Christophe Guinet mainly works with natural materials to create his botanical sculptures. His latest project “highlights a series of sculptures representing tree trunks that come straight out of a fantastic and magical universe,” as he explains on his website. “This series of works consist of five tree trunks which connote through their shapes emotions that we can find in nature.”

The collection includes five large sculptures: a heart, an infinity loop, a spring coil reminiscent of barbed wire, a simple knot, and a more complex knot he calls “Wooden Lace.” Guinet stages the pieces in the forest and photographs them in their “natural environment,” adding to the illusion that someone has stumbled upon strange natural formations. The artist hopes the sculptures spur a sense of childlike wonder, awe, and appreciation for everything trees can do.

We’ve seen other works of art in which living trees are painstakingly guided into certain shapes over years or even decades, like the stick buildings of Patrick Dougherty and “Baubotanic” living architecture by students at the University of Stuttgart. Sometimes nature itself does the shaping, like when trees grow around objects, twisting themselves into surprising and unexpected forms. Monsieur Plant makes things happen a little faster than that with his own artistic methods, which involve plaster and real pine bark.

Guinet says forest walks inspired him to work with natural materials, raising questions about how nature adapts to its environment and its own innate creativity. His previous works often incorporated wood, bark, and moss, like an entire wearable Batman suit made of pink bark, a tree bark skateboard, arm-shaped moss sculptures wrapping around a real tree, and Nike sneakers made out of flowers.

“Contemplative and passionate aesthete of the plant world, he uses his findings related to places and seasons, to create works of art with care and a concentration close to the meditative state,” reads Guinet’s artist statement. “The artistic process is thus an integral part of the final work of art. As ephemeral and fragile as a bouquet of flowers, Christophe’s compositions show us the beauty of nature through everyday and cult objects. His care to minimize the harmful impact on the environment is in contrast to the escalation of consumerism and the race to keep producing objects which are ever newer, more technical, more ‘hype’.”

“His fields of reflection revolve around love, life, death, as well as the ambiguity of the cycle of life in a society where death has become extremely taboo. It is interesting to see a work fade, die, follow the cycle of the seasons. It reminds us of our own cycle: a flower blooms and fades to resume the same cycle the following year. We too follow certain cycles & states: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age, then death. It is inevitable and every stage of life should be celebrated and magnified.”

The post Monsieur Plant Molds Tree Trunks into Shockingly Unnatural Sculptures first appeared on Dornob.

Located in a field outside Stockholm, One Tree Four Seasons is a collaboration between Ulf Mejergren Architects (UMA) and Finnish artist Antti Laitinen. The project encircles a solitary alder tree set on a small hill with a giant nest-like structure, which will be periodically modified to represent the four seasons. The team uses only natural materials they can find in the immediate area to build the installation, making the results seem almost like a natural growth upon the tree.

The first part was completed earlier this year and unveiled in May, displaying the starkness of the leafless tree in the cold winter and early spring seasons. The tree was already surrounded by rocks, thanks to an old agricultural practice involving clearing obstacles from the adjacent fields. The team gathered dead branches and wove them together to form a circular nest that’s open at the top, with a huge round window looking out. Curious passersby will no doubt see the structure and the opening and approach out of curiosity, perhaps climbing inside to discover that the floor is also woven.

In August, the creative team revealed Season II. This time, a new natural material was available for them to work with: hay cut and collected from the fields. Not only did they pack the hay into the woven branch structure to give it more solidity, they crafted it into a slightly curving upper wall that focuses a tight view on the canopy of the tree overhead.

They also integrated a circular hay bench lining the perimeter. Stacked bales became temporary stairs outside the entrance. As such, this enormous nest became an organic concert space. Local string quartet Julikvartetten was invited to conduct a performance inside, playing not to an audience of humans but to the tree itself, and any wildlife that might be nearby. Season III will be underway shortly, and one imagines that it will include some fall leaves, or perhaps corn stalks or other agricultural byproducts from the scene.

The fact that the work looks like a nest calls to mind the architectural works of certain animals and insects, from termite mounds to beaver dams. Structures built by animals can be quite elaborate, blurring the lines between nature and art. Projects like One Tree Four Seasons remind us that we too are animals. Plus, there’s a very particular sense of comfort that comes from building architecture that works with nature instead of against it.

The post Living Tree Converted into a Nest-Like Concert Space in Rural Sweden first appeared on Dornob.

The restaurant design is impressive from the moment visitors walk in the door. The cocoon-like vaulted lobby is surrounded by a wooden space divider that takes its shape from the Ling Ling logo, which is rendered in neon. A low ceiling consisting of bunched illuminated textiles helps foster an atmosphere of suspense before guests are ushered into the surprisingly grand interiors, where trailing greenery frames a full-sized tree strung with outdoor lighting.

