The World's Lightest Material Ever Created

Chinese researchers have been busy inventing some of the coolest stuff you couldn't even imagine.  Graphene aerogel weighs just 0.16 milligrams — or, if you’re having a problem conceptualizing that, a cubic meter weighs just 160 grams (5.6 ounces) (from here).  This material is light, spongey, and has the potential to do a world of good.  Imagine a huge oil spill occurs in the middle of the ocean.  Now we may have just the material to drop, absorb, and lastly, reclaim the natural resource/pollutant.  Scientists are still developing the material more and thinking of uses.

Perdy cool.

Paper Parrots

Build your own or DIY yourself a couple of parrot lamps!  I think these are so beautiful and creative!  I'd love to have a couple of these guys perched around my room!

Snøhetta's Temple University Library Design

Snøhetta released a magnificent rendering of what will potentially be Temple University's new library.  The north broad street university, in which I currently attend, can certainly need a face lift and by the looks of it, is in for quite a doozy.  I started at Temple University in 2008, graduated and somehow made my way back there for more school!   And now, more than ever before, I find myself in the Paley Library for hours on end.  Oooh, this would be such a great place to camp out for hours.

Here is the current library, what a turd.


Hopefully all of the plans will stay on track because there has been some back and forth with design/location. 

Jean Prouvé at RAW

It was about 4 years ago that I first mentioned my admiration for Jean Prouvé.  G-Star RAW, a designer clothing company founded in Amsterdam in 1989, has a deep appreciation for Prouvé's industrial designs. So much so that the entire company is furnished with some of his most iconic furniture. 

Normally I'm not a huge G-Star fan, I never really think about buying clothes from them, but considering their design inspiration and eye on detail and quality...perhaps this translates into their brand and clothing as well. 

Prouvé’s constructive logic and strict utilisation of honest industrial materials not only corresponds to the product philosophy and brand identity of G-Star but also shows a strong affinity to the architecture of Rem Koolhaas’s new G-Star headquarters, built in 2014. Thus it was a consistent decision to completely furnish the offices, conference rooms and canteens with designs created by Jean Prouvé some 70 years ago for the interiors of several French corporations and universities. Together with the architecture, they create a workplace that reflects the company’s radical design approach.  - Vitra

You can read a little more about engineer, artist, thinker, metal worker, designer and Frenchman Jean Prouvé here.

Filed Under Design: 3D-Printed Implants

 

I'm really intrigued with the technology out there that enables designers, engineers, medical professionals, and artists to be able to help the fellow man. This is a really cool project by Sebastiaan Deviaene that enables him to use video-game-like software to build 3D-printed materials that would work as reconstructive material for the human body. You can read the full article over at Dezeen.

Now that I'm studying engineering, though not bioengineering, this is all very interesting to me.  I cannot wait to see how technology will impact the medical field in the future and how we'll be able to make leaps and bounds in terms of helping those around us. 

The Atlantic Presents: Housing Through the Centuries

Homes through the centuries and a peak into what's to come. The Atlantic brings us a neat little animated video highlighting various dwellings through the centuries. Takes me back a bit to Royal Tenenbaums with a little Dick Dale type music.  I likey.

Concrete LCDA Furniture

Here we have the beautiful Point de Rencontre table by Concrete LCDA.  What I really like about this concept is the simplicity of the design and the fact that it is easily overlooked being that its made out of concrete rather than wood.  At first glance it looks like a simple table you may see in many homes.  Closer inspection even reveals a wood grain effect on the surface but alas, a mix of stone and raw materials makes up this future mainstay.

The company produced a wide range of concrete furniture worth checking out.  For now I'll just dream about one day owning a large enough apartment or house to fit something like this into!

Feathr Wallpaper Designs to Drool Over

Feathr is taking interiors by storm and offering unique designs to liven up your home.  Stop accumulating crap to fill your house up with and start decorating with A R T.

What it is: Artist-designed wallpapers to spruce up any space!  300 artists and over 750 designs.:
Where to buy:  Check out Feathr.com  for info


More samples after the jump!

Hungarian Forest Cabin

          

Built by T2.a Architects 

This beautiful cabin is housed in a forest just outside of Budapest.  Designed and built by the team at T2.a Architects.  Using prefabricated paneling to reduce costs and shorten build time, which by the way only took two days, the architects were able to piece together an idyllic getaway cabin for the client.  Certainly a dream home for sure!

