Arch Daily |
- Book Green Pavilion / De Rosee Sa Architects
- NA House / Architect Oshir Asaban
- TPL08 / COCCO ARQUITECTOS
- Seegmuller Tower / Weber + Keiling Architects
- Aviation Pavilion at The Museum of Flight / SRG Partnership
- Watch the Construction of Kengo Kuma's V&M Dundee in This New Video
- La Loge / Nathalie Thibodeau Architecte
- The Next Hyper-Efficient Data Centers May Be Located Underwater
- Storyboard on the Landscape / Ekistics Planning & Design
- SHoP Unveils Plans for Detroit’s Tallest Tower on Historic Downtown Site
- Moody Center for the Arts / Michael Maltzan Architecture
- Save Time With This Efficient Method For Managing Revit Templates
- Giuseppe Garibaldi Memorial / Pietro Carlo Pellegrini Architetto
- Introducing GSAPP Conversations' Inaugural Episode: "Exhibition Models"
- Sinks, Toilets, Shower Heads and Faucets: Downloadable Bathroom CAD Blocks
- Schauman & Nordgren Architects’ Winning Masterplan Envisages New Harbour Front Identity
- Thirty-pine Villa / Aleshtar Architectural Office
| Book Green Pavilion / De Rosee Sa Architects Posted: 24 Feb 2017 06:00 PM PST  © Juliet Murphy
 © Juliet Murphy From the architect. De Rosee Sa is an architecture practice in North Kensington, London. Established in 2007 by Max de Rosee and Claire Sa, we deliver contextual, imaginative and elegant architecture.  © Juliet Murphy We are a design-led practice made up of talented architects, designers and support staff. We pay close attention to the historical and social context of a building to bring character and meaning to our proposals.  Floor Plan Our creative process is collaborative and strongly influenced by our clients, consultants and contractors. We believe in adding value for our client by creating spaces with atmosphere and quality.  © Juliet Murphy  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| NA House / Architect Oshir Asaban Posted: 24 Feb 2017 02:00 PM PST  © Gidon Levin
 © Gidon Levin From the architect. The project deals with the redesign of an apartment in an old building from the 70s in Ramat Gan. Planning and design is inspired by urban apartments. From the 50s, with monochromatic colors do not become outdated and create a timeless sense. The interior of the apartment was completely destroyed and the space has been redesigned in accordance with a program tailored to the needs of the new tenants.  © Gidon Levin  Floor Plan  © Gidon Levin The program has been translated into a plan with entrance lobby, splitting in too, on one side is the public space of the apartment, and on the other side the private rooms.  © Gidon Levin The private rooms include two large bedrooms, a family room with a desk and TV and 2 bathrooms. Public space is filled with natural daylight and is surrounded by large windows, through which you can sense the greenery around. Kitchen is open to the living room with direct entrance to the utility room. Round dining table sits in front of the green yard and has an open view to the living room and balcony.  © Gidon Levin Library 8 meters long made of iron creates the public space, emphasizes and defines the length of the space and gives it a feeling of a loft. The original balcony of the apartment has been saved to connect the apartment to the building and context. The outside facing windows were widened, and planters were added in order to create a feeling of a private house in the garden. Project materials palette is monochrome with touches of brass, copper, iron and wood.  © Gidon Levin  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 24 Feb 2017 12:00 PM PST  © Alejandro Souza
 © Alejandro Souza From the architect. The land belonged to an old hacienda, which over the years was subdivided, leaving this site that once ran as a pasture, in it was a structure of wood that supported a roof over 100 years ago.  © Alejandro Souza The request of our clients was clear, to develop an economic house, which will be used for rest purposes, but at the same time will serve to rent weekends and with that generate a constant income which will pay the expenses for the future growth of The construction, doing it in a healthy way as necessary and economically viable.  © Alejandro Souza  © Alejandro Souza For these determinants was that a one-level project was developed with the facility of short-term growth. The proposal will be repeated on the top floor, reducing the costs of future enlargement by following a wall-to-wall scheme. The structural system that was used was the prefabricated vault of jalcreto and beams of steel, this system does not allow large floats, reason why a structural core is placed that cuts the area in 2 main zones, the bedrooms and the zone of coexistence. The rooms are separated from each other by carpentry wall, which will be dismantled and reused on the second level, releasing a large area on the ground floor and thus generating a living area.  Floor Plan  © Alejandro Souza  Floor Plan  © Alejandro Souza The apparent materials, pine wood windows and pasture beams, as well as the use of mud brick, adobe, floors and polished walls in situ, make the construction environmentally friendly by eliminating the use of heating and artificial ventilation And being indigenous to the area reduces the consumption of CO2 in their transportation as they are manufactured with raw material from the region.  © Alejandro Souza  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Seegmuller Tower / Weber + Keiling Architects Posted: 24 Feb 2017 11:00 AM PST  © Florian Tiedje
