Planetaki Planet bits and beats

Porque o Jazz é só barulho (5)

2012-02-11T08:25:32Z

(Vídeo: Veja este vídeo na sua respectiva página)
(Dave Brubeck Quartet, Take Five – Bélgica, 1964)

Visiting Leading Shipbuilding Enterprises Of Russia

2012-02-11T06:46:45Z

Let’s see where they design, build and repair ships and submarines. Zvezdochka is a large shipyard based in Severodvinsk, the Arkhangelsk Region. Let’s go check it out first. In the photograph, there is a large diesel-electric submarine Project 877 Kaluga. … Read more...

Hurricane In A Russian Sea Port

2012-02-11T06:46:45Z

A terrible hurricane stroke out in Novorossiysk on February 9, 2012 when the speed of wind constituted 40 meters a second. Buildings were shaking under the gusty wind. It seemed that the window glass would be broken soon and all … Read more...

Para acabar de vez com os contos de fada

2012-02-11T08:25:32Z

O francês Thomas Czarnecki diz que a ideia é criar um «choque cultural». E eu penso imediatamente que é um belo post para se escrever às três e meia da manhã de uma noite fria e com insónias. Um choque vem a calhar. Pelo menos um sorriso.

Que choque deseja provocar este fantástico doido? Mudar o destino de personagens do imaginário infantil (Pequena Sereia, Cinderela, Branca de Neve, Bela Adormecida, Pocahontas, Alice) e dar-lhe um toque de realismo fatal. Ora vejam cinco exemplos:

Capuchinho Vermelho em coma alcoólico depois de uma noite de farra com o lobo

A Pequena Sereia descobriu demasiado tarde que o seu príncipe encantado se chamava Patrick Bateman

A Alice no País dos Sem-Abrigo faz lembrar o fantasma do filme The Ring

Cinderella queria regressar a casa, mas tropeçou e partiu o pescoço, como aquele padre do Exorcista

Pocahontas como escrava sexual (ou depois de ver o Avatar: neste caso, quem a carrega é James Cameron)

Chocados? Czarnecki é um diretor artístico bem conhecido no mundo publicitário – isto já explica alguma coisa do «choque» que pretende provocar.

Elabora um bocadinho mais sobre este trabalho em declarações ao Daily Mail, ao explicar a intenção de pôr em «em confronto o universo ingénuo e inocente dos contos de fada» e a «realidade, mais sombria, mas igualmente parte da nossa cultura».

E pronto, quinze minutos para as quatro da manhã. Não te esqueças de tomar o comprimido para dormir, Bela Adormecida.

BIG wins competition for the new Kimball Art Center in Park City

2012-02-11T07:28:40Z

BIG has just been announced as the winner of the competition for the new Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah. The non-profit community center for the visual arts, which started in 1976, invites people to experience art through education, exhibitions and events. The aging historic building (dated from 1929) was in need of restoration and an addition that could allow the organization to increase their educational outreach and enhance the quality and scale of the exhibitions, while maintaining free admission to the public.

The competition’s shortlist included some of the (in my opinion) best firms in the US these days: BIG (actually Danish, but with an office in NY, which in a way “landed” in the US with several ongoing projects), Brooks + Scarpa, Sparano + Mooney Architecture, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, and Will Bruder + Partners LTD.

You can check BIG’s proposal previously featured at ArchDaily, a project that stood out not only in formal aspects, but because of its connection with the history that the Kimball Art Center has represented.

BIG wins competition for the new Kimball Art Center in Park City originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 10 Feb 2012.

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Blue Mountains Architecture Master Class

2012-02-11T07:28:40Z

Courtesy of Architecture Foundation Australia

Architecture Foundation Australia will be presenting the Blue Mountains Architecture Master Class, a residential studio based one week program being held with Rick Joy in the Blue Mountains Australia with Richard Leplastrier and Peter Stutchbury.

The program will be a studio based design ‘charette’, undertaken in small groups, for a project (yet to be determined), on a site within walking distance of the venue. Suggested themes include the exploration of architectural strategies that can moderate between the permeation of the external envelope in Australian coastal architecture and how this might confront more harsh climates and locations. The design program will be supported by talks from the ‘masters’ and on-going tutorial support during the week. All the ‘masters’ will stay with the participants at the venue – Jemby Ringa Lodge at Blackheath, 600 meters from spectacular Evans Lookout. The program will culminate in presentations and crits on the last Friday. More information on the program after the break.

