Gizmodo Australia » gardens

Water Flows Uphill In ‘Wrong Garden’ Optical Illusion

Adam Frucci — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:40:00 +0000

This fountain, created by inventor James Dyson and inspired by MC Escher, has water flowing up a series of ramps. Or so it appears.

It’s actually a pretty ingenious optical illusion. Water is pumped out of the tops of each ramp, cascading water down both the ramp and over its edge. Bubbles rising inside each ramp give the illusion of water flowing uphill, and all together it makes it look like the water is defying gravity. Pretty amazing stuff, and it took a solid year to design and build.

You can go check it out at the Chelsea Garden Show in England if you’re in the area. [BBC via Oh Gizmo! via The Daily What]

Worries of Godzilla Vanish with this Mini USB-Powered Zen Garden

Andi Wang — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:00:13 +0000

This $US25 mini USB-powered zen garden circulates water around its plastic bamboo shoots, creating relaxing sounds for a peaceful atmosphere in the workplace. That, or it’ll make you want to pee. [Akihabara via CrunchGear]

Vauxhall Sky Garden Building Gets Three-Storey Gardens Inside

Kit Eaton — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:45:00 +0000

This 130m skyscraper has been approved for building in London, but unlike “dead” conventional buildings, the Sky Garden includes plans for two three-story gardens to be built inside it. The idea is to “create a space for social interaction” and “foster micro communities,” which sounds like a neat way of combining green eco-friendliness and dense urban buildings. The gardens will cover about 2,500 square metres in total: a significant proportion of the building to give up from your normal retail/accommodation space. And it’s just going to be way cool to take a stroll in the “park” in your own building. [DesignBoom]

Muwi Concept Lawnmower Turns Waste Grass into Playthings

Kit Eaton — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:18:00 +0000

The electric-sheep lawnmower may have tickled your fancy, but this Muwi concept mower from designer Yuli Sung will have you scratching your head. The concept’s roughly the same as the sheep: It automatically assesses the grassy areas, and then cuts the lawn without supervision required. Cunningly, it grabs the grass cuttings inside where they won’t lie around setting off people’s hay fever. But then it does something strange… it compacts the cuttings into toys. Scratching yet? The second image makes it clearer.

Okay, so the ball could be considered more a plaything, while the grass disks are perhaps more suited for piling up as ad-hoc lawn chairs. Although there’s always the possibility of a game of giant grass Frisbee… How many sneezes and streaming eyes would that set off, I wonder? Those grass “bails” would easy to pick up and chuck onto the compost pile too.

Nice lateral thinking here, and for once it’s a concept that I’d love a manufacturer to get to grips with for real. [Yanko design]