Brad Downey is familiar with both sides of the art world, with a fine arts degree and gallery exhibitions, on the one hand, and run-ins with the authorities about his sometimes-unsanctioned street art on the other.

His work is harder to describe that it is to simply see, since it is often in the most public places you could imagine (or documented via extensive photography) – erupting from sidewalks, disrupting bicycle lanes or literally ripping up cobbled streets

Per the pictures, sometimes these installations transpose ideas and objects from other contexts, but they also frequently warp existing everyday objects like bicycles, cars, signs, benches, shopping carts and garbage cans.

Sometimes he works alone – sometimes collaboratively. Some of his pieces are stand-alones and one-offs while others form sets, like Wedging (shown above), which is a series of experiments of balance and obstruction in alleys with ordinary household items.

He has had run-ins with police while working in cities ranging from London to Amsterdam, on both art and guerrilla marketing projects performed in that gray area of public and possible vandalism.

Adding a swimming pool or hot tub means displacing something else – usually a outdoor lawn, yard or deck or dedicated room inside a house. But what if you could have the best of both worlds: a usable space or surface replaced by a body of water when you want it?

These designs effectively let you walk on walk on water, in a sense, thanks to dynamic and on-demand functionality right beneath your feet. Designers of the exterior and interior swimming and wading pools (as well as hot tubs) shown here include companies like Hydrofloors (images above) and Agor (video below).

At the push of a button, decking descends autometically and water fills in the void left behind – conceal, reveal, rise and repeat as desired, turning a cocktail into a pool party and back again.

Depending on the nature of user needs, the mechanically-controlled platforms lower to become pool bottoms but also steps down into the resulting water.

Aside from issues of cost (and one can only imagine how expensive such custom solutions must be – there are no list prices), the question that remains, of course, is: how hard is it to clean and maintain? Perhaps if you have enough money to afford to build one of these liquid luxury machines, that price point is moot.

A broad stripe of bright paint in a zig-zag pattern contrasts with muted, understated urban surroundings in the latest urban art installation by artist duo Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann. Working together since 1990 as Lang-Baumann, the artists bring unexpected visuals to public spaces. Street Painting #7 in Rennes, France will be visible in the heart of town until May 25, 2014.

The installation was applied directly to the asphalt using road marking paint, introducing a new sense of vibrancy and modernity to this historic city block. The painting obliterates expectations for the type of public art that’s acceptable for this kind of setting.

Six previous geometric street paintings have graced smaller, even quainter communities like the picturesque Vercorin, Switzerland, as well as major cities like Moscow.

Other works by Lang-Baumann are similarly disruptive, including inflatable parasitic sculptures clinging to the sides of buildings, and terrifying stairs to nowhere that will make your stomach drop just from looking at the photos.

3D printing has enabled designers to take the manufacturing process into their own hands for the creation of one-of-a-kind objects, many of which you can buy to liven up your home decor. The computer-generated designs are printed in three dimensions in materials like plastic, ceramic and metal, and are often based on mathematical algorithms. Here are 14 lamps, light switches, tea cups and more that are available for purchase.

Jellyfish Lamp Shade

This intricate two-piece Jellyfish lampshade was designed using fractal techniques and 3D computer-aided design methods, inspired by a modified Mandelbulb fractal. The dangling ‘tentacles’ are chains that billow around in the wind. It works with a standard IKEA bulb kit.

Aqueduct Mini Planter Set

This 10-pack of Aqueduct Mini Planters hooks together into a modular system that shares water from one unit to the next. The water flows from the top planters into the bottom. Made up of 3 double-channel planters and 7 single-channel planters, it can be assembled in all sorts of configurations and hooked up with additional sets to create window-sized screens of plants.

Switch-a-Lope

This fun light switch plate adds both visual interest and extra functionality: the antlers can be used as hooks for keys or to hold your cell phone.

Star Lamp

You can get this cool star lamp customized to a specific place, date and time in history to reproduce the sky of a special moment, like when you were born. Printed in sandstone and fitted with a battery-operated light, it makes for a cool accent lamp or night light.

