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Junk Joinery: Heated Plastic Scraps Connect Notched Wooden Furniture

15 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

wood plastic furniture

Using scraps from start to finish, this shrink-wrap approach to furniture is not only greener but faster and leaner, requiring less by way of specialized skills or tools and allowing people to build easier do-it-yourself objects. A project of Micaella Pedros for the Royal College of Art, the Joining Bottles project uses heat to shrink plastic around wood joints, collected from around London, locking them together.

wood plastic wrap

“The idea is about taking a plastic bottle, cutting it, and then putting it around two pieces of wood., Pedros explains. “Then I heat it so it shrinks and creates a joint.” The key part of the process is the notching of the wood, which gives the plastic a way to grip the disparate pieces and lock them firmly into place.

wood joinery plastic

Traditionally, joinery is the most complex, time-consuming and often high-tech part of the furniture-making process, making this innovative approach a welcome alternative for those without the time and resources to spend months building custom pieces.

wood hair heat dryer

On the flip side, cutting and notching tools are commonplace and able to be improvised, meaning: a would-be Joining Bottles-type builder would not need access to a sophisticated wood shop. Scissors, a hair dryer or other heating element and simple carving tools will suffice. They key is in making the connections follow common sense: flat-to-flat helps, and complex angles may fail.

shrink wrap scrap furniture copy

This is not about marketing a new line of garbage chic furniture, but about sharing knowledge about easier ways for ordinary people to upcycle everyday trash. “The core idea of the project is not to sell the products I’m building but more about sharing the principle and sharing the technique.” She is running workshops to show people how to follow her lead, enabling them to walk in with junk and walk out with furniture.

wood joined furniture table

The idea hinges on the global similarity of plastic bottles amid a sea of different types of wood. Basically, anyone in any place can find the same plastics and use them to connect whatever woods are locally available. The aesthetic results are up to the end user (or maker): there are many ways one could refine the look and feel of this general design approach.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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Crystal Universe: Digital Maze Invites You to Immerse Yourself in Light

14 Jul

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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A kaleidoscopic space filled with reflected and refracted light in all shades of the rainbow makes you feel like you’ve somehow immersed yourself inside a crystal at the DMMPLANETS exhibition in Odaiba, Tokyo. Dreamed up by the art collective teamLab, ‘Wander through the Crystal Universe’ is one of three major interactive installations in place through the end of August for the inaugural show. The work uses accumulated light points to create a sculptural body, “similar to the way distinct dots of color form an image in a pointillist painting.”

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As you walk through the three-dimensional light space, your movement affects the light particles, creating changes in the installation. Each person’s action or change affects the way everyone present experiences the space. The lights are constantly moving and shimmering, going dark to mimic the effect of floating in space and then shifting into new color palettes. Visitors can further interact with the exhibit using their smartphones, selecting certain elements and enhancing them.

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Screen Shot 2016-07-13 at 5.05.53 PM

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“In Crystal Universe, the particles of light are digitally controlled, and change based on the viewer’s interactivity with the work. The result is an installation consisting of an accumulation of lights, forming a sculpture that expresses the universe.”

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Equally enchanting is ‘Drawing on the Water Surface Created by the Dance of Koi and People – Infinity.’ In this case, visitors are walking into a pool of water, influencing the movement of projected koi.

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“When the fish collide with people they turn into flowers and scatter. The trajectory of the koi is determined by the presence of people and these trajectories trace lines on the surface of the water. The work is rendered in real time by a computer program, it is neither a pre-recorded animation nor on loop. The interaction between the viewer and the installation causes continuous change in the artwork. Previous visual states can never be replicated, and will never reoccur.”

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Urban Dystopia: 11 Short Sci-Fi Films Set in Future Cities

14 Jul

[ By SA Rogers in Drawing & Digital. ]

LIMA

The science fiction of the past thirty years has evolved beyond the midcentury’s optimistic space-age visions into a darker, grittier place, where technology is out of control and resources are running out. Whether you think these imagined dystopian futures are overly dramatic or prescient of harder times to come, their depiction of our downfall can be absolutely riveting, and worth watching for the urban scenery alone. Short films offer an ideal medium for filmmakers of all skill levels to explore these concepts, including architecture that’s taken on a life of its own and high-tech surveillance societies.

In fact, if you want to know what sci-fi films might be coming out in the next few years, keep an eye on the digital shorts that are proliferating across the internet, as many of them get snapped up by major studios to become full-length features.

Spatial Bodies by AUJIK

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Architecture in Osaka, Japan takes on a life of its own and begins to grow organically like vines and trees in the short ‘Spatial Bodies’ by AUJIK. “Spatial Bodies depicts the urban landscape and architectural bodies as an autonomous living and self replicating organism. Domesticated and cultivated only by its own nature. A vast concrete vegetation, oscillating between order and chaos,” say the creators, a collective referring to itself as a ‘mysterious nature/tech cult.’

