Alki1 posted a photo:

More Havana streets.

Alki1 posted a photo:

My daughter and grandson just returned from a week in Cuba. All the Cuban photos were taken by my grandson.

The V&A commissioned multi-disciplinary art and design studio Troika to create a permanent sign for the V&A entrance leading from the South Kensington tube station to the Museum. Troika responded to this brief with ‘Palindrome’, a kinetic sign that recognises the rich collection of the V&A as one of the worlds most fascinating treasure homes collecting over 3,000 years worth of cultural artefacts from the world’s most established cultures. (Text taken from Troika). Watch the video here.

Via. Matt Judge on Twitter.

“Grape Aerosmith”, by Tobacco (featuring Beck).

Watch the music video below!

More photos by Ariel Schlesinger. (My fav Flickr photostream)

Giant soap bubbles, by Sly Lebulleur.

Watch the lovely video below!

Cosas Mínimas (Minimal Things) is the personal portfolio of Madrid based illustrator and designer, Blanca Gómez. I’m in love with her illustrations. Every aspect of her style exhibits a sense of minimalism, from the simple geometric shapes, to the solid colors.

Also check out an interview with Bianca over at Grain Edit.

A new identity from design studio Hyperkit with branding for cupboard Love, a shop that sells clothes, toys and gifts for children. Illustration by Hennie Haworth.

Designer Thomas Fiechtner of Vienna, Austria, has made this task lamp that can be balanced in two different positions to vary the light intensity.

Called Drawing Lamp, it can be tilted forward into a horizontal position to concentrate light on a small area of the desk, or left upright to give a wider spread of light.

The lamp uses an LED and is made from a steel tube through which the power cable runs.

Here’s some more from the designer:

Drawing Lamp.

The Drawing Lamp is a consistently simple lamp reduced to the basics, including cable and illuminant. Thomas Feichtner designed this desk lamp for his own use. As the name implies the Drawing Lamp is a lamp preferably used by the designer to illuminate the drawing area. On the one hand it lights the whole desk surface, on the other hand its light can be directed precisely to where it is needed on the paper – as Thomas Feichtner prefers it for sketching.

The light is not focused via a complex mechanical system or by adjusting a reflector but simply by putting the whole lamp into a horizontal position. Its construction allows placing it on the desk at two different angular positions. The lamp can be put down in a horizontal position with the illuminant slightly above the desk surface or in a vertical position with a maximum distance between the illuminant and the desk surface.

The lamp keeps its balance as in a balancing act. The conclusive implementation of the simple construction, with the cable running through the tube to the illuminant – the destination point and the source of light – was made possible by LED technology.

LEDs do not require a reflector to concentrate the emitted light, and thus it was possible to simply put the LED into the tube. The appearance of the Drawing Lamp is defined by the cable, the steel tube and the LED illuminant. Like the classic bare light bulb hanging on a cord from the ceiling the Drawing Lamp is reduced to the bare essentials. Only the sophisticated deformation of the tube provides the lamp with the benefit of adjustability. The interplay of angles, radiuses and lines results in an object which is conclusive in terms of construction and form.

See also:

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Doride lamp by Karim Rashid	Sketch lamp by Hung-Ming Chen	Dezeen’s top ten: lighting

Paintings by Pedro Matos. Lisbon, Portugal.

Project
Fabrice Lig CD/ LP

Design
Sawdust with Edit

Photography
Andrew Moore

Link
cargocollective.com

Various works by Maya Hayuk. Brooklyn, New York.

Drawings by Benjamin Edmiston.

DezeenTV: Cologne designer Eric Degenhardt rounded off the second day of our Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents, discussing his move from architecture to design making furniture look as good from the back as the front and his love of Castiglioni’s Primate kneeling stool.

Click on the symbol in the bottom right of the video player above to view the movie in full-screen HD.
Can’t see the movie? Click here.

More information about the talks here. Keep an eye out for more Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents interviews over the coming weeks…

Watch all the Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents »
See all our stories from Cologne 2010 »
Watch all our movies »

See also:

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Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents: Phillipe Malouin	Dezeentalks at D[3] Design Talents: [D3] winners	Dezeentalks at D[3] Design Talents: Tomoko Azumi

This is an interesting light-weight 3D interface for browsing and building complex linked datasets. The graphical interface extends the ring-shape graph visualization to the 3D domain and it goes through three different configurations, the last of which, as the author explains, could be used for displaying a number of users linked to a certain resource.

