King's Cross Station

With a deadline of the London Olympics in 2012 , King's Cross Station is well underway, with its spectacular roof structure taking shape.

The finished Western Concourse will be Europe’s largest single span station structure, and provide London with a new grand meeting place.

It reminds me of Grand Central Station in New York, mentioned in a previous blog, that has the same grandeur and sense of theatre.

The existing train sheds and connecting buildings will be totally refurbished and the station’s Grade I listed facade has been beautifully restored.

Not many people knew the facade existed, as it's been hidden behind the familiar yet ugly canopy built in 1972.

When the works to the station are complete, it should open to the public in March 2012. 

The transformed station and it's new Concourse will add to the list of beautifully designed transport interchanges, that have significant architectural status.

 www.sovibrant.co.uk

Architecture - Interior Design

Youtube Music Remixes

I recently came across these fantastic youtube music remixes. The artist has created a unique medium by remixing youtube videos uploaded by others to create a really funky mix . I think that the combination of the music and video editing is superb and love the concept of creating something unique form a wealth of free music samples online.

Let me know what you think!





Enjoy the rest of the videos here

www.sovibrant.co.uk

Design, erm, 'classic' no. 234 - The Sinclair c5

Maybe not such a design classic, Sir Clive Sinclair's c5 was nevertheless way ahead of its time. Launched in 1985, the c5 electric tricycle suffered from many issues including serious under powering, safety concerns and an image problem. The company folded in the same year.

Here's a shot of the inventor himself, clipping the apex in to Stow Corner at a whopping 15mph...

I digress. Last November, Sinclair Research announced a new model, the X-1, would be launched in summer 2011....watch this space!

SoVibrant design

www.sovibrant.co.uk

Related Links:

Design Classic No.007: Aston Martin DB5 
Design Classic No.28: The Triumph Bonneville

Design Classic no.30: British Road Signs

Design Classic No.38: AEC Routemaster Bus
Design Classic No.43 - Concorde
Design Classic No. 65: Penguin Book Covers
Design classic No. 74: The Telephone Box
Design Classic No.88 - The Egg Chair
Design Classic No. 111: The PH Artichoke pendant lightfitting
Design Classic No.122: The Sony Walkman
Design Classic No.145 - The London Underground Map
Design Classic No. 166: The Supermarine Spitfire 1936
Design Classic No.234: Sinclair C5
Design Classic No.243: The Anglepoise Lamp
Design Classic No.246: Ferrari Dino
Design Classic No.300: Mercedes 300SL Coupe
Design Classic No.325: Ferrari 512 S Modulo
Design Classic No.412: BMC Mini
British Design Classic Stamp collection...
Modern Design Classic No. 71: The Balzac Chair

Classic car of the week - Mark 1 Lotus Cortina

Fords on Film/TV

50 years of Ford Cortinas

FC Barcelona Museum

Upon returning to SoVibrant Towers after a weeklong trip to Barcelona I thought I would share one of the highlights of my trip. I managed to visit most but not all of the architectural sites that Paul Brook published in his recent blog, but as a big football fan the highlight for me was the recently redeveloped FC Barcelona Museum.

The museum forms part of the Nou Camp experience and stadium tour, and is part trophy room, historical tour, and multimedia interactive space. Backlit trophy cabinets display the plethora of competitions won by Barcelona teams old and new, while full height interactive touch screen panels provide access to a mine of information on political history, club legends, and great great goals.

I have to admit I was taken aback by the stunning design, immersive interactive experience, and use of cutting edge technology throughout the museum and would highly reccomend it to anyone visiting Barcelona, it is definitely worth the admission fee! For those unable to visit in the near future I have posted some of the highlights below.

The redevelopment of the museum was completed mid 2010 and was designed by Barcelona design consultancy - Exit Design

The New FC Barcelona Museum from Exit Design on Vimeo.


