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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Tetris House: Modular Structures are Made to be Stacked

18 Dec

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

tetris house 6

Modular living units in a range of sizes can be stacked, spun and cantilevered over each other to create unique custom dwellings with views in every direction. The Tetris House makes it possible for homeowners to design their homes to their own specifications, from the size of each room to the orientation of the windows, and enables developers to create apartment complexes that can be easily expanded or reduced in size.

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Dutch design studio Universe Architecture offers three basic sizes of steel units that can be enhanced with balconies, shutters, glazing and rooftop terraces. Plug three or more units together in pretty much any configuration you can think of, orient some of them to face the sun or your desired view, and stick on some pop-up decks with glass railings to take it all in.

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The company teamed up with interior design firm i29 to create minimalist, compact and efficient interiors that can adapt to all the different possibilities in each building’s individual floorpan, adding interior walls, staircases, fireplaces and other basic elements. The prototype will soon be completed in the Netherlands, with plans to expand availability to other countries in the future.

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Lego Landmarks: Elegant New ‘Architecture Skyline’ Collection

18 Dec

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

LEGO skyline 1

The phrases ‘adult toys’ and ‘city blocks’ take on a different meaning when applied to architecturally sophisticated LEGO sets like these, enabling you to make your own miniature replicas of the cityscapes including the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Berlin TV Tower, St. Mark’s Basilica and much more. The Architecture Skyline Series explores the most famous architectural achievements of three cities: New York, Venice and Berlin.

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These aren’t your ordinary blank slate LEGO bricks, from which all manner of creations can spring, but rather very specific pieces for very specific structures.

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With the NYC package, you’ll get the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Statue of Liberty and Flatiron Building as well as the brand new One World Trade Center. Berlin includes the Reichstag, Victory Column, Deutsche Bahn Tower, Berlin TV Tower and Brandenburg Gate. The Venice model will give you St. Mark’s Basilica and Campanile, Rialto Bridge, St. Theodore and the Winged Lion of St. Mark, and the Bridge of Sighs.

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LEGO has been teasing the release of these sets on Facebook for weeks, and has now revealed that they’ll be available on an unnamed date in January 2016. Follow the company’s Facebook page if you want to be among the first to find out so you can snatch up your own box.

LEGO louvre

LEGO architecture studio

These upcoming sets arrive on the heels of a stunning model of the Louvre in Paris, as well as LEGO’s Architecture Studio, which offers 1210 white and transparent bricks to design and build the architecture of your imagination. Check out the LEGO Architecture series for other classic structures, like Rome’s Trevi Fountain and the Lincoln Memorial.

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Disused 15-Mile Railway to Become Country-Wide Park in Singapore

18 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

nature converted rail

An ambitious infrastructure conversion project in Singapore will turn 15 miles of a abandoned rail corridor into a continuous mixed-use trail-and-park system stretching from one end of the island city-state to the other.

nature park map

Led by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and designed by Japanese firm Nikken Sekkei, the coast-to-coast master plan features over 100 access points and 20 modular platforms for various uses, strung together with contiguous bicycling and pedestrian paths.

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nature park singapore

Some spaces will be dedicated to nature-oriented activities, including secluded boardwalks and rainforest viewing stations. Other nodes will be community-oriented, with outdoor movie projectors, climbing walls, information stations, food vendors and additional activity centers.

nature park information

The southern terminus will be the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, and the long route north will bring the trail system past a series of both remote and urban areas, under viaducts and over bridges, offering access to city dwellers but also escapes into nature and compelling views. In some cases, redundant infrastructure (like former train stations) will be incorporated into this rails-to-trails redevelopment plan.

nature park climbing wall

nature park urbanism

The goal is to create “seamless public space” that prioritizes the “preservation and reintegration of existing green areas and a relaxed extension of modern life,” according to the designers. The rail corridor should be “inspiring, accessible, comfortable, memorable, eco-friendly and growing/evolving … acting as a catalyst to development and community bonding.”

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Origami Apartment: Instantly Shape-Shifting Micro Interiors

17 Dec

[ By Steph in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

origami apartment 1

Origami-inspired folding screens stretch and retract in many different ways to transform one 312-square-foot micro apartment for a variety of uses, separating the spaces for different functions or opening to create one big room. The Biombombastic project by Madrid’s Elli Architects offers an innovative and affordable solution to customizing existing apartments so they’re more livable despite their small size.

