2012 Olympic Torch wins design award

Congratulations to UK design studio, Barber Osgerby, who have won the Design Museum's prestigious Design of the Year 2012 award for their Olympic Torch.

The torch is set to commence its UK tour on May the 19th and is perforated with 8000 holes to represent the number of torch bearers involved (rather than a comment on the locations it will be visiting!).

 

I think it's an elegant design that combines a modern aesthetic with a traditional form,  but critics have (I think harshly) compared it to a cheese grater, a waste paper bin and a cigarette holder.

The gorgeous Olympic Velodrome, designed by Hopkins Architects, picked up the Architecture award and is also hotly tipped for the industry's top award, The Stirling Prize:

Design at SoVibrant www.SoVibrant.co.uk

Images courtesy of Sky Sports and Google

Jubilee 2012 - The Cutty Sark

Tomorrow as part of HM’s Jubilee 2012, the Queen will officially re-open the Cutty Sark to the public, nearly five years after it was gutted by a fire.

An industrial vacuum cleaner which was left switched on led to the fire,  causing damage estimated at £10m.

At the time the cost of continuing the restoration project was questioned, as people thought the conservation team would literally have to re-build the whole ship.

Luckily, however, large sections of the boat had already been removed and put into storage, and fire-fighters did a remarkable job to save as much of the ship's original fabric. If a large percentage had been destroyed the ship would only have become a mock version of its original true self.

Grimshaw Architects have designed a new dry dock for the restored ship, raising it  3.3m up into the air revealing the hull and allowing visitors to walk underneath for the first time.

The design to me looks slightly watered down when compared to original concept visuals, which show the boat floating on a web of glazing and steel supports, all connected at the ship's waterline to give it the illusion of being back at sea cutting through the waves. Now the steel structure and glazing have been separated and the new enveloping glass canopy looks a bit like a greenhouse from outside. This may have been down to the structural stability and to provide a cost effective approach, as the budget had become very tight after the fire.

However, the internal shots from below the hull do look fantastic and are much more reminiscent of the original dry dock locations the boat has frequented.

In total, the restoration has cost more than £50m so lets hope she's well looked after from her on in.

Images courtesy of Google images

Architecture and Design

www.sovibrant.co.uk

One Visualization - CGarchitect

Hi everyone,

While doing my usual perousal of CGarchitect I came across the video below.

What really caught my attention was how the artist Rafal Barnas took a piece of visualisation work and simply using the layers which made up the final visual, created an amazing piece of animation. Rafal created this as an experiment into how much he could do with animation using a single visual as a base.

The subtlety of movement in some of the layers really gives you the sense of reality, add to this the mood that  Rafal  has portrayed and I believe this to be an amazing short piece of technical animation.

Below you will find the link to the CGarchitect post as well as the HD version of the animation on Vimeo.


Click here for the link to the post on CGarchitect.com

Click here for the HD version of the animation


3D & media

www.sovibrant.co.uk

Global Rainbow - Yvette Mattern

New York artist Yvette Mattern's art installation 'Global Rainbow' has been recently showcased at several locations around the British Isles as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, a series of events in the run up to the Olympic Games. The piece is intended to 'encompass geographical and social diversity in its reach to symbolise hope.' (Mainly it makes me really want to listen to Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.)

The Global Rainbow has previously visited France, Germany and the United States having been initially conceptualised to celebrate Martin Luther King Day in 2009. 

www.sovibrant.co.uk

100 days to the 2012 London Olympics

Today begins the 100-day countdown to the London 2012 opening ceremony. This has been a slow burner over the last seven years, but the excitement will build from here as the promotion gets underway, most likely starting at this weekend's London Marathon where the cameras will inevitably take in some of the dramatic new architecture of the Olympic site.

With the Olympic flame UK tour soon to start and predictions of 'another Wembley' thankfully avoided, perhaps it's time for the sceptics get on board. The modern games venues are chosen specifically for their proposed ongoing legacy, so the newly announced slogan for the games, 'Inspire a Generation' is quite apt.

Gone are the days 25 years ago when the Olympics were virtually bankrupt and only one city bid for the games (Los Angeles - Tehran pulled out, and even the 90% of the people of LA voted against the games fearing financial meltdown). Cities are now fighting to get on board despite the current ongoing economic crisis.

General opinion on the games seems to lose enthusiasm the further the distance from London, but time will tell as to the success of the legacy. I for one am dead excited!

With Olympic fever filtering in to my veins and the consoling words of my old P.E teacher still clear in my ears, 'It's not the winning but the taking part that counts', I boldly decided it was time to put myself forward for the 100m and perhaps even the beach volleyball. Imagine my surprise when informed by my local Town Hall that I may have already missed the boat! It seems that the British Olympic Association take a rather elitist view on who takes part!


But that's okay. Now when do they start selling tickets?

SoVibrant - design and Architecture www.SoVibrant.co.uk

Images robbed from courtesy of the BBC

Driving the future - Nissan Leaf

After being extremely sceptical about how much I would like driving an electric car, I was fortunate enough to have an elongated test drive of the new Nissan Leaf at the weekend.

First impresssions were that it looked pretty good externally and had a really impressive interior specification. From iPod connection and sat nav to rear cameras that feed to a display within the centre console (with turning trajectory overlaid), all as standard, it really is a surprisingly nice place to spend your driving time. It is modern, cool and fun. The interior is really stylish and futuristic. It feels a bit like the Jetsons (almost retro futuristic)

I was expecting sluggish. I was wrong. Off the mark the electric power supplies a decent amount of torque up to about 40 miles an hour, after which you get more steady acceleration up to its top speed of about 90 mph.

