Lalvani Studio explores morphogenomics as used in sculputure and architecture. Check out Haresh Lalvani’s TEDx Talk. The pieces in the pictures here are made in collaboration with the metal shop Milgo Bufkin.
Archive for the 'Cool Architects' Category
22
Dec
11
aston martin’s OLED room
No wonder James Bond likes Aston Martin cars: It must be the lighting when you pick up the car. Wired has a great post about how Aston Martin builds their $1.7m One-77 supercar in a laboratory-clean facility. But the part I love is the dedicated space for when a customer receives their car:
“When customers make the pilgrimage to Aston Martin headquarters to take delivery of their One-77s, each is treated to an unveiling experience that’s nothing short of theatrical. Seated in a satin black room, a uniquely composed musical sequence fills the space from a Bang & Olufsen sound system. Five hundred organic LED lights hanging like tiny chandeliers start pulsing over the vehicle with a heartbeat, creating wave-like movements across the roofline and evolving into a choreographed shimmer that grows in intensity, finally shedding full light on the sheet metal below. The tease culminates with a musical crescendo, a sea of photons and the reveal of an impossibly sexy supercar.”
Turns out the lighting is Philips’ Lumiblades and the design was by Jason Bruges Studio.
I also love the shot of the surface defect review room: At first, I though this was the customer reception room!
Department stores’ holiday windows are often amazing little worlds in and of themselves, filled with color, sparkle, animation and humor. I was particularly caught by some of the windows at the French department store Printemps, designed by Karl Lagerfeld. via CoolHunting and Materialist.
Happy Holidays!
27
Nov
11
windscreen
Windscreen was a temporary installation at MIT by Howeler+Yoon Architects from Boston.
Straight from their site: “Windscreen creates an exterior screeen composed of an array of small-scale, vertical axis wind turbines. The spinning of these turbines self-powers their integral lighting, providing an active, moving, flickering screen that visibly indexes wind”.
The small turbines are mounted to a tensioned-cable structural net.
Very nice project…especially for windy Boston & Cambridge. It will be nice to see it scaled up to a permanent installation.
11
Nov
11
sephora’s laser blasters
I love this street-front entrance to the below-grade Sephora store at the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. The pendants are made out of translucent red plastic with a frosted texture. Coupled with the cool white luminous walls, it totally looks like something straight out of Star Wars.
Can I hear a “pew-pew”?
At the Quai Branly Museum in Paris (itself in a very cool building by Jean Nouvel), I saw this awesome luminous wall in the temporary Maori exhibit. It is a simple design, a stick-framed box faced with 1/4″ MDF panels that were CNC cut and painted out all white. A couple fluorescent strips at the bottom of the box are all it takes to create a gorgeous wall that relates to the graphic arts of the New Zealand tribal group, the Maori.
I’m certainly not trying to be on a paper lantern kick on purpose, but I found this image from the Wall Street Journal. This shrine for war victims in Japan is a beautifully unique take on “luminous walls”. Another great example of why 2300K white light is so desirable…and why candles continue to be a popular light source.
“People walk past paper lanterns during the Mitama Festival at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo Tuesday. Over 30,000 lanterns light up the precincts of the site, where more than 2.4 million war dead are enshrined, during the four-day festival. “
Another image from a fellow WordPress Blog:
13
Jul
11
sky lantern festival
Another dazzling image of a sky lantern festival. The Cool Hunter website says this is Taiwan, but the image is labeled Thailand. Wouldn’t this make an awesome ceiling for a restaurant or bar?
I love the ceiling system of this airport departure lounge from Space International architects. Not much technical info, but they say:
“This space consumes around 50% of the energy that other similar spaces commonly consume, by means of openings in the ceiling that let in natural light, the design maximizes the usage of daylight in the interiors, additionally generating extremely natural and pleasant sensations.”
And if you notice in the following picture, you can see how the change in daylight completely changes the appearance of the ceiling grid. I’m curious to know if they have any electric lighting augmenting the ceiling apertures, or if just the floor + table lamps provide the lighting at night.
via Contemporist
Inhabitat posted a beautiful art installation called “Hope Tree.” The installation used punched paper panels arranged in a toroidal shape, backlit with LED string lights, all mounted within a 20′ cargo container.
04
Mar
10
electroland
Electroland is a Los Angeles firm that focuses on interactive lighting installations for public spaces.
19
Oct
09
la rinascente – top floor
Ooohhh….aaaahhh….Italians have such style. While we Americans get to shop under acres of the cheapest 2×4 acoustic ceiling tiles that our department stores can procure from the lowest bidder, the department store La Rinascente in Milan is a showpiece of design.
ArchDaily has a great piece on the new top floor snack shop/restaurant, equipped with gorgeous translucent panels backlit either naturally by skylights above or fluorescent lighting at night.
23
Sep
09
jing restaurant
08
Sep
09
howeler yoon architecture
Howeler Yoon Architecture of Boston has produced several concepts and installations that explore very unique and innovative applications for lighting. Continue reading ‘howeler yoon architecture’
Jonas Samson is a Dutch industrial designer who teased the blogosphere with a very cool illuminated surface concept. Unfortunately, beyond the images, there is no technical info floating around the web. I’m betting that he used either electroluminescent or light emitting capacitor sheets behind laser-cut solid sheet stock.
29
Jul
09
Jason Bruges Studio
Jason Bruges Studio out of London specializes in interactive lighting installations. The work is delightfully esoteric, plus their site has plenty of unique eye candy.
15
Jul
09
Light + Pattern = Beautiful Home
Check out the pictures of this small home in Bangalore with a striking open-air, thru-cut wall pattern at the corner of an interior garden room. The transformation of the daylight interior lighting into the nighttime electric lighting on the exterior is really striking.
13
Jul
09
Erwin Redl
Check out this New York based installation artist, Erwin Redl.
Amazing LED-based installations. His site is loaded with trippy eye candy. Very creative use of the possibilities of LED technology.
References: Trendhunter, Paramedia
