Recently:
Alts and ads to a house in Sydney:
A new model of the house we showed last time:
- Pingmag takes us on a tour of artworks on construction site hoardings around Tokyo.
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- “A Roman Catholic priest who floated off under hundreds of helium party balloons was missing off the southern coast of Brazil today.”
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- Seven South Korean cloned labradors are being trained as sniffer dogs.
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- Inside a polygamist compound of the The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Via Things.
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Australia now…BIGGER
Monday, 21st April 2008 Tweet
“I am pleased to announce that Australia, the largest island in the world has dramatically increased in size”
- Federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson
Ummm…
Australia has just been enlarged. By an extra 2.5 million square kilometres. Or - “an area five times the size of France, 10 times the size of New Zealand, and 20 times the size of the United Kingdom”.
Figure 1. In which Mr Ferguson points to a blob called Australia.
- Lighting at the Beijing Olympic Stadium. Mini birds nest and chirping fetus?
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- A series of housing types by MVRDV for the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans by MVRD. Nice Sections.
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- A summary of the key points from last weekend’s 2020 Summit in Canberra. Curiously, the ‘Creative Australia’ group headed up by Cate Blanchett had some fairly run of the mill suggestions including mentoring schemes and the digitisation of ye olde arte.
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- DIY Mies van der Rohe gravestone. Courtesy of Strange Harvest.
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- Welcome to Matt, Super Colossal’s Spanish Correspondent. His first post; on the a real estate purchase for the savvy buyer.
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National Congress of Brazil for sale.
Friday, 18th April 2008 Tweet
Oscar Niemeyer’s National Congress of Brazil for sale.
A lifestyle of sensual functionalism awaits the discerning purchaser of this charming example of Brazilian modern architecture. This exciting property features 3 bedrooms, external aspect, lift access, close proximity to public transport and the plasticity and freedom that only reinforced concrete can offer. Yours for only 145,000 euros! Don’t miss out!
Spotted in Madrid.
- The Prada Foundation in Milan by OMA. More.
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- In the lead up to tonight’s lecture by Jan Gehl, The City of Sydney has released a video outlining the major changes proposed for the Sydney CBD.
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- The next version of Google Earth (4.3) will include higher resolution 3D buildings in major cities as well as an adjustable sun and shadows.
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The Tristan Project
Wednesday, 16th April 2008 Tweet
The Tristan Project by Bill Viola is currently on display at the Art Gallery of NSW. The video work was made originally to accompany a performance of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde first presented at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Aside from the exhibition on display at the Art Gallery of NSW, there are two works on display at the St Saviour’s Church in Redfern; Fire Woman and Tristan’s Ascension.
They are epic works of sound and slow motion acts of nature. With the human body both resilient and submissive in the face of walls of fire and mountainous waterfalls. We are told that:
“Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde is the story of a love so profound that it cannot be contained in the material bodies of the lovers. In order to fully realise their love, Tristan and Isolde must ultimately transcend life itself.”
In its location in a small unassuming church in Redfern, the work becomes like a contemporary stained glass window; a window into a deeply spiritual place and is affecting in a deeply primal manner and we recommend you take a look at it while it is still showing. It is on every night from 6:30pm-10pm until May 17.
- Ummm. It turns out that the Millennium Falcon is remarkably similar to a design for a bank by Otto Wagner. How come no one spotted this earlier? Bad internet.
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- Salt and Pepper from really close up. + BONUS (!) Food that takes the shape of its container.
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- So, after a couple of weeks of destroying the website for no real reason, it has returned to something similar to its old self. A few tweaks here and there… There are probably a few stray yellow things still lying around, but we will get onto those shortly.
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- Long, fascinating post by Dan Hill on the design, production and content creation for the online component of Monocle magazine.
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- Resilient Community: Microgrids. Arguing for smaller networks of power grids that purchase in bulk from a national supplier, leading to a more stable power supply and a more competitive market.
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- Insane Exploding-Globe-Health-Spa-Thing proposed for the world’s leaders. Donna Vassar, part of the Vassar education dynasty, has launched plans to build a $300m ( £150m) private getaway for stressed-out presidents and prime ministers who want to “reconnect with their unique purpose in life”.
Thanks Matt.#
- ‘Give Us Today Our Daily Terror’ by Martin Hendriks. “Exact copy of Hitchcock’s 1963 film The Birds from which all birds have been removed”.
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