Anyone who has ever visited the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, would probably agree that it is one of the most fascinating buildings that he or she has ever been in the presence of. Even in pictures, one can sense the almost magical aura of this massive marble memorial, which appears as though it is floating. If it has a breathtaking effect from afar, it becomes truly mind-blowing when having a closer look—when one can see that all the delicate patterns that cover the huge marble blocks are actually stone inlays.
On a recent trip to India, I had the chance to learn how these stone inlays are made. They are in fact still done in exactly the same way that they used to be done in 1633, when the 17 year construction Taj Mahal began—except that the craft is applied to souvenirs rather than mausoleums these days.
The Taj Mahal was built by the great Mughul emperor Shajahan, in memory of his wife Mumtaz, who died giving birth to her 14th child. To create it, the most skilled architects, inlay craftsmen, calligraphers, stone-carvers and masons were called from all across India and lands as distant as Persia and Turkey. It is said that the most skilled individuals who had worked on the Taj Mahal had one hand cut off after it was finished so they could never duplicate this work again.
Fortunately, the artisans were still able to pass on their skills to future generations (although only to the men and only within the family), and, 14 generations down the line, I had the pleasure to meet some of their descendants, who demonstrated how these stone inlays—pietra dura or parchin kari—are made. The artisans work together as a cooperative, meaning each of them remains an individual artist with complete creative freedom, but all profits are shared equally.
The starting point are thin sheets of various (semiprecious) stone, from which the artisan creates delicate shapes, some only a few millimetres in size, like the little dot in the picture above. Only a (human-powered) grindstone is used, and the craftman will inevitably also abrade the skin on his fingers during this process.
Each shape is ground individually and must fit precisely without any gaps. Once a perfect fit has been achieved, the marble plate, into which the ornamental pattern will be integrated, is covered with a layer of henna paint.
The single pieces that make the inlay pattern are laid out on the marble plate and their outlines scratched into the surface. The orange color serves as an orientation when carving out the individual grooves, into which the semiprecious stone pieces will be glued.
News: architect Norman Foster has presented plans to add a row of stone pavilions to the Norton Museum of Art in Florida as part of a major overhaul that will double the building’s gallery space.
Unveiled yesterday during the opening of the Art Basel and Design Miami fairs, the Foster + Partners masterplan seeks to restore the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach to its original axial arrangement by relocating the entrance to the west side of the building.
Three double-height pavilions will be constructed along this facade to accommodate a new auditorium, events room and grand hall, and will be sheltered beneath an overhanging metal roof that tapers gently upwards to reduce its visual impact.
Based on the concept of a “museum in a garden”, the renovated building will be fronted by a pool of water, while a new museum shop and restaurant will open out to a sculpture lawn on the south side of the building.
“Our approach is a celebration of the local landscape and architecture,” said Foster. “The gardens will be planted with native trees and flowers and the masterplan strengthens the elegant formation of the original museum, redefining its relationship with the city with a welcoming new street frontage.”
New buildings will be built from white stone to match the art deco-inspired architecture of the original building, which was designed by architect Marion Sims Wyeth and first opened in the 1940s.
“The project combines old and new and continues our explorations into the museum in a garden setting, which began with the Sainsbury Centre and has more recently embraced the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,” added Foster.
Public facilities will be able to function independently, creating opportunities for evening events outside of gallery opening times.
The architects have also developed a long-term masterplan for the site, which includes the possibility of adding two new gallery wings in the future.
Here’s a more detailed description from Foster + Partners:
Lord Foster presents plans for the transformation of the Norton Museum of Art
Three bold new pavilions, unified beneath a shimmering roof, herald the transformation of the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach – host to the most important art collection in Florida. The masterplan, unveiled by Norman Foster in Miami today, allows the museum to almost double its gallery space and lays the foundations for future growth to become Florida’s leading cultural institution.
The first stage of Foster + Partners’ masterplan will establish its key principles: the sympathetic setting of a ‘museum in a garden’, with the original axial arrangement re-established to unify the visitor experience, and the creation of new public facilities. The museum will become a focus for the community with event spaces separate from the Art Museum, strengthening its role as a cultural destination for Florida.
