Arch Daily |
- The Disappearance of the Architectural Icon: Henk van der Veen on Archiprix International
- Urban Hospice / NORD Architects
- Tainan Tung-Men Holiness Church / MAYU architects+
- Chronotope Wall House / UnSangDong Architects
- House of 33 Years / ASSISTANT
- The Closest Church / Heesoo Kwak and IDMM Architects
- House Au Yeung / Tribe Studio Architects
- See How Frank Lloyd Wright's "Tree of Life" Stained Glass Windows are Assembled
- One of Oscar Niemeyer's Final Designs Will Be Completed Posthumously in Germany
- Arjuzanx Natural Reserve / INCA Architects + ALEP Landscape
- Cotton Gin at the Co-op District / Antenora Architects
- Rising Practice Feilden Fowles Beats Out Stirling Prize Winners in University of Cambridge Competition
- Roel House / Felipe Assadi + Francisca Pulido + Isaac Broid
- KieranTimberlake is Using Virtual Reality to Design a Home for Future Life on Mars
- Franklin Mountain House / hazelbaker rush
- Visiting the Taj Mahal: Regular People vs. Architects
- Topio7's Competition-Winning Eco-Corridor to Transform Greek Coal Mines
| The Disappearance of the Architectural Icon: Henk van der Veen on Archiprix International Posted: 21 Mar 2017 09:00 PM PDT  Model for 'A Walk Around Music'. Image © Henk van der Veen Once every two years architecture schools around the world are invited to submit their single, finest graduation project to the Archiprix International competition and exhibition. Since its inception in 2001 (born out of the Dutch Archiprix), an ever increasing number of schools choose to participate. This year, Archiprix International selected Ahmedabad, in India, to exhibit the results. Arjen Oosterman, Editor-in-Chief of Volume, spoke to Archiprix Director and "Mister Archiprix" Henk van der Veen.
Arjen Oosterman: Henk, we're here on the CEPT University campus standing in the almost-finished new library building where the Archiprix International 2017 (AI 2017) exhibition is on display. Can you give us an impression of what we're looking at? Henk van der Veen: There are four major parts in this exhibition. The biggest is presenting all original panels (3 to 6 per project) of all 385 submissions, coming from 87 countries for this AI 2017. It is a huge amount of graduation projects. It gives an image of the state of affairs of architecture education worldwide. We've sorted it geographically. The exhibition (re)presents some 385 years of labor! We don't have the illusion that anyone visiting will be able to get into all the projects. But it is very interesting, like walking in a city, to pick up what you're interested in, and once you do that, you can dive in deeper.  Imagine this to be your daily walk to the university class rooms (entrance Faculty of Architecture building, CEPT University). Image © Arjen Oosterman  CEPT's outdoor student eatery. Image © Arjen Oosterman AO: That is element one. HvdV: Yes. The second element, to make the exhibition a bit more accessible, is that we present 41 out of 385 projects on big panels. These panels are edited by us. It comprises the 23 'nominees' as selected by the jury plus the 'participants favorites' selected by the participants themselves. So this selection shows the best of the best plus the most popular projects among all 385. This is also the part of the exhibition that can travel to schools that are interested to show AI on their campuses. You can download these panels from our website and print them locally. AO: To spread the news. HvV: Indeed. That is a challenge, because when you organize such an international event in one spot, you miss out on a (potentially) huge audience. So this increases our 'reach'. And the traveling exhibitions can be on show in different venues at the same time. So we really hope that this will be shown in many universities around the world to stimulate our future participants to participate, but also to give them examples of best projects, so they're stimulated to reach that level as well. AO: So, this provides a platform for the current generation and also inspires next generations. HvdV: Yes, and it stimulates discussions in the schools, because the submitted graduation project doesn't only present one excellent pupil's work, but also represents the school in a national and international arena. The awards also reflect on the schools the winners come from and stimulate others to improve their teaching.  The nominated projects as presented on large panels in the basement of the library building. Image © Arjen Oosterman The third part is the presentation of the workshops preceding the award session. We invited all 457 graduates who designed the 385 submitted projects to come to Ahmedabad and work together on themes connected to Ahmedabad, that are relevant for the global community as well. The results of the 11 workshops with 78 participants is shown in small exhibitions in the center. The fourth part is a new initiative that was developed with the host of this whole event, CEPT University. We gave the nominees the opportunity to have their model built during the winter school at CEPT. So CEPT students actually built the models of the nominated projects in dialogue with the nominees. We felt this to be a very substantial initiative. It adds the 3D model to the exhibition, which is enriching the communicative value of these projects. And next, since a model is not just a 1:1 3D version of the drawing, but a choice in communication, it is a selection of the most relevant meanings of the design. And this a bit like real life. Their professional designs will be executed by other people than the architect, so communication is key. For the model builders it was a relevant experience to communicate with the designer about the intentions and meanings of the design. And the same for the designer. For most of them this was the first time someone 'executed' their design.Both parties were extremely enthusiastic about this element and experience, including the craftsmanship in the execution of the models.  Model for the 'Super Pacific City' project designed by Norman Ning Wei. Image © Arjen Oosterman AO: I also heard stories about a translation element, that the 'model builder' proposed new interpretations, the designer hadn't thought about. HvdV: This was different for each project. Some were quite literal translations, but others focused on for instance the atmosphere of the project. There is for instance a project based on the Firebird by Strawinsky, located in a mine. So a sort of negative design. And it isn't a spatial design as we would expect, because the designer says that in her project you can feel the space, feel the music, hear the space. So how to translate that in 3D? AO: That will also have required some negotiation. HvdV: Haha, I haven't extensively talked to the two, but yes. AO: This is the ninth episode of AI. Over the years the event has grown ever bigger. This is the biggest to date? HvdV: Yes, the biggest ever. In 2015 we showed 350 projects. There are 1700 schools of architecture, urban design and landscape architecture in the world, so we can still grow!  