Morphosis have designed a new office for themselves – the largest net-zero building in Los Angeles and the most eco-friendly in the country. The fairly rectangular structure is located just a few feet from the new light rail Expo Line’s elevated tracks in Culver City. It significantly reduces loads through several low-tech, high-tech, and even revolutionary techniques, most of which were developed with engineers at Buro Happold, whose LA offices are just down the street. Read the rest of this entry »

The initial concept for the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Centre for Drug Research and Development in Vancouver, British Columbia, is based on the idea of a canopy, floating above the ground level. Architects at Saucier + Perrotte have transformed the idea of a tree into an abstract system of tectonic elements that float above a public area containing fluid exhibition spaces. These act as a meeting point for faculty, researchers, students and outside visitors. Read the rest of this entry »

In order to integrate the operational and social mechanics of hotel culture into the everyday life of contemporary cities, ZA Architects have designed a hotel that occupies the space above a city street and hangs between existing buildings. The proposal itself is half street/ half building. Its volume encloses a number of public activities, creating a vibrant atmosphere that encourages interaction between locals and hotel visitors. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed and built in collaboration between Chalmers University of Technology and Röhsska Museum of Design in Copenhagen, the Archipelago Pavilion is a network of seating structures that inhabits the cortyard in front of the Museum. The structure provides shaded seating inside and creates shaded spaces around it to place existing chairs and tables. The structure was built on site by 33 architecture students.

The pavilion was parametrically designed in Grasshopper and Rhino and built from 2 mm thick laser-cut steel sheets. Exactly 133 pieces of steel were joint together with 1535 joints with a total of 3640 bolts holding it together. Inside the pavilion visitors can lie comfortably on the surface, thanks to the steel’s possibility to stay cool when shaded. The intricate web of spaces resembles clusters of small islands in an archipelago. The perforation on the roof spreads out an organic pattern resembling the one you would see from a tree in the forest. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed for the Luminale 2012 in Frankfurt, Germany, Kollision’s Photophore installation is a five storey veil of light that is operated by a smart phone. In order to make the veil act as if it being pushed, pulled or thrown in, the people on street can use an application: by scanning a QR code mounted on the façade, the users are brought to a website which invites them to swipe their finger across the touch screen of their smart phones. Read the rest of this entry »

Inspired by the dramatic coastal landscape of Busan, the Norwegian design firm Snøhetta has won the competition to realize the city’s opera house. The new Busan Opera House will be located by the port, and, as with the Opera House in Oslo, it will allow the public to walk on the roof. The house will have about the same size at its counterpart in Oslo, only exceeding it by a slightly bigger main hall with the planned capacity of receiving an audience of 1800 people.  According to the architects, the main guideline in the design process was the creation of an accessible and democratic space, turning the static into dynamic. The Opera is an interactive open stage that transforms the contemporary cultural spaces from elitist monuments into democratic arenas. Read the rest of this entry »

Studio Fuksas have completed the Tbilisi Public Service Hall in Tbilisi, Georgia. Conceived as the largest social service center in the world, the landmark, which is located on Tbilisi’s waterfront, pairs an innovative program with flamboyant architecture. A giant corolla of eleven white petals covers the building, adorning the banks of the Kura River with a symbolic bloom.

Description from the designers:

The Tbilisi Public Service Hall is situated in the central area of the city and it overlooks the Kura River.

The building is 28.000 mq. It is made up of 7 volumes that contain offices (each volume is made up of 4 floors located on different levels). These volumes are placed around a ”central public square”, which is the core of the project,  where there is the front office services. Offices are connected to each other by internal footbridges that stretch on different levels. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed by Marcelo Spina and Georgina Huljich of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S, the League of Shadows Pavilion has been declared winner of an architectural design competition for a 1,200-seat outdoor pavilion at SCI-Arc. The pavilion would accommodate graduation ceremonies, lectures, symposia and other cultural events. The pavilion will be located in the school’s parking lot in downtown Los Angeles. It is set to be completed spring 2013. Read the rest of this entry »

The three “Kikuchi” public parks are carefully weaved into the neighborhood of Kikuchi, a city in Kumamoto, Japan. Designed by Japanese architect Takao Shiotsuka, they are a good example of an alternative approach to pocket parks. According to Shiotsuka, the goal of these three parks is not to add greenery, but to revitalize an old area of the city with “a new stream of people.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Phýllon lamp designed by Nikolay Hristov Ivanov was inspired by the complexity of a leaf’s veins system. A novel process that employs computer simulation is used to generate a design that operates close to a micro-scale. It started as a research design-investigation based on the distribution of the veins of a single leaf blade. The goal was not to mimic the leaf’s pattern of veins, but rather to have a new reading towards using a speculative data set and reconnecting it within certain logic – establish direct connections – more like covered with a spider net, creating complexity via the quantity of the elements, rather than the elements themselves. Via exploring a numerous configurations of points and diverse connection logics of growth, it crystallized as extremely fragile, elegant or even precious single object design. Read the rest of this entry »