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Bridge in Paris: Inflatable, Jumpable Urban Playground

20 Nov

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

With space increasingly at a premium in cities around the world, bodies of water – and the structures that span them – are becoming host to all sorts of unexpected functions. This concept by Paris-based studio AZC spurns the idea of an ordinary bridge, creating an inflatable urban playground that infuses joy into the everyday routines of city inhabitants.

‘Bridge in Paris’ aims to bring urban dwellers back to “a state of primal happiness, of ancestral times when body and spirit were essentially free.” Rather than simply crossing a pedestrian bridge without thought, users take a few moments for uninhibited playtime.

Installed near the Bir-Hakeim Bridge on the River Seine in Paris, the bridge is made of three life raft-shaped inflatable modules with trampoline mesh stretched between each one. The concept is designed to be adaptable to other sites as well, including smaller rivers.

“Located in direct relationship to eiffel’s tower the installation becomes symbol of ephemeral architecture designed to provide a unique experience: a view of all of Paris,” says AZC.

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Green-Roofed Shelter is Urban Curbside Lounge for Paris

This ‘rest station’ for a busy Paris street offers chairs with desks and electrical outlets, a touch-screen information center, free wi-fi and a green roof.
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Creative Urban Furniture: Convertible, Inflatable & Portable Homeless Shelters

Regardless of your view of street dwellers or opinion regarding the best solutions to these problems, suspend your judgment for a moment to take in these extremely cool designs!
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[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Abandoned No More: New Lives for 13 Disused Spaces

19 Nov

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

While many abandoned places are ultimately demolished (and sometimes temporarily serve as settings for unexpected art installations), some get a second chance at life with restoration projects that transform them for new purposes. These 13 abandoned places, including zoos, bath houses, military compounds, railways and factories, now serve as libraries, galleries, offices, arts centers and private homes.

Contemporary Library in a Turkish Bath House

(images via: archdaily)

A beautiful rounded wooden library reminiscent of a seashell has been temporarily installed inside a once-abandoned Turkish bathhouse in Bulgaria. the ICONITemporary Library by Studio 8 1/2 contains nothing but books about contemporary art, with comfortable places to lounge, flip through the pages and gaze at the 16th century architecture.

Abandoned Walmart Turned America’s Largest Library

(images via: mcallenlibrary.net)

Empty retail stores can be quite an eyesore, sitting vacant for months or even years. One such building has been completely transformed from a vacant Walmart in McAllen, Texas, to America’s largest library. Measuring 124,500 square feet, the single-floor library was painted in bright colors and renovated to include glass-enclosed spaces.

Zoo Turned Graffiti Gallery

(images via: street art museum)

An old zoo in Torino, Italy has become the Street Art Museum, with the former animal enclosures painted with often-surreal scenes. It’s part of the Border Land Project, an urban regeneration initiative that helps utilize and raise awareness about neglected spaces.

Gentlemen’s Club Turned Stylish Home

(images via: yatzer)

The Harmony Club was built in 1909, and operated as a social club for the Jewish community in Selma, Alabama, including a restaurant, a ballroom and an exclusive men’s lounge. It was turned into headquarters for the Elks Club in the 1930s, and boarded up in the ’60s. Today, it’s a luxurious home that retains many of the historical details, making it truly one-of-a-kind. See more photos at Yatzer.

Stable to Family Home

(images via: enpundit)

Architecture firm Abaton took a crumbling, centuries-old stone barn in the Spanish province of Caceres and rehabilitated it into a beautiful family home, with the haylofts becoming bedrooms. The large doors – two stories tall, in one case – were glassed in to create massive windows.

Catholic Chapel to Modern Home

(images via: zecc architects)

An abandoned Catholic church is now a spacious, modern residence in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Zecc Architects carefully preserved the dramatic aspects of the church’s architecture with soaring ceilings, stained glass windows and even a dining table made from the preserved pews.

