Grass-to-Grid is an installation designed by Npsag, an architectural firm co-founded in 2008 by Nathan Petty and Sheena A. Garcia. Based in New Orleans, Npsag seeks opportunities to integrate different creative disciplines with technological advancements. In line with their design orientation, the Grass-to-Grid project uses architectural vocabulary to facilitate different activities generated by a musical manifestation. Read the rest of this entry »
The installation designed by Andrew Saunders is composed of 1,224 folded, developable surfaces (surfaces that can be unrolled onto a plane without distortion) digitally-generated and fabricated from sheets of translucent high-density polyethylene. It is inspired by the affects luminosity, translucency, and weightlessness transposed from The Hyde Collection’s painting of The Annunciation by the Italian Renaissance master, Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510). The Rensselaer fabrication challenges the Cartesian geometry and symmetry of the gallery space as it fluctuates between display and partition. It provides an affective environment that influences circulation as well as divides, unites and exhibits the Z-print models. Read the rest of this entry »
Suzusan is a Düsseldorf design label with roots in the traditional Japanese textile finishing technique called Shibori. Developed by the Murase family, this traditional manufacturing practice has evolved into a product line of luminaires. The products are manufactured entirely by hand, offering unique design solutions to customers.
Translated into English, the verb “shibori” means “wring, press and twist”. Processing starts by folding certain parts of the textile surface, leaving other untreated. Color transitions created by dyeing raw fabrics reveal intricate three-dimensional patterns, structures and color contrasts. Originally, the Shibori technique was applied to silk and wool fabrics as well as plant fibers such as cotton and flax. Over the course of the past decades, Japanese craftsmen have started to also treat chemically produced fibers, for example polyester and nylon, as well as leather and metals. Read the rest of this entry »
Created in a collaborative effort by students of the ETH and the AA, this temporary timber construction was designed to provide shelter from the sun. It was installed at the grand stairs in front of the architecture department of the ETH in Zurich. The initial idea was found in a winning entry of an internal competition within EmTech (Emergent Technologies and Design program) of the AA. Its dynamic form is derived from a series of studies of tension diagrams and load distribution, conducted at the ETH. Read the rest of this entry »
Once known for its mills, the UK town of Burnley has developed into a regional center for engineering and advanced manufacturing. As a way of acknowledging the town’s pioneering role in the practice of measuring rainfall, architects at Tonkin Liu have designed an installation that embodies two of its major climatic forces. Entering into a dialogue with the elements is often expressed in the Studio’s work through the creation of a sensory output. Their Singing Ringing Tree sculpture, also designed for Burnley, uses wind to articulate sound.
The Rainbow Gate is located in front of the Burnley College, where three main traffic routes converge. Its shape is inspired by the town’s numerous viaducts, and it aims to frame the views of the surrounding landscape in a similar manner. Rain is channeled into the ground along the structure’s dynamic natural geometry, while 133 prisms capture sunlight and array it in a full color spectrum on the ground. At night, the prisms are lit from bellow, casting rainbows into the mist. Read the rest of this entry »
“Sheer Pressure” is one of three projects completed during USC School of Architecture’s annual “Top Fuel” workshop, an intensive one-week fabrication charette. This year the workshop focused on pneumatic systems, under the advisement of Achim Menges and Thomas Auer. Our group – composed of eight upper-division students from USC and SCI-Arc – studied the relationship between pneus and constraining tensile forces. Our initial study models looked at the many ways air-inflated structures could puncture through fabric, and generate different lighting effects. Read the rest of this entry »
Built in 2011 in the Spanish town of Motril, between the gardens of the Explanadas and the Park Pueblos de las Américas, the structure bridges the difference in height between these two areas and frees the passage of the Avenue Virgen de la Cabeza. The structures used are organic hexagons which allow easy adaptation to the surrounding environment, from host in its structure existing trees and adapt on the slopes to facilitate pedestrian traffic, allowing the movement of persons with motor disabilities. Read the rest of this entry »
The Watching You Chair was presented this year at the International Furniture Fair in Singapore, within the young talent zone ‘platform’. Designed by Tokyo-based Koji Sekita Design the project is a prototype of a honeycomb-like seating structure that can vary in length. Each structure can become a mechanism that can be freely adjusted by the number of combinations of the size of the chair. Experimentations in the fields of accumulation and replication, Sekita’s signature preoccupations, are found in the manufacturing process of the Watching You Chair. Read the rest of this entry »
Designed by Studio Aisslinger, a prolific firm with offices in Berlin and Singapore, the structure uses alternating convex and concave shapes in order to create an image of fluent movement of light. Ideal for places of frequency: meeting rooms and clubs, the structure produces an intense light that shapes the space below.
Individual segments are made from blue vacuum molded acrylic plastic with metal and plastic parts for connection and lighting technology. The lighting assemblage is made of 50 x 50 cm modules which can be combined in various pixel-type configurations into larger compositions. The waving modules are designed in such a way that the curved outlines create a 3D shape that allows endless addition. Read the rest of this entry »
Designed for Driade, the outdoor chairs evoke the intimate feeling and familiarity of domestic life and handcrafted furniture. Made of hand-woven resin wicker on an aluminium frame, the series includes a seat and rocking armchair. Names are derived from the amount of time required for moulding the shapes. Fabio Novembre describes the creative process: Read the rest of this entry »
