island

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Design

Townscaper: Build Your Worries Away With This Instantly Gratifying Island City Construction Game

Earlier this year, Malmo, Sweden-based game developer Oskar Stålberg launched Townscaper, a low-stakes video game that’s similar to Sim City without the threat of natural disaster or the need to maintain characters’ emotional wellbeing. Users only have the option to delete or build with a certain color, a function that’s controlled entirely by the algorithm. Simply drop a block and watch the system construct charming homes, towering cathedrals, and luxurious greenspaces. “No goal. No real gameplay. Just plenty of building and plenty of beauty. That’s it,” Stålberg writes.

Townscaper is currently available to download for $6, although it isn’t finished quite yet. Watch this comprehensive tutorial to get a better sense of the user experience, and follow Stålberg on Twitter to keep up with the latest developments. (via Jeroen Apers)

Update: Townscaper recently launched a demo you can play in your browser.

 

Design

An Inflated Steel Archway Provides a New Cultural Nexus on a Polish Island

Last year Polish designer Oskar Zieta unveiled the NAWA pavilion, an inflated steel passageway intended to bring cultural activity back to Wrocław’s island of Daliowa. This structure’s reflective, bloated surface makes it look like a weightless mylar balloon despite the fact that is constructed from 35 polished metal arches. Using a technology which Zieta calls FiDU, he inflates the metal by pumping air into the cavity between the arches’ steel sheets which produces a form that is larger and more organically shaped.

Zieta first used this process for the Plopp stool for the design brand Hay in 2008, and has continued to develop his technique on more advanced projects. Durability tests on this particular piece proved that a stool weighing just under ten pounds could withhold a load of approximately 2.6 tons, equivalent to two adult elephants. He hopes to implement the FiDU technique into much larger architectural projects, which would provide structures with a greater durability, even in ultralight constructions.

The reflective NAWA sculpture will remain on the island as a permanent installation as a part of revitalization effort for the previously neglected area. “Today, many people cannot imagine this place without NAWA, which has become part of the surroundings and a point on the map of many tourists from the country and the whole world,” the artist explained. You can learn more about the history of the design, and view more images of the inflated gateway, on Zieta’s website. (via Dezeen)

Design

Artificial Island is the First of Nine Proposed Floating Cultural Destinations in Copenhagen Harbor

A tiny, man-made island floats near the center of Copenhagen Harbor. Rooted inside of the wooden platform is a single linden tree, which gives the 215-square-foot pentagon the appearance of a park rather than a stray dock. Australian architect Marshall Blecher teamed up with Magnus Maarbjerg from Danish design studio Fokstrot to build the public gathering place as a prototype for their project Copenhagen Islands.

The project aims to build a series of similar platforms throughout Copenhagen Harbor with a variety of public purposes. Despite its diminutive size, the current island has already hosted a few small events including a lecture series regarding the future of harbor cities like Copenhagen.

The team has proposed nine islands, each of which can connect to form a larger island, or what the architect’s refer to as a “parkipelago.” Currently there are plans for a stage, coffee shop, sauna, diving board, and mussel farm which will all be accessible via boat. With an increase in large-scale apartment buildings filling the area, Maarbjerg and Blecher hope their plan will bring more cultural opportunities to the expanding coast.

“It was developed to ​introduce life and activity to Copenhagen’s rapidly developing harbour and to ​bring back some of the whimsy that has been lost in ​its development,” said Blecher in Dezeen.

This first stage of the project was funded by the Statenskunstfond and Havnekulturpuljen, a local organization that promotes the expansion of cultural and sporting events in the surrounding harbor. The two are working with Statenskunstfond and other not-for profits to help fund their next stage. The island is currently located in Slusen, in Copenhagen’s South Harbor, but will move north to the area of Refshaleøen later this spring. (via Dezeen)

Design

Off the Grid: A Couple Spends 24 Years Building a Floating Island Home in Canada

Twenty-five years ago artists Catherine King and Wayne Adams made the realization they would never have enough income to afford real estate so they made a fairly radical decision: they would build an island. Currently moored off the coast of Vancouver Island about 45 minutes by boat to the nearest town, their sprawling floating house is called Freedom Cove.

The completely mobile island is made of 12 tethered sections that incorporate four greenhouses, living quarters, a kitchen, workshop, art gallery, a lighthouse, and even a dance floor. Adams estimates the structure weighs in around 500 tons (a million pounds) and says everything was constructed with a handsaw and hammer without the aid of power tools. In this short clip, Great Big Story takes a brief glimpse inside this supremely unusual residence.

 

Amazing Photography

Incredible Long-Exposure Photo of the Milky Way Above Mont Saint-Michel Island

Last week while visiting Le Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, photographer Loïc Lagarde captured this awesome view of the tidal island at night with the Milky Way spanning the sky above, further highlighting the near fairy-tale nature of the historic landmark. The island has held strategic fortifications since the 8th century and is famous for the dramatic shift in surrounding tides that vary roughly 14 metres (46 ft) between high and low and high water marks. Despite being visited by nearly 3 million people annually the island has a population of just 44 permanent residents. Lagarde says the photo was made without multiple exposures or blending and is a ‘true’ representation of the moment. You can see more of his photos on Instagram.

Art

Residential Murals Mix Signature Street Art Styles With Elements of Island Life

Recently several street artists including Gorg One, Seth Globepainter, and Meo gathered for a street art festival on Reunion Island to turn the La Rose des Vents neighborhood into a mural haven, covering many of its large walls in representational depictions of children, elephants, and sea creatures. The hosting island is a French region located just east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, an exotic location for the festival put on by the Ville Musée.

The participating artists slightly tweaked their own street art styles to include hints of island flair, some even painting images of the local inhabitants on their designated walls. Seth Globepainter brought his signature trompe l’oeil subject matter of children peering over the tops of buildings (previously featured here) to the side of one residence, while also including a collaged depiction of the ethnically diverse island on another facade. You can see more Reunion Island murals on the festival’s Facebook page here. (via Arrested Motion)