2b is the second year undergraduate studio at USC School of Architecture, and the studio agenda focuses on materials, their properties, limitations and effects. The process that led to the glass pavilion was a succession of exercises. The studio section taught by Roland Wahlroos-Ritter started with precedent studies of the primary building materials timber, masonry [brick], steel, concrete and glass. Shelley Fu and Vicky Wong, the students that designed the glass pavilion started with a precedent study of the glass pavilion in Toledo by SAANA. They translated their interest in structural glass, as well as it reflective and refractive qualities, into their first project design of a glass bench. Since they were unable to bend glass similar to the glass in Toledo, they became interested in origami techniques and folding glass. The design developed into a simple but elegant folded plate structure.

Through the discovery of the amazing structural abilities and seductive reflections of folded plates in their bench, they became more ambitious in their design for their second project. They explored various geometries in paper models and developed a number of detail solutions. At the end of the second project review all pavilion designs within the studio section were put up for a student vote to choose which design was going to get built by all students. The glass pavilion, by far the most ambitious and expensive, won the vote.

After the vote, the project design had to be re-strategized, since within the time constraints of only two weeks of design revisions, fabrication and installation it would have been impossible to be built in glass. So in this sense the project is seen as a 1:1 prototype for a future glass pavilion; to test the geometry, spatial qualities and fabrication process. Thus glass was substituted for 6mm polycarbonate. In the process the overall geometry was refined, rhino scripts written to generate the folded plate geometry, and shop drawings developed to allow fabrication. The final design consisted of over 800 polycarbonate pieces fastened together with over 2500 zip ties. The prototype revealed unexpected moments in terms of structural behavior, especially of the two cantilevers at the end and it’s ability to transform the perception of the environment.

Studio Instructor: Roland Wahlroos-Ritter
Students: Meaghan Camp, Amrine Katherine, Feng Zhentao, Fu Shelley, Ghods Saeed, Jeung Peter, Lee Dong, Mendoza Andrea, Nicholson David, Prabhakaran Krithika, Sakaamini Zenah, Su Yang Chun, Wong Vicky, Wood Graham Read the rest of this entry »

Perpetuum Mobile conceived by O + R is a system of mobile smoking point units that proposes an alternative relationship between smokers and non-smokers in open public spaces in the city of Tokyo. The project generates a new platform of social interaction capable of adapting to different urban situations that creates unpredicted distributions on the site according to sites’ needs and seasonal changes.

Each unit is composed of 3 main elements:

A. Inner Garden Core of 2,70 x 2,70 meters of 1 meter height, that integrates: 9 seats, 9 cigarette disposal units, 4 planters, and a main bamboo central planter with a water outlet system. Each seat and back has a smoking add printed finishing. The garden is composed of Bamboo Trees, Aromatic Plants (Japanese local Variety of Mentha arvensis) and Chrysanthemum. The use of local varieties facilitates the maintenance and survival of this small landscape system. Cigarette Disposal Units are integrated on the unit with a top aluminium center chute and a metal lined Container. Cigarettes are contained and extinguished inside the metal lined container. The disposal units can be removed for cleaning, maintenance, and recycling.

B. Shelter System. Composed of a triangulated aluminium mesh structure with a variable thickness of 10 to 50 mm approx., and a recycled glass finishing on both sides with colours in gradient from black – yellow – green, and a total height of 5,00 m. The structure is connected to the core by a system of tubular columns in which a system of rings provides stability to the system. This design is inspired by the traditional Amigasa hats and developed after different operations of manipulation according to the project.

C. Motion and Support System. The complete unit is supported by wheels of 6’’diameter, tire rubber and swivel bracket with one brake per wheel and a brake control for all the wheels of the unit; each wheel is estimated to support up to 300 kg load. Read the rest of this entry »

Design Rhizome conceive by Farooq Khayyat is located in the heart of San Francisco. Rhizome operates as the city’s fulcrum; leveraging the ideas of design leaders, students, creators, and change makers with the needs of educators, entrepreneurs, and local food merchants.

Innovation is the result of combined ideas. Design Rhizome is a place where design professionals and novices alike join in spontaneous interaction and collaboration to give life to the ideas of tomorrow. Proximity, exchange of ideas, and shared resources are the key ingredients for practical creativity and innovation. The creatives can unite in a supportive space with the tech, finance, and government leaders of the day to awaken and strengthen the community. Read the rest of this entry »

Elegant Embellishments have installed a depolluting facade on the Torre de Especialidades at the Hospital Manuel Gea Gonzalez, Mexico City. The 2500m2 quasicrystal facade is composed of prosolve370e modules- three dimensional architectural modules with photocatalytic pollution-fighting technology.

prosolve370e is a decorative architectural module that reduces air pollution in urban environments. The modules are a functional, yet highly decorative modular ornament that achieve a synergy between design form and molecular technology. Inspired by fractals in nature, the undulating shapes maximize the surface area of active coating to diffuse light, air turbulence and pollution.