“The restaurant’s interior design concept started out with the idea of generating a space recalling the grand courtyards and terraces so characteristic of Mexican architecture,” the architects explain. “This was one of the greatest challenges in the design of the project, with the formal approach and the design process using structural elements and construction methods that helped to blur the boundary between architecture and interior design. As a result, the idea emerged of a triple-height space with a porticoed structure and lush vegetation of the terrace.”

Ceilings consisting of neutral-toned wooden louvers give the restaurant the appearance of a natural landscape, “carved” out to envelop the dining areas and give them an intimate feeling despite the expansiveness of the space. Though abstracted, the result mimics the feel of adjacent buildings, mountains, and trees surrounding a courtyard and generates a natural traffic pattern through the restaurant’s many rooms. With natural light and views providing the space’s dominating features, the architects focused on a palette of vegetative hues.

“The space benefits from the triple height and corner location to surprise guests with a glazed atrium structure offering 270-degree views across the whole city,” the firm adds. “Meanwhile, the inner salon and dining room are enclosed within a vaulted structure constructed using wood stereotomy techniques, highlighted by gentle illumination, and fitted out with custom-made furniture. Under this wood structure, the Sushi Bar recreates an Asian atmosphere that will bring the guests face-to-face with the preparation of the cuisine, giving a more personal touch to their experience. On the other hand, the main bar encloses a perfect frame of the skyline of the city through an item of dynamic furniture.”

Ling Ling Restaurant and Chapultepec Uno are located in the historic Reforma neighborhood, steps away from popular Mexico City landmarks like the Diana the Huntress Fountain and the Angel of Independence. If you want the best views in the house, reserve the Tres 60 table, a banquette sitting at the point of the dining room so you feel like you’re floating above the city.

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In London, a family with young children did just that. Lacking any mature trees of their own, they were saddened by the loss of a neighbor’s ailing tree, which provided shade and a sense of a natural environment to their urban backyard. They turned to architecture firm De Matos Ryan to build a play structure that evoked the wonder of a treehouse. Completed in 2021, the “Penfold” project is an unusual take on playhouses that could be mimicked in other treeless environments.

“All children have an unencumbered view of the world, who, given the opportunity to express themselves, can act as a catalyst to highly innovative and imaginative concepts,” say the architects. “Together we developed ideas around a den which was inaccessible to adults but had a crow’s nest, referencing their favorite cartoon Danger Mouse, in which the reluctant sidekick, Penfold, is a timid, bespectacled hamster.”

“Penfold’s codename ‘Jigsaw’ gave license to develop an entirely sustainable geometric timber frame that was elemental and simply looked like the way it was built. The structure needed to be prefabricated in pieces and carried through the house via domestic scaled doors. When assembled the triangular Douglas fir frames combined tom are a truncated pyramidal form. The Siberian Larch slatted cladding has a stainless steel cable lattice to encourage climbing plants over the volume and ultimately create the sense of a tree that never was.”

De Matos Ryan wanted to give Penfold an unusual form and abstract scale so it could become anything the kids can possibly conjure up with their imaginations, from a pirate ship to a castle turret. Since it’s so tall, they had to get planning permission to build it, which was granted only on the provision that the family must remove it if the property is ever sold. Thankfully, since it’s modular, that just means they’ll have an opportunity to pack it up and take it with them if they like.

This idea of allowing vines to climb up over the structure to give it a lushly vegetated feel is brilliant. Whether or not any of the family’s neighbors cut down additional trees, the kids will retain the fun and functionality of their treehouse, and the whole family will have something green to look at from their back windows.

The structure brings a sense of childlike wonder to the compact garden. Wouldn’t you want to climb inside and explore it, too? Alas, the builders have ensured a “kids only” policy by building the entrance as a portal so low you’d have to crawl into an uncomfortably tight space to get in.

The post Treeless Treehouse: Multi-Level Play Structure for a London Backyard first appeared on Dornob.

International design office Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) has teamed up with Office for Living Architecture (OLA) and non-profit organization GAL Terre del Po to create “The Tree Path,” a dreamy route for cyclists and pedestrians that rests on two parallel rows of plants acting as pillars. The elevated path leads to Sabbioneta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Italy.

The Tree Path aims to explore sustainable mobility while “blending the natural and the artificial.” The use of a living supportive structure is one of the most remarkable parts of this project. OLA is one of the world’s leading experts in a technique called Baubotanik (“botanic construction” in German), which adapts living trees into architectural elements. The trees are incorporated into all kinds of structures, including full-scale buildings, contributing shade, natural cooling and air filtering, oxygen production, CO2 absorption, and a good habitat for local wildlife.

Roughly 1,000 trees will grow around a stainless steel platform and hand rail for this project, building and transforming the path structure over the course of several years. The path makes its ascent in three different levels, rising from the ground to a height of nearly 20 feet to bypass road traffic and waterways, entering Sabbioneta from an elevated perspective. Digital sensors will also be incorporated in the pathway to measure factors like air pollution and make sure all the living organisms along the path are capable of withstanding the structural load. This is envisioned as an “internet of trees,” connected by an artificial intelligence system provided by the Mindicity Urban Intelligence Platform.

