💙 Heart of the sea on 500px by Jose Antonio Hervas, Ibiza,… http://ift.tt/295PDsh
💙 Heart of the sea on 500px by Jose Antonio Hervas,…
Author: signordal
8 Crucial Time Management
Even though we are all such motivated and inspired people, There are some days where it’s a struggle even just to get out of bed! I’m sure you know the feeling. It feels great to work, and it feels great to relax. Life is about balance. We need to have a nice balance between responsibility and relaxation in order to have a fulfilling life.
Our responsibilities through the week often add up to so much that we have a hard time finding time for ourselves or for our leisure activities. Sometimes the problem is not that we are too busy, but we are too distracted. We are distracted by media and laziness and even if we only have a few real responsibilities, it takes us a long time to get them done because we are disorganized. Here’s a few things you can do to help smooth out the schedule.
1. Listen to audiobooks
Hopefully you are someone that enjoys reading, learning and literature. Of course, we are all busy people and we all wish we had more time to read more, but we never seem to have enough time in our day for it. Consider all the time you have when you are doing “nothing;” that could be driving somewhere, commuting, or walking your dog. This is time you could be using to do that precious reading and studying. Through the course of a year, if you just listened to audio courses while you were doing your daily chores, you could probably learn another language by then!
2. Use a white or blackboard
If you’re not already, get on board and purchase a whiteboard for yourself. They are affordable and easy to find thanks to the rise in entrepreneurship and commerce in modern times. Place it next to your working station. Having a whiteboard around is handy when you have fleeting ideas and schedules that you need to write down right away but can’t be bothered to find a decent notepad, open it, find a working pen, and write down your ideas. Your marker will be within hand’s reach and your ideas can simply be recorded and erased as quickly as you want. You can create sections for different ideas, and get a small or large board to suit your needs.
3. Consider quality
We are busy people and our schedules often lapse our sense of quality and judgement. We are so busy trying to cram everything in that we forget to mind the finer details. At the end of the day, it is more important and rewarding to finish one thing very well, than a hundred things unsatisfactorily.
Break down your day, your schedule, and pick out the most important things. Remember you have your whole life to get everything done. Don’t make yourself feel rushed.
4. Define your priorities
Likewise, consider what are the most important things for you to do. Everyday when wake up you have a number of things to do and at the end of the day you want to make sure you feel satisfied by your accomplishments. Determine what your most important chores are, and complete them in a way that makes you feel satisfied. Do not overwhelm yourself or you will never take pleasure in your achievements.
5. Plan in advance
Take your day, your week, your month. Everyday we have an idea of what we need to do. Get that whiteboard out and start writing down your duties: try doing it weekly to start. As you go through the week, you’ll be able to cross off or push over your responsibilities and at the end of the week you can see how much or little you’ve accomplished, and what changes you need to make to succeed. Don’t set your goals too high – make sure all your ideas are digestible.
6. Schedule isolation
Sometimes that little rectangular phone in our pocket just seems to be vibrating all day. Notifications are flying in from Facebook, Email, Instagram, Twitter, or anything you’re using. You need to take a bit of white collar meditation sometimes and enjoy your alone time – no phone, no computer. Nowadays due to the speed of social media we have a constant awareness of whether we are receiving messages or not. Schedule some time for yourself where you are not focussed on your internet or phone life, and let your mind recuperate.
7. Increase your daytime hours
It’s no secret that we are much more focused during the day that not. At night time our body has been trained to feel more tired, become hungry, and get ready for bed. During the day is when our body is at maximum strength for productivity. This is keeping our body in tune with the circadian rhythm of nature. Use the most of your daylight hours to get everything done, and spend your nights unwinding, taking advantage of the evening cool.
8. Make your day longer
How about creating more sunlight hours in your day then? Studies show that people who wake up early and go to bed early are the most productive among us. It may sound like sacrilege to wake up at five, six A.M., or before the sun rises, but waking up with the sun will kickstart your day into motion for you. By the time noon rolls around you will be ready for lunch and surprised by how much you’d gotten done already! By evening time you’ll have been able to do as much as you can in a healthy way throughout the day, and you will be naturally ready for bed and ready to do it again.
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Reporting from the Front: 6 Months in 5 Minutes
This week the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale—Reporting From the Front—will close. Six months have passed and hundreds of thousands of architects, urbanists, designers and tourists have perused both the National Participations (of which more were represented this year than ever before) and the central exhibition curated by Alejandro Aravena – the first South American to direct the most prestigious event on the architectural calendar. ArchDaily has compiled our most extensive coverage of the event and, as the 15th incarnation of Biennale shuts its gates for the last time, our collection of articles, interviews and publication excerpts remains permanently accessible.
Before then, however, we invite you to take a look at our short film—presented in collaboration with PLANE—SITE—which celebrates the breadth and value of the hundreds of exhibitions and installations that have been on display.
