August 2011 - Page 2 of 4 - Design & Lifestyle Blog

Palazzo Versace Hotel To Open in Dubai | Hotels

With 213 rooms and 169 residences, Dubai’s Culture Village will soon introduce the Palazzo Versace Hotel, a hotel by the fashion brand Versace. Rooms and residences will all be furnished with fabrics and furniture from Versace, with marble flooring and mosaics. The hotel will have a Versace boutique and several pools, a spa, bars, and a restaurant. The cost of the project is estimated at around AED 2.3 Billion. Check the renderings below.

Continue reading “Palazzo Versace Hotel To Open in Dubai | Hotels”

24 Aug ’1123 Feb ’24

Sculptural Residence Overlooking Atlantic Ocean in Senegal | Architecture

This breathtaking feature is a residence for a Senegalese family. It’s located on a cliffside overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and was designed and completed during this year. The architects are Saota – Stefan Antoni Olmesdahl Truen Architects and the interior design by ANTONI ASSOCIATES.

Villa Dakar Sow is a very prominent architectural structure which incorporates historical elements, a beautiful open plan, amazing view, and a sculptural staircase. The majority of the furniture, as with most luxury modern houses, is by Minotti.

‘Whilst the cliffside site presented an extraordinary opportunity for a house on the edge of Dakar’s CBD, the slowly eroding nature of the cliff face required a very carefully considered structural solution.’ says Greg Truen, Project Partner, ‘resulting in a building design that seemed to float off the cliff’s edge’.

The Kitchen is an open kitchen with a separate traditional kitchen as well as the garage. From the Entrance one moves past the sculptural circular stair to the Entertainment Room and the double volume Family Lounge which connects up with a floating stair to the upper level Pajama Lounge. The Main and the two children’s bedrooms are placed on this upper level.

The Main Bedroom Suite opens up onto a large terrace which is the roof of the more formal living wing of the house and the element which projects over to the ocean. The Main Bathroom opens into a private garden and outdoor shower situated over the garages.

One of the features of the house is the Contemporary Metal Spiral Stairs. To add to the sense of continuity between the levels the 20mm in diameter stainless steel rods run from the first floor handrail to the lower ground floor, thus making the stairwell look like a sculptural steel cylinder. A skylight above the stairwell as well as floor to ceiling glazing in the lounges adds to the sense of transparency.

“Throughout the villa, modern works of art, many of which are from the client’s private collection, sit comfortably within this luxury residence, creating an intention that is decidedly sleek and contemporary” says Mark Rielly of ANTONI ASSOCIATES.

Source: Saota Blog

23 Aug ’1118 Aug ’23

Fendi Designs Maserati GranCabrio | Cars

Maserati has teamed up with Fendi to present the GranCabrio whichwill debut in Frankfurt in September 2011.

Description by Motor Ward : “ Maserati GranCabrio by Fendi is painted in a three-layered body color named Grigio Fiamma Fendi, which is a special dark grey with an iridescent golden finish on the surface. There is also wood trim Pergamena Fendi that runs across the width of the dashboard, on the doors and on the top of the gear lever, all in the iconic FENDI yellow, like the brake callipers and the embroidered yellow trident on the headrests.What’s more you also get Fendi’s Cuoio Romano leather from Selleria line on the instrument cluster cover, for the gear lever and for the profile of the floor mats.”

FENDI’s logo is present all over the seats, in the center of the wheels, and along the rocker panel. In addition to that “there is also a silver oval plaque with the engraving of the Maserati Trident, Fendi logo and the 5-digit series number (five being an iconic number for Fendi) located on the dashboard, in front of the passenger seat, and on both sides of the black cloth folding roof.

Maserati GranCabrio Fendi is powered by a 4.7-litre V8 engine and comes with an automatic transmission.”

Photos and source: Motor Ward

20 Aug ’1119 Aug ’11

Winners And Finalists Of The International Photography Awards | Photography

Entry Title: " ‘Let them eat cake’ "
Name: John Wright, United Kingdom
Category: Professional, Fashion
Entry Description: Series shot for Leica S2 promotional images and featured on GQ Style online.

