In fact, there’s now such a huge selection of strange Chinese buildings to choose from, Archy.com started an annual Ugliest Building Survey, and its 12th annual contest has a whopping 87 contenders in the running. That number may dwindle in the years to come, since President Xi Jinping issued a government directive calling for an end to “oversized, xenocentric, weird” projects, and that’s part of the point of the contest. The organizers hope pointing out ugly architecture will “promote architects’ social responsibility” and cut back on wastefulness.

Voting is open until December, when a commission of architects will select the final 10 winners. Here are some of the projects currently in the lead:

Donping Poly Plaza, Foshan, Guangdong

Nobody really wants a big imposing building in their city to look sort of like a modernized Eye of Sauron, do they? Incorporating a four-story atrium with a flying staircase design, a basement level, and four towers, this complex is supposed to be a lively gathering place for residents of Foshan New City. The reasons Archy listed for nominating this project include “extremely inharmonious with the surrounding environment and natural conditions,” “idolizes Western culture,” and “weird and vulgar.” Voters mostly just think it’s depressing.

Xi’an International Children’s Art Museum, Shanghai

Some people think this school inspired by the “Arabian Magic Carpet” is cute and fitting for its purpose, with its undulating roof and facade full of round cut-outs. Others seem to be experiencing a touch of trypophobia (fear of holes). It has been called “really psychologically uncomfortable,” “disgusting,” “vulgar” and even “secret terrorism.” One voter wrote of the building’s pale beige curves and orifices, “it’s like a breathing monster composed entirely of flesh and blood.”

Glass Bridge Tower of Jiuhuanghsan Mountain in Mianyang, Sichuan

Something about the monumental figures standing on either end of this glass bridge in the Jiuhuangshan Scenic Area seems to make it extra terrifying for many onlookers. Comments include “Really insulted the beauty of this mountain,” “nightmare-inducing,” and “don’t look at me, I’m afraid.”

Hainan Danzhou Hengdahaihua Island Complex

There are so many outlandish structures on this series of three manmade tourist islands that the Ugly Buildings contest organizers couldn’t choose – they just lumped them all together as one big anger-inducing mass. “This is the garbage dump,” wrote one voter. “A game of capital, making a pile of rubbish, what a bad thing to do with this money,” wrote another.

Violin Church, Yanbu, Foshan, Guangdong

This local church isn’t even the only violin-shaped building in China, but locals hate its garishness, its overuse of concrete, its high cost, and the way it has apparently overshadowed more demure adjacent buildings. It was nominated because “the function of the building is extremely unreasonable.” Fair enough.

South Gate of Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University

You might be surprised to learn that this comparatively tame-looking structure has earned the most votes by far. But Chinese voters are annoyed that such a high-cost, high-profile project is both painful to look at and dysfunctional. Apparently, the unnecessarily extravagant gate impedes both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, forcing everyone to stare at it even longer while they’re stuck in the area. “When the design plan came out, the teachers and students in the school objected to the curse,” wrote one voter.

The post China’s Ugliest Buildings Contest Shames the Wasteful and Distasteful first appeared on Dornob.

Industrial Design

While it was super hip to have bare pipes and bulbs for a minute, stark and warehouse-like industrial decor is quickly becoming too cold and grim for our current pandemic conditions. People are looking for cozy, welcoming, and warm spaces to soothe their frazzled home-bound nerves. Industrial touches in strategic places will remain chic, of course, but an entire house full of them just isn’t desirable anymore. In fact, a recent survey of 2,4000 people by UK-based home improvement resource HomeHow found that 61 percent of respondents are already regretting going overboard on industrial decor.

Open Shelving

That same survey found that another 52 percent of respondents regretted switching out their wall cabinets for open shelving. Sure, those dishes and glasses look pretty on the shelves in the magazines, but in real life – the one where we’re all stuck at home more than usual – open shelves aren’t so practical. If dishes are close to the stove, they can attract grease or dust. Plus, compared to wall cabinets, open shelves can seriously reduce storage space and look cluttered if not properly arranged each and every time.

Shiplap and Barn Doors

Thanks to the genius styles of Joanna Gaines, farmhouse decor found a serious following in the 2010s. Still, it can feel terribly out of place in, for example, an urban condo. Today, houses full of shiplap (wooden wall siding) and rolling barn doors are quickly fading from popularity and can be very expensive to undo. If you’re still digging this look, consider a few minor rustic touches and muted colors to satisfy your cravings without a forever commitment.

