Amsterdam-based designer Germans Ermičs has created a collection of coloured glass furniture with strong pigments that fade to clear (+ slideshow). (more…)
Germans Ermičs creates coloured glass furniture collection
Month: July 2016
A Stunning Private Residence in the Azpitia Valley in Peru
House in Azpitia is a private home located in Azpitia Valley, Lima, Peru. Completed in 2015, it was designed by Estudio Rafael Freyre. House in Azpitia by Estudio Rafael Freyre: “The house is located in Azpitia valley, in the coast of Lima, Peru. Approximately 90 Km (56 Mi) south of the city of Lima and 20 km (12 mi) away from the seashore. A place known by the local vineyards..
Nartarchitects Designs Dramatic Museum in Former Coal Mine
Courtesy of Nartarchitects
NARTARCHITECTS has released the plans for its Csontváry Museum in Pécs, Hungary, which will feature the work of Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, a Hungarian painter known for his technical skill and spiritual messages.
The design of the Museum reflects Csontváry’s symbolic and interpretive work. Rather than utilizing the typical “plaza-museum” typology, the Csontváry Museum will be located on the outskirts of the city in a crater of a former coal mine near a lake. Through this location, the space gives a dramatic ambiance suited to its program.
Courtesy of Nartarchitects
Courtesy of Nartarchitects
Inside the building, this atmosphere is further created through the contrasting duality of light and dark, as the space features an enclosed, dark core, and a floating, light communication and exhibition system. This contrast additionally applies to the structural form, with the heart of the building formed from ferro-concrete, surrounded by the lighter, steel load-bearing structure.
Courtesy of Nartarchitects
Courtesy of Nartarchitects
The museum and its context generate a strong visual tension similar to the emotional tension on Csontváry paintings. The white, glossy, floating cube on the top of the crater encloses the reddish orange “hearth” of the building that recalls the glittering feel of his most famous paintings. The revitalization of the coalmine can hopefully be interpreted by future generations as the painter’s symbolic message echoing from the past.
Courtesy of Nartarchitects
Courtesy of Nartarchitects
Courtesy of Nartarchitects
- Architects: Csaba Kovács, Tamás Máté, Áron Vass-Eysen
- Location: Pécs, Hungary
- Architect Collaborator: Daniel Gerse
- Client: Hungarian Government
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Courtesy of Nartarchitects
News via Nartarchitects.
Isay Weinfeld to design relocated The Four Seasons restaurant in New York
Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld has been chosen to design the interior for New York’s The Four Seasons restaurant when it relocates from its iconic Seagram Building home. (more…)
St. Elie Church / Maroun Lahoud
Courtesy of Maroun Lahoud
- Architects: Maroun Lahoud
- Location: Brih, Lebanon
- Design Team: Salam Geha, Dany Ajouz
- Area: 850.0 sqm
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Courtesy of Maroun Lahoud
- Structural: Bureau International de Genie
- Electrical – Hvac: EP Projects
- Acoustics: Pierre Geara
- Construction Management: Ministry of Displaced
- Contractor: Maalouf Contracting and Trading
Courtesy of Maroun Lahoud
The project arose with the will to gather by celebrating the elements of nature. It revolves around two squares and entails St. Elie Church and a semi-sunken base.
Courtesy of Maroun Lahoud
Plan 2
Courtesy of Maroun Lahoud
Radiant with its white bush hammered stone cladding, the church solemnly sets in the landscape. Its aspect embodies the characteristics of the Maronite Church: pure massing and flat roof. The interior is crafted with indirect lighting schemes: zenithal lighting above the altar, sacristy and confessional, and parietal along the lateral circulations; the white walls seem to diffuse natural light, the marble floor reflecting it in turn.
Courtesy of Maroun Lahoud
The base, deriving its language from the region’s cultivated terraces, remodels the topography of the hillside to house the multipurpose hall and its annexes. Its dry stone walling, extracted from the site and procured from the village’s demolished houses during the war, anchors the project in the ground by mimicry.
Courtesy of Maroun Lahoud
Section
Courtesy of Maroun Lahoud
Due to its location and the contrast of its materials, the project tends to create a new focal point in the Shouf’s valley of Gold.
Courtesy of Maroun Lahoud
ARCHIPLAN Designs a Contemporary Home in Bomporto, Italy
Casa EFFE-E is a private home located in Bomporto, Italy. It was designed by the Mantua-based firm ARCHIPLAN in 2016. Casa EFFE-E by ARCHIPLAN: “The project involves an old barn partially damaged by the earthquake. A massive structural intervention has made the building suitable to support other similar events. The environment is characterized by the presence of disused abandoned farm buildings and the cultivated fields of the Modena plain. The..
Corbyn even more popular with Labour members after no confidence motion, poll suggests – politics live
- Theresa May to hold first meeting of new cabinet
- First legal challenge to Brexit process in high court
- Commons votes for Trident renewal
- Read Tuesday’s Brexit briefing
9.09am BST
Claire has already mentioned the YouGov poll of Labour members in the Times (paywall) but it is worth looking at the figures in more detail. YouGov polled Labour members during the leadership contest last year and their findings turned out be be a reliable guide to the eventual outcome.
