Alternative Guide to the Universe surveys an artistic landscape that stretches to the far horizons of our imagination. Featuring contributions from self-taught artists and unlicensed architects, fringe physicists and visionary inventors, it serves up bracingly fresh perspectives on the world we live in. It also offers a rare opportunity to discover remarkable paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography and architectural models created by an eccentric and inspiring group of individuals from around the world. Exhibition dates: Tuesday 11 June 2013 - Monday 26 August 2013 [...]

"Zaha Hadid's design was the only one besides Foster's to touch on the building's actual function as an office. Hadid's write-up for her 669-foot, 40-story project mentions its "openness, flexible design and technological efficiency." As for the design itself, Hadid calls it "a structure of timeless elegance, yet with a strong identity that reflects the complex and sophisticated age in which it was created and mirrors the exceptional setting in which it is placed. Our approach has been to unite the four fundamental qualities for the project — Function, Design, Culture and Value — and fuse them into a single seamless design which incorporates these characteristics in a harmonious and unified architectural concept." We prefer to think of the design with the moniker given to some of the rendering filenames: WHOOSH." by [Curbed NY] [...]

Spooky images of how Buckingham Palace and other landmarks would look after a pandemic wipes out the population. How cheerful. [...]

Hundreds of British women – including a Reverend, a local Councillor and a transgender – have had photos of their boobs taken to form part of an elaborate wallpaper designed to raise money for a breast cancer charity. A prudish (and brave) Katy Rink spills the beans on what it was like to bare all. [...]

Located just steps away from the ocean shore, The Ettley residence was inspied by its landscape and reinterprets the relationship between solid and voids, a concept you can find in the field of arts: “The Aluminum and wood umbrella over the blue glass, which appear to be blocks of frozen blue Pacific ocean, juxtapose against the solid wood boxes giving an appearance of a modern seaside sculpture“. The house was designed by Californian-based architects Studio 9one2 and is a modern addition to the array of beach houses in the LA area. [...]

Studio Job's Art Defender, pictured at the Gerrit Rietveld-designed Weaving Mill De Ploeg in Bergeijk, The Netherlands. The Antwerp-based practice has always taken a subversive approach to design. Creating furniture and objects for brands like Moooi, Bisazza and Carpenters Workshop Gallery, it brings a witty, highly decorative sensibility to industrial design and limited-edition works, pushing ornamentation and craftsmanship to the extreme. [...]

Maurizio Cattelan's 5 horses installation is on view in the exhibition entitled Kaputt at Fondation Beyeler. While standing under Cattelan’s horses, the viewer will have the same question to ask the poor animals before it is too late. 'what do you see on the other side of that wall?' [...]

There's something apt about making the trip to Pantin, just beyond the ring road that demarcates central Paris, to take in 'Voyage to Uchronia', Matali Crasset's new show. [...]