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FEEL By EYE & EAR :Amazing Audio System Design

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:47:00 +0000

Home speakers were once ugly, boxy things that you hid away from sight because they did nothing for your décor. But smart designers have been working to make the home audio speaker an attractive part of whatever room it’s in, and some of their designs are positively unbelievable.

The Grand Enigma

(image via: Dvice)

The Grand Enigma from Kharma may just look like a wall of speakers, but they’re a little more than that. Like, a million dollars more than that. Yes, the above setup is the world’s most expensive set of speakers, and there’s only one of its kind. You’d have to be a truly hard-core audiophile to drop a million bucks on a sound system.

Soundshelf

(images via: Technabob)

When you have a small space to work with, single-functionality items just won’t do. Everything in a small space should do at least double duty to maximize the area. These speakers/bookshelves do that in the most delightful way, by combining music, books and sweet design (three of our favorite things) while saving floor space. Created by Polish designers Witek Stefaniak and Anielka Zdanowicz, these awesome speakers are sadly only a concept for now.

Bandai Diorama Speaker

(image via: Akihabara News)

If your goal is to actually draw attention to your speakers rather than hide them, you couldn’t find a more perfect product. This limited-edition speaker from Bandai (of Power Rangers fame) features a very noticeable plastic model of 1955 Ginza on top. For about $2230, this is obviously the best choice for classy ladies and gentlemen everywhere.

Equalizer Speaker

(image via: I New Idea)

Let us go on record as saying that if these speakers ever became commercially available, we would walk barefoot over hot coals to get one. The familiar equalizer design lets you adjust the individual audio levels to your personal preference, and in a fun tactile way. Each slider is a speaker, lending a fantastic aesthetic quality to an otherwise sort of mundane activity.

Zimku Floor Speakers by Parrot

(image via: Wired)

Parrot is already known for their wireless headphones, but recently they branched out and joined forces with designer Philippe Starck to come up with these sophisticated-looking tower speakers. They are designed to be used in pairs and connect to each other wirelessly via Bluetooth. But even better is their wi-fi capability, making them able to stream music from your computer or cell phone. Or if you’d prefer, pop that iPhone or iPod onto the integrated dock. Their $1500 price tag suggests that you might want to be pretty serious about your music before lusting after the Zimku speakers.

Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus

(image via: Bowers & Wilkins)

The Bowers and Wilkins Nautilus has inspired countless designers all over the world to design a sleek, sexy speaker. But few even come close to the incredible stylishness and unbelievable sound quality of the Nautilus. It’s a design classic, and one that continues to be on the wish list of every audiophile.

Serpent Wireless Speaker Design

(images via: Yanko Design)

Sometimes the best design is the simplest one. That’s certainly the case with Ben Wahrlich’s Serpent Speakers design. The wireless speakers wouldn’t be big enough for a whole-room listening experience, but they would make perfect computer speakers. The flexible bodies can bend into any configuration and stay put when you twist them up. They’re only a concept at this point, but it’s easy to imagine this simple, common-sense design popping up in stores soon.

Eclipse TD712zMK2

(image via: Tech Digest)

Despite the inscrutable and very forgettable name, the Eclipse TD7127MK2 speakers show off a memorable design. They look a bit like tiny jet engines stuck atop two metal poles. And they bear other similarities to jet engines: namely, their price and size. A pair of these will set you back about $10,000, and each speaker weighs in at around 55 pounds.

Imu Vibrating Speaker

(image via: Gadgetshop)

While the design looks a little NSFW-ish, the Imu’s product page gives a pretty enticing description. It claims that, due to a magical Navy substance called Terfenol-D, this little device can turn any hard, flat surface into a speaker.

Yorozu Sound Revolution Kit

(images via: Japan Trend Shop)

The Yorozu Sound Revolution Audio Kit works on a similar principle, and claims to be able to turn just about any flat surface into a speaker. It comes with a milk carton-shaped box to start you out. After that, it’s up to you to start sticking the little conductor onto anything and everything in reach.

Body Speakers

(image via: Like Cool)

If the Imu wasn’t quite suggestive enough for you, the Body Speakers from Bob Turek just might be. The designer wanted to put music into a new context, and he succeeded admirably. Now if we could just stop blushing long enough to plug this cord in…

JVC Sound Garden

(image via: Engadget)

Music and gardening are both relaxing on their own, so why not combine them? This speaker concept was seen at the Designer’s Week competition in Tokyo, and combines a multi-directional speaker with a small planter. The units can be joined up to form a speaker array/garden that ultimately seems pretty dangerous, given the electricity + water equation.

Harman Kardon Soundstick II

(image via: Harman Kardon)

When it comes to speakers, excellent sound is one thing; when it’s accompanied by superior design you get even more enjoyment from your music. The Soundstick II system sounds amazing, but the sleek and curvy design actually makes it look good on your tabletop or desk. The clear acrylic subwoofer and satellite speakers feature blue LEDs to give them an almost ethereal look, and the system features minimal wiring to keep your desk clutter under control.

Audi-Inspired Sonic Rings

(image via: MadeByMakers)

Young Danish design firm Made By Makers held an internal workshop to see what innovative new speaker ideas they could think up on three days. One of the designs was this doughnut-shaped surround-sound speaker that was inspired by the Audi logo. The idea is that you pick up a wireless ring and take it with you to enhance your surround sound experience wherever you are in the room.

Brionvega Radiofonografio

(image via: The Cool Hunter)

When the original Radiofonografio was invented in 1965 by the Castiglioni brothers, it was a marvel of modern music. A radio, record player and amplifier all in one sleek, attractive package revolutionized the way the world thinks about audio. Now, Brionvega has reinvented the landmark piece by updating its appearance somewhat and adding a CD/DVD player. Luckily, they kept the “friendly robot” look.

Altec Lansing OMNI

(image via: Yanko Design)

Although these gorgeous speakers are just a concept, we can easily picture them in an ultra-modern home design. They look like tall decorative vases, but the tops of the objects actually have cone-shaped speakers in them, allowing them to distribute sound in all directions.

Neil Poulton’s USB-Powered Speakers

(image via: A + R Store)

Well-designed and affordable computer speakers are very hard to come by, but this set manages to do both pretty nicely. The design is simple and streamlined (they look like steam vents!), with no overly ornate bits to get in the way of killer sound. And at just $66, you won’t be afraid to actually use them.

Davone Rithm

(image via: Gear Crave)

The graceful curves of the Davone Rithm speakers bring to mind fine instruments, and indeed they were crafted with the same painstaking care of a top-shelf violin. The many layers of pressed wood are carefully molded into the fluid shape of the cabinet which acts as an effective sound damper. Inside the cabinet, the tweeter is actually inside the woofer, giving a clean, uniform sound for both high and low frequencies.

JBL Control Now

(images via: Amazon)

Any audiophile knows that flexibility is a huge plus when you’re setting up your home sound system. Being able to move and combine components is the main idea behind the JBL Control Now line, which lets you mount speakers pretty much anywhere. The quarter-circle speakers work well alone, but you can also use them in custom arrays of up to four.

Sound Seed

(image via: DesignBoom)

Sound Seed, designed by Richard Hunt, takes everyone’s biggest speaker complaint and turns it into an asset. The design uses the power cord, usually an unsightly tail that combines with others to take up half of a room, to suspend the speakers gracefully. They float in mid-air and can be positioned at ear level to get just the right sound without taking up any precious floor space.

The Wailers

(image via: John Caswell Design)

If you tend to listen to woeful emo or screaming metal, why not have the speakers to match? These adorable ceramic speakers, designed by John Caswell, look like they’re singing (or wailing) your music to you.

Panasonic SC-ZT1

(image via: CNet)

Panasonic’s new wireless speaker design (unveiled at CES 2009) has interior decorating enthusiasts sitting on the edge of their seats. The surround-sound system features four elegant towers instead of the usual boxy speakers to deliver 4.0 surround sound in a much less cluttered fashion. Because of the system’s lack of a separate subwoofer and the limitations of only four speakers, this can’t be called a true audiophile’s surround sound system. But for all of those households that have been holding out on surround sound because of the ugly wires and speakers involved, it may be just the thing to catapult them into a higher plane of listening pleasure.

Jabra Wireless Bluetooth Headset/Speaker

(image via: Engadget)

Ok, so maybe including this design in a list of home speakers is cheating just a little. After all, these are mostly for personal use. But this amazing contraption goes from personal headphones to desk speakers to bluetooth headset, making it a completely versatile gadget to have around. We can’t imagine the sound quality in speaker mode would be the best you’ve ever heard, but the convenience factor makes them attractive nonetheless.

Proclaim Audio DMT-100

(images via: Proclaim Audioworks)

These bizarre-looking sound pods are actually carefully engineered to bring you the best sound experience. The spherical shape is intended to control the acoustics of the sound more than the room in which they sit, and their special stand lets you position the upper speakers in the best place for your particular needs. And you can always pretend they’re alien eyes watching you go about your business.

Cabasse La Sphere

(image via: Stereophile)

For the best and creepiest alien eye speaker experience, though, you’d be better off with the Cabasse La Sphere. The giant ball looks like a terrifying watchful eye that’s just waiting for you to do something laser-worthy. It reportedly sounds pretty good, but for the whole system you’ll end up dropping $165,000, which is just a touch more than most people care to spend just to be scared in their own home.

Symbio Designs Alpha Speaker

(image via: Symbio Designs)

The original design of the Symbio Alpha heavily favored form over function, but after a positive reception by everyone who saw these strange objects, the team decided to go back to the drawing board for the speaker components. They came up with a technical profile that matches the beauty of the speakers’ physical form, making the Alpha a truly desirable object for both music lovers and art lovers.

Xount

(image via: Engadget)

Put this speaker into a room and ask your friends if they can tell where your music is coming from. Chances are they’ll never suspect the stylish lamp sitting over in the corner (unless they actually listen for the source, of course). The Xount uses flat speaker technology to deliver smooth, even sound throughout the room. If you aren’t satisfied with sophisticated white, there are also several covers available to let you change the appearance of your lamp/speaker.

Nendo Music Cage

(image via: Dvice)

Insert appropriate “tweeter”, “for the birds,” or “caged bird singing” joke here. This bird cage is actually a speaker which can be set on a tabletop or hung from the ceiling. Either way, it’s a lovely, retro way to disguise your speaker while keeping it right out in the open.

X-Mini iHome Capsule Speaker

(image via: ThinkGeek)

If you like to take your music with you around the house or to the office, a good portable speaker is essential but hard to find. The X-Mini is surprisingly robust for such a tiny speaker, and when you expand the body it gives a respectable amount of bass. It’s rechargeable via USB and will go almost 8 hours on a single charge, meaning you can annoy everyone at work with obnoxious Christmas songs all day long.

Artcoustic Canvas Speakers

(image via: Artcoustic)

For the ultimate hidden speaker, you can’t do better than these art-covered speakers from Artcoustic. The company offers high quality speakers disguised as artwork, so you can hang your speakers on the wall right next to your TV and not have to cringe every time you see them.

Ferguson Hill FH001

(images via: Ferguson Hill)

On the completely opposite end of the spectrum are some of the most conspicuous home speakers ever. These giant acrylic horns will likely take up most of your living space, but they will sound terrific while doing it. Their $16,000 price tag makes them even more conspicuous, though Ferguson Hill does have a slightly smaller set for a more reasonable $600 or so.

Woofer Speakers

(images via: Generate)

If you like everything about dogs except for the part of them that makes noise, or if you want to send a rather horrific message to the dog lover in your life, you might enjoy the Woofer speaker system designed by Sander Mulder. The rest of us are a little creeped out by them. A set of two headless dogs will run you a little over $1400, so we hope you’re really committed to whatever statement you’re trying to make.

Sound Bulb

(image via: Yanko Design)

Whether or not the technology exists to actually make this design possible is beside the point. It’s an awesome idea for combining two common household items: the light bulb and the speaker. We can see this being a great design for a dorm room or other ultra-crowded space, or for torture rooms where the goal is to drive your captive mad with Spongebob music (we saw that on an episode of Law and Order).

Freewheeler Rolling Outdoor Speaker

(image via: Technabob)

Technabob says of this hefty speaker that it “looks like a tire [and is] priced like a car.” We couldn’t have said it better. The Freewheeler was designed by Rod Arad and Frances Pellisari to be a durable, rolling speaker that you can take outdoors with you, presumably so you don’t miss a beat of Jimmy Buffett while roving between kitchen and patio, refilling your margarita glass. For $21,000, though, we’d rather just buy a whole lot more margarita mix. Or a new patio.

360 Degree Speaker

(image via: Pieter Maes)

There isn’t a lot of information available about this speaker concept, designed by Pieter Maes, but its simple, intuitive design is irresistible. The designer says that the speaker cones are attached to a spider-like structure which is invisible from the outside. We can picture several of these hanging from the ceiling, providing a whimsical kind of decoration while filling your house with sound.

Dragon Speakers

(image via: Axelsson)

These Dragon Speakers from Axelsson Design don’t hide the nature of the speakers, but they also don’t skimp on style. We love the fabulous colorful resin shaped like a fierce dragon. The kitschy design is small enough to fit on a bookshelf, so you don’t have to worry about it taking up too much space.

Aura by Paul Scarfe

(images via: Yanko Design)

This innovative speaker concept from designer Paul Scarfe takes the classic audio-enhancing cone and pairs it with the sound-magnifying ability of glass to create a unique new speaker. The treble output is through the top, and the bass erupts from the bottom. As lovely as this ornamental speaker is, if you owned it you would probably hear visitors constantly wondering aloud why your blender is in your living room.

Ice Cream Sundaes

(image via: SG Custom Sound)

These are truly the most bizarre speakers we’ve ever seen. Designed to look like giant ice cream sundaes, these speakers from SG Custom Sound will set you back a cool $1250 per pair. We can actually see these looking pretty sweet on the counter of a diner.

Pea Speaker System

(image via: Yanko Design)

For people who like to share their music, the Pea Speaker System concept is a creative way to give several friends a song. Each of the little “peas” is a separate Bluetooth speaker. They all have to stay within range of the home unit, of course, and they won’t work as surround sound, but this concept looks like a fun way to fill a room with music without all of those nasty speaker cords.

Sound e-Motion

(image via: Sound e-Motion)

We’re suckers for beautiful rich-sounding wooden speakers, and that’s exactly what Sound e-Motion delivers. The gorgeous wooden cabinets give a deep concert hall sound that can’t be matched by resin cabinets. The spherical shape is said to give better acoustics than any other speaker shape. We just think it makes them look nifty.

15 piece of Most Amazing Houses in the World

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:11:00 +0000

15 piece of Most Amazing Houses in the World

Little boxes on the hillside aren’t for everyone. While some people might be content with a cookie-cutter home in a bland suburban neighborhood, others create truly one-of-a-kind homes with incredibly imaginative shapes and materials.

Bart Prince House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

(images via: BartPrince.com)

Architect Bart Prince is renowned for his incredibly creative approach to designing structures. The homes he has created look nothing like the boxy houses you and I live in; they’re quirky, they’re organic, and they’re most definitely one-of-a-kind. Prince says his designs start from the inside out, and that every home he builds has an idea behind it. Pictured are Prince’s own home in Albuquerque (top) and the Seymour residence in Los Altos, California.

Dar al Hajar – Yemen

(images via: Travel Adventures)

This striking rock palace is not a hotel or a museum. It’s not even a primary residence. Dar al Hajar was built as a ‘summer home’ by Imam Yahya in the 1930s, and it’s a stunning example of rock-cut architecture. Standing at the base of this imposing structure, you have to crane your neck to see the top. The palace has since been restored so that visitors can buy a ticket and get a breathtaking 360-degree view of the surrounding landscape.

Bubble House – Tourettes-sur-Loup, France

(image via: Wikimedia Commons + Freaky Martin)

The ‘bubble house’ of Tourrettes-sur-Loup, France, is only 35 years old and has yet to be finished, but that hasn’t stopped the French ministry of culture from listing it as a historic monument. Designed in the 70s by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag for fashion designer Pierre Cardin, the bubble house is futuristic yet organic, with lots of built-in furniture and oval, convex windows. The design is meant to take optimal advantage of the volcanic Côte d’Azur landscape, and its windows certainly provide a beautiful view of the Mediterranean.

Wooden Skyscraper – Arkhangelsk, Russia

(images via: The Telegraph + English Russia)

Nikolai Sutyagin, a former gangster, began building this ‘wooden skyscraper’ in Arkhangelsk, Russia with the intention of it being only a two-story building. But, a trip to see wooden houses in Japan and Norway convinced him that he hadn’t used roof space efficiently enough, so he kept building. “First I added three floors but then the house looked ungainly, like a mushroom,” he said. “So I added another and it still didn’t look right so I kept going. What you see today is a happy accident.” The multimillionaire became a pauper after his possessions were destroyed during a stint in prison, and the house is now decaying around him, but he still lives in the bottom floor with his wife.