The car has a range of about 70 miles and can be charged to 80% power in only 30 minutes which is amazing. Obviously the big weakness is the lack of range for long journeys combined with the lack of places to charge your car. Beyond your home power point, you have to visit Nissan garages if you are on the move and power gets low. This could make for some hairy moments when reaching the limits of the battery when out and about.

The car itself really challenged a great deal my misconceptions about electric cars and made me quite excited about what the future might hold for thoose of us getting more and more fed up with being fleeced by the government and oil companies for fuel. Yes Mr Cameron, we actually do realise how much of what we are charged goes to you and Mr Osbourne!

The strangest thing for those of us used to a traditional car is the automatic gearbox combined with a lack of engine noise. It feels like the car is permanently stalled! However this is something that took no time to get used to. You can even turn on external engine noise if you wish to ensure pedestrians hear you coming.

I enjoyed my test drive immensely. Doing so many business miles it is not yet a practical option for our staff to have electric cars.  However as soon as there is a 300 mile range car that looks as good (actually, it must look better - come on Audi, you know where my heart is..) as the Leaf with a touch more power, my name may well be down. This is the future. There is no doubt in my mind that the days of the petrol / diesel powered car are numbered. They will always have a place for fun, excitement and leisure but for the day to day requirements many of us have, electric cars may well be the answer.  It is just a question of the technology evolving to a point where the practical issues such as range (and therefore battery quality/size) can be dealt with.

The Leaf can also have an optional photo-voltaic spoiler which can be used to provide power for instruments, music and other equipment within the car. The car also uses a huge range of recycled materials from domestic appliances to bottles to create components. Although, you would never know this being in the car yourself. Design has certainly not been compromised as with the many eco-friendly solutions out there that are at best, visually disheartening.

Its only a concept but check out the Audi E-Tron electric car... Much more my type!

 www.SoVibrant.co.uk

Sony SmartWatch

Sony has launched its new SmartWatch in the UK. This stylish wrist piece connects to your Android phone via bluetooth and enables the wearer to view alerts or access texts and emails without having to reach for the handset itself.

The 1.3-inch touchscreen can also stream audio from your phone, turning it in to a personal media player. For more information click here. Although they may seem like a slightly frivolous accessory, it will be interesting to see whether these become be the latest trend in phone-based gadgetry.

Design at SoVibrant. www.SoVibrant.co.uk

The Shard - Topping-out

It's now well over a year since I first blogged about The Shard becoming the tallest building in the UK.

A year later it has finally reached its pinnacle of 310m in height, becoming the tallest inhabited building in Europe.

The Topping-out ceremony was completed on the 30th March with the final steel spire weighing 500 tonnes going into place on a perfect blue sky day.

The project began back in February 2009 with an estimated £450million being spent on its construction so far.

As mentioned previously the building is very much a ‘mixed use’ scheme with 28 floors of offices, a 19 storey five star hotel, ten apartments over 12 floors and the public viewing gallery right at the top.

The apartments will be seven times larger than a semi-detached house and likely to fetch tens of millions of pounds each, probably aimed at rich Russian oligarchs and foreign investors.

People may look at the building as a symbol for the super rich and the top 1%, however I feel the project is a great achievement for the UK in times of recession and a low period for construction.

The building has been very much a multinational project, with a fifth of the workers from other EU nations, as well as Brazil, Albania and Australia.

Apparently co-ordination of languages written on signs - including Romanian, Polish, Bulgarian, Russian, Albanian, Lithuanian and Punjabi - has been an achievement in itself.

Two-thirds of the workers however have been British and I was happy to hear the top of The Shard was constructed in Thirsk, Yorkshire by Severfield- Reeve Structures.

The building may end up being occupied by the rich and famous, but businesses and people have benefitted from its construction up and down the country.

But remember it's reign is only for 4 years! Thanks to Norman - See SoVibrant blog 16th February 2011.

Images courtesy of Flickr

Architecture and Design

www.sovibrant.co.uk

I live Kea - Welcome to your new IKEA designed neighbourhood.

Whether you love or hate Sweden's most famous home furnishing export; Ikea I am sure there will be unanimously strong feeling about Ikea's latest venture into the world of urban planning and regeneration. I would be interested to know whether those who love to put more than Swedish meatball's in their home could get on with the idea of living in a whole neighbourhood conceived by the minds of our simplicity loving Swedish friends.  That is the big idea from the big cheeses at Ikea.

Personally I only like Ikea for the very simple bits that you can't always justify spending loads of money on - like the odd bookshelf or plant pot. The idea of living the Ikea dream seems to me a cross between an Orwellian nightmare and Corbusier's love child and cries out for someone to say "stick to what you know best." Like the stores, when Ikea gets complicated / expensive, there is generally always a better product out there.  I think the same would go for apartments.  If they keep it simple and cheap they might do well. If they start trying to win Architecture awards, it might all go wrong.

There would be literally nothing to hand down to the grandkids thats for sure.

It does also make you wonder how they would deal with tricky urban elements - you can imagine conversations along the line of "well, if we straighten this river out and flatten this mountain we can squeeze in 2 extra apartments."

I wonder if you can flat pack a tower block?

Article inspired by Doug Saunders writing in The Globe.
Images / Conceptual design by Landprop services.
www.sovibrant.co.uk

Artist of the Week: Troy Lee Designs

Good afternoon readers. This week we bring you not one artist but a whole art department of one of the most recognized paint shops in the world. 

Troy Lee Designs have been at the leading edge of motor sport and extreme sports protection for decades and being a biker myself I am a big fan, especially their custom paint shop.

Troy Lee have produced some of the most memorable and creative helmets on the market so we at SoVibrant thought we would share with you some of the classics.

Enjoy

http://www.troyleedesigns.com/

SoVibrant / Artist of the Week