Architecture, Sculpture & Design
 

Again, another cultivating endeavor of mine, for all the gallery to enjoy; this shall be the Architecture, Scultpure & Design [A-S-D] theme / compendium. Since I know I shall be the only one who will be contributing this aim, I shall give myself a set of rules to abide by: this topic is to feature tangible evidence of the 1st Art - 'Architecture', and all that may encompass such a broad genre. This could opt to include clay sculptures, steel buildings, wax models, ice carvings, human remains and whatever else may happen to pertain, so long as the artwork is not created for commercial consumption, but for aesthetic/apperception awareness.
Let us walk through the museum of the world's finest creations.


BIG IDEA - Christo and Jean-Claude

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VALLEY CURTAIN, 1972 It took 28 months to put up the curtain across Rifle Gap in the Colorado
Rockies, and about 28 hours for it to come down. On Aug. 10, 1972, Christo's team unveiled the
curtain - nine tons of orange nylon polyamide fabric suspended from steel cables - only to watch
a sandstorm tear it to shreds the next day.

"That the curtain no longer exists only makes it more interesting," Christo said.


[NYTimes.]

(^^ highly-recommended read)

I always forget
 

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The 'true stone house', in the montains of Fafe, Portugal.

"Inspired by the Flintstones, this odd house was constructed between two giant stones
on the hillside of Fafe Mountains in Portugal. Like most contemporary homes, it has a
front door, roof, and selection of windows, while the huge spherical boulder on the
uphill side of the house and scoop-shaped end give it a prehistoric feel."

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Photo by: Feliciano Guimaraes (more)


[likecool.]

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Casa Kike by Gianni Botsford Architects, photographed by Christian Richters.

As portrayed above, the Casa Kike is a private residence in Costa Rica designed by Gianni Botsford Architects.
The house is an "intimate double pavilion for a writer in Costa Rica," with a budget that topped out at just over $100,000.
From the architect's own description:

A main studio space, with library, writing desk and grand piano, is the writer’s daytime space.
The pavilion’s wooden structure, sourced from local timber, sits on a simple foundation of wooden
stilts on small concrete pad foundations. Roof beams of up to 10 m long and 355 mm deep allow for
an interior with no vertical columns. The mono-pitched roof elevates towards the sea shore, while
the interior is through ventilated via a completely louvred glazed end façade.

[bldgblog.]

(^^ READ MORE)

The Dinosaur Builder
 

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March 23, 1970: Sculptor Claude K. Bell, a Knott’s Berry Farm sculptor and
portrait artist, alongside his 45-foot-tall, 150-foot-long brontosaur in Cabazon (CA)
next to Interstate 10. Bell opened the Wheel Inn cafe in 1958; to attract customers,
he began building dinosaurs. Bell thought big.

“The brontosaurus is just the beginning.” he said, ” I’ve got 62 acres alongside the freeway.
In the next 30 years, I’m going to build an entire family of giant dinosaurs here.”

The planned park was to be named “Claude K. Bell Dinosaur Gardens”. A Tyrannosaurus rex, named Mr. Rex, did get built, but Bell died in 1988 before any additional dinosaurs were added.

The Cabazon site was sold in the mid-1990s, attractions added. It is currently run as a museum with a creationist theme.

- - -
+ bonus: “Mr. Rex”

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Photo by: Steve Minor


[Space Zombies]

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First look at Drummond Castle Gardens ; as seen in Perthshire, Scotland.

“You drive for what seems like a lifetime through an avenue drive of beech trees
to the car park at Drummond Castle Gardens. Even when you go inside the old keep
to pay (you’re not allowed inside apart from that as it’s private) you can’t see anything
of this amazing garden. And then you get this amazing panoramic view…”

{Photo by: Neil}

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The L​i​b​r​a​r​y​ ​R​e​f​e​r​e​n​c​e​ ​D​e​s​k​ ​M​a​d​e​ ​o​f​ ​O​l​d​ ​B​o​o​k​s​ ; as seen at Delft University of Technology.


[good.]