The Upside-Down House – Szymbark, Poland

(images via: Fresh Home)

Polish businessman and philanthropist Daniel Czapiewski built The Upside Down House as a statement about the Communist era and the end of the world. It took 114 days to build because the workers were so disoriented by the angles of the walls. It certainly attracts its fair share of tourists to the tiny village of Szymbark, who often become dizzy and ‘seasick’ after just a few moments inside.

Hang Nga Villa – Dalat, Vietnam

(image via: Travel Blog)

Looking like something out of a child’s fairytale gone wrong, the bizarre-looking structure in Dalat, Vietnam was built by the daughter of Ho Chi Minh’s right-hand man. Madame Hang Nga created the Hang Nga Villa – now known simply as ‘Crazy House’ – to reflect her interest in art and architecture. Made of concrete, the house now serves as a restaurant and reception area for an adjacent French colonial-style hotel in a jolting contrast in architectural styles. The inside is said to be even stranger, with all the kitschy decor you can handle, including a giant eagle with red Christmas light eyes, “for the Americans”.

Toilet-Shaped House – Suweon, South Korea

(images via: Reuters)

The world’s one and only toilet-shaped house was built to mark the launch of the World Toilet Association, a campaign for more sanitary restrooms worldwide. Sim Jae-Duck, nicknamed “Mayor Toilet”, had the 4,508-square-foot concrete and glass structure built in his native city of Suweon, South Korea. At the center of the home is a glass-walled “showcase loo” that produces mist to make users feel more secure. Sim, who was born into a toilet and has made clean restrooms his life’s work, now lives in the home.

Eliphante & Hippodome – Cornville, Arizona

(images via: Apartment Therapy)

Called the ‘Eliphante house’ for the look of its entrance, this sculptural home was created by artist Michael Kahn and his wife Leda Livant with found materials over a period of 28 years. Eliphante and several outbuildings occupy 3 acres of land and incorporate rocks and scraps from construction sites. There was never any kind of floor plan for Eliphante – it just sort of evolved. Ms. Livant’s residence on the property is the ‘Hippodome’, a mosaic-covered creation that looks like a hippo emerging from a lake.

Inversion House – Houston, Texas

(images via: Flickr user Kevin O’Mara)

When two old studio buildings owned by The Art League in Houston were set to be demolished, they decided to take the opportunity to turn them into a temporary art installation. Artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck sculpturally altered the two buildings, peeling off the exterior siding of the front building to simulate the appearance of a funnel-like vortex. The opening was actually a tiny hallway (only kids could fit through it) that passed through the two structures and emptied out into an adjacent courtyard.

Shoe House - South Africa

(images via: LukeCole.com)

The ‘shoe house’ of South Africa is the work of artist and hotelier Ron Van Zyl, who built it for his wife Yvonne in 1990. The shoe houses a little museum of sorts, showcasing Van Zyl’s wood carvings. The shoe is part of a complex that includes an eight-chalet guest house, camp site, restaurant, pool and bar.

Mushroom House – Cincinnati, Ohio

(images via: Agility Nut)

Architect Terry Brown created this much-maligned ‘mushroom house’, an unusual piece of architecture situated in a rather upscale area of Cincinnati. Brown’s architectural style developed when he began experimenting with materials like wood, colored glass, shell, ceramics and various metals to create irregular shapes that mimic those found in nature. A professor of architecture and interior design at the University of Cincinnati, Brown frequently had to defend the unique design of the house against complaints by neighbors before passing away in 2008.

Floating House – Ukraine

(images via: Aphasia Design)

An optical illusion? Trick of Photoshop? Nobody really seems to know much about this supposed ‘floating barn’ which was reportedly located in Ukraine and may or may not still be standing. Cantilevered barns do exist – mostly in the Appalachian region of the United States – but usually aren’t quite this dramatic looking. Real or fake, it’s certainly pretty striking.

Space House – Signal Mountain, Tennessee

(image via: Coast to Coast AM)

The ‘Space House’ in Signal Mountain, Tennessee was built by Curtis King and his sons in the 1970s and is quite a draw for curiosity seekers in the area, who have been filing by and taking photos for decades. Six concrete support pillars look like landing gear beneath the main part of the building. The Space House sold on the auction block in March 2008 but the buyer defaulted, so it’s being offered for “whatever the public is willing to pay” on December 14th.

Crooked House – Sopot, Poland

(image via: The World According to Google)

From Poland comes another interesting building, the ‘Crooked House’. The design was inspired by the drawings of Polish artists Jan Marcin Szancer and Per Dahlberg, which have a whimsical and Dali-esque feel. It’s not actually a house – it’s part of a shopping complex. But, it’s very cool all the same, with its surreal angles and blue-green glass.

Hundertwasser Haus – Vienna, Austria

(images via: Wikipedia)

Austrian artist Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser may not be well known across most of the world, but anyone who has visited Vienna knows of his iconic creation, the Hundertwasser Haus. It’s an apartment complex characterized by patchwork paint, undulating floors, the incorporation of vegetation and a façade with seemingly no rhyme or reason to its structure. Hundertwasser reportedly took no payment for designing it, considering it a public service to prevent something ugly going up in its place.

Fabulous Designed Fireplace ... Beautiful!!!

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:43:00 +0000

Fabulous Designed Fireplace ... Beautiful!

A fireplace … that is a box against the wall, connected to a chimney, which gives off smoke and can burn your house down, right? These examples defy that conventional understanding in all kinds of ways – some burn alternative fuels (including water!) while others hang from the ceiling, fit in a car or can be taken with you for fires-on-the-go.

From Sikken, this fireplace is like a high-grade modular Ikea wonder – the metal fireplace-and-firewood two-in-one (with a convent drawer drawer for fireplace accessories in between) can be added to in all kinds of creative ways with additional shelves, drawers and surface spaces to store all kinds of peripherals and fill up the wall you have reserved for a fireplace.

Anne Colombo has taken fireplace styling to new heights, toying with modern materials and postmodern shapes to capture, diffuse, reflect and transform firelight from burning fires in all kinds of creative and novel ways. This is just a sampling of her creative fireplace design work.

Perfect for showing off in the middle of winter, this built-in Hummer fireplace is the ultimate in unnecessary American luxury. The snow-sports-and-Santa-themed Hummer also comes complete with a color-matched snowmobile, storage for your winter ski-and-snowboard gear, but alas not the lovely lady shown in the images above.

It has been said that in contemporary culture the role of the fireplace – as being the central focus in family gatherings – has been slowly replaced by the television. Well, these fireplaces are fighting fire with fire so to speak, competing aesthetically with the modern iconic television-style box.

Not everyone has an interior design configured to accommodate the introduction of a wall hanging, mounted or even wall-adjacent fireplace. Others might simply enjoy the style of a space-ship-like fireplace platform or luminous orb dangling gracefully from their ceiling above.

Something old, something new, something burning and metal too. Taking the iconic form of the primitive fire – two sticks crossed and burning – this reinvented classic fireplace configuration is nonetheless completely cutting edge in the execution of its form and style.

With all of our modern technology, is it any wonder that someone has figured out a way to make fire from water? Yes, you read that right, the Aqueon fireplace by Heat & Glo actually transforms ordinary tap water into burning fire right before your eyes. The system separates hydrogen from oxygen and burns them both – the former for fuel and the latter for color and brightness. Of course, using water to make fire has the fringe benefit of reducing harmful emissions and negating the need for any kind of flue, hood or other fire venting system.

Fireplaces do not have to be the static, central and fixed furnishing they once were. In fact, some fireplaces can hide in plain sight as low-lying dressers/tables or can even be moved around like an old LP player for use indoors and out – such as the ones by Schulte shown here.

For people who prefer to still keep their fireplace as a middle-of-the-house meeting place, these lovely metal fireplace designs make a subtle but remarkable statement against many backdrops – but may also take over the aesthetic of a room. Though this one is their headline-making fireplace design, there are other creative-but-elegant ones from Arkiane as well.

One of many wall-mounted fireplace designs from Saffreti, this particular creation elegantly slots into any space made available on one’s wall. Because it burns clean fuel directly poured into its housing, it does not require any special hookups, venting or other treatments.

For fans of hi-tech gadgets there are also a number of creative fireplace designs to choose from – though some enjoy only limited production runs as they simply cost too much or target too small of a market. Above are just a few examples of fireplaces integrated with everything from televisions with full music systems to outdoor-enabled fireplace designs with iPod ports.

A fireplace is the historical absolute center of any home – the place the supplies light, heat and a focus for family or community even in the darkest and coldest of winter days. From portable suitcase fireplaces and rotating remote-control ones to coffee table, bookcase and other multifunctional designs, here are thirty incredible fireplaces fit for the heart of any modern home.

Need fire on the go? The Travelmate Fireplace Suitcase slices, it dices … OK, it does neither of those but it does provide the potential for romance on-the-go, weighing just 55 pounds and powered by eco-friendly bio-ethanol. The flame will last up to 3 hours and the slick black case is weather-resistant, working just as well outdoors as indoors.

Can’t take it with you? Th rotating Diva fireplace spins on an axis at your command – and even comes with an (optional) remote control so you can twirl it from afar. Leave it to German engineers to make a sleek, directional modern fireplace design that you can smoothly adjust to face you for extra light and warmth.

And if you really like getting up close and personal with your family room fireplace you may be interested in a Planika design – many of which are integrated with everything from glass side tables to granite, wood or steel coffee tables. While these may seem dubious in terms of their safety they are also compellingly central.

Greed for Quiet is a brilliantly simple concept with a remarkably elegant execution – connect people directly to the hearth of a home by connecting their chairs to the fireplace. The seats rotate around the central fire, allowing for various conversational configurations, while simultaneously all pointing toward the center.

EcoSmartFire has an extensive line of clean-burning fireplaces that require no fuel hookup and burn cleanly without a flue. They are open, stylish and versatile in a way few fireplaces have ever been before.

Why support a vase on a wall table or cover your coffee table with books or a fish tank when you can have your own ever-changing open flame to gaze at (the books can always go below)? These designs play with reflectivity, simplicity of materials and are easy to locate and relocate as needed as a small part of the larger collection of designs by Radius.

Not every brilliant fireplace design has to be highly central in your home. These elegant metal-and-glass various by Vauni are portable, beautiful and as adjustable as they need to be to serve their purpose. They can be put on the floor or elevated and are suited to most residential or even office spaces.

Elegant and cutting-edge also do not have to mean modern when it comes to fireplace designs. While fueled behind-the-scenes with modern and sustainable sources and fed through angular metal, the facades of these wonderful wall-mounted fireplaces are aesthetically anything but contemporary

It isn’t just a fireplace design that makes for a wonderful fire – the fire itself can be designed to twist and burn in different ways like the cyclonic fires shown above that spin and rise with internal air differentials. At thousands of dollars a pop these might be more fad than function, however.

Need to justify the expense of a fancy fireplace with additional functionality? These clever bookcase fireplaces double as handy storage while also providing a spacial center to and divider within a living room. They also come in a variety of finishes, from wood laminate to shiny metallic ones. For more multifunctional book strorage check out this creative modern and transforming bookcases and bookshelves.

INSPIRATION of TOILET??!! & it's Really EXPENSIVE!!!

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:55:00 +0000

INSPIRATION of TOILET??!! & it's Really EXPENSIVE!!!

(Images via: MSN and Tension Not).

First up, some public toilet designs that you might see moving indoors sometime soon. This design by Monica Bonvicini uses one-way glass to create the unsettling illusion that you’re performing your ablutions in full view of the whole world. If you can fight down the feeling that surely somebody can see you with your pants round your ankles, it’s a fascinating (and deeply weird) way to watch the world go by.

(Images via: Spluch and John Chow).

But if a public convenience in full view is seen as a very public inconvenience, why not hide it away? These two toilets take up the challenge by using the y-axis to hide all sins. The toilet at top is normally stored underground, so all you can see is the scenic sculpture on its roof – but pop a coin (1 yuan, in this case) into the slot and hey presto, one toilet. (We’re presuming that it won’t sink down again while it’s still occupied). The Urilift is designed to meet the needs of boozy gentlemen weaving their way back home after an evening in their cups – during the day it looks like a manhole cover, but at night it twirls into view to present urinals in all directions.

(Image via: Whole Wheat Toast).

And for making sure that nobody takes your public toilet for granted? Okay, so this design is a spoof (at the Hunter’s Point Shipyard Studios, SF). But this is guaranteed to make any guy think twice about doing what comes naturally to him. A design that heightens awareness, shall we say.

(Image via: luxurygaze).

And if you want to want your toilet out of sight in your own home, here’s a classy-looking option. This Bench Toilet doubles as an elegant table, thanks to a sliding wood panel. (But there is a catch: it costs over $11,000 – so this is one for when you are really…er, flush).

(Images via: Yanko Design).

For a commode that you’d be proud to display in full view, have a look at Sung Hoon Mun’s Cell toilet. Its polished surface and fashionably curving lines make it look like it was designed within the supercar industry…and under the hood – I mean lid – you would be surprised to find that it doesn’t require a tank, hence the unusually ground-hugging egg shape.

(Images via: Pinny Cohen and Diamond Vues).

So now for toilets that take things a little too far. On the left, the winningly-named Pimped Out John, sporting a frankly ludicrous array of modifications including a laptop, a gaming console, TiVo, a fully-stocked refrigerator and even some exercise pedals to help you lose weight while you…lose weight. This is a one-off item and not available in the stores, and frankly we are glad of it (imagine the effect it would have on kids that already hog the bathroom in the morning). Another distinctly noncommercial example is the Isis toilet, which shimmers because it is studded with $75,000 of crystals. On a practical note, I bet it gets cold in the winter.

(Images via: Propelair and Cooler Solutions Inc.).

The house of tomorrow will hoard its precious water. There are already methods in development to use kitchen sink grey water to flush toilets, but until they’re part of a designer’s standard toolkit, it would be sensible to cap the amount of water available without detracting from the unit’s function. This is what Propelair aims to do – by sealing the bowl and pushing air through it, it uses just 1.5 litres for a full flush (around 80% less than the standard). The Dignity toilet provides a sanitary alternative to a regular water supply in drought conditions – it holds its contents hygienically for a week, and then the top is undocked, augered into the ground in a safe spot, and opened.

(Image via: Collections Etc.).

BAD boy.You know how pets do that really disgusting thing with the drinking of the water in the toilet? This toilet-themes dog water bowl has us in two minds: obviously dogs will love it, and the design makes good sense (automatically refilling as it empties). But isn’t it teaching your dog to drink out the toilet? If you have given up trying to dissuade Fido from his disturbing habits, this is a practical way to concede defeat.

(Image via: Yanko Design).

And while we’re talking about items that give the wrong message – how about a toilet seat that tells you exactly how much weight you’re losing? That is precisely what the Toilet Seat Scale does (precisely). People with a weight micro-management problem form an unhealthy queue here, please.

(Images via: Spluch and Freshome).

So we are agreed – toilets can look great. But would you want to live in one? For South Korean Sim Jae-Duck, chairman of the World Toilet Association, the answer is a firm “Yes” – or at least, a house that looks like one until you go inside and see the luxury on offer. This stunning example of ultra-modern designwork (with a touch of eccentricity) is advertised as “a place of sanctuary” – just like its humbler counterpart.

(Image via: The Register).

But if you think a house-sized toilet is faintly ludicrous – what about this building? Could this be the world’s most monstrous porcelain throne – and why?

World’s Most Expensive Toilets and Washrooms

NASA – $19,000,000

NASA announced on July 3, 2007 it they would be investing $19 million on a Russian-design toilet system to be installed on the American side of the International Space Station. Previously, Americans had been using the same toilet system on the Russian side of the space station. What makes this toilet special? All things considered, perhaps the price tag is justified. The toilet comes with leg braces that help position astronauts while they do their business, while the system uses fans to suck everything into a septic tank where it uses a three-step filtration process to make all waste water into extremely pure drinking water. Considering that sending water into space with the astronauts is a very expensive proposition, and that designing a system like this from scratch would’ve cost more, NASA seems to have taken the economical route.

3D Gold Washroom and Toilet – $5,800,000

Built by Hong Kong’s Hang Fung Gold Technology Group in 2001 and located in their “Hall of Gold”, this toilet, called “The World’s Most Expensive Gold and Jewelry Sparkling Environmental Friendly Washroom” is not for public use. Instead it is meant to be a tourist attraction, used to showcase the ‘technological brilliance’ of the company. Among the treasures in the washroom is a solid gold telephone, sink, 24-carat solid gold toilet, and much more. Unfortunately visitors cannot see the washroom anymore after the owner died suddenly earlier this year and the company and his family were embroiled in a huge scandal (watch the video above while you can).

Shanghai’s Moon River Art Park Toilet – $602,000

(source: monkey_king)

Though the park has other nearby toilets, visitors have in some cases waited hours to visit this one. And even though the park authorities spent 5 million yuan on its construction, the toilet itself is obscured in a man-made cave surrounded by trees and flowers. Having become somewhat of a legend in the community, visitors come not with expectations of grandeur, but curiosity about what the all the money was spent on. According to the park’s marketing manager, the toilet, housed inside the man-made cave, is decorated like a grotto with stalactite-like water faucets. Certainly not the most luxurious toilet in the city, agrees the founder of the park, but perhaps one of the more artistic ones.

