Antoni Tudisco maîtrise le pixel comme personne d’autre et arrive à donner à ses oeuvres numériques une texture surprenante. Il fait partie de ces artistes autodidactes surdoués. Il apprend par lui-même toutes les commandes possibles sur Adobe et se lance dans la 3D et la vidéo. Des marques telles que Nike, BMW ou encore MTV n’hésitent d’ailleurs pas à faire appel à son talent et sa signature particulièrement urbaine.
Core Home is a global leader in manufacturing and importing exceptional housewares and home décor products. Our experienced team of designers and product developers is constantly working to translate popular trends into innovative products for everyday life. Each Core Home item is made in ethically and socially responsible ways by our skilled artisans around the globe.
Pesticides are bad for humans, and they’ve been linked to everything from birth defects to cancer. They’re not much better for the environment: In “Sustaining the Earth,” textbook author G. Tyler Miller–the man who literally wrote the book on environmental science–points out that over 95% and 98% of sprayed herbicides and pesticides, respectively, land on something other than what they’re trying to kill. They then contaminate and pollute the air, water and soil.
We need to shift towards a natural and eco-friendly way to protect crops, and the UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology may have the solution: Wildflowers. As it turns out, wildflowers are a breeding ground for parasitic wasps and hoverflies–which doesn’t sound pleasant, until you consider that those are the natural predators of cereal leaf beetles and aphids, which are both persistent and destructive crop pests. Thus the CEH is running a five-year trial in England on 15 farms, planting strips of wildflowers that run directly through crop fields. (As a side bonus, wildflowers also host bees, which help with pollinating crops.)
The wildflower tactic is based on science backed up in a 2015 study published by the Royal Society’s Biological Sciences journal. “Our study demonstrates a high effectiveness of annual flower strips in promoting pest control,” reads the report, “reducing CLB (cereal leaf beetle) pest levels below the economic threshold. Hence, the studied flower strip offers a viable alternative to insecticides.”
Some farmers had previously planted wildflowers on the periphery of a field of crops, but this only protected the crops nearest the periphery. Thus CEH’s trial has been planting six-meter-wide wildflower strips 100 meters apart inside the crop fields, allowing the insect predators a convenient commute. Because harvesters are now precisely guided by GPS, the crops can be reaped while the flower strips are left intact.
“The flowers planted include oxeye daisy, red clover, common knapweed and wild carrot,” The Guardian reports. “Similar field trials are also underway in Switzerland, using flowers such as cornflowers, coriander, buckwheat, poppy and dill.”
If the CEH trial turns out to be a success, the next step will be to convince farmers. “The majority of crop protection advice given in the UK,” explains Bill Parker, director of research at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, “is from agronomists tied to companies who make their money from selling pesticides.”
We all know that kids totally suck at drawing, and now you know why my applications to teach art to children have all been rejected. Seriously though, have you ever wondered how a child takes in a scene that they’re sketching, compared to how an adult artist does? In other words, where do their eyes go, what information are they picking up?
In this fascinating study shot at a Brooklyn art studio, cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Heather Berlin has both kids and adult artists wear eye-tracking glasses, then draw the same scene:
Lastly I want to stress: It’s your job as a parent to reinforce that not every drawing deserves a spot on the refrigerator. Sometimes the paper shredder needs something to do, too. If you don’t have the heart to tell them, I’ll send you the pre-recorded video of me saying it that I use to apply for teaching positions.
In 1980 Nile Rodgers received his first Grammy nomination—as a songwriter on the Sister Sledge hit “We Are Family.” A year later he received another with “Upside Down,” which he produced for Diana Ross. As awards shows go, he wouldn’t win—until 2014……
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The Architects’ Journal’s LGBT+ survey shows the number of architects who are openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender in British practices has fallen over the past two years.
According to the results of the survey, the number lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) respondents who said they are “out” in their practice has dropped to 73 per cent.
This compares to 80 per cent of respondents the last time data was collected by the Architects’ Journal (AJ) in 2016.
Outside of London, the percentage of LGBT+ respondents open about their sexuality or gender in the office drops even further to just 62 per cent.
Homophobic and transphobic slurs on the rise
Also the number of architects who have “heard homophobic and/or transphobic slurs being used as insults in the workplace”, has also risen to 39 per cent from 37 per cent, over the same period.
The survey also reveals a rise in the number of LGBT+ architects who feel “being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender has created barriers to career progression”. This number has risen from 24 per cent in 2016 to 30 per cent.
Nearly 250 LGBT+ architects responded to the survey. Founding member of LGBT+ property professional networking group Freehold, Chris Edwards, told the AJ the results were “very disheartening”.
Results reflect “a less tolerant society”
The results are a reflection of negative changes in the UK since Brexit, according to Lisa Sumner, an associate director at Williams Lester and a transgender woman.
“We have become a less tolerant society recently,” she said. “Statistics show increased levels of hate crime and homophobia following the Brexit vote.”
“The media is also more open in attacking LGBT rights, with opinion pieces openly saying what was unacceptable a couple of years ago, particularly against trans rights. All this is discouraging for anyone contemplating coming out at work.”
Dieter Bentley-Gockmann, director of EPR Architects, added: “I fear the social antagonism that arose in the wake of Brexit, which is being exacerbated by the ‘Trump effect’ and divisive commentators on social media, may be having an impact in the workplace.