Taiwanese Military Barracks to Rainbow Village

(images via: riowang)

The local council in Taichung, Taiwan had decided to demolish the remains of an abandoned 1940s military encampment on the outskirts of its suburban community, but an elderly resident named Huang Yunfu had another idea. He covered the entire site in colorful pairings, turning it into an outdoor gallery. It’s now called ‘Rainbow Village.’

Beret Factory to Multimedia Center

(images via: inhabitat)

Would you guess that this incredibly modern-looking facility was once an abandoned beret factory? A riverside site that was recently little more than an industrial wasteland on the edge of the Pyrenees mountains in France is now a two-story multimedia center built on the original stone foundation with skylights and green terraces.

Garage to Madrid Hub Offices

(images via: fast co design)

Madrid architects Churtichaga + Quadra + Salcedo (CH +QS) turned an abandoned garage in the center of the city into a timeshare office, preserving the industrial character of the place while adding comfortable semi-private nooks, including an informal living room made of wood crates.

Silo to Climbing Gym

(images via: inhabitat)

After losing a competition to transform an abandoned sewage treatment silo in Amsterdam into a climbing gym, NL Architects may get a second chance. Developers in the area think that a third abandoned silo could be ideal for the project. The ‘Siloo O’ concept would create a world-class climbing and mountaineering facility that could become a major tourist attraction for climbers around the world.

Warehouse to Advertising Firm Headquarters

(images via: wk.com)

Ad firm Wieden + Kennedy turned an old warehouse in Portland, Oregon into its new world headquarters, holding several hundred employees. Portland architecture firm Allied Works gave the building a new concrete interior and new stories, preserving some of the original timber.

Steel Factory to Arts Center

(images via: artsquest.org)

Once the largest steel-producing facility in America, the old Bethlehem Steel building in Pennsylvania closed its doors in 1995 and remained abandoned for more than a decade. Spillman Farmer Architects converted the 68,000-square-foot space into the ArtsQuest Center, an art campus where the industrial aspects of the building are accented by the warmth of native Pennsylvania ash wood.

Railroad to Recreational Promenade

(images via: archdaily)

A retired railway between the towns of Albisola Superiore and Celle Ligure on the coast of Italy left a large stretch of the shoreline unused. 3S Studio and Voarino Cairo Voarino transformed the old promenade into a walking path using low-impact materials for a small environmental footprint.

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Remembered Spaces: Abandoned Buildings Transformed Into Art

When buildings are abandoned, they are often demolished and their parts sent to a landfill. One artist dismantles them piece by piece and preserves them in art.
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Abandoned Walmart is Now America’s Largest Library

A sprawling abandoned Walmart in McAllen, Texas has been transformed into the nation’s largest public library, with self-check-out kiosks and an art gallery.
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[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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What Drumsticks! 12 Thanksgiving Turkey Statues

18 Nov

[ By Steve in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

From “jive turkeys” to WKRP’s notorious televised Thanksgiving airdrop, turkeys have historically gotten less respect than the late Rodney Dangerfield… or have they? These 12 tall & tasteful turkey statues pay well-deserved tribute to the succulent bird that gave sustenance to the Pilgrims.

Rotate Your Tired Turkey

(image via: Wikimedia)

Turkey for Thanksgiving dinner may be big in the USA but back in Merry Olde England the bodacious bird is more commonly consumed for Christmas dinner. Take a Sunday drive through rural British farmlands in December and you’ll come across countless giant turkeys advertising roasters for sale. Some look more lifelike than most, others like the “tired old turkey” above sacrifice authenticity for expediency. God bless us everyone!

Mall Rats Meet the Mall Turkey

(images via: Tekniklr, Buddy Scalera and Malls of America)

Either that’s a really small boy or a really big turkey, and only artist Christopher Parks knows for sure! The “Wild Turkey” statue/sculpture was presented to the people of Paramus, New Jersey on March 14th of 1974 in conjunction with the opening of the Paramus Park mall on that date. Originally located on the mall’s main floor, the artwork was eventually moved to the second floor where it resides today.

