Commissioned by the Centre Pompidou for its permanent collection, the wooden model suspended within a glass case explores the principles of responsive architecture. When the humidity level within the case rises, the system reacts by ventialting the air without any equipment or electricity.

The project is a result of a five year long research, exploring architectural systems that respond to climatic changes without any additional technology. The breathing of the structure is enabled by using wood and relying on anisotropy (physcical properties related to grain direction), and hygroscopicity (wood’s ability to absorb moisture when dry and releasing moisture into the atmosphere when wet). The sensitivity to moisture generates shape changes. Read the rest of this entry »

Anticipating the unpredictable climate conditions, the future Thai house is composed of different  levels of resilient segments. It allows water to flood an entire area, without causing damages. The roof is a detachable element that can become an emergency floating structure, once the water gets too high for residents to survive in the house. On regular circumstances, the roof is a terrace with a garden. Read the rest of this entry »

The site-specific installation for the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is part of a larger body of work, experimenting in space, social relations and collectivity. The geodesic dome has been built from sixteen interconnected modules in the Museum’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor roof garden, measuring fifty-four feet long, twenty-nine feet wide and twenty-eight feet high structure. The angular and bubbled form of the piece is comprised of glass segments cut in non-identical geometric shapes held in place by steel joints, reinforcements and steel cables.

The structure consists of a 28-foot-high aggregate of 16 interconnected 12- and 14-sided polyhedrons the size of small rooms that are made of polished steel and clear plexiglass. By being reflective or see-through, they deform and rearticulate the experience of the structure and everything around it. Read the rest of this entry »

Design group N55 teamed with architect Anne Romme to create a lightweight, easy to assemble greenhouse based on un-repeating cellular structures. The SPACEPLATES Greenhouse, South Bristol Skills Academy at City of Bristol College, is a part of a series of structures that use low tech materials to create modular greenhouses without substructure supports. Read the rest of this entry »

10 DESIGN and Buro Happold have won the international design competition for the key signature gateway bridge for the new Shizimen Business District in Zhuhai, China. The feature bridge is the gateway entry to south China’s new planned commercial hub and also marks the connection of the Shizimen Canal to the Pearl River Delta.

Working together in one of their first collaborations the 10 and Buro Happold team set out to create a simple and elegant structural solution for a bridge that would be a visual focal point both within the Shizimen District itself and along the Pearl River Delta coastline. Read the rest of this entry »

A team of 3XN architects, Aarhus Architects, Nickl & Partner Architechten, Grontmij and Kirstine Jensen Studio has won the prestigious competition for the expansion of Copenhagen’s main hospital, Rigshospitalet, which is expected to be completed in early 2017

The winning proposal for the 76,000 m2 extension of Copenhagen’s most centrally located hospital ensures efficient and timesaving logistics, while daylight, green spaces and views of the neighboring park contribute to the wellbeing of patients, staff and visitors.

The building’s shape is characterized by a series of folded v-structures together with a transversal fast track. This unique structure receives praise from the competition’s jury committee: “The benefits for the hospital’s core services are immense. The structure will have a positive impact on the everyday of the staff in the wards, it will give the service personnel the opportunity to effectively move around in the building, and not least, it will give the hospital the opportunity to offer patients more calm and clarity ( ..)” Read the rest of this entry »

X|Atelier is organizing an international intensive workshops of Advanced Architectural Design, part of an ongoing academic research, which introduces participants into contemporary discussions of formal exploration in Architecture and Art, through technical attainment of design and production. Omni(progra)chromatic by X|A is under the auspices of Benaki Museum, the Hellenic Institute of Architecture and the Athens School of Fine Arts. It is an opportunity for architects, students of Architecture and Art, professionals, designers and artists to challenge new territories. Read the rest of this entry »

The “ecological model project” designed by LAVA is a proposal for the ‘Green Climate Fund Headquarters’ in Bonn, Germany. The future structure will be situated along the rhine river within walking distance of several system departments, including the federal ministry for the environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety and economic cooperation and development. With a design inspired by the setting in the Rhine valley, and with curvilinear forms, nature light wells, roof top gardens and a large sunken terrace for the restaurant, the three-level structure will comply with the latest energy and building ecology standards, meeting the highest demands in terms of sustainability (German Gold Certificate), ecology and energy efficiency.

Besides functional offices with state-of-the-art office technology, planning includes an access and logistics area with security controls and a visitor reception zone, an auditorium, a conference room, a canteen/cafeteria and an underground car park. The Fund will provide input on the functional division of areas to create optimal working conditions. Read the rest of this entry »

Attempting to assume a fresh approach to digital fabrication, the project combines indigenous, traditional craft techniques of Marrakech with current algorithm software programming. Traditional Moroccan weaving  techniques are used to render physical the forms designed in programs such as Rhino and Grasshopper. The process is, as the architects state, a nonlinear one, going back and forth between the physical and the digital.

The Moroccan weaving technique involves a wood frame loom and a process of organizing wool or cotton yarn into an array of linear lines of yarn warped through a loom weaving and tying in order to produce a woven fabric surface. The frame of the loom is recognized as a deployable architectural element, holding the yarn in place as a series of parallel lines that form a surface. These surfaces are actually three-dimensional volumes stretched over a series of fixed frames. The ultimate site for our work, the ruin at the Mosque Koutoubia, informs and locates the proposed project and establishes a scale for the work. Read the rest of this entry »

The project was designed as a temporary event space, located on a roof in NYC. Part of the MINI’s “Creative Use of Space” campaign, the project was designed and its construction oversaw by architects at HWKN. It is heightened by the design elements characteristic of BMW’s Mini Cooper cars.

The roof combines natural and artificial elements. An organic hill is suspended in an abstract architectural grid. The design is a collection of elements that punctuate the ubiquitous grid: a grassy lounging hill with seating dimples and performance stage, a speakers’ platform embedded in a large scale existing billboard, a lighting tower to cast light on the space and to act as a visual icon on the skyline, and a panorama bar overlooking the Hudson River. The floor is animated with a LED carpet that turns the surface into a programmable horizontal billboard. At an architectural scale, objects like the bar, hill, platform, and light tower float within the grid pattern of the light carpet. Read the rest of this entry »