Jacob Paul Wiegmann's Blog – December 2011 Archive (57)

How gorgeous is this proposed library? Designed by Vienna-based Architects Collective, the Dalian Library hopes to become a well-known landmark for both local citizens and visitors. The inspiration for the building's form came from a rose petal which represents the city flower of Dalian, the Monthly Rose. There will be several other libraries built across the Dalian region, each one signifying a…

German artist Hubert Branz has created a dizzying series of works entitled X-planation. By taking aerial shots of airports that he collects through the use of the Internet, Branz digitally stitches these images together, creating a maze of paths. However, he adds yet another step to the process by mixing the perspectives of the shots. This adds a three-dimensional layer…

Belgian artist Strook (a.k.a. Stefaan De Croock) has created a very interesting mural right outside the STUK art center in Leuven, Belgium. This wall, which was covered in moss, was given a modern makeover by Strook who took a pressure washer and made a relief mural out of it. By blasting away slowly and carefully at the wall, little by little an artwork came into being. What's most impressive is…

Beijing sculptor Zhan Wang just finished up a very impressive installation for the UCAA exhibition hall. Titled My Personal Universe, the piece plunges the viewer in the middle of a giant explosion! It's meant to represent the Big Bang theory, that the universe started from a…

Google is a revolutionary company that's admired for its dominant search engine and other Internet-based services and products as well as for its fun and modern working environments. Recently, the worldwide corporation asked design firm Penson to create their newest offices in London. Featuring bold blocks of color contrasting with large areas of white, these rooms are given an aesthetically…

A very new and unique museum has recently been opened in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China. Designed by Beijing-based MAD architects, the Ordos Museum reflects both the traditional cultural heritage of the area while looking forward to a progressive future for the city. Residents are invited to relax in the surrounding plazas or take in the views from the observation deck. Built on top of a small hill, the exterior is covered in metal plates and the billowing surface of the design…

Sculptor Jim Hodges recently debuted his exhibit We are Poems at the Gladstone Gallery in New York City. In this installation, he gathered four large boulders and then removed some of the rocks' original surfaces, replacing the areas with polished, vibrantly colored stainless steel. The four sculptures are then arranged in a rough circular pattern to allow…

Photographer Thomas Jackson has a comical series of photographs featuring a lone robot. The photos, at first, capture mundane chores such as doing the laundry or mowing the lawn but take a turn for the mysterious. Jackson draws inspiration from science fiction and literature to give the robot's story a "darkly humorous narrative." The series is meant to examine the uneasy relationship we have…

Paris-based artist Claire Fontaine is using the interesting medium of matchsticks to add depth to some of her newest pieces. We here at My Modern Met have seen some impressive matchstick art before, but Fontaine's pieces are different in that they make…

From the Occupy movement, the royal wedding, riots, and protests, this year has been filled with its fair share of incredible events. So much has happened, in fact, that The London Guardian asked the Flickr community to help document some of the highlights of 2011 with those iconic plastic bricks or legos. Now come…

Nature photographer Peter Lik is highly renowned in the photography world. You'll be surprised to find out that he's entirely self-taught. Born in Australia, Lik honed his craft since he was 8-years-old when he received his first camera. He has since made several trips to America, creating an extensive series of works entitled Spirit of America in which he captured landscapes…

Artist Mary Johan Juver has created quite the imaginative collection of mash-ups portraying everyone's favorite cartoon family as the characters from J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of The Rings series. This set is hilarious and the idea of seeing Homer Simpson portraying Aragorn is something I'm surprised the show hasn't thought up, as far as I'm aware. Of all the characters shown here, however, I…

What an interesting design! Istanbul, Turkey, has recently been promoting their competition for architects from around the world to submit their proposals for their new Disaster Prevention and Education Center. Some of you may remember Portugese architecture firm OODA's…

The widely popular video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is already well-known in gaming circles but it's starting to find a niche in other communities as well. (It was only officially released back about a month ago, on November 11, 2011, but it quickly generated rave reviews from critics like Wired.com who gave the game a perfect score of 10 out of 10, writing "The…

Netherlands-based architectural firm MVRDV recently revealed their controversial design for The Cloud, a new pair of residential skyscrapers to be built in Seoul, South Korea. The idea is based around two towers, one reaching 853 ft into the air while the other rising 984 ft. These towers are then connected at the 27th floor by a pixelated cloud that takes up 10 floors on each side…

U.K. photographer Mark Mawson has added another impressive group of photographs to his already amazing portfolio. Entitled Aqueous Fluoreau, the series is an extension of a previous group of work similarly titled called Aqueous. Using ink and water, Mawson uses a secret technique to take these remarkable photographs that he is not sharing. Whatever his process…

Have you ever seen a building that looked like it could house a city? Dutch architecture firm UNStudio has just released their design for Scott's Tower which will be in Singapore. The 31-story building will feature 231 apartments that offer impressive views of the surrounding area.

The most striking part of the design is the two openings in the buildings facade called Sky…

The newest installation in Los Angeles' Materials and Applications courtyard is quite the sight. It's a collaborative project between architects Doris Sung and Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter as well as structural engineer Matthew Melnyk. Bloom is a 20-ft tall metal flower that opens and closes with the…

Photographer Nick Cobbing recently took a trip to Greenland and returned with some truly breathtaking photos. Greenland is home to the largest ice sheet in the northern hemisphere. Roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland is covered in ice which is generally more than 1.24 miles thick. Scientists predict that, in a few hundred years, climate change could eventually melt the entire ice sheet resulting in a global sea level rise of almost 24 feet!

Cobbing's photographs are meant to help…