Ever wonder where your dollar bills travel after you plop them down for a cup of coffee? The Web site Where's George? allows you to do just that: Record your bill's serial number and then track its journeys as other people spend it across the country. But it's more than just a game. Because every time a dollar is spent in a new place, it means someone moved it there. Christian Thiemann and Daniel Grady of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, have been using the Web site's data to study how people move within the United States.

Winners of the NSF/AAAS Visualization Challenge, they produced an engaging video to explain their project and animate the results. Tiny bills stretch out from county to county on a map of the contiguous United States. Some places, such as Los Angeles, California, have many bills passing through it from across the nation, while others, such as Anderson County in Tennessee - Grady's home - have bills circulating mainly within a more local neighborhood. Shown here are images from the video.

The data from the Where's George? project is in fact so pertinent that is also being used by researchers to predict the spread of flu across the United States.

This visualization represents the 140 MPhil and PhD research students at the Royal College of Art, and their relationships to funding agencies and institutional partners. Research RCA commissioned the visualization as a large-format poster for its 2009 exhibition, as well as a condensed version for the exhibition catalogue.

The typographically-driven approach resulted in a functional piece (i.e. with little need for a legend) in a visual language well suited to a university of art and design. The design process exploited the diversity of forms within Lineto's Akkurat and Hoefler & Frere-Jones' Didot typefaces to differentiate between the kinds of information chosen to represent each student: School - Department - Degree_Type (Time) - Name (Nationality). The fonts work in partnership with differences in the text content itself resulting in clusters and patterns that bind like with like. Students' nationalities were further represented as relative distances (see lines before student name) between their home country's capital city and London.

The 140 students were differentiated from 52 funding agencies and institutional partners by typesetting the latter in Didot caps and reversing the direction of the text. The connection lines running from these to the students show striking concentration from a few notable sources including the Arts and Humanities Research Council, RCA itself (which funds many of its students), and partnerships with the Victoria and Albert Museum.

American architects Space International have completed this gallery cantilevered over a row of existing garages at the MAK Centre for Art & Architecture, Los Angeles.

Polycarbonate panels with an aluminium frame retract to create an open facade and afford views of the neighbouring 1939 Mackey Apartments designed by Modernist Rudolph Schindler.

The garages below have been renovated into studios for traveling artists and architects who stay in the adjacent apartment block for six months at a time.

The 800 square-foot MAK gallery will also be used as dance floor, film theatre and dining room. All photographs by Stephen King unless stated otherwise.

The exterior is finished with a dark industrial paint to contrast with the whitewashed walls of the apartment block. Photograph above by International Inc.

Photograph above by Space International Inc.

Photograph above by International Inc. Here’s some more from the architects:

Located at the rear of a standard residential lot, the MAK Gallery serves as a utilitarian exclamation to a very non-standard architectural property.

Photograph above by International Inc.

Operated by the MAK Center for Art & Architecture Los Angeles, artists and architects travel from around the world to stay in six month residencies in the main building, the Mackey Apartments, originally designed in 1939 by Rudolph Schindler, a Viennese emigre and early pioneer of the modernist landscape in Los Angeles.

Photograph above by International Inc.

The MAK Gallery project operates both conceptually and literally as a “black box” which is cantilevered on top of an existing garage structure which has been renovated to serve as studios for the visiting artists in residence.

A new 800 sf gallery hovers above these studios, creating a large, flexible gathering space serving a variety of functions.

A large multi-stacking sliding door system, constructed from aluminum frames and structured polycarbonate panels.

Photograph above by International Inc.

When open, these doors transform the interior space into an elevated outdoor room focusing on the main buildings rear facade, courtyard and roof terraces which are a prominent part of the original architectural strategy for the property.

Photograph above by International Inc.

To contrast with the pristine white plaster of the main building, the new building exterior is coated with a dark, spray applied fluid membrane know as “Wetsuit™” by Neptune Coatings.

Typically used in industrial applications, this raw material serves as both weatherproof enclosure and architectural finish, paying a contextual homage to Schindler’s earlier works where industrial materials and construction techniques were appropriated for a residential context.

Click above for larger image

Together these new spaces add to the vision of the MAK Center’s social and artistic program.

Click above for larger image

By allowing such flexible uses as gallery space, dining room, film theatre or dance floor, the new MAK Gallery continues the legacy of its architectural neighbor, by encouraging the cultural use of domestic spaces.

