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Beautifully Simple: School Bus Turned Minimal Mobile Home

26 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

bus home finished project

You could make a strong case for this vehicle being barely recognizable as such. The dimensions, fenestration and over spatial configuration give good clues that this space may have once been a school bus, but the finishes, furnishings and built-ins go above and beyond bare-bones adaptive reuse.

bus converted exterior retrofit

Architecture student Hank Butitta was sick of drafting imaginary buildings in studio courses destined never to be built, and sought (with help from his younger brother Vince) to steer his education in a more hands-on direction.

bus conversion program diagram

For his final thesis project at the University of Minnesota, Hank bought a bus for $ 3,000, added $ 6,000 to improve it, and spent fifteen weeks creating this amazing multifunctional mobile home.

bus adjustable seating area

We should start with the evolution of the programmatic diagram, described and illustrated in simple terms: “The even spacing of the window bays allow for the volume to be broken down into modular units of 28 inches square, leaving an aisle that is also 28 inches wide. The modular units are then grouped to create four primary zones: Bathroom, Kitchen, Seating, and Sleeping.”

bus multifunctional sleeping space

From there, a series of rules and strategies evolved, like: keep the space as open as possible, so the 225 square feet available area does not get broken down into cramped compartments. The result is a limitation of objects built above the bottom edge of each window and an open-feeling floor plan. Hank also “developed a thin wall system integrating structure, insulation, electrical, lighting, and facing, leaving the interior open for occupation. The ceiling is covered in plywood flexed by compression, and the floor is reclaimed gym flooring, complete with 3-point line.”

bus cab storage space

Throughout the project, there are clever and deceptively simple ways to redeploy structure to address different needs on demand, like a bed system that allows for different sleeping configurations, and seats that with secret flip-up and slide-out panels to allow for further lounging or additional overnight guests. Storage is tucked and hidden throughout, integrated into other built-ins wherever spare space was available. The detailing throughout is minimal and consistent, but don’t let that fool you: a great deal of thought and work went into that apparent simplicity.

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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Trouble Feature: 10 Abandoned Drive-In Movie Theaters

25 Aug

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned drive-in movie theaters
Drive-in movie theaters stand for the great American auto-centric suburban dream, though as time goes by fewer and fewer of the outdoor screens remain standing.

Driven Out

abandoned drive-in theater Washington (image via: WebUrbanist)

On June 6th, 1933, as many as 400 New Jersey motorists looking to escape the harsh realities of the Great Depression for a while enjoyed Wives Beware, starring Adolphe Menjou, from the comfort of their automobiles. Though the 40 by 50 ft screen at Park-In Theaters in Camden is long gone (it operated for only three years), other relics of the Drive-In Theater Age still stand, if just barely.

The Drive-In Project

abandoned drive-in movie theater (images via: Gadling and Ego-TV)

According to travel photographer Craig Deman, “approximately 90 percent of drive-ins are closed from their peak in the late 1950s.” Deman is somewhat of an expert on the topic, having authored the hauntingly illustrated The Drive-In Project which documents the current state of abandoned drive-in movie theaters from coast to coast.

After The Last Picture Show

abandoned Midway drive-in theatre Sweetwater Texas (images via: Debra Jane Seltzer, robert e weston jr and Paul A. Valentine)

They say “Life Is Sweet In Texas” but since the Midway Drive-In Theatre in Sweetwater, Texas closed things just haven’t been the same. The 230-car capacity drive-in was opened in the 1950s and like many drive-ins of the era, provided a large playground for kids and an outdoor seating area for families in front of the screen.

abandoned Midway drive-in theatre Sweetwater Texas (image via: Nicholas Henderson)

The jagged faux mountain range painted in bold Indian red & forest green on the back of the Midway Drive-In Theatre‘s screen make it an easily identified landmark, even from far across the windswept plains of north-central Texas. Flickr user Nicholas Henderson captured the screen-back backdrop’s eerie essence above, looking little the worse for wear, on a bright summer’s day in 2011.

Lake Woe Begone

abandoned Lake drive-in Mt. Orab Ohio (images via: Darren Snow and Lowand77)

There’s not much left of Mt. Orab, Ohio’s Lake Drive-In besides its inimitable Fabulous Fifties main sign and the moldering wooden ticket shack. Indeed, the theater’s Happy Days indeed have long since faded though Richie, Potsie, Ralph and the Fonz still likely have fond memories of many a moonlit night… hey Arthur, don’t you think it’s about time you let those guys out of the trunk?

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Trouble Feature 10 Abandoned Drive In Movie Theaters

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Taking Names: Famous Logos Without Their Brand Names

24 Aug

[ By Delana in Design & Graphics & Branding. ]

All around the world, people are inundated daily with advertisements hawking everything from soda to furniture to vacations. We’re so used to seeing the ads and logos almost everywhere that we can identify the logos without even seeing them in context. That is the message that artist Dorothy sends with her series “You Took My Name.”

