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Wrap Recap: Best 10 DIY Xmas Gift Wrappings from Reddit

01 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

creative gift wrapping ideas

The best thing come in small packages – or around them. Among other places, Reddit was abuzz this year with simple but brilliant gift-wrap ideas, often done on low (or no) budget but with incredible ingenuity and enviable craftiness – here are some of the most brilliant examples of 2012, followed by a few from past holiday seasons as well, each linked back to the post within various niche SubReddits.

gift paper rip cord

Under /r/LifeProTips, an industrious user linked their work on Instructables, introducing “Rip Cord wWrapping  for your quick-open convenience. I wrap all my gifts with a rip cord incorporated into it. Use a length of ribbon or a strip of tape along the middle of your gift wrap and include a tab along the edge to make it easier to quick-open your gift.” The built-in ripcord-ribbon is wrapped around then tied to a pull tab for super-fast present access – great for impatient friends and family!

gift paper angry diy

For those with somewhat mixed feelings about the holiday and its associated spirit, someone uploaded the above custom angry-self wrapping paper to /r/Funny.

gift infected zombie paper

Under /r/Zombies, one woman wrote that her husband’s present had become infected, then linked to the image above. A very simple idea, technically and otherwise, that just incorporates two layers of paper instead of one.

gift portal wrapping idea

Another Redditor posted a example in /r/Portal of an excellent game-themed optical illusion – now that gift-wrapper was, as they say, definitely thinking in Portals.

gift custom minecraft box

And speaking of geeky options, /r/Minecraft fans just love seeing pixelated gaming elements come to life, like this do-it-yourself box, created as follows: “Acquired a small wood box from a local hobby store. Attached all textures using mod podge and coated the outside to seal the paper in. This is the finished and dried product”

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Ad-Free Advertising: A Void Billboard of Nothingness

01 Jan

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

Void Billboard Lead Pencil 1

Passing over the border between the United States and Canada near Vancouver, travelers take in this unexpected sight: an odd metal billboard advertising nothing but air. Clean air. ‘Non-Sign II‘ by Lead Pencil Studio was commissioned by the U.S. government to draw attention not to some product or service, but to the landscape.

Void Billboard Lead Pencil 2

From afar, it looks like it could be a flock of black birds, or particles of matter coming together to form the edges of a rectangle. The metal sculpture measures 30 feet high and 50 feet wide.

Void Billboard Lead Pencil 3

What is framed in that open rectangle that would normally contain an appeal to your consumerist impulses is simply sky.

Void Billboard Lead Pencil 4

Lead Pencil Studio consists of Seattle duo Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo, whose respective backgrounds in art and architecture meet somewhere in the middle in each of their works. Says Mihalyo, “Why shouldn’t there be a whole realm of architecture that’s nonfunctional…and really just meant for experiencing space for its own sake with no practical purpose whatsoever?”

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Branch Out: 20 Organic Tree Houses Are Naturally Amazing

31 Dec

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Treehouses main

Woven huts made of living saplings, artistic hotel rooms resembling bird nests and cabins dangling from 300-year-old spruces are among the stunning organic structures built from, in, and onto entire trees. Tree houses like these 20 incredible structures indulge our childlike impulses to climb and view the world from a bird’s point of view, and blur the lines between nature and human habitation.

5 Bent-Wood Tree Houses by Romero Architecture

Treehouses Romero 1

Treehouses Romero 2

Treehouses Romero 3

Romero Studios creates incredible organic tree-lofted structures including huts, homes, porches and platforms, some with a very rustic look and others more finished. Natural branches are often used, some still covered in lichen, enabling these magical forest getaways to blend into their environments.

Living Trees Shaped into Buildings by Patrick Dougherty

Treehouses Dougherty 1

Treehouses Dougherty 2

Patrick Dougherty gently shapes flexible saplings to form swirling structures that look as if they could have been painted with an artist’s brush. The saplings grow into each other as directed by Dougherty’s hand, making them stronger than they would have been had he simply woven thin branches together to form the huts. Some of Dougherty’s structures look like complex tree trunks, as if they might have been formed by nature, while others resemble cathedrals.

