Entries Tagged 'Architecture & Design' ↓

This is a detail from a Joan Miro poster I have been happily living with for years.

On that note, today’s NYT has a great slide show of mostly lesser known works from the man. Including:

And for another sort of art, see EnglishRussia for more of this sort of thing.

And at the same site today, pictures of Kamchatka, including this:

Which is akin to these Chinese mountains at Yangshuo from randomwire.com:

There’s more to Barcelona architecture than Gaudi, Domenech and Puig. The streets above were just outside our rooms (El Born within Barri Gotic).  I don’t remember where all the following buildings were (should have taken notes I suppose) but most were within an hour’s walk.

Barcelona is more than grand structures. These apartments were in a neighborhood about five blocks from where we were staying. Nice to see people who aren’t afraid of a little colour.

This may have been the entrance to the building housing the Roman columns in the next picture.

Like how this building looks as if someone just twisted the top half 20 degrees.

A church just off the Ramblas, near the Boqueria.

This, just part of the new wave of building, is just off the waterfront not far from the marina and aquarium.

Video from TED, (via WebUrbanist) Theo Jansen’s kinetic sculptures….science and art, and above all, amazement.

Architecture

Via Archiblog: the projected Walter Towers to be built in Prague. Like I needed another reason to go back there.

Food

Another sort of tower discovered through OddityCentral but you can straight to the Heart Attack Grill for more of the same. This is the quadruple bypass burger (two pounds of meat).

This really needs to be added to the Burgers of Distinction.

Drink

You can wash that monstrosity down with this really decent beer ad….

Sex

And in other news these phenomenal safe sex ads via NoFatClips…here for boys and here for girls. Much more fun than these ones.

Bodily Functions

And finally, a very cool toilet via Dezeen.

All of the material on this post comes via InventorSpot which had a very good month of interesting new ideas and new solutions to old problems.

1. The Vertebrae Vertical Bathroom System (video here)

Closed:

Open:

And two designs from here:

2. Another stackable:

These are individual stacked fridges suitable for multiperson kitchen sharing.

3. And a toaster:

Very cool. You can scan any images onto your toast including, as they say, the news.
Older toaster postings are here, and here.

Once in a blue moon something comes along that challenges your limited sense of what is possible, and this, for me, Don’tClickIt certainly qualifies. Visit this site to see how simple navigation without a mouse, without clicking, is possible.

And then some new and unusual ways of telling time via GrowaBrain:

TimeBeat

Filling Grid Clock

PulseClock

WordClock

In an entirely different realm but of potentially life saving consequence is the invention of the Peepoo bag, a portable toilet (via the David Report Blog), a bag that soon after it is used, sanitizes the feces and thus prevents further contamination of the environment. Any natural disaster disturbs existing infrastructures, and even barring such events, many urban slums are ill equipped to deal with human waste; this is a major contribution toward reducing disease under those conditions.

And the craziest and most disturbing invention in some time:

From LoveHoney, the Touche Womanizer Shaver and Silicon Massager. “The magnificent Womaniser is not only smooth to the touch - it’ll leave you smooth and strokable, too! This intimate shaver is hidden inside a single speed silicone massaging vibrator - the perfect combination for a night of orgasmic personal pleasure.” I’d love to read the warning label.

From Trendir Modern House Designs

Also from Trendir

From Book Arts: artist Barton Lidic

From OddityCentral: the ultimate car audio system

Also from OddityCentral: Russian Ice Sculptures

And finally, the work of Jason de Caires Taylor: underwater sculpture

and close up

1. From DerSpiegel: Smallest Hotel in the World

2. From Wordepletion: By the Water

3. From OffBeatHomes: HundertwasserHaus

4. And from SurfaceArchitects: Inside

Gaudi’s not the only architect in town though it is easy to see where one might get that impression. Any bookstore in Barcelona will have ten or twelve different titles at least on the man and his work but no books on either Josep Puig i Cadafalch or Domenech i Montaner to name just two who should be lauded as well. Montaner in particular is one to explore. On this trip, it was his works that impressed me the most. He’s a little restrained in comparison to Gaudi. Like Gaudi, he controlled every aspect of his buildings but retained just a little more of a classical sense of proportion and symmetry combined with a substantial Arabic influence.

The two most famous works are the Palau de Musica Catalana and the Hospital de Sant Pau. We took the tour through the Palau but pictures were not allowed so I have only some exteriors here (here are some photographs of the interior). If you do make it there, it is worth the walk through; this was constructed to take full advantage of natural light and inside it does feel light and open.

Some exteriors then:

During the tour, we were first shown a film and then a walking talk with questions very welcome from a man who was fluent in a number of languages. His English was very good, quite correct but he made a Monty Python sort of error when he spoke about the legend of St George and the dragon when he referred to George as a Nit.

These pictures illustrate something I like very much about Art Nouveau; there is no compulsion for the sides of the building to exactly resemble each other.

The picture at the top of the post is a panorama of the Hospital de Sant Pau which of all the things I had already seen in Barcelona I felt compelled to return to, and if I make it back there again, it will be on the agenda. Its composed of over forty different buildings, beautiful greenery and the fact that it still functions as a hospital makes it more than just a monument.
(You can find more information here.)

One of the pavilions inside the complex.

Just inside the main entrance.

Detail on a projection.

Ironwork on main front gate.

There are more pictures from the 2007 visit to the hospital here.

From freshhome.com