Conbox is an electric fan designed to be pleasing to the eye all year long. If you do end up wanting to store the fan in cooler months, Conbox is easy to take apart and put back together again. Paired with a simple smart phone app, Conbox is a convenient and beautiful way to keep cool.
Welcome back to another edition of FishbowlNY’s weekly Cover Battle. This round we have Cosmopolitan taking on Bloomberg Pursuits.
Cosmo’s latest features Kourtney Kardashian discussing her “hot single life.” Now there’s content you just won’t find anywhere else.
Pursuits, meanwhile, has Ewan McGregor wearing an outfit that dammit, we want. You win magazine creative team and advertisers, you win!
So readers, which cover is better? You can vote, comment, or do both.
La boutique californienne Animal Crew propose à ses clients des illustrations d’animaux quelque peu inhabituelles. Ceux-ci sont en effet mis en scène tels des humains, dans des tenues originales. Ici, un hippopotame en costume, fumant sa pipe. Là, un cerf portant une chemise pleine de motifs colorés. Vous pouvez vous procurer leur travail sous forme de prints ou sur des objets tels que des coussins, via leur boutique Etsy.
The world’s longest glass bridge, our roundup of the best Minimalist rebrands and a teepee-shaped home with a spiral pool (pictured) feature in this week’s issue of Dezeen Mail.
Read Dezeen Mail issue 321 | Subscribe to Dezeen Mail
The post Dezeen Mail issue 321 features this week’s best stories and discussions appeared first on Dezeen.
Technology company WobbleWorks has launched an updated edition of its hugely popular 3Doodler pen, which can now draw using materials like copper and wood composites (+ slideshow).
The pen uses a similar method to 3D printers, functioning like a hot glue gun to extrude lines of plastic-based filament that can be used to draw in the air. The material then cools and solidifies, forming stable structures.
WobbleWorks launched the first version of the 3D-drawing pen on Kickstarter in 2013, attracting $500,000 (£380,000) of support from over 5,000 backers in one day alone.
The company hopes the new 3Doodler Pro will attract a new audience of architects, designers and other professional users hoping to create 3D forms and models.
The 3Doodler Pro pen works with a range of new materials, including polycarbonate and nylon. It also handles plastic-based composites of wood, copper or bronze.
The composites contain a high percentage of the “real” material, and can be sanded or polished after they’ve been extruded.
The 3Doodler Pro features dials that control temperature and speed, as well as a fan to give users greater control over how quickly the plastics cool down. An LCD display shows temperature indicators.
“When we started the 3Doodler journey back in 2013, we had world-leading architects telling us ‘I want to do this’,” said WobbleWorks co-founder and CEO Maxwell Bogue.
“‘This’ was a quick wave of the pen in the air, with plastic solidifying in its wake,” he continued. “With new materials like polycarbonate, that dream is a reality.”
The company has upgraded the pen’s outer casing to a carbon-fibre shell, and created additional nozzles and a portable battery pack.
WobbleWorks also created a range of pieces to demonstrate the pen’s possibilities, including scale architectural models, vase holders and lampshades.
A similar device – the Lix 3Dprinting pen – was also enormously successful on Kickstarter, raising over £400,000 in crowdfunding.
Its co-founder, Delphine Wood, described the experience of doodling in three dimensions as a step forward that would “change the way brains draw”.
It also offers significant possibilities for medicine, and researchers in Australia have developed a pen that deposits regenerative stem cells onto damaged bone and cartilage to aid repair.
WoobleWorks has sold more than 750,000 versions of its pens – including a lighter version of the device launched in 2015.
The 3Doodler Pro is priced at $249 (£189), and will be available from the MoMA store, as well as Barnes & Noble, Macy’s, Amazon and the 3Doodler Pro website.
The post Pro version of 3D-printing pen can draw in copper and wood appeared first on Dezeen.
A copper-clad chapel and a faceted wooden sauna are among the four buildings competing for Finland’s most important architecture prize (+ slideshow).
The Finnish Association of Architects has announced the projects on the shortlist for this year’s Finlandia Prize for Architecture.
These four are: Lappeenranta City Theatre by ALA Architects; Löyly sauna, Helsinki, by Avanto Architects; the spectator stand at the Rovaniemi Sports Arena, Railo, by APRT Architects; and Suvela Chapel by OOPEAA.
Billed as the architectural equivalent of the prestigious annual Finlandia Prize for Literature, the award recognises the best new building either in Finland or by a Finnish architect.
The four shortlisted projects were selected by a jury chaired by Pirjo Sanaksenaho, who is head of research institute Sotera and a partner at Finnish studio Sanaksenaho Architects.
“The shortlisted new builds represent buildings of widely differing functions and geographic locations,” said Sanaksenaho.
