© Photos by Craig Mullins
"Gehry designed a hat for Lady Gaga to wear to a benefit at LA's Museum of Contemporary Art. It sounds like the move from buildings to headgear was a little challenging for our favorite Canadian-born starchitect, who drew the initial design for the hat on his iPhone: "Since I've never designed a hat before, I was afraid she wouldn't be able to walk....I did have an idea that involved people with sticks holding it up, walking behind her. I didn't know how far I could go with this thing." 
"It would have been easy to design the Guggenheim Museum’s new Wright Restaurant, which opens to the public Friday, exactly as Frank Lloyd Wright himself would have wanted it: among the 400 drawings he made for the 1959 building, a few were devoted to a ground-floor dining space, though not one particularly suited to a contemporary audience. “The layout was very simple, almost monastic, with clusters of tables aligned with the portholes,” said the architect Andre Kikoski, who designed the restaurant. But, as he explained, “it wasn’t conducive to social interaction, and it certainly wasn’t about the integration of art.” Rather than executing Wright’s original sketches, Kikoski turned the space — most recently a generic cafeteria with brown carpeting — into a modern homage to the legendary architect, who designed the museum to harmonize with the artwork within.
"Renowned French botanist, Patrick Blanc, has created the world’s tallest vertical garden at a residential development in Sydney’s inner west. However, the 33-storey north-facing green wall is merely a “practice run” for Blanc’s even bigger installation planned as part of the $2 billion Central Park development at the former Carlton Brewery site on Broadway..jpg)
"For years, Luke Steele has been hailed as the Next Big Thing in Australian music. Last night, the eccentric Perth performer climbed to the pinnacle of Australian music when his band, Empire of the Sun, dominated the 23rd ARIA Awards in Sydney.
Steele and his collaborator Nick Littlemore were the toast of the town when their electro pop duo collected four gongs including Album of the Year, Best Group, Single of the Year and Best Pop Release for its critically acclaimed debut album Walking on a Dream.
These accolades came after the band's success at the recent ARIA Artisan Awards, where it was awarded Best Video, Best Cover Art and Best Producer.
The awards consolidated a big year for the band, which counts Barack Obama and Jay-Z as fans and whose upbeat, sci-fi themed songs have been on high rotation on radio stations."
source: theage.com.au
"This mid-terrace house in Ireland has been extensively refurbished into a contemporary live/work space. The new structure was conceived as a simple form which connects at ground level with the existing house. The tight site and strict planning constraints defined the form of the new extension from an early stage." Carysfort Road, Dublin, Ireland, by ODOS Architects, via: The Architectural Review
The Melbourne and Olympic Parks masterplan aims to cater for the growing popularity of the Australian Open and to establish Melbourne and Olympic Parks as an unbeatable sports and events precinct.
The proposal places a strong emphasis on the comfort of patrons, with more open space and shade, increased seating capacity, better connections to public transport and the city, and easier movement into and within Melbourne Park.
The plan proposes:
The Victorian Government has provided $5 million for the preparation of a long term masterplan for the site, and detailed design and costings for the first stage of the project. The masterplan will take over 10 years to implement, and will need to be delivered in a way that allows the Australian Open Grand Slam and Rod Laver Arena to continue to operate.
"Stephen Wiltshire is an artist who draws and paints detailed cityscapes. He has a particular talent for drawing lifelike, accurate representations of cities, sometimes after having only observed them briefly. He was awarded an MBE for services to the art world in 2006. He studied Fine Art at City & Guilds Art College. His work is popular all over the world, and is held in a number of important collections."
'The Air Zoom Toki QS. It comes in a solid brown leather upper with perforated Swoosh, dark brown piping and white sole. Look out for a release soon.'
"This is a rare partnership between two geniuses at the top of their crafts -- Kanye West, who was named "the smartest man in hip-hop" by Time magazine, and Bill Plympton, an Academy Award-nominated animator, cartoonist, and illustrator.
"HQ Hostel offers a new boutique accommodation. The architects set out to create a unique experience for travellers, within the context of a commercial building that maintains the harmony of the street façade. Great attention was paid to the planning of space and circulation, the building’s drilled aluminium composite façade creating privacy during the day and moving beams of light at night.
"Are you ready to glow in the dark? Crash landed alone on an unknown planet for the entirety of his Glow in the Dark set with huge space scapes behind him, Kanye West takes you on a musical and visual odyssey that no antihero has taken you on before. This deluxe volume represents another leg of that voyage, giving you a gorgeous photographic ride through West’s life, both on and offstage, as well as into the intimate technologies of his creative process with top visual artists of today. The instrumentals are tracks from his set remastered to echo John Williams’s famous score ("Jesus Walks" is Vader’s theme). In personal sketches and reference imagery, 3-D models of the holodeck-ian stage, and costume designs (including his Grace Jones–inspired outfits for opening act Rihanna), West once again expands a medium and triumphs in the artist’s epic struggle to be creative. With a CD including previously unreleased instrumentals from the show as well as an interview with tour collaborator Spike Jonze, the book is not only a memento of one of the most successful musical performances of the year, but it is also an experience all its own."
"Stampd’ LA give us a look into the second drop from the footwear brand’s Fall 2009 delivery. Featured are four styles including their The Cooley Hi, Acid Slow, Boeing, and InDeanne, all utilizing Stampd’s traditional mix of leather and canvas uppers. Each style was produced in limited quantities (250 pairs), equipped with leather lining, leather toe cap and smoothed rubber vulcanized sole. They are now available via select retailers worldwide as well as the Stampd’ LA online store."
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"A fluidity of surfaces is witnessed from within the Yarra House designed by Leeton Pointon architects and Susi Leeton architects. Floors become walls; walls become ceilings; and ceiling open up to sky. From approach, the entrance looks like a cave formed by rendered concrete walls. Only the slight and irregular black window frame insertions appear to allow light into the house. But once within, light falls through the double-story void from above in all directions. Light enters through openings in thick off-form concrete and cascades down oak and white plastered surfaces. It then washes over limestone and marble, illuminating art, furniture and every handcrafted and natural surface throughout the house. 
