Hasta La Ideas

People are dunked in a pool of wax to create sculptural dresses by Dutch fashion designer Bart Hess as part of a futuristic city on show at this year’s Lisbon Architecture Triennale, which kicked off yesterday in the Portuguese capital.

Bart Hess created the installation to explore ways in which humans can augment and extend the shapes of their bodies, creating a kind of prosthetic that is unique each time.

To create the garment, individuals are strapped to a robotic harness then lowered into a pool of water and wax. As the wax moves in the water it begins to set, bonding itself around the body.

The person is then lifted out of the water, encased inside a cocoon of wax that can then be cut or broken.

Speaking to Dezeen, Bart Hess explained that temperature affects the end result.  “More complex shapes require hotter temperatures, so you need to build up a tolerance to the heat,” he explained. “But it only hurts on the surface for a few seconds.”

The Garment District is one of five zones in the Future Perfect exhibition, which was conceived by curator Liam Young as an exploration into how technology will shape future cities.

“Telling stories about the future is a way of thinking about ideas,” said Young. “It’s about opening up a a discourse of what a city could be. Architects need to be operating beyond the now, developing strategies and tactics that will connect people with the future.”

The Lisbon Architecture Triennale continues until 15 December. Follow Dezeen’s coverage of the event »

Earlier this year Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen creates a dress modelled on splashing water. See more stories about fashion »

Here’s a short project description from the exhibition organisers:

The Garment District

Our bodies are end­lessly photographed, monitored and laser scanned with millimetre precision. From this context of surveillance, facial recognition, avatars and virtual ghosts, we imagine a near future where digital static, distortions and glitches become a new form of ornament.

For the youth tribes of Future Perfect the body is a site for adaption, augmentation and experimentation. They celebrate the corrup­tion of the body data by moulding within their costumery all the imperfections of a decaying scan file. Shimmering in the exhibition landscape is a network of geometric reflec­tive pools of molten wax. Their mirrored surface is broken by a body, suspended from a robotic harness, plunging into the liquid. A crust of wax crystallises around its curves and folds, growing architectural forms, layer by layer, like a 3d printer drawing directly onto the skin. Slowly the body emerges, encased in a dripping wet readymade prosthetic. It is a physical glitch, a manifestation of corrupt data in motion, a digital artefact. They hang from hooks like a collection of strange beasts and frozen avatars. Body prints, imperfect and distorted and always utterly unique.

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at Future Perfect appeared first on Dezeen.

En prenant une photographie des plus jeunes aux plus vieux membres de la même famille, Anthony Cerniello réalise cette vidéo timelapse surprenante créant un personnage de toutes pièces qui vieilli à chaque seconde de façon imperceptible. Une vidéo intrigante et poétique qui retrace une vie en quelques minutes.

A recent graduate from Antwerp’s esteemed Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Pierre Renaux has already amassed a transformative body of work. Renaux’s debut collection—also his Master’s thesis—”);…

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News: more than 200,000 people from 140 countries have applied for a one-way ticket to join a human settlement on Mars (+ slideshow).

On Monday non-profit organisation Mars One closed their first call for volunteer astronauts wanting to travel to the red planet.

The £4 billion project, founded by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp in 2012, plans to establish the first permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023 and has proposed that humans will live in a modular environment made up of multiple inflatable units.

The settlement would comprise of 1000 m3 of living space – a total of 250 m3 per person for a team of four. The colony would live inside ‘lander’ living units that each feature an inflatable living section. The landers would be installed by roaming rovers and be filled with breathable air from a life support unit before the humans arrive.

“As the habitat will be modular, and constructed using fully redundant systems, even if one inflatable unit is damaged beyond repair, the habitat will still be secure and fully functional,” said the organisation.

There will be solar panels outside of the living quarters and an indoor farm for growing and harvesting foods.

