The Urban Lounge designed by Patrick Vogel from the Wismar University is a small urban furniture project for the Hafencity Hamburg. The concept is to generate a modern interpretation of a conventional bench or city lounge in the heart of a new city quarter. The lounge is made out of a traditional vertical lamella facade system that transforms into an aesthetic, contemporary communication and chillout spot, directly next to the Elbe riverside. Read the rest of this entry »
Snail Pavilion Designed with Ceramic Tiles / LA Design Group
The Snail Pavilion is a competition entry for the Ceramic Tiles of Italy trade show pavilion. The purpose of the pavilion is for the trade association to represent its member companies’ products at a series of shows over a three-year term. Instead of selecting just a few sample products to feature, the scheme uses hundreds of tiles from Ceramic Tiles of Italy member companies to create giant “creatures” that bristle with the range and depth of Italian ceramic products. In this way the pavilion is more like a library with tiles stacked on shelves than it is a surface against which tiles are set in a rigid grout bed. Visitors can literally occupy the entire history and product catalog of the member companies. An innovative stacking system uses a simple assembly method to produce the appearance of feathers or scales – arraying tiles in a variety of sizes and colors into complex, visual seductive plumage, bristles, and whorls. The tiles are organized into loose color groupings that anticipate different sizes and tones, so the system can accommodate a broad diversity of sample products. Read the rest of this entry »
Prickly Pear for Nicola Formicetti / Barker Freeman Design Office
Prickly Pear is an installation proposal for the work of Nicola Formichetti designed by Barker Freeman Design Office that proposes an immersive sensory environment with changing color tones that can correspond to changing music, body movement, or merchandise within the space. Our concept was to insert an enveloping volume of stretchy translucent netting that would capture and reflect the shifting light spectrum emitted from the system of custom LED fixtures. The lighting could be programmed on a pre-set script or it could be set to respond to environmental changes. Read the rest of this entry »
Triangulation Series Furniture / Zhang Zhoujie
After graduating from MA Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins, Chinese designer Zhang Zhoujie founded his own laboratory where he today explores furniture concepts based on traditional Chinese fine art. One of his most elaborate projects is the Triangulation Series which investigates the relationship between computer technologies and Wu Wei, one of the principles of Taoism. It means “lack of intervention”.
The Triangulation Project is based on the interaction of faceted triangular surfaces. These objects are created through a process of evolution, establishing families of objects with common predecessors. By creating different typologies based on the initial geometry, the laboratory offers a possibility of creating personalized chair designs by taking key measurements from the customer. The device which performs the actual measuring is in the form of hundreds of sensors embedded into a measuring apparatus. Gathered data can be directly imported into the digital model.
The fabrication process begins with turning the digital output of the 3d model into a 2d layout of individual triangles which creates data for the laser cutting phase. The shapes are then cut-out of the base material (stainless steel or titanium). After receiving the material a precise set of angle guides are produces for each of the different contact angles present on the chair. These are then used to bend the individual metal elements into the correct alignment based on an angle map, also created from the 2d layout. Read the rest of this entry »
Piazza Ceramica / e+i Studio
It often happens that the small-scale, programmatically simple design tasks tap into the basics of the practice and remind of what is the initial creative act in designing – Asking Questions. To most with formal architectural education, designing trade show pavilions presents starting challenges that help solidify their understanding of space. By returning to questions, small competitions act as a bloodletting treatment for the current global discourse. These also take on a didactic role for architecture beginners, reminding them of the complexity of the design process that can be revisited, but certainly not avoided by relying solely on the abstract art of mathematics.
