Milan Design Week 2013 Showcase

April 18, 2013 Leave a comment


Pure shoeTools for Life3 Nuns StoolMilan Design week took place at the beginning of the month, an event that showcases the latest designs from around the world, with a focus upon furniture.

Many architects have worked in collaboration with manufacturers to design pieces to be shown here, and so ArchDaily has compiled a list of what they feel are the Best Architect Designed Products from the week.

The list includes work by Jean Nouvel for Ruco Line, where he explored fashion, creating Pure – a high quality trainer that idolizes “purity of form”.

Also featured is Tools for Life,  a new furniture range designed by OMA for Knoll and Ron Arad’s 3 Nuns Stool for Moroso’s American Collection.

Take look at the full list here.

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World’s largest underwater hotel

January 30, 2013 Leave a comment


World's largest underwater hotel 1World's largest underwater hotel 2World's largest underwater hotel 3It looks like it could be something from an old James Bond film, but Polish company Deep Ocean Technology (DOT), are planning to make this idea a reality. 

The Water Discus hotel will not be the first underwater hotel, but is set to be the world’s largest. It will be built in Dubai, and consist of two main discs, one above water, the other below, and will have smaller circular modules connected to the above water section to provide additional facilities to the 21 hotel rooms located below the sea level. The main above sea disc will be supported and connected to it’s counterpart by five columns and a main central shaft for stairs and lift.

The hotel will also boast a helipad, an underwater diving centre, with an airlock leading directly underwater, and a decompression chamber for training purposes. The nature of the design allows for the hotel to be expanded or even moved, with the surrounding discs having the ability to detach from the main disc and act as a buoyant life raft in the event of an emergency.

Hotel guests will be able to enjoy underwater views from their room, a submerged bar and even take a course in piloting an underwater vehicle.

DOT’s other ventures include designing underwater vehicles and equipment for seabed exploration.

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A crystal ball for FIFA 2022 World Cup

September 13, 2012 Leave a comment


Crystal Ball Qatar 2022 FIFA World CupBuilding up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar has announced its plans to construct a gigantic shimmering crystal ball that will host a sports museum and shopping centre.

It was conceived by Danijel Koletić, owner of Apriori Communications,  and was designed by architects Vedran Pedišić (SANGRAD) and Erick Velasco Farerra (AVP-arhitekti).

Incorporating cutting-edge technology to ensure energy efficiency (they will need a crystal ball to know what these might be), the structure will be called the Crystal Ball-Light of the Future.

See more on Inhabitat.

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Russian aquarium covers all five continents

September 13, 2012 Leave a comment


Russian Aquarium 1Russian Aquarium 2Russian Aquarium 3This beautiful structure, still in construction, is the Primorsky Aquarium, which is the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Combining a research centre, Dolphinarium and the underwater worlds from five continents the centre will have tanks that are more than 10,000 cubic metres in size. 

These will hold around 500 species of marine and fresh water inhabitants with a complex of different sized tanks, allowing visitors to explore a range of habitats including the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea, Lake Baikal, the Amur River and Lake Khanka.

The centre has been design by architects, OJSC Primorgrajdanproekt and you find out more on Arch Daily.

Photographs by Alexander Hitrov.

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Clock this interior in St Petersburg

September 10, 2012 Leave a comment


Yandex Office Interior

Yandex Interior Office

Yandex Interior DesignClocking in in St Petersburg, Russia could not be easier than in this office designed by Za Bor Architects.

The office was designed for Yandex, a search engine business, who wanted to go one step further than their other office in the same building, which was also designed by Za Bor.

The project architects decided to locate meeting ‘cells’, work areas and unusual objects along the corridor, resulting in visitors finding themselves ‘inside’ the Yandex search service. 

At the reception they’re met by a ‘Search’ button and a yellow arrow (an unofficial Yandex logo) and as visitors move around the corridors they find familiar user name and email password input boxes as well as symbols and icons associated with Yandex services.

To find out more about this interesting themed interior visit Contemporist by clicking here.