Part of the exhibition. Image © Arjen Oosterman AO: The exhibition is bonding the international community of young professionals, but there is also a relation with 'the local'. Most projects are rooted in a local situation, students select issues they're somehow confronted with and surrounded by in their vicinity. So how do you see the relation between this internationalization and local specificity? HvdV: That is a very interesting question you're asking because unlike most other disciplines, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design are tied to the location. And it is necessary to have knowledge of the location and conditions to make a good design. Otherwise you get what you see in China and in other places, that offices are flown in, do their object and leave again. So you'll get a growing number of buildings that do not relate in any sense to their environment – environment in the broadest sense: users, climate, local circumstances, and so on. So it is only natural that schools are educating their students to deal with local problems and do 'local' graduation projects. Most of the projects here are like that. They deal with tasks in the neighborhood of the school. But also for those projects it can be very relevant to have knowledge of the international debate and international examples, or expertise that is located elsewhere. That can inspire you to raise the quality of your specific project. We also see that some 20% of the submitted projects come from students that didn't graduate in their home country. Students travel a lot, they often do part of their studies abroad. Specifically talented master students have this tendency to look for a school that fits their needs best. What you see then is that such students are not really equipped to take on a 'local' task, so they bring one from their own country. They import themselves plus a task and use the school to improve their knowledge in dealing with their subject. AO: So in the end it is about export. HvdV: Haha, you could say so. There is a third category: some schools have long-term relationships with foreign countries. Austria specifically has a tradition. So for instance the school of former AI award winner Anna Heringer, has a relation with Bangladesh. They investigated the building methods in Bangladesh and added their own research and expertise and in doing so were able to improve local knowledge and methods. In this category you see how fruitful exchange is, because you build up knowledge with the local population and sometimes even construct what had been designed. Like Anna Heringer did with her graduation project, a school building. That works extremely well. And you see that also reflected in the jury selection; in this category the percentage of nominees is twice the average. AO: If you can show your project here, as recent graduate, you cannot be shy in presenting 'a project'. To be selected by your university in the first place, the project needs to have a profile, visual presence. Yet, there is another tendency among graduating students and young professionals to be less interested in the physical outcome of the intervention (every architectural project is an intervention of sorts) and to focus more on what kind of intervention would be needed; more process than product. Do you see that reflected in what's presented here? HvdV: Yes, absolutely. And I don't know what to think about it, because you could say that the skill set of architects, landscape architects and urban designers is based on the idea that you're an expert in 3D design, spatial design. You're not a sociologist or community worker. So I think it is very important to stick to that ability to arrange functions spatially. But the tendency you mention is also present because the profession needs to reinvent itself, at least in part, because the traditional practice of a client asking an architect to design a building is no longer functioning very well. So I think it very good that schools and architects are looking at ways to deal with wider contexts. And then these elements come into play: how to deal with the user and not only the client, how to facilitate social projects, or how to stimulate communities. So I think it would be better if architects learn how to cooperate with experts in those areas, than that they try to be community worker or something the like. Schools should anticipate that. And this is kind of new to the profession, because in the past you as architect were leading the whole process, and now you have to negotiate on a more equal basis with other professions. So it's a very challenging thing for the profession; also to survive as profession.  Architect Pankaj Vir Gupta during one of the 'under the tree' book reading sessions, a side program during the Archiprix event. Image © Arjen Oosterman AO: Overlooking nine episodes of AI, do you see tendencies or trends over the years? And in relation to this one: do you see regional shifts happening, like some coming up, others fading away? HvdV: Earlier on we saw Eastern-European countries coming up, we saw the type of projects change and the quality increase. At the same time, it is a very hard question. The variety is enormous and we haven't really investigated these questions properly. So I'm sharing my feelings. I do see that the architectural icon disappeared. And where it is still present, it is in countries you'd least expect this. For instance Iraq submitted an iconic museum and in the first edition, Vietnam presented a museum for the glory of a general. This changed or shifted into a more gentle approach, more bottom-up, less top-down. Also relevant: in the first years we saw a lot of ecological projects, dealing with sustainability, but at a certain stage this is not an item anymore. It is completely incorporated in the projects. These are a few developments I see. And it is relevant to notice, because graduation work is dealing with the future and these graduates are the architects of the future. You can see trends before they present themselves in practice and production. AO: Do you appreciate these tendencies as a hopeful sign? HvdV: Yes, it's a hopeful sign, but less hopeful is that in the reality of building, the role of the public partners is decreasing and the role of those in control of the money is increasing. And that doesn't lead to more sustainable projects. And it doesn't lead to more work for architects, because more and more plans are pulled out of the drawer. And that is a very worrying trend, that I also encounter in countries like India, where the government is leaving everything to the market. This is the more disappointing because to me it is absolutely clear that the designers we present can contribute a lot to the quality of the built environment and the public space when they get the chance.  Temporary stage for the award ceremony. Image © Arjen Oosterman This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Urban Hospice / NORD Architects Posted: 21 Mar 2017 08:00 PM PDT  © Adam Mørk
