Monday, October 11, 2010

Optical Illusion

Recycled Sculptures

Sculptures from Recycled Materials by Sayaka Kajita Ganz (5)

Deadlines

I love deadlines. I especially love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010


“Street artists and muralists bring with them vibrant and a new perspective that architects or designers may not have. This does not mean that millions need to be spent to upgrade the buildings immediately, all you need is vision, courage, local creative talent and some colorful paint like these perfect examples here. Our subscriber list reads like the Who-is-Who of city councils around the globe. So here’s a challenge to you: You need to step up and change the face of your city. There are way too many ugly, run-down buildings, bridges, tunnels and walkways that can be completely transformed into exciting and fun environments with some creative input” (www.coolhunter.com)

I put my hands up in the air sometimes saying… No more drab concrete surfaces!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

such bright sparks out there..;)
















The Lilypad Floating Ecopolis for Climate Refugees is a giant floating city that people can live on when the world floods. The architectures behind the design believe we'll need these things by 2100 because half of the world will have disappeared underwater.
According to the less alarming forecasts of the GIEC (Intergovernmental group on the evolution of the climate), the ocean level should rise from 20 to 90 cm during the 21st Century with a status quo by 50 cm (versus 10 cm in the 20th Century). As a solution to this alarming problem architect Vincent Callebaut came up with this ecotectural marvel that could serve as a luxurious future retreat for 50,000 inhabitants seeking refuge from rising waters due to global warming. He believes the world will be desperately seeking shelter from the devastations of climate change, and hopes the auto-sufficient amphibious city will serve as a luxurious solution. To bad that right now we are close to 7 billion people and this luxurious future retreat is just for 50,000 inhabitants ( just for rich people ).

Vincent Callebaut called this project “Lilypad“, but this ecotectural marvel is also called as “Floating Ecopolis for Climate Refugees”. The whole structure is covered in green walls and roofs, the top portion covered in grasses with the inner portion featuring a palm oasis, and the under portion serving as a bed for natural sea planktons and oceanic plants. inspirational, but scary;)

Saturday, May 15, 2010

the power of colour









often considered a byproduct of design or creative thinking, colour is often not provided with enough.. well, respect or authority which it deserves. it is a life-changing, mood-altering, expressive, bold, subtle and broad-spectrum medicine we unconciously encounter and consume every day. from the smallest hints to the largest planes, colour affects us and, as these images of present design and architecture show from www.coolhunter.com, may share the front stage to create a happier and memorable environment for living:)just imagine what some colour could do to the strand street area underneath the flyovers of Port Elizabeth - it would transform that blearly area into a vibrant place and magnetic space

Thursday, May 13, 2010










this is another amazing museum designed by Yad Vashem. The museum is designed to imprint itself on one's memory, just like the actual holocaust event did to the world. it is an awe-inspiring structure which i can only hope to visit one day.. definitely on the to-do list:)

A decade in the making, the new Holocaust History Museum combines the best of Yad Vashem’s expertise, resources and state-of-the-art exhibits to take Holocaust remembrance well into the 21st century .

The new Holocaust History Museum occupies over 4,200 square meters, mainly underground. Both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, it presents the story of the Shoah from a unique Jewish perspective, emphasizing the experiences of the individual victims through original artifacts, survivor testimonies and personal possessions.

Its 180 meters – long linear structure in the form of a spike cuts through the mountain with its uppermost edge – a skylight – protruding through the mountain ridge. Galleries portraying the complexity of the Jewish situation during those terrible years branch off this spike-like shaft, and the exit emerges dramatically out of the mountainside, affording a view of the valley below. Unique settings, spaces with varying heights, and different degrees of light accentuate focal points of the unfolding narrative.

At the end of the Museum’s historical narrative is the Hall of Names—a repository for the Pages of Testimony of millions of Holocaust victims, a memorial to those who perished. From the Hall of Names, visitors will continue on to the epilogue and from there to the balcony opening to a panoramic view of Jerusalem.

Designed by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie, the new Holocaust History Museum is a prism-like triangular structure that penetrates the mountain from one side to the other, with both ends dramatically cantilevering into the open air. The triangular form of the structure was chosen to support the pressure of the earth above the prism while bringing in daylight from above through a 200 meter-long glass skylight. The skylight allows gleams of daylight to contrast with darker areas required for multimedia presentations. Within the galleries, light enters through localized skylights varying from diffused to clear glass, depending on the requirements of each exhibit.

The entire structure of the museum—floors, wall, interior and exterior—are reinforced concrete. Throughout the prism, the triangular cross-section varies, becoming narrower at the center. The warped surface formed by this variation, amplified by a gently sloping floor, creates a changing sequence of spaces and gives the illusion of descending deep into the mountain. As the route nears its northern exit, the floor begins to ascend and the triangle opens up again, with the exit bursting forth from the mountain’s slope to a dramatic view of modern-day Jerusalem.

One of the basic guidelines for the museum’s design was to create a visitor’s route dictated by the evolving narrative, with a beginning, middle and end. A central 180-meter walkway (prism) was built with exhibition galleries on either side. Between the exhibition galleries are impassable gaps extending along the breadth of the prism floor. These gaps constitute a physical obstacle, guiding the visitor into the adjacent galleries, yet always enabling eye contact with either end of the prism. The prism is therefore a longitudinal axis of historical memory, crossed by the visitors as they move from one gallery to the next and from one subject to another. The displays, filled with original artifacts, documentation, testimonies, film, literature, diaries, letters, and works of art, emphasize the unique human stories of the Jewish population in Europe during those terrible years.

Presented in this section is an overview of each gallery including descriptions, views from the galleries and featured artifacts and art from each gallery. The New Museum contains some one hundred video screens showing survivor testimonies and short films. Directors:Reuven Hecker, Ayelet Heler, Noemi Schory. Producer: Liran Atzmor.