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12 Worthy Winners: 2013 World Architecture Festival Awards

07 Nov

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

World Architecture Awards Main

Dynamic, surprising and visually stunning, the winners of the 2013 World Architecture Festival awards represent the very best in recent architecture across a range of categories, from hotels and transit terminals to mosques and private homes. Here are 12 of those standout buildings, including the winner of the coveted World Building of the Year title.

Shopping: Emporia, Sweden – Wingardh Arkitektkontor

World Architecture Awards Emporia

This striking golden glass structure is about as far from a typical suburban mall as a shopping center can ever get. The sprawling Emporia shopping center in Sweden features a cut-out amber glass entrance, color-coded atriums throughout the building that help with navigation, and a rooftop park with outdoor dining and a spa.

House: The Left-Over-Space House, Australia – Cox Rayner Architects

World Architecture Awards Left Over Space

Proving that virtually no lot is too small for a comfortable, well-designed home, Cox Rayner Architects took a narrow space just 3 meters wide and created a spacious residence. The Left-Over Space House in Brisbane consists of stacked orthogonal forms made mostly of wood. Situated between two public buildings, the house makes use of what seemed like an unusable space. Iron screens offer privacy, and narrow courtyards enable access to nature.

Housing: 28th Street Apartments, USA – Koning Eizenburg Architecture

World Architecture Awards 28th Street Apartments

A historic four-story concrete building in Los Angeles, originally built in 1926, was temporarily abandoned and in a state of disrepair before Koning Eizenburg Architecture gave it a stunning update that restores its beauty while also playing old against new in dynamic and surprising ways. It now contains 24 studio apartments as well as common facilities, and features a modern roof deck with patterns abstracted from the ’20s bas-reliefs found in the main entrance.

Office: Statoil Regional and International Offices, Norway – A-Lab

World Architecture Awards Statoil

A-Lab aimed to create a massive commercial building complex for Norwegian energy producer Statoil that would somehow also blend in with the idyllic shoreline on which it’s located. The result is a series of narrow, stacked volumes, each oriented to optimize daylight conditions and views of the fjord landscape. The propeller-shaped glass roofs are filled in with structures inspired by soap bubbles to stand up to loads of heavy snow.

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12 Worthy Winners 2013 World Architecture Festival Awards

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

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Phonebloks Unlocked: Google Backs Modular Mobile Phone

06 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

animated-mobile-modular-pho

More than the sum of its parts, the conceptual swappable-piece mobile phone design that went viral but is now being backed by Google-owned Motorola and is suddenly much closer to becoming a reality. Instead of recycling your cell, imagine switching in new pieces as needed to customize, repair and upgrade the same device indefinitely.

modular device assembled disassembled

Dutch design student Dave Hakkens set off a chain reaction when he released his initial concept video online featuring Phonebloks, a simple but powerful idea for future-proofing mobile phones and creating an open ecosystem around such devices.

modular upgradeable phone concept

Motorola, meanwhile, was already working on a free, open-hardware device (think: Android for physical objects) along similar lines, and have now teamed up with this suddenly-famous designer. Like app makers in the digital marketplace, developers of physical components can make their own puzzle-piece parts for the devices.

modular concept pieces parts

Thunderclap helped Hakkens reach a huge audience quickly, with fans lending their social reach to promote the idea. Engineers, technicians and designers around the world showed interest in Hakkens’ design immediately as he racked up tens of millions of video views. He then began shopping around for partners to work on the project.

modular kit of parts

For its part in the partnership, Motorola brings technological research, experimentation and expertise to the table. In turn, Hakkens has built a huge fan following, showing his ability as innovator, designer and marketer.

modular phone motorola google

modular mobile phone design

Project Ara, Motorola’s name for the overarching and ongoing project, will be deployed along the same lines as Google Glass to beta testers. The first Phonebloks will be released to a limited audience who will in turn provide suggestions and feedback on the devices.

[ By WebUrbanist in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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Rural Urbanism: Forest Community of One-Pole Tree Houses

06 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

treehouse model

Pristine nature versus urban development seem ever at war, but this designer proposes a low-impact, small-footprint approach for cross-kingdom co-habitation between people and trees.

treehouse community rendering example

Konrad Wójcik of Aalborg, Denmark has modeled his design on the shape and functions of trees, envisioning a forest where these living modules are found interspersed within existing organic ecosystems rather than displacing them.

treehouse impact study diagram

treehouse elevation plan inspiration

treehouses situated in forest

tree house presentation

He notes that “for most of the animals, trees are the best natural shelters against predators, moisture and weather. Coincidence? We must remember that in nature nothing is accidental. Everything has a reason and a purpose. It all balance out.”

