RUKUSfx is a motion-controlled device that provides young ones with a fun and approachable entry into music making and mixing. Moving the hand-held gadget (which also comes in custom tie-dye skins) creates sound effects that are unique to each type of movement. The 80 different effects can be combined with RUKUSfx’s 120 built-in tracks or any uploaded songs, with mixes recorded and played back right on the device. Prompting creativity and activity, RUKUSfx encourages kids to DJ, dance and play.
Available in four standard sizes (carry-on, large carry-on, check-in or large check-in) and with expandable options that offer 28% extra space, every suitcase by ROAM is individually built to fit the customer’s needs. With plenty of hardy materials (including a polycarbonate outer shell and a washable inner lining), these suitcases are durable and practical. Create a colorway that’s easy to identify on the baggage carousel and reflects your style, as all elements—from the shell to the zippers, wheels and handles—are customizable.
Canadian architecture studio Partisans has designed a residential tower in Toronto called Cirro that takes its shape from both natural clouds and revision clouds – a notation architects use in technical drawings.
If built at the proposed 15-17 Elm Street site in downtown Toronto, Cirro will be 99 metres tall and contain 32 floors of apartments and amenities spaces. The wavy outline of the envelope derives from both clouds and revision clouds, according to the studio.
“The idea of the cloud is not just three dimensional, it is not just about the natural phenomenon, it’s also an architecture pun, as the revision cloud has such a strong resonance and graphic quality,” said Partisans co-founder Alex Josephson.
“It’s also a dream in a certain way, a dream to have this building approved by the city of Toronto and for us to build it.”
Partisans designed a residential tower in Toronto informed by clouds
The tower will be divided roughly into three parts with a podium at the base with the preceding two sections each set back slightly from the one before. Each section will have a slightly different frequency of the wavey facade pattern.
“The building is a series of stacked rectangular forms that are clad with organically shaped edges and balconies which allows us to explore those cloud-like forms as they rise,” said Josephson.
Josephson also said that the studio is considering using glass-fibre reinforced concrete (GFRC) for the facade.
It will be clad in glass-fibre reinforced concrete
Renderings show the tower clad with light-coloured GFRC panels arranged vertically. Within these vertical striations are clusters of windows that form oval apertures in the facade.
“The windows are arranged regularly, they rise in stacks that help provide light to the residential units,” Josephson told Dezeen. “Condos have pretty rigid stacked business models most of the time, the real challenge is how to work with that.”
The edges of the structure will have fewer windows so that the organic curvature of the facade material can become fully apparent, and near the base, the vertical, branch-like panels will slope in.
“There will be a mix of stone, concrete and metal for the balconies that we haven’t made choices for yet,” said Josephson. “We may be able to work in a lot of greenery too, but this will all be dependent on discussions with the city of Toronto.”
The building’s plan was informed by revision clouds
The buttress-like form of the vertical panels at ground level as well as the arches above the window clusters and the pointed crown of the tower give it a Gothic appearance, according to the studio.
“I think that Gothic architecture is informed by organic growth and form that we see in nature,” said Josephson.
“Gaudi was also inspired by nature and forms generated by gravitationally informed forces. We see ourselves as part of a continuum of architects exploring the value of organic formal solutions.”
Fora and Oikoi Living Homes, the developers on the project, brought on Partisan to design a tower that will be mostly residential, with amenities spaces on the ground floor and on the floors where the tower has setbacks, to take advantage of the terrace space.
Other towers with organic facades include Studio Gang’s Populous, a tower in Denver based on the iconic black knots on the white bark of the Aspen tree.
One problem that never seems to leave us, especially f you’re living in a major city – is the lack of space. If you’re an independent millennial who recently moved out of their family home and into their own, then a major issue that you may be dealing with almost every day…is space constraint in your own home. Our modern millennial homes have many virtues, but one thing they lack is space. Space constraint is something most of us end up dealing with every day. Smart storage solutions can be lifesavers in such tricky and compact situations. And one such smart storage solution I’ve come across is the PLOGA rack by IKEA.