Trunk House: A Tree House on the Ground

Treehouses Trunk House
This may not be a tree house in the traditional sense, hanging high above the ground, but it’s a tree house all the same. Paul Morgan Architects created the distinctive Trunk House with wood found on the owners’ Australian property that was naturally split into Y-shapes. Integrating these into the exterior of the house makes it look as if it were built from standing trees.

Alnwick Gardens

Treehouses Alnwick

In the gardens adjacent to the Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, England, one of the world’s largest and most complex tree houses can be found. The treehouse complex measures 6,000 square feet and includes a restaurant, an education room and rope bridges. The treehouse was made from sustainably-sourced Canadian cedar, Scandinavian redwood and English and Scots pine.

Naturally Curved Tree Homes by Roald Gunderson

Treehouses Whole Tree Building 1

Treehouses Whole Tree Building 2

Roald Gunderson builds beautiful eco-friendly homes using entire trees rather than milled wood, the curves of the branches giving each structure an entirely unique shape. Not only does this technique give the homes rustic charm, save money and put less strain on the environment than more conventional home-building methods, it also results in stronger houses. Gunderson chooses weak or invasive trees that wouldn’t normally be logged, and the natural curving structure of each whole branch is more structurally stable than that off milled timber.

Temple of the Blue Moon

Treehouses Temple of the Blue Moon

Among the lodgings offered at Treehouse Point in Issaquah, Washington, Temple of the Blue Moon looks like a rustic cabin that has been elevated dozens of feet up a 300-year-old, 160-foot-tall Sitka Spruce tree. In addition to a rope bridge and a balcony, this treetop getaway features skylights and built-in cedar beds.

Nendo’s Tree House Apartment for Birds

Treehouses Nendo

This modern white tree house by Nendo doubles as a ‘bird apartment’, offering 78 individual nest boxes in the trees at Japan’s Ando Momofuku Center. The coolest thing about this particular tree house is the fact that humans can creep up the ladder and into the main part of the structure to get a look at each nest through peepholes.

6 High-Flying Rooms at AirHotel

Treehouses Airhotel 1

Treehouses Airhotel 2

Treehouses Airhotel 3

At the Time Circus Airhotel in Belgium, you can choose from 6 different types of highly unconventional and fun high-flying hotel rooms. Made from recycled materials, Airhotel’s artistic tree houses each have their own theme, ranging from ‘love nests’ made of flowering branches to a sphere that looks like a lantern, but folds out into a flower shape. ‘El Ambassador’, the VIP room, looks like part of a steampunk airship with its wooden cocoon-like shape and glass skylights.

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[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Beautiful Suspended Bridge Hangs from Helium Balloons

31 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

Neither this installation artist nor his work are full of hot air – this is no optical illusion or structural trick, but an actual bring hanging in mid-air that can actually hold the weight of a human user.

Oliver Grossetête  (images by Thierry Bal and Toby Savagecrafted this lovely slatwork structure from rope, wood and synthetic fabric, installed over water at a Japanese garden for the Tatton Park Biennial.

To call Grossetête obsessed with everyday uses for balloons would be an understatement. His other projects include a floating bench (strung up to helium-filled orbs) and a conceptual transportation system that (you guessed it) soars through the sky on the back of giant balloons.

In this case, three large, evenly-spaced balloons create a series of rises in the path below, while the rope-and-wood slats allow some flexibility as the construct rises, falls and sways in the wind.

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In The Doghouse Again: 13 Odd Animal-Shaped Buildings

30 Dec

[ By Steve in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

Animal_House_main

If you liked Animal House the movie, you’ll love Animal House the, er, house. This unlucky group of 13 zoomorphic buildings make being sent to the doghouse (or cathouse, as the case may be) a decidedly different experience… we can only imagine what pets think about living there.

Big Chicken – Marietta, Georgia, USA

Big Chicken Marietta Georgia(images via: The Suss-Man, Steveartist and BDOnline)

Built in 1963, damaged by a storm in 1993 and subsequently rebuilt following massive public outcry, the 56-foot (17-meter) tall Big Chicken in Marietta, Georgia will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this coming year. Though it’s enhanced a KFC outlet for decades, the steel-sided structure originally promoted Johnny Reb’s Chick, Chuck and Shake until owner S.R. “Tubby” Davis sold the restaurant to his brother.

