It has been a very very very long hiatus, mostly due to relationship transitions and the fact I am reading the most work intensive course in the UK. For the record, I find it pretty disappointing that there will be no log of man-hours spent pouring our lives into the projects we have to do. Final year BSC Architecture at the University of Bath gran the entire department into the ground this last semester. Images of the work I’ve been toiling away at will be posted soon enough. As for now, I hope this is a sure sign for a good year of blogging. Hope everyone has had a good one!

Ffffound another interesting series of work, this time by Stéphane Massa-Bidal of Retrofuturs, a graphic company apparently.  Here he puts interesting quotes from surprising sources; some are quotes from historical figures while more are lines from pop culture references such as Windows XP or even Jean-Claude Van Damme.  Check out the series on his flickr for more.

© Retrofuturs.

Fashionable surgical masks are the answer of course!  With a little free time on her hands, out of work art director Irina Blok decided to get creative with these fashonista surgical masks.  She says: “With all the paranoia about swine flu i think there’s an opportunity to do something cool – design fashion surgical masks! Not only they are aesthetically pleasing, they can save your life (well.. not really.. they mostly just look good.)”

To be produced in a limited run at $10 a pop you can email her if you want one!  If the domo-kun mask isn’t enough of an incentive, she’s also going to be donating to Children International to help Mexico fight the swine flu epidemic.

Ffffound these awesome comics this morning; they seem to capture all those perfect Jamie Hewlett nuances I love about this style of art.  Like Gorillaz much?  This would definitely be one for the collection then.  Check out the rest of them on Behance, its got a nice little narrative as well as kick-ass illustration – and I love the little “ads” along the bottom of some of the panels, nice touch.  Thanks to Russian visual art group Honk Fu.

Desert Rose Oasis by TPD&A – Witkowski, Belgium.

This entry derives its form from the mineral crystals of the same name, which are created from the desert sand.  A nice analogy to comment on how Dubai has grown as a city from the desert.

See more entries after jump.

Geotube by Faulders Studio, USA with Charles Lee and Jason Chang of Bios Design Collective.

The impressively parametric form of this tower supports a permeable membrane that is contantly pumped with a salt water solution.  Although the practibility is questionable, the intention is to create an ever growing facade of salt crystals as the saline evapourates in the hot desert sun.  Not a bad scheme to be able to boast a salt collection facility as a by-product of the general form.

Clear Dark Icon by Playtime Agence d’Architecture, France.

A nice entry with an ambitious idea.  Developing the “framing” of the city idea pursued by the winning entry and others (including my own) this scheme ambitiously proposes to create several camera obscuras orientated in the direction of the developing Burj Dubai district.  The result would produce a hazy image of the rising skyline behind the building, projecting this image of development and (perhaps) prosperity to the visitors of the park.

Tall Emblem Structure in Dubai by ARCHICLUB, France.

Slick visuals, and an interesting idea, although succumbs to looking like a prominent high rise building.

Trade Tower by Nick H, Architect, United Arab Emirates.

One of my favourites, and would have been a great gesture to the sustainablity camp, as well as celebrating Dubai’s shipping industry instead of its impressive and not-so-impressive developments.

Element by 2pm architecture, dauphins architecture & Physalis, France.

Again, something a little different that doesn’t just look like tall building.  More entries in this category range from flower towers, to solar updraft plants.  Bustler are adding entries as they are sent them so make sure to check them all out here.

“He fell off a cliff in his dream and woke up on the floor. There was a golf club next to him. But he didn’t play. And the club smelled rank.”

“The insurance agent surveys the ruins. The homeowner follows her. He says, What do you think? The agent shrugs. I wish I had money, she says”

“Dan believed in love like lions believe in sauteed mushrooms. This didn’t stop him from dressing well. Or decorating his house with flowers.”

“He always expects the elevator to break down. That’s why he checks the ladies out every time. To see who he could make babies with. In case.”

Interesting video about the future of technology and how far we have come in recent years.  Some stimulating facts for you to dwell upon.  Found on the lovely Monster-munch.

Ok…after some hard searching I think I’ve managed to iron out all the bugs concerning embedding Vimeo into this blog.  The direct result of which means I can share this fancy set of timelapse shots made by a guy called Tom from Timescapes.org with you all. I absolutely love the shots panning across the desert; see if you can spot the satellites moving across the sky in those ones.

Oh and I promise that will be enough videos…for now.

Architecture students get it so hard.  This video provides some evidence quite clearly, though it fails to mention the days spent in eating and sleeping in studio that drive your broken social life further away from your non-archi friends.  It’s worth it, I’m sure...

[via The Life of an Architecture Student on YouTube.]