The Cloud by Atelier Hapsitus

TA DA... the latest in dubai's proposed absurdities... The Cloud is a speculative design for a resort city elevated 300 metres in the air above Dubai and supported on slanting legs resembling rain. Designed by Nadim Karam of Lebanese architect Atelier Hapsitus, the concept was presented at the International Design Forum in Dubai last month.

In the archtiect's words
"The Cloud, the Desert and the Arabian breeze
At the forefront of the few cities today experiencing exponential growth, Dubai is the ultimate city of mutation. Within its constantly-changing scenery and infinite growth-scale, Dubai needs a dream expressing its current transient phase. If cities can dream, does Dubai have a dream?

The Cloud of Dubai is one of a series of Gulf region projects created by Nadim Karam and Atelier Hapsitus. It is inspired by the nomads, whose lives were defined by the rigours of their relation to sun, water and sand, and whose travels followed the borderless movement of clouds. The Cloud is a trip, a playful adventure in the city. It is a horizontal presence on an elevated platform, an antithesis to the sum of skyscrapers spreading over the entire region. The Cloud is a dream, suspended between artificiality and reality.

An essentially sustainable project standing at a height of approximately 300 metres, the Cloud is a 20000m2 landscape-in-the-sky comprising a lake, gardens, rotating bridges, spiraling walkways and terraces, an auditorium and sky-sports platform. The Cloud is approached on ground level from an esplanade with a pool reflecting a forest of inclined columns reaching up to the huge, translucent floating island. Access to the Cloud is gained through a few non-inclined tubular shafts, which double as structural support. In collaboration with ARUP AGU (Advanced Geometry Unit), significantly creative technological solutions are being developed for its realization."

Interesting that its an "essentially sustainable" project, nobody told me there were different categories of sustainability now! isnt that like being "a little bit pregnant"??

via design boom

what is normal?

An interesting diagram from the National Climatic Data Centre.

via Beyond the Beyond

passive-aggressive notes from roommates, neighbors, coworkers and strangers

I have been looking for a new housemate recently, terry who has been my rock-who-i-can-poke-with-my-index-finger-when-i-am-bored has moved to less green pastures with his brother garry-stabby-mac-stab-stab. In the last two weeks I have interviewed 14 people and have crossed real estate agent and HR manager off my list of possible career changes. By No.5 I was starting to wonder if there had been an government exodus of normal people from melbourne which i hadnt heard about and by No.10 I was wondering if I was the un-normal one?! Then I found passiveaggressivenotes and decided I was perfectly fine and if all else fails, the extra rent is about what I spend on clothes and shoes each month so its not THAT bad...

Haramaki!

Finally... A viable solution to Melbourne's infamous "Muffin Top" problem.
Haramaki, japanese belly warmers - available here (for the i-can-read-japanese readers)

via PingMag

Social Suicide

I LOVE this.
If I were a man, I would buy Social Suicide's entire collection. Heck, if the suits came in my size I would buy the entire collection.

via PingMag

take-g toys

I was playing with a friend's almost-two-year-old a couple of weeks ago when i discovered that A. the friend has an obsession with buying timber toys for his son and B. his latest aquisition was a timber LOGGING TRUCK. I have been looking for dreadlocked dolls (preferably also timber) at the right scale to chain the the truck's wheels ever since with no luck. But in the process i came across these beautiful toys by take-g made in japan.

when milk meets coffee...

In the artist, Irene Müller's, words
"These are the first splashes of this kind I've tried so far. I hope you like them and thanks for looking.
I've now added some images showing milk splashing into a cup of coffee to demonstrate how tiny the splashes really are. BTW, I don't use any sound/photogate triggers for my high speed photography.
Just my camera, a pipette or syringe, good eye/shutter finger coordination and patience, patience, patience....."

via boing boing

Imagini

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

I remember when one of the girls at work started her Masters her supervisor sent her some learning styles surveys, one of the questions was "At a party, do you remember people by their names or their faces?" and I responded "What they are wearing!". Anyway, this comes through in my VisualDNA which basically tells me that I am superficial and materialistic, but in a nice way.

Imagini
A completely new way of communicating using images

word of the day

och·loc·ra·cy /ɒkˈlɒkrəsi/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ok-lok-ruh-see]
noun

government by the mob; mob rule; mobocracy.

(Greek: οχλοκρατια; Latin: ochlocratia) is government by mob or a mass of people, or the intimidation of constitutional authorities. In English, the word mobocracy is sometimes used as a synonym.

Ochlocracy is sometimes employed as a pejorative term for majoritarianism. Additionally, as a term in civics it implies that there is no formal authority whatsoever, not even a commonly-accepted view of anarchism, and so disputes are raised, contended and closed by brute force - might makes right, but only in a very local and temporary way, as another mob or another mood might just as easily sway a decision. It is often associated with demagoguery and the rule of passion over reason.

