Amsterdam-based photographer Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk has created a series titled The Andromeda Strain that focuses more on the notion of discovery than the place itself. The images conjure up thoughts of a space or time perhaps untouched or undiscovered by humans. I personally found some of the imagery, shapes, patterns and colors to be incredibly intriguing and thought provoking. Words from the artist about this series, via featureshoot:

After making many landscape photographs I realized the search for special places is more important than the place itself. The notion of discovery has been always intimately linked to photography. The cliche of the photographer as an explorer of unknown and rough places became a starting point to construct images. I played with the “National Geographic:-language essentially without leaving my hometown. I searched for locations that, after small interventions, can fit in an imaginary travelogue. Using low-budget special effects and lighting I staged natural phenomena and imagery. To this work made on location I added still-lives constructed in the studio. Referring to nature and scientific photography, the tabletop landscapes create confusion on the overall status of the series. I often choose material that has a perishable or unpredictable quality, like foam or spaghetti. No Photoshop is used to achieve the effects. The artificial and the real, and the different sources the image is based on, should be present simultaneously.

images via Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk

In Brisbane, architects Nettleton Tribe have tranformed an old elevated parking facility into thirteen stories of office space above 9 levels of parking and teamed up with artist Jennifer Marchant to beautify the exterior of the building. The new art piece creates made up of 549 laser cut powder coated aluminum that were custom formed into a lovely mesh that disguises the parking facility while allowing for continual air flow and therefore saving money on mechanical air ventilation.

The artist chose to design a topographical piece called “Landlines”, that depicts the contours of Brisbane’s own Cunningham’s Gap and the Main Range. The inspiration came from the very nature that urban environments tend to be cut off from the surrounding landscape and few people get to take advantage of the views seen by tall buildings that look out from the urban core. Marchant brings the contours of the landscape in and adds a twist by debicting the 2 dimensional graphic traditionally used in the professional world to depict 3 dimensional land forms and show it on a vertical building.

images via world architecture news

There’s no doubt, water should not look like that. In the Chaohu Lake in Heifei, China, it does. At least for now. But with the country putting the cleanup of it’s waterways on in it’s sights, having invested over $7 billion towards the treatment of eight rivers and lakes in 2009, hopefully things like this algae filled lake will soon be an image of the past.

Despite the unnatural state of this water, there is an amazing amount of beauty in the image. The fisherman can be seen instead as a painter, his oar the brush and the water the canvas that supplies it’s own paint. He stirs the water, skimming across the canvas in his boat and with simple strokes applies the color. He paints his movements through this somewhat surreal landscape.

image via boston globe

The abundance and variety of shapes and patterns in the natural world goes on forever. One interesting facet of the naturally patterned world are the patterns found in the skin, hide, scales and fur of animals. The way the patterns shift and stretch as they move over the curves of the differently proportioned bodies and fit into and around various shapes and crevices is fascinating.

Patterns change and blend from a fusion of one shape to another as it transitions over the animal like an M.C. Escher drawing. These patterns are excellent studies in design, especially for tansitioning and movement in landscape architecture which can work for laying a grid over a hilly site that requires stretching to conform to the land. An example of this from a project I visited in Europe coming up in a future post.

images via boston.com, daniel hurst photography, fimbulfamb, shaire productions, hannes.steyn, bingopresley, tricycledteenager, khayal, tomdauben, harrytaiwan, bob2506eos, philliprose

Really gorgeous artwork by artist Dan Grzeca who is inspired by natural phenomena, animals and plant-like qualities which he weaves into his designs with lovely colors and lines. The above screen printed image was inspired by the Joy Division song Transmission, particularly the line “touching from a distance, further all the time.” He has also created a ton of fabulous gig posters. Here’s just a few…

I also love this art piece done for the Thursday/Envy split LP on Temporary Residence. Gorgeous.

Gullies in Northern Hemisphere Crater

South Polar Carbon Dioxide Ice Cap

“Because Mars is so much colder, however, the seasonal ice that gets deposited at high latitudes in the winter and is removed in the spring (generally analogous to winter-time snow on Earth) is actually carbon dioxide ice. Around the south pole there are areas of this carbon dioxide ice that do not disappear every spring, but rather survive winter after winter. This persistent carbon dioxide ice is called the south polar residual cap, and is what we are looking at in this HiRISE image.”

USGS Dune Database Entry

Exposure of Polar Layered Deposits (PLD) with Unconformities

“The PLD holds clues to past climate regimes similar to ice cores on Earth. Several of the layers occur in fairly regular sequences, as seen in this image, suggesting that Mars underwent cyclic climate changes in the past.”

USGS Dune Database Entry

Monitoring of South Polar Residual Ice Cap Erosion

Edge Along Gale Crater Interior Mound

Bouncing Boulders

“Most debris on crater walls slides straight downhill. In this HiRISE image we see examples of boulders that have bounced downhill, not necessarily vertically. A prominent example looks like a dotted line from the top of the crater wall where the boulder took off to the crater floor where it finally came to rest. Numerous boulders have slid partway down toward the crater floor, which is covered by sand dunes. This is actually a small crater (approximately 1 kilometer wide) within an unnamed but much larger approximately 30 kilometer crater.”

These aluminum and steel tables by Shanghai designer Zhili Liu are part of a collection called Shrub. The naturally inspired branching legs are attached to the table tops by exposed sunken screws which create a decorative detail in the surface of the aluminum table top.

images via dezeen

m3architecture out of Brisbane in association with Brian Hooper Architect designed this lovely Memorial for the Tree of Knowledge in the town of Barcaldine in Queensland, Australia which marks the 1891 founding location of the Australian Labour party. While the design is stunning in it’s simplicity and yet highly textural nature, the most interesting part about this project is that it centers around a dead tree and the building itself, made of wood, is also essentially a dead tree. In this time where designers are trying to find everyway possible to cover things inside and out with living material, it is fascinating to see a “dead” design that is trying to evoke the feeling of the living.

