A temporary structure designed and constructed by nArchitects, “Windshape” isn’t much to speak of – just a wall of PVC pipes wove with 50 kilometers of string. But the 8-meter wall structure is undeniably beautiful. In contrast to its stony site in Lacoste, France the pavillion catches the wind to wave gently like a reed. See link below for more details.
Carparks can be a real nuisiance. And thoroughly uninteresting places to boot. Confusing layouts send people around in circles, guided only by small and vague signs promising that the exit is somewhere in this direction or that. To add to the frustration, car parks are ugly places: dirty and poorly lit concrete does not a pleasurable experience make. The worst part is that generally the car park is the final experience people have upon leaving the building, and this can leave a sour taste in the mouth.
The Eureka Tower in Melbourne, Austraila employed designer Axel Peemoeller to make their parking situation a much more interesting one. Rather than pepper the environment with small directional signs, Peemoeller has used optical illusions to make the correct route present itself only when you’re in the correct place. The directions are so large you couldn’t possibly miss them or get confused and the way they magically leap out when you’re on track has the effect of reinforcing the point that parking wasn’t just an after-thought with this building.
The signs just look like colourful decoration until you’re in a position where they become relevant to your journey through the carpark and demand a response from you rather than potentially adding to your parking confusion.
This idea not only simplifies the parking experience but makes it colorful and engaging, rather than a dull experience that can ruin the overall impression of a building and it’s design.
Personal transportation is all the rage at the moment. The Segway was the first to gain success and continues to convince people that maybe it just isn’t always necessary to own a car. Toyota have now entered the game with this tiny little unit called the Winglet.
The Winglet comes in three sizes, Small, Medium and Large, and has a top speed of 6kph. The smallest device conveniently folds into an area small enough to carry or store on a seat in your car. Whilst the Winglet doesn’t present itself as a viable option for car replacement, it certainly offers potential for those with longer distances to cover on foot. And, let’s face it, this certainly has something that the Segway lacks - the cool factor.
That said, it’s difficult to know where these devices actually sit in environmental terms. My personal take is that this particular model is essentially useless - it’s not fast enough to replace a car and/or public transport like the Segway, meaning it’s only capable of replacing walking. Which is something that we should be encouraging. So this unit can really only replace the greenest method of transportation that man can use with a not-quite-so-green and not-quite-so-good-for-you alternative. Shame, it looks like a lot of fun to use.
Personally I can’t wait to have a go on these bad-boys. Even if I can actually walk faster than these move.
This small wooden bridge in England is deceptively primitive. Designed by Valentin Bontjes van Beek and Natalie Rozencwajg, the apparently improvised structure is rather carefully designed, - a dynamic web of rough timber struts, steel cables, and computer-milled wood decking that hangs lightly from the existing trees.
See link below.
Crisp planes. Glossy white finishes. Honestly, will architects ever get tired of them? Judging from Jean Nouvel’s recently completed baths building in Le Havre, France – probably not. Enjoy stunning images below.
This car is pretty exciting. Borne out of the British love of all things sleek and fast and out of the new sense of environmental duty is this electric sports car designed and built by the Lightning Car Company in England.
The design of the car is stunning, with flowing lines that wouldn’t look out of place on an Aston Martin, but with a slightly more futuristic feel, mainly on the rear of the car. But looks are only a small part of this machine’s draw.
Only the second electric supercar to have been built, the first being Telsa’s delightful Electric Roadsters, the Lightning breaks automative convention to match it’s gasoline powered counterparts. The main problem with electric motors is they simply just don’t have as much get-up-and-go as petrol ones. the Lightning tackles this in a unique way. Rather than burden a single engine with moving the mechanics in the car and the car itself, each wheel has it’s own motor, removing unnecessary mechanics and providing much more power than would usually be available from a single engined vehicle. Plus, the lack of an engine reduces the components that can go wrong, essentially making a maintenance-free motor.
The Lightning Car Company explain:
Hi-Pa Drive™ from PML Flightlink Ltd. is a revolution in motor technology and it’s a British innovation to boot! With its integrated motor and drive electronics in one single unit it produces an ultra high power density - up to 20 times more than conventional systems.