“Dagobert” Wooden Toilet Throne – $14,123

Built completely from ash wood and decorated with hand painted designs inspired by Dagobert, the last ruler of the 8th-century Merovingian dynasty, this wooden throne toilet literally goes ‘medieval on your ass’. As you raise the lid of your throne, the music to ‘Le Bon Roi Dagobert’ plays, helping you ease into position, and in true medieval fashion the flush is activated by the pull of a chain.

Toto Neorest 600 – $5,800

While still not affordable by most of us average people, the Toto Neorest 600 is possible the most ‘value for money’ on this list. At $5,800 for the toilet, it comes with some truly amazing and innovative features including: automatic hands-free lid opening and closing, heated seat, automatic and remote hands-free flush, automatic and self-cleansing system, water conserving dual-flush mode, warm air drier, and air purifier. With all those features and more, not only does the toilet start to sound like a great investment, but the company’s tagline, “calling it a ‘toilet’ is too limiting” also starts to ring true.

Illusions!!! Oh no its Architectural Designs!!!

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:11:00 +0000

Illusions!!! Oh no its Architectural Designs!!!

As architects struggle to balance aesthetic appeal with practical considerations, many are finding the best way to create bold, interesting, even mind-bending features is through the use of optical illusions. In effect, our own eyes are being used against us - and nobody’s complaining about the results!

(image via: Sacred Sites)

The use of optical illusions in architecture isn’t new; in fact one of the most outstanding examples is the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, constructed over 25 centuries ago. Curiously, the many subtle techniques (called entasis) used by the Parthenon’s architects don’t make the structure look like something it isn’t - instead, they correct the viewer’s perceptions so that the temple looks as it should. Slightly wider corner columns, pillars that curve inwards and a floor that is 6 cm (2.4 inches) higher at its center all conspire to give the Parthenon an enduring beauty that is evident even in its current state.

(image via: Allposters)

Architects of the Classic Era worked mainly in stone, and the ancient Romans applied newly discovered knowledge of optics and perspective to create the amazing optical illusion mosaic floors shown above.

(image via: Travelblog and ASL)

The Middle Ages and the Renaissance saw a rebirth of science, art and design as epitomized in the magnificent paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo. Their influence was (and is) felt around the globe, as seen in the floor of Saltas cathedral in Argentina (above left) and the painted floor of Tokyo’s Sunshine City shopping center (above right).

(image via: Patricia’s Palette)

Modern architects often use traditional forms and styles as a starting point, then warp them to create something new that - either amusingly or disturbingly - puts a new twist on what we expect to see. The so-called Melting Building, created by artist Peter Delavie for France’s Athem Co., is actually made from tarpaulins draped over the sides of a Paris building under construction.

(image via: Athem)

Here is another of Athem’s buildings, this one after completion. A clever mix of inorganic stone and organic greenery softens the sever outlines of the structure while adding a note of whimsy.

(image via: Martin Winer and SquidVids)

The late M.C. Escher was widely known for his curious paintings and drawings that played with perspective in unusual ways, yet still conformed to mathematical theories. Many of these depicted “impossible” buildings and architecture, with some better known examples shown above.

(image via: New Optical Illusions)

Even The Simpsons have gotten in on M.C. Escher’s act!

(image via: Bergoiata)

Andrew Lipson is an obvious admirer of M.C. Escher and he shows it in his accurate as possible renderings, in Lego bricks, of many of Escher’s impossible structures such as Belvedere above.

(image via: Uwe Hermann, Enigmatico and New Media Designer)

Some architects have taken M.C. Escher’s unspoken challenge and have tried to create actual structures which reflect the late artist’s virtual reality. Examples of these include, clockwise from above: Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, a pavilion by Aldo Benedetti and this ethereal Stairway to Nowhere - no connection to Sarah Palin.

(image via: Hot Homes of Utah, Point Click Home and Floridahome-rental)

Architects who seek less mind-bending architectural optical illusions simply turn the concept upside down… by turning the building upside down. Above are three examples, one from Japan (left) another from Poland which mocks the Communist era (right) and Orlando’s famous Wonderworks House (lower).

(image via: Prague Experience)

Eastern Europe boasts a surprising number of surprising buildings designed both before and after the fall of the Soviet Union and its associated regimes. One of the most famous is the Dancing House (Nationale-Nederlanden building) in Prague, Czech Republic. Built between 1992 and 1996 and designed by Vlado Milunc and Frank Gehry, the building houses one of Prague’s best restaurants on its top floor and gives visitors excellent riverside views of the city’s historic downtown.

(image via: Roy Lichtenstein Foundation)

When is a house not a house, even though it looks like a house? If you think you’re confused now, try visiting the Roy Lichtenstein House. There are actually two of these intriguing structures: a fiberglass structure from 1997 located at LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton New York, and a painted aluminum version from 1998 located at the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. Here’s a video illustrating what it would be like to walk around one of these odd houses:

The amazing Roy Lichtenstein House!

(image via: MTNWA)

Optical illusion architecture doesn’t have to take the form of a house, building or other such structure, as this intriguing walkway and associated installations in Athens, Greece so eloquently illustrate. Built for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games and designed by acclaimed artist/architect Santiago Calatrava, these structures interact with sunlight to create a complex panoply of light and shadow that fools the eye while soothing the mind.

(image via: Illusion King)

Our final and perhaps finest example of an optical illusion building is the Australian Customs Service building, located in Melbourne, AU, and completed in 2006. Each floor of the building is exactly the same height, yet the tessellation pattern of black & white rectangles separated by parallel orange lines gives quite a different impression. The building was designed to display the so-called Cafe Wall Illusion originally noted in 1979 following the completion of a café in Bristol, England. Hard to imagine enjoying a warm cuppa in the presence of that disturbing pattern!

When it comes down to it, optical illusion buildings allow developers to attract attention without the need for expensive construction techniques. Keeping the eye fooled can keep the bank account - and the buildings - filled.

Escher well know for his optical illusion works, mostly in paper, which is very much different from David Copperfield and David Blaine that perform optical illusion tricks. The image above is one of his masterpiece called waterfall.

Pictures of people supporting or leaning the Tower of Pisa is a everywhere. Its another type of optical illusion that captures our imagination

The person standing right in the room appears much bigger then the other standing left. Tricks like these are used in filming the movie Lord of the Rings. Go to frippy’s flickr ablum for examples of optical illusion in a room.

Illusion in architecture is nothing new, what do you see in this picture above? A wall made of stone columns, or do you see siluetes of few guys leaning one to another?

Optical illusions were first used by the Greeks. They built their temples so that the roof was slanted. This gave the illusion that the temple was actually standing straight. They also made the columns bulge so that from a distance they would look perfectly proportioned. In the course of history, people have encountered illusions in many ways. Many of these illusions appear in very common, everyday experiences.

Optical illusion can also be found in ancient floor texture, the image above is an example of pompeii’s pavement. A very good example of optical illusion would be the Library of Celsus was built on a narrow lot between existing buildings. Yet, the design of the library creates the effect of monumental size.

Designing a building requires the architect to play with the idea of optical illusion, creating spaces by fusing two or more spaces. The image above show the horizontal strip glazing between mirror panels turns the corner and becomes the reverse. A confusion of interior and exterior space. Good design tend to blend the interior with the exterior, fusing them together illusionally but not physically.

The so-called El Grifo Mágico, or Magic Tap, may be familiar though it’s more often seen in bars, as a seemingly endless flow from a beer can into a mug. This much larger version looks like something French surrealist Magritte might have painted, perhaps before taking a hot bath.

Artists like Felice Varini like to think big, and this installation is so vast it requires the aid of distance to complete the illusion. “Three Ellipses for Three Locks” in Cardiff, Wales, was completed in 2007 and proves that with a small amount of material - in this case, some yellow paint - something grand can emerge.

The piece is a classic “anamorphic illusion” in that to view Varini’s art as intended, one must be in a certain position where the sightlines can perfectly converge. Costing a mere $50,000, the work was one year in the planning stages yet took only two weeks to create.

Panya Clark Espinal is another artist who, like Varini, plays with perspective to distract and delight. Espinal’s work is showcased at the Bayview station of Toronto’s Sheppard subway line.

Here’s another shot of an Espinal piece in the Bayview station, this time with an obliging human on hand to put the piece into perspective, as it were.

1st DRINK than THINK!!!

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:52:00 +0000

1st DRINK than THINK!!!

Who said a mug should do nothing more than hold your morning beverage of choice? Part one of this collection introduced some unique yet practical mugs, and this installment continues that discussion with 11 more. These innovative coffee and tea mugs help add some perk to your morning routine, and can prove as expressive and unique as you!

Brass Knuckles Mug

(source: thabto)

A strong cup of coffee needs an assertive cup to hold it! What better way to communicate to your boss and co-workers that you are in no mood for cheap conversation? The name “Mug” was inspired the word’s literal translation in Cockney slang, meaning, “fool.” Hit yourself hard each morning with the “Mug”.

Coffee Bean Mug

(source: rctaylorphotography)

This intriguing coffee mug makes a great project for any coffee enthusiast! Constructed by hand, a standard mug was carefully covered in coffee beans and glazed for appearance. This project can be recreated by anyone with some time and care. Simply choose a mug for a skeleton, a shade of coffee beans and begin carefully adhering them to the mug, attempting to remain true to the mug’s original shape. Before long, you’ll have a coffee mug that is sure to incite conversation wherever coffee is poured.

SmartMug Electronic Travel Mug

(soruce: amazon.com)

If you are tired of having to dump out half of your coffee because you simply can’t drink it all before it cools down, this mug could be the answer to your prayers. The SmartMug is an electronic travel mug that plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter and keeps your coffee hot at your specified temperature! Perfect for that long morning commute where traffic frequently causes your coffee (and you) to loose steam before you even get halfway to work. A digital screen displays the temperature and various other information. Lights on the mug alert you that your coffee is either heating or at the desired temperature. Its like taking your coffee maker’s hot plate on the go! Stay warmer, longer with the SmartMug.

Pantone Mugs

(Source: curlby)

Now here’s a collection of mugs to brighten up any morning! Those who work in the interior design field can now express their love for pantone colors with this collection of coffee mugs. Each mug is colored and coded with its corresponding pantone color specification. Use them as they relate to your current job or project. Bring the entire collection to your next job for inspiration and laughs.

Camera Lens Mug

(source: dvice)

Any fan of photography would be proud to pour themselves a tall cup of coffee into this amazing mug. Constructed from a real zoom lens, this mug is both intriguing and charming. At the moment, this mug is concept with few in actual existence, however we may soon see them on shelves, ready to be snatched up by photographers everywhere! What better way to assert one’s love for your hobby than to drink out of a mug made from the tools the trade?

A Mug With Security

(source: core77)

Had enough of your friends or co-workers using your coffee mug when you aren’t around? Worried about the health risks of sharing cups? Finally, a coffee mug with security! A hole at the bottom of the mug that can only be plugged by the mug’s key-holder serves to prevent anyone but it’s owner from using it. Try pouring coffee into it without the key to plug the hole and you’ll have quite a mess to clean up!

Gun Mug

(source: shopmodi)

Kill time with this innovative coffee mug! Sporting a trigger and lever that feels like that of a large revolver, it has never been easier to shoot the breeze at the breakfast table! You’ll have endless fun asking a coworker or friend if they “feel lucky, punk?” as you maintain a tight grip on the mugs firm and comfortable handle. This unique mug is sure to please any gun enthusiast or just help you feel a bit more like John Wayne in the morning! Sniper scopes sold separately!

Mustache Mug

(source: shanware)

As any man with a bushy mustache knows, the morning brew is often no cup of tea! Many have struggled to find a way to drink their coffee or tea without also wearing it. This question need no longer be asked, for the Mustache Mug takes saves your facial hair from contact with scorching hot beverage. Featuring a mustache shield at the drinking end of the mug, beverages can be easily consumed without the constant wiping that comes with standard mugs. Perfect for consuming coffee during a meeting or on the go where dabbing your upper lip with a napkin after every sip is simply impractical!

Undress Me Mugs

(source: cgets)

Some people need a little extra push to wake up in the morning. Available in both “His” and “Hers” versions, the more you drink the more of the naked woman/man you see! What more motivation to drink your coffee fast could you need? After drinking your coffee faster than ever, you’ll find yourself awake and ready to conquer whatever the day brings! “Undress Me” mugs are a great pick me up for those sluggish mid-week mornings and the ultimate cure for the slow-starter!

Mug With a Pocket

(source: Vat19)

Have you ever dreaded that long walk to the trash to throw away your spent tea bag once all its contents have been strained into your tea? Tired of leaving tea-bag stains on the table or desk because you don’t want to put the paper down and leave your breakfast to dispose of said tea bags? This mug is perfect for avid tea drinkers, sporting a handy pouch on it’s side made for holding spent tea bags for as long as needed! No more messes to clean or tea bags to be thrown out of your speeding car. This handy mug makes the morning wake-up a little more comfortable.

Inbuilt Plunger Mug

(source:nathanaelb)

A perfect tool for those busy professionals who are always on the go, a mug that makes your coffee and holds it all in one! Simply raise the plunger, add the coffee and hot water stir and then plunge it down. Add milk and sugar to your preference and you’ve got a steaming cup of Joe in minutes. No more waiting for the percolator to brew up a pot while you wait! Add an extra 15 minutes to your morning sleep with a plunger mug.

HELP 1 - Tutorial

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:31:00 +0000

HELP 1 - Tutorial

Kelby Training Introducing Adobe Configurator for Photoshop CS4

Kelby.Training.Introducing.Adobe.Configurator.for.Photoshop.CS4-AG (106MB)

INFO

Kelby.Training.Introducing.Adobe.Configurator.for.Photoshop.CS4-AG (106MB)

Release Date.... 06-18-2009

Release Type.... Adobe Tutorial

Release Notes : http://www.kelbytraining.com/online/all-classes.html

DESCRIPTION :

Julieanne Kost, Digital Imaging Evangelist with Adobe, introduces Adobe
Configurator, the new beta program for creating custom panels inside of
Photoshop CS4

Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/246326532/agktiacfpcs4.rar

Download Links:

http://hotfile.com/dl/7226878/1362fb4/agktiacfpcs4.rar.html

Kelby Training Illustrator CS4 for Beginners

Kelby.Training.Illustrator.CS4.for.Beginners-AG (280MB)

INFO

Kelby.Training.Illustrator.CS4.for.Beginners-AG (280MB)

Release Date.... 06-18-2009

Release Type.... Tutorial

Release Notes : http://www.kelbytraining.com/online/all-classes.html

DESCRIPTION :

Dave Cross introduces the essential tools and techniques in Illustrator CS4. Rather than attempting to cover every single aspect of Illustrator, this course
focuses on the most important skills that a beginner needs to know.

Included Lesson Files

Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/246669980/agktics4fb.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/246669209/agktics4fb.part2.rar

Download Links:

http://hotfile.com/dl/7283128/2d55ff6/agktics4fb.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/7283133/2fadfa5/agktics4fb.part2.rar.html

HELP 2 - Tutorial

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:37:00 +0000

HELP 1 - Tutorial

Kelby Training Mastering Color in Photoshop CS4 Creative Color

Kelby.Training.Mastering.Color.in.Photoshop.CS4.Creative.Color-AG (400MB)

INFO

Kelby.Training.Mastering.Color.in.Photoshop.CS4.Creative.Color-AG (400MB)

Release Date.... 06-18-2009
Release Type.... Tutorial
Release Notes : http://www.kelbytraining.com/online/all-classes.html

DESCRIPTION :

This course will cover how to make color adjustments inside of Camera Raw and Photoshop.

Included Lesson Files

Download Links:
http://rapidshare.com/files/246669735/agktmcipcs4cc.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/246669590/agktmcipcs4cc.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/246668114/agktmcipcs4cc.part3.rar

Download Links:

http://hotfile.com/dl/7283140/60c5090/agktmcipcs4cc.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/7283149/6047908/agktmcipcs4cc.part2.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/7283164/0b3635a/agktmcipcs4cc.part3.rar.html

KELBY TRAINING COLOR TO BLACK AND WHITE ARTISTRY

KELBY.TRAINING.COLOR.TO.BLACK.AND.WHITE.ARTISTRY-AG (900MB)

INFO

KELBY.TRAINING.COLOR.TO.BLACK.AND.WHITE.ARTISTRY-AG (900MB)

Release Date.... 06-18-2009

Release Type.... Tutorial

Release Notes : http://www.kelbytraining.com/product/color-to-black-and-white-artistry.html

DESCRIPTION :

Join artist, author, and educator Katrin Eismann as she guides you through this step-by-step tutorial-based class that demonstrates
the many options for transforming your images from color to black and white.

You'll learn how to work with Adobe Camera Raw and adjustment layers to interpret and add subtle toning and tinting effects, along with many other spectacular techniques.

Katrin will also give you an overview of the Advanced Black and White print option for Epson inkjet printers to ensure your finished images are as beautiful in print as they appear
on your computer screen.

