Breakthrough Photography, a San Francisco-based startup, is seeking funding for what it claims is the ‘world’s sharpest and most color neutral circular polarizer,’ the X3 CPL. This polarizer is constructed with Schott B270 optical glass from Germany, MRC16 and nanotec coatings, a weather-sealed brass Traction Frame, and new American-made CrystalVision CPL film. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By Steve in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]
Caught the travel bug? Visit the world’s 10 filthiest, germiest tourist attractions and you could catch much, much more than you bargained for!
The famous red wine bath at the Kowakien Yunessun hot springs spa resort and water amusement park in Hakone, Japan gives the term “drinking problem” a whole new meaning. On the bright side, alcohol has antiseptic properties.
Sure it’s easy to resist drinking bathwater tainted by dozens of strangers but when the water’s been turned into wine, you’d better just hold your nose and pray for your health.
No visit to Ireland would be complete without kissing the Blarney Stone; just ask the roughly 400,000 people who visit Blarney Castle in Cork each year to do just that. Take into account several centuries of tradition and you’ve got a pretty good chance of picking up much more than the gift of gab.
Kudos to Flickr users colinfinkle2, Mark Folse, and Becky Lane (romplane) for striking a blow for – or maybe against – germophobes worldwide.
So it seems the gross & grotty Gum Wall under Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle is to be steam cleaned and scrubbed free of used chewing gum – the first time in 20 years this dirtiest of dirty jobs is to be done. Where’s Mike Rowe when you need him?
The cleaning wasn’t prompted by public health issues, however, as according to the Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority the sugars in the gum are beginning to erode the bricks! Once the walls are clean, visitors are encouraged to pick up where they left off.
There’s a lot more to America’s southernmost state than the headline-worthy misadventures of Florida Man and Florida Woman. Culturally distinct from the …
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Deep in the swampy canals near Mexico City sits a tiny island full of forlorn toys. Created out of superstition, the island is like a nightmare come true.
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The man who built his very own luxury mountain palace atop a condo tower in China – illegally – is hardly alone in his endeavors. A Chinese …
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[ By Steve in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]
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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]
The Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt is planning to turn submerged ruins of ancient Alexandria into an underwater museum, allowing tourists access to 2,500 of subsurface stonework dating back to 365 AD.
Plans or this ambitious intervention, designed by French architect Jacques Rougerie, were put on hold for years during a period of regional turmoil, but are now back on track. Fiberglass tunnels will connect waterfront galleries to underwater viewing areas where visitors can see the ruins in context.
The 270,000 square foot area in Alexandria Bay is protected by the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and includes the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. Much of the area was submerged in the Middle Ages due to earthquakes.
Part of the purpose of the project is to further protect the ruins, which are prominent targets for thieves and difficult to police without permanent surrounding infrastructure and round-the-lock eyes on the site. “The museum will reshape the Arab region, as it will be the first of its kind in the world,” said Youssef Khalifa, chair of the Central Administration of Lower Egypt Antiquities. “Undoubtedly it will revive tourism and boost the Egyptian economy after a long recession.”
Some of these dramatic and recent finds of whole towns and cities have even caused scientists to question the history of human civilization.
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From the remains of Cleopatra’s castle to the lost graves of towns inhabited a mere fifty years ago, these submerged wonders hide ruins under seas and rivers.
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Marvels of engineering, vanishing civilizations and a granite guide to post-apocalyptic survival: these 12 monuments and ruins are mysterious and strange.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]
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[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]
Some buildings are so ugly, the only thing that could possibly improve them is a wrecking ball. It’s even worse when the structures are high-profile and expensive, making you wonder how many people who had to sign off at each stage of planning and construction actually thought to themselves, “Yes, this looks good.” Here are 15 examples of astonishingly ugly architecture that only a mother (or rather, the designers responsible) could love.
Perhaps this addition to the Wellington International Airport by Warren and Mahoney was designed to resemble a robotic cockroach in order to remind us of what will rise up and take our places on earth once we’ve succeeded in making ourselves extinct.
Beijing’s ‘penis building’ aka the headquarters of the communist People’s Daily newspaper has drawn wonder and incredulity from local residents, as well as worldwide notoriety. But the building will soon be sheathed, as the architect decided to give it a makeover after all the backlash. There’s probably a joke about state-sponsored journalism in there somewhere.
“The building so ugly, it has to wear a paper bag” is Frank Gehry’s first project in Australia, inspired by a mashup of Sydney architecture and a treehouse. The curving structure was created using 320,000 custom-designed bricks.
