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The Venetian Islands are a chain of six manmade islands in Miami Beach, Florida. Rivo Alto Island (left), Di Lido Island (center), and Marino Island (right) are pictured here. While the islands’ residential neighborhoods have some of the highest property values in the city, they are also among the first places ordered to evacuate in advance of a hurricane.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3sFfGKG

25.790831°, -80.160975°

Source imagery: Maxar

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Various Associates have designed J1M5 fashion boutique in Qingdao, China inspired by the idea of the suitcase – the interior combines movable, flexible features of a suitcase manifesting as a multi-brand retail interior. Ultimately, the store was designed with an ability to constantly reinventing itself – a sea of operable structures transforming from open display windows to clothing racks and fitting rooms. Genius!

The designers devised a fully immersive retail experience that diverges from a traditional display-orientated design. Instead of delivering a space that separates customers from products, this scheme lives and moves, while embodying the intersection of culture, function, art and design.

“We have extracted the essence of the business format, shifted perspectives, and broke the conventional display-orientated thinking mode,” outline Various Associates, who proposed a new possibility for future multi-brand stores. “Through integrating spatial aesthetics, structures, functionality, and personality, we transformed the singular display mode of retail stores and create a changeable spatial structural system.”

Related: Surreal Classicism: Maó Space by One Fine Day Studio & Partners.

Customers are greeted with a futuristic façade outside. A geometric-shaped door slices through a glowing chocolate-coloured wall. An oversized sign sits proudly on the ground, it’s gleaming silver-clad form making customers feel as though they are about to embark on a space journey, rather than a retail experience.

Once inside, one is thrust into the depths of a different universe. Mirrored surfaces distort understanding of time and space as objects become multiplied, and the ceiling also becomes the floor. The ceiling unfolds as a labyrinth of squares, bringing an ordered structural aesthetic to the space.

“The ceiling hides complex systems including lighting, fire prevention systems, and cabinet moving tracks, which are coordinated and integrated into the whole,” the studio outlines. “This area is filled with tranquil shadows and soft lights. It represents an enchanting scene where misty moonlights are reflected on a rippling water surface.”

The interior layout can be adjusted at any time, as cabinets can rotate 360 degrees. Every single structure can be individually adjusted or altered as a group to create an endless list of combinations. The cabinets can be fully closed, allowing stainless steel rails to display clothes, while the interior can hide storage, efficiently integrating display and storage functions.

On the other hand, cabinets can be moved to four sides to create an enclosed space at the centre, perfectly suited to the production of catwalk shows. Impressive or what?

As Madonna aptly put it– “Don’t just stand there, let’s get to it – strike a pose, there’s nothing to it. Vogue.” 

Related: Voisin Organique Restaurant & Lounge in Shenzhen, China by Various Associates.

| The article Breaking Away from Display-orientated Retail: J1M5 Boutique by Various Associates. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Florence, the capital of Italy’s Tuscany Region, is seen here flanking the Arno River. Noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, monuments, and museums, the city attracts millions of tourists every year. Among Florence’s many red terra-cotta roofs, we can see one of its most iconic sights — the Santa Maria del Fiore, or Florence Cathedral, which is home to the largest dome built of brick and mortar in the world.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3pQbm9T

43.783333°, 11.250000°

Source imagery: Maxar

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The Glénan Islands are an archipelago located off the northwestern coast of France. Comprised of nine major islands and more than a dozen smaller islets, the archipelago is a popular day-trip for tourists to France’s Finistère region. The Glénan Islands are home to both sailing and international diving schools.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3pZoadS

47.712885°, -3.988585°

Source imagery: Airbus Space
© CNES 2020, Distribution Airbus DS

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The Colorado River and the trajectory of its current flow were formed roughly 5 million years ago. Due to tectonic activity, the Colorado Plateau continued to rise from 5 million to 2.5 million years ago, thereby shifting the direction of the river. With its new path, the river began to erode the area in present-day Arizona now known as the Grand Canyon. The canyon is situated just a few miles south of the river section captured in this Overview.

You can find this image in the introduction of our latest book, “Overview Timelapse.” Visit www.over-view.com/timelapse to learn more.