“What if one day we could grow architecture like a tree? We are still very far from that future, but we can start exploring the convergence between the natural and the artificial. We can use trees as elements of construction, while leveraging the data from digital technologies to get a better understanding of the surrounding environment,” comments Carlo Ratti, founding partner at CRA and director of the Senseable City Lab at MIT.

The new path will connect Sabbioneta to the existing VENTO Cycle Route, a 435-mile-long bicycle path that runs along the Po River in northern Italy, via the town of Casalmaggiore. For many centuries, the Po River was a major navigable river in Europe, transporting goods and people between Turin in the south and Venice in the north. The Romans even used it to move armies and carry out their conquests throughout Europe. Following the Po honors this cultural heritage and encourages both Italians and international visitors to ride bikes instead of driving. The Tree Path adds yet another destination to explore along the route.

If you’re wondering how living trees could possibly support the weight and strain of the path and its users, check out previous Baubotanik projects created by students at the University of Stuttgart. The Tree Path is similar to an elevated pathway they completed, wherein flexible, fast-growing trees like willows are pictured wrapping their trunks around metal structural elements for stability.

The post A Treetop Bike Path Winds Through the Picturesque Italian Countryside first appeared on Dornob.

Each of the 49 trees in the installation was brought up to New York from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, a site where the impacts of climate change have already come to fruition. This real world ghost forest was inundated by salt water from a nearby estuarine river after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, causing each tree to start rotting from the inside. The standing dead forest looks a lot like others around the country, like the beetle-kill forest near Lin’s family’s summer vacation destination in southwestern Colorado, which helped inspire the project.

Stretching 40 feet into the air, the bare crowns of the cedars remain the same as the living landscape transforms around them. Their placement has been carefully choreographed, with Lin considering each one as its own individual character. The soundtrack of bird and animal calls, created by Lin using the Macaulay Library sound archive of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, adds an extra layer of mournfulness to the installation. All of these species were once common on Mannahatta (Manhattan Island), the ancestral homeland of the Lenape-Delaware people, more than 500 years ago. None are still present in the area due to urbanization and human activity, and many of the remaining species could be lost in the decades to come. Scientists project that by 2100, 50 percent of all currently living species on the planet could go extinct.

“Each tree is a monument to climate change,” Lin writes on ArtForum. “The project has an advocacy component, which we are using to talk about farming, forestry, degradation, and development. I’m also matching the amount of carbon used in installing the forest by planting a thousand trees around the city. Over ten years, we will actually offset what it took to create the 5.3-ton piece by a factor of ten. Global warming is one of the gravest threats we face, and as an artist and an activist I don’t want to just make you aware of its dire consequences; I want to offer real solutions.”

“Our kickoff public event was a panel discussion on nature-based strategies to combat climate change, and we will continue to explore these issues in other programs throughout the project. Reforming our agricultural, ranching, and forestry practices and increasing protection of both our land and waters could offset between 50 and 90 percent of our current emissions, as well as protect and restore our biodiversity. After the horrific actions of the last administration, we simply don’t have another four years to waste.”

Lin describes the trees as “sentinels,” bearing witness as the park transitions from spring to summer to fall. By the time the installation ends on November 14th, they’ll blend in to the dormant trees around them. After they’re removed, they’ll be recycled into building materials and tree mulch. If you can’t visit in person, check out the audio tour of “Ghost Forest” and listen to the full soundtrack at the Madison Square Park Conservancy website.

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Australian firm Koichi Takada Architects uses biomimicry as the guiding principle in all its designs, including its new Solar Trees Marketplace in the Minhang district southwest of Shanghai, China. The complex takes one of Chinese culture’s most revered and ancient public spaces and modernizes it without compromising the characteristics that make it special. The firm wanted to retain the feeling of discovery and connection to the country’s historic open-air markets with a design that was friendly to both humans and the environment, taking cues from Mother Nature’s own creations.

The result is nothing short of stunning. Currently in the late stages of construction, the three-story mixed-use development features 32 architectural “trees” rising from the ground to form an artificial canopy above hundreds of modular market stalls. Visitors will wind through indoor and outdoor spaces, the timber “branches” above providing shade, shelter from the rain, and a surface for solar panels to power the facility.

50 living camphor trees planted outside signal the beginning of a green corridor that will run down the length of the new Shanghai Tian An Caobao Road Area Residential Masterplan. Ultimately, pedestrians will enjoy a boulevard lined with 3,000 trees and shrubs indigenous to Shanghai, with the color coding of different plantings identifying various neighborhoods and guiding residents home.

“The inclusion of modular market stalls will bring a sense of authenticity to the contemporary development, referencing their history as social and cultural gathering spaces and allowing a new generation to gather at its heart,” says the firm. “Reflecting the Chinese tradition of making guests feel at home — bīn zhì rú guī — the marketplace will generate a powerful sense of community and integrate the private and public domains.”

