Hasta La Ideas

Range of stationery including ‘Posh Stamps’, ‘Paper gift stickers’, ‘Any day postcard’ and ‘tab notebook’.

Arial or Helvetica?

Typography is one of those underappreciated art forms outside of the design world. While a movie like Helvetica brought attention to the craft of type, and the regular selection of fonts on Word processors has made everyone aware of the subtle differences of type styles, few can articulate what makes Times New Roman different from, say, Times.

I came across a site recently that’s so simple it’s brilliant. Produced by New York design firm OKFocus, Arial VS. Helvetica* is just what it sounds like, a comparison of perhaps the two most popular sans serif Roman fonts in the world. It takes an animated GIF approach: in one moment it shows Arial, in the other moment it shows Helvetica. We’re not told which is which, but that’s not the point: what matters more is that we can see just how subtle the difference is, and where the most critical distinctions lie (hint: Q, G and R are the best giveaways).

It reminds me of those crazy animated GIFs of people showing the same face in different photos. Now all we need is a site that can do this for all kinds of fonts. Every. Single. One. Hear that, OKFocus? My typography professor will thank you.

*Note: As of press time, the site wasn’t working properly in Firefox. Try Arial VS. Helvetica in Chrome or Safari and you’re good to go.

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Vietnamese studio H&P Architects has built a prototype bamboo house designed to withstand floods up to three metres above ground (+ slideshow).

H&P Architects used tightly-packed rows of bamboo cane to build the walls, floors and roof of the Blooming Bamboo Home, along with bamboo wattle, fibreboard and coconut leaves.

Elevated on stilts, the house is accessed using wooden ladders that lead to small decks around the perimeter. The area beneath can be used for keeping plants and animals, but would allow water to pass through in the event of a flood.

The walls fold outwards to ventilate the building, plus sections of the roof can be propped open or completely closed, depending on the weather.

Inside, living and sleeping areas occupy the main floor, and ladders lead up to attic spaces that can be used for study or prayer.

The vernacular structure can be assembled in as little as 25 days and adapted to suit varying local climates and sites.

It has been designed as a house, but could also be used as a school classroom, medical facility or community centre.

“The house can keep people warm in the most severe conditions and help them control activities in the future, also contributing to ecological development as well as economic stabilisation,” said the architects.

Suspended sections of bamboo can be filled with plants to create a vertical garden on the facade.

At night, interior lighting shines through the cracks in the walls to make the building glow from within.

Other bamboo structures on Dezeen include a floating tea house with louvred bamboo corridors, a thatched dome at the centre of a lake and homes designed to assist the housing crisis in Vietnam. See more architecture using bamboo »

See more Vietnamese houses »
See more architecture and design in Vietnam »

Here’s some information from the architects:

Blooming Bamboo Home

In Vietnam, the natural phenomena are severe and various: storm, flood, sweeping floods, landslides, drought, etc. The damage every year, which is considerable compared to the world scale, takes away about 500 persons and 1.2%-GDP-equally assets and reduces the involved areas’ development.

One solution to houses and homes for millions of these people is the goal of this BB (Blooming Bamboo) home.

From the bamboo module of f8-f10cm & f4-f5cm diameter and 3.3m or 6.6 length, each house is simply assembled with bolting, binding, hanging, placing.

This pulled monolithic architecture is strong enough to suffer from phenomena like 1.5m-high flood. Currently, H&P Architects is experimenting the model to suffer 3m-high flood. The space is multifunctional such as House, Educational, Medical and Community Centre and can be spread if necessary.

From the fixed frame using f8-f10cm bamboo, the house cover can be finished according to its local climate and regional materials (f4-f5cm small bamboo, bamboo wattle, fibreboard, coconut leaf) in order to create vernacular architecture.

The users can build the house by themselves in 25 days. Besides, it can be mass produced with modules and the total cost of the house is only 2500$.

Therefore, the house can warm people in the most severe conditions and help them control activities in the future, also remarkably contribute to ecological development as well as economic stabilisation.

This will give conditions for self-control process and create connection between vernacular culture and architecture.

The post Blooming Bamboo Home
by H&P Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Pensé par les créatifs et designers Richard Clarkson, Zena Verda Pesta et Clay Kippen, cette chaise appelée sobrement « U Stool » propose un design des plus réussis. Très simple, cette structure réalisée en bois et en corde en forme de U est à découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.

“Hey, what happens if I press this button with the skull and crossbones on it?”

From an interface design standpoint, it’s completely bewildering: Switches, levers, dials, buttons, toggles, and every type of physical interface known to man are crammed into the cockpit of a Boeing 737—not to mention all the gauges and screens. While you’re back there in the cabin trying to find space in the overhead, the pilot and co-pilot are up front working this insanely complex console to complete their pre-flight setup and get the engine running.

Check out this clip, shot aboard a new Boeing 737, of actual “pre-flight setup and engine startup procedures.” You won’t mistake the five-minute video for a Michael Bay production, but it does give you a good look at the overall console:

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