Israel-based product designer Hilla Shamia has created a collection of furniture made of damaged materials. Burnt wood is reused in combination with aluminium, while retaining its organic appearance. Whole trunks are incorporated into metal tables, chairs and stools. The design combines organic material with abstract forms, “intensifying the artificial feeling, and at the same time keeping the memory of the material”. Created by using industrial techniques, these pieces of contemporary furniture evoke the feeling of Brutalist aesthetics, revealing the texture of the wooden forms used for the in-situ casting. Read the rest of this entry »
Wood Casting Furniture / Hilla Shamia
AIA|LA Spring Home Tour 2012, Palisades to Brentwood
Architects, designers, and architecture aficionados around the world, if you are in the Los Angeles, California area on May 6th, we strongly recommend you to attend the Spring Home Tour organized by the AIA Los Angeles Chapter.
AIA|LA is thrilled to take you West for round two of the 2012 Spring Home Tours Series, PALISADES TO BRENTWOOD on May 6th from 11 am – 4 pm, sponsored by Gruen Associates. With such an array of luxurious and spacious architectural treasures, selecting homes for a tour in neighborhoods like Brentwood and the Palisades is not easy. Yet, every season we go out of our way to bring you amazing homes!
Carlo Caccavale, Associate Director for AIA Los Angeles said that, “these homes represent the best combination in regards to what Los Angeles design and architecture has to offer, in terms of scale, position, lifestyle and the glam factor.” Glam Factor indeed, these homes are glamorous and opulent!
Designers featured on PALISADES TO BRENTWOOD include:
• Warren W. Wagner, AIA
• Barbara Callas, AIA
• Michael Lehrer, FAIA
• William Hefner, AIA
Ticket information:
Purchase MAY 6 Tour Tickets
AIA Members: $65 (excluding applicable registration fees)
Non Members $75 (excluding applicable registration fees) Read the rest of this entry »
La Fabrique Performing Arts Complex Based on Shipbuilding Tradition / Tétrarc Architectes
Recently completed, ‘La Fabrique’ is a performing arts complex in Nantes, France. It was built on a site previously occupied by warehouses, in a shipyard area that has gradually been transformed into articulated public spaces. Designed by Tétrarc Architectes, the building attempts to rediscover the history of the site-its connection to the shipbuilding tradition and the art movements that once thrived there.
The project is made of 3 distinct elements: the 400 Hall (with offices upon it), the 1200 Hal (two parts connected by a public Hall inserted in the concrete post frame of the Halle Dubigeon) and, finally, the studios situated in a volume suspended above an old air-raid shelter.
An auditorium which seats 400 individuals has been placed within the minimal concrete cube which once served as an air-raid shelter. Above the solid base, a faceted tower hosts the recording studios. The metallic volume is lifted on inclined columns generating a void which separates the two distinct building elements, doubling as an open-air terrace with views to the activity below. Read the rest of this entry »
Bloom Installation is a Solar Tracking Device
An environmentally responsive installation was recently displayed at the Materials and Application Gallery in Los Angeles. It was designed as a sun-tracking instrument that indexes time and temperature. Made of 14,000 laser-cut pieces of temperature sensitive sheet metal, the surface manifests dramatic variations in shape and function. The metal plates are deformed by heat- they curl and allow air to enter the structure and ventilate the space.
As it responds to the environment, the Bloom installation is expected to reach optimal performance on the 20th of March, the day of the Spring Equinox. Like the metal plates, the frame of the structure is also designed to adjust itself to different environmental circumstances. The final form is lightweight and flexible, and it is composed of 414 hyperbolic paraboloid-shaped panels. Some of the metal panels are made stiffer by increasing a number of riveted connections while others are thicker, providing additional interior structural support. The whole structure achieves stability through a synergetic relationship between the frame and the surface material. Read the rest of this entry »
Pedestrian Bridge for Amsterdam / AmniosyA
Designed as an entry for the [AMSTERDAM] Iconic Pedestrian Bridge Competition, the project explores notions of flow and interaction, while creating a strong visual statement. The pedestrian bridge concept seems to exaggerate the abundance of communication routes present in the city of Amsterdam. It is a network of interwoven pathways, offering different experiences to pedestrians and cyclists. The project was designed by AmniosyA Architecture, an Italian design studio dedicated to experimenting with compositional hybrids and organic forms. Read the rest of this entry »
Infected Luna
The sculpture designed by Xie Zhang at the School of Architecture of the University of Pennsylvania is conceived by manipulating lunar craters’ geometry. The diversity of depths for each crater generates different lengths and curvatures, allowing a smooth transformation from surface to tentacles. The process of growing which results in forms and patterns implies a metaphorical analogy that a lifeless form being infected and eroded by organism, a chaotic relationship between organic and inorganic. Read the rest of this entry »
Resonant Chamber is an Acoustically Responsive Envelope
Turning the performance hall into a dynamic environment for various types of musical events, the Resonant Chamber installation explores the acoustic possibilities of a space. It investigates ways in which it can be customized and adapted to suit almost any type of performance.
