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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Borrowed from Libraries: Mobile Shelving for Modular Rooms

04 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

modular shelving space saving

When libraries want to save space, they employ a rolling stack system that allows access to only one or a few aisles at one time. When not in use, the walkways between disappear as the bookcases are pressed backed together to  open a new aisle. So why limit this ingenious space-saving approach to the library? Why not try out a similar compact mobile track-shelving setup with interior walls instead of bookcases? One for home, one for the office, here are two projects that do.

rolling bedrooms bathrooms kitchens

First, consider Elastic Living, a project by CLEI for Milan Design Week. Knowing you only need to access one or two rooms at a time, this system proposes you pick and choose dynamically, opening, say, one big dinning room for guests, or your bedroom and bathroom when you are getting ready to go to sleep. When you wake up, you can file your sleeping space away for the whole day, until you need it again.

rolling library stack rooms

To be fair, the presentation is a bit garish – it could do with fewer drawn figures on the outside walls, and a bit less bold of a background color scheme, but strip away backdrop and the design itself is quite compelling. Each room can be not only opened and closed, but dynamiclaly re-sized to fit its function. The kitchen can host a small an intimidate dinner or an expansive and festive one.

rolling modular office spaces

Second, let us shift from residential to take a look a similar process in play in a more formal and commercial setting: the Environmental Grantmakers Association offices designed by Taylor and Miller Architecture and Urban Design. Here we again find the stacks-on-rails system supporting in this case four workstation units.

rolling flexible office space

And also like the first project, we find infinite possibilities for deployment – space two out far enough and you can create a conference room, or pack them all tightly together and set them aside to make space for a big event.

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Roaming Market: Modern Update on 16th Century Tradition

04 Jun

[ By Steph in Global & Travel & Places. ]

Roaming Market 1

Based on the stalls of performance artists and fortune tellers that once wandered the streets of Europe in the sixteenth century, ‘Roaming Market’ brings fun little shows to London in modernized form. Local studio Aberrant Architecture constructed the steel venue on a trailer chassis so it can be moved from one urban location to the next in the Waterloo district this summer.

Roaming Market 2

Painted bright blue and bearing little ornamentation, the stall only vaguely resembles the often-ornate ‘pageant wagons‘ of centuries past, but it serves the same purpose: livening up the streets with music and plays. Pageant wagons were movable carts on which plays based on biblical texts were performed, before the rise of professional theater rendered them obsolete.

Roaming Market 3

The mobile venue is also inspired by the ‘totem’ structures found in London’s historic street markets. It unfolds into a multi-functional stall with a covered seating area featuring a built-in chess board, as well as a rooftop stage. The giant chicken sign protruding from the top is a nod to the history of chicness being used to tell people’s fortunes.

Roaming Market 4

Waterloo is an ideal location for a revival of the tradition, with its long history of fortune tellers, mystics and peep shows. Roaming Market will be used to promote Waterloo as a vibrant shopping destination, and will ultimately be moved around the wider area to act as a signpost for the historic Lower Marsh Market.

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Futuristic Food: Edible Wonders of the 3D-Printed Revolution

03 Jun

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

3D Printed Food Main

In the future, maybe we’ll all be pressing buttons on countertop machines that will squeeze various food pastes into the creative shapes of our choice. The 3D printing revolution isn’t limited to fashion, pretty objects, guns or even architecture – it’s edible, too. A combination of scans, special digital files and machines that extrude materials into complex forms might just make food more of an art form than ever before, if these 14 examples are a preview of what’s to come.

Infinity Bacon

3D Printed Food Infinity bacon

In a possibly Freudian typo, Shapeways describes this Bacon Mobius Strip as “not delicious but also vegan and kosher-friendly.” You can order one of your very own to keep forever as a bizarre conversation piece on the mantel, or recurring breakfast gag.

3D Printed Sculptural Sugar

3D Printed Food Sugar

Amazingly intricate sculptures of sugar are 3D printed by The Sugar Lab, a husband-and-wife team of architectural designers. “With our background in architecture and our penchant for complex geometry, we’re bringing 3D printing technology to the genre of mega-cool cakes. 3D printing represents a paradigm shift for confections, transforming sugar into a dimensional, structural medium.”

