toy box

Contextual graffiti

I love the photo of contextual graffiti done by Brazilian artist Alexandre Orion. "Orion experiments with combining his street art and his fascination with photography…a process he calls ‘Metabiotica’." Check out more pics on David Report blog

Patterned environments

We've noticed recent updates in design with lots of patterns. Water cut patterns, patterns made out of alphabets, patterns creating spaces... Here are some of our pics.
Water cut carpet designed by selina rose. Clean and precise edges make the image of patterns look very sharp. via: DesignSponge
Laser cut Uppercase scarf by Little Factory. It's interesting to see such a familiar shapes creating a pattern. You almost don't see the alphabets unless someone shares the secret with you.
Parametre from 3Form. Beautiful repetitive patterns creating a ambiance shade. via: Apartment Therapy

Dwell on Design: HOM outdoor shower

We thought HOM outdoor shower w/solar panels is great way of using both kit-a-part parts and locally available resources (ex. use of locally grown plants as filler for the shade). Wondering about the possible application for disaster situations.

Dwell on Design: Sun Table

We saw this cool outdoor coffee table at Dwell on Design LA. Called Sun Table designed in Brooklyn, NY. The table top can be tilted in order to maximize the exposure to the direct sun light.  It takes 4 hours of sunny day to fully charge the table and gives 5~6 hours of laptop usage. It works great as a table too. I saw a guy jumping on top of the table to show the stability and it looked pretty sturdy. Object like this helps us to harvest our own energy needs w/o completely changing the lifestyle. Also it provids convenience of "ready-to-plug" feature to the areas where there is no outlet (like your yard). Great idea.

Imagining a Sustainable Downtown LA through Model- building

If you want to see how it feels to "design" the urban city, check out this event this weekend happening in LA downtown.

"Imagining Downtown LA is an interactive public project inviting participants to imagine, and develop innovative land use and transportation elements in a model form based on their personal experiences. Participants will be provided with a medley of recycled materials, and invited to create their ideal urban form on an oversized plot of Downtown"

Location 7th & Figueroa Shopping Center Contact: James Rojas (626)437-4446
 

Location: 7th and Figueroa Shopping Center
For Further information. Contact James Rojas (626) 437-4446

Talk to me, drainage!!

"Urban utilitarian object=ugly" is out! There are creative ways to use existing (and very necessary) city utilitarian objects to do more than just taking care of their core functions and have exciting appearances. Designer Honfay Lui came up with this idea of using street drainage as a way to communicate to pedestrians and add interests to the city-scape at ground level. Wouldn't it be fun if all the city drainage had variety of messages that guide residents and/or tourists to certain places and can change periodically to update the information?
via Yanko Design

Concrete beauty

Design studio Transparent House came up with the very cool ornamental application on polished concrete. They say that it could be applied during of after concrete is poured/cured. Curious to find learn more about how they apply the motif after the material is cured...

Visual Saturation

Some cool visual saturation we came across over the weekend. Some from Milwaukee Art Museum, some from MIAD graduation show, and others from touring Chicago.
Cloud Gate @ Millennial Park

MIAD grad show

Infinite Chamber at Milwaukee Art Museum

Google Office Zurich

Who wouldn't want to work in the office like this, huh? I guess I better move to Zurich... Or...is there anyone who want to create a studio like this in the future?? Thanks Corey for sending the link!

Salk Institute

I have heard of Salk Institute for the longest time ever since my sci-arc time. Finally... we made a visit while we were visiting friends in San Diego. It was "officially" closed on the weekend but we were able to peek inside of the building. Really thoughtful design that connects what happens with the building including courtyard waterway to surrounding natural canyon. Combination of concrete and wood made really interesting visuals too... Here are some pics.