Hasta La Ideas

A little trick to sum Fibonacci numbers. Try it out…(Read…)

German furniture maker Nils Holger Moormann has released a flat-pack bed designed for the needs of man’s best friend (+ slideshow).

The company launched the Kläffer as a pooch-proportioned version of its full-size Siebenschläfer and children’s Spross beds, both flat-pack designs.

The dog bed comprises several metal-free pieces designed to be easily slotted together – a feature that also makes the beds portable.

In keeping with Nils Holger Moormann‘s commitment to local sourcing of materials, the Kläffer is constructed from European birch plywood.

Currently only available in one size, the bed comes in three varying colours – red, black or white. The company hopes to launch small, medium and large Kläffers in the future.

Summing up its design approach, Nils Holger Moorman explained that “the key thoughts are simplicity, intelligence and innovation, and these colour the entire company’s philosophy”.

The company often works with flat timber sheet material in designs like the Bookinist bookshelf chair and the self-catering Berge lodge, built next to the Nils Holger Moormann headquarters.

The Kläffer dog bed is the latest product in a growing pool of high-end designs for pets. In March of this year, Japanese studio Nendo launched its minimalist collection of dog accessories, while MAD founder Ma Yansong recently debuted a series of steak-shaped rugs for dogs.

The post Nils Holger Moorman launches dog-sized version of its flatpack bed appeared first on Dezeen.

An innate fascination with food is a structural part of being human, but what about structural food? Dinara Kasko is an architect-trained pastry chef, and her work melds classic desserts with stark geometry and 3d printing. While inviting, Kasko’s creations look less like food and more like architectural renderings or diagrams from a chemistry textbook. 

After graduating from Kharkov University Architecture School, Kasko started her career as a design-visualizer at at Dutch architectural firm. After a few years of imagining, illustrating and photographing buildings, she took time off to have a kiddo and reconsider her options. 

It appears that she’s found a sweet middle ground between interests. She now uses her background in precise aesthetics alongside culinary perfectionism, aided by 3DMAX modeling and 3D printed silicone molds. 

Aggressively shaped modern food has gone a bit out of fashion in the States, in favor of “honest ingredients” and fusiony takes on “authentic” homestyle dishes. While good food is always good, the excitement and awe prompted by highly designed food is hard to describe. Many chefs and food theorists consider sense confusion a great tool for deepening an experience of food, since core assumptions about texture, color or form as they relate to flavor are tossed out. 

While some of her designs harken back to more aestheticized architect/culinary crossovers of the past, I’d bet the use of sugar and fat guarantees these “function” just fine. Whether or not it helps me pick up nuances of flavor, I’d love to take a bite out of a sleek confectionary building just to know how Godzilla feels.

Catch more of Dinara Kasko’s work on her Instagram.

American architect Wesley Walls has created a home for his family in central Arkansas that is composed of stacked boxes clad in stone, metal and glass (+ slideshow).

Called Two Rivers Point, the multi-level house sits on a steep slope and overlooks a river valley near Little Rock, the state’s capital.

Encompassing 3,700 square feet (344 square metres), the residence was designed by the architect for his family of four.

Creating an aesthetic that was modern and restrained – as well as providing panoramic views – were key factors during the design process.

The result is a three-storey structure comprising two 22-foot-long (6.7-metre) bars stacked atop a boxy volume at the base. A flat, angled roof covers the rectilinear home.

“The design intentionally sidesteps trendy formishes in an effort to create a sophisticated, timeless residence,” said Wesley Walls, a principal at the local firm, Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects.

The material palette was limited to stone, steel and glass, with the surrounding trees meant to add “colour” to the design.

The house is oriented to the north, which enables the interior to be filled with soft light.

“The ever-changing seasons, weather and time of day provide a myriad of exterior and interior experiences,” the architect said.

A stone wall serves as a visual anchor, while also acting as a physical barrier between private and public spaces within the dwelling.

The front door is located on the top level and is accessed via a driveway and concrete steps.

Visitors step into a glazed area, called the Upper Level Gallery, and are guided toward a “vertical communicating stair” that connects all floors.

The living and dining rooms, along with the kitchen, are situated on the top storey and merge with an outdoor terrace.

An island in the kitchen serves as both a counter for entertaining and as a dining table for daily use.

The middle floor contains a den, master suite and guest bedroom, while the bottom level houses two children’s bedrooms and a shared bathroom.

Throughout the home, ample glazing provides sweeping views of the scenic terrain. The dwelling is fitted with contemporary decor and finishes such as warm-toned wood and stone.

Sustainable elements include the use of recycled materials, LED lighting, and high-performance mechanical systems.

Other homes in Arkansas include a dwelling by Modus Studio cloaked in weathering steel and wood, and a metal-clad residence by deMx Architecture that is shaped like a bowtie.

The post Wesley Walls embeds multi-level home into forested Arkansas hillside appeared first on Dezeen.

When a then-unnamed bomber detonated his homemade bomb in New York City on September 17th, injuring dozens, he used a cell phone as a timer. Several mornings later, I was in downtown Manhattan when my own cell phone made the “emergency alert” noise. Here was the message:

I looked across the street to see a businesswoman had also pulled her phone out and was peering into it. And I thought, this is kind of cool, that the authorities can use cell phones to enlist all citizens to help find a potential terrorist.

Then I looked at the message again. It said “See media for pic” which I assumed meant an attached file, and I tried clicking on the message, but nothing happened. Then I realized they meant “See media” as in “go look it up in a newspaper, website or on TV,” which is ridiculous. How the hell are we supposed to spot somebody based on their name? Why wasn’t there at least a hyperlink to a website with his photo on it?

It’s limited to 90 characters. Even worse, the FCC has banned hyperlinks, embedded phone numbers and multimedia.

Well, as it turns out, the system that sent the message to my phone is the same as what you in tornado country may have received one on to warn of an impending twister: 

The Wireless Emergency Alerts system, or WEA, is “a public safety system that allows customers…to receive geographically-targeted, text-like messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their area. The technology ensures that emergency alerts will not get stuck in highly congested areas, which can happen with standard mobile voice and texting services.”

This system would’ve come in damned handy on 9/11, when none of us could get text messages through and nobody knew what the hell was going on. (After the planes hit, I started the 60-block walk from my office in midtown to my apartment downtown, directly towards Ground Zero. I didn’t know if this was a good idea but I didn’t know what else to do, and some guidance would’ve been helpful.)

So it’s great that WEA exists–but its limitations are absurd. For one thing, it’s limited to 90 characters. Even worse the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the WEA, has banned hyperlinks, embedded phone numbers and multimedia. They’ve not explained why. Assuming it’s a technical issue to do with the never-gets-stuck nature of the messaging, America surely possesses the brainpower to overcome that.

New York State Senator Charles E. Schumer knows this problem has to be fixed, and yesterday held a press conference calling on the FCC to do so:

“In light of the need to respond in real time to terror threats, we can’t afford to have an emergency wireless response system that is stuck in the 90’s. The bottom line is that in the era of Instagram, Facebook and SnapChat our Wireless Emergency Alert System needs to get as smart as our phones and be updated so it can deliver photos and other media that has information that can save lives.”

The FCC, for their part, says they’re planning on upgrading the message capacity from 90 to 360 characters. But until they figure out how to accurately draw bombers with emoticons, that’s not enough.