New building puts the "glass" in the Glasgow School of Art

New building puts the “glass” in the Glasgow School of Art: ”

The Glasgow School of Art, which is centered around a Charles Rennie Mackintosh-designed building known as ‘the Mac,’ is getting a glassy, modern update. American architect Steven Holl, in collaboration with Glasgow-based JM Architects, has won a competition to design a new building for the GSA that will sit across from the Mac.

[Holl] said Mackintosh’s design enabled natural light to enter his building, and the new building also has ‘driven voids of light’, which means natural light will stream into the centre of the building as well as into the all-important studio space for students. The building, to be finished by 2013, will be coated in a skin of matt glass, giving it a translucent quality but one that will not be overly reflective, he said.

‘Some of the modern glass buildings, they are too glassy, they have that ugly ‘oil canning’ effect on the glass, and this will not have that,’he said. He added: ‘We could not try to copy or imitate the Mackintosh building; that would be wrong, kitschy and almost disrespectful in some way. So what we have instead is a counterpart to that great building. Whereas the Mackintosh has a thick skin and thin bones, our building has a thin skin and thick bones. They are complementary.’

via herald scotland

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New State of the Art Indigo Renderer

Wellington, New Zealand, 16th September 2010

Glare Technologies, a Wellington-based company which specialises in high-end 3D visualisation software and has customers in Europe, Japan, the United States, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand, have today announced the release of a new version of their Indigo Renderer. Indigo Renderer 2.4 is a big step up – it’s faster, looks better, is more user-friendly and works well with large networks.

Indigo Renderer is an unbiased, physically based and photo-realistic renderer which simulates the physics of light to achieve near-perfect image realism. With an advanced physical camera model, a super-realistic materials system and the ability to simulate complex lighting situations through Metropolis Light Transport, Indigo Renderer is capable of producing the highest levels of realism demanded by architectural and product visualization.

Faster Rendering

Indigo 2.4 is dramatically faster than Indigo 2.2, a result of numerous optimisations in the core rendering engine: vastly more efficient MLT, up to 2X faster instancing and motion blur in complex scenes, colour noise is completely eliminated, 4X faster blackbody illumination and many other substantial improvements.

Indigo shaders run 10-20X faster using Indigo 2.4 in 64 bit mode than Indigo 2.2 64 bit, a night-and-day performance difference for complex materials.

Improved User Interface

The interface is more capable and easy to use than ever.

New features include an image histogram, improved zooming controls, aspect ratio locking and the ability to select a region for copying or zooming in on. You can now set the colour temperature of light layers with the new light layer interface.

Indigo 2.4 simply looks better – support for CSS themes has been added, and a new dark theme is included.

Improved Handling of Images

Indigo 2.4 now supports saving 32-bit per channel images using OpenEXR, the industry standard for high dynamic range (HDR) images, without clipping and optionally without tone mapping. These important improvements provide increased flexibility in post-processing using other applications.
Very large images (greater than 2GB) can now be saved, resumed from, and used in network rendering.

Introducing the Indigo Network Manager

Network rendering in Indigo 2.4 is much more robust and flexible, easily scaling across large networks using the new Indigo Network Manager.
Stopping and starting networking during rendering happens at the click of a button, and the Network Manager now balances available slaves among masters.

Floating Licences

Indigo 2.4 introduces floating licences, which allow for easy deployment and administration of Indigo in offices and computer labs. Floating licences are served by the network manager, and so can service any computer on your network.

About Glare Technologies

Based in Wellington, New Zealand, Glare Technologies Limited is a privately owned company specialising in high-end 3D visualisation software. Indigo Renderer is Glare Technologies’ flagship product.

16 September, 2010 00:02

Spark Awards 2010: Call for Entries

The Spark Awards are the exciting new competition created to promote great design and designers and encourage people to explore their creativity.

dexigner.com/21362

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Sent from my iPod

A Black Steed for Reading

A Black Steed for Reading: ”

This is one skeletal couch. That’s not to say it’s not comfy and full of love though, because it is! This is the “Bucefalo Sofa” designed by Emanuele Canova for a new generation of book holders and readers. That’s right BOOKS! I’m sure it’ll hold your laptop just fine too. Made to be elegant, simple, stark, and powerful. Like a majestic black horse for you to ride into battle upon.

