En Derin

Designer, Kazuki Takamatsu has been recently making some beautifully layered b/w images. They are both serene, yet also spooky as hell. I think the minimal use of colours makes it extra special.

[VIA]

This nice concept idea for a PC uses e-ink and RF technology. The Napkin PC is designed for group collaborations. Each pen transmits your doodles to the base station which is actually a PC in disguise. That information gets processed and displayed on the napkin like e-ink paper.

[VIA]

Photographer, Ryan McGinley is showing an incredible set of ‘cave-themed’ works at the Alison Jacques Gallery in Soho, London. Well worth checking out…
RYAN McGINLEY – OPENING: THURSDAY 10 SEPTEMBER, 6-8 PM 11 SEPTEMBER – 08 OCTOBER 2009

Alison Jacques Gallery
16-18 Berners Street London W1T 3LN

Wash this space… for some of the slickest sinks around! Designers have thrown out everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink in order to reinvent one of society’s most utilitarian fixtures. Turning on the creative faucet gives “brain drain” a whole new meaning – as illustrated by these 15 sink-ly spectacular washbasins!

Faucet Meets Fossil

(images via: Doornob and HighTech Design)

From Germany’s HighTech Design comes the Ammonite Washbasin. Composed of formed concrete, this sink is no 97 pound weakling… though it DOES weigh 97 pounds. Taking the Ammonite Washbasin for a “spin” must be a unique experience and, if one isn’t careful, a dizzying one at that!

(images via: HighTech Design)

The Ammonite Washbasin comes integrated with a concrete slab countertop ranging from 900mm (36 inches) to 1190 mm (47.5 inches) and makes an excellent place to wash up after a meal of brontosaurus ribs. Amirite? Ammonite!

In Sink With The Future

(images via: Idea X Idea)

Which came first, the sink or the Starship Enterprise? It’s a chicken & egg conundrum that would even befuddle Scotty – if he wasn’t busy wondering why the warp drive is running hot & cold.

Practicing Safe Sinks

(images via: Nippon Style and Pink Tentacle)

When Tetsuya Nakamura of Nippon Style set out to create the ultimate suite of bathroom fixtures, price was no object. He hopes you’ll feel the same way: his Premium Unit sinks are priced at 1.5 million yen (£13,000) each.

(image via: Pink Tentacle)

Nakamura’s Premium Unit tub goes for a cool 3 million yen (£26,000) and, as it’s more about form than function, purchasers are advised they “should enter the tub at their own risk, as the artist and dealer assume no responsibility for injuries or accidents that may occur.”

Sink’s Swan Song

(images via: Amin Design and Trendir)

Amin Design has gone out on a limb – or a wing, at least – with its Swan Vessel sink. Unlike many sinks and washbasins, Bouchti Amin’s Swan Vessels feature custom chromed faucets integrated into the overall design,

(image via: Archzine)

Amin answers the chicken/egg question with the Eggy Sink, though many will remain confused. The Eggy Sink, like the Swan Vessel sink, includes unique polished chrome hardware.

Your Children’s Children’s Sink

(images via: Finest Fixtures and Gran-Selecto)

The Art Ceram Bathroom Sink, Wall Mounted combines the light and airy grace of modern Italian design with the spirit of the Space Age. The Urbinati-designed sink features a transparent basin and an invisible drain. Though eminently practical, it’s hard to imagine washing your socks in this exquisite sink.

Splashing in the Splash Sink

(images via: Disegno Ceramica)

Disegno Ceramica has introduced a line of sinks and bathroom <a href="http://En Derin.com/fixtures”>fixtures that show off a playful form while making no sacrifices when it comes to function. Most attractive is the Splash Collection comprising a shower base, wall hanging wash basin and a pedestal sink. Three colors plus white are available.

(images via: Disegno Ceramica)

Disegno Ceramica features other intriguing sink and fixture designs but none have the arresting appeal of the Splash Collection, where you can lighten up while you wash up.

