Peace Pentagon in New York

By:  | January - 15 - 2011

This scheme proposed by Graham Thompson is for the design of a “peace pentagon” which focuses on an experimental and challenging presence on 339 Lafayette Street in New York City, aiming to bring a central community node for the gathering of activist groups, a place for the public to visit and learn what each group is currently lobbying. Overall forming an enriched communal heart in the neighborhood.

Conceptually the form is derived from studies into morphological forms of evolution, assessing the structural integrity of such to propose an articulated skeletal typology, creating many openings, voids and scapes in the buildings primary skin. This language is brought throughout the building to create internal spaces whereby the architectural program and functioning starts to become clear.

The floor plans are organized to fulfill the needs of multi-changeable office plans, some require more space so open plan design is an option for some levels. Due to the amount of focus groups there is call for a separation of direct circulation routes creating a central atrium which fractures the buildings volume where each floor is served by communal relaxation spaces, some crossing through the atrium to give internal viewing points and ending with a rooftop café. This scheme establishes the awareness of having a public/private organization of spaces generating a hub for the desire for peace. Read the rest of this entry »

In troubled economic times, there is only one high rise office tower being built in Brisbane. So enamoured was the client, GPT, with the design by Cox Rayner Architects that he decided to proceed on the basis that the building’s aesthetic, environmental and workplace benefits would lure prospective tenants.

The tower’s structure is organic in that the columns twist and turn up its 45 storey height, emerging through the roof to form a tree-like canopy. The resulting filigree of structure reflects the city’s two iconic Fig Trees in the building’s forecourt, but the rationale for the concept was initially pragmatic. This was because the tower is being built over a wide existing loading dock such that there were few points on the ground where columns could land. Cox Rayner Architects with their engineers ARUP devised a structural system where loads could be gradually transferred diagonally down to the land predominantly on one side of the site, avoiding the dock.

The concept evolved with several attributes. The columns in the ‘web’ are abnormally thin at 600 – 400 wide, maximising views to the river. Less concrete is required than in conventional typologies entailing reduced embodied energy in construction. Overall the tower is currently measured to be above 6 star rating under the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star Design Rating System.

The tower has a corner services core that also maximises the availability of views to the office areas, with the structural frame wrapping around the remaining volume inside a glass skin with operable blinds responding to solar orientations.

The ground plane is designed as a public thoroughfare space linking the city to its main ferry terminal, such that the foyers are at the first level above. This design enriches the sense of lightness and space for which the building will become renowned. Read the rest of this entry »

This project is a renovation and modernization propsal by Mikolaj Scibisz from the Cracow University of Technology of an Art Nouveau building constructed in 1886 in Cracow, Poland near the city’s main rail station.The building has constantly been transformed over the last century with the installation of elevators in 1913, a wood and steel mezzanine in 1985,  and new water and electric infrastructure in 1990. Today the building is in very bad condition and it is primarly used as  retail space.

Mikolaj proposal includes an organic free standing structure that would fill the interior of the building. The new structure is formally distinct from the original but it has been designed following the same rules and logics of organization. The composition, proportion, and rhythm derives from the original building to create a modern art gallery with big open areas to accomodate the appropiate contemporary artwork. Read the rest of this entry »

The strategy implemented by AUM Arquitetos for the Regional Council of Administration of Santa Catarina, Brazil was based on the exploitation of the topography and its potential visual axes.

The program is distributed in two parts: the base, which includes the auditorium, plenary halls and chambers of courses, and the tower that houses the offices. The tower has only four supports, with spans of 20 meters in the longitudinal way and 10 meters in the transverse direction. Two steel beams with 30 meters structure the pavements’ slabs through metal rods every 5 meters.

Facing the sea, the position of the elevators allows all users of the building to enjoy a privileged view. To enhance the visuals to the sea and to the forest through the building, some modules go beyond the basic dimension of the tower, ranging from 1 to 2 meters in balance. These advances in the modules generate terraces on the upper floors, where it proposes to use a green cover to contribute to the thermal comfort of the building, and creating a pleasant work space.

Contemporary American House

By:  | January - 11 - 2011

The contemporary American house is experiencing a deepening crisis of identity in this era of growing environmentalism. This identity crisis began nearly fifty years ago with the end of the Case Study House program and the rapid acceleration of suburbanization. The discipline of architecture never regained its footing in the context of American housing as housing became a product, subject to the efficiencies and economics of mass manufacture. The impact of suburban sprawl on energy, water and transportation infrastructure was largely overlooked until its geographic consequences were already firmly entrenched. The widespread growth of environmentalism has begun to address this problem, but even the corresponding aesthetic of the environmental movement has done little to assert a new identity for the American house.