Included Lesson Files

Download Links:

http://rapidshare.com/files/246692156/agktctbawa.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/246691891/agktctbawa.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/246691926/agktctbawa.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/246691960/agktctbawa.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/246691956/agktctbawa.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/246691783/agktctbawa.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/246690172/agktctbawa.part7.rar

Download Links:

http://hotfile.com/dl/7285912/3fa1524/agktctbawa.part1.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/7285917/97a721c/agktctbawa.part2.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/7285926/55350dd/agktctbawa.part3.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/7285928/4ea9b65/agktctbawa.part4.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/7285931/fe9e901/agktctbawa.part5.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/7285935/db409ab/agktctbawa.part6.rar.html
http://hotfile.com/dl/7285941/86fad17/agktctbawa.part7.rar.html

WANT to Ride on These???!!!

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:56:00 +0000

WANT to Ride on These???!!!

Why would a portable toilet need a jet engine and wheels? Jet and rocket engines are appearing in the most unexpected of places for reasons most people simply can’t comprehend. As examine these ridiculous, bizarre and in some cases incredibly dangerous DIY creations, you’ll be tempted to question the purpose of these objects and shake your head at the waste of fossil fuels. Perhaps more important is the amazing fact that all of the people who have taken these jet-powered contraptions on test drives lived to tell the tale.

The World’s Fastest Leather Recliner-Rocker

(images via: GizmoWatch)

The next time you sink into that Lazy Boy chair during your favorite TV show and suddenly realize you’re out of beer, you could jet off to the store during a commercial and be back by the time the show’s back on – if only you had a rocket engine built into the back. There’s at least one guy in the world that thinks this sounds like a great idea: Bill Decambre built the ‘rocket recliner’ above and took it for a spin at the 2002 Reno Air Races. It looks comfortable, but you’d best come to terms with the idea of death before turning on the engine.

The Turbitrac Tractor Lawnmower

(images via: GP3)

Is there a practical purpose for a jet-powered tractor lawnmower? Probably not, but it’s unlikely that ‘Turbitrac’ creator Nick Haddock cared much when he put this thing together. Nick explains how it works and even generously provides instructions to others who’d like to take a deadly, ridiculously fast ride on their very own jet-powered lawnmower on his website.

Jet-Powered Porta-Potty

(images via: UberGizmo)

Why yes, that is a Port-a-John hurtling down the street with flames shooting out the back. It’s not because somebody thought lighting a match in a methane-filled box was a good idea, either – there’s a Boeing jet engine built into that thing. Mechanic Paul Sender spent £5,000 building the world’s fastest toilet that can go up to 70mp and sends a 30-foot fireball streaming out behind it.

Rocket-Powered Shopping Cart

(images via: JWZ)

Andy Tyler followed instructions he found on the internet to build the jet engine that he then attached to, of all things, a shopping cart. A heat shield at the rear of the cart protects him from the 600+ Celsius temperatures that the engine reaches when in use. Scrap wheels, brakes and a steering device finish it off. “It can’t go on roads, runs out of fuel after two minutes and at over 50mph becomes unstable. People think I’m off my trolley but it’s exhilarating.”

Toyota MR2 Powered by Twin GE t-58 turbines

(images via: Engadget)

Why a Toyota MR2 would need twin jet engines is anybody’s guess, but one thing was for certain when photos of this car first started making the rounds on the internet: you can officially buy anything and everything on eBay. It was up for auction in 2005 with a description that read “everybody needs one of these”. No word on how much it sold for.

Street-Legal Jet Powered Beetle

(images via: Ron Patrick Stuff)

Engineer Ron Patrick wanted “the wildest street-legal ride possible”, so he outfitted his VW Beetle with a dual engine that allows him to legally drive it on public roads for everyday transportation and take it for the occasional insanely fast spin on the track. Patrick says he doesn’t know how fast it’ll go and probably never will, since he’s not looking to kill himself.

Jet-Powered Wheelchairs

(image via: AllegroMedical + BBC News)

The Allegro Medical jet-powered concept wheelchair, pictured top, may not actually be a real functioning vehicle – but that doesn’t mean a jet-powered wheelchair has never really been made. Giuseppe Cannella of England surprised his Parkinson’s Disease-afflicted mother-in-law by bolting a jet engine to the back of her wheelchair and equipping it with a steering wheel. Cannella put on shows in the wheelchair to raise money for the Parkinson’s Disease Society.

Fire Truck Equipped with MiG Jet Engine

(images via: Life on Top)

This fire truck could certainly get to an emergency fast, but it wouldn’t be much help given that installing a 27-foot-long Russian MiG fighter jet engine in the back of it required the removal of its water tanks. Said to house the largest turbine motor in a land vehicle anywhere in the world, it’s hard to imagine this vehicle being able to stop itself once it gets going given the weight of that massive engine.

The World’s Fastest Ambulance

(images via: AutoMotto)

Continuing the trend of making emergency vehicles useless by outfitting them with jet engines, this ambulance could theoretically go up to 205mph but can’t carry any patients due to the engine taking up all of the space in the back. It’s powered by a GE J-79 jet engine from a Ford Phantom 4130 and features functional lights and sirens, aluminum wheels and disc brakes with questionable efficacy. It’s for sale, so if you’ve got $189,000 to spare, you can have it for yourself.

Pulse-Jet Go-Kart

(images via: Zach Sartell)

Zach Sartell is just one of many enthusiasts who have made their own jet-powered go karts at home, spending years testing and modifying parts until he got it to reach 50mph – albeit, with brakes that barely worked. Another design, by ‘Missile Man’, appeared in the Jet Racers episode of UK series Scrapheap Challenge, as seen in the clip above.

Hot, Loud Pulse-Jet Bike

(images via: Autopia)

Bob Maddox bolts pulse jet engines onto old-school cruiser bicycles and sells them on eBay. He’s gotten his own up to 50mph, which he says “feels way too fast”, and figures it could hit 75mph if anyone were brave enough to try it. The engine is so loud that if you don’t wear protective gear, you could pop your eardrums. Maddox also straps a jet engine to his chest when skydiving in an amazing feat of not ending up smashed on the sidewalk like a bug.

Super-Fast Sinclair C5

(images via: JetPower)

The Sinclair C5, a battery electric vehicle invented in the 80’s that suffered a public relations disaster when it debuted, was meant to be the beginning of eco-friendly personal transport. It didn’t exactly take off, but an enthusiast named Richard Hammonds decided to equip his very own C5 with a JFS100 jet engine, making it infinitely faster but less than environmentally friendly. It can get up to 100mph on a smooth surface and is described by Hammonds as being “very noisy and very dangerous”.

Record-Breaking Jet-Powered Luge

(images via: Gizmodo)

Joel King strapped a 90,000-rpm jet engine to a two-meter street luge and broke a world speed record, reaching 112mph. Despite the engine’s small size it puts out 80lbs of thrust, propelling King around the track at breakneck speed strapped to a board just a few inches off the ground. The engine King used was an off-the-shelf model that’s normally used on unmanned aircraft and to get gliders up to altitude.

Jet-Powered School Bus

(images via: Hacked Gadgets)

No parent in their right mind would ever allow their children to travel on this jet-powered school bus, but that’s ok – it’s no longer meant to shuttle kids to and from school. The jet engine takes up so much room that only a few people can fit inside. There is reportedly a Westinghouse J-34 Turbojet housed under all that yellow aluminum.

M-497 Jet-Powered Train

(images via: Jalopnik)

In the 60’s, New York Central was experimenting with building high-speed trains on the cheap, hence the M-497 – a modified Budd commuter car with US Air Force surplus General Electric J47-19 jet engines in a B36-H bomber engine pod planted on the top. It reached a top speed of 183.681 mph – still the current high speed record for light rail in the United States. Once the experiment was over, the jet engines were removed and the train went back to regular commuter duty until it was cannibalized for parts in 1977 - the end of a short but amazing jet train era.

Delightful Brochure Designs

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:19:00 +0000

Delightful Brochure Designs

I’ve always been a big fan of brochure design because I think its one of the hardest mediums to design for. Brochures are often relatively small in size and packed with lots of information. This makes it very hard for a designer because you need to make the brochure eye-catching and easy to read, but still work in all the important information. Hopefully this brochure design inspiration post will help you when you are stuck on a challenging brochure project.

Creating an effective Brochure Design for a direct mail campaign is no easy task. Most businesses usually have a limited budget and you need to make sure the design will be as effective as possible. When designing a brochure its tempting to cram it full of as much information as possible, but the real goal is to get the reader to take action, not overload them with information. Taking action could be anything from visiting a website to calling a phone number and will vary from business to business.

A brochure is supposed to provide additional information on a topic the potential client or consumer is interested in. It should highlight important benefits, features, build confidence and have the proper call to actions. The design should be eye-catching and consistent with your branding. Clients often give designers a large amount of information to fit into a brochure and fitting in all this information is often the hardest part. Try to beak up the information using white space, sub titles, images and so on. If there is just way to much information, ask the client if its possible to cut down the amount of text.

Check out the Brochures below to see what solutions other designers have come up with. If you need a reliable and affordable Brochure Printing company to print your design check out UPrinitng.com

Need to print your own Brochures or client’s projects? Check out UPrinting.com for top-quality and affordable Brochure Printing services!

Have a NICE Trip 4m NICE Design

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:14:00 +0000

Have a NICE Trip 4m NICE Design

Planes, trains and automobiles: these essential modes of transportation are all part of the daily grind for millions of workers & players. Travel’s not trivial, however, thanks to architects the world over who add excitement to the journey with truly dynamic designs. Roll ‘em!

Dulles: Anything But Dull

(image via: The Crowne Plaza Hotel )

Airports aren’t just portals to and from exotic, far-away places. They also serve as first impressions for those who emigrate to another land. When your guests arrive at your front door, you want it to look nice, right? Washington’s Dulles International Airport’s main terminal, designed in 1958 by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, was radically modern for its time and still looks new today.

Weird and Wonderful Collide in Denver

(image via: Metafysiko )

Denver International Airport is the largest in the United States and the third-largest in the world. Opened in 1994, DIA features an eye-catching terminal designed to emulate Colorado’s mighty snow-capped mountains.

(images via: Bibliotecapleyades and Cuttingedge )

Inside though, things turn from wondrous to weird - like the odd time capsule that displays the Masonic device and some very strange murals depicting what appear to be an alien soldier, whales leaping out of a burning sea and a dead girl in an open coffin. Enjoy your fright!

Beijing’s Airport Rings with Olympian Splendor

(image via: Showchina )

China is on track to build well over 100 new airports this decade but the highlight is the Beijing International Airport. Finished just in time for the Summer Olympic Games, the huge 1 million square meter airport is the largest in the world and, one of the most beautiful.

(image via: Skyscraper Life )

Some of the original designs for the Beijing Airport look even better, resembling nothing so much as a huge electric guitar.

Happy Landings at Funchal

(image via: Pilot Outlook )

The Funchal Airport at the island of Madeira, a Portuguese possession off the coast of west Africa, looks like a design exercise but actually exists! The narrow, single 9100 ft long runway has the ocean to one side, coastal hills to the other and runs partly over a bridge.

(image via: Structurae )

Landing at Funchal looks to be anything but fun, though it’s said pilots who expect to use the airport receive special training. Let’s hope they were paying attention in class.

Jeddah: An Airline Oasis Arises

(image via: Designboom )

Water isn’t a problem at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where Jeddah International Airport rises from the desert sands like a mirage. Beautiful as it is, this exquisite airport is in use for just six weeks every year - that’s when more than 2 million Muslims fly into Jeddah on their way to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage.

Spanish Flew?

(image via: E-Architect )

Spain recently opened the new Madrid Barajas Airport and it’s quite an improvement from the original, dating from 1933. The updated terminal is huge - 1.2 million square feet - and is capable of processing up to 75 million visitors annually

(image via: Giramondo1 )

The architects - Richard Rogers Partnership with Estudio Lamela - took pains to make the new airport’s passenger and baggage terminals as environmentally friendly as possible, orienting them in a north-south direction and using passive design features to reduce the need for energy-intensive heating and cooling as much as possible.

Innsbruck: Nice Design; Ice Design

(image via: James Feess )

Trains have inspired their fair share of design exuberance as well, especially in Europe and Asia where rail travel has historically been of high importance to both commuters and city planners. Innsbruck, Austria hired architect Zaha Hadid to design a series of railway stations that would complement the city’s reputation as an alpine landmark.

(image via: Architecture Revived )

Says Hadid, “We studied natural phenomena such as glacial moraines and ice movements - as we wanted each station to use the fluid language of natural ice formations, like a frozen stream on the mountainside.”

Tibet: Himalayan Mountain High

(image via: China Daily )

The new Lhasa Railway Station is the largest station on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway line which serves much of Tibet and southwestern China. The stark design gives respect to the abundant natural beauty in this rarefied area of the world.

Luxembourg: New Traditionalists

(image via: JSWD-Architekten )

This design for the new Central Railway Station in Luxembourg manages to look forward (above left) on the outside while retaining the grand tradition of luxurious rail travel pioneered by European nations in the 19th century. The tiny nation’s first train station was built of wood in 1859.

Great Britain: Where it All Began

(image via: Daily Mail UK )

The steam locomotive was invented in England and rail travel has always figured prominently in the nation’s transportation grid. Above is St. Pancras Station in London, newly renovated to host Eurostar trains running under the English Channel from Paris yet still covered by its 1860’s vintage glass & steel roof.

(image via: Panoramio )

St Pancras Station was slated for demolition in the 1960s but luckily reason prevailed and a true national treasure was saved for posterity. The renovation cost close to $2 billion and saw the baking of new bricks to the original standard while the gothic exterior and iconic clock tower fronting the station were spiffied up to match.

Australia: Rolling Thunder Down Under

Australia is a former British colony and has inherited Merry Olde England’s love of trains and rail travel. The Southern Cross Station in Melbourne takes railway travel into the 21st century with its undulating, self-ventilating roof.

Japan: Great Gate; Cool Clock

(image via: Paul Mannix )

One can’t talk about trains without touching on Japan. The long, narrow, crowded country is ideally suited for rail travel and though it may be best known for its high-speed Shinkansen (bullet trains), Japan is also a center of aesthetic commercial design. Kanazawa Station is a perfect example, as the classic gate shown above illustrates so well.

(images via: Paul Mannix and Univ. of Freiburg )

A unique feature of Kanazawa Station is the incredible digital clock that displays the numbers with jets of water! The clock is also programmed to display Japanese text messages and announcements - here’s a video of the clock in action:

Kanazawa Station digital fountain clock, via NielsViv

Fruitful Endeavors

(image via: Neko-Obasan )

Last and… well, least are bus stops. Buses are often considered the “poor relations” of transportation but as with all publicly funded projects, their stations and stops can display a surprising degree of sophistication. They can also be just plain fun - like the fruit-flavored Japanese bus stops above.

Can’t Wait to See the Bus

(image via: Neko-Obasan )

Here’s another goofy Japanese bus stop near Nagasaki that sports a Tai motif. Tai is a fish popularly used in sushi.

Save the Wales

(image via: Tony Hogg Design )

Sometimes all it takes to give an old structure new life is a snazzy new roof. Such is the case in the town of Pontypridd, Rhondda, Wales. The local municipal council asked architects Base Structures Ltd. to “design and install a bus station canopy which would provide shelter for the public and to make visiting the station a pleasant experience.” It appears they succeeded admirably.

San Rafael’s Steampunk Station

(image via: Design By The Bay )

Closer to home, the San Rafael bus station near San Francisco, CA, shows off a distinct style enabled by the use of steel, concrete and etched glass. Designer Robn Chiang was given a tough chore by city planners: make the station look historical yet reflect a high-tech sensibility. Sounds - and looks - like steampunk to me!

Holland: Plastic Fantastic

(image via: Demanio:Re )

The Hoofddorp Busstation, above, was built on the grounds of the Spaarne Hospital in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands. Opened in 2003, the station is world’s largest all-synthetic structure. The 150-foot long station is built entirely of factory-cut polystyrene foam covered in polyester fabric.

Sydney: Designing Wizards of Oz

(image via: North Sydney Council )

Competitions are an effective way to bring out a variety of designs at a low cost to the planning authority. The North Sydney Bus Shelter and Canopy Entrance Competition of 2006, won by Hannah Tribe and Marcus Trimble, is a perfect example. The winning design presents two diametrically opposite aspects depending on whether it’s viewed by day or by night.

Can I Ride Your Magic Bus?”

(image via: kaveFISH )

Search the globe and you’d be hard pressed to find a weirder looking bus stop then the one above, designed by Dennis Oppenheim and located in Ventura, California. Seems like the only bus stopping here would be The Magic Bus.

China’s Compact City of the Future

(image via: AIArchitect )

Cordogan, Clark & Associates of Chicago have drawn up an astounding concept for the Chinese city of Wuxi. The master plan envisions a Transportation Center to serve as the hub for Wuxi’s train and bus traffic, as well as being the heart of a “compact city” based on traditional Chinese colors, shapes and forms.

(image via: AIArchitect )

The bus and train stations will feature solar energy collectors on both roof and walls. The entire complex will be situated on a 10-block footprint and house over 27 million square feet of commercial, retail and residential space. This mega-project and many others like it are set to leap off architects’ easels and into reality - these designs are moving and will move you - literally.

Brilliant Recycled Buildings ... & it's AMAZING 2

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:13:00 +0000

Brilliant Recycled Buildings ... & it's AMAZING 2

Modular Cargo Container Housing Designs

HyBrid Seattle is a small architecture firm with big ideas. From the multi-unit residential cargo container housing shown above to smaller emergency and residential and larger commercial structures they have done a great deal of conceptual and real-life experimentation with the possibilities of shipping containers used in architectural ways. (Source)

Super Sustainable Cargo Container Home

This prototype design is two homes in one with lower energy consumption and solar panels and geothermal power to offset what little energy is still needed. Based on shipping containers they employ recycled materials in virtually all aspects of the design process. If anything, this structure arguably sacrifices style and comfort for the sake of sustainability - but as a polemical piece maybe that is an acceptable statement. (Source)

Amazing Recycled Metal Sculpture Park

Foreverton has a mythical or even mystical sound to it - and the place lives up to the name. This is the world’s largest metal sculpture - 60 by 120 feet feet - itself surrounded by other sculptures forming a massive sculpture park. Whether he is serious or sarcastic its creator claims to be waiting to launch part of the mega-structure as a spaceship that will then help him reach the divine. A real claim or a trick to trap the tourists? No one can be entirely sure. (Source)

Art Park Created from Recycled Materials

This vast architectural/art space was the life’s work of an Italian immigrant whose obsession grew and could not be stopped. The Watts Towers come complete with a wonderland of gazebos, fountains and artful mosaics made largely from found objects and recycled materials. At nearly 100 feet in height the towers themselves were cobbled together from a mixture of concrete, steel, mortar and wire mesh. All in all this is one of the most amazing buildings ever built essentially by one dedicated man. (Source)

Recycled Plastic Bottle Igloo Building

“Because Americans drink 70 million disposable bottles of water each day, with just 10 million making their way to a recycling bin, Jasmine wants to help spread the word about recycling and repurposing everyday objects in our environment.” This polemical piece of exotic plastic architecture will rotate locations in an attempt to raise general awareness about excessive plastic use in society and potentially sustainable reuse options. (Source)

Structural Sand Bag Walled House

Sand bags are handy in emergencies but also make great building materials - densely packed, they are great insulators and relatively easy to stack and use as framing infill in construction. The simple building techniques needed to assemble such a home make it accessible for people who lack the traditional skills to take part in constructing their own house. Sandbags can usually be purchased locally and cheaply as well, making them a more sustainable and affordable building material. (Source)

Even More Amazing Recycled Architecture

Haven’t had enough amazing recycled architecture for one day? From chapel, airplane and plane conversions to boat, water tower and pig sty adaptive reuses and creatively unusual present and historical structures built from bottles, cans and hay bales here are even more offbeat and innovative examples of amazing recycled architecture and design.

Even More Cargo Container Buildings

Want more creative cargo container architecture? Here are some more incredible shipping container building designs from container houses, schools and hotels to container emergency shelters and massive residential and office complexes. Or if you are feeling particularly adventurous, find out more about how to buy, design and/or build your own cargo container home or office.

Creative Recycled Art Made from Trash

Not all recycling has to have a functional purpose in mind - some of the most engaging works of recycled art are just that: aesthetic pieces designed to inspire emotion and provoke thought. From legions of trash people and peeled building interiors to garbage sculpture parks and tin can paintings here are some creative though not necessarily functional works of recycled art and design. Enjoy this gallery? Also be sure to check out our collection of 42 creative and unusual prefab buildings and flat pack furniture designs.

Brilliant Recycled Buildings ... & it's AMAZING 1

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Brilliant Recycled Buildings ... & it's AMAZING

Recycling discarded materials into new buildings and adapting disused structures to new uses is not just about sustainability - it is also about savvy innovation and stylish adaptation. Some architects build modular wonders from existing units (such as shipping containers). Others draw from recycled, found and local materials (or entire old buildings) to create aesthetically amazing designs that brilliantly blend old and new.

Spiral island (shown above) is just one such example: an incredible mobile private island floating on 250,000 recycled plastic bottles off the coast of Mexico. From a pre-industrial pigsty converted to a postmodern home and a magnificent monastery built from a million glass bottles to adaptively reused cargo containers, airplane hangars and water towers, here are twenty awesome more examples of brilliantly creative and sustainably innovative recycled architecture.

Recycled Glass Bottle Buddhist Monastery

What can a group of rural monks hundreds of miles outside of Bangkok do to help the environment and build a beautiful temple all in a single stroke of architectural genius? Local residents helped these religious devotees collect over a million colored glass bottles that were then used to create everything outside and within the monastic complex - from the walls and roofs to the decorative interior mosaics of this amazing building of worship and meditation. Glistening in the light and arranged in patterns one would hardly know from a distance that the structure was built from anything but the finest of custom-made materials. (Source)

Pig Sty Building into House Conversion

A dilapidated pig sty is probably the last place anyone would thing to put a brand new home. However, there is something immediately compelling about the juxtaposition of an old aged shell and a starkly modern interior box that makes this hybrid of old and new immediately more engaging to the eye. The sty portion dates back hundreds of years and sustained age damage over that time and then was nearly destroyed during the Second World War. Restoring the building would have been difficult and cost-prohibitive so the architects came up with a brilliant work-around: they simply inserted a brand new building into the shell of the old one and lined up the windows and openings with the existing perforations in the shell of the sty. (Source)

Recycled Trailer Theatrical Set Design

Images of this building have long made their way around the internet, often calling it the ‘Redneck Mansion’ for lack of knowledge about its actual origins. In point of fact, this is an elaborate theater set for a showing of the Anton Chekov play Ivanov in Amsterdam. The original confusion came in part from partial sets of these images circulating the web in which the shots of the audience area were omitted. So, what would appear to be incredible backwater innovation is in fact a calculated piece of theatrical construction - though that revelation in no way detracts from the strange beauty of this elaborate recycled set design. (Source)

Stonefridge the Recycled Fringe Henge

Stonefridge, as it is aptly name by its creator, is a fridge henge - a version of stone henge created entirely out of used refrigerators and set in the barren semi-desert landscape of New Mexico on the edge of Santa Fe.. Refrigerators of all colors, shapes, sizes and vintages stand on top of one another and stack to a height of nearly twenty feet and a hundred-foot diameter circle. It is an “anti-monument” to American waste and is aligned not with solar, lunar or stellar phenomena as the original Stonehenge but rather with the infamous historic atomic explosions of Los Alamos. (Source)

Water Tower House Adaptive Reuse

This one has a very very history so follow closely: this actually was a water tower that was originally designed to look like a house on top. After the water tower was decommissioned as such nearly a century later the top part was converted into an actual house - though it always looked like one. An exhilarating (or exhausting) walk takes its proud new owners to the absolute best view in the neighborhood - from the inside of what was once a thirty thousand gallon water tank!

Airplane Hangar to Water Park Conversion

A giant space is often the most difficult to reuse. Small spaces can be opened up and repartitioned to create variously sized places for residential and commercial functions but something on the scale of an entire airplane hangar? What better use, then, for a beautiful and vast interior volume like this than a fully functional water park complete with sand beaches, forest walks, water slides and guest residences? All of these fit comfortably into the 600 by 1000 foot floor space and under the 300 foot ceilings of this hangar near Berlin, Germany - complete with fake birds chirping in the background.

High Line Railroad to City Park Conversion

The people of New York City have long loved the derelict High Line rail structure, long inoperative, that floats along above the streets of Manhattan for over a mile on the Lower East Side. When the city made plans to destroy it citizen action groups sprang to attention, raised funds and eventually made plans to have it saved and converted into a public park. After a rigorous competition between top-notch architects from around the world the above concept design was decided upon and construction is now underway for a gorgeous long elevated park that will provide visitors with a lofted view as they walk through the city.

Adaptive Reuse of Garage as House

The garage is typically the least hospitable part of or attachment to a house - small and cold with undifferentiated floor plans and concrete floors are the norm for such spaces. However, a Portland architect worked hard for city approval and finally was able to turn a garage into not just a house but a living place with clever tricks for making the most interesting and functional uses of available spaces as possible. (Source)

Container City Modular Mixed Use Buildings

The Container City system is a way of building, a modular container-based approach to residential and commercial architecture that takes advantage of the versatility of containers as building blocks - units that can be arranged and modified to accommodate diverse functions and create delightful wholes out of myriad smaller parts. The results are impressively diverse - from austere and functional offices to playful and colorful homes. (Source)

Transforming Cargo Container Home Module

A simple push of a button transforms this apparently bland cargo container into a working - if small - living space. It comes complete with built-in couches and bedroom furniture as well as the basic daily necessities such as a bathroom and kitchen - all around a simply amazing little shipping container home-on-the-go.

Shipping Container Office and Shop Tower

In a brilliant move to reinforce their brand (as a company that produces lovely faded-color bags from recycled materials) this German manufacturer chose to build a somehow beautifully industrial office and store tower completely from stacked shipping containers. This of course also helps them save on construction costs and make a bold statement on the skyline in addition to using recycled materials on their buildings as they do on their bags - a wonderful synthesis of design, sustainability and branding all around.

Creative Shipping Container Playground Design

Shipping containers are probably the last place most people would want their children to play - with one exception. By bending and transforming pieces of these containers cleverly fitting stairs and aesthetically connected shades are created, balconies and other architectural features are all rendered in the same material language that informs the entire composition. All in all this illustrates the amazingly varied possibilities of designing even within the seemingly limited palette of a set of rectangular metal boxes. (Source)

Cleverly Camouflaged Cargo Container Home

While some shipping container home designs are built to accentuate the presence of these once-industrial units that form their structural core others take the exact opposite approach and attempt to disguise or entirely hide the presence of the underlying cargo container core. This house is a fascinating example of that latter approach in which the finish product bears almost no signs of what it was constructed from. Architectural critics might see this as distastefully untrue to the building’s origins but if it gets homeowners using recycled rather than new raw materials that, at least, is admirable in its own right. (Source)

Giant Cargo Container Hotel Building

This huge cargo container hotel building seems like it missed a critical opportunity to express the basis of its construction in its final aesthetic appearance. The outside, once covered, resembles another dull stucco-and-brick hotel like any other. The insides are far more interesting - each shipping container was pre-fitted with drywall, bathrooms and other basics before being shipped to the United Kingdom for assembly after being constructed in China. While this design does open up new possibilities for quick-constructed temporary festival and event housing it could be more expressive of its origins on its surface. (Source)

2 b cointinue..........

Don't Hang your Hat or Coat without THESE!

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:12:00 +0000

Don't Hang your Hat or Coat without THESE!

Wherever you hang your hat (or coat), that’s your home. No modern dream home is complete without a dazzling, eye-catching coat rack - and there is plenty of options to choose from. Here are 18 coat racks that are unafraid to hang up traditional designs and do something a little more creative and unexpected.

Images: tc studio and elsewheres.

It is not hard to see how the designers came up with the idea for these metal wall-mounted coat rack hooks. If you want your hallway to look like the aftermath of a Godfather-style disagreement, these Knife Hooks (which are screwed into the wall rather than stuck in) will be ideal. And for a slightly less intimidating take on the same theme, you could try these wall-mounted Dart Hooks, held firmly in place by their screw-head tips.

Images: Die Electric and Bouf.

Here is a hook with a message - namely, “Turn The Lights Off When You’re Done”. Keen to wean the modern world off its electricity supply, designer Scott Amron has created a range of fun way to encourage people to reach for the Off switch, including this fully-working Light Switch Hook. Similarly multi-purpose, the Shed Hook is designed to hold your keys, bags, mail and gloves as well as your coat.

Image: Desu Design.

When not in use, the Symbol Coat Rack lines your wall like a colorful LED-dotted appliance, encouraging you to concoct some appalling fable about having computerised your whole house when visitors call by. If they want to hang their coat, your lie is found out: each of the colored strips cunningly slides out into a hook. Also available in monochrome aluminium, if metal is your thing.

Images: Cooper Hewitt Museum and Design3000.

Maybe you feel coat racks are too regimented and get in the way of your creative urges. In which case, why not try building one? The Ivy and Häkeln racks come in modular form, and it is up to you to decide how and where they spread out over your hallway. Wind them around your existing furniture, paint pictures, spell out rude words - it is completely up to you.

Image: Stolenwood.

Half Wild West and half Indian Rope Trick, the Catching The Wild coat rack is a startling sight. It’s constructed from steel and polyester rope formed into a remarkably convincing lasso. If you feel like all your coats are starting to get away from you, this is just the thing.

Image: Etsy.

But however startling a floating rope is, it is nothing compared to this. The gruesomely-named Dismembered Baby Doll Coat Rack doesn’t seem content to wait for your coat - it is reaching out to snatch it from your grasp. This is not a piece of furniture to accidentally put your hands on when the lights are off, unless you are of a highly serene disposition.

Images: Artful Home and BanalExtra and TFTS.

It seems there’s a coat rack for every profession. For the gardener, the Late Autumn rack provides a reassuringly familiar sight (with no danger of accidentally stepping on the wrong end). Writers are bound to take note of this Oversized Pencils rack. And for those with a penchent for driving cars or spreading their inner workings out over the garage floor, the Gear Stick Coat Rack should elicit a grin of approval.

Image: Vitamin D(esign).

At first glance, it looks like someone has taken an axe to this coat rack - but look closer. Beautifully carved from maple, the Coat Range is in fact a line of mountain peaks, the natural grain of the wood adding a subtle sense of perspective. Crafted from excess cut sheets of week, these Grand Teton inspired pieces of furniture provide a scenic view to hang your hat on.

Images: VivaTerra and Design Within Reach.

The best designers know the value of imitating nature. With the Entwined Root Coat Stand, the intention is not to stray too far from the original material, leaving it up to the coat-owner to work out where the hooks are. The Twist coatrack is a much more regular and predictable double-helix arrangement, yet still highly evocative of intertwined branches (the prongs themselves are of beech, while the binding is steel and plastic).

Image: Unless.

Yet half the fun is finding wholly new designs - and it’s unlikely Nature will be coming up with something like the HangUp rack anytime soon. Fashioned from sustainably grown hoop pine plywood, this rack comes complete with recesses for hats, gloves or shoes - and a hint of traditional Japanese architecture.

Images: Garsnas and Notch Design.

And finally, two racks that are unashamedly modern. Notch Design’s Toda has a series of sinuous fold-out pegs complete with a central hole to thread your scarf through. And the gloriously minimalist Buss 4562 is a tiny-footprint (or the wall equivalent) coat rack in stained or lacquered birch studded with stainless steel hooks and knobs. You may want to label it for the benefit of guests!

GREAT Poster DESIGNs

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:58:00 +0000

GREAT Poster DESIGNs

Below are 16 of my favorite posters designs for various bands. I tried to show a wide variety of poster design styles in this collection and I hope you find them as inspirational as I do. I am sure every band felt very lucky to have such great poster designs created for them.

Left - by Strawdogs | Right by Ivan Minsloff

Left - by Susan Belle | Right by Florafauna

Left - by David Head | Right by The Pinch

Left - by Status Serigraph | Right by The Bubble Process

Left - by Autistk | Right by Dan Stiles

Left - by Daniel Danger | Right by Danny Seim

Left - by Edward Maddison | Right by Invisible Creature

Left - by Patent Pending | Right by The Small Stakes

Find More Great Poster Designers at Gig Posters

Awesome Wallpapers & Some amazing Furniture

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:54:00 +0000

Awesome Wallpapers & Some amazing Furniture

Wallpaper (at-home, not on-screen) isn’t what it used to be, but we bet you never thought it could look THIS good! So you have your absolutely amazing house and insanely cool furniture - what comes next? New ideas and revolutionary techniques have allowed artists and designers to bring two-dimensional surfaces to life through creative wallpapers and wallpaper designs. What’s on YOUR wall?”

(image via: The Future of Things)

Light-emitting wallpaper owes its appealing luminescence to light-emitting diodes (LEDs) embedded in the wall covering. Tiny, thin and cool, LEDs allow wallpaper designers like Jonas Samson of The Netherlands to create innovative wallpapers that double as light sources - they can even be adjusted to provide as much light as needed or desired.

(image via: Sawse)

Interactivity can liven up wallpaper in a hurry, as these color-changing papers by artist Shi Yuan illustrate. Heat rising from a wall-mounted radiator causes a berry bush to bloom while above right, the warmth of one’s hands add color to a previously monotone background.

(image via: The Future of Things)

Wallpaper can also be made sensitive to touch, responding to gentle pressure with an audible response. At least, that’s the case with so-called “smart paper” developed by Page Four, a research project at Mid Sweden University’s Fiber Science and Communications Network in Sundsvall, Sweden. Paper Four, as the wallpaper is called, contains touch sensors and special speakers that are imprinted into the paper using conductive inks made with silver particles.

