“The project aims to answer the question ‘What if architecture responded to our presence?’ This project is a realization of our ultimate ambition, which is to design spaces and objects that expand upon our understanding of the built realm without abandoning its history. Soon, just as we can sense a space as calm, contemplative or frenetic … space itself will be able to sense our presence and react accordingly.”

Brooklyn based The Principals, along with twenty students from the Art Institute of New York designed and constructed a reactive architectural environment that opened to the public during New York Design Week in May, 2012. The unique system of sensor-controlled motors developed by The Proncipals was constructed using over 3 000 pieces that created an 8ft x 16ft x 12ft tall interactive structure, capable of responding to the presence of a visitor. The prototype installation combines technology, sensors, micro controlles and motors, with traditional craft in the form of quilt making. Read the rest of this entry »

Experiments in Motion is a research initiative conducted by the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), in collaboration with Audi of America and LowLine. The aim of the initiative is to explore new forms of urban motion and new spaces for mobility, with special emphasis on New York City.

Students from the program have spent the summer researching all transportation systems in New York City, exposing the potential of underground spaces. Three studios have researched different aspects of movement in contemporary cities: Paradigms in Motion, Design in Motion and Participation in Motion. A fifty foot floating model of Manhattan made from aluminium displays Manhattan’s road infrastructure, while the plexiglass below presents a never before seen view of the architectural volumes of every subway station on the island. A network of subways, tunnels, bike lanes and bridges are presented as flows of movement, revealing a new reality of the city life – it exposes the city as an interconnected system for mobility. Read the rest of this entry »

We are pleased to read Archdaily’s review about eVolo 04: Re-Imaginning the Contemporary Museum, Exhibition, and Performance Space. This issue explores the most innovative examples of performance and exhibition architecture today. These are projects that revolutionize architecture on many levels, including sustainability, aesthetics, technology, and urban design. It is interesting to point out that these works are not concentrated in one specific region, but are located in every corner of the globe; from MVRDV’s Comic and Animation Museum in China, to the new Broad Museum in Los Angeles by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, or Kengo Kuma’s Victoria and Albert Museum in Dundee, Scotland. Read the rest of this entry »

Zaha Hadid Architects’s “Arum” installation at the 2012 Venice Biennale is an homage to Russian Suprematism. It is inspired by Frei Otto’s work which paved the way for material-structural form-finding processes. The pleated metal structure is an affirmative response to David Chipperfield’s premise of the Biennale that stresses the importance of continuity in the history of architectural research. This year’s Biennale theme “Common Ground” aims to show the cumulative power of architectural research and the historical lineage that unifies the discipline. Read the rest of this entry »

This installation and seating place in one was made of 13700m of woven rope, strung through steel frames. Creating optical illusion, this colossal piece is questioning boundaries of human perception. Screenplay was created for this year’s Dwell on Design festival in Los Angeles, by Oyler Wu Collaborative.

Almost static in orthographic projection, the wall unit is clearly recognized as organized series of patterns. But as the fourth dimension is activated by the viewer’s moving around the piece, the situation dramatically changes and the unit reveals its complex nature, oscillating between series of twisted surfaces and intriguing play of cavities and material densities. Read the rest of this entry »

eVolo Collection

It is a great pleasure to inform you that we have been named by the WSJ one of the leading independent architecture magazines in the world. We are also celebrating another great year of editorial creativity. To celebrate we are offering all our readers worldwide a 60% discount on the entire eVolo Collection – only 300 sets available.

Regular price: $100
Celebration price: $40 (Celebration price is only available for 1 week – September 3-10)

eVolo 01: Housing for the 21st Century
Cover: Perfect Bound
Size: 9″ x 11.5″
Pages: 176
ISSN: 1946-634x
ISBN: 978-0981665818

eVolo 02: Skyscrapers of the Future
Cover: Perfect Bound
Size: 9″ x 11.5″
Pages: 200
ISSN: 1946-634x
ISBN: 978-0981665825

eVolo 03: Cities of Tomorrow
Cover: Perfect Bound
Size: 9″ x 11.5″
Pages: 130
ISSN: 1946-634x
ISBN: 978-0981665832

eVolo 04: Re-imagining the Contemporary Museum, Exhibition & Performance Space
Cover: Perfect Bound
Size: 9″ x 11.5″
Pages: 192
ISSN: 1946-634x
ISBN: 978-0981665856

-> Order the eVolo Collection at 60% discount.

