Fabric Facade Studio Apartment by CC-Studio, Studio TX and Rob Veening

Strips of perforated fabric are tacked onto the facades of this house near Amsterdam by Dutch architects CC-Studio andStudio TX.

The design for Fabric Facade Studio Apartment was developed in collaboration with client and artist Rob Veening.

Each strip is attached to the elevation along one edge only, allowing the fabric to flap in the wind.

The pieces were cut from rolls of teflon, a coated fibreglass material normally used for conveyor belts in food factories.

A central atrium with a skylight above provides natural light for an artists studio and exhibition space on the ground floor of the building.

The two uppers storeys contain the residential spaces, including a living room with a 4.5m high ceiling.

Photography is by John Lewis Marshall.

More stories about projects in and around Amsterdam »

Here are some more details from the architects:

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Fabric Façade: Studio Apartment Rob Veening

Description

The house is built on one of the 350 plots designated for construction by private builders (not very common in the Netherlands), an initiative of Alderman Adri Duivesteijn, in the Homerus quarter in Almere (near Amsterdam in the Netherlands). The “Herenhuis” plots, where extra high ceiling clearance (3.5 m) was required at the ground floor level, are suitable for both residential and work functions.

The assignment was to achieve a spacious home with downstairs a studio artist / exhibition space and on the top floors housing. The principal, Rob Veening, had after having lived in Canada for many years, expressed the wish that the house should not be minimally seized and narrow (like many Dutch residences) but spacious, open and giving one a sense of freedom of movement. A dream assignment for space loving designers, with the added challenge of a very limited budget.

To save costs and to make the construction of such a large volume financially viable, a number, some innovative, measures were taken.

The house (hull) was made wind and watertight by the contractor Postma after which the client finished it himself: stairs, insulation, interior finishes, interior walls, doors, equipment and installation of the external cladding. Contractor Postma’s advantage is that in addition to their own timber structure workshop they also produce their own windows and door frames. This eliminates contractors traditional 10% surcharge cost over these items. It also gave a chance to make very large window frames and doors (2.7m high) which could be realized without any fuss.

One of the most expensive items in a building budget is the facade which is usually the first item that is reduced in ambition. This always has serious consequence for the architectural image. From there came the radical proposal.

The municipality of Almere has C2C in high esteem and even drafted its “Almere Principles”! This course offered a chance to see how much they really meant it and how much liberty they were willing to give private clients. From this, cc studio developed the idea to try to produce the facade from residual waste, using their contacts with the tent industry. The extremely durable, non-combustible, residual material comes from rolls of PTFE (Teflon) coated fiberglass fabric, used in the industrial manufacture of conveyors belts for the food industry. This special material was completely sponsored by Verseidag-Indutex from Krefeld, Germany. The 5 m long rolls (about 1200m2 gross) were cut by the principal and cc-studio into strips and placed as overlapping shingles and tacked on a backing of osb panels. The flexible material moves with wind, creating a lively image. In the sidewall up to a height of 7 meters no pattern is applied due to possible future building that must, by regulation, build up to a minimum height of 7 meters.

Through integrated design it was also possible to omit the traditional steel portal for stability. The entire stability comes from stapled Fermacell (fiberboard) plates in the front, rear and side facades.

To ensure the internal spatial relationship vides and split-levels were used. The artist’s studio downstairs is, at the side of the garden façade, visually connected with the living room on the first floor trough a vide. The studio therefore has an extra window giving it more light deep into the studio.

In the middle of the building volume a central vide with at the top a skylight was carved out, visually connecting all the upper floors. A continuous internal space is the result which has a very pleasant light quality and orientation. Additional advantage is that the study / TV room, top level street side, does not need windows nor received them to save costs. Due to the split-level in the front part of the living room the ceiling height reaches 4.5 m giving it a real mansion (“herenhuis”) quality. The dimensions of the wooden doors 3.5 m wide x 2.7 m height contributes also to this sense of space. But due to all those large measurements the scale of the building is quite difficult to read and can only be measured by comparing it with the traditional sizes of the neighboring house.

