Recent Highlights 105

+ The mysterious fluoro street-hieroglyphics of Melbourne
+ More photos of Saigon: one plus vietnam, a photo gallery
+ Everything you wanted to know about surfing, but...
+ The Top Gear of architecture: Dreamspaces
+ Nation branding (psst: Tasmania is a state, but anyway...)
+ Permanent Camping with Casey Brown (love it)
+ Complex Shit causes chaos in Switzerland
+ Cheap solar panels... from IKEA
+ A camera for the blind

The mysterious fluoro street-hieroglyphics of Melbourne. Miniature alien spaceship landing directions? I hope John So is investigating. Photos by Stephen Horsely.

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one plus vietnam. More shots of the two cities I quickly visited in Vietnam recently – hardly exhaustive when it comes to documenting that country, but hopefully of interest (because it's a very interesting place).

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Everything you wanted to know about surfing, but we're afraid to ask because you didn't have a wetsuit.
Michael Fordham and Cornwall's(?) a-side studio have put together what is possibly the ultimate book on surfing culture. The Book of Surfing showcases classic surfing graphics, films and photography, has an illustrated anatomy of surf wagons and surfing t-shirts and features a meditation on the inimitable Brian Wilson (worth it just for that!). Need to know how waves develop and which board to use? and why Big Wednesday is still the ultimate surfing movie? (And see some terrific information design throughout too).

Effective edu-taining work.

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The Top Gear of architecture: Dreamspaces.

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Nation branding (psst: Tasmania is a state, but anyway...). Via things.

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"Here’s Permanent Camping, a 3x3 meter prefab by Casey Brown that won the Australian Institute of Architects Small Project award this week. Its copper-clad siding, a bulwark against brush fires and harsh weather, folds outward on two sides, allowing natural light into the glass and timber interior." Australians really do love sheds. Terrific.

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Complex Shit causes chaos in Switzerland.

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Cheap solar panels... from IKEA.

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A camera for the blind. True.