Large Wallpaper Patterns

Oversized wallpaper patterns are certainly dramatic, but amid all the COVID craziness, most people want less drama in their lives, not more. Large, bold wall coverings are now dwindling in popularity as people seek designs that are more soothing and inviting.

Bold Bathroom Tiles

A similar philosophy is starting to prevail with flashy bathroom tiles. As it is, most patterns and colors circulate in and out of trendiness every few years. And while putting in a trendy pattern could make your space the talk of the town for a bit, it’ll cost you a pretty penny to redo when it finally falls out of fashion favor. If you really love eye-catching patterns, try choosing one with mostly neutral hues. Then you can add extra color through paint and accessories.

Rose Gold Metal

Metal finishes are notorious for shifting quickly in their trendiness. Brass was très chic in the 90s, while oil-rubbed bronze was the “it” look of the 2000s. Now rose gold has had its moment, too, but it’s already headed for the out door. If you still love rose gold, opt for using it in decorative accents, like floor lamps, instead of installing it permanently in your fixtures.

Terrazzo Tile

Known for its playful flecks of color, terrazzo tile came back into fashion in recent years, especially thanks to celebrities like Mandy Moore bringing its midcentury flair into their homes. Unfortunately, its appeal will seem old-fashioned again before long. Choosing a peel-and-stick terrazzo tile wallpaper could allow you to enjoy the look for the moment and easily remove it when it’s totally out again.

Minimalism

Since so many Americans spent so much of the past year at home, the minimalistic, straight lines that held sway in the past are quickly falling from grace. People are now looking for softer contours, comfier textures, and all-around more layered spaces. Plus, the sparse and austere lifestyle became way less attainable as parents, children, and pets sat cooped up in their homes for months. The ultra-sleek style is subsequently giving way to the practicality of stuff ending up everywhere.

As we adapt to life in a post-pandemic world, our sense of style is also being revised. If any of these changes in interior design trends make you sad though, don’t worry. They rotate often enough that your favorites will probably come around again, even if they’re in slightly different forms and 20 years in the future.

The post 8 Interior Design Trends You’ll Be Regretting Before Long first appeared on Dornob.

Lack of Adequate Storage

Image via Apartment Therapy

Open shelving is all the rage right now, and it’s easy to see why. Upper cabinets can dominate the space, especially if they’re a dark color, while simple shelves contribute to an airier feel. But keep in mind the cardinal rule of well-organized interiors: there should always be a home for everything. Otherwise, you’ll just end up with all those extra dishes, glasses, cooking implements, and baking ingredients cluttering your countertops. If you take away storage on the wall, add it back somewhere else.

Neglecting a Good Workflow

Image via Cooksmarts

Pay attention to how you actually move through your kitchen while using it. Is there a place to set hot things down beside the stove? Is there a clear path from the stove to the sink to the fridge? Can people pass through without bumping into open doors, a too-large island, or other obstacles? It’s harder to engineer a good workflow when your kitchen is small, but there are always workarounds, like slide-out surfaces, pocket doors, and counter-depth appliances.

Choosing Hard-to-Clean Materials

Image via Fantastic Frank

Sure, tile counters can be beautiful. But have you ever had to clean greasy sludge out of grout? The same goes for real wood floors and unfinished wood cabinets, both of which can discolor quickly from oily splashes and spills. Before you choose those porous countertops or stainless appliances that show every single fingerprint, think about how (and how often) you’ll be cleaning their surfaces. You might find that alternative materials suddenly seem more appealing.

Indulging in Too Many Trends

Image via HGTV

Two-toned painted cabinets, mix-and-match hardware, and speckled granite are three trends that were majorly popular just a few years ago, but all of them are now on their way out. Sorry, Joanna Gaines, but shiplap is probably next. When you’re designing your kitchen, avoid including too many things you’d see on a reality TV home makeover show, because there’s good chance they’ll look dated in the very near future. If you love a certain trend too much to pass it up, use it for something that can be switched out easily when you feel like making another change.

Going Hard on Amateur Projects

Image via Lovely Etc

You watched all the YouTube videos. You memorized every second of that TikTok tutorial. Great. You can probably handle a lot of DIY projects and save money in the process. Just make sure you really know what you’re doing, and don’t skip any steps. Proper planning and prep is crucial. For instance, if you’re looking to paint your cabinets, don’t forget to degrease, sand, and prime them first, or they’ll start to bubble and peel in a matter of months.

Overspending on the Wrong Stuff

Image via Viking

It can be tempting to design for other people’s impressions, imagining what they’ll think when they walk in. But your kitchen is for you, and it should match your lifestyle. If you really don’t need a top-of-the-line gas range, those thousands could go toward items that will actually make your life easier, like cabinet shelves that slide out so you don’t have to crawl inside looking for that one muffin tin.