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Rural Urbanism Forest Community Of One Pole Tree Houses

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Skinned Buildings: Latex Casts of Derelict Urban Surfaces

05 Nov

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

$Skinned Buildings Latex 1$

Draped like the macabre souvenirs of a serial killer, ghostly skins of old buildings billow on clotheslines, bearing the grime of the surfaces from which they were cast. Amsterdam design studio KNOL Ontwerp preserves the memory of cobblestone streets, brick walls, fireplaces and doors by coating them in latex to create a tactile impression of their surfaces.

$Skinned Buildings Latex 2$

$Skinned Buildings Latex 3$

Installed at the Sandberg Institute of Amsterdam, ‘Skinned’ has these castings hanging like funeral shrouds from the gallery ceiling. The latex is fittingly translucent, almost immaterial, adding to the sense that each piece is just the faintest echo of the solid object from which it was taken. Most of the skins come from vacant buildings around Amsterdam.

$Skinned Buildings Latex 4$

Not only is the exact texture and shape of the original structure captured in great detail, but also some of the dirt. The designers made no effort to clean up any of the surfaces they cast, so when they peeled away the latex, a little bit of the structure’s history came off with it.

$Skinned Buildings Latex 5$

Skinned Buildings 6

“Like skin transplantations they can be taken to other spaces where they get a new spatial meaning. They take us to a wold in which places are no longer fixed to specific locations, but become nomadic or ‘liquid.’ When the skins are drawn out of their original context and are brought to a new one, their character changes. The impact on for example an abandoned office building is remarkable.”

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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The Art of Tranquility: 14 Modern Tea House Designs

05 Nov

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Modern Tea Houses Main

In Asia, tea houses are typically striking examples of traditional architecture, reflecting the culture and history of the nations in which they’re built. But many architects are re-imagining this concept of a private, tranquil space dedicated to sacred or meditative activities through the lens of modern design. These 14 tea house designs include floating glass structures inspired by lanterns, temporary flat-pack huts and digitally designed shelters.

Glass Tea Houses in the Woods

Tea Houses Glass Woods
A trio of minimalist glass cubes serve as tea houses, meditation and brainstorming getaways in the wooded backyard of a home in Silicon Valley. “Each tea house is designed as a transparent steel and glass pavilion, hovering like a lantern over the natural landscape,” says architecture firm Swatt Miers. “Cast-in-place concrete core elements anchor the pavilions, supporting steel channel rim joists which cantilever beyond the cores to support the floor and roof panes. With its minimal footprint, the design treads lightly on the land, minimizing grading and preserving the delicate root systems of the native oaks.”

Fujimori Tea House on Stilts

Tea Houses Stilts

Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori has a little fun with traditional tea house designs by placing them high on stilts, stringing them between posts or otherwise removing them from any sense of being grounded. This one is precariously perched on just two narrow trunks in Nagano Prefecture, and is accessible by a rather intimidating freestanding ladder. Fujimori intentionally pushes the limits of tea house architecture, making it a bit of a challenge to access them, but rewarding once inside.

Paper Tea House by Shigeru Ban

Tea Houses Paper Shigeru Ban

Architect Shigeru Ban is renowned for making unexpected things out of paper and cardboard – like bridges and even churches. The Paper Tea House was created as part of a sale of Japanese art and design, constructed of square paper tubes with an indoor space measuring just over 5 meters long.

Floating Glass Tea House

Tea Houses Floating

This tea house floats over the landscape, a glass and bronze rectangle suspended from a frame in the image of a Japanese lantern. The backyard structure, by David Jameson, is also used as a meditation space and a stage for the family’s musical recitals.

Modern Tea House and Meditation Hut

Tea Houses modern Meditation

This private tea house is elevated on the edge of a peaceful lake in Illinois on the property of architect Jeffery Poss. The vaulted roof reflects the dappled light from the surface of the pond onto the interior ceiling, and also pours rainwater into the pond. A low horizontal window frames a view of the water.

