Category: Exterior Design

Wintergarden is a shopping mall in Brisbane, Australia, which has an unique and distinct identity that inevitably draws attention. Which establishes this shopping mall as the undeniable “living heart” of the busy urban thoroughfare and clearly makes a difference between Wintergarden Shopping Centre and the others is its new amazing façade designed by Studio505 and completed this year, in april. The creation of this new façade had some precise intentions: to create a diverting and exciting retail experience, a lifestyle destination and a ‘must-go-to’ meeting place at the heart of Brisbane’s city centre. And we think these goals were fully achieved because the eye-catching Wintergarden façade of 4,000m2 truly impresses the passers-by.

Wintergarden façade’s structure feature a complex and beautiful study of nature, geometry and layering that communicates the rich diversity of life. Very original and never before seen, its design is very dynamic, with an experiential interplay between expansive palette of colours and a rich language of cutting, scoring, folding and lighting all of which coalesce as a rich, coherent, cultural experience.

These appealing and joyful cuts and textures changes from day to day according to the sun’s position, this characteristic generating new patterns of highlights and shadows. Moreover, when night falls passers-by can enjoy an engaging lights show due to an integrated low resolution lighting system that can change into rain, sunsets, storms and fireworks all within a single night. The beauty of this shopping mall‘s façade is also underlined by the trees that run (beyond) each side of it, together creating the visual “structure” of it. Great artwork, isn’t it?

Photos: © John Gollings & studio505.

Project details:

Location – Brisbane, Australia
Client – ISPT
Architect – studio505
Cost – AUD $6.5m
Completion – April 2012
Specialist Engineer – Tensys
Contractor – Urban Art Projects (UAP)
Artist consultant – John Warwicker
Interior and Retail Design – The Buchan Group

Wintergarden Shopping Mall in Brisbane

The Lotus Sculpture was this year’s car-themed structure for the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed, held in the grounds of the Goodwood Estate in the English county of Sussex. By tradition, every year major car brands sponsor a centerpiece sculpture that captures the spirit and essence of that year’s chosen car maker. This time the new work for auto-enthused is a dynamic edifice to British manufacturer of sports and racing cars Lotus Cars, a centerpiece of epic proportions designed by artist and sculptor Gerry Judah. Having worked on sculptures for Ferrari, Jaguar, Porsche, Audi, Renault, Honda, Ford, Rolls-Royce, and Toyota since 1997, Gerry Judah’s creations for the Goodwood Festival of Speed are towers of horsepower.

Judah’s Lotus Sculpture walks a line between art, architecture and advertising. It’s an enourmous three dimensional artwork tied into the shape of a half-hitch, trefoil or knot, where six classic Lotus Formula 1 cars were driving on the continuously variable curve developable surface. The spectacular structure features flat sheet metal curves which makes it lightweight, extremely strong and a rigid thin-shell with 98% empty space inside it. In automobile terms this would be a monocoque body, a tribute to the legendary designer and Lotus founder Colin Chapman’s introduction of monocoque chassis construction to automobile racing.

Photos: © David Barbour.

Project details:

Client: Lotus Cars
Design and Production: Gerry Judah
Engineering: Capita Symonds
Fabrication & Installation: Littlehampton Welding

A meeting with someone in their own garden is good to be animated very well and to give attention when we choosing the elements for our garden decor, a good idea to decorate our garden is to use tables garden. I’ll present today a table garden which can be use like a Stepping Stones.
Langan Fine Arts manages to find a common element between face a garden table and Steppin Stones to decorate their decor uses painted masterpiece.
Material of which are made is stone, beautifully and very monumental shapes, these objects are very distinct decor garden put out.
Surely everyone will love these pieces of stone to good contoured in an hexagonal design. Noteworthy is that the surface of these tables for garden you can admire views of nature with artistic reasons very well processed.
Next we see some pieces of these examples:

Nomad is a contemporary cool outdoor furniture collection from Gloster brand, worldwide leaders in teak, woven, aluminium, stainless steel and now outdoor lounge furniture. Thinking about hot summer days, we show you an exciting lounge furniture ready to accompany your entertainment and relaxation moments.

