View allAll Photos Tagged Visualisation
The new iTunes 8 visualiser. It's absolutely mesmerising! You can appreciate it more when you see it moving.
A circular route in the past that went from West Norwood to East Dulwich Sainsbury's but what could it have looked like if it wasn't a commercial route?
I look into the history of P15 and S11/S13 more in depth.
For once, a higher budget promotion.
Von einem meiner Lieblingslieder des weißen Albums. Georges Handschrift. Nachweislich das einige Lied der Liverpooler, das von Süßigkeiten handelt.
One of my favourite tunes from White Album. The only one by the Fab Four dealing with sweets. It's George's hand writing.
My impression is based on a web image of Bismarck.
Imagine a moment, in 1941, it was just after the sinking of HMS Hood. Bismarck is sailing into the empty wastes of the North Atlantic knowing that she will be pursued.
Visualise a single, golden, sun-lit moment in the vast Atlantic before the terrible end.
A solitary figure represents the terrifying loneliness of command at the very top.
Historical note.
The German battleship Bismarck sunk the Royal Navy's most famous ship, HMS Hood. In an attempt to escape the avenging arm of the Royal Navy she tried to sail to the German controlled French Atlantic ports.
Steering west was the Royal Navy's Home Fleet, coming up from Gibraltar was Force H. Bismarck was caught between the two.
Nowadays, when this battle is remembered, it is done jointly, British and German survivors sharing, as old men, their memories of terrible days.
Poem
One of my contributors, Heniusia, added this poem in her comment. It just seemed so perfect I have included it here.
Requiem For The Sailors Of The Battleship Bismarck
A poem for Bismarck's brave, honourable sailors.
It was a cold and rainy morning,
Six hundred miles away from the coasts.
They had only hopes and brave feelings.
During the sunrise their last fight began.
They all fought to their last shell,
And all died...
During their gallant and hopeless fight.
But their spirits are all alive today
And they know that they all signed,
The name of the battleship Bismarck,
Into the cold waters of Atlantic Ocean,
With their blood...
All of them were young, brave and
Honourable seamen who lived as gentlemen.
And died as gentlemen...
Can anybody say if no roses
Bloom on a sailors grave?
All the roses bloom in our
Hearts for these sailors forever...
Poem by A. Evliyaoðlu
Promise not to bore you all week with dental horror stories again, but I think i need to go to my happy place (Porthcurno Beach, Cornwall) for a spot of 'visualisation' today after visiting the dentist for a follow up appointment.
As i feared / expected, i've got a 'dry socket' and a bit of an infection in my jawbone (that would explain that deep throbbing pain then) and i'm going to be taking a couple of sorts of antibiotics for the next ten days.
My overriding thought is that i'm lucky to live somewhere where it can be diagnosed and treated so quickly, but i'll also admit to a little bit of disappointment when i was told i absolutely musn't drink any alcohol with these or i'll be very sick. Have got a wedding and cricket awards party coming up and both are a bit more fun after a beer or two. Also beer tastes a bit nicer than the salt water rinses that i'm doing about ten times a day.
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©2010 Jason Swain, All Rights Reserved
This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without the explicit written permission of the photographer.
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Links to my website, facebook and twitter can be found on my flickr profile
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Occasionally, I visualise a different rendition of a photograph I took years ago, this is a black and white rendition, with a different crop, of The meadow where the gorges meet/Donde las gargantas se juntan
One can't make fan art for oneself, can one? Ahem.
You might not know this, but I have quite a lot of weird hobbies (I play a *lot* of Civilization, for example). Anyway, in addition to dollying and painting and drawing and stuff, I also write sometimes (NaNoWriMo 2014 novel still pootling along).
Anyway - I occasionally write fanfic (ahem). This picture is actually a visualisation of a scene in one of my own stories, 'A Lover's Discourse' (www.fanfiction.net/s/9245799/1/A-Lover-s-Discourse). If you fancy reading a slightly odd character study of a post-movie Flynn Rider/Eugene Fitzherbert, then do have a look (unless you're under 16 or so - minor naughtiness and a fair bit of swearing occur).
As for the picture: the dress, I must admit, includes elements of Claire Keane's original concept art for Rapunzel's tower wall paintings - I tried to draw them myself, but it looked pretty awful. The dress is late 18th century inspired European court dress - a mantua, in fact. There are some beautiful examples of dresses like this in the V&A in London.
So this is my first attempt at visualising my piece of writing called "The girl with the perl necklace" and it turned out really well.
Writing has become sort of a therapeutic thing for me. I found a way of healing through every word I write. Turning emotions and feelings into art is the perfect way to handle them, at least for me. I realise what a wonderful, what an amazing thing art ist.
See the rest and read the text here.
This visualisation was produced in QGIS 2.12.1, with a little help from postgres/postgis (could also be done in QGIS only).
Areas of each country's circle are in proportion to population.
How it was done
First of all, reprojected the Natural Earth data to epsg:3410 (a cylindrical equal area projection in meters). This is important; doing it in epsg:4326 makes countries appear bigger the further they are from the equator (areal distortion). Because degrees.
Next, used postgis to find the centroids and buffer them, so that the circle area is in direct proportion to population. Brought these in as CSV delimited files after exporting from pgAdminIII. The query sorted images in descending order of size, so smaller countries appear on top of larger countries.
