Mike Rea Wooden Sculptures

Wonderfully crafted and intricate sculptures, for want of a better word, are the product of Mike Rea. I love this piece, titled "A prosthetic Suit For Stephen Hawkin w/ Japanese Steel" from 2007, which is massive and actually accommodates a real size human. His website is a bit small and faffy, but well worth a look around. I'm totally in awe of his work.

Urban Outfitters Edinburgh

I've just seen the stairs in Edinburgh's branch of Urban Outfitters on Princes Street and, being a bit of a ply fanatic, they're well worth a quick blog post.
I love the fact they've been designed by laminating numerous layers to produce what can only be described as an awesome thickness of ply. The diagonal grain means any glorious angle you look at these treads from, all you see is end grain. Nice, huh? If you don't understand the beauty of this, shake yourself and try again...

Architectural Association

I was lucky enough to be at a wedding at the weekend, where the reception was at the AA in Hooke Park, Dorset - a 330 acre wood where they have a groundbreaking school who make some amazing experimental buildings and structures. This one, which acted as a dancefloor for the evening, is made of plywood. So I loved it instantly.

Martin Creed

Martin Creed - Work No. 786 - 2007 - 1/4" Plywood. I love art and I'm not a prude about it. I kind of buy into the whole 'it's art cos I say it's art' attitude. And I love plywood as much as the next man. No. Actually, more than the next man. In fact I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with the stuff. I used 1/4" ply (6mm to us) to cover my kitchen cupboards at my last place, with two sheets of 18 mil. ply laminated together to make the work surface. I've generally used 18 mil. ply (Latvian Birch Ply, to be precise) for more things than I maybe should have. The first birthday gift I gave my girlfriend 6 years ago, for her 21st birthday no less, was presented in a small box I made from 18 mil. ply. Now that had a snug fitting lid (she still has it today and I'm still in awe of it. And she's now my fiancé so something went right). With all that in mind, here's 's "Work No. 786". Is it art, or just a stack of ply. I'll leave you to scream in disagreement at one another, but also check "Work No. 571" from 2006, which is another stack of plywood (Martin's made a few). Or maybe "Work No. 600" from the same year, which looks terribly much like he's made a film of a girl having a poo.

AA Summer Pavilion

I generally don't seem to find time to follow architecture per se but, while working for a client in London, I stumbled upon this by pure accident while strolling through Bedford Square on my way to the British Museum. I took a few snaps, investigated when I got back to HQ and, for those like me who didn't know, it's the Architectural Association Summer Pavilion. This year it was the Swoosh Pavilion, taken from design to completion by the 2nd and 3rd year students to coincide with the London Festival of Architecture. It joins the [c]space Pavilion and both, for my mind, are an amazing feat and my quick happy snaps do them nowhere near enough justice.