Check out the footage of the opening of the worlds tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. 1,325 days after excavations began over 6000 people were invited to join in the celebrations of the successor to the crown previously held by Taipei 101.
A few pretty awesome stats about the Burj Khalifa below...
Its spire can be seen over 60miles away 28,000 glass panels were used in its construction The Burj has the highest occupied floor in the world It also houses the worlds tallest service lift The worlds highest observation deck (124th floor) The worlds highest mosque will be located on the 156th floor The worlds highest swimming pool will be located on the 76th floor.
Today the United Nations estimates the population of the world will pass the 7 billion mark. Quite an achievement for the human race and one that seems intent on self destruction a lot of the time!
Charity Plan International has annointed an Indian-born baby "Nargis" as the 7 billionth person to be born. Quite an accolade for one to carry around in later years! (Baby Nargis pic below)
What a great ice breaker to pull out of the bag at parties.
Obviously based on census information, there is a high margin of error and the UN reports there could be a swing of 50-60 million people.
Regardless of this, today is definitely a day to be proud to be one in 7 billion.
Construction is underway on two tree-covered blocks of flats in Italy - dubbed the world's first "forest in the sky".
Designed by Stefano Boeri, the 27 floors of the Bosco Verticale buildings - which translates as "vertical forest" - will house 730 trees including oaks and amelanchier.
The 365ft and 260ft towers in Milan will also be home to 5,000 shrubs and 11,000 ground plants. A team of horticulturalists will tend to the trees, the tallest of which will grow to 30ft.
Those behind the project say it will represent the equivalent of one hectare of forest, absorb CO2 and provide energy-saving shade to the apartments.
The towers will also boast wind, solar and recycling systems.
Harald belker has been a major player in the world of concept art for games and film for the best part of a decade. Only now has he decided to release his own personal portfolio.
Belker has created PULSE. A world set in the year of 2035 where Futuristic F1 rules the city's streets.
The book takes you through Belkers thought process from his initial ideas of the planet and its people, to full final designs of how each vehicle works on the race track.
Just check out some of the latest designs from the book below and visit the link to order your own copies.
Enjoy
Sovibrant / Arist of the week
Hi everyone,
I will assume that you are all well aware of the massive Transformers fever that has spread through the world, since the first movie was released a few years ago.
The latest homage to this is something we came across the other day in the form of a Chinese TV Advertisement. Please check out the video below, it is a very good use of CGI but we just love the content and context in which they have used it.
Architect Li Xiaodong has just completed a new library located on the outskirts of Beijing. A beautiful space that sits harmoniously within its natural surroundings, we are very taken with the design. The use of vernacular materials and control of lighting is rather special and one definitely worth checking out. Getting minimalist design right is an art form in itself and we really admire what must have been a real labour of love for Xiaodong.
The only worry we have is the combination of books and timber may leave the building rather combustible!
If your company's whole business revolved around the fluid movement of water, which in vogue Architect would you approach to design your new showroom ? It's a no brainer really, so no awards for guessing Zaha Hadid, the Architect of the new Aquatic Centre for the London 2012 Olympics.
Roca the Spanish sanitary ware manufacturer chose the right London practice to follow on from showrooms in Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon. The interior, bespoke furniture and ceiling elements have a dynamic futuristic look which Zaha Hadid has become famous for.
Zaha Hadid Architecture described the space as the place “where a fluid architectural space meets innovative Roca products“ This style and approach is one she has used for many of her projects, which has certainly made her stand out from the crowd.
This futuristic shape making always raises the debate of style over substance, and form and function. Some of her design work could be described as faddy and impractical , similar to fashion design and Haute couture. Which has definitely helped her become a 'Trophy Architect' and join the likes of Frank Gehry in the world of celebrity Architecture.
However Zaha has proved her practice can design a building that looks good and performs well with the Evelyn Grace Academy. The recent 2011 Stirling Prize winner with a 100m running track dissecting the building, featured in an early SoVibrant blog. Love Zaha Hadid or hate her , she is certainly pushing the envelope of design.
Researching a school project recently led me and my boy to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield.
David Chipperfield's cluster of eccentric boxes house a fantastic collection of Barbara Hepworth's works, including step-by-step guides of the processes many of the creations have been though in production.
