Those grass sculptures are not in nature but it looks great for sure. It looks very creative and it seems that it can be represented as some kind of art too. I would like who is an artist of those remarkable grass sculptures. Take a look at those pictures for it.

TAKEN FROM /thecontaminated.com/

TAKEN FROM /freemanforwards.blogspot.com

This huge long motorcycle was built by Oleg Rogov in December 2005.
This record has been entered into Guiness books of records as well.

  TAKEN FROM fast-world.com

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Rugs can make or break the ambiance and design of a room. Rugs are also used as a home ornament that may help enhance a boring and dull space. It also adds coziness and warmth as long as you know how to choose the right one for a specific space. Rugs come in different shapes, sizes, texture and color. They also come in different design styles and some even represent a culture. We don’t just buy rugs to protect our floors we buy them based on their style, size, quality and durability. And of course we buy them to add beauty and a certain touch of elegance to a particular space. It is advisable to choose a rug that will compliment the dominant color of the space where it will be installed and displayed. I personally love contemporary and modern rugs because of their fresh design styles and their plush and luxurious quality. I totally have a great fondness for Designer Rugs because you can be assured not only of their artistic design and value but also of the rug’s craftsmanship, high quality, and durability.

 

Below are some eye-catching designer rugs from inmod that will definitely add character and style to your home. They are from some of the most inspirational names in modern textiles and interior design including Angela Adams, Karim Rashid, Patrick Norguet and Verner Panton. Click on the images for larger view.

 

TAKEN FROM momsturf.blogspot.com

The power and ease-of-use of today’s computer applications has raised the bar drastically on the quality of design expected in the documents we produce. As recently as ten years ago, it was typical to produce business letters, memos, and other documents using a courier-like, monospaced typeface, often with only underlining available for emphasis of key passages or section headings. The only options for correcting typos and other mistakes were white-out, pencilled-in marks, or re-typing. Our documents looked boring, but they were expected to look boring.

Today that’s all changed. Word processing and desktop publishing software are everywhere, and offer dozens (if not hundreds) of fonts ranging from the simple and elegant to the downright bizarre. Style sheets on the web and easily accessible styling options in our desktop software allow us to easily create section headings, pull-quotes, bulleted lists, and text columns — giving us the potential to greatly enhance the layout and delivery of information.

The result, of course, is more likely to be a mish-mash of difficult-to-read fonts, seemingly random italics and boldfaced text, extraneous sidebars, and awkward layouts. In unskilled hands, the tools available to us can very quickly produce messy, over-designed documents that are far less readable than the plain typewritten documents of old.

Applying a few basic design skills can help avoid those mistakes, instead allowing the features we often regard as “extras” to take their rightful places as means of enhancing the readability and impact of our work. While design is a skill — equal parts art and science — that can take years to develop to a professional level, the core ideas are quite simple, and applying them can produce a marked improvement on your day-to-day work.

All design starts from four basic principles, abbreviated as CRAP (they come in no particular order, so the more squeamish can rearrange them to form “CARP”, if you like. I’d advise against “PCRA”, though…). These are Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity.

• Contrast: Contrast refers to any difference of size, shape, or color used to distinguish text (or other elements, though here we’re focusing on text) from other pieces of text. The use of bold or italics is one common form of contrast — the difference in shape makes the bolded or italicized text stand out from the surrounding text. Increasing the size of headers and titles, or using ALL CAPS or smallcaps are other ways of distinguishing text. These techniques only work if used sparingly; a document typed in all capital letters has less contrast than one typed normally, so is harder, not easier, to read.
• Repetition: Repetition in your text is bad; repetition of your design elements is not only good but necessary. Once you’ve decided on a size and typeface for second-level headers, for instance, all second-level headers should look the same. For most documents, two or maybe three fonts — leaning heavily on one for all the body text, with the other two for headers and maybe sidebars — are enough. The same bullets should be used on every bulleted list. Information that appears on every page should appear in the same place on every page. Design elements — like horizontal rules between sections or corporate logos — should appear the same whenever they are used throughout the document. Repetition of design elements pulls the document together into a cohesive whole, and also improves readability as the reader comes to expect text that looks a certain way to indicate certain qualities (e.g. the start of a new section, a major point, or a piece of code.
• Alignment: Alignment is crucial not just to the cohesive appearance of your document but to the creation of contrast for elements like bulleted lists or double-indented long quotes. Your document should have a couple of vertical baselines and all text should be aligned to one of them. Unaligned text floats mysteriously, forcing the reader to figure out its relation to the rest of the document. Centered text is particularly bad (and is a novice’s favorite design trick). One immediate step you can take to vastly improve the appearance of your documents is to remove the “center” button from your software’s toolbar (or, less drastically, just ignore it). It is rarely self-evident what centering is meant to communicate, and too much centered text creates a sloppy, undisciplined look.
• Proximity: Pieces of information that are meant to complement each other should be near each other. One great offender here is business cards and ads in local newspapers, where the name, address, and phone number are all scattered around the ad or card (for example, in the corners). Your reader shouldn’t have to seek out the next logical piece of information; rather, use proximity to make sure that the next piece of information a reader sees is the next piece of information they should see.

