Hong Kong architects MAP Office have installed a point for viewing the city through two pairs of binoculars in Hong Kong as part of the Shenzhen & Hong Kong bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, which opened this week.

Called Bloody Haze, the installation consisted of two pairs of binoculars, one turned the wrong way round, mounted inside two cylindrical frames.

Visitors can look through each in turn to see the city appear alternately closer and further away than in reality.

More about the biennale on Dezeen:

Photos from Shenzhen
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Mésarchitectures

Here's some text from the architects:

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MAP OFFICE for HK_SZ bi-city biennale 2009

BLOODY HAZE
Inverted Binocular and Maxi Binocular

MAP OFFICE [Gutierrez+Portefaix]

“As far as I am concerned, I try to direct my telescope through the bloody haze upon a mirage of the nineteenth century, which I seek to depict according to those features that it will show in a future state of the world liberated from magic.” Walter Benjamin, Briefe, Vol. II, Letter to Werner Kraft, of 28 October 1935.

Notion of visibility and invisibility are centered to “Bloody Haze”. The predetermined intensification of the magnifier allows the construction of a new reality. The distortion by means of optical instrument: the binocular create an illusion of being close or being far while always being at the same position. Shooting or murmuring at someone mediated by this inverted projection. The multiplication of the reality is here reinforced by the instrument itself, i.e., the 2 lenses and then again multiplies by 2 in ordered to experience the two extremes variations: so far... so close – always together but never together!

Then, the skyline or the subject of this optical experience is the mere illustration of capitalistic development to become its best representation. The celebration here takes the shape of a fragmented heroism. Each of its components disappears for the construction of singular masse that is aiming at becoming a single mediated image to acquire its status of Skyline and to become hyper visible (when the weather allows it).

The two binoculars are mounted on a fix pole overlooking towards the skyline. The skyline is the physical graph of a successful economic development of Hong Kong. The two binoculars are pointed at the same direction; one is positioned in close-up mode while the other is offering the large open view. One is excluding the other with the impossibility of having the range of perspective.

MAP office is a multidisciplinary platform devised by Laurent Gutierrez (Casablanca, 1966) and Valérie Portefaix (Saint-Etienne, 1969). This duo of artists/architects has been based in Hong Kong since 1996, working on physical and imaginary territories using varied means of expression including drawing, photographs, video, installations, performance and literary and theoretical texts. Their entire project forms a critique of spatio-temporal anomalies and documents how human beings subvert and appropriate space.

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Beijing architects MAD have designed a skyscraper for Chongqing, China, with gardens at each level.

Rather than consider the project vertically, the architects envisage a stack of floors, each slice shifted horizontally to create spaces for gardens and patios.

The 385 metre-high building will be called Urban Forest.

Here's some text from MAD:

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Urban Forest

By the end of 2009, MAD has completed the concept design of a 385 meter high metropolitan cultural complex in the city center of Chongqing - The Urban Forest.

This is the third skyscraper designed by MAD following the Absolute Towers in Toronto and the Sinosteel International Plaza in Tianjin, China.

MAD proposes a new architectural concept for the course of Chinese urban development - to actualize a sustainable multidimensional high-rise within China’s youngest municipality, where nature reincorporates into the high-density urban environment in the near future, to evoke the affection for nature once lost in the oriental ancient world and bring to the modern city dwellers.

In the year of 1997, Chongqing became the fourth direct municipality in China.

As an important pole of the growing economy in western China, the city area of Chongqing is more than twice of those of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin combined.

Such macro-scale urbanization should not only pushes economic growth and material prosperity, but also foster the evolution of the city’s cultural essence. Chinese cities have gone through the process of once starting from nothing, to following contemporary Western civilization urban pattern. Now, the overall economic infrastructure has oriented the direction of future development towards inland China.

What lies in the future of cities? How should one grasp the concept of emerging high-density cities of China in the context of a scenic town such as Chongqing? How does one discuss the future of architecture in Chinese cities on the base of Eastern Naturalist perspective and in the new context of China’s unique economic, social environment and globalization background? How to engage the city dwellers with an experience of nature when its presence of steadily diminishes in the face of the ever intensifying concrete jungle.

Throughout the process of contemporary Western urbanization, skyscrapers were the symbol of technological competitions, prime capitals and the formal enslavement of the powerful and the rich. Sustainable ecology became more of a demand for comfort; while the yearning of a return to nature was left ignored. The Urban Forest draws inspiration from the perspective of nature and the man-made in Eastern Philosophy, and ties the urban city life with the natural outdoor experiences.

The shape of the architecture mimics mountain range, shifting in a dynamic and yet holistic rhythm, and becomes a continuation of nature. Unlike its preceding counterparts, The Urban Forest no longer emphasizes on vertical force, instead it concentrates on the multidimensional relationships within complex anthropomorphic spaces: multilayer sky gardens, floating patios and minimal and yet well lit nesting spaces, the architectural form dissolves into the fluid spatial movements between air, wind, and light. In this environment, people encounter nature filled with unexpected surprises.

The fusion between Eastern humanism spirit and urban public spaces pioneers in the making of a sustainable multidimensional city - The Urban Forest will not be a piece of mediocre urban machinery, but an artificial organ that lives and breathes new life in the steel-and-concrete-filled city center.