1st Floor Mug

Says the designer of this unusual 3D-printed mug, “In the grand manner of the very best salons of old, this mug is raised up on an arcade so that it may occupy the airy summit of its own ‘Piano Nobile’. Elevated above the common detritus of your breakfast table, this dining item elegantly maintains the dignified sanctity of your morning brew.”

Pencil Icosahedron

Build your own three-dimensional Icosahedron out of 30 pencils using a simple kit of 3D-printed plastic joints. The resulting object can be used as a functional lampshade, a toy or decor. You can even adjust the size by using shorter or longer pencils.

Birds Nest Egg Cup

Put a bird (back) on your egg with these cute little 3D-printed egg cups, which will hold medium eggs or flex to accommodate larger-sized eggs.

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Decor On Demand 14 3d Printed Home Accents

For all its art and controversy, the desert is perhaps the most unique defining characteristic of Black Rock City, home of the Burning Man Festival in rural Nevada. Potentially even more challenging than harsh heat and dust storms: Emphermisle, a temporary autonomous zone on the water, coming to California again this year in the middle of July.

From its creators: “We construct a floating city on the Sacramento River Delta and live on it for five days. Ephemerisle has elements of Burning Man in the early 1990s: a new adventure into an alien environment, with discoveries, adventures, and mishaps along the way.” Unlike the current form of Black Rock City, though: “There are no tickets, no central organizers, and no rangers to keep you safe.”

Its creation, though, is about more than just at temporary experience: “Seasteading seeks to move human communities out into the vast expanse of our planet covered in water. Ephemerisle gives an introduction into the physical challenges of being water and learning ways to deal with them. It also provides for small scale experimentation in differing forms of governance.”

Atossa Abrahamian describes the experience of arriving this year at the event, with its patchwork neighborhoods,  impromptu parties and unpredictable ad hoc public transit system: “It looked, at first, like a shapeless pile of floating junk, but as the boat drew closer, a sense of order emerged. The island was made up of two rows of houseboats, anchored about a hundred feet apart, with a smaller cluster of boats and yachts set off to the west. The boats had been bound together with planks, barrels, cleats, and ropes, assembled ad-hoc by someone with at least a rudimentary understanding of knots and anchors. Residents decorated their decks with banners and flags and tied kayaks and inflatable toys off the sides”

Rest stops and welcome centers are to highway travel what oases are to desert caravans, with one exception: when an oasis dries up, the camels unload anyway.

European? NOT HERE!

(image via: Neoamaru)

Making a run for the border? Not so fast… this abandoned rest stop on the border between France and Belgium no longer offers a welcome break for weary travelers; one imagines the Wehrmacht was rather put out. Kudos to Flickr user Neomaru for capturing this curious relic of modern architecture in its currently colorful yet sadly forlorn state.

No Rest For The Wicked

(images via: Midwest Roads)

We don’t make a habit of ignoring road signs (and neither should you) but in this case we’ll make an exception: the rest stop at milepost 104 on US 41 southbound, about 3 miles north of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, hasn’t existed since some time in the mid-1990s. So then, does the sign advise the next rest stop is 21 miles further down the road or that this is (was) the last rest stop FOR 21 miles? Why not both?

(images via: Midwest Roads)

Scott Kuznicki visited the location of this late and unlamented rest stop on October 5, 2002… we don’t know why, but he’s got the photos to prove he (and the rest stop) was/were there. Maybe he just needed an alibi. Anyway, as you can see there’s not much evidence for the rest stop’s existence besides fencing and faded stripes on the road.

The CHiPs Are Down

(images via: Wikimapia)

Rest stops in California are funded and maintained by the state’s Department of Transportation, known as CalTrans. While many rest stops in remote areas were closed relatively recently due to California’s never-ending fiscal crisis, the rest stop whose remnants linger on Highway 99 bit the dust in the early 1980s. It did have one claim to fame while still standing, though: an episode of the popular TV crime drama CHiPs centered around an accidentally abandoned baby left at a rest stop… THIS rest stop.

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Go Somewhere Else 8 Abandoned Roadside Rest Stops

You might have fond memories of sharing a Coca-Cola with a special person, but those memories probably involve a glass and two straws. This clever marketing campaign lets you split your Coke can right in the middle to share it easily.

