Some candy shops are so colorful and chaotic, you’re not sure where to look. That kind of wild Willy Wonka-esque environment can certainly be fun, but sometimes, simplicity is what it takes to make the truly important element stand out: the candy itself. RED Design Group gets sketchy with a black-and-white store for Candy Room in Melbourne, Australia.

Sweet Enough, a wholesale importer of sugar-free candy products, wanted to break into the retail market with a store that would be “a destination and an experience.” RED Design Group captured a childlike spirit with hand-drawn details like a kitchen, stools and books on stark white surfaces.

“Being strongly influenced by the idea of designing a playful, simple and somewhat illusional space for the Candy Room, the exaggeration of a ‘room’ idea was formulated,” say the designers. “The application was to use line artwork on white space to represent a room.”

They extended the same theme to the store’s branding and packaging, with labels and signage casually hand-written. Walking into the store, visitors are immediately greeted by the bright coloring of the canned packaging, eyes drawn to lollipops, chocolate bars, caramels and much more.

---

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Daring Design: 14 (More!) Sexy Store Interiors

Garden-variety retail displays will never do for brands like Derek Lam, Issey Miyake and even - that's right - Barbie, all of which have stunning store designs. 1 Comment - Click Here to Read More »»

---

Room Dividers: 15 Free-Standing Walls & Folding Screens

Room dividers can be works of art, too, as proven by these 15 innovative designs including modular plastic, cardboard and even walls of toilet paper. 18 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

Totally Typography: 18 Textual Packaging Designs

Forget fancy graphics, illustrations and photos - these 18 packaging designs use the beauty of typography alone to stand out on the shelf. 4 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

Even for native New Yorkers who are rarely surprised by the secrets offered up by their fascinating home, the hidden NYC that Alex MacLean captured might be something completely new. And if you have never lived in New York, you are sure to be blown away. The architect turned pilot turned photographer took to the skies in a helicopter to capture a world that very few ever get to see: the rooftop outdoor spaces that bring some urban dwellers right into suburbia.

(image via: Princeton Architectural Press)

Flipping through the pages of MacLean’s Up On the Roof (a copy of which was provided to WebUrbanist by the publisher), all of the trappings of suburban life are evident. The barbecues, picnic tables, gardens and swimming pools call to mind neighborhood backyard parties – only these are no backyards. These are the tops of tall buildings right in the middle of one of the most vibrant cities in the world.

(image via: Princeton Architectural Press)

MacLean became aware of this secret world almost by chance. An intriguing image he saw on Google Earth inspired the pilot to take a swing over Manhattan while out on a photography assignment. The initial reason for the detour was quickly forgotten when MacLean began to notice an entirely unexpected layer to the city far above the sidewalks. From then on, he began documenting those amazing rooftop spaces.

(image via: Princeton Architectural Press)

Just like suburban backyards, the roof spaces run the range from sparse and minimal to flawlessly manicured to absolutely chaotic. It is wonderfully mesmerizing to examine each page, leaning in close so as not to miss a single detail. These high-up spaces have been used for everything from playgrounds to restaurants to art exhibits to fully-functional urban farms and even golf courses. In one bizarre case, a replica of a World War I British fighter plane sits on a rooftop runway.

(image via: Princeton Architectural Press)

While many of the older buildings sport retro-fit rooftop spaces – added on many years after the buildings were constructed – some new buildings have rooftop living and recreational spaces built in. MacLean notes a particular new building in Williamsburg on which the roof space is segmented into many individual outdoor areas, to be sold later at a premium to residents.

(image via: Princeton Architectural Press)

The nearly 200 rooftops detailed in MacLean’s book are perfect examples of urban adaptivity. Even urbanites who wouldn’t dream of leaving the city crave an outdoor space in which to relax. Since rooftops account for one third of all impermeable surfaces in New York City, it only makes sense to put all of that space to use.

(image via: NY Mag)

It is interesting to note that, since rooftops have typically been used to house industrial objects like water towers, compressors, and ducts, these things now have to coexist with the rooftop living spaces. In some cases the solutions are remarkably elegant, such as enclosures that camouflage all of the mechanical things. In others, the spaces meant for people simply wind their way around the inconvenient objects.

(image via: NY Mag)

MacLean’s engrossing book can be enjoyed simply for its beautiful photography and glimpses into ordinarily-inaccessible places. But for urban enthusiasts, it also inspires a sort of giddy excitement over future possibilities. As more and more of the world’s population settles in densely-populated urban areas, more cities will start to resemble New York…and more urbanites will head to the roof for their daily dose of nature.

---

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Going … Up? Radical & Subversive Urban Rooftop Dwellings

Urban rooftops are often neglected, but some clever homeowners are using them to their full potential: to support extended, unique, sky-high living areas. 11 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

Migrant Skyscrapers Roll Up City Streets Inside Giant Wheels

Imagine what a truly nomadic urban society might look like, devoid of concerns of safety and ... perhaps some safety concerns or laws of physics. Click Here to Read More »»

---

Lofty Living: 11 Modern Additions to Urban Rooftops

Adding living space, offices and restaurants to rooftops around the world, these 11 additions are unapologetically modern, taking loft living to new heights. 4 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

Just miles from America’s most populous city is a neighborhood that’s almost entirely abandoned, its streets flooding with three feet of water every time it rains, its houses soft with rot, its yards littered with trash and debris. ‘The Hole’ is a five-block ‘border town’ between Brooklyn and Queens, and at thirty feet below sea level, it’s too close to the water table to hook up to the sewer system.