:sculpture + design
 

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Status Factory by Ron English at Opera Gallery New York


Relevant contextuals:

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"Monumental Histories", (the Trojan Horse) as seen in Taiwan. Photo by: Chia-Yi Lin

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Liane Lang, an award-winning British artist, photographed Soviet-era monuments that had been
ripped down following the fall of Communism - intermingled with life-sized rubber models of people
and human body parts, to create unnerving, humorous and thought-provoking installations.

VIEW MORE or Visit HERE (I'm always a week late... how unfortunate.)


[Telegraph.]

by David Mach (Scotland)
- - - - -
one source (if you are into my sources, I guess):

[gizmodo.]

Alice Through The Looking Glass
 

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Alice statue (based on the character by Lewis Carroll) in the gardens beside Guildford Castle.

{Photo taken on May 1, 2010, in Guildford, Surrey, UK (England) ; by Stuart Chalmers}

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HOK, along with Beck Group, has designed a new museum to house the works of Salvador Dalí in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The architecture, greatly inspired by the great surrealist, “combines elements of the classical and the fantastical,”
according to the director of the museum. The design speaks to the essence of Dalí while incorporating functional
elements to combat Florida’s tough weather.

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[archdaily.]

(The consensus, however, seems to be that the outside of the museum's building, is, to put it lightly, viewed with strong words of discontentment.)

Michigan inmate Chip Jarrett uses cardboard, soap, paper clips and other found objects to make elaborate and realistic models of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which were included in the American Visionary Art Museum's "Wind in My Hair" show.

In a letter to Lynne Bailey, who collects and sells prison art, Jarrett describes how he came to make his bikes. He was depressed after the death of his mother, he wrote.

"I went to bed that night, dreading the fact that I had to get up for another day of heartbreak."
"The next morning, I went to dump the trash can from my room, and I had a vision that hit me like a ton of bricks!! I know this sounds crazy, but I couldn't help to wonder why I was throwing away all that good trash. I ... brought the trash back to my room and started to piece together something. Maybe it was just that I was bored and needed something to do, or maybe God planted a seed in me, but the product of the things from that garbage can was something I loved in my life and something that always allowed me to feel free.... the product of my first motorcycle made out of trash with a gas tank made out of a bar of soap!!"

Later, Jarrett wrote, "When I started making my bikes, I would go through the trash everyday looking for materials and the other guys used to laugh at me and make fun of me, but after seeing that first bike, they stopped making fun of me and started asking if they could get one."


[Visual Architectonics]

The search for immortality
 

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This is a statue depicting the Chinese myth of the archer Houyi shooting at the Sun in the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China.

Houyi was a mythological Chinese archer and the leader of Dongyi.
He is sometimes portrayed as a god of archery descended from heaven to aid mankind,
and sometimes as the chief of the Youqiong Tribe.

The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program is named after Houyi’s wife, the lunar deity Chang’e.

The Chang’e Program is at the moment monitoring and receiving data from the lunar orbiter Chang’e 2. Chang’e 1 orbited Moon on October 2007.


-- courtesy of It's Full of Stars

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Elegant, Simple and Functional Design: “Triomphe” Plywood Table

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Sometimes all it takes to create a functional design is a positive attitude, creativity and glue. At least this is the case with the “Triomphe” table designed by USIN-e in collaboration with the French company Jerhome. With strong legs and an interestingly curved tabletop, the product has an intriguing appearance, suited for a traditional dining room, as well as for a familiar and cozy outdoor arrangement. The “construction” process required a minimum of effort, as the elements were developed to combine in ingenious ways. There were no nails necessary to join the pieces together, just a relatively small amount of glue. The overall result is a strong dining table, with a unique look.

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Books, Books, Books


[paradise-mysteries.]

[Paper as Art]

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Photography by ervand anggryawan


[photographyserved.]

[Frontier Cowboys]

Evolver
 

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Evolver is a wooden construction build by 2nd year students
from the ALICE Studio at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de
Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. When you walk through it,
you’ll make a 720° turn and have an amazing panorama
on the surroundings of Zermatt.

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Photo by: Joel Tettamanti


[todayandtomorrow.]