Megalomania by Factory Fifteen

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From digital film studio Factory Fifteen, which has produced a number of striking shorts set in the future, Megalomania imagines a world in which cities are constantly in active construction mode. “The built environment is explored as a labyrinth of architecture that is either unfinished, incomplete or broken. Megalomania is a response to the state of infrastructure and capital, evolving the appearance of progress into the sublime.”

TEARS OF STEEL by Ian Hubert/Blender Institute

Tears of Steel

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This Creative Commons-licensed short made entirely with free and open source software was made in the Netherlands by the Blender Institute, which crowd-sources funding in online communities of 3D artists and animators. In ‘Tears of Steel,’ a group of warriors and scientists gathered at Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk attempt to stage a crucial event from the past in a desperate attempt to rescue the world from destructive robots.

The Sand Storm by Jason Wishnow and Christopher Doyle

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Sand Storm

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Starring Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei, ‘The Sand Storm’ by Hong Kong-based cinematographer Christopher Doyle and director Jason Wishnow examines a dystopian future that’s not so far away, where society is facing water shortages and technology is not as helpful as we might hope.

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Urban Dystopia 11 Short Sci Fi Films Set In Future Cities

[ By SA Rogers in Drawing & Digital. ]

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Largest Mural in Paris: 15,000 Origami Birds Adorn Condemned Building

13 Jul

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

lunar building

Lunar Cycles is a massive site-specific installation featuring 15,000 paper-crafted birds in the 13th arrondissement of France’s capital city, requiring (non-paper) cranes to hang the elaborate avian collage.

bird art crane

Created by French street artist Mademoiselle Maurice in collaboration with Mathgoth Gallery, the work represents the biggest mural Paris has ever seen, a massive flight of birds landing on a 20,000-square-foot wall.

lunar art bird origami

birds on cranes

The artwork was installed on a condemned building, allowing the artist to first apply a layer of black paint as a backdrop for the colorful array of geometric paper birds added to the wall. She also painted on a series of two-dimensional origamic patterns to bridge between the physical papers and flat surface.

painted bird art

bird crane aerial view

The artist notes that the neighborhood contributed to the design, including those most impacted but the upcoming demolition of this long-standing structural pillar of the community. Previous projects from Maurice have featured similar themes in other settings, from birds and other geometric origami shapes gracing the walls of city streets and ancient castles alike. This work will be up through August.

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

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Bubble Buildings: 13 Structures You’ll Wish You Could Pop

12 Jul

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

bubble buildings dome 4

Would the satisfaction that comes with popping bubble wrap scale up as the bubbles get larger and larger, until they’re big enough to cover entire buildings? These blobby bubble-shaped buildings tempt us to find out. Inflatable translucent structures offer space for gardens, bathrooms, museum extensions and even entire parks enclosed to keep out air pollution in a literal representation of the term ‘living in a bubble.’

SKUM Pavilion by Bjarke Ingels Group / BIG

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Named ‘SKUM,’ the Danish word for ‘foam,’ this blob-shaped structure is an inflatable balloon pavilion illuminated with colored LED lights by Bjarke Ingels Group / BIG for the CHART Art Fair in Copenhagen. “The idea of using a bouncy castle as material came about because one can create any kind of structure with the material. It is inflatable and easy to pack down and inflate again, but it has been much harder to produce than we thought. The manufacturer almost gave up, and we were under a massive time pressure, but the result is the most beautiful you can imagine.”

Real Bubble Building by DUS Architects

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Now here’s a structure that isn’t just bubble-shaped – it’s actually made out of real soap bubbles. Dutch firm DUS created the pavilion in a Rotterdam square using metal frames in five-sided steel pools to create massive geometric bubbles you can stand inside, calling it “the world’s most temporary pavilion.”

Bubble Extension for the Hirschhorn Museum

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The firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro was all set to add a wild looking inflatable enhancement to the Smithsonian’s Hirshchorn Museum, creating a venue for two months of special programming, but the design was suspended due to costs. You might imagine that a large translucent fabric ‘bubble’ swelling up out of the museum’s internal courtyard would be less expensive than temporarily roofing it and adding additional covered space along the exterior, but the design was pretty complicated, and the museum board was concerned that costly additional issues with its installation would come up.

Transparent Mobile Bathroom

bubble building bathroom

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Would you want to take a bath in a totally transparent bubble with a panoramic vista? This inflatable bathroom pod is intended to be placed in the woods or in rooftops as the ‘ultimate bathroom experience,’ designed after polling groups of people about their dream bathroom. The inflatable structure includes a tub, chair, dresser and basin.

