Counting on the popularity of the LivingColors lamp, Philips has announced the second generation of the trendy lamp to set the mood in contemporary spaces. Capable of producing 16 million colors through a combination of seven LEDs, the latest version of the LivingColors lamp will illuminate with 50 percent more intensity. Controlled by a touch-sensitive remote, the new LivingColors lamp comes in an opaque version with a metal stand, allowing a more concentrated light beam in comparison to its predecessor. Priced between £100 and £180, the lamp’s options include a choice between a standing lamp, a wall lamp and two ceiling lamps according to the needs and likings of the user.

[ Article Source: DesignBlog ]

A fantastic documentary on the application of Smart or Advanced Working at two leading UK companies, Nationwide Building Society and Ernst & Young. Featuring Simon Palmer, Tax Partner at Ernst & Young – and Tim Plummer, Head of Business services at Nationwide Building Society.

Second runner-up in the competition to design the new Ljubljana Administration Center, the city municipality design by Slovenian architecture firm OFIS brings several departments, though occupying different buildings, closer to each other. Comprising three new buildings, connected with loops of space in different heights like the cylinders, the new administration center following the mathematical models of intersections and unions presents a public entrance area in the middle of each cylinder, while the offices are positioned around the center. The structure is enclosed with a high performance glazing, with an adaptable external shading device to reduce direct contact with sun. On the other hand, the concrete slab with integrated pipe system not only provides cooling in summers but also allows comfortable radiant heating during winters.

[ Article Source: the Design Blog ]

Toby Howes‘ Escher Coffee Table, inspired by one of Escher’s bird & fish tessellation sketches. “Each of the three walnut inlaid arcs slide out to become side tables in their own right, leaving the central zebrano piece to become more & more sculptural as each arc is removed.”

[ Article Source: Contemporist ]

Twitter’s funky new headquarters in San Francisco, California.

Bringing back memories from a sweeter childhood, here is a Pop Up Office made of cardboard, by Liddy Scheffknecht and Armin B. Wagner, Cool – though unlikely to withstand the Big Bad Wolf – or heavier employees.

Pop Up from abw on Vimeo.

source: http://www.avidos.net/detalles

A lot has changed since 2004, when DLA Piper hired Lehman Smith McLeish to personalize a spec building going up on a parking lot in the Penn Quarter in Washington, D.C. As the desolate neighborhood blossomed into a vibrant mixed-use hub, DLA Piper morphed, after multiple mergers, into one of the largest law firms on the planet. Leaving behind a tired 1980′s office, the expanded firm seized upon the 230,000-square-foot space to forge a new identity and work paradigm.

Debra Lehman-Smith lost no time in presenting modifications to developer Boston Properties and building architect Hartman-Cox Architects, which embraced her vision to reshape the structure, still in the schematic phase. That set the tone for an extensive and remarkably collegial collaboration and of course reduced the expenses and complications that last-minute interventions entail. The changes were hardly insignificant. Lehman-Smith completely reorganized the entry and eliminated a through-block lobby that would have bisected the building and fragmented the other ground-level spaces. This created two distinct entries, including a dedic
ated one for DLA Piper on the building’s quieter side, facing the historic General Post Office, now the Hotel Monaco.

Each number unit is battery operated and meant to be applied directly onto the wall. A light sensor will switch the clock to an invert mode: white in the dark time of day and black at daytime. By Vadim Kibardin.