Hasta La Ideas

L’artiste ukrainien Alexey Kondakov retire des nymphes et autres figures de peintures classiques pour les insérer dans des photographies modernes.

On retrouve alors ces héros de peintures classiques prenant les transports en communs ou au beau milieu d’une une soirée éléctro. La série, surprenante, nous invite à lire les oeuvres hors de leur contexte d’origine et d’aller au delà de nos limites d’interpretation d’une oeuvre. Il donne alors une seconde vie à ces peintures et le résultat est délirant !

This dynamic, fast car is a joy to drive—quirks and all

Imagine for a moment a true sports car—one that was under $100k and didn’t need to be optioned over that in order to be enjoyed. Having spent several days behind the wheel of the 2020 Evora GT, a variant of their long-standing model, it’s clear it follows the Lotus ethos. From sublime handling to punchy power-delivery, the latest from the rejuvenated brand has plenty in common spiritually with the supercars made by their fellow countrymen at McClaren in Woking, England. Even a brief stint behind the wheel of the Evora GT imparts a great deal about why Lotus is held in such high regard (especially for driving dynamics) and how, with just a bit more attention paid to fit and finish, the Evora GT could be one of the most important cars in this segment.

This svelte car (with a 3,112-pound body) has been based on a principle of minimalism, one that Lotus has long maintained on the racetrack and on the street. Though not an exotic sports car the Evora GT sits at that end of the spectrum due to its neck-snapping looks, mid-engine layout and almost telepathic steering. The supercharged 3.5-liter, V-6 engine (sourced from Toyota) makes it very quick but not quite blisteringly fast. True exotic cars are the latter, but outright speed isn’t the sole purpose of the Evora GT. Rather this car makes the absolute most of what’s available.

As sports cars have improved across the board, we’ve come to believe that the speed at which a car builds up a driver’s confidence is a reasonable way to separate the good from the great. The Evora GT is the automotive equivalent of a heartfelt halftime locker room speech. In this vehicle, drivers are rewarded with an experience akin to that of cars which pre-date the digital invasion, or super cars that are astronomically expensive.

Wonderful as it is, the Evora GT is still a true British sports car and that means it is not without its quirks. The most frustrating issue we encounter is the unpredictable process of blipping the throttle for heel/toe downshifts. This technique is usually one of the most enjoyable aspects of driving a manual transmission sports car, but not in the Evora GT. Still, when this method succeeds, the downshifts were crisp and made for some of the most satisfying moments in our driving adventure. We also imagine this issue will be resolved when the 2021 Evora GT arrives. We’re not in love with the Alpine stereo unit that sticks out, and found moments of clunkiness through the interior—but that’s a matter of personal taste.

The Evora GT is the most powerful Lotus ever sold in the USA and when we are hustling through tight canyons overlooking the Pacific ocean and exploring inland mountain roads (ahead of a number of competitors both old and new) this is evident. The Evora GT comes standard with the joyful handling Lotus has made their name on and certainly rivals that of McLaren. The Ohlins dampers are so incredibly well-tuned and the suspension so well-suited to the car that we wonder momentarily if all these adaptive suspension set-ups offered by the rest of the industry are just lazy. That one set-up can be so dialed in and so well-suited to a variety of situations is somewhat baffling and very, very impressive.

Clearly the majority of the effort that went into making the Evora GT was focused toward the driving dynamics. A little more attention on a few more superficial details would push the Evora GT from a niche product to a mainstream homage to the analog sports cars of the past. We enjoy cars like this: ones that require attention and a little bit of labor to understand and enjoy.

Images by Andrew Maness

The Mount Sinai Kyabirwa Surgical Facility in Uganda by Kliment Halsband Architects is a self-sustaining facility topped with solar panels.

Local labourers built the health facility using materials sourced from the area, including red bricks that form the perforated screen walls that allow for natural ventilation.

Red clay was dug up from sites near the building and fired to create bricks and cladding for the medical facility, a decision that also helped support the local economy.

“Surgical treatments are essential to building healthy communities worldwide,” said Kliment Halsband Architects, which was founded in 1972 in New York.

“This model is built around developing an independent, self-sustaining facility capable of providing surgical treatments in resource-poor areas.”

Kliment Halsband Architects took inspiration from the banana plants that grow in the area for the shape of the building, which is shaded by a canopy of solar panels.

“We thought of solar panels as leaves of banana plants gathering sun and providing shade,” said the studio. The solar array shelters and powers the simple modular brick facility beneath.”

The solar panels stand on a steel framework on the concrete roof, which is supported by another steel frame.

A hybrid battery storage system and onsite generator helps supplement the intermittent power available through the electricity grid. If the mains power fails, Mount Sinai Kyabirwa Surgical Facility can run off energy stored from the solar panels for two days.