The “Sharing Can” is a clever design that allows you to split apart a normal-size Coca-Cola can with a simple twist. The top and bottom halves separate, giving you two half-size Cokes – one for you and one to share.

The design is simple but clever along with being visually striking. These cute little cans would be the perfect conversation starter for getting to know someone.

Splitting your Coke with someone else would also be better for your health than drinking a whole can on your own. Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing them in stores or machines anytime soon. The “Sharing Can” was a limited-time campaign in Singapore.

Social media was invented to bring people closer, but the more antisocial among us can use it in a different way: to avoid the people we know. ‘Hell is Other People‘ is an interactive smartphone app that will show you exactly where your friends are based on Foursquare check-ins, and provide ‘safe zones’ where you can hang out without fear of being recognized.

Using the GPS function on your phone and your contacts’ public check-ins or location updates on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other social media, the app will show you yellow points on a map that indicate where your friends are. The green points represent ‘safe zones.’

Of course, the map only works if your friends are avid social media users, checking in to virtually every place they go, and you still run the risk of running into them when they’re in route. You also might be relegated to unexpected places in the city. But as creator Scott notes in the video, “It’s kind of nice that I’ve been pushed into parks.”

Tagging is typically considered an urban art. At the very least you need walls to write on, right? Not necessarily – some clever artists have started to stretch cellophane between any available supports, making paint-ready surfaces out of thin air.

Suddenly, rural settings (sans buildings) are fair game – mountains and forests can become backdrops for spray-painted expression. The translucent nature of the plastic ‘canvas’ employed adds a fascinating layer of visual complexity for artists like Ches working in the cold winters around Moscow, Russia (above).

None of which is to say that city contexts will not work for this alternative approach. In fact, the temporary, light and portable nature of the surface material makes it an easy sell for would-be critics who might not approve of tagging on concrete, brick or other more permanent walls.

Sites like Cellograff feature stretched-plastic installations in impressively central places, including major urban parks, museums and monument sites in and around Paris, France. These two short time-lapse films show how the process works from start to finish.

Out of four recent proposals for a radical overhaul of Penn Station in New York City, this concept by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP is far and away the most dramatic – and arguably the most inspiring as well.

Drawing on the success of The High Line, an elevated park in the same city, this project solution from SOM proposes lifting city life to new heights and integrating a new version of Madison Square Garden, boldly suspended in midair.

Below, the main station itself sits as a dome over the underground transit hub. Meanwhile, the mega-block is anchored by towers at its four corners, with offices occupying the lower floors and residential stories above.

On the one hand, this multi-layered result consolidates central activities around a newly-refocused core. On the other, it opens up shared green park space on a series of levels, blending intentionality with optionality.

While conceptually simple, the design is … challenging from an engineering standpoint, to put it mildly, and more idealistic than realistic at this point. Hanging so much structure over such a distance stretches the limits of the imagination, but that practical weakness is also the visionary strength of the proposal, for better and worse.

A highly unusual houseboat bobs on the surface of the River Beaulieu in Hampshire, UK. ‘Exbury Egg‘ is a floating, mobile live-in laboratory used to study the wildlife of the estuary. Made of cedar using traditional boat-building techniques, this egg-shaped office includes a hammock, a desk, a stove and a bathroom.

Artist Stephen Turner collaborated with Perring Architecture & Design to develop the concept for the office and bring it to life. Measuring 6×3 meters (about 10×20 feet), the Exbury Egg is just large enough to house the necessary functions, including integral storage and display areas.

The egg is constructed mostly from reused and reclaimed cedar and other local, often scavenged materials. While the exterior is laminated, it will be allowed to take on a natural patina over time from exposure to sun and water. It is anchored to the shore, and rises and falls with the tide.

Turner intends to stay within the egg as he immerses himself in the natural setting, observing the cycles and processes that keep the estuary healthy. “The artwork created will stem from Stephen’s occupation, developing through direct experience an understanding of local natural cycles and processes and the relationship of the environment to the narratives of human activity in the unending calendar of seasonal life,” says the design team.