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[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Free T-Shirt & Final Tag: Banksy’s Goodbye to New York City

04 Nov

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

banksy nyc goodbye art

After an intensive month-long residency in America’s biggest city with daily updates, street artist Banksy is leaving behind a strangely mixed legacy of his trip. Here are some of his last works from the stay, from a thrift store painting hacked and re-donated and an unpublished op-ed piece to a free t-shirt to anyone who wishes to download and print it.

banksy thrift store nazi

banksy banality of evil

‘The banality of the banality of evil’ is a second-hand shop art conversion purchased, adapted and given back to a local store on 23rd street. It features a World War II Nazi officer added to the otherwise bland landscape, easy to overlook in the serene scenery.

banksy internet tag humor

banksy blocked messages wall

Meanwhile, in Greenpoint, a kind of meta-tag (not in the internet sense, though certainly a reference to webpages) speaks to already-covered graffiti painted over below it.

banksy op ed wtc

His controversial message aimed to be published in the local press (submitted to the New York Times but rejected) gives his stance on One World Trade Center, which he sees as an insufficiently bold tribute to the falls towers of the city.

banksy perched cat stadium

banksy robot bar code

banksy grim reaper bumper car

Other odds and ends from his final days in town include: a cheetah lounging on the side of Yankee Stadium, a robot spray-painting a bar code on a brick wall in Coney Island, a gentleman waiting for a date outside the Hustler Club and the Grim Reaper riding a bumper car in Bowery.

banksy goodbye nyc tag

banksy free t-shirt image

Before spray-painting his name in simple bubble letters on a wall in Queens to end his October run, Banksy reminded New Yorkers to ‘save Five Points’ and added his iconic bandaged heart to the iconic white I Heart NYC t-shirt. The latter he offers for ‘free’ as a download, complete with an ironic registered trademark symbol and graffiti-style lettering. Given the controversy caused by some of his projects and their aftermath, some will no doubt be sad and others glad to see him go from the Five Boroughs.

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

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Sounds Of Sirens: 10 Alarmingly Abandoned Firehalls

04 Nov

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Made to last and styled to please, these abandoned firehalls silently linger on long after the factories and buildings they were built to protect have gone.

Centennial Fire Co. #4, Peekskill NY

Centennial firehouse Peekskill NY (image via: donbco)

Built in 1890, the squat, red brick Centennial Fire Co. #4 in Peekskill, New York appears positively ancient in contrast with the circa-1932 iron bridge looming just overhead. The two-story structure featured an attached outbuilding that once housed a pair of horses, Homer and John, who pulled the station’s fire-wagon in times of need. Full credit to Flickr user donbco for the image above, taken on a beautiful sunny spring day in April of 2008.

Peekskill Centennial firehouse (images via: Hudson Valley Ruins/Rob Yasinsac, New York Times and donbco)

Centennial Fire Co. #4 was closed on Oct. 19th, 1980, and sat abandoned beneath its sheltering bridge for nearly 30 years. Finally in 2008, funding was arranged to move the historic structure a short block away to a city park where it was to be incorporated into a firefighter’s memorial. Unfortunately, the move ended before it really began when, on August 21st of 2008, a hydraulic jack failed and the building crumpled (see it here!) like a house of cards.

Abandoned Firehouse, Suurpea, Estonia

abandoned firehouse Suurpea Estonia (images via: Panoramio/Salasilm)

Outwardly resembling a mid-century American ranch-style bunglow, this abandoned firehouse in Harju County, Estonia, is anything but. As captured in 2010 by Panoramio user Salasilm, this plain and pleasant building in the village of Suurpea, about 30 miles east of Talinn, is just beginning to display signs of neglect and abandonment. It’s not alone – only a couple hundred people still live in the village which seems to have enjoyed much better days as a Soviet-era military base and housing estate.

Engine House 22, Detroit Fire Dept.

abandoned Detroit Engine 22 firehall (images via: DetroitUrbex)

Built in 1895, the Detroit Fire Department’s Engine House 22 witnessed the much-maligned city’s rise and fall. The firehall itself fell silent in 1983, only to reopen in 1991 as a Spanish restaurant called Casa de Espana. The twin “skylights” above make more sense when one imagines the original pair of fire poles in place. Kudos to DetroitUrbex for these inside & out images of this forlorn firehall.

abandoned Detroit Engine 22 firehall firepoles (image via: DetroitUrbex)

Shortly after one of the restaurant’s owners lost his life in an auto accident, the business closed and the building resumed its slide into neglect and decay along with so many other examples of classic Detroit architecture. Recent reports state the structure may implode on its own before the wrecking ball swings; part of the roof has already fallen in.