Finally, the house has a lower energy requirement than demanded by law (A EPC required then was 0.8, achieved 0.6) and also features a number of other sustainability features which made it eligible for “Green” financing (a lower interest rate for sustainable building).

It was a special, very nice and close collaboration between client and designers that made the best use of the, sometimes somewhat unconventional, opportunities.

design: cc-studio & studiotx in collaboration with R. Veening
structural engineer: cc-studio
building physics consultant: bureau Kent
contractor & frame manufacturer: bouwbedrijf Postma
facade material: Verseidag-Indutex
hull completion: september 2010
interior completion: juni 2011
plot size: 168 m²
plot price: € 48.000,-
gross floor area: 190m2 floor + 30m2 vides + 31m2 roof terras
gross volume: 1030m3
height: 13,5m
construction costs hull: € 170.000,- incl. VAT
finishing and installations: ± € 80.000,- incl. VAT
building system: timber frame structure on a concrete foundation and concrete hollow core slab ground floor

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Dezeen’s top ten: cars (HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT)

Following the popularity of our story about the C-X75 by Jaguar last week, we’ve gathered together our ten most popular stories featuring cars.

In first place is GINA Light Visionary Model by BMW, a fabric-covered car with an articulated frame underneath.

Second place goes to the BMW Art Car by Jeff Koons.

More from BMW: Vision EfficientDynamics with its wing-like doors comes in third place.

Mutation, the spaceship designed for Citroën by Ora-Ïto and shown in Milan last month, is at number four.

The battery-powered electric car Peapod by Chrysler comes as five.

Number six is the Hypnos by Citroën.

Our seventh most popular car story is about Cygnet by Aston Martin, a luxury compact city car.

The smallest four-seater car on the market, iQ by Toyota, is our eighth most popular car story.

Our most recent car story on the C-X75 by Jaguar, which was at Clerkenwell Design Week, comes ninth.

And we conclude our top ten stories about cars with the  MINI Rocketman Concept.

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Arab Passport Verification FUNNY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymQVay6jc7w&feature=player_embedded

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GR230 by Code

This motorway service station along Route 230 in northern Japan, by architects Code, has a black, rectangular form that snakes up from the ground towards a nearby mountain.

The shape of the building was influenced by the curves of the landscape, but internally it has a simple single-storey arrangement.

A number of shops and food outlets are contained within, serving drivers travelling between the towns of Kutchan and Rusutsu.

More Japanese architecture on Dezeen »

Here are some more details about the project from the architect:

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GR230
Concept Text
GR230 is a highway service centre located in the town of Kimobetsu, Hokkaido. Situated along Route 230 at the crossroads leading towards Kutchan and Rusutsu, the facility is a vital hub that connects various towns and areas in the Shiribeshi sub prefecture, including popular tourist spots, museums, workplaces, homes and a diverse range of other everyday destinations.

GR230’s primary function is to provide services centring on food from the local area. It features a simple, flat layout that consists of shops and kiosks, rest areas, and food and beverage outlets.

This project began in 2005 as part of a plan to widen Route 230, a national highway that runs right through the centre of Kimobetsu. The town offered us the use of a site for our proposed building, with the car park, toilets and tourist office managed by the local municipal government. Construction and business operations were undertaken by private corporations.

A town planning committee was launched in Kimobetsu at the same time that the project was getting started, which we joined from the outset. One of the issues involved in planning this highway service centre was how to project its presence in relation to the passing traffic. We made careful, repeated studies of building forms that would be appropriate to the location as well as how the centre would serve as a local landmark, finally deciding that the architecture itself ought to serve as a kind of signboard.

Although the completed form of the building was designed to incorporate multiple meanings within it, the motif on which the shape of the facility was based is in fact concealed within the landscape of ravines and gorges, with Mount Shiribetsu to the south and Mount Yotei to the west.