The International Photography Awards conducts an annual competition for professional, non- professional, and student photographers on a global scale, creating one of the most ambitious and comprehensive competitions in the photography world today.

The winners of the main categories will compete for IPA’s top award of International Photographer of the Year. Those finalists will be invited to attend the Lucie Awards at the Lincoln Center, New York, where one photographer will be announced as the grand winner, earning the coveted Lucie Statue and a cash prize of $10,000 provided by AtEdge. In addition, the nominees in the non-professional and student categories will be invited to the Lucie Awards to compete for the title of the Discovery of the Year provided by Blurb, a Lucie Statue and $5,000 cash prize. Six nominees comprised of all levels of profession, will be invited to the Lucie Awards for the title of Deeper Perspective Photographer of the Year, where the story behind the images are dually judged, and to compete for the coveted Lucie Statue and a cash prize of $5,000.

There are tens of breathtaking photos on the main website for you to enjoy, I wish I could post them all. Here I chose a few of my favorites from various categories and with different winning places (1st, 2nd, & 3rd) including descriptions as indicated by the artists themselves. Enjoy!

Entry Title: " Day to Night, Times Square"
Name: Stephen Wilkes, United States
Category: Professional, Cityscapes
Entry Description: A "Day to Night" time lapse of Times Square in New York City.

Entry Title: " Our oceans aren’t the only ones in danger"
Name: Adam Taylor, United States
Category: Professional, Advertising
Entry Description: "Our oceans aren’t the only ones in danger" Commissioned for the Surfrider Foundation – – A series displaying the metaphorical results of humans washed up on the beach, the victims of the products we as a society carelessly discard and that end up in our oceans.

Entry Title: " Hyperspace Audi A8"
Name: igor omulecki, Poland
Category: Professional, Automotive
Entry Description: Hyperspace campaign introduce new Audi A8 on polish market. The photographs were presented during 4 exclusive events/exhibitions in Poland. Moreover, a limited edition album of only 1000 copies has been published. Several publications in art and lifestyle magazines. Finally, a website has been created www.hyperspace.pl.

Entry Title: " Women of History"
Name: Peter Lippmann, Afghanistan
Category: Professional, Fashion
Entry Description: These images are the result of a collaboration with Christian Louboutin

Entry Title: " Magic World"
Name: Adam Balcerek, Poland
Category: Professional, Product

Entry Title: " Remote Control"
Name: Claudio Allia, Italy
Category: Non-Professional, Self-Promotion
Entry Description: Mathare Valley Slum (Nairobi) A.D. 2010.

Continue reading “Winners And Finalists Of The International Photography Awards | Photography”

19 Aug ’1119 Aug ’11

Glasgow Riverside Museum of Transport By Zaha Hadid Architects | Architecture

Photos © McAteer Photograph/Alan McAteer

The building, open at opposite ends, has a tunnel-like configuration between the city and the Clyde. However, within this connection between the city and river, the building diverts to create a journey away from its external context into the world of the exhibits. Here, the internal path within the museum becomes a mediator between city and river, which can either be hermetic or porous depending on the exhibition layout. Thus, the museum positions itself symbolically and functionally as open and fluid, engaging its context and content to ensure it is profoundly interlinked with not only Glasgow’s history, but also its future. Visitors build up a gradual sense of the external context as they move through the museum from exhibit to exhibit.

The design is a sectional extrusion, open at opposing ends along a diverted linear path. This cross-sectional outline could be seen as a cityscape and is a responsive gesture to encapsulate a waves on water. The outer waves or ‘pleats’ are enclosed to accommodate support services and the ‘black box’ exhibits. This leaves the main central space column-free and open, offering greatest flexibility to exhibit the museum’s world-class collection.

