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 »
Zaha Hadid Architects’ Arum Installation at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012
Screenplay Bench: Questioning Boundaries of Visual Perception
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 »
Rethinking Brick at a new Mediatheque in Toulouse / Complex City
This project by Olivier Brouillard from COMPLEX CITY is a media library, a space which preserves and gives access to audio-visual contents, sound documents and video recordings, material considered as cultural testimony with the same value than written documents.
Divided between paper and virtual information, it characterizes a reality of a modern way to use space, these places will evolve in a parallel manner to media progress but especially to technology progress, having as main support the computer supplied with Internet.
Designed in the area of Toulouse, this media library has the purpose of exalting the brick, an architectural material considered as a cultural patrimony of this region. Read the rest of this entry »
eVolo Collection / 60% Celebration Discount
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
CNC-Milled Exocarp Chair / Guillermo Bernal
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.
LivingSculpture 3D Module System / Whitevoid
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 »
Yellow River Art Center Emulates Soil Erosion / WAA
Situated along a wetland in Yellow River, the Yinchuan Art Center by We Architech Anonymous is derived from its modern geology, preserving its cultural identity and symbol as ‘the cradle of Chinese civilization.’ The center will be constructed in a new eco city in Yinchuan, Ningxia and be the central focus in a pedestrian friendly, parkland city center.
With an estimated population of 500,000 inhabitants, its proximity to a frequently flooding Yellow River is crucial to shaping the architecture of new settlements. In the past millenia, studies have shown the river’s violent character and ever changing location, depositing large sediment and debris over various locations around the city. A study on Yinchuan’s geomorphology led to understanding the relationship between water erosion and mountain formation in the area, known as pressure release. Large volumes of rock cause rocks beneath and below the surface to expand, fracture, and are carried along the surface, causing a natural phenomenon called “unloading.” Rocks above the surface often hold high pressure beneath them due to its heaviness, releasing pressure slowly, allowing for underlying rock to push towards the surface. Read the rest of this entry »
The Crystal is a Floating Structure in Copenhagen / Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
The Crystal is built as an extension of the existing Nykredit premises in Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, it is a transparent, crystalline structure that floats above the adjacent plaza. The multi-faceted glass façade is highly reflective and features a system that allows the building to adapt to changing light conditions. The building references much of the surrounding architecture. The passage under the building provides a clear view towards Nykredit’s head office building, called the Glass Cube, and the harbor.
The interior of the building is constrained by the demands of functionality, flexibility and efficiency. The typical floor plan is disposed in a Z-shape around two atria, which ensures that all workstations are well lit and enjoy a view. The disposition of the plan allows the accommodation of open plan, separate offices or meeting rooms. The building is primarily supported by a rhombic construction system placed immediately inside the façade. The system functions both as an architectural element while also allowing the building to dispense with pillars. Read the rest of this entry »
New Surrey City Centre Library / Bing Thom Architects
The new Surrey City Centre Library is part of a major civic investment aiming to transform the downtown Surrey into an attractive commercial area. Designed by Bing Thom Architects, the library is currently under construction with its opening scheduled for September 2012. The project was funded as part of Canada’s Federal Infrastructure program, but the firm decided to use social media to circumvent the standard (and lengthy) community consultation process. The architects developed a social media strategy using blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr to speed things up. BTA worked with Surrey librarians to create a blog on the library website which, in turn, was linked to a Flickr site where BTA posted photos of libraries and other spaces the firm liked. Members of the community were encouraged to post comments and photos. Read the rest of this entry »
Modified Brise-Soleil Optimizes House Passive Cooling and Ventilation
Phoenix, Arizona-based Blank Studio’s proposal, ‘House in Shadow,’ takes a contemporary approach to the single-family residence set in the countryside. This home, which is located amid pastoral scenes in the rugged mountains around Phoenix, is designed to optimize passive cooling and ventilation. Through the use of a modified brise-soleil and central walkway, the home is able to provide both solar shading and attractive breezeways. The home, whose contents are divided into two simple blocks, are connected by a large, expansive, and gestural roof. This room, whose profile resembles a wave, spans the entire footprint of the house, encompassing both volumes, as well as the central breezeway, in one fell swoop. The peaks in each of the three arched forms that make up the roof dissipate and soften sunlight as it travels through the space, creating both a natural place for hot air to rise to, as well as a soft glow that contrasts with the often harsh beams of light located just outside the exterior walls. These walls themselves are carved with curved formations that reveal the interior of the building to the outside, as well as let light into the structure. Read the rest of this entry »