WIDN blog: February 2009 Archives
Tom Savini - Extreme Makeover Home Edition
February 27, 2009
Some people get news delivered to their inbox from a broad range of sources across the globe, so they can start each day well informed of key issues and trends affecting society. I don't. I get the Fangoria newsletter.
Fairy fright on the Isle of Wight
February 26, 2009
To me, the Isle of Wight means HMP Parkhurst. However, there is a new challenger in the competition for 'building on the Isle of Wight that contains the most nutters'...
I’ve never been an ‘imps and fairies’ kind of girl, preferring my mythological little friends to be the kind found in Leprechaun 4: In Space. I always considered the notion of fairies and elves as realms of ridiculous fantasy embraced by the kind of people who buy life like baby dolls out of the back of cheap magazines.
So, it was with great disgust that I read about this new fairy hotel, the Enchanted Manor, which I stumbled upon when browsing 'quality news sheet' the Daily Mail.
The couple who own this once magnificent Victorian manor house have transformed it from an already successful and established, dignified hotel, in to a twinkling magical grotto complete with 'lovely' mosaics and a decorating scheme you'd probably find in IKEA's Room 101.
Wow! They've really made a splash with this Roman themed swimming pool - make your own version at home simply by placing a selection of garden ornaments here and there. Bagsy hang my towel on Caesar!
MMMM... dive in to madness!
Seeing that it costs hundreds of pounds to stay here, I am more convinced than ever of the potency of the phrase "a fool and their money is easily parted" especially if said fool likes fairies.
Exhibtion - Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge
Guardian Angel Handbag by Carolien Vlieger and Hein van Dam
When I came across the exhibition, Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge, currently being shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, my thoughts on art were unsurprisingly provoked.
Sunway - Stand up desk
Sunway's stand up desk. Image from www.schooloutfitters.com
As I type this, read through my email and sub stories this morning, I continuously swing my chair side to side. I do it without thinking and always have whenever given a swivel chair.
Pierre Kracht - Wrapped
February 25, 2009
It is no secret to those poor souls, my friends and family, that I have a love for all things gothic. From the architecture, the clothes, the music, even the make up from time to time, it is a style I adore. Often it is a case of a style I bore people with (you have yet to hear my lecture on the superiority of The Cure to most popular artists today) but I think this unique and gothic approach to furniture will interest more than just me.
Thai Temple made from beer bottles
February 19, 2009
Thai Temple made of beer bottles
When I used to work in a pub it distressed me that at the end of every night many bottles would simply be thrown in to the bin. Why not recycle them? Apparently it’s not ‘economical’. Well, when I read about some monks who have built a temple out of discarded beer bottles in the Metro on my way to work today I was really pleased to see that not all bottles end up in the bin.
Stanislav Katz - Console Book Shelf
February 16, 2009
During these cold winter nights and the February freeze I like nothing more than to curl up in front of a fire with a good book. OK, more often than not a good newspaper supplement, and preferably a tasty glass of Shiraz too, but you get the picture.
DRAM - reused glass chandelier
At first this light fixture struck me as the kind of blurry haphazard image you might stumble across after a heady night out. However, the more I pondered the strategic placement of the glasses and the curved forms of the tumblers suspended mid-air, the more I started to relish the strange and divine distortion.
Casket Furniture - Coffin Furnishings
"Why buy a casket for just one day? At Casket Furniture, our products can last you a lifetime, and still be the perfect vehicle to carry you to the great beyond. Whether it's a couch, shelf, or end table, our products are designed to blend effortlessly into most contemporary interior designs. Every product can also be transformed into a high-quality casket at your time of need." Hmm, Casket Furniture's website is certainly something to think about, but really, would you want to be eating tea and cake at someone's house, worrying about leaving a ring on the coffee table... that they are one day going to be buried in?
Thought not.
Apple Store - 5th Avenue, New York
The interior of the 5th Avenue Apple store in New York
Whether it’s Justin Long and John Hodgman in the US or Robert Webb and David Mitchell in the UK, my answer is always the same: I’m a Mac, and have been for nearly five years, converting two brothers, both parents and my husband along the way.
