Australia Abundant at Venice Architecture Biennale 2008

Tags: Architecture, Australia Abundant, Buildings, Eagle Talon House, New Holland Folly, Peter Stuchbury Architecture, Studio505, Venice Architecture Biennale

An exhibition is not just a platform to showcase your talents but is also a forum for interaction with others who share your views. They also give you the opportunity to reach out to a great number of people and educate them about something dear to your heart. The Venice Architecture Biennale 2008 saw a great number of entries from different countries, one of the most striking of which was Australia.

Australia’s Abundant exhibition intends to clear a certain misconception from the minds of the people about the blandness of Australia. Starting from the brightly decorated trees at the entrance to the exhibits, the lighting within and the exhibits themselves will leave visitors with no doubt about the cheery colourfulness of this island continent. Australia Abundant was curated by architects Durbach, Lewin, Thompson and Warner and designer Frost, and shows a beautiful melange of the past and the present popular designs. The exhibition saw participation from over 200 architectural firms, each one showing a distinctively imaginative design following the theme of ‘architecture beyond building’.

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Symbiotic Villa by Zaha Hadid: Vision of the Future

Tags: Architecture, Next-Gene 20, Symbiotic Villa, zaha hadid

The look of living spaces are getting more and more exotic every day. The imbibing of ancient techniques of art in architecture has taken the looks of our streets beyond anything we ever dreamed of. They herald the arrival of the future when it comes to new visions.

This is not the first time we have written about the wondrous world of designing as Zaha Hadid creates it, most obviously because Hadid is a designer of phenomenal talent. This design of the Symbiotic Villa as part of the Next-Gene 20 project in Taiwan was presented in Venice during an architectural biennale, and left the visitors breathless. The bold lines give form to never-before-seen spaces that leave you with a sense of airy openness that is almost futuristic.

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Globus: Globe Table and Chair Ensemble by Michiel Kley

Tags: Chair, Furniture, Globe, Globus, Michiel Kley, Table

Finding the right table and chair for your work can become such a difficult thing. When you find the perfect table, it doesn’t go with the style of the perfect chair. Or they just are not good enough.

Cast your tired eyes upon the Globus and thank the heavens because this beautiful shiny white globe would be the best chair and table ensemble you would ever find. Classy and chic, the Globus breaks apart into two pieces- one designed to be the work table and the other a comfortable leather upholstered chair. It is also quite flexible, allowing adjustments in height and angle. Designed by Michiel van der Kley, the Globus can be moved around so that you can get away from any disturbances or distractions to work at the best spot.

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Punch the !ighting: Punch the Lights On

Tags: Designer, destress, exercise, Jum Bum Park, Kim Jin Sook, Lighting, punch bag, Punch the !ighting

The toaster spit out burnt bread, the traffic is horrible and your boss refuses to let you take a break from work. You’re losing your mind and all you want to do at the end of the day is vent out all your frustrations on the punching bag, but the gym is closed, too!

It doesn’t matter because you can head right home and punch the lights on. Punch the !ighting is a punching bag with an LED light within that would switch on once you start punching the bag. Designed by Jum Bum Park and Kim Jin Sook, the punching bag light is meant to de-stress and refresh your mind. This would be a great product to have around if you are often stressed out into throwing and breaking your favourite things. You get to punch this and still be left with the lights intact.

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Aero Train by Abe Karem: No More Flight Delays

Tags: Abe Karem, Aero Train, air plane, flying, travel, vertical takeoff

Youngsters who have always watched planes flying above their heads but never actually set in one may think that flying can be a wondrous experience and feel envious of those who always seem to be running to catch a flight. Someone should probably tell them things are not as great as it sounds, with the constant delays, your luggage being sent in the opposite direction to which you are going, and harried passengers screaming to be served first.

Aircraft designer Abe Karem is going to fix one of these important problems for all of us. His design of a vertical-takeoff airplane will ensure that planes never get delayed because of congestion on the runway. The plane, the Aero Train, has twin rotors that would be kept tilted up so that the plane can rise up vertically from its own helipad, and once it reaches an altitude of 50ft, the twin rotors are tilted forward to fly forwards.