The Norton Museum was founded in 1941 by Ralph Hubbard Norton and his wife Elizabeth Calhoun Norton and was laid out by the architect Marion Sims Wyeth as an elegant series of Art Deco inspired single-storey pavilions around a central courtyard. Subsequent expansion has broken the symmetry of the original east-west axial arrangement, and the creation of an additional car park to the south of the museum has led to the relocation of the main entrance to the side of the building. The new masterplan restores the clarity of Wyeth’s plan by reinstating the main entrance on a new street frontage on South Dixie Highway to the west – visitors will once again be able to see through the entire building via a new, transparent grand hall and refurbished glass and iron courtyard doors.
The new entrance is signalled by three new double-height pavilions, unified with the re-worked existing wing by a shared palette of white stone. The pavilions house a state-of-the-art auditorium, event space and a ‘grand hall’ – the social hub of the museum. The design also includes a new museum shop and a new restaurant with al-fresco garden seating which, like the new pavilion spaces, can operate independently of the museum to activate the campus throughout the day and at night.
A metal roof canopy floats above the pavilions and projects to shade the entrance plaza. The structure is gently tapered to visually reduce its profile, while providing stability to withstand hurricane winds. The canopy’s gentle lustre is designed to cast diffuse patterns of light in an abstracted reflection of people and flowing water below. Linear pools create a tranquil setting for the entrance plaza, masking the sound of traffic, which is visually set apart by a hedge. A curved opening in the roof accommodates the branches of a mature ficus tree and a further light well above the lobby illuminates and defines the new entrance.
The overall proposals reinforce the concept of the museum within a garden. Taking advantage of the Florida climate, the landscaping of the gardens and central courtyard incorporates native trees and flowers to provide shaded walkways, and the former parking lot is transformed into a new sculpture lawn. The borders of the museum’s expanded grounds are defined and integrate a row of houses at the perimeter of the site as an artist’s residence and studio, guest house and research facilities. The new sculpture lawn will provide an open-air venue for ‘Art After Dark’, the Norton’s popular programme of film screenings and events, and is bordered by a glass circulation gallery, connecting the interior with the lush green setting.
The masterplan enables the development of the Norton to be implemented over time, beginning with the reconfiguration and extension of the existing museum to create the landmark Dixie Drive pavilions and the new public amenities within a lush garden setting. This will include two new galleries with state-of-the-art environmental systems, a sculpture gallery and a new education centre. S
Subsequently, it will be possible to build two new wings for galleries to the east as part of the long-term masterplan.
2013 is coming to an end, which means its time to bid farewell to Emerald and welcome Radiant Orchid – Pantone’s colour of the year for 2014.
Also known as 18-3224, the purple hue has been named the shade de rigeur for fashion, interiors and graphic design in the year ahead by Pantone, which says it has spent a year combing the world for colour influences.
While 2013’s chosen shade was a symbol of growth, renewal and prosperity, 2014 offers “a reach across the colour wheel to intrigue the eye and spark the imagination,” says Pantone. “An enchanting harmony of fushcia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm,” it adds.
For those interested in its cosmetic benefits, Pantone says the shade can be paired with lavenders, purples and pinks for an assortment of lipstick and blush options, and Radiant Orchid garments will give both men and women a rosy glow, “making all who wear it feel more healthy and energetic”. Interior designers can use it to complement olive green, teal, turquoise or yellow, or to lift neutrals such as grey and cream.
There’s good news, too, for all you creative types: Radiant Orchid offers “an invitation to innovation,” says Pantone, and encourages “expanded creativity and originality, which is increasingly valued in today’s society.” Quite.
