Mirrored glass reflects the surrounding forest

Sweeping landscape views

From Tham & Videgård Arkitekter comes the Mirrorcube, a sleek mirrored prism suspended in a forest near the Arctic Circle. It accommodates a double bed, living room and bath, with 360 degree views of the surrounding country from within as well as a roof terrace.

It’s my favorite of the seven arboreal cabins commissioned by TreeHotel, though the others also deserve a look: check out the hotel’s UFO-shaped vessel and gigantic bird’s nest.

I love the efficiency of this tiny Hong Kong apartment! Architect Gary Chang designed an elaborate system of movable walls with folding furniture, allowing a flexible configuration of twenty-four spaces within a tiny footprint of 300 square feet.

Chang gutted the interior, opening up the entire space for a fresh overhaul. He also warmed up the interior by tinting the windows yellow, instantly banishing grey days from entering the flat. Check out the video to see how he fits two beds into this space, along with a full kitchen, living room, library, video game room, laundry facilities, wet bar, and even a private theater complete with a hammock.

Here are a few photos snapped yesterday at SFMOMA’s 75th Anniversary Party, where Matmos and Nate Boyce performed to a packed audience. Earlier, I went to the Legion of Honor for the opening day of the Cartier and America exhibition where crowds came to ogle the extravagant collection of jewels.

SFMOMA's 75th Anniversary Party

SFMOMA's 75th Anniversary Party

This week will be exciting too — Someone Else and Robag Whrume are coming back to SF for more fun times. See some of you there!

There are works from some of the best known names of the era — El Lissitzky (see his Soviet poster, below), Malevich, Kamensky, even Lenin and Trotsky — though to my great delight, I learned of seemingly countless other groups and their often humorous counter groups:

The somewhat staid Ego-Futurists, mostly in the literary camp, were later superceded by the Imaginists who indulged in long, deeply metaphoric poetry; there were also the painterly Cubo-Futurists, who counted Malevich and Mayakovsky as primary leaders. Then there were the Acmeists, the Suprematists (Malevich at his finest), the Neo-Primitivists, the Rayonists, the Bicosmists, the Luminists, the Electroorganists, the Constructivists and the Productivists.

The funniest groups were the Eggists, who formed as a joke in a newspaper article; the Everythingists, who embraced all styles of expression; and the Nothingists, whose slogan was “Write nothing! Read nothing! Say nothing! Print nothing!”

But these groups seem disappointingly shallow when compared to artists like Iakov Chernikhov, who is worth mentioning here as one of the most imaginative minds in modern architecture — even if his perspective is missing from Baku. Though best known for the Flying City, his body of work (especially his collection of Architectural Fantasies) is well worth a peek.

One of the album’s highlights is About Two Squares – A Suprematist Story by El Lissitzky (1920-22), a children’s tale about a red square and a black square. They travel toward a red circle (Earth) and smash into each other, creating abstract forms on Earth.

It’s a futuristic narrative that combines experimental typography with the fun of reading aloud “colour-blocks of Word”… a synesthetic experience from one of the Russian greats! View the entire story here.

On the top floor, I fell in love with Tara Donovan‘s delicate installations which were made of everyday materials like film, scotch tape, drinking straws and styrofoam cups. The repetitive patterns revealed beautifully organic forms that captured and reflected light in subtle ways, shifting as I walked around them. The photo below is of layered polyester film from Untitled (2008).

It seems like the spirit of Archigram has emerged once again in the 21st century, this time in Dubai. Italian architect David Fisher has designed a 1,378 foot-tall skyscraper with 80 movable floors, each capable of shifting a complete 360-degree revolution around a central column within three hours or less. Dubbed the Dynamic Tower, the new structure will house a luxury hotel, commercial space and private residences: 

Despite its behemoth appearance, the Dynamic Tower touts impressive green design principles. Wind turbines located beneath each floor will allow the tower to generate enough power for itself as well as neighboring buildings. An entirely pre-fabricated construction process will further reduce costs, too.

Fisher shows no signs of slowing down; indeed, he’s hoping to take his skyscraper idea worldwide. The tower is scheduled for completion in 2010, but Fisher is already planning similar structures in Moscow and New York. 

http://www.dynamicarchitecture.net/building.html

Morgan Packard and Josh Ott opened the week with ambient techno shavings, helix-like visual permutations, accordian drifts and bird whistles:

Barem and Chic Miniature warmed up the crowd on Friday evening at SAT, while artists worked on a large mural:

Half Hawaii shook the packed midnight down at Metropolis:

And Onur Özer unleashed horns onto the crowd on Sunday’s Piknic set. It started to rain, but who could stop dancing?

I also enjoyed a side visit to the Canadian Center for Architecture, where I caught an exhibition on residential case studies by SANAA partner Ryue Nishizawa:

In school, I once had a studio project that called for the design of a stool made of corrugated cardboard. The idea was simple — to create a piece of furniture that was easy to assemble, structurally sound and made from inexpensive, readily available material.

Following this concept, Foldschool offers free furniture patterns which you can use to make your own chair, stool or cute little rocker from corrugated cardboard. Swiss architect Nicola Enrico Stäubli began Foldschool to provide “a face-to-face approach to design and [bring] together product and user the closest possible.” With beautifully sculptural lines, each of Stäubli’s designs strikes a strong impression.

www.foldschool.com