 © Adam Mørk From the architect. The Urban Hospice is developed together with the deaconess community as a place that provides a peaceful environment in an urban setting for people to get palliative treatment.  Concept Diagram  Flow Diagram The Urban Hospice is situated in a densely populated area of housing and beautiful historic buildings in Frederiksberg, within Copenhagen. An essential criterion of the Urban Hospice's success has been that it fits into the surroundings neatly while meeting the demands and wishes for the its functionality. This has been achieved with a building design that reflects and supports the idea of architecture as a healing factor, which can help create a positive and relaxed atmosphere among patients, relatives and staff.  © Adam Mørk "The Urban Hospice is a subtle and innovative take on how a modern hospice can be placed in an urban fabric in a way that takes both users and neighbours into account. To achieve this, we have created a building with an inclusive and welcoming expression that holds opportunity for both community and privacy at the same time, " says Morten Rask Gregersen partner in NORD Architects.  © Adam Mørk The overall form and concept were heavily influenced by the complex site conditions and the proximity of the neighbouring built context. Within these parameters, the vision was to create a protecting atmosphere that also offers a glimpse to the outside world. The design derives from combining a curved and rectangular formal language that allows for an optimal functional layout. The traditional patient corridor is broken down into smaller units, and, as a special gesture, the house's common area is designed in a curved formal expression, built around a private inner courtyard that works embracingly and protectively. The façade's varying composition of quality rich materials gives the house a warm and tactile look.  © Adam Mørk NORD Architects has designed the building in close cooperation with the client and users through a co-creation process that has had a major impact on the final design. Project manager Mia Baarup Tofte, NORD Architects, explains, "It gives users a special allegiance to the finished building – they already know the building and have helped to ensure the optimal placement of all the building's features. Good dialogue-based processes such as this help create synergy between architects and users, where the design of the house easily falls into place in a meaningful way. It has been an amazing journey, where we, together with the client and their employees, have developed a unique place for the final journey. Making A good place to die has been the heading from the start. Based on architecture's best tools and the client's expertise, we have created a house where one can part with life in a safe environment."  © Adam Mørk This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Tainan Tung-Men Holiness Church / MAYU architects+ Posted: 21 Mar 2017 07:00 PM PDT  © Shawn Liu Studio
 © Shawn Liu Studio "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…  © Shawn Liu Studio This project originates from a vision that the pastor has received from God: Tainan Tung-Men Holiness Church (TMHC) symbolizes an eagle as a biblical metaphor, and it is like an airport, serving as a boarding gate for non-believers to enter into God's kingdom.  © Shawn Liu Studio The site of the new church is surrounded by secular residential buildings. Responding to this contextual city fabric as well as the pastor's vision, the lower floors of the church are used as socializing spaces such as coffee shop and family-friendly book store, inviting the community in and knitting the church closely with the life of the neighborhood. On the other hand, the dematerializing, white staircase leading to the sanctuary above transforms the spatial characteristic from the mundane to sanctified space by guiding the act of rising and turning through spilled natural light.  Axonometric Where the sanctuary signifies as the holy space to worship God, it is a raised two-story cubical volume formed by cast-in-place architectural concrete and illuminated by soft and sacred light filtered through the aluminum perforated screens on the church exterior. A cantilevered wood staircase at the back of the sanctuary takes the user through the sky figuratively before connecting back into the sanctuary mezzanine. The user has a different visual experience at the open mezzanine and the adjacent nursery looking back into the sanctuary. The white vertical staircase terminates at church's top floor, which consists three separate pray rooms. The user standing at the top landing of the staircase looks out onto the prominent white cross rising above the spandrel glass in close distance to the glass exterior of the stairway.  © Shawn Liu Studio  Section  © Shawn Liu Studio The church is mainly composed of cool architectural concrete but balanced with warm wood and copper colors used for curved sanctuary ceiling, oak staircase and feather-like metal screens on the main facade.  Sketches The aluminum perforated screens or "feathers" on the church exterior pay homage to the eagle metaphor, connecting this contemporary architecture to the members of the church on the emotional level. The orientation of every feather is calculated by the Fibonacci sequence and it is varied by increments of two degrees from feather to feather. Thus, the main church façade appears to be soft, transparent and flowing. Looking out from inside, the feathers form a sheer fabric that presents the secular world outside in a different light.  © Shawn Liu Studio This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Chronotope Wall House / UnSangDong Architects Posted: 21 Mar 2017 03:00 PM PDT  © Sergio Pirrone