Let It Flo

(images via: Nova 68 and Trendir)

The Flo Pedestal Sink & Faucet was designed by Patrick Messier to be a free-standing fixture that looks great from any angle. The brushed stainless steel pedestal and chromed stainless & brass faucet riser give the impression of an early 20th century city tenement complete with fire escapes. The 19-inch deep sink is made of Perspex acrylic resin. The sink has but one moving part: the insulated faucet that also acts as a control for the water’s flow and temperature.

Fat Sink is Fat

(images via: The Design Blog and Bornrich)

The Fat Sink is made of wood… not the optimal choice of material for a washbasin, one might think, but designer Tolga Baydar has no worries – how long have rainforests been around, after all? Sculpted of fine-grained wood and complemented by polished stainless steel fittings, the Fat Sink is a wo0oden wonder the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Spruce Goose took to the air.

Sink To Go

(images via: Tuvie)

Is a portable sink all wet? Not necessarily. Jessica Nebel has engineered a sink that sits on top of a base… until you need to move it somewhere else. The drain holes match up when in sink mode and close when shifting watery loads to a kitchen island, patio or wherever the cook’s fancy takes them.

A Sink with Characters

(images via: JAVIVI)

It’s hard to find any information about the above sink, other than it looks Japanese as it resembles some types of sake-drinking flasks and cups. The sink features many Kanji characters on both its inner and outer surfaces that just might translate to… “You missed a spot!”

Mystic By That Much

(image via: Archiexpo)

The Elkay Mystic River Sink demands a lot of counter space but that’s just fine – you’ll need a lot of room for the crowd of admirers hoping to see this unusual, hand-crafted sink in action. Available in a number of finishes over 16 gauge stainless steel, the Mystic River Sink sports a bowl that slopes “downstream” from faucet to delta, er, drain.

Fresh Watercrescent

(image via: DesigneRoof and Native Trails)

The Luna sink from Native Trails is made of 16-gauge, hand-hammered copper finished in natural, antique and tempered finishes. For a brighter look, brushed nickel is also available. The stunning sweep of the 38-inch long basin may look odd, but the broad crescent is actually easier to use when preparing meals as kitchen scraps are swept right in.

(image via: DesigneRoof and Native Trails)

One of the advantages of copper sinks is that it has natural anti-bacterial qualities. Dangerous E Coli germs that can survive for weeks in the microscopic scratches of a brushed stainless steel sink are killed within mere hours in a copper sink.

A Sink Above the Stink?

(images via: Manolohome)

The “Profile™ 5 with Integrated Hand Basin by Caroma looks like a weird Japanese toilet, acts like a weird Japanese toilet, yet it hails from (of all places) Australia. The Profile is a <a href="http://En Derin.com/webecoist”>green toilet… well, it’s white, but it’s green. After one flushes, the tank is filled from the faucet mounted atop the tank. Scrub up while you can – it’s not a huge tank and you don’t want to be caught short. Would a tolet like the Profile work in the USA? Perhaps… but before worrying about hand-washing how about remembering to flush?

A Higher Plane

(images via: Trendir and West One Bathrooms)

Time to take your hand-washing to a higher plane? Well all aboard, the Onda Washplane is here to sink all your previous conceptions of what a sink should look like.

(image via: Furnishism)

One of a series of Washplanes from Omvivo, the Onda Washplane looks like a liquid disaster waiting to happen but is in fact precisely engineered to direct water down the drain using only the force of gravity. Choose from glass or Corian, single or double.

The Best Sink, Bar None

(image via: Just Cool Design)

Well OK, bar ONE… the Canali modular faucet that doubles as a towel bar, thus killing two birds with one stone. It’s also the perfect place to wash up after you’ve been out killing birds with stones, since your towels will be nice and warm from running the hot water for a while.

Now that you’ve gotten in sink with sinks, take a look around your own home. Satisfied with your kitchen, bathroom and laundry room wash basins? Thought so… but making a change is easier than you think and as one can see, there are some amazing sink designs out there, most of which won’t see your money go down the drain.