The modules contain superfine titanium dioxide (TiO2), a pollution-fighting technology that is activated by ambient daylight. When positioned near pollution sources, the modules break down and neutralize NOx (nitrogen oxides), VOCs (volatile organic compounds), SO2, and FPM directly where they are generated.

Derived from a quasicrystal grid, the underlying mathematical grid generates patterns that appear irregular, yet are made of only two constituent types. This modularity creates aperiodic, biomimetic tesselations that bear strong semblance to sponges or corals. The tiling method ultimately enables visual randomness, typically associated with the bespoke, to occur in a modular system.

As a modification to traditional built structures, prosolve370e essentially “tunes buildings” to perform better to the invisible criteria of air pollution.

Architecture Xenoculture
Juan Azulay, Benjamin Rice, Carlo Aiello
Digital copy
300 pages

eVolo_05: Architecture Xenoculture

INTRODUCTION

Xenoculture is a term coined by Iranian writer and philosopher Reza Negarestani that describes the need for embracing and exploring the unexpected, the alien. In this issue we borrow the idea and explore the realm of Architecture Xenoculture — the work of architects and designers who detach from everything that architecture is supposed to be and look like, including preconceived forms and aesthetics, to look into new architectural and design possibilities. An architectural form that emerges from mathematical processes and new material explorations and proposes something never before seen — an aesthetic yet to be determined.

Some of the work showcased has been produced by leading architecture practitioners and academics worldwide including: Hernan Diaz Alonso, Servo, Francois Roche, Marc Fornes, Kokkugia, Zaha Hadid, Volkan Alkanoglu, and Rafael Lozano among others.

Architecture Xenoculture is the problematization of work produced by embracing the proliferation of this mist of fear. It argues for the harnessing of this aesthetic of fear towards a yet-to-be determined end – intensifying its practice towards new thresholds, those that unleash the potential of the alien in the world beyond the limited imaginary we have become anesthetized to, conjuring insecure material and behavioral manifestations of the xeno-gene and its ability to adapt, mutate, survive and fight.

eVolo_05: Architecture Xenoculture

eVolo_05: Architecture Xenoculture

eVolo_05: Architecture Xenoculture

eVolo_05: Architecture Xenoculture

eVolo_05: Architecture Xenoculture

eVolo_05: Architecture Xenoculture

eVolo_05: Architecture Xenoculture

eVolo_05: Architecture Xenoculture

eVolo_05: Architecture Xenoculture

eVolo Magazine is pleased to announce the winners of the 2013 Skyscraper Competition. The award was established in 2006 to recognize outstanding ideas for vertical living. Since then, the publication has received more than 5,000 projects that envision the future of building high. These ideas, through the novel use of technology, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, challenge the way we understand vertical architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.

In 2013, the Jury, formed by leaders of the architecture and design fields selected 3 winners and 24 honorable mentions. eVolo Magazine received 625 projects from all continents and 83 different countries. The winners were selected for their creativity, ingenuity, and understanding of dynamic and adaptive vertical communities.

The first place was awarded to Derek Pirozzi from the United States, for his project “Polar Umbrella”. The proposal is a buoyant skyscraper that rebuilds the arctic ice caps by reducing the surface’s heat gain and freezing ocean water. In addition, the super-structure is equipped with a desalinization plant and solar powered research facilities and eco-tourist attractions.

The recipients of the second place are Darius Maïkoff and Elodie Godo from France, for their “Phobia Skyscraper”. The project seeks to revitalize an abandoned industrial area of Paris, France, through an ingenious system of prefabricated housing units. Its modularity allows for a differentiation of various programs and evolution in time.

The third place was awarded to Ting Xu and Yiming Chen from China, for their project “Light Park”, a floating skyscraper that takes new development within large cities to the sky. The project allows for a continuous growth of the world’s mega-cities by providing adequate infrastructure, housing, commercial, and recreational areas.

The honorable mentions include several projects that explore a sustainable urban future including a pH conditioner skyscraper that resembles a jellyfish and purifies polluted air or a volcano skyscraper that harvests geothermal energy. Some projects explore new frontiers such as a proposed network of skyscrapers in the stratosphere, a cluster of artificial islands that create the 7th continent in the Pacific Ocean, and nomad skyscrapers that terraform Mars. Other honorable mentions include morphing structures and digital explorations among many more ideas that look into the future of our natural and built environments.

The members of the Jury are: Vincent Callebaut [principal Vincent Callebaut Architectures], 
Giacomo Costa [visionary artist, author: The Chronicles of Time], Julien De Smedt [principal Julien De Smedt Architects – JDS], 
Hernan Diaz Alonso [principal Xefirotarch, Graduate Programs Chair at SCI-Arc], Mathias Hollwich [principal HWKN, founder Architizer], Ed Keller [principal aUm Studio, Associate Dean at Parsons New School of Design], Marc Kushner [principal HWKN, founder Architizer], 
Francois Roche [principal R&Sie(n) architecture, professor at GSAPP Columbia University], 
Roland Snooks [principal Kokkugia, professor at GSAPP Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania], 
Dongbai Song [winner 2012 Skyscraper Competition], 
Tuuli Sotamaa [principal Sotamaa Design, designer at Alessi], Kivi Sotamaa [principal Sotamaa Design, Director at Aalto Digital Design Laboratory, Professor at UCLA], Tom Wiscombe [principal Tom Wiscombe Design, professor at SCI-Arc], Hongchuan Zhao [winner 2012 Skyscraper Competition]
, Zhi Zheng [winner 2012 Skyscraper Competition]

