Wallpaper Shelves

off the WALL uses molded acrylic panels in different sizes and shapes to create a substrate to affix wall paper to. The result is a shelf that looks like it folds right out of your wall. Turn it horizontally and you get a void for a light fixture or maybe to hang a plant in. It does create a gap, you'd have to remember to finish the wall behind the shelf. There are some great patterns though I'd have to imagine you could use your own wallpaper if you wanted. You can buy the system from their website by picking the amount and size of shelves and the pattern you want. The prices are in Swedish Kronors so taking into account they use periods where we use commas in their prices and doing a bit of conversion in my head, it comes out to roughly... expensive.

LEGOS!...AGAIN!

I know I have done Lego POWs twice before (see the Lego house, and the Lego Architectural Series, and I skipped this Lego art installation) but this one takes the cake. This one supersedes any playful architectural Lego work you've ever scene before. This project uses Legos as the permanent facade of the Cowley St. Laurence Church of England Primary School in London. What_architecture originally used Legos to help explain their building concepts when the client was having a hard time reading the conventional drawings. This sparked the idea to continue using the toy bricks in the actual design. The architects held numerous sessions with students from the school and had them design little figures or icons with the bricks. They then translated those to the drawings to arrange into the facade. Originally it was supposed to be in color as seen in this rendering but with too many colors of Legos to choose from and a desire to keep it timeless, they opted for the black and white version. 

The bricks are built in front of a cement backer board, screwed in every couple of feet by a standard Lego piece with a pre-made hole. That piece then gets a Lego cap piece to hide the screw. The facade is ventilated by a grouping of the pre-holed pieces at the top and bottom of the wall. The result was 1.2 million Lego pieces put into place by students and volunteers. The architects also worked with 3M to create a coating for fire, anti-fungal, and UV protection. Hurricane wind loads... probably not! That would be 1.2 million tiny projectiles around here.

So, seeing as how it can't get much more impressive from here, I promise to refrain from anymore Lego posts.

No Spills Allowed

Woodnotes is a Finnish company that creates woven material and accessories out of paper yarn. Paper yarn is spun using kraft paper in different ways to create different textures. It creates a dense yarn that doesn't trap dust so it it supposed to be good for people with allergies. They make window shades, furniture, rugs, bags, throws, and these great screens. The yarns are chlorine free and of course biodegradable. So don't spill anything on your rug or it may turn into paper mush.

Drink up!

SHSH is an Architecture and Scenography office based in Belgium. This particular installation is Bonheur Provisoire, a temporary pavilion built in Brussels for the 50th anniversary of the 1958 Universal World Exhibition. The structure housed projection rooms and exhibit space and is constructed with used beer crates! 33,000 crates were used to create columns, arches, domes that can all be de-constructed and used as beer crates once again.
The structure behind the installation is Atomium which was originally built for that World Exhibition to mimic an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. The Atomium (a misnomer since it is shaped more like a molecule than an atom) is a series of exhibit spaces connected by escalator tubes. Five of the spheres contain information about the Exhibition, another sphere is a changing exhibit, currently showing Intersections, Belgian Design, and the top sphere is a panorama lookout. It is an interesting place that makes you feel a little retro-future-ish knowing that in 1958 this was probably one of the most futuristic places patrons had been.