For the shape of the facility, the Koichi Takada team turned to Shanghai’s nearby forests. The marketplace is a symbolic visual bridge between nature and the city, softening the edges and contributing to a healthier, more livable urban environment in what has long been one of the world’s most polluted cities. It’s due to be completed by the end of 2021.

“We want to humanize buildings in the district, to be more engaging to the public and contribute to the regeneration of communities and their neighborhoods,” says principal architect Koichi Takada. “We want architecture to celebrate cultural identity, along with encouraging pedestrian activities and a more walkable and livable city.

Last year, Koichi Takada Architects showed off a similar approach with Sunflower House, a series of single-family dwellings designed specifically for Italy’s sunny Tuscan climate. Those homes utilize a rotating design and solar roof to maximize sun exposure for energy production and minimize heat gain inside.

The post Tree-Inspired Solar Powered Shopping Center Offers a Twist on Traditional Chinese Markets first appeared on Dornob.

Beginning back in December 2020 as one of 40 of Illuminate SF’s annual Festival of Light installations, “Entwined” is comprised of three synthetic trees and 16 bushes, all topped with thousands of LED light cubes. Colors chromatically flow in and out of the “leaves.” The San Francisco Recreation and Parks describes the variety of LED effects as “building a sense of awe,” fashioning “raindrops on the pavement, lighting and thunderstorms, wind blowing tall grass and flowers, and ripples on a pond.”

The mystical combination of darkness and glowing nature gives visitors the impression of being transported to a futuristic enchanted forest. Says San Francisco Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg: “a twilight stroll through the park’s east [is] truly magical this winter.”

“Entwined is an immersive light experience for Golden Gate Park visitors to explore, engage with, and enjoy,” explains Entwined creator and industrial artist Charles Gadeken. “What does the ‘tree of life’ look like in the world, post-nature? The installation is my latest exploration of this question, blending timeless natural objects with abstract forms and modern technology to evoke wonder, magic, and joy.”

Situated in Golden Gate Park’s Peacock Meadow, Gadeken’s trees range in height from 12 to 20 feet, with their glowing canopies stretching as wide as 30 feet. The trunks and roots were constructed from steel plates using a combination of CNC-cut and hand-rolled strips to generate both organic and boxy shapes. He included both four and eight-inch plastic cubes for the tops, each with 16-channel programmable LED lights, allowing “millions of colors [to] move through the trees’ leaves in hypnotic waves,” according to the artist.

While new to Golden Gate Park, Gadeken has showcased a five-tree version of Entwined in several venues since 2017, including Las Vegas’ Electric Daisy Carnival and the Toronto Light Festival. In years past it was intended to be more hands-on, with visitors encouraged to climb around on the roots and have “a direct physical interaction with the piece of art.”

Due to the pandemic, however, this latest installation is a socially-distanced affair, spread out over an acre of land with more looking and less touching involved.

As an artist, Gadeken has been producing copper, bronze, and steel pieces in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 25 years. Inspired by the objects, structures, and processes in the world around him, he says his work “depicts natural objects in fantastic ways and realizes the potential for serendipity in everyday life.” He also hopes to “instill a sense of play into the environment.”

Gadeken uses his imaginative inventions to encourage others to be creative as well. From 2019 to 2020, he was an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University in the Electrical Engineering Department, where he taught his students about kinetic light art sculptures.

The lights of “Entwined” come on from 4 to 10 pm daily. Although originally slated to run through February 28th, the exhibit’s popularity has yielded it an extension through Sunday, April 4th.

The post Entwined: Fantastical LED Tree Exhibit Brings Glow to Golden Gate Park first appeared on Dornob.

There is a method behind the magic of a backyard tree house – and while it is not all fun and games, the construction process can be a participatory educational experience for children as well as an engaging do-it-yourself project for adults. Building a treehouse for kids is a rewarding project that can help refine your DIY skills.

Free from direct attachment to trees, this variant is simple, sustainable and versatile – a plywood-framed box and a set of wooden stilts. It can thus be built and deconstructed as needed, adding safety, too, over a tree-tied version.

Imminently practical (and replicable), Ravnikar Potokar Arhitekturni used standard-sized beams, boards and sheets as well as easy-to-pour concrete footings with off-the-shelf steel anchors for simplicity and stability.

Essential saws and basic carpentry skills make it easy enough for a few (safety-conscious) people to put the whole thing together from scratch, while these plan and section drawings show the basics required to make it all work.

The catch is in the erecting of the prefabricated-on-the-ground framework – one would assume, though, that the stilt supports could be put up first then cross-braces added once they were vertical.

The result: a cool little all-weather reading-room villa, four-season club house cottage and/or lofted play space lodge that is weatherproof, well-lit, modern in style but traditional in materials.

Something based on these specs would make a great little flexible addition to a front or back lawn, garden or forest space, complete with framed views on the front plexiglass facade and little operable hinged-plywood window boxes on all sides.

