Muuto launches modular lamp and sculptural vase by Earnest Studio

Rotterdam-based Earnest Studio has designed a pair of products for Danish design brand Muuto – a lamp featuring individual lighting units fixed to a metal pole by magnets and a vase with a kinked profile.

The lamp and vase are the first products created for the brand by designer Rachel Griffin's studio.

The Post Floor Lamp is a modular lighting-solution comprising a base and two, round lighting units that the user can fix to a central stem in any position.

The lamps can be angled as required and are individually dimmable, so the direction and strength of the light can be tailored to suit the space.

The two lighting units are plugged into a central power hub so they can both be turned on or off at the same time. Each lamp also has its own integrated touch-operated switch for controlling the light.

The cords are fitted with magnetic cable drops for attaching the cable to the central rod. An additional lighting unit can also be added by plugging it into the power hub and positioning it on the rod.

Earnest Studio also developed a wall-mounted version of the product, which applies the same simple and graphic aesthetic to units that can be magnetically attached to a wall-mounted metal bracket.

"The Post Floor and Wall Lamp came from the idea of exploring the flexibility of a magnetic joint, giving the user the freedom to position and dim the lamp's lighting units according to individual needs," Griffin explained.

"Designed with a sculptural expression, simple lines and refined finish, the Post Floor and Wall Lamps represent a new perspective through their graphic character and forward thinking functionality."

The second product created by Earnest Studio for Muuto is the Kink Vase. Griffin developed a new take on the traditional accessory, using digital design technologies to create its playful shape.

"My starting point for the Kink Vase was an exploration of how new forms could be created through the digital manipulation of simple shapes," said the designer.

"The design combines this appreciation of modern technology with traditional ceramic craft, resulting in a piece that is both contemporary and sculptural," she continued.

"The graphic and playful appearance of the Kink Vase – combined with its double opening, which suggests a new way to arrange flowers – infuses its surroundings with joy."

The distorted tubular form was made possible by computer modelling software and is produced in porcelain using a traditional process.

The design's double-ended form gives it a sculptural presence in a room when not in use, and the user can choose to use one or both ends for floral arrangements.

The vase is available in sand and light blue colourways, with a glazed inner surface providing a contrast to the smooth, matte exterior.

The two new products were unveiled by Muuto at the Design Post showroom during the recent IMM Cologne trade fair.

American-born Griffin founded Earnest Studio in 2012 after studying graphic design in the USA and graduating from the Man & Living programme at Design Academy Eindhoven.

The multidisciplinary studio works across a broad range of projects, designing everything from brand identities to furniture and accessories. Griffin previously collaborated with designer Emilie Pallard on a collection of furniture made using standard construction materials.

Muuto works with many international designers to develop products and furniture that represent a contemporary take on Scandinavian design traditions.

The brand's recent products include a collection of cocoon-like pendant lights designed by Benjamin Hubert's studio Layer, and an aluminium lamp by Tom Chung that projects light from both ends.

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Miniature Creatures Made of Felted Wool by Nastasya Shuljak

Moscow-based artist Nastasya Shuljak transforms packs of wool into sculptures of small animals and other whimsical creatures. Plants sprout from the heads of smiling trees and other natural spirits. Polar bears, foxes, hares, and other critters stare through inquisitive eyes applied to their tiny woolen faces. Shuljak’s toys are an exercise in the flexibility of the material and also a way to bring joy to all who meet them.

Shuljak, a former theater artist and art teacher, tells Colossal that the practice of making creatures began when friends gifted her some wool. With that first bag she made a bear and a hare, and the menagerie has been growing ever since. “I saw children’s sonorous happiness in an adult man holding in his hands what I did,” says Shuljak. “Until now, it touches me, causes surprise and peace.” Commenting on the purpose of the figures, she added that her animals “do not aspire to the exhibition hall, do not claim to be art. These are just small lumps of joy, carefree second smiles.”

Shuljak teaches classes in Moscow on how to create the toys and also sells them via social media. For more information on upcoming workshops and to meet more of these adorable wool creatures, follow Shuljak on Instagram.

 

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Miami police enlist architecture students to create 3D-printed model of the Super Bowl stadium

The Miami-Dade Police has worked with architecture students at Florida International University to create a 3D-printed model of the Hard Rock Stadium to prepare for the Super Bowl this weekend.

Designed by students in the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts at FIU, the four-by-five feet (1.2-by-1.5 metres) mockup details bleachers, hallways, exits, rooms and support beams in the 65,000-seat stadium.

Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) has used the Hard Rock Stadium model – which also splits into cross-sections – since November 2019 for tactical training ahead of the event on Sunday 2 February.

The police force's Super Bowl operations commander, Edgardo Caneva, said it was the first time that a 3D-printed model had been used to prepare for the Super Bowl  – the NFL's annual American football championship final.

"Law enforcement has never done something like this before for a Super Bowl," Caneva said. "This is a first for us, and the students at FIU are the ones who made it happen."

