The tongue-in-cheek livery of South African airline Kulula includes a “This way up” sign on one plane and points out the locations of key components on another (+ slideshow).
Kulula‘s lime green Flying 101 aeroplane is covered in text explaining what each of its parts is called and white arrows pointing to where they are located.
The titles of the aircraft parts are accompanied by comical comments written beside them in brackets.
“This plane was designed in-house by our graphic design team as part of our bigger strategy to demystify air travel and explain some of the unknowns around air travel and flying,” the airline commented.
Seats adjacent to the emergency exits are highlighted as the “throne zone” due to their extra leg room and the plane’s registration number is dubbed its “secret agent code”.
Features not visible from the outside such as seats, overhead compartments and toilets (noted as “mile high club initiation chambers”) are marked out in dotted lines.
The graphics were designed for Kulula in 2010, along with a design for a Boeing 737 that has a “this way up” graphic painted in green along the side of the white plane.
News: researchers at Bristol University in the UK have developed a way for users to get tactile feedback from touchscreens while controlling them with gestures in mid-air.
The UltraHaptics setup transmits ultrasound impulses through the screen to exert a force on a specific point above it that’s strong enough for the user to feel with their hands.
“The use of ultrasonic vibrations is a new technique for delivering tactile sensations to the user,” explained the team. “A series of ultrasonic transducers emit very high frequency sound waves. When all of the sound waves meet at the same location at the same time, they create sensations on a human’s skin.”
The Bristol University team wanted to take the intuitive, hands-on nature of touchscreens and add the haptic feedback associated with analogue controls like buttons and switches, which they felt was lacking from flat glass interfaces.
“Current systems with integrated interactive surfaces allow users to walk-up and use them with bare hands,” said Tom Carter, a PhD student working on the project. “Our goal was to integrate haptic feedback into these systems without sacrificing their simplicity and accessibility.”
Varying the frequency of vibrations targeted to specific points makes them feel different to each other, adding an extra layer of information over the screen.
One application of this, demonstrated in the movie, shows a map where the user can feel the air above the screen to determine the population density in different areas of a city – a higher density is represented by stronger vibrations.
In addition to gaining haptic feedback, the user’s hand gestures can be tracked using a Leap Motion sensor to control what’s on the screen, rather than touching the screen itself.
The example given in the movie shows the controls of a music player operated by tapping the air above the play button and pinching the air above the volume slider. The ultrasound waves directed at these invisible control points in the air pulse when operated to let the user feel they are engaging with them, so they can operate the system without looking.
News: Asda is to become the first UK supermarket to offer an in-store 3D scanning and 3D printing service, allowing customers to capture and print scale models of their possessions or even themselves.
From Tuesday, customers at one Asda store in York will be able to have anything up to the size of a car scanned and reproduced as a 20-centimetre model, though the brand expects people will mostly order figurines of themselves.
The scanning process will take two minutes, using a hand-held scanner, then the digital files will be sent away to be printed ready for collection one week later. Prices will start from £40 and the models will be available in white, bronze or painted in full colour.
The service will be trialled at the York store of the Walmart subsidiary.
Concrete canopies shaped like leaves shelter the rooms of this house in the coastal town of Alibaug, India, by SJK Architects (+ slideshow).
Mumbai studio SJK Architects designed the home for a family, dividing the living spaces into five rooms that fan out around a central courtyard and large tree.
Supported by angled steel columns, the concrete roof canopies shelter all five rooms, which include four spaces surrounded by glazing and an open-air living room bordered by a lily pond and pool.
“The client enjoyed the idea of pods [that were] overlapping but distinct to house each part of the home,” the architects said. “They [wanted] the journey between pods to be a sculpted open space encompassing native trees.”
One of the pods accommodates a second living room, while the others house a kitchen, a childrens’ room and master bedroom. The two sleeping pods also have their own private courtyards.
Wooden doors fold back to open rooms out to the garden, plus glazed walls could be removed to create more open spaces.
“The lack of symmetry allows for walls to move as needed, open as needed and break into skylights or movable walls when required,” said the architects. “This allows sun and wind to enter the pods in the right amount, so that the quality of indoor light and air is dramatic and comfortable.”
Polished concrete floors feature throughout the house. The architects also tried to retain most of the existing plants on the site, including a number of coconut, neem and mango trees.
Across the harbour from the chaos of Mumbai lies the coastal area of Alibaug – a 45 minute boat ride away from crowds, 22 million people and the lowest open space ratio in the world.
