Monday, October 26, 2009

The house of Versace Neo-classical Art Brilliance



How about owning a grand home that housed classic art work that includes stucco casts of Antonio Canova’s Pair Of Pugilists estimated to be worth up to £40,000, a pair of cherry-wood bookcases by Karl Roos worth £120,000 and a previously unseen painting by 18th-century artist Johann Zoffany? As amazing as it sounds, Gianni Versace’s opulent Lake Como villa at its Bond Street residence is being recreated by Sothebys’s with grand interiors that were once home to magnificent art work. A collector’s favorite, it’s being redone in a fashion that still keeps in line with the grand tradition, with plenty of neo-classical styled accessories and furnishings. It’s expected to go under the hammer for over £ 2 million






16 of the Most Extreme & Modern Beds You’ll Ever See

Ever wanted to have a super bedroom, to amaze your friends, or your girlfriends ? If you need a little inspirational help for this task here is a collection of 16 of the most extreme & modern beds you’ll ever see. Now let’s begin ..

Private cloud looks like a giant rocking chair, or to be more exact like a rocking bed. Private cloud is not a normal bed, is something that wants to revolutionize every bedroom. The bed requires a little more space than a “normal” bed but I’m pretty sure that this bed can offer new experiences to any couple.


At a first glance you might be asking yourself “hat is this ?“, because the Feel Seating System designed by Animi Causa has a really cool and unusual shape. The shape is inspired by a molecular structure, the basic form for all objects is the universe. It is made of 120 sofa balls covered with elastic fabric. If you are a playful person you can use it in many creative ways, because the structure of the feel allows to create multiple forms.

Designed by the studio of invention Décadrages and marketed under the brand name BedUP, the bed that falls from the ceiling is an innovation that will save 4 m² in your apartment, and for someone who lives in a small space .. 4 m² of space is pure gold. By day, the bed is stored on the ceiling, the under-surface becomes ceiling with the possibility of integrating lighting. At night, the bed can come down in the manner of an elevator and stops at the height previously requested, thus avoiding moving furniture that would have been placed underneath it. Now besides being functional, this bed has a clean design that is discreet and elegant. More pictures here.
A bookcase that transforms into a bed ? I’m sure that a lot of people who played tertis might smile when see this idea. The bookcase/bed combination works together to help maximize space and give your walls a little extra pop of color. A mattress stands upright in four bits and forms the bulk of the bookcase. These surround five storage shelves which are suspended in mid-air by a wall mounted frame. The mattress sections are placed on the floor and slot together to form the bed with two parts for a single, or all four to make a double. In conclusion this idea looks awesome, and the only problem I see is the time you’ll need to make up your bed every morning.
Hi-Can is an “High Fidelity Canopy” designed by Italian designer Edoardo Carlino. The Hi-Can high fidelity canopy features beautifully designed equipment that allows you to surf the web, watch movies, play games, and listen to music all from the comfort of your bed. This bed provides you a lot of technology at your fingertips from the moment you just woke up, and is a perfect tool that aims to make your lives more sedentary. You get a projector, a sound system, a projection screen, a DVD player and all the relevant input.

The Scoop! is a very original idea for a bed designed by Guido Rosati for Saba Italia. Scoop! is a sophisticated and innovative answer to the demand for combining the sofa function with the bed function. The two semi-circular sides of the bed can be separated resulting two new pieces of furniture. This bed is a great way to surprise your guests, and also you can be proud to have a stylish contemporary bed and two sofa’s in the same time.


In the picture below you can see a sofa bed with removable covers and integrated/patented mechanism which transforms the sofa into a bunk bed. Doc XL furnishes the day area and with a simple movement transforms into a practical ready made bunk bed with integrated supporting ladder and protection guard.
This sofa bed is called “Book” and is designed by the Italian designers from Flou. Ideal boundary between day and night, Book has a dual function that makes it particularly suitable for small spaces. By day sofa is a modern, linear and elegant, and by the night turns with a simple gesture in a comfortable bed rest with a plan staves. The sofa isn’t to beautiful at a first glance, but when we think that is a piece of furniture that can also become a bed we skip this detail.
Have you ever wanted a floating bed, like those from SciFi movies ? Now it’s almost possible. The Fluttua bed from Lago has the appearance that it is floating. To give the bed its floating appearance, the frame was attached to the wall and supports a single post under the center. I’m sure that this bed can have a strong impact on your visitors, and they will be quite impressed.
The computer bed is a normal bed which makes an intelligent use of the space below the bed. The gas pistons enable the bed to double up as a computer table. Available here in twin only at $3650, with metal bed frame and wooden slat foundation.
As you can see this is not just a very comfortable bed, he also has some technology incorporated. The bed features a home cinema rack fitted between the two headboard bolsters that offers enough space for items such as a DVD player and games consoles. As soon as the film is over, all you have to do is touch a button on the remote control and the screen disappears inside the foot section. If you want more details about The RUF-Cinema Bed you can find more here.

