Now, a team of designers called Flyte plans to recreate this lost pyramidia in spectacular floating form, as the world’s largest magnetically levitating artwork.

Named Py, the sculpture will be at least 20 feet (six meters) tall and showcased both in person at an art gallery and online in early 2022. The designers have developed custom-built maglev technology capable of levitating up to 220 pounds, and have already built a smaller-scale working prototype measuring 13 feet high. While this prototype is just made of carbon fiber rods, the full-scale version will be solid. They’re currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter to fund the project, including its exhibition, and backers get a pretty awesome reward in the form of a mini levitating capstone of their own.

Aiming to help remind us all that “there’s still a place for mystery and magic in our everyday lives,” the mini Py features a built-in light that you can turn on and off by touching the base. It comes in black, white, gray, iridescent, gold, and premium or iridescent glass versions.

The designers explain that “Py is a combination of the words Pythagoras, the Greek Philosopher, and Phi or Golden Ratio. 1:1.1618. Both are present in the structure of the installation. The Great Pyramid of Giza has a base of 230.4 meters (755.9 feet) and an estimated original height of 146.5 meters (480.6 feet). This also creates a height-to-base ratio of 0.636, which indicates it is indeed a Golden Triangle, at least to within three significant decimal places of accuracy.”

“Throughout the centuries, the ancient pyramids have been a source of inspiration to artists, writers, mathematicians, and architects. Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla had an obsession with the Egyptian pyramids. Tesla believed they served a higher purpose and was investigating them throughout his life. He believed the pyramids contained a power to send energy wirelessly due to their shape and location, which provided the inspiration for his experimental Wardenclyffe Tower and his designs for generators that could theoretically use the Earth’s ionosphere as a source of energy. His triangle-shaped design became known as Tesla’s electromagnetic pyramid.”

Flyte, which specializes in home decor and lighting products, previously created the world’s first levitating light bulb, which was recognized as one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2016. Like Py, the Flyte bulb hovers in mid-air using magnetic levitation, powered wirelessly through the air.

The post Py: Colossal Levitating Pyramid Display Pays Tribute to Missing Ancient Capstones first appeared on Dornob.

Located in northwestern Saudi Arabia, AlUla is both the country’s first UNESCO-protected location and the largest preserved site south of Jordan for the Nabataean civilization. It’s full of palm groves and elaborate facades and tombs carved into sandstone cliffs. Over the last few years, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been transforming it into a “living museum” representing a crossroads of ancient civilizations. Desert X AlUla will be the site’s first major contemporary art installation, with each piece engaging with its surroundings in a way that’s truly unique.

Standout works include Lita Alburquerque’s “NAJMA (She Placed One Thousand Suns Over the Transparent Overlays of Space),” a star map recounting the story of a female astronaut who visits Earth to spread knowledge of astronomy and navigation.

The installation’s official website explains: “Albuquerque had the idea of Elyseria many years ago and has told the story in a series of vignettes — massive installations of the figure set in distinctive locales across the world. Each place becomes a stage set where the narrative of light, the stars, and collective knowledge is explored and evolved into a character myth. She creates Elyseria in striking ultramarine blue pigment that is reminiscent of the expanse of the cosmos, embodying the mythic figure as a way of welcoming her wisdom and her story.”

Among the most dramatic installations is “A Concise Passage” by Rashed Al Shashai, in which a pyramid made of plastic pallets references both the site’s ancient history providing shelter and respite to travelers in trading caravans and modern-day commerce. The website notes that: “Here, it stands in for AlUla’s history as a major stop along the Incense Trade Route, a center where goods from various corners of the Earth once exchanged hands. In AlUla, Al Shashai brings these two ideas together, constructing a pyramid from plastic pallets. The pyramid’s shape itself points to AlUla’s importance, not just as a cradle of civilization of old, but more importantly, to its reawakening; AlUla has embraced a new role as a center for the exchange of ideas rather than goods, and a generator of meaning and understanding rather than commerce. It has a renewed pride of place as a cultural hub for the region. The blue pallets and colored passage stand out in contrast to the calm tones of the landscape. It becomes a cheerful and emphatic contemporary monument; a beacon of knowledge, it is a metaphor for AlUla itself.”