Chongqing, the youngest municipality in China, holds great potential in its urban planning and construction and has the capability to be built into a most livable city, a city of pleasant environments, a traffic-jam-free city, even into a city that runs into a complete urban forest. A city with aspiration and vitality shall be courageous in envisioning and designing its great future. - Bo Xilai (Mayor of Chongqing)

In October 2009, The Urban Forest from MAD debuted in the Heart-Made, Europalia exhibition at the 2009 Europalia China. It represents the most challenging dream of the contemporary Chinese architecture --- a type of urban landmark that rises from the affection for nature. It is no longer a static icon but an organic form that changes all the time with people’s perception.

Director in Charge: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun
Design Team: Yu Kui, Diego Perez, Zhao Wei, Chie Fuyuki, Fu Changrui, Jtravis B Russett, Dai Pu, Irmgard Reiter, Rasmus Palmqvist, Qin Lichao, Xie Xinyu

Location: Chongqing, China
Typology: Commercial, Office, Hotel
Site Area: 7,700 sqm
Building Area: 216,000 sqm
Building Height: 385 m
Architectural Design: MAD Ltd
Structural Design: ARUP Group Ltd

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Shanghai designer Zhili Liu has designed a series of lighting inspired by birds.

Top image: Sparrow. Above: Nightingale.

Called Bird, the bone china sockets hold each bulb at an angle.

Above: Doves

They can be hung in clusters, attached to a perch or displayed with a shade that represents the bird's cage.

Here's some more information from Liu:

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Bird lamps (design 2006, prototyping 2009)

Angled standard sockets.

The cheap bakelite bulb sockets have been widely used in China, from workshops to living rooms for over 4 decades without any change. With a bulb and some wire, it makes a practical and reliable pendant lamp for less than 10 RMB (about 75 pence).

The bird lamps were designed to inherit the simplicity of the bakelite sockets but at the same time offer the user some more room for imagination - only by adding a little angle.

The sockets is made of bone china, which is translucent, heat proof and electrically safe. Work with incandescent, CFLs or LED bulbs with a standard E-27 base.

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London-based designer Yu Jordy Fu has produced a range of hand-cut paper lampshades called Cloud Lamps.

The designs are cut freehand from recycled paper, then folded around a light source.

Three Cloud Lamp chandeliers by Yu Jordy Fu are on display as part of festival In From the Cold at the Southbank Centre in London. More information on Yu Jordy Fu's blog.

The Cloud Lamps are available to buy from the designer's website.

Here's some more information from Yu Jordy Fu:

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In 201 AD the Chinese invented paper, a marvellous material with a complex character. For thousands of years we used paper to write, paint and communicate our thoughts, dreams and desires. Paper-cutting is a unique art form: Chinese women use this graceful and intricate media to record the joy and surprises of their lives and decorate their homes. Yu Jordy Fu has developed this ancient technique to create expressive and elaborate forms which break free from the two-dimensional realm to a dreamlike three-dimensional landscape.

These delicate lampshades are inspired by Jordy’s architectural design projects and scaled at 1:50. All handmade with recycled paper, the Cloud Lamp is a simple and sustainable way to add intimacy and magic to domestic environment. Yu Jordy Fu is a London-based designer whose dream is to make this world a better place.

"As an architectural designer, I think three-dimensionally;  I don’t see the lampshade as an object but a space. My passion is to create sensational spaces for people; I am interested in how it feels for the 1:50 scaled people on the lampshade in the designed spaces, whether is a church, playground, shopping mall, park or school; and how it feels like for us when the lamps are lit at home. The paper is cut freehand when it is flat, like doing a two-dimensional drawing, these are then folded up, and sculpted around a light source to create three dimensional spaces. I used this method to make architectural models for exhibitions for many years. I don’t see lighting as an additional element to the architecture, but an integrated part of it, driving the relationship between the solid and void, adding life to the architecture. I treat each lampshade as an individual piece; they are all slightly different and personal."

Cloud Lampshade can be used as a pendant, with a desk or a floor lamp base and a milky white energy saving blub; alternatively simply put on your bedside table with some gentle LED fairy lights inside.

Cloud Lamp Winter Collection 2008

Below: Cloud Lampshade Angels
Light and Sound from the sky
Inspired by Jordy’s architectural design for contemporary prayer space
H38cm x D 27cm

Below: Cloud Lampshade Prague
Rooftop of a magic world
Inspired by Jordy’s architectural design for children’s play space
H40cm x D 24cm

Below: Cloud Lampshade Happy
Pleasure of Christmas
Inspired by Jordy’s architectural design for shopping environment
H30cm x D 34cm

Below: Cloud Lampshade Memory
Picking up Happiness
Inspired by Jordy’s architectural design for outdoor leisure space
H32cm x D 32cm

Below: Cloud Lampshade Story
After dinner relaxation
Inspired by Jordy’s architectural design for school breakout space
H20 x D 45

Below: Cloud Lampshade Grandpa
For sweethearts afraid of darkness
Inspired by Jordy’s architectural design for family gardens
H30 x D 15

Below: installation at the Southbank centre.

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