More from the architects

“The Tree House, designed by Robert Potokar of Robert Potokar Architecture Office and co-designer Janez Brežnik, is a wooden play structure that is elevated without requiring nearby trees to support its weight. The concept, originally designed in February 2008 as since been realized three times. The freestanding, self-supporting house-by-a-tree is a playhouse designed with contemporary design principles, deviating from precedents that model real houses or garden sheds. Instead, the design was guided by the goal of creating interesting and different spatial experiences for children that inspire new forms of play.”

The post Modern Magic: Building a Treehouse for Kids [Plans & Pics] first appeared on Dornob.

Being called a “palace of musical wonders,” the unique museum and concert hall space consists of mostly transparent walls and an organically-rounded roof perforated with dozens of holes. Trees will one day grow up from the ground floor and out of those rings, producing a beautiful synchronization between the artificial and biological elements. As Japan native Fujimoto says, the structure is an attempt to harmonize “the nature of sound and the sounds of nature.”

Part of the Liget Budapest Project, an ambitious urban initiative to revitalize the 300-acre City Park with “cultural content,” the Hungarian House of Music comprises almost 97,000 square feet and three floors.

“It is incredibly inspiring to work in one of the world’s first public parks, and the task of designing the building was especially exciting since we not only created an edifice but also brought the park experience into the building,” says Fujimoto.

The ground and second floors will be wrapped in 94 heat-insulated glass panels, some reaching as tall as 40 feet, leaving a view of the interior exposed to the outside world. The main floor will be mostly open and feature two separate music venues. A lyrical spiral staircase crescendos up to the second floor (situated within the roof construction), which itself will house a library, office space, classrooms, and an archive of Hungarian pop music.

The building’s basement level will contain a permanent “history of music” exhibit, with space for rotating music-related showcases. It also holds the hemispherical sound dome, a room for special audio projections. “In the exhibition space set up on the underground level, we use state-of-the-art technology to show that music is actually present in every moment of our lives, from the cradle to the grave,” the Liget Budapest Project website says.

The entire museum is designed not only for those with well-trained musical ears, but for children, families, teachers, students, and anyone else interested in learning more about sound.

Of the distinctive circular roof, Fujimoto says it was mean to be a “visual representation of the vibration of sound: the wave.”

“There are no right angles in the roof structure, almost no two elements that are the same,” he explains. “It is all unique and the surface is punctured by close to 100 individually designed holes for the trees of the park to emerge through.”

Fujimoto also designed melodiously functional lightwells to accommodate those living boughs. They “channel the light right down to the lowest levels, thus helping to illuminate the interiors and create a unique ambience,” he adds.

The architect also wanted to be pitch-perfect in terms of the environmental impact of his design. To that end, the building is supplied with renewable geothermic energy via 120 heat pumps installed 300 feet underground. It also employs an innovative tele-cooling system and was built using several eco-friendly construction techniques.

Fujimoto’s musical palace has already received numerous honors. In 2019, it was named the best public service architecture project by the International Property Awards. A year later, in 2020, the American Music Cities Awards bestowed the title of “Best Use of Music In Property Development/Real Estate” on the building.

The Liget Budapest Project hopes that “with its diverse offering, worthy of the musical past and present of Hungary, and its outstanding personalities, the new institution will be a harbinger and forum for the greatness of music.” The Hungarian House of Music is slated to be opened to the public before the end of 2021.

The post Sou Fujimoto Creates “Palace of Musical Wonders” in Hungary first appeared on Dornob.

The LEGO Botanical Collection, announced on December 30th, 2020, is a range of “mindful models,” including a flowered bouquet and a seasonally changing Bonsai tree.

“While many people seek out green spaces to de-stress and relax, adults can now bring a touch of nature into their home and unwind as they create and customize their botanical builds,” LEGO said in its official press release. “And the great news is that LEGO plants don’t need to be watered to stay fresh.”

Those are some encouraging words for aspiring gardeners who don’t have much of a green thumb. And appropriately, both sets feature some components constructed from plant-based plastic, itself made from sustainably sourced sugarcane.

The 756-piece, first-ever “Bouquet” set consists of an assortment of roses, poppies, snapdragons, asters, daisies, and various grasses in a visually-striking array of colors. The stems can be adjusted to fit in any size vase, and the petals are repositionable for an endless combination of displays. The company suggests this bunch of beaming blossoms would even make a “special and unusual gift” for anniversaries and birthdays.

The Bonsai tree kit, with its 878 pieces, allows LEGO fans to experience the ancient art of carefully snipping leaves and branches to create an exquisitely shaped shrub. The green leaves can be swapped out for pink cherry buds to keep pace with the seasons, or simply whenever builder wants a change. Only astute observers will be able to tell that most of the blushing blooms are actually tiny and charming LEGO frogs. Standing in its included slatted wood-effect pot, the tree is a decent synthetic version of the real thing. Its soothing shape and hues could believably help liberate some of those feel-good neurochemicals that help people calm down.