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Le Clochard: Cardboard Bedding by SNURK to Help the Homeless

Tags: Cardboard Bedding, Homeless, housing project, Le Clochard, snurk

Sleeping under cardboard boxes during the chill of the night on a wet and quiet side street can be a chilling experience. Most of us would never have experienced this, and would have no idea how difficult it is to still the cold from creeping into the bones and reminding you every second that Death is just a step away.

SNURK has taken a step towards helping homeless people who have experienced this numbing fear, and continue to experience it night after night. In an attempt to increase more awareness about the homeless and receive some funding to help get the homeless off the streets, SNURK has designed a cotton bedding set that looks like cardboard boxes. Named Le Clochard, the income generated from selling this product would help SNURK set up several housing projects to help youngsters on the street find work or education.

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Rainbow Desk by Allan Lake

Tags: Allan Lake, desk, Furniture, maarten baas, Rainbow Desk

A rainbow does not necessarily need to have seven colours mixing into one another. It shows colours blending into one another without any borders, and the beauty of a rainbow is as much in its colours as it is in its curves.

The Rainbow Desk appears to take all this into consideration in being a desk full of curves. Designed by Allan Lake, the desk is reminiscent of the Sculpt Design furniture by Maarten Baas. These objects are made from numerous curves with not a single straight line, giving the viewer a sense of wavering lines and structures that seem to change in size every second. The desk looks both artistic and simple and is made from British native hardwoods.

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Antonin Dvorak Concert and Congress Centre: Heavenly Design

Tags: Antonin Dvorak Concert and Congress Centre, concert hall, design, Future Systems, Heaven Cultural and Commercial Spaces

When we are asked to imagine what Heaven might look like, we are often bombarded with the same images. Golden gates, white spaces filled with slow moving clouds and angels with wings singing and playing on harps. If you wish to deter from this age old imaginary sight, then you could opt for something a bit more futuristic.

Future Systems has designed the Antonin Dvorak Concert and Congress Centre to give you a sense of Heaven Cultural and Commercial Spaces. From the grand entrance, the space will lead in restaurants, cafe lounges, dance floors and music halls. The concert halls would allow 1000 people and the music halls can accommodate 400 people. You can almost see the Heavenly light shining down on these enclosures with beautifully artistic and imaginative designs.

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Bag Stuck in a Tree: Pendant Light

Tags: Appliances, Bag Stuck in a Tree, ed vince, garbage, lamp, Pendant Light, plastic bag

You must have walked through your neighbourhood and seen this sort of thing a dozen times a week. Children playing would leave kites and footballs stuck high up in the branches of a tree, and it looks good because it tells you that the kids in the neighbourhood are an active lot. What is not very appealing is to see plastic bags stuck up in trees; garbage on the streets is more than enough.

However, Ed Vince has a more artistic vision of this occurrence. Vince saw a bag stuck in a tree and decided it would be a great design for a light. His Pendant Light, also called a Bag Stuck in a Tree, looks much like a bag stuck to the branches of a tree and with an ominous glow from within. Vince states that the sight of a plastic bag stuck to a tree and flying in the wind, glowing with the warm light of the sun is a mesmerising sight.

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Ferrari Motorcycle Design by Amir Glinik

Tags: Amir Glinik, Automobiles, Designer, Ferrari, Ferrari Enzo, Motorcycle, Technology, V4

Ferraris are the ruling monsters when it comes to super speedy cars. Nothing can compete with them, and Ferrari lovers are just waiting for them to join the world of motorcycle designing so they can conquer that world with a twist of their drawing boards. Perhaps Ferrari fans need not wait much longer, because one of their own has already come up with designs of what he believes a Ferrari motorcycle should look like.

Amir Glinik submits his own designs of the Ferrari motorcycle and it definitely looks like a mean monster, sure to overshadow any other bike on the road. Ferraris have extremely Italian designs, are aerodynamic and sleekly stylish and Glinik’s design of the bike incorporates all of these important points. His bike also follows along the line of a V4 based upon the engine of a Ferrari Enzo and thus uses DbW technology. Read the rest of this entry »