Garden Bubbles for Paris in Winter

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This pop-up art installation in Paris by Amaury Gallon inserted lush greenery back into the city in the middle of winter, providing passersby with 15 minutes of relaxation, beauty and fresh air. Four bubble gardens were placed on city sidewalks, each filled with a different type of plants, including a ‘jungle’ and hundreds of orchids.

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Bubble Buildings 13 Structures Youll Wish You Could Pop

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Noah’s Ark: Creationist Theme Park Opens Amidst Regional Flooding

11 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

great ark

A biblical theme park contained within a huge ark (the largest timber-framed structure in the world) has opened in Kentucky, just as the region was hit hard by heavy rains and flash floods. Expecting an initial rush of visitors, the ark will have extended hours of operation for 40 days and 40 nights, coinciding with duration of the biblical fable of the great flood.

ark opening

Built by Amish carpenters to dimensions described in the Bible, the main Ark Encounter structure is close to 500 feet long, 100 feet wide and a 50 feet tall. It was created by Answers in Genesis, a fundamentalist Christian organization, close to their existing Creation Museum. The megastructure is meant to serve as an education center as well as adventure playground.

ark interior

ark base

The original ark, as the story goes, was designed to save Noah, his family and pairs of animals from a great flood that swept the world clean of sinners. “In a world that is becoming increasingly secularised and biased, it’s time for Christians to do something of this size and this magnitude,” said Answers in Genesis chief executive Ken Ham. The new version employs somewhat more contemporary materials and construction techniques, connecting large timber logs with steel braces.

ark dinosaurs

The modern-day complex is designed to be accessible to all Americans, located less than a day’s drive from most of the country. In addition to scenes of dinosaurs living on the ark alongside humans, it features zip lines, petting zoos and camel rides.

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ark grounds

Controversially, the $ 100,000,000 project was made possible in part through sales tax incentives, a fact that does not sit well with all residents of the state. Alas, anyone seeking to survive the next great global purge will find that the ark itself does not float, though it may provide some high ground in a storm.

[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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Quacked Up: Cleveland’s Legendary “Duck Factory”

11 Jul

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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The “Duck Factory”, a century-old abandoned warehouse in Cleveland’s Little Italy home to hundreds of toy rubber ducks, has finally kicked the bucket.

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Urbex explorers – not to mention Sesame Street’s Ernie – have suffered a grievous blow with the sudden loss of the former Woodhill Supply, Inc. warehouse in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood. Not that the east-side eyesore was on an irresistible descent into decay and deterioration, mind you: real estate developer Visconsi Companies, Ltd. had already received approval to tear down the old warehouse and replace it with 200 luxury apartments.

Unchained Mallardy

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A devastating fire early on Sunday, September 27th of 2015 put the first part of that plan on the fast track – the smoldering remains of the brick building located at the corner of East 120th Street and Coltman Avenue were demolished later on that very afternoon. The origin of the blaze is yet to be determined but authorities suspect (ahem) fowl play.

Ducks Redux

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Though it may be gone, Cleveland’s “Duck Factory” lives on thanks to the relative permanence of physical and virtual media; not to mention the efforts of uncounted urbex explorers who have documented the otherwise unremarkable icon for many years.

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By “otherwise unremarkable”, we mean that without those signature rubber ducks this abandoned factory would be forgotten as easily as any number of other rotting relics of the American rust belt.

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Quacked Up Clevelands Legendary Duck Factory

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Anti-Gravity Boots: London Shoe Artwork Defies Laws & Physics

09 Jul

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

anti gravity shoes street

There are many theories, but no one is quite sure where the practice of throwing shoes over raised urban infrastructure started. Some suggest bullies take shoes from other kids and toss them over power and telephone lines; other think it could be a way of marking gang or drug-dealing territories. Or perhaps people just make and lose bad bets, paying the price with sore feet.

shoe on wire art

laced shoe downside up

Whatever the reason, London street artist Pejac (images by Gary Van Handley) has taken the shoe-on-a-wire concept to the next level, with individual and paired shoes seeming to hang upside-down, pulled inexplicably toward the sky. Presumably to minimize annoyance to the city (and possible damage to critical lines), the artist in this case opted to use poles rather than wires for support.

gravity shoe art installation

gravity suspended shoes

Titled Downside Up, this series of shoe art installations across East London are in part a series of street artworks but also a viral marketing campaign for an upcoming solo exhibit. Pejac is well known for both silly and thought-provoking interventions, often manipulating built environments in subtle ways by pealing paint or through small installations easily missed by less observant passersby.

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

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Living Street Art: Contorted Human Bodies in Urban Spaces

09 Jul

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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If you were to pass a bunch of colorfully-dressed human figures crammed into a crawlspace beneath a public staircase, you might think they’re mannequins at first, with their splayed limbs and claustrophobic positioning. The bodies are bent every which way, some hanging upside down, all of their faces obscured by hoodies, their positioning absurd. As you walk down the street, you spot more and more of them – folded beneath park benches, dangling from staircase railings, squeezed between utility boxes or piled on top of one another. But then a hand moves, or a muscle twitches, and you realize they’re alive.