Click above for larger image

Project Profile: MAK Gallery
Description: a flexible use building for the MAK Center for Art & Architecture Los Angeles
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Completion: June 2010
Size: 1900 sf (176 sqm)

Click above for larger image

Sonstruction: Type V-B
Contractor: I.E. Construction – Ivan Ramirez, contractor
Consultants: Structural Engineer – Stephen Perloff
Energy – Alternative Energy Systems
Photography: Steve King Photography (images with “SKP” designation)

Click above for larger image

Joshua White Photography (images with “JWP” designation)
All other images courtesy Space International Inc. (“SI”)
Architects: Space International Inc. – Michael Ferguson, principal; Kirby Smith, project architect
Client: MAK Center for Art & Architecture Los Angeles -
Peter Noever, director, MAK Vienna / Kimberli Meyer, director MAK Center Los Angeles

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Gallery extension by 6A Architects	Torreagüera Vivienda Atresada by Xpiral	More architecture stories

“Quick”, a series of photos from Eastern Congo, by Richard Mosse. No photoshop here, Mosse shot these with Kodak Aerochrome infrared film!

Riitta Ikonen continues to send her friend Margaret Huber the most amazing mail art! This project has been going on since 2004 (I last wrote about it two years ago, here.)

Installations and Photography by Aimee Brodeur

Rafael Viñoly Architects have unveiled their design for the new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston.

It will house classrooms, exhibition space and a representation of the Senate Chamber.

Here’s some more information from Viñoly’s office:

Rafael Viñoly Architects to design Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate

Rafael Viñoly Architects is proud to have been selected as the architect for the new Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. Situated on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston, this historic project will stand beside the existing John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, encouraging visitors to explore both buildings. The new facility will house participatory educational programs designed to engage the public in our system of government and heighten awareness of the U.S. Senate’s role in the government. The project will break ground in Fall 2010. The design is targeting LEED Certification.

Rafael Viñoly said, “We are honored to develop this important educational project that will greatly enhance public understanding of the role of the U.S. Senate. We are proud to be working with the Institute and the University of Massachusetts to make Senator Kennedy’s exciting vision a reality.”

The facility will consist of roughly 40,000 square feet of program space, comprised mainly of classrooms, educational exhibits, and a representation of the Senate Chamber. The Institute’s ground level is made with white precast concrete with punched window openings and as with the overall site plan has been designed to work in harmony with I.M. Pei’s neighboring John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. The design includes a seamless cladding which houses the Chamber and is 2 stories in height. The cladding is visually separated from the 1-story volume by a ribbon skylight which will expand at the lobby, greeting visitors with a naturally illuminated reception area.

The completed development will boast a large expanse of outdoor public space at the heart of which is an expanse of grass bringing visitors to the entrance of the building. This lawn is bordered by two triangular volumes which define the entry to the building and geometrically connect the Institute to the JFK Library. The exterior open space is a link between the Institute, the JFK Library and the University of Massachusetts Boston campus, while also acting as a connection to the waterfront and HarborWalk. The entrance approach is designed to incorporate components from each of the 50 states and enhance connections between the building and the entire nation.

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Carrasco International Airport by Rafael Viñoly	Cleveland Museum of Art East Wing by Rafael Viñoly	Museum of Modern Arab Art by Rafael Viñoly

These models by New York studio Boym Partners are used to unlock and download DJ Matthew Dear’s latest album, entitled Black City, and you can download a free track from the album here.

Called MDBC Totem, the products are each marked with a unique code allowing their owners to stream or download the album.

Each piece in the edition of 100 is cast in bonded aluminium with a hand-finished gun metal patina.

Boym Partners designed the pieces for Dear’s label Ghostly International.

Photographs are by Will Calcutt.

Watch a movie about the manufacturing process here.

Here’s some more information from Boym Partners:

With Matthew Dear’s third full-length studio release, Black City, Ghostly International proudly introduces its newest label release format, the totem.

The MDBC Totem is both a sculptural representation of the themes explored in Black City and a symbolic conduit to the music itself. Vaguely reminiscent of one of the soot-blackened skyscrapers that might populate Dear’s creeping, nameless city, the stacks upon the totem also call to mind the many shaped prongs of a universal power adaptor. In this sense, the totem is not simply a miniature building, but an abstract key to an unknown door. The branding of the totem has been purposefully reduced to its bare essentials—only the letters MDBC and unique alphanumeric suffixes are included—so that the totem’s meaning remains discernible only to its beholder.

