All posts by Intellicurious

News, Views and Reviews for the Intellectually Curious

Architecture & Design: “Texture + Transparency – The Glass House” (2020)

https://vimeo.com/434020908

Produced and Directed by: Michael Biondo, Dallas Bennett, and Michael Robison

Edited by: Dallas Bennett
Cinematography by: Michael Biondo

Architectural photographer and filmmaker Michael Biondo and creative reality capture duo Michael Robison and Dallas Bennett (aka MYND Workshop) have collaborated to create an episodic series of short visual tours of the Glass House, a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

This video series seeks to create an ambient and intimate tour of Philip Johnson’s Glass House property in New Canaan, CT. These films are unique in the sense that they combine film and the use of point cloud technology to allow for a tectonic and artistic examination of the buildings in order to better understand the architecture and site design.

“Point clouds are an exceptional visual tool for understanding a space in ways which the human eye doesn’t typically allow,” said Michael Robison, co-founder and CEO of MYND Workshop. “The Glass House site could not be a more perfect subject to be experienced as a point cloud, providing insight into the complex relationships between the various structures and their careful placement throughout the dramatic landscape which defines the Glass House property.”

These films focus on a dialogue between Biondo’s carefully composed videography and MYND’s spectral point cloud visuals. Each video presents one of the different structures which comprise the Glass House property.

Biondo’s breathtaking video manages to capture those visceral experiences which one may come across when visiting the 49-acre property. These scenes offer the textures and light which define the sensual and emotional nature of Johnson’s work. In contrast, MYND Workshop’s animations speak to the layers and transparencies which Johnson often referred to when speaking about the design of the various buildings on the site, allowing for a design perspective that has never been seen before.

MYND Workshop’s medium of choice, the Point Cloud, may be best described as a 3D photograph which adds a spatial dimension to an otherwise 2D scene. The Brooklyn-based studio recognized early on the inherent beauty of the point clouds, exploring their creative potential by using them to create ethereal animations like those in the series.

This project was made possible by the generosity of Joanne and Stanley Marder.

About MYND Workshop
MYND Workshop is a Brooklyn based reality capture studio founded by Michael Robison and Dallas Bennett. Since 2015, they continue to implement a combination of 3D laser scanning and photogrammetry processes to document architecture, historic sites, film sets and artwork. MYND pushes the boundaries of these technologies by merging utility and creativity. Past projects have included Waldorf Astoria Hotel New York, Trinity Church Wall Street, World Trade Center Plaza, 9/11 Museum & Memorial, New York Stock Exchange, The Ford Foundation, The Brooklyn Navy Yard among many others.

About Michael Biondo
Michael Biondo is a New York and Connecticut-based photographer / filmmaker specializing in architecture and design. He studied Photography, Graphic Design, and Art History at the Pratt Institute where he earned a BFA. Recently Biondo contributed photographs to Rizzoli’s 2014 monograph, Allan Greenberg: Classical Architect; Design Book’s 50 U.S. Architects, published in 2015; and Inventive Minimalism, Monacelli Press, 2017. He co-authored and photographed Mid-Century Houses Today, Monacelli, 2015. His photographs have appeared in Architectural Digest, the Wall Street Journal, Architizer, Dwell, a+u Magazine and other publications.

Website

Global News: American Racism, Iran And Low-Earth Orbit Battles

The Economist Editor's PicksA selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, how not to tackle American racism, (10:28) a better way to contain Iran’s nuclear programme, (14:38) and the battle for low-earth orbit.

Top Home Design: “The Cloud House” – Peter Morris Architects (2020)

THE CLOUD HOUSE

Peter Morris Architects - Cloud House - Top View

The Cloud House takes its cue from the beautifully eccentric Grade I listed St Martin’s Church opposite, which looks like it could come straight from fairy tales – we have embraced that spirit too. Arches appear again and again on the church, so we modernized and simplified this shape, as the starting point for The Cloud House.

It’s not in a conservation area, and the architecture on the street is wildly eclectic, so a little flamboyance feels appropriate.

Peter Morris ArchitectsCoated in a buff render, with a pale pink tone and duck egg blue metalwork, it brings some gentle colour to the street. As one neighbour has kindly put it: ‘The Cloud House introduces a valuable ‘softer’ element to the street’s dressing, with its hoops and curves and decorations. It is just what Vicars Road needs and will lighten and humanise the street’.

