For some time now there has been a plan to design a museum of oil in Italy . The site of Vallezza , starting from the first drilling in 1905 , has established itself as a strategic center for the extraction of hydrocarbons in Italy; it has played a very important role during the two world wars of the first half of 900; his unique yellow oil , with natural characteristics similar to those of an already refined product, was pumped directly from the reservoir to the tanks of vehicles. The story of hydrocarbons, although still short in the context of human history, today is one of the events that have most influenced and changed our way of life and the planet itself. From the seventies to today, the extraction of hydrocarbons has not undergone substantial technological evolution; activity is concentrated in research and oil processing in consumer products and especially energy. I guess, in the composite and sometimes crumbling reality of Vallezza , a story that can go beyond the simple narrative of the time of the hydrocarbons and their exploitation : a kind of purification and redemption; I do not intend to represent, in this place, a present that is visible to all, but a now -too-distant past that belongs to history, and a growing story for the future; from here the idea of conversion, re-appropriation by the nature of a land transformed by humans and a future full integration between man, technology and nature.

Project by Enrico Galeazzi. Read the rest of this entry »

Fab-Housing is the Master’s degree project presented by Eugenio Aglietti, Luca Beltrame and Jessica Tiberi for the final thesis of IN/ARCH Post-graduate Master Course ‘Expert Designer in Emerging Technologies’.

The proposal concerns the requalification of Caserma Ruffo area in Rome and aims to give a different interpretation of Social Housing, adding a connotation related with work and productivity.

The main buildings redevelopment is arranged as new facades consisting in walkways and honeycomb-like productive residences. The system of new hexagonal cells, co-working spaces and buildings’ new loft, contribute to create a productive community in which each habitant can provide a specific service. In this way Fab Housing community is able to cover several functions like small shops, laboratories, professional activities, gyms, offices, small art galleries and craft shops.

Every cell is composed by a steel structure, self-bearing insulation panels, wood and resin panels, while the hexagonal grid structure allows to join multiple modules creating different configurations. The resulting facade combines honeycomb cells with semi-public open terraces facing the inner courtyard, in which the current parade ground has been turned into a new urban park, including spaces for temporary markets and public events, urban gardens and skate park. Read the rest of this entry »

Man’s obsession with grandeur and indulgent creations has led to iconic absurdity. We are the generation that will suffer at the hands of the creators of a wasteful era. These icons must and therefore shall fall.

The globally conscious society; calculating and reacting to these fluctuations will become part of an imperative process that will enable a reaction for designers of space. A new and expressive type of architecture is needed as well as the cities that reflect the needs and demands of them, solutions that consider the global and local dilemmas is imperative to humanities progression. “La cattedrale” designed by James Goldsby is a socially responsible building that aims to deliver a message to the users of the space through religious architecture influencers. A message that every action has a reaction. The building is able to adapt to interaction, the structure is able to adjust and move using simple but intelligent joint systems that have the ability to alter atmospheres and by extension the sensation of spaces which effect the user(s). Every element of the building has been designed to allow transformation, replacement and reinterpretation by designing a system that the average man can construct and maintain to remove dependence on other systems which enables each individual and gives them the responsibility to affect their own environment, hold ownership over it and encourage an ideology of socially and mutually responsible living. Read the rest of this entry »

The pavilion bar designed by Margot Krasojevic is part of Paris’ flood control infrastructure. An enclosed circular glass bar rests over a bell mouth spillway which allows water to enter from it’s entire perimeter, directing the water throoughout the design, into the spillway.

The circular bar is zoned to direct water through it’s ramps and into the spillway situated under a moveable glass clad floor. The industrial function of the bar is combined with an ethereal monocoque shell that houses the light and reflective nature of the pavilion bar’s interior, etched glass gives an effervescent feel with the lattice spillway filtering water as it is channelled through the underground network of submerged canals, upstream to the impounded lakes and nearby reservoirs.