Courtesy of Rick Joy

Rick Joy, originally from Maine, has lived and worked in the desert landscape of Arizona for over a decade. Guided by an abiding fascination with the desert’s capacity for sensory stimulation, and a commitment to functionality and craft that survives from his training and work as a contractor, Joy has developed a modern architecture that cultivates sensory experience, harmonizes with the landscape, and eschews formal pretense. After graduating from architecture school at the University of Arizona and working several years for Will Bruder, Joy founded his own practice in Tuscon in 1993. He has completed many fine sensitive projects, among them his Avra Verde House, which attracted international acclaim.

Rick Joy and Peter Stutchbury have taught together on various international programs around the world and Rick was a guest critic on the 2010 Glenn Murcutt Master Class. Rick Joy and Peter Stutchbury have taught together on various international programs around the world and Rick was a guest critic on the 2010 Glenn Murcutt Master Class.

Richard Leplastrier is little known internationally and is almost a recluse – but an outstanding teacher and ‘guru’. He is a Gold Medallist of the Australian Institute of Architects, and received the Finnish 2004 Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award for his outstanding small wooden buildings, which has also been won by Renzo Piano, Kengo Kuma, Peter Zumthor and José Cruz Ovalle. He also received the 2009 Dreyer Foundation Award in Denmark made to an architect “who has made an outstanding contribution to architectural thinking and to society”, and he was made a 2009 Honorary Fellow of the US AIA. He worked with Kenzo Tange in Japan and with Jørn Utzon at the time of the Sydney Opera House. He is close friend and contemporary of Glenn Murcutt.

Peter Stutchbury is in many ways a protégé of Richard, and he has been a winner of numerous Australian Institute of Architects Awards and published internationally in GA Houses, Abitare, etc.. He won the 2008 International Living Steel Competition for extreme housing in Cherepovets in Russia, published in the book ‘Houses of Steel’, has held the Catedra (Chair) Luis Barragán in Mexico, was a guest tutor at the 2010 and 2011 Ghost Studios in Nova Scotia and has recently completed a house in Japan for the famous fashion designer Issey Miyake.

Lindsay Johnston, emigrated from Ireland to Australia in 1986 and became Head of the Architecture School and Dean of Faculty at the University of Newcastle. He has been a recipient of architecture awards in Ireland and Australia, including his ‘autonomous’ Four Horizons house and tourist lodges, which have been published internationally. He was recipient of the 2002 RAIA National Neville Quarry Education Award. He now runs the Architecture Foundation Australia.

It is planned that the program will include visits to significant houses in the Blue Mountains by Richard Leplastrier, the recently completed stunning ‘Invisible House’ by Peter Stutchbury, and possibly Glenn Murcutt’s Simpson-Lee House (all yet to be confirmed and subject to client consent).

The Architecture Foundation Australia is a not-for-profit organisation, the chair of which is eminent Australian architect Glenn Murcutt. The Foundation has presented the annual Glenn Murcutt International Architecture Master Class in Australia since 2001, as well as other professional Master Classes in New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland and an annual Summer School for senior architecture students at Pittwater north of Sydney. This program is similar in format to previous New Zealand and Irish Master Classes presented by the Foundation since 2005.

For more information, including registration, please visit here.

Blue Mountains Architecture Master Class originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 10 Feb 2012.

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School Of Music In Lisbon / João Luís Carrilho da Graça

2012-02-11T07:28:41Z

Architect: João Luís Carrilho da Graça
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Design Team: Giulia de Appolonia, Susana Rato, Paulo Costa, João Manuel Alves, Filipe Homem, Inês Cortesão, Carlos Pereira, Miguel Costa, Pedro Teixeira de Melo, architects. Tiago Castela, Julieta Cunha,Paula Miranda, Joanna Malitzki, Miguel Casal Ribeiro, Frederique Petit, trainees; Nuno Pinto, graphic modelling; Paulo Barreto and Vanda Neto, models
Area: 16 900 sqm
Cost: 12 500 000.00 €
Client: Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa
Photographs: FS+SG – Fotografia de Arquitectura, João Luís Carrilho da Graça

When I first started working on this project I happened to be visiting Eero Saarinen’s School of Music in Ann Harbor. Even though the building is interesting, it struck me as odd that no music could be heard in the passageways, not even in the common spaces. At about the same time I watched a documentary about the Music Conservatory in Santiago de Cuba, it was an old colonial house filled with people, joy and music. For this project, I wanted to push to the limits the possibility of acoustic excellence – and also the seclusion and soundproofing of every space –, as well as convey the conviviality and extroversion particular to certain musical practices.