Peter Morris Architects - Cloud House 2020

Website

Health Infographics: How “Strong HVAC Airflows Spread Covid-19 Indoors”

From McKinsey & Company (July 9, 2020):

McKinsey & Company logoThe World Health Organization recently acknowledged that some evidence about in-room transmission is worrisome. In addition, after analyzing a transmission event at a restaurant in China, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that an asymptomatic patient transmitted the virus to families at two nearby tables.

Strong Airflows Spread Coronavirus Droplets Within a Restaurant - McKinsey July 2020

Based on the restaurant layout, seating arrangements, and smear samples from air-conditioning inlets and outlets, the CDC found that the coronavirus was likely transmitted when strong airflows from a nearby air conditioner spread large droplets from the infected person. These droplets traveled more than one meter—further than usual, but less than the distance aerosols can typically travel.

Solutions to Help Prevent Airborne Spread of Viruses between Rooms - McKinsey & Company July 2020

Three Different Common Methods to Purify Contaminated Air - Filtration, Irradiation and Thermal - McKinsey July 2020

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The World’s Top Artists: American Painter Eric Johnson – “Masters Style”

Eric Johnson is a Boston based Painter and instructor at The Academy of Realist Art Boston who is devoted to the preservation and growth of traditional painting. He aspires towards adding his own link into the chain of tradition by mastering the working methods of the old masters who he admires and employing those methods into his own working process. 

Eric Johnson - The Story of We -As a complete painter he aspires to reach a high level of verisimilitude and truth in his works on a variety of subject matters from portrait, still life and landscape. Eric primarily makes all of the pigments and paints to create each prepossessing painting. Eric yearns that every new presentation to beauty and truth can show us the old beauty and the old truth only seen from a different angle and  colored by a different medium. 

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Top New Motorhomes: “2021 Airstream Atlas” – “Elegantly Expansive”

The Atlas Touring Coach is our most luxurious touring coach to date. It’s a Class B+ RV built on the legendary Mercedes-Benz® Sprinter van chassis and inspired by our trailblazing Airstream Interstate series. In fact, with its power slide-out, richly appointed features and finishes, and understated automotive styling from grill to bumper, we affectionately call it a Class B+. A new standard has arrived for those who believe a well-traveled life begins with the best.

2021 Airstream Atlas Touring Coach

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Top New Travel Videos: “Montenegro” (2020)

Before you see it first hand, we will talk you through the most beautiful parts of Montenegro.

Montenegro is a Balkan country with rugged mountains, medieval villages and a narrow strip of beaches along its Adriatic coastline. The Bay of Kotor, resembling a fjord, is dotted with coastal churches and fortified towns such as Kotor and Herceg Novi. Durmitor National Park, home to bears and wolves, encompasses limestone peaks, glacial lakes and 1,300m-deep Tara River Canyon.

World News Podcast: The Latest In Europe And Asia

Monocle on Sunday PodcastLive from Zürich: Tyler Brûlé and his guests discuss the weekend’s news, the Swiss design world and the best recipes for a Sunday dinner.

Top New Travel Videos: “Shadow Of A Dynasty – Bagan, Myanmar” By Martien Janssen (2020)

https://vimeo.com/437558430

Filmed and Edited by: Martien Janssen

SHADOW OF A DYNAST is the first and main movie of my Bagan timelapse pentalogy, using (motion controlled) timelapse, hyperlapse and dronelapse. The movie shows you one of worlds’ most incredible man-built locations as it still remains after a thousand years. It aims to capture that element of time that this location has withstood, while capturing the temples as they have survived until today, on this planet, in this galaxy. At the height of the Pagan Dynasty, this city was the centre of the universe with well over two million people trading between the ten thousand temples, by har the largest city on earth. Now all that remains is the ‘Shadow of a Dynasty’.

Capturing the footage for this movie turned out to become the craziest thing I’ve ever done. Apparently no one is allowed at the temples at night. One of the reasons are snakes. Myanmar turns out to be the deadliest country in the world for it. Long story short: I got way too close for comfort and the whole experience was more uncomfortable/dangerous than any other project ever before. I risked a lot for this project and spent a lot. It took me over 20 months, 3 visits of 11 weeks in total to get all the shots for this big project of 5 timelapse movies (a pentalogy) and a stunning drone movie. That lightning footage at the end was the ‘cherry on the icing of the cake’, you will never anything like it ever again, except in my Rogue Storm movie which is about that special night it occurred.

Music: ‘Legend’ by Ryan Taubert

Website

Bagan is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar.