Archive for September, 2009
Visual Voltage
Posted by Jeff Awesome in Interior Design on September 9th, 2009
The Visual Voltage Exhibition is being shown at Design Vlaanderen in Brussels, starting tomorrow (10th September) and will continue until the 2nd of October. It will be just one of many expos that make up the Design September event and is probably the most interesting to me because of the theme the touring Swedish exhibition has, climate change. As you may have gathered climate change and global warming are a big concern for me and so any designs that incorporate eco friendly parts and use into them instantly gains my interests. The designs they have come up with mostly deal with showing the user how much energy they are using, which should help them become more energy aware because the biggest cause of energy waste is people not realising they are wasting in the first place.
The energy aware clock is a neat little electricity meter made to resemble an ordinary, albeit very nice, kitchen clock. The idea is that the clock visualises energy and a quick glance will tell you how much energy is being used. The new days energy consumption is drawn on top of fading previous days so you can compare your energy use.
Another similar design is the illuminated power cord, it does as it says and illuminates but the light will get more powerful the more enegery it is using, so if you glance at it and it is glowing very bright it will remind you to unplug that device that is maybe not needed right at that moment.
The energy curtain is a solar powered light that glows when it gets dark, however the user has to decide if they want to conserve energy or let sunlight in during the day because it needs to be down to harness the suns power. It says on the website this is to allow the user to reflect and act according to his feelings each day – I just think its a good idea badly designed.
Possibly the most useful bit of furniture they have designed is the Laundry Lamp, which combines a drying rack with a lamp so your clothes become an ever rotating lampshade. I think this is a brilliant idea and I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it first. A traditional light bulbs energy is wasted by a vast amount normally because only 5% is light, the rest of it is heat, so to put the heat to a good use is definitely a good idea. You would need nice clothes though to make it somewhat attractive, I like how they have used lingerie in the press pictures, haha.
I just hope they have somehow made the bulb and electrical parts waterproof….
Celebrity Homes – Bill Gates
Posted by Jeff Awesome in General Design on September 8th, 2009
I am going to start a regular feature today concentrating on celebrity’s homes, after talking about Lenny Kravitz house being for sale I started looking at other famous peoples houses and was stunned by how brilliant some of them were. I’ll start it off today by looking at Bill Gates $200 million* geek pad.
The house is quite private and all interior pictures are private and copyrighted, I’m not going to break Microsoft copyright, fighting against Bill Gates is not good… However there are exterior shots of the house available
It is absolutely massive with the residence taking up 66,000 square feet of land, this means that the house can include 7 bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, six kitchens and six fireplaces! Why anyone has 6 kitchens I have no idea, one for each style of cooking? Chinese style kitchen, Indian style etc. Most of the house is actually built into the side of the hill so it is a lot bigger than it looks from the aerial photographs. This along with lots of other parts of the build such as recycled wood being used and very eco sensitive lighting, mean the house is very eco friendly, especially for one that relies on technology so much. Bill Gates is obviously concerned about global warming as well as everyone else (and with his power I’m sure he can help lots!)
The house has a 17 x 60 foot swimming pool that has an underwater music system (err..what!) and swimmers can swim under a glass wall to be in either the indoor or outdoor part of the pool. The house also has a Theatre, Library, Formal dining room, exercise room including sauna, steam room, men and women’s lockers and a tramp0line room. A reception hall that has a 150 person capacity for entertaining and a 63 foot high grand staircase or a lift depending on how you want to move about the home.
Of course being the Microsoft owners house you expect it to be full to the brim of lovely technology goodness, and boy he doesn’t fail there. When you enter the house you are given a microchip pin to wear and this sends signals throughout the home and all the rooms presets for individual people will come up automatically when you go throughout the house. So each room would change the setting of the AC dependent on who was in it and amazingly all the art in the house is digital and will change to the users preference when they are there!
The floors are also pressure sensitive so that any resident or any member of the security team knows exactly how many people are in the house and exactly where they are. His kids must not be able to get away with anything! and lastly to continue the eco friendly theme lights automatically come on and more importantly go off as you walk around the house, so not more fumbling for switches in the dark and tripping over furniture.
Here is a little video that is a digital tour of the house to show you some more information
* In 2005 anyway
Recycled Cardboard Furniture
Posted by Jeff Awesome in Interior Design on September 7th, 2009
Some more global warming inspired furniture for you all today with a little video showing you had to make a cardboard chair.
I’m sure I could knock something similar up, although it does raise some issues with waterproofing and fireproofing.