Hasta La Ideas

Skullcandy ha lanciato un nuovo progetto in collaborazione con alcuni dei migliori deejay producer europei. Prima release è dedicata a Parigi con ONRA.

Delivering healthful omega-3s to vegans and habitual snackers

As one of the few vegan and vegetarian sources for omega-3 fatty acid—the essential fatty acid with a slew of healthful benefits to its name—it’s no wonder flax seed bears a “superfood” designation. But for all its known advantages, flax seed isn’t exactly a common ingredient in everyday foods—at least not yet. From a meal replacement bar to a dairy alternative, here are three new ready-to-eat flax products that are pushing the trend.

PROBAR Superfruit Slam bars

Intended to satisfy the nutritional requirements of a single meal, these vegan whole food bars pack organic flax seeds in with a mix of other superfoods, including organic acai, mangosteen, camu camu and purple corn. The bars aren’t baked, so they retain a moist and chewy texture that pairs well with the sweetness of the dried fruits, while the absence of preservatives means eating cleanly as you fuel up.

Sold at select grocers nationwide and online for $2.99 per bar

KIND Vanilla Blueberry Clusters With Flax Seeds

As the latest addition to KIND’s Healthy Grains line, this whole grain granola is a healthy and delectable snack that bears the distinct flavor of blueberries, without being overly sweet. As a marquee ingredient, the granola’s flax seeds provide 750 mg of omega-3 fatty acids while other whole grains like amaranth, quinoa, oats, millet and buckwheat make for clusters that are big enough to be enjoyed as bite-size pieces — to be enjoyed by the handful or the bowlful. Bags sell for about $5 at KIND’s online shop, or click here for store locations

Good Karma Flax Milk

Adding to your grocer’s expanding aisle of non-dairy products, Good Karma’s flax milk is a low-calorie, non-GMO, soy-free alternative to the other dairy alternatives. Its amount of omega-3s alone —1200 mg per serving — is reason enough to start pouring it onto cereal, or into coffee and blended smoothies. Flavors include Original, Unsweetened, and Vanilla, all ranging from 25-60 calories per one-cup serving — much fewer than most milk-like products, yet the flax milk is surprisingly creamy. The slightly sweetened vanilla, our favorite, pairs nicely with coffee, without the need for additional sweetener. Good Karma is available on Amazon in packs of 12 ($28 per pack), and at select natural grocers natural grocers for $3.50-$4.50 per half gallon.

This hilltop house by Japanese studio Tato Architects comprises a metal barn on top of a glass box (+ slideshow).

Located between a mountainous district and the harbour-side town of Kobe in southern Japan, the two-storey House in Rokko contains a kitchen and dining room inside its transparent ground-level storey.

A balcony surrounds the gabled first floor, creating an overhang that shades the glazed facade below.

Upstairs, the bathroom is separated by a transparent glass partition.

During construction, the foundations had to be dug by hand as no machines were able to climb the steep terrain to reach the site, while the streel structure had to be pieced together from sections small enough to be carried up one by one.

We’ve featured a few houses in Japan with glazed bathrooms, including one with a garden behind its walls and one with a whole room dedicated to plants.

See more Japanese houses on Dezeen »

Here’s a project description from Tato Architects:

House in Rokko

Looking for the way an architecture does not fix the affect to the environment too much I have been somewhat anxious about what an architecture in a place commanding a fine view should be. It is the state of affairs freezing affect towards the environment. What is the way, while enjoying the view, not to be dominant to the environment?

At an end of the residential area developed in the past halfway up Mt. Rokko the site was broad but too steep to bring in heavy machines for driving piles. A plane of 3.5 m by 13.5 m was left when a sufficient distance was secured, for manual digging for foundation, from the old breast wall and heaped soil.

The site was not necessitating much anxiety about people’s eyes. As people’s eyes from below would not reach the first floor, the first floor was walled with glass all around so that the fine view could be commanded to full extent, which was equipped with kitchen and visitor’s toilet.

The first floor, while functioning as what is called LDK, was assumed to be used for such varieties of activities out of daily life as treating guests, creating music with friends, or taking care of his bicycles.

A bedroom, storing facilities, facilities using water were arranged on the second floor, which was leveled high with a roof of conventional appearance to join in the existing rows of old houses. The high- leveled second floor was walled around with wide openings distributed equally for the ease of natural ventilation.

Thermal storage system using midnight electricity was laid into slab concrete and on the second floor far-infrared radiation film floor heating system was supplemented. And in summer it is expected that balcony and eaves will block the sunlight and breeze from Mt. Rokko will carry indoor heat through.

Steel-frame construction was adopted complying with the client’s wishes. As physical labor was obliged, small 100 mm by 100 mm H-section steel was selected and each construction material was limited to weigh about 100 kg for carrying up to the site.

Steel plate of 4.5 mm thick was laid for the cantilever balcony all around to make up for the loss of level structural plane caused by a large cutout of the second floor for stairway.

Observing the environment carefully without responding downright resulted in this house of hollow bare mortar floor ceilinged high and walled around with glass.

I feel I have found a way to cope, on an equal footing, with the environment peculiar to this scenic site where the environment, the architecture and the resident’s various things of various styles and ages are mingling with each other.

Project name: House in Rokko
Location of site: Kobe Japan

Site area: 295.31m2
Building area: 56.00m2

Total floor area: 94.50m2
Type of Construction: Steel
Program: house & atelier

Project by: Tato architects
Principal designer: Yo shimada

Design period: Jan. 2010 – Mar. 2011
Construction period: Aug. 2011 – Nov. 2011

La Sea Shepherd Conservation Society est une ONG maritime fondée en 1977 par Paul Watson, écologiste canadien, dédiée à la protection des océans. Voici cette nouvelle campagne de communication avec des visuels impactants réalisés par Viken Guzel et Jean-Christophe Royer. A découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

Dezeen Wire: the latest RIBA Future Trends Survey shows that the workload index for UK architects has seen a significant increase compared to this time last year.

Improvements were reported in the housing, community and public sectors, whereas the commercial sector saw a slight decline.

See past RIBA Future Trends Survey results here.

Here is the report from the RIBA:

RIBA Future Trends Survey results for May 2012

The upward trend for architects’ workloads, which started at the beginning of the year, continues to grow according to the latest results from the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) Future Trends Survey.

The Future Trends Workload Index for architects for May 2012 stands at +13, compared with +2 at the same time last year. Large practices with 51 or more staff are the most optimistic about future workloads, reporting a balance figure of +29. Across the UK, most regions reported encouraging workload forecasts, with the only exceptions being Scotland (0) and Northern Ireland (-14).

Across sectors, housing improved by a single balance point to +16, the commercial sector dropped two points to +4, and the community sector forecast saw a two point rise to -7. The public sector forecast saw a significant advance and now stands at -8, compared to -14 in April 2012.

Speaking about the public sector rise, RIBA Director of Practice, Adrian Dobson said:

“This month’s results may be an indication that public sector workloads are beginning to stabilise now that the initial cuts in public sector capital programmes have filtered through. They may also reflect a growing belief that the Government is going to introduce some new fiscal stimulus, which could include additional expenditure on public sector construction.”

The RIBA Future Trends Staffing Index for May 2012 remains stable and is virtually unchanged at -1. In May 2012, 20% of respondents to the survey stated that they had personally been under-employed in the last month. This is the best figure recorded since the RIBA Future Survey began in January 2009 and is further evidence that the economic outlook for architects may be gradually improving.

The latest quarterly data series from the survey has also shown how overall student employment has decreased by 40% since 2008, revealing that the recession has impacted disproportionally upon those architects in the early stages of their careers.