Category Archives: Architecture

Concept bathroom includes everything you need…in your home

Architecture, Images, , ,

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I will let designer Michal Mitek get your tech-heart pumping:

It’s always about the future, and in the future you guys are going to realize the need of doubling up your interior spaces by adding more than one function to a room. Like, you may want your bathroom to double up as a gym when you’re not taking a bath. So how about you get the Roca Active & Relax Bathroom? It’s this luxurious room where the sunken bath is really sunken, invisible till you don’t open up the floorboards. No windows too, instead 3 floor-to-ceiling LCDs giving you the illusion of a panoramic view.

Still not satisfied? How about we give you a bathroom where the screens are connected to the Home PC so that you can watch movies as you laze in the double bathtub, or take a shower in the rainfall! Super sex-citing!

Mhm, I can now check this off as a feature of my future home.  I’ll take the lady model, too.

[Via Gizmodo; YankoDesign]

House of 600mm diameter circular windows

Architecture, Images, ,

Designed by Sanjay Puri.

The windows are deliberately created in an opaque glass to block out the immediate surroundings & allow the public spaces to have an ambience of their own, whilst allowing natural light. Concrete fins are arranged around the windows offer privacy from the adjacent office buildings whilst also acting as a heat barrier. Through these combined efforts the air conditioning cost is thus reduced by over 25 %.

The spaces are thus defined in complete contextual terms to the site, its surroundings & location and the climate of the city. The punctuated rectilinear volume of the hotel with LED lit circular glass windows renders it dynamic by night while it looks sculptural & creates a strong presence with a unique character.

[Via Gizmodo; WorldArchitectureNews]

Lexus LF-A Crystallised Wind is out of this world

Architecture, Cars, Images, Style, , ,

At this year’s Tokyo Motor Show, Lexus showed off its Lexus LF-A Crystallised Wind, an illuminated acrylic glass model of a real car.

Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto explains: “The term ‘wind’ addresses not only the flow of wind, but also symbolises a flow or current in a greater sense. It is a new horizon where the natural and the artificial co-exist in space.”

Check out a few more images of this beauty in the gallery below.

[Via Gizmodo; Wired]

Bathtub from the future “excites and relaxes”

Architecture, Images, Style, , , ,

Sci-Fi Bathtub by Spiritual Mode.

Want your bathroom to be “out of this world?” This stunning sci-fi bathtub by Spiritual Mode is just the thing to send all your senses awhirl! The Beignet bathtub features fashion and function, and is designed to relax and rejuvenate. Water fills the tub via two ultra-modern taps. The soft, circular shape is soothing to the sight, while water jets along the tub’s base will calm you at the end of a long day. A great addition to contemporary bathroom design, this stylish new bathtub brings technology, luxury and elegance to “me time.”

True, it looks like a UFO landed in your bathroom.  Still the modern look and the architectural detail of each piece makes for the coolest bathtub I have ever seen.

[Via Gizmodo; trendir]

Burger King to receive a ‘futuristic’ renovation

Architecture, Images, News, , , , ,

Burger King restaurants will be undergoing a significant renovation, transforming their bland, generic fast-food look into a more modern and futuristic model.  According to BK Chairman and CEO John Chidsey: “I’d call it more contemporary, edgy, futuristic.  It feels so much more like an upscale restaurant.”  The revovation, dubbed “20/20,” will affect 12,000 BK restaurants worldwide and will cost between $300,000 to $600,000 per restaurant.  The renovations include “rotating red flame chandeliers, TV-screen menus, and industrial-inspired corrugated metal and brick walls.”  The redesign has already begun and has affected about 60 percent of BK locations globally.  BK has stated that 75 additional restaurants will be transformed by this year’s end, but it will take years for all BK locations to be retrofitted.

Will such a drastic change in look help the BK Lounge in sales and gain an edge against its competition (re: McDonalds)?  It is too early too tell.  I’m just looking forward to playing around with the touch-screen menus.

[Via Gizmodo; AP]

The Burj Dubai, world’s tallest building, superimposed in NYC

Architecture, Images, , , , , ,

Here’s a cool comparison in building sizes for you.  The Burj Dubai, which is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is the world’s tallest building standing at 2,684 feet.  In comparison, the Empire State Building is 1,250 feet tall.  Check out the chart in the gallery below to see some more interesting comparisons with other world landmarks.

[Via Gizmodo]

3D renders of cities created from thousands of Flickr photos; awesome!

Architecture, Art, Images, science, Technology, Video, , , , , , , , , , ,

Scientists from the University of Washington’s Graphics and Imaging Laboratory, with the help of over 150,000 Flickr users, managed to create 3D digital models of three different cities.  According to PopSci.com, “each video includes clusters of small diamond shapes, which represent each photographer and his or her vantage point.  ..  The team built a new algorithm that proceeds in two steps — first, by matching the photos by what they had in common, puzzle-style, and then by determining the scene and each photographer’s pose.”  One of the scientists, Steve Seitz: “This is one of the main intellectual challenges here.  We want to see how much of the city can be reconstructed from people’s tourist photos.”

Their next task: to create a 3D rendering of an entire city using at least one million photographs.  So keep taking pictures people, and upload them to your Flickr accounts.  Check out more 3D renderings the team is working on at their YouTube page.  Cool stuff, huh?

[Via Gizmodo; Popsci]

London’s Shard is beautiful

Architecture, Images, Style, Technology, , , ,

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“The Shard, a mixed-use tower at London Bridge in London, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.”

“Construction work has started on the 306 metre-high building, which will sit on an irregular-shaped site adjacent to London Bridge station as part of a new development called London Bridge Quarter.  The design consists of several glass facets that incline inwards but do not meet at the top, and is inspired by the masts of ships that once anchored on the Thames.  The  72-storey building contains offices, apartments, a hotel and spa, retail and restaurants and is topped by a 15-storey public viewing gallery.”  The Shard is “due to be completed in 2012.”

Check out the gallery below for more images of this architectural marvel.  It is very sci-fi-esque; it reminds me of a structure from the Halo series.

[Via Gizmodo; Dezeen]