Hominid

Hominid is an animated teaser based on the Hominid series of photo composites by Brian Andrews…(Read…)

The Simpsons Spoof ‘The Hobbit’ in Their Latest Couch Gag

The Simpsons spoof The Hobbit in the latest couch gag from the "4 Regrettings and A..(Read…)

PetFusion Cat Scratcher Lounge Deluxe

From the..(Read…)

Phonebloks: The New Open Source Experience to Replace All Phones Forever? Motorola Thinks So.

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We’ve seen at least a couple of modular phone concepts before, as well as a few projects by Dave Hakkens, but Phonebloks takes both to the next level. As a phone made of Lego-like modules that snap together, it’s intended to be an upgradable phone with a longer lifespan than its competitors, something like the way one’s identity persists even as his or her individual cells regenerate over time. Each element of the device (battery, camera, screen, etc) is a removable piece. The base holds everything together and electrical currents run through the pins that connect each block to the base. Break the screen, buy a new one and click it back on to the base. Upgrade separate elements instead of the entire phone, depending on your usage.

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The cool thing about this design is the ability to customize. If you’re a photographer, upgrade to a better camera and sacrifice some storage space. Movie aficionado who’s always on the go? Upgrade the speaker. The design is spot-on—although the concept has been shared with skepticism. From a glance, it seems to fix a lot of problems. But is it too good to be true?

Phoneblok-Motorola.jpgPhoto courtesy of Policymic.com.

Doesn’t seem so, seeing as Motorola (who was recently acquired by Google) announced a collaboration with Hakken to create the Project Ara—an entirely new open source phone design and experience. The viral video Hakken introduced a few months ago may be closer to reality than we think. We’re excited to see what comes of this. From a UX point of view, it’s a match made in customizable tech heaven. And the design isn’t so bad, if you’re into that whole building block look. What do you think—Can you see yourself ditching your iPhone for an Ara in the future?

Check out the video below for a look into Hakken’s original plan for Phoneblok.

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Light Goes On

Darren Pearson est spécialisé en light painting. Avec cette nouvelle création appelée « Light Goes On », il nous propose cette vidéo en stop motion dans laquelle un squelette de lumière s’amuse avec son skateboard. Un projet demandant près de 700 photos à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

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Moving school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa for Building Trust

These flat-packed schools have been designed for assembly in Southeast Asia by Californian architects Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa (+ slideshow).

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa

Bennetta and LaRossa’s project was the winning entry for a competition launched by non-profit charity Building Trust to design a self-assembly educational facility for migrant and refugee communities on the border of Thailand and Burma.

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa

The buildings are designed to be taken apart and reassembled several times over, and assembly drawings are available for anyone to download from the Building Trust website. These include cutting dimensions for the steel frame and instructions for both prefabricated elements and on-site construction.

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa

They also lays out tips and suggestions for site preparation, time forecast and how many people each stage will need.

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa

“The concept of the Moving school project is to provide displaced or informally settled communities with safe, well designed spaces that provide the core functions of both school buildings and community hubs,” said Louise Cole, co-founder of Building Trust.

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa

The structure comprises a prefabricated steel frame, which sits elevated from the ground to minimise flooding.

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa

The steel frame is covered with a white waterproof fabric and clad in locally crafted bamboo panels to allow light to filter inside.

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa

The structure features a mono-pitched roof with a veranda, where the user enters the building through sliding bamboo doors.

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa

The veranda is shaded to the front of the structure by thin bamboo blinds, which hang off the steel frame. A gap between the main roof and the secondary roof allows for passive ventilation.

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa

David and Louise Cole co-founded Building Trust in 2010 to support educational and community-based projects in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. For this project they followed the lead of home-assembly furniture specialist Ikea, which previously used its expertise in flat-pack design to redesign refugee shelters.

Here is some more information from Building Trust:


Open source design is all the rage at the moment but has there actually been any evidence that open source sharing has resulted in built projects for poverty stricken communities?

Building Trust recently went one step further in their efforts to make good design accessible to all by following the lead of flat pack furniture specialists IKEA. They have released assembly drawings for their first school building project that supports refugee and migrant communities. The PDF booklet that can be downloaded from their website not only gives the cutting dimensions for the steel frame and instructions for both prefabricated elements and on site construction. It also lays out tips and suggestions for site preparation, time forecast and how many people each stage will need.

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa
Primary frame assembly- click for larger image

The MOVING school project was established by Building Trust to create solutions for public and school buildings to serve displaced refugee and migrant communities living on the Thai-Burmese border. The project sparked a design competition which saw the winning design by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa built last year. The building design allowed for the school to be built and disassembled and constructed again many times over responding to the lack in land rights for the displaced Burmese communities.

MOVING school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa
Roof installation assembly- click for larger image

The assembly drawings were originally compiled to provide the school and community with a set of instructions for relocating the completed project. However, the demand from numerous other schools for a similar design has resulted in the assembly drawings pack and an online tool kit. Building trust hope the kit will inspire people to build

The post Moving school by Amadeo Bennetta
and Dan LaRossa for Building Trust
appeared first on Dezeen.

