She just realised FOLDING FOR PEACE, a paper garden in Nagasaki, Japan.

“An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. Inspired by this popular belief, the garden Folding For Peace is the physical remain of a wish for world peace. All the plants that compose the garden are folded out of white paper.”

The projects of Anouk are very divers. They range from fashion projects like this SEASON CHANGE dress …

to  fairytale like WINTER & SUMMER bridges …

The realisation of the bridges is planned for the end of 2012 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

More info on Anouk Vogel

Recently this former neglected home which is situated in Rotterdam, The Netherlands won The Lensvelt Architect interieurprijs 2011 prize. Because of this I looked into the project again and for the first time saw pictures of the interior. All in all a wonderful gem …

The architect of the Black Pearl is also the occupant of this extraordinary house in Charlois. The black-oiled facade contrasts sharply with the adjacent houses.

Existing windows are painted and new windows cut out.

The house was renoveted in 2010 and is an original stacking of several functions: studio, home and an exceptional roof garden.

The design is by architect and in this project also client Studio Rolf.fr in collaboration with Zecc Architects.

And look at it now … The natural site has been dramatically urbanized and modernized, while keeping the ecological processes and natural services of the site intact.

Qinhuangdao City decided to build a “Red Ribbon” spanning five hundred meters, which integrates the functions of lighting, seating, environmental interpretation, and orientation.

It is made of fiber steel, and lit from inside so that it glows red at night.

While preserving as much of the natural river corridor as possible during the process of urbanization, this project demonstrates how a minimal design solution can achieve a dramatic improvement to the landscape.

Please click here for the complete article and more images.

And not only fabrics, MEG O’HALLORAN DESIGN is a collaborative design-make studio specializing in modern furniture, carpets, and upholstery fabrics.

Leading lady Meghan O’Halloran was trained as an architect at Cornell University in Ithaca NY and this is what she says about her work:

 “How do we work? Hands On. We like to make paper models, draw sketches, and build things. Not everything comes from a computer, and not everything comes without it. We seek balance in our designs. Traditional in some regards, and unexpectedly modern in others.”

MEG O’HALLORAN DESIGN has a beautiful website and also a shop

Ps What type of Artifort do you think we have in our living room?

The site of Wee House is a big inspiration for me. Most of the houses they build have clean lines, timeless quality and basic shapes.

The very basic shape of this beautiful barn house for instance. Very easy to see another brooch in it don’t you think?

If you click over here you’ll find more great photos of this house.

In Belgium and French, en route on our holiday we saw many more of those walls. The walls sometimes have fantastic patterns and are mostly made of slate, although I think the blue tiles are made of copper.

I think it was Erica Hogenbirk, who pointed out to me that the blue wall was probably somewhere in Belgium. So she was right about that! By the way; Erica is a Dutch knitwear designer and makes wonderful products of wool and other materials. Please take a look in her Etsy shop.

On to the walls again… In the previous post with the photo of the blue wall I told you about my inspiration and that I was pretty sure that one day the Blue wall photo would become a brooch.

And here they are…made of cherry wood, silver and copper.

and one made of ebony, silver and copper rivets…

Soon they will be placed in our online store .

Photo of slate tiles by: Durley Beachbum

But I mist my blog and I am also eager to continue working on the line of brooches we started to make just before we left.

We had a lovely time, with long hikes along the beautiful coastline of Picardy with its spectacular chalk cliffs. Reading, hiking, sitting on terraces drinking white wine and eating oysters every day….  More inland the rolling hills covered in waving grain with the color of gold in the evening sun, it was beautiful.

Some seaside villages in that part of the Picardy coast have many houses build in Art Nouveau style. I can not say I find it beautiful but it is very special and somehow a little crazy.

We stayed near Mers-les-Bains, a seaside town what used to be a small fishing village before 1900. The town suddenly transformed into a popular beach resort when around 1860 sea bathing became in fashion. Wealthy Parisians frequented the resort on weekends and short holidays , because thanks to the railroad Paris-Le Treport it was only 3 hours away.

The tall houses were built side by side on the waterfront and adjoining streets in order to provide a villa with sea views for as many people as possible. In course of time the architectural style in the city developed from the Anglo-Flemish to Art Nouveau.

En route we came across this photogenic Boucherie.

And we saw quite a bit of houses with restored walls of mud and straw, like this one with its beautiful color of ocher yellow.

Temperatures up to 27 degrees yesterday, which is predicted again today. Great! It was also said a violent storm would follow the fine weather at the end of the day.

So all day yesterday I worked in my garden to support the long flowers and cut the grass …

And something completely different …

This is where New Yorkers go during warm weather,

click on this link for more great photos …

I see inspiration  everywhere, like here, beautiful lines and shapes …

House Pin made by Jan Kerkstra of Atelier The Jewelry Story

Or here … squares and rectangles who are in my opinion entirely in balance.

Brooche Confetti  made by me (Marion Pannekoek)

I collect all these “inspiration” images on my other web log  “Moments of Beauty”. Please have a look!
While there click on Archive and you’ll see an overview of al my fotos, or you can scrol through the pages.

PS
Sorry I can’t give credit for the fotos of the buildings, I can’t locate where these images come from…

That Scottish people are not the only ones with a great sense of history proves this project in Germany where it was decided to use the ruins of a 15th century castle for an extension of the Moritzburg museum in Halle, Germany.

To combine what is past with the contemporary; if it’s done in the right way it can be awe-inspiring…

Click here to see lots more images of this beautiful project.