So there you have it: the shade that Pantone says will dominate packaging, product and interior design and the catwalk for the next 12 months. Please do let us know how you’ll incorporate this energising, mind-expanding hue into your lives and in case you were wondering, here’s a list of winners since 2000.
littleBits Electronics is looking for an excellent Mechanical Engineer / Product Developer to join the core team. What’s littleBits, you ask? It’s an open source library of electronic modules that snap together with tiny magnets for prototyping, learning, and fun so you can light it, push it, turn it, twist it, bend it, buzz it, blink it, shake it…
To land this wonderfully creative opportunity, you must have great technical expertise in mechanical engineering and production processes, a track record of creating and manufacturing products and an understanding of Design for Manufacture. Apply Now for this fun, full time position in their Greenwich Village office.
A bridge over a stream connects the two sides of this concrete house in India by Mumbai firm Architecture Brio (+ slideshow).
House on a Stream was designed by Architecture Brio as a weekend retreat near the town of Alibag, on a site with a stream meandering through it.
The architects chose to separate the master bedroom from the main part of the house containing the kitchen, dining room, living room and guest bedroom by arranging them on either side of the stream.
Monolithic concrete boxes containing the various rooms rest on the uneven ground and cantilever over the water, while trees grow in the gaps between.
“Like an organism trying to make most use of its resources and surroundings, the house with its several limbs reaches out into the landscape, making full use of the views within the site and dramatises special moments: a beautiful tree, a view of the mountains beyond or the cascading stream during the monsoon rains,” said the architects.
A walkway covered by a pergola links the bridge with the entrance to the larger part of the house. Next to it, a narrow swimming pool follows the course of the stream and adjoins a sheltered verandah that becomes an extension of the dining room when sliding doors are pulled back.
The living room and both bedrooms also feature doors that can be slid or folded back to open these spaces onto outdoor decks that bring the occupants closer to the surrounding nature.
The kitchen is located at the centre of the house, with a high ceiling containing a skylight contributing to the bright space, around which the other rooms are arranged.
By offsetting these surrounding rooms and raising the level of the living area, the architects intended to give each space a sense of autonomy, while strategically positioned windows create views from one part of the building to another.
Concrete cast against wooden planks gives the building’s exterior a textured finish, which will be enhanced as it gains additional patina over time. The natural aesthetic is enhanced by timber screens that cast delicate shadows on the floors and walls.
Photography is by Sebastian Zachariah.
The following project description is from the architects:
House on a stream
Landscape
With a stream running through the house, this retreat in Alibag is delicately woven into the landscape, alternately opening up and closing itself to the different characteristics of the site.
A multitude of medicinal and fruit bearing trees provide for an intimate ambiance and comfortable microclimate. Though seasonal, the stream bed allows for an interesting landscape feature throughout the year. The house is placed on the banks of the stream where it makes a sudden S-curve. A short walk along the stream before entering the house builds up an element of anticipation.
Like an organism trying to make most use of its resources and surroundings, the house with its several limbs reaches out into the landscape making full use of the views within the site and dramatises special moments: a beautiful tree, a view of the mountains beyond or the cascading stream during the monsoon rains. What started out as a Cartesian response to the site became deformed, stretched and pushed in.
Program
The house consists of two parts: the day areas of the house such as the dining/kitchen, the living room and entrance verandah are separated from the master bedroom by a bridge that spans across the stream.
Since the owners are passionate about cooking, the kitchen is made the heart and centre of the house, a large, inviting volume with a high ceiling and a skylight that floods the space with light.
This space forms the anchor of the house from where its various limbs branch out into the landscape around existing components of the site. The living room on the left is lifted off the ground to have a panoramic view of the mountain range in the distance. The guest room embraces an existing tree to create a courtyard and just peeks across the dining room to have a view over the length of the stream. The pool is aligned along the stream acting as a celebration of it during the monsoons, and a memory of it during the dry season.
Orientation
The orientation of the program is based on climatic considerations. The bedrooms are mostly west facing with large verandahs and get the evening sun.
The living rooms faces east once again with a large verandah. The kitchen, dining, and pool areas all look towards the north and are shaded by large trees. The south façade of the house is predominately closed and more solid with the exception of a picture window that frames the view out from the pantry to the fields beyond.
