ROM for Royal Ontario Museum

ROM aka Lee-Chin Crystal designed by Daniel Libeskind in collaboration with the Toronto-based bureau Bregman + Hamann does not look like anything connected to natural history and world cultures! Well, the jagged geometry is kinda reminiscent of a gem stone as it is said to have been inspired of... but in its very deconstructive way.

Looks like the new structure of the museum has erupted from the ground and torn the bricked old building of the museum hosting the expositions before - and the interior continues to play with the contrasts and conflicts between the old and the new.

Inside, because of the complex geometry, there appeared quite a number of voids serving different purposes and further exploring the Old VS New topic: an atrium, a hall for ruminating and the most unique light well that we have ever seen!

With 25% of the aluminium-clad surface being glazed, there are floods of natural light in the exhibition halls. Slit-like windows, a signature Libeskind stylistics, are reiterated in the slits and rows of luminaires. Alice in the Land of Illusions, that's how you catch yourself feeling from time to time yet you are not lost at all. Architectural magic? The lighting definitely navigates you throughout this delusive space. Paradoxically enough, lighting with its non-tangible nature is something you can hold on to here, in the surreal Royal Ontario Museum.

Mind-deconstructive!

Digi-City

LED ACTION FACADE, Madrid, Spain

The endless debate on urban development cannot leave out the essential part of a modern city - lighting. It's been used for commercial purposes, like advertising, and has recently been more and more applied for social projects. If we can create a shop identity with the help of lighting, why not use it to give some unique local flavour and differentiate on a broader city scale?

Thus, the fantastic project of the digital facade for Medialab Prado in Madrid. The patented device of large LED screen is used for idea sharing and info exchange, the system consists of a regular matrix of nodes of RGB LEDs implemented by means of aluminium cones, the section of which has been designed to reflect the beam of light of emission sources and to improve the screen’s viewing.

Yep, just give a brush to the genuine artist... next post is on other LED application, for a fine contrast!

Waste Wood, Fuselage Cupboards... and Bestlite

ARTEK SHOWROOM, Helsinki, Finland

Alvar Aalto, the legendary Finnish designer and architect, has created some unsurpassed pieces of furniture, now manufactured by Artek. In the frameworks of Helsinki Design Week 2009, we were lucky to visit the Artek showroom and find there an exhibition of Piet Hein Eek, a Dutch designer, whose work of wood and alluminium challenges the bravest imaginarium. Fantisizing about an aluminium kicker in St. Petersburg (kickers are very popular in this city, we have one at our office. Corporate kicking is stress-releasing, you know :)...

Actually, we never miss an opportunity to drop in there, it's one of our savoured places in this awesome city. The showpieces are objects to die for -- including Bestlite, the favourite Winston Churchill's lamp, he was no amateur, eh? (below, right)

What else? The lighting is quirky and yet it's another "object" to contemplate: first of all it's old, seems that it's purely functional and there's a feeling that different types and kinds of fixtures have been picked up and placed all over the place without any concept or design in mind... Cool hodgepodge!

Archmoscow: Italian stone gardens

ARCHMOSCOW, Moscow, Russia. This installation at the Garden of Stone exposition is inspiring indeed. It is very laconic and simple. Natural, in a way. Theatrical, in another.