The solid, rigid material has been the leading role in architecture industry for hundred years, but in this project this definition of architectural material has been changed. In this case, the soft, flexible rubber has been applied into the structure system, interior space and architectural organization. The rigid metal, concrete and glass play the roles as molds to shape the deformable rubber. This combination makes a brand-new relationship between these materials and come out becomes the new visuality of spaces and provides a new sensing experience for the users.

Based on the applications of materials and behaviors of structures, this project can be separated into two different systems: hanging and stacking. The hanging system is the application of elasticity of the rubber. In this case all the spaces were hung by the rubber cable and there is no major structure touches ground. In the stacking system, the rubber plays as the medium between different materials, be shaped by metal and glass, and formed the new hierarchy for the interiority and the exteriority.

Follow these two architectural systems, there are three portions serve as the based constructions: the entrance building, the west tower and the east building. The design of entrance building and west tower are based on the hanging system: all the chambers and exhibition platforms are hold by the rubber cable and be connected to the cantilever structure. On the systematic aspect, the interior decorations and the architectural constructions become one through this design action. The east building is part of the stacking system. The rubber is the connection between metal components and glass shells. This mixture of material makes distorted visuality and a soft sense of touching for the users: it’s a brand new property for the interior space.

In the end this project becomes the mixture of hyper-properties in different meanings. On the structure aspect, it shows the new relationship between materials. On the user experience aspect, it provides the new senses of touching for the visitors. Most importantly on the architectural aspect, it makes a new architectural language and compositional methods for architectural design.

Project Location: Sir. John Soane Museum, London, England.
Designer: Che-Kuang Chuang
Adviser: Hernan Diaz Alonso, Jose Carlos Lopez Cervantes
School: University of Applied Arts Vienna, Studio Excessive Read the rest of this entry »

X|Atelier is organizing four international intensive workshops of Advanced Architectural Design. The X|A Summer Workshops 2015 are led by X|A principals Erick Carcamo (SCI-ARC) and Nefeli Chatzimina (USC, NTUA), both Allumni Graduates of Columbia University in New York City.

X|A LA Workshop I is organized in Downtown Los Angeles. Selected Participants will attend the compu-tation design workshops, academic lectures, final reviews and exhibition of the final work. Daily meetings will take place from 10am to 6pm.

X|A Athens Workshops II&III are organized under the auspices of the Hellenic Institute of Architecture and the Athens School of Fine Arts. Selected Participants will attend the computation design work-shops, academic lectures, final reviews and exhibition at Benaki Museum of Athens from 30th of June -11th of July 2014 or from the 14th -25th of July 2014. Daily meetings will take place from 10am to 6pm at the Benaki Museum of Pireos 138 in Athens.

X|A Innsbruck Workshop IV  is organized in Austria.  Selected Participants will attend the computation design workshops, academic lectures, final reviews and exhibition of the final work. Daily meetings will take place from 10am to 6pm.

As part of an ongoing academic research, Our goal is to explore innovative, potential architectural expressions of the current discourse around Form through computational tools (Autodesk MAYA). We will focus on technique elaboration, material intelligence, formal logic efficiencies and precision assemblies as an ultimate condition of design. The workshop will develop and investigate the notion of proficient geometric variations at a level of complexity, so that questions towards geometrical effectiveness, accuracy and performance can begin to be understood in a contemporary setting. The workshop is a discourse based in the use of multi-layered techniques and production processes that allow for control over intelligent geometries, calibration of parts, and behavioral taxonomies, normalizing an innovative held of predictability.

X|Atelier was founded in 2007 by Erick Cárcamo and Nefeli Chatzimina ::X|A:: is an architectural practice based in the use of multi-layered experimental techniques and production processes networked in Europe, US and Latin America. Both hold a Master’s of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University and have graduated from SCI_Arc and N.T.U.Athens respectively. Their teaching expertise extends to Sci-Arc, University of Southern California, Columbia University, Yale SOA, UPenn, Pratt Institute, University of Kentucky, Die Angewandte, N.T.U.Athens and LTH in Sweden.

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The New Gastronomical Innovation Center, designed by Oscar Abrahamsson and Jacob Waas at SCI Arc, is a speculative proposal for the El Bulli Research Campus in Cala Montjoi, Catalonia that explores complex systems and baroque geometry as tools in creating an artificial rival to nature.

