People can be wary of experimental cinema, whether that’s for a perceived oblique message or a sense of isolation and confusion. That won’t be the case with Tin Ojeda’s “); return…
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Voici une série de clichés de vues aériennes réalisée par le photographe Tom Blachford à Melbourne un jour d’été. Ces différentes vues, nous montre un monde impressionnant vu du ciel où le temps semble s’être arrêté. A découvrir de manière complète en images dans la suite de l’article.
Judy Kaufmann has just released this fresh collection of patterns. “This collection has a wide selection of geometric, organic, typographic forms which can be applied from paper to fabric, from wood to walls.” Her fantastical representations of her patterns in use is a terrific way of promoting this new work.
Judy is another talented designer who was featured in the UPPERCASE Surface Pattern Design Guide in the spring issue.
Italian office Modostudio has completed a shingle-clad building boasting mountain views for a private arts and sciences foundation near Bolzano, northern Italy (+ slideshow).
The building by Modostudio provides new headquarters for the Elisabeth and Helmut Uhl Foundation, which aims to foster innovation in society by enabling networking between artists, scientists and different cultures.
It features a series of jagged forms on the top storey, with a shingle-clad dining hall, a glasshouse and a terrace that juts out to the side. Below this, a more traditional two-storey structure houses bedrooms and meeting spaces.
“The intention is to have a place where people from different disciplines – such as mechanical engineers and botanists – can exchange ideas,” architect Giorgio Martocchia told Dezeen.
Related story: Office Building and Logistic Centre by Modostudio
“In this place, there are no conference speeches, but a big room where people can eat and drink and talk in the upper volume, and rooms where they can rest and sleep in the lower squared volume.”
A staircase bisects the centre of the building, offering views of the surrounding landscape through large sections of glazing.
“You can experience the landscape even in the very centre of the building,” said Martocchia.
“Going down the stairs, you can look directly at the bottom of the valley, and if you look back, you can see the top of the mountain framed by a big skylight. It’s like the building is pierced with pictures of the surroundings.”
The building replaces a crumbling barn and house that previously sat on the site, and has been designed with the same footprint. It also re-uses some materials from the old buildings, including 200-year-old wood for the flooring.
“We wanted to keep the footprint of the old buildings to avoid any new ground consumption, and to keep the memory of what was there before,” said Martocchia.
Larch shingles on the top storey and stone sections on the lower levels provide a reference to the local architectural style.
“We always try to sense the feeling of a place – a pitched roof is not enough,” said Martocchia. “And we like the shingles a lot – they will change colour in time, and they have a particular feeling because they are hand-cut, so that the fibres of the wood are kept intact.”
The lower levels are built from structural panels using Thoma wood – a high-performance timber that is free from glue and chemicals – and water used for under-floor heating is drawn from a local spring. Hot air from the glasshouse can also be pumped into the building during winter for additional warmth.
Modostudio won a competition to design the new centre for the foundation back in 2009. Changes to the concept design include the exterior walls, which were originally designed entirely in stone but are now partially covered in plaster.
“We found that stone buildings are not so common in the area, except for churches and castles,” explained Martocchia.
“We liked the idea of something more friendly, like the plaster, which is used for rural houses in the area. The colour of the plaster is also influenced by the local stones.”
Large folding shutters at the front of the top storey were also abandoned in favour of smaller shutters on the windows.
“We changed the openings from the competition proposal because we were afraid they would be too big for a mechanical system,” said Martocchia. “There is now a control panel to operate the sliding shutters, so they can be operated all together or singularly.”
Photography is by Laura Egger.
Here is some more information from the Modostudio:
Elisabeth and Helmut Uhl Foundation, Laives, Italy
The project of the Elisabeth and Helmut Uhl foundation has been realised thanks to a restricted international architectural competition held in 2009, which saw the participation of 15 architectural teams from Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The aim of the competition was to design a building able to host the activities of the cultural and research foundation.
The building is located in the municipality of Laives, near Bolzano, on a slope of a mountain enjoying a spectacular panoramic view and an amazing surrounding landscape. The project sought to preserve the surrounding environment: the buildings insist on the same footprint of the previous buildings, now demolished.
The project is divided into two buildings: the building foundation and a small building adjacent to it for residential use. The building foundation consists of a series of architectural volumes: a transparent glass and steel volume hosts research activities, a wood cladding volume is used as a leisure and dining hall, while the lower architectural body, on which these volumes are placed, hosts support areas for the activities of the foundation and a wine cellar.
The project aims to express the tension generated by the orographic characteristics of the site and the specific functions of the building foundation: a tension generated by the visual connections between the interior spaces and the external environment. The buildings are designed to protect guests from the particular climatic conditions, but at the same time to let them enjoy the benefits created by the surrounding environment and the wonderful views.
Part of the construction materials were recovered from the demolition of existing buildings. The construction materials follow local traditions, such as hand-cut larch shingles, the exterior plaster and the porphyry stones, which reference the traditional local buildings. The construction materials become elements of dialogue with the history and the culture of the region.
Innovative technology solutions are adopted; the structure of the lower part of the building foundation is made of structural panels with Thoma wood technology while the upper volume hosts a sophisticated opening window system.
The building is classified in Casaclima A with the distinction of having no controlled indoor ventilation, replaced by the possibility of using the hot air generated in the glass volume, acting as a buffer zone. A large tank of 20,000 litres, thermally insulated, is able, supported by a solar heating system and a biomass boiler, to satisfy the radiant heating floor throughout the complex.
