Belle (Emma Watson) sings a snippet of the film’s opening song, “Little Town,” in this sneak peek at the upcoming (March 17, 2017) live-action adaptation of Disney’s beloved 1991 animated musical, Beauty and the Beast…(Read…)
The technology behind the cinematic style of the BBC’s Planet Earth II…(Read…)
Nathan pitches a completely legal way to sell alcohol to underage customers…(Read…)
Italian architect Stefano Boeri has unveiled plans for a “vertical forest” in China, a pair of towers covered with trees and trailing plants in the centre of Nanjing.
Over 1,000 trees, 2,500 cascading plants and shrubs will line the facades of the Nanjing Vertical Forest, which is already under construction in the city’s Pukou District.
The mixed-used development commissioned by the state-owned National Investment Group, follows Boeri‘s past trials of “vertical forests” in Milan and in Lausanne.
The concept aims to provide sustainable high-density housing and office space in urban areas, capable of producing oxygen through its plant-covered facades. The architect plans to roll the concept out across Chinese cities to help offset pollution.
Boeri describes it as “a real vertical forest that will help to regenerate local biodiversity, will provide a 25 tons of CO2 absorption each year and will produce about 60 kilograms of oxygen per day”.
“The Nanjing Vertical Forest project is the third prototype of a project about urban forestation and demineralisation that Stefano Boeri Architects will develop all over the world and in particular in other Chinese cities such as Shijiazhuang, Liuzhou, Guizhou, Shanghai and Chongqing,” he said.
Two tree-covered towers will rise from a rectilinear podium containing a shopping centre, food market, as well as restaurants, a conference hall and exhibition spaces.
At 108 metres, the shorter of the two towers will contain a hotel with 247 suites and a rooftop swimming pool. The 200-metre-tall tower will host a “green” architecture school, offices, a museum, and a private club on its roof.
Nanjing Vertical Forest is expected to complete in 2018.
Other buildings designed to improve the quality of air in cities include Daan Roosegaarde’s Smog Free Tower, which is modelled on his pollution-eating vacuum cleaner, and a music school with a mossy roof designed to absorb airborne pollutants.
Project credits:
Architecture: Stefano Boeri Architects
Partner: Stefano Boeri, Yibo Xu
Project leader: Pietro Chiodi
Design leader: Carolina Boccella, Bao Yinxin
Design team: Giulia Chiatante, Agostino Bucci, Mario Tang Shilong
Plantation consultant: Laura Gatti
SLG
structural consultant: Luca Buzzoni, Arup
Investor: Nanjing Yang Zi State-owned Investment Group
Local design institution: Nanjing Yangzi River Urban Architectural Design
Local nursery: Nanjing ZhongShan Nursery
The post Stefano Boeri reveals plans for tree-covered towers in Nanjing appeared first on Dezeen.
Models ripped the fronts off their shirts to reveal glittery confetti at Hussein Chalayan‘s Autumn Winter 2017 show, which explored ideas surrounding identity and Greek folk culture.
Chalayan, who has shown his collections in Paris for over a decade, returned to London Fashion Week with his Act to Form presentation at Sadlers Wells theatre.
Made up of loose silhouettes as well as feminine dresses, the collection aimed to explore our sense and formation of identity.
“Our sense of universal personhood is in a state of flux,” said the designer’s show notes. “Act to form is a collection inspired by looking at new, isolated individuals that the current world order is generating.”
“The collection whilst attempting to uplift and empower also marks a sense of fake celebration of various events taking place around us.”
For the most part, Chalayan looked to Greek folk culture. A series of black striped pieces featured small hand-drawn Ancient Greek Sculptures on plinths, while a custom Jacquard textile depicts an Ancient Greek city map fused with the Manhattan grid system.
Classic coats came complete with built-in waistcoats, and loose carrot-shaped pants had wide wrap belts around the waistband.
“The Balkan era of Greek folk culture is used as a symbol of historical empowerment throughout the collection, connecting today’s sense of world citizenship to the ideals of personhood stemming from European Philhellenic sentiments of the early 19th century,” said the designer.
The final looks included a series of tailored shirts, each of which were filled with confetti-like stuffing that tumbled out when models removed a portion of the garment.
Chalayan is renowned for his experimental fashion designs. His previous collections have included two-in-one dresses that transform with a single tug and garments that emit laser beams. The rest of the collection comprised black-and-white designs, floral patterns, and red- and camel-coloured outfits made from lightweight fabrics.
Last year, the designer debuted his first self-directed dance production at the same theatre, which was split into 18 chapters that each explored themes of identity, displacement and invisibility.
The post Hussein Chalayan returns to London Fashion Week with collection exploring “isolated individuals” appeared first on Dezeen.
Marrying video clips, cool sound effects and cooler graphics sounds like one of the coolest jobs ever. No wonder you’re itching to be a video editor. We got a couple video editors to tell you all about the job. Take a look at what they had to say and then get scratching.
A video editor uses footage, sound and graphics to tell a story. A typical day in the life may include creating treatments and storyboards; developing scripts; producing and editing videos and photos for multiple platforms, from short-form daily content for social media platforms to long-form series; and sourcing and/or creating and adding graphics, animations, special effects, music, sound effects and sound bites.
A video editor also makes decisions about maximizing the content’s value online and helps align the final version of the piece to the appropriate distribution platform, says Elizabeth Giorgi, founder and CEO of internet video production company Mighteor. Audience development and working with members of other departments or an editorial team to ensure consistent and comprehensive content may also be part of the daily grind.