Here are the key points.
Exclusive Times / YouGov poll – Jeremy Corbyn’s ratings go UP in last fortnight (from net +3 to +14) http://pic.twitter.com/av52WkggfY
Exclusive – Jeremy Corbyn beats BOTH Owen Smith and Angela Eagle in run-off ballots – with 57% saying they back JC http://pic.twitter.com/t69EGfNhx1
8.36am BST
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Claire.
If you want to know how your MP voted in the Trident debate last night, we have a full set of party-by-party voting lists here.
Related: Trident: how your MP voted
8.22am BST
Hilary Benn says he has no leadership ambitions himself:
I am supporting Angela [Eagle] … it’s about time for Labour to have a woman leader.
There is a strong view … that there should be only one challenger.
I think that would be preferable, it’s the view of most MPs.
Jeremy has made a huge contribution and will continue to do so.
The Labour party is not going to split … It doesn’t belong to one particular group or any one individual.
I trust Labour party members … will realise, for all Jeremy’s qualities … how can he credibly turn to the people of Britain and say elect me as your prime minister?
8.16am BST
Hilary Benn, formerly the shadow foreign secretary until his middle-of-the-night sacking sent Corbyn’s shadow cabinet spiralling, is now speaking on the Today programme about last night’s Trident vote.
The longstanding policy of the Labour party has been to support the maintenance of our nuclear deterrent.
No one for a second thought that Jeremy would do anything other than stand up and express his long-held view … but it’s not the view of the Labour party.
Britain giving it up would not persuade any of the other nuclear states to follow our example.
8.05am BST
After apparently crashing shortly after opening the window for registering as a supporter – which, in exchange for £25, gets you a vote in the Labour leadership election – the Labour website now seems to be functioning without problems.
Until 5pm UK time on Wednesday, those who fancy it – and can promise they’re on board with the “aims and values of the Labour party and … not a supporter of any organisation opposed to it” – can sign up here.
7.55am BST
Sarah Wollaston, who chairs that health select committee, is on the Today programme.
She says MPs on the committee accept that health spending is going up, but that money has been shifted out of budgets for public health and training, as well as what she calls the “ongoing squeeze” on social care.
7.46am BST
The other item on the agenda when the Commons health select committee meets is, of course, its very critical report about pledges made by the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, on NHS funding.
As the Guardian’s health policy editor, Denis Campbell, reports:
The cross-party group of MPs refutes the health secretary’s persistent claim the government will have given the NHS in England an extra £8.4bn by 2020-21 compared with 2015-16. That was one of the Conservatives’ key pledges in last year’s general election campaign, and was repeated many times after that by David Cameron and George Osborne while they were still the prime minister and the chancellor.
It claims ministers have in effect performed a sleight of hand by cutting other parts of the Department of Health’s budget, such as public health and NHS staffing, in order to give NHS England itself a big increase in its budget. Critics have previously likened the strategy to “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
7.33am BST
Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, appears before MPs on the health select committee later on Tuesday. And a column by Stevens in the Telegraph today gives a strong hint of what he’ll be saying:
The NHS wasn’t on the Brexit ballot. But it often felt as if it was. Emblazoned on the Battlebus, both Leave and Remain wrapped themselves in the mantle of a strong and better funded health service.
We’re still going to need committed professionals from abroad. Australian-style immigration points systems all admit nurses, doctors and other skilled experts.
It should be completely uncontroversial to provide early reassurance to international NHS employees about their continued welcome in this country.
7.00am BST
Good morning and welcome to our daily politics live blog.
Here’s a rattle-through all you need to know to set you up for Tuesday, before the live blog takes you along the way.
The person with the fewest nominations is Jeremy.
Party policy is also to review our policies.
Fifteen minutes into the PM’s Trident speech, and backbench MP David Cameron gets bored and surreptitiously pulls out his iPhone.
It will be the responsibility of everyone sitting around the Cabinet table to make Brexit work for Britain …
We will not allow the country to be defined by Brexit; but instead build the education, skills and social mobility to allow everyone to prosper from the opportunities of leaving the EU.
Is she personally prepared to authorise a nuclear strike that can kill a hundred thousand innocent men, women and children?
Yes.
The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 said that the prime minister could only appoint someone who appears to be qualified by experience. The lord chancellor is the only job in cabinet where there are personal conditions, laid down by statute, which have to be satisfied by the holder.
There is no one who could possibly suggest that Ms Truss met the bar set by that law. I wonder if the prime minister was even told about the statutory requirements before she appointed her.
What Owen Smith and other Leave deniers clearly believe, however, is that millions of voters have taken an ill-informed and reckless decision, one that proper grown-ups should have the chance to revoke. But instead of trying to put the sand back into the egg-timer, perhaps they should consider that for many Brexiters, their choice will have been as considered and closely argued as that of EU champions and liberals.
In terms of their own lives, leaving Europe and seeing an end to freedom of travel, or trade tariffs, or whatever else they object to, is obviously preferable. Who are Mr Smith and people like me to say that their view is less valid than ours, or that in their situation we might not feel the same? Are the majority of those 17.4 million far worse educated than the 16 million Remainers? It’s unlikely.