The MDPD approached FIU's police department to help with the project ahead of the 2020 Super Bowl.

FIU funded the production of the model, which was designed by a team including director Hadi Alhaffar, architecture graduate students Katherin Rendon and Francisco Alduenda, and undergraduate IT software student Samuel Morris.

The Robotics and Digital Fabrication (RDF) Lab then printed the model, which took a total of 3,500 hours.

Among the main challenges was the intricacy of the Hard Rock Stadium Miami, such as the pairs of spiral walkways that connect its various levels at each corner, and huge white spikes that carry tensile cables holding up the canopy roof.

"This was something unique, for FIU and MDPD, the creation of a physical model to use in training," said Shahin Vassigh, the director of the RDF Lab.

"It's not necessarily the scale that is unique – architects make models for demonstration regularly – but the intricacy of details and this type of collaboration," Vassigh added.

Designed by firms Populous‎ and HOK, Hard Rock Stadium will host the 54th Super Bowl, which will see the San Francisco 49-ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs starting from 6.30pm EST.

Other stadiums that have hosted the event include Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which has a stadium roof that closes "like a camera aperture".

Video and photography are courtesy of FIU.

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Inouye Solar Telescope takes most detailed images of the sun to date

The first images taken by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) latest solar telescope show the cell-like structures "the size of Texas" that cover the sun's surface.

The snapshots show a pattern of "turbulent boiling plasma" that covers the whole of the sun's surface.

According to the NFA, each of the cell-like structures depicted are approximately the size of Texas, and are a sign of "violent" motions that transport heat from the inside of the sun to its surface.

This process, known as convection, sees the hot solar plasma rise to form the bright centres of the cells before cooling off and sinking below the surface, creating dark "lanes".

The images have been captured using the NSF's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii – the world's largest solar telescope.

It combines a four-meter mirror with "unparalleled viewing conditions" atop the 10,000-foot Haleakala mountain in Maui, Hawaii.

Used for the first time, the telescope captured the highest resolution images ever taken of the sun's surface. Scientists hope this will help them better understand the sun's activity, known as space weather, and its impact on the earth.

More specifically, scientists hope the newly revealed details will allow them to determine what causes the sun to release powerful flares out into space.

These are potentially harmful to air travel, satellite communications and can bring down power grids, causing long-lasting blackouts and disabling technologies such as GPS.

Having access to more detailed images of the sun's surface will help governments better prepare for future space weather events by notifying them of potential impacts as much as 48 hours ahead of time, instead of the current standard of around 48 minutes.

"NSF's Inouye Solar Telescope will be able to map the magnetic fields within the Sun's corona, where solar eruptions occur that can impact life on Earth," said France Córdova, NSF director.

"This telescope will improve our understanding of what drives space weather and ultimately help forecasters better predict solar storms," she added.

The Inouye Solar Telescope was built by NSF's National Solar Observatory and managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA).

It generates 13 kilowatts of solar power and heat from its main, four-metre mirror, and therefore requires a specialised cooling system to dispel this heat.

The dome that surrounds the telescope is covered in thin cooling plates that work to stabilise the temperature around the telescope.

The mirror's "off-axis" placement reduces bright, scattered light to obtain clearer views.

According to David Boboltz, program director in NSF's division of astronomical sciences, the telescope's first images are "just the beginning".

"Over the next six months, the Inouye telescope's team of scientists, engineers and technicians will continue testing and commissioning the telescope to make it ready for use by the international solar scientific community," said Boboltz.

"The Inouye Solar Telescope will collect more information about our Sun during the first five years of its lifetime than all the solar data gathered since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the Sun in 1612," he added.

Scientists were also experimenting with solar geoengineering back in December 2018 in a bid to dim the sun, using a process that replicates the climate-cooling effect of volcanic eruptions.

The experiment, which was set to take place in early 2019, saw calcium carbonate particles injected high above the earth in an attempt to reflect some of the sun's rays back into space.

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Framlab proposes modular vertical farms for Brooklyn neighbourhoods

Creative agency Framlab has proposed building modular vertical farms in Brooklyn to provide low-income neighbourhoods with access to fresh produce.

The conceptual Glasir project comprises a stack of greenhouse-like modules that could be built in various locations across the New York borough, where Framlab's research has found that 20 per cent of the population are food-insecure.

A Glasir farm would be constructed on top of a stand with an area of just two square feet (0.37 square metres). It is designed to be installed in a wide variety of places, including alongside sidewalks, in backyards or public parks.

Three types of modules called Production Module, Growth Module and Occupation Module would feature in each structure. Each unit would be framed with cross-laminated timber and could be stacked in different configurations depending on the space or the area's circumstances.

The Production Modules would be where the vegetables are grown. They would be topped with a solar panel and fronted with polycarbonate and aluminium mullions.

