It’s nearly Christmas so everything is beautiful, from the lights decking every inch of your neighborhood to the fact that you’re about to get a little vacation. But we also had plenty of things to show you this week, from our favorite Instagram accounts to a tunnel to the sky in a Manhattan train station, and so much more. Here are our favorite, eye-popping posts from this week:
It’s hard not to marvel at French artist Benedetto Bufalino’s recent work “La caravane dans le ciel”
Posted in: Today's ChiliIt’s hard not to marvel at French artist Benedetto Bufalino’s recent work "La caravane dans le ciel"—literally, "the caravan in the sky." A small camper sits on top of a hydraulic lift, providing enough room for a person to live in the clouds. It’s kind of like The Jetsons, only trashier. [designboom]
A new week brings new questions. Like, how would one recreate the iOS 7 homescreen in Microsoft Word? Or should spires count toward a building’s total height? If you’ve found yourself pondering these things, you can find your answers within the most beautiful items of the week.
How can a thousand photos turn into a single timelapse? And what’s it like inside an artificial cave 200 feet below Manhattan? The answer to both of these questions and more lie in the most beautiful items of the week.
There is beauty in so many things, whether they’re famous works of art reimagined as desserts or a massive installation by the artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Those and more are the most beautiful items we found this week.
The simple pleasure of swinging is one that most of us probably haven’t enjoyed in years. At the historic Convento Das Dominicas n the Portuguese city of Guimarães—itself a Unesco World Heritage site—designers Cláudia Oliveira and Isabel Bourbon of creative studio Elas Duas gave visitors of all ages an opportunity to sway on a special sound-enhanced installation.
Last night in Toronto, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei presented a new version of his incredible Forever Bicycles installation. As the centerpiece of this year’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, the all-night contemporary art event that takes over city streets, 3,144 bicycles, the most Weiwei has used of this work to date, were stacked 100 feet in length and 30 feet in height and depth in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square. This was the first time the installation has been displayed in an open air, public space. Since this was a night-time festival, it was spectacularly lit up with pink and blue lights.
Need some beautiful things to gaze upon at the end of a long week? How about photos of the restoration of an 138-year-old Brooklyn bank? Or a lighting pavilion that looks like it’s alive? Or a massive Lego calendar that syncs with your smartphone? These things and more wonders from the worlds of design, art, and architecture are the most beautiful items of the week.
This giant colorful honeycomb is called the SOL Dome. Made from thousands of interconnected fiber optics, the structure responds to its environment as if it were a living, breathing plant.