Small spaces influenced the concept behind the News Coffee Table, a three section surface radiating from a central newspaper and magazine repository. Taking the traditional newspaper rack and combining it with a coffee table is certainly not new, but Architect Boris Ignatov’s unique but simple solution is to turn the fold 120 degree and connect the receptacle with a flat surface. The casual nature of the design has the quality of origami, radiating outward and offering easy access to periodicals for casual reading. Read the rest of this entry »
News Coffee Table / Ignatov Architects
Hope Luminaire is a Meta-crystal inspired by Hand blown Glass
With the optical and physical qualities of the crystal of Bohemia and Venetian hand blown glass in mind, artists Francisco Gomez Paz and Paolo Rizzatto designed for Luceplan the Hope chandelier. A period of extensive technological research preceded the final lighting source design; the multifaceted interpretation of the classic chandelier was made up of ultra light polycarbonate sheets, capable of reproducing the outstanding optical qualities of solid glass. Based in the principles of the Fresnel lenses, a molded polycarbonate leaf was developed and engineered, characterized by a glossy external surface and a textured internal surface treated with a series of concentric micro-prisms. The result was an extraordinary high quality plastic, referred to by the authors as “meta-crystal”, because of its capacity to capture and reflect light. Read the rest of this entry »
Agent Forms: Design and Programming Workshop / modeLab
Agent Forms is a two-day intensive design and programming workshop by modeLab to be held in Brooklyn during the weekend of February 04-05, 2012. In a fast-paced and hands-on learning environment, this workshop will interrogate agent-based simulation and strategies for simple, low-level objects to generate higher order, dynamic, and visually rich forms. We will cover technical programming concepts including Control, Modularity, and Development while incrementally building the complexity of our objects and the relationships established across class contexts. Furthermore, we will utilize the power of the Processing environment and its to capacity to compute, visualize, and capture the behavior of large populations of agents. Read the rest of this entry »
Experimentarium / CEBRA
The winning proposal for the science centre in Copenhagen was designed by CEBRA, in cooperation with Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Orbicon, Die Asta and Kollision. The aim of the competition was to expand the existing premises and achieve a stronger presence within the urban space of the city. Limited by the layout of the existing building and additional urbanistic constrains, the Fremtidens Experimentarium was to be expanded inwards and upwards. Read the rest of this entry »
Water Cathedral – Winner of the Young Architects Program in Chile
Part of the Young Architects Program, an initiative for promoting emerging designers, the Latin America branch was established and launched in 2011 by CONSTRUCTO, in collaboration with MOMA and MOMA PS1. It’s an active platform for creating new opportunities for talented Latin American architects to explore and design within the scope of collective-use spaces and informal live events, with strong emphasis on sustainability issues. In 2011 it was particularly oriented towards young Chilean architects, few of whom are members of the GUN Arquitectos team, a collective whose Water Cathedral Project was chosen as this year’s winning proposal. Read the rest of this entry »
Fibrous Tower Proposal / SOMA
The swarm intelligence systems are used in designing this proposal for the Taiwan Tower in Taichung, creating a bottom up logics in high-rise geometry. SOMA’s approach was aimed at achieving a multilayered, evocative tower appearance. Through use of algorithmic basis the natural processes applied in the organization of the design determine the visual aspect of the project. The Taiwan Tower showcases future architecture that learns from nature and deploys its underlying principles. Read the rest of this entry »
House N / Sou Fujimoto Architects
A home for two plus a dog. The house itself is comprised of three shells of progressive size nested inside one another. The outermost shell covers the entire premises, creating a covered, semi-indoor garden. Second shell encloses a limited space inside the covered outdoor space. Third shell creates a smaller interior space. Residents build their life inside this gradation of domain.
I have always had doubts about streets and houses being separated by a single wall, and wondered that a gradation of rich domain accompanied by various senses of distance between streets and houses might be a possibility, such as: a place inside the house that is fairly near the street; a place that is a bit far from the street, and a place far off the street, in secure privacy. Read the rest of this entry »
Vernon’s Vectors: Designing a New City
It is understood that cities and buildings are largely shaped by a dynamic flow of interrelated cultural, social, political and economic forces – the nature of possible interfaces between architecture and its various settings within the contemporary city. Rather, Vernon’s Vectors is a re-interpretation conceived by Daniel Cheng Lee and Jae Hwan Lee of how a building may deal with architecture on an urban scale. Rather than relying on the surrounding context of the city to begin addressing the project’s behavior, a singular yet versatile design system is implemented to influence the surrounding context to create an iconic image for the city – an inside out approach to urban systems. Read the rest of this entry »
Lucasfilm’s Singapore Headquarters is inspired by Star Wars
Lucasfilm’s Singapore Headquarters is a narrow V-shaped building, enveloped by a glass skin that resonates with mythological aesthetics of the famous movie franchise. The sleek elevations facing the streets shelter a lush garden space situated at the center of the site. The public garden reveals the building’s inside as a vibrant environment, with its terraces overgrown with foliage, the timber and natural stone paving. Architects at Aedas designed an office building that will also assume the appearance of a movie inspired ecosystem. Read the rest of this entry »
White Hole Contemplation of The Cosmos / Mariko Mori and Kengo Kuma
The collaborative installation White Hole between artist Mariko Mori and Architects Kengo Kuma is a experiential structure designed to contemplate the arise of the cosmos using a light weight structural form. The large white dome is built from spray polyurethane, primarily used for insulating buildings, applied over a draped mesh, forming the catenary structure. Kengo Kuma termed the structure Bubble Wrap which is then inverted to form a rough dome. The expanded polyurethane material was selected for its capacity to create volume from very little material, which the architects claims to be comprised of 99% air. The envelope has the characteristic of being in a fluid, unsettled state, as though just created or born. Read the rest of this entry »