From the architects via Dezeen, “Following the poisoning of the tree in 2006 a memorial was commissioned to commemorate and mark this historical landmark located in the small town of Barcaldine in Queensland, Australia. The design forms an 18 metre high steel and timber structure that follows the canopy, in relief, of the old ghost gum tree using 3,600 individual hanging timber slats. From afar the memorial seems to form a suspended slatted container that surrounds the remaining branches of the original tree; only once visitors stand under the structure they become aware of the canopy that the individual slats form.”

“m3architecture’s, Michael Lavery explains: ‘The design was inspired by the way people create and relive memories. The external timbers are charcoaled to create a veil around the memorial space. This finish and its form reference a place of memory and mourning. The “veil” provides hints to the form and movement inside but it does not fully reveal the impact of this space. This experience is saved for visitors as they enter the shade of the “tree”.’ ”

“Visible from the highway the building also serves as a signpost for the town and acts as a gateway to Barcaldine forming part of the entrance way to the railway station. At night the memorial is illuminated and creates a popular meeting place for social exchange. The original root ball of the tree is preserved and showcased to visitors through a glass floor panel located under the canopy.”

images via dezeen

At the end of July I accompanied my husband to a seminar at the Novelty Hill Januik Winery in Woodland, Washington. At first the thought of going to a seminar that I knew nothing about sounded boring and then I realized hey, food, drinks and the chance to tour the new award-winning modern style Mithun design? Cool.

From the winery’s website, “The rhythm and geometries of the agricultural landscape, along with the craft, technology and patterns of wine production, together shape the architecture and landscape of the Novelty Hill • Januik Winery. Seattle-based Mithun, an interdisciplinary firm of architects, designers, and planners, in collaboration with Katherine Anderson, established a linear logic – drawing on both the linear rows of grapes in a vineyard and the rows of tanks in a winery – that guides everything from the shape of the parking lot to the footprint of the building, and sets up a rhythm of parallel shifting walls.”

“From the Tasting and Terrace Rooms, concrete floors, concrete walls and transparent roof canopies extend outside, past glass walls, and into the garden. Here, a sequence of terraces unfolds, beginning with the bocce court and Shade Terrace – so named because of the shade created by the allée of ash trees. Steps lead down to the Sun and Wetland Terraces, and ultimately onto a platform overlooking the larger wetland landscape.”

“These shifting walls, which define the building and move into the landscape, are primarily concrete, stripped down to their function of holding up the building and holding up the ground in the garden. In contrast to these concrete walls, perpendicular infill walls are composed of slatted wood and colored resin, lending warmth and lightness to the in-between spaces.”

“Each terrace has a distinct material quality. The pale gray-pink gravel on the Shade Terrace relates to the dry, dusty ground in Eastern Washington, where the grapes used for making Novelty Hill and Januik wines are grown. Concrete pavers separated by parallel lines of low thyme define the ground of the Sun Terrace, while an outdoor fireplace and a long trough of water respectively warm and cool this space. Finally, the dark gray gravel on the Wetland Terrace evokes the gray days so familiar in Western Washington.”

Out in the garden, the geometries of the planted areas and the restrained palette of plant material also draw on the patterns of the agricultural landscape. The allée recalls the straight, parallel rows of trellised vines on a vineyard, as do the long strips of thyme. The blocks of red-twig dogwood on the Wetland Terrace and under the existing big leaf maple are akin to the blocks of a single crop in the agricultural landscape. In spring, the red-twig dogwood is bright green, while in winter, it is deep red – much like the new green of the grapevine in spring and the red of the grapes in autumn.”

“The design of the winery is inspired by the close relationship between winemaking and the ground where the grapes grow. The soil impacts the taste of the wine. In a sense the soil is embedded in every glass. Similarly, the architecture and gardens of the Novelty Hill Januik Winery engage the ground of the site, rather than hovering above it. Furthermore, the design aims to entangle the building and garden, blurring the edge between architecture and landscape, such as when the concrete walls of the building move out into garden, holding up the ground and defining rooms outside. In this place, architecture and nature enhance and elevate each other.”

images (c) Lisa Town

I might note that when I was there it was in the upper 90’s and so the concrete-filled courtyard was neither cozy nor inviting and all the people were indoors. I had to explore the grounds in a couple different sessions between seeking shelter from the blazing sun. But luckily the 90’s are a rarity up there and I would imagine that in the cooler evenings, the courtyard is lovely…sipping some wine by the fire….

image via Mithun

This fascinating and beautifully executed forest of pvc pipes designed by Supposed Design Office is oddly enough part of the Diesel Denim Gallery in Aoyama, Japan. The store is an interesting one in that it also functions as an art gallery for emerging artists, showcasing new talent through installation and exhibits.

This particular installation has transformed the space into a sort of art exhibit for the Diesel clothing line, fusing both art and fashion in one space. The installation is titled Nature Factory and consists of a series of plumbing pipes that run along the walls in different directions yet in a somewhat orderly fashion before breaking character and branching out into natural, tree-like forms.

According to the designer Makato Tanijiri, principal of Supposed, via Arch Daily, “Denim as recognized work clothes formerly had, at times, shown different expressions as fashion items to the people. Equally, a group of plumbing, usually unnoticed, shows completely different expressions in the installation.”

images via Arch Daily