(image via: Buddy Scalera)

What’s the connection between Paramus and turkeys? We’re glad you asked: it seems that the colonial settlement was named “Parampsepsus” by the local Leni Lenape tribe, which means a fertile land where maize was grown and where wild turkeys were abundant. The more you know!

Renaissance Roaster

(images via: Russellmcneil and Cultured)

The renaissance artist Giambologna may sound Italian but his birth name was Jean Boulogne and he was born in Douai, Flanders in the year 1529. Moving to Florence, Italy in the mid-16th century, Giambolgna soon attracted the notice of the powerful Medici family and in 1567 crafted this astonishingly realistic turkey for the Duke’s gardens. Turkeys had only recently been introduced to Europe, having been brought back from the New World by some of the first explorers.

The Hindenbird

(images via: CBS Minnesota, City of Frazee and Miss Minnesota)

Before August 8th of 1986, Frazee, Minnesota was known for its abundance of turkey farms… that was before “Big Tom” came to town. Standing 16 feet tall and made from white-painted fiberglass, cardboard and insulation attached to a steel frame, Big Tom put Frazee on the map as the home of The World’s Largest Turkey.

(image via: City of Frazee)

Oh, the turkmanity! Frazee’s most famous attraction met the fate of most actual turkeys on July 1st, 1998 when a wayward welding spark set the gargantuan gobbler’s flammable stuffing ablaze. Much like “Touchdown Jesus”, the Texas State Fair’s “Big Tex” and other flame-felled monuments, the original Big Tom’s fiery passing did not cause any human injuries though it probably wounded Frazee’s civic pride a bit. Don’t cry for Frazee, however: the original Big Tom was due to be replaced by an updated, bronze-colored version standing 30 feet tall.

Gobblezilla!

(images via: Mixed Greenz and Elizabeth Lofgren)

We’re not saying Minnesota’s got a Turkey War brewing but if one should break out, the battle between Frazee’s and Luverne’s giant turkey statues could rival Godzilla vs Megalon. Luverne is tucked into Minnesota’s most southwestern county and, naturally, is a buzzing hub of turkey farming activity. The oversized turkey bidding welcome to patrons of the Blue Mound Inn had better be nailed down good or we’re looking at (removes shades)… A Gobble-lypse Now. YEAHHH!!

White Meat, Grey Towers

(images via: Mommylogue)

Grey Towers National Historic Site, in Milford, PA is centered on the French-style Gifford Pinchot House built using local materials and labor in the mid-1880s. Pinchot was the first director of the United States Forest Service (USFS) and was twice elected governor of Pennsylvania. The proud and noble turkey statue above stands guard near the decorative moat on the house’s grounds.

What About Bob the Turkey?

(images via: Woodstock 11alive and WSBradio)

Sure there’s a ton of turkeys on Facebook but one was a real, live turkey! Bob the Turkey from Woodstock, Georgia, still shows nearly 2,000 Facebook likes though he’s sadly passed on to the avian afterlife. What’s up with Bob and how did he earn his very own statue? It seems that Bob, a wild turkey, set up stomping grounds in a disused green space along Woodstock’s Main Street back in the summer of 2011. Pecking at police cars and gobbling at the neighborhood humans, Bob quickly endeared himself to the local Woodstockians. “He’s out here in the middle of the street,” stated resident Mitch Evans, “wreaking havoc on Woodstock traffic.” You can guess what happens next, hmm?

(images via: Woodstock Art & Glass)

On Sunday, January 15th of 2012, Bob met his end at the hands (tires, actually) of an automobile driving down Main Street. He was obviously missed by Woodstocks’ citizens because six months later a metal statue of Bob was placed in a raised green space just outside Woodstock Art and Glass. Bruce Weinzetl of Acworth, GA made the 60-pound sculpture out of recyclable materials donated by Cherokee County residents. Probably confuses the heck out of the local pigeons.