The installation is made of three cloud-like structures. The electro-acoustic prototypes in the shape of tessellated origami patterns aim to develop a soundsphere able to adjust its properties in response to changing sonic conditions. The structure alters the sound of a space during the performance by combining reflective and absorptive materials, along with sensors and output devices configured to achieve the optimal conditions for the sound occurring in the room. The rigid panel system includes distributed model loudspeakers. This technology allows sound to be produced through the face panels themselves by introducing vibrations through an electro-acoustic exciter. Read the rest of this entry »
Parametric Designed Easter Egg
Fourfoursixsix (Daniel Welham & Mark Nicol) were invited to participate as one of the artists for the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt. The city will became home to 200 giant and uniquely crafted Easter eggs for an event that is a first of its kind, aiming to raise vital funds for charities Action for Children and Elephant Family, inviting tourists, locals, and visitors to join in a truly magical experience.
As an architecture practice, Fourfoursixsix felt it would be both topical and interesting to apply a set of architectural principles to the overall geometric form of the egg. Through this process they played with structure, light, and shadow and began to develop a three dimensional architectural terrain.
Conceptually, the design works around a rational grid of components that have been configured to react to both light and scale over the surface of the egg. Each component was designed to incorporate an aperture which could adapt to these changing surface conditions, thus altering the patternation of the egg. Read the rest of this entry »
Urban Speakers for Los Angeles Give a Face-lift to Geodesics
By amplifying the tessellation and porosity of a geodesic dome, designer Donovan Ballantyne from Sci-Arc is giving the geodesic dome a much needed face-lift.
This thesis looks to deconstruct the face of the geodesic dome by amplifying its unintentional, yet inherent aesthetic and monumental qualities. The designer proposes to bring depth and discontinuity to a typology that has been about continuity and surface. A face with no ears, no eyes, and no nose is not a face. Similarly, a building with no face is not architecture. The dome has been the most celebrated forms in architecture since its genesis, while the geodesic dome has been adored by scientists and structural engineers. Buckminster Fuller’s interests were only in structural efficiency, not in monumentality or surface effects which were the driving forces of historic domes such as the Pantheon. Read the rest of this entry »
Lausanne Planetarium / Marc Anton Dahmen / Studio DMTW
Creating a place which is devoted to showing and sharing science also means making a cultural contribution in the widest sense in a society which is characterised like no other by science and by the desire to understand our world and where we come from. A design that invites visitors to find out about and actively experience themes and correlations that exist within nature, research of space and nature poses a particular challenge. For this very reason, a task of this nature demands due respect. Logic and consequence on the one hand, respect for the culture and history of the place on the other hand play a major part in this correlation. Therefore, one of the primary objectives of this design is to identify and highlight possible synergies between the individual functional areas. The public section of the space programme can be split into two distinct function groups, the planetarium (with its solar observatory and viewing platform) and a large exhibition area (with space for presentations and workshops). The possible links between them are of interest.
Various scenarios are conceivable. Good circulation through the building can enrich the visit to the planetarium by opening up the exhibition, generating added value. On the other hand, a visit to one of the exhibitions can culminate in a visit to the viewing platform because both sections of the development terminate at the same point. However, in addition to this combination of circulation and functional connections, the specific character of the place also plays a major role. It is important to incorporate the new build into the established structure and to preserve the latter‘s identity without becoming hidden or even being untrue to itself. The new build may be identifiable as a new element within this ensemble, showing respect to the history of the buildings directly beside it. Read the rest of this entry »