Twenty miles of underground fibreoptic cable was installed to ensure the facility has a reliable internet connection.

Surgeons from the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York can help their counterparts in Uganda with live surgical consultations and video conference call in to operations in real time.

Gravity tanks store water from the well and the town supply, with a system that filters and sterilises it on demand. Roof water is collected and stored for using to flush toilets and water the vegetable garden, which provides food for the patients and staff.

Sewage is treated onsite by a septic tank, and an incinerator is used for the medical waste.

Air conditioning is used for the operating rooms, to keep them sealed and sterile. The rest of the Mount Sinai Kyabirwa Surgical Facility is ventilated naturally with air flow channelled by the undulating canopy and the perforated brick walls.

Uganda introduced free universal healthcare in 2001, but still struggles to provide for more rural populations. Architects are helping to try and improve this.

Renzo Piano is currently building a new children’s hospital on the banks of Lake Victoria, and HKS Architects and Engineers for Overseas Development have also built a sustainable medical facility in Uganda, a maternity unit that can host new mothers and their families in a remote, underserved area.

Photography is by Will Boase unless otherwise stated.

Project credits:

Owner: Mount Sinai Health System New York
Architect: Kliment Halsband Architects
Project team: Frances Halsband, George K George, Simone Meeks, Max Marin
Structural engineer: Silman
Mechanical engineer: Keltron Development Services

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The spot, titled The Last Mile, is created by ad agency Johannes Leonardo and set to a version of Let It Be by The Beatles sung by a children’s choir. It is bathed in nostalgia for the Beetle, with references to its place in pop culture history included throughout.

Andy Warhol shows up, as does Kevin Bacon, in his role as a Beetle-driving Ren in Footloose. And the brand’s iconic 60s posters Think Small and Lemon also receive their own homage in the ad.

It might seem odd for a brand to put so much emphasis on a product that is no longer available to buy, but the release of the ad forms part of an ongoing marketing push by VW to move on from the global diesel emissions scandal that severely damaged its reputation in 2015.

The new ad follows a previous campaign that aims to highlight its move into electric vehicles. As with The Last Mile, those ads also leverage the brand’s glorious past.

Electric vehicles are not mentioned explicitly in the Beetle spot though there is a lengthy scene that references environmentalism via wind power and the closing tagline – ‘Where one road ends, another begins’ – is an attempt to look to the future. The hope is clearly that the big love for Volkswagen that the world once had can be used to redeem its standing with consumers and allow both the brand – as well as its products – to move on from its difficult last few years.

johannesleonardo.com

The post VW waves goodbye to the Beetle with a sentimental new ad appeared first on Creative Review.

Indian architecture studio Charged Voids has designed Office 543 around an elliptic meeting room with granite walls, which is a private space among the glass-walled offices.

Designed for construction company Khullar Builders, the office is located in the Mohali district of Indian city Chandigarh, which was planned by modernist architect Le Corbusier.

The two-storey building was conceived by the local studio as a series of small spaces that branch off a central double-height atrium. Within this space Charged Voids designed an oval meeting room that contrasts with the otherwise linear  office spaces.

Directly connected to the main office and the central atrium, it is clad with the same Sivakasi gold granite as the building’s exterior.

Alongside the meeting room and main office space, the ground floor contains a reception area and two courtyards, which were planted with small trees.

Openings between the rooms are designed to connect the office’s narrow spaces with these courtyards and bring daylight into the workspaces.

“The interjection of courtyards and skylights is a strategy that allows us to experience the fragments of nature like the wind, light and greenery,” said the studio.

“The courtyards are used as a buffer between the exterior and the interior, and break the powerful geometry of the elements of design.”

A floating metal staircase within the atrium gives access to the first-floor, which contains a terrace above the rear courtyard, additional workspaces and an office. A small sitting area is located on top of the oval meeting room.

Further offices are located on the third floor. Designed for another department within the company, these workspaces are accessed via a separate staircase on the right hand side of the facade.

The studio’s design aimed to address the limited space available on 140-square-metre site.

“The idea was to utilise the small site by building the bare essential number of elements with each element achieving its maximum efficacy,” explained Charged Voids.

The studio used a restrictive material palette of white marble and Sivakasi gold granite which gives the office its warm-coloured facade. The majority of the interior walls in the office areas are painted white.

Chandigarh was one of India’s first planned cities and was masterplanned by Le Corbusier, who designed landmarks including the Neelam Theatre and Capitol Complex.

Photography is by Javier Callejas.

Project credits:

Architect: Charged Voids
Builder: Khullar Builders
Structure consultant: Pankaj Chopra

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