Glasgow, United Kingdom
2004 – 2011
Glasgow City Council
Built
11,000m²
Exhibition Area: 7,000m²
Site Area: 22,400m²
Footprint Area: 7,800m²

The museum, a sectional extrusion open at both ends, its outline encapsulating a wave or pleat, flows from city to waterfront, symbolizing dynamic relationship between Glasgow and the ship-building, seafaring and industrial legacy of the river Clyde. Clear glass facades allow light to flood through the main exhibition space.

Continue reading “Glasgow Riverside Museum of Transport By Zaha Hadid Architects | Architecture”

19 Aug ’1119 Aug ’11

designMENA Features Tips From UPDKS

DesignMena is an online comprehensive magazine for everything architecture, interiors, and industrial design based in Dubai, U.A.E. They cover all construction news, design awards, materials, and supplier updates within the region. They even have free online publications for various sectors and can be downloaded free on your iPad.

I recommend you check their website out for the updates and download all their issues, they are very interesting.

DesignMena

19 Aug ’11

Happy 1st Blogoversary Un Peu De Kil Shi!

Well it’s been a year since I started this blog and it has come a long way thanks to all he readers and friends who have helped contribute in one way or the other.

This blog represents what I love, and there’s nothing better than to share it with everyone out there. During this “Blog” year I have made friends from many countries with various interests, I gained a lot, and hopefully helped pass along and share information as well. The blog has actually changed my life in so many ways and I am very grateful.

I will be adding categories and more personalized posts soon, just keep checking, and as usual I appreciate your feedback and interaction more than anything.

Make yourself at home, at Un Peu De Kil Shi!

I won’t take any longer, just a big thank you , and hopefully next year I’ll get an actual cake instead of a doughnut!

Cheers!

17 Aug ’1117 Aug ’11

From My Kitchen | Mini Lebanese Pancakes (Katayef)

I am a bit in to the Ramadan cooking spirit these days, I am getting off work a couple of hours earlier than usual, which is giving me time to prepare different meals and desserts regularly. I usually buy ready made “Katayef” dough and make my own fat-free cream filling and sugar syrup at home. Today I was too lazy to go get them from Sultan Supermarket /TSC so I decided I’ll prepare the batter at home.

This type of Lebanese sweet is of three parts, the pancakes, the filling, and the sugar syrup. To save time I usually prepare the syrup and filling a night ahead, but that’s not really necessary.

Ok prepare your shopping list, this is what you will be needing for each phase with instructions on how to prepare them.

A- For the mini pancakes (batter)

2 cups flour

1 TBS baking powder

2 small tsp fast acting yeast

1 TBS sugar

1 TBS fat free powder milk

1 3/4 cups warm water

Mix the flour, baking powder, yeast, sugar, and milk, then slowly add the warm water, leave the batter 15-30 min to rest. Heat a small non-stick skillet and use cooking spray (or a little bit of oil). Take out Tablespoonfuls of batter to form small pancakes, cook from one side only, you will see bubbles form on the top, DON’T FLIP THEM, they should remain uncooked from the other side. just when the top dries up, remove them. Stack them on a plate and work on the filling and syrup.

B- For the filling (Kashta)

6 pieces of white toast (cut off the brown edges)

2 cups fat free milk

1 tsp vanilla

This filling is usually the worst part of any Lebanese dessert and the most fattening, but with this recipe you will see how light and guilt free it is. Cut the white bread into small squares , put them in a pot, pour over the milk and the vanilla, mix them till they form a consistent texture. Put aside.

C- For the sugar syrup

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 TBS lemon

1 TBS orange blossom water (Ma zaher)

Mix the sugar and water , heat till they boil , add the lemon, boil again, add the orange blossom water and boil a final time till the syrup is clear. Leave aside till it cools.

Assembly:

hold one pancake in your hand, stick the two sides together leaving the top part open, fill in a tsp or more of the filling. Make as many as you want for each person then drizzle the sugar syrup and serve. If you don’t plan to serve them all, keep all items separate and only prepare them before serving.

Try it and you won’t regret it,

Enjoy!!!

Month: August 2011