As for the inside/outside relationship and air-conditioning, I also wanted to achieve the equilibrium, or get the best of both worlds: opening towards the outside and, as an alternative, a mechanical and sophisticated climatization of each space.

The urban struggle for central and accessible sites results in many schools, even music schools, clinics and hospitals being located in very noisy areas such as this. It is a vibrant area with a certain “suburban centrality”.

The clearest statement of this project was the creation of an exterior space – a large patio covered with grass – formed by a volume that gradually increases in height and protects it from the exterior noise. As the top of the building gently slopes upwards, the rooms grow successively higher, from smaller classrooms meant for instruments that produce a weaker sound (the flute, for instance), to larger rooms meant for percussion instruments.

The outside of the school is an almost blind volume, except for the corners, where large glass surfaces make the view explode on the inside. But not the sound.

All the public spaces and larger rooms were built in the lower floors. The Auditorium is the main space of the building, with a seating capacity of 448 people. Though it is mainly a teaching space, it should be prepared to host musical performances of the highest level, and thus its acoustic requirements are very demanding. Is form is a wooden shell.

In addition to the teaching spaces, there are a variety of rooms with different dimensions and another (smaller) auditorium. The great “loggia” that surrounds them serves as a spare space for future extensions to the school. The library, cafeteria, office area and staffrooms occupy the southern part of this floor.

site plan

Using concrete as our main building material was a simple way of obtaining high levels of acoustic stability and insulation. Silence. The floor in the rooms is made out of wood. It vibrates.

School Of Music In Lisbon / João Luís Carrilho da Graça originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 10 Feb 2012.

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Google Planning Mystery "Personal Communication Device"

2012-02-11T10:47:38Z

Google obvious has a major interest in mobile devices, as should be patently clear from its work on Android for smartphones and tablets. We've heard recently about some more out-there projects, like the idea of an Android-based pair of glasses with a heads-up display. The latest to pique our interest arrives thanks to an FCC application, in which ... Read More

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1 Comments

Video: Watch as motorcycle racers leap over The Mountain at Cadwell Park

2012-02-11T01:18:56Z

Filed under: Motorsports, Videos, Motorcycle, UK, Racing

Motorsport is full of amazing spectacles, and many of them are directly caused by the various peculiarities of specific race tracks. To wit, Laguna Seca is known for The Corkscrew, Le Mans will always be linked to the Mulsanne Straight, The Nürburgring has The Carousel, and the ability to take Spa's Eau Rouge and Raidillon corners flat-out is what separates the men from the boys.

And then there's The Mountain at Cadwell Park. Though not nearly as well known outside the U.K. as many other race track features, The Mountain may be one of the most exciting places to point a video camera in all of motorsport. It's a small hill that comes up directly after a tight left-to-right S-turn, and it routinely launches the bravest riders high into the sky as they try to get the best drive from the corner possible... and it spits many of them sprawling back out the other side on their bums.

If you're not familiar with The Mountain, we suggest you watch the video after the break. Aim high, boys and girls.

Continue reading Watch as motorcycle racers leap over The Mountain at Cadwell Park

Watch as motorcycle racers leap over The Mountain at Cadwell Park originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hack Your Gadgets and Void Your Warranties This Weekend [Weekendhacker]

2012-02-11T06:48:21Z

There's nothing inherently wrong with a product you buy off the shelf, but there's definitely something awesome about hacking it to make it better. This weekend, throw your warranties aside and bring something new to the things you already own. More »

Bruce Campbell’s Ride

2012-02-11T02:34:57Z

Submitted by:

Dar-Kfrei

LG Optimus Vu Compares its Display Against a Widescreen Android

2012-02-11T10:47:38Z

LG revealed plans for a new Android earlier this week, and one with quite the unusual display, at that. Instead of the widescreen aspect ratios we're used to seeing on the majority of smartphones and tablets, the LG Optimus Vu will instead have a screen with a more traditional 4:3 ratio, like on the iPad. We got to see a promo video for the phone, ... Read More

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1 Comments

Pinterest: The Clueless Boyfriend's Valentine's Day Lifesaver

2012-02-11T07:16:02Z

If you're a guy reading this, and you find yourself scrambling every year around Valentine's for gift ideas, you might want to try visiting the site your better half has been obsessively visiting: Pinterest. Because if there's any place on the internet where it seems like a girl (and a few of us guys) share our fav decor, fashion, and accessories wishes on display, it's right there on the love of your life's board! More

Followup: Key deadline arrives Saturday in Honda Civic Hybrid lawsuit

2012-02-11T01:18:56Z

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Government/Legal, Honda

A California woman beat Honda in small-claims court last week, receiving nearly $10,000 in damages after getting lower-than-advertised fuel economy in her Civic Hybrid. Early next week, we may have a better idea of how many people intend to follow her lead.