Rockingham & Rolls

(image via: Taking A Walk)

Bill Haley and His Comets introduced the world to rock & roll music with “Rock Around the Clock” back in 1955. That same year, the Virginia town of Rockingham erected two statuesque bronze & stone monuments to… no, not Bill Haley, to turkeys! Coincidental or not, the pair solemnly stand on the sides of Route 11 on the northern and southern borders of Rockingham County, Virginia’s turkey capitol. At least it was in ’55, when farmers presumably worked around the clock.

Edgefield SC’s Big Turkey Statues

(images via: Jimmywayne, Roadside Examiner and Examiner)

When you’re the National Wild Turkey Federation’s home base, you celebrate the fact and Edgefield, South Carolina has gone whole hog… er, cold turkey? Undoubtedly the many elaborately painted fiberglass turkeys on display in Edgefield get a might chilly on clear winter nights but nobody’s complaining, least of all the turkeys.

(image via: Martin LaBar)

Edgefield may be small but its been home to ten of South Carolina’s governors including Strom Thurmond, who served from 1947 through 1951. These days, though, turkeys are the town’s real claim to fame and visitors get constant visual reminders of that fact as they mosey through the center of town. It’s enough to stimulate the appetite so stop in for a turkey & pepperjack panini – they serve turkey in Edgefield as well as celebrate them.

Hot Licques

(images via: Kathryn Sanderson)

Pamplona has the running of the bulls, Licques has the running of the turkeys… or as they call it in the local parlance, “Fête de la Dinde”. Maybe it’s not as exciting or dangerous as the traditional Spanish event but hey, when turkeys are your business you work with what you’ve got. Licques’ turkey festival is no latecoming copycat, mind you, the town’s been celebrating all things turkey since the 17th century. Let them eat cake, sure, but in Licques the main course is turkey.

Ride ‘Em Turkeyboy!

(images via: BildIndex, Wikimedia and Panoramio/Lady A)

Boys riding turkeys? What’s the world coming to? Better (or worse) yet, this odd practice has been immortalized a number of times in bronze and stone. One of these “turkeyboys” can be found on the grounds of the century-old Italienisches Dörfchen restaurant complex in Dresden, Germany. Georg Wrba’s whimsical sculpture has held up pretty well over the past century, all the more remarkable when one considers it’s spent those hundred years in Dresden.

(image via: OpenLibrary.org)

Albert H. Hodge (1875-1918) was a prolific Victorian-era sculptor whose work has stood the test of time in London, Cardiff and Glasgow. Hodge’s “Boy and Turkey” dates from 1907 and its companion piece – a boy riding a goat – seems utterly pedestrian by comparison.

Them’s Fightin’ Turkeys!

(images via: Wikimedia and ZOOM.nl)

Turkeys aren’t exactly known for their ferocity but Theo Mulder’s 1965 sculpture “Vechtende Kalkoenen” (Fighting Turkeys) purports to state otherwise. The sculpture spent some years at the Kerkstraat in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel in the Netherlands before being moved in 1989 to its current location at the Rosarium in Oudwijk, Utrecht.

(image via: The Onion)

More so than almost any other animal, turkeys were domesticated to provide food for people. From gobbling to being gobbled – rather ignominious, no? Yet around the world we’ve raised monuments and built statues featuring this crispy (if deep fried) critter. Go figure… and while you’re doing that, pass the stuffing!

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Giant Robot Statues: 19 Stunning Images Of Our New Overlords

If there is one thing humanity did right, it’s create awe inspiring monuments: The Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the Gundam robot statue… wait, what?
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Upwardly Immobile: 15 Sky High Statues From 15 Countries

This selection of 15 sky-high statues showcases the tallest figural sculptures in their respective countries, all constructed with a higher purpose in mind.
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[ By Steve in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Knitting in Reverse: Un-Knitting Machine Unravels Sweaters

17 Nov

[ By Delana in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

For any knitter who has ever looked at an ugly sweater and thought wistfully of all of the projects they could complete with that wasted yarn, the Un-Knitting Machine is a gift from the crafting gods. It was developed by Kingston University design student Imogen Hedges and is meant to salvage miles and miles of perfectly usable yarn.

