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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Neat Seats: 14 Crazy Creative Modern Chair Designs

29 Dec

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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More than just a surface to sit on, these modern chair designs are (sometimes literally) works of art, sculptural yet functional, from a flat-looking canvas you can actually sit on to a series of chairs that slide inside each other, inception-style. Customize a chair’s look with removable graphic panels, hook two high-backed seats together to make a room-within-a-room, or scare your guests with hanging chairs that mimic beasts of the deep sea.

Monster Chairs Might Eat You
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Rest inside the mouth of a sea beast, real or mythical, in this series of fun and frightening handmade chairs by Cape Town artist Porky Hefer.

A Painting You Can Sit In
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Hung flat on a wall, these canvases look like nothing more than two-dimensional paintings. But pull them down, lean them against the wall and take a seat, and you’ll find that they are surprisingly up to the task. These lightweight furniture pieces by YOY design studio are made of wood, aluminum and stretched elastic canvas.

Home Office in a Chair
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If you’re the type who works from home but isn’t into sitting at a conventional desk, the Four Works Armchair can meet all of your needs. A seat is embedded within a bookcase-like base that also offers a light, cupholder, power outlets, storage and a laptop platform.

Inception Chair

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Ten interlocking chairs ranging from adult to child size fit within a single frame in this chair by Vivian Chiu, inspired by the dream-within-a-dream concept of the movie Inception.

Rhinoceros Beetle Chair
Adobe Photoshop PDF

Adobe Photoshop PDF

Adding to a collection of realistic animal-shaped chairs rendered in matte black, Maximo Riera presents The Beetle Chair, which is only recognizable as furniture when viewed from the back.

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Neat Seats 14 Crazy Creative Modern Chair Designs

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So Long, Suckers: 11 Closed & Abandoned Candy Stores

28 Dec

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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When it comes to abandoned candy stores like these 11 examples, sweet has turned to sour quicker than toothache sufferers turn to their dentists.

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Whipsawed by the varying vicissitudes of a changing retail culture, macroeconomic trends and good old urban blight, traditional Mom & Pop candy stores are circling the drain and nobody’s standing by with a plug. Flickr user Bartosz Brzezinski (JohnnyGotHisGun) captured the sour state of one such example – the long-abandoned K&M Candy Store in Detroit’s McDougall-Hunt neighborhood – on December 30th of 2013.

ReSCue Me

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Remember the days when stores thought they’d last forever and thus spent lavishly on brand-specific frontages? Maybe Flickr user JJ’s (My Blue Dragon) shot of the abandoned Russell Stover Candies (“RSC”) store on Linwood Blvd in Kansas City, MO will jog some memories – if not a few fillings. Ironically, the KC Royal Blue & White tiled facade has held up remarkably well, which is much more than we can say about the store itself.

Store-gasm

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Contrary to any and all expectations, LA Greens Candy Store is neither green nor is it located in Los Angeles – 5477 Chene St. in Detroit, MI is where the abandoned store can be found. It also doesn’t sell candy anymore. The windowless and unoccupied (at least, not officially) building was snapped by Flickr users Gary Tucker and Modesto Speed (ClevelandSGS) on July 24th, 2013 and March 17th, 2002 respectively.

Candy, Tickets and… Things

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Methings the 100th St Candy Store in the heart of Manhattan’s East Harlem shoulda maybe stuck to its core competence… that being Candy. Kudos to Flicker user Jake Silby for snapping this shot of the abandoned store’s all-inclusive sign on November 28th, 2011.

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So Long Suckers 11 Closed Abandoned Candy Stores

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Not Your Average Model Train: Self-Propelled Mechanical Toys

26 Dec

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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There are no batteries or power cords needed to propel this steam train and a series of other mechanical models, which come in kits of laser-cut plywood so you can assemble them yourself. UGEARS might just be the ultimate gift to inspire future engineers, with its creators aiming to gin up curiosity about about all of the gears, pistons and wheels that make things work.

