Genius jewel

Piano Bar: a bar in Tokyo which seats just 8 people

Quietly nestled in the ‘Street of Drinkers’, Shibuya, is the tiny Piano Bar. Upon entering through the windowless door, you are transported to a bizzare world of red velvet, crazy chandeliers and bizarre portraits. There is a maximum capacity of just eight people, so make sure you get there first. Read more

Japanese dental students practice technique on sex dolls

From the WTF files, some dental students in Japan are practicising their oral techniques, as well as their people skills, on hapless Sex Dolls created by Yoshida Dental Manufacturing. The Hanako Showa 2 comes complete with tongue and cheeks (tongue in cheek?) and punctuates its time in the dental chair with an array of human emotions and expressios, such as ‘blink, cough, sneeze, choke and move its eyes’. Surreal!. Perhaps one can take my place for my next check-up.

Awesome t shirt design by La Mano Fria

La Mano Fria is a graphic artist who uses sampled imagery and re-configures them and in a way mirrors what hip-hop producers do with vinyl records. From these appropriated images, he reconfigures text and shapes to form something that’s in-between hand=printed posters and early digital artifact heavy graphics. These shirts are produced through Beams T in Japan.

Floating House

This house has many facets that make it an intriguing example. First of all, it is a very aesthetically pleasing project with the use of light horizontal timbers and a clean pitched roof. Designed by MOS, an interesting design collective based in America, the secret to the Floating House is that it floats on a structure of steel pontoons. The house rises and falls with the changing waters and is frozen in place depending on the season. The steel pontoons were constructed first and towed to the lake outside the contractor’s factory and then the house was built atop of it. When finished it was towed to its position, anchored and enjoyed in its unique position. Finally, it forms a bridge between the land and an island. Wonderful!

Torre Bicentenario

Dutch uber-firm OMA, headed by Rem Koolhaas, has created this concept in Mexico City to symbolize the coming two hundred years of Mexico’s independence. There are many layers of symbolism in this building, from Mayan pyramids to which part of the building controls the park and which part controls the city, to the fact that the bulge of the building is below the centre height, and that it all happens on a relatively small footprint. Most of all, in this building there is a barely contained energy that seems near to release and it may be that this is what Torre Bicentenario represents.

Danish Building Bridge

The Danes are renowned for their considered and subtle design. However, in these times of change, they must feel they need something with this selection of a bridge building as the winner of a recent architectural competition in Denmark. The American architect Steven Holl designed this building with a pedestrian bridge that links two sides of the harbour in the distinctly low-rise Copenhagen. Read more