Mirror: The Latest Architecture and News

Not all people share the same routines, habits, or customs, yet we all have the same fundamental needs, regardless of age, social class, gender, culture, or religion. Designing bathroom spaces involves considering parameters of accessibility, technology, cleanliness, comfort, and durability, while offering efficient and sustainable solutions that ensure optimal performance. But what does functionality in architecture really mean? How do usage patterns evolve over time? Geberit products showcase various design proposals through their Mix and Match approach that blend furniture, sinks, and other bathroom accessories, all conceived to meet the diverse requirements of their users.

One of the most common decorative objects in projects, mirrors have existed since the Badarian civilization, around 4,000 BC. With several transformations in its material and manufacture, the mirror is a decorative object and can also serve as a design strategy.

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With different shapes, sizes, and styles suiting different locations, functions, and personalities, mirrors can be used as points of self-reflection for dressing and beautifying, but also for multiplying light and space in naturally dark or narrow environments, or simply as strikingly decorative objects. Here are the right questions to ask when lost.

Humans have used mirrors since as early as 600 BCE, employing highly polished obsidian as a basic reflective surface. Over time, people began to use small pieces of gold, silver, and aluminum in a similar manner, both for their reflective properties and for decoration. By the 1^st century CE, people had started using glass to make mirrors, but it was only during the European Renaissance that Venetian manufacturers began making mirrors by applying metallic backings to glass sheets, remaining the most common general method of mirror manufacturing today. Since then, mirrors have continued to play both a decorative and functional role in architecture, serving a clean, modern aesthetic despite its ancient origins. Below, we investigate how mirrors are made, provide a brief history of mirrors in architecture, and offer several tips for architects looking to use mirrors in their designs.

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Videos

On The Desert Island in Cottesloe Beach, Australia, a 72-meter wall of mirrors partitions out a section of the sand, creating a cove of its own. The wall faces the Indian Ocean, and the curved reflection of sand merging with the soft-blue waters and the horizon beyond creates an illusion of an enclosed space; a desert island floating in an endless sea.

Conceived of by the Danish architecture studio Gjøde & Partnere Arkitekter, the installation was part of the annual Sculpture By The Sea exhibition in Australia last month. It is the largest free public sculpture exhibition in the world, and anyone can submit their ideas. As beachgoers stumbled upon this panorama of the shore upon sand, they danced, took photos, and watched the sunset from the wavering reflections of the mythical island.

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