Monday 28 February 2011

The Lawrence Batley Theatre




The Lawrence Batley Theatre is about exciting and awe-inspiring theatre. When you visit us you’ll feel alive with excitement and anticipation, you’ll be absorbed in awe and amazement. We entertain, challenge, ask questions and inspire... and you’ll get that feeling of goosebumps that comes from the anticipation and connection of seeing something live.

Whether you‘re captivated by a family Opera or a beautifully written theatrical classic, engrossed in a night of laughs with top comedians or in seeing incredible contemporary dance, if you’re fascinated by a good story well told and unfolding in front of your eyes or thrilled by live music performance... the LBT is a place of adventure and discovery.

The LBT is cutting-edge. We stand out from the crowd, we are bold and we offer something different because we are inquisitive and do not conform.  We share unforgettable experiences, including work that cannot be seen anywhere else in the region and world premieres from fantastic companies.

The LBT is a magnet for pioneering and creative companies, Balbir Singh Dance Company, Chol Theatre and Full Body and the Voice are all resident here.  We are the hub for the international and unique Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. We are a melting pot of creativity and a vital cultural partner within Kirklees. We attract local artists, groups and organisations that all want to share with us and be a part of what we do.

Thursday 17 February 2011

Pumpkink Gutter!








Really good Pumpkin carvings!

Villa Saitan Apartment by EASTERN Design Office in Kyoto



The Villa Saitan apartment building in Nishioji-hachijo, Kyoto, Japan. Villa Saitan was designed by EASTERN Design Office. The impersonality of segmental housing complex is completely hidden in the architecture. Instead it is built to be regarded as a big house.

50 Strange Buildings of the World





50 Strange buildings complied by VillageOfJoy.com

Link To Site

Fun Murals

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Andreas Verheijen - Flower Engineer






Floral designers are just floral designers but Andreas Verheijen is a "flower engineer." The strange title may sound like a bit of bad PR until you see his work. It's startling, it stops you in your tracks. Are they real?

Qbic Hotels



Link To Site

GRAFT



Free Movements Competition for Roche


Academic work. Competition for Roche (healthcare company).
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder that may affect many tissues and organs, but principally attacks jointsIt can be a disabling and painful condition, which can lead to substantial lost of functioning and mobility.
Rhe
umatoid arthritis' patients have some difficulties in dailylife's tasks: they can't completely close their hands, they have to rest more time than usual, they can't be for a long time in the same position during the sleep or while sitiing, ...


Link To Site 

YooA and Camira




SHE has a background as a provocative political playwright in her native South Korea.  But now YooA Kang, a 43-year-old mother of a young son, aims to become a new force in British textile design and is on a personal mission to boost traditional wool textiles in Yorkshire, the county she has made her home.
All of this is happening while she completes the final year of her degree in textile studies at the University of Huddersfield, long a major centre for the subject.
Born in the Korean city of Gwangu, and educated at university in Seoul, where she studied philosophy, YooA’s first career was as a playwright whose works provoked the then government of South Korea so much that she was forced to quit her studies and was placed on a blacklist.  She met an Englishman working for a Korean company and accompanied him when he returned to his native Heckmondwike, in the heart of the traditional Heavy Woollen area of the West Riding.
The couple married in 2004 and have a son, now six, but later separated.  Initially, YooA felt isolated in her new home. “I spent ten years learning American English in Korea, but when I came here I found I just couldn’t speak to anyone, not even in a shop.  I was in a shell for two years.”...

Camira Fabrics



Second Nature
We’re all becoming increasingly aware about environmental impacts, which is why eco-conscious products are becoming the natural choice for many people.


We’re all becoming increasingly aware about environmental impacts, which is why eco-conscious products are becoming the natural choice for many people.


Our trademarked Second Nature brand is our promise to you of environmental well-being in fabrics across specific environmental categories: recycled raw materials; renewable & compostable fibres; climate neutral fabrics.

Recycled We’re all learning to recycle in order to reduce landfill, save virgin raw materials and give our waste materials a new lease of life as newly made products.
We’re leading the way in recycled polyester fabrics and we even market a recycled leather.
Renewable & Compostable Using renewable raw materials allows us to replace what we take and make. Renewable fibres include nature’s most well-known environmental textile, pure new wool, and bast fibres from plants such as nettles and hemp. Because they’re protein or plant based, they will decompose fully for back to earth compostability.
Climate Neutral We only offset high content pure new wool fabrics and have analysed their CO2 footprint from raw fleece to finished fabric, including all processes and transportation in between. We invest in offset projects managed by Climate Care, one of the world’s leading emissions reduction companies.


Link To Site 

Playhouse By Aboday - Dezeen



A spiralling concrete slide connects the kitchen and child’s bedroom of this family house near Jakarta designed by Indonesian architects Aboday. Play House is part of a gated cluster of 120 residences in Bumi Serpong Damai, Tangerang.

