Hasta La Ideas

Spica is the newest lamp from Seattle-based Iacoli & McAllister, named after the brightest star in the Virgo constellation. Like their Frame Pendant, but gone wild, the lamp is from 3/8″ steel rod, the spatial pendant lamp is available in three colors: black, mirror gold, and white powder coating. Handmade in Seattle, the lead time is understandably four weeks, but will be delivered with either a plug and switch or canopy and installation hardware, UL-listed.

See more shots after the jump, or read more about Iacoli & McAllister here.

(more…)

Henn StudioB, the Berlin design and research studio of Henn Architekten, have won a competition to design a new business district in Wenzhou, China.

The Central Business District is located where the Ou Jiang river meets the East China Sea and will comprise five towers of differing heights.

The towers will be situated in a staggered row to provide views of the river, while at street level a series of green spaces and walkways will weave inbetween the structures.

The masterplan will include a five star hotel, offices, commercial space and a public park.

See all our stories on skyscrapers in our special category.

Here’s some more information about the project:

New Central Business District, Wenzhou

HENN ARCHITEKTEN have won the first prize in the international competition to design the new Central Business District in Wenzhou, China. The proposal was designed by HENN ARCHITEKTEN’s Design & Research Studio HENN StudioB.

Wenzhou lies within a mountainous region of Zhejiang Province where the Ou Jiang River meets the East China Sea. The traditional trading town opened to foreign trade in 1876 and as an international port is one of today’s key production locations for the consumer goods industry in China. The centrepiece of the future Central Business District comprises offices, a five-star hotel, commercial space and a public park.

The Wenzhou coastline is interspersed with an intricate network of small and large rivers. The proposed design picks up on the river delta image and transposes it onto an organic park landscape which opens towards the sea. The green corridor leading out of the city continues across the site, where it branches out and forms an undulating connection between the city and the riverfront.

On ground level, this architectural landscape merges with the flowing form of the buildings and simultaneously traces the movement of their users. The five towers stand in a staggered row to ensure a largely unrestricted view of the river.

Their height reflects that of the surrounding buildings in the south west and rises in a wave towards the river, where it defines the edge of the city on the bank of the Ou Jiang.

The rolling landscape provides open spaces in various forms – from private inner courtyards and broad pedestrian walkways to urban parks. These layers of space offer access from all sides and encourage interaction between people and places.

The competition marks a beginning for the future development of Wenzhou. In this way, the Central Business District is a model for the process of transformation taking place in Chinese cities and their race for a distinct identity in the changing economic climate.

Click for larger image

Like many other economically aspiring cities in China, Wenzhou faces the challenge of establishing an urban identity that unites local traditions with viable concepts for the future.

Click for larger image

Client: Wenzhou-Oujiang City Development + Construction Commanding Center
Location: Wenzhou, China
Program: Office, Conference, Hotel, Retail, Park
Area: 400,000 sqm
Competition 2010: 1st Prize
Local Partner: IPPR International Engineering Corporation
Structural Engineering & Building Services: IPPR International Engineering Corporation
Design Team: Leander Adrian, Daniel da Rocha, Martin Henn, Ingrid Hufnagl, Markus Jacobi, Klaus Ransmayr, Max Schwitalla, Xin Wang, Sun Wei

Click for larger image

See also:

.

Huaxi city centre by MAD and others	Raffles City Hangzhou by UNStudio	More skyscrapers on Dezeen

London designers Raw Edges present furniture made from 326 metres of coiled felt at Fat Galerie in Paris.

Each object is made by wrapping strips of felt around wooden structures and coating one side in silicon, which soaks into the fibres to form a rigid object.

Prototypes of the project were first shown at Ten Small Atlases in Milan last April.

The exhibition opens today and continues until 15 January 2011.

The information that follows is from Raw Edges:

The Coiling Collection
Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay – Raw-Edges

A collection of interior objects made out of 100% Woollen felt and silicon –2010

Long strip of felt is coiled and formed into a three dimensional body. One side of the felt is being left in its natural softness, where the other side is saturated with silicon. The felt absorbs the silicon into its fibres and together they set into a hybrid material with structural build.

The principle has been inspired by composite materials, a combination between bonding and structural materials, similar to reinforce concrete or the ancient cob set from mud and straw.

