Tag Archives: architecture

F is for Font (and Friday)

Posted on March 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

Sometimes a font can make or break an advertisement, so here at Baby we love a good font. Artist Chris Labrooy clearly shares the same appreciation, and has executed some well-known fonts in a clever architectural way:

In the same collection, Labrooy paid homage to some legendary architects:

Frank Gehry

Zaha Hadid

Oscar Niemeyer

Ettore Sottsass

We love how Labrooy made these fonts come to life, offering a 3D image of them in an unprecedented way. We also like how he incorporated household objects into a place where they seemingly wouldn’t belong, but do not appear out of place in any way.

Our ad this week isn’t an image or video, but a humourous job posting for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

We do a mix of quick hit investigative work when events call for it and mini-projects that might run for a few days. But every year we like to put together a project way too ambitious for a paper our size because we dream that one day Walt Bogdanich will have to say: “I can’t believe the Sarasota Whatever-Tribune cost me my 20th Pulitzer.” As many of you already know, those kinds of projects can be hellish, soul-sucking, doubt-inducing affairs. But if you’re the type of sicko who likes holing up in a tiny, closed office with reporters of questionable hygiene to build databases from scratch by hand-entering thousands of pages of documents to take on powerful people and institutions that wish you were dead, all for the glorious reward of having readers pick up the paper and glance at your potential prize-winning epic as they flip their way to the Jumble… well, if that sounds like journalism Heaven, then you’re our kind of sicko.For those unaware of Florida’s reputation, it’s arguably the best news state in the country and not just because of the great public records laws.

We have all kinds of corruption, violence and scumbaggery. The 9/11 terrorists trained here. Bush read My Pet Goat here. Our elections are colossal clusterfucks. Our new governor once ran a health care company that got hit with a record fine because of rampant Medicare fraud. We have hurricanes, wildfires, tar balls, bedbugs, diseased citrus trees and an entire town overrun by giant roaches (only one of those things is made up). And we have Disney World and beaches, so bring the whole family.

We love the brutal honesty of the post especially in light of the dwindling newspaper market. We also appreciate its poking fun of infamous Floridian mishaps – what journalist would want to go anywhere else?

Happy Friday!

(Sources: My Modern Met and Boing Boing)

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London’s Newest Real Estate: Birdhouses

Posted on March 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

The Secret Garden Project is underway with the building of hundreds of birdhouses along London streets in a sculptural endeavor known as the Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven by London Fieldworks. We think that, not only are these houses an interesting sight to see, they are a wonderful accommodation for our winged friends.

The habitats are also meant to house bugs, nearly all of which we would much rather have in a tree than scrambling around our offices. The housing sculptures reflect their surrounding human-sized buildings, and offer various sized homes for various sized creatures.

We would love to see what one of these looks like with a full house! We think these houses are a great way to promote urban biodiversity and show the importance of maintaining suitable livings spaces for wild animals everywhere, let alone in major cities.

(Source: GreenMuze)

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Posted in Conservation, creative, environment, green

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Awesome Architecture: Guangzhou Opera House

Posted on February 25, 2011 | 1 Comment

We think the architecture on the just-opened Guangzhou Opera House in Guangzhou, China is so cool! Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the Opera House sits on the Pearl River and was meant to resemble two pebbles sitting on the bank. Furthermore, the interior was also inspired by the natural tendencies of rivers.

The interior is meant to reflect the results of erosion on rivers, as ceilings and walls feature foldlines that would occur naturally. The fold lines also allow light into the building and improve air circulation.

The Opera House seats 1,800 and also has a 400-person multi-functional hall and multiple rehearsal rooms. We would love to see a show in this theatre just to take a walk around! An extra plus—the building of the Opera House has improved commerce and cultural interest in the Guangzhou area; the House’s location harmonizes the formerly enclosed cultural center to the more modern, international financial district of Zhujiang.

 

(Source: Dezeen)

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Shenzhen’s Logistic City

Posted on September 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

We are in awe of Julien de Smedt Architects’ new project, and it’s definitely not for its looks.

They plan on building a city tower in Shenzhen standing 1,111 metres high. This will be gigantic! Just looking at the pictures gives us a bad case of vertigo. At the moment, the world tallest structure, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is ‘only’ 828 metre tall.

Not only will the structure be ridiculously tall, but also self-sustained. Plants will abound in the tower: along paths, gardens, etc., working towards the re-forestation of the city. And as opposed to a standard skyscraper, the building will mostly be open, letting plenty of wind and sunlight to the core. The use of solar panels is still being debated, but wind turbines will be integral part of the tower.

And just like any city, it will have housing, stores, offices, and its own public transport network, with trams resembling roller coaster connecting levels.

And they haven’t forgotten water. Watering plants so high up would definitely require a lot of energy, hence why the top tier sections of the structure will be adorned with systems that will store and recycle water.

This project just seems great. We like that sustainability increasingly becomes a concern for development.

(Source: Inhabitat)

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Posted in creative, environment, green, home, Plants, transport

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Playhouse by Aboday

Posted on September 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

Indonesian architects Aboday have designed the bestest house in the whole world. Its main asset is a slide that connects the kid’s bedroom on the second floor, to the kitchen downstairs.

