Aimed at becoming “a social and academic anchor” of the CUMC campus, the new 14-story high facility will integrate the mixed curriculum and put an emphasis on team-based learning. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the “Study Cascade” is a network of social and study spaces distributed across oversized landings along an intricate 14-story stair. Read the rest of this entry »
New Columbia University Medical Center / Diller Scofidio + Renfro
MoCAPE Completes Futian Cultural Center / COOP HIMMELB(L)AU
As part of an ongoing redevelopment of the Shenzhen city center, Coop Himmelb(l)au‘s 2007 commissioned design for the Museum of Contemporary Art and Planning Exhibition (MoCAPE) adheres to the functional requirements of the modern museum while molding the urban fabric to offer a contrasting attraction within the predominantly high-rise district. The Museum of Contemporary Art and the Planning Exhibition are joined together to create an ‘Urban Monolith’ by a large metal sculpture sheltering a skybridge beneath a flared glass overhang. Located near the City Library, Opera House, Central Bookstore, and other civic centers of the Futian District, the MoCAPE completes the civic exchange between China and Hong Kong, making its size and location a crucial piece to the ‘Futian Cultural Center.’ A contrasting use of scale spreads the MoCape across the site, allowing overhangs to stretch towards the street. The louvered and at times triangular glass façade keeps natural light in as well as strategic views of the surrounding street life, wrapping around the two offset museums. Like in the Dalian International Conference Center, Coop Himmelb(l)au tailors architecture to adhere to China’s large population through urban scale and circulation, comfort and energy consumption, offering spaces to gather and indulge in China’s contemporary visions. Read the rest of this entry »
Citizens Will Power Data Driven City in Cairo / Mekano Studio
Mekano Studio has designed a smart data city for Cairo that is intended to administrate everything with real time data with hopes of increasing productivity in a well organized community. Theoretically, this smart city would thrive on data that would facilitate transportation, airports, trains, roads, and signs. Additionally, the data at the core of the infrastructure would also govern public safety, education, and medical situations. With data to present in any situation, citizens would only need to think and decide on the best choices for a productive city.
This new Egyptian dream encompasses a collective of people in all necessary fields that comprise a functional city. It will be environmentally powered, depending on solar power and wind energy. A new arena to be greened by its people, the data driven city will create the majority of its structures through local bricks and cheap materials, green roofs will be seen on most buildings as well as pedestrian bridges.
Techniques will be integrated based on past successful studies. A combination of Farouk Elbaz and Mamdooh Hamza studies will be applied, which involve the site location (based on the old delta’s spread towards the desert) and roads. As source of water is a critical issue, the city will mostly depend on desalination of seawater, rain and gray water.
January 25th marked a day of political revolution. The remake of Tahrir Square in the smart city became a milestone in establishing respect for the people of Egypt, acknowledging their humanity and beliefs. Each person, then, is seen as an attributing factor to the city’s overall energy–electrical energy in fact. With the technique of piezoelectricty, which converts energy to electricity, not only could a zero carbon footprint could potentially be achieved, but the recognition of individual input to allow for city growth can be realized. Citizens of this city will live with dignity.
Hexagonally shaped cities will be connected to form one cohesive unit by large green layers that support a new alternative to car transportation method–layers of green stairs–holding the people on its roof, taking advantage of varying levels, visuals, usage and materials. The Tahrir Square is comprised of various green areas: some for sitting, but most for piezoelectricity techniques. In the middle of the hexagon which is located in the center, a great feature describes martyrs, and a light numeric indicator in a transparent Obelisk gives light to inform the actual number of people at the square, giving real time data to encourage power boosts.
Four Towers Into One Interlaced System / Morphosis
Drawing on Shenzhen’s interconnected qualities, Morphosis‘ 2009 proposal for the Four Towers Into One competition pushes the conventional urban grid to organize a complex system of four interwoven towers. The competition asked for an urban plan that would unify the Headquarters of Shenzhen Media Group, China Construction Bank, China Insurance Group, and Southern & Bosera Funds–the new global faces of Shanghai’s Financial District. Instead of vertically extruding their isolated 2D site footprints to four individual skyscrapers, the strategy of transferring air rights helps to extend the zoning envelopes of each of the projects through an interlaced system resembling a traditional Chinese puzzle. Read the rest of this entry »
Usiminas Technological Park / SUBdV
Designed for USIMINAS, one of the largest producers of steel in the Americas, the building is aimed at creating a positive effect in strengthening the image of steel production. The monolithic appearance is combined with a wealth of detail on the outer surface. The project premise refers to the current state of Brazilian architecture, stating that technology and digital tools allowing interaction between design and manufacturing have been poorly adopted. The building aims to fully exploit the potential presented by software that includes prior analysis of structural behavior of buildings. Read the rest of this entry »
Chrystalis (III) is a Self-Organizing Sculpture / Matsys Designs
The project, whose morphology attempts to break away from the initial geometric input, is a barnacle-like structure that continues the current architectural discourse of integrating form, growth, and behavior. The tendency is to cross over from architecture to biology, creating a self-organized structure but retain design control through use of different software and digital tools. Conceived and fabricated by Matsys Designs, Chrystalis (III) sculpture is in line with the studio’s previous work, as it explores emergent relationships between architecture, engineering, biology, and computation.