According to the designer, her inspiration for the project was twofold. As a child, her grandmother knitted sweaters for her; when she had outgrown them, her mother simply threw them away because she didn’t believe anyone would want a secondhand hand-made sweater. More recently, Imogen discovered that many charity shops spend hours and hours unraveling old sweaters to reclaim the yarn. With this revelation, the designer conceived of a machine to make the process of recycling yarn far simpler.

The rather minimal machine utilizes an old bicycle frame to spin old yarn out of its previous incarnation and into a re-sellable, reusable heap of material. The user sits on a chair and pedals, spinning the bike wheel and causing the yarn to spool on the side of said wheel. As the yarn is pulled from the old project, it passes through the steam of a kettle which helps to straighten out the kinks and get it ready for a brand new life as something else entirely.

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Mini Rube Goldberg Machine Makes Cool Travel Companion

A Dutch design studio packs an amazingly complex Rube Goldberg machine into two suitcases, two years after producing the world’s largest room-sized machine.
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Don’t Call it Knitting: Olek’s Crazy Crocheted World

If you see a man in a crocheted ski mask running down the street, don’t worry: it’s not a bank robber, it’s just one of Olek’s performance artists.
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[ By Delana in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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22 Imaginative Flyby Concept Aircraft From Days Gone By

16 Nov

[ By Marc in Technology & Vintage & Retro. ]

At some point the science of flight became a reality. At the time, it seemed like such a futuristic shift, however, that imaginations continued to soar forward into the future, thinking about what was to come. With this vision of future flight came some wild concepts for gigantic blimps, personal aircraft, and everything in between.

(Images via iheartchaos, gajitz, dvice, youngester)

The current shape of aircraft are based on scientific principles that generate enough thrust to create lift, while still serving as an efficient means to transport cargo. This doesn’t mean this is the only way to get in the air. Tohoku University researchers are reaching into the past – they think biplanes may be the best shape for supersonic flight. Synergy aircraft are an attempt to make flight achievable by all; including families. A radical lightweight design may just be the ticket to making this a reality. Lockheed’s Cormorant is a plane concept in which the craft spends much of its time underwater, bringing stealth to a new dimension. The final image is a great example of our currents visions of the future of aircraft, which very well may look as ridiculous and outlandish as some retro futuristic examples look to us now.

(Images via airliners, crackajack, finalgear)

This experimental craft is showing its years, from when it was designed to push the limits of technology. Captain Rickenbacker’s airplane of the future was designed in 1929 and clearly never left paper, which is probably for the best. With propellers being the end all and be all of aviation, it made sense to just keep adding more. The Ekranoplan is a seaplane designed to lift off close to the surface of the water. It has a radical design and was actually used in the Russian navy for some years before being discontinued.

(Images via io9, enviro, belovedcars, leehamilton)

The future of aviation takes many forms. Take the Sky Tug for example, a futuristic blimp model that was designed for the Navy and will be entering active service, mainly for use in carrying cargo across difficult terrain, on behalf of commercial interests. The name of the crazy looking plane is Claire, and its design is an effort to create a sustainable aircraft for future air travel. Another current concept was commissioned by NASA and also hopes to accurately reflect the shape of new planes. This blue airship is able to use the helium in its stores to land and lift off effortlessly, at least, that’s the idea. Whether this plan comes to fruition is anyone’s guess.

(Images via internetdebris, psipunk, listsoplenty)

Even after seeing visions of the future of flight that are crazy by today’s standards, it’s still easy to laugh at attempts of futurism in the past. Judging by old magazines, we should all be in flying cars by now. Designer Leong Huang Zi came up with this design for the Aerial Rescue Chopper that actually looks like something that could work (though it would be mighty expensive). Lastly, a vision from the past of an actually working flying car called the ConvAir Car, that was meant to bring the power of flight home. Unfortunately, the idea never got off the ground.

