BIG rocks

I sometimes get calls about our artificial rocks where the customer asks about one of our larger rocks.   I immediately think 2m tall (tall stone 3) and the customer says " Oh no, I mean 2ft wide!"   Everything is relative I suppose.   The artificial rock in the image below is what I call big.  No, make that enormous.  Created by architect Giancarlo Mazzanti, the rocks are buildings that are designed as a library, a cultural centre and a community centre.

Spain Park Public Library, better known as Library Spain, is part of a series of urban projects and social development in this area of Medellin for the cultural and social transformation of the city.

More details can be found here:  http://architecturerevived.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/library-park-spain-in-colombia.html and here: http://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/2008/02/19/biblioteca-parque-espana-giancarlo-mazzanti/  Translation is needed on the last link but that's performed by a click of the mouse these days.

www.artificialrocks.co.uk

Pedant

I don't watch Downton Abbey but understand that many find it very enjoyable. I am also aware that there is a group of people that watch it just so they can point out period language howlers. Pedants, if you like. Now I wouldn't say that I am pedantic but I have noticed a glaring error on some construction site hoardings. I realise that if I point the error out to anyone not in the interior landscaping business they will find it as interesting as watching paint dry. On construction site hoardings.

 You can see this horticultural anomaly next to Farringdon Road station and at the eastern end of Smithfields. In order to reduce the industrial appearance of a construction site, certain companies have used hoardings with foliage instead of advertising or plain old paint. Imagine my horror when I first saw them. It was all I could do to stop myself from grabbing the first passer-by and shouting "Look, look, can you see what they have done?" The hoarding company went to Shutterstock or Dreamstime and picked out some nice neat foliage to simulate hedges and they chose a FICUS!!! Can you believe it! No, me neither! Yes, now you are beginning to understand. You will know that the ficus tree or weeping fig is an indoor plant. If the hoarding is still up in the winter it's going to look totally fake. The leaves would all fall off at the first frost.

The image below shows pretty much what the hoardings look like. Lovely, and correct in Florida, but periodically incorrect for Britain. Until we get a large dose of global warming that is.

Ficus foliage

Now if the researchers had been doing their job properly they could have chosen the following hoarding from http://www.hoardingboards.co.uk.   This one is not only correct but has railings thrown in!

Hoarding with foliage and railings.

I'm now waiting for some pedant to come along and say that the spindles should be 24mm and not 19mm as the image shows.  Oh, come on!

HyperSmash

Greenpeace Awareness Event

The BBC does it, politicians do it and now I've started doing it: choosing my words carefully.   I recently supplied some white artificial rocks (or artificial blocks of ice) to Greenpeace for events in the summer of 2012.   Greenpeace have built an ice cave in which their life-size polar bear is going to chill out and the blocks of ice were to enhance the display.   I Googled 'Greenpeace' and 'Paula bear' and found some images and a video of Paula on top of a filling station.

The protests, sorry - awareness events, were to try to prevent drilling for oil in the Arctic as the potential clean up difficulties for that region are much greater.

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-JiuNL4t1w

Artificial ice:  www.artificialrocks.co.uk