Venus Natural Crystal Chair

Tokujin Yoshioka has taken on a new form in design with his Natural Crystal Chair. The chair itself is created by taking a frame made up of polyester elastomers which serves as the base for crystal formation which over time produces the end result you see here. Although the chair itself may not serve a practical purpose, this type of manipulation of Mother Nature in reality could be produced over numerous different shapes dependant on what type of base polyester elastomer is chosen.

Source: www.hypebeast.com

Egypt's Underwater museum

Architect Jacques Rougerie -an expert when it comes to space and underwater structures- has designed the soon-to-be first underwater museum. It will be located off the coast of Egypt, near the new Library of Alexandria, where Cleopatra once had a palace on an island in one of the largest human-made bays in the world back in the day, submerged by earthquakes in the 4th century.

The ruins were discovered years ago, and include several sphinxes, statues, roman and greek shipwrecks and pieces believed to be from the Pharos of Alexandria lighthouse (one of the seven ancient wonders of the world).




This ruins haven’t been moved, since it would be a tremendous effort that could damage the ruins in the process. Also, it follows the 2001 UNESCO convention for the preservation of underwater heritage.

With that in mind, the museum is designed as both inland and submarine. The building will have four tall structures shaped like the sails of fellucas, the traditional sailboats used in the Nile. From the inland building, underwater fiberglass tunnels will take visitors to structures where they can view antiquities still lying on the seabed.




Sounds like a big challenge, but since the bay is only about 16 to 20 feet (5 to 6 meters) deep, the museum will not face strong water pressure on its walls, something that makes this idea more feasible. And with construction expected to take only three years, we could have this new concept of building ready pretty soon. But first, they need to secure funding.

Source: www.archdaily.com

“Perspectives” Chairs By BBC

If we want a football team in LA we need to learn from the Japanese

Hyogo, Japan

I cannot believe they're just gonna use this for tennis!

Not a waste of space

Prada's latest collaboration with Rem Koolhaas and AMO is a multifunctional space called the Prada Transformer in Seoul, South Korea. Designed to accommodate different art, cinema, and fashion events, the space is transformed by rotating and flipping the structure with cranes into one of the 4 different floor configurations.

The form of the Transformer is derived from a Tetrahedron and when rotated each side facilitates a different cultural program. Each of the four programs will function on unique steel framed shapes including a hexagon, a cross, a rectangle and a circle. Thus, over the course of the exposition, floors will become walls and walls will become ceiling.

One crazy ass park

Denmark Pavillion for Shangai Expo 2010

Basically, the pavilion is a big loop on which visitors ride around on one of the 1,500 bikes available at the entrance, a chance to experience the Danish urban way. At the center of the pavilion there’s a big pool with fresh water from Copenhagen’s harbor, on which visitors can even swim.

I wish I had this kind of money!

This 57-story residential in the Tribeca area will house 145 residences, each one with its own unique floor plan and private outdoor space. This typology makes the building look like a stack of houses, away from the traditional skyscraper form. I wonder how the concrete structure works on this building, which was done by consultant firm WSP Cantor Seinuk (who also worked on the Freedom Tower).

The building features several interior design details done by Herzog & de Meuron, and also a sculpture comissioned to artist Anish Kapoor.

D°LIGHT HUGGABLE

By Designer Diana Lin.

The shell is just a thick mesh fabric holding in an armful of silicon gel balls each with its own LED. There’s a pull string in the back to turn on the lights. It’s powered by a couple of AA’s but also comes with a small ac adapter.