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Canstruction comes to London

June 27, 2012 Leave a comment


CanstructionCanstruction designEver fancied knocking down a stack of cans in a supermarket. Then you wouldn’t have been very popular at Canstruction last week.

Sunday saw architects, designers and engineers coming together to compete in teams of five in the 20th anniversary of the Canstruction competition.

The task was to build sculptures entirely from canned food during the 12-hour competition that took place in London’s canary Wharf. 

Waitrose and food retailer AF Blakemore provided the contestants with 40,000 cans to build their designs. Competitors included engineering practice Thornton Tomasetti who used cans of Heinz Cooked Spaghetti to create a rocket ship and others used Heinz Baked Beans cans to create a variety of shaped archways.

This is the first time that Canstruction has come to the UK and is part of the London Festival of Architecture which started on 23rd June.

For more information see World Interior Design Network.

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AIA launches architecture app

June 2, 2012 Leave a comment


AIA AppIf you’re heading over to the States and fancy finding out more about the buildings around you then this is the essential app.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has formed a partnership with Broadcastr and created an app that provides in-depth information about the buildings around you along with exclusive interviews with architects and a vast library of narratives from local professionals that reveal the stories and facts. The app initially works in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington D.C.

“Imagine standing in front of one of the world’s great buildings and listening to the architect tell you about her inspiration,” said Andy Hunter, CEO of Broadcastr. “We are thrilled that our partnership with AIA makes that possible.”

The AIA Broadcastr is available on Apple and Android. Let us know if you make it over there and use it. Should RIBA be launching a similar app?

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The Ordos Museum lands in the Gobi desert

March 11, 2012 Leave a comment


The Ordos Art and City Museum in Mongolia is an amorphous building that seems to have just landed on this amazing landscape.

It was designed by MAD Archtiects and is surrounded be the dunes of the Gobi desert with stairways and belvederes that grow out of the earth.

Located in the new city center of Ordos, the space itself is deeply rooted in the local culture. To see more click here to view on ArchDaily or watch this atmospheric video.

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Casting a new light on wallpaper

March 4, 2012 Leave a comment


These LED wallpapers from Architects Paper are a great innovation and will make quite an impression in the right environment.

The paper has LED lights embedded within a circuit board design.

The designer comments, ”The LED wallpaper offers very thrilling possibilities to illuminate rooms: Dimmed, enigmatic light hardly revealing where the shine is coming from or an urban vibrating atmosphere – to mention only a few options.

It’s magic! A big advantage also is that the LED wallpaper can be hung in more or fewer strips and lengths according to the architecture and furnishing of a room. Interior designers have the choice.”

See more on Trendir.

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Moleskine launches architects series

March 3, 2012 Leave a comment


The Moleskine book has been a favourite of designers, creatives, writers and many others including Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway for more than two centuries.

Now, to celebrate the notepad’s association with architects and their sketchpads, Moleskine has launched a new range of raw grey cardboard books with excerpts from the original notebooks of four inspirational architects. Zaha Hadid, Giancarlo De Carlo, Peter Wilson of BOLLES+WILSON and Alberto Kalach.

Providing unprecedented access to their archives and personal files these small Moleskine books show reproductions of their works alongside blank pages for the owner’s own use. Passages of handwritten text from the architects explaining their inspiration for the original sketches are also shown within the notebooks as well as replicas of line drawings on table napkins and scraps of paper and early plans for now completed buildings.

These are really interesting insights into the thought processes of some of the world’s leading architects and a must have for architecture fans.

They are a bit difficult to find on the Moleskine website but if this link does not take you straight to them search for Architecture. You can also see more on Design Boom.

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RIBA hunts for unique pews and perches

December 30, 2011 Leave a comment


RIBA has launched a competition inviting architecture students, recent graduates and emerging practices from across London to come up with unique ideas for public seating in association with London’s Pleasure Gardens.

The winners of Pews & Perches will receive funding to build their designs which will be showcased around the Royal Docks in East London in time for the 2012 Olympic Games.