Famed artist Anish Kapoor teamed up with engineer Cecil Balmond to create a sky-high tower in London that looks like a tangle of junk you pulled out of a drawer in your garage. The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a 376-foot-tall sculptural observation point overlooking the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Shaped like Thailand’s national animal, the Elephant Building in Bangkok is a 32-story mixed-use complex housing condos, offices and a language school.
Our buildings are the covers our enterprises – and ourselves – are judged by. These 136 brilliant buildings show, in so many ways, that when it comes to …
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Architecture shouldn’t send you on a one-way-trip to snooze-ville. These designs prove that there are infinite ways to pack buildings with extra personality!
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From a massive kinetic museum structure that flaps its wings to indicate a new exhibit to an internet-famous church in Florida accidentally resembling an Angry …
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[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]
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[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]
Bibliophiles can browse books inside a 19th-century theater filled with frescoes, a converted cathedral, a subterranean space with sci-fi vibes or an incredibly ornate space that helped inspire Hogwarts. From Los Angeles to Beijing, Buenos Aires to Romania, these 13 bookstores are among the world’s most beautiful and unique.
A dream bookstore in every respect, this location of the Selexyz chain in Maastricht occupies a 13th century Dominican church, inserting modern elements as a building-within-a-building to preserve the historic architecture. A cafe can be found within the area formerly occupied by the choir.
Said to be among JK Rowling’s inspirations for Hogwarts, Portugal’s Livraria Lello features an incredible red staircase snaking through four stories of floor-to-ceiling stacked books in dark-stained cases. Ornate painted plaster ceilings, a stained glass skylight and bas-relief sculptures of Portuguese literary figures adorn the inspirational space.
Chinese book retailer Fang Suo Commune opened an incredible underground store in Chengdu with over 320 continuous feet of bookshelves lining the two long sides of the space. Measuring over 40,000 square feet of a subterranean mixed-use complex next to the ancient dace temple, the bookstore features 37 massive columns supporting a concrete canopy.
What was once the Teatro Gran Splendid, which opened in 1919, is now one of the world’s most stunning bookstores. The El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, Argentina once had a capacity for 1050 audience members, but now houses hundreds of thousands of books. Original details like the crimson stage curtains, ornate carvings and ceiling frescoes remain.
Hungry bookworms in Brussels make their way to the Cook & Book, a combination bookstore and restaurant with a series of themed rooms divided by subject. There’s a modern train making loops around the kids’ area, an Airstream caravan in the travel section and British flags waving around the English Literature room. The cook book department even has your choices laid out on a salad bar, along with a host of edible treats.
This stunning 15th-century Dominican church is dedicated to much more than just one book – it contains thousands of them, in fact, stacked row upon row …
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Buenos Aires becomes a fantasy urban playground in this fun video by Black Sheep Films, featuring roller coasters with no tracks that zoom through the city.
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A 7-story spiraling ‘Tower of Babel’ in downtown Buenos Aires is made of 30,000 donated books in all languages.
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[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]
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ZY Optics, a Chinese company that sells lenses under brand name Mitakon, teased a massive lens on the Chinese social network Weibo over the weekend, the Mitakon Speedmaster 135mm F1.4. While the company revealed a few details at the time, it didn’t specify when the lens would be available for pre-order. That changed on Monday, and the company is now offering $ 500 non-refundable deposits to reserve a unit for shipping in early 2016. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]
Inspired by the complex organic shape of a volcanic eruption, this 1,086-piece pavilion in Beijing has just been awarded a Guinness Book of World Records distinction for the largest 3D-printed structure in the world.
Created by the Laboratory for Creative Design, the VULCAN stands nearly 10 feet tall and spans 24 feet across, named after the Latin name for the Roman god of fire.
Its robust geometric components reference the divine, while a fragile web of cocoon-inspired interconnections between panels are inspired by man.
Human-scaled arches overhang an open space below, formed by three ramping forms flanking each entry and rising up from fragile points of floor contact.
Th endeavor took 30 days and 20 large-scale 3D printers to complete, then 15 people for 12 days to assemble the pieces on site into the whole pavilion.
“VULCAN represents a new reality – that modern architects are able to achieve their ideal design quality from concept to construction using digital design and fabrication methodologies,” said Yu Lei at Beijing Design Week. “This development will increasingly blur the boundaries between technology and art.”
