Archives for January 2014
The Jellyfish House: Cantilevered Rooftop Pool with Glass Floor
January 10, 2014 By Leave a Comment
A pool with a glass floor projects off the second story of a modern concrete home, giving those relaxing on the semi-enclosed terrace below a fun look at swimmers. It’s also visible from inside the house, with the blue-green water casting tranquil rippling reflections onto the surfaces of the kitchen.
Visitors to Jellyfish House, a vacation home in Spain by Wiel Arets Architects, meander from the ground level up a concrete ramp to the main entrance, where the swimming pool makes an immediate impression. They can either enter the partially submerged basement for access to two guest bedrooms, or continue into the common spaces of the first floor, which include a sauna and steam bath.
An exterior set of stairs offers a fast route directly to the roof, while the interior stairs lead to additional bedrooms. The rooftop terrace and infinity-edge swimming pool, which has a built-in underwater bench, overlook the nearby Mediterranean Sea. A small service elevator allows food and drink to be brought from any other floor up to the rooftop.
The architects call the design “an avant-garde expression of luxurious living,” and it certainly offers a one-of-a-kind experience that honors its seaside location.
Read more: http://dornob.com/jellyfish-house-cantilevered-rooftop-pool-with-glass-floor/#ixzz2pdUX1nHc
How to Design a Family Photo Wall
January 10, 2014 By Leave a Comment
New project for a new year: Display your favorite images of loved ones for the most personal gallery wall of all
In the digital photo age, not only do most of us have cameras on us at all times, but we have printers that can turn them from pixels into paper. There’s been no formal study I can find, but it only stands to reason that people have more photographs of friends and family in their possession now than at any other time in history.
How to display them? Interior designer Emily Mughannam of EM Design Interiors in Sonoma, California, says technology may change, but the desire to surround ourselves with family images seems to stay the same. “An interior should tell a story,” she says. “A photo wall can show us where we have been and where we are going. Frankly, when I’m in a home without one, it can feel a little sterile.” Whether you choose to do it yourself or hire a professional, once the photos are 2-D, the process of creating a photo wall can be decidedly low tech.
Thursday’s Thought
January 9, 2014 By Leave a Comment
“Art is about rearranging us, creating surprising juxtapositions, emotional openings, startling presences, flight paths to the eternal.”
– Ben Zander
Why Does Music Aid in Memorization?
January 8, 2014 By Leave a Comment
If grade school has taught us anything, it’s that turning a list of items into a song is a great way to remember things. That same basic process works just as well in adulthood, and The Wall Street Journal explains why.
As you’d probably expect, music helps us memorize items using rhythm and alliteration. The Wall Street Journal explains:
The words to a holiday song bubble up to the surface of the brain, even decades since last hearing the tune. Yet recalling a bank-account password can put the mind in a twist. Neuroscientists have long debated the brain mechanisms related to memory, but they agree on one thing: Information set to music is among the easiest to remember. One expert, Henry L. Roediger III, professor of psychology at the Memory Lab at Washington University in St. Louis, explains how songs easily stick in the mind.
Music is a powerful mnemonic device, but the song’s structure is what allows a person to recall the information it holds—not necessarily the catchy tune itself. The added melody encourages repetition and thus memorization, which is perhaps why patients with advanced Alzheimer’s dementia have been known to sing along to a familiar song.
Here’s a link to the entire article.
Top 10 Job Titles That Didn’t Exist 5 Years Ago
January 6, 2014 By Leave a Comment
The workplace is constantly changing and how we define what we do is no exception. Since we just welcomed the new 2014, we thought it’d be fun to see how much our work has changed in the past few years. We examined the data of over 259 million members’ profiles to determine the top 10 most popular job titles that were nowhere to be found in 2008. Here is what we came up with.
Shovel Snow with a Home Made Push Plow [video]
January 6, 2014 By Leave a Comment
While here in Seattle, shoveling snow isn’t something we do in the winter. However, I have done my fair share (being from Montreal, Quebec, Canada). It’s back breaking, boring and just not fun. I went to my favorite place to search for tips, YouTube, looking for ways to reduce the time it takes to get this dreaded job done and think I found a gem.
Check out the genius DIY project YouTube User Jim Shaw came up with.
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