 © Sergio Pirrone From the architect. Time is trapped in space, yet space has lost time. Time and space can't exist alone so does humans.  © Sergio Pirrone Walls, the most structural and architectural element, are used to define a living space. Walls run across spaces and create disconnected or fragmented places while providing experiences and situations reshaped under a chronotope-ic setting. Chronotope can be explained as a measure to integrate time and space through a combination of varying surfaces and an intersection of axis. Here architectural walls are not working as a disconnecting or dividing tool but rather as a frame for concurrent spaces and continuous time to support their integration and continuation. For such separation among family members or its dissolution in modern society, we blame severed wall compositions and so try to reconstruct a spatial structure enhancing human relationships to restore communication in families.  © Sergio Pirrone Communication among family members With a faith that architecture can bring changes in human life, we are proposing this Wallhouse. Restoration of communication between spaces is believed to work as a pill increasing usability and understanding of families on their living spaces. It's like offering a framework of possibility which enables families to transform from a passive subject into an active creator and to share new possible ways of occupying spaces each other. The purpose of Wallhouse is to build a structure achieving a natural integration of privacy and communication along the life trajectory while projecting clearly the individual identities of the aged parents, adult couple and two sisters through itself.  © Sergio Pirrone The juxtaposition of wall-penetrating spaces The wall-penetrating spaces including box spaces for a dining area and kitchen, a children's room and an aged parents room as well as a master bedroom for the couple are positioned in different locations. And the living area on the 1st floor, the study on the 2nd floor and the semi-outdoor courtyard on the 1st floor in which those wall-penetrating spaces are being joined together are placed in the center, and they compose a divided yet integrated living space. Through inserting a medium space system and opening a diagonal view, we are attempting to achieve visual communication and spatial expansion which together suggest a clue of connection between communal living spaces (the living space, study and courtyard) and private living spaces (bedrooms).  Diagram The penetration of interior/exterior brick walls The material of the red brick exterior walls Is not just a decorative external cladding but a datum of a structural system. This material flows into the interior and creates a space which destroys the distinction between inside and outside. Therefore, the space ends up belonging to the inside and also to the outside at the same time. After all, this is to abolish spatial determinacy while enabling an indiscriminate expandability. Traversing the interior, the brick walls turn into a series of openings defining a rooftop garden and narrate a poetic expression by drawing the skyscape into the interior.  © Sergio Pirrone  © Sergio Pirrone This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 21 Mar 2017 01:00 PM PDT  © Shinkenchiku-sha
 © Shinkenchiku-sha From the architect. The House of 33 Years is a residence located next to the world heritage Todaiji Temple in Nara, Japan. The house was designed for an elderly couple who decided to move to a new house thirty three years after living in their first house. The House of 33 Years is a house for a collector who collects memories, whose memory and future exist simultaneously in the same space. By framing views across different areas, images are continuously produced by the inhabitants' movement. Every image is given its own space of possibility, then overlaps as multiple additions to the home to update the family's memories.  © Tadasu Yamamoto In 2012, during the construction process, the fabrication of the house was partly supported by Aomori Contemporary Art Centre and Sendai School of Design . Its design/fabrication process has been an academic research subject of Adaptable Futures, Loughborough University, UK. The house has been awarded SD Review prize in 2010.  © Shinkenchiku-sha The house consists of multiple pavilions and rooms in wood structure that stand under the big steel-frame house. The relationship between the individual elements defines the character of the house as a whole.  Diagram  Perspective Section Its construction process has been pursued in three separate locations simultaneously; Nara, Sendai, and Aomori.  © Shinkenchiku-sha In Sendai, Ghost House, a pavilion to sit on the roof, was built with the students of Sendai School of Design. The pavilion is an homage to Ghost House, one of the pavilions scattered on the large premises of the famous house of Philip Johnson and was given the same name. Over the summer it was sitting in the courtyard of a university campus and the students had grown a farm inside.  © Shinkenchiku-sha In Aomori, the main rooms in wood-structure was built and developed together with local carpenters, using materials available in Aomori, as an installation piece Obscure Architecture (House of 33 Years, Study), then to become a part of 'Kime to Kehai' exhibition at Aomori Contemporary Art Centre. This work always had a fresh look depending on the movement of the sunlight. Physically, this architectural work remained present in the same position, whereas the natural phenomena created by it kept flowing without stopping.  © Shinkenchiku-sha After the exhibition period in each city, those elements were disassembled and loaded on a 4-ton truck, and carried to the destination, Nara, where they were recomposed to form the House of 33 Years.  Diagram This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Closest Church / Heesoo Kwak and IDMM Architects Posted: 21 Mar 2017 12:00 PM PDT  © Kyungsub Shin
 © Kyungsub Shin Buildings of the Gimpo new town, where everything looks as new, clean and as fresh as fishes caught in a milk bottle. Well-structured roads and districts look like a checkerboard that has never been used. Through local communities, this place is where ordinary lives and sentiments have just started to settle down and will attempt to engage with different urban cultures and establish its own identity.  Section The closest church is sitting on a corner site of Unyang-dong, Gimpo. Words like corner, edge and vertex connote the existence of more than one line or surface. The church has a façade divided by two conflicting with each other at the vertex of the site. One is a solid and fragmented concrete, proposed by considering the relationship with apartment residents, and the other is a transparent glass that opens views to the vast park and also to the church's worship services. The chapel structured like the bleachers is designed to increase the capacity of the space built on a compact site. Small rooms are positioned behind of the inclined surface of the bleachers and on the top section of it so that the church can make the best use of its space. Especially, the outside stairs connecting the ground and the rooftop works as an important element defining the exterior of church, and the vivid movement of its users makes the church's architectural statement more dynamic. The rooftop space which can host outdoor worship services is open for church communities as well as for locals.  © Kyungsub Shin The closest church is a place of worship, a cultural venue and public architecture for the local apartment community which was being choked by commercialism. A rooftop cross can't be found here, but here the cross is leaning on the wall and speaking with a humble voice. Big resonance stirs among listeners rather than among speakers who deliver a moving story, and the sublimity dwells in intimacy not in hierarchy. The cross descended onto the earth will cast a shadow like a shaded tree and will share a story of life with people on the street.  © Kyungsub Shin This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| House Au Yeung / Tribe Studio Architects Posted: 21 Mar 2017 10:00 AM PDT  © Katherine Lu
