Arch Daily |
- LB House / Shachar- Rozenfeld architects
- Expoforum Convention and Exhibition Centre / SPEECH
- Pearl Marzouq Complex / PAD10 Architects
- Vrindavan / unTAG
- William M. Lowman Concert Hall / Sander Architects
- Canterbury Road Residence / B.E Architecture
- 3XN Architects Wins Competition for New Aquatic Center in Sweden
- Clinic Bellavista / Carlos Martinez Architekten
- See How Flexible, Superthin Glass is Produced
- Fire Station #5 / STGM Architectes + CCM2 Architectes
- Architects Speak Out on Lack of Female Speakers at AIA National Convention
- The Crow's Nest / AR Design Studio
- Hard-Fought Fights for Civil Rights: Accessibility Expert Carl Lewis on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- House 669 / HelgessonGonzaga Arkitekter
- Why We're Removing Our Comments Section
- See Behind the Scenes of Some of the Furniture Industry's Greatest Designs
- Benjamin Bratton on Artificial Intelligence, Language and "The New Normal"
- Rachel Whiteread Wins 2017 Ada Louise Huxtable Prize
- EDF Campus / ecdm
| LB House / Shachar- Rozenfeld architects Posted: 09 Feb 2017 07:00 PM PST  © Shai Epstein
 © Shai Epstein From the architect. The house is built on a narrow trapezoid lot, bordering a small green public park with ancient Eucalyptus trees. The clients wanted the park to be seen as a continuation of their own private garden – The house was designed in an "L" shape to wrap around the swimming pool, facing the public park.  © Shai Epstein The longer side of the house (28 meters) contains the living room, the dining area and the kitchen, while the shorter side contains the bedroom. The connection between the two sides is a double space containing the lobby.  © Shai Epstein  Ground Floor  © Shai Epstein Vitrines are installed throughout the inner side of the house, enabling a direct connection with the outdoors. Additionally, to provide maximal openness, the vitrines are disconnected from the columns.  © Shai Epstein Glass corners in the living room and bedrooms are free of any constructive elements to allow full access to the garden.  © Shai Epstein  Detail  © Shai Epstein To soften the overall look of the large building so that it feels as if it's a part of the neighborhood, the house was designed as two separate masses, one on top of the other, with the first floor being shorter than the ground floor, creating a kind of ridge. On this floor are four children's suits with rooftop balconies. Two suits on each side of the house are connected with a bridge. The bridge goes across the double space of the lobby overlooking the entrance on one side and the swimming pool on the other.  © Shai Epstein The basement has two additional children's suits facing the well-lit English courtyard and the home theater.  © Shai Epstein Careful attention was given to the climate and choice of materials. The northern (back) facade is open and coated in Cedar wood, while the southern (front) facade is more enclosed, with electrical vertical louvers that allow for better climate control, with the option to close or open it as they see fit.  © Shai Epstein  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Expoforum Convention and Exhibition Centre / SPEECH Posted: 09 Feb 2017 06:00 PM PST  © Dmitry Chebanenko
 © Dmitry Chebanenko Built to a design by Yevgeny Gerasimov and Partners, Tchoban Voss, and SPEECH, Expoforum is one of the largest exhibition and convention centres in the world. It is situated 10 minutes' drive from Pulkovo Airport on a site bounded by Peterburgskoe shosse, Pulkovo Reservoir, and residential buildings belonging to a large farm. The main idea behind the project is to concentrate on a territory of 56.21 hectares all the infrastructure needed for holding major exhibitions and conventions to international standards; the complex was built in particular as the home of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, an event which attracts more and more participants with each passing year. The complex comprises: 100,000 sq. m. of exhibition space, a 3000-seat congress hall, Hilton and Hampton by Hilton hotels (3 and 4stars), car parks, an independent transport and shipping centre, and utilities infrastructure.  © Dmitry Chebanenko  © Dmitry Chebanenko The high-rise part of the convention centre, the hotels, and two business centres are linked by and stand on a gentle arc, which forms the Expoforum's main façade overlooking the main road. Perpendicular to the façade are the auditoria of the convention centre and three exhibition pavilions connected by a passage with an undulating roof featuring circular skylights. The façades of the pavilions are decorated with photographic prints on ceramic panels showing views of St Petersburg.  © Dmitry Chebanenko  Functional Scheme  © Dmitry Chebanenko Expoforum is in a striking modernist style. Its distinguishing feature is the amber colour of the facades, a colour which is maintained irrespective of the material used. The overall style is based on the rhythmic patterns of window openings, the colour scheme used for the spaces between the windows, and the character of the glazing.  © Dmitry Chebanenko  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Pearl Marzouq Complex / PAD10 Architects Posted: 09 Feb 2017 02:00 PM PST  © Sylvette Blaimont
 © Sylvette Blaimont Of resemblance to the social housing typology, Pearl-Marzouq complex, 'Lou'lou'at Al-Marzouq', embodied the complete opposite; a private housing for the affluent. Built in the early 70's on al-Ras, a peninsula-like landform; with remoteness from the city center, al-Deira, yet at a distance close enough to be gazed at. With its red roof tiles and warm sandstone walls, the building infused a Mediterranean feel to the Arabian Gulf. For white collar expats partaking in the spur of Kuwait's economy, it was home away from home. Similarly, it was convincing for well-to-do locals to substitute the privacy of their single residences, seeking a new 'urbanized' experience, by claiming their prime villa-like duplexes and penthouses with an elevated vantage point back to the city and its sea. The excitement inherent to this dense typology, was further amplified by subverting the building law to equate the number of floors to skip-stop elevator corridors. Connecting midway to duplex apartments, the area (sqm) was almost doubled, as the building height from its surrounding.  © Sylvette Blaimont  Floor Plan  © Sylvette Blaimont With the changing zoning laws seeking higher density, more than 50% of the modernist structures have been razed in al-Ras in the past decade. PAD10, prior to being hired, advocated to raise awareness towards the architectural value of the project and started a community blog in this regard. What made this building stand aside from its peers then, made it escape demolition now, with a built-up-area still relevant somehow.  © Sylvette Blaimont Pearl Marzouq retooling by PAD10 comprised architecture, landscaping, interior, alongside with branding, signage and wayfinding for the 40,000sqm project, on 11,000sqm plot of land.  Section After Pearl Marzouq once encroached on public property with its pool directly touching the sea, it now re-integrates with its surroundings by publicizing its once private courtyard. The central courtyard, 'al-howsh', was raised to meet the 'artificial ground' of the perimeter plinth and be one with the commercial pilotis floor, thus doubling its frontage. Raising the ground was mostly achieved by compacting demolished debris from facades openings and other demolition operations on the site. The new central courtyard design hold remnants from what was there; the pool pit was filled with soil for large trees, concrete troughs syncopated the building structural bays, the perimeter of the pool structure, and the inset concrete pods. A series of hyperbolic HDPE tensile membranes span between buildings, and are supported by them, to shade the courtyard from Kuwait's sun.  © Sylvette Blaimont A C-shaped residential block flanks a central glass pavilion to the south, along the main road. The pavilion is reprogrammed as a main reception area, thus re-orienting and refocusing the once disparate access points to the different blocks into a main one through the central courtyard.  Axonometric  Axonometric 128 apartments of varied typologies; duplex units and multiple size penthouse units. The nine-storey residential buildings are sectionally composed of four duplex apartments topped by a penthouse floor. With a skip-stop elevator, the building section and façade reflect a richness in staggering the various internal conditions. The external sandstone façades are overlaid by expanded aluminum mesh to hold the aging sandstone in place, without concealment. The apartments' reconfiguration and façade treatment reclaimed the breath-taking views all around. In the apartments, 'bay-windows' in the bedrooms were achieved by V-shaped balconies and relocating the closet spaces away from the façade.  © Sylvette Blaimont Product Description.  © Sylvette Blaimont • PAD10 'mist pole', by Diamante To mitigate outdoor living conditions, with harsh Kuwait heat, PAD10 devised a network of 'mist poles' within the central courtyard, with mist nozzles at two levels; a lower one close to the ground to cool the basalt tiles during off-hours, and a high one above the crowd level to cool their days and evenings. These two sets of nozzles work independently at different hours of the day. Simultaneously, they are topped by a lighting LED tube to light the courtyard. PAD10 designed the fixture and Diamante, Italy, fabricated it.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 09 Feb 2017 12:00 PM PST  © unTAG