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The brilliance of choreographer Cie. Willi Dorner’s ‘Bodies in Urban Spaces’ lies as much in the chosen setting as it does in the extraordinary flexibility of his performers. Dressed in vivid track suits, the performers quickly assemble themselves into position, hold their poses for an uncomfortably long duration, and then disassemble themselves to run ahead to the next spot and repeat the process. The temporary urban interventions leave no trace when the performance is over, and aim to encourage residents to experience their cities in a different way.

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‘Bodies in Urban Spaces’ has been traveling the world since 2007, showing up all over the UK and Europe as well as Texas, New York, Istanbul, Russia and Japan. The performers lead an audience through each city, highlighting various architectural and urban features and how we interact with them as human bodies.

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“‘Bodies in Urban Spaces’ is a temporary intervention in diversified urban architectonical environment,” says Dorner. “The intention of ‘Bodies in Urban Spaces’ is to point out the urban functional structure and to uncover the restricted movement possibilities and behavior as well as rules and limitations. By placing the bodies in selected spots the interventions provoke a thinking process and produce irritation. Passers by, residents and audience are motivated and prompted to reflect their urban surrounding and their own movement behavior and habits.”

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Floating Greenhouse: Mobile Barge to Grow Food & Cruise Danube

08 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

eco barge

Designed to float down the Danube river in Europe, the Eco Barge is a solar-powered floating greenhouse illustrating the possibilities of offshoring urban food production.

floating eco barge concept

floating greenhouse model

In addition to growing usable organic produce on the water, the barge has educational components, aiming to host presentations and workshops for citizens of European cities along the river, starting in Belgrade. Growing on the water allows food production to remain local without taking up valuable urban land.

floating solar greenhouse

floating greenhouse design

An indoor office and presentation space brackets one end of the barge while the greenhouse is situated at the other, an open space with solar panels sitting in between. Sun and wind power systems generate renewable energy used to power the vessel as well as its on-board irrigation system.

floating hotel concept

floatel

Salt & Water, the architectural and yacht design firm behind the Eco Barge, are known for their floating projects, including a floating hotel concept made up of private yachts. These independent boats share common docks and community spaces, but can detach for explorations as well.

360Photography

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Junk Joinery: Heated Plastic Scraps Connect Notched Wooden Furniture

Crystal Universe: Digital Maze Invites You to Immerse Yourself in Light

Urban Dystopia: 11 Short Sci-Fi Films Set in Future Cities

Spatial Bodies by AUJIK

Megalomania by Factory Fifteen

TEARS OF STEEL by Ian Hubert/Blender Institute

The Sand Storm by Jason Wishnow and Christopher Doyle

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Urban Dystopia 11 Short Sci Fi Films Set In Future Cities

Largest Mural in Paris: 15,000 Origami Birds Adorn Condemned Building

Bubble Buildings: 13 Structures You’ll Wish You Could Pop

SKUM Pavilion by Bjarke Ingels Group / BIG

Real Bubble Building by DUS Architects

Bubble Extension for the Hirschhorn Museum

Transparent Mobile Bathroom

Garden Bubbles for Paris in Winter

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Bubble Buildings 13 Structures Youll Wish You Could Pop

Noah’s Ark: Creationist Theme Park Opens Amidst Regional Flooding

Quacked Up: Cleveland’s Legendary “Duck Factory”

Unchained Mallardy

Ducks Redux

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Quacked Up Clevelands Legendary Duck Factory

Anti-Gravity Boots: London Shoe Artwork Defies Laws & Physics

Living Street Art: Contorted Human Bodies in Urban Spaces

Floating Greenhouse: Mobile Barge to Grow Food & Cruise Danube

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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Spatial Bodies by AUJIK

Megalomania by Factory Fifteen

TEARS OF STEEL by Ian Hubert/Blender Institute

The Sand Storm by Jason Wishnow and Christopher Doyle

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Urban Dystopia 11 Short Sci Fi Films Set In Future Cities

SKUM Pavilion by Bjarke Ingels Group / BIG

Real Bubble Building by DUS Architects

Bubble Extension for the Hirschhorn Museum

Transparent Mobile Bathroom

Garden Bubbles for Paris in Winter

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Bubble Buildings 13 Structures Youll Wish You Could Pop

Unchained Mallardy

Ducks Redux

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Quacked Up Clevelands Legendary Duck Factory

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Urban Dystopia 11 Short Sci Fi Films Set In Future Cities

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Bubble Buildings 13 Structures Youll Wish You Could Pop

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Quacked Up Clevelands Legendary Duck Factory