#enormous feathery accountant

[lazyevaluationranch]

20-03 Enormous Feathery Accountant

The Blue Haired Girlfriend and I sometimes say that the Enormous Feathery Accountant is the most sensible of our three Accidental Roosters, which is true, but only in the way that "Mercury is the planet in our solar system that most resembles a 1989 Suzuki GS500E motorcycle" is true.

Still, the Enormous Feathery Accountant usually only crows when Something Is Wrong, and we usually go outside and try to Fix The Wrong Thing. Sample Wrong Things:

The chickens have kicked sawdust into their feeder and can't see their food

The chickens have tipped over their waterer with ill-advised hijinks

A negligent human moved the feeder three centimeters North of the exact geometric center of the henhouse

Someone is going to town at the wrong time of day

It cannot currently be mathematically proven that another rooster doesn't exist, somewhere in the universe

A junco is eating the chicken food

A junco is drinking out of the water dish

A junco is sitting on the Enormous Feathery Rooster's favourite perch

The Enormous Feathery Accountant was making a racket today, so I went out and removed some sawdust from the feeder, re-centered it, and patiently explained that there had been no recent major mathematical breakthroughs on the Nonexistence Of Other Roosters.

The Enormous Feathery Accountant continued to yell, so I gave up and headed back toward the house, shouting over my shoulder in the general direction of the henhouse that I was still not able to delete all juncos from the world, and could the Enormous Feathery Accountant please █████ ████████ █████████████ cram it?

So anyway, as I came out from behind the woodshed, I saw what the Enormous Feathery Account was yelling about: some nice young missionaries, who had for the first time in the six years we've been living here, braved the long steep dirt road to invite us to Easter. Oops.

#daily #chicken #enormous feathery accountant

[inber]

Vignette: Pretty Punishments

A/N: The second vignette in my gangster AU thingy (first is here). This one is PWP Geraskier. Warnings for: dominant themes, hj, exhibitionism, slight degradation, pet names. It's just smut, I'll be honest. Rated Explicit, 1.1k.

“Open your robe.”

Jaskier chuckled, hopping off his perch upon Geralt's leg. In his kitten heels, he prowled back and forth, turning on the balls of his feet after three paces. A tiny catwalk; he, the lone model.

“So impatient, darling. I just got here.”

“Impatient?” Geralt echoed, the grit of a growl riding the edge of his tone, “I'm impatient? You swan in like you own the joint, dressed in that silk and feathery nonsense, and interrupt me when you know very well that I'm workin' on accounts. Aware that I'll be done in an hour, at most.”

“Those figures are dull. You should be looking at mine.”

“Hence the request. Undo that sash.”

Smirking, Jaskier's lowered his fingers to the knot secured at his waist. With the slow elegance of a performer, he unravelled the fastening, allowing the cord to drop away. Then he opened his arms and let the fabric slip down his shoulders, gathering at the folds of his elbows.

Geralt stared at the royal blue garter belt, embroidered with gold, holding up the tops of Jaskier's sheer stockings. His eyes raked upwards to take in the detail of the tiny loop that pierced Jaskier's left nipple. A dangling teardrop diamond winked at him. A gift recently given, if Geralt's memory served.

There was nothing else to take in.

“You walked up here, through the warehouse out front, in that?” Geralt's mouth, dry; his jealousy and arousal warring; citrine danger in his eyes.

“It's late, gorgeous,” Jaskier purred. “Ain't nobody to see.”

“There are always eyes, baby.” Geralt said, frowning. “You should know that by now.”

“Really?” Jaskier wandered over to the enormous window that overlooked the floor of the factory. It appeared deserted. “Where, then?”

Geralt rose from his chair. His steps were measured, purposefully loud against the mahogany floorboards. Jaskier shivered as he felt the presence of his lover behind him.

“Y'want me to show you, huh? That it, baby? Hands up on the glass, feet spread.”

“Geralt,” Jaskier giggled, nerves betraying him, “no one saw. There's no one--”

“I said, hands on the glass.”

Thickly, Jaskier swallowed, and then did as he was told. The robe slipped further down his body. Between his legs, his cock throbbed lazily against his thigh, slowly filling.

“You forget yourself, baby. You forget to whom you belong.” Geralt whispered, the whorl of his breath hot against Jaskier's neck.

“Never.” Jaskier uttered. His heart tripped over its own beat.

“I disagree. You wanna be seen? Want everyone to know that you're gagging for it, a fuckin' showboy-singer slut that'll fall to his knees for any man that wants his pretty red mouth, hmm?” Geralt's hands smoothed down Jaskier's front, fingers combing through the dark curls on his chest.

“No,” Jaskier whimpered, jerking forward with a whine as Geralt's clever fingers tugged just-so at his piercing. “Darlin', it ain't like that--”

“No, he says. No, like he hasn't just disrespected me by showing up to my office completely indecent, just to interrupt my work.” Geralt's teeth grazed the nape of Jaskier's neck. His hands slipped lower, brushing the head of Jaskier's eager cock that now stood out from his neatly trimmed pubes, drooling precum.

Jaskier squirmed, trying to get more. If he arched his back, Geralt moved with him. Hunched concave, Geralt's touch grew softer. It was maddening.

“Please,” Jaskier panted. “Please, gorgeous.”

“See that corner?” Geralt moved to murmur in Jaskier's right ear. “Shaded, shrouded. Got a lookout there. His job is to watch the upper floors. I bet you that right now, he's watching you instead.”

Between his legs, Jaskier's prick jumped. “Geralt, darling...”

“Down there?” Geralt's fingers brushed up the inside of Jaskier's inner thighs, cupping his balls in a warm, casual hand. “Bottom floor. Got two men guarding one of the vaults. If they looked up right now, they'd see you, too. Exposed and spread. Desperate.”

Jaskier's head rolled back, hitting Geralt's shoulder. “Fuck,” he mewled. “I'm sorry. I'm sorry, darling, I'm sorry, I--”

“Shh-shh.” Geralt soothed, kissing behind Jaskier's ear, smelling the last notes of the Chanel perfume he'd dabbed there. “I know you are.”

Almost slumping forward in relief, Jaskier went to relax his arms away from the glass. Geralt growled in warning at the same time as he wrapped thick fingers around Jaskier's weeping, needy cock. Jaskier jerked his hips forward, crying out in surprise.

“Doesn't mean I'm letting you go unpunished, baby. Show them. Put on a show.” Geralt chuckled darkly, fisting Jaskier's cock firmly, slowly.

“Oh, fuck!” Jaskier keened, trying to tamp down the volume of his voice. Almost unbidden, his hips moved in time with Geralt's stroking. Maybe he was a whore, maybe he was desperate—fuck, he couldn't think, couldn't do anything but submit to the voyeuristic thrill.

“That's it,” Geralt rumbled, “good boy. Fuck into my hand – yes, just like that. God you want this, don't you?”

Flushing hot all over, Jaskier did as he was told, his heated breath fogging the window. “Ah, ah, fuck, yes,” he whispered, “I do, God, I fuckin' do.”

“Louder.” Geralt commanded, thumb rubbing the ridge of Jaskier's cockhead. “Show them you're mine, baby.”

“Ohh, God! Geralt, please! Fuck, you know I'm yours--”

“Scream it, and I'll let you cum.”

It was too much – the scene, the feeling of Geralt's callous-roughened hand milking his prick, the sadism in his lover's tone. Jaskier shook, jutting his hips forward once, twice, before ribbons of his cum burst from his reddened cock, painting the glass milky. He cried out, over and over – Geralt's name, an ecstatic hymn, a plea for penance.

Had he swooned? Jaskier supposed he must have, because the next moment he could recall, he was being cuddled against a strong chest in Geralt's desk chair. He felt boneless, his head fizzing effervescent with the aftermath of pleasure and humiliation.

Geralt whispered to him, quiet little nothings of affirmation – how good Jaskier had been, how proud Geralt was of him. How he belonged to Geralt in every possible way. Jaskier basked in it, nuzzling into the side of Geralt's neck, breathing in the comfort of his lover.

“Are you okay, baby?”

“Yes.” Jaskier managed, voice hoarse. “Very okay.”

“Good.” Geralt kissed his temple sweetly. “These papers can wait 'til the morning. How about we go home, yeah?”

“Will you make me hot cocoa?”

“I'll make you whatever you want, baby-doll.”

Geralt fussed over the robe, tying the sash firmly around Jaskier's middle, before lifting him easily. Jaskier rested his chin on Geralt's shoulder, glancing at the mess streaked across the glass. He smiled.

Wouldn't be the first time that the cleaning staff had dealt with their games.

#witcher au #the witcher fandom #alternate universe #geraskier #gangster au #fortune writes #inber

[bountyofbeads]

‘Angels’ in Hell: The Culture of Misogyny Inside Victoria’s Secret https://nyti.ms/31fz0BT

‘Angels’ in Hell: The Culture of Misogyny Inside Victoria’s Secret

A Times investigation found widespread bullying and harassment of employees and models. The company expresses “regret.”

By Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Katherine Rosman, Sapna Maheshwari and James B. Stewart | Published Feb. 1, 2020, 10:58 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 1, 2020 |

Victoria’s Secret defined femininity for millions of women. Its catalog and fashion shows were popular touchstones. For models, landing a spot as an “Angel” all but guaranteed international stardom.

But inside the company, two powerful men presided over an entrenched culture of misogyny, bullying and harassment, according to interviews with more than 30 current and former executives, employees, contractors and models, as well as court filings and other documents.

Ed Razek, for decades one of the top executives at L Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, was the subject of repeated complaints about inappropriate conduct. He tried to kiss models. He asked them to sit on his lap. He touched one’s crotch ahead of the 2018 Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

Executives said they had alerted Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder and chief executive of L Brands, about his deputy’s pattern of behavior. Some women who complained faced retaliation. One model, Andi Muise, said Victoria’s Secret had stopped hiring her for its fashion shows after she rebuffed Mr. Razek’s advances.

A number of the brand’s models agreed to pose nude, often without being paid, for a prominent Victoria’s Secret photographer who later used some pictures in an expensive coffee-table book — an arrangement that made L Brands executives uncomfortable about women feeling pressured to take their clothes off.

