Hasta La Ideas The Adventures of Star Wars Figurines in Nature Archives

Jul 19

SOM reveals images of stainless steel US Army museum in Virginia

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SOM has released exterior and interior building photos of the National Museum of the United States Army, which is nearing completion in Virginia.

The stainless steel-clad museum has been designed by American architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), to tell the story of America’s oldest military service.

The three-storey building will comprise of five pavilions linked by glass thresholds. At the corner of each pavilion glass panels covered by painted aluminium fins are designed to add dynamism to the silvery facades.

National Museum of the United States Army by SOM

The National Museum of the United States Army is being built to educate the public about the army’s role in American history and to honour America’s soldiers.

“The design of the museum evokes the principles of the Army: it is disciplined, modest, and rigorous,” said SOM.

National Museum of the United States Army by SOM

Spanning approximately 185,000 square feet (17,187 square metres), the building is constructed of steel and glass and clad in reflective panels that contrast the contemporary building to its clay and pine surroundings.

Although the building exterior is largely complete, the interior exhibitions are still being installed, with the museum projected to open in 2020.

The museum is being built in Fort Belvoir, Virginia in the Potomac River Valley. The town accommodates an army base and is 20 miles (32 kilometres) south of Washington DC.

“Drawing inspiration from such iconic works of architecture as the Acropolis in Athens and the United States Military Academy at West Point, the plan exploits the site’s natural topography, resting the museum on a plateau to evoke a sense of monumentality,” said SOM.

National Museum of the United States Army by SOM — Photograph by Eliezer Lee

Visitors will begin their visit by following a formation of metal pylons, scored with stories and faces of US soldiers.

Once at the museum, a bright lobby has coffered ceilings, terrazzo flooring and colourful laminated glass panels overhead that evoke streamers from each of the Army’s campaigns.

An oversized yellow, blue and red Army emblem is inlaid at the centre of the floor. On a wall is an engraved black stoned monolith, a Wall of Honor, to commemorate the US Army’s battles.

The museum will comprise of three main galleries that cover different themes and periods in the Army’s history.

Much of the museum is pale and light with white floors, ceilings and walls. Other rooms that will display artefacts are darker.

A Medal of Honour garden, which will be on the roof above the lobby, will feature granite pavers in a linear design with a 10-foot-tall (three-metre-tall) black granite wall engraved with the names of every Army recipient of the prestigious Medal of Honour.

The museum also comprises a learning centre, cafe, shop, offices, events space and room for temporary installations.

Rounding out the project will be terraced gardens, a park, trail and amphitheatre. Grounds will also be designed to host ceremonies, reenactments, lectures, events and other programs.

The US Army museum is built with sustainable features including radiant heating and cooling and a green roof. It is also designed to meet the US Department of Defense’s standards for security, with high levels of protection across the landscape.

In addition to this project, SOM has designed a variety of cultural and government buildings in the US, including an FBI technology building in West Virginia, a Chicago municipal library and a courthouse in Los Angeles with pleated glass.

Photography is by Duane Lempke of Sission Studios unless stated otherwise.

The post SOM reveals images of stainless steel US Army museum in Virginia appeared first on Dezeen.

Jul 19

Watch Doug Aitken's mirrored hot air balloon take flight

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This captioned movie shows Doug Aitken‘s 30-metre-tall New Horizon hot air balloon, which has a semi-mirrored body, take flight across the skies of Massachusetts.

Called New Horizon, the nomadic installation will pass over several sites in the US state that are managed by the Trustees, which is a non-profit preservation and conservation organisation.

LED lights are hand-sewn throughout the material, which Aitken developed with NASA, and can be choreographed to illuminate in different patterns and colours during the night time.

The balloon will visit and land in several rural locations, where a programme of talks and performances will take place.

This NASA-based inertial technology gym device is what the Apollo 11 would want on its 50th anniversary

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How do you jog on a treadmill in space? How do you lift weights in a zero-gravity atmosphere? Exercising in outer space sounds like a rather strange problem because there isn’t much you can do that’s effort intensive, only because things are rather effortless in a situation without gravity!

The answer to how astronauts exercise in space is ‘friction training’. An astronaut’s physical fitness is paramount to the success of a space mission, and exercise equipment can often be bulky, occupying precious space in a rocket pod. Gyms built for space are often incredibly compact, multi-purpose pieces of equipment that use inertial technology to work your muscles, giving you the perfect workout with a decreased chance of injury. Friction training can be used down here on earth too. It’s efficient, and allows you to perform concentric and eccentric workouts with minimal risk of strain… and it has the ability to be compact enough to carry around in your hand.