Pixelstick Gives Light Painting a (Much Needed) Makeover

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It seems like you only see light painting in wedding photo ops and unintentionally (and then intentionally) in 4th of July sparkler shots. It’s a photo hack that’s well known and slightly overused. Not to mention the outcome is generally a childlike scribble of lines somewhat resembling what you were trying to write. Bitbanger Labs has created light painting on steroids that has with their pixelstick.

By prepping photos in an image editing program like Photoshop, the Pixelstick wand reads the images and displays them one line at a time. The tool itself is an aluminum plated rod that houses 198 full color RGB LEDs. The real work comes from a handbox which connects to the wand and holds the photo information on an SD card. The light painter just needs to set the correct image up in the handbox, connect it to the wand and point it length-side forward in the direction they want the image to appear.

(more…)

South of Haiti

En octobre 2012, une bande d’amis dont le réalisateur Alex Horner sont partis sur la côte Sud de Haiti, un endroit du pays le moins souvent montrée dans les médias. Des images magnifiques, des instants de vie à découvrir dans une superbe vidéo dans la suite de l’article.

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Cool Hunting Video: John Daley of New York Sushi Ko: The passionate chef talks to us while preparing for the night’s omakase service

Cool Hunting Video: John Daley of New York Sushi Ko


John Daley—chef and co-owner of the newly opened New York Sushi Ko on the Lower East Side of New York City—spoke with us while prepping for a night’s omakase service. Daley, who cut his teeth…

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Steven Holl to design four museums for new complex in China

News: New York architect Steven Holl has won a competition to design four museums in Qingdao, China, with a concept for a series of “art islands” linked by a looping route of galleries and pathways (+ movie).

Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City by Steven Holl

The Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao will occupy an 18-hectare site to the north of Jiaozhou Bay, creating a complex of museums dedicated to classic art, modern art, public art and performing arts.

Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City by Steven Holl

Steven Holl’s plan features a snaking tunnel structure designed to reference the form of the nearby Jiaozhou Bay Bridge – the world’s longest bridge over water. This “light loop” will connect the four museums, accommodating a trail of galleries inside.

Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City by Steven Holl

“The project starts with a very unique connection to Qingdao and the idea of actually connecting to the morphology of the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge,” says Holl in a movie accompanying the competition entry. “It inspires the possibility of this whole project to become related to that linear idea.”

Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City by Steven Holl

Three of the museums will comprise cube-shaped structures positioned at intervals along the route, while the fourth will be positioned around a public square at the centre of the complex.

Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City by Steven Holl

The surrounding spaces will be filled with gardens, pools of water and an outdoor sculpture park.

Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City by Steven Holl

“There’s a great porosity and a great fusion between the movement across the site and the movement in the gallery system above,” says the architect. “It will have breezes coming in from the ocean that cool the entire landscape.”

Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City by Steven Holl

A mixture of sanded aluminium and stained concrete will be used to construct the new buildings.

Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City by Steven Holl

Here are some extra details from Steven Holl Architects:


Steven Holl Architects Wins Invited Competition for the Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City

Steven Holl Architects has been selected by near unanimous jury decision as the winner of the new Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City competition, besting OMA and Zaha Hadid Architects. The 2 million sq ft project for four museums is the heart of the new extension of Qingdao, China, planned for a population of 700,000.

The winning design for the new Culture and Art Centre begins with a connection to Qingdao. The linear form of the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge – the world’s longest bridge over water – is carried into the large site, in the form of a Light Loop, which contains gallery spaces and connects all aspects of the landscape and public spaces. The raised Light Loop allows maximum porosity and movement across the site, and permits natural sound bound breezes that blow in off the ocean to flow across the site.

Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City by Steven Holl
Bridge link concept

Set within the master plan are Art Islands, or Yishudao, which take the form of three sculpted cubes, and four small landscape art islands that form outdoor sculpture gardens. Five terraced reflecting pools animate the landscape and bring light to levels below via skylights.

The Light Loop and Yishudao concepts facilitate the shaping of public space. A great central square for large gatherings is at the centre of the site overlooking a large water garden. The Modern Art Museum shapes the central square. The Public Arts Museum forms the main experience of entry from the south. The North Yishudao contains the Classic Art Museum, with a hotel at its top levels, and the South Yishudao, which floats over the large south reflecting pool, holds the Performing Arts Program.

In the Light Loop, all horizontal galleries receive natural light from the roof that can be controlled with 20% screens as well as blackout options. The 20 metre wide section of the Light Loop allows side lighting to the lower level galleries, and provides space for two galleries side by side, avoiding dead-end circulation.

Culture and Art Centre of Qingdao City by Steven Holl
Site layout diagram

The basic architecture is in simple monochrome of sanded marine aluminium and stained concrete, with the undersides of the Light Loops in rich polychrome colours of ancient Chinese architecture. These soffits are washed with light at night to become landscape lighting in shimmering reflected colours.

The entire project uses the most sustainable green technologies. Placed between the skylights on the Light Loop, photovoltaic cells will provide 80% of the museum’s electrical needs. The reflecting ponds with recycle water, while 480 geothermal wells provide heating and cooling.

The post Steven Holl to design four museums
for new complex in China
appeared first on Dezeen.