 © Dorian Rollin From the architect. The rehabilitation of the Seegmuller Tower is part of the new masterplan of the André Malreaux peninsula and the surrounding of the Austerliz docks in Strasbourg, France.  Before. Image © Florian Tiedje  © Florian Tiedje Two main axes guide the masterplan of the Austerlitz docks:
The Seegmuller Tower belonged to a group of industrial buildings distinctive of the 30's architecture, made up of the Seegmuller Tower and two warehouses, which have respectively become the Malraux Library and the « DOCKS » housing estate.  © Florian Tiedje The grain silo of the Austerlitz docks, a.k.a. Seegmuller Tower, was built between 1932 and 1934 by the architect Gustave UMBDENSTOCK (1866-1940) for the armourer Seegmuller.  © Florian Tiedje  © Florian Tiedje The rehabilitation's objectives were to create 169 student accommodations as well as the related equipments. These accommodations, with a size varying between 19m² to 35m², are intended for post graduate students (Master's Degree and Doctorate).  © Dorian Rollin The project required the demolition of the tower's central structure (made up of the old silos) and the construction of a structurally independent new core, which takes on the load of the preserved parts of the building to comply with earthquake resistance standards.  © Dorian Rollin A restaurant and an exhibition area have been created on the ground floor while a 300m² extension was built to host part of the International Department of Strasbourg University.  © Dorian Rollin The industrial facades, made of brick and concrete, as well as the octagonal wooden posts that used to support the silos, have been preserved during the rehabilitation process.  © Florian Tiedje The tower's location and its reaffirmed urban identity have allowed the Seegmuller Tower to become an emblematic equipment for Strasbourg University.  © Florian Tiedje  © Florian Tiedje Product Description. Saint Gobain's Planistar sun windows were used on all floors except on the ground floor, for which fire resistant windows were used instead.  © Florian Tiedje  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Aviation Pavilion at The Museum of Flight / SRG Partnership Posted: 24 Feb 2017 09:00 AM PST  © Francis Zera
 © Francis Zera From the architect. The Museum of Flight's Aviation Pavilion is a 135,000 square foot roof supported by steel columns and brace frames with a twelve-inch concrete paving slab. It houses twenty aircraft for augmented protection from the elements and patron access. Exhibited planes include the iconic Boeing 747 and 787 prototypes, Air Force One, Concorde, and other historic military and commercial aircraft. The building is a parallelogram approximately 460 feet wide, 315 feet deep and between 55 and 87 feet tall. It connects the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery and the Raisbeck Aviation High School on the Museum's west campus. Six rows of skylights distribute even natural light and prevent glare and silhouetting in the open-air facility. Design supports the future enclosure of the structure with leaning glazing at East Marginal Way South and visual access from the High School.  © Francis Zera sThe Aviation Pavilion at the Museum of Flight is a truly unique exploratory and educational experience. Designing a place for 20 "exhibits" (aircraft) up to 230 feet long and 64 feet tall was an exercise in gigantic! The roof covers more than three acres. Five million cubic feet of space is protected from the elements. 1,375 tons of steel (enough to make 1,100 cars) supports it all. But the space is really designed for one human being, the patron. The building allows even the smallest enthusiast to experience the history and wonder of the Museum's collection of large passenger and military aircraft.  Site Plan  © Francis Zera  Section The Museum of Flight required not only storing, protecting and exhibiting aircraft, but also accommodating their re-configuration as collection and exhibit needs change. This makes for a very high roof and a very large roof span – 230'. Joists this long are at the limit of standard shop fabrication methods and posed a challenge for transportation. Working with our structural team and contractor, a custom fabrication method was developed that saved weight and cost and allowed for an economical painting solution.  © Francis Zera One highly coordinated reconfiguration effort occurred before building construction was complete. The 747 and 787 prototypes were both too wide and too tall to be maneuvered across the public right of way and through the completed structure. Arrangements were made to store the 747 in the adjacent Aviation High School parking lot during construction. An opening accommodating the 787's two hundred-foot wingspan and fifty-six-foot height was left below the building's center truss, and this plane was moved halfway through construction.  © Francis Zera With this type of spatial flexibility, it is inevitable that weather will enter the building below the 56 to 87-foot-tall roof. SRG designed the concrete floor to be slip-resistant and easily cleanable and to promote draining, all while supporting the Museum's desire to enclose the space in the future. Select wall construction contingencies were provided and SRG is listening to Museum feedback about rain penetration to ensure a world-class visitor experience.  © Francis Zera Product Description. Star Seismic, Wildcat Buckling-Restrained Braces  © Francis Zera  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Watch the Construction of Kengo Kuma's V&M Dundee in This New Video Posted: 24 Feb 2017 08:10 AM PST Construction on Kengo Kuma's V&A Museum Dundee is well underway, with the structure's inclined concrete walls already beginning to take shape. This new video produced by the V&A Museum shows the latest progress of the building, with commentary from several figures working on the project, including Kuma himself. Kengo Kuma & Associates was awarded the project following an international competition in November 2010. The design draws inspiration from Scotland's natural seaside features. "The beauty of the cliff comes from the long, long dialogue between Earth and water," explains Kuma in the video. "I want to translate that kind of beauty to a contemporary building."  © V&A Dundee/Kengo Kuma Associates "The inclination of the facade gives a different type of experience: if it is too vertical, the vertical void rejects the people – the building should invite people to the waterfront." When completed, the V&A Dundee will become Scotland's first design museum. The museum is scheduled to open to the public in the summer of 2018. News via V&A Museum. V&A at Dundee / Kengo Kuma & Associates  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| La Loge / Nathalie Thibodeau Architecte Posted: 24 Feb 2017 07:00 AM PST  © Maxime Brouillet
 © Maxime Brouillet From the architect. The project follows the current trend of transforming a duplex into a cottage, and adds an extension in the backyard.  Floor Plan The client's order was clear: create a place designed for celebrations and other good times with friends. With a nod to the theatre, the house lets its residents' lifestyle take centre stage.  © Maxime Brouillet The backyard is the stage, and alludes to the façade of a loggia. To see without being seen, or to see and be seen: you have the choice.  © Maxime Brouillet Just like the neighbouring homes, here the rear wall is composed by a volume of white colour. The heart of the façade stands out through the use of dark-coloured, but lightweight, facing, which frames large glass windows whose transparency is filtered by horizontal blinds. Black wood fills the space, both indoors and outside.  © Maxime Brouillet  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Next Hyper-Efficient Data Centers May Be Located Underwater Posted: 24 Feb 2017 06:10 AM PST  The Data Center being lowered into the water. A shot of the underwater data center. Screenshot via Microsoft From giant squids to sunken treasure, the ocean has a way of hiding secrets better than any other place on Earth – so why not hide your personal information down there too? That scenario may soon be our reality, as Microsoft has unveiled that, for the past year and a half, they have been testing a prototype data center that is completely submerged underwater. Devised by Microsoft engineer Sean James, the theory argues that placing the massive server farms underwater could dramatically reduce both construction and cooling costs, as well as provide a reliable source of renewable energy and even improve their performance. Dubbed "Project Natick," the prototype system is located 30 feet below the water's surface off the coast of Central California. The servers have been encased in an 8-foot-diameter steel drum sealed tight with bolts and waterproof fittings. Several tubes running through the drum allow for the transfer of heat from the hot processors into the cool ocean water, while the computer chips within are cooled using liquid nitrogen. After the initial testing period, the team discovered that the servers were performing even better than predicted, even while running a generic commercial cloud software. The engineers also noted that sea life surrounding the capsule was able to quickly adapt to its presence with minimal impact, and that the cluster could even serve as habitat for some species of sea creatures.  