REFLECTING IT ALL SO BEAUTIFULLY
This week we are focused on Beautiful Reflections. We begin with a collection of 10 exceptional buildings and monumental sculptures that reflect their surroundings.
1. LUCID HOMESTEAD
“Lucid Homestead”
Desert near Joshua Tree, CA, USA
by Phillip K. Smith III
Is there a house here or isn’t there? The mirrored stripes of this 70-year old homestead cabin near Joshua Tree, CA play with us.
Artist Phillip K. Smith III reconstructed a house by replacing strips of its walls with mirrors and its windows with mirrored panels. The work is called Lucid Homestead. It dips in and out of view as the reflective stripes alternate with solid wood.
2. INVISIBLE BARN
Invisible Barn
Socrates Sculpture Park
Queens, NY
Objects that reflect often appear to be invisible themselves. They are all about showing off everything and everyone around them. “Look at them, not at me,” they seem to say. And that, of course highlights their own beauty and charms.
"Invisible Barn," is a parallelogram-shaped structure in Socrates Sculpture Park, in Queens, NY, designed by the New York-based architecture firm stpmj. Simply constructed, of wood sheeted with mylar, it sculpts our perceptions as it reflects from different planes and angles.
Some reflections are hard to tell apart from the real surrounding trees.
The Invisible Barn was conceived as an entry for the Folly contest, an annual event held by the Architectural League of New York, an homage to the "architectural folly," popular during the 18th century.
3. MIRROR HOUSE
Mirror House
Isle of Tyree, Scotland
Ekkehard Altenburger
German sculptor Ekkehard Altenburger went for ultimate simplicity as he constructed Mirror House, with its basic shape and flat surfaces. It became a perfect “canvas” for the Scottish landscape “painting” that materialized on its 5 x 5 foot walls.
4. THE MIRRORCUBE
“The Mirrorcube”
Treehotel, Harads, Sweden
by Tham & Videgård (Bolle Tham & Martin Videgård)
The Treehotel doesn’t want to be seen. It’s mirrored walls reflect the trees as it appears to become them. They are covered with infrared film to prevent birds from smacking into them. Birds see the color. Humans don’t.
5. MIRROR HOUSE (ALEMERE, NETHERLANDS)
Mirror House
De Eenvoud, Almere, The Netherlands
by Johan Selbing and Anouk Vogel
This private villa in the Netherlands, designed by Johan Selbing and Anouk Vogel, is encased in reflective glass. It is a brilliant camouflage. And it makes the house appear much larger than it really is.
6. PALÄON RESEARCH & EXPERIENCE CENTER
PALÄON Research and Experience Center
Schöningen, Germany
by Holzer Kobler Architekturen in collaboration with pbr AG and Topotek1
We love this contemporary celebration of prehistoric importance. The PALÄON Research and Experience Center in Schöningen, Germany is a giant 3D mirror which houses a set of Paleolithic hunting spears which were found on site.
The Schöningen Spears, the oldest complete set of hunting weapons and the first evidence of the active hunt by early man.
The mirrored building design mimics these 300,000-year-old spears. It offers a 360 degree reflection of the surrounding forest, meadows, and the life within them.
A transparent, weather-proof, fluorpolymeric lacquer system protects the shiny surfaces.
7. MARK’S HOUSE
“Mark’s House”
Flint, MI, USA
by Two Islands
Flint, Michigan has seen better days. It was a prominent and early canary in the coal mine, warning of the decline of the American automotive industry and the ensuing Rust Belt. The city recently launched a competition that asked architects to bring new life to vacant lots.
Two Islands, a London architectural studio designed the winner, entitled "Mark's House"—as a monument to a fictional Flint resident named Mark.
Mirror House is sheathed in mylar and sits atop a mylar-sheathed pedestal, offering the illusion of a floating home.
8. MIRROR HOUSE (COPENHAGEN)
Mirror House
Copenhagen, Denmark
by MLRP
A run-down playground was transformed by this Mirror House, designed by Danish-American based architects MLRP. It is part of the new Interactive Playground Project in Copenhagen.
Children play in the building’s funhouse reflections, as they see themselves transformed into exaggerated shapes.
The MIrror House roof and facade is clad with heat-modified wood. The gables and shutters are clad with mirror polished stainless steel.
9. CAMELOT CULTURAL CENTER (THE STONE)
The Camelot Cultural Center, AKA “The Stone”
Trent Park, London, UK
by Råk-Arkitektur
Like a giant crystal jutting out of the sidewalk, The Stone, a new cultural site designed for Trent Park, England, the place where King Arthur was purported to hold his famous court.
The building was designed by Swedish architectural firm Råk-Arkitektur, which won the design contest held for this site.
The 36 metre high structure was designed to reflect its surrounding woodland environment. And since birds often get tragically fooled by large reflective surfaces, this building is layered with a film, making it visible to them. The special coating on the glass makes the surface hydrophilic and self-cleaning.
10. CLOUD GATE
“Cloud Gate”
Millenium Park, Chicago, IL, USA
by Anish Kapoor
Sculptor Anish Kapoor made Cloud Gate out of 168 stainless steel plates welded together. It’s highly polished reflections are seamless as Chicago’s surrounding buildings follow its sensuous curves. It measures 33 by 66 by 42 feet, and weighs 110 short tons.
Read more about Beautiful Reflections, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact.
And enter our Beautiful Reflections competition. Open for entries until midnight PT 05.24.14. If you are reading this after this date, enter our current competiton here.
Photo Credits:
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Photo: by Phillip K Smith. Lucid Homestead.
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Photo: by Phillip K Smith. Lucid Homestead.
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Photo: Courtesy of the Huffington Post. Invisible Barn.
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Photo: Courtesy of the Huffington Post. Invisible Barn.
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Photo: Courtesy of Ekkehard Altenburger. Mirror House.
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Photo: Courtesy of Inrednings Gruppen. “The Mirrorcube.”
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Photo: by Jeroen Musch. Mirror House.
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Photo: Courtesy of Holzer Kobler Architekture. PALAON Research and Experience Center.
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Photo: by Gavin Smith. “Mark’s House.”
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Photo: Courtesy of Rak-Arkitektur. The Camelot Cultural Center.
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Photo: Courtesy of Europe Tour Packages. Cloud Gate.
