The history of Olympics and Expos is one of heaviness– of mass and monumentality and conspicuous expenditure on immovable objects whose legacy has occasionally endured, but have always been outdated. Our most extraordinary contemporary feats of engineering are more stealthy, more extensive and more invisible than these traditions of glass and brickand steel: Code rather than Carbon.

The Cloud proposes a new form of monument – a new form of collective expression and experience, and an updated symbol of our dawning age. It proposes an entirely new form of observation deck, high above the Olympics – from which one can not only see the whole of London, but the whole of the world, immersed in the euphoric gusts of weather but also immersed within that new, pressing and endlessly compelling environment in which we increasingly congregate – the digital sublime.

The principal effects of the Cloud are generated from their context – from the aerial sea of swarming data, from the diverse populations of London, the UK and the wider string of global villages, and from the seamless stretch of weather that unites us all. The structure is comprised of a filigree central array of columns – servicing as circulation systems dropping from the sky like the tendrils of a banyan tree system.

The inflatables are saturated with an LED information system which densifies locally into lightweight info-screen hotspots where visitors can navigate information about the immediate surroundings. The luminosity and air pressure of each sphere is independently controlled –– giving rise to the networked, self-organizing Cloud.

via: the CLOUD | www.raisethecloud.org

What could a facade only concerned with cultural issues do, how might it look like and how could it challenge commercial advertising-surfaces? An experimental setup to provide an answer has been displayed at the Kunsthalle Project Space in Vienna. Three properties that differ severely from commercial displays have been realized: the screen is transparent, it gleams its image to both of its sides the inside an outside at once, it offers a non-homogenic resolution. Once realized it produces kinetic and perspectively effects in the very substrate of the medium itself.

The classical architectural ornament of the diffuser layer, a laser cut parametric design pattern, gets an overlay by pixel animation and group interaction. As the designer is confident that what he calls the upcoming “urban mass media” shows an urgent demand not simply for appropriate content but more over for a “new ornamental iconography”.

Hardware: Zumtobel, System Capix
Infrastructure for Interaction: Mobilkom Austria
Architecture: TU Wien, Institute für Architekturwissenschaften, Fachbereich Architekturtheorie – Oliver Schürer

LAb[au] managed to finalize their installation based on the 16ⁿ _ ƒ5³ Project. Here we have some photos of the final work.

via:lab-au.com
photos: Natalia Kolesova

Designed to celebrate the thematic “Green Ray” party, organized by our client LuxFrágil with the collaboration of Patrick Goor, this light installation is simultaneously an intensely physical and artistic experience for the invited guests. Our design, using green lasers and mirrors producing totally analog visual effects, consists of two light sculptures: a green ray of light apparently perforating the building and a big outdoor light tapestry whose appearance changes according to the movement of the guests that become co-creators and yet challenged to take part of this collaborative experience.

By / Via: 3kta.net

The cladding of the former Bayer corporate Headquarter in Leverkusen with the mesh systems Mediamesh® and Illumesh® is almost completed. The last of the overall 684, each 7, 20 metres long and four metres wide weave panels have been assembled. The 122 metre high building is going to be completely cladded with the stainless steel mesh with interwoven LED profiles. 18,000 square metres of the stainless steel mesh – that equals the size of approximately two and a half soccer pitches – cover the 29 floors of the building. The 5.6 million LEDS will turn the distinctive building into a landmark of a successful industrial history.

Mediamesh® and Illumesh® are joint products of GKD – Gebr- Kufferath AG and ag4 media façade GmbH.

Thanks to Andrew Hyman for the hint!

by: ag4, GKD

The Indemann was designed by the Maastricht architecture firm Maurer United Architects as a symbol of the structural-political evolution of the former mining region near Inden. This 36 meter high, accessible steel sculpture, built on a brown coal dump, resembles in its form a primitive robot. The Indemann gets its unique brightness from Illumesh® – a semitransparent skin made of stainless steel mesh with interwoven LED profiles by GKD – Gebrüder Kufferath AG. During the day, the metallic surface shimmers and reflects light, then at night a computer-controlled light show comes to life. The worldwide patented system is a cooperative product of GKD and ag4 media facade GmbH, Cologne. The Indemann is the first public project in Germany where Illumesh® is in use. After the spectacular dress rehearsal at the beginning of August, which attracted already over 2.500 spectators, the official inauguration of the steel colossus is on September 5th.
The specially by ag4 developed and tailored show represents the transition of a changing cultural landscape and forms the basis for the atmospheric dense, smoothly shifting color and light patterns changes, as a symbol of the transformation from coal mining area towards a research-, educational and recreational region.

via: gkd.de, wikipedia.org

Thanks to Andrew Hyman for this hint!

Spectacular images in the Rhine Valley: The Germania wrapped in the European flag, the Loreley a mountain of german words, the ruins of Rheinfels: Risen from ruins. Projections of international artists transform castles, monuments and ruins in the valley of the Loreley (Unesco World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley).

Buildings start to move, constructions turn their inner life outwardly. Three days of projection magic in the oldest tourism region of Germany which has to fight with their stereotypes. The images of the projections have the chance to be on one level with the fireworks at the Brandenburg Gate in the evening of 3rd October.

The images which remember the Rhine as a German scenery between romanticism, national propaganda and world cultural heritage. ‘rheinpartie – to move on to pastures new’ is called the first projection art-festival which runs from the 2nd to the 4th October in the Rhine Valley and performs the traditions in a modern way.

via:rheinpartie.com

1211LIGHTING at the forefront of Acapulco’s re-birth creates first even environmental friendly LED lighting installation and one of the largest in México is setting new standards of excellence with lighting design in this popular tourist destination. Forum Imperial located at the center of Acapulco’s Diamante Zone is the first of three structures of Mundo Imperial. The 2060 square meter glass façade is illuminated by more than 89,000 individual LEDs. The result, a dazzling fusion of color-changing and signage effects is captivating passersby and intensifying the entertainment value and experience of visitors attending events.

“With construction just underway I know something big was about to begin,” says Manuel Padilla Tapia, president of 1211LIGHTING, which provided the design concept, LED solution and programming as well as consulting and installation services. “I envisioned a spectacular façade of active patterns of color and scrolling-text, inspiring a new icon of the city.”

The challenge was to encourage the mega developer and architect to replace the 1500W metal halides fixtures using color filters with energy-efficient LED solutions, providing greater design flexibility and a seamless façade of dynamic colors, motion graphics and basic billboard capabilities supporting a wide variety of content for real-time advertising and promotional opportunities. In addition to generating a new glow of modern sophistication with state-of-the-art LED technology in the Diamante Zone, 1211LIGHTING honored the pure engineering grandeur of the sophisticated architecture – far exceeding the original wall-wash design concept.

by: 1211lighting.com

Honda Insight – Let It Shine from Honda on Vimeo.

by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam