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 »

By the end of 2007, the regional authority and the city Oberhausen announced a bounded competition. The archaeological excavations of St Antony have been realized to make the region accessible to the first blast furnace of the Ruhr. The competition challenge implied to protect these archaeological excavations by a weather barrier and, furthermore, make them tangible by a footbridge. Febuary 2008, the jury advised to arrange the architects awarded by the first prize, Ahlbrecht Felix Scheidt Kasprusch in cooperation with the engineering office Schülke und Wiesmann with further planning.

Innovation past and present
In the 18th and 19th centuries St. Antony’s ironwork manufactured cast iron products of outstanding quality. This spirit of dealing with metal was the basic concept for the choise of material for the new roof structure. The roof-shell covers the excavation and essential parts of the archaeological finds. Read the rest of this entry »

This competition entry by artist Liu Chien-Sheng for the ” Changing the Face –Pushkinsky Cinema Hall Competition” is a tribute to Александр Сергеевич Пушкин / Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin – it is a poem conceived by architecture. The Pushkinsky Cinema Hall is located next to the Pushkin Square on the urban green line, and the statue of Pushkin stands in front of the cinema hall. The concept of this design is to write a poem as a tribute to Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin by architecture.

“The power of inspiration” – poem

1- Freedom: Against gravity by floating steam. Gravity is one of the great obstacles to artistic design of architectural structure, thus there has been deep desire to construct the architecture without giving sense of gravity. In order to present freedom of architecture, the mist floating in the air performs as a new type of materials for the façade.  The steam floats surround the cinema hall to represent a new type of façade and actually increase the temperature near the building. The rise of steam from horizon – a view of architectural façade extends to unban collage.

2- The warm sun on the snow: The architectural form is originated from an image of sun. Snow country has thirsts for basking in pleasant sunshine, just like the world of poetry need Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin to provide and expand its spirit. The façade starts a primitive geometry with a light materiality to reflect the surrounding. And then, the curves cut it and create the pattern of architectural form. Read the rest of this entry »