 © unTAG From the architect. Vrindavan is a modest 1000 sq.ft farmhouse, nestled within a 2.5 acre farm, true to its mythological Sanskrit meaning - a grove. It is a retirement home for a couple in their 60s, in their native village, Ozram, Maharashtra, India, on a quiet farm treasured by them as a hobby over past 15 years with plantations of mango, cashew, chickoo, jackfruit, and palms. Their only brief was, a humble abode close to nature. Their only constraint, an exacting budget of Rs. 10 lacs (appx. 15000 USD), which meant building the house at 15 USD/sq.ft.  © unTAG We aspired to design an indigenous cost effective house, relatable to the human scale, where experience of inhabiting was to be prioritized over a monumental form.  Plan On our first site visit, we found a dead mango tree on a well-defined 20 feet grid of mango and chickoo plantation. Instinctively, we felt the house would sit perfectly here, within a dense grove, opening up to a distant hillock view. The House had to grab the views of the lush green tree canopies, establishing an indoor-outdoor connect yet retain privacy in parts. The House was designed as a series of 12' wide descending spaces from a private bedroom & bath space to a cross-ventilated spacious Living to a verandah, trailed by an open deck, overlooking the hillock. The Living and Bedroom merge into one, during the day time, giving a sense of a bigger modular living space. The entry to the house is marked through a thin, see-through vestibule, connecting the main house to the kitchen. The kitchen has a service court for the desi chullah (a rural hob), which is enclosed by a stone jali, shading the court while magically transforming the space throughout the day. The house gradually steps down, following the site topography, concluding into a 14' high, ridged volume of the verandah, offering a serene sunset view behind the distant mountains.  © unTAG  Isometric Chira (laterite), a cost-effective indigenous stone procured from a quarry 3 kms away, is the body of the house, used as the main load bearing structural element. Chira, a porous stone, laid using lime and cement mortar behaves like an earthenware. It keeps the internal temperature distinctively 4-5 degrees lower than the outdoors in the harsh tropical summer, also bravely withstanding the fierce westerly monsoon prevalent in the konkan belt. Shade, an inherent part of a tropical house, was ensured through large overhangs from locally available terracotta roof tiles, supported on a metal sloping roof structure. The door-windows were crafted from salvaged local teak and jackfruit wood, bought at a nominal price, by reusing the rafters of a dismantled old Hindu temple from a nearby village. The Floor and internal walls have been lined with indian Kotah stone, adding another layer of heat insulation from the scorching sun. The Client's old unused furniture was altered and reused for the Living. A balance between the optimal use of local materials and reuse of existing assets has eventually led us to design-build this sustainable house.  © unTAG The delight of being able to pluck a mango from your window, sip a cup of tea while watching the sunset through a filter of green canopies, is an experience the Clients cherish. This house is NOT about how it looks, but about what it overlooks and how it feels once inside it. It is about a seamless connect between this modest abode and an orchard lovingly nurtured by the Clients over the past 15 years.  © unTAG  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| William M. Lowman Concert Hall / Sander Architects Posted: 09 Feb 2017 11:00 AM PST  © Sharon Risedorph Photography
 © Sharon Risedorph Photography From the architect. The design for the William M. Lowman Concert Hall grew from the desire of the client to create a concert hall worthy of the talents of the students at the school, Idyllwild Arts—one of the country's top three High Schools for the Arts. The student body draws from dozens of countries and students go on to every major orchestra, school and program in the world. Sander Architects proposed a site at the heart of campus to repurpose an unsightly parking lot, thereby creating a central campus quad and gathering space for the school community.  © Sharon Risedorph Photography This project uses Sander Architects' Hybrid Construction, a type of construction conceived by the firm that combines a prefabricated structural system with custom design. By using prefabricated metal frames to build the most expensive structural components at a fraction of typical costs, the client's budget can go much further. Since the light-gauge steel building typically spans dozens or hundreds of feet, it was perfectly suited for this application. Other components, such as the building skin, finishes, and layout of spaces are custom designed.  © Sharon Risedorph Photography  Floor Plan  © Sharon Risedorph Photography The Concert Hall is sheathed in rusted Cor-Ten panels. The panels have an irregular topography derived from an abstracted musical phrase. This skin alludes to the music within the hall and to the landscape of folded rock and granite that makes up the surrounding mountains. It also blends harmoniously with other buildings on campus  © Sharon Risedorph Photography The entrance lobby to the hall has soaring ceilings from which hang dozens of white globe lights. They create a celestial effect and have a subtle dance as they move in cross breezes created when the sliding glass doors open the front corner of the space.  © Sharon Risedorph Photography From the start, Sander Architects collaborated with the acousticians to maximize the acoustical brilliance of the hall. Architect Whitney Sander was inspired by the forest of trees surrounding the campus and the manner in which they all reach for the sky, for the light, and yet each one grows slightly off vertical. He designed the 4 x 8 wood ribs, that arch up the sides and across the ceiling of the hall, to evoke these trees—and this erratic pattern was perfect to scatter sound and create cleaner acoustics for the performers.  © Sharon Risedorph Photography The stage is able to accommodate a full symphony orchestra and chorus, as well as jazz concerts and chamber music performances. The hall seats 298 audience members and includes a lobby, restrooms, green room, mechanical space and musical instrument storage space.  © Sharon Risedorph Photography Product Description. One of the project's principal materials is its pre-engineered metal building frame. These frames, which are made of light-gauge steel, are typically used in warehouse construction and can be produced at a fraction of the cost of typical steel framing. They can also accommodate large spans, allowing Sander Architects great flexibility to create a custom design within and around them, as seen in the William M. Lowman Concert Hall. This system has been so useful in the firm's various projects that they have coined the description "part pre-fab, all custom™" to describe their hybrid construction work.  © Sharon Risedorph Photography  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Canterbury Road Residence / B.E Architecture Posted: 09 Feb 2017 09:00 AM PST  © Peter Clarke
