This project explores and re-examines the conventions of the single family house. Located at 2727 Neutra Place in Silver Lake, it was our intent to not only continue the discourse that was started during the Case Study Houses era, but to simultaneously push past the typologies that were developed by way of adopting a mutation strategy that converted type into species. This allowed for the design to develop in three phases; the project follows the narrative of a couple as they are married, separated, and finally, deal with the aftermath of an earthquake. These three key moments signify the evolution of the House as it adapts to its social and environmental surroundings. Read the rest of this entry »
Rotating Mangrove Towers – New Indonesian Sustainability
Designed by Agung Mahaputra, Andika Priya Utama, Arief Aditya Putra, Dely Hamzah, Nidia Safiana, and Rahadi Utomo, the proposal offers a unique way of integrating densely populated architecture into the natural environment of Northern Jakarta. The site is surrounded by mangrove forest whose delicate ecosystem is left without an undue footprint. The idea consists of two asymmetrical towers that rotate to get the beautiful vista while capturing sunlight from morning to midday. A corridor without artificial air conditioner encircles each floor. The corridors serve as a barrier between the sun’s heat and the workspace. They absorb the heat gain while allowing light in thereby reducing the dependence on electricity for artificial light and air in the buildings. Read the rest of this entry »
Cellular Vertical Village – d3 Housing Tomorrow
The “Vertical Village: A Sustainable Way of Village-style Living” by Yushang Zhang, Rajiv Sewtahal, Riemer Postma, and Qianqian Cai (with studio tutor Alexander Sverdlov, at The Why Factory of professor Winy Maas (MVRDV) at the TU Delft) was recently awarded the first prize in the d3 Housing Tomorrow 2011 Competition.
The proposal investigates medium density housing as a new way to enjoy village living without occupying conventional land area. The Vertical Village tries to achieve this goal. For the team’s studio work in The Why Factory they analyzed the pros and cons of typical spatial organization of both traditional village and urban high‐rise residences and determined this concept of “3D plot division” inside a vertical volume to realize the idea of a vertical village. Read the rest of this entry »
Field of Notation – Algorithmic Architecture / Tyrone Marshall
Field of Notation was designed by Tyrone Marshall as a language of form in adaptation and performance in rhythm to express a mathematical sequence that acts through a continuous movement of light, shade, and shape to inscribe a spatial condition. In a motive design action of object mechanical motion, a digitally based form self-assembles into a cohesive moment from a sequence of animation and computation. The result is a structural signature of continuous movement whereby the sequence is captured in a moment of computational design expression.
An expression that seeks to find economy in its suggestion of unitary construction formula which is an assembly of simple constituent parts that gather to form a larger contextual structure. The contextual form is a study in self-organization through the vehicle of computation and component geometry propagation through a three dimensional spatial construct of pure shape. In this construct of spatial signatures there is musical notation and progression of repetition, redundancy, hierarchy and modulation. There is an act of performance. The object is presented in its performance of a virtual simulation of a field. Born from shape, the structural form of simple geometry builds through a sequential path in digital self-assembly to inscribe a special place and suggestion of spatial inhabitation. Read the rest of this entry »
Intelligent Formation – Between Heritage and a New Tectonic Culture
“A museum for Viking age heritage, the ultimate danger of falling somewhere to close to the literal architectural interpretation of Viking age building, or doing a late 20th century modernist museum with all its niceness and whiteness, in complete ignorant incoherence with a rather rough Viking age feeling.”
The project investigates the collision of scale and space. Obstructing elements. An absurd and unpolished atmosphere with roots in the exploration of a dark, yet intriguing space. The design takes its offset in a design competition arranged by the Historical Museum of North Jutland, Denmark, aimed at developing design proposals that will form the conceptual basis for a new Viking Museum. Read the rest of this entry »
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City Futura – Milan, Italy / B+U Architects
“City Futura” is a visionary urban design proposal by Los Angeles-based firm B+U for an expansion of the City of Milan set in the year 2210. The project is part of a development plan for fifteen different sites located on the outer ring connected by the Milan Metro line.
City Futura is superimposed over the existing city leaving most of its buildings untouched and tapping into existing infrastructure and expand it.
Urban design concept: Tissue and Void. The 600m tall structure hovers over the city covering about one million square meter area and is divided into nine districts that are organized around three programmatic topics including: I- Civic; II- Entertainment and Recreation; and III-Art, Fashion and Manufacturing. Initially the nine districts were represented as spherical void spaces and randomly placed across the site, floating above the ground and varying in size and height they became placeholders for enormous civic arenas which expand up to 250 meters in diameter. Read the rest of this entry »
Aortic Arc / Visible Research Office
The Aortic Arc designed by Visible Research Office creates a canopy over a student lounge in an existing two-story atrium at the heart of CCA’s San Francisco campus. The canopy is equal parts light scope, spatial definer and viewing portal. The canopy arc’s over an existing concrete beam and is topped by three portals. Two of the portals are located to pull in light from above while a third allows for discrete views into the lounge below. The panels of the canopy are shaped to direct natural light down into the space during the day and become a colorful surface when artificially lit at night. The canopy gives the lower level student lounge a sense of definition for large group activities and protection and intimacy for individual relaxation. The canopy acts as a screen to both direct and shield views from above. Read the rest of this entry »
Perpetual Dexterity of the Hyper-Conditioned / Alexa Getting
This thesis by Alexa Getting proposes a disparate trajectory of architecture: a dissension from current design practice, a design practice that is no longer confined to or constrained by a building code and standardization which inevitably lends itself to apathetic and conditioned users. Rather, this thesis probes a trajectory of architecture that capitalizes on an urban and architectural reconsideration of conditioning, via a design intervention of perpetually transforming space. This spatial strategy affords the user a higher level of self-awareness through re-conditioning, or what this proposal terms “hyper-conditioning.”
Traditionally, conditioning exposes our detachment from the built environment. Highly-conditioned occupants are characterized by having a predictable or consistent pattern of behavior as a result of having been subjected to certain circumstances over time, which in turn prevents the user from experiencing architecture in a visually and a physically stimulating manner; autopilot engages. Users robotically pass through architecture, as if it is simply a way to get from point A to point B, forgetting that the majority of one’s life is spent confined within these conditioned walls. Read the rest of this entry »
Global Financial Center in Shanghai / OMA – Rem Koolhaas
Shanghai is a fragmented collage of different scales and styles. The identity of the city lies in the diversity of traditional, colonial, communist, and “post-modern” architecture united only through the city’s history. The Global Financial Centre on the Bund – yet another mixed-use project among all these opposing elements – has the natural task of addressing and emphasizing all the contradicting qualities of Shanghai without compromising their benefits.
The schizophrenic character of Shanghai calls for a cohesive agent: our project is a cluster of similar tilting towers but with different heights and footprints of different scales. The varying scales of each footprint allow different programs to inhabit the same complex and follow the logic of the site, with a smaller scale facing the old town, mitigating the difference between the various typologies surrounding the site. Global Financial Center on the Bund incorporates the richness of the small and the big, the local and the international, “hard” structures and “soft” elements, natural forms and man-made constructions. It can become a new landmark for Shanghai that is immediate, unique and identifiable while simultaneously remaining a fully-integrated and representative piece of the city’s rich culture. Read the rest of this entry »