Architectural Ride

A proposal to turn the abandoned Battersea Power Station in South West London into a museum and  amusement park, from the French Atelier Zündel Cristea (AZN), winners of the ArchTriumph competition Museum of Architecture, 2013.

The 80-year old decommissioned building is located on the south banks of the river Thames surrounded by a mix of residential, industrial, office typologies and a nearby train station and park.
Built between 1930 and 1955, the victorian style design is an excellent example of original art deco interiors, constructed with steel frames and brick cladding and four concrete smoke stacks towering 103 meters above the ground; the coal-based electrical energy producing factory will be converted
into a venue for the exhibition of architecture from the middle ages to the contemporary age.

AZN on project’s concept : Our created pathway links together a number of spaces for discovery: the square in front of the museum, clearings, footpaths outside and above and inside, footpaths traversing courtyards and exhibition rooms. The angles and perspectives created by the rail’s pathway, through the movement within and outside of the structure, place visitors in a position where they can perceive simultaneously the container and its contents, the work and nature.

via the fox is black + designboom

 

Previously: A trampoline Paris Bridge by Atelier Zündel Cristea

Nature Trail

 

Interactive installation titled Nature Trail, created by lighting designer Jason Bruges, for the corridor walls of Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, in London.

Designed to distract children from what awaits, the installation is formed from 70 LED panels integrated behind graphic wallpaper. Motion sensors detect the presence of visitors and patients, activating the screens to display silhouettes of animals meandering through the woodland.

“The benefit of taking this kind of approach to distraction is a really positive experience for children and their families,” says Natalie Robinson, deputy director of redevelopment at the hospital. The scheme has already had such a positive effect on patients that it is being extended across the rest of the walls by 2017.

via guardian

the Attendant coffee shop

previous condition (click to enlarge)

A former underground victorian toilet in central London, transformed by Peter Tomlinson and Ben Russell to the Attendant coffee shop. The space, disused since the 80s, was industrially cleaned and converted (making sure to keep all the original metro tiles, urinals and the black and white floor) to house a tiny coffee shop

via vanity fair

everything is made of stories

 

I’m desperate from the project: Signs that say what you want them to say and not signs that someone else wants you to say (1992-93), by British photographer / video artist Gillian Wearing. Standing in a busy area of South London, Wearing stopped passers-by and asked them to write down what was on their mind. With their permission, she then photographed them holding their statement.

In a 1996 interview Wearing described how ‘People are still surprised that someone in a suit could actually admit to anything, especially in the early 1990s, just after the crash… I think he was actually shocked by what he had written, which suggests it must have been true. Then he got a bit angry, handed back the piece of paper, and stormed off.’ (Unpublished interview with Marcus Spinelli, South Bank Centre 1997) via Tate

Rain Room

Have you ever wished you could control the weather? Well now you can ! The Rain Room is an interactive installation by  Random International (what a name!) currently in the Curve in Barbican where the visitors stroll amidst the rain without getting wet! Sensors detect where they are standing, and the rain stops around their bodies, giving them an experience of how it might feel to control the rain.The space is also shared  by dancers from Wayne McGregor that perform a continuous 24h choreography which adds a whole new dimension to the installation and turns every visit to a personal experience.

See Wayne McGregor interview about the piece here. Pictures from Agnostica

10sqm office for 3p

   

A 10sqm office, workspace for 2-3 people designed by Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves from Studio Swine. Located in Soho, London. The mahogany desk is made of reclaimed parquet flooring from a local high school, the shelves from the radial offcuts of sustainably sourced Kentish Oak. The marmoleum tiles which are made up of 97% natural materials, are used throughout the office for cladding cabinets, box files and stitched into hanging pouches for stationary.

may I have a cup of brute please?

Built in a city who has undoubtedly surrendered itself to commercial architecture, generic office glass towers and boring identical light brown brick developments British Brutalism has created a number of buildings that are able to relieve both eyes and soul of the aesthetically tortured Londoner.

Photographer Andy Spain who took all of the pictures of this post writes “ […] their strength and power speak of a time when people had a belief in architecture as a force for civic good. These structures were solid spaces to create a solid and strong world emerging from the gloom of the second world war. The (concrete) buildings represent what was great about building a society, universities, hospitals, local governments as opposed to the steel and glass of contemporary retail and office complexes.”

 Via Archdaily.

grab a bite

Human limbs on sale at Wesker and Son pop-up butchers at London’s Smithfield Market.

The limbs may look eerily realistic but there are actually fashioned from animal meat and the butcher shop is part of a publicity stunt, designed to promote the release of the new video game Resident Evil 6. All the proceeds from the human part sales went to the Limbless Association, a charity for amputees and other people who have lost limbs;  a clever strategy according to WWT which helped the stunt to remain within a ‘politicaly correct’ framework.

via and via

Movement Cafe

Movement Café, a temporary space built next to the DLR station in Greenwich, London, designed by British designer and artist Morag Myerscough in collaboration with poet and tweeter Len Sissay.

via cool hunter

First Gay Pride March

Marchers and police at the first official gay pride march held in London, 1st July 1972. Found at the LSE Library’s Photostream.

wellcome home

Inventive and colourful semi-public art : it is visible to public, yet is used to mark the private residence’s entrance. Beautiful in any case!

Spoted by WWT in Lower Clapton in London. Any ideas about the artist?

MA Collection, by Craig Green

Part of the MA Collection 2012 by UK menswear designer Craig Green, inspired from religion, nomads and utilitarian work wear.

fly me to the moon

Stunning handmade accessories by this year’s Saint Martins graduate Grace Lepard. Grace is using acrylic inks in leather to produce the individual pieces of the collection, inspired by birds’ plumage and flight.

knots

Rope jewelleries by Fern Elizabeth influenced by climbing  technology. WWT saw them in flesh yesterday at Saint Martins Degree Show and we were sincerelly blown away!

And just a minor detail: The model in the pictures might be beautiful but the shots in overall are somehow concealing the pieces’  striking colours and formats, trust us, they look way more impressive!

Alexander Kent

Personal works from the London based still life and advertising photographer Alexander Kent.

via We Folk

Icelandic Saga

 

Beautifully lighten pictures of Icelandic fashion photographer Saga Sig, reminiscent of legends and fairytales.London-based Saga Sig develops herself the film achieving beautiful texture and manipulating light.