 © Peter Clarke From the architect. Like a naturally occurring trilithon found in rock formations, the Canterbury Road Residence is made up of three simple structures, clad in rough lavastone stacked to form a contemplative passageway. The separation between the forms is made apparent as though they are three large boulders leaning on one another. The organic nature of the hand laid stone walls draws one from the street into the heart of the house; the upper level forms the lentil over the entry.  © Peter Clarke While the tonal variation in the natural stone across the scale of the building has a strong presence, the lavastone used on the building is derived from a similar volcanic process as the bluestone used in Melbourne's streets so it sits comfortably in the context. The fine flush glazing details and mirrored glass reflects the surrounds to emphasized solidity of the stone counterpart.  © Peter Clarke Situated along a busy street, the façade presents an outward face, yet the interior spaces are unexpectedly private and inward looking. The mirrored glass protects the occupants from overlooking aspect from neighbours without need for shutters. The stonework is evident in many sightlines through the house and intimate planted courtyards are scattered throughout including a fish pond at the entry and a planted terrace adjacent to the master ensuite. Building on a more textural experience, the interior spaces use render, travertine and dark timber which are highlighted by the natural lighting from courtyards and skylights.  © Peter Clarke  © Peter Clarke  © Peter Clarke The smaller urban block, incorporates a dense, uncompromised program to accommodate a growing family including food storeroom to hang traditional salami, an elevator to accommodate a disabled relative and a terrace with pool and BBQ.  © Peter Clarke  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 3XN Architects Wins Competition for New Aquatic Center in Sweden Posted: 09 Feb 2017 08:10 AM PST  Winter View. Image Courtesy of 3XN 3XN Architects has been announced as the winners of a competition to design a new aquatic center along Tinnerbäck Lake in Linköping, Sweden, beating out entries from Zaha Hadid Architects, Erséus Arkitekter, Henning Larsen Architects and Liljewall Arkitekter. Titled "Vågen"(The Wave), the winning scheme looks to become a hybrid between city and lake, connecting the urban fabric to the water in both form and function.  Interior. Image Courtesy of 3XN The form of the building draws from the motion of waves washing ashore, with curving curtain walls undulating along the lakefront. As the landscape rises up from the lake, the building masses step up naturally to meet the raised ground of the city. An office tower continues up several levels on the north-eastern corner, avoiding any shadows being cast on the lakefront or the entry plaza in front of the building. "We envisioned a building where the architecture gives hints of its functionality, the waveform in the façade as well as the large panoramic windows blur the boundary between pools inside and lake outside," said Kim Herforth Nielsen, founder and principal 3XN Architects.  Summer View. Image Courtesy of 3XN In front of the building, a new plaza will provide access to the building as well as entrances to several new restaurants. A double-height lobby space will welcome visitors and allow for simple navigation of the building functions and its four different pool areas.  Interior. Image Courtesy of 3XN All of the building elements are connected through its facade, which will feature a sinuous wooden screen passing over large panoramic windows that open up views to the lake. Also employing a wood structure, 3XN selected the material for its strength to weight ratio, as well as its environmental qualities. "As a building material wood is recyclable, highly durable and provides an aesthetic quality and warm feeling to the building" says Kim Herforth Nielsen. According to the jury statement, 3XN's proposal was selected for "perfectly captur[ing] the scale of Linköping. Construction on the estimated € 80 million ($85 million) project will begin in September 2017 and is expected to complete in 2021.  Courtesy of 3XN  Courtesy of 3XN  Courtesy of 3XN  Courtesy of 3XN  Courtesy of 3XN  Courtesy of 3XN  Courtesy of 3XN News via 3XN.
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| Clinic Bellavista / Carlos Martinez Architekten Posted: 09 Feb 2017 07:00 AM PST  © Petra Rainer
 © Petra Rainer From the architect. The design of the Ophthalmic Clinic was focused around importance of the historic heritage of the site. Wherein the battle of Vögelinsegg in 1403, the people from Appenzell, Switzerland attained their independence. Out of this significance, a rock-like volume was developed that reminds of the steadiness of earlier times.  © Daniel Ammann The building towers neatly above the terrain edge and opens itself towards the lake of Constance. Despite its remarkable size, the black-coloured building represses itself and at the same time follows the slope's topography with three kinks. The stacked surface of the dark pigmented fair-faced concrete strengthens the stone-liked character of the house form. The compactness of the building dematerializes in the middle part through a horizontally running window belt. The entire hospital is located in this section. The glazing provides a rhythmical structuring of the façade and gives the building a clear appearance and a kind of lightness. All rooms for therapy and patients as well as the new equipped OPs are located in the north and provide outlooks without conceding insights. Room-high windows offer natural lightning conditions and visually draw in the environment into the inside of the building. Electronic tintable glass can be used at the push of a button and allow – especially for sensitive eyes – to dim out the room.  © Petra Rainer  Ground Floor  © Adrien Barakat Four exquisite luxury apartments are located on the top of the hospital. There you can find the same architectural language of a reduced palette of materials and strong relations between inside and outside.  © Petra Rainer The building exceeds through a stunning sequence of rooms and a coherent formal and substanced expression. The clinic is in service since October 2016 and is a successful example of how a structure directly addresses the conditions of the task and the challenges of the site. In addition to the interplay between history and contemporary, most importantly it is the outstanding quality that makes the hospital an extraordinary building.  © Petra Rainer Product Description. The stacked surface of the dark pigmented fair-faced concrete strengthens the stone-liked character of the form.The horizontally running window belt in the north provides a rhythmical structuring of the façade and gives the building a clear appearance and a kind of lightness. The entire hospital is located in this section. Room-high windows offer natural lightning conditions and visually draw in the environment into the inside of the building. Electronic tintable glass can be used at the push of a button and allow – especially for sensitive eyes – to dim out the room.  © Petra Rainer  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| See How Flexible, Superthin Glass is Produced Posted: 09 Feb 2017 06:15 AM PST Superthin, flexible glass sounds like something out of a fantasy world – but in fact, it's something many of us already use everyday as screens for our smartphones and watches. In this video from the Science Channel's How It's Made, the intricate process for creating this material, produced by glass manufacturer Schott, is revealed. Watch as the components of the glass are carefully measured out and blended before being melted and reformed into ultrathin sheets. While the glass is already being used in many practical applications, the architectural potential of these materials is just now beginning to be explored. With high electric conductivity and flexibility, superthin glass is currently being tested on items such as rollable tvs and digital newspapers that would have the sensation of a traditional paper and all the capabilities of a tablet. Scaled up, larger scale architectural applications could include "living" partition walls that bend and react digitally to a person's presence, or screens that are designed into the architecture of a building, rather than slapped onto its facade. Check out the videos here to get inspired by the latest in material innovation, and explore the full range of glass materials in our product catalogue, here:  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Fire Station #5 / STGM Architectes + CCM2 Architectes Posted: 09 Feb 2017 05:00 AM PST  © Stéphane Groleau