(image via: WallStreetFighter)

If painting wallpaper with silver sounds expensive, then you might want to consider papering the walls with actual money - dollar bills. Most people have noticed a dollar or two taped to the wall of a business establishment; supposedly the first dollar they ever made. What would happen if another dollar was added every time a transaction took place? he results can be seen above at (clockwise from left) the No Name Pub in the Florida Keys; McGuire’s Irish Pub in Pensacola, Florida; and from the great state of Arizona: the Oatman Hotel and the Tortilla Flat Saloon. Seems like these places have money to burn, though a fire at any one of them would see a fortune go up in smoke!

(image via: Duncan Wilson)

Notes of a different kind make up the above wallpaper, Pixelnotes from artist and graphic designer Duncan Wilson. The wallpaper is made up of four layers divided into individual squares resembling sticky notes. The notes can even be written upon and detached, exposing a different colored note from the layer beneath. As notes are removed, a pattern begins to reveal itself.

(image via: Nhatkyviet.com)

The above wallpaper from a Vietnamese website is an exceptional example of trompe l’oeil, a style of art that translated from French means “fool the eye”. The artist (sadly uncredited but possibly Canadian) uses lighting, perspective and proportion to add a third dimension where before was only blank, flat space.

(image via: Daniel Heath at The Shopfloor Project)

If the trompe l’oeil look seems somewhat old fashioned, then the iconic hand-printed wallpaper above is even more so. Called “The Greatest Show On Earth”, artist Daniel Heath uses circa 1870 Victorian imagery interspersed with portraits of famed circus promoter P.T. Barnum - the effect is reminiscent of currency down to the color choices: blue, green and sepia.

(image via: Wallpaper from the 70s - Surreal)

Also from the seventies - the Nineteen-seventies that is - are these retro-cool wallpapers that shout out the essence of the Me Decade. Offering a variety of patterns ranging from Romantic to Surreal, these wallpapers gone wild remind us that like it or not, the era of disco isn’t quite dead yet.

(image via: Wallpaper from the 70s - Abstract)

Above are a few more samples of ’70s wallpaper, these are from Wallpaper from the 70s’ Abstract collection. Was the nation suffering from a decade-long psychedelic flashback, one wonders?

(image via: Amazing Illusions)

The originators of Warping Wallpaper were at least inspired by counterculture themes; how else to explain wallpaper that makes you feel like you’re high, even if you aren’t? Created by Surrealien - an appropriate name if there ever was - these dizzying wallpapers tend to be more artistic than practical.

(image via: Amazing Illusions)

Above is another eye-challanging Surrealien design; they’re from Germany by the way. According to the website copy, “Our product dissolves limits between architecture, wallpaper and hangings, with the wallpaper functioning as sensitive gobetween. So it’s time to: Warp your room!” And, presumably, your mind.

(image via: Monster Munch)

Mountain yetis, blue whales and a stark forest that just might be magnified mold are the highlights of the selection of wallpapers from Pottok shown above.

(image via: Monster Munch)

Each style is hand silk-screened on recyclable paper using water based inks.

(image via: Pottok Prints)

Pottok also provides what only can be described as outdoor wallpaper” that, in the case of the Montalban Theater on Vine St. in Hollywood, completely covers the building’s exterior. Pottok’s lead artist Geoff McFetridge isn’t saying what the inside of the theater looks like, but it would be no surprise if the wallpaper’s pattern was “brick”.

(Check out our complete collection of 90 Creative Urban Furniture Designs.)

The living room is often the center of a house. It’s the place where families and visitors gather to talk, relax, and be entertained. The furnitures and decor in the living room can set the tone for everything that happens in that room. It follows that living room furniture is a main focus when a house is being decorated. If you’re anything but traditional, these unique and clever living room furniture designs may be right up your alley.

Love fancy cars but can’t afford to keep a whole one around? How about just the back end? This car couch (top) is nothing like the tacky versions from the 80s. This is smooth, luxurious Aston Martin DB6 - just like James Bond would sit on if he ever sat around watching movies and eating potato chips.

The Wave Chaise (bottom) is a new concept in teen seating/entertainment. This one piece of furniture contains everything your teenager (or you, if you’re game) might need entertainment-wise. Watch TV and movies, play video games, do homework, listen to CDs, read a book, talk on the phone or take a nap in this futuristic-looking pod.

This odd looking piece of furniture (top) may have been inspired by a toothbrush. The long noodly arms look comforting, but we wonder how difficult it would be to play video games while constantly batting the soft arms out of your face. This piece is a concept designed by a student at Bucks New University.

You may have heard of the world-famous motorized sofa. If you’re concerned about the environment and want to work out your calves without ever leaving your couch, the Couchbike gives you the best of all worlds. Although it’s not commercially available, its creators took it on a riding tour around the maritimes in Eastern Canada.

The Meltdown Chair (top left) is a fine example of art doubling as a useful object. The artist, Tom Price, heats a chair form and presses it into a pile of clear PVC hose to melt and char the plastic. When it’s done, it looks like a chair with springy supports. These may not be for everyone, but they do look oddly comfortable.

When you feel like cuddling but you need to get some reading done, the Octopus chair (top right) has you covered. Literally. Made from recycled jeans and polystyrene balls, the many legs of the Octopus chair will keep you cozy and protected as you catch up on the latest thriller novel.

Have your friends stopped answering your calls because they can’t stand to help you move all of your furniture into a new apartment yet again? Solve part of the problem with the inflatable massage chair (bottom right). It only weighs 18 pounds and can go from rolled up to fully inflated and ready to use in two minutes. Plus, what’s classier than an inflatable chair in your living room?

This sheep chair (bottom left) might take the trophy for classy living room furniture. With its three heads, soulful eyes and massive amounts of wool, this chair is part hellhound, part lambskin rug, and part really creepy throne.

If you’re like us, you’ve probably said to yourself many times, “Hm, I could really do with an open flame in my living room.” Now, just for you, there’s a coffee table (top) that lets you not only keep an open flame near your flowing curtains, but grow grass at the same time. The Fire and Ice coffee table features a fire pit on one side and a cavity on the other side for storage or growing grass. A sliding metal platform only allows you to display one side at a time.

The Cityscape (Dublin) table (top right) brings the Dublin skyline to mind while providing the perfect place to store your books and other oblong objects.

If you know someone who loves pinball, you can score major points in their book by making them this excellent pinball coffee table (bottom right). The idea of having an arcade machine that’s also everyday furniture is enough to thrill any geek.

Convertible furniture is a great way to maximize the space in your living area. Most of us are used to seeing pull-out sofas for this purpose, but a pull-out coffee table (bottom)? That’s exactly what Julia West Home has done here. The result is a simple pull-out bed that you’d never know was there by looking at the closed-up coffee table.

If it’s convertible furniture you’re interested in, take a good look at Fix it on the Wall Furniture (middle left) from designer John Nouanesing. When the furniture is not in use, each piece has its own place in the wall holder. When you need the tiny table and four cushions, simply pull them down, assemble, and enjoy your impromptu tea party.

These coffee tables are for the true nerds among us. The top, a working Nintendo controller protected by a layer of glass, was truly a labor of love for its proud owner. The table on the bottom sports a feature that most of us instantly recognize: the periodic table of elements. Each element is represented by a small sample of it safely embedded in acrylic so that even the dangerous elements can’t hurt you.

The design for these shelves is simply amazing. PLoP! shelves are made of corrugated cardboard to make them easy to carry around and set up in a new place. The shelves are collapsible, so whenever you need to hit the road quickly you can just remove your things from the shelves and fold it up. The units are also connectable, so you can have a long system of book shelves.

Finally, the “Eternaltainment Center.” This company provides double-duty furniture that today can be used for any number of applications, but when the owner kicks the bucket the main part of the furniture becomes a casket. They sell everything, from sofas to display cases to pool tables, all made from your future coffin. Is it just us, or is that concept just a little weird?

Amazing ARC Design of GREAT Museums

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Amazing ARC Design of GREAT Museums

When did making museums start to become an art form in its own right? Sometime in the last two decades, as wealthy patrons began flooding museums with donations so they could expand their collections, the architecture of museums around the world became nearly as important as the art and history they contain. The trend is said to have begun with Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao and has appeared around the world in an astonishing variety of forms, from bulky, geometric behemoths to sculptural structures as light as a bird.

Royal Ontario Museum Extension, Toronto

(images via: Sam Javanrouh)

The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal addition to the Royal Ontario Museum began as a sketch on a paper napkin at a wedding. Berlin-based Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind’s design has met with equal parts criticism and praise from the public for its daring juxtaposition of glass and steel against the original historical brick structure. Of the building, Libeskind said “Why should one expect the new addition to the ROM to be ‘business as usual’? Architecture in our time is no longer an introvert’s business. On the contrary, the creation of communicative, stunning and unexpected architecture signals a bold re-awakening of the civic life of the museum and the city.”

(images via: Mary Ann Sullivan)

London-based architect Zaha Hadid designed the Rosenthal Contemporary Arts Center in her favored “Deconstructivist” style, with stacked shapes in black and white that sometimes jut out over the sidewalk below. Made of concrete and matte black aluminum, the 85,000 square foot CAC building houses temporary exhibits of contemporary art. With this building Hadid became the first woman architect to complete a major museum project in the United States.

The Akron Art Museum

(images via: Akron Art Museum)

A soaring glass and steel structure is strikingly juxtaposed with a late nineteenth-century brick and limestone building at the Akron Art Museum. The 2007 addition, by Viennese architectural firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, modernizes the museum with cantilevered, suspended and floating forms including the “Crystal”, a three-story glass and steel lobby, the “Gallery Box”, an exhibition space that seems to float on air and the “Roof Cloud”, a cantilevered steel armature that extends over both the old and new buildings.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

(images via: Guggenheim Bilbao)

It’s often said that the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao started the trend of making the building that houses art just as important as the art itself. Designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, it is considered among the most groundbreaking examples of architecture to have come out of the 20th century and serves as a landmark for the city of Bilbao, Spain. The design is both fluid and geometric, with its reflective titanium-clad walls sparkling in the sun. It has been credited for “putting Bilbao on the map” and admirers have even called it “the greatest building of our time”.

National Museum of Art, Osaka

(images via: arcspace)

Osaka’s National Museum of Art resembles a giant metal insect, crouched on the ground with its wings extending into the air. Constructed of titanium-coated steel tubes, the outer shell of the building serves as an eye-catching sculptural form that belies the museum’s contents. Because of the constraints of the site, the building had to be mostly underground, so the steel frame and glass skylights are all that is visible from street level. Architects Cesar Pelli & Associates managed to infuse a sense of light airiness into the structure despite its subterranean design.

Museum of Middle East Modern Art in Dubai

(images via: Yatzer.com)

Though it has not yet been built, the planned Museum of Middle East Modern Art in Dubai definitely has people talking. The design, by Dutch architects UNStudio, exemplifies the uber-futuristic look preferred in this arid Middle Eastern city. Naturally, opinions vary, with some lauding its fluidity while others say it looks like a giant air conditioning unit.

Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis

(images via: jpnuwat)

The Weisman Art Museum is another celebrated achievement of architect Frank Gehry, featuring his unmistakable titanium-clad curves. Overlooking the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, the Weisman Art Museum is among the American Midwest’s most well-known buildings. The side that faces the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is brick to blend in with the rest of the buildings, but the opposite side is a glittering abstraction of a waterfall and a fish.

The New Museum on the Bowery, NYC

(images via: arcspace)

The New Museum on the Bowery looks like a stack of white baker’s boxes rising into the sky, clad in aluminum mesh that disguises the windows. The architecture firm SANAA rose to the challenge of the site’s restrictions, saying, “The solution of the shifted boxes arrived quickly and intuitively. Then through trial and error we arrived at the final, ideal configuration. Now we have a building that meets the city, allows natural light inside, gives the Museum column-free galleries and programmatic flexibility, and expresses the program and people inside to the world of New York outside.”

The USS Midway Museum

(images via: Midway.org)

Unusual as museums go, the USS Midway Museum is a storied naval aircraft carrier that gives the public a look at what life was like for the officers who lived and worked aboard the vessel. Docked in downtown San Diego, the USS Midway stands in sharp contrast to the carefully designed, artistic modern and postmodern museum architecture featured here. It’s certainly an example of the enclosure being every bit as important as what’s contained inside.

The Rose Center for Earth & Space, NYC

(images via: Wired New York)

The Rose Center for Earth and Space, located at Central Park and 79th Street in New York City, features a large sphere housed by a glass cube which serves as a symbol of the building’s purpose. It’s part of the American Museum of Natural History and is an extensive reworking of the old Hayden Planetarium. Polshek Partnership Architects said of their design, “Critical to the design concept is the sphere’s apparent disengagement from the enclosing structure and from its transparent curtain wall and the cantilevered spiral ramp encircling the sphere.”

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Henry Bloch Building, Kansas City

(images via: Inhabitat)

The Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri takes advantage of natural light as much as possible with vast walls made of translucent glass which make the building glow like a lantern at night. The space inside is lit entirely by natural light during the day for a sustainable solution that also helps preserve the delicate historic photographs housed inside. The building was designed by Steven Holl Architects to be sculptural in nature, harmonizing with the landscape and providing more space without compromising the original 1933 Nelson-Atkins building.

The Denver Art Museum Frederic C. Hamilton Building, Denver

(images via: arcspace)

Described as “a vision of craggy cliffs”, the Frederic C. Hamilton extension of the Denver Art Museum was created by architect Daniel Libeskind to be an architectural landmark for the city of Denver. The design reflects the nearby Rock Mountain peaks and consists of large geometric shapes clad in titanium. The dramatic expansion, which houses the Modern and Contemporary art collection as well as the collection of Architecture and Design, doubles the size of the museum and now serves as its entrance.

Hedmark Museum, Norway

(images via: Leif Knutsen)

The Hedmark Museum in Norway consists of medieval ruins of a cathedral covered by a giant structure made of lightweight aluminum and glass, which both protects and highlights the original building. Architect Sverre Fehn designed the new parts of the museum to contrast with the aged stonework in a way that creates a clear separation between old and new, with striking results.

Groninger Museum, Groningen, Holland

(images via: Akbar Simonse + Panaramio)

From some angles the Groninger Museum in Groningen, Holland, looks like a great ship that somehow made its way into the city canal. It’s surrounded by water, connected to the land by a pedestrian bridge. Designed by architects Philippe Starck, Alessandro Mendini and Coop Himmelb(l)au, the museum consists of three pavilions, one designed by each architect. The museum has a funky, colorful, futuristic look that’s derived from the Italian ‘Memphis’ style of architecture.

Burke Brise Soleil, Milwaukee Art Museum

(images via: Calatrava.info)

The Burke Brise Soleil is a bird-like addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum, designed by Santiago Calatrava. It’s a moveable, wing-like sunscreen perched atop the museum’s vaulted Windhover Hall. It has a wingspan comparable to that of a Boeing 747-400 – spreading 217 feet at its widest point - but to prevent damage to the building, two ultrasonic wind sensors automatically close the wings if the wind reaches 23 miles per hour or higher. It controls both temperature and light in the structure.

5 BOOKS for Architects & Interior Designers

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:34:00 +0000

5 BOOKS for Architects & Interior Designers

Arne Quinze WORKS

Written by Quinze, the 320-page book includes photographs and sketches documenting more than 40 projects by the Belgian designer.

Here’s some more information from publishers Die Gestalten Verlag:

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The trailblazing, self-made Belgian designer and artist, Arne Quinze, is a creative phenomenon. Effortlessly crossing over between the most diverse disciplines from art, design and architecture, he has established a new invigorating design language that has taken the design world by storm and has instantly become an icon.

Quinze’s genius lies in his ability to fuse polar extremes – passion and chaos with controlled elegance. He masterfully creates immaculate, urbane and polished designs that are balanced with a certain contradicting tension, giving them a refined yet exuberant appearance. He realises his ideas with extraordinary verve and is able to apply them to projects of any scale, whether it be architecture, interior design, urban planning, furniture design, car design or footwear.

This publication is the first monograph to document Arne Quinze’s full creative universe from the past, present and future. Over 40 invigorating design projects crossing over from furniture, interiors and architecture to urban planning, car design and footwear are showcased with lavish photos, personal sketches and incisive text giving insight into Quinze’s cosmos.

Celebrated projects including furniture collections he has created for Quinze & Milan, where he is the creative director, Moroso and concept cars for Lamborghini, colossal wooden Uchronia sculpture at the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada desert, his recent monumental Cityscape sculpture project in Brussels’ Quartier Louise and more are featured.

Over 40 projects are presented with lavish photographs, personal sketches and accompanied by incisive texts giving insight into Quinze’s cosmos. Dazzling but never flamboyant, Quinze is undeniably one of the most ambitious and influential individuals in the creative scene today.

Wonderwall Masamichi Katayama Projects No 2

The 256 pages-book, published by Frame, and distributed by Gestalten includes photographs and sketches documenting more than 40 projects by the designer.