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We’ve become so used to playing games on electronic touch screens, the inner workings of our gadgets out of sight, that we might just lose touch with the mechanics that have been in use for centuries, the creators say. “UGEARS realized the idea of modular mechanical models in which everything is real. It’s absolutely fascinating to see the true mechanical miracle coming to life in your hands giving you a glorious feeling of creation.”

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Available models include a steam locomotive with a rubber band engine and rail stand, a tractor, a harvester, a mechanical theater and a working safe. Each kit comes with a set of plywood boards with precisely cut-out parts and detailed step-by-step instructions – you supply the rubber bands. No glue is necessary to assemble the parts. A special version of the locomotive is available for just a few more days on the UGEARS Kickstarter, where you can also check out lots more videos of the products in action.

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Prefab Hobbit Homes: Build Your Own Shire Dwelling in Just 3 Days

25 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Composed of vaulted panels covered with reinforced soil, these modular hobbit-worthy homes can be adapted to just about any site and constructed in a matter of days.

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Produced in pieces by Magic Green Homes, then shipped to sites for assembly, each dwelling is made from prefabricated panels clad in green. The results looking much like something straight out of a Tolkien novel, but made out of shaped composite laminate, the same material approach taken to creating curves in some types of boat.

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The process is designed for simplicity, eliminating the need for heavy machinery of specialized knowledge. Integral electrical, plumbing and ventilation channels come tucked inside the wall-to-roof modules as well, making systems installations easier as well.

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Overlapping flaps allow builders to join the various parts together while the integrated layers of green on top further hide any seams, making each house look like a seamless (w)hole. An interior layer of waterproofing ensures the attached modules do not leak.

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The overall modularity of this lends itself to easy incremental additions, expanding housing units over time. Designers or homeowners can also site the structures to blend into the surrounding landscape, much like the approach taken in underground homes and with many earthships. As with geodesic domes and other curved habitats, however, it may take a bit more than three days to decide how to finish and decorate the rounded interiors.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Lighting Up the Dark Side: Star Wars Shadow Art Portraits

24 Dec

[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

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Balls of aluminum foil transform into Darth Vader and irregular chunks of chocolate cookies covered in rainbow sprinkles become the Star Wars logo when a single light source is shined upon them in just the right way. Artist ‘Red’ Hong Yi of Malaysia created an entire series of Star Wars shadow art with a range of materials, from feathers to discarded computer guts.

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The artist turns on a lamp and begins attaching her bits of materials to pieces of wire embedded in a base, watching the shadows on a plain white wall until her seemingly random compositions start to make visual sense. Some of the portrait are more complex than others; a Stormtrooper made of cotton is simple and graphic while a Yoda silhouette crafted of nothing more than a handful of leaves  and weeds seems as if it could spring to life.

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“It started with a spark of curiosity and then a lot of tweaks and experiments,” says the artist on her Instagram. “As an artist/designer, I’ve learned to not be afraid of experimenting and failing; you’ll get better at what you do with each step you take. Our responsibility as creators is to sit down and create again and again. May the force be with you!”

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Get inspired with 24 more amazing works of shadow art, and follow Red Hong Yi on Instagram for more creations made from unexpected materials, like tea bag portraits and intricate arrangements of edible items.

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[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

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Museums of Tomorrow: 13 Out of This World Institution Designs

24 Dec

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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We’re reaching a point in architectural history where the structures being built look like they could have come straight out of the concept artwork for a science fiction movie, or a video game set on another planet. Some look like flying saucers, others look like blobby aliens that landed on the roof of a traditional European building, but all of these museum designs – the real ones, and the ones that will remain concepts – have a strikingly futuristic feel.

Sci-Fi Museum for Washington by Flying Architecture
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This concept looks just as sci-fi as its purpose with its facade wrapped in sharp-looking metal panels and ring-shaped interior plan. Submitted for an International Architectural Design Competition to design a museum for science fiction in Washington, the proposal is “a vessel of science fiction history and culture” with circular LED screens wrapping the inner face and space reserved for hologram performances.

MVRDV China Comic and Animation Museum
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What looks like a gigantic cluster of textured eggs speckled in red houses a Comic and Animation Museum for China by MVRDV, including a massive comic book library, three cinemas and an interactive exhibition zone. MVRDV’s competition-winning design mimics the shape of speech bubbles for its eight interconnected ovoid volumes fulfilling every comic book lover’s fantasy.