 © Katherine Lu From the architect. A modest, but well constructed, 1930s bungalow in a leafy Sydney suburban area is adapted for the times by Tribe Studio with a garden pavilion and a series of decorative flourishes, reducing its footprint and accommodating the new program in an extended gable roof form.  © Katherine Lu The original house was well built and charming, with more than a touch of whimsy in its presentation: herringbone brick gables, a glorious brick sunburst over the door that is now reflected in the new rear extension, and a bit of Tudor detailing. However, siting, planning and energy efficiency were poor.  © Katherine Lu Our brief asked for the house to be converted to suit the lifestyle of a young family. That gave us the opportunity to address the garden more fully, to explore the character of the house and the character of the area, which is predominantly decorated single storey houses in beautiful leafy gardens.  © Katherine Lu The reworked house is studiously compact, and yet it delivers on a big suburban brief - multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, and living spaces. Its small footprint and single storey expression preserve the sense of small house within an established garden, consistent with the other houses in the area and enhancing the streetscape.  © Katherine Lu The rear is treated with as much care, attention and whimsy as the original decorative brickwork front facade, reflecting the inversion of suburban values from 'best face forward to street' to focus on the leisure of the back garden and entertaining areas.  Elevations Form making is subtle - a ridge extended to create a gable, housing two new bedrooms a bathroom and a rumpus. Dormer windows sit back from the key elevations, facing side boundaries.  © Katherine Lu Materiality is preserved - a celebration of decorative brickwork, lichen-covered roof tiles . We honored the heritage fabric of this house by using a level of quality and detailing in the new back garden elevation. The brick sunburst on the front appears in the new rear elevation, lead light windows to the front morph into steel framed windows at the rear. It is a kind of material palette call and response between the public and private faces of the building. Solid brass and marble hardware used throughout the house is from Tribe Studio's collaboration, BITPART, designed and made in Australia. www.bitpart.com.au.  © Katherine Lu In terms of sustainability, the key move here was clever planning, flexibility of use, and a light touch. The footprint of the house has been reduced, and new accommodation is shoe-horned into a roof extension. Small room sizes respect the original order of the house, while adding multiple uses, and it now has photovoltaic cells, water collection tanks, hydronic heating system, high thermal mass, and well functioning cross ventilation.  © Katherine Lu This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| See How Frank Lloyd Wright's "Tree of Life" Stained Glass Windows are Assembled Posted: 21 Mar 2017 09:00 AM PDT  As an architect, Frank Lloyd Wright was known for many things, but perhaps his most famed characteristic was his exceptional attention to detail – in many of his projects, each furniture piece was designed specifically for its intended location. This trait carried over into the design of the windows in his houses. Borrowing from organic motifs, Wright created a series of compositions suited for each house, from the tall, triangular stained glass windows of the Hollyhock House to the mahogany Samara clerestory panels of the Bachman-Wilson House.  But perhaps most famous of his window designs was the Tree of Life motif created for the residence of Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo New York. The window reduced the image of a tree to its most essential geometric forms: a square representing roots; simple straight lines for the trunk; chevrons for the branches; and gold, red and green shapes as leaves. Each small piece of glass in the window was set into the brass frame at a specific angle to enhance light reflection to control the quality of light in the room.  In this photo series, the delicate construction of these windows is shown. Created for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the windows are assembled piece by piece, with the brass frame being assembled around the glass pieces. In total, each window takes about a month to construct, including 10,000 individual cuts of brass, a week of glass cutting, and a few days to solder everything together. Check out the full series below. Frank Lloyd Wright Tree Of Life construction.Images via imgur user ohlsson23.
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| One of Oscar Niemeyer's Final Designs Will Be Completed Posthumously in Germany Posted: 21 Mar 2017 08:05 AM PDT  One of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer's final designs, a 12-meter-diameter glass and concrete sphere perched on the corner of a factory building, is set to be completed in Leipzig, Germany, reports Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (Central German Broadcasting, MDR). In 2011, Niemeyer was commissioned by railway crane manufacturer Kirow Leipzig to design an addition to the company's central plant in Leipzig that would house a cafeteria, lounge and bar. Shortly before his passing in December 2012, at the age of 104, Niemeyer completed a sketch of the structure, showing sphere consisting of a lattice pattern underneath a tennis-ball-like reinforced concrete patch. Within the sphere, interiors clad in tiled surfaces and blue carpet will evoke the spirit of Bossa Nova and Copacabana, while comfortable armchairs and projected images of Niemeyer drawings will help to create a relaxing atmosphere for factory workers.
The head of Kirow Leipzig, Ludwig Koehne (who was also responsible for the design of the factory), told MDR that the commission resulted following a conversation with the factory's in-house chef, who requested a new cook space. "The content of the letter was that we have a very good cook who seeks a new challenge beyond canteen food, and we should urgently have an expansion [for a restaurant], that possibly goes on the roof," said Koehne.
The project is reportedly to be inaugurated in March 2018. See more images of the project here.