Pasta, Cereal and Burgers by Freedom of Creation

3D Printed Food Pasta Cereal

How will 3D printing technology be applied to the home of the future? Designer Janne Kytannen of Freedom of Creation envisions our own little countertop printing machines capable of producing pasta, cereal, burgers and more. Kytannen believes that as the ability to design our own food becomes more accessible, the items we choose to eat will become far more creative and complex.

Eat Your Own Chocolate Face

3D Printed Food Chocolate Face

A 3D printing workshop in Tokyo produced miniature chocolate versions of the creators’ faces. Each person went into a small room to get a full body scan, and a 3D printed mold was made of their heads. Now, they can make chocolates and other confections in the shape of their own faces again and again. Tokyo’s FabCafe sells the molds for $ 65 each.

Escher Cookies Made with 3D Printed Rollers

3D Printed Food Escher Cookies

A slab of ordinary cookie dough was made into Escher-inspired cookies using a 3D-printed roller. George W. Hart converts patterns into 3D-printed rollers using a MakerBot; you can download the software and files to make your own at his website.

High-Resolution 3D Printed Chocolates

3D Printed Food Chocolates

Deemed the world’s highest-resolution 3D-printed chocolates, these sugary confections from Moving Brands started out as a fun project and turned into a learning process about the intricacies of 3D printing with various materials. “We had to think about the physical properties of molten plastic and the structural integrity of layers… We had to become conversant with how the machine was put together and even how it sounded and smelled,” explained the project technical lead, Daniel Soltis.

Shoe Burger

3D Food Shoe Burger

A shoe isn’t typically the most delicious-looking object, but Tristan Bethe managed to make one look pretty good in both burger bun and chocolate form. Tristan 3D-scanned his own shoe, made a food-safe silicone mold and poured in the mix for both items.

Ramen Noodles

3D Printed Food Ramen Noodles

Cornell University’s Fab@Home program has provided designers with 3D printers equipped with syringes that squeeze out pastes of various kinds, including pasta dough. Dave Arnold of Cooking Issues used his to make noodles in cool shapes. “I find that whole idea, which removes ourselves even further from the way our food is made, horrifying. Dinner from a series of homogeneous pastes?” says Arnold; but ultimately, the noodles he created were so delicious he could barely capture them on camera before they disappeared.

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Urban Hybrid: Double-Exposure Photos Fuse London & NYC

03 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Photography & Video. ]

double exposure londong nyc

While photo shoots can be meticulously staged, sometimes the best shots come with an element of surprise – particularly in the chaotic context of cities like New York an London.

double exposure art photos

Architect by training and photographer by professions, Daniella Zalcman took a series of photographs before leaving the largest city in the United States for the largest city in the United Kingdom, overlaying them secondary exposures in the latter city.

double take city scenes

The results are predictably unpredictable – a mix of juxtapositions ranging from smooth transitional gradients to sharp spatial contrasts, capturing street art and sidewalk scenes as well as broader city-scapes and edge conditions.

double architectural overlap images

In the end, many of the most jarring compositions defy the brain’s desire to organize a coherent narrative, like a tip-of-your-tongue memory or a slowly-fading dream, an effect reinforced by the gritty texture and grainy quality of the images themselves.

double horizon urban lines

More on the artist, who has also since launched a Kickstarter project for this set: “Daniella Zalcman is based in NYC where she works as a freelance photographer for the Wall Street Journal. Born in Washington, DC, she graduated from Columbia with a degree in architecture in 2009. Other clients include The New York Times, the New York Daily News, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Saatchi & Saatchi, National Geographic, Wired, and The Nation.”

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Ding Dong! A Dozen Delightfully Daffy Doorbell Designs

02 Jun

[ By Steve in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

bizarre geeky doorbells
Ring the bell or knock on the door? It’s one of life’s conundrums to be sure, but these dozen delightfully daffy doorbell designs can help button it down.