© Laurian Ghinitoiu
Politics live – readers’ edition: Friday 25 November
Share breaking news, leave links to interesting articles online and chat about the week’s political events in our open thread
8.51am GMT
I’m not writing my usual Politics Live blog today so, as an alternative, here’s Politics Live: readers’ edition. It is intended to be a place where you can catch up with the latest news and find links to good politics blogs and articles on the web.
Please feel free to use this as somewhere you can comment on any of the day’s political stories – just as you do during the daily blog. It would be particularly useful for readers to flag up new material in the comments – breaking news or blogposts or tweets that are worth passing on because someone is going to find them interesting.
Politics blog | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2gmGZEL
Slab House / Bureau de Change Architects
© Ben Blossom
- Architects: Bureau de Change Architects
- Location: London, UK
- Architect In Charge: Billy Mavropoulos, Katerina Dionysopoulou
- Area: 50.0 m2
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Ben Blossom
- Engineer: FTF Designs Ltd.
- Construction: Stec construction
- Landscape Architect: Joh Bates Studio
© Ben Blossom
The focal point of the project is a concrete waffle shaped roof, which sits aloft the new living area. Its pre-fabricated peaks and troughs create trenches for rooftop planting, softening the volume, establishing a connection with the leafy surroundings and creating pleasing views from the floors above. From the garden, the roof trenches are out of sight, giving the immediate effect of a simple concrete slab, which contrasts with the texture of the original building.
© Ben Blossom
The underside of the new roof is exposed to create the living room ceiling, its pronounced ‘beams’ created by the sunken roof planters above. The motion of the waffle ceiling creates a satisfying rhythm, which also offers a logical position for a substantial skylight that traverses the full width of the extension.
Section
This strip of natural light illuminates the kitchen, which would otherwise be overcast by its position, set back within the footprint of the original house. Bureau de Change Director Billy Mavropoulos said: ‘We wanted to create a volume, whose form would be meaningful both inside and out. Inside, the motion of the roof slab breaks up the minimal surfaces of living area. Outside, it creates appealing views through hollows and humps, which bring nature and concrete into immediate proximity.
© Ben Blossom
Although the living and kitchen areas are open plan, a selective palette of materials has been used to visually define these spaces and create an atmospheric contrast. In the living area, the materiality of the ceiling is echoed in concrete flooring, which stretches to meet the threshold of the kitchen. There, it creeps up the face of the kitchen island and turns back on itself to create a sculptural addition, in the form of a breakfast bar.
Plan
The boundary of the kitchen is marked graphically, by a transition into rich monochromatic blue that floods the surfaces of the space, including its resin floor. The concrete appears to force its way into the kitchen’s footprint, creating a pathway around which the resin floor wraps. Within the kitchen, monolithic volumes have a masking effect, concealing ample storage on one side and a cloakroom on the other. This allows the monochrome quality of the space to take the lead. Door edges are cleaved back to create geometric insets, which form handles, and whose elongated shape are repeated on the ceiling to create embedded lighting.
© Ben Blossom
Product Description. Although the living and kitchen areas are open plan, a selective palette of materials has been used to visually define these spaces and create an atmospheric contrast. In the living area, the materiality of the ceiling is echoed in concrete flooring, which stretches to meet the threshold of the kitchen. There, it creeps up the face of the kitchen island and turns back on itself to create a sculptural addition, in the form of a breakfast bar. The boundary of the kitchen is marked graphically, by a transition into rich monochromatic blue that floods the surfaces of the space, including its resin floor. The concrete appears to force its way into the kitchen’s footprint, creating a pathway around which the resin floor wraps.
I Like Design Studio Creates a Private Residence in Bangkok
Nawamin 24 House is a private home located in Bangkok, Thailand. It was designed by I Like Design Studio in 2013. Photos by: Soopakorn Srisakul
Sonnesgade 11 / SLETH architects
© Rasmus Hjortshøj / C O A S
- Architects: SLETH architects
- Location: Sonnesgade 11, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
- Partners In Charge: Søren Leth, Rasmus Therkildsen
- Area: 2800.0 m2
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Rasmus Hjortshøj / C O A S
- Engineer : Søren Jensen engineers
© Rasmus Hjortshøj / C O A S
As the city of Aarhus prepares for 2017, a number of urban districts are being transformed from industry to modern city districts. One of the main culture venues in 2017 will be Godsbanen – a new lively and cultural district on the old freight terminal area. The new mixed building by SLETH is situated nearby Godsbanen and reflects the transformation from industry to lively cultural urban district.
© Rasmus Hjortshøj / C O A S
The starting point for the design of the new office building is an ambition to reuse and rethink spatial and material quality on the former industrial site. The new building is directly grounded on the original underground industrial constructions, which acts as the building’s foundation.
© Rasmus Hjortshøj / C O A S
The building consists of 3 stacked layers of 50 meters long office floors supported by a core wall. Underneath the office floors, where the sloping terrain defines an opening, the restaurant is located facing the street. The parking garage and a wine retailer is located under the sloping landscape. The building has a high degree of flexibility and interaction between the floors, which enhances the meeting situations between different users of the building. The individual floors are open, flexible working environments with the service functions integrated as a single architectural element in the eastern facade of the building.