Functioning as a coat rack, the PLOGA rack is a great option for your entryway, if you’re facing the woe of space constraints. What makes the wall-mounted coat rack quite intriguing is the fact that it features vertical hooks! The hooks are adjustable and placed vertically on the rack. You can slide them from left to right, creating a flexible form that can be changed whenever. This provides more space to store your items, ensuring that they aren’t layered on top of one another.
The modular rack can be placed in any room of your home – the entryway, bedroom, or even your closet. It’s a simple and minimal piece of furniture that can be used to store a variety of items, from your coats to scarves, ties, purses and etc. Its versatility and modularity make it an excellent addition to your living space.
Some people may find the PLOGA’s vertical design a bit limiting, and the fact that it is wall-mounted, but with the right planning, and the perfect position to hang it on – it could turn out to be really handy. IKEA maintains its usual Scandinavian-inspired aesthetics and classic appearance in the PLOGA design, allowing it to harmoniously merge with the interiors of your home.
Mediabistro is the #1 job board, community, and career destination for media and content professionals. Once a week, we’ll be updating this list with different types of creative jobs featured. Take a look below:
Singer, songwriter and producer Q (aka Q Steven Marsden) returns with “Stereo Driver,” his first single since his debut breakout album, The Shave Experiment. Opening with compressed drums, synths and Q’s smooth vocals professing love, the track sounds like it came straight from the ’80s—if it weren’t for hints of contemporary R&B and funky bass. All these elements make the song a transcendent, rich, timeless jam. Accompanying the track is a kaleidoscopic, shifting music video—replete with Q playing the keytar—which fittingly mesmerizes.
Los Angeles studio Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects transformed the derelict Los Angeles Times printing facility and Orange County newsroom into an office campus in Costa Mesa, California.
The adaptive-reuse project, known as The Press, celebrates the building’s industrial history while reactivating the spaces for people.
EYRC turned an old LA Times printing facility into an office campus
The printing facility and Orange County newsroom were designed by American architecture studio William Pereira Associates and constructed from 1968-1980. Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney (EYRC) revitalized the abandoned building into a 450,000-square foot (41,800-square metre) creative campus with multiple amenities.
“We wanted to pay homage to the building’s industrial past,” EYRC partner Patricia Rhee told Dezeen.
The complex has six key spaces
Completed in three phases, each of the building’s six key spaces were renovated, and a new tilt-up addition was constructed on the northwestern side.
The studio sand-blasted the facade to remove decades of paint and expose the existing precast concrete exterior. Certain precast panels were replaced with vertical glazing to daylight the interiors.
Extensive landscaping was implemented
“Natural imperfections of a building through years of transformations were consciously expressed as an ode to the history of the building,” the studio said.
EYRC worked with Saiful Bouquet Structural Engineers to open sections of the roof and facade without compromising the integrity of the structure.
The industrial details like tall ceilings and steel beams were maintained
By “skeletonizing” the structure, the studio exposed the steel frame and implemented glazing to produce atriums and courtyard spaces
“Revealing the ‘bones’ of the building emphasized the industrial qualities while creating more openness for light and air throughout the deep floor plates,” the studio said.
The studio designed a series of atriums
The Press centres around “cathedral spaces,” 50-foot-tall (15 metres) interior voids with skylights that used to house the printing presses.
One of these spaces, an open-air atrium, provides access to three levels of the building and serves as a large “living room” with walkways and viewing platforms suspended via wires from the steel frame.
Causeways and small rooms look down on open public spaces
The building’s other key features are the loading docks along the eastern and western sides with canopies that cantilever out from the facade.
In order to preserve and activate the canopies, the studio cut large holes and planted trees to grow up through the holes to the second level.
Many windows and skylights were added
The building also features a “sky cut” subtraction that connects the eastern and western sides of the project in a framed passageway.
