Really nice glass bathtubs!!

I know you may have seen some collections of glass and/or transparent bathtubs on other blogs and although some of those tubs may be on this list, this also features some new and more recent designs, so I thought I'd give you an up-to date look at some of the more beautifully designed glass and predominantly glass bathtubs.

Allos glass bathtub by Ross Lovegrove for Glass Idromassaggio

Bagno Sasso glass and wood tubs:
 
 

Riverstone Vasca Naturele glass tub:

Plavis Design Avi glass and Corian tub:

The Ebb glass and Corian tubs by Us Together are part of this larger collection

Even Moody Acquario glass tub (with built in aquarium):

Noa glass bathtub (or water lounge) for Hoesch:



Urban Camouflage

Recent graduate from Central Saint Martins with First Class Honours in BA Graphic Design, Aaron Larney has some fun projects in his portfolio.

His Urban Camouflage: Graffiti and Notice Board projects are photos in which the subject completely blends in with the backgrounds. Created along with the help of artists Matt Child and "Dosah", one features a complete boiler suit which is barely visible against the tagged outdoor wall and the other is a hooded jacket obscured by ads and editorials making it magically disappear into the notice board in front of which it stands.

Evian by Issey Miyake

Each year evian introduces a new limited edition collector series of bottles. Last year was the Paul Smith collection and prior to that Baccarat and Jean Paul Gaultier, preceded by Christian Lacroix. This years' bottle has been decorated by Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake, with a flower inspired by his innovative pleated clothes.

This year, evian® and MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIO signed a pure bottle, glowing with both optimism and freshness.
Sprung from ISSEY MIYAKE, the innovative pleated clothes of the designer, an imaginary shimmering flower decorates the most essential source of life, symbol of youth, the natural mineral water evian®. Thanks to this new design, evian® and MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIO turn the end of the year tables into a flower field, full of poetry and humor. This bottle will exist in two versions, one of them sold exclusively at ISSEY MIYAKE shops.

Zac Freeman's Portraits

You know all that stuff you either toss away of throw in the kitchen 'junk' drawer? Buttons, old remote controls, pen caps, paper clips, Altoid tins, Lego Minifigs, wire, plastic bits and pieces from lord-knows-what? Well those are precisely what artist Zac Freeman uses in creating these one of a kind portraits.

Beginning in 1999, Zac began collecting junk, found objects, and general trash which he then glued to wooden substrate to form an image -- in these cases, faces of men and women. His assemblage artworks are made on a large scale (the pieces average about 28" by 35") and when viewed close up look like crap cobbled together with a hot glue gun, but when viewed from afar are impressive, compelling and simply beautiful portraits.

In the artist's own words:
"I was interested in communicating through visual representation in apparent 2-dimensional space and through the actual objects used for the medium in 3-dimensional space. It is very important to me that I incorporate the actual objects into the art as opposed to a picture or rendition of it because it better expresses the intention of the artwork. I feel the junk is more powerful being present. It is an actual thing to be reckoned with that existed in this time and place and carries energy in and of itself."

Melanie Porter´s chairs

Traditional and modern chairs take on a new dimension when upholstered in the hand-knit textiles of Melanie Porter. From tub chairs to wing chairs, Chippendales to Egg chairs, Melanie painstakingly strips them of their original upholstery and then covers each chair in her hand knit panels of cable knits, patchwork, cross-stitch, and crochet. Details like hand covered buttons, pom pom accents, union jacks, painted frames and color combinations best show off the textiles.
Melanie's chairs are cozy and inviting one-of-a-kind functional art pieces. She even gives them human names, which only add to their appeal. Here's a look at several of her unique chairs.
After 10 years working as a knitwear designer for a number of international fashion brands, Melanie has turned her expertise to furniture, creating one-off contemporary designs from chairs sourced from auctions and markets across the UK.

Melanie undertakes the entire process herself and everything, from the restoration and upholstering to the individual, crocheted buttons, is done by hand. The result of this incredibly labor-intensive process is a stunning and unique work of art, destined to be a future family heirloom.
Shop for Melanie's chairs and cushions here.

South Park by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac

The fashions of designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac are so downright fun. Wacky and irreverent, JCDC plays off of pop culture in his couture and RTW fashions. Lego®, Disney characters, Hello Kitty, The Muppets, Snoopy, celebrities, singers and most recently, Bambi have been featured in his collections. He even designed an Obama dress last year. His clothing has always enjoyable to admire but are rarely affordable.
However, earlier this year Castelbajac created a new diffusion line called JC/DC by JC de Castelbajac. A creative, pop-rock, playful, quality, and affordable clothing line for a new generation, available through a new online store.
For the second season (Fall Winter 2010/2011) of his JC/DC line, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac chose the characters of South Park to be the music icons of his collection “Holly boys and naughty girls”.

micro-hotel concept

Barcelona-based company Dream and Fly has some up with an interesting micro-hotel concept by hours for airports and train stations. The miniature hotel rooms dubbed as Bubbles have been designed to imbibe the spirit of a womb that offers protection, safety, isolation and comfort in a crowded place. Especially meant for passengers in transit, the luxury rooms are pods of varying sizes that are compact arrangements fully equipped with basic necessities such as bathroom, bedroom, etc. at a low cost.

The micro-hotels come in varying sizes to accommodate people according to numbers. These would be paid for on arrival at the airport or through online booking in advance.

50th anniversary of the 1958 Universal World Exhibition at Brussels

Architects SHSH have assembled a giant temporary pavilion to pay homage to the 50th anniversary of the 1958 Universal World Exhibition at Brussels. The extraordinary pavilion has been built using the most usual ephemeral component, yellow beer crates, all 30,000 of which have been stacked to form an architectural form featuring columns, arches and even domes. It’s the use of effective lighting above everything else which lends the structure its golden appearance.
Located adjacent to the Atomium building where it is visible to the cars and pedestrians, the SHSH used beer crates because they would leave no waste and return to normal daily use once the structure would be dismantled following the exhibition. According to the designers, “We desired the contents of the pavilion to ask, 50 years later, what the notions of progress, universalism and happiness had brought in their time through the system of international exhibitions, and how could a ‘package’ building be enrolled in the parentage of an architectural solution that manages to convey the architectural questions of a given period in time.” Ultimately they chose to build a structure based on the notion of recycle, reuse which would also reduce the assembly time.