Museum of the Future for Dubai
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This metallic ring-shaped building designed by architect Shaun Killa and set to be 3D-printed for its completion in 2017 looks like the kind of building an artist would envision for an alien planet. The flashy building will be covered in poetry written by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the hole in its center representing “the unknown.” The exhibits will be changed every six months.

Kunsthaus Graz Art Museum
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Is this a building, or an alien ship? The blobular Kunsthaus Graz Art Museum is an ultramodern landmark in the Austrian city of Graz by Sir Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, known to locals as the “friendly alien” That flowing roof is actually made up of 1,288 semitransparent acrylic glass panels generating energy with built-in photovoltaic cells.

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Museums Of Tomorrow 13 Out Of This World Institution Designs

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Skywalking Stockholm: Bridged Green-Roof Parks to Span Downtown

23 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Fusing height, light, density and greenery with regional vernacular architecture, this ambitious urban Sky Walk plan aims to turn the tops of downtown buildings into a extensive series of connected green-roof parks connected by aerial walkways.

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Anders Berensson Architects was commissioned to develop a design that would accommodate Stockholm’s growing population and associated housing needs, but their solution goes above and beyond conventional urban planning, literally and otherwise.

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Their proposal takes advantage of existing infrastructure and tightly-packed buildings, creating green community spaces essentially out of thin air, all while respecting zoning regulations and building codes dictating heights and usages.

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The heights of new buildings in the scheme would be tuned to the aspirations of the aerial component, aimed to facilitate the desired connections across streets and between blocks, ultimately creating a long meandering walkway along the city’s riverfront.

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Views and light orientations are also taken into consideration, with residential units aimed as much as possible with natural daylight in mind.

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The thin profiles of the perforated-metal Sky Walk structures will minimize shading from these components as well.

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From the architects: “The design makes larger parts of the area accessible to the public since both courtyards and roof terraces is crossed by public paths. The sky walk on the roof terraces will be one of the longest parks in Stockholm with best view in town. The new city area will host about approximately 5800 apartments, 8000 work places and about 300 shops.”

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Holy Skate: Century-Old Church Converted to Colorful Park

22 Dec

[ By Steph in Architecture & Design & Fixtures & Interiors & Public & Institutional. ]

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A 100-year-old church in Spain is hosting pilgrimages of a new sort now that its interior is lined with skate ramps instead of pews, its soaring cathedral ceilings covered in vibrant murals. This stunning mashup of art and sport is known as Kaos Temple, a collaboration between La Iglesia Skate, Red Bull and street artist Okuda San Miguel. Located in the city of Ilanera, this stunning converted space has instantly earned its place among the most creative skate parks in the world.

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Okuda transformed the walls and vaulted ceilings with rainbow-hued geometric paintings, while the skate collective built customized ramps running the width of the interior. The columns, ribs and other architectural elements of the space remain as they were before the project began, crumbling in some areas, their lack of polish contrasting with the bright new paint.

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Spectators and fellow skaters convene on comfortable couches in the living-room-like lounge that formerly functioned as the pulpit.  The artist describes the project as being part of a ‘cultural upheaval’ that will “bring a new era to the spaces for art,” i.e. out of galleries and into common public spaces that everyone can enjoy. Okuda also produced a series of customized skateboards as rewards for the donors who helped crowd fund the project.

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Car-Free Cities: 12 Pedestrian-Only Places from Venice to NYC

22 Dec

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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It’s funny how the idea of a purpose-built, car-free city where everything you need is easily accessible on foot seems so modern, yet it’s actually a return to our roots. To some, banning automobiles from densely populated urban centers is a radical concept, but European cities like Venice and Brussels are giving architects and urban planners fresh inspiration for contemporary equivalents. Here’s a mix of historic car-free places around the world, and pedestrian-only proposals for cities like New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

NYC’s Broadway as a Pedestrian-Only Park
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One of New York City’s best-known yet least-busy streets could transform into a pedestrian-only park, eliminating cars and trucks and providing green pathways to and from major public spaces like Times Square and Madison Square Park. The difference between converting a section of the city to a park and creating a car-free section is access to all of the businesses and public services residents need on a daily basis, so depending on how it’s handled, this could be a major, positive change to the way the city functions. The proposal, by Perkins Eastman, would also help Manhattan manage its drainage system, allowing water to be absorbed into the soil.

