Architecture / Silk Dress architecture
This close-up of the construction of the wrapping for a new Neiman Marcus store in Boston was inspired by a silk dress. Neiman’s philosophy is that every store should look completely different from every other of their stores. In line with this, the wrap to this outlet in Boston is made from patches of stainless steel knitted together and is 40 feet high and the length of two football fields. The secret is in the subtle change of colours and the way that they are merged together,which creates the breezy look of a silk skirt. Apparently it’s modeled on a particular dress, one that the architect Howard Elkus of Boston firm Elkus Manfredi once designed for his wife to wear to a music festival in England.
Tagged: Boston
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Now I’m sure you think you’ve got better things to talk about than storing vegetables in your fridge. Well, that was until you heard what the designer for Bruno Super Deluxe was up too. This Boston-based label is redefining mushroom and garlic storage as we know it by creating reusable bags for vegies that just aren’t used to this kind of attention. Sealed in an unbleached cotton cocoon of goodness, your vegies will be blissfully unaware of any suspicious smelling surroundings. And with original Bruno designs screen printed onto them, they’re just what you need to spruce up the interior of your fridge. Stocking up your shelves has never looked better.
I like the understated, almost voyeuristic work of Brookline, Massachusetts photographer Kelly Burgess. She is in her senior year of studies at the Art Institute of Boston. Read more
Swapping life in Boston for the wide spaces of Santa Fe, Mexican artist Brian Willmont is creating pieces that are described as ‘Technicolor American folklore’. His work explores themes such as American history within dreamscapes. I particularly love the work from Feudal Echo, a show he shares with Alex Lukas at San Francisco’s Park Life Gallery.
Also by SNELL
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
Hamburg’s music and glass ice sculpture
Since the beginning, architects have been faced by the challenge of housing the ever unpinnable idea of music. The challenge here is the Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg, Germany. Basel-based architects, Herzog and de Meuron have created an ephemeral glass tent-like structure perched on top of an existing heavy modernist abandoned warehouse. The warehouse will be composed mainly of parking and back of house, while the glass structure incorporates concert halls, restaurants, bars, apartments and a luxury hotel. Clearly, this is a tremendously exciting alteration and addition to an existing site and building, with this new ice sculpture reflecting the surrounding changing environment and the soaring notes within. Completion is scheduled for 2010.
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I recently discovered Lauren Fleishman’s work while looking at an old copy of The Fader. After a visit to her website, I found myself especially captivated with her Indiana series. Here she talks about her experience shooting in this rural area and exploring the stories that hide beneath the surface. Read more
Gonzales’ gentle piano reworking of the beautiful Feist soliloquy, One Evening, trickles through my headphones like the sweetest sprinkle of mid-winter sunshine.
[audio:One_Evening.mp3]
Rick Owen’s spring collection uses monochrome patterns to create a classic and chic silhouette. The layering, and oversized look, is perfectly tailored: big around the neck and tighter in the leg. Read more
DJ Spooky — That Subliminal Kid — is just about the deepest crate digger around, trawling the barrels of long-lost record stores for choice vinyl to spin in his wickedly dubby sets. He gave us the inside word last week on his eight favourite songs right now via our sister website, My Secret Playlist. This is what he had to say about Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Panic in Babylon: ‘If there’s anything that the twenty-first century has told us, it’s that dub is the real original hip-hop. Lee Scratch even had to make it clear in 1965 by adding “Scratch” to his middle name. Take that, Grandmaster Flash!’ Read the rest of DJ Spooky’s Secret Playlist.
Oh, ok, so now I’ve seen it all. Or perhaps, in this case, I’m not seeing enough. Japanese game shows are so much fun. Seriously.
Originally hailing from Kendal, Cumbria and now based in Leeds, the Wild Beasts foursome are the next hopefuls for Domino Records, who sent the group out to Sweden to record their first album, Limbo, Panto, released on June the 16th. The new single — The Devil’s Crayon — shimmers in wide-screen around a sense of location, melody and wonder at the scale of things. Indeed, it sounds like the theme song to a new kind of very English road movie.
[audio:http://www.fluxblog.net/wildbeasts_devilscrayon.mp3]
Maverick artist come architect, Michael Jantzen, has created this fantastic experiment as a design study for a modular prefabricated eco-friendly house. Read more
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These stylish hoops of bronze have a profound effect on me. I’m seriously left singing If I Were A Boy Beyonce-style whenever I see them. Made by Stannard Inc, William the Brave bronze rings are stunning and the raw look exudes an air of individuality. But the cool thing is that you can actually get away with wearing them if you’re a chick, too. They’re made uni-sex in various sizes.
Adult Hotel opens in Nanning, China
State-controlled news outlet Xinhua reports that a new ‘adult hotel‘ is opening in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Province in southern China. Apparently state censors think homosexuals and tattoo parlors sully their nation’s image, but not establishments aimed at facilitating heterosexual unions. The owner is apparently worried his business will be perceived as a brothel. Hmmm. In any case, the photos of a staff member demonstrating the, uh, equipment is caption-worthy for sure.
People are always looking to push the boundaries of street art, perhaps fed up with seeing the same (wild) style of graffiti over and over again. So, like Blu and Dan Witz, Julian Beever came into our lives like a breath of fresh air. His work is stunning, mind-boggling stuff: he manages to create a world ‘inside’ a pavement with his 3D pastel illustrations, tricking the eye into believing a dimension exists right below our very feet. Read more
National Geographic Best Wild Animal Photos of 2008
National Geographic just announced the Best Wild Animal Photos of 2008. They’re all stunning, but I’m particularly fond of the one of a frog refusing to become lunch for a snake. It looks like they’re eating each other. My number two is the black-crested macaque hanging out on a beach. Read more
Sam Weber on his favourite emerging artists
We asked illustrator Sam Weber to give us the inside word on some of the young artists who have caught his eye recently: ‘Francis Vallejo, Yoko Furusho [above], and David Jien [below]. For up-and-comers, they are a few with some really amazing work’. Read more
Golden Half is one of the world’s most popular toy cameras. It’s compact in size and each click of the shutter uses half of the standard 135mm frame. This means a 36-exposure roll of film will return around 72 images. It’s available for US$100. Read more
Woohoo! We have five copies of the new Faint album, Fascination [Inertia], to give away to randomly selected Australian-based Lost At E Minor subscribers who leave a message under this post telling us about the last time they, ummm, Fainted.
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