Ren & Stimpy “Space Madness” Doorbell

Ren & Stimpy Space Madness red button doorbell(images via: Ian Brooks/Viacom and Dave’s Geeky Ideas)

We’re not exactly sure if the simply Stimpy-licious “Space Madness” doorbell above actually exists or if it’s merely a figment of Dave’s (of Dave’s Geeky Ideas) incredibly twisted imagination. Imagine the hilarity that’s sure to ensure should you install this doorbell at your own front door. How can any visitor possibly resist the maddening urge to announce their presence via the mere push of a single button? The beautiful, shiny button? The jolly, candy-like button? Will they hold out, folks? Can they hold out? Of course they can’t. NOBODY can, and you’ll wisely disconnect the doorbell before it drives YOU mad.

Deer Butt Doorbell

Deer Butt doorbell(images via: mmarano, Reepicheep and The Discriminating Explorer)

Flickr user Michael Marano posted the now-iconic photo of a Deer Butt Doorbell shown above on April 1st, 2009… no foolin’! We’re not sure who’d want one of these butt, er, but a market definitely exists for re-purposed deer butts such as those converted into wall-mounted beer-bottle openers. Suddenly a Deer Butt Doorbell doesn’t sound so bad.

Redneck Deer Butt Doe-Bell doorbell(image via: Rampant Techpress)

Behold the Redneck Deer Butt “Doe Bell”™, depicted against the backdrop of a Confederate Army battle flag (or towel, whatever). According to the site featuring this masterpiece of folk craftsmanship, the $ 379.95 device is a “working doorbell, available with male or female orifices.” Splendid! It gets better: “Southern redneck art is one of the fastest growing areas within the art world and prices are skyrocketing for some of the finest deer butt works by renowned butt artists.”

Gross Squishy Eyeball Doorbell

gross squishy eyeball DIY doorbell(images via: MODD3D)

If your Deer Butt Doorbell isn’t preventing persistent subpoena servers, cookie-flogging Girl Scouts, obsequious Mormons and menacing newsboys (“two dollars!!”) from disturbing your domain of domestic bliss, it’s time to break out the heavy artillery: the creepy DIY Gross Squishy Eyeball Doorbell. They’re not sold in stores, mind you, so set aside an hour or so and follow the helpful detailed instructions provided by the madcap modders at MODD3D. Moe of The Three Stooges would approve.

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Ding Dong A Dozen Delightfully Daffy Doorbell Designs

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Smart Glass: Flip a Switch to Make Opaque Turn Transparent

02 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

smart glass windows walls

Kiss curtains, blinds and shades goodbye – smart glass is not just an Xbox enhancement. Smart glass technology is evolving and faster than ever. It can shade rooms on demand, making them transparent and reduce thermal gain … all just by flipping a switch or even turning a key in a door.

smart glass door handle activated

There are various methods employed to make the transition, but one of the most fascinating involves low-power electrochromatic devices that can be activated in a variety of clever ways.

smart glass on off

Essentially, a current is passed through the window panel to turn it from transparent to translucent then back again – the voltage does not need to be sustained in between.

smart glass room examples

Aside from micro-blinds and mechanical smart windows, other variants on this technology include suspended-particle devices, which can be finely-tuned to allow in (and block out) desired levels of light, heat and glare.

smart glass passenger train

Applications to date include commercial windows and doors in places ranging from private skyscraper offices and public restrooms to hospital rooms high-speed trains. Smart glass can also be found in luxury sunroofs, meeting spaces, projection screens and television studio surfaces. As it becomes easier and cheaper to produce, the applications are limitless (above images by Sebastian Terfloth).

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Thinker Thing: 3D-Printed Object Made Using Brain Waves

31 May

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

3D Printed with the Brain 1

Small electrical impulses detected by a brain-computer headset produce strange and amazing 3D printed objects in a new project by George Laskowsky of Thinker Thing.  The Emotiv EPOC headset analyzes brain patterns and uses it to understand the wearer’s emotional response to certain features in visual stimuli; in this way, the wearer is able to ‘grow’ a three-dimensional model with their mind.

Laskowsky successfully created the first real physical object made with brain patterns in May, and set out to fund the project on IndieGoGo. Thinker Thing will take the invention to Chile, where children will use the technology to create fantastical creatures, which will be exhibited in a gallery.