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| Arjuzanx Natural Reserve / INCA Architects + ALEP Landscape Posted: 21 Mar 2017 08:00 AM PDT  © Nicolas Castes
 © Nicolas Castes In the heart of the Landes region (along the French South-west coast), the listed bird sanctuary of Arjuzanx streches on 2 000 hectares. It was born from the renovation by the French electricity supplier (EDF) of a former lignite mine which is today filled up by a lake, birthplace of numerous migrating grey cranes.  © Nicolas Castes A line in the landscape  © Nicolas Castes Invitation to travel  © Nicolas Castes A Discovery Center  Section  Section Evocation of flight  © Nicolas Castes The spirit of a house  © Nicolas Castes This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Cotton Gin at the Co-op District / Antenora Architects Posted: 21 Mar 2017 06:00 AM PDT  © Brian Mihealsick
 © Brian Mihealsick The Hutto Cotton and Grain Co-op served the once primarily farming community of Hutto, Texas from 1937 until it's closure in 2003. Along with the original 24 silos, the structures that housed the cotton gin and baling machinery formed a familiar landmark and skyline, which was the western edge of Hutto's modest downtown. Particularly iconic was the Southern-most of the (2) original gin buildings, which stood as the terminus and focal point for Farley Street. The City of Hutto purchased the Co-op site in 2003 and conducted a series of Master Planning exercises to direct and guide redevelopment of both the 16-acre Co-op site, and adjacent Historic Downtown Hutto. The Co-op master plan proposes a new City Hall, Civic Park and a public events space, surrounded by privately funded retail, office and residential development.  © Brian Mihealsick  © Brian Mihealsick The design objectives were to create a multi-purpose, flexible, open-air events space for both public and private use, that would complement and support the programmatic functions for the existing Library, as well as future adjacent Civic Park and City Hall. The building needed to be open and accessible for vehicles for use as a farmer's market and artisan fairs, but also intimate enough to accommodate wedding receptions.  Sections The City desired to re-use the existing gin structures because of their iconic and landmark status to generations of citizens, a desire to maintain a visual connection to their agricultural past, as well as their modest project budget and sustainability objectives. The City also wanted to use the project as a catalyst to draw traffic and attention as a means to activate the site and attract a public/private development partner. .jpg?1489438537 "Before. Image Courtesy of Antenora Architects") Before. Image Courtesy of Antenora Architects .jpg?1489438445 "Before. Image Courtesy of Antenora Architects") Before. Image Courtesy of Antenora Architects The (2) original cotton gin buildings were selectively deconstructed, and portions thereof were collectively recycled/re-used to make a single open-air public events space. Components of the buildings that were not re-used for this project, such as additional roof and awning trusses, have been carefully inventoried and stored for use on the future City Hall. .jpg?1489438347 "Before. Image Courtesy of Antenora Architects") Before. Image Courtesy of Antenora Architects  © Brian Mihealsick The design intent was to accentuate the iconic appearance of the remaining South gin building and further reinforce its place as a focal landmark at the Farley Street Terminus. Perforated stainless steel was chosen as the exterior siding material for the south façade for it's eye-catching ability to reflect the ever-changing southern sun during the day, and for it's transparency at night. The perforated steel and broad overhangs also serve to help fill the space with diffused natural daylight.  © Brian Mihealsick A significant design challenge was to reinforce the existing riveted steel structure to meet current building codes, and to recreate some missing or damaged components, without losing the delicacy and elegance of the original steel details. As such, careful attention was paid to the placement and size of stiffeners, X-braces and additional supports, as well as to the design of new work fabricated to resemble or replace the original. .jpg?1489438694 "© Brian Mihealsick") © Brian Mihealsick Product Description. Steel is the primary and predominant material used for the Cotton Gin at the Co-op District. A number of different types of steel products were used. The primary structure is comprised of riveted steel trusses and columns made from steel angles. The original structural frame, which did not meet current building codes, was reinforced with steel tubes and steel angles. The skin is a combination of perforated stainless steel panels and shop painted steel solid panels. All of the panels were rolled to match the profile and pattern of the original siding materials. The steel panels were fastened to steel angles, which span between the columns. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 21 Mar 2017 05:00 AM PDT  © Feilden Fowles Homerton College, Cambridge and competition-organizers Malcolm Reading Consultants have announced that emerging practice Feilden Fowles has been selected as the winners of the competition to design a new £7 million showpiece dining hall for Homerton College, the newest constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Unanimously selected by the competition jury, Feilden Fowles' scheme was chosen over a shortlist of entries from 2016 Stirling Prize winner Caruso St John, dRMM, Hall McKnight and Walters & Cohen Architects. "Feilden Fowles' concept design for the dining hall subtly relates to the existing ensemble of buildings and the garden setting, and yet has the poise to convince as a showpiece," said Professor Geoffrey Ward, Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge. "What appealed so strongly about the team's particular approach was their openness to creating many opportunities for dialogue. We are looking forward to working with them as they develop the detailed design."  © Feilden Fowles The competition brief called for a 300-person dining hall on the college's 25-acre campus that would serve as "a spectacular and unique architectural composition that relates to the rich and diverse mix of buildings around it and enhances the natural loveliness of the setting." Feilden Fowles described their solution as an Arts and Crafts building for the 21st century, which could convey formality at times and comfortable familiarity at others, all while celebrating "the integrity and inherent beauty of materials and craftsmanship."  © Feilden Fowles "This development will encapsulate much of what Homerton is about: a creative, inclusive community that is ambitious to contribute to the wider society," continued Ward. "The opportunity to make an environment that is physically beautiful and functions elegantly is a rare privilege, and if on a deep level it can also encourage mutuality, the sharing of ideas and motivations, then it really has the power to inspire current and future generations.  © Feilden Fowles The winning design features an expressive form that will serve as an "uplifting climax" to the College's line of buildings along Harrison Drive. Masonry piers set with windows will maintain a pleasing rhythm across the site, connecting the new Hall to its setting and framing views for diners within. Located above the plinth, "a faience and glass corona leads the eye upwards to the wide East Anglian sky." Rich, sensory details on the interior and facade will further contribute to the building's comfortability and presence.  © Feilden Fowles "We are thrilled to win this open competition to design the new dining hall for Homerton College. We feel very honoured to be given the opportunity ahead of more established practices and feel it reflects the genuine openness of the competition process, as well as the College's belief in investing in young talent," said Fergus Feilden, Director of Feilden Fowles. "The project offers a unique chance to create a transformational space at the heart of an already stunning site. This is a privilege we do not take lightly and we are determined to deliver a world class facility. We can't wait to get started." Feilden Fowles will now continue to develop their design in partnership with the College. The initiative is part of Homerton's wider strategy to improve campus facilities as the College celebrates its 250th Anniversary next year. Construction is scheduled to begin in Spring 2018. News via Malcolm Reading Consultants.