Location: Laives – Italy
Client: Elisabeth and Helmut Uhl Stiftung
GFA Area: 1.450 square metres
Team: Fabio Cibinel, Roberto Laurenti, Giorgio Martocchia
Consultants: structural engineer; Ing. Gilberto Sarti, mechanical engineer and Klimahaus consultant; p.i. Thomas Dissertori, Arch. Alberto Micheletti
Site manager; Arch. Marco De Fonzo
Contractor: Kargruber-Stoll GmbH
Steel structures: Premetal Spa
Wooden structure and wooden floor: Thoma Holz GmbH
Special automations: Meccatronica D.B.D. srl
The post Shingle-clad cultural centre by Modostudio
offers spectacular mountain views appeared first on Dezeen.
Concept bikes come in a few flavors—go down that proverbial rabbit hole, if you dare—but the rarest one may be the Apocalyptic Battle Rat Rod. This fierce fixed-gear is made by Antoine Hotermans of McFly Customs in Belgium. Known as the Apache Racer, it’s stripped down way past the normal hyper-simple classic profile to the point of architectural absurdity, with plenty of odd flair added back in. Hotermans’ work shows plenty of love for traditional lines, like the direct nod to Café Racer motorcycles, and much of his work includes vintage parts and found frames. Meanwhile, the total design somehow turns out aggressively modern.
Citröen handle bar ends!
Though the current state of social media offers an app for nearly everyone, there’s always room for more to play in the space—so long as they’re willing to play nice with others across all key platforms…
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A travers son oeuvre incroyable, faite de nombreuses compositions et découpages de papier forçant l’admiration, l’artiste Rogan Brown cherche à représenter et explorer diverses formes organiques issues du monde végétal ou minéral. Des motifs et patterns répétés, pour rendre hommage à ces éléments naturels jouant sur les échelles.
Artist Raymond Pettibon‘s enchanting scrawl, a very good cause, and sequins: a more appealing trio of reasons to purchase a new tote bag we have not encountered. The accessories wizards over at MZ Wallace have gone into their capacious bag vault (which we imagine to be a milky white, high-ceilinged affair that smacks of Richard Gluckman) to reissue their Artists for Haiti tote, created in 2011 to raise funds for the nonprofit that supports education and health charities in Haiti. All proceeds from sales of the $175 nylon bag—originally in black and now in a creamy khaki dusted with bronze sequins and featuring Pettibon’s lettering on the leather handles—will benefit programs endowed by Artists for Haiti.
Have a suggestion for our next Favorite Thing? E-mail unbeige@mediabistro.com.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Japanese studio Nendo – whose designers continue to prove they will try their hand at anything – has launched a Winnie-the-Pooh glassware set.
The Pooh Glassware was designed for Walt Disney in Japan as part of a series of products themed around the children’s story books.
Related story: Pyggy Bank by Nendo
To accompany the set of glass vessels, Nendo created a series of yellow silicon bases and tops that depict the activities and habitats of the cartoon bear.
“Rather than focus our design attention on the glassware, we chose to redesign the coasters and lids,” said Nendo.
The lids and stoppers feature 3D models of some of Pooh’s most notorious stunts, including climbing trees, sticking his head in a jar of honey and hanging from a balloon.
These fit into a range of multi-purpose jars with different-sized openings.
Coasters for drinking glasses recreate settings from the illustrations: the door to the house, honey on a branch, the clock in Pooh’s room and the bear stuck in a hole.
The Winnie-the-Pooh stories were written by AA Milne in the 1920s for his son Christopher Robin, before the characters were commercialised by American producer Stephen Slesinger in the 1930s.
Following Milne’s death, the rights to the franchise were licensed to animation studio Walt Disney Productions in 1961.
Nendo has also dressed up a series of wooden furniture to look like characters from the Winnie-the-Pooh stories.
The vast number of projects completed by the studio in recent months also includes lamp shades based on Japanese cooking utensils and minimal watches with graphics taken from a draughtsman’s tools.
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glassware for Walt Disney Japan appeared first on Dezeen.
Open wastebaskets are the easiest to drop things into, but sometimes end-users will want a lidded trash can—for appearances, for odor control, or for keeping children and pets out of the garbage. The Frisbee trash bin, designed by Frédéric Perigot, has a removable liner bin with a handle. That’s a design that will appeal to some, but others will find it hard to manipulate. The lid, shaped like a Frisbee, is “ultra-flat”—pet owners will note that this provides yet another space for their cats to curl up.
rBendan Ravenhill’s previously-seen Dustbin uses a detachable dust pan as the lid; a long-handled brush attaches to the side with rare earth magnets. This design would work well for end-users who never know where to store the dust pan.
Patent Ochsner has bins with two interesting options. The first is a dust pan which slides into place on the lid—another way to keep the dust pan close at hand. The second option is a wood seat, with a cushion as an additional option, making this a dual-purpose product especially good for those with limited space. But an end user whose trash can regularly holds smelly items might find this a poor choice.
The Eva Solo Waste Bin, designed by Claus Jensen and Henrik Holbæk of Tools Design, gets clever with the lid. The lid can be opened from any direction, and it can also be removed and used to carry waste to the bin. The bin was also designed to make it easy to replace a liner, and keep it firmly in place; it has a rubberized metal ring which the liner folds around.
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