 © Stéphane Groleau From the architect. Located in the borough of Pintendre on the outskirts of Lévis, the new 1,500 sq. m. fire station houses eight fire trucks. The concept developed by the architects began with a splitting of the station's functions, which can be seen by the different volume heights between the garage and the living spaces.  © Alexandre Guérin The contemporary building is simple in its form and in the materials used, with black aluminum cladding punctuated by silver parts and large glass sections. The entrances are marked by small wooden boxes that continue inside the fire station. These boxes are scaled down in contrast to the rest of the building to bring it closer to a human scale.  © Stéphane Groleau The interior has been designed to maximise the workspaces and living spaces. The garage has an abundance of windows that provide pleasing natural light and views of the rural setting. Offices and conference rooms are located at the front, while the living room and kitchen area are at the back of the building for more intimacy. The interior with its white surfaces has a calm and relaxing effect.  © Stéphane Groleau  Plan  © Stéphane Groleau Product Description. For the client an economy of means was of the essence. This inspired the architects to develop an elegant and contemporary form using simple materials like aluminum cladding. The main black volume is accentuated by wooden boxes to mark the entrances.  © Stéphane Groleau  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Architects Speak Out on Lack of Female Speakers at AIA National Convention Posted: 09 Feb 2017 04:15 AM PST  Orlando's Orange County Convention Center will play host to the 2017 AIA National Conference. Image © Flickr user billmorrow. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 A group of over 50 architects, firms and architecture students has spoken out at the lack of female representation among the keynote speakers selected for the 2017 AIA National Convention. Of the seven keynotes lectures to be given over the conference's three days, just one will be led by a woman, and none by a female architect. In a letter sent to the Architect's Newspaper, the group calls for the AIA to reevaluate the conference program, and to consider selecting participants more "reflective of the diversity in architecture." The letter also questions the organization's dedication to upholding the values outlined in the diversity and inclusion statement listed on their website, suggesting the statement does not go far enough to promote the work of the organization's diverse membership. This year's conference will take place from April 27-29 in Orlando's Orange County Convention Center. The selected keynote speakers for the 2017 conference include 2016 Pritzker Prize winner Alejandro Aravena, architect Francis Kéré, MASS Design Group co-founder Michael Murphy, graphic designer and Pentagram partner Michael Bierut, Dan Goods and David Delgado from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and social psychologist Amy Cuddy. The controversy can be viewed as the AIA's second misstep in recent months, following a poorly-received letter of support for the Trump administration that resulted in the organization releasing an official apology video and a $1 million commitment to boosting diversity within the profession. You can read the letter in its entirety at the Architect's Newspaper, here. News via Architect's Newspaper.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Crow's Nest / AR Design Studio Posted: 09 Feb 2017 03:00 AM PST  © Martin Gardner
 © Martin Gardner AR Design Studio was approached by the clients who were looking to extend their holiday home on a cliff top on the South Coast. Half way through the planning process, the existing house catastrophically broke in half one night during a landslip.  First Floor Plan AR Design Studio was then tasked with designing a completely new home; the idea of movement and fracturing formed the backbone of the concept. Working closely with engineers Eckersley O'Callaghan, an imaginative structural solution was proposed to prevent future failure. A concrete slab was built into the ground, a series of strategically placed dwarf walls were then built on top of it. A floating structural frame was then laid on top of the walls to act as an adjustable raft in case of future movement. Beneath the frame, there are specific places for mechanical jacks to be positioned so that the house can be securely re-levelled.  © Martin Gardner The design concept starts as a traditional cabin-like-form that then splits, twists and rotates, resulting in four pods. The outcome is a beautifully haphazard rough-sawn larch clad house that silhouettes against the wooded backdrop. The clearly defined entrance pod, the smallest of the four, guides you through the hallway into the central pod; the main living space comprising of kitchen, dining and living room. The extensive sliding glass draws one into the stunning coastline setting, with uninterrupted views of the English Channel beyond a floating timber deck. The tower pod houses the large open plan master suite, situated on the first floor above a children's bedroom, utility room and shower room on the ground floor. The right-hand pod, at the opposite end of the house, consists of the guest quarters; a bedroom, two bunk rooms, and a bathroom. This entire section of the house can be closed off when not required.  © Martin Gardner The result is a playful and calm space for the owners to enjoy weekends with family and friends whilst taking in the spectacular and isolated location in which it sits.  © Martin Gardner Client Testimonial  © Martin Gardner  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 09 Feb 2017 01:30 AM PST  The ramp connecting Chicago's Millennium Park to the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago "is a great example of something beautifully designed and functional at the same time.". Image © Renzo Piano Building Workshop The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed in 1990, had sweeping consequences for all persons with disabilities as well as all those in the building and construction industries, especially architects. In 2015, its 25th anniversary was commemorated with special events in cities and states across the USA. Yet despite the ADA's widespread impact on the built environment, few schools of architecture have full-time design studio faculty with disabilities to teach their students about accessibility first-hand. I am most fortunate to teach at one of those schools and to have had Carl Lewis as a longtime colleague at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We have known each other ever since he first enrolled in my graduate seminar, and our friendship spans well over a quarter century, just like the ADA. The milestone anniversary of the ADA, my ongoing research on diversity, personal experiences with family members with disabilities, and numerous occasions reviewing students' design studio projects alongside Carl prompted me to interview him and to share his expertise with ArchDaily readers. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign played a major role in sparking the disability rights movement thanks to the pioneering work of Tim Nugent (1923-2015), a visionary who spearheaded the goal of enabling persons with disabilities full and equal access to attend the university and whose programs and ideas served as models for colleges and universities around the world. Following in Nugent's footsteps, Carl is also creating his own lasting legacy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as on the national stage. Having taught at Illinois for over two decades, he has had a profound influence on a generation of students. He is founder and principal of Access Solution Group, a consulting firm on access and recreational design. His special expertise and longtime advocacy for accessibility led to his appointment by President Bill Clinton to the Architecture and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, USATBCB also known as the US Access Board from 1996-2004.  Carl Lewis. Image Courtesy of Kathryn Anthony Kathryn Anthony: Many argue that we've come a long way since the passage of the ADA back in 1990, and yet we still have a long way to go. In what ways and why? Carl Lewis: Let me go back to what the ADA was intended to do. It's a civil rights bill with the minimum standards for accessibility being stipulated in the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG). The act says if an individual is unable to pursue employment, education, and recreation opportunities because of barriers in the built environment that person is being discriminated against by denying them their civil rights guaranteed by the US Constitution. So, what that means is basically the enforcement of it is complaint driven, meaning that someone has to say that they're being discriminated against for the law to act. The individual has to file a complaint through one of the two enforcement agencies, the Department of Justice (DoJ) or the Department of Transportation. More than likely, the DoJ will address the complaint via an investigation, and if the allegations are founded, it is forwarded to the Federal court system for further review and enforcement. So in that lies the problem. It is already an arduous process that can easily become bogged down by frivolous and unnecessary claims. In so doing, the legitimate claims are unable to be resolved. We've made miraculous strides towards accessibility over the years, but the ADA is a living document that is revised, nurtured and built upon continuously. It takes a long time for those revisions and changes to be enacted. Case in point is the 2010 revision, which was started over 25 years ago and was just enforceable during the Obama administration.  