Click above for larger image
While the magnificent scenery that surrounds the building may bring to mind a lush, green summer season, this part of Hokkaido actually sees long winters that last for almost half the year. The black band made up of various trees whose leaves have fallen is a bare expression of the vast land that is obscured during the warmer months. Undulations in the structure, combined with colour gradations in the black band and the contrast with the white snow-covered fields in the distance, create an abstract visual effect.
When the architectural form of the building first emerged over the course of our studies, we felt as if a vision of the pristine winter landscapes of northern Japan had surfaced from the depths of our memory.
With GR230, we have created a beautiful piece of architecture that commands a dignified presence during the foliage-rich summer months, and a quieter one that seemingly dissolves into the surrounding landscape during the long, reclusive winters.
Project credits/data
Architects: Naoji maekawa
Total floor space: 371.38sq m
Structure: Wooden flat building

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Monte St Angelo Subway Station by Amanda Levete Architects and Anish Kapoor

Construction has begun on a subway station in Naples, Italy, designed by London studio Amanda Levete Architects and artist Anish Kapoor.

Called Monte St Angelo Subway Station, the project was inspired by a network of unfinished tunnels.

It will have two entrances – one made of Corten steel that will appear to have been pulled up from the ground, and another made of aluminium that will appear to sink into the earth.

Photographs are by Peppe Testa.

Here’s some more information from Amanda Levete Architects:
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Construction begins on Naples subway station
Monte St Angelo Subway station in Naples, a project in collaboration with Anish Kapoor is now on site. The brief from the City of Naples, to create a fully-functioning tube station that is in itself a work of art, demanded a synthesis of purpose and beauty that was fundamental to our creative process. A second primary point of inspiration was the site. At the surface the station will be the central element in the urban and cultural regeneration of the Traiano district that has suffered in its recent history from infrastructural isolation and neglect.

Simultaneously the network of tunnels and vaults designed and subsequently abandoned midway through a previous tube station project, describes an underworld barely tangible in the gleaming and sanitary underground spaces of contemporary subway projects. In the shadow of Vesuvius and embedded in layers of early civilisation, these dark and brutal concrete shells have been inspirational to our formal and material approach.

We began the process by stretching and moulding plasticine forms, synthesising the primary access requirements within and around the existing negative volumes. As layers of programme were introduced, the eternal tension between form and function was worked through while preserving the singular purpose and integrity of the forms.

The two entrances to the subway are a response to their particular urban condition. With the backdrop of a mountain the Universita entrance in Corten steel appears to have been pulled from the underground to create a dramatic, powerful and almost primal form. The Triano entrance is a typical urban condition bordered by medium rise residential buildings. Here the more refined aluminium form appears almost impossibly supported as it slips into the void below.

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Walmart - Mr. Ghetto " New Orleans Bounce " Summer 2011( ONE OF THE MOST FUNNIEST/CRAZIEST VIDEO)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1tufujnbzU&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3Dbooty%2Bbouncing%2Bin%2Bwalmart%26aq%3Df&has_verified=1

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Your Guide to the Best Memorial Day Sales

