Sky Mirror

(India-born, UK sculptist) Anish Kapoor, (mostly known in the U.S. by “Cloud Gate” in Chicago’s Millennium Park opened last year) is planning to install yet another huge public art in NYC. This time in front of Rockefeller Center, the piece titled “Sky Mirror” (first installed in Nottingham Playhouse, UK in a smaller scale) is a 3-story high, contact-lens-like stainless steel, highly reflective to mirror the street life around as if it is through a drop of water. Kapoor’s work is famous for their contrasting qualities: material vs. immaterial; weight vs. weightless; tangible vs. intangible… Nevertheless, we should all take time to reflect, once a while.

Mr. Light Bulb

Humorous illustration from Germany’s AK3D. They should work for Pixar…

When Sex is not Sexy

About Mike’s comment about A&F selling lifestyle last week, this would be a interesting and contrasting point of view from a “feminist” branding and marketing professional. Some people call it selling lifestyle, others call it selling sex. Can lifestyle be sex and vice versa? Architecture and design being “sexy” is increasingly a consideration if not priority to (some of) the profession. Regardless, it should be little debate about whether Hadid is the architectural diva of our time.

99% Air: Aeromads

This is an intriguing inflatable temporary housing structure developed by some Sci-Arc students to mull over....

For the full link:http://www.sciarc.edu/aeromads/

Terrorism and Sustainability

Given the Heathrow’s liquid bomb threat last week, here is an interesting blog on World Changing about “Why sustainability, not terrorism, should be the security focus”. In his post, Steffen argued that the climate crisis and environmental degradation we are facing is by far a much large threat to us than the occasional terrorist plots… It sounds right, but I am wondering, why we choose or allow these supposedly ineffective wars on terror that there are very few convincing evident that we are in a more secure and safer place than 5 years ago. Is it because it is easier to “fight” terror with a very clear target and we are the good guys and they are the bad guys? Is it because terrorism deals with fear, not necessarily fact or evidence? Or is it because there are no obvious evils in sustainability? Because we are all kind of guilty?