Steve Sauer's 182-square-foot Seattle condo shows the value of a good fit, from the soaking tub built into the entry floor to the "video lounge" tucked beneath the "cafe area." Sauer shopped Ikea for many of his home's furnishings, such as a little table, and used tabletops to fashion cabinet fronts. — The Seattle Times
In a move that could be viewed by some as a regression to the late 1800s when convicts were shipped from England to Van Diemens Land (Australia), a local prison will next week begin a trial housing inmates within shipping containers converted into maximum security cells. Political proponents calim they are safe, secure and cheap; civil libetarians say they are inhumane and not secure. — Inhabitat
Inexpensive yes, but effective? View full entry
FRAMED*, a new project conceived by the super-talented Yugo Nakamura, intends to revolutionize how you display art on your walls. The hardware consists of an an ultra-thin, high resolution digital screen, embedded with a fully functional computer to display multi-media art pieces. The software... View full entry
News In our latest In Focus we talk to English photographer Tim Pike. To our question What is your goal when capturing buildings in photographs? Tom responded "That would vary. If it is entirely at my discretion, I tend to want to almost 'deconstruct' the building to an essence that is summed up... View full entry
Aaron Jones, a M.Arch student at Cranbrook Academy of Art, sent us news of his YouTube Theater installation. Very cool. This project is based on the assumption that the internet (WiFi) can potentially deliver entertainment and information into any place, even a neighborhood that may be... View full entry
There is no more iconic suburb than Levittown, the postwar planned community built by the developer William Levitt in the late 1940s, so it is understandable that in launching Open House, a collaborative project to imagine a “future suburbia,” the Dutch design collective Droog in collaboration with Diller Scofidio + Renfro architects would make it the focus of their inquiry. — opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com
Once an exciting, underground food scene driven by a punk rock aesthetic and an exploratory mentality is swiftly becoming a mainstream, bottom-line-obsessed maze of infighting and politics.
"It's such a trend that you can't just be a hot dog truck, you have to be an Indian hot dog truck to be unique."
— LA Times
Previously View full entry
"that is just fantastic ..." — A reader's reaction, MailOnline
The sole credit for the maker in this news article goes to "German" as in "German builds world’s largest model airport." View full entry
If you want to lace your house with cool hidden passages, you can’t simply add hinges to a bookcase and shout, “To the Batmobile!” You have to account for shelf sag, and you have to build something sturdy enough to work hundreds of thousands of times. “My history in robotics helps,” says Steve Humble, founder of Creative Home Engineering—the only company dedicated to making hidden rooms and secret doors. — wired.com
Staxxon’s primary objective is to develop a vertical folding and nesting method for empty containers that removes the most expensive commodity container cargo – air – and replaces air with folded and nested empty containers that meet existing CSC structural and weathertight standards for dry containers when unfolded. — gcaptain.com
Will this lead to a new form of container architecture? View full entry
In the early '90s Caracas dreamed of a shimmering downtown financial centre—now it's the tallest squat in the world — domusweb.it
Many images from the compound reported to be the hideout of Osama bin Laden have surfaced. In addition to images of the compound, photos of portions of a helicopter have also been made available to us. — photoblog.msnbc.msn.com
Tali Krakowsky, founder of experience design studio Apologue, will be speaking at the 10th annual conference of FITC in Toronto. Her session, presented with Branden Hall of Automata Studios, will explore the behind-the-scenes of Apologue’s new permanent media installation for the... View full entry
"To complement the minimal styling of the Kohler Numi toilet, Marmol Radziner created an urban, sleek environment to convey the brand image of Numi as one that reinforces the leadership position of Kohler in the luxury living space.
Marmol Radziner designed a modular prefab gallery to showcase a series of Numi display models, utilizing a dark color palette of gray lacquer, ipe decking and gray carpeting to capture a mood of mystique and desire"
— Ron Radziner, design principal, Marmol Radziner
Architecture can help sell a $6,400 Kohler Numi advanced toilet. Visit kohler.com/numi Moments in the day of the life of a young, successful couple are captured cinematically in Kohler' Co's latest marketing campaign stateside, for the company's new and most advanced toilet, Numi. The premium... View full entry
Life has become significantly more political in the new millennium, especially in the aftermath of worldwide financial crisis. Art is both driving and documenting this upheaval. Increasingly, new visual concepts and commentaries are being used to represent and communicate emotionally charged topics, thereby bringing them onto local political and social agendas in a way far more powerful than words alone. — Gestalten
In the light of politically active artists facing more and more opposition and oppression (Ai Weiwei remains under Chinese arrest), the just released book Art & Agenda is an important documentation of current urban interventions, installations, performances, sculptures, and paintings and also... View full entry