via The US Access Board (image in public domain) KA: I bet most architectural students, educators, and practitioners are unaware of the battles that take place behind the scenes every time the ADAAG is revised. And you've had some unique professional experiences, in particular your appointment by President Bill Clinton to serve on the Access Board for two terms (1996-2004) that have given you an insider's view of the evolution of the ADA. What was that like for you? CL: Overall, it was a phenomenal experience because I was able to interact with very bright people, bipartisan in nature and mission oriented! It was a great honor to have been appointed, then reappointed for a second term and finally when I was voted to the vice-chairship by the committee as a whole. Although the 2004 revisions were passed by the Access Board at that time, the road to enforcement was indeed a rocky one. The second Bush administration was not an advocate of enforcement. It wasn't until the Obama administration that the passage of those revisions were implemented, as the 2010 ADAAG revisions. I learned many political lessons during my tenure with the Access Board, one of which was in my capacity as chair of the executive committee. I saw to it that those revisions were passed, which in turn motivated the second Bush administration to find a loophole to terminate my position a year early that circumvented my ascension to the chairship.  via The US Access Board (image in public domain) KA: In light of over 25 years since the passage of the ADA to what extent do you think a) architects, b) architectural educators, and c) architecture students are keeping the best interests of persons with disabilities in mind in their designs? CL: Accessibility is often an afterthought. But these issues should be included in the architectural dialogue right from the beginning. Access should be integrated into the curriculum at every level, with a greater emphasis at the upper level. In the teaching of architecture, program, circulation, egress, environmental systems, and structure are all part of the learning process. Though in my estimation, accessibility standards sometimes get lost – they are not part of the pre-design learning experience. My major concern is that architects and students do not have an understanding of where these rules come from, i.e. how people with disabilities impact architectural space. I go on to ask questions like: Where does the 5-foot turning radius come from? Where does the 18-inch clearance on the latch side of the door come from? What about the 1:12 slope for ramps? And then I go on to say how do all of these rules impact trends in aging people with disabilities, trends like use of power-assisted chairs and scooters? What impact do these appliances have on the use or implementation of these rules? In my opinion there is not an understanding of how people with disabilities function in space.  via The US Access Board (image in public domain) KA: What are some of the most glaring, most common mistakes regarding designing for accessibility that you see architects, architectural educators, and architecture students continuing to make? And how can these be corrected? CL: I think the biggest mistake is that they don't understand that compliance is just the basic standard – and they should always go beyond it. For example, consider a ramp that is designed to meet the 1 to 12 criteria – by understanding that people with disabilities use their appliances differently, based on the circumstance. Perhaps consider how simply decreasing the slope further will make it easier for a user if they are carrying something, or adapting to weather conditions.  via The US Access Board (image in public domain) KA: It has to do with the scale at which students are required to present their work. What scale is best? CL: The answer is the human scale. KA: How well or how poorly do our current codes meet the wide-ranging needs of persons with disabilities? CL: The current code's primary function was to allow wheelchair users to function in that space independently, with the intent that future revisions would become more comprehensive. This fosters the need for research to be completed to better understand how individuals with other types of disabilities, or multiple disabilities function in the built environment. In essence, in over 25 years with the influx of modern day combat injuries, medical/technological advancements and aging the limitations of the codes have become more apparent.  via The US Access Board (image in public domain) KA: Have you seen any ramps that look architecturally intriguing but that do not work? If so where? CL: A ramp is a ramp is a ramp. I'm not an advocate that a ramp should be used for anything other than vertical circulation. When the impetus for the ramp shifts to prioritize aesthetics over function; problems can arise. In that regard, the Guggenheim ramp doesn't work because it's unsettling to sit cross slope for viewing purposes. In some cases, people can't do that, which warrants it to be unusable. !["The Guggenheim [Museum New York] ramp doesn't work because it's unsettling to sit cross slope for viewing purposes". Image © <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guggenheim_flw_show.jpg'>Wikimedia user Wallygva</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en'>CC BY-SA 3.0</a>](https://lh3-testonly.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_voo2UFHIKVhMZNGWMFgZxzYRiSZ70Hs30mUZlp3kWXSPP0c_u15oA1m6Xp_gVWhftczRkAJc4RhaE0zdfn5DrQxV5_tf2nelJLyGsfaIR4LT6_GxLaTXcLHR7pG3PguUPUZsYlFK8VIwn50MRA0XquSUw7V97UtgMpu_tCTwI_m-LYXEbtTXL9PrYNhsAZzZXqacE=s0-d "\"The Guggenheim [Museum New York] ramp doesn't work because it's unsettling to sit cross slope for viewing purposes\". Image © <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guggenheim_flw_show.jpg'>Wikimedia user Wallygva</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en'>CC BY-SA 3.0</a>") "The Guggenheim [Museum New York] ramp doesn't work because it's unsettling to sit cross slope for viewing purposes". Image © <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guggenheim_flw_show.jpg'>Wikimedia user Wallygva</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en'>CC BY-SA 3.0</a> KA: What about a beautifully designed ramp that works exceptionally well? CL: The Renzo Piano bridge that connects the Art Institute of Chicago and Millennium Park is a great example of something beautifully designed and functional at the same time. I think it's a classic example that an accessible design doesn't need to be institutional and ugly. It can enhance the aesthetics of the building.  This elevation of the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago shows the gently-sloping bridge that connects to Millennium Park.. Image © Renzo Piano Building Workshop KA: Persons with disabilities encompass a vast, diverse group of the population. Which type of disabilities do you think are BEST and WORST served by current building codes, how, and why? CL: Best served groups are manual wheelchair users. I think the least served are people with severe or multiple disabilities or aging that need power assisted wheelchairs or scooters and survivors of modern day combat: traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, and visual impairments. Kathryn H. Anthony, Ph.D., is ACSA Distinguished Professor in the School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she has taught for the past 33 years. She is the author of Defined by Design: The Surprising Power of Hidden Gender, Age, and Body Bias in Everyday Products and Places (due out in March 2017); Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession; and Design Juries on Trial: The Renaissance of the Design Studio and over 100 publications.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| House 669 / HelgessonGonzaga Arkitekter Posted: 09 Feb 2017 01:00 AM PST  © Mikael Olsson