The term appears to have been coined by Polybius in his Histories (6.4.6) He uses it to name the 'pathological' version of popular rule in opposition to the 'good' version, which he refers to as democracy. There are numerous mentions of the word "ochlos" in the TalmudRashi, a Jewish commentary on the Bible. The word is recorded in English since 1584, derived from the French ochlocratie (1568), which stems from the original Greek okhlokratia, from okhlos "mob" and kratos "rule, power, strength" (where "ochlos" refers to anything from "mob," "populace" to "armed guard"), as well as in Rashi, a Jewish commentary on the Bible. The word is recorded in English since 1584, derived from the French ochlocratie (1568), which stems from the original Greek okhlokratia, from okhlos "mob" and kratos "rule, power, strength".

Pulse Front

Pulse Front, created by acclaimed Montreal-based artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is the world's largest interactive light sculpture. A matrix of light beams over Harbourfront, originating from twenty of the worlds most powerful robotic searchlights, is entirely controlled by a network of sensors that measure the heart rate of passers-by. Up to 20 metal sculptures, with embedded sensors and computers, are placed along Toronto's harbour. Pulse readings, from people gripping the sculptures, are converted into light pulses by computers that also determine the orientation of the beams. With over 200,000 watts of power and 15 km visibility, Pulse Front blends the intimate with the spectacular in one of Toronto's most popular public spaces.

everything sounds better with a foreign accent

Very happy that Architecture, Building and Planning at Melbourne University have finally gotten into ilectures for all those times I can't make a public lecture at 6.30 during the work week.

Soon. hopefully. a geek at that establisment will have the lectures either podcast (so i can be educated while on the go) or uploaded on You-Tube (so there are visuals)

Anyway, I was listening to Willy Andrews (Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia) talk about contemporary design projects of his own and those of fellow architects in Bogotá, Colombia this afternoon and as part of his introduction he said this...

"That is why we must look for architecture that, like a woman with interior beauty or a fine wine, gets better every year."

Can you imagine that line with an Australian accent? ... I think not.
Dean's Lecture Series

word of the day

dem·i·urge (děm'ē-ûrj') [dem-ee-urj]
n.

1. A powerful creative force or personality.
2. A public magistrate in some ancient Greek states.
3. Demiurge A deity in Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and other religions who creates the material world and is often viewed as the originator of evil.
4. Demiurge A Platonic deity who orders or fashions the material world out of chaos.

warp your room

Who needs acid when i can have wall paper that comes warped... The "technology" section is mildly interesting, but i'm guessing the hard part of all this is actually applying the wall paper to the wall.

via Boing Boing

Fixed Width

One of my favourite geeks in the www (that's Whole Wide World not World Wide Web) sent this to me because he thought I would appreciate the humour and its about a girl called Emily.

from xkcd a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language.

Beer + Sunshine = Hot Water

A Chinese farmer has made his own solar-powered water heater out of beer bottles and hosepipes. “I invented this for my mother. I wanted her to shower comfortably,” says Ma Yanjun, of Qiqiao village, Shaanxi province. Ma’s invention features 66 beer bottles attached to a board. The bottles are connected to each other so that water flows through them. Sunlight heats the water as is passes slowly through the bottles before flowing into the bathroom as hot water, reports China Economy Network. Ma says it provides enough hot water for all three members of his family to have a shower every day. And more than 10 families in the village have already followed suit and installed their own versions of Ma’s invention.

via Weird Asian News

Wireless electricity, or "WiTricity"

"BOSTON - Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly — from a device 7 feet away — potentially heralding a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get juice without having to be plugged in."

YAY!!

I've wanted this since I lost my first phone charger...

And guess how it all started...

The story starts one late night a few years ago, with Soljacic (pronounced Soul-ya-cheech) standing in his pajamas, staring at his cell phone on the kitchen counter. “It was probably the sixth time that month that I was awakened by my cell phone beeping to let me know that I had forgotten to charge it. It occurred to me that it would be so great if the thing took care of its own charging.” via Free Republic

via engadget

Bus Station

What can only be described as a spectacular bus station in Casar de Cácere, Spain, by Justo García Rubio.

I can only imagine the worst fate that would come of a design like this if it were proposed in Australia...

from the client

"The pidgeons will roost in the void between the curves, this will become a maintenance issue. Can we have this design without the void?"

from the local government

"Our public liablilty insurance won't cover us for people climbing on top of the roof and falling off, there will have to be handrails around the edge or someway of preventing people from getting to the roof."

from the DDA consultant

"I am afraid you will need to have tactiles and handrails at the base of those overhanging curvy walls to prevent visually impared people from hitting their heads."

etc etc

via C+A

the underwater sculpture gallery

Hauntingly beautiful (and mildly creepy) art by Jason Taylor in Grenada, West Indies.
In the artist's words “I encountered change from an early age as my family moved from one cultural environment to another. This was the beginning of my fascination with how objects and relationships change as landscapes and contexts alter.”

check out the video here

Twenty-First Century Cities

Forbes have assembled a great package of what we have to look forward to in the future.