“As adults look for new ways to switch off and relax, we’re delighted to be able to help them seek solace from their busy everyday lives as they immerse themselves in creating these beautiful botanical builds,” says Jamie Berard, Design Lead at the LEGO Group. “The customizable elements and mindful building experience will hopefully help them express their personality as their creativity blossoms.”

LEGO may have been right about adults using to play to relax, because within days of its January 1 release, the new collection completely sold out on the company website, as well as on retail sites like Target and Walmart. Once back in stock, the Flower Bouquet can be purchased online here, while the Bonsai Tree is listed here.

The LEGO Flower Bouquet perennials can stand more than 14 inches tall and are priced at $49.99. Plastic horticulturists can add to their arrangements with individually sold LEGO Roses and Tulips for $12.99 each. The completed LEGO Bonsai Tree reaches seven inches high and also retails for $49.99.

The post LEGO’s Botanical Collection Helps Adults Shed Stress and Sprout New Energy first appeared on Dornob.

Moore gives each tiny detail of her blown glass plant life her full attention. Step in to look closely at a flower petal and you’ll see a unique pattern of veins. In the center, minute individual grains of pollen stand out. This quality craftsmanship is what makes her work special, but the contrast of such a fragile material and the tenacity of nature are what give it its power.

The Seattle-based artist sees her sculptures as rooted in nature, but not quite bound by it. Orchids are her signature creation, and they’re perpetually crystallized in perfect bloom, not a petal out of place. Other works include magnolias and wisteria, but it’s the dazzling alien form of the orchid that seems to inspire her again and again. Moore depicts them in many of their usual variations, hanging from wires or sprouting from unrelated trees like majestic parasites.

“I utilize the medium of glass to translate the breath-taking grandeur and delicate fragility of the natural world into a unique sculptural interpretation,” Moore says. “The intricate structure of living things and how they thrive in harmony with each other is explored in my reflection of orchids and other botanical studies. The astounding variety within the orchid family provides endless opportunities for artistic expression with their vibrancy of color and elegance of form. The necessity of the blooms to bond with a strong, stable host — an interdependence that nurtures and sustains both is a metaphor of the human condition in its tenuous and essential relationship with the earth.”

“Within each work, glass is used like paint to achieve depth of color. The material’s inherent ability to transmit and reflect light, as well as its variations from transparency to opacity, lends itself perfectly to achieve desired textures and surfaces. By combining new techniques with traditional glass-blowing skills, and a passionate attention to form and detail, these pieces express my vision of an exotic environment; one that is rooted in reality but springs from the imagination.”

A graduate of Seattle’s Pratt Fine Arts Center and the renowned Pilchuck Glass School, Moore was among the first women to break into the male-dominated world of fine art glassblowing, and she’s known for the clever techniques that help her support the weight of all that glass on delicate branches. She even went as far as to work with a structural engineer and study the math that would be required to expand her smaller structures into full-scale trees.

The learning process didn’t come without a few devastating mistakes, unfortunately. At one point, her first tree (a winter plum) fell to the ground and crashed in the home studio she shares with her husband, a fellow glass artist. But Moore also discovered a secret way to hold things together: faux moss made of a granular glass called “frit,” which she crafts into a sort of glue inspired by liquid latex special effects makeup.

Ultimately, it took her two years to complete her imaginary forest called “Arboria,” which was displayed at the Tacoma Art Museum between January 2019 and January 2020, but the results were well worth the wait.

The post Take a Stroll Through Debra Moore’s Fairytale World of Glittering Glass Flowers first appeared on Dornob.

“Ha Long Villa” is remarkable at first glance not just for its irregular geometric facade, but also for the trees poking out of large apertures on every side, all the way up to the roof. Along with providing a little extra shade, the trees give the home a garden-like atmosphere that helps connect its inhabitants to nature within the rapidly industrializing coastal city of Ha Long.

The architects’ two principle motivations may seem to be at odds: the increasing loss of forests and other undeveloped spaces in the area, and the need to create high-quality sustainable housing that meets Ha Long’s rising standard of living. The result is an airy modern home with almost as much exterior living space as interior, though realistically, it’s a bit oversized as a single-family home to truly be considered sustainable.

“The semi-exterior space connects the interior and the terrace part of the garden, and is a place to promote various living activities,” the firm explains. “It is a multipurpose space which serves as a connection between each space. It is a place for gardening, sightseeing, sitting, [and] walking, and it also connects to the living space. These distinctive spaces offer residents options in their daily lives, like whether to dine inside or outside on a particular day. The various movements in the resident’s lives are also conveyed to the neighborhood through [the] windows in the exterior facade.”

Between the wrap-around terraces and all the plants on the rooftop, the architects have planted more greenery than construction of the home displaced, though of course, public green spaces have a lot more value to the community at large. VTN Architects took inspiration from stones found in the nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site Ha Long Bay for the rough exposed concrete of the exterior walls, which themselves are dappled in shadow by all the greenery. As the trees change along with the seasons, so does the facade.

