Siberian eco tower
Foster + Partners have clearly been busy on the large scale eco front with another offering in the Russian city of Khanty Mansyisk. This 280 metre tall tower is built like a cut diamond to maximise daylight through the winter months by the refraction of light. Of the project, the architecture firm says, ‘this mixed-use scheme will create an elegant and crystalline landmark, providing crucial new amenities for its citizens — a place for living, working, and leisure, sheltered from the harsh Siberian climate’. [see another Foster + Partners design]
Also by SNELL
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!
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.
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
YOU'RE SAYING (1)
HAVE YOUR SAY
The master of the minor key lament, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone is not quite as alone as he thinks he is. Or is he? Hmmm, that’s kinda deep. Anyway, we interviewed him recently. Read more
They’re touring with Kimya Dawson; have Karen O and Nick Zinner from Yeah Yeah Yeahs playing on their record and have already been remixed by Brazilian powerhouse, CSS. And that’s not all. They are a two piece, and one of them is 11 and the other 13! They’re called Tiny Masters of Today. The Ramones would approve.
British designer Emma Smart designed these cool papercraft lunchboxes that unfold into place settings. The boxes will be sold at ASDA supermarkets in the UK, and each of the three designs come packed with three different lunches.
This odd, atmospheric animation by web artists Aaron Russ Clinger and Miltos Manetas is simple but effective, a finely rendered piece of interactive art. There are some pretty crazy things you can make the floating man do if you play around with this long enough.
This interview with James Lavelle gives a fascinating window into the making of the latest UNKLE opus, End Titles, Stories for Film.
I spent time recently in the heart of Nashville, Tennessee, enjoying fine Southern cuisine, gracious hospitality [’y'all come back now!’] and the warmth of a sun beating down like a semi-gnarled blanket. It was interesting to see the cultural values of the city; the social graces of its people which permeate every conversation. Read more
Diva Pittala is the designer of edgy and glamorous fashion label, Pleasure Principle. Silk tied in knots on the back of baggy dresses might be their trademark, but this spring’s collection goes much further. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
The work of Chicago artist Nigel Evan Dennis is emphatically modern and sparse, with textures and clean geometric shapes dominating the frame. I get the feeling I could really relax and breathe deeply with one of these beautiful images hanging on the wall. Read more
While I am as impressed as anyone with an artist’s ability to render accurate and lifelike human figures, I’m more often compelled aesthetically by looser and more stylized images such as Camilla Engman’s. The wide-set eyes, bulbous bodies, and skewed proportions of the people and animals in Engman’s paintings lend them a certain expressiveness and melancholy. Read more
Japanese designers Keiichi Muramatsu and Noriko Seki founded the Tokyo-based fashion label, Everlasting Sprout, in 2005, based on their mutual interest in knit design. Each intricate creation in their Spring/Summer 2009 range took up to a week for them to construct. Read more
Born in a sub-provincial city of China, and raised in the suburbs of Northern California, Brooklyn-based artist Jing Wei attended the Rhode Island School of Design where she ‘developed a great affinity for printmaking, snow, and pizza’.
Argentine illustrator Poly Bernatene miraculously creates many of his beautifully textured, painterly images in Photoshop. Despite his twenty-first century method, his illustrations achieve a sort of timelessness that is bound to mesmerize children for years to come. Read more
Legendary pop culture artist and Agit Pop founder Ron English will be a guest compiler of an upcoming issue of our email newsletter, writing about his favorite cultural discoveries. To read Ron’s edition of Lost At E Minor, simply sign up to our weekly newsletter. It’s free, you win!
The Mission is part of a series of maps and images of Lauratopia, a fictional world that Brooklyn-based illustrator Laura Carmelita Bellmont has made up as a home for her imagination. The prints are archival, sized 8″ x 7″, and available for US$60. Read more
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Pablo F.P said | 20 February, 2008
Nice! I love what I am seeing in architecture lately.