Big Chicken Marietta Georgia(image via: Encourage Faith)

Though not a livable building as such, the Big Chicken is hollow to allow access for occasional maintenance work on the motorized moving eyes and beak. Visitors looking to check out the Big Chicken up close and personal will find it at the intersection of Cobb Parkway (U.S. 41) and Roswell Road (Georgia 120), though it’s not known whether the KFC outlet still offers souvenir Big Chicken keychains.

Katzenkindergarten – Wolfartsweier, Germany

cat kindergarten Alsace(images via: HPMayer and MILK Magazine)

You’d think a zoomorphic kindergarten in Alsace would look like an Alsacian but nooo… the Katzenkindergarten is as cat-like as Hello Kitty though it’s a lot less cute – and that’s a good thing. Turkish-born architect Ayla Yöndel designed the building based on a concept by local artist Tomi Ungerer. It opened in 2002 and stands as an expression of the “Europe Without Borders” project between the German region of Baden-Württemberg and the French region of Alsace.

Cat Kindergarten Alsace(image via: MILK Magazine)

The Cat Kindergarten isn’t just a novelty though its appearance is novel indeed. Entry is through the mouth, doomed-mouse-style while the legs house game-playing areas and the belly is where you’ll find the kitchen. Children and young-minded adults can access the back yard via a slide in the shape of a cat’s tail.

Elephant Building – Bangkok, Thailand

Elephant Tower Bangkok Thailand(images via: Wikipedia, Varming.dk and Stan G)

Known locally as the Tuk Chang, the so-called “Elephant Tower” building in Bangkok, Thailand’s Chatuchak district features 32 floors and stands 335 feet (102 meters) high. Designed by Thai architects Dr. Arun Chaisaree and Ong-ard Satrabhandhu, the iconic structure was completed in 1997.

Elephant Building Bangkok Thailand(image via: -AX-)

Like it or not – and the building has its fair share of lovers and haters – the Elephant Tower has been generally well received locally and in 15 years of existence has become a must-see Bangkok landmark. Some sources report the top (horizontal) section has never been finished due to a combination of financial and logistical considerations: do the elevators run sideways?

Cat Cabin Resort – Tashirojima, Japan

Tashirojima Cat Island Japan(images via: Zooming Japan and Ehte Eve)

Tashirojima is a small island located off the northeastern coast of Japan that’s become famous for its population of semi-feral cats. Revered by local fishermen for their rumored ability to forecast storms, Tashirojima’s cats demonstrated their innate weather prognostication powers by loudly moaning in unison just after the 9-magnitude Great East Japan Earthquake struck the island on March 11, 2011. Both cats and residents quickly made for high ground and no casualties (human or otherwise) were reported after a monster 30-ft (10-meter) tsunami rolled in from the sea.

Tashirojima Cat Island Japan(images via: U.S.News and World Report and Zooming Japan)

Some years ago the cats of Tashirojima began to get publicity which resulted in a growing number of tourists visiting the island. A local entrepreneur hired manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori, famed for Kamen Rider among other titles, to design a group of cat-like cabins for a resort known as “Manga Island”. All things considered, the island and the cabins are less visited than usual of late.

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Clear Sailing: Cleverly Transparent Canoes & Kayaks

30 Dec

[ By Delana in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

see through canoe and kayak designs

Sailing along in a canoe or kayak is an excellent way to spend an afternoon outdoors, but have you ever thought of everything you’re missing in a conventional boat? The solid bottom prevents you from seeing some of nature’s most amazing creations that exist in the water on which you travel. A transparent canoe or kayak, however, would give you a whole new perspective on the watery world.

clear kayak and canoe

(all images via: See Through Canoe)

The see-through canoes/kayaks are even lighter than their wood or aluminum counterparts. Being made of the same material that is used to make bullet-proof windows, they are tough enough to withstand even the most brutal of conditions. And just like the glass-bottomed boats of years past, these transparent vessels let you see what is directly beneath you in the water.

transparent canoe

The canoe version weighs only 40 pounds and provides 100 percent visibility on all sides, including the bottom. You can check out the aquatic life below you as you wait for fish to bite, or simply take a long and luxurious tour of a lake to see characteristics of the area you’ve never before been privy to.

clear kayak

The transparent kayak is even more portable – at just 26 pounds, it is light enough for nearly anyone to transport. And best of all, it folds up to backpack size, making it ultra-portable. Of course, it is also transparent to allow you to check out all of the underwater features as you paddle along.