The atmosphere was set at the top. Mr. Razek, the chief marketing officer, was perceived as Mr. Wexner’s proxy, leaving many employees with the impression he was invincible, according to current and former employees. On multiple occasions, Mr. Wexner himself was heard demeaning women.

“What was most alarming to me, as someone who was always raised as an independent woman, was just how ingrained this behavior was,” said Casey Crowe Taylor, a former public relations employee at Victoria’s Secret who said she had witnessed Mr. Razek’s conduct. “This abuse was just laughed off and accepted as normal. It was almost like brainwashing. And anyone who tried to do anything about it wasn’t just ignored. They were punished.”

The interviews with the models and employees add to a picture of Victoria’s Secret as a troubled organization, an image that was already coming into focus last year when Mr. Wexner’s ties to the sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein became public. Mr. Epstein, who managed Mr. Wexner’s multibillion-dollar fortune, lured some young women by posing as a recruiter for Victoria’s Secret models.

L Brands, the publicly traded company that also owns Bath & Body Works, is on the brink of a high-stakes transition. The annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show has been canceled after nearly two decades on network TV. Mr. Razek, 71, stepped down from L Brands in August. And Mr. Wexner, 82, is exploring plans to retire and to sell the lingerie company, people familiar with the matter said.

As those plans progress, L Brands’ treatment of women is likely to come under even closer scrutiny.

In response to detailed questions from The New York Times, Tammy Roberts Myers, a spokeswoman for L Brands, provided a statement on behalf of the board’s independent directors. She said that the company “is intensely focused” on corporate governance, workplace and compliance practices and that it had “made significant strides.”

“We regret any instance where we did not achieve this objective and are fully committed to continuous improvement and complete accountability,” she said. The statement did not dispute any of The Times’s reporting.

Mr. Razek said in an email: “The accusations in this reporting are categorically untrue, misconstrued or taken out of context. I’ve been fortunate to work with countless, world-class models and gifted professionals and take great pride in the mutual respect we have for each other.” He declined to comment on a detailed list of allegations.

Thomas Davies, a spokesman for Mr. Wexner, declined to comment.

Fiery Explosions

Victoria’s Secret, which Mr. Wexner bought for $1 million in 1982 and turned into a lingerie powerhouse, is struggling.

The societal norms defining beauty and sexiness have been changing for years, with a greater value on a wide range of body types, skin colors and gender identities. Victoria’s Secret hasn’t kept pace. Some of its ad campaigns, for example, seem more like a stereotypical male fantasy — the director Michael Bay filmed a TV spot in which scantily clad models strutted in front of helicopters, motorcycles and fiery explosions — than a realistic encapsulation of what women want.

With its sales declining, Victoria’s Secret has been closing stores. Shares of L Brands have fallen more than 75 percent from their 2015 peak.

Six current and former executives said in interviews that when they tried to steer the company away from what one called its “porny” image, they were rebuffed. Three said they had been driven out of the company.

Criticism of Victoria’s Secret’s anachronistic marketing went viral in 2018 when Mr. Razek expressed no interest in casting plus-size and “transsexual” models in the fashion show.

Then, last summer, Mr. Epstein was charged with sex trafficking, and the festering business problems at Victoria’s Secret escalated into a public crisis.

Mr. Wexner and Mr. Epstein had been tight. The retail tycoon gave the financier carte blanche to manage his billions, elevating Mr. Epstein’s stature and affording him an opulent lifestyle. Mr. Wexner has said he and Mr. Epstein parted ways around 2007, the year after Florida prosecutors charged him with a sex crime.

On multiple occasions from 1995 through 2006, Mr. Epstein lied to aspiring models that he worked for Victoria’s Secret and could help them land gigs. He invited them for auditions, which at least twice ended with Mr. Epstein assaulting them, according to the women and court filings.

“I had spent all of my savings getting Victoria’s Secret lingerie to prepare for what I thought would be my audition,” a woman identified as Jane Doe said in a statement read aloud last summer in a federal court hearing in the Epstein case. “But instead it seemed like a casting call for prostitution. I felt like I was in hell.”

Three L Brands executives said Mr. Wexner was alerted in the mid-1990s about Mr. Epstein’s attempts to recruit women. The executives said there was no sign that Mr. Wexner had acted on the complaints.

After Mr. Epstein’s arrest last summer, L Brands said, it hired the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell to conduct “a thorough review” of the matter at the request of its board of directors. The exact focus of the review is unclear. Mr. Epstein committed suicide in jail in August while he awaited trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Davis Polk has worked for L Brands for years. Mr. Wexner’s wife, Abigail, previously worked at the firm. Dennis S. Hersch, a former L Brands board member and a financial adviser to the Wexners, was a longtime partner at Davis Polk. The law firm also has contributed money to Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts.

Employees interviewed for this article said Davis Polk had not contacted them.

A Davis Polk spokeswoman didn’t respond to requests for comment.

‘Someplace Sexy to Take You’

“With the exception of Les, I’ve been with L Brands longer than anyone,” Mr. Razek wrote to employees in August when he announced he was leaving the company he had joined in 1983.

Mr. Razek was instrumental in selecting the brand’s supermodels — known as “Angels” and bestowed with enormous, feathery wings — and in creating the company’s macho TV ads.

But his biggest legacy was the annual fashion show, which became a global cultural phenomenon.

“That’s really where he sunk his teeth into the business,” said Cynthia Fedus-Fields, the former chief executive of the Victoria’s Secret division responsible for its catalog. By 2000, she said, Mr. Razek had grown so powerful that “he spoke for Les.”

Sometimes Mr. Wexner spoke for himself.

In March, at a meeting at Victoria’s Secret headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, an employee asked Mr. Wexner what he thought about the retail industry’s embrace of different body types. He was dismissive.

“Nobody goes to a plastic surgeon and says, ‘Make me fat,’” Mr. Wexner replied, according to two attendees.

Mr. Razek often reminded models that their careers were in his hands, according to models and current and former executives who heard his remarks.

Alyssa Miller, who had been an occasional Victoria’s Secret model, described Mr. Razek as someone who exuded “toxic masculinity.” She summed up his attitude as: “I am the holder of the power. I can make you or break you.”

At castings, Mr. Razek sometimes asked models in their bras and underwear for their phone numbers, according to three people who witnessed his advances. He urged others to sit on his lap. Two models said he had asked them to have private dinners with him.

One was Ms. Muise. In 2007, after two years of wearing the coveted angel wings in the Victoria’s Secret runway show, the 19-year-old was invited to dinner with Mr. Razek. She was excited to cultivate a professional relationship with one of the fashion industry’s most powerful men, she said.

Mr. Razek picked her up in a chauffeured car. On the way to the restaurant, he tried to kiss her, she said. Ms. Muise rebuffed him; Mr. Razek persisted.

For months, he sent her intimate emails, which The Times reviewed. At one point he suggested they move in together in his house in Turks and Caicos. Another time, he urged Ms. Muise to help him find a home in the Dominican Republic for them to share.

“I need someplace sexy to take you!” he wrote.

Ms. Muise maintained a polite tone in her emails, trying to protect her career. When Mr. Razek asked her to come to his New York home for dinner, Ms. Muise said the prospect of dining alone with Mr. Razek made her uneasy; she skipped the dinner.

She soon learned that for the first time in four years, Victoria’s Secret had not picked her for its 2008 fashion show.

‘Forget the Panties’

In 2018, at a fitting ahead of the fashion show, the supermodel Bella Hadid was being measured for underwear that would meet broadcast standards. Mr. Razek sat on a couch, watching.

“Forget the panties,” he declared, according to three people who were there and a fourth who was told about it. The bigger question, he said, was whether the TV network would let Ms. Hadid walk “down the runway with those perfect titties.” (One witness remembered Mr. Razek using the word “breasts,” not “titties.”)

At the same fitting, Mr. Razek placed his hand on another model’s underwear-clad crotch, three people said.

An employee complained to the human resources department about Mr. Razek’s behavior, according to three people. The employee presented H.R. with a document last summer listing more than a dozen allegations about Mr. Razek, including his demeaning comments and inappropriate touching of women, according to a copy of the document reviewed by The Times.

It wasn’t the first H.R. complaint about him

At a photo shoot in June 2015, the company put out a buffet lunch for staff. Ms. Crowe Taylor, the public relations employee, went to get seconds. Mr. Razek intercepted her, she said. He blocked her path and looked her up and down. Then, with dozens of people watching and Ms. Crowe Taylor holding her empty plate, he tore into her, berating her about her weight and telling her to lay off the pasta and bread.

Ms. Crowe Taylor, who was 5-foot-10 and 140 pounds, fled to a bathroom and burst into tears. She said that she had complained to H.R. but that as far as she could tell, nothing happened. She quit weeks later.

In October, shortly after Mr. Razek had left the company, Monica Mitro, a top public-relations executive at Victoria’s Secret, lodged a harassment complaint against him with a former member of the L Brands board of directors, according to five people familiar with the matter. She told colleagues that she had gone to the former director because she didn’t trust the H.R. department.

The next day, the head of H.R. told Ms. Mitro that she was being placed on administrative leave, the people said. She recently reached a financial settlement with the company, they said.

Mr. Razek’s son, Scott, also worked at Victoria’s Secret. Sometime after the H.R. department was told about his mistreatment of a female colleague, he was transferred to Bath & Body Works, according to four people familiar with the matter. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The woman he mistreated later received a settlement from Victoria’s Secret, according to several current and former employees.

Mr. Wexner was seldom in New York, where much of the fashion show’s staff was based, leaving employees with the impression that Mr. Razek was his proxy. Mr. Razek flaunted that power, invoking Mr. Wexner’s name to get his way.

Even as complaints piled up, the elder Mr. Razek maintained Mr. Wexner’s support. In 2013, Mr. Wexner helped raise a $1.2 million fund in Mr. Razek’s name at Ohio State University’s cancer center.

‘A Voyeuristic Journey’

Russell James was one of Victoria’s Secret’s go-to photographers. The company at times paid him tens of thousands of dollars a day, according to draft contracts reviewed by The Times.

At the end of sessions with models, Mr. James sometimes asked if they would be photographed nude, according to models and L Brands executives. Mr. James was popular; he had a knack for making women feel comfortable. He also had a close relationship with Mr. Razek. The women often consented.

