread of old kimonos and given as gifts to children on New Year’s Day.

Bear Sculptures Embroidered with Anatomy

Embroidered Art Bears 1

Embroidered Art Bears 2

Embroidered Art Bears 3

Bears are seemingly turned inside-out with embroidery of their anatomy in stunning lifelike sculpture by Deborah Simon. Measuring about two feet square, the sculptures reveal internal organs, musculature, skeletons and nerves. The series highlights how human desire for their pelts puts these majestic creatures in danger. “Bears are the ultimate stuffed animals; both the iconic plush toy and the prized taxidermy specimen for hunters,” says Simon. “Most of the sculptures deal with vulnerability; the vulnerability that the animals face from environmental degradation, conflicts with people, suburban sprawl and poaching. I particularly find the dichotomy between the defanged, declawed childhood toy and the fierce reality of a top predator fascinating.”

Embroidered Flesh by Eliza Bennet

Embroidered Art Flesh Bennet 1

Embroidered Art Flesh Bennet 2

David Cata isn’t the only artist using the thick, relatively bloodless skin of his palms as a surface for embroidery. Eliza Bennet uses a similar method, but her work invokes more of a visceral reaction of disgust for its visual mimicry of wounds. The idea is to highlight the idea of embroidery being women’s work, and women’s work being ‘easy.’ Bennet notes that many low-paid jobs typically aligned with women, like cleaning, caring and catering, can be difficult and labor-intensive. “Through a personally charged perception, I explore a range of issues relating to the formlessness of both individual and social reality,” she says.

Embroidered X-Rays by Matthew Cox

Embroidered Art X-Rays 1

Embroidered Art X-Rays 2

Traditional embroidery is juxtaposed with plastic x-ray film in this series by Matthew Cox, superimposing images of vivid life on top of the stark white-bones-on-black. Fleshy hands hold flowers, or reach up toward the sky.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
By A Thread 31 Excellent Works Of Embroidered Art

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Car-Free City: Hamburg Announces Audacious 20-Year Plan

13 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

car free green city

car free signs colors

car free urban layout

car city context paths

car free connections images

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Hose To Home: 10 Reverently Restored Firehouses

13 Jan

[ By Steve in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

firehouse homes
America’s urban firehouses combine form with function in solidly-built structures, making them ideal candidates for respectful residential restoration.