Monolithic character
While the external structural concrete shell contracts and expands in plan in section it does so as well. The external form of the house responds to site and its orientation and flows from high to low in accordance with the monolithic fluidity of its form. Internally, however, it responds to the creation of space, and directs the eye to frame a particular view.
The outside and inside are therefore apart and internal spaces are defined with volumes created by the changing thickness of the internal ceiling.
3D model
The heaviness of this mass however is reversed by the lightness of the white washed walls and ceilings. A central skylight and large sliding doors, which span from floor to ceiling and wall to wall bring in the outside into the interiors. The cantilevered ‘limbs’ of the living room and two bedrooms defy the heaviness of the concrete volumes. By not resting it on the ground the relationship with the landscape paradoxically is strengthened.
A series of asymmetrical axis create a path of discovery through the house. The arrival path is aligned with the axis of the pergola, which embracing the pool enters the dining room on the left side. One corner of the dining room overlaps with the conically shaped volume of the kitchen. By shifting the axis of the dining room off the axis of the kitchen and raising the level of the living room, this becomes a more secluded space.
Furthermore it allows a glazed door in the kitchen to open up to the outside and view along the external living room wall. At strategic positions in the house steel framed box windows protrude through the concrete walls. Placed symmetrically on the interior walls they highlight specific elements of the site, such as the bark of a tree, or peek from the master pavilion to the main house.
The house is cast in plank-finished concrete with a vertical grain. The homogenous materialisation emphasises the sculptural quality of the house that is moulding itself about the site. Concrete being left exposed in the humid Indian climate, attracts a patina that becomes more rich and alive over time. More so the grey textured surface provides a muted surface against the vibrant green surrounding.
Elegant timber screens further soften the greyness of the con- crete. They not only form a buffer between the interior space and the exteriors, but also create an intensive play of shadow and light on the floors and walls.
Everything’s coming up…purple. Today Pantone declared Radiant Orchid (18-3224 on your fandeck) the “expressive, exotic” Color of the Year. In the wake of 2013′s Emerald, it’s a return to the tropical shades favored by the color authority in recent years, such as Tangerine Tango, Honeysuckle, Turquoise, and Mimosa.
“An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple, and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love, and health,” said Pantone Color Institute executive director Leatrice Eiseman in a statement announcing the pick. “It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm.” Those eager to embrace the “magical, enigmatic” hue can purchase a a Pantone USB drive in Radiant Orchid or start stocking up on Pantone paint in the color of 2014, but why not simply put your (emerald) green thumb to the test with an actual orchid?
Ursula von Rydingsvard in front of Ona, her 19-foot-high cast-bronze sculpture at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. (Photo: Piotr Redlinski/The New York Times)
On a crisp October Monday in the year 2000, a persistent ringing shattered the predawn silence at the New York home that the scientist Paul Greengard shares with his wife, the sculptor Ursula von Rydingsvard. “Paul muttered something like, ‘What jerk is calling at five in the morning?’” recalls von Rydingsvard with a gleam in her eye. Their daughter, staying in an adjoining bedroom, picked up the phone to drowsily greet a stranger with a Swedish accent—calling from the Nobel Prize Committee. Greengard was soon wide awake.
Later that day, the couple’s young grandson clutched a bouquet of yellow tulips and led a family procession through the gates of the Rockefeller University, where Greengard has been Vincent Astor Professor and headed the laboratory of molecular and cellular neuroscience since 1983, and onto a hastily planned university-wide celebration. It was during this happy walk to Caspari Hall that Greengard told von Rydingsvard of his idea to use his Nobel winnings—approximately $400,000—to create another prize, one that would recognize the accomplishments of women in science and be named in honor of his mother, Pearl Meister Greengard. continued…
L’étudiant à l’université d’art de Tokyo Wataru Itou a imaginé une superbe création de papier représentant un chateau. Une création de papier réalisée durant 4 années de travail, et aujourd’hui exposée à Umihotaru, un endroit situé entre la ville de Tokyo et la préfecture de Chiba. Plus dans la suite.
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Everything’s coming up…purple. Today 