Look out – communists are infiltrating the country with nefarious plans to sterilize our men, steal our women and convert children! Dramatic and overwrought, anti-communist ads and propaganda from the Cold War era attempted to inspire loyalty to democracy and fear of the atomic bomb-wielding enemy – and at the same time, somehow soothe Americans’ concerns about the possibility of ‘total destruction.’ These 15 examples include ads for everything from telephone services to milk, as well as pamphlets, comic books and films.

After Total War Can Come Total Living

(image via: wikis.nyu.edu)

Would this poster make you feel any better about the possibility of total nuclear annihilation? The government distributed propaganda like this during the Cold War to soothe the fears of U.S. citizens after the military strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) Doctrine was put into place, which proclaimed that if either the United States or the Soviet Union dropped a bomb, the other would drop one in retaliation, continuing until both countries were destroyed.

Sure I Want to Fight Communism – But How?

(image via: brynmawrcollections.org)

The average citizen couldn’t exactly go out and ‘fight communism’ in any real way, but they were given plenty of small ways to support the cause. The public was asked to donate “truth dollars” to support causes like Radio Free Europe, which aimed to “keep up the morale of the Communist-ruled peoples, and express the kinship of the free nations, with the captive peoples.”

If Russia Should Win

(image via: doninmass.com)

“If Russia and the Communists should win the next world war, many American men would be sterilized. In case the Communists should conquer, our women would be helpless beneath the boots of the Asiatic Russians.”

Take a Good Look

(image via: michigan civil defense)

“Take a good look,” urges this advertisement, alongside an image of an undressed woman protecting her modesty. But it’s not really the woman that the Federal Sign and Signal Corporation wants you to notice. They’re just using her to call your attention to their air raid warning signal. “Other matters may have taken your attention, but few if any can be more important.”

Is Your Washroom Breeding Bolsheviks?

(image via: the society pages)

This advertisement might seem like a joke, but it’s a real vintage Scot Tissue ad that first appeared in the 1930s. “Employees lose respect for a company that fails to provide decent facilities for their comfort,” it reads.

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The Red Menace 15 Vintage Anti Communist Ads Propaganda

Two very similar designs with somewhat different audiences, Multiplo emphasizes their kit-of-parts approach as a means toward making convertible adult furniture, while Gogo Blocks are presented as a way for children to build their own play spaces, forts and mazes.

Sinclair Smith designed the Blocks as a student project, and, when he came across Multiplo, celebrated and encouraged HeyTeam‘s development of its parallel project.

But the blocks can work as furniture too, writes Smith: “Gogo blocks are a children’s play system of foam pillows for building and imagining, and are specifically scaled to form a twin mattress for sleepover guests.”

As to Multiplo: users are welcome to invent their own configurations and transformations, but core starting suggestions include couches, beds and a square lounge pit for seating groups. Also, the color palette is a bit more passable for older users (at least: young adults), being somewhat less colorful than that of its cousin, Gogo.

Does maintaining a sizable amount of your living space for a single purpose that’s only required for a short period each day really make sense? What if you could simply switch out the function? ‘Elastic Living’ by Italian furniture maker CLEI makes it possible to do just that with sliding shelving units for different purposes that can be moved out of the way when you don’t need them.

The modular spaces all fit together into one big rectangular box when not in use. Need the kitchen? Slide it out, cook, and then put it back up when you’re done. The same goes for the living room, bedroom, bathroom, home office, gym and closets.

Inspired by library wall racks, the series contains seven different room functions that can easily be ‘filed away.’ It’s meant for a large, open space, like a loft or warehouse, and would be less practical for a home that’s already divided into different rooms.

CLEI is known for transformable furniture that fits lots of function into tight spaces. See more compact, modular furniture including 10 pieces of clever transforming furniture and mini, mobile kitchens.

Sometimes, the setting of a film is almost more important than the plot itself, and that’s particularly true with abandoned places. Crumbling ruins of hospitals, prisons, houses, schools and other facilities seem to host echoes of past residents and events, often radiating a sense of trauma and loss. Of course, the catch – at least, in fiction and fantasy – is that these places aren’t really abandoned after all. Here are 10 (more!) abandonments, real and invented, that feature prominently in scary movies and television shows.

