This is architecture

What is architecture? 

Is this architecture?

While we ponder over this troubling issue, some seek the ultimate in the products of post capitalist society, found in this highly intriguing competition that challenges and probes into this very question that shapes our  world today. "Jelly Competition" is part of a series of events across the London Festival of Architecture that explore the relationship between food and architecture. 

Organised by Wow! Bompas & Parr and Article 25, the many entries received are judged on innovation, aesthetics and “wobble factor”.  The competition is now closed but we are able to view the results that will be on display to the public during the Architectural Jelly Banquet being held in UCL’s Quad on the 4th July in London. Tickets are available, from the 5th May, from www.lfa2008.org.

Live in a Beagle

Fancy looking at the world from a dog's perspective? Now you are able to at Dog Bark Park Inn Bed and Breakfast in Cottonwood, Idaho.Dog Bark Park Inn is a bed & breakfast guesthouse inside the World's Biggest Beagle. Guests enter the body of the beagle from a private 2nd story deck. Inside and up another level to the head of the dog is a loft room with additional sleeping space plus a cozy alcove in the muzzle.

For more information, click here.

City of Happiness

Felicity (n):

happiness: state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy

“What if a city is built on a foundation of happiness?” This was the question that drove the FeliCity workshop project, which was conducted at the University of Edinburgh, by Paskal A., David Lee and Adib Jalal.

Instead of adopting usual city planning methods, the FeliCity project is based on the idea of developing a poly-centric urban region based on the Gross National Happiness concept. It proposes that the key strategy in developing an emotional landscape of the region of Belt 1 is to regulate the levels of happiness so as to maintain a state of ‘emotional equilibrium’ across it. This would enable each city in the belt to develop at its maximum potential with their high happiness indices.

The project proposes that the M8 be replaced by a new transport system, named Plutchik2, which other than being a mass rapid transit system is also a means to regulate the emotions of commuters from one city to another. Thus, through regulating and transferring the emotional energy of happiness from one city to another, this ideal state can be achieved.

For more information, click here.

The Likely Unlikely

Familiarity is dependable but is, at times, over used these days. Shopping has become a predictable affair and little delights the senses.

Thankfully, at most Commes des Garcon Guerilla Stores, the visual and emotional experience becomes part of the whole consumerist exercise. Wood Wood Temporary Space at Commes des Garcon Guerilla Store in Poland is conceptualised in the veins of a Commes Guerilla store, but is quite unlike what one would expect of a boutique. Here, too, the design preys on the unsuspecting and derive pleasure in antithetical shock tactics. Brought to life by Karl-Oskar Olsen and Brain SS, this store's deliberate run-down feel incorporates raw, vintage-y elements and stacks of casually placed cardboard boxes that are used as shelves within it.

Comme des Garcons Guerrilla Store +4822 III ul. Koszykowa 1 00-564 Warszawa Poland

Where is Mas Selamat?

The answer to the unsettling question of the whereabouts of the infamous fugitive may just be found on widely posted banners and welcome signs. We think the obvious may be hard to spot at times.

Where is Manet?

Luncheon On The Grass – postproduction by code flow (DVD, 8’27’’; 2006)

Pan Yue (潘鉞): An Apology to Manet; a re-creation of The Luncheon on the Grass

Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass (1862/63)

In our world where the copy is as original as the original is, we seek nothing more than simulated stimuli provided by variations of Edouard Manet's iconic painting, Luncheon on the Grass (1862). While some may deem the content of Manet's work as well as its varied interpretations as demeaning, others see its artistic content and composition as media to explore issues relating to reality, codes and the consciousness.

Manet may soon diminish into a flurry of represented works by other artists, and we may soon question the authenticity of the original Luncheon. While the excitement of multiple expressions tempers with issues of originality, they nonetheless satiates our cravings for new visual treats.

Who needs the original as the copy may soon be as well represented in its own context as the original itself? The original Katong Laksa anyone?

Hoarding Art

What better way to announce a store's presence (even before it is officially opened) than to splash the hoarding with edgy street art? Seen recently is Diesel's magnificent work  on its hoarding at its new store on Queens Road Central in Hong Kong. 

On the right shows two figures, captured in motion. While the left shows illustrations adapted from Gotham's ultimate superhero, Batman. The dark illustrations are perhaps evocative of the fast-paced, built-up city, expressed through a medium that speaks of an alternative brand advertisement. What's new? We ask. But in its context of ritzy boutiques and predictable expectations of the well-heeled, we must say it is a heroic piece of work.

"Idea of a Vase" by d.lab

What is a vase? Does it contain or can it be contained? 

"Idea of a Vase" is a set of 10 vase shaped blocks made of nocture black Corian that fit in a frame. It is one of the beautifully sculpted pieces from d.lab's first collection entitled "Objects Around the Tablescape", which questions how objects participate with their spatial environment. Here, the idea of the vase as an object is being dissected, displaced and rearranged, and remodeled into something beyond its functional purpose.

This collection was presented at the "Maison&Objet" in Paris in January 2008, and has already caught the attention of Wallpaper magazine and other big names in the industry.

Although pieces from the collection are called "objects", they exist with a rare aura of beauty and purity that almost begin to affect the space around. Poetry, sculpture, art and architecture are all part of their conception and expression that over-used terms, such as "products", "vases", and even "objects" seem to render themselves meaningless.

Other highlights of the collection include: "Round Bowl with Teak Base", "Layered Plates" and "Rectangular Trays with Teak Base". 

Headed by Patrick Chia, d.lab is a commercial entity and brand name created by the Design Incubation Centre, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore.

For more information, check out www.arch.nus.edu.sg/dic

Zaha Hadid's Chanel Mobile Art Container lands in Hong Kong

The next time you're in Hong Kong, do check out Chanel's Karl Lagerfield and Zaha Hadid recent collaboration – the blobbish Mobile Art Container – which is to roam the world from 2008 to 2010 showcasing works and installations by 18 international artists.

The collapsible architectural structure has landed in Hong Kong, its first Asian destination. It is ideally located at the open plaza at the main commercial district of Central, just in front of the iconic Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.

While some gawk at the strange, foreign object, most can't help but notice the head-turning organism that sits in contrast with the dense urban buildings in the background. With the artists were given a brief to create works based around Chanel's back catalogue of iconic handbags, the Mobile Art Container offers an alternative experience for the consumer, by elevating the works of Chanel to that of art in a spatialised cocoon. Catch it before it takes off.

For more info, click here .