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In a mission to renew an aging flat in the center of Madrid, the architects combined two strategies: knocking down the existing walls to create an open space that can be divided as desired, and creating an L-shaped arrangement of built-ins holding a complete kitchen, fold-down table, fold-down bed, washing machine and access to the bathroom.

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The system revolves around a three-paneled folding door reminiscent of a shoji screen, with diagonal timber supports and a translucent upper portion for the transmission of air and light. The door is designed to work in conjunction with other hinged and foldable elements in the space, hooking onto wooden rails in a variety of configurations.

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Even the lighting is strategically positioned to work with the system, illuminating the various ‘domestic stages’ even when the partitions are closed. Create a cozy bedroom with the screen pulled tight around the bed or a larger sleeping and lounging space, and pack it all away to transform the apartment into a social space for hosting parties.

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World’s Most Soothing Soaks: 10 Otherworldly Hot Springs

17 Dec

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

hot springs blue lagoon 1

When the weather outside is frightful, there are few things so tempting as calling in sick to work and heading to a natural hot springs spa to soak in warm mineral-rich water – or maybe just watch a bunch of monkeys doing it. Few of us are lucky enough to live adjacent to these earth-heated healing waters, from the Blue Lagoon of Iceland to the crystal-clear Mataranka Springs in Australia, but nobody can blame us for losing an hour or two daydreaming about it.

Grutas de Tolantongo, Hidalgo, Mexico
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Mexico’s stunning Tolantongo is a box canyon and resort featuring shady heated pools that overlook the semi-desert landscape as well as two grottos where a small volcanically-heated river emerges from the canyon walls and spill down the sides to the floor below.

The Blue Lagoon, Iceland
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Steam rises from the 100-degree waters of Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, beckoning visitors to immerse themselves when the outdoor temperatures dip. One of the nation’s most popular attractions, this man-made hot spring is fed by the water output of a nearby geothermal power plant. The water is rich in minerals thanks to the processes used by the plant to push water to the surface at a high pressure and temperature.

Glenwood Hot Springs, Colorado
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The world’s largest hot mineral springs pool is nestled into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado at Glenwood Hot Springs resort, kept at 93 degrees year-round. A smaller therapy pool full of healing minerals averages 104 degrees, and a spa at the adjacent lodge offers a range of natural mineral-based treatments. The pool is especially beautiful in the winter, when the mountains are covered in snow and the water gives off a steamy glow after dark.

Jigokudani Monkey Park, Nagano, Japan
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You won’t get to soak in the water at this particular Japanese hot spring, but there’s another very compelling reason to visit. The warm waters of the natural onsen (hot springs) in the mountains of Yamanouchi in Nagano prefecture have become a snow monkey resort as hundreds of Japanese macaques come down from the steep snow-covered heights to warm up and relax. While they used to only appear in the winter, they’ve now taken to hanging out in their own private spa year-round, since they’re fed by park attendants. What a life.

Pamukkale, Turkey

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hot springs pamukkale

Terraces of carbonate minerals left behind by flowing water have created a system of natural hot spring tubs in Pamukkale, Turkey. The city is named for this ‘cotton castle,’ which measures nearly 9,000 feet in height and can be seen from the hills on the other side of the valley. In the ‘60s, the Pamukkale pools were a booming tourist spot full of hotels that drained the thermal waters into their swimming pools, but it was all demolished to protect them, and today, bathing is only allowed in the smaller pools (images via: ana raquel s. hernandes, marcel oosterwijk.)

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Worlds Most Soothing Soaks 10 Otherworldly Hot Springs

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World’s Brightest Flashlight: Brilliant 1000-Watt DIY Lantern

16 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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Lighting up the night sky like artificial lightning, this incredible homemade lamp boasts a 90,000-lumen output (over 100 times that of a typical Maglite) that would put the flashiest high-beams on dark roads to shame, making nighttime scenes look uncannily daylit.