A key deadline arrives Saturday that affects all U.S. residents who bought a Civic Hybrid between 2003 and 2009. Those owners are considered part of a class-action lawsuit regarding the fuel-economy issue - unless they opt out of the case by Saturday.

Owners who opt out will not be entitled to the expected settlement of up to $200 and a coupon off their next Honda purchase. But opting out preserves their right to go it alone in court, as Heather Peters did, and seek a more substantial payout.

In order to opt out, owners must send a certified letter to the settlement administrator postmarked no later than tomorrow. More information can be found at hchsettlement.com.

Automakers, legal experts and consumer-rights advocates are all keeping an eye on what happens in the class-action suit, both in terms of how the case is settled and how many people forgo a smaller settlement with the intent of filing individual cases.

Key deadline arrives Saturday in Honda Civic Hybrid lawsuit originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Smoked by Windows Phone Returns to Challenge Smartphone Users

2012-02-11T10:47:38Z

Back during the CES in January, we learned about an interesting competition being run by Microsoft's Ben Rudolph. Dubbed "Smoked by Windows Phone", the contest would pit Rudolph against challenging smartphone fans, seeing if anyone was capable of getting tasks completed faster than Rudolph on his Windows Phone handsets. Besides being some good PR ... Read More

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4 Comments

Helpful For The Dog, and Pneumonia!

2012-02-11T02:34:57Z

Submitted by: Nicole N

Remains of the Day: FCC Trying to Fill in Mobile Data Gaps [For What It's Worth]

2012-02-11T06:48:21Z

The FCC releases a map of mobile data dead zones, Anonymous isn't sure if it brought down CIA.gov, and Google hands back the MPAA's Hotfile subpoena. Photo remixed from Pavel Ignatov (Shutterstock) More »

Household Chores You Can Do While You're On The Phone

2012-02-11T07:16:02Z

Since I'm not very good at sitting still, I often take care of small household chores, some of which I might otherwise not find the time for, while I'm on the phone. Mindless tasks get taken care of quickly while I'm otherwise engaged. By the time the call's finished, my home has gotten a little extra TLC. More

Official: 2012 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR makes world debut at Sebring Test

2012-02-11T01:18:56Z

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Porsche, Racing

The first few 2012 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR racers have made their first appearance in the United States, ahead of their competition debut in the the American Le Mans Series. Although the machine is labeled with the 2012 designation, the latest GT3 RSR is actually still based on the 997 model, not the latest 991 variant of Porsche's long-running 911 model range.

Still, there are plenty of updates that make this GT3 interesting to racers. For starters, a mandatory air-restrictor still lets in enough oxygen for the 4.0-liter boxer six to deliver 460 horsepower to the 310-millimeter rear wheels, which necessitate bodywork that is 48 millimeters wider than before. Like 911 Turbo models, new air scoops are incorporated into the rear fenders - just one small part of a completely revised aero package.

Three images of the 2012 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR in race trim during shakedown testing at Sebring have been released, and you can see them above. A full press release is after the break, if you're so inclined.

Continue reading 2012 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR makes world debut at Sebring Test

2012 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR makes world debut at Sebring Test originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uenergy Health Club / GAJ Architects

2012-02-11T07:28:41Z

Architect: Godwin Austen Johnson
Location: DIFC, Dubai, UAE
Project year: 2011
Project Architect: Jonathan Ashmore
Partners in charge: Jason Burnside & Michael Dawson
Project size: 650 sqm
Client: uenergy by uconcept
Contractor: Highate Interiors
MEP consultants: Scott Wilson ME
Photo credits: GAJ

Dubai based Architects, Godwin Austen Johnson have recently completed this boutique health club for clients uconcept in the heart of the Emirates financial district, DIFC. Previously two retail-units, the project is located on the podium level of the Gate Village development completed by Hopkins Architects and GAJ in 2008.

The concept of the health club was influenced by a series of black and white photographs taken of an old NY gymnasium. “The figures appear in silhouette and their true physical form is expressed against the backdrop of a stripped out warehouse” explains Project Architect, Jonathan Ashmore. We wanted to express this honesty of mechanical form and function in the project, through a selected exposure of the new structure contrasted with the existing columns and surfaces of the original building. It is not very often that you have this opportunity to contrast old with new (albeit only relatively) in Dubai, as everything is so recent. With uenergy, we had this opportunity and it felt important and appropriate to both preserve and inlay new layers into the buildings fabric.