 © Mikael Olsson "House 669" is an expression of the customers dream of getting their own house on a low budget and within a set fabrication process. The context is typical of many mid-sized Swedish towns contemporary development. The plot is prepared for fast and cost-effective construction of a catalogue house. Building your own home here normally comes down to the choice of a style.  Spatial Concept "House 669" lands in this context, neighbouring the neofunctional look and across the street a modern mansion sitting on a plot of 600 m2. It is a house built in collaboration with a local catalogue house manufacturer, but sustains the pursuit of living in an environment that supports the families everyday life, including work, play, social life and rest. The volume is archetypical, like a quick drawing of a house. 1 1/2 levels and open to the ridge, it provides a variety of spaces.  © Mikael Olsson  Section  © Mikael Olsson By stripping away the standard materials (3-strip parquet, plasterboard ceilings, laminate window sills etc.) often found in catalogue houses, "House 669" achieve a more tactile material palette. Three coloured "islands" divide the ground floor which becomes the scene for social life, while structurally supporting the private rooms upstairs.  © Mikael Olsson  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Why We're Removing Our Comments Section Posted: 09 Feb 2017 12:15 AM PST  In both of ArchDaily's last two major website redesigns, one idea was central to our thinking: Mies van der Rohe's aphorism "less is more." These redesigns added new features, sure - but more importantly, they identified extraneous features on the site and removed them. Today, on February 9th 2017, we are removing one more feature that we no longer believe to be necessary on ArchDaily: comments on certain articles. All comments previously left on our articles will still be visible, preserving the many positive contributions left by our readers over the years. But from today, we will be gradually shifting the discussion to social media, leaving comments open only on News and Editorial articles while the option to comment on Projects, Events, Competitions and Publications articles will be removed. Instead, we encourage readers to take part in the discussions happening on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or to get in touch through our contact form for direct feedback or substantive comments about our articles. Read on to understand the reasons behind our decision. ArchDaily was born at the dawn of the Web 2.0, a great milestone for the internet, which enabled bi-directional communication between users and the web. Not only did it enable us to self-publish ArchDaily, but it created a space for architects to engage in enriching discussions. This section of the website grew quickly, and it enabled architects from around the world to share ideas, to exchange information, to ask questions, to offer useful critique, and of course, to troll. And it became our (ever-growing) task to engage in and moderate discussions. However, social networks and their capacity to host online discussion have surpassed any of the expectations we could have held 9 years ago, offering a new interactive space for the exchange of ideas and opinions. Along with this growth, we saw the slow decline in the quality and frequency of comments per post. Today, we actively acknowledge that social networks are the place to discuss architecture, as we have seen on our Facebook page and other networks, where one's online identity creates a more civilized atmosphere for discussion. As always, we will continue to adapt to the changes of the internet to deliver you inspiration and knowledge in the best way possible. So goodbye comments - long live the comments!  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| See Behind the Scenes of Some of the Furniture Industry's Greatest Designs Posted: 09 Feb 2017 12:00 AM PST It is difficult to understand and quantify the importance of design in our lives. However, when we take a closer look at the pieces that inspire and transform our daily life, innovative furniture brings us new ways of seeing the world, further enhancing the meaning of simple concepts like beauty, comfort, and quality. Herman Miller brings these three concepts, along with the latest technology and sustainability in the manufacture of his pieces. Furniture that’s signed by big names like Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Girard and Isay Weinfeld. The end product is flawless in every way, but understanding the process behind them is an even more interesting experience. Below, learn more about how one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the world thinks and operates. From the project’s conception to various studies on the way we experience spaces, manufacturing, and testing of the pieces, up until the finished product. History and DesignDJ. De Pree worked as an employee at Michigan Star Furniture Company starting in 1909. In 1923, his father-in-law, Herman Miller, gave him a loan to buy the company. In honor of that gesture, De Pree named the company after him. De Pree was a great visionary and in 1948 invited the designer George Nelson, who created Heman Miller’s very first collection. From that point on, the brand became known for its "modern" furniture. Nelson was also responsible for bringing in big names like Charles and Ray Eames and Isamu Noguchi, as well as Alexander Girard, Robert Propst, Don Chadwick, Ayse Birsel, Studio 7.5, Yves Behar and many others who helped produce pieces that would become classics in industrial design. The company became well known for creating only high quality furniture, real heirlooms due to their durability and quality. Here, the designs aren’t intended to fit the aesthetic trends of the market. Products are released after an average of two to three years of development to make them stand alone on their own merit.  Ergonomic Study To this day, more traditional designs are revisited as inspiration for new projects or to be reinvented, and improved according to new technologies. For example, the Aeron chair, which has been recently updated.  Aeron Chair Living OfficeHaving left the ages of industry and information behind, today we live the era of ideas and the way of working has changed. Our jobs no longer consist of just sitting at an individual desk; Now it’s about sharing information and growing globally. With the advancement of technology, the work never ends and now we can do it from anywhere. The challenge that then arises is how to attract people to the office? After a great investment and much research, Herman Miller came up with a response and created the Living Office concept. One of the main conclusions of the study is that the happier people are in their workplace, the more they produce. That may sound obvious, but office projects typically don't treat this with any importance.  © Victor Delaqua  © Victor Delaqua It’s essential to understand the clients’ culture and their habits to design the ideal configuration for each company’s reality, generating a new landscape in work areas, putting the human being back at the company’s center. For this to take effect, it is important that the furniture not only is seen as a comfortable element but also as something that can influence how we interact and work with each other every day. For example, the Locale line allows people sitting at a meeting table to look into the eyes of people who walk by the window and be at the same height as someone who is standing up giving a presentation, breaking down hierarchies.  Via Herman Miller  © Victor Delaqua Instead of sitting at their own desk, a person can choose where to work according to the task at hand: in a closed room, having coffee or sharing a table with other colleagues, or even standing. All of these options can provide a more pleasant and humane work experience. Offering different opportunities for employees in their offices is a gesture that improves daily life at a company so that each person produces more and feels more important in the space. It only takes a person nine seconds to decide whether or not they like an environment. An attractive space is fundamental to a company’s image when closing a deal or attracting good employees. With all this in mind, Herman Miller developed a set of tools that help the architect, through various data and experiments, to determine the best space for each type of client - in addition to a line of furniture that fits this concept perfectly.  © Victor Delaqua Manufacturing and ProductionThe “GreenHouse”, a Herman Miller factory, adopted the Toyota Production System, which makes the assembly process faster while creating less waste. The production line allows chairs to be ready in less than a minute. The Aeron model, for example, takes only 21 seconds to be assembled and finished. The production line is constantly being improved, working to identify and eliminate possible issues. When it comes to assembling wood pieces, keeping in mind the raw material and its nature ensures that each product is unique. The design can be the same, but the finish comes with different nuances of textures, both in wood and leather, which makes them one of a kind. Vice President of Product Design, Gary Smith, highlights the importance of experience through flaws. One of the greatest examples of this is the testing laboratory, where the furniture is tested to the extreme, in order to guarantee its quality. There, over a period of one week, a chair can receive up to one million movements that test the amount of weight that supports the inclination of the backrest and its displacement, in addition to measuring the quality of the materials used. This type of quality control is to ensure the 12-year warranty offered by the company on its products. TechnologyOpen to new technologies and the way that 'information technology' products are encompassing audio-visual products, Herman Miller is looking for ways to apply this type of technology to its furniture design. In order to deal with new concepts that they are not entirely familiar with, Herman Miller has partnered with technology companies like Microsoft so that they can provide ideal furniture for video conferences, presentations, and meetings. The technology is already used in some products, directly revolutionizing the way we deal with furniture and work. An example of this is the Renew line, shown here in this explanatory video.  Renew Line Link SustainabilityOver the last few years, the term 'sustainability' has gone from being an added bonus to becoming indispensable in all fields of production. Herman Miller was already worried about the issue before becoming the popular concept it is today. The environment is respected and kept in mind throughout their facilities and the initial ideas came from the founder of the company, D.J. De Pree. The company decided it would be "environmentally friendly" back in 1953, and holds the distinction of having the first official policy in favor of the environment in the nation. Among his environmental guidelines, he asserted that all employees should be able to look out a window. Today, more than 50 years later, this is known as the presence of natural light in a space, reducing energy bills and eliminating pollution caused by electricity production. He also said that any new properties the company developed would dedicate 50 percent or more to green space to promote a healthy environment. In addition to creating people-centered architecture, Herman Miller was also a founding member of the US Green Building Council (USGBC) and helped formulate LEED certification guidelines. In addition to factories and offices that already have LEED certification, the company works only with suppliers that also follow a sustainable pattern, backed by different types of certifications such as FSC, Cradle to Cradle, and Greenguard Certification.  © Victor Delaqua The Herman Miller ExperienceKnowing the whole process behind the design of Herman Miller's products, and conversing with its directors, they reveal ways that design can change people’s lives, as well as - at the same time - how our way of life brings new challenges for designers. Beyond that, knowing the process behind the production of iconic pieces shows that design is not only the final product but the work of an entire team that collaborates to complete and improve each original idea.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Benjamin Bratton on Artificial Intelligence, Language and "The New Normal" Posted: 08 Feb 2017 10:30 PM PST  Benjamin Bratton introducing The New Normal in Moscow. Image © Egor Slizyak Benjamin Bratton, Professor of Visual Arts and Director of the Center for Design at the University of California, San Diego, is the new Programme Director at Moscow's Strelka Institute. The New Normal is based on the premise that "something has shifted. [...] We are making new worlds faster than we can keep track of them, and the pace is unlikely to slow." Have our technologies have advanced beyond our ability to conceptualize their implications? "One impulse," the course advocates, "is to pull the emergency brake and to try put all the genies back in the bottle." According to Bratton, this is hopeless. "Better instead to invest in emergence, in contingency: to map The New Normal for what it is, and to shape it toward what it should be."  © Egor Slizyak Could you give a collapsed history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and explain why you think it has impacted—or is beginning to impact—architecture, design and urbanism today? It depends on how one chooses to define it. Intelligence is an emergent property of material complexity – it has less to do with whether or not the material—the substrate of this intelligence—is organic or inorganic than it has to do with generic structures and properties of the intelligent phenomena that emerge from it. It also matters less whether or not any one bit of this material substrate is itself intelligent; an ant is not particularly intelligent, but millions of ants together in multiple interactions are. Similarly, one neuron by itself is not particularly intelligent, but in the trillions of interactions of the brain it becomes so. Another way of thinking about intelligence is that it has capacity for abstraction. Consider things like primal protozoan with its cilia on the outside – it begins by figuring out what's out there, what's around it, in order to create some kind of predictive abstraction of the space that it's in. What is friend, food, or foe? And so in this cartographic function is a fundamental abstraction that we may consider when we think about intelligence as goal-directed behaviour. There are all sorts of ways in which the question of intelligence may be understood on a basic material level. The history of AI proper has always had a close relationship with philosophy and, in certain ways, ethics. One could argue that it was invented philosophically before it was invented mechanically. Let's take Alan Turing's 1950 essay (Computing Machinery and Intelligence), for example, who is tremendously interesting on a number of different levels (if anyone should be on the £1 note it's him!). The way in which this essay has found its way into the structure and culture of AI, and the anthropocentric logic of AI, has been a real problem. Turing offered the notion that if you can't tell whether Player A is or is not a real person, then it isn't a sufficient criterion to argue that it's intelligent. It has been taken not as a sufficient criterion of intelligence, but as a necessary criterion of intelligence – as a threshold. If you can't tell that it's a real person, only then and based on that threshold, can we declare that it is in fact an intelligent creature. The big shift that we've witnessed over the last fifty years—or sixty-seven years since Turing's paper was first published—is a shift from top-down to bottom-up models. The understanding of intelligence was essentially a bunch of nested rules of symbolic logic; if you implant these rules of symbolic logic into something then it would be able to sort out what to do in a more bottom-up approach. The things that are of interest to me in the field of AI philosophically have less to do with how to teach the machine to think as we think, but rather in how they might demonstrate a wider range of embodied intelligence we could understand. That way we could see our own position in a much wider context and it would teach us a little about what 'thinking' actually is in that particular version rather than simply extrapolating it as a universal model. Where does sensing stop, for example, and information processing begin? And how does this apply to cities? I believe that whenever a new technology emerges a skeuomorphic imperative appears, and we ask how we are going to apply this to automate, accelerate or amplify something that we have done before: if we have an AI version of this, or an AI version of that, it will make it work better. Cities are and always have been information-rich, built with information processing structures. In the long run we would want to see ways in which there are forms of emergent algorithmic intelligence that is built into the city – multiple nested niches, signalling processes and micro-ecologies. This type of urban environment would be one in which there is a greater richness as opposed to simply automating the existing forms of pedestrian skeuomorphic interaction. That, of course, is a much more difficult design and policy brief to grapple with, but it's one in which AI could reveal the ways in which the city was already artificially intelligent. That realization would shift part of our urban ontology, urban epistemology, in such a way that it could potentially give way to a better understanding of where a more deliberate synthetic algorithmic might enter into the picture. For architects, and within architecture, words—semantics—are very important. The word 'wall', for