A lightweight composite fibre monocoque canopy covers the pavilion formed as a whirlpool to channel rainwater around it’s surface and into the spillway beneath it. Paris’ intircate and detailed manhole covers were the inspiration for the design. Read the rest of this entry »

The proposal “Sonic Scape” – The House of Hungarian Music, by Aaron Neubert Architects, is conceived as a tribute to the esteemed figures within the influential musical history of Hungary. In the spirit of composers Bela Bartok and Zola Kodaly, HHM will serve as an open, accessible, and flexible venue bringing the vast contemporary and historical traditions to the people, as well as welcoming emerging musical experimentation. The HHM will create a space of immersion in music, yet open to the urban landscape of Budapest and in particular that of the City Park. This proposal therefore serves not only as an experiential and interactive symbol for music, but also as an iconic incubator open to the citizens of Budapest and welcoming various influences. The building’s relationship to the site is developed to encourage park activities to flow through the HHM and conversely music activities, to spill into the park.

Specifically, the project explores two primary experiential objectives, a Measured Landscape and an Occupied Instrument. The first objective being the development of an architecture that acts as a tool to measure, survey, record, and ultimately engage the surrounding landscape – following the trajectory of Bartok and Kodaly’s field endeavors. The second objective is the creation of an immersive architectural experience – inspired by Mierswa & Kluska’s photographs of the interior of musical instruments. These two interests manifest themselves in HHM’s formal appearance, physical relationship to the landscape, and within the interior of the building. With the intention of creating an icon that can uniquely serve the diverse objectives and influences found within the Hungarian musical tradition and the project’s mission, as well as respond to the complexity of the City Park site, the HHM presents varied and evolving facades. References such as vernacular and civic architecture, traditional Hungarian musical instruments, contemporary acoustical geometries, sheet music, a grand piano, and an accordion are all evoked within the building.

The architectural fundamental principle the design attacks is linearity , which describes the dominating directional dynamic . This dynamic can be expressed both by individual and multiple lines of force , this has particular relevance to architecture both in terms of its making and resultant form. Perceiving lines of force originating from elements such as the bridge. As the architecture moves in the linear horizontal fashion it starts to grow and bend in reaction to the geometry from the bridge which has “ segmental ” arches. The curves from the volumes and the strands echo that geometry from the arches and braid themselves in a loose way to create an excessive and exuberant appearance which represent a lively energy and excitement as they reach for the nature which awaits for them in the other side of the bridge.

Symmetry will be kept visible in plan and elevations but the volumes will alternate their positions through out the bridge. Instead of being repelled by the large building set aside the bridge, the new design will embrace the building and provide connection and alternate pathways. A ground condition will become part of the volumes which circulate in a horizontal fashion with arc shaped strands that merge into and out from the bridge. The orthogonal manner of the existing building is to be broken with curvilinear surfaces that will create interior/exterior conditions when the volumes intertwine with each other. Program will be accommodated judging on the noise level of the two major perpendicular crossings which are the street and the canal. One which is close to nature and the other which resembles rush and mobility. The architecture will not only mimic the standards of the architecture of the bridge but will also respond to the conditions imposed by the context and topography.

The space will force itself to the user and pedestrian by becoming part of the pathways and being forced to interact with. The continuous deformations of the topology will acquire a constant logic and rule which will be repeated with the arc-like strands that the surfaces adopt to establish a visual logic of repetition and unity which is pleasing to the eye and brings a functional space to inhabit.

Design: Jean-Pierre Villafañe at the Savannah College of Art and Design Read the rest of this entry »

A multi-disciplinary sports complex & camel track located at the centre of the old creek district of Dubai designed by Thomas Hopkins at Bartlett School of Architecture

The design accommodates types of racetracks and sports facilities, tailored for the population demographics. These playing fields and tracks are amalgamated and fused into a programmatic proposition readdressing the conventional organisation of sports facilities. The notion of thresholds between the internal and external is explored through a series of precision analogue/digital models which help explain the spatial dialogue happening between the two realms. Solar gain and complex geometry are holistic themes within this project, helping to create interstitial spaces, interconnecting different playing fields and race tracks whilst also providing shelter from the extreme climatic conditions of Dubai.