Each MDBC Totem is inscribed with a unique four-character suffix that will allow users access to a private page on www.matthewdear.com, where Black City may be streamed in its entirely from any web-connected computer, or downloaded. Owners of the totem will also receive an exclusive track, not previously available on the standard album release. Unlike current delivery methods, the totem is a physical format for cloud-based listening, an acknowledgment of two seemingly irreconcilable notions: the need for a tangible representation of music and a future in which music is utterly ethereal.

The MDBC Totem is produced in an edition of 100 units and retails for $125. Each piece has been hand-cast in bonded aluminum with a hand-finished gun metal patina by master-crafstmen in New York City. It goes on sale Tuesday, August 3, 2010, exclusively at The Ghostly Store.

To create Ghostly International’s first totem, the company turned to renowned product designers Constantin and Laurene Boym of Boym Partners in New York, recipients of the 2009 National Design Award for Product Design. Widely recognized for their ability to imbue objects with emotional and cultural resonance, the Boym’s also have a history of exploring uncharted territory in the world of design. Among their many creations, they have been revered for their “Buildings of Disaster” and “Missing Monuments” series, two ongoing collections which explore the cultural imperative of souvenirs in a postindustrial global economy.

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More album designs	Hotel Taj Mahal by Boym Partners	Buildings of Disaster by Boym Partners

Cumulus and Foam has been making the press rounds lately with mentions in Print Magazine, It’s Nice That, Selectism, and linkage on NOTCOT, Unstrung, and involved in a so-called debate on QBN of what is considered beautiful. As well, our Behance project for C&F…

London studio DOS Architects have won a competition to design a 2000-seat church in Lagos, Nigeria with this design featuring an undulating roof.

The Catholic Church of the Transfiguration will be built with variously-sized arches at four-metre intervals, creating a swooping roof that dips towards the entrance in the middle.

This steel structure will house a two-storey congregation hall with glazing at either end emphasising the hall’s height.

Construction is expected to begin in 2011.

Here are some more details from DOS Architects:

CATHOLIC CHURCH OF THE TRANSFIGURATION LAGOS, NIGERIA

Even though our design proposal may seem unconventional to the untrained eye, it is actually based on traditional principles of Catholic Church design: The main congregation Hall features a Latin cross above the Organ and altar; The hall has a nave and two aisles at each side which are all coincident with the main axis of the Church; we have placed a Latin Cross on the highest point of the Church’s structure, which will become an icon for the city of Lekki and Lagos as a whole.

The project consists of an organic skin which, in one single gesture, becomes the roof and external walls of the Church, enveloping and protecting the Congregation within. The main access is placed in the narrowest and lowest part of the building and leads into a spectacular entrance foyer, from which the visitor has views and clear access to both floors of the Church. The main staircase in the entrance foyer divides the Church into two halves which are visually linked by the large atrium that traverses the building. The funnel effect within the entrance foyer moreover reinforces the huge and spectacular scale of the main Congregation Hall and the Chapel of Perpetual Adoration to either side.

The architectural concept and structural form are integral, with a series of arches of varying heights producing the sculptural form of the building as a whole. Arches are one of the oldest and most efficient forms of structure, utilizing the full height of the building to provide stiffness resulting in a relatively slender structure. Fabricated steel arches are positioned at 4m centres along the length of the building, with cold‐formed steel purlins spanning between the arches supporting the roof finishes and ceiling within. These arches are supported on each side of the building by a series of piled foundations taking vertical loads into the ground beneath. The horizontal thrust which results from the arching action is resisted by a reinforced concrete ground slab which ties the two bases of the arch together.

The main spaces for prayer have been designed to be peaceful, awe inspiring, and full of joy whilst also allowing the worshippers full and uninterrupted views of the Altar. The impressive glazed facades on both the East and western axis of the Church provide natural lighting and emphasize the height and scale of both areas of worship. The interior of the Church is very simple, pure and full of spirituality. The outside is elegant, timeless and will stand as a true Icon for the Catholic community of Lagos and Nigeria as a whole.

Client: Catholic Church of the Transfiguration
Location: Victoria Garden City, Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria
Designer: DOS Architects Ltd
Floor area ‐ sq metres 3,275sqm (Gross internal Area).
2000 seating capacity.
2 Floors
Budget ‐ $14,000,000
Project status: Early Planning
Completion date/expected completion date February 2013

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Dove of Peace by Sunlay Design	Catholic Church by Stemmle Architekten	Dezeen’s top ten: churches