Our project – to create a family home of 650sqm on a 1.3 acre plot of land at the base of the hills, but far removed from the sea. Land lush with the native coconut, mango and neem trees, and peers up at the sunrise on the eastern hills above it. It was a beautiful property – we wanted to include the hills and trees and the gentle winds – the leaves strewn over the earth were the perfect cue.
The form of the leaf – gentle but sloping was perfect and our very first sight of the plot yielded a site plan made of dried leaves. The Client enjoyed the idea of pods – overlapping but distinct, to house each part of the home, and the journey between pods, to be sculpted open space encompassing native trees. The clump of neem, bhend and coconut became the centre – an unstructured but designed courtyard, and each pod was created with an eye to the sun and the winds.
The “leaf” roofs open and rise to the north and the east and protect lower and deeper on the south and the west – the southwest monsoon is a formidable factor as is the sun on these faces. The critical design of the leaf – structurally, climatically and then ergonomically entailed innovation at every step.
The first-structural, involved the use of dense concrete and a steel web, to generate beamless, leaf-shells, supported over steel columns filled with concrete. Retaining the natural colour and texture of every material- concrete, steel, to endure the tropical rain and sun required research into clear chemical coatings that would endure and embellish.
The roofs were 3D modelled extensively to ensure that sun & rain and overlapping heights worked seamlessly. And then the ergonomics to allow doors, windows and cupboards that still adhered to orthogonal principles to sit cozily in the unorthodox leaf.
The pallet of materials – concrete, steel, linseed oil polished wood and natural limestone was kept subdued to focus on the light, the form and the enthralling nature around encompassing the structure. The simplicity of every other element to ensure the pure experience of space, form light and nature was a deliberate pursuit. However, there was a constant dialectic between creating rules and breaking them. We enjoyed the form but never allowed it to play dictator.
Each pod has played with different rules depending on need and circumstance. The lack of symmetry allows for walls to move as needed, open as needed and break into skylights or movable walls when required. This allowed for sun and wind to enter the pod in the right amount, so that quality of indoor light and air is dramatic and comfortable. The landscape for the house was carefully designed to augment the existing natural flora and fauna.
Local plant varieties were used – and nothing exotic was even considered lest it compete for attention or resources with the existing mango, coconut and neem. We used lemon grass extensively to counter mosquitos, and retain the simplicity of language. Rain water harvesting was important on this land where the bore wells ran dry most of the year. We have gathered all rain water run off into underground trenches and canals, and fed the bore wells to very good results.
The house began as an exploration of natural forms, built and designed to sit in nature. It encountered the manmade constructs of doors, windows and domestic gizmos – the orthogonal products of an industrial economy. Navigating and refining this encounter, into a serene and natural environment for a family to live in complete comfort, embedded in nature, was the challenge of this project.
Weddings and parties take place inside halls framed by stone, timber and bamboo at this events building for a Vietnam hotel by Vietnamese firm Vo Trong Nghia Architects (+ slideshow).
There are three banquet halls contained inside the building – one on the ground floor that seats 800 guests and two on the first floor that each accommodate up to 400 people.
The largest space is known as the Stone Hall, as it surrounded by ridged walls made up of basalt stone slabs. Some of the slabs have been polished, while others have been either hammered or left raw.
“These stone slabs have different surfaces, creating both dignified and delicate spatial characteristics, which are well suited to festive ceremonies,” said the architects.
The other two halls are double-height spaces with vaulted ceilings, including one made from self-supporting bamboo frames and one comprising nine fan-shaped timber fins.
A large foyer connects the three halls and leads up to offices on the second floor.
A louvred facade made from locally quarried pink granite surrounds three of the building’s elevations, helping to shade the interiors from direct sunlight.
“The louvres blur the outline and details of the building, creating an abstract volume, well balanced with the surrounding landscape,” added the studio.
Here’s a project description from Vo Trong Nghia Architects:
Kontum Indochine Wedding Restaurant
Kontum Indochine Wedding Restaurant is designed as a part of a hotel complex along the Dakbla River in Kontum City, Central Vietnam. Adjacent to Dakbla Bridge, a gateway to Kontum City, the restaurant serves as a venue for wedding ceremonies, conferences and social activities of the hotel guests and citizens. The 5500-square-metre building, which contains three banquet halls and office space over three storeys, is covered by louvres made of local pink granite stone, quarried in Binh Dinh Province, 150km away from the site. The louvres blur the outline and details of the building, creating an abstract volume, well balanced with the surrounding landscape. Two different finishes were applied to each louvre; its front surface was polished, creating a sparkling exterior when exposed to sunlight, while the two edges and back surface were framed to soften the light coming into the building. Visitors can enjoy the view of the river through the louvres in light pink, being protected from harsh tropical sunlight.