© Rasmus Hjortshøj / C O A S
Axonometric
© Rasmus Hjortshøj / C O A S
Around the building, the sloped asphalt terrain is forming the outdoor areas for terraces, bikes and gardens. The building´s expression is a collage of elements reflecting the surroundings with 6 facades creating a dialogue with the mixed vague context.
© Rasmus Hjortshøj / C O A S
The project itself is a 1:1 realisation of the architecture and challenges of the office SLETH as both landowner, developer and architects – based on the potential of Sonnesgade.
Courtesy of SLETH architects
Product Description. The building features a large range of standard industrial materials: glass, steel, concrete. As a contrast to the hard industrial materials, the custom made doors and furniture (both inside and outside) are done in oak and similar warm materials.
© Rasmus Hjortshøj / C O A S
© Rasmus Hjortshøj / C O A S
Black Friday Deal: Get 50% Off Blinkist Forever
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In case you aren’t familiar with it, Blinkist is a service that gives you the key insights of non-fiction books so that you don’t need to read entire books. Instead of spending days on a book, you just need to spend around 15 minutes. As a result, you can learn from a lot more books in the same amount of time. It’s a good way to learn more in less time.
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Click here to get the deal. I’m sure you will find the resource useful.
Tokyo Plaza / Nikken Sekkei
© Koji Fujii / Nacasa & Partners Inc.
- Architects: Nikken Sekkei
- Location: Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan
- Design Team: Taro Nakamoto + Takayuki Sakamoto + Ryo Hatano + Seiji Yamada + Atsuhiko Amakasu / Nikken Sekkei
- Area: 50.093 m2
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Koji Fujii / Nacasa & Partners Inc.
- Interior Works: Nikken Sekkei + infix design inc.
- C&S [Civil&Structural Engineer]: : Yuji Yamano + Satoru Ueno / Nikken Sekkei
- M&E [Mechanical&Electrical Engineer]: Kosuke Sato + Koichiro Hara / Nikken Sekkei
- Client: Tokyu Land Corporation
- Site Area: 3,767m2
© Koji Fujii / Nacasa & Partners Inc.
From the architect. Located in Ginza, which is the most renowned commercial district in Japan, and also facing a major junction Sukiyabashi Crossing, Tokyu Plaza Ginza is a large commercial building with a floor area of 50,000 sqm. The site sits at the connection point to Yurakucho and Hibiya disctrict, and can be described as “Gate of Ginza”. Surrounded by roads on all sides, the project is a “1 block full development” which is a rare case in this district.
© Koji Fujii / Nacasa & Partners Inc.
1st Floor Plan
© Koji Fujii / Nacasa & Partners Inc.
Based on the concept “Vessel of light”, the building is designed as a glass “vessel” inspired by the Japanese traditional craft of glass cut “Edo Kiriko”. In order to realize a commercial building which interacts with the city, the façade is mainly composed of glass. This reveals the inner activities to the city, and enables an urban feeling. On the other hand, the three-dimensional façade composition results in a diverse optical phenomenon derived from transmission and reflection of sunlight. The façade shows various expressions changing by time and weather. While attracting with a symbolic form, the reflection of surrounding cityscape and climate makes this architecture merge into the entire cityscape. The Tokyu Ginza Plaza is a harmonic addition to the urbanscape of Ginza.
© Koji Fujii / Nacasa & Partners Inc.
Facade as urban phenomenon
The facade of this Tokyu Plaza Ginza Building consists of three dimensional glass planes, which creates a delicate phenomenon of light reflection and transmission. In other words, the facade variously reflects the urban scenery, the interior commercial ambience, and the dynamic activities surrounding this building. By reconstituting these diverse scenic elements, the building facade transforms itself into an urban phenomenon. SSG was adopted so as not to expose the framing of the glass. Like a carved glass pattern seen on the surface of Edo Kiriko, the facade creates a large 3D diamond shaped pattern, which is 6 stories high and 500 mm deep. This large scale pattern of the façade makes the building stand out from the surrounding context. The unitized glass assembly is comprised of both low iron glass and heat reflective coated glass, in a way that emphasizes the three-dimensional profile of the building form. The low iron glass panel is treated with a 1mm ceramic dot pattern of gradient density. At night this plane is illuminated by light fixtures integrated into the interior aluminum mullions.
© Koji Fujii / Nacasa & Partners Inc.
Elevated Public Space
The KIRIKO LOUNGE is a public space situated at the middle level of the building, providing a broad view of the city. By its 27 meter high atrium, and the vantage point above the heavy traffic of the Sukiyabashi Crossing, the lounge opens up to the commercial activities of the city.
© Koji Fujii / Nacasa & Partners Inc.
In the high density and limited spatial conditions of Ginza, such an open and elevated space offers an opportunity for people to gather, and create connection. The continuity between the architecture and urban context promotes the attractive nature of this city. This three dimensional interpretation of urban space will generate a new chance to produce activities not limited within the site but also involving the urban context.
© Koji Fujii / Nacasa & Partners Inc.
Umbria, Italyphoto via wieslawa