(top & above images via: jake dobkin/blue jake)

‘The Hole’ was a bit of an open secret before a blog post by urban explorer and photographer Nathan Kensinger piqued the interest of documentary filmmakers Courtney Sell and Billy Feldman, who interviewed the few people still living in the area. Many residents of the surrounding metro area still don’t know it exists. It was a body dumping ground for the mafia for many years.

(images via: nathan kensinger, jake dobkin/blue jake)

Images taken by Kensinger and his friend Jake Dobkin show one eerily still urban scene after another, with very few signs of the bustling city life that flourishes just blocks away. The decaying buildings and out-of-control plant life call to mind the History Channel series ‘Life After People’, which examines what would happen to the remains of our civilizations if humans were to disappear.

(images via: nathan kensinger)

Stray dogs dart between abandoned vehicles. Once, The Federation of Black Cowboys kept its horses here, and patrolled the streets on horseback – but the horses were evicted to make way for housing developments that were never built. Nature has other plans. The whole basin is being reclaimed by the marsh. Learn about more of New York’s lost history and abandoned places at Forgotten New York.

---

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

The Empty City of Ordos, China: A Modern Ghost Town

The brand-new, wealthy urban center of Ordos in northern China has sat empty for five years as citizens of the old town hesitate to relocate. 22 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

Secret City: The Illegal Architecture of Tawian

Attached to the permanent architecture of Taipei is a network of sustainable pop-up structures in a beneficial - but illegal - symbiotic relationship. 2 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

Silent Skyscrapers: The Ghost Towers of Bangkok

Soaring skyscrapers that should have been majestic additions to Bangkok's skyline have been abandoned for over a decade, rusting and crumbling in urban ruin. 2 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

The Germans have a dark joke about their low-water-consumption, eco-friendly toilets and cultural history, which goes something like this: you have to look at your garbage before you get to flush it away. Along similarly macabre lines, this so-called Monument to Civilization project proposes erecting giant buildings made of refuse.

Instead of burying our legacy under the Earth’s surface, these structures conceived of by (award-winning designer) Lin Yu-Ta showcase the impact of the millions of tons of trash major cities produce on an annual basis, which could reach 5,000 feet if piled high in New York City alone.

If architecture is part spectacle, then the full story is perhaps incomplete without something like this on the skyline. But beyond the aesthetic statement, decomposing trash can also create power for surrounding facilities (though in a depressing way, this in turn fuels the cycle of endless garbage creation).

---

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Junk Culture: 12 Terrific Trash Can and Garbage Bin Designs

Trashcans, garbage bins, room wastebaskets, whatever - the humble refuse receptacle is part and parcel of our consumable (and disposable) society. 7 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

7 Innovative Artists Who Create Art from Trash: Projected, Recycled and Other Amazing Art

These seven trash-obsessed artists may have had a similar starting point but have managed to create an inspiring variety of art from abandoned refuse. 61 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

Thank You for Littering: NYC Garbage Art

One Manhattanite's trash is another person's kitschy plastic knick-knack. Artist Justin Gignac packages and sells NYC trash for $50 a pop. 6 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

Is this the most temporary architecture of all time? Fragile and tenuous but undeniably beautiful, these bubble buildings rise for just moments at a time before they pop. To create the interactive Bubble Building pavilion by Dutch firm DUS Architects, visitors lift metal frames of various shapes and sizes out of soapy steel pools.

The pavilion was constructed in a Rotterdam square, consisting of 16 hexagonal mirroring pools and a seating area for spectators. Part of the ZigZagCity Festival, the pavilion was in place for just a few weeks. It didn’t look like much until visitors lifted the handlebars of the frames, creating huge soap walls resembling glass.

“While the building is temporary, it refers to monumental architectural themes such as the re-building of Rotterdam,” say the architects. “In order to make the building appear, you must erect it yourself, until it pops again. This way, the Bubble Building also is a reference to the current bursting of the economic bubble. Moreover, the Bubble Building is about collective building, as it takes at least two people to erect one cell of the pavilion. The more people join in, the larger the pavilion becomes.”

“Visitors are invited to eternalize their own momentary version of the pavilion in a bubble snapshot, and upload these images to the ZigZagCity website. Online, a multitude of different bubble buildings appear. In these pictures lies the true beauty of the pavilion: the remembrance. As ultimately, the Bubble Building is about beauty.”

---

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

The Tallest Masonry Building in the World: Philadelphia’s Beautiful Load-Bearing City Hall

Did you know that brick or stone-clad buildings you see today almost invariably hide a steel support structure that does the actual work? 17 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

Blow-Up Buildings: 17 Inflatable Works of Mobile Architecture

Temporary - sometimes even transient - these 17 blow-up structures create enclosed event space where there was none, in public squares and gritty city corners. 5 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---

New Tallest Skyscraper in the World – Doesn’t Beat Highest Virtual Building

The creation of the tallest building in the world has become such a status-seeking quest, cities and countries competing for the title have stopped revealing the planned height of their buildings. 14 Comments - Click Here to Read More »»

---