None of these principles stands alone. Repetition and alignment together create the “normal” state that allows changing the shape or position of a piece of text to produce contrast; repetition and proximity go hand-in-hand to create useful formats like bulleted lists — the repetition of the bullet adds force to the proximity of the points. In fact, the bulleted list above uses all four of these principles to work: it contrasts with the body of this article by being aligned to a different baseline than the rest of the paragraphs; each principle is in boldface, providing contrast, and is also directly followed by its explanation, providing proximity; the bullets, the boldfaced text, and the alignment are repeated in each new point on the list.

Almost all design builds on the foundation laid out above. Asking yourself how well each element of your layout satisfies these basic principles is a good way to make sure your work remains readable to your audience while also communicating a bit of your organization’s or business’ character. You may already unconsciously use these principles in your work, but knowing the principles and recognizing their use will help you make better, more conscious decisions in the future.

Ultimately, the goal is for the work you put in to designing a document to disappear, to become invisible, leaving your reader or viewer with unfettered access to the points you are trying to convey — both directly in your text and, ever-so-subtly, in your choice of design elements. In this respect, it’s a thankless job, because only rarely will anyone comment on (or even notice) the quality of design — but they will notice, and act on, the message. And that’s what’s important, isn’t it?

TAKEN FROM www.lifehack.org

We show a lot of proposals for buildings in Dubai, often draped in photovoltaics and covered in propellers, or twisting and turning, it is a Disneyland of architecture. Sometimes we think they are going a bit overboard, as they evolve from Disney to Lucas with buildings like OMA’s Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre. We have used Picasso’s bon mot, updated by Le Corbusier before: “Good architects borrow but great architects steal” but never was the homage so obvious. Architectspeak below the fold.

So far the 21st century – in a desperate effort to differentiate one building from the next – has been characterized by a manic production of extravagant shapes. Paradoxically, the result is a surprisingly monotonous urban substance, where any attempt at ‘difference’ is instantly neutralized in a sea of meaningless architectural gestures.

RAK is confronted with an important choice: Does it join so many others in this mad, futile race or does it become the first to offer a new credibility?

This project represents a final attempt at distinction through architecture:not through the creation of the next bizarre image, but through a return to pure form. ::OMA via my favourite source for wild and crazy architecture, ::Myninjaplease

Note: gravestmor suggests that it is not modelled on the deathstar, but on a Panasonic radio from 1972, five years before the first Star Wars movie, calling it “the little Japanese radio that could.”

TAKEN FROM www.treehugger.com

­You open your eyes to the soft, diffused light of fiber optics and dawn. Ice surrounds you — some of it carved into furniture and sculpture, some of it in massive blocks that make up the walls, the ceiling and even the floor. But despite the room’s beauty, it’s time to get moving. After all, your room is 17 to 23 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 to -8 degrees Celsius) and you’ve just spent the night in a mummy bag on a slab of ice. The beauty, the cold and the quick morning escape are all part of the typical ice hotel experience.
Ice hotels are oversized, extravagant igloos. Solid blocks of ice make up their formidable, barrel-shaped structures. But inside, ice hotels glitter with elaborate ice furniture, ice bars and even ice glasses. Colorful lighting makes the structures look more like magical snow castles than frigid arctic dwellings.

Hotel Image Gallery

Peter Grant/Getty Images
Sweden’s ICEHOTEL is built every year on the River Torne.
See more pictures of hotels.

The hotels are built near rivers where workers can draw water, freeze it into ice and cut the ice into large blocks before trucking it into place. Extensive, large-capacity ice hotels take about five to six weeks to build. But when spring comes, all the hard work melts away, and the hotels must wait until winter to rebuild.