Link To Article
Link To Site

The Lowry Centre Salford


Set in a magnificent waterside location at the heart of the redeveloped Salford Quays in Greater Manchester, The Lowry is an architectural flagship with a unique and dynamic identity. Rising from the regenerated docklands, it is a welcoming building, designed to reflect the surrounding landscapes and flourishing waterways, in its glass and metallic surfaces.
The Lowry opened on 28th April 2000, bringing together a wide variety of performing and visual arts under one roof. Opening its door to the best in entertainment and education in the arts, The Lowry aims to give everyone access to new areas of creativity and to embrace its broad community...

Link To Site

Do Ho Suh Icon 65



Do ho suh had never heard of Rachel Whiteread when he planned to cast his studio in plaster. The Korean artist had never heard of Gordon Matta-Clark when he planned to start cutting holes through buildings.


His student years, as a naive young immigrant to America, were a series of forehead slaps as friends pointed to his brilliant ideas already manifest in books and magazines. But if being an outsider was frustrating, it was also the source of Suh's art. Moving between places and cultures led to him conceiving a way of engaging with architecture - or what he would call "space" - that was both his own and peculiarly appropriate to our time...


Link To Site

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Kirk Originals Eyewear - London Flagship






Kirk Originals eyewear company opened its London flagship store on Conduit Street in the West End this week with a swanky launch party.
London-based Campaign designed the pared-down, dramatic retail environment of the 66 square-meter boutique.
The black-and-white color palette, only one eyewear wall with 187 “heads” for frames, and practically no furnishings ensure that customers will focus on the eyewear, not the trappings. Eye examinations and fitting take place in the basement, away from the main display space. Large graphics of winking eyes in the window speak the same, clear language leaving no doubt about what they sell.
 Established more than two decades ago, Kirk Originals is still run by Jason and Karen Kirk from their home near Bordeaux, France. Kirk Originals are available in more than 40 countries.

Likn To Site 

Art Gallery of Ontario




It is fitting that the 70-year-old Frank Gehry ended up re-envisioning the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) for his native city of Toronto. As a boy, Gehry visited the AGO often, and the effect of those visits on him and his future career was important. Gehry has lived most of his life in the U.S., but the AGO remake allows Toronto to reap some of the benefits of his massive talent before it’s all too late.
One of Gehry’s early sources of career inspiration was the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1898-1976), known as the father of Scandinavian modernism. The influence of Aalto’s love of gently curving light-color wood, and his clean and airy architectural lines, can be sensed at the newly refurbished AGO. Whether or not Gehry thought of Aalto when he designed the spiraling plywood-faced staircase for the main entry hall is irrelevant, but the feel of the space is decidedly Aalto-esque. To those of us who love the work of both architects, the newly transfigured AGO is simply fabulous.

Eurocopter EC 135 L’Hélicoptère Par Hermès





Helicopter maker Eurocopter have partnered with Hermès to make a special version of their EC 135 helicopter pertinently named l’Hélicoptère par Hermès. The EC135 is twin engined multimission helicopter designed for civil use, it has a spacious cabin which can accommodate up to five passengers plus a pilot as well as several pieces of luggage. L’Hélicoptère par Hermès is a standard EC 135 technically but the interior was designed by Hermès with guidance from Eurocopter’s engineers. The interior features Hermès calf leather seats and leather trimmed controls, the cabin is enclosed in Hermès canvas and comes with binoculars so the passengers can view the scenery from above.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Nettle Ale



Hugh:

"We love nettles at River Cottage, turning them into everything from soup to gnocchi and tagliatelle and, yes, beer."

Ingredients

  • 6l water
  • A small carrier bag of nettle tops, washed
  • Juice of 1 lemon, strained
  • Juice of 1 orange, strained
  • 750g caster sugar
  • 30g cream of tartar
  • 5g yeast



Limk To Site And Recipe

Sunday 13 February 2011

Glamour's Golden Age BBC4



Hermione Norris narrates a three-part series on the 1920s and 30s, which creates a portrait of a golden age so daring, so influential, so exciting that it still shapes who we are today.
The decades between the world wars saw a cultural revolution in music, fashion, design and the arts. Mass media, mass production and the resulting mass exposure to an alluring, seductive glamour saw the world changing at a dizzying pace, amid which many of our modern obsessions were born.
The first part looks at how architecture and design both created and reflected the spirit of the time. The fun and frivolity of art deco sat alongside the pure functionality of modernism and helped democratise style. Streamlining followed, making sleek, sophisticated, elegant design part of ordinary people's everyday lives. At home, the radio became a beautiful object. In the urban environment a new aesthetic changed the way buildings looked, while planes, trains and automobiles started to shrink the world.
Featuring photographs of the Hoover Factory, Saltdean Lido, the Midland Hotel, the Savoy Theatre, the De La Warr Pavilion, the New Victoria Palace cinema, plus archive newsreel of the Mallard, the Queen Mary, the Schneider Trophy and Bluebird.