Becefalo is also the name of a legendary horse, a legendary horse with a legendary figure. Black, gigantic, and so powerful only Alexander the Great could tame it. Can you tame such a beast? Perhaps sit upon it and read a book upon it and take a snooze on it?

Designer: Emanuele Canova

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Yanko Design

Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!

Yanko Design Store – We are about more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the YD Store!

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Never Ending Pencil

Never Ending Pencil: ”

To cut a long story short, what we have here is a simple writing tool called the Continuous Pencil, which can be used till the very end. We usually end up discarding pencil stubs…I know my children waste too many saying that short pencils are uncomfortable to hold. So basically you keep increasing the length of your stubs with a handy interim-headless-long stick that fits snugly into its rear. Quite simple and straight, but is it a refinement of the 1 + 1 Pencil?

The Continuous Pencil won an iF Concept Design this year!

Designers: U Jung Heo, Young Gag Han & Sa Yoeng Kim

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Yanko Design

Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!

Yanko Design Store – We are about more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the YD Store!

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Form Us With Love’s Match votive and Unfold pendant

Form Us With Love’s Match votive and Unfold pendant: ”

I’m soooo digging the Match votive candleholders designed by Stockholm-based Form Us With Love, which features a slit running down the side you you can insert a match to light the thing without having to invert it and light upwards, an act that in my klutzy fingers usually ends with dripping, burning hot wax.

I came across FUWL while checking out another of their neat projects, the convenient-to-ship Unfold pendant lamp, made from silicone rubber.

Both the Match and the Unfold are in production by Danish company Muuto.

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Seesaw For Public Toilets

Seesaw For Public Toilets: ”

If it’s an eco conscious faucet with fun elements and a universal appeal that you’re looking for, I’ve got one for you right here. It’s called the Seesaw and it works on the same lines as the playground namesake. The up down action dispenses water from the left and soap from the right side. The eco factor kicks in with the notion that you’ll use only limited water, after dispensing the soap, and not while you pump some from a bottle. And as Chanhee points out, it should do well in public toilets.

Designer: Chanhee Han

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Yanko Design

Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!

Yanko Design Store – We are about more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the YD Store!

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Design Buzz: Bit O’ Honey BeeHaus

Design Buzz: Bit O’ Honey BeeHaus: ”

Get your honey straight from the hive and in high style with the Beehaus. The Omlet Shop has designed a contemporary apiary with sleek, modern lines available in a variety of colors.

As the number of truly wild, unmanaged colonies has declined due to pollution and destruction of natural habitats, the role of the beekeeper is increasingly important. The Beehaus provides a comfortable home for a bee colony. According to the Omlet you can collect an average of 50 jars of honey per year – the amount depends on the size of the colony, the weather and the quantity and quality of the nectar near the bees. The Omlet also offers courses in beekeeping for the budding apiarist or seasoned pro.

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Puma’s new Mopion cargo bike

Puma’s new Mopion cargo bike: ”

Danish industrial design firm KiBiSi and Danish bicycle manufacturer Biomega have teamed up with Puma to release the Mopion cargo bike, a sort of pickup-truck version of the Puma Boston bike:

[The Mopion] mixes city bike features and cargo bike features, making it a sturdy companion. It comes with a super-size innovative front carrier for heavy duty transport of your groceries or other needs. Developed for city dwellers, Mopion features a light aluminum frame, making it a one-of-a-kind lightweight cargo bike weighing only 22 kilos. The geometry holds the body in a slightly inclined, but still heads-up position for navigational ease and exceptional balancing.

The stretch two-wheeler will officially launch in mere hours at Eurobike and goes on sale in Spring of next year.

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Ovale: Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s New Tableware for Alessi

Ovale: Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec’s New Tableware for Alessi: ”

Guest post by Phil Patton.

Surprisingly self-effacing among the high profile wit and higher profile designers of Alessi, the new Ovale line of tableware from Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec may sum up the current design zeitgeist.

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