­Ice hotels are part of a growing trend in destination hotels. People no longer select lodgings simply because they’re close to holiday spots. With normal vacations just not cutting it anymore, hotels have become destinations in their own right. Arctic resorts that once had to close up shop for the long winter can now attract tourists year round.

People describe the experience of waking up after a night in an ice hotel as one of sheer exhilaration. Some say it even feels like an accomplishment. In the next section, we’ll learn about the original ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi,

TAKEN FROM travel.howstuffworks.com

On the River Torne, 124 miles north of the Arctic Circle, sits the ICEHOTEL, the original large-scale, frozen destination hotel. The company that now runs ICEHOTEL began with summer river tourism — whitewater rafting and nature hikes. In 1990, they built an igloo, the 197-square-foot Arctic Hall, as a venue for an art show.

Peter Grant/Getty Images Guests have a drink “in the rocks” at ICEHOTEL’S ABSOLUT ICEBAR.

Arctic Hall attracted extra visitors to Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, and one night, foreign tourists with reindeer skins and sleeping bags decided to sleep in the igloo. The tourists raved about their thrilling night and ICEHOTEL decided to create a working lodge for the next season.

Now ICEHOTEL boasts unique rooms, a starkly beautiful church and the ABSOLUT ICEBAR, where the bar and the glasses are all made from ice. During the day, the hotel opens to visitors who tour the rooms without staying the night. But at 6 p.m., the ice museum closes and overnight guests take over. They leave their luggage with a porter, who takes it to a heated storage area. Bathrooms and changing rooms are also heated. By 9 p.m., most people retire to their rooms. Guests wear long underwear and sleep in mummy bags on ice blocks covered by mattresses and reindeer skins.

Peter Grant/Getty Images The ICEHOTEL’s design changes annually.

Hotel employees wake up guests with a cup of hot lingonberry juice — that is, if the guests make it through the night. No, not like that; this isn’t “Call of the Wild.” Ice hotels avoid unfortunate incidents by creating nearby heated chalets and lodges for guests who can’t get cozy and want a warm bed in the middle of the night. The hotel actually encourages guests to combine warm and cold accommodations, passing their first night in the ICEHOTEL and relaxing in warmth for the rest of their stay. Plus, a room at the ICEHOTEL doesn’t come cheap. Simple rooms start at about $169 with current exchange rates and go up to $800 for a package that also includes an ice sculpting class and airport transfer.

ICEHOTEL distinguishes itself with thrillingly transitory art — all made from ice, of course. Every season, the hotel invites artists and designers to create the entryway, suites and public spaces. An Art and Design Jury reviews applicants’ resumes and renderings and selects a group. Their designs have ranged from starkly modern crystalline halls to Seuss-like four-poster beds. The artistic directors and ICEHOTEL architect supervise technical issues and, because the hotel rebuilds annually, the designs are never the same.

TAKEN FROM travel.howstuffworks.co

Recycling doesn’t have to be limited to helping the environment: it can also be a challenge and opportunity to ingenious designers who work with materials most people would consider waste to create amazing things. Some of the following designs serve multiple purposes: illustrating the material possibilities of what most would consider trash while also maximizing the aesthetic potential of what would otherwise be considered waste objects. Clothes become rugs, airline trolleys become furniture, cardboard becomes bridges and sewage turns into building blocks!

The Volksware designers have provided an interesting alternative way of recycling clothes that may not even bit fit for the Salvation Army. By stitching them and rolling them they have created a simple carpet system that can be cut to length and fit to a space. Something to think about the next time someone tells you to pick your clothes up off the floor!

Ever wonder what happens to those oddly shaped airplane trolleys when the airlines are done using them? Well, so did Bordbar before they began appropriating and adding splashes of design to them and reselling them to the public as useful (if odd) multipurpose mobile furniture. These are highly customizable have have a surprising range of possible functions once they are recycled into use.

There are few things being produced as rapidly, regularly and in such volume as newspapers. Many of these are, of course, recycled by traditional means, but what if they could serve another purpose that didn’t require the some amount of reprocessing? Sumer Erek has been working on one such alternative: reusing newspaper as interior decoration and insulation in a house.

The Remarkable product design team has created a series of colorful and useful versions of traditional products made out of unusual recycled materials. Their approach is quite simple yet compelling: they brand individual products with information about their origins. This makes for conversation pieces but also raises awareness about the origins and potential of composite recycled materials.

