DESIGN INTERESTS: September 2011

Thursday, 29 September 2011

WHERE I WANT TO GO ...

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/68Uqje/www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/14514/marina-bay-sands-hotel-singapore.html

marina bay sands complex consists of three hotel towers connected by the magnificent sands skypark.
designboom's editors had the great opportunity to stay and test out the newly opened hotel.
with over 2,500 rooms and suites, it is the biggest hotel in singapore.
the sands skypark with pool is built at the height of 200 meters.
its lush, landscaped gardens are home to 250 trees and 650 plants and offer a total of 12,400 square meters of space -
big enough to fit three football fields. hotel guests have the exclusive use of a 150-meter infinity swimming pool,
the world’s largest outdoor pool at that height

'rising forest' by shanghai artist chongbin zheng is a ceramic sculpture composed of 83 massive glazed stone-ware ceramic vessels
occupying approximately 4,000 square meters in the hotel atrium. each vessel weighs in at 1,200 kilogram and measures 3 meters tall.
the vessels were so large that the artist had to build a customized kiln the size of a small building. ceramics of this size are rarely
made and fired in one piece.
in the atrium there are several dining bars. 'rise' which is an all-day restaurant featuring world cuisine, emphasizes south east asian
specialties. rise offers buffet and a-la-carte breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper

the 'drift' sculpture by artist UK antony gormley is a massive three dimensional stainless steel polyhedral matrix of over 16,100
steel rods and more than 8,320 steel nodes. measuring approximately 40 meters long, 23 meters high and 15 meters wide.
the structure weighs 14.8 tons. drift is suspended cloud-like in the air between levels 5 and 12 of the atrium of hotel tower 1.

MY FAV RODIN SCULPTURE

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=12718

THE INFINITY ROOM

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1O6TXG/www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/the-infinity-room

With this immersive installation, French artist Serge Salat invites visitors to take a journey through endless layers of space, decked out with cubic shapes, panels of mirrors, shifting lights and music. “Beyond Infinity” is a multi-sensory, multimedia experience that blends Eastern Chinese with Western Renaissance.

Inspired by the Suzhou Gardens, a masterpiece of Chinese landscape, the three-lined trigram of I Ching is the main pattern that organizes the space of the work. Salat uses mirrors as optical illusions, exploding a single room into spatial infinity.

GENTRY

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1N7rnc/www.nickgentry.co.uk/

Nick Gentry is a British graduate of Central St Martins and has exhibited in the UK, USA and Europe. As part of a generation that grew up surrounded by floppy disks, VHS tapes, polaroids and cassettes, he is inspired by the sociological impact of a new internet culture.
His portraits use a combination of obsolete media formats, making a comment on waste culture, life cycles and identity. Using old disks as a canvas, these artefacts are combined to create photo-fits and identities that may draw connections to the personal information that is then forever locked down underneath the paint.
This has led to an exploration of the ways in which humankind is integrating with technology. As it reaches a tipping point, this new movement is becoming increasingly apparent as a cultural and social transition of our time. Will humans be forever compatible with our own technology?

THE HUG CHAIR

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2rClf2/www.yankodesign.com/2011/03/17/a-chair-for-clingy-lovers/

If you’ve ever had someone sit in your lap, you know that 15 minutes is about the max your legs can handle. It’s really not fair. The Hug chair brings simple design and human gesture together for that extra time you want to sit with your significant other. When you’re away from your special someone the extra seat doubles as a convenient space, perfect for catching up on video chat

ANOTHER WAY TO HIDE A BAD: PUT IT IN A BOX

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/8TR0EW/www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/bedroom-in-box.php

We often show ingenious ways of hiding the bed. French architects Emmanuel Combarel Dominique Marrec offer a new one: turn it into a sculptural element, in this case a box hanging from the ceiling.

The architects write:

The bedroom as a hut in the middle of the flat

Suspended right in the center of the apartment, leaving untouched the floor and the circulations around, it divides the space, reversing the perception of the atmosphere in the apartment by making private what is usually not : the living room.

Wherever you stand below or above, it truncates the perception of the occupiers bodies of whom one only sees the legs sitting, crossing or walking around in the place.

The suspended box is made of a metallic structure (section 40 x 40 mm) covered with wooden panels. The cube - as well as the floor, the walls and the ceiling, has been painted with a white polyurethane resin.

EVERYTHING BUT PAPER CUTS

In the year since the Museum of Art and Design reopened in its new digs on Columbus Circle, they've been delivering consistently compelling shows--from punk-rock lace to radical knitting experiments.
The focus is paper--and the way contemporary artists have used paper itself as a medium, whether by cutting, tearing, burning, or shredding.