Constructed by RCTestFlight and published on YouTube, the project consists of ten 100-watt LEDs mounted on a heatsink and powered by twin 8 amp-hour, lithium-polymer batteries (about the equivalent energy of 10 mobile phones).

night bright light

In the embedded video, you can see comparisons between car lights, streetlights, other handheld lamps and this flashlight, as well as demonstrations of lighting up clouds and mountains at a distance. Even the short-exposure shots reveal an incredible degree of brightness.

night handheld led flashlight

The rig uses ten 100-watt LED chips in a row, each connected to a large heatsink with bolts and thermal grease to help the heat transfer, each component tied to its own driver. Each LED has its own lens focusing light projection at around 60 degrees.

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Made to burn fast and bright, the projection lifespan is accordingly limited: it can only run for about ten minutes and gets hot even faster than that. Cooling fans would be useful if longer blasts were needed, but for short bursts the system holds up just fine.

blindinglight

It shines bright in part due to LEDs trumping halogens, but also the various engineering details that help optimize for power and heat. The device can turn well-lit rooms into sun-bright spaces and even outdoors, at closer than 100 feet, it is basically blinding.

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Scarchitecture: Aerial Photos Reveal Vanished ‘Ghost Streets’

16 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

architectural scars

When thoroughfares are subtracted from city grids, subsequent urban infill is shaped by the voids of these former roadways, streetcar or rail paths, standing out like architectural scar tissue when viewed from above. The effect is all the more pronounced when the disappeared passageways cut at odd angles through city blocks, forcing particularly odd-shaped ‘scarchitecture’ to follow.

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When architectural writer Geoff Manaugh came across this phenomena in the streets of Los Angeles, readers rapidly began sending in examples from other cities. Some are surprisingly complex and counterintuitive, like the half-circle seen below (if you look closely) that seems to arbitrarily slice across multiple city blocks.

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Manaugh’s fascination is infectious: “The notion that every city has these deeper wounds and removals that nonetheless never disappear is just incredible to me. You cut something out—and it becomes a building a generation later. You remove an entire street—and it becomes someone’s living room.”

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Perhaps most remarkable of all: many of these scarchitectural expressions frequently go largely unnoticed on the ground level. Most, however, emerge immediately as visual patterns when seen from aerial vantage points, their persistently unconventional orientations going against the grain of gridded streets surrounding them.

scar residual architecture

Small buildings can completely conform to the unusual geometries these ‘ghost streets’ trace; some sides of other structures, reconfigured paths and even parking space orientations may also follow these uncanny trajectories, in part or in whole, as if aligning to secular ‘ley lines’ of invisible force. Next time you are using Google Maps, pan around your own neighborhood and you could find evidence of scarchitecture, perhaps cutting right through your own backyard.

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Taboo Town: Architecture Designed to Make You Uncomfortable

15 Dec

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Grab a cocktail inside an oversized rectum and then take in the unsettling sight of a sculptural red building graphically referencing humankind’s dominion over nature. Dreamed into being over a period of nearly twenty years by design collective Atelier van Lieshout, this series of over 20 sculptures and structures became an immersive exhibit at the annual Ruhrtriennale Festival in Bochum, Germany.

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Collectively called The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – also the name of a mobile art lab created by the studio in 1998 – this series really lives up to its name, ranging from the aforementioned visual abstraction of bestiality to a pair of giant inhabitable heads placed horizontally on the grass. The Head Claudio & The Head Hermann call to mind an eerie statue at the abandoned ‘Gulliver’s Kingdom’ theme park in Japan.

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With its lumpy beige textures mottled with red, a fleshy, human-fat-mimicking structure called Hagioscoop could very well be the answer to the question, “What’s the most viscerally disgusting material that a building could be made of?” The ‘Barrectum’ isn’t exactly pretty either, covered in veins and ending in a tangle of intestines that lead to a stomach and finally, a tongue.

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But it’s the Domestikator that’s really the star of the show, even if you don’t particularly want to look at it too much. “Domesticator symbolizes the power of humanity over the world,” say the designers. “It pays tribute to the ingenuity, the sophistication and the capacities of humanity, to the power of organization, and to the use of this power to dominate, domesticate the natural environment.”