On the southern edge of the property, a park-like landscaped area holds a new glazed pavilion to supplement the campus’ canteen.
“To me, what makes this project so meaningful is that it recycles a building,” Rhee said.
“I feel like, as architects, that’s the most sustainable thing we can do.”
“I hope that there are more projects like this – where you take something that has really amazing bones and use it for a campus.” she continued.
“That was my goal – to inspire other people to think in that way.”
Much of the interior concrete was maintained
Construction was completed in late 2021, and the tenant interiors are underway.
Paris-based industrial designer Hiroyuki Morita designed this Sheep hamper using a minimum of materials. I especially like the simple, elegant clamping mechanism for the bag:
I’m dying to see a close-up shot of how the legs are attached to the retaining ring. Alas, it’s not revealed.
Smartphones have started to sound and even look similar, not only from their specs but also from their designs. That’s why many manufacturers are now trying to stand out from the crowd with a new design almost every year. Some are tasteful and elegant, while others can be obnoxious and over the top. Some, on the other hand, have tried to go against the flow and stick a design until it gets long in the tooth. After many generations, Google finally decided to give its Pixel phone a fresh new face last year with some amount of success. Rather than switch to a different design after that, the Android maker has instead opted to refine a winning formula, making it look a bit more grown-up rather than a passing teenage fad.
Designer: Google
There might be some people who disagree with the aesthetic of last year’s Pixel 6 siblings, but few will argue that it at least had some lasting impact. It was so unlike any other smartphone on the market, and the shape of its visor-like camera bump, paired with its dual-tone color scheme, made it look novel, quirky, and youthful. Just like the Material You design language of Android 12 from last year, it carried some character that would appeal to people who see their smartphones as a form of personal expression.
Wow factors rarely last forever, though, and the Pixel 6’s design might even look too playful for some people. Rather than throw it away, Google is maturing the easily distinguishable design instead, making the Pixel 7 look more mature and well thought out. The differences are subtle yet telling, retaining the Pixel’s new visual identity while also giving it a more sophisticated character compared to the youthful Pixel 6.
The camera bar, for example, not only protrudes less but also blends visually and structurally with the frame. It now shares the same color as the mid-frame rather than just a black paint job. As for colors, the back of the Pixel now has a single color, and the camera bump provides not only visual but also a chromatic that makes that side of the phone look more active. The cameras themselves are also displayed better, huddled into groups rather than standing isolated from each other.
There are still parts of the design that remain the same, particularly when comparing the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro. The former, for example, retains its flat display, while the Pixel 7 Pro sticks to its curved edges. In both cases, the two still bear hallmarks of a slightly older design convention that uses rounded edges to supposedly make the phone comfortable to hold. Not everyone’s a fan, though, but it at least fits perfectly with the Pixel 7’s design.
It’s definitely refreshing to see that Google hasn’t given up on a design that gives its phone a distinctive appearance. Even better, it is actually improving that design to make it look more elegant while still retaining its quirky nature. Of course, a phone is more than just its looks, and we’ll have to see next month whether the combination of design and hardware will put the Pixel 7 at the top this year.
In partnership with Imperial College London, Swiss research lab Empa has created flying 3D printers to aid in the construction of tall buildings and with repairs in hard-to-reach areas. The printers are affixed to drones that can carry small amounts of material to deposit in a designated location, a system informed by the collaborative work of bees. Their technology, called Aerial Additive Manufacturing, relies on a buddy system where one drone does the printing and the other scans the results to check and correct for accuracy. “The technology offers future possibilities for building and repairing structures in unbounded, high or other hard-to-access locations,” says professor Mirko Kovac who led the research. “Next, the researchers will work with construction companies to validate the solutions and provide repair and manufacturing capabilities. They believe the technology will provide significant cost savings and reduce access risks compared to traditional manual methods.” Read more at Core77.
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.
