We all know that Japanese have developed the art of living in small spaces. They have capsule hotels, so why not have capsule student housing? The big difference is that in hotels you only stay for one night, but a house is supposed to be more permanent. These units have adequate space for a person, are pretty high-tech, well-equipped and easy to maintain - just don't invite any friends...
The student village shown above is located on the University grounds "De Uithof" in Utrecht, Netherlands. (see here)
Student O2 Village - Integrated with Natural Environment
The Technical University of Munich in Germany (together with M-Ch "Micro-compact home") decided to install these units in 2006 - with students and professor to live in it for a 6 months term period. The results of this experiment - all six occupants living there have extended their stay for the full academic year. (See their site)
"Each 2.65m cube features high technology, including broadband and standard internet links a plasma screen and high quality kitchen and bathroom appliances, some provided by co-sponsors, Siemens."
Not only students can "enjoy" living in modular, or capsule-like apartments. The whole "capsule living" idea started with this project, built in 1970 in Tokyo:
The Nagakin Capsule Tower, designed by Kisho Kurokawa, has been originally intended as a capsule hotel, but then been converted to apartment modules. The 14-story high tower has 140 capsules stacked at angles around a central core. Every unit is detachable and replaceable. Kurokawa designed units to be replaced after 33 years, but this hasn't happened. Currently the building is in process of restoration, but some people call for its demolition, so have a look while this piece of architecture history is still there:
UPDATE. Alan pointed out that capsule housing development really started with "Habitat" project built in Montreal for Expo 1967. We know about this masterpiece, but really plan to dedicate an individual post to it. (it's that good)
Modern Japanese Capsule Hotel
There are many series of images of these practical, but a little creepy establisments, circulating around internet. The following photos were taken by Ivan Minic, on one of his travels, complemented by photography by Louie Psihoyos/CORBIS, taken in 1985. The hotel is one of many located around Ginza, Tokyo.
(images credit:Louie Psihoyos/CORBIS)
It's probably all right for a short stay, no more than a couple of nights, being very economical in the high-price Tokyo environment. One day you'll crawl inside one such high-tech coffin, get on the internet, and get sucked into the Matrix. We only hope the hotel chain got an insurance against that.
Reversible-Destiny Lofts - add color to your living
These cute looking (almost like a child's toy blocks) apartments are located in Mitaka, a suburb of Tokyo, Japan. They were designed by Japanese artist Shusaku Arakawa and French poet Madeline Gins. (see the project's site)
The original concept is not only playful, it changes the occupant's life in the interesting ways, some of them quite confusing:
"Painted in eye-catching blue, pink, red, yellow and other bright colors, the building resembles the indoor playgrounds that attract toddlers at fast-food restaurants. Inside, each apartment features a dining room with a grainy, surfaced floor that slopes erratically, a sunken kitchen and a study with a concave floor. Electric switches are located in unexpected places on the walls so you have to feel around for the right one. A glass door to the veranda is so small you have to bend to crawl out. You constantly lose balance and gather yourself up, grab onto a column and occasionally trip and fall."
Arakawa and Gins hope to start a revolution in the way communities look and live - and not only in Japan. They are currently in talks with official in Paris and New York to build "Hotel Reversible Destiny" and develop new plans for whole city blocks (with every module pre-assembled in Japan)
Currently the prototype housing project has quite prohibitive prices, close to $800,000 per unit - but celebrities and big shots in Japan are snatching them up, so certainly the interest is there, which shows how many people are willing to live on sloping floors and don't even mind having a closet.
The first project looks very much like the studenthousing for the technical university in Delft, the Netherlands. http://www.duwo.nl/eCache/ENG/1/764.html
I don't think it started in 1970. I saw a modular housing development in Montreal in 1967, called Habitat. Google "habitat 67 montreal" and click on images.
My father made a pedestal for a sundial by taking several natural rocks and stacking them to find a way that they would balnce before cementing them in place. He said there was no reason to have gravity working against him.
If we look carefully at the bottle with two cardboard rings balanced on it, about halfway down, there's a small nail supporting the right side of the bottle. It's not as much of a balancing demonstration as first meets the eye.
I have an inventor dad, Then married an inventor husband (w/patent & pat pend) and sons... It is like being on one of those pogo sticks all the time!!! Great stuff! I was laughing out loud all alone- Is that normal? Jan C.
Fairly recently, there were monks constructing a mandala in a Midwest airport... and a toddler who got away from his mother came and kicked his way through it! I can just imagine how mortified she must have been, but it sounds like the monks handled it gracefully and philosophically.
