Eclectitude

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Art Photography - Pol Tergejst

Some photography eye candy from photographer Pol Tergejst to start off 2013 - these images were composed by the artist using flame shapes combined with burnt matches.

I love the idea of using the natural shapes created by flames and smoke as components of art. Genius.

Art Photography by Pol Tergejst

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Lost Time by Glithero

How about some pre-holiday sculpture with Guadiesque origins? You in? I thought so....

British design team Glithero created this lovely installation for Design Miami. The piece references Gaudi's method for creating the shapes that would become Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. In place of a mirror, Glithero used a long pool of water to create the reflection, which coincidentally also gave the impression of champagne bubbles (Perrier-Jouët Champagne sponsored the installation.)

What I love about this is the creation of shapes over the reflection of water, the whole thing is just stunning.

Lost Time by Glithero

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Harbin Temple by SunRay Kelley, Architect

I've recently become enchanted by the work of SunRay Kelley, a cob builder decorating the West Coast with natural hand-made structures.

We'll start with his project, a Living Temple for Harbin Hot Springs. The structure is used for yoga and meditation. You'll be seeing more of SunRay's work here, so I've already assigned him a tag!

Harbin Temple by SunRay Kelley, Architect

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Earth House Estate Lättenstrasse - Vetsch Architektur

In honor of The Hobbit opening this weekend, how about some groovy hobbit-ish houses? This estate in Switzerland features 9 houses fronting a lake and an underground (of course!) parking structure.

Looks to me like an adorable place to live, although I might worry about the water level after a major rainstorm. Details, details, hrmmph.

The video shows some of the construction and philosophy behind the build - I particularly love the quote "not putting a box on top of nature." That one might be right up there with my favorite James Hubbell quote "a house is just a piece of sculpture you can live in."

Earth House Estate Lättenstrasse - Vetsch Architektur

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Musical Wood - Bach's Cantata 147

This is kinda perfect for your Sunday morning. The level of engineering ability to figure this out and build it is just astonishing. Bravo.

A wooden ball plays Bach’s Cantata 147 in a forest just by rolling down a track.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Earthships

I knew a bit about passive houses from my work on Energy Upgrade California and a bit about houses built using recycled materials, but I hadn't ever heard the term "Earthship" until recently. Nor had I seen any of these houses that were actually attractive enough to want to live in.

Earthship Biotecture actually builds really groovy, organic, passive structures that I'd live in. I particularly love the walls where they use glass bottles to create mosaics that also add natural light.

I'm totally stealing a bunch of these ideas for my own personal house-to-be...

Passive House by Earthship Biotecture

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The Peacock Room - Castello di Sammezzano, Tuscany

I have a thing for ornate ceilings like the Peacock Room at this abandoned castle in Italy. From an art perspective, I don't care for the floor or the walls since I'm of the belief that there really is such a thing as too much ornamentation (shocking, I know!)

I wonder what the acoustics are like in this room because it would be an amazing place for a small concert with a big lighting budget.

After doing some image searches, I think I may have to blog the entire castle, but we'll start here :)

The Peacock Room - Castello di Sammezzano, Tuscany