Link To Video

Thursday 10 February 2011

The West Riding


History Of The West
From 1848 to 1968, when British Rail gasped its last puff of steam, WELLINGTON ROAD STATION was a thriving giant on the TRANS-PENNINE route. The next 25 years saw it decline and most of it closed as it was de-manned.
That all changed in 1994 when the old waiting rooms were renovated and converted into a bar. The high street banks and big breweries did not want to know. But with the help of the Co-op Bank and an independent Lincolnshire brewery, Batemans, of Skegness, Mike Field was able to realise his dream. The deal was clinched with George Bateman over a pint of Timothy Taylors Landlord at the Eightlands Well, overlooking the station. The WEST RIDING was little over twelve months old when "What's Brewing", CAMRA's newspaper described it as 'LEGENDARY'.
In 2000, Mike's step-daughter Sarah Barnes joined the team and soon made her own impact on the development of the bar. Since she became a partner in the business it has gone from strength to strength, winning Yorkshire Pub of the Year in 2006, National Pub of the Year Runner Up in 2007, and recently adding the Sportsman and the Cricketers Arms to the portfolio. 
The bar is run by General Manager Samantha Kirkham.  
The bar is situated in the original railway station building (Platform 2) as operated by London and North Western Railways (LNWR). The Italianate/Tudor style is very unusual and is best appreciated from the car park (former Goods Yard). Perhaps most unusual is the use of an Arabic Arch in each doorway and window and in the re-discovered archways which separate each room.
Famed for its food and renowned for its Real Ales, the WEST RIDING now provides virtually all the food and drink on the station.
 Its status is confirmed by the regular visits of press, TV and radio. From Cabinet Ministers to binmen, from TV stars to lorry drivers: they've all been in and talked to one another... ...as we began,  WELCOME TO THE WEST RIDING.

Link To Site

The Slippery Belle Burlesque and Cabaret



Dewsbury Town Hall invites you for an evening of glamour and decadence with fabulous host Bella Besame introducing The Slippery Belle with some wonderful burlesque performances and musical entertainment with a series of burlesque and cabaret evenings taking place at 8pm on Saturday 12th February, 12th March and 14th May.
The spectacular Victorian concert hall of Dewsbury Town Hall will be transformed with table seating for the audience to sit and soak up the ambience and enjoy a drink whilst taking in the show.
For those who are new to the Burlesque art form the evenings can easily be described in three films: a hint of Moulin Rouge, the showmanship of Cabaret and the 1950s seaside postcard humour of Carry On! All thrown into one fabulous show!
Slippery Belle is brought to the Town Hall by Bella Besame who runs shows at the Lowry Theatre in Salford and until recently the Peacock Lounge in Huddersfield. Bella’s shows are always different but they all have some things in common: the UK and Europe's best burlesque and cabaret performers, at least 8 performances per show, plenty of seating, reasonable drinks prices, an amazing atmosphere and a friendly, well behaved and well dressed audience.



 I hopefully shall be going!

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Derek Dudek Design

Link To Site

Comme des Garçons

Comme des Garçons, Warsaw, September 26, 2007
Comme des Garçons Cracow, March 24, 2006


In February 14, 2004 the Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons became of the first brands to make the guerrilla store concept international when it launched its first guerrilla shop in Berlin. The shop was an immediate success and more have been opened and subsequently closed by Comme des Garçons in more than 20 locations including Reykjavik, Warsaw, Helsinki, Stockholm, Athens and other, making Comme des Garçons a prominent player in the field. With the most extraordinary location being Beirut (July 3, 2007) and the most successful ones located in Cracow and Warsaw (Poland), Comme des Garçons' guerrilla shops may look strange the ordinary shopper. Yet, with many others their eccentric urban spaces help turning a boring commercial practice into a thrilling experience.

Song in the City


One of the earliest documented pop-up stores belong to the Song airline company. Opened in the New York SoHo in November 2003 the 'Song in the City' store was announced to be closed on 22 December 2003. Opened only from Thursdays to Sundays, this 9-week lifespan store featured samples of Song's in-flight menu, sold travel gear, let visitors experience the various in-flight entertainment options and even sold tickets.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

The Milk Bar Hebden Bridge



Well folks, The Milk Bar started as a little seed over 12 months ago and it is now starting to grow as premises have been found on Bridge Gate in Hebden Bridge.

A gap was spotted in Hebden Bridge sometime ago for a themed take away not serving coffee and so the seed was sown.

Fast forward to 2009 and plans are now well under way to turn this great idea into reality. The Milk Bar will be different to anything else Hebden Bridge already has to offer its many visitors and will serve milkshakes ... with a difference. To compliment these milkshakes The Milk Bar will also sell fruit smoothies and wonderful ice-cream in a fantastic, fifties style parlour!

Keep checking in for updates about how we are getting on and also for the Grand Opening date when there will be special promotions for the first lucky people through the door.

Bye for now.
The Milk Bar