Energy saved is money earned... but are our builders listening?
I've been in Hyderabad for six weeks and each passing week has seen the mercury rise by a degree or two. And with each passing day power outages have tended to become the norm rather than the exception. What began as a half-hour power cut has now reached a full three hour scheduled power outage per day. Of course, there are several unscheduled outages that blue-collar workers like me manage to avoid, thanks to uninterrupted power supply at work.
True to form, we believe that every power outage is the result of government apathy. In a nation of one billion, just about 400 million use electricity and out of this hardly a million would think of energy conservation. So, energy efficiency is not something that assumes priority in the minds of a power user or those who provide for it.
So, it was hardly surprising to learn that none of the 100-plus builders and real estate developers in Hyderabad had even heard of power-saver lighting systems. I called representatives of 20-odd builders during the weekend and only one confirmed the use of energy-efficient lighting in his apartments. But, there was a catch... the systems he has used in 2009 went out of fashion in the United States three years ago.
The Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh. If its incandescent lighting were changed to CFL, it could save 30% of its energy bill
Turn up the heat
February 13, 2009
I’ve been thinking a lot about the temperature lately. As an Australian living in London in the wintertime surely it’s to be expected. I’m not bothered by the fact that it’s so hot in Australia right now the best thing to do is go to beach, mainly because in the UK it’s too cold to even think.
Zaha Hadid Triflow tap launch
February 12, 2009
On 28th January 2009, fellow WIDN scribe Nicole and I attended what I was simply referring to as 'a tap launch'. I was put in charge of directions to the venue - 46 Portland Place, London - but like a fool I forgot the map and decided to trust my instincts. Needless to say, soon we were using Google on our phones - and a husband at a PC somewhere - to find out where we should be.
Johannes Hemann - The Storm Furniture
Furniture is normally such a stable affair. A piece may flow through curves or have sharp clean lines but tends towards the ‘static’ and shows no movement. With these new pieces by German designer Johannes Hemann though, the tide may be changing.
Hot tubs - The best cure for London cold
I come from the heartland of America, Minnesota. We’re hearty folk who endure harsh winter conditions with a mix of complaining and pride. Our German and Scandinavian ancestors came to settle on its barren ice field and for reasons no one is really sure of, we decided to stick around.
Boomtown so nearly gets it right
I'm in Hyderabad, economic boomtown (with certain reservations), former home of the richest dynasty in the world, backdrop and star of one of my favourite books - and, most importantly, home to WIDN's fantastic team of web developers and researchers.
As you might expect from a city which has not only a rich cultural and political history, but also 7% annual population growth, there are huge contrasts between new and old; finished and unfinished; and shiny glass-and-steel and tumbledown shacks.
It starts at the nearly-new airport, designed by long-time Norman Foster collaborator (and designer of two of the world's better airports - Stansted and Chek Lap Kok) Winston Shu. The design looks great; and the passenger flows throughout the departures side work well.
And yet, for the $6bn spent on the project, it falls down in some really basic areas - and I'm fairly sure none of them are down to Mr Shu's original masterplan.
Designer Tom Karen at Central St Martins
‘Make more with less’ was the title of Tom Karen’s talk at Central St Martins last night, a race at high speed through the career of one of the UK’s great product designers. Karen was in conversation with Stephen Hayward, associate professor, in front of an audience packed into the Cochrane Theatre, seated alongside to a pristine orange Bond Bug, one of his best-loved vehicles from 1970. Also parked casually on the stage was a Raleigh Chopper, and next to Karen a marble run, the toy he designed for Kiddicraft, and which was subsequently copied endlessly.
Vicky is editor of Blueprint, the leading magazine of architecture and design.
Read the full piece at the Blueprint website
Limlip - Fiber Optic Chandeliers
February 11, 2009
Guess what, there's more to fiber optics than cheap Christmas trees, battery powered dolphin ornaments from the pound shop and cable TV um, cables. That's right, fiber optics are venturing out of the 'geeky' and 'tacky' zones in to the area branded 'covetable'.
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