Memorial Day might be all about the outdoors, but indoors is where you'll find the best sales. Not only are the biggest discounts on clothing, but shoppers can find the top deals through their Internet connections. In fact, experts say many retailers are offering the deepest cuts to online shoppers this year, largely through "stacking coupons," where shoppers can apply discount codes on top of site-wide sales.
[In Pictures: 10 Smart Ways to Improve Your Budget.]
"When you combine those with the sales already going on, that will end up being the largest discount," says Jeff Contray, managing editor of coupon site dealnews.com. But not all shoppers will be saving this weekend; some items, including sought-after grills and patio furniture, will stay pricey until the end of the season. Here's a round-up of the top deals you'll find throughout the holiday weekend:
Apparel: Historically, Memorial Day is one of the best times of the year to update your wardrobe. That's because retailers know the warm weather inspires shoppers to pick up new shorts and tops, and they mark down their items accordingly, says Contray. Many retailers got a head start on that tradition this year, with Gap Outlet emailing additional discounts to customers that can be used on top of site-wide sales earlier in the week. (Gap.com is also offering an online-only sale through Monday, with some items more than half off.) Sears.com is selling swimsuits, shorts, and summer tops for up to 60 percent off.
Neiman Marcus is offering up to 40 percent off regular prices and American Eagle's website features a 30-percent-off code through Monday. Macys.com features a range of discounts throughout the weekend as well, with extra discounts on swimsuits and beach towels. Kohl's will also take 15 percent off storewide in honor of the holiday. Ann Taylor's "$25 and under event," available both online and in stores, features shoes, tops, and shorts, and some styles are eligible for 50-percent-off discounts.
Tools and appliances: Sears, Home Depot, and Lowe's are all featuring discounts on tool sets, with Home Depot offering one cordless set for just $64, which Contray says is even lower than its Black Friday price. Sears is offering 30 percent off Kenmore appliances, 25 percent off Samsung appliances, and a variety of discounts on other brands with the code "memorialday."
E-readers: Amazon and Barnes & Noble continue to try to undercut each other's e-reader prices, which means consumers can snag better and better deals. Since summer is a big time of year for reading--especially lazy beach novels--Memorial Day is a good time to pick an e-reader, as well as new ebooks. (The lowest-priced Kindle is now $114, while the new Nook, which will be available June 10, is $139.)
[In Pictures: 10 Baby Products You Should Never Buy]
Meanwhile, shoppers will benefit by waiting to buy traditional summer items such as grills, patio furniture, and air conditioner units, because prices are higher now than they will be at the end of the season. According to Contray's research, portable air conditioners that sold for $400 at the beginning of last summer dropped to $300 by the end of summer, and he saw the same trend with grills. "If you can wait to update those items you associate with summer until the end of the summer, then it's best to wait," he says. (Home Depot, however, is offering free shipping on grills and patio sets through June 1.)
Something else to skip: electronics. Televisions, computers, and cameras typically fall to their lowest prices around winter holiday sales, such as Black Friday. Early summer is not usually the best time to make those mega-purchases. But Contray adds that a few select retailers, including Newegg and MacMall, will be offering Memorial Day sales. Those desperate for new gadgets can also turn to Pricegrabber.com, which is currently featuring a "Dads and grads" guide that includes deals on smartphones, LED televisions, and audio receivers.
Across almost all categories, the best strategy for shopping success this weekend is to shop online, and to search for any last-minute additional discounts before checking out. With many retailers emailing coupon codes to subscribers that can stack on top of the deals available to everyone, the savviest shoppers will apply not one, but two or more discounts to each purchase. Free shipping might also apply with an extra promotional code; check freeshipping.org for available codes.
Don't wait until Monday evening to shop, because many retailers got a head start on the holiday with some of the best deals launching well before the kick-off of the long weekend.

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THE FUTURE TECHNOLOGY!

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Doctors Office

OK,.. An old image but a new twist

I'm sure that you have seen pharmaceutical advertising in doctor's offices on everything from tissues to note pads.





I e-mailed it to my Chinese doctor friend.

He e-mailed back: "If the light stay on for more than 4 hour, call your erect-trician."

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PERSONAL TRANSPORTATION | Latest Invention

| PERSONAL TRANSPORTATION | 

Company Inventist presented a compact self-balancing electric unicycle. The new vehicle was named Solowheel.

It weighs only 20 pounds and very portable, it consists of one wheel with a fold-up foot platform on either side.

The unicycle reaches a top speed of 12mph.

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Strange Job + 18

Strange Job



I don't mind.



So if you cross this line for any reason...



Basic Difference



The Truth about Tests



Rich Criminals VS Poor Criminals



How can i tell her, I love you..

How to *ick knob someone..

Life Sucks

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Best Anti Virus

Your computer will be safe if you follow the instructions -

No viruses !!!....... enjoy with complete abandon
Satisfaction guranteed.

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