The following information is from Gestalten:

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“TO INTEGRATE CLEAR MESSAGES INTO DESIGNS AND LET EVERYONE FEEL THEM INSTANTANEOUSLY - THAT IS MY JOB. AS I MOVE AMONG MY VARIOUS PROJECTS, I ENJOY EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THE PROCESSES INVOLVED.” - Masamichi Katayama

Wonderwall is Masamichi Katayama. The internationally renowned interior and retail designer is synonymous with exquisite quality and applies his distinctive trademark showmanship to create visionary retail environments.

This publication introduces over forty recent projects by Japan’s hottest retail designer with an extraordinary selection of interior designs for boutiques and retail outlets from high-end luxury spaces to mega stores in Japan, Great Britain, France, the United States and Hong Kong. Masamichi Katayama skillfully integrates diverse interior design elements including light, furniture, material and proportion in a unique and unrivalled fashion that translates into flawless design, comfort and functionality.

Designed by Groovisions, this book vividly demonstrates why Katayama’s work has been considered groundbreaking for interior design since the founding of Wonderwall in 2000. Insightful articles by Tyler Brulé, the Editor in Chief of Monocle, John C. Jay, Wieden+Kennedy’s Creative Director, Rei Kawakubo and many more affirm this appraisal.

Wonderwall: Masamichi Katayama Projects N˚2 presents a brilliant collection of work by an outstanding designer of our time.

For more information: www.wonder-wall.com

Book Information
Title: Wonderwall
Subtitle: Masamichi Katayama Projects N˚2
Edited by: Satoko Suzuki
Language: English
Published by: Frame Publishers
Distributed worldwide by: Gestalten
Format: 24 x 32 cm, 256 pages, full colour, hardcover
Price: € 49,90 / $ 79,00 / £ 37,50
ISBN: 978-3-89955-304-8
EU Release: October 2008
NA Release: November 2008

Non-fictional Narratives

Dezeen have got together with architects Denton Corker Marshall to offer readers the chance to win five copies of Non-fictional Narratives, a new book documenting work the practice has carried out since 2000.

The 293-page book comprises photo-essays of the practice’s projects including Webb Bridge, Brisbane Square, the Australian War Memorial, Manchester Civil Justice Centre and Wilson House, taken by photographers Shannon McGrath, John Gollings and Tim Griffith.

The book also includes written essays by Professor Leon van Schaik, Nikos Papastergiadis, Jianfei Zhu and Deyan Sudjic.

This is the second book about the architects to be published; Denton Corker Marshall: Rule Playing and the Ratbag Element was published in 2000.

The five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter.

Here’s some more information from Denton Corker Marshall:

Second major book published on Denton Corker Marshall

International architects Denton Corker Marshall have launched their latest book Non-fictional Narratives. Published by Birkhäuser Verlag Switzerland, this is the second major book on the work of the practice (Denton Corker Marshall: Rule Playing and the Ratbag Element was published in 2000.) The book is comprised of various ‘narratives’ all relating to real ‘non-fictional’ work the practice has carried out since 2000.

The major narrative is provided by Professor Leon van Schaik, whose essay ‘A Tale of Twinned Cities’ examines the recent work of the practice in terms of strong and weak-force architecture. Professor van Schaik argues that Denton Corker Marshall is unlike many of the international ‘brand-name’ architects and he illustrates the effectiveness of the ‘anti-iconic’ way in which Denton Corker Marshall approaches its projects. Professor van Schaik provides detailed analysis of the practice’s recent built work such as the Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Webb Bridge, Brisbane Square, Wilson House, its work at the Australian War Memorial, as well as a discussion on Denton Corker Marshall’s lesser-known projects in China and Indonesia.

Accompanying this text are three photo-essays (another form of ‘narrative’) on the practice’s contribution to the built landscapes of Melbourne, China and Indonesia, aligning with Professor van Schaik’s discussion of slow and fast architecture.

Three additional written essays are included in the book: Nikos Papastergiadis writes on Webb Bridge; Jianfei Zhu provides a text in both English and Chinese on Denton Corker Marshall’s work in China; and Deyan Sudjic writes on Manchester Civil Justice Centre. These individual narratives, complementing that of Professor van Schaik, give thoughtful insights into the way in which these projects fit more generally into the architecture and design canon of the new millennium.

Distributed throughout the book are five detailed photo- essays taken by renowned architectural photographers – Shannon McGrath, John Gollings and Tim Griffith - featuring Webb Bridge, Brisbane Square, the Australian War Memorial, Manchester Civil Justice Centre and Wilson House. The colour photography is enhanced by the large landscape format of the book and the high quality gloss paper.

Graphics by emerystudio, draw the whole book together beautifully. The unusual cover photograph of Chinese construction workers from around 1987 represents a seminal point in the practice’s history: the first significant overseas project for the practice – the Australian Embassy in Beijing.

Key Urban Housing of the Twentieth Century

Dezeen has teamed up with publishers Laurence King to give away five copies of Key Urban Housing of the Twentieth Century by architect and architectural historian Hilary French.

The 240 page book presents photos and drawings of 87 modern residential buildings from the last century, and includes a CD-ROM with digital files of all the drawings featured in the book.

Key Urban Housing of the Twentieth Century:
Plans, Sections and Elevations
by Hilary French

Key Urban Housing of the Twentieth Century, by Hilary French and published by Laurence King in September 2008 is the latest title in the successful series Plans, Sections and Elevations, featuring 87 of the most influential modern housing designs of the last 100 years by the best-known architects in the field.

As cities grow upwards and outwards, and the housing market hangs in the balance, urban housing is in the spotlight like never before. This book presents 87 urban housing projects, and explains each with a concise text, photographs, specially created drawings, including site plans and floor plans, sections and elevations where appropriate. The projects are organized into six roughly chronological chapters tracing the history of both public and private housing around the world.

Featured projects include: Peabody Buildings, Peabody Trust, London (UK); Unité d’Habitation, Le Corbusier, Marseilles (France); Price Tower, Frank Loyd Wright, Oklahoma (USA); Hansaviertel Apartments, Alvar Aalto, Berlin (Germany); Marina City, Bertrand Goldberg, Illinois (USA); Habitat 67, Moshe Safdie, Montreal (Canada); Nagakin Capsule Tower, Kisho Kurokawa, Tokyo (Japan) and The Mirador Apartments, MVRDV + Blanca Lleó, Madrid (Spain).

The detailed drawings allow each project to be analyzed in depth, which, alongside the author’s text, will make this an invaluable resource for architects and students. As an added bonus, the book includes a CD-ROM containing digital files of all the drawings featured in the book.

Hilary French, an architect and architectural historian, is Head of the School of Architecture & Design at the Royal College of Art, London. She has written and edited a number of books including Accommodating Change: Innovation in Housing (2002) and New Urban Housing (2006).

Lost Buildings

Dezeen have teamed up with publishers Carlton to give away five copies of Lost Buildings by Jonathan Glancey.

Described as “an elegy to places we will never see,” the 256-page book presents 100 buildings that have either been demolished or only ever existed in imagination.

Glancey examines buildings destroyed by war, natural disasters and political acts alongside those from myth, children’s stories and ambitious designs that were never built.

The buildings included are divided into nine chapters: Lost in Myth, Lost in Peace, Lost in War, Lost Too Soon, Acts of God, Political Losses, Lost in Dreams, Self-destruction and Left on the Drawing Board.

LOST BUILDINGS
DEMOLISHED, DESTROYED, IMAGINED, REBORN

by Jonathan Glancey

Published in Hardback by Carlton Books in December 2008, at £30

An exploration of some of the worlds most beautiful buildings, some mythical, some never born and the rest demolished either by nature, politics, self-destruction, or…..

A fascinating study of 100 buildings, some of which have vanished and some which never existed, from ancient times to the recent past.
Reflects the growing awareness of the importance of preserving and restoring existing architectural treasures, as well as rebuilding and reconstruction
The leading writer on architectural history takes you on a magical journey to buildings, that in reality you never can visit!

Have you ever wished that you could have seen King Solomon’s mighty Temple in Jerusalem or climbed to the top of the legendary Tower of Babel? What must it have been like to have paraded up and down the great glass galleries of the Crystal Palace in London in 1851? Why is the Euston Arch, demolished in 1961, still missed? What would buildings described in much loved books have been like if these had existed outside their author’s imaginations?

Imagine walking through the labyrinthine corridors of Mervyn Peake’s mythical Gothic fortress Gormenghast, or visiting Toad Hall. And what of the current trend for reconstructing buildings which were destroyed in wartime or for political reasons? Lost Buildings is an invitation to visit buildings long vanished or those demolished within living history, some by dim politicians, others by war or “acts of God”, that we would pay good money and travel a long way to see, if only they existed, today. It looks, too, at buildings from literature, myth and children’s stories, and some lost opportunities – fantastic, ambitious designs that were never built. There are countless buildings that remain vivid in the collective memory, whether they were once real or were only ever imagined. Lost Buildings brings these together for the reader’s curiosity and delight.

Above: Euston Pillars
12th April 1954: The Neo-Classical entrance arch to London’s Euston station which was demolished in 1962.
(Photo by L. Blandford/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Jonathan Glancey is Architecture and Design Editor of the Guardian. He is a frequent commentator on radio and television. His previous publications include Carlton’s Modern Architecture, The Car and The Train, and Spitfire (Atlantic)- all bestsellers.

Contemporary DESIGNERS Profile 2

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:41:00 +0000

Contemporary DESIGNERS Profile 2

Designer Profile: Kristina Bowers

Kristina Bowers is a graphic designer with a great sense of design. I think her resume and business card designs on the home page of her website are great examples of what a quality graphic design resume and card should look like. I love her use of white space and her typography is simple yet powerful. I wish I knew what papers she used for her personal identity system!

Designer Profile: Elseware

The New York based industrial design collective blurs the line between art and product. Its members joined together in 1999 to develop a new creative outlet for themselves and a forum for their work. Elseware works backwards from the public to manufacture through theme-based gallery exhibitions such as “watershed” in 1999. The success of this show, featuring new products inspired by, and for, the bathroom, led the group to bring their first products to market. The next show, based on manifestations of the word “[ ]fuse” opened in 2001 to similar success and more widespread recognition. Their latest of five show, “American Cheese: processed,” opened in December 2003 and is a continuation of the innovative and creative thought that Elseware strives to maintain. The four core members continue to work together, and occasionally with guest designers, to further blur the line between art and design.

Elseware - different design.

Designer profile: Studio LIBERTINY

The work of Tomas Gabzdil Libertiny, a Slovakian-born designer based in the Netherlands, can best be described as obsessive-compulsive. But this complete devotion to his craft also leads to his profound and moving design experiments. As an example, he has recently created a Bic stained cabinet which gets its hue from collecting hundreds of Bic pens, breaking them open, and harvesting all of the ink to cover his cabinet. The result is a cabinet with a durable, dreamlike blue hue. He has also created a writing table whose top is built from twenty-two thousand strips of paper turned on end to create a soft and plyable writing surface. It’s sort of like a writing on the side of a four foot thick book.

Studio L I B E R T I N Y.

Designer Profile: Sander Mulder

Over the years, Sander Mulder has grown to become an international operating design studio, which specializes in the field of furniture-, lighting- and interior design. Our characteristic designs have left their traces in homes, galleries and museums all over the world.

via About | Sander Mulder.

Contemporary DESIGNERS Profile 1

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:24:00 +0000

Contemporary DESIGNERS Profile 1

Designer Profile: Karl Zahn

I know nothing about Karl Zahn except that months ago he sent me an email wondering if I might feature his stuff, and he is a genius. Why a genius? Just take a look at some of his clever product designs:

How about cleat 2, a new outlet cover design that is actually a hell of a lot more useful than any design made today, but it’s relatively price sensitive.

How about a coin saver in place of a light switch? I like this. I almost wish when you dropped in a coin it would give you light for the amount of time the quarter was worth just so you could be atuned to your spending. Here are a number of other project images which I will let speak for themselves:

boiler design office.

Designer Profile: Dripta Roy and Puur

Puur: Baby C cradle

Puur is a design Studio based in three locations: Austrialia, The Netherlands and Canada. Only in the twenty first century can you say something like this with a company that is only three people. Their work is charactreized by clean, curvilinear lines and expressive solutions for their design problems. My favorite of their pieces is the Baby C cradle seen on the left. This is a completely rethought form for carrying your child, and I find its simplicity refreshing. The materials for this piece are walnut and white plastic which exemplify the restrained pallette of Puur.

: Puur Magic lounge chair

: Puur Earthquake clock

: Puur Plat table and lighting

: Puur Blaas shelf

: Puur: Baby C cradle

Designer Profile: Paul Loebach

Paul Loebach is a Brooklyn based designer and woodworkers who’s roots are in Cincinnati. His work is characterized by a deep love for the craft of wood and pushing the limits on its traditions.

For instance in his seating piece, Chair-o Space, Loebach uses the iconic turned wood legs which at first glance seems so simple. But, the legs’ curvature leaves me wondering “how did he do that”? As of today, I still don’t know. I can’t imagine the legs were produced on a simple lathe because the eccentricity would cause the legs to fly off of the machine, I would think. There is some underlying cleverness that, almost like a magician, is held in close confidence by Mr. Loebach. His pieces are all similar in that they are like sculptural puzzles that seem subtle but cary a deeper meaning the more you observe and use them.

I’ve included a link to his article below the images. Definitely have a look.

: Paul Loebach Vase Space wood Table and Vases

: Paul Loebach Chair-o Space

: Paul Loebach Shelf Space

: Paul Loebach Chair-o Space

: Paul Loebach Hangman

: Paul Loebach Shelf Space

: Paul Loebach Half Mirror

: Paul Loebach Stepstools

: Paul Loebach Chair-o Space wood chair

: paul loebach speed metal candleholder

Paul Loebach.

Designer Profile: La Chanh Nguyen - Moss Bath Mat

At my firm, David Baker + Partners, we’ve really been getting into green roofs. Green roofs are basically grassy pads of moss and other plants that sit on your roof to help keep the heat in in the winter and cool in in the summer. This bath mat brings a bit of the green roof inside and puts it under your feet. I love it mainly because I love the feel of moss on my feet, but having one of these mats would seem to also save you time and money… and energy because you never have to clean it. I’d like to smell one of these things after a year’s time.

Designer Profile:Drew Flaherty

Drew Flaherty is an amazing illustrator, designer and animator with an extensive portfolio of truly amazing work. Honestly his portfolio has some of the most amazing stuff I’ve seen in a long time and its hard for me to imagine that one person can be so talented and so creative in multiple areas.

Designer Spotlight - Drew Flaherty - www.drewflaherty.com

Designer Profile:Alexander Egger

Alexander Egger is an Italian designer, illustrator, writer, musician and all around creative genius living in Vienna. He has worked on a variety of projects for clients such as Adidas, BMW, Sony and T-Mobile just to name a few.

Designer Spotlight - Alexander Egger

Designer Profile: Rob Brearly

RGB Studio is run by Rob Brearly a graphic designer and art director with amazing talent. Rob Brearly is based in the UK where he creates works of art for major companies such as PlayStationÂ®, Harvey Nichols, The Advanced Digital Institute and more. His work is impeccable and it is displayed beautifully on his portfolio website rgbstudio.co.uk.

Studio Spotlight - RGB Studio (Rob Brearly) - www.rgbstudio.co.uk

AMAZING DESIGNs by ARMs and AMMUNITIONs

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:15:00 +0000

AMAZING DESIGN by ARMS and AMMUNITION

“Bullet Proof Vest”

(images via: Art from the Soul)

Artist Ross Rodriquez made this ‘bulletproof vest’ with 30 caliber rifle shells. The artist, who usually works in printmaking and film, often explores the theme of gun violence in urban America.

Bullet Elephant

(image via: Derek Farr)

Spotted by Derek Farr at the Detroit Zoo, this elephant is a little… different than the ones roaming around outside. It’s a sculpture created by Mary Engel, who says of her creation, ” Elephants have become endangered due to the “gold” of the elephant, its ivory tusks. The bullets which make this sculpture are beautiful but menacing, as they remind us of humans’ destruction of exotic creatures”.

Art Made with Submachine Guns, Rocket Fuel and Pyrotechnics

(image via: Connect Savannah)

Matt Stromberg is not your typical art professor. The Savannah College of Art and Design professor of sculpture uses anything but typical materials and methods in his work. Stromberg began wondering if he could carve with a submachine gun after watching a colleague work with a pneumatic chisel, which makes similar sounds while in use. That led to his current projects, in which he ‘sculpts’ metal panels with rocket fuel, explosives, pyrotechnics, propellants and, yes, bullets. Stromberg had to go through special training and get licensed to use these materials.

“I think it’s really a fancy way of doing what every artist does,” Stromberg says. “The result is the same as if I grabbed a chunk of charcoal and drew on paper I was going to detonate.”

High-Speed Bullet Photography

(images via: David Neff)

Photographer David Neff keeps his techniques top secret, declining to divulge any details as to how he captures such amazing images. In this series of high-speed bullet photography, he fires .22 bullets at various objects like pears, crayons and cigarettes and takes the photo just as the bullet is grazing or passing through them. The result is a visually stunning reminder of just how destructive bullets can be.