Abandoned Sanitorium – Death Tunnel

Death Tunnel may not be the greatest horror film ever made, but it’s the setting that’s the real star of the show. This 2005 movie about five college women locked into a Kentucky hospital where 63,000 people died from a disease known as the ‘white plague’ was filmed at the real life Waverly Hills Sanitorium in Louisville. And that part about thousands of people dying there? It’s actually true. Treated with little more than fresh air and sunlight in an era before antibiotics, the tuberculosis patients admitted to the hospital invariably ended up in the 500-foot tunnel located beneath the hospital, called a ‘body chute.’ The dead were secretly lowered into the tunnel and loaded on a train so that the remaining patients wouldn’t give up hope that they’d get out alive.

Built in 1910, Waverly Hills closed in 1961 after the advent of advanced medical care drastically reduced the number of patients coming in. Plans are underway to turn it into a hotel that will play up its ‘haunted’ history.

Abandoned Town – Silent Hill

‘Silent Hill’ is based on a real place. This seemingly fictional setting of a series of video games and a movie is based on Centralia, a borough of Pennsylvania that has been abandoned as a result of a mine fire that has burned underground since 1962. Prior to the 1980s, it had about 1,000 residents; there are just a handful left today despite the town being condemned. The blaze beneath Centralia has opened steam pits, sink holes and carbon monoxide vents. The fictional Silent Hill is located in West Virginia, and the reasons for its abandonment are far more frightening.

Abandoned House: The Abandoned

In the 2006 film The Abandoned, an adopted American film producer returns to her hometown in Russia after receiving a phone call from a notary public that she had inherited her family’s abandoned farm. When Marie arrives at the house to learn more about the family she never knew, a man tells her he received the same phone call, and that they’re twins. But once inside, the pair find that the dead residents of the house don’t really want them to leave.

Hidden Subway Tunnel Under London – Raw Meat

Released overseas as ‘Death Line’, Raw Meat is a 1973 movie set in an abandoned subway tunnel under London. Inspired by the many real-life abandoned tube stations of the area, Raw Meat envisions these creepy, darkened subterranean settings filled with a family of cannibals descended from Victorian railway workers.

Abandoned City – New York in I Am Legend

The idea of a once-bustling metropolis utterly abandoned (by humans, anyway) serves as fodder for all sorts of fiction, from books to films. The 2008 adaptation of ‘I Am Legend’ starring Will Smith is just one of many giving us a glimpse of what New York City might look like if it were allowed to fall into ruin, taken back over by the forces of nature. Smith stars as a lone survivor of an epidemic that has turned most of the population into bloodthirsty mutants.

Next Page:
Abandoned On Film 15 Terrifying Desolate Movie Settings

Imagine the possibilities: cities illuminated at night not with carbon dioxide-producing energy sources, but with real glow-in-the-dark trees that light up streets and sidewalks alike.

What started as a Glowing Plant campaign to raise just sixty-five thousand dollars has now ended with ten times that much in funding, all toward one purpose: naturally-glowing, biologically engineered plant life. The seed funding, in both senses, has been secured.

Glowing plants are not new, but crowd-funding the research and gene splicing,  aiming for sustained bioluminescence, and distributing the resulting plants all push into new (and apparently fertile) territories. The project team will start small, with household plants including glowing roses, and work up from there.

Concerned critics, however, have also noted that such ground-up, grass-roots synthetic biology experiments come with risks – including releasing new and untested plant strains into the wild.

With recommendations coming in from folks with Harvard to Singularity University on their resume, ranging to endorsements from known names including Cory Doctrow of BoingBoing, one hopes this team has their house in order. Still, even if the researchers in this case are careful and responsible, who is to say the next project of this type will be devoid of danger?

Like the last episode of M*A*S*H, the choppers won’t be back. These abandoned heliports and helipads stand in silent contrast with their past buzzing busy-ness.

Old Cold Warrior

(image via: Randy52)

Sweeney Ridge in Pacifica, California is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area these days but back in Cold War times it sheltered a SF-51C Nike missile control facility. The sun-blistered helipad above was used to shuttle military personnel and support staff to and from the site. Kudos to Flickr user Randy Lloyd for capturing the eerie loneliness embodied in this long-disused helipad.

