Sand Glass LED Traffic Lights

A redesign of a classic traffic light. These LED traffic lights, designed by Thanva Tivawong, have created a more fun & practical solution to traffic lights. The hourglass design gives drivers (& pedestrians) a more exact timing for when the lights will change between red, amber & green.

Images taken from www.demilked.com

Creative Bag Advertisements

Bag Advertising taken to another level. Some very comical & some very meaningful, thought provoking examples of advertising using plastic carrier bags...

Panadol Extra
Unknown designer

Wheaties Shopping Bag
Unknown designer

Blush Lingerie: X Ray Bag
Agency: BBDO Berlin

Gaia: Animal Torture

Agency: Duval Guillaume, Belgium

Condomi Erotic
Advertising Agency: Draft FCB Kobza, Vienna, Austria

Olympic Shopping Bag
Advertising Agency: Tao Ma Design

Stop'n'Grow Nailbiter
Jung Vin Matt, Berlin

Give Me Your Hand, Greenpeace
Dentsu, Beijing

ASPE Crime Stories Bag
Given when you bought a book by Belgium's best crime-writer

ReVital
Antje Gerwien, University of Weimar

Tom of Finland Carrier Bag
Tom of Finland is a popular Finnish gay icon

Anne Summers
Guerrilla marketing concept; GuerrillaGuru

Volkswagen Golf GTi bag
Advertising Agency: Agence V, Paris

Shumensko Beer Crate
Advertising Agency: Noble Graphics Creative Studio, Sofia, Bulgaria

Images & reference taken from www.boredpanda.com

City Shaping II; Will Architecture Go Horizontal?

I came across this article whilst browsing the internet. It is an article in an American newspaper, the Huffington Post, written by Charles A. Birnbaum, President of the Cultural Landscape Foundation. I found it an interesting read, especially its' views on Landscape Architects & the future within the world of design.
Follow the link below to read more...

City Shaping II; Will Architecture Go Horizontal?

Water Saving In Brooklyn, NY

Athlete's Village Olympics 2012 - Landscaping

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) have released artistic impressions & details of the new landscaping that will be developed within the London 2012 Olympic's Athlete's Village. Vogt Landscape have designed 10ha of new landscaped & public realm space, available for use by the existing & future local communities that will live in the area. The 10ha will include parks, wetlands, play areas, & open spaces to incorporate recreational facilities.

The public realm development will include the following features;

New Parks: a series of park areas interconnected throughout the village site, including;

• a typical London square with an orchard of British fruit trees
• a formal square suitable for holding markets, with seating areas & gathering spaces
• a large main open public space in the centre of the village, suitable for picnics, recreation, etc
• a garden area with a series of ponds connected by interconnecting pathways

New Wetland Areas: construction of a large ecological wetland area;

• the wetland will contain 3 ponds & 2 marshland areas
• pathways will run throughout, with many seating areas
• a large wildflower lawn will create a suitable area for picnics
• 700 native trees will create a 'green canopy' throughout the wetland, as well as a gateway in
• more than 70,000 wildflower & aquatic plants will be introduced to the site
• new habitats will be created for native wildlife, including 60 bird boxes

New play areas & cycle facilities:

• park areas containing children's play equipment
  
• a cycle network throughout the village, including cycle parking spaces, connecting to the surrounding London Cycle Network
  

The Chairman of the ODA, John Armitt said about the development: “The Athletes’ Village will not only deliver essential new homes for Londoners, it will create new parks, trees, play areas and open spaces that can be enjoyed by new and existing communities for generations to come. The construction of the Village is firmly on track and, with landscaping works now under way, we will start to see a series of new green open spaces take shape between the new homes being built.” (http://www.london2012.com)

Boris Johnson, the Major of London said: "I am determined that London becomes the world’s best big city and that means creating fabulous places to visit and relax. We are already investing millions greening our capital, from the planting of thousands of new trees to a major programme delivering new and improved public spaces. So it is great to see new green and open space emerging from this long neglected part of London and helping to transform the look and feel of this great city."(http://www.london2012.com)

The Longest Bench

Studio Weave is a London based company who created this bench in Littlehampton on the South coast. The bench is the longest in Britain, seating 300 people along the sea front promenade. The bench is made out of thousands of wooden slats/bars reclaimed from old groynes or found in landfill sites. At bends or curves in the bench there are brightly coloured wooden bars, adding a playful feel to the project.

The old shelters that used to line the promenade have been replaced with new shelters that incorporate the bench. Within the shelters the bench loops & twists, forming a playable feature as well as seating & openings. The bench is also engraved with names & messages of people who supported the design, this is ongoing & people can email the company requesting their message to be added along the bench.

Images courtesy of http://www.studioweave.com/projects/the-longest-bench-littlehampton/

The Future Of Cars??

BMW released their latest concept car at the 2010 Leipzig Trade Fair. The car runs using a three-cylinder turbodiesel engine, with electric motors on the front & rear axles, powered by a lithium-polymer battery which can be charged using a normal convention power supply in only 2.5 hours. The car is still very much a sports car, going from 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds!

The company has said that the hybrid car will be on the market, available to the public, in 2013. This is still 3 years away so there is no price on the vehicle yet, what is for certain is it won't be for the faint hearted. Best looking BMW, let alone hybrid vehicle produced so far.

Bikeway Belém

A new 7362-meter bikeway was constructed along the River Tagus in the centre of Lisbon. The project, by P-06 Atelier & Global Landscape Architecture, was designed to provide a wayfinding system to guide users along the waterfront, as well as increase usage & awareness of the wide variety of urban landscapes that it traverses.

Bold, white text has been painted directly onto the new cycle path surface. The text provides cyclists with directions, distances & defines the cycle paths themselves.

Cyclists are drawn further along the waterfront by intervals of graphic & narrative interventions. The image above shows a pier with words from the Portuguese poet Alberto Caeiro's poem about the River Tagus.

The overall idea of the continuing installations along the path is to create a story along the waterfront that people want to follow. This draws them further & further along the waterfront, experiencing new sights & areas of the city that they would otherwise never experience. The project budget was 600,000 Euros for installation & fabrication.

The project won the Merit award in SEGD's (Society For Environmental Graphic Design) Design Awards 2010

Images courtesy of SEGD.org

Sustainable Landscapes illustrated with Sketchup

Leveraging the Landscape to Manage Water from ASLA on Vimeo.

Rain Gardens are a way of reducing flooding & allowing rainwater run off to be more easily absorbed. Storm drains can get blocked, overflowing & causing flooding of an area, leading to erosion, water pollution, etc. A rain garden is made up of layers which allow the best possible drainage. The plants chosen for a rain garden are also very specific; generally native plants due to their ability to survive with minimal fertilisers, which clog up the soil, reducing drainage.

From Industrial Wasteland to Community Park from ASLA on Vimeo.