Furniture and Sculpture Made from Discarded Cambodian Weapons

(images via: fresh home)

Sculptor Sasha Constable saw opportunity in the 125,000 weapons that were discarded by the Cambodian government after 30 years of war. Constable, along with a small arms specialist with the European Union, used the guns to create furniture and sculptures in The Peace Art Project Cambodia (PAPC) in November 2003. Among the items created were a coffee table, dining chair, settee, rocking chair and elephant sculpture.

Life Size Wax Figures with Cannon Wounds

(image via: aeroplastics.net)

Two life size male and female wax statues give us an idea of just how damaging a 20mm cannon wound really is in “A Memory of Matter” by Petroc Dragon Sesti. In these works, Sesti sought to explore “the stillness of terminal violence”. The figures were made in collaboration with the British Army, created from hard wax heated to human body temperature to reveal a moment of mutilation frozen in time.

Reliquaries Made of Guns and Ammunition

(images via: Al Farrow)

Artist Al Farrow combined religious imagery with guns and bullets to startling effect in his 2001 series, ‘Reliquaries’. The sculptures are an ironic play on the medieval cult of the relic as well as a statement about continued ties between war and religion. Farrow says that in the making of these pieces, he was absolutely astonished at the ease with which one can procure huge amounts of gun related paraphernalia.

Website Designs and the Color is BLUE

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:44:00 +0000

Website Designs and the Color is BLUE

If you have ever designed a website such as these blue website designs, than you probably have had to come up with a color scheme or were given a color scheme to work with. Choosing colors is often the first and one of the most important steps of any deign process. All colors have connotations and perceived meanings and this could this should be kept in mind when you design, but sometimes its as simple as needing to match a companies existing identity system colors.

Whatever you design situation may be, its nice to be able to quickly look over websites with similar color schemes to get an idea what has been done. Our large showcase of blue websites should help you get into the “Blue Zone” if you ever find yourself working with this color.

Amazing Design: LIGHT

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:19:00 +0000

Amazing Design: LIGHT

Gone are the days when lighting was a background feature designed to showcase the rest of your home. Now, thanks to material and technological advances such as new forms of affordable, versatile LED lighting, the way you light your home has become just as important as what’s being illuminated. These 20 wildly unconventional examples would hog the limelight in any home.

(Images via: Yanko Design and Habitat)

The natural world is clearly the inspiration for the Arbre branch-like lighting system and the Akiko pendant light. You build the Arbre yourself, fitting its sections together until it’s winding up your wall or across your ceiling in exactly the way you want it to - while the metal and glass Akiko should probably be housed somewhere just out of reach, in case someone’s feeling peckish and tries their luck.

(Image via: Bruce Munro and Freshome)

We are generally heavy-handed when it comes to outdoor lighting, hence the problem of light pollution. This gorgeous alternative is the work of Bruce Munro, and is formed of acrylic tubes containing optical fibers - fields and fields of them. The design is currently being showcased at the Eden Project in England, but as soon as it’s an affordable option in the marketplace, expect to see these glowing softly in every garden.

(Images via: Gascoals and Pure Design Company)

Maybe there’s such a thing as imitating Nature a little too much. The paper and textile Cocoon lampshade from Julie Roberts looks for all the world like it is the remnants of something that scuttles on rather too many legs. If you’re comfortable with feeling like something could leap out from behind the sofa at any moment, it’s a gorgeous centrepiece to any room. Rock Salt lamps will also look strangely familiar to movie buffs, or those familiar with Temples of Doom.

(Images via: Petites Prodcutions and enPieza)

Well. All we can say is that some designers have a rather ghoulish sense of humor. If adding the “soothing” ambience of a gibbet tugs your rope, then the Suspension light and the Colgao table lamp will grace your home nicely. If you have teenagers with angsty tendencies, best avoided.

(Images via: Steven Haulenbeek)

The inspiration for the Cumulus lighting system is obviously the kind of summery day where you lay on your back, watching feathery clouds scud across the sky. Steven Haulenbeek’s method of cloudmaking is to string clusters of white umbrellas together, backlighting them and hanging them upside-down - and as you can see, it works beautifully.

(Images via: Trendhunter and Nicolas Gonzalez Garrido)

Man’s best friend? That’s the idea behind the Lightmate heated and illuminated body pillow, designed to be hugged and wrapped around the wearer / user. It certainly is a striking design - Trendhunter compared it to a length of intestine - and there’s no denying its practicality, but perhaps something that looks a little less…biological? On aesthetically safer ground is Nicolas Gonzalez Garrido’s Guide Dog Lamp, which lights up when you whistle for it.

(Image via: Steve Bishop)

It’s impossible to outstare a cat - unless you are another cat. Steve Bishop has fashioned a quirky floor lamp out of a feline staring-match. Lay your bets on the winner (and be sure to watch your feet when you move around).

(Images via: 2Jane and Elsewares)

Kaboom! The name of this lampshade suggests it will blossom into pieces at any moment, but belies its construction from stretchy loops that spring back into place when you’ve pulled them. With a far more evident explosive vibe, the Grenade Oil Lamp was once indeed a US grenade (surplus), now rendered perfectly safe and hollow. Make sure you neglect to tell your house-guests this fact, and watch their faces when you light it.

(Images via: Thinkgeek and DesignZen)

No, these lamps are not candles, but you treat them much the same way. When you’re finished with your Bi-Color LED Light, blow across the top of it to snuff it out. The Curly Sue imitates a different form of lighting, the dimmer switch: by adjusting the light-reflecting spiral shade you control the lamp’s brightness, and when you’re done, you press it in like a cafetiere.

(Images via: Home Decor Ideas 101 and greenUPGRADER)

Some designers look at milk cartons and see lampshades. If you’re regularly beset by the midnight munchies, or go to work at a truly hideous hour of the morning, the Atomic Factory Milk Carton lamp belongs on your kitchen table. Taking the idea and running with it are Play Design’s Alexandru Adam and Steven Koch - they supply all the components you need to turn your used plastic milk jugs into fashionable and practical lighting with an unambiguous environmental message.

(Images via: Technabob)

This glowing sea of plastic ribs is called the Mobile Lights system. Each LED-studded unit contains solar cells that soak up the sun’s energy during the day and emit it during the evening, hung from the ceiling with tough nylon fishing line. No external power source needed - and the reflection in your windows should look fabulous.

(Images via: 3Rings)

Hanging in the middle of the room looks spectacular, but if you want your lighting to be as unobtrusive as possible, Torn lighting might be just the thing you’re looking for. Each of the LED units is designed to be camouflaged as part of your room, giving the illusion of the wallpaper peeling back to emit a steady glow. The three designs are winingly titled “Hangnail”, “Dog Ear and “Crevice”.

(Images via: Hyomi Kim)

And lastly, designer Hyomi Kim has rethought bathroom lighting (always a tricky topic, as the bathroom is the last place you want lamps balanced on shelves). As with the Torn system, Kim’s approach is to build the lights directly into the wall in the form of strip-lighting that runs along the edge of tiled surfaces. If you’re feeling creative and a little narcissistic, the range of shapes on offer should allow you to spell out your name!

AGAIN Green DESIGN & Architecture 2

event69@gmail.com (anandgupta) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:19:00 +0000

AGAIN Green DESIGN, STUFFS & Architecture 2

The Landmark Cyber Park: India’s Cutting Edge IT Hub

The construction industry is booming in India, and skyscrapers are lining the country’s skyline. Much of this development does not integrate sustainable features, however many architects and planners have realized the importance of green building practices, and many new buildings and housing projects have adopted green technologies. In line with these developments, India’s new Cyber Park IT hub is vying to be one of the greenest sites in the country.

The Cyber Park is situated in sector 67 of Gurgaon city, India’s new business destination and economic hub. The park will be built on 1.5 million square feet of land and boast 100% wi-fi support, fiber-optic connectivity, and 100% power back-up, all of which are prerequisites of any IT industry. The facade has been designed facing North and North East to help mitigate the heat of the tropical South.

The park will incorporate several green design strategies. The building will be energy efficient, significantly reducing energy costs. The external walls will be clad to reflect the sun and insulate the interior work areas. Natural light will shine into working areas without heating up the structure, which reduces the need for lighting during the daytime. Terrace gardens in the sky courts will help to cool the interior, and will be irrigated by the structure’s water recycling systems. The design also integrates rainwater harvesting and ground water recharge. These eco-friendly features will cut the structure’s energy use by over 35 percent.

Other amenities include a swimming pool on the top of the terrace, business centers, conference rooms, and a recreation center, health club, and library with a helipad on the rooftop.

+ Landmark Cyber Park

+ Christopher Charles Benninger Architects

Via The Hindu

The iconic park has been designed by Christopher Charles Benninger Architects, a reputable design house that aims to “seek the poetry in the place, the lyricism in the built-forms and vibrancy in the inhabitants’ lives.” The project is scheduled to be completed over the next three years.

New Green Complex in China by Steven Holl

Architect Steven Holl always appeals to our sustainable side, capturing our imagination with beautiful designs that incorporate both social and environmental responsibility. His new design for a mixed use development in China is bringing a green sensibility to the skyline of Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan. The ‘Sliced Porosity Block’ will house offices, apartments, retail, a hotel, cafes and restaurants within five towers and a multi-level plaza rivaling Rockefeller Center. This high-performance building will integrate green strategies in heating, cooling, lighting and materials to attain an LEED gold certification.

The design is meant to draw natural daylight into the plaza where three ponds play multiple roles, including skylights to a six-story retail space below. The eccentric shapes of the towers allow vertical space to be filled within this urban setting without blocking daylight from neighboring buildings. Within the voids of the staggered construction, three pavilions will create distinct spaces, each created by a different designer including Steven Holl, Lebbeus Woods and Ai Wei Wei.

+ Sliced Porosity Block
+ Steven Holl Architects

The ‘Sliced Porosity Block’ will use a geoexchange system to heat and cool the buildings. Ponds within the plaza will harvest rainwater and provide habitat for natural water vegetation – which will help moderate and cool ambient temperatures. The buildings will use high-performance glazing, energy-efficient equipment and locally sourced materials. Construction is expected to be completed by 2010.

STEVEN HOLLS’S HERNING CENTER OF THE ARTS

A few days ago we got word that the Herning Center of the Arts building, designed by Steven Holl, broke ground in Denmark. As with other projects by Holl, this building is a playful combination of light, shape and meaning that manages to work both as a museum and as an architectural showpiece.

Designed just over two years ago, the Herning Centre of the Arts building brings together three cultural institutions: the Herning Art Museum, the MidWest ensemble and the Socle du Monde. The 5,600 square meter building will house permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, a 150-seat auditorium, music rehearsal rooms, a restaurant, a media library and administrative offices.

Inspiration came from the old fabric building which houses the existing art collection. To emphasize the link with its prior history, a textile mesh was used in the formwork of the concrete, giving it a rough, textile-like texture. Natural daylight is brought in through the curved roofs to the gallery spaces which, as per the curator’s requirements, had to be designed to be completely movable to accommodate future use.

In keeping with the fabric theme of the museum, the shape of the building was created to resemble a collection of shirtsleeves when viewed from above, while the roof structure is essentially a high-tech stressed skin structure giving the impression of being within a tent.

Furthermore, the building was created on a completely flat site, which provided the opportunity for the building to break up the site, creating the idea of a series of grassy knolls. To do this, the design team incorporated a green roof and reflecting pools on top of the parking structure. Other sustainable features involve gray water recycling and a geothermal HVAC system.

+ Steven Holl Architects
+ Herning Center of the Arts

You may think that we have a small obsession with Steven Holl (see here, here, here, here, here and here), but it’s hard to not be excited whenever a new Holl design surfaces. His buildings have always brought us architectural experimentation of science, color, shape and light, and this new building should be no exception.

Steven Holl’s Proposal for the Hudson Yards

We can’t help but love Steven Holl, so when we saw his design proposal for the Hudson Yards in NYC, we once again marveled at how good he is at creating responsible, human, and sustainable design that is just as wonderful and intriguing as the best architecture out there. Granted, this design is a proposal, but alas, we can still marvel at the beauty of great design.

The site is located right at the Eastern and Western Rail Yards and, essentially, is the last undeveloped site in midtown Manhattan. As part of an attempt to revitalize the area, Mayor Bloomberg and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority opened the site to proposals for the air space on top of the rail yards themselves. Therefore, Extell Development Company selected Steven Holl Architects to put forward a proposal that would give them the rights to the site.

The site poses serious challenges, chief amongst them is the fact that the rail yards, where the trains are stored at the end of their daily service, must be kept operational during and after the construction of the site. Holl’s proposal calls for using the areas that aren’t covered by the rail lines themselves. It’s these filled sites where the development of the residential, retail, commercial, and educational components will be located.

What’s surprising about this proposal is the idea of covering the entirety of the rail yards with a suspended roof garden, which will be landscaped in a manner similar to that of New York’s Central Park. This park will not only serve as much needed green space within the development and the city, but will also contain a water strip that will collect and purify the rainwater from the site. The location and orientation of this park will ensure that it will have generous light and wonderful views of the city’s skyline. It will also contain an outdoor amphitheater and a performance hall for public events.

Building-wise, the project calls for a mixture of residential, retail, and commercial spaces, as well as a performance arts school. Of note are the six residential towers to the south side of the Western Yards. These oddly shaped towers aren’t designed just on the whims of the architect. Rather, they are designed according to a rigorous sun angle study, with the intent of bringing and lighting different areas of the park throughout the day and the years. The entire proposal will also make use of geothermal exchange, gray and storm-water recycling, a cogeneration plant, and high performance buildings. But it’s the park that’s expected to bring the most benefits to the development, creating a microclimate on the site and reducing the energy demands of the railways below.

+ Steven Holl’s proposal for the Hudson Yards

This proposal was created to achieve the goals set out in the PlanNYC project in New York City. Other proposals have been submitted for the site, and you can see them if you are in Manhattan at the northwest corner of 43rd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue.

Spiraling Calatrava Chicago Tower to be World’s 2nd tallest

Chicago Spire skyscraper, Santiago Calatrava, Santiago Calatrava architect, Santiago Calatrava Chicago, sustainable building Chicago, green building Chicago, LEED Gold Chicago, LEED certified buildings Chicago, rainwater recycling in skyscrapers, high performance glass facades, geothermal cooling in skyscrapers, world

Chicago’s city skyline is about to be graced by a stunning new super-structure that will rise above its shore like a helical seashell. Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the 2000 foot Chicago Spire will be the world’s second tallest building upon its completion in 2011. The halcyon monolith is beautiful example of biomimicry, taking cues from the spiraling structure of the nautilus. It’s an iconic spire with a timeless form that will take strong future-forward steps with a projected LEED gold rating.

The Chicage Spire has been called the world’s most significant residential building, featuring 150 floors and 1,194 residences. The slender structure rotates each floor an average of 2.44 degrees to total 360 degrees from top to bottom, guaranteeing that no two views are the same. Calatrava explains: “what distinguishes this building from any other tall building . . . is that this building is not done for a corporation, or a group of corporations, it is done for individual human beings”

“Inspired by nature, by the interaction of earth, water, and air,” the structure is replete with biomorphic elements. Its helical form incorporates the golden mean and the Fibonacci sequence to closely mirror the spiraling growth of the nautilus shell. Calatrava states “the principles I follow are based on repetition. This reminds you of nature because nature often works in patterns.”
The sparkling super-structure incorporates a variety of sustainable elements, including a fluid facade shrouded in high performance glass that has been designed to protect migratory birds. All landscaping is maintained via a rainwater recycling system, and a geothermal system draws river water to cool the building. The entire interior is outfitted with an Intelligent Building & Energy Management System, and it bests energy efficiency standards by 15 percent.

+ The Chicago Spire
+ Santiago Calatrava

Via Associated Construction Publications

Lately we’ve seen Chicago bolstering its eminent architectural heritage with scores of stunning projects and sustainable initiatives; this latest project is sure to be a sustainable gem that will channel and exemplify the ardency of these efforts.

As fears of global warming induced population displacement are steadily realized, the allure of waterborne aquatecture becomes more and more enticing. Designed by Alexander Asadov, this incredible floating Aerohotel features a lighter-than-air aesthetic that sits serenely atop an elegant system of supports. Conceived as an elevated aquatic structure replete with hanging gardens, the space-age floating island preserves the entire extent of the ecosystem beneath it, contrasting with man-made islands that disrupt their immediate environment with tons of gravel fill.

Asadov’s Aerohotel consists of a 200 meter wide circular hub lofted by an interlacing network of supports anchored by three arms that stretch to the bottom of its site. The structure’s body will contain cafés, restaurants, and winter gardens in addition to a hotel. The Aerohotel can be installed in any body of water, and the plans include docking arrangements for boats as well as a landing strip for a zeppelin - how slick is that?

+ A.Asadov Architectural Studio

Via World Architecture News

Asadov Architectural Studio states that one of the benefits of the floating island is that it has “significantly less costs for construction against the gravel works. At this almost all the basin area under the construction is still untouched, thus improving the project’s ecological value.” If the current tides of global warming aren’t stemmed, we’ll certainly be looking towards more floating architectural solutions such as this.