District 9 Revisited

(images via: Eduard Grebe, Tropicfruit and Wikipedia)

Only chunks of disarticulated concrete remain of a former heliport located at Mouille Point in Cape Town, South Africa. The gritty war-zone vibe and stark stenciled lettering evoke the disturbing atmosphere that permeated the futuristic 2009 sc-fi film District 9, shot on location in South Africa. Coincidence or just bad vibes?

(image via: Cape Town Daily Photo)

Text and arrow notwithstanding, you wouldn’t want to attempt any landing (by helicopter or otherwise) in this area. Are these the remains of a heliport in situ or have some of the original components been moved to a central scrap storage depot? Will the bits & pieces be reassembled someday by otherworldly refugees trapped in a desperate tug-of-war between brain and prawn? Further discussion on this topic has been banned by the MNU Department of Alien Affairs.

Ukraine Not Weak!

(images via: KyivPost)

When Ukraine was awarded the honor of hosting the Euro 2012 soccer championship, the governmental powers that be decided a brand, spanking new heliport was needed to welcome assorted billionaires, oligarchs and the like. The order was given, $11 million worth of  funding was committed and before long, the city of Kaniv boasted an impressive new heliport with a spiffy glass-walled mini-terminal. Unfortunately, the assorted billionaires, oligarchs and the like DIDN’T like the Kaniv heliport, which these days only impresses those who appreciate infrastructural white elephants.

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As The Whirl Turns 9 Abandoned Heliports Helipads

At its best, advertising is entertaining, even useful. At its worst, it is invasive, abrasive, and perhaps even offensive. IBM’s new campaign from Ogilvy France skirts the line, featuring public objects that are useful but which somewhat invade the urban space.

The Smart Ideas for Smarter Cities campaign includes three billboards that extend out from city walls and into the urban environment. One is an awning of sorts, providing a dry space for residents to get out of the rain or a bit of shade to get out of the sun.

Another is a small bench which gives weary pedestrians the chance to sit down for a moment. The last is a ramp that covers a portion of a small staircase, letting cyclists or luggage-wheeling residents take an easier route.

The campaign is meant to inspire viewers to think differently about their cities and how some elements could be tweaked to be more useful for residents. It’s something of a risk, however, since this invasion of the urban environment may not be welcomed by residents who think that advertising is already too ubiquitous on city streets.

(images via: Fast Company)

Grains of sand arrange themselves into complex geometric patterns according to audio frequencies in these fascinating resonance experiments by Youtube user Brusspup. The sand is sprinkled onto a black metal plate attached to a tone generator, which emits a series of increasing frequencies. The higher the frequencies, the more intricate the designs become.

This experiment is based on the Chiadni plate, invented by German physicist Ernst Chiadni in the 18th century. Chiadni used a violin bow along the edge of a glass plate covered with sand to create visualizations of sound. The plate is divided into regions vibrating in opposite directions, bounded by lines of zero vibration called nodal lines.

The plate was bowed until it reached resonance, at which point the vibration causes the sand to concentrate along the nodal lines where the surface is still. This technique is still used in the design and construction of acoustic instruments like violins and guitars.

Brusspup often experiments with the intersection of science and art. Previous projects have included running water through sound waves to produce incredible zig-zagging shapes, and a sound-based camera trick that makes water appear to travel backwards.

To the uninitiated, used to seeing it but not to reading it, graffiti scrawl can seem illegible. In a play on both tagging and technology, this artist turns traditional tags into computer-style tag clouds, among other geeky street art projects.

Mathieu Tremblin could be criticized for stripping the soul out of the works he modifies, but that is too narrow a reading of his art. He is really not suggesting a better way to graffiti, just commenting on what is there, and making what is right before our eyes already a bit more visible.

In another work, he spoofs the ubiquity of digital watermarks by photographing a physical equivalent straight-on. We are so used to seeing these as after-print overlays on pictures, it takes conscious effort to realize it is part of the actual landscape.

Then, a complete reversal but in much the same mindset: a series of images where he has digitally stripped out graffiti by overlaying patches of Photoshopped color. In this case, it takes some time to recognize this is not just another case of painted-over graffiti removal.