Related story: RIBA Stirling Prize 2016 shortlist announced
“What they have in common is that they all form a space for the public to spend time in – a church space, a sports venue, a cultural space and leisure time space,” she continued. “In each of these buildings, architecture has been used to give them interest and personality within their respective environments.”
The winner will be selected by former prime minister Paavo Lipponen and will be revealed at a ceremony in Helsinki on 13 October 2016.
This is only the third edition of the Finlandia Prize, which was launched by the Finnish Association of Architects in 2014 to promote the value of high-quality architecture.
Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects won the first prize with its Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, while last year’s winner was an innovative wooden apartment block by OOPEAA.
Read on for a short description of each project from the jury:
The Lappeenranta City Theatre is housed, unusually for a theatre, within a new extension of a shopping mall. The jury finds that the concept in which a large public building is housed within a commercial building ultimately creates an intriguing setting for a new type of theatre building to emerge.
The foyer of the theatre opens up towards the high central hall of the mall. The public spaces are furnished with dark monochrome and metallic surfaces providing a convincing contrast to the abundance of colour and information stimuli of the shopping mall.
Built on one level, the theatre centres around a tight group of large hall spaces. Its elegant simplicity raises the ambiance above and beyond the ordinary.
Löyly was erected in Helsinki’s Hernesaari district this year. According to the Pre-Selection Jury, few buildings in Helsinki that are open to the public make such full use of their location by the sea as Löyly does. The horizon is visible from almost all indoor spaces and the views can also be taken in from the roof.
The building is a mound clad in wooden lamellas that beautifully reflect the light thanks to their triangular profile. The wood used on the elevation will acquire a grey patina over time, so that, from a distance, it will look like one of the bare granite rocks emblematic of the Helsinki coastline. The slats provide discrete privacy to those using the saunas, while allowing a sea view from inside.
The spectator stand of the Rovaniemi Sports Arena, Railo, and the boulder-shaped residential and office buildings, once completed, will form a crevasse-like roadway winding between them.
The building is located within the so-called “Reindeer Antler” town plan designed by Alvar Aalto, near the town centre of Rovaniemi. The stand has a very different look depending on the direction from which it is viewed. When seen directly from the front, from the other side of the pitch, the structure looks like a lean and lightweight canopy supported by columns. The best view of the spectator stand is from a distance: a large-scale, statuesque sports arena.
According to the jury, the new sports arena and multipurpose building add a contemporary edge to the city’s high-quality architecture.
The Suvela Chapel creates a natural highpoint within its surroundings. Some of the spaces are used by the City of Espoo residents’ park. The building also houses some facilities serving the residents’ park, making it a natural meeting point for people of all ages.
The building forms clear delineation for traffic routes around it and the yard area it encloses. The copper clad building extends from the ground over the roof and belfry, resulting in a sculptural impression. The interior of the main hall is powerful in its simplicity.
The post Finlandia Prize for Architecture 2016 shortlist announced appeared first on Dezeen.
Everyone has his or her preferred way to wash the dishes; people use sponges, dish clothes, brushes and more. When creating kitchen sink organizers, some designers create products intended to hold a specific cleaning tool, while others go for multi-purpose organizers. Sink sizes are styles are another consideration when designing this type of organizer.
Reenbergs magnetic cloth rail (which seems to be the same as the Skoy Rail) attaches with a magnet built into the end of the rail and another strong magnet that goes on the back side of the sink—so it will only work if that back side is reachable. The Reenbergs version comes in two lengths, and it has an option for stronger magnets to work with Corian, Silgranit and similar sinks. Those are both wise options to ensure the rail can work for most end users. Purchasers note that these dual magnets really work; some mention how much better they are than suction-cup products they tried in the past.
The rail comes with stickers to hold those back magnets in place if the rail is removed to clean the sink, but some purchasers have noted the stickers don’t always hold. Skoy notes that something stronger, like duct tape, might be needed—especially if the sink has a rough underneath surface.
Reenbergs also has a flexible rail that can be used in corners, which may be more convenient for some end users—and might allow for a better fit in small sinks, where even the shorter rail could be too long. This one is entirely plastic, and comes in a choice of nine colors.
Magisso takes a different approach to the magnetic cloth holder, with an arm that extends out from a magnetic base. Again, a second magnet on the back side of the sink keeps the holder in place.
There’s nothing provided to hold the rear magnet in place if the holder is removed to clean the sink—but the holder has a swivel arm (straight or curved) that can be readily removed from the magnetized base, so cleaning around it should be pretty easy. The swivel arm allows the end user to keep the cloth close to the side of the sink during the day (so it’s not in the way) but move it out toward the center of the sink for better drying when the sink is not in use.