The Exocarp Chair is made using algorithmic design and a 3-axis CNC mill on three sheets of birch plywood. The results show incredible amounts of texture and dimension without even having to touch it. The design separates the surface areas by making the parts that the body touches really smooth and the parts that are on the outside, or away from the skin, are textured or irregular.

Description from the artist:

I have been fascinated for the longest time with reptiles skins and fruits with a tough skin.  I find fascinating the duality and poetics that are involved in such complex systems; the way that they perform and look is primarily functional… Some scales may be modified for specialized functions, such as protective spines. This notion of function vs rough beauty is something that I find highly intriguing, so I started to play with the idea of creating objects closer to the human scale that deal with the same system… The design of Exocarp came about by separating the areas where the body would touch the chair and areas where an extrinsic agent might try to approach the chair. Thus, the areas that the user touches the chair became smooth and comfortable whereas the areas approached by an extrinsic agent became texturized using a script that uses a perlin noise algorithm to generate the irregular texture, where the script to generate the irregular texture increases in amplitude proportionate to the surface area. Through the use of birch plywood, a secondary pattern emerged through the variation of grain.  This pattern was not really predicted and it was truly a wonderful surprise that can only be achieved by the use of CNC machines. This type of investigation starts to give more of an understanding of material and craftsmanship, as opposed to simply generating an output from a file; by layering the material and paying close attention to detail, a more personal product can be achieved through digital means, as opposed to a generic and utilitarian form.

Whitevoid’s LivingSculpture 3D module system was designed for Philips’ interactive product family. The giant waves of OLED screens is controlled via iPad. The modular plug and play lighting system that creates infinite variations in layout and arrangement. The surface onto which is mounted is transformed into interactive and ever-changing architectural element. The highly flexible system consists of an online configurator to create and order the individual arrangement, a plug and play modular hardware system and an iPad controlled light animation application. Read the rest of this entry »

Made from environmentally friendly post-formable plywood, for the 2011-12 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, the Dragon Skin Pavilion marries the most up-to-date fabrication technologies with local industries of Hong Kong. The first version of the structure was designed and built at the Tampere University of Technology by students in the autumn of 2011. The pavilion was built in 8 days. An international team of material and structural engineers have built the second version For the Hong Kong Biennale.

The Dragon Skin Pavilion was carefully designed to maintain balance between the regular, repetitive framework of the rectangular panels and their gradually irregular interconnections as they configure the overall shape. It comprised 163 plywood components manufactured in Finland at TUT and shipped to Hong Kong. The components were the result of a complex process involving the latest techniques in digital fabrication. A CNC-router was used to make a wooden mould in which pre-heated flat rectangular pieces were bent into shape. A computer programmed 3D master model generated the cutting files for those pieces in a file-to-factory process: algorithmic procedures were scripted to give every rectangular component their precisely calculated slots for the sliding joints, all in gradually shifting positions and angles to give the final assembled pavilion its curved form. A meticulously pre-choreographed montage sequence required all components to be uniquely labelled and numbered for assembling or dismantling the structure. Read the rest of this entry »

Only hours to go before eVolo’s Kickstarter campaign for the book [ours] Hyper Localization of Sustainable Architecture comes to an end. Discover your inner parametric architect. At the $44 and $88 reward level we are offering the playful and mindful handcrafted zenblock, a building block that requires a special touch to be stacked or balanced. Custom made for this Kickstarter campaign the blocks are made with birch and non-VOC painted on a single facet with eVolo Magazine colors and finished with a non toxic oil finish. The wood is reclaimed from a window manufacturer and each unique piece is handcrafted.

They can be stacked, they can be balanced. They can be left alone and gazed upon, or they can handled. Whatever you do, they will look great.

From a child to an adult, it is the balance game that anyone can enjoy. Since it is a simple form, you may enjoy it as an art object. Place them on your desk or table, and observe.

Other rewards include eVolo Magazine #04, signed copies of the book, the chapter [Japan Condenses], exclusive transcripts of interviews with extraordinary architects, and even a presentation on what hyper-localization mean in the world and your community.

-> [ours] Hyper Localization of Sustainable Architecture on Kickstarter