Designing the untouchable

Design literally shapes our day to day life. All objects we use have been designed in the near or distant past. With the virtual world becoming more intertwined in daily life, scope for designers increases as well. In the absence of physical requirements the range of possibilities increases – as does the room for spiraling frustration since you cannot kick a program that does not work. Not that kicking  generally fixes a unwilling object, but it does feel good.

The untouchable character of the virtual world has real life implications. Separating from a stack of cash just does hurt more than swiping a small plastic card and typing a random number. It seems that our loss aversion, which creates all kinds of seeming irrational behavior in the real world, is at loss in the virtual one.

 

A project by  Jaap de Vries address this issue by designing an app that visualizes your finances – giving shape both the changes in the amount of money you have as well as to the virtual money itself. The idea of his project is that virtual money is not designed, in contrast to coins and notes which are always a treat when you are travelling (although with the euro you need to travel a lot further to enjoy this part of being on the road). Inspiring idea on shaping the untouchable, since architecture is all about designing emptiness. After all, people live and experience the space left by architects.

Iconic mushroom

At time designs make you feel lost, not from excess of space but from excess design. Visiting the Metropol Parasol   in Seville felt like being on a trip, and not being sure it was a good one. The design by J. Mayer H. Architects is impressive in terms of size and fascinating to look at with all the curves and squares. It makes for great architectural photographs. That is, if you manage to keep its surroundings out of the picture. The absence of any relationship with the surrounding buildings and not very subtle shape makes it scream ‘I am the new icon of Seville’. 

Although it is one of the largest bonded wood constructions in the world this is completely hidden by a polyurethane coating. No doubt increasing the durability but at the cost of the friendliness of the imposing structure. 

Being just recently opened it already became a focal point of the city. The large stairs proved to be the perfect stage for the recent demonstrations. A literal stage, with escalators next to the stair full of protestors allowing bystanders to stand still and stare while moving up and down. Architecture turning reality into some sort of huge TV show.