36.417100°, -111.858300°

Source imagery: Maxar

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Check out this incredible video of the entry, descent and landing of the Mars Perseverance Rover on February 18th. The footage begins about 7 miles (11 km) above the planet’s surface and ends with the rover’s touchdown in Mars’ Jezero Crater. For the next Martian year (about 687 Earth days), the Perseverance Rover will search for signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples to bring back to Earth. Who wants to see more images of Mars in the coming months?

Video source: NASA

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Hundreds of saltwater evaporation ponds cover the south bank of Laizhou Bay in Shandong Province, East China. After being pumped to the surface from underground brines, salts are dried in these ponds and used to produce a variety of organic and inorganic chemicals and food additives. This particular area has China’s largest production capacity for bromine, an element found in seawater that is used in agricultural chemicals, pharmaceuticals, flame retardants and more.

See more here: https://bit.ly/2NKtMLL

37.153035°, 119.055863°

Source imagery: Maxar

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Hong Kong is an autonomous territory — and former British colony — in southeastern China. Originally a sparsely populated area of farming and fishing villages, it has become one of the world’s most significant financial centers and commercial ports. Hong Kong has the largest number of skyscrapers in the world, most of which surround Victoria Harbor and are captured in this Overview.

See more here: https://bit.ly/37TZwoS

22.118306°, 113.999195°

Source imagery: Maxar

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Hoo boy, what a year that’s passed. Yadda, yadda – we’ve heard it all before, and I have nothing new to add to the barrage of information thrown at you from all depths of the internet. Instead, what I can offer is some comfort in this timely dwelling designed for those of us in need of peace and quiet in the wake of 2020.

London superstars (and Yellowtrace favourites) Jonathan Tuckey Design have spun a yarn for us in the shape of a newly renovated ground floor apartment on Wimpole Street, Marylebone. In the words of Virginia Woolf “…the most august of London streets, the most impersonal. Indeed, when the world seems tumbling to ruin, and civilisation rocks on its foundations, one has only to go to Wimpole Street…”. Embodying this quote, the design of this regency style home is serene and orderly on the very street Woolf refers to.

I’m the type of person who finds inner peace in a tidy home and, devoid of clutter, this Marylebone Apartment has helped me reach enlightenment. Masters of modifying and transforming old buildings to modern needs, the team at Jonathan Tuckey Design have created a system of joinery that in their words “referenced a regency style… However, the aim was to achieve this as a modern interpretation with a subtly as not to be pastiche”. 

Related: Remodelled & Radically Transformed Old Buildings by Jonathan Tuckey Design.

This considered joinery system, informed by John Soane’s Bank of England plan and also Louis Kahn’s investigation into British castles, has created an internal architecture within the larger volume of the building. Simply put by the designers themselves, “both of these precedents helped inform the idea of walls as rooms… by increasing the thickness of the walls it can enable volumes (rooms) to be excavated from them.” Designed with the intent to subdivide areas it simultaneously creates an auxiliary space within the vertical proportions of the existing design language.

Helping to conceptualise the joinery pieces that create this structure-within-a-structure are two works by Italian renaissance painter Stefano Di Giovanni. This influence can be seen in the compositions playful use of arches, niches and walls cutouts.

Much like in all of their work, circulation plays a pivotal role here. Gold detail picture rails are recessed in the joinery as it follows their cascading curves to link views sequentially through the apartment.

The palette is soft and harmonious. Sage and cream joinery sit ensconced in mostly white walls. Dark wood with navy panels creates a point of difference in the study. While churchlike this material choice never feels heavy thanks to the abundance of natural light filtering throughout.

By using the existing structure to their advantage, Jonathan Tuckey Design has created an illuminating solution to modern-day needs. The result is a refined and unfussy renovation, embodying the essence of the regency style rather than reproducing it.

| The article Excavated Volumes: Marylebone Apartment by Jonathan Tuckey Design. appeared first on Yellowtrace. |

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Check out this amazing Overview of the Banks Peninsula, which juts off the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. The landmass, which is volcanic in origin, has an area of roughly 440 square miles (1,150 sq. km) and encompasses two large harbors and many small bays and coves. It is believed that forests once covered 98% of the Banks Peninsula, yet — as the result of deforestation — less than 2% of the native forest cover remains today.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3sLFNQv

-43.750000°, 172.833000°

Source imagery: Planet