Check out this interesting idea, a bed suspended on a rope. Teak platforms suspended from heavy-gauge rope take center stage, while a punchy orange-striped fabric on the wall and Roman shade create a seamless backdrop. The visual effect of these suspended beds is just awesome, but I wouldn’t recommend a bed like this to someone who’s sleeping like a rabbit and wakes up at the slightest sound.
Zoom-Room, is far from being simply “a bed” or traditional “wall bed”, is a design solution that allows you to think of the rooms in your home in a completely different way. This bed will appear if you just press a button on the wireless remote control. When the button is pressed that sends the premium latex mattress as well as German-designed slatted frame gliding down a vertical track and into your space. The bed measures a mere 24″ deep, making it pretty much undetectable to the untrained eye. If you would like to find exactly how this bed work you can see a video on Zoom-Room page. The price for this wall bed is starting at $7000.

Point Architects from Tokyo combined a bed with a bookcase and the result was called the Uroko House. The incredible bookcase completely surrounds this bed, making him looks like an igloo made of books. The final results looks good, but unfortunately is not to practical, and takes a lot of space, bu I’m sure that little kids will love this project.
This bed is really strange, because its designed for just a specific sleeping position. As you can see this bed may be perfectly shaped for the fetal position, but who can sleep in just one position all night ? This leads me to the idea that this bed definitely wasn’t designed for a good night’s sleep.
A flat TV panel is hidden under the bed and slides out to position itself for the optimum viewing while in bed. I’m sure that every man will want a TV like that in their bedroom, or in their collection of home gadgets. – Via – A TV that’s Perfect for Every Bedroom

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Portable Prefab Stadium Performance Space



Most on-the-road shows these days bring everything with them but the venue, unlike circuses and carnivals of old. This proposed stadium and performance space structure is designed to be collapsed and rebuilt in virtually any location – a future way of re-envisioning the classic mobile production concept. Some of the structure is ultra-light-weight, other parts are inflatable and the entire set of building materials is designed to be stored with minimum unused space inside a series of 30 shipping containers for maximum mobility. It is also quickly assembled and taken apart again – each part of the process taking only a week or two.

The Mobile Performance Venue (MPV) will represent Arts Alliance Productions and their performance "ID - Identity of the Soul" worldwide in 2009. ID is a five-screen cinematic performance based on Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s epic poem Terje Vigen and Mahmoud Darwish's poem A Soldier Dreams of White Lillies. Associative images of the poem, interspersed with filmed images of an actor presenting it are projected onto five 12mx7m HD-video screens. Live dancers perform in front of, behind, and between the screens throughout the show.



The client brief for the project is for a lightweight and easily transportable venue that meets their technical requirements for projection screens and surround sound system, while also creating a unique and iconic structure. The current design (end of schematic design phase) makes the MPV the largest mobile venue in the world. The dynamic oval form is 90m x 60m, ranges from 10m to 17m tall, and has 3900m2 of covered space. The central performance space (2000m2) will hold a standing audience of 3500 people. Optional configurations include optional stadium seating and conversion of the central screen to a stage for live performances. The project is divided into 20 structural segments which allow varying configurations ranging from 2000 to 3900 m2 total area if needed.



The public plaza is formed by an arcade of open hexagons at ground level that mark a clear entrance to the otherwise closed form. This plaza contains all of the necessary front-of-house functions such as ticketing, cloak room, and restrooms. A mezzanine area above can be used for refreshments, catering, exhibition, or VIP functions. The back-of-house skin has a more complex and closed pattern. This serves to protect the projectors, sound systems, personell, and dancers behind the screens.



Sustainability is a difficult and complex topic for a project of this size that requires transport. Our main goal was to make the structure as lightweight and compact as possible to reduce shipping weight and volume. One example of this is the self-supporting PVC skin of hexagonal inflated tubes and cushions that form the front-of-house and back-of-house spaces. The specified fire resistant PVC fabric is durable and 100% recyclable.



An extremely efficient ‘bicycle wheel’ truss provides lateral stability for the project and full or partial coverage of the performance space. Supported by standard aluminum staging components this structure is also lightweight and recyclable. Optional mesh or solid pvc covers would provide shade in hot dry climates or rain protection in wet ones. The central oculus can also be covered with an inflatable cap. Water tank foundations remove the need to transport heavy weights. The entire project can be transported in 30 standard 40’ containers (20 if roof is omitted). The structure requires 2 weeks for assembly and one week for disassembly. This estimate is conservative, but represents an extremely low shipping volume for a structure of this size.