Unfortunately, this projection keeps areas in scale, but distorts shapes. Some countries start to look like eggs. Oh noes!
Got round this by scaling the map down to a small size (a few square kilometers) and centred on null island, which removed the shape distortion, but kept the equal-area. Turned off OTF projection.
Flag images came from CIA World Factbook, and were used as raster Image fills. Used the FIPS code from the Natural Earth data to build the filepath to the CIA factbook images like this
'/tmp/factbook/flags/' || "fips" || '-lgflag.gif'
Because you can only scale the image width at present (I used bounds_width($geometry) in map units) I had to convert each flag into a square format using ImageMagick. Most flags are wider than they are tall, this avoids tiling the flag in each circle, at the expense of corner detail.
Apologies in advance to Norway - not sure what happened there. Some manual tweaking may be needed :D
Inspiration Victorienne.
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Appuyez sur la touche "L" du clavier pour une visualisation optimale.
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© Tous droits réservés / Tutti i diritti riservati / All rights reserved
Please, don't copy and use this image on websites, blogs or
other media without my explicit and written permission
Don't claim as your own | NON-COMMERCIAL PURPOSE
Visualisation Stadler. Tous droits réservés.
Stadler a communiqué le 24 novembre 2025 la commande MBC de deux locomotives hybrides supplémentaires (total trois) pour le trafic marchandises.
Ces deux locomotives devraient être mises en service à fin 2028.
Elle fonctionneront en mode diesel sur les embranchements (gravières) non électrifiés.
Google's auto-complete - an incidental feature but always hilariously revealing about the deep concerns of the group mind.
I had a go at visualizing the query “How do I get my girlfriend / boyfriend to…” using the sweet tool Web Seer. See what you think.
More visuals here
The above scenes are based on observations of the numerous corniform signs from around Mont Bego and arise from images and texts featured in the Flickr album 'Mont Bégo'.
To simulate frame huts covered with cow leather, I used the 'FB Lisse' from La Bisbal bisbalceram.com which has a natural tint of burnt umbra. The clay was thumb polished and carved over a number of days - so not fired.
The moonlit clouds above the mountain were made by light-painting and were added during the long exposure of the scene.
The fence posts are from overwintered vines of old man's beard slotted into corrugated cardboard strip (thinking of Gondry for this solution).
The stars were layered during post and come from a general shot I'd taken of Orion (see the Flickr album 'Night shots').
For these images, I am not aiming for any 'realism', rather a credible starting point from which the viewer can add potential details. Maybe a simpler fence with draped drying grass? Maybe guide ropes? ... Wind art decoration, or graphic changes of tone. Bags might have been attached to the fence posts or a domestic dog tethered to keep guard. The smouldering remains of an open fire and so on.
Many artistic visualisations of prehistoric accommodation depict daytime scenes. My aim here was to show huts as night protection - the moment of the day when their need and logic is resounding. I also tried to create an atmosphere that felt cold - ground frost and so on, again to show how important a good hut is for a family and clan. It is possible that the peoples who climbed above the tree line to make the Mont Bégo bronze age rock art came from fertile valleys lower down between the mountain range. Even without frost, the descending cold air of the mountain lifestyle can be a shock to the system and many readers will have experienced altitude camping when the warm air switches off and the creeping cold mountain air descends into the tent to impart an array of chatters and shiverings. Again a successful culture need to have adapted to an environment and have apt solutions to local conditions.
Left. From time in the Mont Bégo rock art you see 'bodies of cows' without horns. It's easy to think that these may be fields or waiting for horns that never came, but if they were cow-form huts (a term I chance with) then they may simply be huts without their entrance fencing - an ideosyncratic and normal detail of a diverse culture.
Centre. There are several corniform images of circular 'horns'. (Bicknell VII No 51, XVIII NO22, XXXV No14...). All are assured images and all seem to be difficult to understand if the only meaning of a corniform sign is a 'cow'. The central image projects a circle of fencing in front of the entrance to a small leather covered hut. This seem very understandable as an early crofting solution.
Right: The same image, but with the fence in a typical corniform presentation. See how this provides wind break, shade and an arena for a fireplace. With a domestic dog in the 'courtyard' the vulnerable entrance to the tough leather tent is protected during the night. With good post hole alternatives, opening and closing fencing would also produce the images centre and right which would make some of the corniform variety due to the recording of different states of usage of the dynamic structures. Many corniforms have a square between the horns, and the square certainly also alludes to the head of a cow, but a hut with the same square may have also have had a 'kennel space' for a guard dog : heating the entrance for a sleepy family.
AJM 17.2.19
A project by Accurat,
directed by Giorgia Lupi and Michela Buttignol
Buy prints on Society 6 - society6.com/accurat
This project is an attempt to build a visual anthology of 10 abstract painters' lives,
isolating pictorial elements from painters' styles and using them to tell the story of their life and artistic production through a series of diagrams.
Canard Colvert avec ses petits Canetons.
Je vous remercie mes amis de m'avoir accordé un peu de votre temps pour visualiser mes photos, vos commentaries et mise en favoris.
Thank you my friends for giving me a bit of your time to view my photos, comments and favorites.
How atoms interact and behave is common high-school knowledge, but what we know is based on assumptions or snapshots. Electron microscopes have taken images of atoms so we know how they settle, but we have never recorded atoms moving.