The best of both worlds: guests at this hotel get to enjoy skyscraper-high views and still experience layers of intensive greenery on virtually all levels.

A series of sleek towers rises up from an organic base that provides shelter and visual interest on the lower levels. These curvilinear forms support an interstitial outdoor floor, and can also be found far above, stretched between the towers at upper levels, serving as platforms for lush greenery.

A grid of circular concrete columns pierces the various levels, rising up to support the towers. These provide for the structural needs of the building, but also serve as a transitional design element to bridge the heavier free-form concrete clouds below and the lighter frame-and-cladding rectangles above.

The design by WOHA is meant to be a landmark for its city “Most of Singapore’s recent architecture – especially in and around the city centre – is nothing more than generic and can be seen anywhere in the world, regardless of climate and culture.

The concept is about balance, as is the architectural result: “An equilibrium point of architectural anonymity has been derived from a number of factors. Finally the city has a uniquely expressive urban landmark that reinterprets and reinvigorates its location”

Growing and transforming like a living organism, the Silk Pavilion created by the MIT Media Lab is a collaboration between digital and biological fabrication. The basis of the pavilion is a network of silk threads made by a CNC machine, which has become a cloud-like structure with the addition of natural netting from the dozens of silk worms that squirm all over its surfaces.

Twenty-six polygonal panels with silk thread stretched between them form a sort of scaffolding that enables the silk worms to work their magic of naturally produced architecture. The geometry of the base structure was created using an algorithm that routes a single continuous thread across the open sections to provide varying degrees of density.

The silkworms were deployed as a biological ‘printer’ to create the secondary structure. If the sculpture, which is installed at MIT, were allowed to remain in place indefinitely, the moths could produce 1.5 million eggs with the potential of constructing up to 250 additional pavilions.

“Affected by spatial and environmental conditions including geometrical density as well as variation in natural light and heat, the silkworms were found to migrate to darker and denser areas. Desired light effects informed variations in material organization across the surface area of the structure. A season-specific sun path diagram mapping solar trajectories in space dictated the location, size and density of apertures within the structure in order to lock-in rays of natural light entering the pavilion from South and East elevations.”

“The central oculus is located against the East elevation and may be used as a sun-clock. Parallel basic research explored the use of silkworms as entities that can “compute” material organization based on external performance criteria. Specifically, we explored the formation of non-woven fiber structures generated by the silkworms as a computational schema for determining shape and material optimization of fiber-based surface structures.”

via design boom

Destroying lesser vehicles in more ways than one, these seven record-smashing cars and trucks are stronger, longer, faster, narrower, more fuel-efficient and way more expensive than the average vehicle. In most cases, you have to be a millionaire to afford one, but if you’ve got the cash, going over 460 miles per hour and crashing through buildings would make the indulgent purchase worth the dent in your bank account. This list includes only vehicles that are produced by civilians or available to the public, eliminating military and construction vehicles.

World’s Most Expensive Car: Bugatti Veyron

At a price tag of $2.4 million, the Bugatti Veyron SuperSport is the world’s most expensive car – and accordingly, only thirty of them have been produced. The Veyron SuperSport is powered with an 8-liter, W16 quad-turbocharged engine for a total of 1200 horsepower, and it’s made of lightweight materials like carbon fiber and aluminum. The Veyron 16.4 is the last version of this particular model that will ever be made. Is it worth the money? Sure, if achieving insane speeds of up to 267.81mph is important to you; no other car available to the general public and legal on the streets can go this fast.

The Bugatti Veyron held the title of the world’s fastest car for a while, until it was revealed that a speed limiter was switched off during tests. The title was stripped, and no other has been awarded. However, even nearly 270mph doesn’t reach the speeds that the actual world’s fastest car can achieve.

World’s Fastest Land Speed Car: Speed Demon Streamliner

This car definitely won’t be appearing on the highways anytime soon; it’s a one-off produced by George Poteet and Ron Main in an attempt to smash speed records, and that it did. The Speed Demon is the world’s fastest wheel-driven, piston-powered car, and it clocked an astonishing 439.562mph in a test at the 2012 Bonneville Speed Week. The shell is part of what makes the steam-powered Speed Demon so fast; it’s incredibly aerodynamic. The car boasts a Kenny Duttwiler 368-cubic-inch twin-turbo V8 engine.