Two Billion Slum Dwellers
Elisabeth Eaves
Cities are the future of the world, and slums are the future of the city.

Snitchtown

Cory Doctorow

In the brave new world of ubiquitous security cameras, universal surveillance is seen as the solution to all urban ills.

In Defense Of Sprawl

By Robert Bruegmann

Think the inexorable spread of cities is a bad thing? Think again.

Megacities Of The Future

Mark Lewis

The demographic future belongs to cities like Mumbai, Shanghai and Dhaka.

Ghost Cities of 2100

By Elisabeth Eaves

Even as the world's urban population explodes, these eight cities face potential extinction. (i particularly like this section, with the specific senario for each city's demise, they would all make great futurama episodes)

via Boing Boing

Mixed Greens

An international survey of state-of-the-art sustainable skyscraper design. MIXED GREENS marks the first collaboration between The Skyscraper Museum and The New York Academy of Sciences.
See also Uber-Eco-Towers: The Top Ten Green Skyscrapers
via The Underwire

House Swarming

Designed by Jenna Didier, Oliver Hess and Marcos Lutyens
In the Artist's words

"Commissioned for the Art Center presentation of “Open House,” this site-specific installation operates both as a complex light pattern that greets visitors and as an environment-sensing device.

During the day, the “swarm” of green ambiguous forms, both biomorphic and geometric, accentuates the South Campus’s main entry. At twilight, the swarm comes to life, telling visitors and passersby about the current air quality around the building. Electronic sensors perceive air contaminants – such as tobacco, benzene, carbon monoxide, even perfume – and separately inform the outside and inside swarms, which sets off signals. These signals are interpreted as changes to the natural rhythm that the network has established based on the number and distribution of nodes connected to the cable net. Flashing cells on the exterior faÁade indicate air quality inside the building. Conversely, pulsating effects in the interior entry inform visitors about the outside air quality. The flashing lights become indicators of the environment like dramatic clouds at sunset that forewarnings of storms at night.

HouseSwarming is an example of how architects and designers are using technology that mimics biological systems. These patterns look like those structures found in nature, such as the patterns made by schools of fish, flocks of birds, and swarms of locusts. Used in the home, this type of sensor-node technology could enable us to extend our nervous system into the environment and alter our sense of boundaries."

check out the video here
via The Underwire

Is it possible to let a first sketch become an object, to design directly onto space?

i've often wondered if something like this was possible. i've lost count of the number of times i have been handed some scribble on yellow trace to be deciphered into some sort of legiable piece of work that we can charge the client for. i imagine the contractors would kill me if they had to build to a sketch though...

check out the video here

Landscape Architecture: An Apocalyptic Manifesto

they should issue this to all landscape architects upon graduation.
goes a long way to explain why i feel so conflicted about the profession...

Landscape Architecture: An Apocalyptic Manifesto

via Pruned

Organic Concrete

for the concrete-o-phile... Perhaps can be considered a PRACTICAL material now that water restrictions dont look like they are going anywhere soon. by e-studio

in the mood for love

for its 'in the mood for love' article this month, I.D. magazine invited
six designers to imagine the ideal setting for losing one's virginity.

'odds are, if we could do it again, there'd be candles and soft sheets.
but in reality, most of us were deflowered in a haze of alcohol or
teenage self-doubt. for an issue devoted to life's milestones.'

HEAR HEAR...

History of the Paper Clip

What can i say... i LOOURVE stationery.
nice random general knowledge, for those times when YOU are writing the trivia night questions

"Architorture"

"Architorture" -- this term has been the lament of countless aspiring architects for years... who knows, perhaps for generations. It is a simple slang word which embodies a range of emotions, experiences and tribulations faced in the course of an architectural education... and career.

i think there should be an additional definition

2. the art of inflicting excruciating pain on other consultants by changing finished floor levels the day before tender issue, redesigning a retaining wall more than ten times, deleting internal courtyards without notice and other such practices common in the architectural professions

A Sonic Shade of Light

Imagine an outsize parasol planted in an African village. By day, it offers shelter from the sun: by night, it sheds light for the local community using the energy collected in solar cells embedded in its canopy. It's clever, it explores a new role for textiles, and it shows concern for the planet. In short: an eco-friendly solution to a pernicious modern problem. Designed by loop.pH and commissioned by Newcastle Gateshead Initiative and Sunderland City Council and supported by ISIS Arts. Check out the video here

Drop Dead Gorgeous

For anyone who has eaten the whole box, or bag, or carton (we've ALL Done this...) the photographs in this series make light of our secret binges. Here, the consequences of indulgence are tabloid or monster movie deaths. Daniela Edburg’s Drop Dead Gorgeous both mocks and satisfies our cravings.