The cells are organized across an underlying substrate plane. They shift and slide across the surface as they attempt to find a more balanced packed state through the use of a relaxed spring network constrained to the surface. Each cell is composed of two parts: a cone-like outer surface made from cherry veneer and a non-planer inner plate made from poplar veneer that stresses the outer cone into shape. Each of the 1000 cell components are unfolded flat in the digital model, digitally fabricated, and hand assembled. Read the rest of this entry »
Re-imagining the Contemporary Museum, Exhibition & Performance Space
Re-imagining the Contemporary Museum, Exhibition & Performance Space
Carlo Aiello
Digital copy
192 pages
Title: eVolo_04: Re-imagining the Contemporary Museum, Exhibition & Performance Space
Cover: Perfect Bound
Size: 9″ x 11.5″
Pages: 192
ISSN: 1946-634x
ISBN: 978-1938740039
INTRODUCTION
The architecture for performance and exhibition, being museums, galleries, music halls, pavilions, etc., has been in the leading edge of architectural innovation throughout the history and evolution of the discipline. Architects and designers experiment on new aesthetics, concepts, and ideas with projects that tend to have a flexible program and a large budget. In many cases, the main requirement of such structures is not only to accommodate a specific program but also to inspire the imagination of its users and challenge the current state of architectural design. Some examples, such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry or the Sydney Opera House by Jørn Utzon are considered design masterpieces of the 20th Century. Gehry’s Museum transformed the city of Bilbao from a small industrial Spanish city into a world destination, while Utzon’s Opera House become the symbol of Sydney and Australia.
This issue of eVolo studies the most innovative examples of performance and exhibition architecture today. These are projects that revolutionize architecture on many levels, including sustainability, aesthetics, technology, and urban design. It is interesting to point out that these works are not concentrated in one specific region, but are located in every corner of the globe; from MVRDV’s Comic and Animation Museum in China, to the new Broad Museum in Los Angeles by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, or Kengo Kuma’s Victoria and Albert Museum in Dundee, Scotland. Read the rest of this entry »
Sky Condos: An Urban Sponge That Opens to the City
The vision of the New Sky Condos by Los Angeles based B+U Architects is to develop a unique spatial experience for each condo unit by, on the one hand, utilizing an L‐shape sectional diagram that maximizes double height spaces and outdoor areas through interlocking the units in plan and in section (an evolution on the Le Corbusier cross section of L’Unite d’Habitation) and simultaneously developing a window typology that aims to dissolve the edges of the window frame creating a unique view to the outside. The window itself is not just a flat aperture but a three dimensional spatial object that shapes the interior walls and aims ones view to key features of the surrounding cityscape. For example it allows for views towards the San Isidro Golf Club to the north and the Ocean to the south even from spaces along the east and west facade of the tower. Read the rest of this entry »
Music Translated to Architecture in Vienna Concert Hall / Alexander Smaga
Alexander Smaga‘s Postgraduate Master Thesis from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna explores the translation of music into architecture in a concert hall, creating variations in acoustic mass as a result of different biocomputing techniques. The project’s aim is to embody sound into a “mental building material,” where cavernous organic forms provide options for private and open performances as well as continuous open spaces found between folds and cavities of the cellular flesh. The project’s partie involves the visualization of single tone sound structures comprised of units of repeated cycles of electronic music, where forms acquire different levels of cellular density. Combinations of these structures are further complicated by the subdivision and permutation of smaller units with different rhythms, a common model that is seen in biogenetics and nano technology. This translated mass creates a network of particular cell growths, forming a general dystopia. Read the rest of this entry »
Maggie’s Centre at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London / Steven Holl
Steven Holl Architects has been selected as architects of the Maggie’s Centre at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. Maggie’s Barts will replace an existing 1960s block that was once used as offices, which is located at the periphery of the square.
Steven Holl said, “It is a great honor to design a Maggie’s Centre and a very special challenge to be given such an important central site in London. The hospital has been at the forefront of medial understanding for centuries. We are inspired by the deep history of the area, and particularly the nearby St Bartholomew the Great church, which has been in continuous use with marvelous music since 1143. Our proposal is like a vessel within a vessel within a vessel. In the spirit of music, architecture can be a vessel of transcendence.” Read the rest of this entry »