Friday, January 10, 2014

Cabin Nordmarka


Norwegian architecture firm Jarmund/Vigsnæs' 120 m² cabin in the woods maintains a cozy interior despite its very high ceilings and spaceship-like footprint. Decorated with large windows all around, this dwelling has excellent natural lighting and even more amazing views of the surrounding nature and potential Aurora Borealis.




Thursday, January 9, 2014

Kangaroo Rat

The quokka, the only member of the genus Setonix, known locally as the Kangaroo Rat, is a small macropod about the size of a domestic cat. This little herbivorous, nocturnal marsupial is native to some smaller islands off the coast of Western Australia. Super cute!





Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Summertime Sadness


I'm not sure what I was looking for but I found myself watching the music video for Video Games mesmerized by her voice. Lana Del Rey's voice is not so spectacular but the musty sound she carries in that particular song just captivated me. After listening to the previews of all songs on Born To Die, I settled on only two songs...





Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Reinventing Chopsticks


It seems impossible to redesign something that has been around for thousands of years in its apparently simplest form, yet Oki Sato of Nendo has achieved a series of impossibles!




Monday, January 6, 2014

Arlington Row

Do you think if it is possible to miss a place you've never been to before? As soon as I saw the photo of Arlington Row in Bibury, England, that is exactly what I felt. I almost smelled the air and felt the coolness of moist air against my skin. 

The hilly Cotswold region is a designated “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty” in and one of its loveliest villages is Bibury, where verdant meadows abut ancient stone cottages with steep pitched roofs. The River Coln, which bisects the village, teems with trout, but the most scenic area is Arlington Row, a lane of sepia-hued cottages built in the 17th century to house weavers from the nearby Arlington Mill. 

I hereby promise myself to visit this beautiful village in southwestern England.




Sunday, January 5, 2014

Trippy Belousov–Zhabotinsky


A Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction, or BZ reaction, is one of a class of reactions that serve as a classical example of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, resulting in the establishment of a nonlinear chemical oscillator. The only common element in these oscillating systems is the inclusion of bromine and an acid. The reactions are theoretically important in that they show that chemical reactions do not have to be dominated by equilibrium thermodynamic behavior. These reactions are far from equilibrium and remain so for a significant length of time. In this sense, they provide an interesting chemical model of nonequilibrium biological phenomena, and the mathematical models of the BZ reactions themselves are of theoretical interest.





Saturday, January 4, 2014

Unexpectedly Modern

Leafing through the pages of the latest Elle Decor magazine, I came across a Turkish designer whose adaptations of traditional lines into unexpectedly modern furniture are very refreshing. Zeynep Fadıllıoğlu is also the first and probably the only female to design a mosque. It is not hard to see the female touch in the lace-like elegant details and lively colors in this holy structure located in Istanbul.





Friday, January 3, 2014

Allo?

Jean Jullien's first solo show in London is a very disturbing yet exactly to the point revelation of social interactions of this day and age.





Thursday, January 2, 2014

Kamchatka Ice Cave

On the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far east of Russia, there exists a surreal-looking ice cave. The almost kilometer long tunnel was formed by a hot water spring flowing beneath the glacial ice fields on the flanks of the nearby Mutnovsky volcano. Because glaciers on Kamchatka volcanoes have been melting in recent years, the roof of this cave is now so thin that sunlight penetrates through it, eerily illuminating the icy structures within. Eerily beautiful!!!




Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Swiss Room Box

Aaaaaand I'm back ... from my holidays time off from blogging. Hope you all had a fantastic time with your loved ones.

As a foreshadowing to the travels I'm scheming for the coming year, I wanted to share the Swiss Room Box with you. This is a very compact system that turns your car into the perfect camping vehicle complete with tables, chairs, all kitchen luxuries, beds, showers, and more, all collapsible into a box that fits into your trunk.