GAJ focused on the attention to detail and material in uenergy to bring together raw industrial textures of a New York warehouse with the finesse and execution of a luxury hotel.

The main challenge was to create the health club within a prominent retail space of three fully-glazed elevations. On paper, this was not the best suited space for a Health club; in full view of passersby, particularly in a conservative region like the Middle-East. This posed an issue of privacy and a crucial design challenge.

The designation of functions and client requirements meant that the layout of the project had to work very hard. We looked at the concept as a series of volumes rather than two-dimensional areas. We proposed a new mezzanine floor which increased the overall floor area from 560 to 650sqm across three levels and allowed us to accommodate all the facilities. (Images 15-29)

The design explored the connecting volumes to create thresholds of horizontal and vertical surfaces to filter natural daylight and views deep into the heart of the project. The circulation route into the gymnasium was directed around the perimeter to practically serve as a buffer between the public and private areas. (Images 1, 8, 18 & 19)

This also created a dynamic relationship between people passing in parallel both inside and outside of the façade. The main-corridor privacy screen constructed of tinted-mirror, Parklex (#4) timber blades and light-boxes, created linear apertures that controlled selected views and daylight to penetrate the internal space. (Images )

The parallel tinted-mirrors reflect those walking by on the outside. ”You can often see people stopping outside to contemplate whether they just glimpsed themselves, or a silhouette of someone else moving in the opposite direction” JA. Like the effect of passing by an alley-way and wondering if it was your reflection or another person at the opposite end. The idea is to ‘contemplate’ for a paused moment and reflect on yourself and your relationship with your immediate environment. For us, this was the essence of the u-energy project and we wanted the design to also represent the clients’ brand. (Image 12, 13, 14)

Through the design of each surface, we played with the materials and details to control the light and visual levels. Each internal elevation encourages the user to reflect upon themselves and their presence within the health club and the wider context. This was achieved using mirrors in the gym areas and a facade of offset glazed panels, horizontal Parklex blades and light boxes that filter the views beyond. (Images and 9 & 10)

We believe the overall final product is a result of understanding the context, function and aesthetic which in turn represents an architecture that has considered all three with equal measure.

Uenergy Health Club / GAJ Architects originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 10 Feb 2012.

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KUM Pencut Is a Travel Pair of Scissors (That Won't Destroy Your Bag) [Stuff We Like]

2012-02-11T06:48:21Z

Scissors are one of those things that you only seem to need when you don't have any around—like when you're travelling, or in your car. The KUM Pencut is a pair of scissors in a pen-sized sheath, so you can have them on hand without risking a hole in your backpack (or worse). More »

A Scarlet Letter: Embracing Red

2012-02-11T07:16:02Z

I love that scene in Sex and the City after Big has painted his bedroom wall "China Red." He asks Carrie to stay the night and she responds no, "because, dear friend, you and I are like that red wall. It's a good idea in theory, but somehow it doesn't quite work."

Dimensional Color: The Art of Federico Herrero

2012-02-10T23:25:01Z

One could say that Costa Rican artist Federico Herrero loves color, and that might be true. Yet, a more accurate statement would be that Herrero loves the effects of color - the tensions created by neighboring hues, the spatial manipulation of background and foreground, and contrast of vibrant pigments against an urban landscape.

Report: Only one Aston Martin One-77 left to purchase new

2012-02-11T01:18:56Z

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Aston Martin, Specialty, Luxury

Bound and determined to get your hands on an Aston Martin One-77? If so, now's the time to get serious. According to duPont Registry, the very last factory-built One-77 is finally up for sale.

The car is located in Tampa Bay, Florida, and its exact build number is not known. According to the report, the first and last One-77, build numbers one and 77, were pre-sold to wealthy buyers expecting them to appreciate in value faster than the other 75 One-77 models created.

In any case, duPont Registry claims there are between five and eight One-77 supercars roaming the streets in the United States, making this one rare Aston Martin. Interested? Better get a move on... and bring along something in the neighborhood of $2 million.

Only one Aston Martin One-77 left to purchase new originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A Super Easy Way to Organize Children's Books Dejligheder

2012-02-10T23:25:01Z

We love to organize children's books using front-facing shelves. It makes for easy recognition for kids, plus the book covers become a design element themselves. But there is one drawback to this method. More