Dornob | Design Ideas Daily

The Gravity of Illusion: Dyson’s Mysterious Garden Fountain

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 11:00 AM PDT

[ Filed under Patios & Decks & in the Interiors category ]

A simple water feature can take an ordinary deck and turn it into something magnificent. But a water feature fashioned by celebrated industrial designer James Dyson (of Dyson vacuums fame) is bound to be the most unforgettable water feature ever. This fountain, part of an overall garden design dubbed “The Wrong Garden,” was created by Dyson for the Royal Horticultural Society's 2003 Chelsea Flower Show. Like everything else designed by Dyson, it accomplishes a seemingly impossible task with highly astonishing style: in this case, it makes water flow uphill.

Dyson’s inspiration for the highly unusual outdoor fountain was M.C. Escher’s “Waterfall,” an illustration in which a stream of water seemingly breaks the laws of physics. Likewise, Dyson’s fountain looks like it somehow exists in a loophole where gravity has no control over the flow of water. A constant stream seemingly flows up the long surfaces of four triangular water tanks before spilling off of the highest points.

The secret is deceptively simple: the water is actually flowing inside and through the tanks and being propelled through small openings at the highest corner of the tanks. The stream flowing “up” the tanks is actually flowing down after spilling through the openings, but the illusion is so effective that it is hard to identify the trick even when looking right at it. Will we see home versions of the baffling illusion anytime soon? People involved in the Dyson project think it could be recreated on a smaller scale even though they are unwilling to share exactly how the illusion was achieved. Until the vacuum giant starts selling a DIY kit, duplicators are on their own.

Keep Going - Check out this Great Related Dornob Article:

Reversible Sink Faucet Functions as a Water Fountain

Mural Artwork on Acid: Surreal Optical Illusion Architecture

[ Filed under Patios & Decks & in the Interiors category ]

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Where the Heart is: Children’s Bedrooms Around the World

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 05:00 PM PDT

[ Filed under Photography & in the More category ]

A child’s bedroom is the very definition of home to her. It is where she sleeps, where she keeps her belongings and where she formulates her hopes and dreams.

This intimate space fascinated photographer James Mollison, who documented children around the world and the places in which they sleep for his book, Where Children Sleep.

From wealthy children with rooms full of toys to poor children with nothing more than a rug on the dirt floor, the images cover the full range.

Mollison photographs the children away from their rooms and in front of a neutral background. In this way, he removes them from their natural contexts and places each one on level ground with one another.

But it is the bedrooms pictured next to the children that inspire heartache. The rooms chock full of toys are in some ways just as moving as the sparse and barren chambers.

These small cross sections of children’s homes are merely a tiny glimpse into the varied conditions encountered every day by kids all around the world. But they are touching, beautiful and enlightening in a way that mere words can never be.