The nude photo shoots weren’t covered under the models’ contracts with Victoria’s Secret, which meant they weren’t paid for the extra work.

In the industry, “everyone is using their influence to get something,” said Ms. Miller, the model. “With Russell, it was getting girls to pose for his books or portrait series nude.”

In 2014, Mr. James published a glossy collectors’ book, “Angels,” which featured some of the nude photos. The women agreed to have their photos included in the book, according to Martin Singer, a lawyer for Mr. James.

Two versions of the books currently sell on Mr. James’s website for $1,800 and $3,600. Victoria’s Secret hosted a launch event for “Angels” during New York fashion week in 2014. Attendees included supermodels and the company’s chief executive at the time, Sharen Turney.

“This ample volume offers an unprecedented and personal view into James’s most intimate portrait sittings,” the book’s jacket says, noting that Mr. James met many of the women during his 15 years working for Victoria’s Secret. “Readers will be taken on a voyeuristic journey into a world of subtle provocation.”

At one point, a poster-size version of one of the book’s photos was displayed in a Victoria’s Secret store in Las Vegas. The model’s agent complained to Victoria’s Secret that his client’s photo was being used in the store without her consent. Mr. James also complained about it and asked for it to be removed, according to Mr. Singer. The company took down the photo.

In 2010, Alison Nix, a 22-year-old model who had worked occasionally with Victoria’s Secret, was invited to attend a weekend event to raise money for the nonprofit foundation run by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. The venue was Mr. Branson’s private Necker Island in the Caribbean.

The live-streamed event, hosted by Mr. Branson and Mr. James, was billed as featuring “some of the world’s most stunning supermodels.”

Ms. Nix said her agent had told her that if she chose to go on the all-expenses-paid trip, she’d be expected to pose for nude beach photos shot by Mr. James. She said that was fine. She was left with the impression, she said, that “if Russell likes you, you could start working with Victoria’s Secret.”

Mr. Singer, the lawyer for Mr. James, said his client had no influence over whom Victoria’s Secret selected as models. He said models were not required to pose for photos, nude or otherwise. He said Mr. James had agreed to shoot the nude photos at Necker Island at the request of the models and their agents “as a favor and professional courtesy.”

Ms. Nix called Mr. Singer’s comments “absurd.”

She said that she and other models who attended the event were provided with copious amounts of alcohol and were expected to mingle with men, including Mr. Branson.

“We were shipped out there, and all these rich men were flirting with us,” she recalled. She said the models were asking themselves, “Are we here as high-end prostitutes or for charity?”

The last day on the island, Ms. Nix said, she and at least three other models lined up to have their nude photos shot by Mr. James.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Branson said he had “no knowledge of anyone being invited to the event for any reason” beside the charity fund-raiser.

Two photos of Ms. Nix from that weekend — one, in profile, with her breasts obscured but her bare bottom exposed — appeared near the middle of Mr. James’s “Angels” book, with her consent.

Ms. Nix never landed another modeling gig with Victoria’s Secret. Was she disappointed?

“To be honest, I didn’t expect much after the trip,” she said. “I could tell I wasn’t right for the brand.”

______

Emily Steel and Mike Baker contributed reporting. Susan Beachy contributed research.

*********

#u.s. news #sex criminals #sex trafficking #sex crimes #jeffrey epstein #epstein case #trump epstein #world news today #world news #international news #nyt > top stories #women's rights #womenfashion

[sivkus]

Why Most People Will Never Be Great At CHILDREN'S ROOM DESIGN IDEAS

Include in Quality Pieces At last, the dull region cover appears to be melancholy. Supplant it with a feathery white flokati to make the deception of drifting on a cloud. This room demonstrates that no one's ideal - not even Dan.

Balance Color Choices

Torie has attempted to accomplish something extremely aggressive with this space and on certain levels it works, on others it doesn't. The possibility of a space room is each dilettantish young lady's fantasy - and talk about amplifying the utilization of this floor space! In any case, the size of this bed framework is simply too huge and approaching in this little space. The texture boards/name/light divider is a piece Vegas in any event, for me.

 I would like to see a portion of this youthful craftsman's own work say something here or make an enormous outlined region that permits her to have a turning display that shows off her work children's room design ideas.

 I additionally like the intensity of Torie's variety decisions, however few out of every odd divider must be an alternate tone, particularly in a room where there is now a solid point of convergence with both the bed and the texture divider. Torie adjusts variety well, notwithstanding, with components of a similar variety addressing one another: red seat to red bin to red pad, blue divider to blue rack to blue texture board. The unforeseen outcome is that in a room that is a mob of variety, there is a quieting bringing together string.

Being the mother of a 3 year old I can see the value in how Antonio has figured out how to get inside this young man's head and make a room that, anciently talking, truly shakes. Notwithstanding, I have never loved clearly topical plan for youngsters. Great plan is a speculation - an interest on schedule, energy and cash - and it needs legs and life span to guarantee a profit from that venture. Children's inclinations appear to change from teddy bears to vehicles to goth rock quickly; really creative plan takes into account those changes to happen effectively and cheaply. My dread with this room is that the kid will cherish it today yet grow out of it tomorrow, and that is a waste. Quality center pieces like the dressers are incredible beginning stages; they'll endure forever and change without any problem. I would have jumped at the chance to see the subject laid out with more regard for the impermanent embellishments in this room as opposed to the more long-lasting development components. Dinosaur-theme bedding, round rock-or bone-molded cushions or crude beanbags might have balanced this plan. The window is a significant component here, basically going about as the headboard. A reasonable valance produced using a grass skirt or even Milk Bones hung above basic material curtains adorned with stenciled dino-name typography is only the sort of creative, modest and bright methodology that this rooms needs. Paint and divider illustrations are simple and economical ways of laying out a topic. Anyway I see as the "young men are blue" variety plot and stuck-on vinyl dinosaurs to some degree unsurprising.

Have an Effect

Rule number one in TV configuration: Make an effect! Changing this divider tone from mauve to pink isn't a sufficient change to enroll and I am experiencing issues differentiating between the "previously" and "later." On a decent note, the girliness of the pink is adjusted by the establishing power of the dark and the room appears to be considerably more open without the overhang bed. Be that as it may, there are a ton of botched open doors here. Basic gauzy full-length sheers managed in pom-pom periphery would have finished the window; the illustrating appears to be a frantic effort to relax the opening. A white upholstered empty center entryway as a headboard and layers of white sheet material would have added solace and a feeling of marvelous extravagance. Acoustical roof tiles enveloped by pink cotton to fill the region over the work area would have been a more striking and reasonable treatment than ? what are those, placemats?

Utilize the Neutral Powers of White

I wind up enjoying the before better than the later and that has me stressed. On the great side, this room packs in a ton of utilitarian components: stockpiling, seating, a work area region and that gum ball distributor light. The spa and apple-green variety conspire is strong, new and current however everything is by all accounts eclipsed by that unusual inescapable red line. Considered as a binding together power this consistent band does the exact inverse as your eye darts across, up, down and around this room, entranced by the red. This room might have been saved by the abilities of killing white - beginning with the dresser and reaching out across the seat and work area, finishing the line in a fresh white upholstered headboard. The objective: to difference and play up instead of battle different varieties in the room. A basic white material Roman visually impaired and white painted iron-work to peruse as an augmentation of the headboard would have been extra treating components to make the it was after to bind together power that Dan.

Make a Focal Point

Each room needs a point of convergence and Lonni certainly comprehends the power and effect that a realistic divider proclamation has in getting that going. What I love about this (topsy turvy!) headquarters theme is that it remains all alone as an embellishing design, yet it has genuine importance for this sports-insane kid. The best private plan joins magnificence and individual significance and Lonni's divider treatment finds some kind of harmony of both. Notwithstanding, private plan is likewise above all else about work BEFORE structure and that is the place where this room misses the mark. All the messiness covering dressers and cupboards have been supplanted with open capacity retires that might look slick and precise today however following an average day for most children, not really. Rather than an advanced glass work area, a long, strong, L-formed wooden work surface running along the home-plate divider and stretching out past the nearby window divider would be the ideal spot for this kid to fan out. Different dressers and cupboards under as supports could give genuinely necessary association. Likewise, rather than painted "headquarters," transform those themes into utilitarian divider "pockets" made from MFD and Lonni would have had a grand slam.

https://sivkus.com/interior-design/children-bedroom-ideas-kids-room-design/

 Enquiry : [email protected] Phone : [phone]   What'sapp : [phone]

#childernroom    #childernroomdesign       #childernroominterior         #childernrooms 

[jaisvi]

Cloud Infrastructure Services

What is Cloud Computing?

In case you're uncertain about what Cloud Computing is, you are presumably among the 95% of individuals that are as of now utilizing cloud administrations, as web based banking and informal organizations, however don't understand it.

The "cloud" is a bunch of various kinds of equipment and programming that work on the whole to convey numerous parts of figuring to the end-client as an online assistance.

Distributed Cloud Infrastructure Services in Malaysia is the utilization of equipment and programming to convey an assistance over an organization (normally the Internet). With distributed computing, clients can get to documents and use applications from any gadget that can get to the Internet.

An illustration of a Cloud Computing supplier is Google's Gmail. Gmail clients can get to records and applications facilitated by Google by means of the web from any gadget.

How is registering from the Cloud not quite the same as processing from my PC's hard drive?

Dissimilar to customary figuring where information is put away on your PC's neighborhood hard drive, the information in the cloud is put away on numerous physical as well as virtual workers that are facilitated by a third-gathering specialist co-op. An illustration of a distributed computing document stockpiling supplier is Dropbox. Dropbox documents can be gotten to from any gadget through the Internet.

What are public and private Clouds?

A Public Cloud depends on the standard distributed computing system which comprises of records, applications, stockpiling and administrations accessible to the public through the web. Gmail is an illustration of a Public Cloud.

A Private Cloud is included records, applications, stockpiling and administrations that are executed and secured inside a corporate firewall, heavily influenced by a corporate IT office. An illustration of a Private Cloud would be an organization that utilizes Microsoft Exchange on the grounds that Microsoft Exchange must be gotten to by an approved client through a safe VPN association.

What are some normal Cloud administrations and organizations?

Some normal administrations that are facilitated in the cloud are facilitated work area, given by organizations like AT&T; facilitated email like Gmail, given by organizations like Google; distributed storage, given by organizations like Dropbox; and streaming music, given by organizations like Spotify. These administrations, applications and documents are put away in the cloud and can be gotten to by clients through any gadget.

There are a wide scope of organizations and industry verticals that utilization distributed computing like Amazon and Google. Little, medium, and enormous size public and privately owned businesses the same use distributed computing to lessen innovation obtaining costs.

Do I require Cloud registering?

The Cloud Computing market keeps on developing a seemingly endless amount of a large number of years since organizations are turning out to be more mindful of the expense saving advantages of embracing the cloud.

With Hardware administrations, organizations can utilize the cloud specialist co-op's gear (stockpiling, equipment, workers, and systems administration parts) rather than spending a lot of capital on hardware.

With Software benefits, organizations' applications are facilitated by the cloud specialist co-op and are made accessible over an organization saving exorbitant arrangement and support costs.

Are my records protected in the Cloud?

While no capacity arrangement is 100% safe, distributed storage suppliers can offer a more secure and more available spot for organizations to store information than customary processing strategies.

Contingent upon the assistance contract, copy duplicates of the organizations' information can be put away on workers situated in various geologies and ensured by reinforcement power supplies on account of a debacle.

Today, many organizations are moving to a Hybrid Cloud Computing model. With this model, organizations are given the adaptability of putting away touchy information safely in a private cloud while putting away open information in a public cloud. The two frameworks are kept as discrete, one of a kind substances.

What the Cloud isn't?

The cloud is definitely not a feathery white mass comprised of little water beads skimming in the internet. The cloud isn't affected by climate changes like barometric pressing factor.

The cloud isn't a spot in a solitary area. Truth be told, the cloud can be anyplace. The cloud can be in your organizations' server farm or facilitated at a third gathering server farm.

The development of the cloud isn't being driven by "large business." The development of the cloud is being driven by customers purchasing cloud prepared gadgets that can associate with distributed computing administrations at work, at home, and in a hurry.

The cloud isn't "a craze." There are at present 1.2 billion individuals utilizing Facebook around the world. That number addresses 11% of the total populace.

More info: Cloud Infrastructure Services in Malaysia

#software #services

[sciencespies]

To Silence Wind Turbines and Airplanes, Engineers Are Studying Owl Wings

https://sciencespies.com/nature/to-silence-wind-turbines-and-airplanes-engineers-are-studying-owl-wings/

To Silence Wind Turbines and Airplanes, Engineers Are Studying Owl Wings

Every owl fancier has a story of the first time they heard an owl — or, rather, didn’t hear one. It’s unforgettable to see an enormous bird, whose wingspan can reach more than six feet, slipping through the air without even a whisper.

Justin Jaworski’s first close encounter came at a flying exhibition at the Raptor Foundation near Cambridge, England. “They trained the owls to fly very close to the audience,” he says. “My first experience was of ducking to avoid a collision. I heard only a very slight swoosh after it passed.”

Laboratory measurements have shown that the slight swoosh made by a barn owl is below the threshold of human hearing until the owl is about three feet away — a feat of stealth that biologists and engineers are far from completely understanding. But researchers from both disciplines are working to solve the riddle of silent flight — some with the aim of designing quieter fans, turbine blades and airplane wings.

Such owl-inspired innovations can reduce noise by as much as 10 decibels, similar to the difference in noise between a passing truck and a passing car, Jaworski and Nigel Peake write in an overview in the 2020 Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics.

Go gentle

Jaworski, an engineer at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, is hardly the first scientist to be captivated by the puzzle of silent owl flight. In 1934, Robert Rule Graham — a British pilot and bird connoisseur — called attention to three structures on owl wings that might account for the owls’ silence.

More than 80 years later, his “three traits paradigm,” as Christopher Clark calls it, is still cited in many papers on owl wings. “He clearly knew birds very well, and he was an aeronautical engineer,” says Clark, an ornithologist at the University of California, Riverside. “Science was different in the 1930s. In our age of specialization, you don’t get that combination.”

First, Graham pointed out an unusual structure called the “comb,” which literally looks like a comb projecting forward from the wing’s leading edge. Second, he noted that most of the owl wing is covered with a soft layer of velvety feathers. Finally, he observed that the feathers on the trailing edge of the wing form a ragged fringe.

Most researchers still agree that the comb, the velvet and the fringe combine in some way to reduce noise, but the owl may have more tricks up its sleeve. “When all is said and done, I think we’ll have a number of mechanisms, including Graham’s,” says Clark.

To explain how an owl suppresses noise, it would help to identify where the noise comes from in the first place. For an airplane coming in for a landing, a large part of the noise comes not from the engines but from the flow of air around the plane, especially the sound produced at the trailing edge of the wings. The turbulent air rushing past the exposed edges of the wings translates to the dull roar you hear as the plane flies overhead.

Researchers trained a Florida barred owl (Strix varia alleni) to fly through a special recording room. The gliding owls generated very little sound in the range of human hearing (people can hear sounds above the dashed line). Low-frequency sounds made by owl flight are inaudible, no matter the distance. Humans can hear flight noise in the mid-range frequencies when the owl is between one and three meters away. Owl wings and feathers are especially good at dampening higher-frequency sounds, which can be heard only if a person is standing within a meter of the noise.

(Knowable magazine)

One way to reduce this noise would be to make the trailing edge of the wing less hard, more porous and more flexible. This may be the function of the owl wing’s ragged fringes. Jaworski and Peake have mathematically calculated how engineers might use such porosity and elasticity to reduce noise, and how to quantify that diminished din.

Those calculations are supported by wind-tunnel experiments: A variety of porous materials do dial down the noise. Work by Thomas Geyer at Brandenburg University of Technology in Germany has found that a poroelastic wing the size of an owl’s can be about 2 to 5 decibels quieter than a regular wing.

However, says Geyer, the right porous material is crucial; in the wind-tunnel tests, some materials actually increased high-frequency noise. Measurements of owls in flight show that their wings mute only frequencies higher than 1,600 hertz (on a piano, two-and-a-half octaves above middle C). Since this is roughly where the range of rodent hearing begins, it’s the range that an owl would benefit most from suppressing as it hunts for a meal.

Jaworski and Ian Clark (no relation to Christopher) of NASA’s Langley Research Center have attempted to mimic the owl’s velvet by covering a standard airfoil with various kinds of fabric. “The winning textile was a wedding veil,” says Jaworski. However, it may not be necessary to donate your nuptial accessories to science, because the researchers got even better results by attaching tiny plastic 3-D–printed “finlets” to the blades of a wind turbine.

Research suggests that owl wings have three features that contribute to their silent flight: a “comb” structure (just visible at the wing’s top right), ragged trailing edges (visible along the bottom of the wing) and a velvety material that covers much of the upper left of the wing. The comb structure from a different specimen is shown close-up at bottom.

(Thomas Fritz Geyer / Brandenburg University of Technology )

“Over a certain frequency range, we saw a 10-decibel noise reduction,” Jaworski says. “That may not sound like much, but in air acoustics, engineers fight over two or three decibels. Ten decibels is half as noisy. That’s a massive change for any technology.” Siemens, a manufacturer of wind turbines, has apparently been listening, and recently unveiled its second-generation “Dino Tail” turbines that have combs directly inspired by the owl wing.

Feathery enigma

Though owl wings are providing new insights into noise reduction for aeronautical engineering, engineers have had less success describing the physics of owl flight. According to ornithologist Clark, the engineers may not even have identified the most important source of noise in owl aviation.

If you’re trying to build an owl, rather than a wind turbine or an airplane, you’ll notice several differences. Owls have feathers; airplanes don’t. Owls flap their wings; airplanes don’t. There’s a good reason that aeronautical engineers prefer stationary, solid wings to flapping, feathery ones: They are easier to understand.

But if you are a biologist, to ignore flapping is to ignore a fundamental ingredient in avian flight, says Clark. As bird wings flap they change shape, and as they change shape the feathers rub against each other, causing noise. This noise is frictional, not aerodynamic, produced by the contact of solid against solid.

In Clark’s view, the purpose of the owl’s velvet and the fringes is to reduce frictional noise between the feathers while flapping. Clark concedes that his argument would be moot if owls glided while hunting, but video evidence shows they do not: They flap when taking off, they flap when landing and they even flap when “coursing” for prey.

Scientists seeking to understand why the owl’s flight differs from other birds have studied the turbulence patterns left in their wake. Red and blue indicate vortices spinning in opposite directions.

(Roi Gurka, Costal Carolina University and Elias Balaras, George Washington University)

And the fringes are not only on the trailing edge of the wing, where the aerodynamic theory would predict them to have the greatest noise-reducing benefit. Fringes also exist on the leading edges of the feathers, where they do not affect aerodynamic noise, as well on some feathers that are not even exposed to the airflow. This suggests that their purpose is not aerodynamic.

Clark says that we may be asking the question backward. Instead of asking why owls are so quiet, we should ask why other birds are so loud. The answer is feathers. “Feathers are amazing structures, and probably the reason birds are so successful,” Clark says. But they come with an evolutionary cost: “If you’re going to build a wing out of feathers, they are going to produce frictional sound.” To become silent hunters, owls evolved special adaptations that reduce this disadvantage.

Owls are not the only kind of bird that has solved this problem. Some species of Australian frogmouths have independently developed the same adaptations. These birds are also carnivorous and have wings that are soft and fluffy with combs and ragged fringes. In Graham’s day, people assumed that frogmouths were closely related to owls, but genomic analysis has proved that they are not. While less studied than owls, they too are silent flyers.

“Evolution often takes a quirky path,” Clark says. “One way you can home in on the underlying mechanical principles, and tell them apart from quirks, is with convergent evolution.” When two unrelated animals have the same adaptation, it suggests that the feature confers a benefit — in this case, stealth.

At present, there are two ways to understand owl flight: an engineering view informed by the equations of fluid motion and wind-tunnel experiments, and a biological view based on anatomy, behavior and genomics. A truly integrated story will probably require both. Even engineers realize that idealized studies based on rigid, unfeathered wings are not enough. It’s quite possible that the owl uses its feathers and small shape adjustments of the wing actively, rather than passively, to manipulate airflow. Engineers aren’t even close to understanding this process, which spans several size scales, from the barbs of the feathers to the individual feathers, to the entire wing.