(Images via electriccabinet, aviastar, io9)

Personal transport for the military and police officers have always been of interest to forward-thinkers, but it’s as yet unattainable on an inexpensive and effective basis. The De Lackner DH-4 “Aerocycle” was a prototype meant to revolutionize combat transportation, but it was deemed too impractical. Oddly enough, the final image depicts a vision of the future deemed quite practical (in the future).

(Images via warrenellis, plan59, darkroastedblend, darkroastedblend, scifilists)

This vintage craft was envisioned by Matsujir? Murakami, while the much more intimidating craft is a 1946 vision created by artist George Shepherd. The large gray ship is more watercraft than airplane, but it holds the same slick design as many of the other visions. Some craft were designed to fly, and land on water, while others were meant to “soar across the seas.” A gigantic ekranoplan, meant to be a mix between water and aircraft, is a Russian concept from 1965. Lastly, a plane that can lift off and land vertically. For obvious reasons, this is not the best way to tackle this problem…

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Celebrating WWII and Korean War Aircraft Nose Art

Decorating military planes with nose art has been a largely American tradition since WWI. During WWII and the Korean War, nose art surged in popularity.
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Futuristic Flying: Brilliant Prototype & Concept Airplanes

These incredible concept aircraft may only lift our imaginations, but in that respect they succeed… brilliantly.
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[ By Marc in Technology & Vintage & Retro. ]

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Action Figure Booth: 3D Printer Creates Custom Figurines

16 Nov

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

Let’s hope this concept catches on: a photo booth alternative that, instead of printing photos, creates an instant 3D action figure that looks just like you. Opening to the public at Tokyo’s EYE OF GYRE gallery space on November 24th, the world’s first 3D printing photo booth is perhaps one of the most fun examples of 3D printing yet.

OMOTE 3D’s pop-up store features a conventional-looking photography studio with a modern, geometric backdrop. Portrait subjects are asked to stand still for 15 minutes while their entire bodies are scanned in 360 degrees with a hand-held 3D scanner.

This data is then entered into a computer, where the ‘photographers’ add such details as clothing color and texture. The 3D color printer then produces the original figurines, which are available in sizes ranging from 10 to 20 centimeters.

While most of the figures already produced are pretty straight-forward portraits, it would be fun to do them in custom superhero costumes and unexpected poses (assuming you can hold them for the required amount of time.)

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Best Print This: 12 High-Tech & 3D Printer Design Ideas

Concept designs that use coffee dregs or pencil stubs instead of ink, forgo paper altogether or even produce 3D objects bring printers into the 21st century.
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3D Printing Goes Giant: Print Your Own Home?!

Imagine programming a large-scale, 3D-printing robot to simply print your entire home, from top to bottom, within a matter of hours.
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[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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Snowflake-Shaped Ski Dome Over River is World’s Largest

15 Nov

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

A six-armed, snowflake-shaped ski dome stretching across the river Gudenåen in Denmark would be the world’s largest if constructed, besting the current record holder, Ski Dubai, by at least 22,500 square meters. The dome consists of three enclosed, arching ramps that cross each other in the center, offering six indoor and two outdoor slopes.

The tallest arch rises 360 feet from the surface of the river at its apex. Rather than being completely enclosed, like most other indoor ski domes, Skidome Denmark, designed by CEBRA for the ski travel agency Danski, would have a perforated facade that gives skiers a view of the river and surrounding countryside.

In addition to skiing, the dome would have facilities for skateboarding and BMXing, and a landscaped park on the roof. Danski representative Simon Oscar Anderson told Dezeen that the conspicuous river location was chosen to connect the different neighborhoods in the town of Randers, “solving a lot of infrastructural problems for the city.”

