Happy Halloween! In a playful celebration of the holiday, our designers wanted to share this inspiration: Kyle Schumacher’s Stained Glass Spider Web. Mixing bold graphic lines and delicate glass textures, Kyle’s mostly colorless glass creations fluctuate with the views or spaces placed behind them. Allowing light and color to peek through, these pieces remain appropriately seasonal without boasting giant toothy pumpkin faces.
Photo credit: Kyle Schumacher via Etsy
With Halloween fast approaching, everyone is on the lookout for a good scare. Whether it be watching scary movies or going to a haunted house, there is something purely enjoyable about being terrified around this time of year. So in the spirit of this frightful night, we at GPI Design thought we would call attention to one seriously creepy place sure to challenge your opinion of architecture and horror. Here’s a real life building made of human remains that is sure to make your skin crawl.
The Capela dos Ossos, otherwise known as the Chapel of Bones, is quite a departure from the typical church. An extension of the opulent Church of St. Francis in Portugal, the Chapel of Bones is a somber and morbid counterpart. Built in the 16th century, the chapel was originally developed as a way to free up land consumed by medieval cemeteries. With the construction of the Capela dos Ossos, the cemeteries and bodies buried within were to be exhumed, and the chapel would then serve as a permanent resting place for the remains. But instead of just accommodating the skeletons of the deceased, several monks decided that the bones should be used as an integral part of the chapel’s design. Instead of just being stored there, the bones were put on display as the central decorative element inside.
It is estimated that over 5,000 human corpses adorn the interior of this chapel. Bones of men, women, and children completely swathe the inside, permanently adhered to the building with cement in a morbidly artistic display. The ceiling also harbors graphic and gruesome depictions of death, further perpetuating a morose message of mortality. And if that’s still not enough for you to get the point (or seriously frightened), there are intact corpses hanging from the walls and cryptic messages of impending death and doom throughout.
Aside from the creepiness factor though, the chapel itself is oddly visually stunning. Used as ironic building blocks, skulls, vertebrae, and appendages create disturbing, yet fascinating textures throughout the chapel. But it’s not simply this overall pattern that adds interest to the interior. The bones alone, with their unique bumps and grooves, add depth to this installation. Similar to the grain in wood, these contours of the bones are inherent in their beauty; they are what make the pieces unique and appealing. It is the thousands of individual bones intricately placed together that really create this holistic experience of light and shadow, life and death. It is strange how something can be so horrifying, yet beautiful and fascinating at the same time.
But just as intriguing as the interior is the affect that these remains have on our psyche. Bones in the Capela dos Ossos are unavoidable; they are everywhere you turn. There is no choice but to acknowledge the thousands of corpses that engulf the interior, and confront the inescapable reality of death. The way in which the bones are organized and adhered to the building is a reminder that bodies are simply mortal objects, things that will be the only evidence of existence after our demise. And while there is an overwhelming message of death, the chapel also breathes a message of life. It is impossible not to think about the all the existence that these skeletons once encompassed. These are not just decorative bricks or stones that comprise this interior; these are human remains that once lived and breathed. It forces a connection on a humanistic level, and prompts for reflection on life itself and one’s own transitory existence.
While initial thoughts of the Chapel of Bones may be of disturbance and horror, upon closer inspection one can see the beauty in both the interior and its underlying message. By appealing to both our visual and psychological senses, the Capela dos Ossos truly embodies something unique: an aesthetic that not only is disturbing and morbid to the core, but one that at the same time, celebrates life and death alike. And while we could have simply focused on all the ways in which a building inlaid with human body parts really creeps us out, we think you probably get the idea. Instead, we think it’s more important to recognize this building’s significance and its very distinctive (and spine-chilling) concept – even if it does sound more like a horror movie than a place of worship.
Image credit: Caffeine Obsessed, Mick L. Nsandre
We're working on illuminating a commercial lobby floor for a project in Perth, Australia. To firm up our strategies, the specified glass panels were shipped to us so we could study their relationship to our backlighting. Creating even illumination for this highly translucent glass surface in a load bearing floor application presented a fun challenge for our team. Photographer and videographer Andrew Thames spent a few days with us capturing the process.
Take a look at how we arrived at the final design - you'll see hot spots and any distracting evidence of the light source slowly disappear.
There is nothing quite like camping. That rustic, outdoorsy feeling; the closeness to nature; the crackling of a warm fire - it really conjures up your feral and organic side. But a new hotel is trying to replicate at least a portion of the camping experience by mixing the great outdoors with the comforts of a hotel. So if you like the idea of camping, but aren’t so keen on the bugs, inclement weather, or the concept of being submersed in wilderness with nothing but a nylon sheath to keep you safe, there may be some hope. This new hotel in Berlin may be just what you’re looking for.
Situated in an abandoned vacuum factory warehouse in the middle of the bustling city, the Huetten Palast Hotel in Berlin, combines the uninhibited feeling of camping with the comfort and convenience of the indoors. Developed by Silke Lorenzen and Sarah Vollmer, the hotel is part campsite, part hotel, part childhood fort. Instead of floors upon floors of identical and separate hotel rooms, the Heutten Palast Hotel offers accommodations fit for a campsite. With vintage campers refurbished into cozy sleeping pods and eclectic wooden huts reminiscent of miniature log cabins, there is a funky and nostalgic aesthetic to the hotel that calls upon the fundamental concept of camping. The aluminum campers, wood flooring, and Astroturf seem almost natural here. And the warehouse (aka the campground), complete with faux trees, abundant natural light, and pseudo-campsites, makes the entire environment feel more like a childhood playground than a hotel.
