Xtra Moenia is a site specific installation designed and produced by SOFTlab for the San Gennaro North Gate. The piece was commissioned by Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and produced by The They Co. The piece serves as the North Gate to the annual San Gennaro Festival. SOFTlab developed a form that created out of two distinct oculi as a reference to one of the simplest and most effective classical architecture devices. One oculus points up while the other hangs down defining a zone on the street for pedestrians. The two forms are created using a minimal surface blending the two oculi together in a way that blurs the distinction between the two. The final geometry was developed closely with the structural engineering firm Arup.

The piece is completely held in tension from cables attached to the surrounding buildings. The shape is completely site specific and can only find its true form when attached at these specific points and tensioned with the proper lengths. Each piece is unique requiring custom software tools to be developed to fabricate the installation. Read the rest of this entry »

“…As the table cloth starts to sway, seemingly gathering momentum by the energy of the beseated, and is about to take off, it reveals…that there is no table underneath. As if it never existed. A phantom…”

As if originating from the same sketchbook as Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, or torn from Marilyn Monroe’s iconic wind blown dress, the Phantom Table captures the object in motion. It is an investigation into form that spontaneously elaborates on the relationship between activity and design. The idea is to minimize the importance of the table and shift the attention towards the people sitting around it. It addresses, through a specific situation, the possibility of object’s absence generating the corresponding activity. Read the rest of this entry »

The Interior Design Show West (IDSWest) in Vancouver is the most prestigious architecture and design event in the West Coast. Many talented young designers are discovered every year. It is an opportunity to showcase their work along side well known brands. eVolo is pleased to be part of this event to present the much anticipated limited-edition book “EVOLO SKYSCRAPERS”. The book is the culmination of six years of the annual “eVolo Skyscraper Competition”; it includes more than 300 projects in 1200 full-color pages.

The show runs from September 29th, to October 2nd at the Vancouver Convention Center. If you happen to be in the city don’t forget to stop by the booth.

Pre-order book!

Augmented Structures: Acoustic Formations” is an augmented structure, an installation created through the use of innovative parametric architecture and audiovisual techniques. The projects deals with a new mediated space: how to translate the logic of media into architecture? In this first experiment field recordings of Istiklal Street were transformed in to parametric architectural structure. The recordings were also used to create an electro-acoustical composition. The project seeks interactions between space, sound, the visual and light (with a reference to the Philips Pavilion of Le Courbusier).

Beyond being an artwork this installation is an urban experience that will nest in collective memory of İstiklal Street visitors through its scale (200sqm of surface) and the dominance of the location (at the heart of Istanbul). Read the rest of this entry »

The project of an environmental enhancer designed by Mirco Bianchini for the Nogara  highway in Veneto, Italy provides the unique chance to bring together ecological thinking, host interaction, and active materials. Its location (an open country planar area among cultivated fields) enucleates as critical variables the impact of pollutants and the phenomenon of dazzling. With respect to such criticalities, the project uses digital generative and parametric strategies to generate a performative structure in which densification and rarefaction of elements is a local morphological response to dazzle. Read the rest of this entry »

“Just Fold It ” designed by Kutarq is flexible, easy to assemble and disassemble, and the individual models fold compact making them convenient to store or transport. The length of the screen can be adjusted by adding or subtracting the number of modules. Perforations on the surface increase stability by counteracting wind resistance in addition to varying the porosity which creates a nice visual effect that varies depending on the angle and distance from which it is viewed. Read the rest of this entry »

The Acceleration Interchange is M1A’s proposal for an installation at Anaheim’s new regional transportation hub ‘ARTIC’. The project, a wayfinding pavilion, reflects Meridian 105’s ongoing exploration of equation-based parametric modeling and design-to-fabrication processes.

Placed in the facilitiy’s large exterior plaza, the piece activates the streetscape, encouraging circulation within and around and a primary orientation point for connecting travelers. The form finds reference to the transportation theme of the larger facility, modeled by the application of wave and acceleration formulae acting on its form. The resulting pavilian is a twisting organic gesture. Read the rest of this entry »

An internationally acclaimed engineering and fabrication company, Zahner, sought to expand its existing facility at 8th and Paseo Blvd. in Kansas City, Missouri. The design would have to provide partial transparency and showcase the company’s ability to produce highly engineered forms. Designed by Crawford Architects, the building is able to accommodate Zahner’s expansion needs and show off their impressive abilities to manipulate metals.

The team’s investigation into patterns on metals in nature resulted in a design resembling sand ripples. The natural oxidation pattern was used to create a 3 dimensional digital surface model of the façade. The design also explores Zahner’s skin systems, with the steel backup system being completely exposed. The surface, which is usually applied to the structure, is exempted for the design. Instead of the applied skin defining the form, the totality of all the fins combine to create the overall pattern, while converting an inherently 2-dimensional skeletal system into a collective 3-dimensional sinuous wave pattern. The system’s key components are vertically oriented DT* fins made from a half-circle shaped aluminum extrusion riveted to a water jet cut 3/16” aluminum plate. Placement of the fins is every 24 inches on center with an Inverted Seam™ dry-set glass panel system in-between producing a structural curtain wall set on a cast-in-place concrete base. Read the rest of this entry »

Except for the grand opera house auditorium, this proposal for the Busan Opera House would house performance spaces of different scales. Designed by China-based Jian Junkai and Huang Jingi, the building introduces open public areas as well as more intimate spaces to the city waterfront. The programmatic flexibility was the main intent of the design. It provides an optimal performance conditions for large ballet ensembles, opera performers, popular bands, etc, democratizing the Opera and integrating it with the city fabric. The idea of inclusiveness is supported by the building’s layout. Its vortex-like form seems to draw in the street surface, as if using it as its own envelope. Read the rest of this entry »

A Spain and China-based architectural firm AQSO Arquitectos, in collaboration with Ydesign, has designed the proposal for the thematic pavilion of the 2012 Yeosu International Exposition. The project aims to capture the dynamic and translucent qualities of fluids, by translating them into the architectural details of the pavilion.

The pavilion will have different levels for each sections of the building: exhibition areas are 12m high, whereas adjoining spaces are 8m high. Ring corridors accessible from ramps and stairs are located at a mid-height of the main exhibition areas, located 6m above the floor, offering a 360 degree-view of the ocean on one side and a view of the main exhibition on the other. Read the rest of this entry »