For more pictures: here

Classic Clarks Wallabees Review

About Mid-November the hunt for a new casual shoe was on.  Since my foot injury in July (broken left foot), I've needed a shoe with lots of support.  The Sperry boat shoes just would not suffice anymore.

I love the Clark Desert Boots I have, but they are all beat up and too well loved to wear to work.  So the next logical, ahem, "step" would be to browse the other Clarks offerings.  The Wallabee is a fantastic shoe.  I've taken the liberty of breaking the shoe into a couple of categories and rated it.


Support: 4/5
The crepe sole is as comfortable as can be.  Unfortunately the classic, bare bones upper offers little in the way of structural support around the top of the foot and ankle.  This is still acceptable though, not going to run a marathon in these bad boys or anything.

Color: 5/5
Use Clarks main website to determine color.  I looked on Zappos and other sites to see the accurate depiction of the Maple color and their main site was the most accurate.  The Maple color is a beautiful tan and goes with a lot of stuff.  Careful wearing new denim with these, it will bleed onto the shoe!

Toughness: 4/5 
If you have ever worn a crepe-soled shoe you know that they are indestructible.  The suede portions of the shoe are sewn together firmly and the lace holes are holding up well.  All-in-all the only other thing to do is to waterproof your suede and you're set!

Click the jump for pros and cons:

Mule Motorcycles | "Arctic Monkey" Bonneville Triumph

'Artic Monkey' After | '07 Triumph Bonneville

'Arctic Monkey' Before |  '07 Triumph Bonneville

I've always loved the Triumph Bonneville.  Ever since I first saw one as a teenager, the classic look had me.  I really like this humble job by Mule Motorcycles.  They took a 2007 Triumph Bonneville T100 and gave it a little face lift.  A new tracker-style seat, forks, exhaust and some mammoth track tires on there.  They lost the clunky original fenders and lowered the bike a little.  I like these modifications because they aren't over the top.  It still looks like a Triumph and has all of the original appeal, just a bit beefier.  Something I did with my bike.

Here's a little write up over on Bike Bandit about the Arctic Monkey.  

The Late Oscar Niemeyer and His Architecture

*I read an article this week in the Wall Street Journal about the late architect Oscar Niemeyer's work and the importance and effect of his architectural legacy. The WSJ goes on to say that Niemeyer was "the last living link to an era that truly believed in architecture and its capacity to embody progress and new technology for the good of all."  We are all critics of architecture and infrastructure around us.  To say that Niemeyer's death marks the end of architectural progress and a vision into the future of what architecture could be...well, I don't know about that.  There's two sides to every story and Niemeyer's work has not always been heralded as mystifying, break-through, visionary art that has transformed a nation.  Another article by Richard J. Williams boldly claims "Brasilia has become a buzzword for the impractical, utopian ideas of the past: a white marble monument to central planning surrounded by slums, " referring to the National Museum of the Republic, a symbol of '50-'60s burst of urban modern zeal in Brasil.

So what do you think of  Niemeyer's architecture?  Over the top and serving a select few?  Or does it continue to be ground-breaking and cutting-edge?

*[This post has been hanging out in the "draft" pile for 1 year.  I completely forgot about the post until today.  So what are your thoughts?]

Velodrome in South Philly?

There has been talk about building a $100 million dollar world-class velodrome in FDR park in S. Philadelphia.  The addition to the park would revitalize a sad, run down splash of greenery near the large sporting complex area.  Four acres are required to build the structure, we'll wait and see if the city is willing to let it go in exchange for a facelift.  In order to appeal to wider audiences, the proposed 6,000 seat building will also house concerts and alternate sporting events, so that'd be neat, right?

Floating Christmas Tree in Corio Bay, Australia

Since Thanksgiving has passed here in the states, it’s my family’s tradition to decorate straight away for Christmas.  And now that I'm totally in Christmas mode, I’ve been stumbling upon a lot of cool Christmas-y things to share! 

First off is the temporary floating Christmas tree in Corio Bay, Australia.  It’s a stunning addition to the already beautiful coastline.   Instead of adopting traditional western Christmas decorations, i.e. snow covered pine trees, the lead designer wanted to take a different approach and start new traditions in the bay.  Check out the making of the tree over at Designboom by the very talented Creative Production Services.

Stay tuned for the all of the holiday #RoundUps coming your way!