On Monday, [Boris] Johnson was gaffe-free and trying his best to be statesmanlike and switching between English and French. He told reporters the UK would maintain a ‘leading role’ in Europe and was not going to abandon it ‘in any way’ after leaving the EU …
There was even praise for the way in which Johnson spoke about the events in Nice. ‘Johnson spoke without looking at his notes at all,’ said another European diplomat. ‘He spoke in good French, saying the British people would stand united behind the French.’
Dunno about you guys but I feel sooo much safer with nukes…..phew……close one.
Last Monday, he was the Prime Minister. This Monday, David Cameron watches from the back rows http://pic.twitter.com/etoTxMa3lF
Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/29Qkp9A
celestialphotography: Sunset from the pool deck, Key…
AD Interviews: Sergei Tchoban, Russian Architect and Artist Shares his Collection
We had the pleasure to interview Sergei Tchoban, member of the Urban Advisory board of the City of Moscow, partner of the Berlin office NPS Tchoban Voss and of the Moscow office SPEECH. The Russian architect is also an artist and owner of a vast collection of architectural drawings.
Tchoban attended the Imperial Academy of Arts, and his fine arts background is very present in his drawings and his collection. During the interview with ArchDaily, Tchoban highlights the importance of drawing as the official language of architecture, as well as collecting and displaying it.
With Tchoban’s large archive of architectural drawings—from Russian futurists to contemporary figures such as Zaha Hadid and Oscar Niemeyer—he founded the Museum of Architectural Drawing in Berlin. Late last month Tchoban opened his latest exhibition Bridges & Spires, a reflection of past and future presented in over 60 large format drawings and watercolors of existing and imaginary structures and ruins, as well as futuristic fantasies of context and gravity defying urban pasts and futures.
Tchoban was the curator of the Russia Pavilion in Venice in 2010 and 2012, as well as the designer for the Russian pavilion at the Expo Milano 2015.
Venice Biennale 2012: i-city / Russia Pavilion
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5 Ways To Enjoy Life More
Sounds simple enough, right? Just enjoy life. Don’t we all want to be happy and cheery and live a life of joy? Well who wouldn’t? Yet for some, this is almost something that is seemingly next to impossible. Some of us have many struggles that seem to get in the way and come in the form of poor health, poor income, negative relationships (including marital) etc. It sometimes fee ls like it’s been one step forward, two steps back, day in and day out. Plain and simple, nothing ever go es right and there’s nothing to be happy about. How then is it possible to enjoy life?
Happiness can’t be bought and paid for. Happiness comes from inside though too many of us still think that if we had more money we’d be happy. Would you be? Quite possibly you’d be slightly happier but only for a short time is my guess. When we purchase happiness, it’s a band aid, a temporary fix to a larger deeper problem. But what’s the problem? Well only you will know what is keeping you from happiness and it may be time to find out exactly what they are. When you do that, you will certainly be able to enjoy life a whole lot more. In the meantime, here are a few ways to enjoy life more.
1. Chase butterflies.
Simple, easy, fun, zero stress and so enjoyable. Why? What’s not to love about going to a butterfly garden or even just a field in your neighbourhood, admire butterflies and try to catch them? See how many you can catch, if any at all. And when you finally do, take a moment to admire and enjoy its beauty.
2. Have a picnic by the lake.
Or a beach or any place that brings you joy. Pack a small light lunch or snacks, a blanket, a book and go relax and be in nature surrounded by all the beauty around you. It’s not only breathtaking, it’s also very soothing and relaxing. A total mind decompression if you will. No distractions, just the wind, the sights, and the freedom.
3. Take a walk in the park.
You’d be surprised how many new people you may meet, how many new things you may discover and how great the exercise is for you. You’ll feel better, have more energy, get a nice healthy dose of Vitamin D and maybe even make a new friend or two. Not into walking in the park? Go down to the lake or some other place that you love. Walking is a great way to chill out and enjoy life.
4. Join a club.
It could be a reading club, a chess club, a scrapbooking club or whatever hobby you have been enjoying for a long time. When you join like minded people you not only learn and get to share tips and tricks, but you expand your social circle which could lead to so many different possibilities. Maybe even a new partner if you happen to be on the lookout.
5. Take a new class.
Learn a new skill. Have you always wanted to learn ballroom dancing? Go join a class. You don’t always need a partner for these if you don’t have one. The instructor is usually more than happy to be your partner. Wish you were a better singer or dancer or painter? Find a class, join a group. Expand your horizons. Go and do more of the things you love.
Too many of us have dreams and interests and things that we absolutely love to do but just don’t get to do enough of them if any at all. Why don’t we? Why do we limit ourselves to work and home and work and home? What keeps us from getting out and learning, meeting and growing? We are the ones holding ourselves back. It’s time to break free and go enjoy life more. What you want, wants you too. We are here to be happy.
The post 5 Ways To Enjoy Life More appeared first on Change your thoughts.
Sig Nordal 