Nathan Adams

Much of Adelaide’s contemporary architecture is boxy and safe, fuelled by developers looking for maximum returns. Thankfully though, where private development has failed to inspire, the universities and government have picked up the slack.

The most outstanding example is Woods Bagot’s spiky diamond SAHMRI. The medical research building sits on a brownfield site overlooking the rail lines and the river, catching the shifting sun in it’s hundreds of triangular panels. I hope it serves as inspiration for more Adelaide buildings to follow.

Finds

by | n

Posted February 14, 2014

Renowned design studio Nendo have designed a new stationery range under their own label. Each item is an exercise in reduction, while keeping one little ‘aha!’ moment.

My favourite items include a transparent ruler with markings that fade from black to white to maintain contrast against any item, a notebook with a corner cut so you can see which is currently in use, and a pen tray that eliminates the base as it’s unneeded when placed on a desk.

nendo.jp

Photos

Cam Show

Posted December 3, 2013

Lately, I’ve been shooting a lot more with my iPhone and VSCO Cam. The excellent film simulation is way ahead of the tackiness of Instagram’s filters, and there’s a great balance of in depth editing and simplicity. It also comes with VSCO Grid, a simplified photo feed like Flickr & Instagram, but without the commenting and social features.

I’ve kept my grid mostly to a single theme: exploring angles in architecture and public space, entirely shot in black & white.

nathanadams.vsco.co

Thoughts

Walking on Air

Posted November 22, 2013

My first day original iPad was starting to feel long in tooth. Stuck on iOS5 and feeling increasingly slow, I resolved that when Apple finally got around to releasing a retina displayed mini, I would move on. Except that’s not how it worked out.

Despite the retina display and on par tech specs, I went with the Air instead. With the massive shaving of size and weight, the Air feels like a big-screen mini, rather than a “full size” iPad. It feels more like holding a nice magazine, and using it feels like those early days of owning the original all over again.

Finds

Shine On You Crazy Disc

Posted August 18, 2013

Fitness is not my thing. Whilst I cycle everyday, my 5 minute commute certainly isn’t going to break records, and the last time I competed in sport was a good decade ago. Some breathing issues and lack of identifiable causes through tests though prompted the suggestion that maybe I just need to get fitter.

So on a whim I backed a new fitness tracker on Kickstarter. It’s a tiny silver disc, that thankfully doesn’t look like a plastic sports band. It lights up with how far you’ve got through your daily goal, syncs with your iPhone, and nothing more. And quite frankly, that’s enough to get me moving to not only achieve the goal, but then see how much I can beat it by. Years of apathy: 0, hi-tech 20¢ piece: 1.