Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Past Future of Sports


One of the most talked about buildings at this summer's Olympics is the aquatics center. Er... centre. (We're talking about London, after all.)

There's something all Olympic cities share in common. While the organizing body of the games requires each venue to have a minimum seating capacity, that number is often far greater than what's needed once the athletes have left town. As a result, the buildings left standing are normally much outsized for the everyday use of the locals. It's reasonable to think that a college swim meet will not draw the same crowds as the world's best swimmers, right?

To solve this, Zaha Hadid Architects designed the aquatics building with two detachable seating wings. Capacity at the center can reach 17,500 for the Olympics (top rendering), while afterward it will drop to a more intimate 2,500 by removing the wings. Once removed, the construction material for the wings will be recycled for future projects, and the void in the facade will be sealed with a glass wall (bottom rendering). To facilitate removal, the steel components of the wings are bolted, not welded, to the main structure.

Below is a section showing the building in its Olympic configuration: the removable wings are shaded yellow; the pool is blue.



Funny thing is, while the planners of the venue are soaking in praise for their innovation, their basic ideas were presaged by a half century: behold the Mechanized Stadium of the Future, circa 1958.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Type Connection

If you created a Venn diagram of The Dating Game aficionados and type connoisseurs, you might find just a sliver of overlap. But that small overlap would go crazy for the the Type Connection website—and so should you. Type Connection encourages you to explore the compatibility of typefaces by creating combinations both harmonious and contrasting. The site combines choose-your-own-adventure pathways with insightful nuggets of type history. You'll come away laughing and learning something. Chuck Barris would be proud.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Movie Posters Reinvented

Reinterpreting classic movie posters is a popular pastime of designers. A collection of particularly great ones was done by Brandon Shaefer, a selection of which appear above. Buy your favorites here. (And while you're at it, buy us one, too.)