KPF‘s design for Abu Dhabi International Airport Midfield Complex has recently been signed for fall 2012 construction and is to be completed by 2017.

One of the fastest growing airports in a popular tourist destination, the ‘Garden of the Gulf’ serves as a monumental gateway to the city and is considered a key player in the 2030 master plan.  Fundamentally adapting to the airports’ growing capacity and adaptability, the terminal processes almost 50 million travelers each year, and the expansion will help accommodate and increase passenger experience through larger interior zones. The x-shaped terminal complex provides efficient programmatic function, housing more than 18,000 sq m of facilities and retail, almost 10,000 sq m of international restaurants, over 27,500 sq m of hospitality and a cultural museum, and 49 gates. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed by Heatherwick Studio, these seating structures are made from a single piece of aluminium. Without any fixtures or fittings, the component is created through a specific aluminium-extrusion process, resulting in unexpected forms of raw and sculptural qualities.

The aluminium extrusion process is usually used to make smaller section components for façade systems, train carriages, automotive parts and so on. A large press capable of exerting up to ten thousand tons of pressure creates the extruded sections by squeezing aluminium through its die (the opening that forms the shape of the profile to be created). The aluminium emerges in a raw unpolished finish which is then cut and sometimes shaped; each cut piece of bench then undergoes 300 hours of polishing. If pieces of the extrusion are not used they are melted down and made into further billets. With technological advancements, this principle finally found its application in the design industry, making it possible for the eighteen years old idea for the Extrusion Project to be realized. Read the rest of this entry »

‘Screenplay’ is a 21-foot-long architectural installation designed and fabricated by the Los Angeles-based Oyler Wu Collaborative on view at the Los Angeles Convention Center as a featured installation of Dwell On Design 2012. This installation takes the form of a screen wall comprised of five modules, each more of five custom , intricately welded steel tube profiles. These twenty five profiles are in turn, strung with 45,000 linear feet of silver polypropylene rope, creating an oscillating and fluid sense of three dimensional movement from an aggregation of two dimensional lines.  The intention of Screenplay, Oyler Wu collective states, is to inspire “a sense of curiosity by slowly revealing its form and complexity through [the viewer’s] physical and visual engagement with the work.’ Screenplay is approached from a frontal perspective, revealing a relatively flat, though rich, composition of metal and rope ‘lines.’ As the viewer’s perspective shifts to the oblique, Screenplay takes on more spatial qualities, inviting both further exploration and wonder. Screenplay also incorporates a nested bench, located just off its center, providing seating for the viewer, and encouraging physical interaction with what would normally be considered a purely visual object. Read the rest of this entry »

BIG‘s latest project involves the design for the $2.35 billion Rose Rock International Finance Center, a key project included in SOM’s masterplan for the Tianjin Binhai New Area CBD in China. Bjarke Ingels is working with HKS Architecture and Arup to release a terraced tower reminiscent of the Rockefeller Center in New York, promoted as the key to transforming Tianjin into the “financial center of Northern China.” This tower will overcome the scale the Rockefeller Center brought to New York’s skyline in the 1930’s, reaching over 1,929 feet into the air, making it one of the tallest buildings in the world, and will seek to create an “architectural landscape of urban plazas and roof gardens designed to stimulate and cultivate the life between the buildings.” This iconic centerpiece will stand next to a new commercial neighborhood southeast of Tianjin that includes a mix of high-rises, historic sites, parks, and a high-speed rail station connecting it to the coast. The Rose Rock IFC will be the “center of gravity,” attracting overseas investors and innovative financial enterprises from East and West and will promote Yujiapu as a center for sustainable success to the world. Read the rest of this entry »

Material research
Extreme lightness, resistance and shapeability are the main properties of the carbon fiber that pushed this research into its design possible uses. A_seat is a bench for multiple people that can be easily moved while offering great resistance to loads with minimal thicknesses and a great opportunity to experiment with geometry, due to its flexibility in adapting to different shapes.

Form research
The form system that drives the design process can be named as quad-folded geometry, meaning a complex system of multiple quadrangular elements informed by the basic rule of connecting and articulating throught folds. This process framework allows to manage a set of discrete functions (structure, support, seating) throught a single form system, pushing a research on continuity. Read the rest of this entry »

Rethinking OMA/Koolhaas’ Embassy of the Netherlands‘ conceptual play on solids and voids as a defining system for programmatic function, Kokaistudios integrates a traditional plan of Beijing’s historical Courtyard Houses into their winning design for the new Tsinghua University Law Library. A central void allows natural light to shine through the interior of the the 8-story building and for a trajectory to be exposed at different points due to the carving of a stone facade. Visitors proceed through a narrative of solid and void spaces and skylights ranging from circulation, indoor and outdoor areas. Read the rest of this entry »

The corporate headquarters designed by Annkit kummar of the Lucknow Industrial Development Authority (LIDA) is planned keeping in mind the principles of integrating nature in architecture.  Such a unison would promote sustainable architecture principles in planning of industrial buildings in future, which otherwise are flavorless and solid in their appearance.

The proposed Headquarters of LIDA assimilates greenery into the building at higher levels providing terrace gardens and recreational space to the employees. The central courtyard together with the vertical voids aid in the wind flow through-out the building keeping the entire building mass cooler during the summers. Read the rest of this entry »

In the current proposal for a Contemporary Museum of Art in Buenos Aries, the inception is based on synergetic plays of volumes and interlink-interlacing manifolds of tectonic forms and panels that create a dynamic fluxion of mass, surfaces and lines. The articulations involved relay on formal masses in an arrangement or in a cohesive group that perform more than the sum of its parts. The museum is multi-layered and composed of radiant volumes and pieces which converge in a poly-operational, structural, and sensuous array of tectonics. The effect of multi-generative forms grouped and working together as a performative whole is a diverse set of fluid and crystallized components strategically placed for an outcome of a dynamic structure, which valiancy plays a role in the visual and experiential impact of the viewer. Read the rest of this entry »

Former eVolo Skyscraper Competition finalist BNKR Arquitectura addresses Mexico City’s urban constraints with an inverted Aztec pyramid, or “Earthscraper,” at the heart of the historic city center. This proposal would conserve today’s  historical aesthetic of buildings and public space, endure Mexico City’s growing population, and adhere to city center’s 8-story height restrictions. A 1,000 foot long reversed pyramid is embedded into the ground, where a mini-city is layered 65 stories (300 m) deep. The structure’s glass roof is embedded at the city’s ground level, followed by habitable spaces around the perimeter of the void, allowing natural light to descend to the deepest levels. Read the rest of this entry »

Is “complexity” anything more than a term to denote the extent of human stupidity, or rather, the limits of our perception?

When the rules governing a scenario cannot be read with ease, the scenario is described as being “complex” – it is difficult to understand; it appears to require some sort of deeper understanding. BUT, as we have seen, the rules are not necessarily any more complicated than the most trivial of scenarios.

So if the rules are still trivially simple (think, for example, of the mathematical operations we use to achieve these forms: +, – , /, *), what is it that is more “complex”? The outcome (of our scripts), of course, contain more surfaces, more lines, more etc etc., but is it really more complex – or are we just too stupid? Read the rest of this entry »