Suited Case

By: Erik De Nijs

I am not sure if this is completely useful, but the concept is cute.

Amphibian Pavilion

By: Peddle Thorpe Architects
Designed By: Antoine Damery
This amazing exhibition space was created for the 2012 World Expo in Yeosu, Korea. It is a floating exhibition space that allows for an unkown future. It is adaptive and reactive to its oceanic environment. It was inspired by the fluidity of oceanic organisms. You can see their work process in the upper left photograph. It is very very neat to see what a great firms concept process is. it looks like they were working with three different shape ideas and found the one that worked best with their program and then reworked it from there. They call this living architecture, which I am not sure is totally true. I think they just want to call it living cause the sea makes it move, but i think its big enough that nobody would really feel it. The massive space inside allows this structure to be used after the world expo is over.

Umarmung Floor Seating Sofa

By: Christoph Vogle

This looks so nice and comfortable. It is Umarmung because that means hug in German. It inspired by Sedia, which means proper sitting, and floor sitting culture in Japan. The chair is basically a backrest to support you when sitting on the floor. I really appreciate the graceful lines and curves of this seat.

Phildelphia Townhouse

By: Moto DesignShop

Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Pine Street

I probably wouldnt even have noticed this had it not been in Philly. Thought I would represent! And now I should say go Phils! Anyways, this home is based around a two-tier lift that lowers the parking space into a basement, Which shifts the second story garden to the ground floor. This allows the exterior space to always be at the center. The house, Which is made mostly of glass, is three bays deep, but is never more than two bays from the exterior, sunlight, and air. It uses an open straight stair and glass walls inside and out to blur the difference between the two. This townhouse really interested me because we had to do in Philadelphia for a Townhouse project sophomore year. What fun.

Float House

By: Morphosis
This new innovative housing design

is for the Make it Right Foundation
in New Orleans that Brad Pitt
formed. :) He is so nice. haha.

Morphosis created this with the help with graduates from the

University of California in Los Angeles. New technology allows this house to float when floods occur. The teams built on a prefab chassis using polystyrene foam coated in glass fibre reinforced concrete. Their plan is create 150 affordable, sustainable, storm-resistant houses. 150 doesnt really seem like alot, so I hope that the plan increses the amount of houses they are building. And hopefully affordable really does mean affordable and doesnt mean affordable for rich people. Clark construction, who are apparently very well know, are making these houses.

Field Chapel

By: Students at the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture and Ecker Architekten
Where: Boedigheim, Germany

This structure happens to be an open air chapel. A genius idea. Making a worshipping place open air would increase the worship experience ten fold I am sure. It would be easier to clear your thoughts and think about what Christ wants. It is made of recycled and renewable materials that were locally sourced and sustainably harvested.

By: YH2-Yiacouvakis Hamelin Architects

Where: Canadian Laurentians Forest

The beautifully perspective house is divided into three blocks that are linked by glass passageways. All of the blocks are in direct contact with the earth in some way. One block is the Entry Block for the kids rooms and family room. The second is the Daytime Block, which allows most of the light into the house with very large windows. The last is the Private Block. Bent Corten steel connects all of the blocks together and defines a series of outdoor settings like you can see in both of the pictures. The designer described this residence as "A forgotten shipwreck at the heart of the forest" It does remind me somewhat of a shipwreck in the forest. It is in the similar shape of a ship and the way the area around the house is cleared make me think that when it crashed there it smushed everything around it. I love this photograph of the outside of the house. It an awesome perspective.

Wall to Wall

By: Shay Alkalay and Yael Mer (Creator)

Designer: Established and Sons

Believe it or not this is actual wood flooring. It is oiled oak herringbone paronet brick flooring. Instead of using long strips of wood like usual wood flooring, they use pieces about a foot long in a herringbone pattern to create this look. This particular room has a 15 color palette. The special flooring with be in London until November 24, 2009 as part of a frieze art fair. In design, my professors have always taught me that people dont look at the floor, but what if you MAKE them look. The multicolored flooring would also help keep the dust and stains to a minimum, which is another concern in design with flooring, espeically in commercial flooring materials. This is a fun, colorful, and durable solution.

Ming Vase

By: Noam Bar Yochai

This vase came from a designer from Israel. It is a glazed earthenware piece like any other vase, but with small holes that allow technological light to shine through. So it is a mixture of old chinese craft and technology. I have never seen anything like this before and the process that it takes to make it seems grueling, making all the molds and stuff, yuck. But the finished product is pretty awesome.

Water Purification Island

By: Jakob Szczesny

Where: Warsaw

This contraption was created for the Synchronicity Architectural and Arts Festival in Warsaw. It its a water purification island that visitors help purify. The floating island allows visitors to purify the water through exercise. What an awesome way to help your body and environment at the same time. I hope this becomes a permanent structure there. I think it would be fun to go down and do some exercising outside while still helping the eco-system. Amazing. This is the kind of stuff we need to get people off their butts and helping the earth.