Archive for February, 2007|Monthly archive page
Architecture against Death
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Externally the architecture may look like Gaudi rose from the dead and had a cup too much, or perhaps the architect is just woefully child-like. But these lofts, “Reversible Destiny – Mitaka” has just the opposite aim. Constructed in 2005 with the aim to delay the degradation of elderly’s sense, it invigorates and excites their senses not only by the vivid colors and complexly-juxtaposed geometries, but also by purposely having a difficult house to live in.
For instance, inside, each apartment features a dining room with a grainy and bumpy floor, a sunken kitchen and a study with a concave floor. Electric switches are located in unexpected places on the walls so you have to feel around for the right one. A glass door to the veranda is so small you have to bend to crawl out. You constantly lose balance and gather yourself up, grab onto a column and occasionally trip and fall.
According to the people behind this, Shusaku Arakawa, a Japanese artist based in New York, and his creative partner, poet Madeline Gins:
Set up to put fruitfully into question all that goes on within them, they steer residents to examine minutely the actions they take and to reconsider and, as it were, recalibrate their equanimity and self-possession, causing them to doubt themselves long enough to find a way to reinvent themselves. These tactically posed architectural volumes put human organisms on the track of why they are as they are. To be sure, every loft comes with a set of directions for use.
Like a crazy children’s playground, this house is definitely one for you not to relax in. And that is precisely the point. Many of you may know some elderly relatives who’d slowly become dull and senile simply by being bored and sit their lives away. I’m not quite sure how much of this architecture is bull, or whether it be truly be effective, but judging by their sale of $750,000 a piece and people actually snapping it up, it does seem like a good venture!
More pictures of this project, and other similarly radical proposals for hotels here.
Volkswagen Ball
My brain went “PS!” the moment I saw this picture (for the less aware, PS means photoshopped – where the photo was manipulated using Adobe’s software). “Bah, a very well-done spherize-filter or something.” It looks like I’d be eating the humble pie – because this seems to be the real deal – someone actually made a Volkswagen like a ball! Full respect for the audacious idea, and more for the execution.
Now if only this could really drive (it has no wheels) instead of just rolling around perhaps…
[link]
Microsoft Help Clip Dies
Wow, the clip is finally dead in Office 2007. No more of it popping up and zipping around, trying to be cool and cute. First introduced in 1997, it managed to sustain ten years of what most people perceive to be pure annoyance – and its termination in 2007 is probably ten years too late. It does make me intrigued at how the decision to keep/discard it is made – who actually makes the call? And if they killed it now, why didn’t they kill it earlier – what were the factors that were present then that are absent now (or vice versa)?
Anyway, good riddance!
Table, Lamp.
Reduce your clutter! Integrate the lamp into the table! I like this design because it does a few things in one stroke: give light to the table surface; eliminate the need for a lamp-base; create a somewhat-sculptural aesthetic look out of the whole thing; and it is easy to keep/flat-pack.
Though the lamp is probably not adjustable (meh!); though the wire seems to be clumsily jutting out of the piece (meh!); though it’d probably be cooler if the light is turned on/off simply by rotating the light into position instead of using the switch (meh!).
Designed by John Slater (site not quite up yet).
Away from blog
You’d probably not see new entries for the next week or so – I’d be away on a business trip to China, and if that’s not enough, my hard disk is also refusing to work – looks like it has crashed and died.
In the meantime, look out for interesting tidbits yourself – or shout out how you missed me in the comments below (wahahah)!
VW Phaeton Shadowplay Commercial
This is a beautiful commercial from Volkswagen Phaeton – Phaetons are Volkswagen’s top line model. I’m not quite sure what it’d mean to you, but I definitely think that the factory that made these Phaetons (as covered by my blog post on it last year) are certainly more beautiful than the cars themselves.
Phaetons are hand assembled in the factory, which is why this VW commercial focuses on the beauty that the hand can give – in this case, the familiar art of using the shadows formed with a hand to create animated shadows. You’d probably know the “eagle”, but this ad is chock full of various lively creatures that tells a story.
It is perhaps regrettable though that the digital age of animation has bred a cynic in me – before I could be truly impressed by the artistic feat, a definite voice in my brain would ring “That is probably just CG – DONT be impressed!”. Which is a stupid thought – why should I reduce the amount of surprise, delight and amazement in my life – but I guess it’s a stupid thought that’d stick with me.