The compact, energy-efficient, electric wheel motors produce unrivalled levels of torque with internal heavy-duty tapered roller bearings that can withstand heavy radial loads for robust use. Yet they achieve the power to weight ratio important for the performance sports car capability of the Lightning.
Other features include total weather proofing, total energy transfer and several levels of redundancy, so any single failure will not prevent the vehicle from operating safely.
The car claims to out accelerate a Porsche and has a top speed of somewhere in the region of 130mph. Who said that going green meant the end of fun motoring?
Good design always seems so simple. The Jardín Botánico de Medellín in Colombia by Plan B is a great example – it takes a pretty basic program (a canopy in a botanical garden) and a pretty straightforward idea (hey, why not emulate the surrounding trees) and makes something pretty elegant. Made of reclaimed pine, the tree-like structures shade the garden courtyard, collect rainwater, and glow like lanterns at night. See video below.
Following on from our Stacked Living piece, and a big thanks to Kim at Nomadhome for sending us the information on this, is this solution to modern living. The Nomadhome responds to the transient and nomadic nature of our modern lives by providing a beautiful living space that is both mobile and temporary.
The idea behind the Nomadhome was to develop an efficient modular concept with a maximum of flexibility and to bring this unique product to standard production without losing its stylish form & high-class complexity. The beauty of the Nomadhome is that the unit can be transported, assembled and then disassembled and transported to a new location without any degredation in form, making it a truly versatile design.
Construction time is only 3 days. massively reducing the cost of building a permanent home, and can be dismantled in just 1 day. The unit is completely changeable and expandable to meet the needs of the indivdual it is housing. This is perhaps one of the strongest points of this design - it’s flexibility. The design of the home fits around the indivdual’s lifestyle as opposed to changing your lifestyle to fit the unit.
The units uses are as varied as the potential of the layout, as the creators of Nomadhome explain:
The NOMADHOME is a chameleon. Even its facade is changeable and available in many various designs, colors and surfaces. The easy change of NOMADHOMES outside makes it perfect for companies who need to change their branding from time to time.
Nomadhome’s high-class quality interior materials guarantee a very comfortable living or working-atmosphere with pleasant acoustics.
A brilliantly exectuted solution, unique in it’s design and flexibility, and perfect for those of us constantly on the move yet wanting our own space. I’m saving up for one.
You can visit the Nomadhome website here, or read the Nomadhome blog here.
This year’s Tile of Spain Award in Architecture went to José Durán Fernández for his inventive use of ceramic tiles to literally and figuratively brighten a forsaken but busy street in Burriana. Each year this competition seeks entries that display how the traditional ceramic tile can be used in modern ways, whether is urban, exterior or interior design. This was the first year that an urban design has won the first prize. Similar to the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz, this year’s winner shows how linked segments of yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, and red tiles can create a modern pathway between the Plaza Mayor and the Carmelite Church. More information about some of the other winners can be found at http://www.spaintiles.info/awards/
This one is an interesting concept. A pre-fab house with a host of eco-credentials, that can be put together in a matter of days. The Perrinepod design is quite retro, oblong shaped with rounded edges. The idea behind the design is to counter our over-cluttered existence and create beautiful and useable living environment that can adapt to any setting. As the architect, Jean-mic Perrine states:
“My design is about appreciating the beauty of simple, uncluttered space.” The perrinepod is very functional, very sexy, very simple, with the form of the spaces inside following the function, there’s no pretense, just simple, beautiful designs. It’s a really cool thing to have no falseness - for example, the bathrooms are simply designed as a place to wash, backed up by quality materials.
Living spaces have become as transient and irrelevant as clothes. It’s no longer a look for a generation, the look of ‘now’ only lasts for a three to four year period.
That approach is not sustainable and people are putting themselves under a lot of unnecessary pressure trying to keep up. The Perrine Pod is the antithesis of all of that - simple design, beautiful materials that will remain classic. It’s not a ‘look at me’ statement, but a home that is comfortable, stylish and above all, functional.”
A great idea if you ask me. The design is also stackable, giving the option of a larger, family home. The time-lapse video below shows just how quickly these things can be put together.
