For a brief period in the mid-1870s, artistic woodblock prints known as “newspaper nishiki-e” were a popular form of mass entertainment in Japan. These colorful prints fed the public’s enormous appetite for sensationalism by retelling shocking stories culled from the major newspapers of the day. The Meiji government swiftly cracked down on the publishers of these “unofficial” sources of informat..
Architects: Wingårdh Arkitektkontor Location: Stockholm, Sweden Architects in charge: Gert Wingårdh, Cecilia Ström, Per Söderberg Collaborators: Gustav Appell, Ewa Bialecka-Colin, David Christoffersson, Daniel Frickeus, Bengt Hellsten, Robert Hendberg, Rickard Karlsson, Stefan Nilsson, Hanna Samuelsson Design Year: 2003 Construction Year: 2007-2008 Client: AB Svenska Bostäder Construction: Tyrén..
“A Dream To Have In Heaven” (Tengoku De Miru Yume - 天国でみる夢) by Maki Sasaki is a surreal non-narrative one-shot manga published in the November 1967 issue of the now-defunct Garo, an alternative manga monthly magazine that peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s. [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] [+]
The spanish architecture firm A-cero, directed by Joaquin Torres, has built a new house in the Madrid outskirts that synthesizes the evolution of the studio’s signature design language and its technical experimentation over the last years. The house can be aesthetically inscribed in the series of projects made by the studio since its international expansion, in places like the Dominican Republic..
Lighting designer Bruce Munro has completed his Field of Light installation at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. The installation is situated on the grass roof of the visitors’ centre, and consists of 6,000 acrylic tubes capped with glass spheres and containing optical fibres. See our previous story for more information about the installation, which will remain in place until spring 2009. T..
Young Argentinian architects Adamo-Faiden have completed a new residential building in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The building, called Conesa 4560, contains twelve apartments and is situated in the Saavedra district of the city. “Every house tries to continue the tradition of the old houses of the neighbourhood by adding open spaces,” say the architects. “A central patio organises the internal cir..
Every August, as Japanese spirits return en masse from the otherworld, Tokyo’s Zenshoan temple exhibits a spine-chilling collection of 19th-century ghost scroll paintings. Here are a few. (Click the “+” under each image to enlarge.) Ghost [+] // Sea Monster [+] “Ghost” by Iijima Koga is a portrait of a floating, kimono-clad female apparition with all the ghastly physical features you hope to fin..
Caged Message vases by Cypriot designer Alexis Themistocleous contain a secret message that can only be revealed when they are smashed. The message is laser-cut from stainless steel, meaning that the words can alternatively be read through an X-Ray machine. The vases themselves are cast from bubble-wrap. Themistocleous has also cast vases from hollowed-out peppers and pumpkins (see below). The f..
Some time ago we featured a mid rise building by OMA in New York, a cantilevered volume that brings a new concept for tall buildings. A similar approach can be found at a recent competition for the Rødovre Skyscraper won by MVRDV in association with ADEPT: A 116m tall mixed use tower, based on a 60sqm module arranged around the central core of the building. It´s interesting to see the structural..
Architects: Jensen & Skodvin Arkitektkontor Location: Gudbrandsjuvet, Norway Design Period: 2004-2007 Construction period: 2007-2008 Client: Knut Slinning Project Architects: Jan Olav Jensen (pl), Børre Skodvin, Torunn Golberg Helge Lunder, Torstein Koch; Thomas Knigge Budget: 1.000.000 EURO (US $1.28 millions) Constructed Area: 800 sqm Photographs: JSA One of the local residents at Gudbrandsjuv..