To confront with the sea level rising of New York, Tingwei Xu and Xie Zhang from the University of Pennsylvania designed an idea for protecting certain areas against water by wearing a “membrane’. Deriving from the intelligent components, we created a surface system that can reveal a continually changing expression. The transforming surface can combine the multiple functions such as waterproof, lighting and agricultural planting. Rather than a traditional hierarchy design thinking, each component on the surface has equal essentiality. It is a irreducible integrity. Read the rest of this entry »
Architectural Membrane for New York when Sea Level Rises
Innovative Residential Building in Vienna / Philipp Ohnesorge
This is an innovative residential building designed by Philipp Ohnesorge in Vienna. The plot is situated between the 16th, the 17th and the 8th district in Vienna, next to one of the main traffic axis, the Guertel. It is in proximity to the city center with its historical buildings and attractions. The situation today is that the whole plot is empty and leaves a hole in the urban fabric. The block is not closed, the empty gap is now used for parking and is a waste of precious space within the city context. It has an outstanding value and must be reactivated.
The first measure to be taken is the widening of the inner courtyard by slicing the existing buildings, to create a spacious yard that allows public use and increases daylight exposure to the apartments.
By expanding the given roof shape and twisting it around the center until reaching the maximum allowed building height, we created a volume that extends the given geometry and context with maximized usage of allowed building height. A gap between existing and new building mass allows access to the inner courtyard that also provides the entrances to the apartments. Read the rest of this entry »
Urban Lounge / Patrick Vogel
The Urban Lounge designed by Patrick Vogel from the Wismar University is a small urban furniture project for the Hafencity Hamburg. The concept is to generate a modern interpretation of a conventional bench or city lounge in the heart of a new city quarter. The lounge is made out of a traditional vertical lamella facade system that transforms into an aesthetic, contemporary communication and chillout spot, directly next to the Elbe riverside. Read the rest of this entry »
Snail Pavilion Designed with Ceramic Tiles / LA Design Group
The Snail Pavilion is a competition entry for the Ceramic Tiles of Italy trade show pavilion. The purpose of the pavilion is for the trade association to represent its member companies’ products at a series of shows over a three-year term. Instead of selecting just a few sample products to feature, the scheme uses hundreds of tiles from Ceramic Tiles of Italy member companies to create giant “creatures” that bristle with the range and depth of Italian ceramic products. In this way the pavilion is more like a library with tiles stacked on shelves than it is a surface against which tiles are set in a rigid grout bed. Visitors can literally occupy the entire history and product catalog of the member companies. An innovative stacking system uses a simple assembly method to produce the appearance of feathers or scales – arraying tiles in a variety of sizes and colors into complex, visual seductive plumage, bristles, and whorls. The tiles are organized into loose color groupings that anticipate different sizes and tones, so the system can accommodate a broad diversity of sample products. Read the rest of this entry »
Prickly Pear for Nicola Formicetti / Barker Freeman Design Office
Prickly Pear is an installation proposal for the work of Nicola Formichetti designed by Barker Freeman Design Office that proposes an immersive sensory environment with changing color tones that can correspond to changing music, body movement, or merchandise within the space. Our concept was to insert an enveloping volume of stretchy translucent netting that would capture and reflect the shifting light spectrum emitted from the system of custom LED fixtures. The lighting could be programmed on a pre-set script or it could be set to respond to environmental changes. Read the rest of this entry »
Triangulation Series Furniture / Zhang Zhoujie
After graduating from MA Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins, Chinese designer Zhang Zhoujie founded his own laboratory where he today explores furniture concepts based on traditional Chinese fine art. One of his most elaborate projects is the Triangulation Series which investigates the relationship between computer technologies and Wu Wei, one of the principles of Taoism. It means “lack of intervention”.
The Triangulation Project is based on the interaction of faceted triangular surfaces. These objects are created through a process of evolution, establishing families of objects with common predecessors. By creating different typologies based on the initial geometry, the laboratory offers a possibility of creating personalized chair designs by taking key measurements from the customer. The device which performs the actual measuring is in the form of hundreds of sensors embedded into a measuring apparatus. Gathered data can be directly imported into the digital model.
The fabrication process begins with turning the digital output of the 3d model into a 2d layout of individual triangles which creates data for the laser cutting phase. The shapes are then cut-out of the base material (stainless steel or titanium). After receiving the material a precise set of angle guides are produces for each of the different contact angles present on the chair. These are then used to bend the individual metal elements into the correct alignment based on an angle map, also created from the 2d layout. Read the rest of this entry »
Piazza Ceramica / e+i Studio
It often happens that the small-scale, programmatically simple design tasks tap into the basics of the practice and remind of what is the initial creative act in designing – Asking Questions. To most with formal architectural education, designing trade show pavilions presents starting challenges that help solidify their understanding of space. By returning to questions, small competitions act as a bloodletting treatment for the current global discourse. These also take on a didactic role for architecture beginners, reminding them of the complexity of the design process that can be revisited, but certainly not avoided by relying solely on the abstract art of mathematics.
The winning proposal for the Ceramics of Italy Competition is a recognizable, functional and versatile space, achieved by using the design elements organically and making them part of a clear, cohesive architectural thought. The project marries archetypal spatial preoccupations with modern technologies and computational design. Read the rest of this entry »
Metropolitan 20 Competition Entry / Zeybekoglu Nayman Associates
The proposal for Sofia’s new Metropolitan Station 20 on line one was designed by Zeybekoglu Nayman Associates. The design strategy seeks to take advantage of the intense relationship between Obikolna Street and the future station. Organized along a glass spine that covers the space below ground level, the station is meant to capture as much natural light as possible.
Architects state:” The sun penetrates down through sculptural skylights illuminating the entire station in a warm glow. The use of daylight as an architectural element assists orientation for passengers and provides a sense of security. It allows for the atmosphere of the station to be transformed by the color of the sky. Underground the station is efficient, easy to read and comprehend through its organized masses. The descent down to the metro is designed as an elegant, modern addition to the street life above. Public access areas on B1 contain places to sit, shop, and dine. Open to all, this level has direct access to both sides of Obikolna Street through a new pedestrian underpass. Ticketed areas on B2 including the platforms are separated by a series of turnstiles that lead to zones of vertical transportation. Read the rest of this entry »
Classroom of the Future / LAVA
Cheap, dull, unattractive and unpleasant spaces – that’s the reputation of school ‘relocatables’. They’re the decades old, utilitarian solution to changing school demographics, remote community needs and disasters such as fires, floods and cyclones.
But a new plan by the Laboratory For Visionary Architecture [LAVA] turns these unpleasant spaces into smart buildings, the design an education in itself. In sustainability, social interaction, nature and adaptive technology. Chris Bosse, Asia Pacific director of LAVA says: ‘we wanted to turn this idea upside down and create spaces that are sustainable, practical, cost-effective whilst fun and exciting to be in’. Read the rest of this entry »