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| Roel House / Felipe Assadi + Francisca Pulido + Isaac Broid Posted: 21 Mar 2017 04:00 AM PDT  © Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma
 © Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma  © Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma From the architect. The house follows the typology of continuous adjoining, and raises an "H" scheme of two parallel pavilions (parallel to the street, one of them being the front façade) and a third pavilion that connects them. The one closest to the street, contains the collective rooms, living room, dining room and kitchen. Its parallel is located at the bottom of the site, and the volume that connects them contains the bedrooms.  © Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma  Drawing Felipe Assadi  © Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma The "H" is completely suspended, overlaid at the bottom of the site (which slope descends towards the street) generating different courtyards between the enclosures.  © Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma  Main Plan  © Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma A lush garden makes its way underneath the house, from the street towards the bottom of the site. Parking lots and a multipurpose workshop are located under the "H". On the roof, we took advantage of the flat level in order to place terraces, gardens and a swimming pool, from where you can also see a good part of Mexico City.  © Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma  Elevations and Sections  © Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| KieranTimberlake is Using Virtual Reality to Design a Home for Future Life on Mars Posted: 21 Mar 2017 02:30 AM PDT  The virtual Mars City base. Image Courtesy of KieranTimberlake This article was originally published by Autodesk's Redshift publication as "Life on Mars? Architects Lead the Way to Designing for Mars With Virtual Reality." If an architecture firm is lucky, it can hit two birds with one stone on a single project—for example, prioritizing both historic preservation and energy efficiency. But a team at KieranTimberlake, based in Philadelphia, is aiming for four ambitious goals with its pro bono project, the Mars City Facility Ops Challenge. Architects Fátima Olivieri, Efrie Friedlander, and Rolando Lopez teamed up with National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), NASA, and the Total Learning Research Institute (TLRI) to create a virtual working city on Mars—one that might reap multiple rewards.
A primary goal for Kerry Joels (TLRI president and former NASA physicist) and KieranTimberlake was to bridge the skills gap for the future STEM workforce—particularly in architecture and facilities management. Another was to use the project as a test for VR creation within KieranTimberlake. Third, Joels and the architects hope to get funding to build a Mars City-like space camp on Earth. And fourth, their deep research and design efforts could one day inform plans for an actual Mars base.  A public space on the virtual Mars City base. Image Courtesy of KieranTimberlake At an average of 140 million miles away from Earth, Mars is remote but still close enough that the prospect of colonizing it has been discussed for decades. Its climate is harsh and uninhabitable for humans, but the rocky terrain is familiar, and the known presence of water keeps colonization within the realm of possibility. Elon Musk is just one prominent thought leader who predicts the colonization of Mars within the next century. The Mars City project began in the 2000s with a grant from NASA to create a STEM learning program around Mars. With that grant, TLRI created a project called the Mars Facility Ops Challenge, a dashboard-based system in which student groups worked together to resolve the mechanical issues of a building on Mars. Once KieranTimberlake got on board, they upgraded the system to a fully realized BIM model (using Autodesk Revit) that incorporates light and nature, mechanical systems, living spaces, and more. Then they added considerations for building on the harsh living conditions of another planet. "On a Mars base, you have to generate your own power and your own food because there's nothing else," Olivieri says. "So we had to account for these spaces and how humans have to live. For example, you have to be able to go outside to dust off the PV [solar] panels once or twice a day because otherwise, you won't have power."  Architect Rolando Lopez and a student getting a Mars City tour at the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington D.C. Image Courtesy of KieranTimberlake To create a self-sustaining habitat for 100 people, the architects worked with Joels to determine which materials and technologies would work best on Mars, even down to the bubbly shape of the buildings. "Kerry was very clear on when we had gotten things not quite right," Friedlander says. "He would go, 'Actually, that shape isn't right because with the way the air pressure needs to be maintained, you can't have corners.' Then we'd go back and do a redesign eliminating the corners." The architects also sought to advance the base beyond what people typically envision living in space would be like—such as the constrained confines of the International Space Station, with knob- and tube-filled corridors that have little connection to the outside environment and are geared more toward working rather than living or playing. Mars City, by contrast, emphasizes a balance between public and private spaces and incorporates architectural lessons learned on Earth about how people want to interact. "The original design [created before the NASA grant] called for closed spaces without a lot of spatial definition, and we wanted to make it a place where people wouldn't be depressed living in this bubble for an indefinite amount of time," Lopez says. "So we introduced variation to the corridor so you would have openings in places where you could orient yourself and have a connection with the landscaping." Key to the project was the collaboration with the Gilbane Building Company and MEP engineers at Travis Alderson Associates, as well as input from the NIBS and the International Facilities Management Association. With their help, KieranTimberlake was able to include data on systems requirements based on how they perform on Earth and transplant that to the virtual world. Mars City is currently an educational game that more than 1,200 middle- and high-school students have demoed (most recently at the 2017 NIBS conference). Using VR headsets, kids can walk through the space, respond to different maintenance scenarios, and test out solutions. It's a fascinating opportunity for both the design team and students to see how systems might fail on Mars. "If a door breaks in a building on Earth, it might not a big deal," Olivieri says. "But if a door breaks in a pressurized environment on Mars, that can be lethal for the community." To get the imagery right in the VR experience, the team worked with a combination of Autodesk Live, 3ds Max, and Stingray, which allowed refinement of various aspects of the virtual world—such as the color of the terrain and details on the spacesuits. Determining materials required an understanding of material science advancements, as well as an ability to forecast how the technology might evolve in the coming decades.  