The post Don’t Make These 6 Major Kitchen Design Mistakes first appeared on Dornob.

Unfortunately, for many consumers this scenario was neither fictional nor funny. On December 23rd, 2020, the Home Depot recalled more than 190,000 units of one of its ceiling fans for that very issue. Indeed, the Hampton Bay 54-inch Mara indoor/outdoor ceiling fan has thus far been reported 47 times to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for falling projectile blades. Two incidents caused consumer injuries and another four involved damaged property. No additional information was available on the severity of the injuries.

The company tried to get the word out almost as soon as they became aware of the problem. “We’re committed to the safety and quality of our products, so we contacted the Consumer Product Safety Commission and voluntarily recalled the product and stopped sales when we discovered the issue,” said Home Depot spokeswoman Christina Cornell said in an official statement.

The Mara fan was made exclusively for Home Depot and manufactured in China. It was distributed by Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based King of Fans, who said the problem was created by “an isolated manufacturing defect with the assembly of the fan blade’s locking clip to the fan flywheel.”

“One of the two screws retaining the locking clip is not adequately secured to the flywheel,” the company notes on its website. “If this occurs, the blade may detach from the fan during use, posing an injury hazard.”

King of Fans went on to say, “On behalf of King of Fans and Home Depot we apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you. We take pride in the quality of our products and the safety of our customers is our priority.”

The Home Depot also specified that not all of its Mara units were defective. The following are the items under the recall umbrella:

• Matte White Finish – UPC# 082392519186
• Matte Black Finish – UPC# 082392519193
• Black Finish – UPC# 082392599195
• Polished Nickel – UPC# 082392599188

Of the 190,000 units being recalled, Home Depot said that 80,000 were sold in stores and online between April and October 2020, including roughly 8,800 bought in Canada. The fans retailed for about $150.

The CPCS recommends that Mara product owners should “immediately stop” use of the fixtures and inspect them, following the instructions provided on the King of Fans recall page. If they “observe blade movement or uneven gaps between the blades and fan body or movement of the clip during inspection, consumers should immediately contact King of Fans for a free replacement ceiling fan.”

This is the second ceiling fan recalled by the Home Depot in the past year. The first were the Hunter Brunswick three- and four-light fans, which themselves had a report of damaged light kit wires. Luckily, only about 7,800 units were involved n that instance, and of course, no one had to worry about suffering a concussion from a rogue fan blade.

The post Home Depot Recalls Ceiling Fans with Spontaneously Detaching Blades first appeared on Dornob.

Set in a country scene above a bank in Palencia, Spain, the peasant woman’s face has been disfigured into an absurdly freakish lump. Eyes in a farcically-high position are marked by two indentations, a protruding knob makes up the nose, and the lips, once pleasantly pursed, now open into a pucker.

The spoiled 1923 statue was brought to light by a Facebook post by local artist Antonio Guzmán Capel, who said it “looks like a cartoon character.” He says that after the original head fell off the statue, someone made this “masterpiece.” Whoever commissioned the restoration should be ashamed, he adds.

Guzmán Capel says the maimed face has actually overlooked the city for more than a decade, but no one seemed to notice it. Even though he lives near the office building, the resident only recently became aware of the peculiarity himself when a florist on his street mentioned it.

The newly-observed facade has drawn Twitter criticism from the Madrid-based ACRE, an organization of professional restorers and conservators, tweeting that “this is no restoration” and emphasizing that this was not a professional intervention.

Back in July, ACRE’s vice president Maria Borjas told Spanish news outlet Europa Press that these types of mutilating renewals happen all too often. “They are unfortunately much more frequent than you think,” she said. “Spain’s cultural heritage is in a fairly vulnerable situation.”

“We only know the cases that society denounces through press or social networks, but there are many situations where the works are intervened by people who are not trained,” Borjas continued. “The works suffer from such non-professional interventions and may cause irreversible change.”

One of the most infamous botched Spanish reclamation experiments was the 2012 repainting of Elías García Martínez’s Ecce Homo fresco in the town of Borja. Dating back to 1930, the image of Jesus in a crown of thorns had started to seriously deteriorate, prompting Cecilia Gomez, an 81-year-old parishioner, to attempt a repair. Her unfortunate mangling of the art has made it world-famous as the “Monkey Christ,” so unbelievably dreadful that the image is now sold on t-shirts and mugs, an even as a cross stitch on Etsy.

