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IKEA UK's Never Ending Design Stories: Mixed Media Videos
The IKEA UK site has a wonderful series of little online movies that mix film and animation to introduce us to 20 designers, and their inspiration for various IKEA PS products.
The IKEA PS collection is a line of 46 products by 20 designers that combine good design with the economical use of resources and responsiblity for the environment. Chairs, bookcases, dressers, benches, room dividers, lamps, clocks, wall mirrors, glassware, decor, textiles and rugs are amongst the products in the collection.
Above: the home page of the Never Ending Design Stories
The Never Ending Design Stories begins in a Seed World where animated dandelion seeds are drifting through the sky.
The 'seeds' represent the stories. As you click upon each seed, a designer within the pod is exposed and a small film begins featuring that designer discussing the product from the PS collection for which they personally designed.
Smartly designed for consumer use, the 'seed' (or product story) you've already viewed has a yellow flag trailing from it so when you return to the Seed World, know which video you've already seen:
Each video has the options to be viewed with or without sound and subtitles. At the end of each little film, you are given the product information such as the name, price and dimensions:
They are all very different, but equally charming and give you a much greater respect for a product as seemingly mundane as a towel. Following are a few screen grabs from some of the 'stories'. Please click on the images to enlarge:
Go see all the Neverending Design Stories here.
Exactly What 420 Means (The Real Origin of 420) And Some Hip Ways To Celebrate.
It's April 20th.
Or 4/20.
The twentieth day of the fourth month.
And to those savvy in cannabis culture, it's commonly referred to as "420" (pronounced four twenty), a slang word whose origin truly comes from MY OWN high school, San Rafael High.
The Street Beneath Your Feet: Japanese Manhole Covers
Art can be found anywhere. And manhole covers are no exception.
The Japanese have been creating and manufacturing ornate and decorative manhole covers for many years. Some with color (sand or enamel), and some just crafted of steel and or iron. There are thousands of photo galleries and flickr sets of these but here I pulled a few of my personal favorites and categorized them, first by color, then by subject, for you.
After the images there are links to many more images from around the web.
Color:
Living creatures:
Flora and landscapes:
People and Industry:
The majority of the above images were photographed between 1997 and 2002 and are from the online Japanese Manhole Art Museum (site is in Japanese) and can be found here.
Links for other japanese manhole cover art and online galleries:
• There are 302 images of japanese manhole covers on flickr, see them here.
• And a particularly good flickr set /collection of Japanese manhole covers here.
•Pink Tentacle has a great collection of links and some images of Japanese manhole covers here.
• And you can see some more images here.
More links to world wide manhole art, history and books:
• Links to other manhole covers from all over the world can be found here on Drainspotting.
• Manhole covers, etc.
• Manhole.ca (fine sewer art)
• NY manholes
Books About Manhole Covers
Underwater Dwellings: H2Ome and The Poseidon Resort
U.S. Submarine Structures LLC is the company that is responsible for the design and construction of both the Poseidon Undersea Resort and now, the world's first one-atmosphere sea-floor residence, the H2OME.
The Poseidon Resort:
The Poseidon Resort, which is nestled in a 500 acre Fijian lagoon, is the world's first one-atmosphere sea floor resort. It's cantilevered over the sea floor in 40 feet of water. The resort has twenty-four 550 square foot luxury suites. The Poseidon features a 100 seat bar and restaurant (350 m2) and another 350 m2 unit with an undersea library, a Presidential Suite, two spa treatment rooms and a wedding chapel/conference room combination.
The undersea restaurant seats 100 and has panoramic viewing of the sea floor:
Lounge and common areas:
Bedroom suites:
A central shaft provides elevator and staircase access to the surface:
How it was assembled (details are proprietary)
Poseidon Undersea Resorts has been featured in over 500 magazines world-wide to date and over 50,000 people (25,000 couples) have signed up to be informed when they start taking reservations. There are only 8,000 guest spots available in the first year. To learn much more about this underwater resort visit the site here.
Copyright 2008-2009, U.S. Submarine Structures LLC. All rights reserved. Subject to the conditions of Poseidon’s secrecy agreement.
Now, the H2Ome.
The world’s first undersea residence has 3600 square feet of uncompromising elegance situated in 40 feet of crystal clear water surrounded by a magnificent coral reef, where the ever changing view is fascinating and absolutely unique.
Your H2OME is in Belize, in a protected private lagoon connected to land by your private pier. Floating above and accessed by elevator is a cluster of floating buildings, including a warm water outdoor spa, the central entrance lounge, docking space for a yacht and an enclosed building for your Triton submarine as well as space for a wide array of water toys.
Access to the underwater home is simplest from a pier that connects the shore to the residence’s access trunk by a ramp. The interior of the H2OME is then available by elevator, or by a circular stairway. Umbilicals for water, sewage, communications and electricity are connected to the pier and run to shore.
And, let’s not forget the floating helicopter landing pad:
This 3600 square foot, two-story structure takes incredible luxury and fabulous viewing to the sea-floor. The top floor layout is comprised of two bedrooms with baths and open lounge areas. The main floor consists of a master bedroom with integrated seating and a master bath. Also included is a gourmet kitchen with adjacent wine cellar, a formal dining area, a library lounge, a bar, private office space, a living room with flat screen television, a half bathroom and several discrete seating areas where one can enjoy the different views of the undersea world. The layout can be structured to the client’s requirements and the details here are only proposed for illustrative purposes.
Your H2OME even comes complete with push-button fish feeders so that you and your guests can feed the fish as well as underwater lights to light up the sea floor for a limited period of time each evening.
Bedroom:
Dining room:
The layout:
The H2OME is installed cantilevered on piling just above the sea floor. The structure has two floors that are linked to each other and the surface by an elevator and a circular staircase.
aerial view of upper level:
detailed overhead of lower level:
Construction & Installation
Your H2OME is built by U.S. Submarine Structures in components at their yard. They also produce the acrylic panels to our specifications by post-processing thermoforming and annealing. They then transport all components to a floating drydock for assembly and testing. The interior is ordered from a supplier specializing in 5-star hotel interiors and superyacht interiors. This firm fits and assembles the interior components and then packs them in containers and ships the components to us where they do the installation.
The completed structure is floated off the drydock and is then picked up by a semi-submersible heavy lift ship which transports the H2OME to the site. Previously, piles have been driven into the sea floor and the H2OME is floated into place, keyed to the piles and then ballasted for a slow descent toward the sea floor where it is then bolted to the piling several inches above the sea bottom. The piling tops are cut off and the umbilical cables run to the access pier and connected. In this way, your undersea residence is available for your use only 48 hours after delivery.
Most of the engineering detail on the Poseidon Undersea Resort and the H2OME is proprietary to the company. The images used in this post are protected by copyright and cannot be used without written permission.
© copyright 2007-2009, by U.S. Submarine Structures L.L.C. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form or by any means (including electronic storage and retrieval or translation into a foreign language) without prior agreement and express written consent from the author as governed by United States and international copyright laws.
More floating and water related architecture for you!
•The Discus Underwater Hotel
• The Poseidon Resort and H2Ome
•Floating Hotels and Offices
•Bouroullec Brothers Floating House
• the SilverFish Floating Home
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