Inhabitat posted an article about the huge award that the Watercube (The Chinese Aquatic Center) won from the Australian Institute of Architecture.  The award, called the Jorn Utzon Award for International Architecture, is a prestigious honor - but anyone who saw the Watercube on broadcast of the 2008 Summer Olympics knows how beautiful the Watercube really was, and how amazing a collaboration between form and function it brought to our minds.

The Watercube was a joint collaboration between PTW Architects, Chinese firms CSCEC and CCDI, and the international firm, Arup.

From Inhabitat’s article - I love this quote:

The jurors who selected the Watercube said, “The Watercube uses state-of-the-art materials to create a visually striking building that is also energy-efficient and ecologically friendly. The most impressive aspect of the project is the outer shell or molecular skin that envelops the building. The building has a chameleon-like quality that captures light in an extraordinary and memorable way. In every respect, the Watercube is an engaging and ethereal building that comfortably straddles the traditions of both Chinese and Western architecture.”

A special installment of the Weekly WYSIWYG posts - I posted an article yesterday about Marcus Wuebker’s lighting design and programming for the McNamara Tunnel in Detroit’s Airport.  I just got an email from Gil Densham from Cast Lighting - that contained the renderings from the project, which was done in WYSIWYG!  Thanks Gil!  Check these out:

I just discovered a designer, Daniel Becker, who has some very interesting luminaires, doing very off things to form and function.  Beautiful things.  German things.

I’m going to post a few of his designs over the next few days.  Check out this one - it’s called Tee-Licht, which obviously means “huge ball supernova light thing” in German.

Get it?  Good.

Check out Daniel’s portfolio site.

You MUST go to the Yatzer Design Blog and check out the exhibit by Héctor Serrano Studio for Roca called Waterdrop.  This is an amazing exhibit.  Make SURE to watch the video that’s halfway down the page.

Waterdrop is a tribute to water.

Inhabitat has a great article about the Dobpler LED Wall, which is a motion-activated LED installation in the pedestrian tunnel in Sandnes Sentrum, Norway.  The installation was a part of the city’s European Capital of Culture 2008 events - The Strømmer, as it is called, is an interactive wall of LEDs that illuminate when a person passes by it, and follows that personas they travel down the wall.  There’s a great video of this on the website of the architect, Snohetta Architects of Norway.

From the Inhabitat article:

The Strømer is the brainchild of Stig Skjelvik and Snøhetta architects in collaboration with Prototyper AS and Rasmus Hildonen. It is based on Stig’s Dobpler prototype, a modular interactive LED system that is activated by movement. When arranged next to each other, the project create a uniform series of modules that illuminate based upon a visual input system. As people move through the tunnel the wall lights up and leaves luminous trails behind them. Needless to say, this is a great way to turn a very, well, pedestrian space into a brand new experience.

Look at some of the images from the installation.  Does that not look like a lot of fun?

In researching about the Sustainable Dance Club concept, I discovered an article by Inhabitat about a series of dance club installations in Germany and Spain called Kubik.  These temporary dance club venues were outdoor installations created by lighting up reclaimed industrial tanks and fusing them into a melding of architecture, music, and lighting.

You definitely need to check out the project pages - Kubik had installations in Berlin, Barcelona, and Lisbon.  These were all “green” (environmentally friendly) and temporary, and apparently a big hit.

Have you seen any of those Sony Walkman commercials with the guy playing the big fluorescent tube looking instrument?  That’s Atsuhiro Ito, and the fluorescent tube he’s playing is in fact a fluorescent tube, mic’ed up and connected to a ton of effect pedals.  Check it out:

A second video, this time with Yoichiro Shin on percussion:

Thanks to Make Magazine for the article!

Instructables user “hands_on” has created a lamp from concrete, glass, and some other easily obtainable materials.  His process is well-documented, and this project looks like it belongs in a hoity-toity setting!

Check it out!

For some reason, I’d rather call this the “Amazing Honeycomb Lamp,” but I obviously did not design it…

Bee-hold (oh dear):  Yaroslav Rassadin’s “Beehouse Lamp.”  A honeycomb-cut structure with a yellow crystal fill wthin the comb structure.  From Yar’s website:

The idea of beehouse is a combination of natural bee’s building process and crystal technology.
The scheme of cell’s filling is taken from actual process of beehive building.
Honey, which is essential for bee’s survival, is transferred here into crystals, making them basic element for building a new design.  Material: white bend plastic & honey-yellow Swarovsky crystals.

Yar is currently looking for a manufacturer, FYI.

An article over from the good folks at Make Magazine detailed a little of UK artist Sandy Smith’s “Mauritian Sunset” installation.  From Sandy’s website:

“Mauritian Sunset” was made for the ‘Great Artspectations’ exhibition at The Embassy Gallery in Edinburgh. A relatively small gallery, and another 2 artists to share the space with, meant that the work had to be as self contained as possible. As the gallery also had large windows, letting in light which could ruin the soft lighting effects of the work, the wall had to be as ‘perfect’ and light-proof as possible.

The resulting wall stretched accross the centre of the main room of the gallery, wall to wall and floor to ceiling, the rear of the computers facing the windows onto the street. A small doorway was built into the wall, only five and a half foot tall, and two foot wide. The monitors facing forwards showed flat colour, working over the wall to create a rough gradient representation of a classic sunset.

I don’t know which I like better - the geek in me loves the picture of the rear of the installation, where the lighting designer in me likes the installation itself.