Entries Tagged 'Design' ↓

I’ve adored the work of Iraqi-born, London-based architect Zaha Hadid for years, and soon 1.7 million Poles will, also. Notes The New York Times, the Pritzker Prize-winning Hadid—the only woman to have been awarded the field’s “Nobel”—is about to construct a residential structure towering 790 feet above Warsaw’s streets.

Called Lilium Tower, the sleek, glass-covered building, with floor space of 1.1 million square feet has a fleur-de-lis motif and is to house apartments, a condominium hotel and commercial and recreational facilities on a site facing the city’s Palace of Culture. Some planning permits are still needed; completion is expected in 2012.

Remember when the extant question about Hadid was, “Yes, but when will she actually build something?” Now it’s “When will she stop?”

Bravo, Zaha. Keep ’em guessing….

Thanks to the hot design Apartment Therapy blog for this tip: The Sims 2 is about to release an expansion pack that’ll enable you to drench the little ne’er-do-wells in IKEA.

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Korean designer Cheol-Ki Jo’s radical redesign of a common houshold radio results in one with no knobs, slide pots, or other usual controls for volume and tuning.

Instead, users place stones of varied sizes on top of the wood case. Certain circular areas there are designed to electronically register pressure via “load cells,” as seen in the diagram at right.

From unplggd.com:

Depending on the weight being balanced upon the two radial surfaces, the concept unit’s volume and frequency are adjusted, making this less of an actual device and more of an art installation piece. It’s still an interesting idea (“Honey, can you give me back the speckled white stone and the three black pebbles so I can listen to NPR?”).

Art installation piece, or maybe children’s device, generating a true experience of discovery and play? Whatever, it represents some serious top-of-the-box thinking.

From his Steampunk Workshop web site, Jake von Slatt not only talks the steampunk talk, but walks the steampunk walk. Here, he delivers step-by-step low-down on how he built this gorgeous Victorian desktop PC mod. You won’t believe your pince-nez as you eye the finely crafted detailing, below. Continue reading →

Jean Nouvel is one of the most imaginative architects in the world, and the innovativeness of his vision has been rewarded with the 2008 Pritzker, considered the “Nobel Prize” of architecture.

But, in fact, is he hiding his true identity: Dr. Evil, of Austin Powers fame? Think about it: Have you noticed that you’ve never seen them together in the same room, at the same time?

Thanks to mirage.studio.7 blog for pointing this out.

Each and every frame a painting: From Tarsem’s 2006 film, The Fall

Like the best directors—Scorsese, Spielberg, Hitchcock—Tarsem, right, 46, is known to peers by one name, though it’s his first, not his last. (His full name is Tarsem Singh Dhandwar.)

You, though, may know him by his visually delirious works: the landmark, 1991 R.E.M. music video, “Losing My Religion,” or 2000’s Jennifer Lopez thriller, The Cell. Continue reading →

Further proof that, especially planetarily, there’s no accounting for taste: The above ad, notes Boinkology, for Tom Ford Sunglasses, has been banned in Italy by that country’s Institute for Advertising Self-Discipline (IAP).

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The next James Bond flick, Quantum of Solace, may have the corniest title of any 007 movie to date, but the filmmakers are totally not sleeping in the advance poster department. This double-sided German piece, slightly smaller (23.25″ x 36.2″) than an American one-sheet (27″ x 41″), is $25 at MoviePoster.com.

Would you wash the feet of Saudi terrorist, supposed Al Qaeda founder, and alleged 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden?

That’s the question implicit in the above piece of Christian art titled Servant to the World. Created by artist Lars Justinen, the image depicts Jesus Christ, dressed in the manner described in his Last Supper of John 13, washing the feet of prominent world leaders: Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, former British PM Tony Blair, Manmohan Singh, prime minister of India. In His hands is the right foot of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

In the implied sequence, bin Laden is next. He’s seated beside George Bush, President of the United States, the very man who has promised to hunt him down.

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I missile you much: GTA IV‘s Niko Bellic sends his regards

The worst job I ever had was working in the car loans department of the now defunct Chemical Bank, at the Huntington Quadrangle in Melville L.I. It was a small office of about ten to twelve mutually limited, small-minded people, held under the managerial thumb of a doughy, mouse-faced, unsmiling, bespectacled woman with yellow smoker’s fingertips and a bad perm.

Our task was taking in loan requests by fax or phone from GMAC finance dealers, processing them, and passing them up the chain for approval. What I remember most was how tense this office was, as this woman kept us under the grind to turn out precious loan apps. My solace was ducking into my ’75 Impala at lunch time, loudly playing Grandmixer DXT and Herbie Hancock’s Future Shock album, and sleeping.

But pristinely nested on the other end of my employment karmic balance is the job I loved the most: The 2 1/2 years I spent, from 2004 – 2006, working in public affairs at Rockstar Games, maker of the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series of video games.

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