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Lamps are made of Senegalese gourd. The pattern of the lamp is structure of symetric, crossing branching as from the perforated layer through three basic outer forms to the deeper light carvings.
White surfaces are deeper layer of wood which allow some light to pass through it. Although the thickness of gourd mostly don’t exceed 4mm the carved patterns in that places create structure of three different depth. Each one shines with different intensity.
The city I’m talking about is Wuppertal in western Germany. It’s home to Schwebebahn or suspended monorail which was opened in 1901. Its full name is the Eugen Langen Monorail Suspension Railway (Einschienige Hängebahn System Eugen Langen). Of course the city doesn’t have a steampunk look now. However, the old pictures of the town tell us a different story.
Here are some numbers and details about the monorail.
The route is 13.3 kilometers (about 8 miles) long, about 12 meters (36 feet) above the surface of the river Wupper between Oberbarmen and Sonnborner Strasse and 8 meters (24 feet) above the streets.
The train consist of 2 cars like trams in Eastern Europe. The cars are 24 meters long and have 4 doors. One carriage can seat 48 and stand approximately 130 passengers. The top speed of the monorail train is 60 km/h (40 mph).
The last 2 photos are of modern Wuppertal.
Despite the economic crisis, exclusive merchandise will always be in high demand. This beauty, designed by E. Kevin Schöpfer is called the Oculus. The slick and smooth design, the open mouth-like backside combined with the eye-like socket make the Oculus look like a creature of the sea. The yacht is 250 feet long, the ceilings are 12 feet high and it can travel the seas at 25 knots.
It always puts a smile on my face when I see such clocks. I enjoy the different and sometimes bizarre designs but when it comes to telling time that’s where the problems start. We are accustomed to round clocks with 3 (sometimes 2) hands.
So this is a time cube but instead of hands it has triangles. The large one is the hour hand the middle one – minutes and the smallest one is for minutes. I think and this is only a guess, that you can tell time by looking at the numbers near the black line. What I like about this clock is that it transform into different shapes for 12 hours.
Cityscope, an installation in Germany, is a very peculiar and interesting piece of art. It reflects fragmented views on the city and composes at the same time a three-dimensional image of the surrounding facades. The beholder becomes a part of the reflections as he moves around it. During the day the triangles covered with radiant foil reflect the surrounding cityscape in different colors (the color depends on the position of the beholder) At night the installation becomes transparent as it is lit from within. Cityscope lets people observe their surroundings in a different way. This is a pretty cool and very amusing installation.
Pets play an important roles is our lives that’s why we have so much pet toys and pet foods available. We humans have a strange desire to make homes or places for our pets that look like real houses because we think it’s cute. You know, people have a big house and their dog outside has the same house only smaller. We also have invented furniture for cats so they could climb to a higher place and knock something off from a shelf. I’ve noticed that those items which cats usually knock off tend to be very fragile and break as soon as they hit the floor.
This is an amazing way to refresh you kitchen table. To make this you’ll need some blue glass(you may use any other color), transparent plastic, an optical cable and good hands. As you can see here the author made it look like there’s a river flowing across the stall.
Sadly the site that provided these photos had no info on the author. If you know who the author is or his/her site please leave a comment.
Here’s a good way to save on electricity. These blinds, designed by Yoon-Hui Kim and Eun-Kyung Kim store solar energy during the day and when it’s dark you can turn on the blinds to light up the room. The blinds are available in a floor/table lamp or a stylish chandelier. Eco-friendly and keeps your electricity bill low.
Using paper to make elegant rings is what I call creative. Tithi Kutchamuch and Nutre Arayavanish of TT:NT have designed a range of fold-out paper jewelery. The rings come laser cut on a sheet of paper and the user assembles them when needed much like origami. It’s just paper but I’m sure such rings will draw much attention.
100%, a design studio has shown off its cool, new LED watch at Tokyo Design Week 2008. The watch looks like a bracelet with numbers shining through it. I really like the design and the good news is that this watch just might go into production.