“What is missing to us is the microscopic point of view,” says Roi Gurka of Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, whose experiments with flying owls have led to beautiful computer simulations of the flow field around a flapping owl wing. “I understand the wing,” he says, but understanding the role individual feather morphology plays in noise reduction is another matter.

While the scientists debate, the barn owl will continue flying as it always has: its face as round and imperturbable as the moon, its ears trained on its next meal and its feathers treading gently on the air.

This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews. Sign up for the newsletter.

#Nature

#Nature

[plasticgardenicons]

The Borders Between Lightness and Song

Our learning curve is enormously steep and

time’s infinite complexion doesn’t always recognize suffering

or our powerful will to continue on

irrespective of direction or general understanding—

watch, how our approach imbued with uncertainty

between floating clouds and concrete cities

heavy with sadness-sparks lit carelessly by forces not our own,

meanders somewhat aimlessly between the syllables

of street names.

  The bank tellers are marching in formation,

so we stop to watch them

rattling bags of pennies and unfurling deeds

of the recently foreclosed on or deceased.   Either way,

the wind rearranges the words until they sound like prayers.

They want to know what withdrawals you make

from your sacred account

trembling in the cold eye of the surveillance cameras

attached to the midnight ATMs, because business

does not always remember the heart’s shadow

nor does it remember the reciprocal exchange of goods and deeds

that patiently build and close the distance

between us.

  I know it’s late and there are good people sinking

and disappearing back into the earth’s deep pockets

but I want to know, what surprises you to think of me

hiding in this delicate indefinable deception

wanting only to be loved by you,

by such harmonies that will trouble the heart

completely, because in all the universe

it is love that that has been the constant.

  Be completely mine

enveloped in immortal feeling, committed on paper

signed in the grand way with quills and feathery pens.

I am too troubled by the harsh beauty of the world—

take these failures of ours, their strength & enchantment smell serious;

we are only half alive shouting before knowing the rich earth

where there is such lingering darkness at

the borders between lightness and song.

#poem #poetry on tumbl #love poems

[liposuctionbeforeandafter]

Xiumin

Xiumin before and after diet; Xiumin is the second most brief individual from Exo. Xiumin is around 5’7 with a normally thin and modest body outline. Notwithstanding Xiumin continually being fit and on the slimmer side, his face will in general clutch fat, giving a bogus deception of “plumpness” Since the presentation of Exo, Xiumin has appeared to have low trust in his appearance.

The Beginning

Xiumin is known to be unassuming and chivalrous, frequently having nothing kind to state about himself. Xiumin stalled out so often in starvation yo-yo eats less for convenient solutions. Just years after the fact sharing the reactions it had on him.

Exo was a success since their presentation in March 2013, however Xiumin was one of the least famous individuals. One of Exo’s greatest selling focuses was their extraordinary visuals, being a bi-racial gathering (4 Chinese individuals). Xiumin before and after diet.

Xiumin had probably the least lines and screentime regardless of being a lead artist, Xiumin was regularly eclipsed by Exo’s other fundamental artists. He didn’t remain out in the open support over the others.

Xiumin appeared to consistently be skimming around that cumbersome hazy area in the gathering. He was never the most noticeably terrible or the best. Additional time Xiumin began to get more fans on account of his enormous eyes and tubby cheeks. He was viewed as somebody with unpretentious Aegyo picking up him more fangirls.

Xiumin was even given the epithet “little Baozi” (steamed feathery bun) by his individuals and fans. Be that as it may, the commendation didn’t come without underhanded impacts. With all the new consideration, he got progressively undesirable analysis about his “questionable” appearance.

Xiumin before and after diet

#gallery-1 margin: auto; #gallery-1 .gallery-item float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; #gallery-1 img border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; #gallery-1 .gallery-caption margin-left: 0;

Xiumin

#diet xiumin exo #exo xiumin diet plan #xiumin coffee diet

[topsolarpanels]

Put us on the map, please: China’s smaller cities go wild for starchitecture

From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to the centre of braised chicken reinventing itself as Solar Valley, Chinas second( and third) tier cities are hiring big-name architects to get them noticed

From egg-shaped concert hall to skyscrapers reminiscent of big pairs of pants, Chinas top cities are famously full of curious monuments to architectural ambition. But as land costs in the main metropolises have shot into the stratosphere, developers have been scrambling to buy up plots in the countrys second and third-tier cities, spawning a new generation of delirious plans in the provinces. President Xi Jinping may have issued a directive last year prohibiting oversized, xenocentric, weird houses, but many of these schemes were already well under way; his diktat has proved to be no obstacle to mayoral hubris yet.

From Harbin City of Music to Dezhou Solar Valley, provincial capitals are branding themselves as themed enclaves of culture and industry to attract inward investment, and commissioning ratings of bold buildings to match. Even where there is no demand, city bureaucrats are relentlessly selling off land for developing, hawking plots as the primary form of income accounting for 80% of municipal revenues in some cases. In the last two months alone, 50 Chinese cities received a total of 453 bn yuan( 54 bn) from land auctions, a 73% increase on last year, and its the provincial capitals that are resulting the way.

At the same time, Xis national culture drive has find countless museums, concert halls and opera houses spring up across the country, often used as sweeteners for land bargains, conceived as the pearls at the centre of glistening mixed-used visions( that sometimes never arrive ). Culture, said Xi, is a precondition of the great renaissance of the Chinese people, but it has also proved to be a powerful lubricant for ever more real estate supposition even if the production of content to fill these great vestibules cant quite keep up with the insatiable build boom. From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to cavernous libraries, heres a glimpse of whats emerging in the regions.

Fake Hills, Beihai

A render of how the Fake Hills would look. Illustration: MAD architects

Forming an 800 metre-long cliff-face along the coast of the southern port city of Beihai, the Fake Hills housing block is the work of Ma Yansong, Chinas homegrown conjuror of sinuous, globular sorts whose practise is appropriately named MAD. Having examined at Yale and worked with Zaha Hadid in London, where he nourished his penchant for blobs, Ma has spent the last decade dreaming up improbable mountain-shaped megastructures across the country.

Less scenic mountain and more lumpen collision of colossal cruise-liners The first phase of construction on Fake Hills has been completed. Photograph: MAD

As it rises and falls, the undulating roofline of Fake Hills kinds terraces for badminton and tennis tribunals, as well as a garden and swimming pool. Sadly the overall impact is less scenic mountain range than a lumpen collision of colossal cruise-liners.

Greenland Tower, Chengdu

Greenland Tower, Chengdu. The build harks back to the crystalline dreamings of early 20 th-century German designer Bruno Taut. Illustration: Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture

A crystalline spire rising 468 metres above the 18 million-strong metropolis of Chengdu, the Greenland Tower will be the tallest building in southwestern China, standing as a sharply chiselled monument to the countrys( and by some counts the worlds) largest real estate developers, Greenland Holding. It is designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, designers of Dubais Burj Khalifa, who say the faceted shaft is a reference to the unique ice mountain topography of the region. It harks back to the crystalline dreams of early 20 th-century German architect Bruno Taut, who imagined a dazzling glass city crown to celebrate socialism and agriculture; whether Sichuans farmers will be welcomed into the penthouse sky garden remains to be seen.

Sun-Moon mansion, Dezhou

A contender to Silicon Valley the Sun-Moon mansion of Solar Valley, Dezhou. Photo: Alamy

Once known as a centre of braised chicken production, the city of Dezhou in the north-eastern province of Shandong now brands itself as Solar Valley, a renewable energy centre intended to rival Californias Silicon Valley. At its heart is the Sun-Moon mansion, a vast fan-shaped office build powered by an arc of solar panel on its roof. It is the brainchild of Huang Ming, aka Chinas sun king, an oil industry technologist turned solar energy tycoon who heads the Himin Solar Energy Group, the worlds biggest producer of solar water heaters as well as purveyor of sun-warmed toilet seats and solar-powered Tibetan prayer wheels.

Harbin Opera House

Harbin Opera House, with the St Petersburg of the east in the background. Photograph: View Pictures/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Nicknamed the St Petersburg of the east, the far northern city of Harbin has long had a thriving cultural scene as a gateway to Russia and beyond. In the 1920 s, manners from Paris and Moscow arrived here before they reached Shanghai, and it was home to the countrys first symphony orchestra, made up of mostly Russian musicians.

Inside Harbin Opera House. Photo: Opinion Pictures/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Declared city of music in 2010, Harbin has recently pumped millions into a glitter new concert hall by Arata Isozaki, a gargantuan neo-classical conservatory and an 80,000 sq metre whipped meringue of an opera house by MAD. Shaped like a pair of snowy dunes, up which guests can climb on snaking routes, the building contains a sinuous timber-lined auditorium designed as an eroded block of wood.

Tianjin Binhai library

Tianjin Binhai library. Illustration: MVRDV

Due to open this summer in the sprawling port city of Tianjin, this space-age library by Dutch architects MVRDV is imagined as a gaping cave of volumes, carved out from within an oblong glass block. The shelves form a terraced scenery of seating, wrapping around a giant mirrored sphere auditorium that nestles in the middle of the space like a pearl in an oyster.

Inside the space-age Tianjin Binhai library. Illustration: MVRDV

Along with a new theater, congress centre and a science and technology museum by Bernard Tschumi, the building forms part of a new cultural one-quarter for the city, itself being swallowed into the schemed Beijing-Tianjin mega-region population 130 million, thats more than Japan .

Huaguoyuan Towers, Guiyang

Arups twin towers are almost complete. Illustration: LWK& Partners

Nowhere in China is the disparity between economic reality and architectural ambition more stark than in Guiyang, capital of rural Guizhou, the poorest province in the country, which has the fifth most skyscraper schemes of any Chinese city. The twin 335 -metre towers of the Huaguoyuan development, by Arup, are now almost complete, standing as the centrepiece of a new mixed-use office, retail and amusement complex, while SOM is busy conjuring the even higher Cultural Plaza Tower, a 521 -metre glass spear that will soar above a new riverfront world of shopping malls and theatres. It has the glitz and gloss of any other Chinese citys new central business district, but as Knight Franks David Ji points out: It will be hard for a city like Guiyang to find quality renters to fill the space.

