Architecture & Web Art

Archive for the ‘Utopia’ Category

wood and glass staircase

Pretty crazy, huh? The wood and glass staircases by Siller are about as close as “interactive art” as you can get! In fact, you’ll feel like you’re scaling a sculpture as you make your way up the Mistral staircase design – a stylishly simple, barely there floating staircase. The minimalist design enhances every modern space with the clean, clear look of glass, which allows light and space to flow uninterrupted. Customizable to suit any space, large or small, these wood and glass staircases add instant chic to every home. Put a modern twist on your style and take it to the next level with the Mistral staircase. See more at Siller. Also, live life to the limit, as I don’t know how secure this stairs are .

wood and glass staircase scary

iPhone is not just a mobile phone. It is a portable, powerful computing device. Now it has one more reason to be number one, especially for musicians/pianists. Check out the Finger Piano Share from Yamaha. This app allows upto 10 different people to remotely play a real piano completely from their iPhones via Wi-Fi. All you to make sure is that the Piano should support MIDI which in Yamaha’s case is the Disklavier series. “You tap a virtual key on your iPhone screen, and the real key plays on the piano.”

The app was available for a full demonstration at CEATEC, which is a major annual consumer electronics show held in Tokyo, Japan.

[source: switched.com]

From young smart people come new smart ideas. Sure the concept of solar powered homes is not new but the students at Virginia Tech entered the “Lumenhaus” in the U.S Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition that not only achieves it goal of self sustaining power provided by the good old sun, but this cool living quarter of 800 sq. ft. changes according to the seasons, weather, and light. All of the shell parts including window and roof panels articulate to allow sunlight in and to capture more available light at all times of the day. See the Lumenhaus project that is underway now and get more information for your next solar powered or energy saving home here. Via Design Milk

Project: Universidad de Nottingham, Campus del Jubileo
Auhtor: MAKE
Ken Shuttleworth
Location: Nottingham, Inglaterra
Photography: Wojtek Gurak via Flickr

The first phase of the Jubilee Campus expansion project delivers a remarkable new environment for research, study, business and leisure to be enjoyed by both the University and the City of Nottingham as a whole. Three new buildings signal the transformation of a former industrial site and create a new identity for the campus. Dramatically angular in form, International House and the Amenities Building emerge from the landscape like natural landforms and feature dynamic facades clad in red and brown terracotta tiles randomly arranged for maximum visual impact. Sir Colin Campbell Building houses a range of facilities for new businesses, and straddles the main campus road to forge a physical link between the academic and business and enterprise zones of the campus.

About the project:

The new design for the Elbphilharmonie, the new home for the Hamburg Philharmonic to be inaugurated in 2012. The concert hall is currently being constructed in the industrial quarter of HafenCity, an area undergoing major revitalization with the conversion of hundreds of dated warehouses. As one of the more understated German cities, Hamburg is hoping the striking design by architects Herzog + de Meuron will bring the sort of landmark cultural transformation that was seen more than a decade ago in Bilbao, Spain with the opening of Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum. But such a transformation won’t come cheap, with a price tag upwards of 323 million Euros, some are asking “Is it really worth it?”