The show in FAT Galerie Paris includes seven new prototypes made out of 326 meters of felt in total.

1. Standing Bowl
16 Meter of 9mm Grey Felt + Pink Silicon + Sapele wood

2. Coffee Table – 60cm Diameter
54 Meter of 5mm Terracotta Felt + Brown Silicon – Mixture of Wood

3. Dark Green Stool
46 Meter of 3mm Dark Green felt + Dark Green Silicon + Sapele wood

4. Orange Stool
30 Meter of 5mm Orange felt + Orange Silicon + Sapele wood

5. BFA Stool
64 Meter of 3mm Green/Yellow felt + Dark Green Silicon + Sapele wood

6. Grey Chair
22 Meter of 9mm Grey felt + Dark Grey Silicon + Beech wood

6. Rug

94 Meter of 2mm Light Blue Felt + Light Grey Silicon

See also:

.

Coiled by BCXSY for Editions in Craft	Thermal Till Paper Vessels by Philippe Malouin	More work by Raw Edges

No, not the real Mayor of London: a man in a suit with a Boris-alike wig on stars in this film, one of several created by new agency Meanwhile… to help promote MyTaptu – an iPhone app which launched last week that helpfully aggregates all your news feeds and social media streams into one, supposedly easy to navigate and peruse reader.

The idea is that My Taptu tidies all your non-work related online stuff into streams – and the idea of this campaign is to get the message over that if you like something you see online, you can “Taptu it” – that is, share it, store it or comment on it on any of your social networks in one fell swoop, using the MyTaptu on your iPhone.

Here’s another of the campaign films:

To be honest I’m not too sure the films are successful in explaining what the heck MyTaptu is or what it’s for. But I really enjoyed both these films and found myself forwarding them on – and then ended up trying to solve the mystery of just what MyTaptu is all about. And now I have, it sounds quite useful.

I might just download it…

More on MyTaptu at taptu.com

Credits:

ON YER BIKE
Agency: Meanwhile…
Creatives: Simon Huhtala, Gabbi Cahane, Tareq Kubaisi, Jay Fretwell
Production Co: Nice Shirt
Director: The Graley Brothers
DoP: August Jacobsson
Producer: Richard Martin
Editor: Dominic Leung – Trim
Post: Prime Focus
Sound: 750mph

HAMMER TIME (OLD LADY)
Agency: Meanwhile…
Creatives: Simon Huhtala, Gabbi Cahane, Tareq Kubaisi, Jay Fretwell
Production co: Nice Shirt
Director: Tareq Kubaisi
DoP: August Jacobsson
Producer: Richard Martin
Editor: Dominic Leung – Trim
Music: Faber Music
Post: Prime Focus
Sound: 750mph

With holiday card sending season on the horizon, my husband and I have been trying to decide what we want to send this year. While researching our options, I learned about the website Jack Cards, which is an incredibly helpful service for busy people. It’s more than a holiday card sending service, it’s a service to use throughout the year to remove the stress of buying cards and stamps. An explanation of their service from the website:

Jack Cards is designed for busy people who value sending a handwritten birthday, anniversary or ‘miss you’ card but find it hard to get to a card shop or post office on time.

Based in San Francisco, California, Jack Cards uniquely focuses on delivering pre-scheduled ready-to-go (stamped and addressed) greeting cards to the sender just in time to write their own personal message inside and drop it in the mailbox.

Registration for the service is free, but you pay for the price of the card, shipping the card to you, and postage to the card recipient (domestic and international postage are both available). They have bulk discounts when you buy 5 or more of the same card, which you might do for the holidays. Jack Cards has a very strict privacy policy, so none of the information you give to them will ever be sold and is stored safely. The hardest part of the process is setting up your “My Planner” section, which involves answering questions about the type of cards you wish to send and providing contact information. Setting up the “My Planner” section, however, takes much less time than heading to the store to buy cards and stamps numerous times a year. How involved you want Jack Cards to be in the process is your decision — they can pick out cards or you can do it, they can write a message or you can, they can address the envelope or you can, they can mail the card or you can.

For busy people who like the art of sending handwritten cards, Jack Cards is a terrific service. If having someone else involved in the process isn’t for you, check out “Birthday cards and reminder systems” for tips on how to get cards out the door on time.

(Pictured card by Bumble Ink, available through Jack Cards.)

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.