Striking Gravel-Covered Japanese House is a Study in Contrasts

Monolithic and dramatic, the two-story Ginan House by Keitaro Muto Architects is a wedge-shaped residence with a dark gravel-covered exterior that contrasts beautifully with a stark white interior. Located on the far end of a long and narrow plot, the house features a small swimming pool that extends into a glass-walled niche to create shimmering light effects inside.


The rough surface of the outside walls continue indoors, producing sharp transitions in color and texture from one wall to the next. Vast expanses of white elongate slanted interior walls, and voids throughout the home let streams of daylight in.


Another interesting feature of the inside is a metal bridge that extends across one of these voids to enable access to a walk-in closet and bathroom.

The client requested that the architect leave most of the home site as a garden space. In covering the home with the same gravel that makes up the surface of the garden outside, the architects made the residence seem as if it’s an extension of the garden – one massive sculptural object to contemplate from a quiet place.

Stop-motion music video relies on OpenOffice and Excel, finds formula for success (video)

It's already considered a grind to produce stop-motion video -- imagine creating a clip using the spreadsheet app that many dread seeing at work every morning. Joe Penna, better known to the internet as Mystery Guitar Man, isn't afraid. He and his team recorded a performance against a greenscreen, gave the video a mosaic look in After Effects and proceeded to recreate 730 of the frames in OpenOffice (and occasionally Excel)... by hand. We don't want to know how long it took Penna and crew to wrap up their work, but the result is probably the liveliest you'll ever get out of an app meant for invoices and corporate expenses. The fully produced video is above; click past the story break if you want to smash illusions and see how the pixelated rumba came to be.
Continue reading Stop-motion music video relies on OpenOffice and Excel, finds formula for success (video)

Pom Nom

Headline says it all.
And give me a break with those paw pads, good grief.

Stair Rover: Smooth-Ride Skateboard Glides Down Steps

If you thought biking down stairs was hard, try skating a stairwell – or better yet: don’t. At least not without this nifty device, that is. Designed by Po-Chih Lai (movie by Juriaan Booij), this next-generation skateboard slots an extra set of wheels alongside the existing ones with a flexible chassis to bend from one step to the next.
But such ideas are hardly born and built overnight – the prototyping process is in many ways as fascinating as the final design product, including various multi-wheel attempts to maximum stability and broad functionality.

Its purpose? “The piece aims to expanding the capability and possibility of extreme sports as we understand them. Inherited from our natural instincts, sliding as children and snowboarding as adults, the focus is on one of the most influential and stimulating sports – skateboading, aiming to push the boundaries further.”

Its Context? “The sub-culture of graffiti, free-running, skateboarding, street dance, and extreme sports are now accepted and a valid and valuable influence on our generation.” In short, with all of these becoming both accepted and broadly accessible, one could say the Stair Rover provides training wheels for the less adept – perhaps at least saving a broken leg or two, here and there.

The machine is on display at this year’s Show RCA – its creator, a recent graduate of the Royal College of Art, hopes to expand the notion of skateboarding as well as the places that can be accessed by its practitioners  - hopefully, pedestrians will understand

Must…Have…This… Bag!!

Totally had one of those “are you kidding me?” moments when I saw this! The redesigned Solid Gray backpack is a more rigid version of it’s slack counterparts. The futuristic, stealth-style folding bag is made out of PP-C and is extremely light and strong but is also flexible enough to conform to the wearers back. With clever compartments, secure spots for a laptop or tablet, and durability that will last a lifetime, it’s the only backpack you’ll ever need. Not to mention… it’s f&@%ing sexy!
Designer: Lijmbach, Leeuw & Vormgeving

When The Stork Gets The Wrong Address…

Chaos can ensue. Like that time an elephant was delivered to a mouse – the baby was frightened of its mouse mom!
Fortunately for these rare Amur tiger cubs, Cleopatra, the Shar Pei mom, took them in like they were her own.


Cleo’s Shar Pei puppies are happy to have their new littermates, Clyopa and Plyusha.






The stork gets to keep his job (for now) and you can get the whole story and a peek at a few more photos of the blended family at SF Gate.

Über-Functional iPhone Case

I’m sure you’ve picked up on the trend of iPhone cases that do more than just protect the device- we’ve seen designs with kickstands and others with compartments for headphones. Finally, here’s one that has both! The Ö Case features a multifunctional component that stores ear-buds and also doubles as a stand to prop up the device. It’s still compact enough that the user won’t notice a difference in size.
Designer: Loyto Esineiden