The three banquet halls feature three different natural materials; stone, bamboo, and wood. Walls and columns of the “Stone Hall”, located on the ground floor and capable of 800 guests, are composed of Basalt stone slabs 120 deep, 80mm high and 595mm long. These stone slabs have different surfaces; pitch-faced, polished or hammered, creating both dignified and delicate spatial characteristics, which are well suited to festive ceremonies. Both the “Bamboo Hall” and “Wooden Hall” are located on the second level, each having capacity for 400 guests. The materials vary between the two halls, giving different characteristics of each space.
The “Bamboo Hall” is a ceremonial space composed of self-standing bamboo frames 6.5m high and spanning 18m. These bamboo frames are illuminated by the light fittings, hence the hall gives a quiet and intimate impression compared to the bamboo structure in the adjacent facility; “Indochine Café” which is a commodious open space.
The “Wooden Hall” has a ceiling consisting of nine fan-shaped louvres. The louvres are made of 20mm x 50mm brightly coloured pieces of endemic timber locally called “Kate”. The ceiling gently illuminates the interior functions similar to a light shade.
Natural light and air pass through the pink stone louvres into the foyer, which lies in front of the two halls and is accessible from the staircase on both ends of the building.
Massing diagram
Architect Firm: Vo Trong Nghia Architects Principal architects: Vo Trong Nghia, Takashi Niwa (2 principals) Status: Built in 07. 2013 Program: Banquet hall Location: Kontum, Vietnam GFA: 5,524m2 Photographs: Hiroyuki Oki Client: Truong Long JSC Contractor: Truong Long JSC + Wind and Water House JSC
Industrial designer Marc Newson has updated his clothing line for Dutch fashion brand G-Star RAW.
Marc Newson‘s ongoing collaboration with G-Star RAW centres around denim garments influenced by American sportswear.
His Spring Summer 2014 collection includes a five-pocket worker jacket made from stripy grey denim, which matches a pair of trousers in the same material.
A bomber jacket reinterpreted in grey suede and a long navy trench coat feature an A-line cut, which Newson implemented in his previous collections.
The designer has also created a reversible baseball jacket in red and white fabric on one side and dark blue on the other.
Pastel-coloured short and long sleeved t-shirts have darker bands of colour around the shoulders.
London studio Loop.pH mimicked the molecular structures of carbon atoms to generate the form of this illuminated wiry dome (+ movie).
Named the SOL Dome, the structure was built using Archilace, a lightweight composite fibre developed by Loop.pH, and made up of carbon and fibreglass.
The stiff woven fibres, which can be bent into almost any surface, have been shaped into circles to create a rigid structure based on the chemical and molecular bonds between carbon atoms.
“It is an entirely new way of constructing architectural spaces based on textile principles,” creative director Rachel Wingfield told Dezeen.
The studio created the installation as part of the Fall In… Art and Sol Festival in Michigan, USA, an annual art and science exhibition that this year is focussing on solar-powered art.
Solar cells at the base of the dome store energy during the day and are then used to power an animated lighting sequence that is projected over the surface of the structure after dark.
“The rotational breathing rhythm of the light is driven by an onsite CO2 sensor and is part of our studio’s ongoing research into creating environments that allow people to experience cycles of environmental data in public space,” said Wingfield.
Wingfield also compares the structure to the experimental architecture of Buckminster Fuller.
“It’s a further development on Buckminster Fuller’s work on geodesic domes where the solid rods are replaced by a single tubular membrane,” she added.
The SOL Dome is a lightweight dome structure, 8 metres in diameter, 4 metre high and weighing only 40 kg. Its fabricated onsite over 3 days from thousands of individually woven circles of composite fibre. The structure is animated and part of a responsive lighting system, lit by a circular matrix of solar powered LED floodlights.
The rotational breathing rhythm of the light is driven by an onsite CO2 sensor and is part of our studio’s ongoing research into creating environments that allow people to experience cycles of environmental data in public space. The underlying geometry and construction technique of the dome is based on chemical, molecular bonds between carbon atoms. When each fibre is bent into a circle it is like charging a battery, creating a taut energetic structure.
Our work at Loop.pH speculates on what the future of renewable energy could be and how it may alter both the urban and rural landscapes. We create environments that question what new behaviours, work forces and activity might emerge in an abundant renewable energy future.
Ultimately, we have a vision for an entirely new type of architecture that responds and adapts to its environment, similarly to a plant and its surrounding ecosystem. We dream of a living architecture that photosynthesises, moves and orientates in accordance to the sun. It is an architecture whereby the inhabitants can actively participate in its shape, form and function.