The ESA–Roscosmos Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4) experiment is recreating atomic interactions in a fluid on a larger scale on the International Space Station. The proxy atoms in PK-4 are microparticles, which are suspended and charged in plasma (an ionised gas with electrons and ions). The microparticles interact with each other via the high electrical charges, forming a strongly coupled liquid or solid – a classical model system for condensed matter.
This image shows the typical purple glow of an argon plasma in the PK-4 hardware on Earth. Microparticles are introduced into the plasma to observe how they behave.
On Earth the particles are influenced by gravity but in space the particles will behave similarly to charged atoms in a fluid or crystal structure allowing researchers to understand better the hidden interactions of our world.
PK-4 is installed in the European Physiology Module on the European space laboratory Columbus and runs for up to four days, four times a year.
Credit: MPE–M. Kretschmer
Champignon
Je vous remercie mes amis de m'avoir accordé un peu de votre temps pour visualiser mes photos, vos commentaries et mise en favoris.
Thank you my friends for giving me a bit of your time to view my photos, comments and favorites.
2x 580EXII into a softbox with CTO gel cam left, 430EXII far back with 1/2 CTB gel at 105mm, 580EXII on Grp A, 430EXII on Grp B, triggered via 580EX on cam with 4:1 A:B ratio.
Setup here..
La Techno Box, comme dans « j’ai cours de techno » (et pas comme la musique de club !) Vous allez voir qu’il y a quand même un lien (ténu) avec la musique, ou plus exactement avec le son. Cette expérience a été réalisée par des étudiants qui l’ont nommée TetrISS (je ne me prononce pas sur le nom [emoji]). Elle doit servir à visualiser les figures de Chladni en 3 dimensions. Vous avez peut-être déjà vu ces formes provoquées par des ultrasons, mais sur Terre à cause de la pesanteur c’est toujours en 2 dimensions. L’objectif ici c’est de profiter de l’impesanteur pour les observer en 3D. Pas grand chose de musical là dedans, c’est surtout des maths, mais sait-on jamais, ça pourrait inspirer des artistes !
This is Techno Box. As much as I would like (hate?) to have it make thumping techno music to welcome Matthias on board next week, it is techno as in technology. At school in France technology is often shortened to techno. We call techno music, tek, but the variations of how Europeans call electronic music and their subgenres is another story. What does Techno box do? It should allow students to visualise Chladni forms in three dimensions using sound waves. Which actually brings us back to music. 🤔 When sounds waves interact with objects they can arrange them in a visual form (think sound waves), search for it... but only in weightlessness can we attempt to make three dimensional forms! The sound waves needed are not music (unfortunately) but mathematical wave forms. The French name for this experiment is TetrISS, do I have to explain that it was a legendary videogame?... 😂
Credits: ESA/NASA–T. Pesquet
607J5935
3D conceptualisation of a future iMac made by Adam Benton (source)
"The iMac features a 30" utra-thin LCD screen, which is totally transparent when the iMac is not in use. The screen can also be set to various levels of translucency, and can fade during sleep modes etc. The keyboard is also totally tramsparent, low profile and a curved ergonomic design, with light sensitive illuminated keys."
The visualisation software Uniview allows visitors of the Ars Electronica Center’s Deep Space 8K to explore the universe not only in a breathtaking resolution - but also in 3-D.
A best of Ars Electronica photos can be found here.
Ars Electronica Center Linz
Ars-Electronica-Straße 1
4040 Linz
Austria
Credit: Ars Electronica / Robert Bauernhansl
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is now 80 miles across and the size of Jamaica, and according to new reports is five times worse than first thought, leaking around 5000 barrels into the sea, as opposed to the 1000 barrels first estimated.
View full article at Oil and Gas US
Graphic by T Farrant | Twitter @fallenblossom
A visualisation of the polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB, as detected by ESA's Planck satellite over the entire sky.
The CMB is a snapshot of the oldest light in our Universe, imprinted on the sky when the Universe was just 380 000 years old. It shows tiny temperature fluctuations that correspond to regions of slightly different densities, representing the seeds of all future structure: the stars and galaxies of today.
A small fraction of the CMB is polarised – it vibrates in a preferred direction. This is a result of the last encounter of this light with electrons, just before starting its cosmic journey. For this reason, the polarisation of the CMB retains information about the distribution of matter in the early Universe, and its pattern on the sky follows that of the tiny fluctuations observed in the temperature of the CMB.
In this image, the colour scale represents temperature differences in the CMB, while the texture indicates the direction of the polarised light. The patterns seen in the texture are characteristic of ‘E-mode’ polarisation, which is the dominant type for the CMB.
For the sake of illustration, both data sets have been filtered to show mostly the signal detected on scales around 5º on the sky. However, fluctuations in both the CMB temperature and polarisation are present and were observed by Planck on much smaller angular scales, too.
More details:
www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck/Planck_re...
Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration
La Techno Box, comme dans « j’ai cours de techno » (et pas comme la musique de club !) Vous allez voir qu’il y a quand même un lien (ténu) avec la musique, ou plus exactement avec le son. Cette expérience a été réalisée par des étudiants qui l’ont nommée TetrISS (je ne me prononce pas sur le nom [emoji]). Elle doit servir à visualiser les figures de Chladni en 3 dimensions. Vous avez peut-être déjà vu ces formes provoquées par des ultrasons, mais sur Terre à cause de la pesanteur c’est toujours en 2 dimensions. L’objectif ici c’est de profiter de l’impesanteur pour les observer en 3D. Pas grand chose de musical là dedans, c’est surtout des maths, mais sait-on jamais, ça pourrait inspirer des artistes !
This is Techno Box. As much as I would like (hate?) to have it make thumping techno music to welcome Matthias on board next week, it is techno as in technology. At school in France technology is often shortened to techno. We call techno music, tek, but the variations of how Europeans call electronic music and their subgenres is another story. What does Techno box do? It should allow students to visualise Chladni forms in three dimensions using sound waves. Which actually brings us back to music. 🤔 When sounds waves interact with objects they can arrange them in a visual form (think sound waves), search for it... but only in weightlessness can we attempt to make three dimensional forms! The sound waves needed are not music (unfortunately) but mathematical wave forms. The French name for this experiment is TetrISS, do I have to explain that it was a legendary videogame?... 😂
Credits: ESA/NASA–T. Pesquet
607J5967
Visualisation ne.ch . Tous droits réservés.
Le Conseil d'Etat du Canton de Neuchâtel, l'OFT et transN ont communiqué en novembre 2021 avoir passé commande de deux rames Stadler avec accès surbaissés ABe 4/8 pour la ligne La Chaux-de-Fonds - Les Ponts-de-Martel (cadre horaire 222).
Ces automotrices doubles seront issues d'une commande groupée avec les TPC (pour la ligne ASD) et les CJ.
Par contre la ligne Le Locle - Les Brenets (cadre horaire 224) devrait être supprimée et remplacée par une ligne d'autobus électriques, dont l'aménagement serait financé par le fonds pour l'infrastructure ferroviaire (!).
Visualisation des futures rames en livrée transN. Si elles seront effectivement aménagées en tant qu'ABe 4/8, cela impliquera l'introduction de la première classe sur la ligne des Ponts-de-Martel.
Cette image de synthèse est une reprise travaillée des rames à adhérence TPC pour la ligne ASD.
L'observateur attentif remarquera les destinations frontale "La Chaux-de-Fonds" et latérale "Les Diablerets".
25824
Visualisation Stadler. Tous droits réservés.
Commnuniqué de Stadler et de Westbahn.
Stadler fournira trois rames à grande vitesse SMILE (type Giruno aux CFF) à la société autrichienne Westbahn.
Ces compositions seront engagées à partir du premier mars 2026 sur la nouvelle relation Westbahn entre Wien, Graz, Klagenfurt et Villach.
33370
The former West’s Furniture Showroom, completed in early 1953, was commissioned by Laurence (Laurie) West (1918 - 2013) as a Modern, purpose-designed furniture showroom.
Located at the northeast end of Fortitude Valley, one of Brisbane’s busiest shopping centres at the time, it was designed by renowned architect Dr Karl Langer (1903 - 1969) to attract attention and provide a unique setting for West’s cutting-edge modern furniture. As the only Australian business licenced to make and sell Knoll furniture between 1956 and 1962, West’s Furniture Showroom supplied some of the country’s most prominent architects with modern furniture for their buildings and promoted Modern design both within the design community and to the general public. Sold by the West family in 1964, the building had several owners until its purchase by architect Robert Riddel, who in 2008 instigated and managed award-winning restoration and reconstruction works.
Fortitude Valley, located on the north side of the Brisbane central business district (CBD), developed over several stages to become one of Brisbane’s most successful shopping centres, concentrated in Ann, Brunswick, and Wickham Streets. A major building boom took place there in the 1880s, reflecting the widespread economic and population growth typical of the decade. Old timber buildings were replaced with larger, more impressive buildings, marking the growing sophistication, confidence and population of the suburb. Access was improved by the introduction of public transport in the form of horse-drawn trams (replaced by electric trams in the 1890s). By the close of the 1880s the Valley had become intensively settled and was beginning to grow rapidly as a secondary retail centre to the city centre. In 1891 the train line from the city was extended to Fortitude Valley, fuelling the growth of industry in the area, with large factories and warehouses established beyond the retail centre, close to workers’ dwellings.
It was during the 1880s and 1890s that three major retailers were established in the Valley – Overell’s drapery (est. 1883), T C Beirne’s Drapery (est. 1891), and McWhirters (est. 1898) – whose ongoing expansion reflected the wealth and optimism of Valley retailers, and attracted further activity and capital to the area.
Another building boom took place throughout Brisbane in the 1920s; and the Valley in particular, with its success as a commercial and industrial hub, expanded even further. Connection to the city was improved, and electric trams, which passed the busy corner of Brunswick and Wickham Streets, brought thousands of shoppers to the Valley. In 1949, the year that Fortitude Valley celebrated its centenary of European settlement, the turnover of Valley retailers alone was estimated at £15m each year, of which the three biggest firms, McWhirters, T C Beirne, and Overells, accounted for more than a third.