To commemorate the award, eVolo published a collector’s edition of its highly acclaimed book “eVolo Skyscrapers”. The book is a two-volume, 1300-page set with the best 300 projects received during the last years. Only 150 copies are available worldwide.

eVolo Skyscrapers Collector's Edition Book

eVolo Skyscrapers Collector's Edition Book

First Place
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Derek Pirozzi
United States

During the last decades of global warming, the polar ice caps have experienced a severe rise in temperature causing the northern and southern ice shelves to become thin, fractured, and melt into the ocean. Rebuilding the arctic layers is the primary objective of this proposal which cools down the Earth’s surface by reducing heat gain in vulnerable arctic regions.

The Polar Umbrella’s buoyant super-structure becomes a statement for the prevention of future depletion of our protective arctic region. Through its desalinization and power facilities, this arctic skyscraper becomes a floating metropolis equipped with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) research laboratories, renewable power stations, dormitory-style housing units, eco-tourist attractions, and ecological habitats for wildlife. A series of these structures would be strategically located in the most affected areas.

Salt water is used to produce a renewable source of energy through an osmotic (salinity gradient power) power facility housed within the building’s core. In addition, the structure’s immense canopy allows for the reduction of heat gain on the arctic surface while harvesting solar energy. The umbrella’s thermal skin boasts a series of modules that are composed of a polyethylene piping system that pumps brackish water. Finally, the Polar Umbrella also regenerates the ice caps using harvest chambers that freeze the ocean water. Read the rest of this entry »

Second Place
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Darius Maïkoff, Elodie Godo
France

The Phobia Skyscraper is a new form of modular suburban residential development for Paris, France. It is located over the “Petite Ceinture”, a former industrial site with excellent views of the city and an extensive transportation network.

Two main ground slabs and an empty tower structure, constructed of recycled industrial materials, hold prefabricated units that are stacked to utilize the same plumbing system but are rotated to open to outdoor spaces. The units are grouped around outdoor common green spaces.

These common areas, or “nuclei centers,” are equipped with displays that provide real-time feedback for residents on societal issues within the community, occupancy rates of the structure, and messages. It also contains water-collection equipment and solar power panels.

Despite its solid skeleton, the Phobia Skyscraper and its modular units are designed to evolve as does society itself. Its materials are the byproducts of abandonment and recycling; the building itself could be abandoned and once again revitalized, depending on the desires and needs of its residents. Read the rest of this entry »

Third Place
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Ting Xu, Yiming Chen
China

The rapid increase of population within the major cities around the world has led to poor development and serious urban design problems, including the lack of infrastructure, housing, and recreational areas. In Beijing, a large portion of the historic center has been demolished.

One way to make scarce green and recreation space available to residents of this crowded city is a skyscraper that floats above the land, taking new development to the sky. The Light Park stays afloat thanks to a large, mushroom cap-like helium-filled balloon at its top, and solar-powered propellers directly below. Programmatic platforms that host parks, sports fields, green houses, restaurants, and other uses are suspended from the top of the structure by reinforced steel cables; the platforms fan in different directions around the spherical vessel to balance its weight. These slabs are also staggered to allow for maximum exposure to sunlight on each level.

Translucent solar panels cover the top of the vessel to power the uses below, and water collectors, also located at the top, direct precipitation towards filters that send clean water throughout the structure.

Though it doesn’t completely solve Beijing’s serious traffic and overpopulation problems, the Light Park can return valuable green space to the public, and also help mitigate the pollution that comes with increased development – with parks and plants floating in the sky above the city, the air is partially cleaned. Read the rest of this entry »

Naves, the proposal for a temporary pavilion for the city of Mons, Capital of Culture in 2015, addresses a contextual relationship to the gothic surroundings as an exploration on lightness and transparency.

Historically, the gothic edifice, by reducing the building to its bare bones, shows the perfect expression of lightness as the manifestation of light itself. It reaches transparency as it allows the penetration of light to the point of incorporating it. The lightest pillars, the lightest arches, the lightest vaults, the lightest structure: the lightest building as the glorification of light. A complex meshwork of linear elements based on the ogive and tending to maximum permeability and minimum weight, the gothic churches were buildings belonging to the sky. They are the house of light and allow, through its openings, for its very manifestation.

Inspired by this historical context, this project explores structural and material logics to revisit the gothic arch; the ‘curve’ is examined as a bending element caught within a woven collaborative structure of glass fiber tubes, in which the use of compression is exchanged by the one of tension for the building to achieve maximum lightness. The benefit of the technological system lies in the optimization of materials and the minimal footprint that the building possesses. Combined with recyclable materials such as a wooden deck and partitions, as well as a temporary etfe skin, most of the construction elements are entirely reusable. Read the rest of this entry »