For “Glimpses of the Past,” Zahra Al Ghamdi laid out approximately 6,000 tin date containers of various sizes across the sand as an “ode to AlUla’s agricultural wealth, its plentiful palm tree groves that have fueled the area’s trade for generations, and the springs of water that have sustained them.”

Visitors will also get a kick out of Manal Al Dwayan’s “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t,” a series of trampolines set into the desert that glow after dark. This installation mimics the look of a mirage. Its puddle-like components “do not belong in this landscape, and yet they appear paused [and] contained, existing in the crevices of the AlUla rocks.”

Check out all 14 installations online at the Desert X AlUla website. If you’re able to visit Saudi Arabia to see it in person, you better act fast. It’s running now through March 7th.

The post Desert X AIUIa Art Installation Set Along Historic Saudi Arabian Trade Route first appeared on Dornob.

The project began with “Trihouse,” which takes the three bars of Adidas’ logo and sets them diagonally into a foundation. Wiciak told Dezeen that the idea came to her accidentally when she just saw the shape of a building in the logo and realized the idea had potential. The concrete “bars” of the logo are divided by glass to create a spacious, open four-story home filled with natural light.

Wiciak’s plans place the kitchen, living room, dining room, recreation room, pantry, and a restroom on the Trihouse’s largest lower level, while the second floor offers quieter communal spaces like a study room. On the upper levels are the bedrooms and private bathrooms, though one does wonder if there’s any way to cover those enormous skylights to block out moonlight and early sunrises.

The cross shape of the Chevrolet logo naturally makes it well-suited as a home that’s elevated on some kind of plinth, either as a sort of observatory or as a remote residence set above a body of water. Wiciak envisions the latter for “Crosshouse,” with the face of the logo rendered as a glass facade. This two-story, 2,637 square-foot home is only accessible by boat and features private spaces like the bedroom in it’s darker back half, with shared social areas like the living room and library in the front.

“Rhombhouse” takes its diamond shape from the logo of car manufacturer Renault. Imposing and intimidating in its proportions, this tall, narrow structure looks a bit more like a Soviet monument than it does a home. Its four stories loom over a grassy landscape. About the same size as the Crosshouse, the Rhombhouse is more luxurious in its lofty shape than it is in its square footage.

Finally, there’s the pyramid-shaped “Pyrahouse,” based on the three triangles of the Mitsubishi logo. Two of the spaces between the triangles are filled in with glass, while the third is left open to the sand underneath. This fourth house features storage areas in the lower levels, a large, open-plan living space in the widest part of the home, and two private floors rising into the uppermost peak.

The use of corporate logos, concrete, and stark, minimalist shapes gives these houses a bit of an ominous feel, and it’s easy to imagine them as settings in a dystopian film that’s only a few steps removed from our current reality.

For Wiciak’s part, however, it seems that the series is less about corporate identity, politics, or economics than it is about potential overlap between graphic design and architecture. Wamhouse has already shown a predilection for unusual geometric houses made largely of concrete. “Pentahouse,” for example, is a single-family home consisting of extruded pentagons of various sizes connecting with and overlapping each other to create a shape reminiscent of a mountain range.

The post Warmhouse Studio’s Concrete Houses Take the Shapes of Iconic Corporate Logos first appeared on Dornob.

While made of wood rather than stone, and not quite pyramids per say (more like three-dimensional triangles), these designs are still inspired by the megalithic architecture of ancient Egypt in more than one dimension. Scalable sides are the innovative key here: hatches that allow access to each level directly from the climbable exterior shell.

Like its ancient architectural forerunners, these small-scale versions have scalable sides – in this case more manageable in size. Rather than a a stepped side/roof system, a series of intentional spaces in the exterior wood slats double as handhold and foothold slots.

Double-duty combination door-and-window elements (disguised as part of the roof surface) flip up to let in light, air and even people on all levels while leaving some areas more secluded than others. There is also potential for expanding these lengthwise to accommodate multi-family housing and/or larger-community functions.

Three floors accommodate a central guest/child sleeping level sandwiched in between the private top story (for master bedroom and bathroom) and public first story (containing kitchen and living room). The triangular taper works well with this concept, leaving less (and more-enclosed) space on each level progressing upwards to the top.

