Libraries are increasingly the places in which culture is produced, collected and disseminated. The Ambient Exchange designed by Synthetiques & minus Architecture studio {MAS} promotes a culture of collaboration, creative inquiry and community engagement through provision of functional and exuberant spaces that engage the strong social and craft-oriented traditions of the Finnish built environment.

The Ambient Exchange engages a vital site, including the broader city, by placing its cultural and shared amenities at the level of the park and the street. The building is treated as an extension of the site topography, pulling people up into the spaces that encourage interaction and collaboration among the various users. Views of the Parliament and cultural amenities of the city drive the library’s formal, programmatic and functional organization. Read the rest of this entry »

The project of the new Sofia pavilion designed by Riccardo Giovanetti for Sofia Interior Doors arises from the idea of exploiting a range of industrial products, completely altering their original intended use and turning them into structural elements of a vast architectural space. In the specific instance, this concerns a series of tiles made from recycled plastic; these eco-slabs, originally meant for gardens and green areas, has been used as tesserae to cover a big volume of sharp and rigorous shapes.

The final result is a neo organic architecture characterized from a peculiar transparency, in which the relation between the internal and the external surfaces is very close. At the same time the pavilion presents itself as a space with a very rich and articulated image in which depth, textures and the casual pattern of the structural elements are highlighted. The pavilion has been developed through a sequence of three distinct areas: a wide exhibition room at the entrance, intended to the exposition of the company’s doors, then a lounge area delimited by a big white wall and at last, a technical area, at the back. Read the rest of this entry »

The free-form geometries of SDA’s (Synthesis Design+Architecture) Daegu Gosan Library proposal aims to embody the spirit of a revisited library typology – open-source exchange and the idea of collective knowledge are facilitated by flowing architecture and its integration into the existing urban tissue of the city. It is a hybrid environment that merges information resources with active communal spaces.

The building seems to emerge from the site, as the ground field of the site swells, peels and multiplies vertically. The boundaries between the floors are blurred- the building develops spontaneously, forming different spaces of the library. Floors, ramps, stairs and terraces are merged into one landscape, culminating with an open lounge and terrace overlooking the city of Deagu.

The geometry of the building was developed using the computational technique known as “dynamic mesh relaxation” which relaxes planar mesh networks to find a continuously minimal surface. The main support point is the central core, along with internal and perimeter interconnections. The cast-in-place high performance concrete would be cast on CNC-milled EPS foam formwork, coated with polyurethane. Read the rest of this entry »

Time Tension Wood is a construction system design by Taylor Gilbert based on a technique used by the Native American Indians for making bows. By applying consistent tension to freshly cut wood, the wood will slowly and gradually bend as it dries. Once the wood is dry after 3-5 months, the structure is permanent, and the ropes can be removed.

The system consists of brass brackets and ropes with a simple tension mechanism that are used to easily connect and manipulate freshly cut wooden poles. These components can be used to make a variety of objects and structures from a coat rack and tabletop supports to space dividers and small-scale architecture. Since this method relies on the natural properties of the wood in a slow process, there is no need for steam, heat, or any special equipment. Almost any kind of wood can be used, so the majority of the material can be sourced locally. Read the rest of this entry »

Combining Jakarta’s need for both densification and green spaces, MVRDV have designed a vertical city that offers a wide variety of office and housing typologies, along with semi-public roof park. Peruri 88 is a cooperative venture between MVRDV, ARUP, the Jerde Partnership and developer Wijaya Karya.

The 400 meter tall tower, part of a developer’s bid competition for the Jl. Palatehan 4 site in Jakarta, mixes retail, offices, housing, luxury hotels, parking and cultural content. It comprises different housing typologies – from lofts to townhouses, stacked vertically as urban blocks. According to David Rogers, FAIA, Jerde Design Director, the inspiration for the building was found “in Java’s natural setting – lush jungle and stone surrounded by expansive ocean”. Read the rest of this entry »

Morphosis has recently completed their Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, which in now open to the public. The main body of the museum, in the shape of a large cube, emerges from a large plinth covered in stones and drought-resistant grasses that reflects the Texas landscape. The new building is located in Victory Park and will replace some of the facilities of the existing Museum of Science and Nature, situated in the adjacent Fair Park. Read the rest of this entry »

Designed by Rojkind Arquitectos, the Reforma 432 Residences in Mexico City is a tower complex comprising pedestrian zones, luxury retail, private residences and other commercial content. The basic unit of the tower is approximately 70 square meters and can be added in multiples of 60 to create larger spaces. By uniting several urban lots on a strip of land stretching from Reforma Avenue to Tokio Street, the R432 building enters into a dialogue with the city’s urban condition. Read the rest of this entry »

The Helsinki library designed by MenoMenoPiu Architects will be situated in the new green heart of Helsinki. The project will occupy 4500m² of the site. The intention is to replace the existing green that we subtract to the park in a indoor environment perfectly controlled.

We decided to conceive the building as a tree forest enclosed in a climatic box, in which the structure represents the causality of the wood .

The natural organization of the pillars is then reproduced on the glazed envelope that creates the link between nature and architecture, between the light and the shadows.

The transparent facade gives to the building a high visual permeability, allowing the exterior user to follow the internal events and the client to have a strong link with the nature and the sourrounding. The envelope lifts, allowing the life in and through it and reducing the urban limit between Takatoolo park and Alvar Aallon Katu street.

The program develops in a spiral which reaches the green winter gardens just under the roof structure. The slabs system is an open space,that leaves an extreme flexibility to the program organization. Extensible partitions are hidden through all the building in the pillars, giving the opportunity to privatize different elements of the program (client’s office, work room etc.), when needed. Read the rest of this entry »

The design of this temporary installation reinterprets the traditional Chinese garden to activate the roof terrace of the MoCA Shanghai as an undulating and responsive multi-layered landscape. The upper (canopy) layer simultaneously produces gradient spatial conditions and framed viewing portals which curate views of the surrounding hi-rise towers, while the lower (landscape) layer articulates a series of back-lit sculptural ground forms which subdivide the terrace and provide atmospheric effect through responsive color-changing LED lighting effects. Inspired by the work of Frei Otto, the entire project extends his body of design research into physical and digital form-finding processes for minimal surface structures through dynamic mesh relaxation techniques. Read the rest of this entry »

This proposal for the New Contemporary Art Museum (NCAM) in Buenos Aires by Frisly Colop Morales, Jason Easter, and Łukasz Wawrzeńczyk embodies the city’s dynamic cultural vibrancy. The building sits along the Rio de la Plata, plugging into the internationally influenced urban context as an architectural artifact representing the city itself.

The design provides various exhibition and gathering spaces for both programmed and passive interaction between local visitors, tourist and the various exhibits of architecture, painting, sculpture, fashion and textiles. Two such external spaces activate the site and enhance the Puerto Madero waterfront promenade experience. By recessing the corners of the East façade a plaza is created to the South and an amphitheater to the North. A large framed opening in the North elevation holds a dual-direction stage linking the interior auditorium with the exterior amphitheater. Large retractable panel doors enable performances for visitors located inside, outside or both simultaneously.

A second exterior gallery and entry portal is created by lifting the central portion of the building mass. This covered multipurpose space connects the East and West areas of the site, activating circulation around the building and framing the view to the canal. A linear lighting design integrated with the underside of the building to signal the entry and illuminate this area for evening events. The light beneath the form allows the building to stand as a beacon along the promenade. Read the rest of this entry »