Our project addresses its relationship to the rural countryside left behind by urbanization and long excluded from the architectural discourse. Instead of trying to imitate or integrate the romantic notions of the “natural”, we are embracing the rapid and radical change of the European countryside – with the understanding that the countryside of today is without doubt man-made – not natural.

We are showcasing the artificiality by withdrawing from the surroundings and turning inward, to create a discrete an internalized world for El Bulli gastronomy. This internalized world is designed to enable El Bulli to not only to house its research and production but to also allow the research and production to affect the built environment.

Our system is derived from the Baroque geometry of Francesco Borromini that is employed at different intensities and scales throughout the building using different computational systems operating at mulitple scales. At the large scale, taking from the platonic geometry of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, a series of delaminated volumes are nested within an exterior envelope, sometimes tightly fit, and sometimes loosely fit; creating interstitial spaces that fit the programmatic function of this live-research-education facility. The interstitial space becomes a separation of the world and the interior. At certain points, the interior system breaks through and dissolves the envelope, exposing the intricate shapes of the internal volume. The separations of the different layers are never discrete, but they interweave with each other, always indexing each other in different ways.

The outcome is a building that is based on architectural relationships, but exhibits intricacies usually associated with systems found in nature, thus it creates a cross breed of (synthetically) organic complexity and architectural intention. This is an attempt of questioning the romantic notion of what is “natural” but also an attempt of incorporating the current technological tools that, at a root level, can manipulate geometries to achieve mulitiple intensities of detail.

The corruptive interior system, producing an eroding effect on the figure of architecture, creates cavities and niches that provide a surface for the cultivation required by the El Bulli research. By integrating and informing our systems with systems of organic matter, we want to obscure the relationship between a synthetic nature and the organic, between the living and the non-living.

Design: Oscar Abrahamsson, Jacob Waas.
Instructor: M. Casey Rehm. Read the rest of this entry »

The Clover House is a kindergarten that feels like home. Due to limited land area the owner of a local kindergarten decided to renovate his own family house transforming the original private nursery into a fully developed education institution. Clover House differentiates itself from traditional kindergartens by fully embracing its role as a shelter—a haven for education during the day and a home in the evening. The kindergarten’s homelike environment supports Clover House’s fully open teaching methodology, through which the children can build emotional bonds and trust among one another. During the day, children and teachers can eat, study, communicate, rest and play as if they were at a home. At night, the house reverts back to be the living space for the owner’s family and the school teachers.

The transformation started with an investigation of the existing 105 sqm two-story house. Like the surrounding houses, this wood structure building was first constructed as standard mass-production housing. After on-site surveys, MAD decided to reutilize the existing wood structure, incorporating it into the new building’s design. One of the signature repurposed elements is the pitched roof, which not only creates dynamic interior spaces, but also brings the owner’s memories of the building as his home into this residence and the starting point of the clover house.

The new house’s skin and structure wraps the old wood structure like a piece of cloth covering the building’s skeleton, creating a blurry space in between the new and the old. The original wood structure is present throughout the main learning area, integrating the history of the building with the educational lessons to tell the students Clover House’s traditions and stories. Its translucent and enclosed spaces easily adapt to different teaching activities. Sunlight sifts through the windows to create ever-changing shadows, chasing the students’ curiosity and innocent imaginations. Read the rest of this entry »

The challenge of this project designed by Zelig Fok at the Savannah College of Art and Design was to design a boutique and showroom for the Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons in Tokyo’s Aoyama shopping district. Architecture and fashion share a dedication to experimental design as well as the ability to question customary enclosure/dress, prescribed aesthetics, and notion of beauty. Collections by the fashion designer were studied, particularly where padded figures were stuffed beneath or sewn into the lining of garments.

This project creates architectural enclosure that fluctuates between 2D flat and 3D massing effects. The interior objects are soft bubbles aggregated into a tense constellation. The outer object has harder edges and addresses the site boundaries. This formal morphology acts to deny the simultaneity between the container and the contained. Similarly, figural cuts, creases, and tattoos work against this surface geometry. Competing surface logics and hybrid articulation confound the boundaries between interior and exterior as the building enclosure modulates between thin surface and thick poché. This strategy challenges architecture’s traditional hierarchies of enclosure and internal subdivision of space. Read the rest of this entry »