VisionDivision envisions each unit in its Peak Series catering to the climate of a particular country or region, with prefabricated variants suited from cold springs and hot summers, dry desert plots, wet water-side sites and snow-topped mountain-peak properties – the ultimate vacation home for any season or location you can imagine.

“Part house-part playground, the Peak series is a series of pre-fabricated summer homes by Swedish firm Visiondivision that can be placed in many environments. The Peak series homes are designed to promote close community and leisure.”

The interior of the Peak series cabins is divided into three levels. At the base is the main entrance and open social space with a kitchen and living room, above the ground floor is a loft space Visiondivision calls a mezzanine-like space that holds guest bedrooms. The top floor houses the master bedroom and a bathroom.”

“The Peak series different from other pre-fab homes is its unique wood plank façade design. The planks are left with spaces in between so the entire structure can be climbed and essentially becomes a giant jungle gym. Hatches open up from each floor so people inside can climb out and around on the exterior structure, as well as have convenient fire escapes and views of the surrounding environment.”

The post Climb the Walls of This 3-Story Prefab Home first appeared on Dornob.

The architecture of older stadiums would often mirror the shape of the field, whereas contemporary ballparks allow for greater deviation from that norm. That creates extra nooks in the field where hit balls can get lost for an extra second or more, often giving runners enough time to get a whole extra base. The architecture of the new Diablos Rojos Stadium in Mexico City may mirror the field like the stadiums of old, but it still presents a refreshing departure from the standard ballpark template. The stadium was (mostly) completed in March of 2019, just in time for the start of La Liga Mexicana de Béisbol season in April.

The most obvious departure here is the design of the roof, which covers 11,500 seats and stretches outward over the exterior plaza almost to the street. Designed by the Chicago-based FGP Atelier, the roof is employed predictably to protect the fans from the sun and the rain, and also to cover the plaza. But the material of the roof, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), sets Diablos Rojos Stadium apart by only diffusing sunlight during the day rather than blocking it completely.

Anyone who’s ever been to a baseball stadium and sat under a solid roof has experienced sitting shade, which is even darker at night. By using a translucent material for the roof, the Mexico City stadium is able to cover seats without giving the fans the feeling of having a roof casting a shadow over them when the sun starts to set. On top of that, the roof also acts as a large light at night, reflecting the stadium lighting downward rather than all around.

For some people, the fun part about going to a sporting event is not the game itself, but the atmosphere. For instance, just outside of a baseball stadium prior to the first pitch is an exciting moment of activity. As lines begin to form at concession stands, families play in-stadium games for team-themed prizes, while other fans wait for their friends. The sound is that of a carnival, with the constant digital pings of tickets being scanned at the gate punctuated by hawkers peddling programs and snacks. This activity happens at all high-level sporting events, but at Diablos Rojos Stadium, it’s extra special. The presence of the roof over the plaza brings the festivities that animate the pregame moments into the stadium itself. This removes the tension that fans usually have when they attend sporting matches, as most want to take in the ambiance outside the stadium but also want to get inside the building to be ready for the start of the match. At Diablos Rojos, fans can enter the stadium without feeling like they’re missing out on the pregame party outside, because the party has already been brought inside for them.

The concessions, restrooms, shops, and other amenities are kept inside six volcanic rock pyramids, which themselves are a nod to the Pre-Columbian temples of Mesoamerica. Between the pyramids and the home plate part of the stadium is a wide pedestrian pathway that runs under the roof. Older baseball stadiums often used architectural styles of the late 19^th or early 20^th centuries. Even contemporary stadiums try to create a faux imitation of those styles. It’s extremely rare that the architecture of a stadium reference ancient architecture, but FGP and their stadium collaborators Taller ADG knew they wanted to give fans a deep connection to Mexico’s rich history.

What is most laudable about the Diablos Rojos Stadium is the way it uses architecture to enhance the enjoyment of the overall baseball experience. It doesn’t just focus on the enjoyment of the spectacle inside the diamond, but also on the fun that occurs outside it during pre and post-game moments.

The post A Refreshing Design for Mexico’s Newest Baseball Stadium first appeared on Dornob.