“As a result it appears that LGBT+ architects are less willing or confident to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
In total 1,100 people responded to survey run in collaboration with New Civil Engineer and Construction News.
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The Strap Extinguisher is a convenient and intuitive twist on the fire extinguisher that can be used with only one hand. When pulling the strap over the body and on the shoulder, the safety pin connecting the strap and nozzle is instantly pulled out so it’s ready to use immediately.
Carried over the shoulder, the user can keep one hand free to guide others or help navigate their way to safety. This paired with intuitive operation make rapid response possible and prevent confusion in time-sensitive emergency situations.
The Strap Extinguisher is a winner of the K-Design Award for the year 2017.
Designers: Youngtae Cha, Chanbin Park, Seokyeong Lee & Yeahee Ku
I thought this looked familiar and it’s because this shower caddy has been front in center at Bed Bath & Beyond’s bathroom section since 2015! (I was just there using those ubiquitous 20% coupons!) This is one handy shower caddy. Unlike similar rubber products, it won’t dull. Unlike other metal units, its anodized aluminum finish won’t rust. With multiple tiers, a handy dish for soap and an easy-to-mount hook, it’s sure to keep your shower free of clutter. It may not be new… but it’s tried-and-true!
Designer: Mason Umholtz for OXO
Researchers and professional divers have discovered that two caves—known as Sac Actun and Dos Ojos—off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula are actually connected by a long tunnel, making it the largest underwater cave known to us above-water creatures……
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Lebanese studio Eliemetni has squeezed everything a guest could need into a micro studio apartment on the roof of an old building in the Achrafieh district of Beirut.
The architecture, interior and product design studio reconfigured the aptly named Shoe Box apartment for a client who rents it out to short stay visitors on AirBnB.
“Beirut nowadays became a place where it is hard to find accessible rates for quality accommodation,” said studio founder Elie Metni. “Downsizing became trendy.”
With just 15-square-metres of floor space to work with, the team painted the room white and coated the floor in white epoxy to maximise the reflected light from large windows either side.
The whole apartment has been fitted with custom-built space saving furniture made made from white laminate plywood, with brushed aluminium light fittings and a pair of chairs made from beech wood and painted steel.
Tables and stools can be extended and packed away as needed so as not to clutter the two-metre-wide room, and storage spaces have been integrated to almost every surface.
“The brief of the client was fairly simple: to create a fluid space, capable of providing a sleep space for two people and accommodating around five people,” explained Metni.
Within these parameters – and the limitations of 15 square metres – the studio sought to create “a powerful sense of pleasure, simplicity, ease and efficiency”.
The apartment is open plan with a small bathroom partitioned off behind a glass door at one end. Furniture is arranged around the exterior of the apartment to allow guests to move around more easily.
At the opposite end of the apartment the need for a cumbersome pair of bedside tables has been eliminated by a couple of nifty workarounds.
The queen-sized bed has compartments equipped with charging ports set into the raised frame for guests to keep books, glasses and electrical devices, and two reading lights are suspended from the ceiling.
Storage space has also been built in under the bed, comprising a pull out drawer, a cupboard and a set of shelves.
Flexible furniture in a uniform material is often the key to making micro-apartments work. Studiomama designed custom plywood fold-out furniture inspired by boat cabins to furnish a 13-square-metre space designed in a former London cab office.
London studio Ab Rogers Design used plywood for the space saving solutions in their 19-square-metre concept studio that includes a mezzanine bed with storage built into the stairs.
Naimi Architecture used what they dubbed “smart furniture” to carve out extra room in a 25-metre apartment in Barcelona, sinking storage spaces into nooks in the walls and designing a bed unit with built-in storage.
In the Beirut Shoe Box, a table next to the bed can double as a desk, with an open shelf beneath and slots cut into a shelf under a window to accommodate charging cables for a laptop.
An adjoining cupboard doubles another flat surface and a rail fixed to the ceiling above it can be used to hang clothes from.
The sofa bench has more storage space underneath, with slots for two smaller pieces pieces of furniture that can slide out and be used as a foot rest and a coffee table.
Two chairs can tuck in beside each other under the table, which can be extended or rolled back as required. Compartments cut into shelf below window can be used to hold vases, condiments and cutlery.
A section of the TV stand is completely detachable and has a cushion set into the surface, so that it can be moved and used as a stool.
The kitchen and wet room areas are fully tiled in matching white squares with contrasting black grout that creates an interesting geometric pattern.
A compact kitchen includes a mini fridge, a sink set into the corner, a set of drawers and a washing machine with space for prep and a hotplate for cooking on top. Racks, cupboards and shelves fixed to the walls have space for utensils and crockery.
Separated by a glass door, the wet room contains a shower head, toilet and sink unit and is lit by a large frosted window.
The flat also comes with access to a sizeable outdoor roof terrace with views out over the Beirut skyline, which can be seen through the large window at the foot of the bed.
With land at a premium in cities all around the world, architects are being required to devise increasingly ingenious solutions for small living spaces.
In Moscow, Studio Bazi fitted a 35-metre-wide apartment with a raised “sleeping box” in the back corner of a micro apartment to create a private sleeping space with extra storage room.
Architecture and design studio Design Eight Five Two overhauled a 51-square-metre flat in Hong Kong using sliding furniture and even a built-in cat bed to make the most of a small apartment’s floorspace.
Photography by Marwan Harmouch.
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