There has been a lot of competition to design and execute the first prototype of a 3D-printed architectural structure, including complex concepts for houses …
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Cold, dilapidated and lacking modern amenities like bathrooms, Beijing’s historic architecture in the Hutong districts becomes livable again with sleek …
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Using recycled construction waste and rapid prototyping processes, a Chinese company is showing off how 3D printing technologies can be applied to building at …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]
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[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]
If you thought Twin Peaks was suspenseful, test your mettle on the new glass-bottomed Brave Man’s Bridge connecting two cliffs in the Hunan province of China and spanning nearly 1,000 feet.
Located in the Shiniuzhai National Geological Park (images by Sina), the bridge employees a new type of glass 25 times stronger than the ordinary variety, achieving its structural purpose despite being just 1 inch thick.
Framed in steel, the converted bridge previously held wooden walking platforms, but to compete with the rise of glass walkways around the world these were swapped out for glass equivalents.
While there are other similarly glass-bottomed bridges arcing out over canyons or crossing natural expanses, this is the longest glass suspension bridge to date. Its engineers have assured the public that it is safe, even if feisty tourists jump on the panels.
Old shipping containers form a unique bridge in an environmental park in Israel, spanning the gap between new and old in a beautiful way.
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Houses can be isolating … but what happens when you break down – or bridge – the gap created by yards and fences between two otherwise-ordinary homes?
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Five blade-like beams slice into the sky when this cantilevered footbridge in London’s Merchant Square rises to make way for boats moving along the Grand …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]
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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]
Able to print full-sized structures from mud and clay, this 40-foot-tall 3D printer represents a huge step toward printing affordable housing from free materials. The project was unveiled yesterday, debuting with a live demonstration at a three day rally event in Italy along with a series of workshops and conferences.
Representing a hybrid of biomimicry, new technologies and ancient building techniques, the BigDelta printer from World’s Advanced Saving Project (WASP) draws inspiration from natural and human precedents.
BigDelta’s structural strategies and resulting home shapes are informed by a breed of wasp that constructs mud homes as well as a long human tradition of creating earthen dwellings.
Building with water, dirt, clay and plant fibers taps into a set of plentiful organic resources, reduces environmental impacts, obviates the cost of and need to ship materials and provides naturally robust and insulated housing shells.
The lightweight steel frame of the printer itself, supporting a giant printing nozzle suspended in its open center, is easy to collapse and transport between construction sites.
This larger model follows a smaller Delta prototype used to execute a series of complex geometric structures at reduced size, testing the technology and materials.
The design aims to address a growing housing crisis: “by 2030, international estimates foresee a rapid growth of adequate housing requirements for over 4 billion people living with yearly income below $ 3,000. The United Nations calculated that over the next 15 years there will be an average daily requirement of 100.000 new housing units to meet this demand.”
Easy to disassemble and transport on demand, this 3D-printing solution uses natural materials to build completely stable homes from readily available …
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Using recycled construction waste and rapid prototyping processes, a Chinese company is showing off how 3D printing technologies can be applied to building at …
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As the population expands and more of us look for affordable and available housing, architects and designers are making the move toward cheaper, greener, …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]
A brilliantly low-tech way to provide a unique view of the surrounding landscape, this massive yet cost-efficient shipping container periscope uses the same elementary construction principles as those childhood do-it-yourself milk carton equivalents.
Framing a clear vista of the nearby Lagoa Santa, a Brazilian lagoon, this upturned container designed by Pedro Barata e Arquitetos Associados sits alongside a structure likewise built in part from containers.
Though a one-off idea for now, this would be a great low-cost solution for sites where excellent views are close but building permanent staircases and decks would not be feasible.
Analogous to the traditional role of a fireplace and chimney inside a home, the tall structure is also a natural focal point for outdoor gatherings.
A simple system of wood supports and set of mirrors tilted at 45 degree angles reflects the view above for onlookers below. It is ultimately designed to travel, set up to similarly enable views elsewhere, before coming to rest in a final spot yet to be determined.
The architect is pleased with resulting reactions so far: “there’s always someone peeking through the vertical tunnel, trying to understand the ‘technology’ allowing them to do so. By connecting directly two different and faraway spaces, the Superiscope introduces people to architecture as hypertext”
Shipping containers are becoming ever-more-popular sources of design inspiration in new architectural designs, from personal residences to big commercial …
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You see them all the time as polished finished products, but for those looking to try the ultimate do-it-yourself home-building project, these videos will help …
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Comprised of 19 shipping containers, this record-breaking restaurant has reclaimed a riverside wasteland in the River Arts District of Asheville, North …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]
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