The recently unveiled “Inverted Pyramid Solo House” by Tokyo-based firm TNA, led by Makoto Takei and Chie Nabeshima, evades all expectations of conformity with its monolithic and seemingly precarious silhouette. Currently under construction at the Matarraña site (along with the rest of the houses), this upside-down pyramid almost seems to have fallen from the sky, wedging itself just deep enough into the soil to avoid falling over.

The home’s seemingly impenetrable exterior is pierced only by a few trapezoidal cutouts, which allow natural light and fresh air inside via sliding glass panels. Its wide open interior is divided by platforms at various levels, all of them projecting from exterior walls and elevating private spaces like the home’s three bedrooms far above the common ones without cutting them off from the rest of the structure.

Guests enter through the home’s intermediate level from the high end of the slope, and one of the cut-outs offers access to the landscape at the lower end. Initial renderings even illustrated a pyramid-shaped swimming pool set just down the hill, with an oversized diving board-inspired platform providing a fun way to jump right into it. Unfortunately, this feature seems to have been nixed from the final design.

Even without this secondary volume, the home is striking, highly sculptural, and visually complementary to the spare, dry landscape around it. Nonetheless, the rooftop feels a bit like a missed opportunity. It would be tempting to climb up there to take advantage of that broad flat surface and gaze out at the terrain.

The first Solo House to actually be constructed was “Solo Pezo” (pictured above), a project by Chilean practice Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects. This monolithic concrete structure rests on a square platform, elevated above its surroundings, with a deep swimming pool set into its center. The second was “Solo House II” (below), a beautiful ring-shaped home on a forested hilltop by Office KGDVS.

Other participating architecture firms include Sou Fujimoto, Johnston Mark Lee, Studio Mumbai, MOS Office, and Didier Faustino’s Mésarchitecture. These firms are all known for pushing boundaries, often showing off their more experimental ideas in the form of temporary pavilions.

“An interesting point is how these architects read society and how they integrate this reading into their buildings,” says Bourdais. “It has a strong sociological interest. Each project of the Solo Houses collection is one very different reading of society.”

Once complete, the Solo Houses will be available to the public as vacation rentals. Casa Pezo, which sleeps five, is already listed on the Boutique Homes booking site with a fairly open calendar and rates starting around $540 USD per night.

The post Experimental Architecture: Inverted Pyramid House Set into a Spanish Hillside first appeared on Dornob.

Dramatic, monolithic and surprisingly livable, this three-story pyramid-shaped house is a modern twist on an ancient architectural icon. Mexican architect Juan Carlos Ramos flips the script on standard residential typologies, which tend to prioritize fitting the largest possible living space onto the smallest footprint of land. But perhaps someone who wants to live like a contemporary Pharaoh isn’t too concerned about saving space, and with one triangular facade entirely transparent, you probably need to live on a bit of land for privacy’s sake, anyway.

Inspired by both the ancient Egyptian pyramids and the pyramid-shaped structures of Mesoamerica, Ramos envisions a starkly geometric modern residence resembling an inhabitable sculpture. On the small side as far as luxury houses go, Pyramid House features a one-car garage, two bedrooms and a bathroom with a pool. There’s a cantilevered balcony and recording studio on the second floor, and the third level boasts a library. The maximum capacity of the home is 4 people.

The shape itself actually isn’t too different from a traditional A-frame, leaning the front and back-facing facades inward to create a pointed roof. Of course, vertical walls are more practical when it comes to furnishings, but practicality is admittedly not the point here, says Ramos. “The pyramid house was created with the intention of improving the experience of living in a house as a reflection of the human being through the beauty of the architecture.”

Aesthetics may come first, but there are some practical aspects of the open-plan, glass-walled design, such as its ability to draw sunlight into every crack and cranny of the house.  It’s certainly no monument for the ages, but Pyramid House is still a cool twist on modern residential architecture that could add some visual interest to row after row of square and rectangular structures. Would you live in it given the chance?

The post Live in a Pyramid: Ancient Architecture Modernized for Today’s Pharaoh first appeared on Dornob.

The post Inverted Marble Pyramid is Like a Floating Monolith Table first appeared on Dornob.