Meet the Handy Gym. It isn’t a piece of equipment, it’s an entire gym that is capable of exercising every part of your body. Developed using NASA’s isoinertial technology, Handy Gym gives you access to one of the most scientifically backed workout methods of all time. After all, if it’s good enough for the international space station, it’s good enough for earth, right? The Handy Gym uses a pulley system and two solid steel inertial discs. Multiple accessories allow you to work different body parts, exercising your arms, legs, core, allowing you to stay fit, bulk up, lose weight, or even recover from injuries. Handy Gym is small enough to fit into a suitcase with the rest of your clothes, or in your dressing room drawer, to be used any time you want to work out. It weighs approximately 2 pounds too, so you can carry it anywhere you please. Designed for an effective, and more importantly safe workout, the Handy Gym packs a Bluetooth module too that lets you track your progress as you exercise, while the app even guides you through using the tiny multi-purpose device to work all parts of your body. Designed for three level of intensities, the Handy Gym comes with a choice of three steel discs ranging from low to medium and high power, while its set of accessories ensure that you get the entire gym experience in a deceptively small product that was designed to be quite literally out of this world!

Designer: Manuel Montes

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Handy Gym: Portable, Powerful & Effective Inertial Training

Perform strength training exercises anywhere, anytime with this conical pulley device with NASA-based inertial technology.

Handy Gym offers functionality and efficiency comparable to expensive inertial pulleys and superior to large gym machines. This kind of strength training method is independent of gravity and it allows for anywhere resistance training without lifting even one pound… while offering stronger and safer fitness results.

Save money with their portable device.

Did You Know?

Isoinertial technology was developed for NASA in the 1990s to solve the problem of loss of muscle mass suffered by astronauts after long periods in space where, for lack of gravity, they could not exercise their muscles through conventional weights.

How Does Handy Gym Work

Presented in the form of a compact accessory of a two-pound, contact accessory, Handy Gym contains two inertial discs capable of converting its turn in strength of resistance. It comes with the accessories necessary to make it portable – from your home to the outdoors, you can now workout at any time!

Handy Gym also comes with a wide variety of gripping elements that allow you to perform up to 200 different exercises and work any muscle group you want.

Benefits of the Handy Gym.

Below: How to Use the Handy Gym

Below: Product Description

Accessories.

Encoder data and power test.

Below: Handy Gym in Use

Click Here to Buy Now: $379 ~~$637~~ (40% off). Hurry, less than 72 hours left!

Jul 19

The Oasis planter is actually a side table with lamp

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I have to hand it to designer Pei-Ju Wu, for the clever way they have integrated a planter, side table and lamp, into this amazing piece of furniture that you can place in your living room. The lines are blurred due to the multiple functionalities of this piece, but the ingenious way they complement each other and come together as The Oasis, is commendable.

Picture this – you have a planter at the base of a table, which keeps green thanks to the integrated LED lights, and stays hydrated via the clever funnel found at the center of the table top. Excess water simply drips down to the collection tray and evaporates back into the air.

Moreover, the capillary action sucks in the water for the plants, making physics an integral part of the design. An idea that has been done-to-death (planter + table + lights), however, the Oasis gets it right and elevates the entire proposition.

Designer: Pei-Ju Wu

The central funnel of the glass table top is the water outlet, and the water can be irrigated down to the soil by the central pipe.

The water required by the plant is poured from the center of the table top, and the funnel flows down the pipe to the soil, helping the plants to replenish moisture through the capillary principle between the soils.

An LED strip is placed in the center of the planting area, and a built-in time switch illuminates the plant to provide proper light to live. And it can also be used as a situational light at night.

The plants in the table are naturally drooping like a beautiful tablecloth, lying there quietly to accompany with you,and allowing “natural” could “naturally” integration into the atmosphere of the home.

The main body is dark gray, with a slightly green reflective glass on the top as the tabletop, hoping to highlight the green color of the plant.

OASIS is both botanic and furniture. By redefining the relationship between “natural” and “artificial objects”, potted plants are no longer corner decorations but a new statement of “the coexistence of furniture and nature ” in the interior.

Excess water can pass through the hole and flow along the central pipe to the lower collecting pan and return to the atmosphere through natural evaporation.

Jul 19

Bates Masi designs slatted wooden home for sailing family on Annapolis waterfront

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Architecture studio Bates Masi Architects has used sliding doors, decks and balconies to open up this slatted wooden home in Annapolis, Maryland to the nearby water.