The Grasp Pendulum is part of a permanent exibition in Berlin’s Medical Technology Science Center, elaborating on the human body and its motor functions.  By combining virtual and real movements, the Grasp Pendulum establishes a creative dialogue between visitors and science, the mechanical forces that generate movement and digital inputs used by the authors. The eight-meter high kinetic sculpture is visible through the glass façade of the building. Its movements and ever-changing appearance attract the visitors and connect the building’s interior with the surrounding public space.

It consists of three pendulum arms suspended in parallel, each of which carries 12 inward and outward-facing monitors. The kinetic sculpture is based on real-time control of the motors. The system registers the virtual hand movements on the screens and directly transposes these into real movements, precisely synchronizing the image and the swinging of the pendulum. This principle also enables direct visitor engagement. A light box interface facilitates two modes of interaction: A live silhouette of the visitor’s hand is relayed onto one of the screens. Suddenly, the shadow freezes, and the focus shifts to the next display. All the screens are sequentially filled with the visitor’s expressive hand gestures. Once complete, by wiping their hands across the interface, visitors can influence the movement of the pendulum. Read the rest of this entry »

E-Vine is a proposal for EV charging stations in dense metropolitan areas, an architectural typology explored by the Journey to Zero Competition, sponsored by Nissan. The “New Era of Mobility” competition required a fundamental re-thinking of our cities in order to incorporate the radical changes on the journey towards a zero emission future. Read the rest of this entry »

Currently in the M.Arch program at MIT, the prospective architect and designer Alan Lu creates and explores architecture through experimenting with form, fabrication and design techniques. The bridge project continues the research in applying modular structures to various typologies and establishing a specificity of public spaces. The conceptual pedestrian pathway design combines the immediate influences of the site with repetitive structural elements, delivering a variation of the initial principle as the resulting object. The anamorphic bridge is derived from the convergence of vantage points at a given site. Through a process of intersection and trimming, a figure emerges that provides circulation and outlook spaces. Adaptive modules provide openings directed back to these vantage points in addition to acting as the primary structural elements. Read the rest of this entry »

The terminal, designed by Stephan Sobl, uses the typology of the Hypostyle Hall. The only Hypostyle Hall with two rows of columns on center is one in which the spacing of each of the bays made by the columns are equal or when the spacing between rows of columns in the central space is less than the spacing between the row of columns and the outer walls. This is all to say that the epitome of any Hypostyle Hall is a field of columns and not a volume defined by columns.

The principles of the Hypostyle Hall in the project are addressed using a field of massive and fragile columns that define a variation of spatial and volumetric interiors of the terminal. Denser areas of the field create intimate spaces and become areas to rest whereas less dense areas are circulation routes and contain architectural programs. Read the rest of this entry »

The project is part of an architectural research carried out at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. It engages in a creative dialogue with notions of mass, developable surfaces, patterns and transparency. Designed by Bika Rebek, under the guidance of Gregg Lynn, this Final Thesis project explores the threshold between industrial structures and nature.

While waiting for their cruise ship to pass the lock, the visitors of the Panama Canal are kept exposed to the exuberant diversities of the area through biomimicry of the metal-sheet envelope and heavy masses of concrete. The narrative of the organic flow is free from interruption. Instead of juxtaposing the visual abundance of the natural surroundings with restrained imagery of the waiting room, the design introduces visitors to a range of ambiences. Moving through spaces with different identities and climate zones, they encounter planthouses, aquariums and exhibitions, conceived with the purpose of elaborating on the richness of the area surrounding the Panama Canal. One side allows for spectacular views onto the water lock, while on the other side visitors take a walk into the jungle canopy. The fragility of the façade mimics the dense jungle treetops, allowing natural lighting to filter through the interior and blur the line between spaces. The new building for visitors seems to emerge from the jungle and encompass the locks, reclaiming its territory.