“Ha Long Villa is one of the prototypes of ‘House for Trees,’ which is a series of residential projects,” add the architects. “The aim of the series is to bring green spaces back into the city, and to design as much greenery as was present in the original landscape to provide a healthier life to people living in the city. Due to the simplicity of the concept, the idea of ‘House for Trees’ can be multiplied almost anywhere in tropical climate regions. As part of the vast landscape, Ha Long Villa harmonizes with the natural environment. And Ha Long Villa aims to be a space where people return to living surrounded by nature.”

It would be cool to see the passive cooling double-facade concept catch on in other hot places, particularly deserts. Can’t you imagine something like this working in a place like Nevada or Arizona with cacti instead of trees?

The post Ha Long Villa: Home in Vietnam Wrapped in an Inhabitable Garden first appeared on Dornob.

Designer Evelina Kudabaité saw an opportunity in a material that’s often overlooked. Tree bark is typically removed from logs before they’re processed into lumber for architecture, furniture, and other projects, creating “slash piles” of unwanted material that then has to be discarded. While some mills send this material to chipping facilities to become mulch, the logistics of transporting it aren’t always financially feasible, and it often gets burned instead.

So what if materials like this could be “rescued” by craftspeople for another purpose? Kudabaité’s new “GIRIA” collection upcycles this waste into a range of beautiful tableware that retains the pleasant properties of plant-based materials. Consisting of plates, bowls, platters, and jugs, GIRIA is made of tree bark scraps collected from sawmills which are then dried, chopped, and mixed with powdered leaves.

The Lithuania-based artist mixes these materials into a paste and shapes them by hand into the vessels, coating them with a non-toxic finish that can be gently washed with a cloth. Since they can’t be washed directly in a sink, they’re not ideal for everyday dishes, but they can still serve beautiful decorative purposes, or inspire short-term food usage as an alternative to harmful plastics.

The finished dishes retain a rustic look that reminds us where they came from, and that there’s plenty more of the same materials to be had, especially as a byproduct of sustainably managed working forests. The different kinds of leaves and powders used in the making of each object, including charcoal for darker tones, gives them a unique look. No two pieces will ever be identical.

The official GIRIA website explains that “the project is aimed to pass the sensations of the forest through material, to establish a connection between the user and the object. This collection is a result of an experimental process by which it was meant to show how materials, which are destined to become waste — tree bark and leaves — can be transformed into sustainable design through the traditional crafts like cooking and clay molding.”

“It is a research on the alternative and unconventional ways to shape wood, which reminds [one] of the culinary process. During the research, a recipe of a unique material that consists of harmless organic substances has been found. No two items in GIRIA are the same: each is made by hand, and the bark dust of different kinds of trees (oak, pine, ash, and tree leaves) gives a unique texture, varying in color and roughness of a surface.”

Kudabaité adds that “the collection distinguishes itself from mass production, making the products as individual as their owners.”

The post GIRIA: Biodegradable Dishes Made of Tree Bark Waste first appeared on Dornob.

The new year will bring the completion of a pretty dazzling array of architectural projects, some of which have been in the making for a decade or more. Major firms will be cutting the ribbons on career-defining structures, and some of them are record-breakers, too.

These five exciting examples include a new super-tall tower for Chicago, the posthumous completion of a striking hotel designed by Zaha Hadid herself, an Olympic stadium, and two examples of buzzworthy concepts looking to prove themselves in the real world.

Opus by Zaha Hadid Architects, Dubai

The first and only hotel in Dubai to be designed inside and out by famed architect Zaha Hadid herself, the “Opus” is a cube-shaped volume with a “carved” central void, bringing some of Hadid’s signature curvature to the project. Located within the city’s Burj Khalifa district, the building will contain a “ME by Melia” hotel as well as 12 restaurants, a rooftop bar, and 56,000 square feet of office space. Each side of the cube is conceived as its own separate tower, connected by narrow bridges at the top and bottom.

“The Opus will be aligned with Omniyat’s vision of treating each project as if it were a unique work of art,” says Mahdi Amjad, Executive Chairman and CEO of Omniyat. “The design conveys the remarkably inventive quality of ZHA’s work; expressing a sculptural sensibility that reinvents the balance between solid and void, opaque and transparent, interior and exterior.”

There’s no word yet on exactly when the hotel will open to its first guests, but construction is nearly complete as of early 2020.

Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center by MAD, China

When architects first began proposing futuristic-looking developments resembling mountains years ago, they seemed like fantasy concepts that would never actually be built. MAD Architects is proving that theory wrong with its Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, which is quickly nearing completion in China. The mixed-use development occupies over 560,000 square meters of building area and will host residential, hotel, office, and commercial facilities, and it’s all characterized by mountain-like towers around the edge with glass screens that “flow” like waterfalls.