Some designs are driven by the plan, others by a concept, but this one is based on a shape – the question is: is a pyramid quite so perfect a form for a modern-day residence as it was a tomb for the rulers of ancient Egypt? Mexican architect and conceptual designer Juan Carlos Ramos decided to try and see, entering this piece into an architectural competition after a good deal of trial, error and experimentation.

In the simplest terms, he started with shared common spaces like a living room and kitchen on the main floor and worked up toward more private areas, reserving the peak for a nice secluded library space. A spiral staircase wraps up to connect the various levels.

Even a garage and balcony managed to make it into the master plan, accessed via a system of slot-like windows and sliding openings that maintain the continuous pyramid shape along the exterior of the structure. While the functionality of the form is somewhat debatable overall (the steep angles creating somewhat awkward interior spaces, not to mention construction costs), it would at least do a great job shedding dead loads during the winter and reducing wind loads in storms, being comprised entirely of angled surfaces.

“The project is inspired by the landscapes of Lake Zirahuen and Lake Los Azufres in my native Michoacán, Mexico,” says Ramos.  “It is a very wet and rainy weather in forested area, my first thought was to make a cottage and it was when I found a kind of fissure in the history of architecture , there were formal precedents for a pyramidal housing. This is due to the ritual character of the pyramid, architecture character has been given since antiquity. However for many people it may seem inconceivable from the perspective functionalist as reminiscent of modern architecture.”

“So I tried to redefine the use of a stunning geometric form and so little used in contemporary architecture . The approach was not easy, but I tried mold the spaces the project based on the logic of a contemporary home in which even you can work from home , this way I have as a compositional axis a creative space , a recording studio but well it could be a painting studio or an architectural studio. The pyramid house was created with the intention of improving the experience of living in a house as a reflection of the human being through the beauty of the architecture, I think it is a primary search in architectural design. I can not say that one way is better than another but I think the intention of creating spaces with natural illumination, comfortable and beautiful, where the user can improve their quality of life is completely honest.”

The post Futuristic Pyramid House Design first appeared on Dornob.

A series of fought-for conversions, happy accidents and perfect timings led to this amazing two-story apartment that occupies the pyramidal pinnacle of a well-known Seattle skyscraper, the Smith Tower. Once the tallest building on the West Coast of the United States, this building is encircled with much misinformation about who lives at its top and why. Now, we get to see inside that hidden living space.

Atop this mysterious dwelling is great glass globe with unparalleled 360-degree views of Puget Sound, Mount Rainier and essentially every other sight the city has to offer, urban or otherwise. (Images via Castanes Architects &  Stuart Isett for The New York Times)

The building owners did not want to change much, but fortunately neither did the the aspiring tenant: a few steel staircases and platforms were all that was needed to infill the gaps but preserve the remarkable and layered history of the space (including carved-bronze doors and crisscrossing wooden beams details).

Entrepreneur and choreographer Petra Franklin Lahaie occupies this much-discussed, mystery-shrouded space atop floors of offices and banquet halls, with her young daughter. The live in a kind of ad hoc wonderland combining children’s toys with vintage architectural elements never meant to make a home.

The furnishings have histories as fascinating as the abode itself – centuries-old chairs and huge slaps of marble were found rummaging through lower floors during renovations. And speaking of: just imagine being the worker who had to slice and refit windows on the ancient angled roof exteriors, suspended thirty-eight floors in the sky.

In the late 1990s, when the (now current) new client came on the scene, the apartment above was in shambles – leaks were everywhere, concrete and dust littered the half-destroyed residence, and ladders rather than stairs spanned from floor to floor.

The designers working on the refurbishment scoured the building for old materials they could reuse for the new apartment, The New York Times writes. The result? Incredible, and infused with historic charm.

“One 9-by-7-foot gray slab became a kitchen counter; another heap of marble now skirts the tub that provides a postcard view of Mount Rainier, some 50 miles away. The black wood scrim work that decorates the doors came from the Chinese Room; Ms. Franklin found the panels stacked in the building’s basement. Nearby, she discovered a set of carved Chinese chairs that might be 300 years old. According to local lore, these furnishings were a gift from the last empress of China. (Mr. Willis doesn’t buy it.) However they came to Seattle, they belong in the apartment now.”

The post Secret Penthouse Hidden On Top of a Seattle Skyscraper first appeared on Dornob.