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“The act of domestication, however, often leads to boundaries being sought or even crossed. Only a few taboos remain, and it is these taboos that the Domestikator seeks to address.”

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Classic Modern Mix: 13 Striking Additions to Historical Houses

15 Dec

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

additions octopi

Stretching out of the original structures like alien growths, these modern additions don’t even bother trying to blend in with their traditional architectural settings – but somehow, it works. The mashup of old and new keeps the historic character of the original structures intact while updating them for use by 21st-century residents, expanding the available space in unexpected ways.

Sculptural Extension to 1930s Miami Bungalow
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This three-story extension certainly isn’t trying to blend in with the modest 1930s Miami bungalow that can be seen peeking out from behind it. Sun Path House by Studio Christian Wassman sits upon a spiraling concrete structure containing a kitchen, which connects to the original house.

Greenery-Clad Vertical Extension
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This concept by Zawelski Architecture Group literally raises the roof of an aging brick house with a sandwich of elements that hide a terrace inside the top story. The original structure houses the living spaces, the middle envelope contains private spaces like bedrooms and bathrooms, and a fence of ivy conceals a perfectly private backyard.

High Contrast at Bord-du-Lac
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A 200-year-old stone house in Canada gets a striking metal-clad addition in this project by Henri Cleinge. The stark transition between old and new is meant to express the passage of time, the new volume representing the modern-day family and the old representing their ancestors.

Hankai House: Modern Volume Protects 300-Year-Old Japanese Home
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A new wooden building wraps protectively around a 300-year-old wooden gate house in Japan, extending its space while leaving the original structure virtually untouched other than sections that were beyond repair. The new structure provides extra earthquake resistance, and though it’s clearly contemporary, its burnt cedar walls pay tribute to the architectural vernacular of the town.

Cosgriff House: Sleek in the Suburbs
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Christopher Polly Architect_Cosgriff House

Christopher Polly Architect_Cosgriff House

A striking new extension provides three new levels of living spaces without dwarfing the standard suburban Australian home it’s attached to. Architect Christopher Polly followed the form and contours of the house, inserting a large new living area beneath it.

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Art Of Power: 12 Visually Shocking Electric Utility Boxes

14 Dec

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

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Electric utility boxes don’t have to look utilitarian and these creatively painted examples illustrate art’s power to beautify urban neighborhoods.

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What’s in the box? Your guess is as good as Amy Johnquest’s and since she was the artist commissioned to paint this utility box in Easthampton, MA, she oughta know! Situated at 50 Payson Avenue, the artwork approved by the Easthampton City Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council was completed in August of 2015

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Johnquest’s bold interpretation of the utility box’s innards is “suggestive of a circus poster” according to the Photo-ops blog but one must admit, the design is both appealing and timeless. Well, except for the date.

Pleasanton Gets Pleasanter

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In the summer of 2014, the City of Pleasanton’s Community Services Department, Civic Arts Division introduced Project Paint Box. The first phase of the program invited selected local artists to transform 6 traffic utility boxes in and around the downtown area into bonafide works of art. One of the chosen artists, Lisa Hoffman, brings us a rare two-fer: “The Outlet” and “Florescent Bulb”, which can be found just off Telegraph Avenue at 30th Street.

Articulating Culture With Art

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The city of Calgary, Canada “is still trying to articulate without artifice, its natural history, environment and cultural heritage beyond just cowboys and oil wells,” according to Jean of the Cycle Write Blog. One way of accomplishing this noble aim is to enlist local artists to express their vision of the Canadian city’s culture through their art – via city-owned electric utility boxes. Above are both sides of such a box located near the Erlton LRT station.

Municipal Manifestation

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Commissioned by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, artist Mona Caron’s “Manifestation Station” projects a visionary streetscape onto a utility vault at the intersection of Church St. and Duboce Ave. While striking in and of itself, Caron’s artwork works on a number of levels.

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“If you look at this box from a specific point and distance,” the artist explains, “its perspective lines will match the background, providing a glimpse into an alternative reality.” Compounding the illusion, an earlier installation by Caron entitled “Duboce Bikeway Mural” can be seen spreading across the Safeway store’s left front facade.

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Art Of Power 12 Visually Shocking Electric Utility Boxes

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