The Truffle - A Rock Like Shelter Built With The Help of a Hungry Cow

The Truffle (or Trufa) is a piece of nature built with earth in Spain. A space within a stone that sits on the ground and blends in with the territory. It's camouflaged by emulating the processes of mineral formation in its structure, and integrates with the natural environment.

The interior of the Truffle (Trufa):
The structure has a fireplace, plumbing and quite a view.





The exterior of the Truffle (Trufa):




The building process (with some help from Paulina, the calf):
To build it, Ensemble Studios made a hole in the ground, piling up the removed topsoil on its perimeter. Then, they filled the volume with hay bales and flooded the space between the earth and the built space to solidify it. The mass was then filled with poured concrete. Time passed and they removed the earth discovering an amorphous mass.



The earth and the concrete exchanged their properties. The land provided the concrete with its texture and color, its form and its essence, and concrete gave the earth its strength and internal structure. But what they had created was not yet architecture, they had fabricated a stone.



They then made a few cuts using quarry machinery to explore its core and discovered its mass inside filled with hay, now compressed by the hydrostatic pressure exerted by concrete on the flimsy vegetable structure.



To empty the interior, they brought in a calf named Paulina, and she enjoyed the 50m3 of hay, from which she was nourished for a year until she left her habitat as an adult and weighing 300 kilos.





She had eaten the interior volume, and space appeared for the first time, restoring the architectural condition of the truffle after having been a shelter for the animal and the vegetable mass for a long time.



Time lapse video:

All images and video courtesy of Ensemble Studios

New Monster Skin Rug, now in Grey, from Longoland.

Joshua Ben Longo, whose wonderful Monster-like creations I profiled here has just come out with a grey version of his fabulous ivory Monster Skin Rug.




Now available in either off-white or grey, the industrial wool felt rug has a mouth made of polymer clay.



The Monster Skin area rug measures approximately 36" x 50" (91cm x 127cm).
Because they are handmade, each rug will vary slightly from piece to piece.


the off-white version:

Both color Monster Skin Rugs cost $1,995.00
buy them here

Wanna see more cool Monster inspired rugs?
Check these out: Monster, Beast & Bear Rugs - Oh My!

Don't Steal The Jacket. The Film & Posters by Bruce Weber for Fashion Brand Moncler.

"Don't Steal the Jacket," a film by photographer Bruce Weber, is the first episode in a series of promotional films for the fashion house Moncler.



Remo Ruffini of Moncler asked iconic photographer Bruce Weber to make a Moncler movie to be shown during the spring/summer 2012 Milan Fashion shows taking place this week.




“Don’t Steal the Jacket,” which has one minute and 20 seconds of illustrated opening titles like the ones shown above, features several children as well as a dog, reminiscent of Mr. Weber's dogs donning Moncler's jackets for a previously created ad campaign.


above: dogs in Moncler's puffy winter jackets were shot by Bruce Weber for 2010

The New York Times' On The Runway blog is quoted as describing the movie as follows:
Called “Don’t Steal the Jacket,” the black-and-white movie starred an extensive cast of cherubic children, dogs and puffer coats, with typically beautiful visuals and a story line that was a little difficult to follow. At one point, there was a montage of marauding kids, elephants and dogs that was set to “Bless the Beasts and the Children” by the Carpenters.

The film:


As you might expect from a photographer, tons of posters have been created for the film:






Moncler
Bruce Weber

If you're a Moncler puffy jacket fan, be sure to check out Pharrell Williams collection for them:

Pharrell Williams artistic and bionic collection for Moncler

Ethnos Eames Chairs, Ornate Versions of the LCW in Bronze and Aluminum

Designer Paolo Giordano of Italy created limited editions of these stunning ornate cast bronze and aluminum versions of the mid-century modern classic LCW chairs as an homage to Ray & Charles Eames. The chairs have identical silhouettes to the original wood chairs but are intricately engraved bronze and aluminum versions.

Close-up look:

"The application of ethnic Indian decoration to modern design icons is at first sight provocative. It is the layering of ornamentation on pieces that originated precisely in the refusal of decoration; the uniting of thought and ideas that were historical opposites.

I believe, however, that these objects acquire a new identity as distinctive yet indefinable hybrids, somehow so coherent they make us forget the reasons of the separate initial gestures.

An example of how visual language leads its own spirited life." -- Paolo Giordano

cast aluminium chair
limited edition, 20 + 1 AP
68 x 56 x 61cm
Price £9,773.00
Buy it here



cast bronze chair
limited edition, 7 + 1 AP
68 x 56 x 61cm
Price £18,108.00
buy it here




Made in Italy for I and I
info@i-and-i.it

About designer Paolo Giordano:
Born in Naples 1954, he studied architecture at Milan Politecnico and graduated in 1978. He now lives and works in Milan.

In 1996, Paolo founded the I+I company, with the idea of producing a contemporary design collection for the home with products made by hand from different continents. Since then he continues to direct the I+I company from both a creative and commercial point of view. He also collaborates as an artistic consultant for Italian furniture companies (textile and accessories) and has participated in numerous international exhibitions.

Like Moths To A Flame. Butterfly Lamps by Ingo Maurer with Insects by Graham Owen.

At the 2011 Euroluce show, Ingo Maurer, known for his wild lighting designs, unveiled two fabulous hanging lamps. One for mass-production, the other in a limited production. The Johnny B. Butterfly and the J.B. Schmetterling (Schmetterling is German for butterfly) lamps feature realistic butterflies, moths, and dragonflies that created by California artist Graham Owen.


above: Ingo Maurer in his Los Angeles studio working on the lamps

The Johnny B. Butterfly
The Johnny B. Butterfly version is made with a bulb that has a Teflon band on which two handmade butterflies and one dragonfly are perched. The lamp is fitted with a 105 watt bulb is made especially for Ingo Maurer GmbH and belongs to energy efficiency class C, which conforms to EU guidelines.



The Johnny B. Butterfly lamp will be mass-produced and was expected to be available for purchase by Autumn 2011 but is still not on the market. No known price as of yet.


above: the butterfly lamps featured with artwork by Graham Owen

The J.B. Schmetterling Lamp
The J.B. Schmetterling is a limited production and features more insects:


Ingo Maurers' butterfly lamps were shown in a Milan exhibition at Spazio Krizia in April, 2011:

images courtesy of Ingo Maurer and Graham Owen Gallery