“Skidome Denmark brings, quite literally, a piece of the Alps to Denmark: The slopes are developed in association with Alpe d’Huez ski resort in France, and the gradients are copied directly from the most popular pistes,” says CEBRA. “The arches contain a total of six slopes with real snow and varying degrees of difficulty, so that skiers of all ages will be able to find challenges according to skills and experience.”

“Every piste has its own chair lift and the three arches are conjoint by an elevator for transporting skiers between the different levels. In order to ensure variation in the landscape over time, it is possible to transform the pistes’ topography, providing visitors with a different experience each time they visit the ski dome.”

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5 Places You Probably Never Thought to Go Skiing: Far-Out Ski Destinations from Lebanon to Bolivia

It’s that time of year when most ski resorts are wrapping up their winter ski season and avid urban vacationers are taking those last weekend runs. Ski buffs sometimes brag about skiing at Whis…
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3 Incredible Gatherings: The Largest, Strangest and Scariest Collective Activities in the World

The following three events are vastly different in terms of geography, history and purpose but are all impressive in their own way and right as these images show.

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[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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2 Pay-to-Sit Projects: Privately Monetizing Public Amenities

15 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

The privatization of public spaces is a contentious issue – suburban malls have turned many main streets into ghost towns. At the same time, there are legitimate difficulties when it comes to open seating . If you leave benches wide open, people may sleep in them. If you don’t nail chairs to the sidewalk, people will walk off with them.

Consider shopping carts: in the United States, you see them strewn around parking lots, or gathered by tireless employees. In many parts of the world, including Europe, a coin is inserted, allowing you to detach the card, but encouraging you to return it and get back the money you put in. Could the same system be used for seats? Vincent Wittenberg gained permission from Bat Yam, Israel, to perform a real-world test.

“We proposed to the municipality to replace existing public benches with benches that consist of individual seats. The bench itself is a docking station: using a five Shekel coin one can release a seat and place it in a different spot. The deposit is returned when one brings the seat back. The chairs introduced by the municipality cross the border between public and private and move between the sunny sidewalks to the shadow under the arcades.”

Meanwhile, Fabian Brunsing, a Berlin-based artist and designer, took a different approach to a related problem: coin deposits (but in this case non-refundable) that allow you to use a public bench. But beware: when your time is up, a warning sound signals you should stand or get spiked from below. Perhaps this project takes things too far, but, on the other hand, is it that different from toll roads and other pay-to-use amenities offered by cities or states?

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15 Cool Urban Art Projects and Dreamy Product Designs

Chilean artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz creates fantastical designs and urban art. His product designs and guerrilla art are original and amazing.
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Big Screens, Big Fun: 2 Simply Silly Public Art Projects

The power of fun is often lost on grownups, but these two public art projects helped put some fun back into the daily lives of UK pedestrians.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Visualization Vids: Moving Data Make Marvelous Movies

15 Nov

[ By Delana in Art & Photography & Video. ]

Raw data, as interesting as it may be to the scientists and analysts who use it, simply isn’t very interesting (or understandable) to the rest of us. In order to get the general public truly excited about some bit of trivia, a set of facts and figures, or an unusual trend, you’ve got to dress it up a bit and give it a little flash. That’s just what the makers of these films did. Their short movies all illustrate data sets, but not in a boring, overtly scientific way. These data are presented with the help of some cool graphics and/or video that make them not only informative, but downright fascinating.

The Size of the Known Universe

According to the incomparable Douglas Adams, “Space is big. You just won’t believe how massively, mind-bogglingly big it is.” Its massive size is almost impossible for the human brain to comprehend, but that doesn’t mean that humans will ever stop trying to explain and illustrate it. This film from the American Museum of Natural History shows every known part of our universe, starting on Earth in the Himalayas and expanding to view stars, planets, asteroids, quasars, and a whole lot of dark, empty space.

The Biggest Stars in the Universe

As difficult as it is to imagine the vast size of the universe itself, it is nearly as hard to visualize the size of individual stars. The relative sizes of the planets in the solar system are explored first for reference before the video zooms out to show the inconceivably massive known stars. Starting with our own Sun – which, by the way, looks impressively large compared to the planets – the stars just get larger and larger until even the largest planet in the solar system is completely dwarfed. It’s a humbling reminder of just how tiny our planet is and how vastly minuscule every one of us is in comparison to the rest of the universe.