More info on some of the other architectural gems that Barcelona has to offer are to follow shortly.

www.sovibrant.co.uk

City Guides - Barcelona

Following on from our guide of buildings to see in New York, today's City Guide is Barcelona.
With SoVibrant's colleague Peter Pringle returning today from the Catalan capital of culture.

I wanted to see how many sites he managed to visit, and I know he definitely went to one.
Look out for Peter’s next blog where I'm sure he'll enlighten us on his week long trip.

Again, you need to match the pictures with the text below.

Torre Diagonal Zero Zero / EMBA
Barcelona Pavilion / Mies van der Rohe
Torre Telefonica / Santiago Calatrava
Nou-camp / Francesc Mitjans, Josep Soteras, Lorenzo García-Barbón
Barcelona Fish / Gehry Partners
Torre Agbar / Jean Nouvel
Sagrada Família / Antoni Gaudí
Casa Batllo / Antoni Gaudí
Media-TIC / Enric Ruiz Geli
Fundació Antoni Tàpies / Lluis Domènech i Montaner
Can Framis / Jordi Badias Arquitectes
Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona / Brullet-Pineda Arquitectes
Roca Barcelona Gallery / Office of Architecture in Barcelona

Weird and Wonderful Building Designs

SoVibrant give massive thumbs up to creative and unique architecture and these ingenious houses really caught our eye.

They are all incredibly imaginative and have a wonderful quirky meaning behind them. Not only are they visually appealing but they are practical to live in. Not sure if we would want to live in a house shaped like a toilet though!

This is not a joke! This toilet shaped house was built by Sim Jae-duck, the chairman of the organising committee of the Inaugural General Assembly of the World Toilet Association, to mark their launch. He wanted to build a place of sanctuary, which would highlight the global need for better sanitation.

The house is 419 square metres, built from steel, white concrete and glass. It contains two bedrooms, two guestrooms and of course features four deluxe toilets, what more could you need! Maybe a central swimming pool?

You will be pleased to know, that for a mere $50,000 a day you can rent this beauty.

Another favourite is Villa Vals, designed by Bjarne Mastenbroek and Christian Muller of the architectural SeARCH and CMA in Switzerland.

The villa is built into the mountain side, completely hidden from afar, which makes it appear as it is a hole. The unconventional angle of the building creates a strange illusion to the eye which is exceptionally beautiful especially once it is lit up at night.

The house is located in the Swiss Alps, next to the world famous Therme Vals, so as you can imagine the views are breathtaking. 

The design combines a prehistoric feel with all the primitive stonework that fits in well with its rural surroundings and also a modern approach with the furnishings and modern facilities.

Please let us know if you have had the privilege of staying at these wonderful places.

Sky paints the right picture!

Speaking from personal experience SKY haven’t always offered the best service, product or customer management,  and quite frankly the TV signal can barely be called a signal most days!  However, to SKY’s credit, some of their advertising techniques are truly brilliant. 

The one thing you can’t fault SKY for is their innovative and creative approach to advertising.  Below is a link to an audio descriptive advert “painting pictures with words”.  Make your own mind up, in my opinion, a beautiful, imaginative piece of typographical design.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9wAI1PeP-M

Inspiring 3D visualiser

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to post some of the French artist Jean-Michel Bihorel's work as he has inspired me through his incredible attention to detail and visual style.

When you look closely at the wire-frame image of the scene you can see the incredible amount of pain-staking detail the the artist has managed to get into the scene.

Check out the images and animation link below and let us know what you think.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ANIMATION

3D Visualisation

http://www.sovibrant.co.uk

Artist of the week : Andy Park

Hi Guys and welcome back to artist of the week. In this episode we introduce you to a 14 year veteran of the game, film and comic book industry. Andy Park has worked on such projects as Tomb raider, Weapon X and Xmen. 

Using his natural talent as a comic book and life drawing artist, he brings superb and striking anatomy to his characters. Check out the latest work by Andy from the recent "God of War" collection.

Enjoy

Sovibrant / Artist of the Week