The firm explains that “these features provide interior spaces with energizing light and wind to form a subtle, calming ambiance. The project mimics the site’s surrounding mountains and meandering rivers that are essential parts of Chinese aesthetic philosophy. Towers along the edge of the site act as a mountainous backdrop, while water features such as ponds, waterfalls, brooks, and pools connect buildings and landscapes to integrate all of the center’s elements. This integration goes beyond form, with the water features functioning as reservoirs to collect and recycle rainwater for irrigation.”

Vista Tower by Studio Gang, Chicago

It’s not every day that a city gets a new landmark that dramatically alters its skyline. In Chicago, the tale of the failed Spire super-tower has become legendary after what was supposed to be the tallest building in North America never made it past the construction of its giant foundation hole. That hole has now sat empty for well over a decade. The new Vista Tower by Studio Gang may not fill the literal hole in the ground, and at 1,186 feet, it won’t be anywhere near as tall, but once completed, it will be the city’s third-tallest skyscraper.

“Residential and hotel amenities combine at the upper levels, creating a vibrant social center,” say the architects. “At ground level, the building creates an essential pedestrian connection between the Chicago Riverwalk and the nearby community park’s outdoor recreational facilities.”

1,000 Trees by Heatherwick Studio, Shanghai

A lot of concept architecture over the last decade has featured full-scale trees adorning the facades of buildings. While it certainly looks cool, there have been a lot of good questions raised about the weight of the soil, the impact of the tree roots as they grow, and lots of other potential problems. As Heatherwick Studio completes its 1,000 Trees development in Shanghai, we’ll finally get to see how it all works out. Heatherwick’s design differs from others in a few crucial ways, like the use of concrete structural columns to support the trees. The mixed-use project also resembles an artificial mountain from afar, adding some interesting topographical dimension to an otherwise flat city.

National Stadium by Kengo Kuma, Tokyo

Japanese architect Kengo Kuma’s National Stadium was technically completed in November 2019, but this summer, we’ll get to see it in use for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. Kuma is a master of wooden architecture, and the new stadium is one of his largest and most complex projects to date, made with over 70,000 cubic feet of larch and cedar wood sourced from all of Japan’s 47 prefectures. The stadium was originally set to be designed by Zaha Hadid, but her firm’s predictably curvy design was deemed too expensive.

Which one of these projects are you most excited to see finished?

The post 5 Buildings We Can’t Wait to See Completed in 2020 first appeared on Dornob.

The holiday season is upon us, and people everywhere are heading out in droves to enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas. From caroling to festive fun and frolicking, there’s certainly no shortage of spirit right now, and one of the most recent trends to emerge at this time of year is that of intricate lighting displays. Whether it’s individual homes coming alive with projections of angels, snowflakes, and Christmas scenes, or plazas, squares, and boulevards decked out with ornaments, decorations, and strings of fairy lights, you’re bound to find fun Christmas lights pretty much anywhere you go. It’s also a great opportunity to go out and be a tourist in your own town.

In honor of all that, we thought we’d check out some of our favorite Christmas light displays from around the globe.

Tokyo, Japan

Japan’s capital is known for its bustling intersections, loud audiovisual spectacles, and quirky character, and this really comes to the fore at Christmas time. Various neighborhoods across the city enter into something of a competition to see who can produce the best winter light installation, giving tourists visiting the city around the holiday season the treat of glittering arrangements in lots of different districts. One of the most popular winter illuminations is located in Midtown, where visitors can see a carpet of blue lights laid out on the ground. The “Starlight Garden” area here also features a whopping 190,000 LED lights.

Las Vegas, Nevada

“America’s Playground” is undoubtedly one of the most extravagant places in the world all year round, but it really outdoes itself when it comes to Christmas lights. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a race track that’s turned into a neon tunnel every holiday season, where visitors can venture beyond the famous Strip and ride down the two-and-a-half-mile “Glittering Lights” circuit. All in all, 500 displays appear in the LED setup, so you’re sure to be entertained while you wait for your turn.

Dublin, Ireland

The Irish capital is a great place to visit at any time of year, but lovers of the winter holidays will find that Dublin has a couple extra-twinkly treats in store for Christmas. The city’s famous Christmas lights are switched on every November, but this year the city’s most prominent buildings, including Trinity College, Central Bank, and the Customs House, are used as canvases for projections of Christmassy displays that make for a great walking route for anyone new to the city and looking to explore.

Austin, Texas

The cultural capital of Texas is no stranger to top-notch light shows, as it’s been hosting its “Trail of Lights” event for some 50 years now. Visitors can follow a 2.1-mile-long trail that takes them through the city’s Zilker Park, where an incredible 800 trees are lit up. An additional 50 light displays round out this amazing spectacle, cumulatively taking over 500 volunteers to set up each year. Austin is also home to the Zilker Tree, the self-proclaimed “World’s Tallest Manmade Christmas Tree” that towers 155 feet above the ground.

The post Stunning Christmas Light Displays From Around the World first appeared on Dornob.