Trigenic - Clarks Reinvented

Hold onto your hats, Clark's wearing traditionalists.  For those that are true to the Desert Boot and Wallabee traditional styles, turn away.  While there have definitely been a lot of new takes on the Deserts and Wallabees (ome good, some plain ugly), I really like the direction Trigenic is taking.  A fresh reinterpretation of the classics yields a modern silhouette and comfortable vibram details.  I'll take one in every color, thank you.

At Clarks, the moccasin is a well celebrated construction method taken from our Wallabee. The goal with Trigenic was to harness the constructional knowledge Clarks has and apply it to an athletic silhouette, replacing the traditional Strobel construction, which is commonly found on most athletic shoes. - Sneaker Freaker (Trigenic)

For more about the shoe and words from the designer, check out the full article over at Sneaker Freaker, here.

What do you think about the design?  Or is there a collaboration or iteration of the Desert or Wallabee you like even more than Trigenic?  

A boat is a boat is a bo...guest house!

Two Swedish designers, Anders Berensson and Ulf Mejergren, of visiondivision bring us Guest Harbor. What is Guest Harbor and how did it start?  Well, according to their website, "In Sweden there are now a new building code that allows a home owner to build a 25m2 (270 square feet) additional house on their premise without a building permit. These buildings are called Attefallshus, named after the Swedish minister of housing Stefan Attefall."  

Sweden has a very rich boating culture with over 800,000 registered vessels in the country, which means a density of boats that is among the highest per capita in the world.

Restore and reuse what once was.  There's plenty of thought and a touch of whimsy behind this idea.  The very nature is perfectly in tune with showcasing Sweden's prized possessions of the past  and highlighting cultural treasures that once were.  Click here to learn more about Guest Harbor.

Rock Band Icons by Tata & Friends

Spanish designers Tata & Friends bring us some of the coolest band posters I've seen in awhile.  Literal depictions of band names in a simple black and yellow print.  They're funny, quirky and clean.  Super like

Nanna Ditzel: Functional Design

Nanna Ditzel was born (1923) in Copenhagen during a time when the design industry was heavily dominated by men. She trained as a cabinet maker and eventually went on to further her education at  the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, The School of Design.  She became multi-talented in the fields of furniture making, design, textiles, jewelry and ceramics.  One of her iconic designs, still in production today, is the Hallingdal textile.

Ditzel's furniture designs first spoke to me, unknowingly  as a child. I can remember being a kid and thinking that the egg chair was absolutely the coolest thing I could ever sit in.  As an adult I would promptly furnish my home with them, you know, because I was supposed to be rich by now (as my child-self thought).  Well, no egg chair yet, but definitely a more genuine appreciation for Ditzel's work.  Truly an innovator for functional design.  Yes, I'll take one of each.

Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005) was dubbed the "First Lady of Danish Furniture Design" by the Scandinavian Furniture Fair. (here)

Lamps For the Cabin

Looking for the ultimate lamp for the cabin?  Look no further, Wm. Lamb & Sons has just the home accessories for you. This is by far one of the coolest lamp shades I've seen in a while.  Check it out.  

Øresund Bridge

The  Øresund Bridge is an amazing structure spanning from Denmark to Sweden.  It runs 8km or 5 miles in length and is both a bridge and tunnel combination.  The tunnel portion was created so that the bridge would not interfere with air traffic from Copenhagen's airport.  It also allows for ships to have a clear channel and prevents ice floes from blocking the strait.

The bridge runs nearly 8 km (5 miles) from the Swedish coast to the artificial island of Peberholm in the middle of the strait, then a 4 km (2.5 mile) tunnel to the Danish island of Amager. The Øresund Bridge is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe, and connects two major metropolitan areas: Copenhagen, the Danish capital city, and the major Swedish city of Malmö. It connects the road and rail networks of Scandinavia with those of Central and Western Europe. -Wikipedia

The architecture firm Dissing + Weitling completed the project in 1999 costing a total of $5.7 Billion dollars.  It is forecasted that the bridge will pay for itself by 2035.  Being a toll bridge and demanding a hefty fee ~$55 (~45 euro)  [one way!!] the Øresund  Bridge is definitely cheaper by train.  You can buy a pass if you plan to use the bridge more frequently.

Due to high longitudinal and transverse loads acting over the bridge and to accommodate movements between the superstructure and substructure, it has bearings weighing up to 20t each, capable of bearing vertical loads up to 96,000 kN in a longitudinal direction and up to 40,000 kN in transverse direction. The design, manufacturing and installation of the bearings was carried out by the Swiss civil engineering firm Mageba.