Cocoon Housing is a highly conceptual housing typology that was designed by John Farrace at the USC School of Architecture for the purpose of exploring techniques of representation. The project is an attempt to reduce both technical and experiential drawings to their essence (at a graphic level), and hybridize them into a homogenous set of drawings that reference the mediated experience of a camera lens (in perspective) and the raw look of black and white technical line drawings. Each drawing fits into a given category — plan, elevation, perspective, for example — but have specific components of other categories, leaving an “in-between drawing” that represents and speaks to multiple ideas at once. Read the rest of this entry »
Parametric Designed Wooden Pavilion in Romania / Stefanescu-Bedarf-Hambasan
This parametric project designed by Dimitrie Stefanescu, Patrick Bedarf, and Bogdan Hambasan started out as an ambitious student-powered endeavor to design and fabricate at a 1:1 scale the flagship pavilion for the ZA11 Speaking Architecture event in Cluj, Romania; while at the same time integrating it into its historically-charged context. The design boasts a strong representational power which was much needed in order to fulfill its main goal: attracting passers-by to the event. At the same time, the object, through its tectonic characteristics, tries to make legible the new ontology which is slowly defined by computational architecture and thus becomes a showcase for the design processes empowered by digital tools. Read the rest of this entry »
Resonance: Geometry and Sound Animation with 30 Artists
The short series of films in the project Resonance are works by teams of audio artist and studios paired with visual artist and studios. Based on the idea of matching geometry (SEE) with sound (HEAR) each movie vignette is an abstract experiment of 4D design immersion. Organized by SR Partners, over 30 groups participated.
Pieces are 20 seconds long or less and represent a diverse set of design modeling formulations both in content and aesthetic, with only occasionally representational or natural backgrounds incorporated. Narrative is downplayed in the short pieces, with both organic and geometric kinetic forms often shape shifting, changing scale or context matched with corresponding soundscapes. Sounds are musical and descriptive of the movement, using ambiance techniques to underscore the tone of the visual environment. Read the rest of this entry »
Joenniemi Manor Museum in Finland / studioBang
Joenniemi Manor in Finalnd was originally built as a large residence before it was converted into a museum with 500 sqm of exhibition spaces. Due to its original planning as a home, large-scale travelling exhibitions cannot be conveniently displayed in the current exhibition facilities. In addition, the service facilities are insufficient, and the collection and office areas are also inadequate. The program, the necessary heights, and its integration with the landscape led to the idea of piling up the functions to minimize the groundfloor area of the building and keep intact as much landscape as possible. Read the rest of this entry »
Super-Stadium for the 2022 Winter Olympics / Alan Lu
Super-Stadium is a proposal designed by Alan Lu for an Olympic complex for Harbin’s bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics that seeks to integrate the multitude of Olympic arenas and villages into one continuous entity, allowing for a seamless transition between programs and events. Read the rest of this entry »
Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts / Allied Works Architecture
Allied Works was named one of eighteen international finalists to create the Pôle Muséal Lausanne, which encompasses transforming an historic train shed and industrial site into a new cultural district. The design was developed in collaboration with an international team of designers, including Latz+Partner for Landscape, Resnicow Schroeder Associates for Cultural Planning, and Nicolet Chartrand Knoll for Structural and Civil.
The forms and spaces of the new museum are both monumental and transparent. The building’s geologic form is fractured by activity, providing glimpses into and through the heart of the building. Ideal gallery proportions establish a rhythm of space and structure along the Arts Walk and rail lines. Between galleries, structure, circulation and light form fissures of transparency – filtering and diffusing light into the galleries, providing views to the landscape and city while connecting the building vertically. Read the rest of this entry »
Taiwan Tower-The New Gateway to the East / OODA + OOIIO
The project can be interpreted as an attempt to create an urban landmark and a new identity for contemporary Taiwanese architecture. As a result of collaboration between two firms, OODA and OOIIO, the design won the Merit Award at the Taiwan Conceptual Tower International Competition in 2010.
The 300 meters high tower would include offices for Taichung City Government, leisure and recreational functions, retail and educational centers and the new Museum of Taichung City Development. The three entrances are located in three separate volumes joining approximately at the middle of the rise. The main body of the structure would accommodate most of the public activities. The sky lobbies form sightseeing zones offering numerous views of the city. Read the rest of this entry »
The Aldgate Landmark Pavilion – 2012 Olympics / EASTON+COMBS
The Aldgate Landmark Pavilion designed by Easton + Combs is a temporary entrance marker to the City of London in celebration of the 2012 Olympics. The site’s importance is that it is the location of the former city gate, the Aldgate, a historically significant point of entry to the city of London that was famous for being open to all social classes when the other city gates were reserved for various elites.
As the architects state, the Pavilion serves as a symbolic greeting hall, a light filled, multicolored, transparent surface that creates a momentary envelope for the celebration of the 2012 Olympics and a spatial marker of London’s archeology of social exchange. The Aldgate 2012 Pavilion addresses the city as a multilayered set of possibilities that constitute an urban theater. As an architectural celebration of the 2012 Olympics, the structure is vibrant and porous yet asserts a sense of place and provides for a variety of possible events. Readings, music and gatherings are accommodated in the large room with a unique cylindrical inverted crown that suggests a space of performance and social exchange. Read the rest of this entry »
Museum of the Built Environment in Riyadh / FXFOWLE Architects
The New York-based firm FXFOWLE has six active projects in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, a 55 million-square-foot, mixed-use development. Among them is the Museum of Built Environment, which aims to explore the role that social, economic, and environmental forces have played in the region’s constructed landscape, both historically and in recent times.
The 340,000-square-foot museum will be sited near a large plaza by a sunken pedestrian parkway. It will house galleries for permanent and temporary exhibitions, a 150-seat auditorium, and a restaurant, in addition to a monorail station and a network of skywalks. Read the rest of this entry »
Liantang-Heung Yuen Wai Passenger Terminal Building / EDIT! Architecture
The competition for the Passenger Terminal Building connecting Hong Kong with Shenzhen City closed on 21. March 2011. The two-stage competition included an online public survey in deciding on the winners. The aim was to create an urban landmark, structurally enabling the continuation of the existing traffic flow and connecting the banks of Shenzhen River.
Designed by Prague-based EDIT! Architecture, the proposal attempts to reconcile the iconic character of the building with the functional requirements of the site. Fallowing the visual imperative of fluidity, immanent to transportation structures, the design uses both horizontal and vertical transformation of rounded forms. The building entrances are emphasized by lifting of the volumes, leading to arrival and departure halls on the first floor. Offices and service spaces are located on the sides of both halls and also on two floors above organized around the central atriums, which illuminate the inside of the building and allow a visual contact between the different levels. The green roof is terraced thus evoking the typical South China landscape. Read the rest of this entry »