In the early 1950s the Valley underwent a facelift, with the investment of more than £1m in expanding and modernising buildings in order to compete with ‘uptown’ Queen Street, bringing a ‘modern slickness’ to the area. Old shop fronts were replaced with stainless steel and plate glass, dozens of shops were renovated inside and out, and larger stores were constructed, with new features such as escalators proving very popular with customers. Unlike Queen Street, the Valley had ample room for expansion and plenty of parking space, making it a desirable location for a ‘shopping centre of the future’.
In addition to the major stores, the Valley was home to hundreds of medium and small-scale businesses, including numerous furniture manufacturers and retailers. In the post-World War II (WWII) period, a growing percentage of goods sold in the Valley were coming from factories in close proximity to the main shopping centre, including printing, textiles, timber, domestic machinery, motor car assembly, hardware, and furniture factories. Fortitude Valley was one of the main hubs for furniture retailers in Brisbane, along with Woolloongabba, South Brisbane, and the Central Business District (CBD). The 1951 - 1952 Brisbane Metropolitan Trade and Business Directory lists 18 ‘furnishers and furniture dealers’ in the Valley, most concentrated at the southwest end of Wickham Street. The types of retailers ranged from the large department stores, to shops selling mass-produced furniture at affordable prices, to more specialist retailers who designed and/or made furniture to order.
The most important feature of furniture shops were their showrooms: large, flexible spaces where the furniture was displayed, often in room-like configurations so that customers could visualise the furniture in their own homes. Most furniture showrooms at that time were housed within a variety of commercial or warehouse-type buildings; many in older buildings adapted for display purposes. Showrooms also ranged in size, from single-storey shops to multi-storey complexes of adjoining buildings.
One of the Fortitude Valley furniture businesses was West’s Furniture Emporium (West’s) at 132-134 Wickham Street, established in 1937 by Frank Presnell West (father of Laurence West). Frank West had purchased the property in 1922 and in 1927 - 1928 a four-storey building was constructed on the site for Crafti & Co. Ltd, well-known furniture retailers. After Crafti & Co. experienced financial difficulties in the mid-1930s and moved out, the building was occupied by West’s. Advertisements from the 1930s and 1940s show that West’s sold a wide variety of furniture, in both ‘period’ and ‘modern’ styles, and their motto was ‘West’s for the Best’. Promoting themselves as a small family concern, their furniture was made in a chain of small factories, each specialising in varied classes of furniture.
By the early 1950s, Frank West’s son Laurence (Laurie) West had joined the family furniture business. Born in 1918, Laurie became well known in musical circles as a fine baritone singer, and performed in many concerts and singing competitions as a young man in the 1930s and 1940s. During WWII he served in the Australian Army, attaining the rank of sergeant. After his discharge in April 1946, he and his wife Mary (nee Quine, married in 1943) moved into their new, architect-designed residence at Fairfield. While still active in performing and musical circles, Laurie spent a short time studying architecture at the Brisbane Central Technical College. During his studies, Laurie was struck by the lack of local consideration given to the ‘world scene,’ especially in terms of interior design. Extending his own knowledge of this field through ‘extensive reading in libraries and [of] purchased books’ - including subscriptions to journals from America, Sweden, and Europe - and contact with like-minded individuals, including the architect Karl Langer in Brisbane and Harry Seidler in Sydney, Laurie developed a desire to supply Brisbane (and Australia) with modern furniture. This desire grew in ambition and scale, and in the early 1950s he began planning a new purpose-designed showroom for displaying and selling modern furniture.
The site chosen for the new showroom was at the northeast edge of Fortitude Valley, in a predominantly residential and industrial area. Frank West sold his property at 132-134 Wickham Street in 1951 and in the same year purchased 618 Wickham Street (now known as 620 Wickham Street). At the time, the property consisted of an old timber residence with a shop at the front, and had rear access from Knapp Street. In 1951, Laurie West himself drew up some concept plans for a modern showroom on the site, which included a fish pond inside the front display window, a side arcade and entrance, an open-plan showroom with regularly-spaced posts painted bright primary colours, and a flat roof with rooftop garden.
The architect engaged to design West’s new furniture showroom was Dr Karl Langer, who had designed Laurie and Mary West’s house at Fairfield. Born and educated in Vienna, Langer immigrated to Australia with his wife, artist and art critic Dr Gertrude Langer, in 1939; bringing direct experience of the European Modern Movement to Queensland. In addition to working as an architect, Langer lectured part-time in architecture and architectural design at the University of Queensland from 1940, publishing his influential booklet ‘Sub-Tropical Housing’ in 1944. From 1945 Langer was employed as an assistant town planner by Brisbane City Council and was also commissioned to work on a range of town planning projects around Australia. Concurrently, he completed a wide variety of architectural projects ranging from small, economical domestic work to large commercial and institutional work.
Langer had a pronounced impact upon the built environment of Australia and set new standards for design in Queensland until his death in 1969. His body of work is a clearly-distinguishable exploration of a sub-tropical Modernism and is important in the evolution of Queensland architecture. Langer’s designs were typified by modern, highly-functional spaces lit by high levels of natural daylight, naturally ventilated, and incorporated gardens and water features for the occupation and enjoyment of users. They were fit for purpose, while having a degree of flexibility of use. Other important examples of Langer’s architectural work include: the Langer residence at Saint Lucia (1950); Mackay Sugar Research Station (1953); Saint John's Lutheran Church, Bundaberg (1960); Saint Peter's Lutheran College Chapel, Indooroopilly (1968); and the Department of Main Roads Building, Spring Hill (1967).