Novel geometries are used to enhance and optimise the organisation of space and comfort within it, questioning the boundaries between external and internal. The varying patternisation within the canopies, inspired by the composition of ancient Mashrabiyas, is optimised according to solar gain within specific time periods to achieve environmental thermal comfort through the use of non-deterministic and performance-based design. The typo-morphologies subsequently produced, optimised with novel geometries, help to create a new composition of space leading to a more homogenous integration of the building within its landscape. This subsequently opens up the possibilities for new and different designs, questioning the way we understand our built environment.

“pina” is a part of the series of exploration by Taeg Nishimoto of fabric’s behavior in lighting, with three variations (#1 – #3.) The shade uses the fabric 95% cotton and 5% spandex. The fabric is hardened to structure itself while it is configured to make specific creases for light and shadow effects as the lamp shade. Fabric is cut into square and dipped into fabric hardener, then hung in a framed structure from four corners of the fabric. This hung fabric is pulled upwards from certain points by thread with spherical weight placed in between the pulled points so the fabric will create specific creases as well as stretch itself. This crease effect follows the way how the fabric behaves itself in relationship to the pulled points and different amount of weights. The hung fabric is left to dry until it is completely hardened. The resulting creased fabric is then placed upside down to create a lamp shade with the initial four corners of the fabric functioning as legs of the shade. When the light is not turned on, the object presents itself as a certain organic object. When it’s lit from below, the lamp shade creates light and shadow effects not only within the fabric creases but also on the adjoining wall. Read the rest of this entry »

The Twilt Tower – twisted and tilted, is a design proposal by Paolo Venturella. The site for the tower is “E.U.R.” (Esposizione Universale Roma, in 1942) and is provoked by the “Eurosky tower” by Franco Purini, in author’s opinion a strange, box-like residential tower with photovoltaic panels on top, not integrated in overall design at all. That creates a design where the shape does not come out from its function, they state at Paolo Venturella Architects, and this further generates deep idiosyncrasy against this architecture. What they propose is to make it fall down and replace with a similar in the function but radically different in the shape tower.

The “Twilt Tower” integrates the photovoltaic panels not just in the facade but even in the volume. The idea of tilting and rotating the panels towards the solar rays, to allow direct sun radiation during the whole day, deforms the building making the idea and the architecture a unique thing. The outcome is a cutting edge design that demonstrates how a building can express a concept in a contemporary rather futuristic way.

Far from academic visions where the new and progressive is not accepted, far from wrong interpretation of the history of architecture that made the city of Rome become from the most avant-guard city in the world to the most obsolete, Paolo Venturella Achitects propose a new revolutionary design to allow the city of Rome to find again its own old splendor, leading it to a new pioneering city as it was in throughout the history. Read the rest of this entry »

FLOS String Light. Photo: Graham Carlow

The appeal of FLOS STRING LIGHTS by Michael Anastassiades should not be lost on anyone who appreciates a clean and modern construction. A subtle utilitarian appearance belies the sleek architectural design that brings functional, beautiful illumination to any space that appreciates a geometric aesthetic. STRING LIGHTS were available in limited quantities in Europe throughout 2013; however, made their debut in the USA this summer after winning the prestigious EDIDA 2014 award in the lighting category.

“They are inspired by three things,” Anastassiades comments on his inspiration. “When I sit on a train, traveling, and I look out of the window, I always see these strings of electricity that connect the pylons. And as we move through at high speed, I see these perfectly parallel strings and find myself transfixed by the amazing sense of discipline.” STRING LIGHTS reflect his ability to translate the idea of a divided orderly landscape into an interior living space.

The design concept is meant to evoke the image of lights found in a quaint village square, where people gather to socialize and celebrate. Inherent in the brilliance of the design is the allowance of movement which encourages the user to fashion this stylish lighting as they wish. One may express their own creative vision, delineating space with geometric angles, clean, and sleek lines within a minimalist contemporary decor.

The lights are accompanied by an instruction booklet and smartphone app to guide self expressionists through the easy installation process, and an inspiring but short tutorial video shows just how quickly these lights can become a focal point of your interior design. Today, after a year’s wait, the lights are finally available at the FLOS USA online store.

FLOS String Light. Photo: Graham Carlow

FLOS String Light. Photo: Giuseppe Brancato

FLOS String Light. Photo: Giuseppe Brancato

FLOS String Light. Cone

FLOS String Light. Sphere