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Living and working inside a CONTAINER.

Eight feet tall, eight feet wide and either 20 or 40 feet long. We have always seen shipping containers on trains, at ports or piled onto cargo ships. Built from weathering steel, they were designed to transport and storage cargos between locations or countries. But with changing times, architects and designers have been repurposing the primary use of these building blocks. From urban homes to offices, from artists’ studios to shopping malls, many structures based on shipping containers have already been constructed. (mais…)

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To optimize the interplay between rationality and sensibility, architecture keeps on searching for new ways and forms, including geometrical, capable of fulfilling contemporary needs and with a good pinch of audacity to encourage the abstraction and the rupture of standard methods.

Cylindrical in shape, Roll It, leads up the primary idea of home to an unexplored level. Result of students’ common work developed in the german University of Karlsruhe, the modular prototype, which won a design contest in collaboration with the Institute for Industrial Design, was conceived to offer multifuncionality inside minimum housing unit. (mais…)

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Windowpane through which objects are exposed for sale or to be seen; main compartment with a glazed face in which goods are exposed; display; showcase; vitrina. Its origin dates back to the Middle Ages, specifically between centuries XI and XIII. In an Europe increasingly devoted to commerce, a great period of urbanization was registered. The medieval city was converted into a buzzing area, ideal for the development of craft production and marketing of manufactured products. The open up of small stores and workshops intensified trade. In front of the stores were created spaces where artisans could expose their work, a kind of ancient version of the display window.

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The METRO ART AROUND THE WORLD in 150 images

Modernism, Surrealism, Art Nouveau, Pop Art, Realism, Post Modernism… In the major cities around the world it’s possible to travel through all these periods and movements of art by METRO. The sophisticated architecture and the thrilling design of metro stations impress even the less trained eyes, those whose sensibility and perception have already been damaged by the quotidian in a metropolis. “Surely this is how contemporary art can really connect with society and also brighten up a daily mundane trudge”, says David Bennett, author of Metro: The Story of the Underground Railway. Works of art, unique ornamentation and distinctive signalling schemes instigate contemplation and can be thought-provoking for the everyday commuters as well as an attraction for visitors and turists. The station can often be a neglected part of the railway scene, but they usually are the first point of contact the passenger has with the subway system and they ought to be well designed, comfortable, covenient and pleasing to be and to look at. From London to Moscow architecture and design play a fundamental role in defining the environment of the stations.

Hop on board and discover hidden surprises of great cities’ undergrounds (mais…)