If you’ve taken all the information we covered about home automation earlier and decided that you want to install one in your home, then the next (and obvious) thing you need to do is figure out which provider to go with. Vivint appears to be a prime contender, seeing as they’ve just recently got the Central Station of the Year Award.
Star Wars junkie Mark Dermul has a pretty sweet job: He leads tours in North Africa of different locations featured in the films. On a 2010 trip to Tunisia—er, Tatooine—he and his cohort realized that Luke Skywalker’s boyhood home—the Lars Homestead—was in serious disrepair. NPR reports how they brought it back to life. More »
This backyard tea house designed by David Jameson in Maryland is Japanese-inspired, but it’s not the architecture from centuries that’s doing the influencing. Instead, the modern structure—which implements steel beams, glass, and a healthy dose of wood—takes its cues from a Japanese lantern, made evident by fact that it’s suspended from the metal above. The only thing that could possibly make this even more fantastic (by way of serenity), is if it would slowly rock you to sleep after your tea date. [Architizer] More »
It might be so hot you can’t even think. The good news is, you don’t have to, because you can just gaze at all the lovely things in this week’s round of most beautiful items. From a raindrop installation to a constellation lampshade, there are plethora of pretty things for you to take in.
Architizer is a blog dedicated to the past, present and future of architectural design. They scour the internet finding the best/coolest/weirdest structures people crawl around in. Today they look at efforts to rehabilitate a 19th century prison into a 21st century civic center. More »
The crumbling centuries-old Sant Francesc Church and Convent, built in the first part of the Eighteenth Century in the Catalan town of Santpedor, was saved from near demolition, instead receiving a super modern makeover by Catalan architect David Closes. [Inhabitat]
This timber-framed house in Osaka looks a bit like the unfinished blueprint for a Mondrian painting. And though it might appear as though it’s incomplete, that’s how it was intended. More »
Windows that make you feel happier and healthier? Working in an office might just become a more pleasurable experience if the research geeks at the German Fraunhofer institute have their way, cooking up panes with a special coating that specifically allows through wavelengths known to have a positive impact on the body’s hormonal balance. The end result, it’s claimed, is a sheet that “makes you feel as if the window is permanently open” researcher Walther Glaubitt says.
Traditional treated glass uses anti-reflective coatings for aesthetic purposes, the researchers point out, preventing reflections and allowing through the maximum amount of light to avoid needing so much artificial illumination. However, the human eye is particularly sensitive to blue light, and so the Fraunhofer tech focuses on allowing that through.
“Our biorhythms are not affected by the wavelengths that brighten a room the most, but rather by blue light,” engineer Glaubitt says. The coating they’ve given is an inorganic later, 0.1 micrometers thick, that exhibits maximum transmission at wavelengths between 450 and 500 nanometers, where the effects of blue light are at their strongest.
Shortages in blue light can lead to SAD (seasonal effectiveness disorder), issues with sleeping due to excess melatonin production, depression and other problems. Traditional methods to combat this include blue-LED “energy lights” such as the Philips model we reviewed last year.
UNIGLASS and Centrosolar Glas are planning to bring the specially-treated glass to market as “VITAL feel-good glass” in triple-glazed units, which would usually make the room feel no darker but which would prevent more blue light from making it through. In fact, while regular triple-glazing allows through 66-percent of light at the 460 nanometer wavelength – the blue area – the VITAL glazing will allow through 79-percent.
Future versions, however, will extend the coating to the outer-sides of the glass sheets, further improving transmission. In fact, it’s expected that UNIGLASS can achieve 95-percent transmission eventually.
VITAL feel-good glass replaces pain with happy pane is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
There are some gorgeous things that made this week’s most beautiful items of the week. Whether it’s stackable dressers, a private island, or a ballon-supported coffee table, there’s a whole buffet for your eyes.
Am I the only one feeling a little bit bummed about the modern makeover LA’s historic Union Station is set to receive? More »
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
