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Toideloi Stackhouse - Modular Birch Plywood Dollhouses & Buildings.






Designed by Martijn van Tilburg for Toideloi, the Stackhouse is a series of modular building sets that can provide children with hours of play. Castles, Chalet, Villages and Skyscrapers can be easily built and rearranged from the various pieces which are all made from clear lacquered Eastern European Birch plywood. The rooms are large and spacious, measuring 14" x 14" (width and depth) and are 9.5" high. The house works great with 1:12 scale furniture.

Chalet:


Castle:

Village and Skyscraper:


Kids or parents can change the house by arranging and stacking the rooms, balconies and roofs into many unique structures. The Stackhouse is expandable; kids can bring along their rooms on play dates and build a mansion or build up a collection of rooms and roofs over time.







The stackhouses require no screws and have easy assembly. The walls of the rooms simply slide together. No tools required. Once put together the components are very stable. For longer term storage, the rooms can be disassembled in the same way.



Dutch Design. Made in the USA.



Toideloi is a small company specialized in well-crafted original toys. The Toideloi Stackhouse is designed by Dutch designer Martijn van Tilburg. Toideloi follows a philosophy of local manufacturing. The Stackhouse is manufactured in Kirkland, WA.

Build and buy your stackhouse here.

New Nathan Love Animated Thanksgiving Promo For NBC




The latest collaboration between illustrator/director Nathan Love and NBC to wish their viewing audience a Happy Thanksgiving holiday is this 30 second promo which starts airing today.



Client: NBC Artworks
Director: Nathan Love
Creative Director: Joe Burrascano
Art Director: Anca Risca
Animation Director: Ryan Moran
Rigging: Dan Vislocky, Frank Naranjo
FX Animation: Stieg Retlin
Sound Design & Music: Drew Skinner

Recent Realism Paintings Of Fabricated American Landscapes By Alex Roulette.


above: Alex Roulette, Airborne, Oil on Panel, 26"x 37", 2010

I first noticed Alex Roulette's impressive realism with his 2008 painting, Summer (shown below), which caught my eye because I have a thing for pool paintings.


above: Summer, Oil on Panel, 36"x48", 2008

This past year, Alex had a solo exhibition called Fabricated Realism at the George Billis Gallery in New York in which the 2010 paintings in this post were shown. His work continues to have great aesthetic appeal and in 2010, Alex played more with unusual light sources and effects in his work. Sun flares, reflections, snowflakes and other natural and fabricated lighting replaces the strong shadows prevalent in his 2007-2008 work.

At Swim, Oil on Panel, 28"x 42", 2010:

At the Lake, Oil on Panel, 20"x 21", 2010

Badlands, Oil on Panel, 30"x 38", 2010:

Chopping Wood, Oil on Panel, 24"x 34", 2010:

Jump, Oil on Panel, 24"x 38", 2010:

Swing Set, Oil on Panel, 15"x 15", 2010:

Parking Lot, Oil on Panel, 20"x 21":

Windmill, Oil on Panel, 30"x 44", 2010:

Unknown Lights, Oil on Panel, 45"x 36", 2010:


The above paintings are represented by George Billis Gallery, New York

The artists statement about his recent work: "Fabricated Realism"

My current series of paintings depict fabricated American landscapes. The invented landscapes arise from archetypal citations of past and present cultural influences. Placing figures into these landscapes is an attempt to take advantage of the viewer’s natural ability to extrapolate narratives. By creating the paintings using a conjuncture of various photographic references, I continue to explore the distinctions between photographic and painted space. The disjointed nature of the source images, contrasting with the way they are realistically unified, take on a contingent sense of reality.

Inventing landscapes allow memories of places and events to be fictionalized. Coalescing unrelated photographs is done in a way comparable to the process in which the mind synthesizes images when recollecting memories or imagining new images. As opposed to culling images from an abstract memory bank, I utilized tangible sources, many of which come from the vast image resources our contemporary culture offers. The current expanding abundance of accessible images is allowing the imagination to expand the ability to visualize unseen places.

511 WEST 25 STREET
gallery@georgebillis.com

Born in 1986, in Columbus, Ohio, Alex Roulette now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. To see his fabulous work from 2009 and before, visit his website

The Juvet Landscape Hotel. 7 Private Dwellings In The Norwegian Woods.




On a sheer river bank, amongst birch, aspen, pine and nature-sculpted boulders, lies Juvet, Europe’s first landscape hotel, conceived of by Knut Slinning.





Located in Burtigard, Gudbrandsjuvet, Norway and constructed by Jensen and Skoven Architects at first glance, the seven detached guest rooms seem modest and unassuming. But when you open the door and go in, it’s as if nature rushes in to greet you through the massive panoramic windows. You can almost feel the trees brushing against you, and the snow-white drops of spray from the river Valldøla on your face.







The Seven Individual Accommodations
Each room is a detached small independent house with one, or sometimes two of the walls constructed in glass. The landscape in which these rooms are placed is by most people considered spectacularly beautiful and varied and the topography allows a layout where no room looks at another. In this way every room gets its own surprising view of a dramatic piece of landscape, always changing with the weather and the time of the day and the season.












The Spa
According to legend, those who drink the water from Olavskjelda (St. Olav’s Spring) will remain healthy and young forever. Thus when enjoying their spa, you are practically bathing in holy water.






In addition to pampering yourself in the spa or relaxing in your secluded accommodations, activities in the area include all types of Winter sports, Hikes, Rafting, Wilderness camp and World heritage site.

Open March through October, the hotel offers peaceful, secluded and inspiring surroundings for both private individuals and companies who want to design their own arrangements – whether it’s a private event, a camp gathering or business meeting.

Client: Knut Slinning
Project Architects: JSA; Jan Olav Jensen, Børre Skodvin, Torunn Golberg Helge Lunder, Torstein Koch; Thomas Knigge
Landscape architect: Jensen & Skodvin
Static consultant: Siv. Ing. Finn Erik Nilsen
Year Planned: 2004 - 2007
Year Built: 2007 - 2009
Area: 800m2
Cost: 1 Million Euro





Juvet Landscape Hotel

most photos and info courtesy of Knut Bry and the Juvet Landscape Hotel, additional photos by Jiri Havran

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