As cities become denser, we all find ourselves wishing we had more space at times, or wanting to make better use of the space we have. Purchasing changeable furniture that adapts to different uses is one solution to this problem. The above example of the Safe Bedside Table is a more funny than useful. However, the transformable, convertible and collapsible designs below are impressively practical.

FlexibleLove is an amazing piece of furniture that is ecological, adaptable and highly practical. Made of minimal and sustainable materials, this piece converts from a single-person chair into a flexible bench seating up to sixteen people. Don’t believe it? Watch the video.

Tagei is a remarkably beautiful piece of craftsmanship, and somehow manages to be an attractive piece of furniture both when collapsed and extended. One could easily imagine using this as a side table and extending it into a bench for gatherings.

Scheren Regal presents an interesting shelving option. This piece would be highly portable for moves and could be used as a side table until more storage is needed, with an elegant but engineered look typical of good German design.

Futaba is a brilliantly simple design solution, and converts with amazing ease. The quick-and-easy method of transformation makes this one of the more practical transforming items listed here.

ChairLibrary is perhaps a little garish but would certainly work for people whose houses are already overly filled with books. The storage spaces make good overflow storage, at least, as a stop-gap measure before buying more book shelves.

Mogga is a remarkably elegant chair that turns into a table. The actually mechanical means by which it transforms is as impressive as the fact that it can so easily convert from one use to another.

Ali is a neat and simple piece of furniture that can be configured in a variety of ways. It can be folded and stored, used as a long sofa or pair of love seats or even folded flat into a bed. This seems a much more streamlined solution than many hide-a-beds.

Doc is another amazing couch-and-bed solution, but as an added bonus: this one converts into a bunk bed for two. This piece seems like a great solution for people who have visiting friends or farmily who bring children on frequent visits.

Fletcher Capstan Tables are beautifully designed and as expensive as you might expect. Still, one has to weigh the cost of one’s furniture versus the cost of more real estate. Either way, it is impressive to see these in action. Know of other collapsing, converting or transforming furniture? Feel free to share below!

TAKEN FROM weburbanist.com

This monocycle replica from 1873 is an stunning engineering and mechanical feat. Created by a spaniard using 19th Century documentation and old-style handcrafting techniques, it uses a 6.16-foot wheel, with a 238-teeth inner segment. As you can see in the gallery, the quality of his work is simply amazing.

This man from Burgos, Spain, created the whole thing by himself, casting the main bronze wheel from a carved oak model. He also used different steel alloys for different parts of the mechanism, depending on the stress they are going to suffer. The saddle’s suspension bar was treated in a forge to obtain the necessary elasticity to make it work right.

TAKEN FROM gizmodo.com

Images in coffee, creator of these would call this and coffee art. As you can see all those images in those cups of coffee are created with talented hands and creative minds. Creators of these images are professional coffee makers in exclusive restaurants who are going to make you to drink every single drop of coffee with this beautiful images in it. For taste of it I really don’t know , but shapes into it are really great. Check out the pictures of those remarkable art, coffee art.

TAKEN FROM thecontaminated.com/

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/

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

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

Timing is everything, particularly in the case of amazing photography. Sometimes that means waiting through a whole sports game and getting lucky to catch just the right shot. Other times than means trudging through nature for weeks to get the perfect environmental photograph. Here are 25 examples of perfectly timed images from around the world and in various genres.

With extreme sports it is the danger and challenge that tends to excite people. Often the most amazing and bizarre images are taken right at the moment when disaster strikes. Sometimes these are tragic and painful though some are just plain funny.

With conventional sports there is always the opportunity for comedy but also the potential for artful photography. The spray of sand during a long-jump or that moment before the splash when someone is diving both provide a moment of calm in a fast-paced sport that is normally impossible to see.

In war it is often hard to find or revel in humor or traditional beauty. Instead, it is often the images that capture grave or impressive moments in time that stir us most deeply. This can come in the form of a rocket frozen in space or the geometry of a cloud of smoke from a tank.

With people comedy tends to be the rule and other things the exception. Humans tend to be at their most interesting when they are at their funniest. Whether this means a young man falling into a fountain or an old woman riding a sled, it’s worth keeping your eyes open in public places for the perfect shot!

Nature images truly span the spectrum of artistic possibility. Sometimes animals are funny, sometimes scary, often tragic and sometimes downright strange. Whether they be shot in a conventional park or bedroom or taken deep in the wilds, environmental images taken at just the right time can provide unique insights into nature and the relationship of humans and animals.

TAKEN FROM www.sawse.com