Hasta La Ideas

Input Creative Studio has created a New York studio for a children’s portrait photographer with a turquoise playhouse hollowed out of one wall (+ slideshow).

New York-based Input Creative Studio designed a neutral space for Studio Eight Photos, then made a couple of playful additions that keep children entertained both in between and during shoots.

A custom-made playhouse area is integrated into one wall, while a full-height blackboard becomes a giant drawing surface.

“Thinking back to our childhood memories, the idea of using wooden toys as our inspiration surfaced. The simplicity, warmth and nostalgia of the toys in addition with clever engineering gave us the idea to develop a playhouse, called Toto,” the designers told Dezeen.

“The playhouse not only entices the children but also provides them with entertainment; taking them out of the digital world back to analogue as they engage with the space by pushing the chalkboard door and playing in the house,” they said.

The blackboard doubles up as the sliding door for a cupboard, while the rest of the wall integrates a desk space and a line of wooden cabinets, allowing the client to stow away his camera equipment.

The rear wall accommodates several colourful backdrops for shoots, while an orange sofa provides a seating area for parents.

Photography is by Efi Panagoula of Studio Eight Photos.

Here is some more information from the designer:

Studio Eight Photo by Input Creative Studio

Studio Eight Photos’ design is composed of modular and graphic elements in a clean and neutral palette.

Bold black lines outline the space’s vast storage units that have been designed to accommodate a plethora of photography equipment. A modular lounge can be configured in a variety of ways, providing easy staging for different shoots. The studio’s layout is a blank canvas that can be easily transformed, providing an ideal and diverse backdrop.

Since Studio Eight focuses on artist children’s portraits, a custom playhouse has been integrated into the design providing both an ideal backdrop for shoots and entertainment for the kids. Flexible, elegant and fun; the overall design is sophisticated yet playful.

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features a turquoise playhouse appeared first on Dezeen.

Geoff Tompkinson, un réalisateur anglais spécialiste du timelapse, a fait un timelapse de son séjour à New York City. On y découvre la ville de jour comme de nuit, en accéléré, dans ses parcs et au-dessus de ses grattes-ciel, sur une très jolie musique. La vidéo est à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

Le projet Skip Ad remet la pertinence de la publicité en question, en décidant de réagir et de coller des stickers « Skip Ad » sur des panneaux publicitaires, dans différentes villes, New York, Sao Paulo, et Stockholm. Le projet propose au public de partager cette action en imprimant l’autocollant disponible sur leur site.

The facades of well-known buildings in Paris, New York and Brisbane have been reduced to a series of patterned surfaces and silhouettes in this series of images by French photographer Alexander Jacques (+ slideshow).

Jacques’ Architectural Pattern series captures the exteriors of buildings without any surrounding context, transforming them into abstract surfaces that the author says can offer new perspectives on what many perceive as ordinary.

“We spend all day walking past these buildings without raising our heads to glance at them,” explained Jacques. “They are part of our daily lives, but we do not pay attention to them or we just think they’re plain ugly.”

The collection of 25 images is documented on Jacques’s website and includes buildings by celebrated architects and firms such as Renzo Piano, SOM, Johann Otto von Spreckelsen and Kisho Kurokawa.

The photographer came up with the idea during a visit to New York, after taking a picture of a brick building in Soho. “When I returned to NYC for the second time, at the end of my studies, I had a higher sensitivity to graphics.”

“I was more interested in the buildings than the rest of New York folklore. I saw lines and patterns everywhere. It was amazing. I spent whole days looking to the sky,” he explained.

Other images from this city include a close-up of the Mc-Graw Hill Building at the Rockefeller Centre, which looks more like a piece of woven fabric than an office building.

“Sometimes I am surprised how a facade that I see with my eyes can make a picture. First we forget that it is a building, then the lines and perspective transform everything. In the end we only see the pattern,” said Jacques.

In Paris, Johann Otto von Spreckelsen’s Grande Arche becomes a series of gold and blue diamond-shaped boxes, while the pod-like rooms of the Tour Novotel are transformed into a series of neatly arranged poppies, broken up by lines of silver.

The gentle flowing lines of Jean-Paul Viguier‘s Coeur Defense, Europe’s biggest building by floor space, are shown as squares and rectangles changing from shades of royal and sky blue, to white and teal.

Jacques hopes to continue the series by visiting more cities, including Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai. Prints of the photographs are available to buy via the website.

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facades into abstract patterns appeared first on Dezeen.

News: construction has finally begun on a 216-metre skinny skyscraper designed by Foster + Partners for a site next door to Mies van der Rohe‘s Seagram Building in New York.

Foster + Partners first unveiled plans to build the residential tower at 610 Lexington Avenue in 2005, but was stalled by the 2008 recession. Replacing the old YWCA building, the 61-storey structure will sit alongside Mies van der Rohe’s 38-storey Seagram Building and SOM’s 21-storey Lever House, both of which were completed in the 1950s.

The building’s slender shape is intended by the architects to capture “Mies’s philosophy of rationality, simplicity and clarity”, and will feature a sheer glass facade that will stand in contrast to the dark bronze exterior of the Seagram.

“It’s not simply about our new building, but about the composition it creates together with one of the twentieth century’s greatest,” said Foster + Partners architect Chris Connell. “In contrast to Seagram’s dark bronze, our tower will have a pure white, undulating skin. Its proportions are almost impossibly slim and the views will be just incredible.”

A total of 91 apartments will occupy the tower, with many taking up entire floors, while a glazed atrium will connect the residences with a smaller building accommodating a bar and restaurant, as well as a spa and swimming pool facility.

Connell added: “Simplicity of design is often the hardest thing to achieve but in a sophisticated marketplace, people appreciate the timeless beauty that comes from it. Our design philosophy has always extended through the entire building and we will look to create interiors that blend seamlessly with the exterior approach.”

Construction is set to complete by the winter of 2017. Approximately 2000-square-metres of the building will be allocated as commercial space.

Here’s the original project description from Foster + Partners:

610 Lexington Avenue
New York City, USA 2005

This 61-storey residential tower at 610 Lexington Avenue continues the practice’s investigations into the nature of the tall building in New York, exploring the dynamic between the city and its skyline. Located on the corner of Lexington and 53rd Street, it replaces the old YWCA building in Midtown Manhattan. Formally, it responds to the precedent set by two neighbouring twentieth-century Modernist icons – SOM’s 21-storey Lever House of 1952 and Mies van der Rohe’s 38-storey Seagram Building of 1958. In the spirit of Mies’s philosophy of rationality, simplicity and clarity, the tower has a slender, minimalist geometric form, designed to complement these distinguished neighbours.

The entrance is recessed beneath a canopy that sits harmoniously alongside the entrance and pavilion of the Seagram Building. The entry sequence continues on a single plane from the street to reveal a glazed atrium that joins the tower to a smaller building on the right. The smaller building houses a bar and restaurant, a spa and swimming pool, the tower contains lounge areas and apartment levels. From the floor of the atrium, the tower rises up like a soaring vertical blade, the view up creating a sense of drama and reinforcing the connection between the summit and the ground.

Some of the larger apartments occupy the entire floor area of the higher levels. The tower’s slender form creates a narrow floor plate, allowing the interior spaces to be flooded with daylight and creating spectacular views across the city from every side. An innovative glazed skin wraps around the building, concealing the structural elements which are further masked beneath integrated shadow boxes. To preserve the smooth appearance of the facade, opening vents in the glazing flap discreetly inwards. The effect is a sheer envelope that shines in brilliant contrast to the dark bronze of the Seagram building.

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beside Mies’ Seagram Building appeared first on Dezeen.