“It is my job to turn raw footage shot by a photographer into a compelling video,” says David Abrams, an auto test video editor/photographer at Consumer Reports. Though you may work with a producer or use a script to guide you, the overall tone of each piece is in the editor’s hands, says Abrams, so whether or not a video accomplishes its goals is often decided in the editing suite.
“Storytelling is the number one skill a video editor must have,” says Abrams, noting you must see the video through the eyes of your audience and consider how your edits affect the story you’re telling.
Knowledge of editing tools such as Apple’s Final Cut Pro or Adobe’s Premiere Pro is key, says Abrams, who suggests taking a course or subscribing to a teaching site such as lynda.com to develop your skill set.
Adds Giorgi, “Experience with After Effects, color grading and sound software, as well as the latest in mobile, will make you an invaluable asset.”
Attention to detail and the ability to think laterally and visually are also important.
A video editor at a start-up may report to the CEO, while a video editor at a larger company may report to the digital content editor.
Stay abreast of the latest and greatest in technology and digital trends, and never stop honing your editing skills—this includes learning and adapting to new tools.
Broadcast journalism programs “teach all the basics as well as the guts of storytelling,” says Giorgi. But, if college isn’t your cup of tea—hey, everything isn’t for everybody—don’t count yourself out. If you can get your hands on a computer and editing software, you’re good to go.
“This field tends to value experience over formal education,” adds Abrams. “Your ability to edit and tell stories is far more valuable than [a] degree hanging on your wall.”
The post What Does a Video Editor Do? appeared first on Mediabistro.
New photos reveal the glassy exterior and thin sculpted form of Madison Square Park Tower, a 65-storey apartment building by US firm Kohn Pedersen Fox that is slated to open this year.
Reaching a height of 777 feet (237 metres), the skyscraper – formerly known as 45 East 22nd Street – will be the tallest building in the Flatiron District, a neighbourhood in midtown Manhattan that includes Madison Square Park.
Its is one of many svelte skyscrapers rising or recently completed in New York – part of an explosion of “super-slender” towers that includes Rafael Viñoly’s 432 Park Avenue, SHoP Architects’ 111 West 57th Street and Christian de Portzamparc‘s One57.
Featuring a concrete skeleton sheathed in glass, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)’s tower rises high above the masonry buildings surrounding it. A stone base is intended to help the skyscraper blend with the neighbourhood at street level.
“The building features a manor house-inspired, granite-clad base that fits harmoniously within the tree-lined block,” the team said.
The tower widens as it climbs toward the sky. On its western side, the tower cantilevers outward 17 feet (five metres) — marking the point in which the shaft begins to swell.
“The tower also features a sculpturally striking glass curtain wall facade,” the team added.
Totalling 230,000 square feet (21,400 square metres), the skyscraper will contain 83 units with floor-to-ceiling windows. Residents will be afforded views of prominent city landmarks, from the Empire State and Chrysler buildings to the rivers bordering Manhattan.
Amenities will include a fitness centre, children’s playroom and a private dining room.
London-based Martin Brudnizki Design Studio is conceiving the interiors. The tower is being developed by Continuum Company.
Tenants are scheduled to move in later this year. The team has released a series of images to entice buyers, including a 360-degree animation and time-lapse video captured from an apartment on the 56th floor.
It is one of several towers by New York-based KPF currently underway in New York, including One Vanderbilt Tower, slated to be the city’s second tallest building, and 111 Murray Street, which is rising in the Financial District. KPF is also one of three firms designing a trio of waterfront towers on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Photography is by Will Femia.
The post Skinny Manhattan residential skyscraper by KPF nears completion in Flatiron District appeared first on Dezeen.
“Drones” is a broad term, encompassing both the friendly multirotor type that carry GoPros over snowboarders, and the more menacing UAV type that fires rockets into convoys. The safe kind requires little more than a credit card to acquire, whereas the dangerous kind needs an encrypted satellite uplink and a team of burnt-out pilots manning workstations in Nevada.
Those differing barriers of entry are why I don’t like the idea of weaponizing the former. Yet it’s happening, though the people doing it may not realize they’re doing it. First graffiti artist Katsu rigged up a drone that could spraypaint. If multirotor drones can spray paint, then they can spray other compressed gasses, which I imagine has to give a terrorist ideas. And now a power company in China has rigged up a drone that can spray fire.
What’s happening is that airborne garbage is getting caught on overhead high voltage lines. The company reckons that the most efficient way to get it off is to burn it off–I guess this is what happens when you don’t have an OSHA or an EPA–and a multirotor is easier to send up than a worker in a hydraulic bucket.
All I can think about is how much damage something like this could do in, say, Manhattan. A firefighter’s bane is a blaze he cannot easily get to, and what we see here seems like the ideal way to start hard-to-reach fires.
Via Gizmodo
Aside from the Soundsticks and their transparent glory, Harman Kardon’s design language is rather established, and easy to point out. Once you get that, superimposing their design values on any product can make it “belong” to Harman Kardon, or any brand for that matter. In design parlance, we call this the product or the brand semantic. Or in simpler terms, the visual language.
The products designed by Gary Chang encapsulate Harman Kardon’s visual style well. However they aren’t audio devices! The products in question are an aromatizer, a projector, and an AI listening assistant. Just like Harman Kardon’s signature style, these products make use of cuboidal shapes with circular elements. The achromatic color scheme is strong, with use of gray fabric, black plastic, and a hint of anodized matte metal to add a premium touch to the gadget/appliance. All that’s left is Harman Kardon’s branding!
Designer: Gary Chang
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