In the series, the artist removes the company names from well-known logos. It challenges viewers to recognize and identify the brands even when the company names are missing.

Another goal of the series is to change our perspective on logo art. These symbols are the result of hours of work and research, and they can be seen as works of art in their own right.

[ By Delana in Design & Graphics & Branding. ]

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Bubble of Fear: Surreal Photo Series Highlights Fukushima

23 Aug

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

Surreal Photos of Nuclear Fukushima 1

A gas mask hangs in a red box mounted to a tree in an otherwise peaceful forest, a jarring reminder that all is not well in Fukushima. French photographers Carlos Ayesta and Guillame Bression (collaborating as Trois 8) present ‘Bad Dreams?’, a series of photographs calling attention to the eerie continued desolation of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and surrounding areas that were contaminated with radiation following the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster of 2011.

Surreal Photos Nuclear Fukushima 2

The duo photographed local residents beside plastic-wrapped swing sets, and enclosed within bubbles in front of supermarkets in evacuated towns. Many of these areas are still inaccessible due to the contamination, and even those that aren’t off-limits are quiet and still, as residents fear even low levels of radiation poisoning.

Surreal Photos Fukushima 4

As the photographers point out, the border between the dead zones and the areas that are technically ‘safe’ is blurred and subjective, with locals required to set their own limits. “This gray threat becomes the fertile soil of our imagination and our fears. Fears that could become even more harmful than the radiation itself.”

Surreal Photos Nuclear Fukushima 3

Each photograph depicts an area within these ‘blurred lines,’ including a lake in the mountains filled with ‘safe’ water that parents won’t allow their children to drink, and a forest where officials have been unable to draw distinctions between areas that are contaminated and those that aren’t. ‘The man in the bubble before the dead forest’ shows a forest that died because it was flooded with salt water for months after the tsunami. See the whole series at Trois8.fr.

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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Bubble of Fear: Surreal Photo Series Highlights Fukushima

23 Aug

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

Surreal Photos of Nuclear Fukushima 1

Surreal Photos Nuclear Fukushima 2

Surreal Photos Fukushima 4

Surreal Photos Nuclear Fukushima 3

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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

23 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

portable urban square project

Compact and portable, this crafty collaborative design-build project is part art installation and part impromptu gathering space. This student-built platform pushes people to think about the flexible potential of public space – it also showcases the power of group brainstorming and rapid prototyping.

portable student public space

Facilitated by Izmo in Italy, participating students followed a process-oriented approach. They were presented a framework for construction – a metal-framed rectangle – divided into four quadrants. Each of these sections was assigned to a group along with a set of discarded building materials ready to be reused and a time limit for construction.

portable public space deployed

The cut, pasted and painted result looks somewhat like a three-dimensional patchwork quilt. Its various sides feature fold-out furniture, sliding drawers and secret slots from which various interactive objects are deployed on demand. The structure itself sits on wheels and is sized to fit into public parking spaces or other small and slim sites.

portable park design build

About Izmo itself: “The name Izmo originates from the word isthmus, a thin strip of land that joins two areas. Our research topic is in fact the territory: where interactions take place between individuals and public space . Our mission is to link the territories, the people with the land and the citizens with each other. We do this, for instance, through projects of urban design, installation; organization of seminars, meetings and workshops; and development of Web platforms. In all cases, the projects designed by Izmo come from reading and from listening to people and places that will benefit from our operations.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Mountaintop Museum: Underground Rooms Tunnel into Peak

22 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

mountain museum overlook ledge

In a bold yet beautifully contextually move, this embedded mountaintop museum structure is part of a series of buildings set high in the mountains of Tyrol, Italy, and designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

mountain museum spatial sequence

Visitors ascend the slope from below, enter a glazed above-ground space, then pass through subterranean exhibit rooms and come out onto an observation deck with stunning views down the steep sides of the mountain below.

mountain building underground rooms

The sixth of the set, Messner Mountain Museum is situated at the peak of Mount Kronplatz above a regional ski resort. It is designed to educate visitors on the discipline of mountaineering and celebrate the world’s greatest rock faces.

mountain section cut entrance

Aside from its sinuous aesthetic, the strength of this design relies on sequential experience – movement through the building provides an appreciation for both the site and the subject matter of the museum. It works, quite literally, on a number of levels.

mountaineering museum lower platforms

From the architects: “A composition of fluid, interconnected volumes, the 1000 sq. m. MMM Corones design is carved within the mountain and informed by the geology and topography of its context. A sharp glass canopy, like a fragment of glacial ice, rises from the rock to mark and protect the museum’s entrance”

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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LEGO Brooklyn: Artist Recreates Borough with Plastic Blocks

22 Aug

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

LEGO Brooklyn Model 1

Familiar scenes from Brooklyn, from the local flower shop to the train station, are lovingly rendered in pixelated plastic by local resident and artist Jonathan Lopes. Lopes loves BK so much, he has filled his entire 400-square-foot living room with LEGO replicas of his neighborhood – and he does it without altering the bricks at all, working within the limitations of the retail sets.