The toddler "attack" occurred at Union Station in Kansas City, MO. I used to work across the street and watched the monks construct these several times.
They use long, hollow metal sticks with ridges. They rub wooden sticks across the ridges to coax the sand out a grain at a time.
Neither of those cars are a Japanese import. The first one is a Ford Fiesta, and the second one is an (Austin)Mini Metro. Crushing them is however probably the best things you can do with either model.
From artist's bio: "Complementing a precise, science oriented undergraduate instruction, a Master of Industrial Design from the prestigious Domus Academy in Milan... Infusing a materials and technology savvy character with the rich, bold, and sensual styling associated with leading modern Italian Design."
Wow, Extreme Submarines. I wonder how much overtime they put in coming up with that original name. The extreme tag is so overused and generic, it just sounds stupid.
Wow. Beautiful designs... (in into the aquatic vehicles and underwater activities in particular) -- I've got some additional photos of other types of subs at my website squidoo.com/submarines --and I'd like to link to this site as well! If only cars could be designed like this as well--the aerodynamics would improve fuel economy as well!
Ok so the last bridge is the "Pont de Normandie" in France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_de_Normandie). That was an easy one. Well OK I am French and used to drive throught this bridge on a regular basis a few years ago ;)
Being from the Pacific Northwest, I'd have voted for the Astoria-Megler bridge to be on there. I believe it's still the longest "continuous truss" bridge in the world (but don't quote me on that) and is 4.1 miles long, with a main span of 1,232 feet.
My favorite was the Hangzhou Bay Bridge. I would love to drive accross that one! I imagine it would feel pretty weird having all that ocean surrounding your car. 36 kilometers means that you wouldn't even be able to see land at some point! There's no way I'd drive accross that in a storm!
Here's a link to a really neat bridge from British Columbia. Scroll down to find the one that was there in 1872. Low tech and incredible. http://michaelkluckner.com/bciw10hagwilget.html
Check out my photos and a couple of videos of the Millenium Bridge featured in your post. I see that bridge every day of my life and it's still amazing watching it open after dozens of times.
you forgot the "pont du Gard", "bridge of Gard" which date from the romans and still stand in south of france. besides it was also an "aqueduc", at the top goes a canalisation to bring water to a city.
here's a link for the story http://www.interlog.fr/candi/PdG/PdG_description.html
and one for pictures http://www.interlog.fr/candi/PdG/pont_du_gard.htm
The bridge across Niagra Falls. The first strand was laid down by a kite, and built up from there. Engineered by the same man who engineered the Brooklyn Bridge (John Augustus Roebling). Beautiful.
Dumping chemical weapons into the ocean is a scary thought, but most of that stuff degrades and becomes inert very quickly when diluted into that much seawater. Oddly enough, agricultural and industrial run-off is usually much more threatening to ocean ecology than these dumped chemical weapons.
Another casualty was Ray Peck's family in Skull Valley. They were likely hit with low doses of the nerve gas from a Dugway Proving Ground test that accidentally killed 6,000 sheep near their home in 1968. The Pecks lived but haven't been the same since.
There was an incident at Fort Polk, Louisiana in the late spring/early summer of 1987 in which containers of mustard gas were unearthed while trenches for underground cables were being dug. It took nearly a month to clean up the site, and all involved, including myself, were told to keep our mouth's shut. The Army clamped down on this, and the story never went public...how many times has something like this happened, I wonder?
This photo is staged (photoshopped) but too funny ----------------------------- the guy who bumbs a vase is not photoshopped, it was a dutch commercial....
nilbaedThe last one must be true: when the 110 film size was introduced, around 1981, we received in our lab a lot of films to process with the same kind of pictures: an ear (blurred because too close) and a nice landscape, the one located behind the photographer...
The guy with the glasses and the printer hanging on his neck actually works at the Fontana di Trevi in Rome, Italy. I've been there several times and I used to talk a lot with the guy who said me he's been working there for the last 8 years and this is how (through all these years) he is living. He uses to work there with his wife.
"QUANTUM SHOT" #243
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5 Comments:
The first project looks very much like the studenthousing for the technical university in Delft, the Netherlands.
http://www.duwo.nl/eCache/ENG/1/764.html
Those Reversible Destiny units don't look handicap accessible by any means. what an interesting concept, though.
I don't think it started in 1970. I saw a modular housing development in Montreal in 1967, called Habitat. Google "habitat 67 montreal" and click on images.
thanks Alan,
I updated the post
These are the good looking ones. There are some shipping container ones that are elegant as well. This link is a rather grim reality:
http://www.photomichaelwolf.com/100x100/
100 10' x 10' apartments in Hong Kong.
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