A layout for the Mars City virtual base. Image Courtesy of KieranTimberlake "If Mars City was built now, it would be impossible to have transparency [of the materials] because you couldn't get enough layers to take care of radiation," Friedlander says. "Are we close enough that, say, 20 years from now—if this hypothetical base were to get built—there would be a transparent material we could use? We were taking those things into consideration to make something semi-realistic, but trying to predict 20 years in advance what is going to be available." Meanwhile, the goal of Mars City piquing kids' interest in facilities management is a big one because of the field's growing importance. "Generationally, as buildings keep getting more complicated, it will become more difficult for people to manage buildings," Olivieri says. "There needs to be a group of people who want to take that on and have the knowledge of the sophisticated technology that nowadays buildings have and will in the future." Hopefully, the next phase for Mars City will be a physical learning space here on Earth that will complement the virtual one. That would have to do until the foreseeable future, when people can actually start living and building on Mars and beyond. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Franklin Mountain House / hazelbaker rush Posted: 21 Mar 2017 02:00 AM PDT  © Casey Dunn
 © Casey Dunn The Franklin Mountains extend into the north end of El Paso like a peninsula of rocky wilderness into the urban landscape of the city, rising 2500 feet above the Rio Grande river valley. The home site is set in the foothills of the Franklins 800 feet above the city perched just above a small canyon with unobstructed views of downtown El Paso and Juarez to the south.  © Casey Dunn As the raw and rugged native landscape comes down the slope and meets the masses of the house the land starts to feel more controlled and cultivated. The steep site becomes a series of terraces that catch and slows the flow of water and the flow of life here. This mountain side oasis becomes enriched with native succulents and cacti, colorful grasses and aromatic herbs. A sustainable ecosystem on a small scale for a family that has turned a "hard" site into their sanctuary on the hillside.  © Casey Dunn The severity of the slope allows the three story home to maintain a direct connection to the exterior at each level. The utilitarian spaces are on the first level with the entertaining functions of the living, kitchen, and dining on the second, and the more private bedroom and family play areas on the third level. The mountain peaks to the east delay the first rays of sun until very late in the morning. To the south the slope drops off quickly into a deep arroyo where, in the early mornings and late afternoons golden eagles and red tailed hawks ride the thermal currents up into the canyons above in search of their next meal. Often the kids wake up to see deer and rabbits grazing at the newly planted flora along the south patio, sometimes finding evidence of the local ring-tailed cat. Each night as the sun begins to dip below the horizon the sky catches fire and the outdoor living room becomes the best place to watch the sky fade from red to orange to deep indigo as the city lights of Juarez come on and illuminate the valley to the south.  © Casey Dunn  Section  © Casey Dunn Near the top of the site there is an abandoned quartz mine. The angular quartz crystals that scatter the eastern part of the site – beautiful, foreign objects among the weathered grey stones and lechuguilla - became an inspiration for the massing of the home. A traditional white lime stucco volume houses the bedrooms and private area of the family and balances on a stereotomic mass rendered in local basalt grey stone using the rubble wall style visible all around town that closely matches the surrounding environment and is so of the place that from a distance the lower floors nearly disappear and the white bedroom mass appears to float in the landscape.  © Casey Dunn Materials inside and out are inspired by or directly related to the vernacular craft of El Paso; stone masonry, smooth troweled stucco, steel work related to the railroad, and leather goods related to the cowboy history of the city. At the moments where one directly engages the building the door handles and cabinet pulls are fashioned in black steel with a small offering of leather to soften and warm the cold edges. Natural, honest, somewhat conventional materials are used in slightly unconventional ways to clearly convey a refinement of the vernacular craft.  © Casey Dunn This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Visiting the Taj Mahal: Regular People vs. Architects Posted: 21 Mar 2017 01:00 AM PDT  Courtesy of The Leewardists A degree in architecture teaches you to see the world differently. For confirmation of this fact, look no further than the poor souls who have accompanied an architect on vacation—people who, at some point between being dragged far outside of their destination city to visit some apparently exemplary office buildings, and stopping for hours to photograph structural details, probably started to question their companion's sanity. But what happens when an architect visits the Taj Mahal? The experience of being in the presence of this wonder of the modern world must surely be so humbling that even he or she can do no more than stand in awe like any regular person... right?
 Courtesy of The Leewardists  Courtesy of The Leewardists  Courtesy of The Leewardists Centuries of civilizations built on structures designed by architects and yet, their voice is lost among the countless stories of rulers and armies and sometimes wondrous monsters. The Leewardists are rewriting the contemporary history of our civilization through the voice of this elusive being, The Architect. For more of The Architect Comic Series follow them on Facebook, Instagram, or visit their website. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Topio7's Competition-Winning Eco-Corridor to Transform Greek Coal Mines Posted: 20 Mar 2017 11:00 PM PDT  The Riparian Forest zone. Image Courtesy of topio7 Greek architecture firm topio7 has released image of their competition-winning proposal to create an eco-corridor across former lignite mines in the Western Macedonia region of Greece. Despite its past coal mining activity, the 180,000 Ha region has retained its natural beauty, partly due to the site's inaccessibility and fragmentation. Topio7's winning proposal, through a measured, sensitive approach, seeks to enhance the area's natural beauty whilst creating a variety of nodes and eco-corridors to enable public interaction.  The Meadow zone. Image Courtesy of topio7  The Meadow zone. Image Courtesy of topio7 Topio7's proposal was developed along three thematic axes: ecological enhancement, the water net, and sensitive spatial organization. Conscious of preserving existing natural beauty and views across the area, the design team has recognized and retained transitions within the landscape, from enclosed space to open, and dense planting to sparse.  The Amphitheater zone. Image Courtesy of topio7 Topio7 subsequently used these transitions as a basis to create public-orientated eco-corridors, each with specific spatial identities. These include the 'spectacle's place' amphitheater embedded in the landscape, a 'central meadow' clearing for cultural events and markets, and an athletic park complete with playgrounds and a racing circuit.  The Picnic zone. Image Courtesy of topio7
 Cultivations zone. Image Courtesy of topio7
News via: topio7.
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