When the Allied Forces came ashore in the Normandy region of France on June 6th, 1944, they freed French citizens from occupation by Germany – but the battle to do so was not without its costs, both in human lives and in the obliteration of towns along the coast. The magnitude of the destruction was jaw-dropping, with entire blocks reduced to gigantic piles of rubble.

Amazingly, many of those buildings were recreated down to the last detail and stand today as if frozen in time – a <a href="http://En Derin.com/monuments” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>monument to life as it was in Normandy before the invasion. In a documentary <a href="http://En Derin.com/creativephotographytechniquestypes”>photography series entitled ‘Normandy 1944 – Then and Now’, Normandy historian Patrick Elie juxtaposes shocking images of war with cheerful photographs of the same locations during modern times.

Elie, who has devoted his life to chronicling D-Day and the effects of the war on his home country of France, worked tirelessly to find the exact locations of dramatic photographs from 1944 and then took his own photos of the modern-day sites.

The images include places like Bernieres-sur-Mer, where a French Canadian infantry unit came ashore as part of Operation Overlord, and Caen, where heavy fighting destroyed much of the town. It took 14 years to rebuild Caen after the extensive damage incurred, and though many buildings were restored as closely to their original appearance as possible, the city has a distinctly ‘new’ feeling compared to the rest of the area.

In Elie’s work, some viewers may see haunting reminders of the horrors of which we are capable, while others may see the resilience of the human spirit. Either way, the contrasts – and indeed, more often, the similarities – between the photos from such vastly different eras provide an emotional connection to the events of World War II and D-Day some 65 years later.

For every kid who ever took apart his family’s electronics just to see how they worked, David Trautrimas has concocted fantastical worlds full of upended, dismantled household appliances masquerading as apartment buildings and industrial factories. They’re a fascinating cross between <a href="http://En Derin.com/2007/11/11/extreme-urban-retro-10-creative-steampunk-designs-modifications-and-inventions/”>steampunk and an alien post-apocalyptic world.

Habitat Machines

David Trautrimas is a Canadian artist whose ideas about architecture are bigger than zoning laws and the laws of physics will allow. Housing developments and apartment blocks feel bland to him, so he decided to create his own fantastical worlds. His digitally-assembled art features items which most of us will find very familiar.

Trautrimas’ pictures consist of actual photographs of everyday items. Waffle irons, oil cans, vacuums, space heaters – anything that interests him may be disassembled and photographed, then the pieces digitally reassembled to form an unexpected cityscape. The backgrounds are real, as well: he roams his home city, Toronto, looking for interesting settings to piece together with his disassembled household items.

The items which will become the dystopian buildings can be found just about anywhere: Trautrimas scours thrift shops and garage sales looking for treasures. He favors those that are older, with character-adding scratches and dents. He then takes them apart, photographing each piece against a neutral background. Once a building is ready to be erected, he uses the various bits and pieces along with an appropriate background (which is usually a composite of many background shots) to construct dwellings that would not be possible in our own urban environment.

Industrial Parkland

These artistic visions of buildings aren’t confined to apartment buildings. Trautrimas also applied his unique vision to commercial buildings in the 2007 series Industrial Parkland. The factories in this series are made in the same way as the Habitat Machines pieces, but they have a distinctly more industrial feel.

Even more than in the residential series, these factories are fashioned from retro-looking appliances that give the resulting buildings an oddly futuristic, vaguely Monty Python-esque, but wholly charming feel. Old lamps, fans, car parts and other office and industrial items are repurposed to create an industrial landscape that will never be seen anywhere but on Trautrimas’ prints.

It’s always interesting to see the secret lives of everyday items, and Trautrimas gives these items an amazing new life. His compositions are never cutesy or overly serious; rather, they are very matter-of-fact. While they are only a fantasy, it’s not so hard to imagine these factories whirring to life. We can’t wait to see an entire cityscape of Trautrimas’ retro-futuristic <a href="http://En Derin.com/steampunk”>steampunk buildings.