Hasta La Ideas

The domed and curving rooftops of this science museum in Komatsu, Japan, are covered in grass, creating a series of rolling hills that visitors can clamber across (+ slideshow).

Designed by Mari Ito of Tokyo studio Urban Architecture Office (UAo), whose past projects include a house with a kitchen worktop that doubles up as a dining room, Science Hills Komatsu is a museum, communications centre and archive.

The building is located on the site of a former factory in the city that lent its name to one of the world’s largest manufacturers of mining and construction equipment, so the brief was to create a building that could spark a renewed public interest in science and industry.

Ito’s concept was to integrate architecture and landscape, creating a building that also serves as a public park. The curved profiles of the various spaces appear as four waves, framing courtyards, pathways and rooftop lawns.

An auditorium is contained within the dome in the north-west corner of the site, while the main exhibition space is located beneath one of the largest waves.

“People can stroll freely inside and outside of the broad waves and view exhibits from many aspects,” said Ito. “The rooftop curve serves as a sweeping canopy controlling light and also drains rain water into a reservoir for planting irrigation.”

The rooftop greenery provides additional insulation to the interiors. “The slab sweeping up from the ground and then forming waves adds a natural and sensitive aspect to the design,” added Ito.

At night, the space is transformed by light show, as hundreds of LEDs fitted with wind sensors create a colourful interpretation of the current air movements.

“The entire building is intending to be in harmony with science and to encourage the visitor’s various scientific discoveries in practice,” said the architect.

Science Hills Komatsu also accommodates a science education centre, a business incubator and an area for industrial businesses to promote themselves.

The complex was largely constructed from reinforced concrete, which is left exposed internally and externally. Industrial-looking steel columns offer additional support to the curving roof.

Photography is by Daici Ano.

Project credits:

Architecture: Mari Ito/UAo
Structural Engineer: Kanebako Structural Engineers
Construction: Kumagai Gumi + KAETU Construction Joint Venture

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Mari Ito’s Komatsu science museum appeared first on Dezeen.

Recreational furniture is one of the more unusual subsets of furniture design, but it’s apparently one that people will pay good money for, judging by the plethora of flip-top gaming tables on the market. Up above you see Hammacher Schlemmer’s Rotating Air Hockey to Billiards Table, a 350-pound behemoth with a built-in blower for the air hockey side. Flip the surface over and you’re set up for pocket billiards (though at seven feet in length, you’re not exactly in Minnesota Fats’ playground).

This competing table at Hayneedle has HS beat by one game, as they’ve got table tennis (again, truncated at seven feet) on top of the first two games. Literally on top of them; what a difference a piece of MDF makes, huh?

That lousy giraffe that runs Toys R Us also sells a 3-in-1 gaming table, albeit a tiny one at just four feet in length.

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News: Haworth Tompkins’ new home for the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, featuring a curved auditorium built from 25,000 reclaimed bricks, is the 2014 winner of the RIBA Stirling Prize for the biggest contribution to British architecture this year.

The project by London studio Haworth Tompkins involved designing a new home for the popular Liverpool theatre, which had been previously been housed in a 19th-century chapel, creating a 400-seat auditorium and a generous foyer.

The walls of the old building had to be carefully dismantled so that the bricks could be reused within the new theatre, and a new facade was created from sunshades etched with the portraits of some of the English city’s residents.

The Stirling Prize was awarded this evening in a ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.

Haworth Tompkins saw off competition from five other shortlisted projects, including The Shard by Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid’s Olympic Aquatics Centre, and Europe’s largest public library.

This is the second time Haworth Tompkins has been nominated for the prize, which is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects to a building designed by a UK-registered architect.

In 2007, the studio received a nomination for the Young Vic theatre in London, but lost out to David Chipperfield’s Museum of Modern Literature in Germany.

Photography is by Philip Vile.

The post Liverpool Everyman Theatre by Haworth Tompkins
wins Stirling Prize 2014 appeared first on Dezeen.

Maybe you’re designing a garage for end users who wants to actually put their cars in their garages, along with all the other stuff they’re storing there. Or maybe you’d like to create a shop, but you also need storage space for non-shop items. One way to solve that problem is to create some overhead ceiling storage.

One obvious way to do that is to install some racks. The racks from Monkey Bars, hold either 500 or 750 pounds, depending on the model. The height is adjustable, so there’s a lot of flexibility regarding what gets stored, and where. There’s a 2-inch lip around the edge to help ensure things stay in place, without making it too difficult to lift a bin into place.

And as you can see with these racks from NewAge Products, users can add hooks (if vertical space allows) to create even more storage.

Not everyone is going to want to climb up on a ladder to get things down from a ceiling rack. Some people will have issues with balance; others may have heavy items which can be tricky to handle on a ladder. In such situations, a lift system might be a better approach. This is a general-purpose lift from Racor. The pulley systems lowers the rack eight feet from the ceiling; it can hold 250 pounds.

Designers have also create lifts to deal with specific items often stored in garages. For example, here’s a bicycle lift. This one can be installed on ceilings as high as 14 feet. While end-users generally agree it’s a good design, many of them have complained about the quality of the rope. It’s a good reminder to properly consider the cost-vs-quality tradeoff for a product’s components.

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Le e-bike nCycle a été créé par les designers Hussain Almossawi et Marin Myftiu. Encore au stade de prototype, ce vélo possède un design très esthétique pour ses deux roues à trous. Il a été présenté au EuroBike 2014 : un événement d’expositions exclusivement pour les vélos. A découvrir en photos et vidéo.