Langer’s design for the new West’s showroom comprised a modern display area at the front of the site, with a workshop at the rear housed in the existing residence. This followed the pattern of a new type of small, combined showroom/industrial building which emerged in Queensland in the 1950s. Located in inner-city areas on small sites, and built up to the street alignment to match adjacent buildings, these showrooms were usually a single structure of two to three storeys, with large expanses of glazing to the front elevation acting as showcases. They had a clear division between public and private space, with the ground floor area fronting the street housing display and administration areas, while production and storage areas were located to the rear or on upper levels. Detailed attention was given to the design of entryways, as access to the building was directly off the footpath; and features such as controlled illumination levels, climatic control features and sheltered street frontages reflected a sense of responsibility to the public to provide a comfortable environment.
Completed in early 1953, West’s Furniture Showroom was ‘designed with the utmost economy in the contemporary manner’. The showroom comprised a rectangular 64’ by 34’ (19.51m by 10.36m) space with a cantilevered, upswept awning that extended over the Wickham Street footpath. The building was predominantly of masonry construction, with a glass shopfront, a concrete floor, and a shallow-pitched, asbestos- and bitumen-lined roof constructed from timber trusses. The roof-top was used as garden area for displaying outdoor furniture and some furniture assembly operations. The existing timber residence was relocated to the rear of the site and converted for use as a workshop for the assemblage and storage of furniture. The workshop enabled access to the rooftop display area, and was level with Knapp Street for the loading of goods to transport vehicles. Its ground floor consisted of a woodwork shop, and the upper floor was designated for polishing and inventory storage. Public access to the showroom was through a single timber door at the northeast end of the Wickham Street shopfront, adjacent to a random rubble stone wall. Projecting from the angled shopfront, the door frame was supported by glass, so that it appeared to float.
As the furniture showroom was located on the edge of the Fortitude Valley shopping area, the shopfront was designed to be dramatic and striking, to catch the attention of potential customers. Supported by timber beams, three floor-to-ceiling windows, measuring 11ft 6in high by 8ft wide (3.51m by 2.44m), angled in toward the interior at 60 degrees. They were designed to eliminate the reflections of traffic, adjacent buildings and the sky onto footpath pedestrians; while simultaneously attracting the eye of passing traffic by catching reflections of the sky. Along the southwest side of the building, vertical plate glass walls returned into the site and created a pedestrian arcade. This arcade, combined with the absence of a building at the front of the adjacent property, meant that West’s furniture collection was noticeably visible when approached from the city and the potential customer had a clear view of the showroom. A concrete-edged, serpentine fish pond meandered around the base of the angled windows and glass return. Supported below the water-line by concrete pads with rubber cushions, the glass appeared to float atop the pond. The pond was decorated with water-plants and fish; and, through its half-interior, half-exterior location, it conveyed the notion of easy access to the furniture inside.
The interior of the showroom comprised a large open space, with a steep set of concrete stairs in the centre of the rear wall through which furniture was transported from the workshop. Hardwood timber columns supported the ceiling – five of which stood in a row, exposed within the showroom and just outside the shopfront. The columns were supported on metal pin-joints, and their timber was crafted to hide cables that led to power outlets at their base. A 1953 article in the publication Architecture Building Engineering explains that there were no fixed partitions or obstructions within the showroom to allow complete flexibility in arranging the displays. Aquariums were planned to flank the rear staircase, set within the rear wall, although it is unclear whether these were ever constructed (new windows line the rear wall in 2015, of similar proportions to those shown in a 1952 plan). Despite the length of the showroom, it was designed to be lit by natural light during the day by three large, rectangular light-wells (featuring a curved southwest edge, and running the length of the showroom), as well as three oval-shaped ventilator-skylights (arranged parallel to the shopfront windows). Both the light-wells and the skylights were covered by corrugated, transparent plastic roofing. The deep roof trusses were designed to ventilate the ceiling space, and Laurence West recalls that the showroom was kept cool by air movement in the large space above the curved plaster ceiling (within the rectangular light-wells).
Construction work for West’s Furniture Showroom was carried out by Ajax Builders (concrete and brick works), H Packman (timber), and G McKinnon (skylights and fibrous plaster, ceiling work). West’s completed the timber joinery themselves. Installation of the glass within the sloping display windows proved to be a technical challenge. Ten men were required to ease each of the three panes out of their frames and into position, and two panes were broken in the process.
Both the design and function of the Showroom demonstrated the shifting tastes and values of post-war Queensland and the strong desire within the design community and beyond to move the state towards new and modern ways of living. Modernist architecture, which developed in pre-World War I Europe and gained popularity in Australia after WWII, was notable for rationalised planning and simplicity of form and detailing. Distinguished by their extensive use of steel, reinforced concrete and glass, Australian buildings in the Modern or ‘International’ style were heavily influenced by American and European examples. Characteristics included sleek, glossy, prismatic forms, cubiform shapes clad with curtain walls and selective expression of structural systems.
Sharing the ideals of the Modernist movement, both international and Australian furniture designers of the mid-20th Century sought to revolutionise the contemporary interior. Mid-century Modern furniture turned away from traditional, ornate and ‘over-stuffed’ designs that had previously been fashionable, and instead opted for pieces that were lightweight, practical, comfortable, easily rearranged, and scaled to fit within post-war houses. A 1954 article in Home Beautiful advocated that Modern furniture met the needs of the day and rejected the use of ornamentation.