In 2018, a local handicraft teacher similarly endeavored to revitalize a 500-year-old sculpture of St. George housed at St. Michael’s Church in northern Spain, turning him into a “toy soldier” rather than a legendary dragon slayer. Thankfully, after the city’s $34,000 culture department project to “un-restore” the art, it has regained most of its earlier look.

Earlier this year, a private Valencia-based art collector allowed a furniture restorer to clean up a copy of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s 17th-century The Immaculate Conception of El Escorial. Displeased with the outcome, the owner insisted it be fixed. As a result, the Virgin Mary’s face is now unrecognizable from the original.

After so many instances of irrevocable art damage, ACRE’s Maria Borjas hopes that regulation regarding who can perform “cultural assets” rehabilitations will make it onto the Spanish government’s agenda soon. The one law currently on the books “does not specifically require or recommend that interventions be carried out by professionals trained in conservation-restoration. This lack of legislation leads to disastrous interventions… especially when it comes to Romanesque carvings or high-value Renaissance images.”

The post From Pleasant Peasant to Potato Head: Another Bungled Spanish Art Restoration first appeared on Dornob.

Some of it was the standard Christmas decor you’d expect based on decades of White House traditions, but other elements were more than a little controversial, like a hallway of silvery branches casting creepy shadows onto the ceiling. The internet drew pop culture comparisons ranging from The Chronicles of Narnia to Silent Hill, with one observer even saying “Why do the White House Christmas decorations look like Voldemort is about to come back?”

2018 wasn’t much better, with blood-red Christmas trees lining that very same hallway striking many as something out of The Handmaid’s Tale.

This year, the White House is looking a little less macabre. The infamous corridor known as the East Colonnade has gone in an entirely different direction with transparent towers displaying a timeline of greatness in American architecture and design.

Designed by Melania herself, the decorations throughout the White House are a little lusher and greener than usual, aiming to celebrate patriotism above all else. Other corridors are filled with tall flocked trees, golden accents, fake snow, and red and blue ornaments referencing Melania’s “Be Best” initiative.

One tree is dedicated to Gold Star military families and etchings of 60 innovative structures around the country, like New York City’s Woolworth Building and Seattle’s Space Needle. The official White House tree, which stands alone in the Blue Room, is an 18-foot Douglas fir harvested from Mahantongo Valley Farms in Pitman, Pennsylvania and adorned in 50 paper replicas of state flowers.

Other features include gingerbread models of the White House and Mount Rushmore, dangling silver stars, and giant golden eagle tree toppers. 800 feet of garlands, 15,000 bows, and 2,500 strands of lights went into the decor, which has been in the works since July.

The official White House website reads: “The First Family is celebrating their third Christmas in the White House. This year’s theme, ‘The Spirit of America,’ is a tribute to the traditions, customs, and history that make our Nation great. Designed by First Lady Melania Trump, the White House decorations celebrate the courageous individuals who have shaped our country and kept the American spirit alive.”

“This Christmas season, I want to honor those who have shaped our country and made it the place we call home,” says Mrs. Trump. “When I travel the country, I am inspired by the hard working people and families that I meet. No matter which state they call home, many Americans share a strong set of values and deep appreciation for the traditions and history of our great nation. Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers who worked to make sure the People’s House was ready for Christmas.”

Where’s the weirdness? What happened to the vague sense of unease, and the easy targets for ridicule? Alas, there are next to none in 2019. We’ll see what we end up with next year, though!

The post Christmas at the White House 2019: The Spirit of America first appeared on Dornob.

The sculpture’s unveiling has been a long time coming. It was originally supposed to be placed near the Palais de Tokyo, but officials worried it would obstruct views of the Eiffel Tower there, spending the next three years arguing about where to put it instead.

The idea first came about when Jane Hartley, former U.S. ambassador to France, suggested Koons create something to show Americans’ support and solidarity.

“I did, as a citizen in New York, experience 9/11 and the depression that hung over the city,” Koons told reporters. “It really took years for the city to be able to come to life again.”

80 percent of the proceeds from selling the sculpture’s copyright will go directly to the victims’ families, while the rest will be used to maintain the sculpture itself. The roughly $3.5 million in installation costs were paid for by a private foundation.

Reactions to the sculpture have been decidedly mixed. As the 23 French cultural figures who denounced the sculpture in the French daily paper Libération noted when “Bouquet of Tulips” was first announced, the imagery has no symbolic connection to the Paris attacks.