LEGO Brooklyn Model 2

LEGO Brooklyn Model 3

The obsession started with a Star Wars LEGO model purchased a decade ago, leading to the design of his own creations. By 2011, Lopes had used a half-million bricks to mimic the Apollo Theater, trolleys in Red Hook, Firehouse Engine 226 and a gardening shop on Hoyt Street.

LEGO Brooklyn Model 4

LEGO Brooklyn Model 6
Lopes told the New York Daily News that he works out his ideas while riding on the subway. Some of the pieces, like a four-foot-tall model of the Williamsburg Savings Bank made of 12,000 bricks, go on display around the city, while others are dismantled almost as soon as they’re finished to build something new.

LEGO Brooklyn Model 5

See Lopes’ entire LEGO Brooklyn at MOCPages.

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Rad Restroom Designs: 15 Actually-Awesome Public Potties

21 Aug

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

Amazing Public Toilets Main

Little architectural effort is typically spent on public restrooms – they’re perfunctory, with looks reflecting embarrassment about the functions carried out within. But they’re a necessary part of every city, and, as some architects have proven, they can stand as impressive landmarks, conversation pieces and works of public art.

Kumutoto Toilets by Studio Pacific

Amazing Public Toilets Kumutoto

These two headless dinosaur things in Wellington are actually – believe it or not – public restrooms. Studio Pacific architects took their inspiration from “the crusty saltiness of the sea” in the nearby harbor, comparing the structures to crustaceans or sea creatures, though they call to mind armored slugs. Each one has a concrete base containing one accessible public toilet, while the cantilevered appendages provide natural ventilation.

Don’t Miss a Sec Restroom by Monica Bonvicini

Amazing Public Toilets Mirrored Cube

We’ve all had this nightmare: needing to use the restroom, and having no place to go but in front of a room full of people. Artist Monica Bonvicini has recreated that feeling, but without actually requiring indecent exposure, with a glass cube restroom outside London’s Tate Britain gallery. The work, called Don’t Miss a Sec, is based on prison bathrooms. It’s mirrored on the outside, but from inside, it feels like you’re on display.

Public Toilet Proposal by FAT

Amazing Public Toilets FAT

In the Victorian and Edwardian eras, British public toilets were the best in the world, and a matter of civic pride. The Royal Institute of British Architects sought to revive that tradition with a challenge for architects to design outlandish restrooms that could stand as “a center piece for urban regeneration and to ultimately improve people’s lives.” Does FAT’s decapitated Hercules head do that? The answer is subjective, but it’s certainly an eye-catcher. The architects are presumably being a little cheeky when they say, “It is hoped that Hercules will inspire those who enter to conjure up whatever strength they require to complete their transactions within. Inside will be a view of the sky through an oculus in Hercules’ truncated neck.”

Gravesend Public Toilets by Plastik Architects

Amazing Public Toilets Gravesend

The Gravesend Public Toilets features a pointy prow rising up into the sky as a ‘minor landmark’ for public convenience, as requested by the local council. The toilet likes along a new public footpath linking the heart of the town to public park land, and is shaped according to the topography and geometry of the site.

Hiroshima Park Restrooms by Future Studio

Amazing Public Toilets Hiroshima Park

A colorful series of structures located throughout the city of Hiroshima are public restrooms inspired by origami cranes. The concrete facilities are dotted with round ventilation holes and acrylic windows to let in air and sunshine. There are seventeen in all, each one pointing in the same direction, with the entrance moved to various sides as needed at specific sites.

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Rad Restroom Designs 15 Actually Awesome Public Potties

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Second Skin: Kevlar Backpack for Life & Travel in War Zones

21 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

emergency war zone backpack

For many of the world’s citizens (and travelers), the threat of bodily harm from war or terror attacks is a daily fact of life. Constructed of bulletproof material, this backpack is designed to reduce the risk of personal injury in unstable regions.

emergency disaster survival backpack

Dubbed Rhino Skin (part of Second-Chance Gear) and designed by Hadassah College graduate Hila Raam, the pack’s back and side straps pull forward and wrap around the wearer to form bulletproof vest.

emergency backpack bomb shelter

On top, a likewise projectile-and-debris-resistant hood can be deployed when one hits the proverbial deck upon hearing an air raid siren, helping shield the wearer, if warned, from additional shrapnel injuries.

emergency hooded attack protection

While it will not do much in some extreme, close-proximity situations (where nothing short of full body armor would help), it does cover the head and torso, protecting vital organs and reducing damage potential from rocket, mortar or bomb strikes.

From the designer: the Rhino Skin is “a modular backpack combining kevlar used as a civilian personal protection system in
countries or areas that are under daily attacks, protecting against debris and impact created from missile and rocket attacks.This unique bag pack protects the essential life or death body areas … the head, neck, back and the sides of the body. Most important the brain, heart, liver and kidneys are fully protected.”