Asteroid Discoveries – 1980 to 2010

As our space observation and exploration tools have grown more and more sophisticated, we have been able to gain unprecedented glimpses into the universe around us. This video examines the pattern of asteroid discoveries beginning in 1980, showing exactly how our technology has continually advanced to allow more frequent discoveries, further and further from Earth.

1000 Years of Worldwide War in 5 Minutes

Although the data used for this video is somewhat biased, the visual representation of 10 centuries of war is still remarkable. Each explosion represents a military conflict, with the size of the animated explosion and associated label representing how many died in each war.

The Decline of Empires

Along with war and conflict has come the natural ebb and flow of the world’s empires. This video gives an interesting look at how the great world powers of the 19th and 20th centuries changed – with an emphasis on their downfalls. Year by year, the empires grow, shrink, break off into factions and sometimes disappear altogether. Just like in today’s world, these empires were in a near-constant state of flux – although the data represented in the video make that time period look much more volatile than our own.

Every Nuclear Explosion since 1945

A haunting depiction of a terrifying subject, this short film from artist Isao Hashimoto shows every nuclear explosion in the world since the first one occurred in 1945. The film also shows which countries were behind the blasts, illustrating just who in the world has the most nuclear firepower. The video is strangely beautiful, but of course very scary. The final blasts of the video are in Pakistan in 1998 – given the doubts about the legitimacy of the alleged nuclear tests performed by North Korea in 2009, they were not included.

Scientific Visualization of the 9/11 Attack on the World Trade Center

This scientific animation is difficult to watch, but it is an interesting look into how the planes struck the WTC buildings on 9/11 and what happened immediately after the impacts. The video was created by scientists and engineers at Purdue University as a scientifically accurate depiction of those tragic events.

Light Traveling at One Trillion Frames per Second

The Media Lab at MIT developed a new imaging system that is capable of recording images at one trillion frames per second – which is fast enough to record a burst of light traveling through a one-liter plastic bottle and reflecting back toward the source.

Worldwide Android Activations

When the open-source Android operating system was released, the world immediately took notice. The first Android-powered mobile phone was released in October 2008, and between that time and January 2011 millions of Android devices were activated all over the world. This video maps out all of those activations from that time period, calling attention to which parts of the world are most into Android.

Radiohead’s Data-Only Video

Radiohead is an innovative band that has tried some rather unconventional things during its long run of popularity, so this unique video should come as no surprise to fans. No lights or cameras were used in the music video for the song “House of Cards;” rather, the images were created by 3D plotting technologies measuring info about the shapes and distances of objects – namely, Thom Yorke’s beautiful singing head.

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[ By Delana in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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Rock n’ Knit: Low-Tech Chair-Powered Hat Factory

14 Nov

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

Lounging around in a rocking chair for an hour or two might make you feel lazy – but what if, as you were rocking, you were actually a low-tech, one-person hat knitting factory? Rocking-Knit by Damien Ludi and Colin Peillex modifies a rocking chair to offer “productive moments of relaxation.”

The rocking motion of the chair causes gears to turn, pulling yarn from a spool at the base up into the top area where it’s slowly knitted into a red beanie cap. Over time the knitted creation begins to drop down toward the user’s face.

ECAL Low-Tech Factory/Rocking-Knit from ECAL on Vimeo.

The machine is currently being shown in the Ruckstuhl Building as part of the University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL) Low-Tech Factory exhibition in Langenthal, Switzerland. The theme requires students to reinterpret the idea of the manufacturing process.

Other devices on display include ‘Oncle Sam’, a machine that processes grains of popcorn one at a time so you can enjoy the spectacle, and ‘Swing’, a punch that cuts designs into a tarp with the movement of the user.

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