3D Printed with the Brain 2

How is it possible to create an object with the mind? “We use your brain patterns to evolve a 3D model from a genetic seed, which can then be made real with a standard 3D printer. The DNA seed defines the start point of an evolutionary chain for the object. Dinosaurs are very diverse, for example, but they can be traced back to a single common dna ancestor. We create this first DNA definition as the first building block from which all future objects evolve.The DNA of the object is then mutated over each generation, and how well that new mutations does, whether it lives or dies, is determined by the mind.”

3D Printed with the Brain 4

“We are all born creative, our brain begins like an open field and can make connections in many directions, it is only later we become stuck in the ruts and troughs of the paths that our mind constantly treads, paths so deep we are sometimes unable to see that there is still an open field around us. Mistaking skill (a learned ability) with creative imagination is like believing walking in a deeper rut gives you greater freedom of movement across the field.”

3D Printed with the Brain 3

Learn more at IndieGoGo.

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Binder Clip Handbag: Office Product-Inspired Tote Purse

31 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

binder clip hand bag

It is a familiar trope these days, but fun nonetheless: take a common object, tweak the scale and transform the materials, and you get a new item that has a recognizable shape but a distinct new function.

binder handbag giant sized

In this case, the Clip Bag by Peter Bristol manages to look both fresh and fashionable – the light (hollow aluminum) metal grip widens to fit the hand, and the felted bag manages to look a lot classier and more comfortable to carry than its plastic inspiration.

binder bag wood background

There is a curious psychological side-effect in play as well: suddenly, we are forced to rely a lot more on context to determine the size of the bag – it makes its tiny cousins look extra-small, and wood grain seem huge by comparison.

binder purse human hands

A play on memory and novelty, its scale becomes most obvious, in the end, when put to its intended use and held in human hands.

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Botel: Floating Hotel with Modular Detachable Room Boats

30 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Boutique & Art Hotels & Global. ]

floating hotel room

You may have to move rooms when you arrive at your hotel, but has your room ever had to move you? Instead of static spaces, the sleeping areas in this hotel are dynamic vehicles you can use to depart the core structure in which you are staying.

floating hotel night dock

Ivan Filipovic‘s idea is to let people in different physical contexts to do everything from exploring remote surroundings (in regions difficult to reach by land, for instance) to watching races or other city-side events (in more urban contexts).

floating hotel rooms diagram

The core structure provides all of the expected amenities, including a reservations desks, restaurant, cafe, bar, nightclub, rooftop terrace and swimming pool, but the autonomous room modules are equipped with solar power collectors and global positioning systems to allow them to depart and return on demand.

floating hotel cove experience

Whether they can be realized in a practical way is up for debate, but the concept is exceedingly convincing from an experiential perspective. The solution is a best-of-both-worlds hybrid of adventurous semi-independent world tours and luxury scripted cruise-ship expeditions.

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Abandoned Philadelphia: The Divine Lorraine Hotel

30 May

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Divine Lorraine Jukiebot

One of Philadelphia’s most intriguing buildings stands at a prominent intersection on the north side of the city, a Victorian beauty that once housed wealthy residents and later served as a hotel. The ten-story structure is now a monument of decay, covered in graffiti, many of its windows boarded up. Empty for over a decade, the Divine Lorraine Hotel is an enticing site for urban exploration.

Divine Lorraine Lei Han 1

Divine Lorraine Lei Han 2

(images via: lei han 1 + 2; top image: jukebox)

Arguably Philadelphia’s most famous abandonment, the Divine Lorraine was built between 1892 and 1894. The ornate style chosen by architect Willis G. Hale was considered outdated by the time it opened as the luxury Lorraine Apartments and one of the first high-rise buildings in the city, but it was still a magnet for the newly-rich who had made their fortunes in the industrial revolution. It offered all the latest modern amenities, like electricity, and had its own staff, eliminating the need for servants. It was also open to whites only.

Divine Lorraine Lecates

Divine Lorraine Robert Moran

(images via: lecates, robert moran)

In 1948, it was sold to Father Divine, leader of the Universal Peace Mission Movement, who had a new idea for it: turning it into the first racially integrated hotel of its kind. Open to all who were willing to obey the rules of the movement, which included abstaining from smoking and drinking and separating men from women (even if they were married), the hotel also offered spaces for public use, like a low-cost dining hall and a place of worship. After Divine’s death in 2000, the hotel was sold; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

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