Today, a new ambitious “Lascaux IV” is planned to re-establish this extraordinary world heritage site. After an international competition that attracted 88 entries, a team comprising of architects Snøhetta and Duncan Lewis and exhibition designers Casson Mann won the prestigious commission to create the new visitor center. Read the rest of this entry »
International Centre For Cave Art | Snøhetta, Duncan Lewis With Casson Mann
Commuter Settlement In Germany Near The Rhine | Studio BANG
Studio BÄNG‘s winning entry for the IBA Basel competition to design a settlement for commuters in Rheinweiler, Germany is located at the Oberreihnische Tiefebene, a lowland plain at the Rhine. The connection to Freiburg and Basel sets the possibility for a commuter settlement. This design is focuses on the last part of the commuters’ daily way back home; the stage from station to bedroom.
The new settlement is composed of 3 different row-housing units. 28 of them form a structure that is slightly denser than the surrounding single-family housing units. Thus, lower building costs and a closer community is established. Various public and semi-public places in combination with private zones provide different stages of intimacy within the settlement. Habitants are free to choose the level of intimacy. Read the rest of this entry »
Wrapped In Metal Ribbons, New Petersen Automotive Museum Has Been Finally Revealed
The design for the new Petersen Automotive Museum has been finally revealed. The announcement that the 20th anniversary of the company will be marked by complete exterior transformation and significant redesign of the interior followed the controversy. However, New York based office Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates is behind the cutting edge design for the new Petersen Museum. Undulating metal façade followed by stunning interior characterizes their proposal for the corner of Wilshire Boulevard at Fairfax in Los Angeles, showing California’s rich automotive heritage.
The new design for the Museum will transform the building into a landmark. Ribbons of stainless steel wrap the structure from three sides and over the top evoking the notion of speed and the organic form of the coach-built automobile. At night, the Museum is lit and transforms into an attraction for the neighborhood, known as The Miracle Mile. Read the rest of this entry »
Final Act Of Computational Design / Biothing’s Research On Different Degrees Of Cohabitation
Grown out of self-modifying patterns of vectors, based on electro-magnetic fields, Seoussi Pavillion by Biothing is the final act of computational design. The trajectories were computed in plan, via logics of attraction, further lifted through a series of structural micro-arching sections. Additional feature built into script allows for local adaptation to the site in regards to the section – pavilion is implanted into a steep hill.
Six different geometrical systems were used for the design of this pavilion and they are all steaming out of primary trajectories. The plan of the pavilion doesn’t have much in common with the traditional notion of architectural plan drawing – the dynamic blueprint of this piece of art is closer to musical notations – deep ecology of imbedded algorithmic and parametric relationships are the seed for possible materialization procedures and adaptation to the site conditions.
Programming of the views and distribution of lighting and shading in the pavilion is achieved through parametric differentiation of the angle, orientation and the size of the aperture, together with the relationship of metal and glass components within each cell. Read the rest of this entry »
Adaptive Architectural Skins And Dynamic Environmental Conditions
Water Damper Tower Concept To Balance Out Seismic Forces In Taiwan
KAMJZ presents this innovative concept wich focuses on creating an earthquake resistant building by making a sustainable design. This idea for the Water Damper Towers for the Taichung City Cultural Center in Taiwan would gather water to perform as a mass damper to regulate the seismic forces. The Taichung City Cultural Center is a project which aims to present the possibility of using local features to protect from the very location itself, turning limiting factors into a project feature. Read the rest of this entry »
Parametric Undulating Structure For The Indigo Deli / Sameep Padora And Associates
SP+A’s design for Indigo Deli at Palladium in Mumbai was conceptualized to subvert the trappings of its mall context and the danger of repetitive manifestation of the brand architecture. The primary aim Mumbai-based architects within the design process was to combine the intimacy and warmth of traditional wine cellars with the program of retail shelving and the juxtaposition of program was derived from this aim and spatial intent.
The outcome of this desire is an insert into the raw space completely obliterating its rigid geometries. The project is quasi-dome, or quasi-surface and rejects the formal structure of both models as a hybrid that actually networks the structural prowess of both.
However, the main idea was to monologue the design intervention as a performative background for the variance of the multitude of products and events it contains. Read the rest of this entry »
Void Tower, Downtown Los Angeles, CA
Brandon Sampson’s Fifth Year Thesis at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo won the “Best of Show” Award this month. It addresses the contemporary urban condition of downtown Los Angeles and introduces a way to take advantage of its voided urban fabric. The Void Tower is a visionary and iconic project for downtown Los Angeles that brings together multiple different types of complex program to create a living, working and social place. Read the rest of this entry »
Investigation On Post-Industrial Spaces: Hong Kong Museum of Art And Design / Herzog And De Meuron
Herzog & de Meuron’s design for Hong Kong Museum won the competition – they will design new museum for visual culture in Victoria Harbor. The M+, as it is called, will not be just another museum, in the words of its architects – it will aim to be a cultural center for 20th and 21st century art, design, architecture and the moving image. The various museum spaces range from conventional white cube, reconfigurable spaces and rooms for screenings, multipurpose facilities and industrial space. The industrial space was particularly requested and it has the purpose to investigate and show how the post-industrial space can be created from vacant land.
The site for the museum is specific – the building will be anchored to the land that was once reclaimed from the sea and founded on the underground tunnel of the Airport Express. Seen as an obstacle at first, the situation later became the “raison d’être” for the project and demanded raw, rough, large-scale exhibition universe.
Quite spectacular space for art and design exhibitions as well as the large scale installation and performance was created by uncovering the tunnel – the “found space” is actually a challenge to artist and curators and it represents the space of un-investigated potential. Read the rest of this entry »