South Korean artist Do Ho Suh has created an astonishing series of large-scale fabric models of homes he has lived in. The models are on display at his solo exhibition, “Home Within Home,” which runs through June 3 at the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul. These fabric models are simply amazing and awe-inspiring.
With a passion for modern architecture and an international understanding of style, the homeowners approached Laidlaw Schultz Architects seeking something unique and suitable for their growing family. The home’s quiet street setting gives no indication of the dynamic coastal views accessible from inside, and this feeling of revelation became the starting point for the design.A simple line separating public from private, the first move about which the house begins, starts the dialogue. This wall is punctuated with a sliding panel and is then drawn up to reveal the striated walnut garage door that continues the plain. The woven-steel panel is the gateway to the interior courtyard and private dominion. As seen from inside the courtyard, the enceinte transforms into an exterior fireplace and backdrop for the glass-like pool. A wall of foliage on one end provides a panel of green to complement the shimmering blue water; on the other end, a continuous fountain creates a soothing soundtrack.
View more information, including more photos and proejct details here.
Up and down Detroit’s streets, buildings stand abandoned and in ruin. French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre set out to document the decline of an American city. Their book “The Ruins of Detroit“, a document of decaying buildings frozen in time, was published in December 2010.
From the photographers’ website:
Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension.
The state of ruin is essentially a temporary situation that happens at some point, the volatile result of change of era and the fall of empires. This fragility, the time elapsed but even so running fast, lead us to watch them one very last time : being dismayed, or admire, making us wondering about the permanence of things.
Photography appeared to us as a modest way to keep a little bit of this ephemeral state.
Michigan Central Station
18th floor dentist cabinet, David Broderick Tower
United Artists Theater
Ballroom, American Hotel
These reproductions of Eiffel’s original designs are included in his book “The 300 Meter Tower”, Lemercier publications, Paris 1900.
Download more information, All You Need to Know about the Eiffel Tower, here.
The workweek begins again tomorrow, so here are some beautiful pictures to get your mind off of the week ahead. These pictures are from Flickr user Jungle_Boy. You can follow his journey (in blog posts and pictures) through the Arabian peninsula and parts of Africa. So far, they’ve spent a month travelling in the Gulf, and now find themselves in Africa, specifically Morocco.
The following are some of Jungle_Boy’s pictures of Morocco.
A typical blue alleyway in the village of Chefchouen in the Rif mountains, Morocco.
The ruins of the Roman basilica at Volubilis, Morocco, with storm clouds gathering in the background. Taken at 8:25am.
A Moroccan man stands in front of a decorated fountain next to Place el-Hedim in Meknes, Morocco.
A bizarre French colonial building in Casablanca, Morocco.
An idyllic spot in the Sahara desert, Morocco.
The walls and fortifications of ‘New Fes’, which dates from the 14th century – Morocco.
Leathermakers at the tanneries in Fes painting leather to make yellow shoes.
Two leading structural engineers (Leslie E. Robertson, the éminence grise of American engineering, and Craig Schwitter, a partner in the New York office of Buro Happold) share their favorite ten feats of engineering.
Check out their top ten choices here.
Once a tranquil town, Dubai has transformed itself into a quintessential home of sand, sun, skyscrapers and shopping. Today skyscrapers stand alongside the mosques and wind towers of Old Dubai.
The Burj al-Arab (Arabic: برج العرب, “Tower of the Arabs”) is a luxury hotel in Dubai, the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates. Designed by Tom Wright of WS Atkins PLC, it rises to 321 m (1053 feet) and is the tallest building used exclusively as a hotel. It stands on an artificial island 280 m (919 feet) out from Jumeirah beach, and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge.
Designed to resemble the billowing sail of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel, the Burj Al Arab dominates the Dubai coastline. At night, it offers an unforgettable sight, surrounded by choreographed colour sculptures of water and fire.
The interior of the hotel is dominated by a massive atrium formed between the V shaped structure and its fabric sail, the tallest lobby in the world. The atrium takes up over one-third of interior space, and is over 182 m (597 feet) tall.
Other features include a helipad, suspended near the top of the building, and a restaurant called Al Muntaha, (Arabic meaning “Highest” or “Ultimate”), which is 200 m (656 feet) high and supported by a full cantilever that extends 27 m (89 feet ) from either side of the mast.
The hotel boasts 8,000 square meters (26,247 square feet) of 22-carat gold leaf and 24,000 square meters (78,740 square feet) of 30 different types of marble.
Despite its size, the building holds only 28 two-story floors with 202 bedroom suites. Every guest room is actually a duplex suite. The cost of staying in a suite begins at $1,000 per night and increases to over $15,000 per night; the Royal Suite is the most expensive, at $28,000 per night. The smallest suite occupies an area of 169 square metres (1,819 square feet), and the largest one covers 780 square metres (8,396 square feet). It is certainly one of the most expensive hotels in the world to stay in.
Currently, the Burj Al Arab is the fifteenth tallest building in Dubai, however with the building spree the United Arab Emirates is on, that number is sure to change in the future.
The Markr 