Cliched Christmas Card + BMW M5 = FUN

Christmas card result of an illustrator performing his craft in the new BMW M5. You can see the video of the process in the link below:

http://fastestchristmascard.ch/

Candy's City

New Orleans artist and graphic designer Candy Chang has been finding new ways to express the wants and needs of her neighborhood.  Click this link to read an article on grist.org about how Chang has created art interventions that give voice to the masses.  Check the link to her Neighborland site as well!

"What do we want of architecture?"

An essay from 1970 by Australian architect, Robin Boyd.

You're the One

 A 2009 installation in Osaka, Japan, by artist Florentijn Hofman asked the question: Who doesn't like rubber duckies?  From the artist's website:

"The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!"

Bathtime equals healing.  Although the Osaka setting might start to remind one of Godzilla. 

Click here to see the installation.  Follow the righthand column to see other versions by the artist.  Click here for a NYTimes article on the history of our squeaky friend.

Thread-not-so-bare

Sometimes it takes a change in the medium you're working with to yield incredible results.  These 'paintings' (I apologize for the quotes on principle) are stitched with thread.  Click this link to see the article on fastcodesign's website and more examples of Cayce Zavaglia's work.

Bike Your Way to a Better You!

This infographic (the best kind of graphic) wants to show you how bicycling to work (or 30 minutes a day) will make you healthier, wealthier and wise. For instance, did you know that the average person will lose 13 lbs in their first year of riding to work?

Air Swimmers

Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!  How bummed are you for not inventing this?  Apparently they're a little tough to set up, but totally worth it!  And who wants to bet the shark sells out way faster than the clownfish?  At $28 apiece, you'd be foolish not to get one.

Science Friday

Auer + Weber's "Residencia" at Paranal in Chile may have caught the eye as an evil aesthete's dream lair in "Quantum of Solace", but the real stars on remote mountain tops are the telescopes they support, and the bizarre housing that protect them.

This is the VLT (yes, very large telescope) and it works by using three of the mirrors in unison to create a viewing area larger than any single mirror that could be built.

The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona has massive rails that slide aside doors to allow the dual mirrors a clear view of the night sky. Temperature differentials can cause the mirrors to warp, so huge duct work pumps outside air into the chamber to keep the equipment at the ambient air temperature during the day.

Mirror construction is an arms race to create the largest visible field possible to see farther away, and further in to the past. The contrast between the science at work, and the dry acronyms that name these projects is entertaining. Of course the logical conclusion is this project:

Behold the OLT. Yes, the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope.

These are wonderfull monstrosities for their scale and sci-fi boldness even if they do lack in some refinement. But there are beautiful telescopes as well, and maybe architects should take a look at these prosaic projects once again. SOM's solar observatory at Kitt Peak is surely a masterpiece of modern architecture.

And when James Turrell finishes his work at Rodin Crater, we may have the most ambitious intersection of art and science since the Egyptions (or at least the 10,000 year clock, but that's another post...)

Urban Poetry from NYC

The urban environment can provide a variety of poetic moments from sublime spaces to the complex interactions of inhabitants. New York City has added to that list by including poetry to their traffic signs (follow the link below to the read the full story from NPR).

NPR: Haiku Traffic Signs Bring Poetry to NYC Streets

Ice Cubism: The Hardest Rapper lends design some street cred

While he was balancing being a hard-core gangster rap icon, presumably with days filled with 'rolling up on fools,' Ice Cube also packed a T-square. That's not slang.  Cube studied architectural drafting at an Arizona trade school and now the New York Times’ "Home & Garden" section has featured his take on design. Sure, we may not all agree with his personal taste, but who wants to argue with a former member of NWA and, even so, it at least helps us prove that maybe we're not in such an old-man's club anymore afterall... 

Did you move to a big house in the hills once you became successful?
Ain’t that what it’s all about: providing a better way for your family than you had? It’s a Mediterranean-style house and it feels, to me, like an Egyptian palace. Though I haven’t been on my architect game in 25 years.
But you still try to make good design a part of your life?
Yeah, a lot. What I learned from architectural drafting is that everything has to have a plan to work. You just can’t wing it. I can’t get all the materials I need for a house and just start building.
Whether it’s a career, family, life — you have to plan it out.
How are your drafting skills these days?
You don’t want to live in nothing I draw. I got a certificate. For a year. In ’88. I don’t think I picked up a T-square since.

There is no conspiracy...

OR IS THERE?!?  Stephen Colbert looks to unlock the mysteries of the design of Denver International Airport.  Click this link for the video on the Denver Post's website.  [Scroll way down past all the blank page and advertising to see the video.] 
Learn the truth!  Marvel at the horrors!  Be surprised by a hilarious element at the midpoint of the video!

To Greeley...And Beyond!

Colorado has applied for federal designation as a US Spaceport!  Read the story here.  Look for an upcoming Funday activity where we solicit designs for our local connection to the cosmos...

Fun with Motion

This time-lapse video is by photographer Rob Whitworth.  It's a dizzying, and at times spatial-reconsidering, look at the many modes and forms and patterns of movement in booming Ho Chi Minh City.  The intended uses of a space aren't always realized in application.  Cultural norms, new technologies and plain-old time will inform our designs in new and evolving ways.  Good design will always include room for change.

Know the Warning Signs!

This is a campaign for Detroit's College for Creative Studies (CCS), via the terrific people at Core77.com

A Digitally Remastered Funday Classic: Door Handles

What subject could be more pertinent in today's tumultuous world that door handles?  We at Funday agree an have reproduced a Funday Classic from all the way back to last year's very first Funday thanks to the archival efforts of Ron I.

Ron's foundational presentation compares the great personalities of 20th century design with their personal takes on that most tactile of building elements, the door handle.  Make your own Freudian presumptions about how each work represents its respective designer and enjoy this timeless Funday presentation.

Cultured Coffee with Carl

It's a good thing the guy got a Starbuck's card for his birthday because Funday presenter Carl H. is a coffee afficionado.  In fact, he likes the beverage so much that he'll travel all the way to exotic I-talian locales thousands of miles away just to enjoy it.  And, don't worry, he won't let little things like being able to pronounce those places where he had the coffee get in the way of his passion. 

As far as we can discern, these are the only pictures Carl took on his trip...

In the November edition of Funday, presenter Eric Watson surveyed the various architectural implications of sport.  From hi-design fooseball (or garage sale quality as may be the case in our office) to the spatial complexities of the beautiful game, the presentation draws parallels and observations from the organized movement that and the spaces within and around it.  Thanks to Eric for turning us from spectators into analysts and making sports sophisticated.

UNDERCITY, a film

This film by Andrew Wonder shows the parts of New York City that you hear about much more than you see.  Enjoy!