We think the concept is brillant, and are a bit jealous we didn’t get to grow up in a house just like that. On top of that, the house is beautiful. The architects have played on texture rather than colour, by keeping the concrete bare, but working it differently so that there are nuances in the grains, and it’s very luminous.

The slide makes it obvious that the house is designed with a kid in mind, but we think it looks like it would need a lot of babyproofing. The stairs definitely look dangerous: they seem pretty sharp, and there’s no banister to prevent falls. And all that concrete is pretty, but would probably results in plenty of bumps and bruises.

But all in all, this house is still pretty ace, and we might be grown ups but we would definitely make full use of the slide if we lived there.

(Source: Dezeen)

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The new Sydney Opera house?

Posted on July 19, 2010 | 1 Comment

The 2000 Olympics (and Priscilla Queen of the Desert) have made the Sydney Opera House a symbol of the 20th century. And it is now time for it to pass on the torch.

We stumbled upon this amazing proposal by the architecture firm Ozel Office for the Izmir Opera House in Turkey. And we must say, it’s mind-blowing. They have defined it as “a catalyst that reinforces the relationship between the old city, the new city, the waterfront, and urban culture. In short, our vision is a synergy of spatial, cultural, as well as practical and contextual aesthetics”. Whatever that means.

This all sounds rather obscure to us, but the little diagram helped us figure out what they actually mean by their architectural gibberish: building around and covering the existing tower and amphitheatre to create a sense of unity and continuity between the different aspects of the landscape. Or something like that. We reckon they have done a pretty good job at it, and who knows, we might get to see it as the symbol of the 2040 Olympics?

(source: ArchDaily)

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Guerilla architecture

Posted on July 8, 2010 | 1 Comment

Guerilla movements, advertising and fashion is all getting a little old, but guerilla architecture is something we never thought we’d see… However, it’s happening in Paris.

This is Paris’ famous Arche de la Défense… with the addition of a guerilla housing installation.

The architect behind this slightly bizarre scheme, Stéphane Malka, is seeking to illustrate what he thinks will be the future of housing.

The idea is that with housing becoming ever-more expensive and new housing becoming increasingly unsustainable, something has to give. And using structures such as the Arche de la Défense as the basis for small ‘modules’ solves both these problems.

Of course, the government and housing companies would never build these things, but Malka thinks that people will turn to this themselves as an option – hence the guerilla bit. As people turn to this, the installation would grow, almost like a parasite, and modules could be connected to create larger dwellings and small communities.

All that aside, we think this is an exceptionally cool piece of architecture. We’re not so sure about the adaptation of major landmark buildings, but the concept is just brilliant.

According to Malka, a module would cost around $3,000… considerably cheaper than a house in Paris. So for that reason alone he might just be on to something…

(source: Inhabitat)

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Roller Coaster Apartments

Posted on June 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

We’ve seen all sorts of weird architecture, but this was a new idea even to us.

This is the Everrich 2 apartment complex in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, designed by DWP Architects.

It has unquestionably been designed to look like a roller coaster, although the architects try to claim otherwise. Apparently the idea is to capture the natural continuous breezes and sunlight and use them to heat and cool the building as appropriate, giving the structure it’s very own eco-friendly climate control. It also has green roofs, to try and make the monstrosity blend with the local hills.

To be honest though, we’re pretty convinced that they should just build a roller coaster around the roof – we’d certainly want to stay there…

(source: Trend Hunter)

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Bubble Skyscrapers

Posted on March 9, 2010 | 9 Comments

Skyscrapers are ugly things. Even most of those supposedly pretty ones over in Dubai and Shanghai. And, despite all efforts, they all look roughly the same. Apart from this thing.

Design Crew for Architecture have created what is in fact a huge water purifying tower. Each ‘soap bubble’ is in fact a greenhouse full of mangrove trees.

Mangrove trees have the unique ability to grow in brackish (salty) water, and then “sweat” clean water. Designed to be built on the Almeira shore in Spain, the whole thing would be filled with huge tidal pumps, and then drained to irrigate land. The designers reckon it could irrigate one hectare per day. We have no idea if that’s good or not, but it sounds like a big area.

All this aside however, it was the beauty of the thing which captured us. We’d love to see something similar made but as a residential block, with each bubble forming a luxury flat…

(source: Inhabitat via Notcot)

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Posted in Conservation, creative, drink, environment, food, home, Plants

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The Perfect Seaside Home

Posted on January 7, 2010 | 3 Comments

If it wasn’t for the small issue of price, this would be our last post, and we’d all be moving out to California, because we reckon we’ve actually found the perfect house.

The home is called Otter Cove Residence, and was designed by Sagan Piechota Architecture, and is something quite remarkable. Firstly, you’ve got the location – right on California’s Pacific shore, giving you a beautiful and peaceful setting. Then, you actually get into the house. Five bedrooms, three huge reception rooms, three-car garage, gym, games room, bar and lounge.

What we really love about the place however is the design. In particular, those huge expanses of glass make brilliant use of the setting, and the interior seems designed to complement this.

(source: Twisted Sifter)

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