The winning proposal for the Ceramics of Italy Competition is a recognizable, functional and versatile space, achieved by using the design elements organically and making them part of a clear, cohesive architectural thought. The project marries archetypal spatial preoccupations with modern technologies and computational design. Read the rest of this entry »
Metropolitan 20 Competition Entry / Zeybekoglu Nayman Associates
The proposal for Sofia’s new Metropolitan Station 20 on line one was designed by Zeybekoglu Nayman Associates. The design strategy seeks to take advantage of the intense relationship between Obikolna Street and the future station. Organized along a glass spine that covers the space below ground level, the station is meant to capture as much natural light as possible.
Architects state:” The sun penetrates down through sculptural skylights illuminating the entire station in a warm glow. The use of daylight as an architectural element assists orientation for passengers and provides a sense of security. It allows for the atmosphere of the station to be transformed by the color of the sky. Underground the station is efficient, easy to read and comprehend through its organized masses. The descent down to the metro is designed as an elegant, modern addition to the street life above. Public access areas on B1 contain places to sit, shop, and dine. Open to all, this level has direct access to both sides of Obikolna Street through a new pedestrian underpass. Ticketed areas on B2 including the platforms are separated by a series of turnstiles that lead to zones of vertical transportation. Read the rest of this entry »
Classroom of the Future / LAVA
Cheap, dull, unattractive and unpleasant spaces – that’s the reputation of school ‘relocatables’. They’re the decades old, utilitarian solution to changing school demographics, remote community needs and disasters such as fires, floods and cyclones.
But a new plan by the Laboratory For Visionary Architecture [LAVA] turns these unpleasant spaces into smart buildings, the design an education in itself. In sustainability, social interaction, nature and adaptive technology. Chris Bosse, Asia Pacific director of LAVA says: ‘we wanted to turn this idea upside down and create spaces that are sustainable, practical, cost-effective whilst fun and exciting to be in’. Read the rest of this entry »
Malpensa Airport Proposal / Atelier Manferdini
The main feature of patterns and parametric surfaces addressed by architects at Atelier Manferdini is using the principle of repetitiveness to play with the figurative and structural role of computational design. Versatile applications of those motifs are explored through a wide variety of the Studio’s work, ranging from fashion and lighting design to architectural projects. Somewhere between ornament and structure, the lacy metal roof of the Malpensa Airport seeks to find common ground between decorative aspects of patterns and their role in the digital optimization of architecture.
The project involved the replacement of the connecting tunnel between the Express Train Station and the Terminal 1 of the Milan Airport, all in preparation for the World Expo in 2015. The designed segment comprises a covered area that will serve as an exhibition space as well as a pedestrian trajectory, connecting the sides with roof gardens. The part of the roof overhang on the west side is clearly visible from the street lanes that flank the underlying construction of the new Hotel Malpensa. Read the rest of this entry »
Car Park Proposal for Hong Kong / Interface Studio Architects
An addition to a series of projects involving the architecturization of parking facilities, the Car Park proposal designed by Interface Studio Architects tries to integrate the automobile culture into the vertical environment of Hong Kong. Through a playful use of ramps, repetition and uniformity, elements of the car park typology are exaggerated. In the attempt to create a distinctive urban structure that competes with the neighborhood of Hong Kong’s high-rises, the design evolves into a multi-functional building, introducing various programs: shopping, cafes, restaurants and green spaces.
The tower look of the project appears to derive from the city’s existing attitude towards infrastructure, acknowledging its all-present, overwhelming personality. It takes is further, as it mixes the car traffic trajectories with central functions in a single kinetic gesture of swirling ramps. The structure is then deformed as if physically influenced by forces and volumes of adjacent buildings. Read the rest of this entry »
News Coffee Table / Ignatov Architects
Small spaces influenced the concept behind the News Coffee Table, a three section surface radiating from a central newspaper and magazine repository. Taking the traditional newspaper rack and combining it with a coffee table is certainly not new, but Architect Boris Ignatov’s unique but simple solution is to turn the fold 120 degree and connect the receptacle with a flat surface. The casual nature of the design has the quality of origami, radiating outward and offering easy access to periodicals for casual reading. Read the rest of this entry »