Designed and built in collaboration between Chalmers University of Technology and Röhsska Museum of Design in Copenhagen, the Archipelago Pavilion is a network of seating structures that inhabits the cortyard in front of the Museum. The structure provides shaded seating inside and creates shaded spaces around it to place existing chairs and tables. The structure was built on site by 33 architecture students.

The pavilion was parametrically designed in Grasshopper and Rhino and built from 2 mm thick laser-cut steel sheets. Exactly 133 pieces of steel were joint together with 1535 joints with a total of 3640 bolts holding it together. Inside the pavilion visitors can lie comfortably on the surface, thanks to the steel’s possibility to stay cool when shaded. The intricate web of spaces resembles clusters of small islands in an archipelago. The perforation on the roof spreads out an organic pattern resembling the one you would see from a tree in the forest. Read the rest of this entry »

The Spaghetti bench was designed by French-Argentine artist and designer Pablo Reinoso and created by Carpenters Workshop Gallery. Pablo Reinoso took public benches of anonymous design as a starting point for his reflection. Named Spaghetti, they start proliferating and finding their place in the most diverse spaces. The object is freed of its function to goes back to its path of wood, tree, vegetal. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed for the Luminale 2012 in Frankfurt, Germany, Kollision’s Photophore installation is a five storey veil of light that is operated by a smart phone. In order to make the veil act as if it being pushed, pulled or thrown in, the people on street can use an application: by scanning a QR code mounted on the façade, the users are brought to a website which invites them to swipe their finger across the touch screen of their smart phones. Read the rest of this entry »

Inspired by the dramatic coastal landscape of Busan, the Norwegian design firm Snøhetta has won the competition to realize the city’s opera house. The new Busan Opera House will be located by the port, and, as with the Opera House in Oslo, it will allow the public to walk on the roof. The house will have about the same size at its counterpart in Oslo, only exceeding it by a slightly bigger main hall with the planned capacity of receiving an audience of 1800 people.  According to the architects, the main guideline in the design process was the creation of an accessible and democratic space, turning the static into dynamic. The Opera is an interactive open stage that transforms the contemporary cultural spaces from elitist monuments into democratic arenas. Read the rest of this entry »

Studio Fuksas have completed the Tbilisi Public Service Hall in Tbilisi, Georgia. Conceived as the largest social service center in the world, the landmark, which is located on Tbilisi’s waterfront, pairs an innovative program with flamboyant architecture. A giant corolla of eleven white petals covers the building, adorning the banks of the Kura River with a symbolic bloom.

Description from the designers:

The Tbilisi Public Service Hall is situated in the central area of the city and it overlooks the Kura River.

The building is 28.000 mq. It is made up of 7 volumes that contain offices (each volume is made up of 4 floors located on different levels). These volumes are placed around a ”central public square”, which is the core of the project,  where there is the front office services. Offices are connected to each other by internal footbridges that stretch on different levels. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed by Marcelo Spina and Georgina Huljich of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S, the League of Shadows Pavilion has been declared winner of an architectural design competition for a 1,200-seat outdoor pavilion at SCI-Arc. The pavilion would accommodate graduation ceremonies, lectures, symposia and other cultural events. The pavilion will be located in the school’s parking lot in downtown Los Angeles. It is set to be completed spring 2013. Read the rest of this entry »

The Crush Collection, designed by Fredrikson Stallard, features a series of  low tables and chaises inspired by the sensuous form of crumpled metal sheet. These include an extended chaise created from black painted steel rods and upholstered in a sleek ultra-suede skin; glass unit tables containing polished metal sheet in black, gold and silver which creates tantalizing reflections of the surrounding space; and low tables draped with a sheet of polished metal that spills luxuriously on to the floor. Read the rest of this entry »

The three “Kikuchi” public parks are carefully weaved into the neighborhood of Kikuchi, a city in Kumamoto, Japan. Designed by Japanese architect Takao Shiotsuka, they are a good example of an alternative approach to pocket parks. According to Shiotsuka, the goal of these three parks is not to add greenery, but to revitalize an old area of the city with “a new stream of people.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Buddhist temple soon to be built in Taichang, China, takes shape of a Mobius ring, reflecting the basic principles of Buddhism and the idea of reincarnation. With the aid of digital design and fabrication techniques, the spatial logic of the building is rooted in the idea of “formlessness”. The architecture is interpreted as a path, connecting the beginning with the end, ultimately representing the principle of reincarnation. The shape of the project allows the inner and outer surface to meet in the same point seamlessly. The entire building is intertwined with two spiral dislocation rise. The form of the building does not have the traditional architectural image of circular structures, but an “unstable” configuration with the beginning and ending of the worshipper’s path occurring at the same point. Read the rest of this entry »

Arteixo Tourist Office was designed by the Spanish firm Alejandro Garcia y Arquitectos and is located on a site previously used as a bus top. The ambition was to create an urban attraction of the Arteixo municipality in Galicia, Spain.

Note that other cities such as Santiago de Compostela and are themselves an attraction, not necessary that the Tourist Office be, however in Arteixo Tourism is little known (beaches, trails landscapes, architecture , trade is not known) is why from the beginning we wanted a solution that was the center of attraction of tourism, the tourist that goes to the coast of Finisterre or death did stop along the way through a unique building after giving staff would be responsible for information that will remain on Arteixo tourists to consume and learn from another point of view the area. Read the rest of this entry »