World’s Largest Pick-Up Truck: Modified 1950s Dodge Power Wagon

Said to be the largest car or truck in the world, this 1950s Dodge Power Wagon was made by oil billionaire Seikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates in the mid 1990s. Looking to be at least five times as large as a standard Dodge Power Wagon, this model is more than just a cab on wheels – it holds four air conditioned bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom, with a motorized tailgate that drops down to become a terrace.

Hamad is a bit of an eccentric, obsessed with collecting oversized vehicles; he also has a giant replica of the Willys WWII Jeep and two jeeps welded together into a double-wide vehicle. He also holds a number of Guinness World Records for things like the biggest graffiti tag on the planet.

World’s Most Fuel-Efficient Vehicle: VW XL1

The world’s most fuel-efficient car will achieve 261 miles per gallon – beat that with your Prius. The XL1 is a two-seat diesel plug-in hybrid with a driving range of a little over 30 miles; the limited range is part of what makes it such a miserly gas sipper. Small, low to the ground and aerodynamic, the XL1 was built for fuel efficiency, if not for speed; it will take 12.7 seconds for the car to get from zero to 62 miles per hour. The car’s narrow profile means the passenger seat has to be set back slightly from the driver’s seat so each person in the car has a little bit of elbow room. It’s intended to be a production car, but VW says it plans to use “handcrafting-like production methods” to build it at its facility in Germany.

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Record Breakers 7 Vehicular Wonders Of The World

Times of emergency call for quick action to get victims into safe shelters. Plenty of easily-assembled emergency structures have been designed over the years, but Australian architecture firm BVN Donovan Hill has presented an interesting take on the topic. Their idea goes together like a 3D puzzle, each piece of plywood slotting together as easily as a flat-pack furniture kit.

The shelter consists of pre-cut plywood boards that would be delivered to a disaster site flat-packed. Each piece has notches that fit into the next piece; assembling one of the shelters requires no tools other than the hands of one or two people. Once the wooden skeleton has been assembled, a waterproof skin is put on the outside to keep out the elements. The goal is for the structure to be able to be assembled in just one day.

The inside of the structure features contours that jut out to create shapes that could be used for sitting or sleeping. That’s according to the designers – to us, the thin plywood shapes don’t look comfortable enough to support a person without an extreme amount of padding between them and the human body.

According to the designers, one of their main goals in this design was to create a space that is not simply utilitarian, but one that creates happiness in times of tragedy. The shelters are small – around 100 square feet – but very heavy at about half a ton each. This makes each one quite substantial and perhaps usable for long periods if necessary.

The structures can be grouped together to create a temporary community, with some buildings serving as meeting places instead of grouping all of the victims together in one very large space. The concept will require a significant amount of fleshing out before it becomes a viable option for disaster relief, but the idea of an easily (and quickly) assembled, private temporary home is one that will appeal to just about anyone who has ever been displaced by a natural disaster.

(images via: Inhabitat)

Fascination bleeds into fixation in this wonderful ongoing series of illustrations by a graphic designer who enjoys the nuances of fenestration in his favorite city.

Each piece in the series specifies not only the neighborhood (Hell’s Kitchen, West Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Alphabet City, SOHO, Williamsburg and more) but the actual address so truly curious fans can map out routes to find the source material.

From creator Jose Guizar, “The Windows of New York project is a weekly illustrated fix for an obsession that has increasingly grown in me since chance put me in this town. A product of countless steps of journey through the city streets, this is a collection of windows that somehow have caught my restless eye out from the never-ending buzz of the city. This project is part an ode to architecture and part a self-challenge to never stop looking up.”

There is a consistency to the visual language (from shapes to color palette) employed in each piece, which only serves to highlight the surprise differences between the various windows featured. Hacks and modifications make their way into the images as well, from protective metal grating and air conditioners to window-hanging flower boxes and curious cats. Even former windows, now filled in with bricks, or covered by doors, are candidates.