Ingrid Siliakus—Paper Architect

Paper Architecture is the art of creating an object out of a single piece of paper. Before the final design is finished, something like 20 to 30 (sometimes even more) prototypes are made by Ingrid Siliakus. Drawing paper architecture designs to Ingrid is as building: first one layer, with a single shape, will be drawn and than layer after layer are added. To design a pattern from scratch, the artist needs the skills of an architect to create a two-dimensional design, which, with the patience and precision of a surgeon, becomes an ingenious three-dimensional wonder of paper.

“A growing number of papercraft artists are enjoying the exquisite art of architectural origami, where a single sheet of paper is cut and folded into an intricate miniature structure. Here, three of the world’s leading proponents provide instructions and templates for recreating twenty of the world’s great buildings, from the Taj Mahal to the Rialto Bridge. There are basic principles to start you off, as well as galleries of the finest architectural origami from around the world.”

The Paper Architect, Marivi Garrido (Spain), Joyce Aysta (America) and Ingrid Siliakus (Netherlands), Hardcover, 110 pages (70pp plus 40pp templates), 23cm X 28cm,
ISBN: 9780307451477

Buy it here: Amazon

Cloud by An Te Liu

Cloud is an installation by An Te Liu, he presented it at the 2008 Venice Biennial of Architecture. It’s made of 120 air purifiers, ionizers, sterilizers, washers, humidifiers, ozone air cleaners. They were all running constantly.

Cloud, by An Te Liu
via: today and tomorrow

The Hergé Museum by Christian de Portzamparc

Designed by French architect and winner of the Pritzker Prize, Christian de Portzamparc, the Hergé Museum is due to open on June 2nd of this year. The icon that was (and still is) Tintin played a role in most of our childhoods. Even today Tintin and Snowy are making waves in recently translated Chinese copies in Asia. A stroke of comic-book genius, Tintin evolved from the brush of belgian artist Georges Prosper Remi, or as he is more commonly known, Hergé. Unfortunately the masterful Hergé passed away in 1983 but thanks to the new Hergé Museum in Brussels, its not too late to pay hommage to his work.

The Hergé Museum, by Christian de Portzamparc
via: Ape to Gentleman.

George Nelson & Associates Catenary Chairs for Herman Miller

A pair of Vintage Catenary chairs are up for auction at the upcoming Important Design Auction at Wright. Designed by George Nelson & Associates in 1962 the chairs are made from leather, chrome-plated steel and enameled steel.

Catenary Chairs Model 6380, 1962, by George Nelson & Associates, for Herman Miller, Auction Estimate: $4,000–5,000 at Wright

See more products designed by George Nelson

Squeeze Cup by Maya Vinitsky at MAD

Maya Vinitsky’s Squeeze Cup, a combined juicer and cup, simplifies a two-step process—squeezing an orange and then transferring the contents into a glass—reinventing an everyday task in an unexpected way.

Exhibition: Object Factory: The Art of Industrial Ceramics,
Through September 13 at The Museum of Arts and Design
via: NYT

Model: Frank Lloyd Wright: Herbert Jacobs House #1

The New York Times shows an Image from “Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward,” an exhibition currently on view at the Guggenheim Museum, the models of Wright’s designs are attracting as much attention as the exhibition itself. Perhaps the most notable model is that of Wright’s Herbert Jacobs House #1 of 1936-37, the first of the architect’s pioneering open-plan, energy-efficient Usonian houses. The basswood model takes the house’s components — from its window frames to its innovative copper-piped radiant-heating system — and explodes them, so that they seem to hang in midair.

Frank Lloyd Wright: The Re-Model, at The Moment, New York Times

Microbotic Sculpture by Christopher Conte

Robots and androids aren’t the sole property of science fiction. Christopher Conte’s sculptures are more like old-fashioned studies rendered with today’s materials: anatomical forms on the verge of motion. You can picture them crawling around the next Star Trek movie, or under a jar in a medical curiosities museum.

Microbotic Sculpture, by Christopher Conte

Harry Bertoia’s $100,000 Dandelion

Harry Bertoia is best known as a sculptor, but he also designed furniture for Knoll, who often used his pieces as props in their advertising. The “Dandelions” are made from from gilt stainless steel, brass with a slate base. This work is one of seven Dandelions exhibited at Eastman Kodak Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1964.

Untitled (Dandelion), 1964, by Harry Bertoia, Estimate: $100,000–150,000 at Wright
+ Midcentury Modernist

Rare Zapotec Effigy Vessel at Sotheby’s Auction

Sotheby’s upcoming auction of African, Oceanic & Pre-Columbian Art includes this important vessel showing Olmec influence and symbolism in regional interpretations. It is one of the few full-bodied ceramic depictions of the omnipotent earth monster or jaguar-dragon of Olmec inspiration. The dragon zoomorph is well known in Olmec art through schematized incised motifs on blackware ceramics but it is rarely seen in three-dimensional form. This vessel is finely modeled in typical Monte Alban fine-grained grayware, and shows early forms of Zapotec iconography such as buccal snout, bifurcated fang, and scrolling brows.

A Rare Zapotec Effigy Vessel, Monte Alban II, ca. 200 B.C. to 250 A.D.
$40,000 – $60,000 at Sotheby’s, New York
Update : Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: $92,500 USD

Exhibition: Le Corbusier — The Art of Architecture

Le Corbusier — The Art of Architecture is the first major survey in London of the internationally renowned architect in more than 20 years. This timely reassessment presents a wealth of original models, interior settings, drawings, furniture, photographs, films, tapestries, paintings, sculpture and books by designed and written by the architect himself.

The exhibition charts how Le Corbusier’s work changed dramatically over the years from the regional vernacular of his early houses in Switzerland, to his iconic Purist villas and interiors of the 1920s, to the dynamic synthesis achieved between his art and architecture as exemplified by his chapel at Ronchamp (1950-55), and his civic buildings in Chandigarh, India (1952-64). Important works by his collaborators, such as Fernand Léger, Amédée Ozenfant, Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé are also featured.

Exhibition: The Art of Architecture: 19 Feb – 24 May at Barbican Art Gallery London, UK