Engine Co. 18 Firehouse, Dorchester MA

Engine Co. 18 firehouse Dorchester (images via: Dorchester Reporter and Boston Fire Historical Society)

Built in 1869, one year before the town of Dorchester was annexed by Boston, the Engine Co. 18 Firehouse certainly has a lot of history behind it. Located at 30 Harvard Street in the Four Corners section of Dorchester, the station closed on June 11th of 1960 and spent the next 45 years as a pre-school and daycare center. Abandoned since 2005, the historic building was finally sold in 2012 to a young couple who plan to restore the building as a live-in arts space.

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Sounds Of Sirens 10 Alarmingly Abandoned Firehalls

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Interactive Sculpture Echoes the Movements of Spectators

02 Nov

[ By Delana in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

angles mirror

Artist Daniel Rozin creates installation pieces that watch you even more closely than you watch them. His Angles Mirror installation features a triangular base with hundreds of yellow pegs. As you approach the sculpture, it springs to life and the yellow pegs start to spin into new positions. After a moment it becomes apparent: the yellow pieces are mimicking your body’s position and movements. As you shift positions, the yellow pegs rearrange their own positions to echo yours.

Rozin calls this and his other similar interactive sculpture “mirrors.” The label is accurate in that the surfaces reflect the postures of the people standing in front of them. They do not provide details of the viewers’ appearances, but they give a minimalist view of one’s outline. The technique takes the focus away from the individual and puts it entirely on the interactive sculptures.

daniel rozin robotic mirrors sculpture

When the viewer moves away from the sculpture and it has no one to mimic, a set of pre-programmed shapes and patterns cycle on the sculpture’s face. The pegs move so gracefully that they almost seem to be living things moving on their own. The robotic mirrors let spectators feel like part of the art installation rather than viewers removed from the art.

[ By Delana in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Steampunk Flea: Mechanical Insects by Dimitry Valchev

01 Nov

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

Mechanical insects 1

Spark plugs, kitchen strainers, springs and other random metal parts come together into a ‘steampunk flea’ that looks like it could jump away at any second in this mechanical insect sculpture by Dimitry Valchev. The Bulgarian artist uses scrap metal to create a series of sculptures mimicking mosquitoes and other insects as well as flowers, birds and the Loch Ness monster.

Mechanical insects 2

Mechanical Insects 3

Valchev uses all sorts of metal components in ways you wouldn’t expect to create representations of various creatures. One bird has spoons as feathers, while the ‘flower of time’ is full of working gears.

Mechanical Insects 4

Mechanical Insects 6

Mechanical Insects 8

These creations are just a few examples of steampunk animal sculptures, which range from abstract wind-powered beasts to a realistic 36-foot-tall elephant that’s actually a vehicle.

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Dino-Lanterns: Multi-Pumpkin Carving Exhibit Goes Jurassic

01 Nov

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

Dinosaur Jack O Lanterns Pumpkins 1

A landscape of towering dinosaurs is eerily illuminated with an orange glow at the annual Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze in New York. A team of professional artists came together to turn more than 5,000 pumpkins into carved masterpieces representing skeletal triceratops, a brontosaurus and even a pterodactyl suspended in a tree.

Dinosaur Pumpkins Jack O Lanterns 2

The pumpkins are stacked and joined together to form cohesive shapes after they’re carved, creating an illusion fiery skeletons from afar. Other designs include a giant spider, snakes and a working grandfather clock.

Dinosaur Pumpkins Jack O Lanterns 3

The pumpkins are situated throughout the riverside grounds of the 18th-century Van Cortland Manor. The event draws tens of thousands of visitors from around the Northeast.

Dinosaur Pumpkins Jack O Lanterns 4

The display will stay up until November 11th and includes sound effects, synchronized lighting and a Museum of Pumpkin Art.

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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360Photography

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

12 Worthy Winners: 2013 World Architecture Festival Awards

Shopping: Emporia, Sweden – Wingardh Arkitektkontor

House: The Left-Over-Space House, Australia – Cox Rayner Architects

Housing: 28th Street Apartments, USA – Koning Eizenburg Architecture

Office: Statoil Regional and International Offices, Norway – A-Lab

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12 Worthy Winners 2013 World Architecture Festival Awards

Phonebloks Unlocked: Google Backs Modular Mobile Phone

Rural Urbanism: Forest Community of One-Pole Tree Houses

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Rural Urbanism Forest Community Of One Pole Tree Houses

Skinned Buildings: Latex Casts of Derelict Urban Surfaces