The deadline for submissions is 30 January 2012.

Click here for more details

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Sir Peter Cook’s 75th Birthday Art Auction and Exhibition

October 31, 2011 Leave a comment


Sir Peter Cook is 75 and to celebrate the iconic British architect and Archigram co-founder’s birthday, 75 established and emerging international artists have produced a portrait of Sir Peter to auction for charity Architecture for Humanity aiding post disaster relief in Haiti and Japan. Both the auction and exhibition started on October 26th and runs until November 9th. The online art auction can be found at The Adam and Eve Projects while the exhibition is up at Space, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia. The image shown here is by WIll Scobie. To see more images visit ArchDaily.

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Future Memory Pavilion

October 24, 2011 Leave a comment


A new installation by Asif Khan and Pernilla Ohrstedt  was unveiled last week in SIngapore, as the platform for promotion of British architects and designers, culminates. The Future Memory Pavilion comprises of two cones stretching up to eight meters high and 20 meters in diameter. Made of ice and sand, the cones are formed using concentric ropes, that taper the structure. Typically for Khan and on par with the Future Memory programme the form is designed to morph with passing time, as the ice melts and trickling water erodes the sand structure. Visitors are also encouraged to interact to represent the human impact on the environment. Ultimately both cones melt away. The manner in which the cones disappear is intended to provoke visitors to reflect on issues of climate and urban development. The Pavilion’s creators, Khan and Ohrstedt, drew their inspiration from Singapore’s history.

The Future Memory was created by Royal Academy of Arts and British Council. To read more about The Future Memory please visit Blieprint. 

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‘Showrooms’ app launched for New York

March 14, 2011 Leave a comment


If you are heading off to New York then Designer Pages has the app for you. They have launched an app called Showrooms that helps you to quickly locate architecture and interior design products and materials across the city. Find that showroom you’re looking for and map it, create itineraries for your visits, curate lists of showrooms to share with friends, and even check in using Foursquare. They plan on expanding to other cities in the future. They have even added a scavenger hunt at Architectural Digest Home Show in New York next week. Can’t wait for the London version.

Download the app Showrooms here

 

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Formica launches new European Collection

September 23, 2010 Leave a comment


Formica Limited has launched its new Collection including intriguing premium textures and many new unique designs.

Formica comments, ‘This new Collection presents a comprehensive palette of High Pressure Laminate (HPL) specially designed in response to European trends. With extensive colour families and co-ordination between ranges, textures and patterns, innovation and exclusivity are watchwords of this exciting offer.’  

The new Collection includes a unique new texture Rigato™ and new patterns Mode, Geo, Dogbone and Strand. The Formica Collection is a practical, trend led resource for Architects, Designers and Specifers and demonstrates how the Formica Group continues to innovate and lead the market in decorative laminates.

Click here to see more

The Think Tank

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Playhouse design incudes concrete slide – Fun!

September 9, 2010 Leave a comment


Aboday Architects has designed a 2 storey house located in Bumi Serpong Damai, Tangerang. It is part of a new gated housing cluster, and the house is an amalgamation of an existing house and a new construction. A feature of the house is a sculptural slider of concrete tucked in the corner between the two buildings. This is the transporation of choice of the 5 year old boy who lives in the house, sliding from his bedroom in 2nd floor to the dining room on the 1st floor.

See more here on Arch Daily

© Happy Lim

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Clerkenwell Golf Open a Success Despite the Rain

August 31, 2010 Leave a comment


The second Clerkenwell Showroom Golf Open, organised by The Think Tank, was a success despite the rain last week. Enjoyed by all, several teams completed the course around the furniture showrooms of Clerkenwell and finished the course at the 10th hole in Desso’s showroom on Great Sutton Street.

With more than 60 architects, designers and dealers signing up to take part it was going to be a busy afternoon, however the heavens opened and numbers were reduced. But not putting a dampner on things, those that took part had a great time.

The Think Tank congratulates all the winners and looks forward to next years classic.

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