Dwindling resources. Failing economies. Its not always easy to stay positive in the face of looming disaster. But there is a silver lining – a whole new market for the crazy future vehicles we’ve been waiting for since the Jetsons fired up their aircar.
To begin production in late 2008, Aptera Motors is releasing the Typ-1, a three-wheeled car to be sold in California next year. The manufacturers claim a fuel efficiency of 130 mpg for the hybrid model, making it one of the most fuel-efficient cars in the world. See link below.
This 4,000sqft farm house, designed by archiect Tim Lewis at Lewis & Hickley, was designed with a very simple, yet potentially difficult brief. The main criteria was the ‘wow’ factor, and the design certainly encompasses that. And how.
Taking it’s inspiration from the jagged white chalk that defines the landscape of the south of England, the farm house maintains and incredibly modern look without alienating the surrounding countryside. The odd angles of this house exude a strange yet pleasing mix of modernism and natural beauty, a difficult accomplishment indeed.
This piece of furniture caught my eye straight away. To be honest, I’m not at all a fan of centre-of-the-room over-head lighting. And I’m not much a fan of standard lamps either. Lighting is a much-neglected yet important way of enhancing a room’s experience. For me, nothing does this more than with use of shadows cast throughout a room; it’s a very simple way to add interest and depth to a space and create an atmosphere or mood.
This bed, designed by Lago, does that beautifully. In a room normally associated with the moon and the stars, the sunburst effect this bed creates a sunshine feel and lights the room from the ground up. The design is simple, functional and pretty stylish. A very pleasant way to light the room on those dark, winter mornings and nights.
Surface is a newly available flat-panel computing platform from Microsoft that allows users to access and manipulate data with their hands. It’s the next big thing – literally.
Ever had one of those days where things just don’t go right at work? The boss is hounding you for that all-important document and your computer just won’t stop crashing? It’s happened to all of us at one time or another. Some bad days at work though have much greater consequences than others:
Firstly, apologies for the absence of blog posts this past fortnight. Diseño Earle have been enjoying our summer break and are now refreshed and ready to go. To get things rolling, have a look at this:
Houses are expensive things nowadays. Especially in England, where even a modest starter-home can set you back over 200,000GBP. In 2005 the British government launched a competition to build homes for less than 60,000GBP. No easy task, thats for sure.
Developers George Wimpey joined with the architects at Rogers Stirk Harbour to win the competition from the field of 221 other competitors. Love them or loathe them, I can see why they won.
The main cost saving method was to have the floors, ceilings and walls all pre-fabricated in a factory and delivered ‘flat-pack’ style to the site, ready to be assembled. Due to the simple nature of the houses, they can be put together remarkably quickly, in less than a day. That’s right; a day. The results, as you can see, look great, and in a couple of years when the surrounding gardens have matured a little, I think this estate is going to look fantastic.
From a design point of view, the houses are simple and certainly nothing special, but they do have a nice modern feel and, let’s face it, are far more interesting to look at than most of the twee houses you normally find on British housing estates.
In a country with a big shortage of affordable housing, these are winners in my book. Watch the video below to see these being put together; it shows that whilst the building of Rome in a day was highly unlikely, constructing a modest family home isn’t outside the realms of possibility.
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.
This blog is brought to you by the team at Diseño Earle, Architects. Diseño Earle specialise in modern design and work on projects all over the world in places such as Dubai, Spain, Morocco and Tunisia.
Diseño Earle have recently launched a new product which combines exclusive plots with unique modern villas and superior construction. Visit Blueprint Modern Villas for more information.
Diseño Earle also publishes a monthly magazine Modern Design, which is also available as a free PDF download.Modern Design highlights the finest examples of modern design, architecture, art, fashion and more.