example, has a range of meanings which makes complete sense to the initiated. Would you argue that a new language is being developed to talk about these existing phenomena (related to AI, urbanism and architecture) which are only now becoming significant? If so, do you think there is a risk of alienating practitioners? It's a very good question. There is a strong vernacular connotation to particular words, and there's also a propensity to pull new glossaries from all over the place quite promiscuously, and sometimes in a very creative way. I'm much happier when people are breaking philosophy apart, taking its terms and putting them to use in ways that they weren't intended than seeing 'true believers' attempting to keep them pure. Those people scare the hell out of me! The programme at the Strelka Institute, The New Normal, will be focusing on urbanism and the conditions that we work in but the students will come from a broader range of disciplines by design: we will have students from computer science, from filmmaking, from journalism, from economics. Architects will be in the majority, but they won't the only people sat around the table. So it's not just about inventing neologisms, although we are no doubt going to come up with some long and strange new words but, in many cases, these are words that we are already using in a more tactical way. This will give the course some incremental conceptual depth. We certainly want to avoid a language of hybrids and 'horseless carriage' vocabulary, like 'mobile phone' and 'smart city'. In the context of the Strelka Institute this is not a tabula rasa, a clean slate, starting anew. It's part of a continuum, and we want to map the convergences of multiple continuities that are taking place at this point in time.  © Egor Slizyak  The New Normal 2016/17 While these notions do not constitute a new discourse, they do represent a fresh approach to the field of architecture. There is a conservatism that pervades architectural education almost everywhere, and the Strelka Institute has always been three steps ahead in how it approaches discussions about the city and about space. Is The New Normal taking the school's pedagogical discussion in a new direction, or do you see it more as a cumulative process? I think that it's part of the process. One of the interesting things about Strelka's model is that it's something that can only work in an institute of this kind; it has it's own scale and economic structure. The process is tidal – every three years something new thing comes along in any case, so it should definitely be described as more of a continuum. There is probably a stronger break between this course theme and the previous but I do believe that it represents a logical increment. You have suggested that while students may enter as an architect, or a journalist, or a programmer, you anticipate that upon graduating they will feel less compartmentalised, less limited. If I challenged you to actually define what students might emerge from the course as, how would you describe their skill-set? Designers. Part of the interest in bringing this range of disciplinary backgrounds to the fore is to introduce ways in which those disciplines themselves may be shifting to becoming more like design disciplines – where someone who has an understanding that a profession or discipline can be less descriptive and more projective; a future-oriented practice. How the sorts of practices that emerge from this as our students triangulate amongst one another—fall in love, build practices to get together—will allow them to bring all of those interests and capacities together. To explain this I often list the key areas of 20th Century design that we've been taught, and then the things that go into the new kit of 21st Century design: biotech, robotics, and all the rest of it. I then argue that it's not about leaving one for the other – you should pick three from both lists that you're good at, triangulate them, and build a practice from that. That, of course, is what we're hoping to see at Strelka next year. Find out more about The New Normal, here.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Rachel Whiteread Wins 2017 Ada Louise Huxtable Prize Posted: 08 Feb 2017 10:00 PM PST  Caruso St John (UK) with artist Rachel Whiteread. Image © Caruso St John Architects, Marcus Taylor and Rachel Whiteread & Malcolm Reading Consultants Artist Rachel Whiteread has won the 2017 Ada Louise Huxtable Prize, which recognizes individuals working in the wider architectural industry who have made a significant contribution to architecture and the built environment. Whiteread was selected by respondents to the Architectural Review's Women In Architecture: Working in Architecture survey. Some of Whiteread's notable work includes her 1993 Turner Prize-winning House, her collaboration with architects like Caruso St John on the UK Holocaust Memorial International Design Competition, and her participation on the RIBA Stirling Prize 2016 jury.  Rachel Whiteread's Cabin on Discovery Hill. Image © Tim Schenck
As the third winner of the annual prize, Whiteread follows former director of the Serpentine Galeries Julia Peyton-Jones and client and architectural patron Jane Priestman. News via: The Architectural Review (AR).  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 08 Feb 2017 09:00 PM PST  © Jeremy Bernier
 © Jeremy Bernier From the architect. The EDF learning center is located at the Saclay plateau in southern Paris. It is intended to welcome some of the 160,000 employees of the electricity generating utility for a stay of one to ve days as part of their continuing in house on the job learning. This retreat on the Saclay plateau, sometimes far from an employee's usual place of work, is an opportunity for staff to learn and train, but also to meet, exchange and re-energize themselves in order to consolidate a common culture.  © Jeremy Bernier  Plans  © Jeremy Bernier On top of the spaces reserved for learning courses there are reception areas, social life gathering spaces, relaxing lounges and even bedrooms: a variety of programs that together contribute to the exceptional chronotopy of an atypical 24 hours per day operation. The idea of an American style campus is reinterpreted here vertically in this unitary building that is bringing people together in multi-functional spaces which is highly ambitious in terms of getting people to mix with others with dense, proven corollary.  © Jeremy Bernier The EDF campus has just been set up on the Saclay plateau in Palaiseau, in the same neighborhood as the prestigious École polytechnique. The prize winning ECDM proposition is marked out from others by the way it is programme is distubitued vertically rather than by its plan horizontally. The program interweaves in superimposed layers to develop in a compact volume that absorbs the density of the programming without extending over the surrounding landscape. The space is graded from the bottom to the top to go from the public to the intimate in a parallelepipedal volume dug out of a central patio. Only the exhibition hall which stands at the entrance of the forecourt and the training hall at the rear are separate from this.  © Jeremy Bernier  Perspective Section  © Jeremy Bernier The facades of the building reveal the program which is divided into three layers distinguished by their covering (concrete + stainless steel, glass, concrete) but also by the rhythm of their piercing which forms a motif of identity, the real thread of the project. The formation stages of the elongated windows are extremely fine frame and are combined with brown Ductal® concrete. The same high- performance fiber of reinforced concrete surrounds the some 270 rooms that span the top two levels. Following a rigorous thread of 1.35 meters, the facades incline according to the typology of the program. In this way another of the strong ideas in the project, its pattern, is revealed.  © Jeremy Bernier Between these two layers of concrete, a pleated glass panel marks a transition from public to private to the intermediate level which houses the restaurant and relaxation areas. At the foot of the building, two other materials, stainless steel and glass, are grafted to these three strata to envelop the technical hall at the back, the showroom at the front and the entrance to the building.These two excrescences invite visitors to enter the public spaces of the central volume, while reflecting their environment in a kaleidoscope of shapes, landscapes and bodies, whose kinetic iridescence is a nod and wink to the neighbor EDF's research and development center whose circular walls are glazed.  © Jeremy Bernier  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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