In The New Yorker, Lauren Collins wrote, “I don’t know about you, but if I were creating a monument to the victims of terrorist attacks, a pallid, disembodied hand wouldn’t be my first thought… the skin is white, of course. The blooms are pink, orange, red, white, yellow, green, and blue. Deli flowers, from us to the French people. The suspicion persists that the piece is a joke on the French, a sort of Trojan Hand meant to project American superiority rather than sympathy.”

Artnet wondered what the French people themselves thought of the sculpture and went out to interview onlookers at the Petit Palais.

“I find it truly vile,” Jean-Pierre Defaucigny, a collector and gallerist, said. “It is very, very, ugly. I can’t believe that France, which is overflowing with talented artists, would accept this. I am very sad. I won’t say what the flowers make me think of, but I find them indecent.” (If you’re wondering, other respondents were far more direct in their comparisons. You can read those here).

All in all, just over half of those polled approved of the installation, with many saying that whatever you may think of the aesthetics of the sculpture, it’s the sentiment that counts.

“Listen, I think it’s nice,” says student Arno Beringer. “It was a present, after all. Lots of people are being really annoying about it, but that’s just a classic French reaction, isn’t it? People love to criticize stuff.”

Jeff Koons has been a source of controversy in the art world since he first debuted in the 1980s. He’s best known for his kitschy balloon animal sculptures, one of which fetched $91.9 million at auction, setting a record for a living artist.

The post Jeff Koons Unveils “Bouquet of Tulips” Sculpture for Paris first appeared on Dornob.

Eager buyers from places like Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia snatched up 350 of the 587 villas while they were in early stages of construction. But not only are these hundreds of identical faux chateaus packed onto a relatively compact plot of land like spiky sardines, but they’re also all sitting empty and abandoned in the midst of Turkey’s economic downturn.

The effect is almost that of a mirage, especially from a distance. A ribbon of the villas twists through the valley nearly as far as the eye can see. Set alone within a grassy yard, each individual villa might look like the mansion it is, albeit one with a Disney-like feel modeled after historic European architecture. Instead, they’re crammed so close together that some of them have views of nothing but each other. Architectural aesthetics aside, they’re already starting to feel a little bleak on their muddy building site, which itself is surrounded by debris.

The $200 million development broke ground in 2014, but in the midst of construction, Turkey’s economy contracted. The developer, Sarot Group, ran out of money to complete the project when buyers failed to follow through on their $400,000 – $500,000 purchases. Sales were canceled and investors pulled out. Sarot sought bankruptcy protection for its $27 million debt, but the court ordered the group to stop all construction immediately. Nonetheless, Sarot Group Chairman Mehmet Emin Yerdelen says just 100 of the villas need to be sold to pay off the company’s debt, remaining optimistic that the crisis could be over within five months for a full inauguration of the project by the end of 2019.

In the meantime, the stalled project remains an eerie spectacle, particularly with the roads unfinished and many of the houses missing their doors and windows. For all of their elaborate decorative flourishes, the villas lose most of their potential for an interesting final result thanks to the builder’s strange stipulation that they all remain identical — which means zero modifications are allowed to the exteriors once the owners move in.

“The fees of the parcels paid by those who do not comply with the architectural drawings and specified periods shall be refunded to them and received back by the investor firm,” notes the Burj al Babas website, though buyers putting their own creative spin on the houses seem like the least of the developers’ problems right now.

Even if the Burj al Babas development does recover by the end of the year, there’s still the question of just how much luxury can really be enjoyed when you’re right on top of your mirror-image neighbor. Do you want to feel like royalty badly enough to live in this abandoned village of shrunken Disney castles?

The post Would You Move into This Abandoned Village of Disney Castles in Turkey? first appeared on Dornob.

One step forward, or two steps back? It is tempting to be dazzled by new designs that make use of old objects … but sometimes they end up promoting the use of things that perhaps should not be used in the first place, and, in turn, perpetuate their further production. A vicious cycle that accidentally celebrates objects (ideally) at or near the end of their life cycles.

This could be said for an outwardly clever idea like the Aqua Jar from GR lab. On the surface, it seems like a great way to make an everyday household item more user-friendly, adaptable and maybe even reusable. But why? What purpose does it serve that an actual pitcher does not – and does it save enough space, even, to warrant displacing a more conventional pouring-and-serving solution?

Well, if people are going to keep buying disposable water bottles anyway, one could suppose there is no point in not making them more handy. And for people who want something trendy and different, it would at least be a conversation piece. Still, in a subtle way, there is little room in the future (or landfills) for such things over the long term. Waste not, want not.

The post Disposable Design: Pitcher Adapter for Plastic Water Bottles first appeared on Dornob.