Magisso also has a magnetic sponge holder and a magnetic brush holder for those who use different cleaning tools.
Of course, sponge holders can also sit by the side of the sink. The OXO Good Grips sponge holder accommodates two sponges or scrubbers. It has open sides and bottom vents for air circulation, and the drip tray is removable for easy cleaning. One potential drawback noted by some purchasers: The holder is shorter than many sponges. Depending on the countertop material, how drippy the sponges are and how fussy the end user is about little puddles, this could be an issue. Also, some purchasers wish this holder had some kind of non-skid feet; as is, it’s a lightweight item that often moves around when removing or replacing sponges.
The Spongester also holds two sponges, but is designed specifically to allow an end user to keep track of which sponge is used for washing dishes vs. which sponge is used for grubbier tasks like cleaning the sink or the stove. (If one sponge goes from being the “good” sponge to the “evil” sponge over time, or if the end user likes the simplicity of buying a single type of sponge, then getting two different colors or styles of sponges won’t solve the problem of knowing which is which.)
The Joseph Joseph countertop sink caddies (large and small) can hold everything used for dishwashing, including the liquid soap in a not-too-large bottle. Some end users really like having an integrated all-in-one organizer, while others will find it somewhat silly to put the soap bottle into a caddy like this. The one complaint some purchasers have is that the section which holds the brush and soap has no drainage holes.
The Sink Storage Helper from Ippinka caught my eye for one nice feature: the ring holder. This would be really handy for end users who remove their rings when doing the dishes.
End users with limited counter space might prefer in-sink caddies, such as the Sink Aid from Joseph Joseph with spaces for a sponge, a brush and a dish cloth. This does use suction cups; some purchasers found they worked fine, while others had problems with them. One other concern: The opening for the brush isn’t large enough for some brush handles.
Simplehuman has two sink caddies: the slim one holds two sponges side by side while the larger one also holds a brush. Again, some purchasers have had problems with the suction cups, but Simplehuman offers suction cup stickers to help keep the suction cups in place. The brush holder has a pop-out silicone base so it can extend downward to hold taller brushes.
The UMBRA saddle sink caddy designed by Ross + Doell is intended for standard double sinks—but some divided sinks have a center strip that’s too wide for the saddle. For the right sink, though, it’s a simple way to store a couple sponges or scrubbers.
Casabella’s Sink Sider Faucet Sponge Holder is designed for sinks that are not divided. (I’ve seen photos of it being used in divided sinks, and that seems awkward.) It has adjustable straps to fit around most faucets. It’s not deep enough for many scrub brushes, though, and some larger sponges may not fit. As with any such product, it’s not for everyone.
One final note: For many of these products there were complaints from some purchasers about rust (for some of the stainless steel products) and mold that was hard to remove (for the rubber or plastic products, or parts of products). Anything a designer can do to minimize such problems would certainly be welcomed: avoiding hard-to-clean crevices, ensuring adequate drainage, etc.
L.A. Times music writer Randy Lewis had some fun with the circumstances of a special radio station contest event held Wednesday on the West Coast. It was all designed to showcase Sting’s first pop-rock studio album in more than a decade, titled 57th & 9th, in honor of the intersection he passes on his way to and from his New York music studio. Per Lewis:
Sting in Northridge? Although the music business continues to be a puzzle for many in terms of how to make a living these days, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still hold its share of intriguing surprises.
Thus, one of the biggest rock stars in the annals of rock — Sting — materialized Wednesday at Cal State Northridge’s Valley Performing Arts Center, at noon no less (“Good evening!” he said after sauntering on stage, and quickly correcting himself, “Or good morning, I guess”), for a midday preview of new music before a tiny but boisterous crowd of about 300.
Separately, EW’s Madison Vain spoke with the 64-year-old Sting and got some good background on the creative process for the LP:
I do a lot of my thinking on the move and it’s an inspiring city to be in. Pedestrians, the traffic, the noise, the architecture — the scale of New York is very stimulating for the mind. The walks [to and from the studio] are very much a part of the process.
The album comes out Nov. 11.
Previously on FishbowlNY:
Sting, Peter Gabriel and London’s Royal College of Art
The Evolution of Sting and Trudie Styler’s Il Palagio
Gwyneth Paltrow‘s Goop has hired BJ Jacobs and Erin Cotter as director of audience development and vp of beauty, respectively.
Jacobs most recently digital product lead for Royal Caribbean Cruises. He previously worked for The New York Times from 2010 to 2013.
Cotter previously worked for Esteé Lauder and Bumble and Bumble.
Dr. Martens has undertaken a project fraught with risks—refreshing their iconic boot—and nailed it. For those of us who are eight-up enthusiasts, some since our teens, the classic boot has often been relegated to cooler days because of its durable……
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