A Prime Pedestrian-Friendly Example: Venice, Italy
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Quite simply the greatest pedestrian city in the world, Venice’s very walkable web of streets forbids almost all motor vehicle traffic, with dense buildings clustered around charming promenades and tranquil canals. Home to 70,000 residents and temporarily hosting many thousands more tourists year-round, Venice offers the same modes of transportation now as it did centuries ago, with its 118 small islands connected by over 400 bridges and accessible by boat.

Great City: China’s Car-Free Dream Oasis
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Will China’s ‘Great City’ ever become a reality? There’s been no word on this project for a few years, but perhaps this entirely walkable city of 80,000 planned for a rural area outside Chengdu could still someday be built. The development bans motorized vehicles other than a mass transit system, and is organized around a series of high-rise towers surrounded by green public spaces. Walking from the center of the city to the parks takes just ten minutes.

Vision42: A New 42nd Street
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Citizens of Manhattan have come together to propose a reimagined and upgraded version of 42nd street in Midtown, adding a low-floor light rail system that travels through a landscaped pedestrian boulevard. Vision42 “welcomes pedestrians with space, greenery, and amenities, combined with speedy and efficient river-to-river travel, via a modern, at-grade, low-floor light rail line” adoptable within four years. The photos are downright utopian – imagine being able to navigate Manhattan on foot without the sound of honking horns and screaming cabbies.

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Car Free Cities 12 Pedestrian Only Places From Venice To Nyc

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Save Ferris! 12 Abandoned & Overgrown Ferris Wheels

21 Dec

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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What goes around comes around, especially for these dozen abandoned Ferris Wheels whose former clockwork precision has spun down to a permanent turn off.

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Originally centering the Kulturpark Plänterwald (1969-1989) and, after German reunification, the Spreepark Berlin, this magnificent Ferris wheel was abandoned in 2002 along with the rest of the amusement park when its criminally negligent owner high-tailed it to Peru. Mired in debt and steadily deteriorating, the park was bought by the City in 2014 though future plans for the site remain unclear.

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Flickr user gordon.shumwaay snapped these vertigo-inducing HDR images of the Spreepark’s Ferris wheel on August 9th, 2014, and one must say his timing was most fortuitous… about a day later, delinquent teen arsonists set two fires that burnt down much of the park (though the Ferris wheel was unaffected). Maybe they could rename it Post-Jurassic Park.

Kudzu Never Sleeps

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The South’s relentless “green menace” appears to have devoured this former Ferris wheel located somewhere in North Carolina. Flickr user Kyle Telechan (City Eyes) captured the astonishingly overgrown state of the once-charming amusement park ride while on vacation in June of 2009, noting that “when the remnants of Katrina hit the area (in 2005), a few places were left abandoned.” Could kudzu grow so much in just a few years? Yes, yes it could!

8 Arms to Hug You

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Looking disturbingly like a malevolent metallic sea monster, this de-seated Ferris wheel from the former Fun Park Fyn in Mollerlund, Syddanmark, Denmark seems to be waiting silently for some ancient signal to rouse it from its dreams… much like C’thulhu. Flickr user Troels Dejgaard Hansen brilliantly captured the long-abandoned ride on April 3rd of 2010.

No Joy in Joyland

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Joyland Amusement Park in Wichita, Kansas styled itself as “The Southwest’s Finest” and during its run boasted a Ferris wheel offering unparalleled views over the windswept prairies. All that would end in 2006 when, after 55 years of continuous operation, Joyland’s management pulled the plug and the big wheel ground to a permanent halt. Flickr user Kenzie Alizabeth snapped Joyland’s abandoned Ferris wheel’s spidery yellow skeleton on June 10th of 2011.

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Save Ferris 12 Abandoned Overgrown Ferris Wheels

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