The system would use aeroponics, a process for cultivating plants in which crops are grown in mist environments rather than soil. In addition to being water-efficient, this system would also allow faster growth and enable plants to absorb more nutrients, according to Framlab.

"These systems are extremely water-efficient — requiring less than 10 per cent of the water necessitated by traditional, geoponic cultivation, while allowing the use of fertilisers and pesticides to be drastically reduced," Framlab said.

"In addition, aeroponic growth environments enable plant roots to absorb much higher levels of minerals and vitamins, which yield vegetables that pack a stronger nutritional punch."

Each unit features an aeroponic tray, water feeder line and water trunk line. Plants would be watered through mist nozzles attached inside each Production Module.

Water would be pumped through the structure's irrigation system, a closed-loop network made up of Growth Module components that act like trunks, branches and feeders, to the misters.

"Glasir is a project that seeks to utilise a tree's adaptable growth processes as a dynamic framework for high-yield, vertical farming," said Framlab.

"Through the elevation and distribution of production modules, the system enables high-yield, local production of greens and vegetables, while engaging with the streetscape as a distinct new urban figure."

In addition to the Production Module and the Growth Module, the Occupation Module would provide platforms and pathways for people to move through the structure.

Framlab imagines that each Glasir would be fitted with artificial intelligence (AI) sensors that would be used to monitor plant growth and environmental conditions. Eventually, the AI would be used to inform how to grow each structure.

The modules would be stacked by crane-equipped trucks but the team also has plans to implement drone transit that would eventually both build and deliver modules, when the technology is proven viable.

It also imagines that in the future drones would also be used to deliver food to local residents.

In addition to its function as a source for harvesting food, Glasir could also serve as a social space for people offering shade and shelter during the day and illuminating its surroundings at night.

Framlab was founded by Norwegian designer Andreas Tjeldflaat, and has offices in Bergen, Norway and New York.

In 2017, the studio proposed adding clusters of honeycomb-like pods to the sides of buildings to address New York City's growing homeless population.

Other vertical farming proposals include a modular housing complex by Precht in which residents produce their own food, a multi-storey bamboo-framed structure by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and a conceptual skyscraper by Pawel Lipiński and Mateusz Frankowski envisioned for locations across sub-Saharan Africa.

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Found Wood Pieces Morph into Twisted Animal Portraits by Jonatan Maldonado

All images © Jonatan Maldonado, shared with permission

Jonatan Maldonado, a Los Angeles-based artist and creative director, has a strong sense of pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon causing humans to see faces and meaning in inanimate objects. In Creatures of the Ancient Forest, Maldonado’s black and white photographs frame found branches and chunks of wood at just the right angle, allowing viewers to catch a glimpse of a squawking bird or a horned animal poking its head out of a tree.

The dark, twisted series is ongoing, and the artist tells Colossal he’ll soon be in Alabama Hills, California, searching for more pieces⁠. “The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in California is the home to the oldest trees in the world,” he says. “Being surrounded by their spectacular shapes feels truly magical, or maybe it’s the lack of oxygen when hiking at 10,000 feet.” Follow Maldonado on Instagram to see what he spots next.

 

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150,000 Botanical and Animal Illustrations Available for Free Download from Biodiversity Heritage Library

From Natural, general and specific history of living acetabuiferous cephalopods, and fossils

Billed as the world’s largest open access digital archive dedicated to life on Earth, the Biodiversity Heritage Library is comprised of animal sketches, historical diagrams, botanical studies, and various scientific research collected from hundreds of thousands of journals and libraries around the globe. In an effort to share information and promote collaboration to combat the ongoing climate crisis, the site boasts a collection of more than 55 million pages of literature, some of which dates back to the 15th century. At least 150,000 illustrations are available for free download in high-resolution files.

Among the collections is a digital copy of Joseph Wolf’s The Zoological Sketches, two volumes containing about 100 lithographs depicting wild animals housed in London’s Regent’s Park. Wolf originally sketched and painted the vignettes in the mid-19th century. Other diverse works range from a watercolor project detailing flowers indigenous to the Hawaiian islands, to a guide for do-it-yourself taxidermy replete with illustrated instructions published in 1833.

The library also offers a variety of tools, including search features to find species by taxonomy and another option to monitor online conversations related to books and articles in the archive. Consistently adding collections to the public domain, the organization currently is working on a project to promote awareness of the field notes available from the Smithsonian Institution Archives, the Smithsonian Libraries, and the National Museum of Natural History.

For those who don’t want to dig through pages of archives, head to Flickr and Instagram for a more streamlined visual experience. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

From Brasilische Pilzblumen

From Complete natural history of forest crops in Germany

From The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands

From Horticultural Belgium

From Zoological sketches

From Horticultural Belgium

From Selected articulate animals

From Natural history of Victoria

From Selected articulate animals

From The naturalist’s miscellany, or Coloured figures of natural objects

From The naturalist’s miscellany, or Coloured figures of natural objects

 

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