The Houston Fence, located on the corner of Broadway and Houston, is an temporary outdoor installation inspired by QR-code patterns. These bar codes, when scanned with a mobile phone, allow pedestrians to seamlessly connect to online content such as web sites, blogs and others.
More about The Houston Fence Project.
Apple Computer barcode-plantage
© Daniel A. Becker 2008
BARCODE PLANTAGE transforms a simple product bar code into a unique tree in the garden of globalisation
One can find it on almost all products: the bar code. Everyone knows that the bar code is used to facilitate the cashing and recording of goods in stores. But which information is actually encoded within the bar code?
A simple answer to this question can be found at one of the product databases on the Internet, which are basically huge networks of national code databases.Keying in the 8, 12 or 13 digit figures of a bar code into an international code database, returns information on the manufacturer and the country of origin of the product. Moreover, each bar code is assigned to only one product worldwide; but these individual details are hardly visible to the naked eye.
Via barcode-plantage (Germany)
This is easily the most dope pixel art based illustration thing you can scroll and zoom with EVER…
Think eBoy meets Google Maps meets Snap Shots and your scratching the surface… The graphic detail reminds me of the guy that does all those books on The Colosseum, Castles, Pyramids, etc… including reflections in the glass, driving directions from each building, and meta data like the name of the building on hover… oh lordy a mapping graphics to interaction designers wet dream…
The Push Button House, made from Shipping Containers, houses a murphy bed, toilets on the walls and opens like a flower in bright sunlight. All I can say is wow!
View:Heavy Metal Jacket With a Luxe Lining Article on NYTimes.com
This is a great photo archive of some innovative designs for containers (not only shipping but all uses). Check out the last photo of an aluminum container designed by famed Japanese Architect Toyo Ito.
Via MoCo Loco
I just got a nice ‘designy’ flyer in the mail a few weeks ago for a lecture on Prefab Architecture. As soon as I saw who/what was going to be lectured on, I bought tickets. This is going to be THE hot weekend event in October. If you have been following my BLOG since the beginning of the year, you know that I am all about Prefab, Containers and Sustainable Design. This is a great opportunity for people to get to know this area of the next gen of architecture and building first hand.
Visit: dwell Prefab NOW Information Page
This weekend I was walking over to my favorite walking haunt, Farmers Market on 3rd, (and The Grove) in Los Angeles. Yes, I live 5 minutes away on foot! Who knew that you can actually walk places in LA. Egads, you mean your not spending every last cent on Fossil Fuels? Well, to make this walking story even more interesting I happened upon (or rather walked into) a HUGE orange gantry structure positioned right outside the entry way to my apartment complex at Park La Brea (actually next to the newer development Palazzo, but close enough).
Upon further inspection, I found they had spray painted a URL on the various surfaces printed w/ heavytrash.blogspot.com. So this morning I visited their site and found out about this urban and social commentary they are speaking of in relation to gated communities of which Park la Brea is.
Now, I understand the converastion they are having, but I for one, did not move into Park La Brea for the ‘gated’ aspects of it, nor the ‘personal’ security, I (or I should say ‘we’ ; my wife and child) moved there due to the competative rent rates for the amenities offered. Yes, in this case, after considerable research, west side rentals subscriptions, etc. I found that Park La Brea offered more amenities (and square footage) and housing services than a traditional Duplex, or Townhouse rental did.
What are they you ask? 24 hour on-call maintenance for FREE (if your faucet bursts, you call your local Plumber, and maybe you get re-imbursed by your landlord.), multiple very well groomed parks and trails for children to play on (all within a 2 min walk of each major building unit), WiFi cafe w/ multimedia room (for business functions and parties), guaranteed parking space (common, lets face it, in LA if you have a guaranteed parking space, your golden), and of course the single most important reason we moved there, location, location, location (being next to Farmers Market on 3rd, and The Grove!) and then of course all the amenities listed for a gated community that are implied, like a private security patrol, gates, but I digress.
So, I am ONE who is happy living in a gated community for completely different reason than the ‘gate’ offers… If your interested in reading up more on this current social and urban commentary just check out Heavy Trash for yourself… They have pictures as well!
via Heavy Trash
Tom Vanderbilt writing at Design Observer on prefab housing designed by Japanese architect Kazuhiko Namba. It’s all part of a blurb about Leisurama!, a documentary film on cottage architecture in the early sixties. One look at that marker rendering and I was hooked.
A local (Los Angeles) Media Design shop has done some interesting work with reactive environments and lighting. EnterActive (at 11th & Flower in Downtown Los Angeles) is a project in which the persons entering and exiting the building trigger light elements mounted as part of the facade of the building in an ever changing arrangement.
I was developing a similar idea with an architect. Our proposed solution was RFID chips embedded in membership cards would map users movements through a preset area onto a wall mounted screen. The RFID solution ended up not being the best mapping technology as it is proximity based (you need to be within 2 feet of readers) and not as accurate and real time as GPS or 802.11g (or motion capture technologies).
The Electroland description of the project is below…
This project consists of a luminous field of LED lights embedded into the entry walkway that respond to the presence of visitors; a massive display of lights on the building face that mirror the patterns of the entry; and video displays in the lobby and entry areas.
Also of note, Electroland and the EnterActive project were recently featured in the March ‘05 issue of ID Magazine.
View: ElectroLand Website
View: 11th & Flower Animation QuickTime required
OK, so I am on the home hunting front this year. Since all the homes in LA that are designer cool are $$$$, I have been very interested in Prefab as an alterNative. Not only have I become a micro authority on it, but I have pretty much every website and/or book on it at my fingertips.
A good book to jump start your awareness of Prefab Architecture is PREFAB.
I have researched kits from Rocio Romero, dwell, a Shipping Container! plan, a Clever Home and now MUJI is doing one!
The Muji + Infill plan was designed by Kazuhiko Namba. It is available for viewing at the flagship Muji store in Yurakucho where you can have a look at it, up close and personal.
MUJI+INFILL YURAKUCHO
Muji Yurakucho 1F
Marunouchi 3-8-3
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
100-0005t. 0120.19.6404 (Muji+Infill Service Center)
t. 03.5208.8241 (Muji Yurakucho)
View: Muji + Infill Images via Muji.net [in Japanese]
the term ‘oyayubizoku’ literally translated from japanese equates to ‘thumb-gang’ or ‘thumb-tribe’ referring to the masses of young people in japan that use mobile phones for texting, email, and mobile phone conversations.
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