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German artist H. A. Schult's haunting ‘trash people’ have graced the streets of many of the world’s most major cities. It took him 6 months and 30 assistants to create his disturbing army from crushed cans and computer parts. Schult offers little of his thinking behind them, but it's hard to deny their relevance in today's world.
Introducing, the BMW GINA ("Geometry and functions in 'N' Adaptions"). It's the conceptual brainchild of the BMW design team and while it's said that it'll never see production, you can't help but love this thing. It's clad in a silver, seamless fabric and designed to change shape at the will of the driver, through the use of electric and hydraulic actuators. Head Designer Chris Bangle called it a challenge to "existing principles and conventional processes" and claims that GINA will, at the very least, influence future models of BMWs. Looking at this picture, I'm thinking GINA might influence what I'll be wearing out this weekend.
No longer just a flight of plebian fancy, the concept of renting private islands for vacation use is both gaining in popularity and shrinking in cost. At one time, Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island, at $322,000 per week would have been the norm when it came to playing master of your own domain. Now, with websites popping up like http://www.privateislandsonline.com renting your own private oasis in the sea has never been more affordable. A private island off the coast of Croatia, for example, can be rented for only $250 a week.
When Canada's Hudson's Bay Company revealed their Olympic apparel collection earlier this year, you could barely hear yourself think over the noise of the complaints en masse. Design critics (and those purporting to be) hated it. It didn't help matters that the pieces are made in China, as opposed to homegrown, homemade patriabelia. HBC stands by where the pieces are made though because the collection is manufactured from eco-friendly fabrics derived from bamboo and coconut and constructed to keep our athletes cool throughout a humid Beijing August. Whatever they're made from, consumers are loving it and designer Tu Ly is getting the last laugh as HBC can't keep their shelves stocked with the stuff.
The movement to reduce, reuse and recycle is taking on new meanings all the time. Now it's starting to hit the construction industry and there's an entire civilization of unused building materials in the world's shipping yards. With so many empty and unused shipping containers in nearly every developed country, and then some, people are using them to build offices, homes and commercial structures - including Europe's biggest shopping mall in Ukraine.
http://weburbanist.com/2008/05/26/cargo-container-homes-and-offices/
UK artist Abigail Reynolds presents some startling stats in her series entitled Mount Fear. Each of the city maps featured, (London, Manchester and Eindhoven) are built up with layers that represent a specific police statistic of the number of occurrences of a crime. Check out Mount Fear Manchester which depicts police statistics for violent offenses between 2001 and 2002.
One of Canada's largest oil companies EnCana recently hired UK architectural giants Foster + Partners to design their new headquarters in Calgary. Talk about carbon credits. This building, dubbed The Bow is sustainable architecture at some of its finest. Features include an entire network of interior green spaces as well as three sky gardens. And in winter, the giant south-facing atrium will capture the Sun's heat to lessen the costs of keeping warm throughout a Calgary winter.