Nicknamed the “veil and the vault”, Diller Scofidio + Renfo’s Broad Museum is designed to serve two main functions: provide gallery exhibition space for Broad Art Foundation and hold archive/storage space. For The Broad, the architects threw out the traditional layout for gallery and archive space to create a unique space for visitors to explore.

In most galleries, the exhibition space being the primary function, the archive and storage space is located in the basement or hidden away someplace else. With the Broad however, Diller Scofidio + Renfro put the massive archive space, the “vault”, directly in the middle and draped it with the “veil”: an “airy, cellular exoskeleton structure… (to provide) filtered natural daylight”.

The “heavy opaque mass” of the archive space is carved on the bottom to form the entrance level lobby and circulation routes and its flat top is the floor of the 3^rd floor gallery space. The “veil” lifts at each corner to invite patrons to the museum. An escalator leads guests from the lobby up to the 3^rd floor exhibition space, where 38,000 sq ft of open gallery space is located. Here, natural daylight is filtered into the 24 ft high room through the overhead “veil” to provide the ideal lighting for exhibitions. Read the rest of this entry »

This engaging design was created by Louisiana State’s Guy A. Avellone for a suckerPUNCH competition to design a new home for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) in New York City. Avellone’s design is heavily centered around creating a connection with Delancey Street below and doing so with an aggressive aesthetic quality aimed at increasing the numbers of visitors. The design won an honorable mention from suckerPUNCH.

Avellone drew heavily influence from action comics, most visibly in the exploding exterior façade inspired by a comic illustration technique for expressing motion. The horizontal textured lines of the exterior walls are meant to emphasize that burst of energy towards the street. The 21 degree angle of the lean was purposely chosen as well, drawn from the environment around the site: it is the street angle of the Lower East Side, the desirable stadium seating angle, and complements the angle of Tschumi’s Blue Condos across the street.

Like in any good comic book, the MoCCA is a clash of opposing forces. Where the MoCCA smashes towards the street, the yellow circulation core counters its energy, appearing to slice into the museum from the street. The clash further creates a sense of connection between the museum and the street below. From the architect: “This dynamic is a comic expression of the way almost every building is experienced: penetrating the building mass from the street via a circulation system”. Read the rest of this entry »

The Flower of Life is as core symbol for a proposed sanatorium in Mariahof, Austria by Atelier Thomas Pucher. A place of residence those in a vegetative state and for their families, the design is the metamorphosis of the symbol of life in many world cultures. Developed to provide spiritual uplift for what often is a fearful and difficult transition the sanatorium’s concentric circular form embeds a cultural narrative on the cycle of birth and death.

Found throughout nature in the form of seed pods and flowers the motif has been widely used throughout the world in design. Increasingly complex versions of the motif show up in architecture like Catholic Church rose windows and Islamic design motifs. The richly detailed roof is the result of overlapping concentric circles set to a grid with sections highlighted. The vesica piscis shape is considard a sacred geometry, especially in Christan traditions. Read the rest of this entry »

This OFIS design was submitted into a competition for a carbon neutral office by the Slovenian public power supply company Elektro-Slovenija(ELES). For a site in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the solar powered office was custom designed to take advantage of local renewable energy sources.

OFIS created a site-specific energy system by studying rainfall and sunlight patterns and the renewable resources available in the area. Ljubljana is sunny for almost a half of the days of the year and receives around 1402 mm of rainfall a year, a slightly higher average than for most of Europe. OFIS put in place the enormous solar panel membrane around the office to take advantage of the high amount of sunlight, in the process defining the office’s exterior character. The amount of panels in the membrane is actually enough to generate the energy needed to complete the second phase of construction. The rainfall is incorporated into the office’s sanitation and watering systems, wind provides natural ventilation and groundwater is used in the climate control system. Read the rest of this entry »