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The aim of the project is to develop a theater / performance / stage project for the Sydney Festival 2012, a one-month festival with hundreds of events occurring in the city. The project was designed along a number of briefs and locations that varied in program, size, character, and location.

Iain Blampied and Oliver Hessian approached the project brief with the understanding that ideally this venue should be an expressive piece of architecture that attracts visitors in its own right while also leaving the inhabiting director as much freedom for creativity and as little distraction as possible. The approach taken involves the investigation of architecture as a temporal, dynamic system, a performative envelope and a machine that mirrors a multiplicity of worlds. Read the rest of this entry »

Elevated Brood by Paul D Nicholls is a masterful display of the application of nature inspired architecture. The structure is situated in London’s Hyde Park, on the bank of Serpentine Lake. Its combination of steel and polycarbonate support elements creates a striking architectural imagery.

The project was shortlisted in the 2007 Riba Student Awards. The Brood is the attachment, shelter and protection of a mother’s young. The Paper Nautilus was the main inspiration for the aquarium. It imitates the way it hangs its eggs from the strongest part of its shell by the placement of exhibit displays. The elevated, shell-like structure is a “brood” for the display chandeliers that can be lowered independently via remote control by the visitor. The maintenance of the fish decreases the further out onto the water they are, inside the linear repetition of the chandeliers themselves, coupled with the solar lilies, the further structures become almost completely independent. Elevated Brood also encourages a graceful use of water by forming a strong relationship with the Serpentine Lake. Read the rest of this entry »

The project for Milan’s new Museum of Contemporary Art is designed by Daniel Libeskind in cooperation with his Italian partner CityEdge. It features a vertical structure of five floors which twists from its square base and forms a circular terrace at the top. Its design references Da Vinci’s golden section, transforming in accordance to principles of self-evolution and spherical astronomy.

The most important design objective sought by city authorities and the designers was the greatest possible flexibility in order to respond to all of the, nowadays often unpredictable, needs of a space dedicated to contemporary art. This is why the five galleries of the new building are presented as stand-alone units, with a minimum height of 5.5m and equipped with complex lighting and air conditioning systems that make it possible to stage any type of exhibition while at the same time keeping the dominant line of the structure visible to the visitor, the square that becomes a circle, as it moves from the ground to the sky. Read the rest of this entry »

Various Architects‘ project “Yorkshire Diamond” was a finalist in the open international competition for a mobile pavilion for Yorkshire Forward. The Yorkshire Diamond Pavilion is a unique and iconic venue that is designed to represent Yorkshire Forward at events around Yorkshire and Humber or further abroad.

The project is an attraction in itself with a striking exterior in the form of inflatable tubes arranged in the atomic structure of diamonds. The 20 x 26 x 10 meter diamond grid volume is mined out to form a cavernous interior space reminiscent of the coal mines of Yorkshire. Light and air shafts pierce the structure providing natural light and ventilation. At night the translucent shafts and outer skin radiate light in all colors and directions like a diamond twinkling in the sunlight. Read the rest of this entry »

The Graft Tower is a Parametric-designed eco-hotel and vertical farm conceived by Diego Taccioli, Sizhe Chen, and Tyler Wallace to be located on the New Monserrate Street at the intersection of the San Juan’s two arterial public transportation routes. It is a net plus resource building that provides water, food, and energy for the neighborhood. The program on the ground levels is an epicenter of commercial activity and services to support the light-rail hub. The tower has a eco-tourism hotel and living units for permanent residents. It is a design using a new language of an interlaced mesh -work of structural columns spiraling into the sky with connecting fingers spreading out to the new plazas below. The structure is literally grown by grafting in-osculate fibers around the basic skeletal frames of the commercial and housing units. Optimizing the frame’s capacity for natural ventilation and cooling, a twisting tower is created, with each unit’s shape stretching toward the west, as determined by wind dynamics. Water is collected at the bottom of each unit and then dispersed throughout the open framework into the vertical farming. The plants grow sporadically throughout the transforming building, as they are able to find water and sunlight. Read the rest of this entry »