Designed for outdoors wherever you need a compact, comfortable armchairs easy to use, Nomad collection is fun and funky and it comes in various beautiful and eye-catching colors combinations. Their design offers bold and modern pieces of furniture that is not only functional but also complements the surrounding space: your deck, patio or terrace. What do you think about and what colors would you choose if you were to have them?

Photos: © Gloster.

Displaying a familiar, yet innovative design, Hooper Table embodies the love for “togetherness”, playing a role of social bonding. Designed by Dirk Wynants from Extremis, Hooper Table is inspired by the hop and beer culture characteristic to Westhoek region (where Extremis has its headquarters) and by Bruegel paintings which show people gathering to party, enjoy a meal or a drink.

This good-looking long table is similar to traditional picnic tables which everyone knows, but showcasing an interesting original design with an extra comfort which makes it a great piece of outdoor furniture. Its slanted legs and tabletop edges are those which give it a modern and appealing look that visually capture your interest.

Available in four sizes (seating four, six, eight, or ten people), they are made o FSC labelled hardwood (Iroko), galvanised steel for the frame and the legs, which are also available in powder coated aluminium (white, red, and earth colour). Iroko wood has the advantage that you can make each tabletop segment from a single piece of wood. It has won 6 awards till now:  an Interior Innovation Award (Germany), a Red Dot Award (Germany), an IDEA award (USA), a Henry van de Velde label (Belgium), and a MD award (Germany), Hopper has now also been awarded an iF award (Germany) .

 Photos: © Extremis.

We’re sure that many of you have thought at least once at how to be eco friendly at home, what solutions to adopt in order to improve the quality of your life and to reduce the negative impact on the environment. “Eco-friendly” and “going green” have certainly become buzz words in recent years and it seems that lots of people have become more and more environmentally conscious and responsible of their actions. So we think that striving to have an eco friendly living is far from being a trend nowadays, it should be a way of life for all of us because in this way we don’t sustain only the environment, but also we’ll be healthier. In today’s post, we’ll point out in general lines some important home improvements that really make a difference.

Photo: Power Haus by Josh Wynne Construction

Solutions for an eco friendly home environment:

• Starting with a different approach in designing your house: a home that embraces nature and  blends indoor and outdoor living, allowing you to enjoy the best of both worlds. Eco friendly house plans should take into consideration architectural home designs with minimal environmental impact. Such kinds of designs incorporate solar energy systems, grey water management, cross ventilation to all living spaces, recycled materials and fully insulated roof and walls.

• Reduce energy costs in many ways:  install solar panels that provide energy for your entire house, install solar tanks that can heat stored water, shop new energy-efficient appliances, switch traditional incandescent light bulbs to low wattage light bulbs, buy a programmable thermostat especially if your home is vacant most of the day, turn off  the computer when is not used, landscaping with the right mix of trees and shrubs that blocks winter winds or the summer sun, and so on.

Photo: Guz Architects

• Your house should allow always natural airflow and sunlight illumination. For that, design your house with skylights in your roof, large open areas which let air circulate through the home, lower large windows, double glazed windows especially when the wind enters. Enjoy natural light  and don’t turn on lights during the day as long as you can. Allowing natural flow, sunlight illumination and switching to eco-friendly product options will also change the indoor air quality, which it seems that is a serious problem in most of largest cities affecting the health of millions of people.

• Other ways to fresh and clean air is to add greenery using for example vertical gardens, get rid of harmful chemicals like toxic cleaning products, toxic disinfectants, furniture, carpeting, padding, paint, and replace them with biodegradable, natural and reusable substitutes.  An indoor quality air has many benefits like giving a sense of well-being, improving your sleep.

• Capture rainwater and shower “gray-water” and use it to irrigate the houseplants and the garden.

• Preserving the natural landscape, unplug every time chargers and appliances, turning off the lights when you leave the room, reducing landfill waste, switching to low flow toilet mechanisms are other things from a long list which we can do in order to be environmentally friendly at home.

Photo: K2LD Architects