Federico Winer zooms around the world through the elevated eye of Google Earth’s satellite camera. With the click of his mouse, Winer captures Earth’s chromatic quirks and psychedelic geometric patterns in his photographic series, Ultradistancia. From his virtual vantage point, Winer adjusts the satellite image’s zoom until the world transforms into a series of abstract forms and characters. After manipulating color, brightness, and focus, the earthly appearance of his subjects falls away. What replaces it is a secret life of architecture and topography seen only from afar. (source).
The Hudson River Park Trust has announced a project to install a lush public green space hovering over the Hudson river off of New York’s Lower West Side. Known as Pier 55, the space’s platform would sit on top of the deteriorated Pier 54 supported by a forest of 300 blossoming pillars of varying heights. The two-and-a-half acre park would rise as much as 186 feet above the river’s surface and contain three performance venues, as well as provide a breathtaking view of the city skyline. The design is a collaboration between Thomas Heatherwick and Mathews Neilsen. (source).
Designer and architect Margot Krasojević recently revealed designs for this futuristic home concept, called the Hydroelectric Tidal House, in which tidal wave power is harnessed to generate energy. The idea proposes the construction of a structure with an outer and inner shell, providing for a two-part turbine system. The concrete outer shell anchors the house to the beach and uses solar cells to provide an electrical supply to the living area. The inner shell, made from aluminum, is more fluid, rising and falling with the changing of the tide. Krasojević explains, “Tides are more predictable than solar and wind energy making it simpler to find an appropriate location to harness this renewable energy source.” (source).
Buenos Aires, Argentina-based designer Santiago Muros Cortés recently unveiled the Solar Hourglass, a proposal for an enormous, hourglass-shaped structure that will use solar energy to produce enough electricity for up to 860 homes. Constructed from primarily recycled steel and aluminum, the impressive structure uses “heliostat” mirrors to reflect solar heat down the neck of the installation, where it will be stored as concentrated energy. Cortés’ design has been named the winner of the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative, aims to oversee the design and construction of public art installations that are not only aesthetically striking, but that also generate clean and renewable energy to provide power to thousands of homes around the world. (source).
UK-based artist Tom Hare created the Cherry Tree House, a large-scale structure woven from thin boughs of wood into a beautifully spherical shape. At nighttime, illuminated with lights that reveal the intricate form and texture, the Cherry Tree House truly comes to life, taking on the appearance of a magical home for creatures like fairies high in the treetops. According to the artist, his medium of choice is willow for its many special properties. “There’s something about willow that’s evocative. The smell, the texture, the way it moves,” he says. “The connection with nature, through coppicing and transferring observations into design, can be a humbling experience, and a physical one too.” (source).
Federico Winer zooms around the world through the elevated eye of Google Earth’s satellite camera. With the click of his mouse, Winer captures Earth’s chromatic quirks and psychedelic geometric patterns in his photographic series, Ultradistancia. From his virtual vantage point, Winer adjusts the satellite image’s zoom until the world transforms into a series of abstract forms and characters. After manipulating color, brightness, and focus, the earthly appearance of his subjects falls away. What replaces it is a secret life of architecture and topography seen only from afar. (source).
The Hudson River Park Trust has announced a project to install a lush public green space hovering over the Hudson river off of New York’s Lower West Side. Known as Pier 55, the space’s platform would sit on top of the deteriorated Pier 54 supported by a forest of 300 blossoming pillars of varying heights. The two-and-a-half acre park would rise as much as 186 feet above the river’s surface and contain three performance venues, as well as provide a breathtaking view of the city skyline. The design is a collaboration between Thomas Heatherwick and Mathews Neilsen. (source).
Designer and architect Margot Krasojević recently revealed designs for this futuristic home concept, called the Hydroelectric Tidal House, in which tidal wave power is harnessed to generate energy. The idea proposes the construction of a structure with an outer and inner shell, providing for a two-part turbine system. The concrete outer shell anchors the house to the beach and uses solar cells to provide an electrical supply to the living area. The inner shell, made from aluminum, is more fluid, rising and falling with the changing of the tide. Krasojević explains, “Tides are more predictable than solar and wind energy making it simpler to find an appropriate location to harness this renewable energy source.” (source).
Buenos Aires, Argentina-based designer Santiago Muros Cortés recently unveiled the Solar Hourglass, a proposal for an enormous, hourglass-shaped structure that will use solar energy to produce enough electricity for up to 860 homes. Constructed from primarily recycled steel and aluminum, the impressive structure uses “heliostat” mirrors to reflect solar heat down the neck of the installation, where it will be stored as concentrated energy. Cortés’ design has been named the winner of the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative, aims to oversee the design and construction of public art installations that are not only aesthetically striking, but that also generate clean and renewable energy to provide power to thousands of homes around the world. (source).
UK-based artist Tom Hare created the Cherry Tree House, a large-scale structure woven from thin boughs of wood into a beautifully spherical shape. At nighttime, illuminated with lights that reveal the intricate form and texture, the Cherry Tree House truly comes to life, taking on the appearance of a magical home for creatures like fairies high in the treetops. According to the artist, his medium of choice is willow for its many special properties. “There’s something about willow that’s evocative. The smell, the texture, the way it moves,” he says. “The connection with nature, through coppicing and transferring observations into design, can be a humbling experience, and a physical one too.” (source).