Yubei agricultural park, Chongqing

Will Alsops Yubei agricultural park. Illustration: Will Alsop

Architectural funster Will Alsop may ultimately have found his calling in the supercharged furnace of Chinas second-tier cities booming leisure economy, crafting a number of fantastical dreamworlds from his new satellite studio in Chongqing where he is busy constructing a new culture quarter around his own office, with a eatery, bar and distillery. He is also plotting an enormous agricultural leisure park in Yubei, 20 miles north of the city, designed to cater to the new middle classes nascent appreciation of the countryside, a place hitherto links with peasants and poverty. The rolling landscape will be dotted with cocoon-like treehouses, a flower-shaped hotel and a big lagoon covered by an LED-screen canopy, so visitors can enjoy projected blue skies despite the smog.

Zendai Himalayas centre, Nanjing

A limestone mountain range: Zendai Himalayas Centre, Nanjing. Illustration: www.i-mad.com

Erupting across six city blocks like a limestone mountain range, the Zendai Himalayas Centre is likely to be Mas most literal interpretation yet of his doctrine of fusing architecture and nature. Taking inspiration from the traditional style of shanshui scenery brush paint( literally meaning mountain-water ), the 560,000 sq metre complex is designed to look as if it has been eroded by millennia of gust and water , not thrown up overnight by an army of migrant labourers. Once again, Ma appears to be forgetting that elegant feathery brushstrokes dont often translate well into clods of glass and steel. It is one of many such green-fingered strategies in Nanjing, including Stefano Boeris vertical wood towers and the Sifang art park, where Steven Holl, SANAA, David Adjaye and others have constructed pavilions in a rolled landscape as another decoy for a luxury real estate project.

Huawei campus, Dongguan

A render of Huawei campus, Dongguan, which is based on 12 European towns

Telecoms giant Huawei has courted suits for copying from challengers in the past, but its love of imitating clearly extends to architecture too. The companys new campus, under construction on a 300 -acre site in Dongguan, is based on 12 European townships. There are the dreaming steeples of Oxford, the quaint redbrick houses of Bruges, the palazzos of Verona and the chateaux of Burgundy, all connected by a meander Swiss railway. It might look like a theme park, but the employees will have little time for leisure: Huaweis founder likens his staff to a pack of hungry wolves and offers them a dedicated employee arrangement to voluntarily forgo paid holiday and overtime.

Guardian Cities is dedicating a week to the huge but often unreported cities on the front line of Chinas unprecedented urbanisation. Explore our coverage here and follow us on Facebook. Share stories via WeChat( GuardianCities) and by employing #OtherChina on Twitter and Instagram

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Put us on the map, please: China’s smaller cities go wild for starchitecture appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

from Top Rated Solar Panels http://ift.tt/2kkn0uy via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Top Rated Solar Panels

[lazyevaluationranch]

24/03 A witch once laid the Doom of Daffodils upon us, that everywhere we would ever call home would be haunted by that Accursed Yellow. And now it is spring and the Doom is upon us: daffodils in the gardens, the forest, the swamps, lining the driveway taunting us as we escape and beckoning to us as we return. We cut them by the hundreds, anonymously donate them to community events, and run away quietly, before the daffodils can hear us.

The Enormous Feathery Accountant says: don't trust the daffodils.

#daily #daffodil #chicken #enormous feathery accountant

[istanbuldefinition]

The second of the group

The second of the group is called “ Plate,” from its being a lifeless fiat; although lots of the Franks, disregarding the traditional Greek identify, name it “Gull Island,” from the immense variety of these birds that are to be discovered there, feeding on the clustering marine crops by which it’s lined, and rearing their younger, undisturbed by the neighborhood of a busy and crowded metropolis.

The following island, Oxca, is the best of the entire, and is surrounded by steep and rugged precipices, which render it extraordinarily picturesque from the water; significantly on the japanese facet, the place the bend of the shore kinds a nice bay, superbly framed in by tall and jagged rocks. On this island nonetheless exist some very attention-grabbing and curious stays of the reservoirs which previously equipped the entire archipelago with water; contemporary springs being uncommon on any of the opposite islands. Two of them but stay virtually excellent, and the water which they include is obvious and pure. The ruins of varied edifices are additionally obvious in lots of the precipitous parts of the islands: partitions of bricks made flat, and cemented along with lime and powdered tiles, are to be discovered on all sides, and small water-cisterns are quite a few in each path. Probably the most outstanding vegetable manufacturing of the island is the enormous fennel, which right here grows generally twelve ft in top, and virtually assumes the significance of a forest tree, because it spreads overseas the deep shadows of its feathery umbels.

Island is that of Pitya

The following island is that of Pitya. It’s small, and boasts however slight remnants of the abundance of pine wooden with which it’s said to have been as soon as lined ; possessing, furthermore, no single object of curiosity to compensate for the loss : whereas Antigone, the traditional Panormus, a couple of mile past, boasts its vineyards and its villages, its monastery crowning an eminence which dominates the entire island ; and the presence of the discovered and illustrious exile, Constantius, Archbishop of Mount Sinai, and ex-Patriarch of Constantinople—a prelate famend alike for his virtues and his erudition, who was deposed and banished by the Turks for his literary productions ; not the least obnoxious amongst them being a Statistical Account of the previous and current State of Constantinople, printed at Venice in IStM, in fashionable Greek, for the usage of his countrymen—a piece throughout whose compilation he had incurred appreciable private threat, disguising himself as a dervish, with the intention to penetrate into their sanctuaries ; and which had value him not solely ltis liberty, however even nice pecuniary embarrassment, his revenue in exile being barely ample to safe to him the widespread comforts of life.

[istanbullandmarks]

The second of the group

The second of the group is called “ Plate,” from its being a lifeless fiat; although lots of the Franks, disregarding the traditional Greek identify, name it “Gull Island,” from the immense variety of these birds that are to be discovered there, feeding on the clustering marine crops by which it’s lined, and rearing their younger, undisturbed by the neighborhood of a busy and crowded metropolis.

The following island, Oxca, is the best of the entire, and is surrounded by steep and rugged precipices, which render it extraordinarily picturesque from the water; significantly on the japanese facet, the place the bend of the shore kinds a nice bay, superbly framed in by tall and jagged rocks. On this island nonetheless exist some very attention-grabbing and curious stays of the reservoirs which previously equipped the entire archipelago with water; contemporary springs being uncommon on any of the opposite islands. Two of them but stay virtually excellent, and the water which they include is obvious and pure. The ruins of varied edifices are additionally obvious in lots of the precipitous parts of the islands: partitions of bricks made flat, and cemented along with lime and powdered tiles, are to be discovered on all sides, and small water-cisterns are quite a few in each path. Probably the most outstanding vegetable manufacturing of the island is the enormous fennel, which right here grows generally twelve ft in top, and virtually assumes the significance of a forest tree, because it spreads overseas the deep shadows of its feathery umbels.

Island is that of Pitya

The following island is that of Pitya. It’s small, and boasts however slight remnants of the abundance of pine wooden with which it’s said to have been as soon as lined ; possessing, furthermore, no single object of curiosity to compensate for the loss : whereas Antigone, the traditional Panormus, a couple of mile past, boasts its vineyards and its villages, its monastery crowning an eminence which dominates the entire island ; and the presence of the discovered and illustrious exile, Constantius, Archbishop of Mount Sinai, and ex-Patriarch of Constantinople—a prelate famend alike for his virtues and his erudition, who was deposed and banished by the Turks for his literary productions ; not the least obnoxious amongst them being a Statistical Account of the previous and current State of Constantinople, printed at Venice in IStM, in fashionable Greek, for the usage of his countrymen—a piece throughout whose compilation he had incurred appreciable private threat, disguising himself as a dervish, with the intention to penetrate into their sanctuaries ; and which had value him not solely ltis liberty, however even nice pecuniary embarrassment, his revenue in exile being barely ample to safe to him the widespread comforts of life.

[istanbulmarket]

The second of the group

The second of the group is called “ Plate,” from its being a useless fiat; although most of the Franks, disregarding the traditional Greek title, name it “Gull Island,” from the immense variety of these birds that are to be discovered there, feeding on the clustering marine crops by which it’s coated, and rearing their younger, undisturbed by the neighborhood of a busy and crowded metropolis.

The following island, Oxca, is the very best of the entire, and is surrounded by steep and rugged precipices, which render it extraordinarily picturesque from the water; notably on the jap facet, the place the bend of the shore kinds a wonderful bay, fantastically framed in by tall and jagged rocks. On this island nonetheless exist some very fascinating and curious stays of the reservoirs which previously provided the entire archipelago with water; recent springs being uncommon on any of the opposite islands. Two of them but stay nearly good, and the water which they comprise is obvious and pure. The ruins of assorted edifices are additionally obvious in most of the precipitous parts of the islands: partitions of bricks made flat, and cemented along with lime and powdered tiles, are to be discovered on all sides, and small water-cisterns are quite a few in each course. Probably the most outstanding vegetable manufacturing of the island is the enormous fennel, which right here grows generally twelve toes in top, and nearly assumes the significance of a forest tree, because it spreads overseas the deep shadows of its feathery umbels.

Island is that of Pitya

The following island is that of Pitya. It’s small, and boasts however slight remnants of the abundance of pine wooden with which it’s said to have been as soon as coated ; possessing, furthermore, no single object of curiosity to compensate for the loss : whereas Antigone, the traditional Panormus, a couple of mile past, boasts its vineyards and its villages, its monastery crowning an eminence which dominates the entire island ; and the presence of the discovered and illustrious exile, Constantius, Archbishop of Mount Sinai, and ex-Patriarch of Constantinople—a prelate famend alike for his virtues and his erudition, who was deposed and banished by the Turks for his literary productions ; not the least obnoxious amongst them being a Statistical Account of the previous and current State of Constantinople, printed at Venice in IStM, in fashionable Greek, for the usage of his countrymen—a piece throughout whose compilation he had incurred appreciable private danger, disguising himself as a dervish, as a way to penetrate into their sanctuaries ; and which had value him not solely ltis liberty, however even nice pecuniary embarrassment, his revenue in exile being barely enough to safe to him the frequent comforts of life.