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spanish artist maximo riera has designed 'octopus chair', a limited edition piece that is part of a larger
collection entitled 'animal chairs'. the series consists of more than fifteen different works where the marriage
between furniture and animal is the main component.

choosing the chair based on its banality in our everyday lives, the series looks to bring life to the basic
function of the object, making it more present while creating a stronger connection between the spectator,
the chair and its environment.

[designboom.]

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Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (Qatar) | designed by architect I. M. Pei (officially opened on Nov. 22, 2008).


{Photo taken by R.Alkuabisi ; photo taken on June 11, 2010 ; photo taken in Doha, Doha, QA.}

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The constructed shipping container guest house, designed by Poteet Architects.

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"Hard Work" in Dolnośląskie / Wroclaw -- Photo by: Maciek Purgal (Poland)

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“Kolonihavehus” by Tom Fruin.

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Juveniles -- Photo by: Eriko


{It's killing me that I can't quite pinpoint the sculptor. I'm going to ask exactly in what park this was taken.}

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Neustadt Kunsthofpassage - "Funnel Wall" : a raingutter musical instrument/installation; as seen in Dresden, Germany.

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The Buddha - Zhang Huan: Three Heads Six Arms ; San Francisco Arts Commission


{Photo by: telmo32 ; Photo taken in Civic Center, San Fransicso, CA, USA - loc: Asian Arts Museum}

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[TLTE!]

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The realisation that to achieve the best form, eschew any and all notions of perfection.

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63.02° as seen/built in Nakana, Tokyo, Japan, designed by Schemata Architecture Office.

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a residential SOHO house built at 63.02° to the road. It was completed in December of 2007.


[dezeen.]

Sneaker grows plant: OAT Shoes win at Fashion Awards -- (this falls under #design)
 

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Dutch company OAT have designed a range of biodegradable shoes with seeds embedded in the tongues.

OAT, a young innovative company founded two years ago by designer
Christiaan Maats, presented the fresh Virgin Collection at the Green
Fashion Competition of the AIFW 2011. The show featured the sneaker
planted in a white wheelbarrow pushed forward by a scantily clad Adam
and Eve. ‘Saved from the garden of Eden’ was the theme of the show,
building on the idea of a sneaker collection made of ‘all the good stuff
mother earth has to offer’.

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Called 'The Virgin Collection', the shoes can be discarded by burying them in the ground,
where they completely decompose and a bouquet of wild flowers grows to mark the place.

“The second-place winner at Amsterdam’s Green Fashion Awards last week,
OAT’s ‘Virgin Collection’ is the world’s first line of sneakers that, upon disposal,
will biodegrade and sprout trees. The materials—some developed by OAT itself—
are all easily broken down, and tree seeds packed in the lining will hopefully
leave saplings where your sneakers once stood.”

[dezeen. / good.is]

sculpture feature
 

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The Tech Junk Cities of Franco Recchia (Italy)

Italian artist Franco Recchia uses old computer parts to create his unique tech junk cities – mixed media sculptures that replicate famous metropolises.

Driven by a simple curiosity to see what is inside the computer case, Recchia takes apart old computers and uses their parts to create ingenious urban skylines. A “testament to what is beautiful, elegant and functional in the modern object” his tech-junk sculptures are made from various parts like radiators, old motherboards, various slots, and even case parts. These works of art are the artists way of showing that every thing made by the human hand has great beauty, if used in an original-enough way.

You can check out Franco Rocchia’s amazing tech-junk cities on ARTmine, where you can also purchase some of them. They are priced between $2,400 and $8,100, no the cheapest artworks you can find, but definitely among the most original.

[odditycentral.]

Jetee all of this stuff reminds me of stuff Ariadne from Inception would dream up.

re - my first "consumer": if you have enjoyed thus far, then, so, too... might you
benefit a bit from this book I just found out existed.

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Art-Book: A Touch of Code: Interactive Installations and Experiences

overview:
[crackajack.]

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Inky & Space Invader on rubikubism @ Lazarides – Rathbone Place.


-- excerpted view from the “Low Fidelity exposition”, by Space Invader (FR).