World's most beautiful object

statler

statler

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World Architecture News
Gyrofocus, voted ?World?s most beautiful object? 2008?2009 in Pulchra competition

The Gyrofocus, designed by the award-winning contemporary fireplace maker Focus, has been named as the World's Most Beautiful Object for the 2008-2009 Pulchra design competition. The suspended fireplace achieved the highest number of votes in the inaugural year of the ten-year design competition. Over a year, 74,425 participants voted by Internet for the 10 most beautiful objects among 100 selected by a jury of experts in design and architecture, including Alessandro Mendini, Italo Lupi and Matteo Vercelloni. The fireplace created by Dominique Imbert in 1968 came out as the voters? top choice, over objects ranging from a television designed by Philips, a Sony Ericsson mobile phone, creations by Philippe Starck, and a Leo Cut diamond; their key point in common being the beauty of their design.

The black fireplace is made of 4mm-thick steel, has a diameter of 1.25m and a weight of 97kg. It rotates 360? so it can be easily directed to face different parts of the room. The length of the flue and other adaptations are produced to requirements.

Pulchra is the first ?beauty contest? exclusively reserved for objects. Launched in Italy in 2007 by Sandro Silvi, an internationally renowned architect passionate about beauty (pulchra in Latin means ?the most beautiful?), the aim of the competition is to present to the public, each year for the next 10 years, 100 objects carefully selected for their beauty by a committee of experts. This latest honour grants posterity to the Gyrofocus, assuring its place in history thanks to the voice of the general public, who resoundingly affirmed the aesthetic principle of its creator Dominique Imbert: beauty in simplicity.
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I wonder if automobiles qualify for this competition or just household goods?
 
If you sat in front of that fireplace in an Eames Lounge would the world explode?
 
I'm trying to navigate the pulchra.org website to get more info.

I don't know if it my ancient web browser at work or if the site itself is an exercise in frustration, but I can't find the 100 finalists from which the top ten winners were whitled.

I've found this page, but it doesn't include any of these, so I have no idea what is going on.
 
Can we turn this thread into a 'Beautiful/Cool Objects' thread? I'm going to start getting us off topic with .Shwood Sunglasses. Sweet sunglasses carved from real wood with polarized lenses, in the the latest Wayfarer-esque frame shape.
 
I don't know if I like the "World's most beautiful object" competition. Maybe a list of 100-200 of the most beautiful objects, but it just seems like there are so many "objects" that it's obscene to consider trying to pick one most beautiful object. Even looking at the list of the top 100, I'm sure each of us would have picked a different object.

This competition seems... juvenile? "My dad's the best dad!" is really what I get out of this. Sure... some objects are prettier than others, but can we really narrow it down to one, singular best? I don't know.
 
Very cool sunglasses! (Bridge a bit too thick, perhaps but sure beats those welding glasses beloved of eye patients and senior citizens!)
 
Isn't anyone curious about how the Gyrofocus fireplace feels about being objectified?
 
I majored in Crass in undergraduate school.

This should come as no surprise, statler...
 
tobyjug said:
Very cool sunglasses! (Bridge a bit too thick, perhaps but sure beats those welding glasses beloved of eye patients and senior citizens!)
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The assortment of Wayfarer-esque sunglasses is great. Every company is intent on their own, and while some don't really come close to the Ray Bans, a lot have very cool po-mo interpretations of them. Check out Electric Visual, Von Zipper, and the personal favorite, the RVCA by DMOTE Waybetters.
 
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