This project for a new Public LIbrary for the city of West Hollywood was designed by Zifan Liu at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Long concerned with the articulation of form by means of volume to mass, and way beyond a contemporary threshold of hyper articulation, the discipline seems to be at a critical juncture by having to choose between polar opposites: to continue the search for more complexity via the willful sculpting of soft surface, or to return to a fundamental purity by the articulation of simple platonic volumes.

Turning its attention towards both primitive and figure, this project’s intention is to generate new cumulative mass and interstitial networks based on a simple logic of aggregation and growth of self-similar primitives, their formal accretion will promote a diversely unified spatial atmosphere that defy the distinction between holistic and discrete, figure and figuration. With emerging and ever-shifting number of massing configurations, group outlines and individual silhouettes as possible outcome. Read the rest of this entry »

The Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea, designed by Wolf D. Prix / COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, the new home of the Busan Film Festival (BIFF), was inaugurated with a grand opening on 29 September 2011 in the presence of the president of South Korea. The innovative building combines open space, cultural program, entertainment, technology and architecture in a novel way. Over 800 guests, among them the Mayor of Busan, the cultural minister, the sports minister as well as film celebrities attended the ceremony.

After winning the competition for this project in 2005 construction started the same year. The roof’s ceiling surface is completely equipped with LED projectors which allows for unique visual spectacles highlighting the Busan Cinema Center. The dynamically illuminated ceiling will serve as the center’s platform of communication with visitors and passers-by. A free span of 85 meters and a roof surface of 60 x 120 meters makes the roof the worldwide largest cantilevered roof. The complex comprises about 60,000 m2 of performance, event, gastronomy and administrative spaces and has a capacity of up to 6,800 visitors.

Xtra Moenia is a site specific installation designed and produced by SOFTlab for the San Gennaro North Gate. The piece was commissioned by Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and produced by The They Co. The piece serves as the North Gate to the annual San Gennaro Festival. SOFTlab developed a form that created out of two distinct oculi as a reference to one of the simplest and most effective classical architecture devices. One oculus points up while the other hangs down defining a zone on the street for pedestrians. The two forms are created using a minimal surface blending the two oculi together in a way that blurs the distinction between the two. The final geometry was developed closely with the structural engineering firm Arup.

The piece is completely held in tension from cables attached to the surrounding buildings. The shape is completely site specific and can only find its true form when attached at these specific points and tensioned with the proper lengths. Each piece is unique requiring custom software tools to be developed to fabricate the installation. Read the rest of this entry »

The Interior Design Show West (IDSWest) in Vancouver is the most prestigious architecture and design event in the West Coast. Many talented young designers are discovered every year. It is an opportunity to showcase their work along side well known brands. eVolo is pleased to be part of this event to present the much anticipated limited-edition book “EVOLO SKYSCRAPERS”. The book is the culmination of six years of the annual “eVolo Skyscraper Competition”; it includes more than 300 projects in 1200 full-color pages.

The show runs from September 29th, to October 2nd at the Vancouver Convention Center. If you happen to be in the city don’t forget to stop by the booth.

Pre-order book!

Augmented Structures: Acoustic Formations” is an augmented structure, an installation created through the use of innovative parametric architecture and audiovisual techniques. The projects deals with a new mediated space: how to translate the logic of media into architecture? In this first experiment field recordings of Istiklal Street were transformed in to parametric architectural structure. The recordings were also used to create an electro-acoustical composition. The project seeks interactions between space, sound, the visual and light (with a reference to the Philips Pavilion of Le Courbusier).

Beyond being an artwork this installation is an urban experience that will nest in collective memory of İstiklal Street visitors through its scale (200sqm of surface) and the dominance of the location (at the heart of Istanbul). Read the rest of this entry »

The project of an environmental enhancer designed by Mirco Bianchini for the Nogara  highway in Veneto, Italy provides the unique chance to bring together ecological thinking, host interaction, and active materials. Its location (an open country planar area among cultivated fields) enucleates as critical variables the impact of pollutants and the phenomenon of dazzling. With respect to such criticalities, the project uses digital generative and parametric strategies to generate a performative structure in which densification and rarefaction of elements is a local morphological response to dazzle. Read the rest of this entry »

“Just Fold It ” designed by Kutarq is flexible, easy to assemble and disassemble, and the individual models fold compact making them convenient to store or transport. The length of the screen can be adjusted by adding or subtracting the number of modules. Perforations on the surface increase stability by counteracting wind resistance in addition to varying the porosity which creates a nice visual effect that varies depending on the angle and distance from which it is viewed. Read the rest of this entry »

The Acceleration Interchange is M1A’s proposal for an installation at Anaheim’s new regional transportation hub ‘ARTIC’. The project, a wayfinding pavilion, reflects Meridian 105’s ongoing exploration of equation-based parametric modeling and design-to-fabrication processes.

Placed in the facilitiy’s large exterior plaza, the piece activates the streetscape, encouraging circulation within and around and a primary orientation point for connecting travelers. The form finds reference to the transportation theme of the larger facility, modeled by the application of wave and acceleration formulae acting on its form. The resulting pavilian is a twisting organic gesture. Read the rest of this entry »

The project proposal for the Campus International School for Downtown Cleveland illustrates the transformation of Cleveland State University’s master plan for converting the area into a dense mixed-use development and with recreation fields.The quotation ‘’an opportunity to re-evaluate the broader terrain in which children learn and give as great an emphasis on learning environments as others have given the educational philosophies’’ formed the basis for our proposal.

A key aim of the design is to produce a safe learning environment for the students. The flexible classroom design and “street” layout of the school encourages different age groups of children to meet and learn together, while the main circulation space between the classrooms, student dining, media center and recreational spaces is an additional learning hub. The proposed plan layout avoids hidden corners and blind spots, and careful thought has been given to landscaping to provide different types of outdoor play space including areas for learning, planting, quiet zones and games. Each classroom has direct access to the outdoor playgrounds and views to the surrounding buildings. Read the rest of this entry »

The observation tower is the result of a study into the optimal application of Ultra High Performance Concrete by a case study team comprising of UNStudio, ABT, BAM Utiliteitsbouw en Haitsma Beton.

The design for the observation tower is the result of a case study which aimed to apply the characteristics of Ultra High Performance Concrete in a functional, operative design. The case study team consisted of designers, engineers and builders who together sought a solution through which architecture and construction could reinforce one another. According to Ben van Berkel, “The observation tower afforded our Inventive Materials Research Platform the opportunity to investigate the properties of Ultra High Performance Concrete and to truly test out the full potential of this new material in a real structure.” Ultra High performance Concrete differs from normal concrete as it has a very high density, contains steel fibres and has an extremely fine grain structure. These properties facilitate the application of large compressive stresses in structures of narrow dimensions. UNStudio’s Inventive Materials Platform is one of four in-house research platforms and aims to investigate custom-made material applications and to facilitate inspired and imaginative collaborations with other experts and with manufacturers in the construction industry. Read the rest of this entry »