Samsung’s new TL225 camera not only has a hee-yuge LCD on the back, it’s got a little one on the front. Why? So it can show you a countdown timer for group shots, let you properly frame your arm’s-length self-portraits, and remind you to smile. Useful, or gimmicky? Jury’s still out. But we worry that it’s just a matter of time before someone releases a camera with LCDs on all six faces.
These awesome, 12-foot-tall, sunflower-inspired solar panels are part of a permanent (and functional) art installation in Texas. When the Mueller Development, a 10,000-soul New Urbanism community in Austin, signed off on the development of a large retail lot within their confines, part of the agreement was that the developers pay for something to draw the eye away from the less-than-attractive strip of loading docks behind the store.
Massachusetts-based art duo Mags Harries and Lajos Heder were commissioned to design an installation, and the result was SunFlowers, a series of fifteen solar towers that look like flowers. They soak up enough sun during the day to power the on-board LEDs at night, and excess juice goes back into the grid. Everyone wins, including the environment. Suh-weet!
via good magazine
Like many of you, every time I go yacht shopping I’m disappointed that I can’t seem to find a name-brand designer yacht.
Well, our luck has just changed! Philippe Starck has moved into the design of high-end pleasure craft. Above is his Wedge Too, designed for Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko and built by Dutch shipbuilding firm Feadship.
At 215 feet the ship includes a complete owners deck, three VIP cabins, 4 guest rooms and facilities for 20 staff members. Stark explains, “I am an environmentalist and a left winger: yachts are among the most daftest capitalist toys imaginable…I decided I might as well at least help her create something different; a yacht that is not a mountain of gold. So I designed something that was timeless and elegant….”
via limited hype
After a flurry of activity last week, the Reburbia winners have been announced! Our own Allan Chochinov was one of the judges, but we haven’t heard a peep out of him until now. Still, we weren’t so off target with our finalists preview post last week—though we didn’t know it, we featured both the grand prize winner and the people’s choice award.
Anyway, all talk of prescience aside, here’s the breakdown:
Grand Prize: Frog’s Dream: McMansions Turned into Biofilter Water Treatment Plants by Calvin Chiu
Second Place: Entrepreneurbia: Rezoning Suburbia for Self-Sustaining Life by Urban Nature, F&S Design Studio and Silverlion Design
Third Place: Big Box Architecture: A Productive Suburb by Forrest Fulton
People’s Choice: Urban Sprawl Repair Kit: Repairing the Urban Fabric by Galina Tahchieva.
Congrats to the winners for their thoughtful re-imagining of America’s suburbs, to be featured in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Dwell magazine. For now, you can read more about all the notable entries, finalists and winners here.
So tonight Top Chef returns to bravo! and you know what that mean! Padma Lakshmi. need i say more?
De très beaux travaux d’identités visuelles et de packaging sont à découvrir sur le site du studio londonien Campbell Hay. Avec un véritable souci du détail, le groupe crée des projets sobres et élégants, dont on ne se lasse pas de découvrir les subtilités.
Over at iFixit they’ve got an interesting teardown of the Starbucks’ brew-it-yourself Barista Espresso Maker “to take the mystery out of these relatively simple steam machines.” Not enough mystery to start with? How about these others?
via hackaday
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