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13 DIY Pallet Projects To Load Your House With Charm

28 Dec

[ By Marc in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

Pallet-Furniture-Montage
Pallets have become all the rage as eco-friendliness, and DIY crafting are becoming the spearhead of a new movement that utilizes pallets as the building blocks for creative weekend projects. Social media sites like Pinterest make sharing off-the-wall ideas as easy as a click, so the mind boggling variety of uses for used pallets are out there for everyone to see.

Pallet Coffee TablesPallet-Furniture-5

(Images via palletfurniturecollection, craftynester, etsy)

Pallet coffee tables have a great advantage in that they’re designed to bear weight and stack, making it easy to form them into any shape you’d like. They also have natural gaps that make for an awesome storage space to hide the pile of coffee table stuff (remotes, magazines, etc.) that love to build up. The top left example easily rolls across the floor, and is topped with classy panes of glass to separate the storage space from the usable top of the table. Craftynester came up with an awesome design, and posted it along with step by step progress photos to show others how to copy them. They achieved the perfect coffee table height by using several pallets, and in the process they were able to create a cubby system for storage. Etsy seller GeckosHyde came up with this classy design that forgoes storage for a rustic look.

Pallet Porch Swings

Pallet-Furniture
(Images via homedit, pargasjunkyard, woodenpalletfurniture)

Swinging seats are a lot of fun, and the perfect way to hang out on a gorgeous Spring day. The top left chair is definitely unique – as a one-seater was created by cannibalizing the boards from a full pallet and carefully attaching them with rope. The second example maintains the original form of two pallets and creates a comfortable looking two seater using some stain, paint, and really soft cushions. The final example is more like an adventurer’s hammock, utilizing the pallet structure to allow for the perfect outside nap.

DIY Home TheaterPallet-Furniture-4

(Images via inspirationgreen)

The site Inspiration Green has some excellent pallet inspiration images, including these two that display an incredibly unique and comfortable way to set up a home theater. Imagine the cost of six leather armchairs, versus three tiers of stadium seating made out of pallet stacks.

Pallet Outdoor FurniturePallet-Furniture-3

(Images via brightnest, sassy-sparrow, shelterness)

The top image depicts one of the most natural pallet transformations out there, as an entire pallet was placed on top of four table legs to create the perfect rustic seating area. The rugged wood matches perfectly with the decor and keeps it looking super trendy. Sassy Sparrow has a fantastic step by step guide to creating the perfect patio furniture set out of pallets. You can see it here, and the final result is displayed above. Notice the versatility of the pallets, as they can be used in different ways to craft every type of furniture. Last but not least, Shelterness shows these two super easy to make pallet lounge chairs. It might be good to add some cushions to the design, but they certainly look amazing.

Home GardenPallet-Furniture-2

(Images via apartmenttherapy, brightnest)

Don’t have much room on the porch, but want a full garden? This is by far the easiest pallet project. Simply secure a pallet against the wall, and use its natural shape to house a variety of flowers and herbs into a mini vertical garden. It’s possible to line up a bunch of these in a row if vegetables are on the menu year round.

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Ultimate Wooden House Made of Jenga-Like Stacked Beams

27 Dec

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Jenga House 1

Explore the seemingly endless platforms and hidden nooks of this Jenga-like house, conceived as an example of “ultimate wooden architecture” by Sou Fujimoto Architects. Located in Kumamoto, Japan, ‘Final Wooden House’ consists of massive wooden blocks randomly stacked together with irregularly shaped openings covered in glass.

Jenga House 2

The architects were inspired by primitive conditions before architecture, like cave dwellings, where humans made the most of the surroundings as they found them.

Jenga house 3

Forget conventional rooms and staircases – this home is like a massive playhouse, requiring the inhabitants to climb from one block to another. The wooden blocks offer all manner of supports for various activities, but you’ll have to use your imagination to determine just how to use each one.

Jenga house 4

Of course, climbing around inside this minimalist jungle gym requires care, an able body, and perhaps a hard hat. Getting from one area to another in the dark might be an intimidating task. The house may not be terribly practical, but what it lacks in livability, it makes up for in pure fun.

