The City: San Francisco in Timelapse

San Francisco is one of the world's most beautiful and diverse destinations... which is why it's hard to imagine that the experience of 'the city' could be captured in just under five minutes of timelapse footage.  From WTK Photography, this film incorporates hundreds of hours of shooting time and thousands of frames, and the end result is stunning, especially for those of us who love timelapse and/or San Francisco...

For more information or to watch other films from WTK Photography, visit Vimeo, and enjoy!

Solar Decathlon

In case you missed it earlier today, visit Inspired Design Daily, where MYD's guest post takes a look at the 2011 Solar Decathlon, a competition taking place this week in Washington D.C.

Yes, it's back- every two years, and 2011 has produced some very innovative and thoughtful concepts. 

To check out the designs that are currently in the lead, read the complete post at Inspired Design Daily... and vote for your favorite!

'U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.' -solardecalthon.gov

Monsanto–A Village Built Among Rocks

"Southeast of Serra da Estrela in Portugal, perched on the side of a mountain, is a lonely and enchanting village of Monsanto. The village is built among rocks, with houses squeezed between gigantic boulders, and tiny streets carved through the rocks. Monsanto’s appearance hasn't changed in centuries. Some of the granite houses have Manueline doorways and the ruins of a castle that started as a Lusitanian fortified settlement, affords magnificent views stretching as far as Serra da Estrela.
In 1938 Monsanto was voted "the most Portuguese village in Portugal" in a national contest, and since then building restrictions have allowed it to remain a living museum. It is not easy to reach Monsanto by public transportation, but its atmosphere and immense panorama is worth a drive from the towns nearby or Serra da Estrela."

For the complete post and more incredible photos, check out the original post:
Monsanto–A Village Built Among Rocks

A Collaborative Stop Motion Sculpture

Created by art & design practice ENESS, and photographed over a two-week period, this timeplapse is a great example of installation art, public engagement and creativity.


MÖBIUS from ENESS on Vimeo.

From Melbourne-based art & design practice ENESS:

Twenty-one large triangles animated by Melbourne, throughout Federation Square, MÖBIUS is a sculpture that can be configured into many cyclical patterns and behaves as though it is eating itself, whilst sinking into the ground.  The result is an optical illusion and a time-lapse of people interacting with the sculpture and moving through Melbourne's landmark location throughout the day.public engagement and creativity.

MÖBIUS was animated over two weeks Friday, Saturday & Sunday between the 6th - 20th of May 2011.


For more information and related projects, visit their website... and have a great weekend!

Double Happiness

Here is a magnificent use of billboard space created by architect Didier Faustino. He has titled the work/installation/swing-set Double Happiness for pretty obvious reasons. Clever ideas like this usually don’t come from passivity towards the city, but an engaged, analytical, and curious attitude. 

A summary of the conceptual framework behind the project:

“Double Happiness responds to the society of materialism where individual desires seem to be prevailing over all. This nomad piece of urban furniture allows the reactivation of different public spaces and enables inhabitants to reappropriate fragments of their city. They will both escape and dominate public space through a game of equilibrium and desequilibrium. By playing this 'risky' game, and testing their own limits, two persons can experience together a new perception of space and recover an awareness of the physical world."

via Double Happiness | Broken City Lab: 

Laguna Building + Construction Update

As mentioned in a previous post, we've been busy with residential projects under construction, and since things are moving along quickly, we thought we'd post a few photos of a local renovation and addition in Laguna Beach.

The initial deconstruction required the careful removal of the majority of the existing structure, while maintaining and reinforcing the non-conforming portions of the building in the sideyard setbacks.

With that process complete and the concrete footings poured and set, the framing has gone up relatively quickly, complete with a steel-framed cantilever that will not only add square footage to the master bedroom, but will optimize the ocean views

rough opening for window

steel frame for cantilever

some serious tube steel

ceiling height transition

Thanks for reading!

Jason + Lauren

Design + Vertical Landscapes

Here at MYD, we've often written about green roof systems quite a bit, but less so about green walls...
However, during a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest, we found that Portland is truly one of the country's greenest cities, quite literally...

A fantastic living wall!

For more on this well-designed green wall at the Hotel Modera, not far from Portland State and its famous farmers market:
  Click here for the complete post...