Hydrofloors Pools with Movable Floors
Hydrofloors are only like the coolest thing ever invented. They are specially designed pools with movable floors. When you’re using your pool it’s just like a normal pool. But when you are done swimming or aquacising, you press a button and the pool’s floor slowly raises up while the water slips underneath the floor. Pimpin! Eventually the pool’s floor reaches the top and you are left with a large flat area you can use for recreation, dining, parties or any other dry land event you want. Another press of the button and the floor sinks back down slowly to reveal your already water-filled pool.
Lamps Made from Sawmill Waste and Tree Branches Embedded with Resin and LEDs
For his Brecce collection, Italian designer Marco Stefanelli devised an ingenious way of removing fragments from sawmill scraps, tree branches, and cement fragments, and replacing them with perfectly sculpted resin embedded with LEDs. The resulting lamps retain the organic nature of their original form yet cast a beautifully subdued light. You can see much more on Stefanelli’s blog. (via the awesomer)
TouchOfModern
+-0 Humidifier Version 3 by Naoto Fukasawa Womb Chair by Eero Saarinen Therm-O by Manuel Desrochers NEA Intimate Massager by Lelo QLOCKTWO W by Biegert & Funk Meeting Knives by Mia Schmallenbach Silhouette, Floating Lamp by Angela Jansen Erosion II Dining Table by Joseph Walsh
Tea-time – Tea Steeper Design by Pengtao Yu
Timely Steeping I am in love with the Tea-time tea steeper for its intuitive design and simplistic interaction between tea leaves, water and steeping time! A flipping action, akin to starting the timer, sets the tea making process into action. Loose tealeaves and hot water do their steeping business and the ready tea slowly trickles down to the bottom beaker. Designer: Pengtao Yu Tea-time is a 2011 Spark Awards entry.
Double Garage Converted to Contemporary Home
It seems small spaces are what’s hot these days as we continuously encounter stunning projects revolving around the smallest of spaces including our personal favorite in the Hong Kong Domestic Transformer project.Earlier this week we took a look at beautiful garage to mini house transformation, and it appears as though this trend may be catching on as we feature another garage to mini house conversion. French architectural firm Fabre | de Marien converted a small 441 square foot double garage into the perfect size residence for a single individual, and perhaps even a minimalist couple. The dwelling features all the necessary amenities including a shower room and its functionaries, the boiler, washing machine, a dressing room, a sofa/bed convertible when needed, an office, storage space, a staircase and a sleeping space above. Photography by Jérémie Buchholtz Via HomeDSGN
10 Notable Staircases
Staircases can be so much more than just a means of getting to the next floor. A staircase can be a work of art, a conversation piece, a place to meditate, or a historical marker. Floating on a Wall This floating staircase above by designer Jordi Vayreda looks dangerous, but the steps are made of steel welded to a thick beam inside the wall. Hanging Spirals This design makes sweeping under the stairs easy! Bookshelf Stairs Levitate Architects of London designed this bookshelf staircase to combine storage space with access to a loft bedroom. Staircase Drawers Another way to use stairs for extra storage is to put drawers in the risers. Alternating Stairs Gabriella Gustafson and Mattias Ståhlbom of TAF designed this unusual staircase for a private residence in Stockholm, Sweden. Step Up, Slide Down Entrepreneur Scott Jones built a spiral staircase combined with a slide for his home. The Stairway as Art Stairs to Nowhere The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, was built by Sarah L.
Natural Pools or Swimming Ponds
Natural Pools or Natural Swimming Ponds (NSPs) Let nature clean the water... Chemical-free water garden and swimming pool. The plant portion, or regeneration zone, is separated from the swimming area by the wall seen a few inches below the water’s surface. www.naturalswimmingpools.com The pools have skimmers and pumps that circulate the water through the regeneration zone and back into the swimming area. There are many options as to design. A gradual slope contains the plants, gravel and loamy sand, a wall keeps them separate from the swimming area. Vacuum but twice a year and tend to the plants as needed. The regeneration zone can be along the perimeter of a natural pool or a pond unto itself but connected to the swimming area. www.gartenart.co.uk For a true natural pool with no help from ultraviolet light or other such technology, the requirement is half swimming area, half regeneration area. www.biotop-natural-pool.com Plants steel the nutrients away from algae. www.gartenart.co.uk
Fractal Utensils
Fractal Forums user LhoghoNurbs posted this Photoshop entry to the site's Annual Fractal Art Competition 2012: a set of fractal utensils! The set includes four pieces: Cantor fork :: now you can pin a single kiwi seed. Twice in a row. Recursive spoon :: it will never let you spill a drop of soup. Ever. Link - via Microsiervos
Fascinating Lamps by Calabarte
Calabarte is the pseudonym of a Polish artist named Przemek Krawczynski, whose art takes on a peculiar but incredibly beautiful form: cool lamps. The name itself is a portmanteau of two words – art (obviously), and calabash, the fruit that carries his imagination. The calabash is a bottle gourd originating in India, although Calabarte gets his supply from Senegal. Due to ancient domestication and usage, the bottle gourd has an incredibly tough outer shell. Due to the combination of dark, thick material with a light source within, the primary art of his work, however, shines in the dark. Hard work, beauty, an exceptional degree of detail and a marriage between mathematical geometry and a rampant imagination – all imprinted onto the husk of a Senegal calabash. Described as the art of light, Calabarte’s artistic tendencies truly took off in 2009, when he made his first gourd lamp, by chance of coming across a calabash. Website