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Sunken Memorial Garden Sliced into Submerged Cruise Ship

27 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

Submerged sea vessels have long been destinations for diving tourists or (intentional or accidental) marine life habitats, but what if they could serve some function still visible on the surface of the water, like a memorial to those lost when the ship sunk?

The New Concordia Island Contest winners, Alexander Laing and Francesco Matteo Belfiore, propose slicing the section of the Italian cruise ship that crashed in January of 2012 and planting a garden in the resulting voids, leaving the lower, still-submerged areas as habitat zones.

The contest itself “aims to rethink the disaster of the ship Costa Concordia as exceptional opportunity to imagine the future of the wreck and that of the Island of Giglio. It is also a chance to wonder about needs for architecture to build new landscapes on traces and remains of a traumatic event …. The jury has selected the projects that have responded in a more comprehensive way to the questions raised by the contest, interweaving visionaries contents to pragmatic and real solutions.”

The clean and simple solution of the winning proposal defers to both nature and humans, a tribute to the disaster as well as the lives lost. Other intervention propositions of runner-up submissions trended toward either extreme: leaving the wreck mainly as-is and building around it, or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, creating underwater passageways and making the remaining structure physically accessible to people.

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More Real Than Reality: 7 Artsy Augmented Reality Projects

26 Dec

[ By Delana in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

augmented reality

Technology has taken over so many facets of our lives that the real world sometimes seems a little boring by comparison. Never fear – technology is slowly creeping into even the most mundane corners of our existence, making sure that we never have to face reality without some sort of augmented component ever again. These 15 designs, apps, inventions and gadgets put a digital element right into the real world – for better or for worse.

Virtual Mask

Augmented reality has the amazing ability to transform our world while also transforming ourselves, as the Zaphat proves. Put on the Zaphat and your whole identity is immediately transformed…at least when you’re seen through the camera of a mobile device running the Zappar app. The little patch on the front of the hat is actually a target that indicates your head location and orientation to the app, which then overlays a three-dimensional virtual mask on top of your face. The person operating the device can manipulate the type of mask and even interact with it virtually.

Street Art Comes to Life

Typically, street art is a fairly stationary form of personal expression. But thanks to futuristic augmented reality, street art can come to life and dance around right in front of observers. The LZRTAG augmented reality app allows people to aim a smartphone at a target in order to see a short animated street art clip. Anyone at all can upload an animation and print out a tag to decorate the world, all for free.

Finding Twitter Friends

Twitter’s geotagging feature allows friends to find one another in real life with an app called Twitter 360. Using an iPhone’s camera, the app creates an augmented reality overlay map that guides the iPhone holder to nearby friends based on their geotagged tweets. Users just have to follow the arrows that appear on the screen to be led directly to the nearest contact.

Augmented Reality Cinema

If you’ve ever traveled to a specific geographic spot just because it was featured in a favorite movie, the AR Cinema app from developers Halocline will be an exciting concept. The smartphone app senses when you’re in a movie-related location and shows you the famous scene(s) shot there. It’s an interesting way to combine a love of travel and a love of movies – and maybe even our collective love of smartphones.

Window Games

On a long car or train journey, boredom can set in pretty quickly. This conceptual game would use a Kinect and other simple hardware to create an augmented reality overlay on the actual scenery outside of the vehicle in which you’re traveling. By touching the window, players would be able to add all kinds of fun objects and elements to the passing scenery. The game, called Touch the Train Window, is from Tokyo design team Salad.

Augmented Reality Park

augmented reality park

(images via: Daily Mail)

If the beauty of nature is getting a bit boring, perhaps you’d like to spice things up a bit by throwing in some psychedelic visions and experiences. Swiss designer Jan Torpus has created a project called lifeClipper, in which visitors put on head-mounted display equipment for a walk through the park. The display shows the user’s actual surroundings but adds an extra layer to reality. This additional layer includes vivid colors, surreal characters, and an imaginatively enhanced landscape.

Real-Time Selective Video Editing

Changing your reality is simple when you’ve got high-tech augmented reality tools on your side. Software from a German university allows you to remove unsavory objects from your video footage as you’re filming it – just tell the software what you want to disappear and it magically erases it. The whole process takes only microseconds and is convincing to all but the sharpest eyes.

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