Architectural Fashion: Frank Gehry for Gaga

"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."

The Guggenheim’s Wright Restaurant

"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.

But most of Kikoski’s efforts were spent attempting to evoke the movement of the building’s signature ramp — short of making diners seasick, of course — by exaggerating the arced perspective of the room and filling it with highly tactile materials. “The same way you view the art differently from different points in the spiral, what you see from across the space isn’t the same as what you see when you get closer,” he said. The wall behind the Corian bar is lined in fiber-optic wood; the metal bar front has a textured patina; and mesh stretched behind the blue leather banquettes is patterned with a tiny version of Wright’s “primitive initial,” the football-like shape of the rotunda’s columns and fountain, which formed the basis for Kikoski’s floor plan. Wright, whose many utopian fantasies were on view in the Guggenheim’s recent 50th anniversary retrospective, was never shy about embracing the future. It’s nice to see the museum thinks along the same lines."

'1901' + 'Lizstomania ' - Phoenix (Live Street Performances in Paris)

'Alive' Where the Wild Things Are Version - Kid Cudi feat. Ratatat

'Crawl' - Chris Brown

Best song off Chris Brown's new album 'Graffiti', awesome vid directed by Joseph Kahn.

World's tallest living wall takes root in Sydney

"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.

The living artwork, currently installed at Frasers Property’s Trio development in Camperdown, uses 4,528 native Australian plants from 69 different species that are fed by a grey-water, dripper-irrigation system. “You can observe many of these species growing wild on maritime cliffs or along the cliffs and rocky slopes in mountainous areas, making this project a kind of ‘Botanical Vertical Garden’,” Blanc said.

In collaboration with Pritzker prize-winning French architect Jean Nouvel, Blanc will also add vegetal wall panels to two residential towers as part of the Frasers Broadway development. These living walls are set to reach up to 150 metres in height and cover up to 10 times the area of the Trio prototype. Blanc, who is credited with inventing the concept of a vertical garden, told Architecture & Design that he is experimenting with the use of tubes and pyramids that can be entirely clad in plants as part of his work on the Frasers Broadway project.

As well as providing a green aesthetic, vertical gardens can also offer a reduction in energy consumption through thermal insulation, Frasers Property managing director, Dr Stanley Quek, said. “Not only are Patrick’s vertical garden installations captivating, but also by putting these sustainable pieces in cities we are able to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions and have them act as a natural air purification system,” Quek said.

The Trio development, which was designed by Fender Katsalidis, gives every apartment a balcony edged with louvered screens that acts as passive sustainable design and gives the building a “dynamic”, ever changing aesthetic, Karl Fender said."

Tim & Jean - The Next Big Thing

"What is it that makes Australian electro duo Tim & Jean so special? That's not meant as a corny opening line for this feature, that's a genuine question. We really want to know what kind of magic potion is running through the water in their hometown of Perth or how many virgins one needs to sacrifice in order to have what they have. With just one song circulating around at the moment, the blissful synth-pop jam Come Around, Tim & Jean have already blown bloggers and industry types away. Indeed, after wowing Australian audiences as part of Triple J radio’s Unearthed competition, the duo has found itself in the middle of a major label bidding war in the US, cementing its buzz as the next big thing set to go supernova in 2010. On Come Around the kids, and yes I do mean kids as the two are just 15 and 18 respectively, show off a surprisingly masterful knack for melding mirror-ball electronics with stomping choruses and irresistible hooks. With more gold like this on the way now's the ideal time to fall for Tim & Jean as you can bet you'll be hearing a lot of them very soon."

source: http://www.thecoolhunter.com.au/

check them out @ http://www.myspace.com/wearetimandjean

Empire of the Sun - Album of the Year @ ARIA's

"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

'Sweet Disposition' - The Temper Trap

House on Carysfort Road - ODOS Architects

"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

Pranav Mistry @ TED INDIA 2009: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

Awsmazing!

Melbourne and Olympic Park Masterplan

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:

• a new 'town square' with a lightweight roof to provide shade and protection for patrons in the centre of Melbourne Park
• improved player facilities
• more practice courts
• an international broadcast centre and better media facilities
• a roof for Margaret Court Arena
• new headquarters for Tennis Australia
• better pedestrian links between the precinct, Birrarung Marr and the new rectangular stadium.

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.