This modern minimalist Greene Street Loft by David Hotson Architect. The lighting fixtures in these walls and floor further animate the translucent membrane separating private and public areas. This careful delineation of volume emphasizes architectural space, rather than sculptural form, as the principal subject of the design.

The private rooms in this loft were configured on two levels around the generous light-filled living space whose enormous windows provided the only natural light to the apartment. The walls enclosing the upper level bedrooms, and the floor and handrails of the suspended bridge which provides access to them, are constructed of etched and laminated glass to admit daylight into the interior rooms. Lighting fixtures in these walls and floor further animate the translucent membrane separating private and public areas. A new central air conditioning system, concealed in the built-out sidewall to conserve ceiling height, provides fresh air to the interior rooms.

The project is rendered architecturally as a series of clearly defined interpenetrating volumes. Materials and finishes are treated as the surfaces of concave voids rather than as faces of convex solids. This careful delineation of volume emphasizes architectural space, rather than sculptural form, as the principal subject of the design.

Visit the David Hotson Architect websites – here.

The Robo Chair designed by Luca Nichetto, this unique chair created for the Swedish manufacturer OFFECCT.

Here’s some description from designer Luca Nichetto:
“I find the idea that a robot could become a living being really exciting, and so I imagined what would happen if the same principle were applied to the design of a chair. The goal was to create an object that respected the environment by playing with a design comprised of separate pieces so that the chair could be transported in a small box. My vision became reality when I translated the forms of a ‘humanized’ robot into a chair, placing particular emphasis on the shapes of the robot’s ‘limbs’. The project couldn’t have been called anything other than Robo” (Luca Nichetto).

Thanks to a structure comprised of separate parts that are assembled to create the whole – the seat, the seat back, and the legs – Robo is a truly unique chair whose easy assembly can be compared to that of a Meccano set. When shipped, the disassembled components of the chair fit in a box measuring only 50 x 50 x 20cm, a fact which reflects OFFECCT’s principles, for the company has always had a strong interest in environmentally friendly design. Even the choice of materials, from the plywood and acrylic felt made of recycled plastic bottles to the glue, further underscores the company’s desire to respect the environment.

Visit Luca Nichetto website – here.

Visit OFFECCT website – here.

Photos by PETERFOTOGRAF and Nichetto&Partners

The India Ministry of External Affairs has summoned Pakistani High Commissioner Shahid Malik to lodge a formal protest against Pakistan’s inaction against terrorist groups operating in India, reported local NDTV on Monday.

This diplomatic gesture came under the background of growing tension between the two nations after the Mumbai attacks.

Previously, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that Pakistan had nothing to do with the Mumbai attacks.

On Friday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari too rejected charges of Pakistan’s involvement in the coordinated terrorist strikes. Pakistan could not “gain anything” for such attacks and its democratic government did not believe “in such tactics”, Zardari told German Ambassador Michael Koch during a meeting.

Source: Xinhua

Source:
Vermont Public Radio
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Patti Daniels
Colchester, VT

Today is World AIDS Day and the Vermont Department of Health is using the occasion to encourage HIV testing.

The department says 482 people in Vermont are known to be living with HIV/AIDS. But that doesn’t account for people who are HIV-positive, but haven’t been tested.

Rob Lunn directs HIV/AIDS programs for the Health Department. He says the federal Centers for Disease Control is changing the way it estimates the number of people who are HIV-positive but don’t know it:

(Lunn) “We’re not able to calculate the unknown cases at this point in time due to recent information from the CDC. There used to be statistics that the CDC would follow that approximately 25 percent of people may not know their infection rate. But we’ve been waiting to have a new estimate form come out so we can accurately determine what that is at this point.”

(Host) Accurate data about HIV cases is important because it determines funding public health services, prevention and testing programs.
Read more

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) – The European Commission has urged Moscow to address accusations of electoral irregularities surrounding Russia’s weekend legislative polls, which were won by President Vladimir Putin’s party.

‘Everybody is aware that observers have denounced irregularities,’ said Johannes Laitenberger, spokesman for the EU’s executive arm.

‘It is in the interest of Russia to completely clarify all these allegations,’ he told reporters in Brussels.

Independent Russian monitoring body Golos has echoed international criticism of Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

The director of Western-funded Golos, which managed to circumvent a ban on domestic independent observers by deploying thousands of journalists, strongly criticised the conduct of Sunday’s polls. Read more