In April, Mars One launched an application website to search for the volunteer astronauts and asked people to submit videos to pitch why they should be selected for the colony. In five months the organisation received 202,586 application videos from people across the world.

Three further application rounds will take place over the next two years. Mars One will then select up to ten teams of four individuals for a seven year training programme – and in 2023 just one team of four people will travel to Mars and settle permanently on the planet, according to the organisation.

“The first footprint on Mars and lives of the crew thereon will captivate and inspire generations; it is this public interest that will help finance this human mission to Mars,” said Mars One.

Other space features to appear on Dezeen recently include a proposal for the colonisation of Mars with caves built by robots and an orbiting factory that will use 3D printing and robots to fabricate giant structures in space.

See more space »

Here’s the full announcement from Mars One:

Over 200,000 apply to first ever recruitment for Mars settlement

The first round of the Mars One Astronaut Selection Program has now closed for applications. In the 5 month application period, Mars One received interest from 202,586 people from around the world, wanting to be amongst the first human settlers on Mars.

Mars One applicants come from over 140 countries; the largest numbers are from the United States (24%), India (10%), China (6%), Brazil (5%), Great Britain (4%), Canada (4%), Russia (4%), Mexico (4%), Philippines (2%), Spain (2%), Colombia (2%), Argentina (2%), Australia (1%), France (1%), Turkey (1%), Chile (1%), Ukraine (1%), Peru (1%), Germany (1%), Italy (1%) and Poland (1%).

From this applicant pool, the Mars One Selection Committee will select prospective Martian settlers in three additional rounds spread across two years. By 2015, six-ten teams of four individuals will be selected for seven years of full-time training. In 2023, one of these teams will become the first humans ever to land on Mars and live there for the rest of their lives.

Each Round 1 applicant is now being screened by the Selection Committee, which is expected to take several months. Candidates selected to pass to the next round will be notified by the end of 2013. The second round of selection will start in early 2014, where the candidates will be interviewed in person by the Mars One Selection Committee.

Aspiring martians who have missed Round 1 or could not meet the age restriction can join subsequent Astronaut Selection Programs. Mars One will commence regular recruitment programs as the search for follow-up crews continues.

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to live on Mars appeared first on Dezeen.

If you’ve visited Dezeen on a mobile device over the last few weeks you may have noticed some improvements… our mobile-friendly responsive site went live at the end of last month.

The new responsive design detects the device you’re using and serves the optimal user experience for that device. So if you’re using a mobile phone, you’ll see a stylish new interface with simplified navigation. There is just one column of stories, with all other navigation tidied away into drop-down menus.

Dezeen is proud of its logical yet stylish layout and we think we’ve found a way to bring those same qualities to smaller mobile screens. The mobile experience is designed to be as simple, clean and fast-loading as possible. Features such as slideshows and movies automatically reformat to work seamlessly on iPhones, Android devices and other mobile gadgets.

We’ve been testing the site extensively since it went live and we think we’ve ironed out all the bugs, but let us know if you spot any more.

We’re still working on ways of sharing stories via social media on mobile, and on offering a way to view the desktop version of the site, in case you’d prefer that experience.

Comment counts will also be added to the homepage soon (and by the way we’ve also overhauled our comment engine, which is now run by the more elegant and customisable Disqus solution, rather than Intense Debate).

Suggestions for further improvements are most welcome!

Desktop, laptop and tablet users will still see the full, three-column version of Dezeen. Our analytics show that readers feel very comfortable visiting the full version Dezeen on devices such as iPads – the number of users visiting Dezeen on tablets more than doubled over the past year compared to the previous year. Mobile users grew 70% over the year and have grown a further 20% since we introduced the new responsive site.

The site has been designed by our office mates Zerofee. The next steps will be to roll out responsive versions of our Dezeen Jobs recruitment site and our Dezeen Watch Store ecommerce site. Our World Design Guide maps already feature responsive design.

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site is live! appeared first on Dezeen.