Architect Shigeru Ban is well known for a number of high-profile architectural designs but perhaps less so for his artistic and ecological side projects such as the cardboard bridge pictured above. This bridge is composed over over 250 recycled cardboard tubes with recycled paper and plastic comprising the stairs. Amazingly, this recycled bridge can hold up to 20 people at once!

The BituBlock may interesting and almost artistic … until you realize it is made from post-consumer recycled products including ash, glass and, yes, sewage. Still, it doesn’t smell and ultimately it is an incredibly strong and durable building block that rivals other materials such as concrete that would be used in similar situations - and does so using almost entirely reused and recycled materials.

The Remida Center appropriates scrap materials from all kinds of local businesses in order to gain raw materials ranging from wood and metal to plexiglass and plastic that students can use in art projects. The idea is both to facilitate art but also to raise awareness about the origins of materials, essentially recycling otherwise unused materials and putting them toward the production of art.

There are all kinds of approaches to garbage gardening that appropriate trash items and reuse them for decorative or practical purposes in gardens. The example shown above is just one of many including colorful mosaics from broken dishes and assorted other ideas. Not extreme enough? Try guerilla gardening instead!

Italian designer Marcella Foschi has developed a quite clever way to recycle cassette tapes: a product material that exists in abundance but is associated with a dying (or dead) technology. Her coin purses are at least cute (if not collectible) and appropriate a material we all know, love and have stopped using.

Marcella Foschi isn’t the only one with ideas on how to reuse audio tapes. Some clever designers have taken it to the next level and begun to weave sonic cloth from the actual tape within the cassettes.

TAKEN FROM ecoble.com

back in the 1920s george bennie designed and built the railplane, a propeller-driven monorail initially intended to travel between glasgow and edinburgh.

the design was way ahead of its time, the railplane capsule home to a 4-blade propeller at each end, each of these powered by its own electric motor - the result a cruising speed of 120mph.

a test track was built and demonstrations given to many astounded members of the public and potential backers of this futuristic mode of transport but ultimately the idea was dropped due to the projected costs and the start of the 2nd world war.

there’s a short clip below, the quality’s a bit shit but it’s still good to see some footage.

2. the rail zeppelin - 1929

the rail zeppelin was designed by frank kruchenberg, also responsible for designing zeppelin airships.

this dangerous looking beast was home to a huge bmw aircraft engine which drove the rear-mounted 4-blade wooden propeller, the resultant power responsible for a new train speed world record of 145mph in 1931.

the zeppelin was eventually scrapped due to the high risk design - it was extremely difficult to find insurance for the vehicle due to the propeller, especially on a public railway.

3. the dringos prop-locomotive - 1919

even before the rail zeppelin was designed the ‘dringos prop-locomotive’ prototype was being tested on tracks in berlin, a 2-blade propeller attached to each end of the train helping it achieve a speed of 60mph. higher speeds were probably achievable but not pushed for due to the ‘primitive chassis and braking system’ of this prototype.

outside interest for the concept was apparently lacking.

4. the leyat helica - 1913

the model in the photo above was the first marketed version of the leyat helica, a propeller driven car designed by a frenchman called marcel leyat, a guy who actually designed and built planes until the beginning of the 2nd world war.

above: the leyat helica sport

above: this particular helica reached a record speed of 170kmh in 1927. the photo was taken that day.

5. the helicron no.1 - 1932

this beauty was discovered in a french barn 7 yrs ago, apparently after being left there by the owners in the 1930s.

when found it needed a complete restoration and was rebuilt using most of the original parts. these days the huge wooden propeller helps the helicron reach a top speed of 75mph.

short clip below of the helicron no.1 in action..

6. propeller driven bicycle - 1936

the article below is taken from a copy of popular science magazine in 1936 and i know nothing more about this particular invention.

what i do know is that it’s one of the best pictures i’ve ever seen and that the amount of pedalling required to get that propeller moving at any decent rate must’ve been immense.

no wonder the guy looks close to death.

7. the aerosan - 1909

aerosans/aerosleds are basically propeller-driven sleds that were originally used in russia for recreational purposes.

around 10 yrs after their conception a number of aerosans were developed specifically for the soviet red army, uses including mail-delivery, border patrol and relatively rapid medical support.

TAKEN FROM deputy-dog.com