But aside from the whimsical quirkiness of campers and the campground area, the hotel’s overall tone further sets it apart from the norm. Tactfully departing from blocks of hotel rooms where guests are completely detached from one another, the Huetten Palast, instead, highlights and facilitates the fun, social atmosphere of an actual campground. Clusters of campers and huts nestled on their individual campsites create unique neighborhoods throughout the hotel. There is almost an inherent community -like feel throughout, neutralizing the often anti-social mindset of visitors. Guests can also sit “outside” on the furniture to relax, or even take a stroll around the campground where they can meet and interact with other campers (aka hotel guests), just as if you were on a hiking trail. At the Heutten Palast, the stuffy attitude of pretentious hotels is non-existent. You feel more like you are camping with your close buddies than staying in a location with strangers. But still, if you desire more privacy, you can always retreat into your own camper for some peace and quiet, just like you would to your tent in the middle of the woods.
While this urban indoor campground is obviously not an exact substitute for authentic camping (starting actual campfires during your stay is frowned upon there), it certainly does call upon those feelings that make camping so enjoyable. Huetten Palast’s fresh take on the typical hotel experience, truly makes for a unique and interesting stay, that fuses both indoors and out. Hopefully, this will inspire more whimsical designs that not only give you the best of both worlds, but truly allow you to experience and appreciate each with a new twist (sans the mosquito bites).
Image credits: Anthology Mag
Newspapers are a staple publication for many Americans. Whether you’re reading it with your morning coffee, perusing the classifieds on the subway to work, or doing the crossword puzzle during your college lecture, newspapers are everywhere - keeping people up-to-date, informed, and entertained. With over 100 million newspapers produced each day in the United States alone (over 1 billion daily worldwide), it is clearly one popular periodical. Unfortunately, however, within 24 hours, those 100 million newspapers become obsolete, creating mounds of wasted paper daily. But one innovative designer has figured out a way to help combat this issue of paper waste by fusing sustainability, design, and nature. The solution? NewspaperWood.
Dissatisfied with the notion that once a tree becomes paper, it remains paper, Mieke Meijers, a Dutch designer, developed NewspaperWood with the help of Vij5 design. Made by layers upon layers of newspaper adhered together, compressed, and rolled into a log, NewspaperWood looks and acts very similar to its original counterpart. Just like any other type of wood, NewspaperWood can be planed, cut, nailed, and sanded. And once planed and sanded, it reveals a beautiful grain, amazingly akin to the organic earthiness of rings in actual wood. Though not meant as a structural alternative, NewspaperWood is an attractive choice for aesthetic applications (like furniture), and can even be finished, stained, and veneered.
But aside from its sustainability and naturalistic wood properties, perhaps the most interesting notion about NewspaperWood is the way in which it blurs the line between the natural and synthetic. This is certainly not the first time that man has tried to replicate nature, nor will it be the last. However, with NewspaperWood, there is something different, almost natural, about using newspaper to recreate and emphasize the beauty of its most unrefined form – the tree. With the structured columns and bold typefaces of newsprint, it is hard to imagine anything organic or fluid about it. But when manipulated into NewspaperWood, the hidden beauty of the literature is revealed through undulating grains and rings, evoking our most natural and earthy aesthetics. It is difficult to identify where nature stops and the artificial begins. While NewspaperWood, clearly, is not found in nature, it is hard to deny the truly organic essence of this material. The juxtaposition created between the manmade and the natural in the NewspaperWood really makes one think and appreciate both the beauty and ingenuity of humanity and nature alike.
While man can never exactly replicate Mother Nature, we truly appreciate the way in which NewspaperWood utilizes wasted material to recognize and recreate the beauty of natural wood in a manmade state. We appreciate this fresh take on fusing sustainability with materiality and design, and hope it will jumpstart other unique innovations in both the recycling and design world.
Image credit: Vij5
Few cities compare to Paris when it comes to art and architecture. The urban fabric and historic atmosphere renders the capital of France a brilliant study in aesthetics. While a visit there allows an emersion in the wonderful Parisian culture, a website provides architects an interesting study in the way the whole city comes together.
At the Paris 26 Gigapixels website, the City of Light brilliantly comes through in a twenty-six gigapixel image. For those unaware, "giga" means billion- this panoramic picture displays twenty-six billion pixels! Notre-Dame, Montmarte, The Louvre, and l'Arc de Triomphe all come alive with clarity and scope.
Shot by renowned photographer Arnaud Frich, the image used over 2,300 individual frames and utilized digital image stitching by French-based Kolor. Waiting sixteen months for the perfect weather conditions, Frich's team shot for two-and-a-half hours from on top of the Église Saint-Sulpice. A painstaking process of image stitching followed, showing several gaps from missing photos and a number of out-of-focus images. After that, an intricate search slightly blurred any privacy issues. When the human element concluded, a computer chugged away for three hours, without any further input, to render the photo into an interactive image.
The Paris 26 Gigapixels web site allows visitors to navigate with mouse controls or the number pad on the right of keyboards in both Flash and Hi-def versions. A Flash version even comes with info buttons on the various landmarks that display interesting facts and history while still staying in the photo with a key that allowing instant "travel" to the most beautiful sites. The HD version gives a depth and fidelity so crisp you can see when particular cafes have baguettes on sale.
While no picture, no matter the intricacy, can compare to a walk down the Champs Élysées, Frich and his group deliver an amazing interactive image. Perfect for quick inspiration or in-depth appreciation, Paris-26-Gigapixels.com brings a little of Paris to your cubicle at work or study at home. As well, be sure to stay on the lookout for several "Easter eggs" whimsically left by Frich's team.
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