The underlying geometry and construction technique is based on chemical, molecular bonds between carbon atoms. The taut structure of the SOL Dome embodies a kinetic energy whereby each fibre bent into a circle is like charging a battery. Large scale solar energy supply will only be possible if we can find an inexpensive storage mechanism. Transferring solar energy into chemical energy (chemical bonds) is one of the most promising approaches. The dome structure is an example of this type of stored energy.
Archilace is a pioneering and unique method to craft space and has been developed by Loop.pH over the past 10 years. It can simply be described as lace-making on an architectural scale and will be the principle technique behind the SOL Dome.
Archilace encourages designers, architects and citizens to intervene and re-construct the built environment, promoting the idea that architecture is a process and in a state of constant transformation. Archilace combines a cutting edge parametric design process with a hands-on crafting technique. Weaving with composite fibres allows for virtually any imaginable surface to be created from a small number of parts. Where many individual fibres are weak when singular, great strength is created in unison as they interlink and cross one another. Recently discovered structures that were previously unbuildable can be fabricated by hand using a textile, curvilinear approach – breaking the rectilinear geometry that dominates our built environment.
Fall In…Art and Sol is a celebration of art, culture and science throughout Michigan’s Great Lakes Bay Region featuring the world’s first major solar art exhibition with International artists in October 2013.
Project: The SOL Dome by Loop.pH Location: FirstMerit Bank Event Park, Saginaw, Great Lakes Bay Region, Michigan, USA Date: 28 September – 31 October 2013 Client: Fall In… Art and Sol Festival
Piet Hein Eek‘s second collaboration with Dutch wallpaper company NLXL comprises eight designs.
His original Scrapwood collection was launched with the brand in 2010. This new range expands on the previous designs based on “waste furniture” to include patterns of realistic wood cross sections, beams and planks.
The wall coverings have a matte finish to make them look more convincing. “We chose a new, super luxurious matte finish so the wallpaper looks even more realistic than before,” said the designer.
First shown at trade show ICFF in New York earlier this year, the collection will be on display during Dutch Design Week 2013 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, later this month.
Ornate wooden screens shroud one side of this theatre in Wuzhen, China, while the other side is shielded behind angular brickwork fins (+ slideshow).
Designed by Taiwanese architect Kris Yao of Artech Architects, the shape of the building was modelled on the rare twin lotus flower – an anomaly where two flower heads sprout from a single stalk – to create a pair of oval-shaped auditoriums that share a single stage area.
“The greatest challenge was to design a large building containing two theatres in this small village,” said the architects, explaining their decision to overlap the 600- and 1200-seat auditoriums.
Wuzhou, nicknamed Venice of the East, is a village where canals take the place of streets. Visitors can either arrive at the building by boat, or approach on foot across a bridge.
Zig-zagging wooden screens fold around the glazed exterior of the largest auditorium, allowing light to permeate the building. At night, this facade glows to create a bright beacon reflected in the surrounding waters.
The smaller auditorium is surrounded by overlapping fin-like walls, which were built from a traditional grey-blue brick and have slivers of glazing tucked between them.
The Wuzhen Theatre is intended as the venue for an international theatre festival, but could also be used for fashion shows, music performances or as a wedding centre.
Here’s a project description from Artech Architects:
Like a twin lotus, the theatres rise from the water in this dream-like town…
In this romantic and surreal water village in China, the owner of the development decided that Wuzhen would be an important name in the global atlas of theatre where an International Theatre Festival would be located. In order to complete his vision, Kris Yao and his team was asked to design the Wuzhen Grand Theatre.
The greatest challenge was to design a large building containing two theatres with 1200 and 600 seats back to back, with modern theatre functions in this small, traditional water village in southern China. Using the culturally auspicious “twin lotus” as its metaphor, which functions perfectly with two theatres sharing one stage area, the design is composed of two oval shapes interlocking one another, one of them transparent and the opaque in form.
Due to its dual purposes of the theatre festival and tourism, the functions of the theatres are multifold. Possibilities include formal stage performances, avant-garde creations, fashion shows, conventions and wedding ceremonies.
Visitors arrive at the theatres by wooden boats or on foot from an island across the bridge. The smaller theatre to the right is located within the ‘solid’ volume, where pedal-like segments of thick reclining walls, clad in ancient super-sized brick, wrap around the foyer. The grand theatre to the left, enclosed in the zigzag fan-shaped glass front with a Chinese window motif, glows in the evenings and reflects on the water, adding charm to the already misty and surreal atmosphere of this otherworldly water village.
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