[istanbultulips]

The second of the group

The second of the group is called “ Plate,” from its being a lifeless fiat; although most of the Franks, disregarding the traditional Greek identify, name it “Gull Island,” from the immense variety of these birds that are to be discovered there, feeding on the clustering marine crops by which it’s coated, and rearing their younger, undisturbed by the neighborhood of a busy and crowded metropolis.

The subsequent island, Oxca, is the best of the entire, and is surrounded by steep and rugged precipices, which render it extraordinarily picturesque from the water; notably on the jap facet, the place the bend of the shore kinds a nice bay, fantastically framed in by tall and jagged rocks. On this island nonetheless exist some very attention-grabbing and curious stays of the reservoirs which previously provided the entire archipelago with water; contemporary springs being uncommon on any of the opposite islands. Two of them but stay virtually good, and the water which they include is evident and pure. The ruins of assorted edifices are additionally obvious in most of the precipitous parts of the islands: partitions of bricks made flat, and cemented along with lime and powdered tiles, are to be discovered on all sides, and small water-cisterns are quite a few in each course. Essentially the most outstanding vegetable manufacturing of the island is the enormous fennel, which right here grows generally twelve ft in peak, and virtually assumes the significance of a forest tree, because it spreads overseas the deep shadows of its feathery umbels.

Island is that of Pitya

The subsequent island is that of Pitya. It’s small, and boasts however slight remnants of the abundance of pine wooden with which it’s said to have been as soon as coated ; possessing, furthermore, no single object of curiosity to compensate for the loss : whereas Antigone, the traditional Panormus, a few mile past, boasts its vineyards and its villages, its monastery crowning an eminence which dominates the entire island ; and the presence of the realized and illustrious exile, Constantius, Archbishop of Mount Sinai, and ex-Patriarch of Constantinople—a prelate famend alike for his virtues and his erudition, who was deposed and banished by the Turks for his literary productions ; not the least obnoxious amongst them being a Statistical Account of the previous and current State of Constantinople, printed at Venice in IStM, in fashionable Greek, for the usage of his countrymen—a piece throughout whose compilation he had incurred appreciable private danger, disguising himself as a dervish, so as to penetrate into their sanctuaries ; and which had value him not solely ltis liberty, however even nice pecuniary embarrassment, his earnings in exile being barely adequate to safe to him the widespread comforts of life.

[viralhottopics]

Put us on the map, please: China’s smaller cities go wild for starchitecture

From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to the centre of braised chicken reinventing itself as Solar Valley, Chinas second (and third) tier cities are hiring big-name architects to get them noticed

From egg-shaped concert halls to skyscrapers reminiscent of big pairs of pants, Chinas top cities are famously full of curious monuments to architectural ambition. But as land prices in the main metropolises have shot into the stratosphere, developers have been scrambling to buy up plots in the countrys second and third-tier cities, spawning a new generation of delirious plans in the provinces. President Xi Jinping may have issued a directive last year outlawing oversized, xenocentric, weird buildings, but many of these schemes were already well under way; his diktat has proved to be no obstacle to mayoral hubris yet.

From Harbin City of Music to Dezhou Solar Valley, provincial capitals are branding themselves as themed enclaves of culture and industry to attract inward investment, and commissioning scores of bold buildings to match. Even where there is no demand, city bureaucrats are relentlessly selling off land for development, hawking plots as the primary form of income accounting for 80% of municipal revenues in some cases. In the last two months alone, 50 Chinese cities received a total of 453bn yuan (54bn) from land auctions , a 73% increase on last year, and its the provincial capitals that are leading the way.

At the same time, Xis national culture drive has seen countless museums, concert halls and opera houses spring up across the country, often used as sweeteners for land deals, conceived as the jewels at the centre of glistening mixed-used visions (that sometimes never arrive). Culture, said Xi, is the prerequisite of the great renaissance of the Chinese people, but it has also proved to be a powerful lubricant for ever more real estate speculation even if the production of content to fill these great halls cant quite keep up with the insatiable building boom. From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to cavernous libraries, heres a glimpse of whats emerging in the regions.

Fake Hills, Beihai

A render of how the Fake Hills would look. Illustration: MAD architects

Forming an 800 metre-long cliff-face along the coast of the southern port city of Beihai, the Fake Hills housing block is the work of Ma Yansong, Chinas homegrown conjuror of sinuous, globular forms whose practice is appropriately named MAD. Having studied at Yale and worked with Zaha Hadid in London, where he nourished his penchant for blobs, Ma has spent the last decade dreaming up improbable mountain-shaped megastructures across the country.

Less scenic mountain and more lumpen collision of colossal cruise-liners The first phase of construction on Fake Hills has been completed. Photograph: MAD

As it rises and falls, the undulating roofline of Fake Hills forms terraces for badminton and tennis courts, as well as a garden and swimming pool. Sadly the overall effect is less scenic mountain range than a lumpen collision of colossal cruise-liners.

Greenland Tower, Chengdu

Greenland Tower, Chengdu. The building harks back to the crystalline dreams of early 20th-century German architect Bruno Taut. Illustration: Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture

A crystalline spire rising 468 metres above the 18 million-strong metropolis of Chengdu, the Greenland Tower will be the tallest building in southwestern China, standing as a sharply chiselled monument to the countrys (and by some counts the worlds) largest property developer, Greenland Holdings. It is designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, architects of Dubais Burj Khalifa, who say the faceted shaft is a reference to the unique ice mountain topography of the region. It harks back to the crystalline dreams of early 20th-century German architect Bruno Taut, who imagined a dazzling glass city crown to celebrate socialism and agriculture; whether Sichuans farmers will be welcomed into the penthouse sky garden remains to be seen.

Sun-Moon mansion, Dezhou

A rival to Silicon Valley the Sun-Moon mansion of Solar Valley, Dezhou. Photograph: Alamy

Once known as a centre of braised chicken production, the city of Dezhou in the north-eastern province of Shandong now brands itself as Solar Valley, a renewable energy centre intended to rival Californias Silicon Valley. At its heart is the Sun-Moon mansion, a vast fan-shaped office building powered by an arc of solar panels on its roof. It is the brainchild of Huang Ming, aka Chinas sun king, an oil industry engineer turned solar energy tycoon who heads the Himin Solar Energy Group, the worlds biggest producer of solar water heaters as well as purveyor of sun-warmed toilet seats and solar-powered Tibetan prayer wheels.

Harbin Opera House

Harbin Opera House, with the St Petersburg of the east in the background. Photograph: View Pictures/Rex/Shutterstock

Nicknamed the St Petersburg of the east, the far northern city of Harbin has long had a thriving cultural scene as a gateway to Russia and beyond. In the 1920s, fashions from Paris and Moscow arrived here before they reached Shanghai, and it was home to the countrys first symphony orchestra, made up of mostly Russian musicians.

Inside Harbin Opera House. Photograph: View Pictures/Rex/Shutterstock

Declared city of music in 2010, Harbin has recently pumped millions into a gleaming new concert hall by Arata Isozaki, a gargantuan neo-classical conservatory and an 80,000 sq metre whipped meringue of an opera house by MAD. Shaped like a pair of snowy dunes, up which visitors can climb on snaking paths, the building contains a sinuous timber-lined auditorium designed as an eroded block of wood.

Tianjin Binhai library

Tianjin Binhai library. Illustration: MVRDV

Due to open this summer in the sprawling port city of Tianjin, this space-age library by Dutch architects MVRDV is imagined as a gaping cave of books, carved out from within an oblong glass block. The shelves form a terraced landscape of seating, wrapping around a giant mirrored sphere auditorium that nestles in the middle of the space like a pearl in an oyster.

Inside the space-age Tianjin Binhai library. Illustration: MVRDV

Along with a new theatre, congress centre and a science and technology museum by Bernard Tschumi, the building forms part of a new cultural quarter for the city, itself being swallowed into the planned Beijing-Tianjin mega-region population 130 million, thats more than Japan.

Huaguoyuan Towers, Guiyang

Arups twin towers are almost complete. Illustration: LWK & Partners

Nowhere in China is the disparity between economic reality and architectural ambition more stark than in Guiyang, capital of rural Guizhou, the poorest province in the country, which has the fifth most skyscraper plans of any Chinese city. The twin 335-metre towers of the Huaguoyuan development, by Arup, are now almost complete, standing as the centrepiece of a new mixed-use office, retail and entertainment complex, while SOM is busy conjuring the even higher Cultural Plaza Tower, a 521-metre glass spear that will soar above a new riverfront world of shopping malls and theatres. It has the glitz and gloss of any other Chinese citys new central business district, but as Knight Franks David Ji points out: It will be hard for a city like Guiyang to find quality tenants to fill the space.

Yubei agricultural park, Chongqing

Will Alsops Yubei agricultural park. Illustration: Will Alsop

Architectural funster Will Alsop may finally have found his calling in the supercharged furnace of Chinas second-tier cities booming leisure economy, crafting a number of fantastical dreamworlds from his new satellite studio in Chongqing where he is busy building a new cultural quarter around his own office, with a restaurant, bar and distillery. He is also plotting an enormous agricultural leisure park in Yubei, 20 miles north of the city, designed to cater to the new middle classes nascent appreciation of the countryside, a place hitherto associated with peasants and poverty. The rolling landscape will be dotted with cocoon-like treehouses, a flower-shaped hotel and a big lake covered by an LED-screen canopy, so visitors can enjoy projected blue skies despite the smog.

Zendai Himalayas centre, Nanjing

A limestone mountain range : Zendai Himalayas Centre, Nanjing. Illustration: www.i-mad.com

Erupting across six city blocks like a limestone mountain range, the Zendai Himalayas Centre will be Mas most literal interpretation yet of his philosophy of fusing architecture and nature. Taking inspiration from the traditional style of shanshui landscape brush painting (literally meaning mountain-water), the 560,000 sq metre complex is designed to look as if it has been eroded by millennia of wind and water, not thrown up overnight by an army of migrant labourers. Once again, Ma appears to be forgetting that elegant feathery brushstrokes dont often translate well into lumps of glass and steel. It is one of many such green-fingered schemes in Nanjing, including Stefano Boeris vertical forest towers and the Sifang art park, where Steven Holl, SANAA, David Adjaye and others have built pavilions in a rolling landscape as another decoy for a luxury real estate project.