Along with Henry Moore and Andy Goldsworthy, Barbara Hepworth is one of Yorkshire's most celebrated sculptors and this building manages to display the pieces in contemporary galleries at the right scale, yet cleverly introduces large windows that frame the surrounding waterways without detriment to the sculptures themselves.
Here's a few of our favourites (not all necessarily in the gallery):
Welcome to the wonderful world of Julian Voss-Andreae and his disappearing sculptures.. The piece entitled "Quantum Man" is shown below. Voss-Andreae's art is a wonderful piece of creativity that explores the perception of scuplture within public spaces. From certain angles the layered steel work creates a solid view of a moving man. However from other angles the sliced steel used to construct the form allows the sculpture to almost disappear. I absolutely love how fragile and invisible the form appears from certain angles. Definitely a piece to track down and see in the flesh.
SoVibrant as a business know and understand as much as any the challenges facing business’s in today’s economy. In fact most of the SoVibrant team have worked through and enjoyed a period of time when the construction industry was booming. Like most business’s we have faced change and challenges like never before, however we have embraced those changes and challenges and adapted our approach to business and clients knowing what they face. Many of our core services are linked to assisting other organisations change, we aim to practice what we preach….
The Workplace Strategy element of our business has seen a huge increase in demand due to the challenges faced by business’s today. Whether it entails rationalising existing real estate, downsizing teams, restructuring or relocating, all of these things impact on people, and only too often businesses ignore the impact of these changes on culture, moral and productivity.
No one gets out of bed in a morning and goes to work because they want to make more money for the business owners; they do it because they have to. What then, in a time when many see their colleagues being made redundant, are working the same hours for less money, are having to do the same or more work with less resource, would motivate them to go that bit further?
SoVibrant work closely with organisations to improve the connection between business leaders and the majority workforce by mean of face to face consultation, observation (often very eye opening) and by changing the way the business communicates both internally and externally.
To be a high performance business, we truly believe there must be a high level of engagement, interconnection and communication with the workforce as well as the customer. We came across a few videos of a motivational speaker called Dr Patrick Dixon who talks a lot about this connection with the workforce and felt it was even more very relevant in this current economic climate than ever before.
If businesses are going to succeed and be ready when the economy improves, then riding the storm and doing nothing different is not the answer, being reactive rather than innovative is not the answer, being angry and fearful of the future is not the answer!
We hope you find the link below as interesting as we do……
I recently came across this animation by Patrick Clair, an Australian animator. I was really impressed by the style and composition of the piece and blown away by the content behind the animation.
Stuxnet is the first weaponised computer virus used to target Irans nuclear power plants. The virus is capable of taking down national power grids and no one knows its source of origin. Better still the virus is now open source and can be downloaded and adapted by anyone.
Watch this great animation for more information!
In 2009 Arch Group came up with the concept of the Sleepbox which has recently been developed into mass production.
The modular 2.5 x 1.6 x 2.5-3m pods are designed for the urban traveller and for particular use in airports, rail terminals and town centres.
The compact units come complete with sleeping facilities, ventilation, luggage storage & outlets for mobile phones and laptops. They can also be upgraded to include Wi-Fi, audio visual elements and payment stations.
I particularly like the fact that the design can pack so many functional elements into such a small footprint whilst maintaining its stylised aesthetic. I also believe that these units have solved the problem that plagues so many travellers when flights or trains are delayed, cancelled or there just isn't time to check into a hotel.
Expect to see the Sleepbox in an airport near you soon!
Afternoon Bloggers. Here is the latest advert recently seen on tv, brought to you by Audi for the newly released A6.
The greatest thing about Audi is the way they hardly show you the actual car. They use a very imaginative way of creating their own little worlds to define their design and engineering.
It's not often we profile photographers on the SoVibrant blog, however when I saw these pictures this guy definitely deserves 'Photographer of the week'
Clark Little is surfing legend and father of 2, turned American photographer from California.
He climbed the surfing ranks back in the 80′s and 90′s when he moved to Hawaii and became a pioneer in big wave surfing.
His years of experience taming these big waves meant he was the perfect person to capture their beauty.
Clark swims into as big as 15 foot waves and takes pictures in 'the barrel' of the wave, right before being crushed by these Hawaiian monsters.
His photos have been featured in National Geographic, The New York Times, and ESPN among many others.
I wouldn't try this at home, or down on Fistral Beach in Newquay, this is certainly a man who knows what he's doing.
