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Design

Spiraling Nautili Rooftops Cover a Multi-Story School Made Entirely of Bamboo in Bali

A series of monumental spiraling structures with vaulted roofs and balconies overlooking a 45,000-square-meter site in Sibang Kaja, Bali, is an innovative foray into sustainable architecture. Designed by IBUKU back in 2008, “Heart of School” is made of local bamboo and grasses that once deteriorated, can be easily removed, composted, and replaced with similar materials. The multi-story structure features thatched roofs evocative of coiled nautilus shells that sit atop three, open-air towers. It houses a high school and its administration and was a catalyst for Bamboo U, which offers courses in architecture and design using the woody material.

“Heart of School” is also included in Build Better Now, a virtual exhibition highlighting 17 inventive projects working to combat the climate crisis. “Globally, CO2 emissions from the building sector are the highest ever recorded, with buildings and construction responsible for 38% of total global energy-related CO2 emissions,” a statement says. The exhibition promotes alternative, sustainable methods, and other projects include a low-carbon home made with 3D-printed clay, an “urban ecovillage” in São Paulo’s Jardim Nakamura favela, and bridges constructed with laminated timber in Amsterdam.

 

Design

Hundreds of Rainbow Glass Panels Emit a Rotating Kaleidoscope in a Playful Kindergarten

In Tianshui, China, a clear dome casts sunlight onto 483 polychromatic glass panels lining a kindergarten’s windows, railings, and doorways. It gives the spacious building a kaleidoscopic effect, refracting varying hues onto the white walls and minimalist wood furnishings. “Color shades can grow and shrink as colors overlap and become different colors, or move from a vertical plane to a horizontal plane and back again,” architect Keiichiro Sako wrote on Instagram. “I hope that spending childhood in this beautiful light will foster the creativity of the children.”

Centered on the open atrium, the playful glass pieces and doorways are rounded, which is a nod to the school’s location in the Loess Plateau. They even border the outdoor recreation area, giving the kids a colorful and translucent view of the surrounding city. (via Trendland, thnx Laura!)

Art

A Mural of Brightly Colored Shapes and Clusters of Spots Gives a Striking Update to a School Courtyard in Sicily

Atlanta-based artist Alex Brewer, a.k.a. Hense, paints overlapping shapes and patterns on canvases, outdoor murals, and even billboards. His brightly colored abstract work appears around the world, from the US and Germany to Taiwan and Australia. Most recently Brewer created an acrylic paint mural on the asphalt courtyard of the Liceo Scientifico E. Fermi high school in Ragusa, Sicily.

For the piece, titled “Ragusa Sun,” Brewer wanted to add an element of inspiration and curiosity for the students at the school. “We used colors that contrasted starkly with the existing architecture and we were very conscience of the space and scale we worked in,” he tells to Colossal. “The forms, lines, and colors are intended to be purely compositional, but I enjoy the idea of viewers having different interpretations of the work.”

Brewer’s show INTERPLAY is on view through January 26, 2019, at Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia. You can follow his indoor and outdoor creations on the artist’s website and Instagram. (via designboom)

Design History

An Appliqued Solar System Quilt Used as a Teaching Aid in the Late 19th century

In the late 1800’s, teacher and astronomer Sarah Ellen Harding Baker spent seven years embroidering a star-covered quilt for her classroom in Cedar County, Iowa. In lieu of satellite images, the wool appliquéd quilt was created as a visual aid for her classroom to try to visualize the broad expanse of the universe. The design of the quilt is similar to illustrations in astronomy books of the time. It features a bright sun at its center, with several planets moving around the large star with their own orbiting moons, and Halley’s Comet streaking into the upper lefthand corner.

The piece was finished in 1876, a time when astronomy was presented as an “acceptable” interest for a women. This might have been the reason it was a popular theme for quilts of the time according to The Smithsonian National Museum of American History, where the quilt is currently stored. You can find several celestial examples in quilt historian Barbara Brackman’s Solar System Quilt post on her blog Material Culture. (via Open Culture)

Design

A Bamboo Recreation Facility Inspired by the Lotus Flower Blooms in Thailand

The Panyaden International School is an education center located in Chiang Mai, Thailand built entirely from natural materials. Architecture firm Chiangmai Life recently designed a covered recreation hall for the school’s sports teams, creating a 2,500-square-foot bamboo terrace that echos the Buddhist values found in the school’s curriculum. The lotus-inspired structure was built without any steel reinforcements or other manmade materials, and stays naturally cool in the city’s humid climate while also withstanding high-speed winds and earthquakes. (via Inhabitat)

Art

Students Rename School House After Banksy, Banksy Shows Up

Elementary students at Bridge Farm Primary School in Bristol arrived this morning to discover an eye-opening new mural by Banksy that appeared sometime in the night, but the placement wasn’t random: the building itself is used for a house bearing elusive street artist’s name. Several weeks ago the school held a competition to rename houses and the winners were Brunel, Blackbeard, Cabot and Banksy (the artist’s work first appeared in the city in the early 1990s). When the students returned from half-term they found the new mural on a blank wall of the building.

The new piece depicts a scribbled figure of a child playing with a stick and hoop, but the hoop has been replaced with a giant flaming tire. Perhaps not the inspirational motif you’d expect to adorn a primary school, but we imagine it must be in line with their sense of humor. The mural was also accompanied by a fantastic note:

“Dear Bridge Farm School, thanks for your letter and naming a house after me. Please have a picture, and if you don’t like it, feel free to add stuff. I’m sure the teachers won’t mind. Remember, it’s always easier to get forgiveness than permission. Much love, Banksy.”