However, an appreciable shift is underway as a new audience of environmentally concerned citizens gathers. While this audience has embraced environmentally friendly product and equipment upgrades, the approach thus far is insufficient, as its impact on sustainable development is minor and its rate of change too slow. We believe growing environmentalism should be met with design ingenuity, not product specification. A lasting contribution to sustainable development or the quality of the built environment is impossible when underperforming architectural and urban organizations are simply reproduced using products branded as “green.” Read the rest of this entry »

OMA unveiled their design for The National Museum of Archeology and Earth Sciences (MNAST) located on one of Rabat’s highest points: the gardens of the Lyautey Residence, which used to house Morocco’s French administrator. The MNAST will act as a catalyst for Rabat’s development, its innovative architecture reinforcing its urban and cultural attraction. The building is a long, flat isoceles triangle, resembling an ancient relic or indeed an archeologist’s tool. But the shape is primarily motivated by three axes on the site: Franklin Roosevelt Avenue, facing the city in the east; the park in the north; and the Lyautey Residence and formal gardens in the south-west. Rather than appropriating the Lyautey Residence as a part of the museum, the MNAST – with its entry is at the same level – will engage it in dialogue. Through its topographical connection with the MNAST, the Residence will be inscribed anew in the contemporary history of Morocco. Read the rest of this entry »

This competition proposal for Center for Promotion of Science in Belgrade was designed by a team of young Serbian architects Milos Zivkovic, Nebojsa Stevanovic, Janko Tadic, Aleksandar Gusic and Slobodanka Tadic. The object itself is a place where two ages crash – a collision of modern function and retro environment. Its architecture should provoke, associates, intrigue observers as much as its users. In time, exhibits have taken on a new form, so today the requirements for new architectural concepts have also changed. The user now becomes a participant and without him an exhibition does not exist – by activating it he becomes a part of exhibition, together they form a spectacle.

The main space is formed by de-leveled staggered slabs, recessed from the facade so they can be perceived from all levels and angles. With continuous movement through space and the use of exhibits, the user creates a form of event for himself and for the observer. All elements of the facility are subordinated to this idea and so are the access ramp and conference room that form environments that look out on the exhibition areas. The highest level of the building is formed in relation to program requirements; it is compact and offers dark areas that correspond to different types of exhibitions. In the floor there are gaps through which you get a new perspective of the spectacle. The facade of the building is used as a filter for the outside observers who watch through Fresnel lenses which are located on three sides of museum. It gives them ability to see enlarged image of the inside space and giving them a whole different perception of the Center. Read the rest of this entry »

This project was developed by Jungwook Lee as Design Thesis at Cornell University. The study is briefly summarized through three main topics. The first topic was to analyze the sense of smooth and striated space from Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy book; ‘A Thousand Plateaus with Architecture Point of View’. The second part included the research of weaving structures characterized by striation that can mutate into smooth spaces. The last study was to re-define the massive grid system in Manhattan. This study proposes the alternative architectural result of the combination of smooth spaces with striated spaces. Read the rest of this entry »

The Loop Cathedral for Vienna, Austria designed by Chi Wai Chan examines various notions and typology of a religious building bringing it closer to contemporary requirements and sensibilities. Many feel that Catholicism is just a grandiose relic on the outside without much substance on the inside. This superficiality rather than spirituality becomes the main agent for the explorations.

The project manifests the notion and affect of an ‘Exquisite Corpse’ or a skeleton of fluid lines that flow together coherently to achieve the effect of ‘part becomes whole and whole becomes part’. The language is exuberant and excessive. It is dark and sinister like a cathedral in Gotham city. The iconograpic typology of a Gothic Cathedral was disseminated with formal elements of a tower and base to remain. Animated formal attributes and surface tessellations reinstitute the ornamental and decorative affect of a Gothic Cathedral. The cathedral as an institution exists only in excess.

via suckerPUNCH

Italian architects AquiliAlberg unveiled their design for a new urban landmark in Perth, Australia. The project consists of a fluid folding surface that peels off from the ground to create three pavilions. The project is located at Forest Place, one of the most representative plazas in Perth and offers a new and exciting urban destination for the residents and visitors. The pavilions count with diverse seating and gathering areas as well as canopies and relaxation spaces. At night the project will be illuminated with multi-colored lights according to seasons, events, and celebrations. Read the rest of this entry »