Modern furniture was designed to be pared-back and sculptural, and was ideally suited to Modernist architecture.
Influenced by international furniture trends, Australian contemporary furniture designers of the post-war period also promoted a philosophy of innovative ‘good design’ that was both functional and beautiful. An influx of European immigrants introduced specialised skills and knowledge in fine furniture making to Australia; and production techniques developed in war-time manufacturing industries encouraged experimentation in furniture design. Post-war furniture designers, both in Australia and internationally, became innovative in their use of materials, due to an increased availability of some materials and a shortage of others. This experimentation led to the use of unconventional materials in furniture design, such as: curved plastics, fibreglass and aluminium; bent and laminated plywood; spot welding that joined timber to metal, rubber and plastics; sleek and narrow steel rods; cast aluminium; polyester resins; acrylics; and foam rubber. These materials were durable, lightweight, and maintenance-free, reducing the burden on everyday living. They were manipulated to create minimalist, clean lines and, following the Bauhaus principle of ‘form follows function’, framing elements were often showcased.
When the new West’s Furniture Showroom began operating in 1953 it stocked a wide variety of high-quality, designer Modern furniture, including those from prominent Australian designers: Douglas Snelling (architect, designer of the ‘Snelling Line’, which utilised parachute webbing), Clement Meadmore (industrial designer and sculptor, known for his simple and economical designs that used readily-available materials) and Grant Featherston (designer of the ‘Contour’ line that used bent plywood, which was moulded to the human form). The work of these designers was heavily featured in home-decorating magazines throughout the 1950s.
As well as stocking Australian designers, West’s was the first known retailer in Australia to obtain the licence to manufacture and sell the furniture of Knoll Associates (1938 - present). Established by Hans Knoll (1914 - 1955) in New York as the Hans G Knoll Furniture Company, the first Knoll furniture manufacturing plant was opened in Pennsylvania in 1941. Florence Schust (1917 - ), a space planner and designer who had befriended and studied under prominent Modernist architects Eliel Saarinen, Charles Eames, Walter Gropius, and Marcel Breuer, was employed by Knoll in 1943. In 1946 Hans and Florence married, and the company changed its name to Knoll Associates. A wide range of prominent architects, designers and artists were engaged to design furniture for their company, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen, Jens Risom, and Marcel Breuer. Influenced by Bauhaus ideals, their furniture was technologically innovative, exceptionally designed, made of high-quality materials, and easily mass-produced.
In 1946, Florence established the Knoll Planning Unit – a revolutionary department which designed interior spaces for corporate clients; and later designed Knoll showrooms to allow the customer to experience their furniture and test potential purchases. The showrooms were distinctively modern, open-planned, and generally featured bright interiors of primary colours. The first Knoll showroom opened in New York in 1951 with a coloured ceiling grid, artificial pond, and open layout that allowed for a changing layout of products. As Knoll Associates continued to expand, showrooms were opened in eight other locations throughout America. A subsidiary of the company, Knoll International, was established in 1951 and set about opening Modernist showrooms around the globe in places such as Paris, Stuttgart, Stockholm, Madrid, and Milan. A 1956 index released by Knoll Associates lists West’s as the only retailer with a license to sell genuine Knoll furniture in Australia, and as one of only 13 stores selling Knoll furniture outside of America. West’s remained the only known licenced manufacturer and retailer of Knoll products in Australia until William Latchford and Sons, a Melbourne firm, obtained a licence in 1962.
Following its opening, West’s was featured in various periodicals, including a 1953 Cross Section article, a 1954 issue of Architecture (the Royal Australian Institute of Architect’s journal), and on the front cover of Queensland publication Architecture Building Engineering. The showroom was radically different to any other retail building in Brisbane at the time. It was described as having a striking street presence and it’s planning embraced unique solutions to display problems. Accounts from the West family recall the building being so eye-catching that tourist buses would regularly stop outside, and that the Duke of Edinburgh briefly stopped the Royal Cavalcade to view the building during the Queen’s visit in 1954. A few years later, the Queensland Art Gallery showcased furniture from the showroom in their contemporary living room display in the 1958 exhibition, Interiors Past and Present.
West’s was “…instrumental in introducing mass market designer furniture into Brisbane”, and sold high-quality furniture not available elsewhere in Australia to a range of prominent architects and well-known personalities. Notable clients included: architects Harry Seidler, Robin Gibson, James Birrell (for the Chermside and Annerley Libraries), Karl Langer (Broadbeach Hotel) and David Bell (Chevron Hotel); interior designer Langdon Badger; federal politician Harold Holt; and institutions including the Queensland Government, the Canadian Embassy, and the University of Queensland (Student Union Building). At the time, licencing restricted imports to a few sample pieces of furniture, so West’s organised a large group of skilled sub-contractors to make parts, which were assembled at the showroom workshop. High quality Australian wools and yarns were used to upholster the furniture made, including those from Ipswich manufacturer, Morrisons.