Huawei campus, Dongguan

A render of Huawei campus, Dongguan, which is based on 12 European towns

Telecoms giant Huawei has courted lawsuits for copying from rivals in the past, but its love of imitating clearly extends to architecture too. The companys new campus, under construction on a 300-acre site in Dongguan, is based on 12 European towns. There are the dreaming spires of Oxford, the quaint redbrick houses of Bruges, the palazzos of Verona and the chateaux of Burgundy, all connected by a meandering Swiss railway. It might look like a theme park, but the employees will have little time for leisure: Huaweis founder likens his staff to a pack of hungry wolves and offers them a dedicated employee agreement to voluntarily forgo paid holiday and overtime.

Guardian Cities is dedicating a week to the huge but often unreported cities on the front line of Chinas unprecedented urbanisation. Explore our coverage here and follow us on Facebook. Share stories via WeChat (GuardianCities) and by using #OtherChina on Twitter and Instagram

Read more: http://ift.tt/2mTltLX

from Put us on the map, please: China’s smaller cities go wild for starchitecture

#Put us on the map #please: China’s smaller cities go wild for starchitecture

[topsolarpanels]

Set us on the map, please: China’s smaller cities run wild for starchitecture

From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to the centre of braised chicken reinventing itself as Solar Valley, Chinas second( and third) tier cities are hiring big-name designers to get them noticed

From egg-shaped concert halls to skyscrapers reminiscent of big pairs of pants, Chinas top cities are famously full of curious monuments to architectural aspiration. But as land prices in the main metropolises have shot into the stratosphere, developers have been scrambling to buy up plots in the countrys second and third-tier cities, spawning a new generation of delirious schemes in the provinces. President Xi Jinping may have issued a directive last year prohibiting oversized, xenocentric, weird buildings, but many of these schemes were already well under way; his diktat has proved to be no obstacle to mayoral hubris yet.

From Harbin City of Music to Dezhou Solar Valley, provincial capitals are branding themselves as themed enclaves of culture and industry to attract inward investment, and commissioning ratings of bold buildings to match. Even where there is no demand, city bureaucrats are relentlessly selling off land for development, hawking plots as the primary sort of revenues accounting for 80% of municipal revenues in some cases. In the last two months alone, 50 Chinese cities received a total of 453 bn yuan( 54 bn) from land auctions, a 73% increase on last year, and its the provincial capitals that are leading the way.

At the same time, Xis national culture drive has ensure countless museums, concert halls and opera houses spring up across the country, often used as sweeteners for land bargains, conceived as the jewels at the centre of glistening mixed-used visions( that sometimes never arrive ). Culture, said Xi, is a precondition of the great renaissance of the Chinese people, but it has also proved to be a powerful lubricant for ever more real estate supposition even if the production of content to fill these great foyers cant quite keep abreast with the insatiable building boom. From mountain-shaped apartment blocks to cavernous libraries, heres a glimpse of whats emerging in the regions.

Fake Hills, Beihai

A render of how the Fake Hills would look. Illustration: MAD architects

Forming an 800 metre-long cliff-face along the coast of the southern port city of Beihai, the Fake Hills housing block is the work of Ma Yansong, Chinas homegrown conjuror of sinuous, globular kinds whose practise is appropriately named MAD. Having analyse at Yale and worked with Zaha Hadid in London, where he nourished his penchant for blobs, Ma has spent the past decades dreaming up improbable mountain-shaped megastructures across the country.

Less scenic mountain and more lumpen crash of colossal cruise-liners The first stage of building on Fake Hills has been completed. Photograph: MAD

As it rises and falls, the undulating roofline of Fake Hills forms terraces for badminton and tennis courts, as well as a garden and swimming pool. Sadly the overall consequence is less scenic mountain range than a lumpen collision of colossal cruise-liners.

Greenland Tower, Chengdu

Greenland Tower, Chengdu. The build harks back to the crystalline dreams of early 20 th-century German designer Bruno Taut. Illustration: Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture

A crystalline spire rising 468 metres above the 18 million-strong metropolis of Chengdu, the Greenland Tower will be the tallest building in southwestern China, standing as a sharply chiselled monument to the countrys( and by some countings the worlds) largest property developer, Greenland Holding. It is designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, designers of Dubais Burj Khalifa, who say the faceted rod is a reference to the unique ice mountain topography of the region. It harks back to the crystalline dreams of early 20 th-century German architect Bruno Taut, who imagined a dazzling glass city crown to celebrate socialism and agriculture; whether Sichuans farmers will be welcomed into the penthouse sky garden remains to be seen.

Sun-Moon mansion, Dezhou

A contender to Silicon Valley the Sun-Moon mansion of Solar Valley, Dezhou. Photograph: Alamy

Once known as a centre of braised chicken production, the city of Dezhou in the north-eastern province of Shandong now brands itself as Solar Valley, a renewable energy centre intended to rival Californias Silicon Valley. At its heart is the Sun-Moon mansion, a vast fan-shaped office building powered by an arc of solar panel on its roof. It is the brainchild of Huang Ming, aka Chinas sun king, an oil industry technologist turned solar energy tycoon who heads the Himin Solar Energy Group, the worlds biggest producer of solar water heaters as well as purveyor of sun-warmed lavatory seats and solar-powered Tibetan prayer wheels.

Harbin Opera House

Harbin Opera House, with the St Petersburg of the east in the background. Photo: Position Pictures/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Nicknamed the St Petersburg of the east, the far northern city of Harbin has long had a thriving cultural scene as a gateway to Russia and beyond. In the 1920 s, manners from Paris and Moscow arrived here before they reached Shanghai, and it was home to the countrys first symphony orchestra, made up of mostly Russian musicians.

Inside Harbin Opera House. Photograph: View Pictures/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Declared city of music in 2010, Harbin has recently pumped millions into a glint new concert hall by Arata Isozaki, a gargantuan neo-classical conservatory and an 80,000 sq metre whipped meringue of an opera house by MAD. Shaped like a pair of snowy dunes, up which guests can climb on snaking paths, the building contains a sinuous timber-lined auditorium designed as an eroded block of wood.

Tianjin Binhai library

Tianjin Binhai library. Illustration: MVRDV

Due to open this summer in the sprawling port city of Tianjin, this space-age library by Dutch architects MVRDV is imagined as a gaping cave of volumes, carved out from within an oblong glass block. The shelves form a terraced landscape of seat, wrapping around a giant mirrored sphere auditorium that nestles in the middle of the space like a pearl in an oyster.

Inside the space-age Tianjin Binhai library. Illustration: MVRDV

Along with a new theater, congress centre and a science and technology museum by Bernard Tschumi, the building forms part of a new cultural quarter for the city, itself being swallowed into the planned Beijing-Tianjin mega-region population 130 million, thats more than Japan .

Huaguoyuan Towers, Guiyang

Arups twin towers are almost complete. Illustration: LWK& Partners

Nowhere in China is the disparity between economic reality and architectural aspiration more stark than in Guiyang, capital of rural Guizhou, the poorest province in the country, which has the fifth most skyscraper schemes of any Chinese city. The twin 335 -metre towers of the Huaguoyuan developing, by Arup, are now almost complete, standing as the centrepiece of a new mixed-use office, retail and amusement complex, while SOM is busy conjuring the even higher Cultural Plaza Tower, a 521 -metre glass spear that will soar above a new riverfront world of shopping malls and theaters. It has the glitz and gloss of any other Chinese citys new central business district, but as Knight Franks David Ji points out: It will be hard for a city like Guiyang to find quality tenants to fill the space.

Yubei agricultural park, Chongqing

Will Alsops Yubei agricultural park. Illustration: Will Alsop

Architectural funster Will Alsop may finally have found his calling in the supercharged furnace of Chinas second-tier cities booming leisure economy, crafting a number of fantastical dreamworlds from his new satellite studio in Chongqing where he is busy building a new cultural one-quarter around his own office, with a restaurant, bar and distillery. He is also plotting an enormous agricultural leisure park in Yubei, 20 miles north of the city, designed to cater to the new middle class nascent appreciation of the countryside, a place hitherto associated with peasants and poverty. The rolling scenery will be dotted with cocoon-like treehouses, a flower-shaped hotel and a big lake covered by an LED-screen canopy, so guests can enjoy projected blue skies despite the smog.

Zendai Himalayas centre, Nanjing

A limestone mountain range: Zendai Himalayas Centre, Nanjing. Illustration: www.i-mad.com

Erupting across six city blocks like a limestone mountain range, the Zendai Himalayas Centre is likely to be Mas most literal interpretation yet of his doctrine of fusing architecture and nature. Taking inspiration from the traditional style of shanshui scenery brush painting( literally entailing mountain-water ), the 560,000 sq metre complex is designed to look as if it has been eroded by millennia of breeze and water , not thrown up overnight by an army of migrant labourers. Once again, Ma appears to be forgetting that elegant feathery brushstrokes dont often translate well into lumps of glass and steel. It is one of many such green-fingered strategies in Nanjing, including Stefano Boeris vertical forest towers and the Sifang art park, where Steven Holl, SANAA, David Adjaye and others have constructed pavilions in a rolled scenery as another decoy for a luxury real estate project.

Huawei campus, Dongguan

A render of Huawei campus, Dongguan, which is based on 12 European towns

Telecoms giant Huawei has courted lawsuits for copying from challengers in the past, but its love of mimicking clearly extends to architecture too. The companys new campus, under construction on a 300 -acre site in Dongguan, is based on 12 European townships. There are the dreaming spires of Oxford, the quaint redbrick houses of Bruges, the palazzos of Verona and the chateaux of Burgundy, all connected by a meander Swiss railway. It might look like a theme park, but the employees will have little time for leisure: Huaweis founder likens his staff to a pack of hungry wolves and offers them a dedicated employee agreement to voluntarily forgo paid holiday and overtime.

Guardian Cities is dedicating a week to the huge but often unreported cities on the front line of Chinas unprecedented urbanisation. Explore our coverage here and follow us on Facebook. Share stories via WeChat( GuardianCities) and by employing #OtherChina on Twitter and Instagram

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post Set us on the map, please: China’s smaller cities run wild for starchitecture appeared first on Top Rated Solar Panels.

from Top Rated Solar Panels http://ift.tt/2hUW86v via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Top Rated Solar Panels