West’s operated from the building until the business closed in November 1963. This was due to a variety of factors, including the loss of its exclusive licence with Knoll in 1962. In 1964 the property was sold to Arthur Walter Barrs, who owned the adjacent building (then 620 Wickham Street, now 622 Wickham Street) from which he ran a car radio business. The former West’s showroom remained in the ownership of the Barrs family until the late 1970s, and was at one point leased to Philips Industries Holdings, an electrical products company. Between 1988 and 2008, Queensland Used Appliances, now Queensland Appliances, occupied the building (listing their address as 616 Wickham Street).
Over time, the Wickham Street facade of the showroom was converted into a more conventional shopfront – the sloping, front display windows were removed, and new vertical windows that spanned the full width of the site were installed. The pond was concreted in, the glass walls removed, a section of the front awning’s ceiling painted over and the light-wells roofed over (although their locations were still visible). The workshop at the rear was demolished between 1974 and 1986, and a skillion-roofed shed was constructed in its place.
In 2008, architect Robert Riddel purchased the building and carried out extensive renovations and conservation work. This was completed with the guidance of Laurence West himself, contemporary documentation, and the evidence provided by original fabric remaining within the building. Marks in the front stone wall and the ceiling lining enabled Riddel to reconstruct the front window at the original angle. A new front door was also installed, replicating the original design. The side pedestrian arcade was re-established with new glass walls, and a new wide glass door and metal ramp were added to the end of the arcade to provide a secondary entrance and equal access. Concrete that had filled the serpentine pond was removed, revealing some early edging and concrete pads. The pond was waterproofed, with the edging reconstructed, and it was once again filled with water. Light-wells were uncovered and re-glazed, with the original arched framing re-sheeted. Paint was removed from the hardwood timber posts and front awning’s soffit cladding, and the showroom ceiling was sheeted with new plasterboard. The shed at the rear of the site was gutted, re-lined and its roof was raised; and a new carport was added facing Knapp Street.
Construction was carried out by John Speare Builders and was completed in 2009. In early 2010, the building was converted for use as an office through the addition of lightweight partitions, and was occupied by Riddel Architecture until 2012.
Riddel’s restoration and reconstruction of West’s Furniture Showroom received both national and international praise and recognition. In 2009 it was awarded a Gold Medal award at the National Trust Heritage Awards, and in 2010 it received the Australian Institute of Architects State and National awards for Heritage. The Jury Citation for the National Award for Heritage praises the Showroom as ‘…a rare example of the restoration of a mid-century modernist commercial building’, and that the reinterpretation and rebuilding process was ‘…painstaking but practical and economical. The architects have helped to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of preservation over new build. This is not a museum frozen in time. The spirit is faithfully captured; details restored with rigour, energy, affection, and wit; and the building revitalized as viable commercial premises.’
The project also appeared in publications including IndesignLive (12th of August 2009), Brisbane Modern (Issue 3, 2009), Architecture Australia (vol. 99, Jan - Feb, 2010), Feminity (6th of August 2010) and Architecture and Urban Design in Brisbane (vol. 1, 2012). Brisbane Open House, an event launched in 2010 to promote the ‘hidden wealth of architecture, engineering, and history in buildings and places around Brisbane city’, featured West’s Furniture Showroom in 2011, 2012, and 2013. The building was also included in the 2014 exhibition Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland, 1945 - 1975 at the State Library of Queensland, along with furniture pieces from the Wests’ collection.
After a short period of vacancy, in September 2015 the former West’s Furniture Showroom was renovated for use as a retail tenancy, with the rear additions converted into living quarters.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
Visualisation VBZ. Tous droits réservés.
Les VBZ de Zürich ont communiqué le 6 juillet 2021 avoir commandé 15 autobus électriques standard MAN Lion's City E 12.
Ces nouveaux véhicules seront engagés à partir de l'automne 2022 sur les lignes 66, 77, 78 et 99.
Des options auprès de MAN portent sur 29 autobus électriques standard supplémentaires et 80 articulés.
Les 15 nouvelles unités ne devraient être rechargées qu'au dépôt Hardau avec de l'énergie renouvelable.
Leur engagement permettra d'économiser annuellement 350000 litres de diesel et éviter le rejet de 930 tonnes de CO2.
Leurs numéros de régie et de plaques minéralogiques ne sont pas encore connus.
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A very short video of some of my work. www.leighkemp.co.uk
I also have a Flickr album with these and other works - www.flickr.com/gp/leighkemp/qX5p48
Data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have revealed an expanding cloud of dust produced in a collision between two large bodies orbiting the bright nearby star Fomalhaut. This is the first time such a catastrophic event around another star has been imaged.
Credit:
ESA/NASA, M. Kornmesser
Personal visualisation project based on the Minimum House by Scheidt Kasprusch Architekten.
Interpretation of the design and interior, plus all modelling/rendering/post by James Lawley (some stock objects used...)
Rendered in V-ray 2.0 with post-production in Photoshop CS5 and a touch in Lightroom.
Document Stadler. Tous droits réservés.
Stadler a signé un contrat avec ATM qui pourra compter jusqu'à 80 motrices Tramlink.
Une commande ferme porte sur les 30 premières motrices bidirectionnelles destinées tant aux lignes urbaines que suburbaines.
Ces véhicules à trois accès surbaissés par côté sont équipés de bogies adaptés à la sinuosité du réseau milanais et répartis sous chacun des trois modules des motrices longues de 25 mètres.
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