A shot of the underwater data center. Screenshot via Microsoft While Project Natick is powered by external cables that connect back to the shoreline, the team hopes future iterations may be able to harness the natural power of tidal waves to provide a perpetual renewable energy system. With initial signs for the project being so positive, Microsoft is planning on continuing to develop the system over the next few years. A long-term goal to produce capsules that can sit quietly on the seafloor without maintenance for five years will still require improvements to the current materials. The next step will see the expansion of the program to locations off the coast of Florida and somewhere in Northern Europe to see how the system reacts to different aquatic environments. Read a full report on Project Natick here. News via IEEE Spectrum.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Storyboard on the Landscape / Ekistics Planning & Design Posted: 24 Feb 2017 05:00 AM PST  Viewing platform. Floating over the landscape—overlooking the East Village and the river—the structure is comprised of two weathering steel bodies connected by a stage. Image © Peter Lawrence
 Cutline. A cut-line framed by the viewing lens stresses the connection with the river and river-lots, and emphasizes the notion of land as a primary character. Image © Peter Lawrence As sesquicentennial celebrations unfold, it is important not to overlook Canada's pre-Confederation and first nations heritage. This experiential design undertaking is aimed at strengthening ties between the Canadian Government and the Métis Nation—Saskatchewan. ![Parti Diagram.Our parti focuses on two approaches to land division: one accounts for access to the river; the other devised with lack of regard for inhabitants. Image © Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan S-B6500 [left]; Form:Media [right]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uKDFgs_1T88KH4XnSKbLj3AMiHfqoGTI5AKoRKaMZeKi3NpO4e5xss0aXQs6-JiukeOMUNkDyQwTYWLazLnI5K8O0eeAsiQ1za_J3txDRT3EtfiAvVXj5aA4QKfKo8pposRU_3iT1v6TsgYGCvnfIuywnRu0bQranLvtnlBtAi5_wDYTI7jHw5L6ojR0KUiw=s0-d "Parti Diagram.Our parti focuses on two approaches to land division: one accounts for access to the river; the other devised with lack of regard for inhabitants. Image © Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan S-B6500 [left]; Form:Media [right]") Parti Diagram.Our parti focuses on two approaches to land division: one accounts for access to the river; the other devised with lack of regard for inhabitants. Image © Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan S-B6500 [left]; Form:Media [right] At the heart of this history is a land dispute—the source of inspiration for our core concept. Two opposing methods of landholding: a thoughtful linear and river-oriented allotment by a semi-nomadic turned agrarian people versus an unnatural grid-based system imposed on one nation by another. Herein lies a testimony of a land that follows from non-issue to conflict, through an entente to a formal collaboration between a First Nation and a government.  Viewing platform. The platform represents a singular cultural heritage of dual origins. The Métis are descendants of those born of indigenous and European (typically French) peoples.Image © Peter Lawrence A National Historic Site of Canada since 1923, this 955 hectare property is an impressive landscape in a setting of aspen forest and remnant fescue prairie. The focus for our project is Lot 47, the location of the once thriving village of Batoche. Our design seeks to tell the story of this place, considered the heart of the Métis nation. The Métis are descendants of those born of indigenous and European peoples.  Site plan. The narrative is organized as a linear experience: context (viewing lens); conflict (cutline); climax (observation platform), and the current day (family garden). Rendering: Ekistics Planning & Design; Image © Peter Lawrence Rather than imposing numerous and frequent insertions, we unite this expansive cultural landscape through the delicate placement of four conspicuous elements. Minimal intervention and a light footprint were key goals. For example, a simple mowed/burned strip that reinforces the linearity and direction of the river lot. Structures are raised up on piles to reduce impact on this archaeologically sensitive site. Robust materials—weathering and galvanized steel, cedar, and stone—minimize maintenance and evoke themes of permanence. Efficiency pervades the details–best demonstrated by innovative batten joinery developed to significantly reduce the size and quantity of fasteners.  Viewing lens. The viewing lens introduces visitors to the central message—a land dispute—through a design that incorporates form, material, didactic content, and the landscape. Image © Peter Lawrence  Viewing lens elevations. Image © Peter Lawrence; Rendering: Ekistics Planning & Design  Wooden panel system. Slats are connected by timber battens on 45°angles—front and reverse. The battens act as structural elements limiting the size and quantity of mechanical fasteners. Image © Peter Lawrence The distinct seigneurial river lot land division plays a role throughout, from the spacing of Saskatoon berry rows in to the organization of the overall site. The wooden panel system—a structure to provide support, a trope to represent the river lots—is also rooted in another reference to Métis culture: the weave of the ceinture fléchée sash. The interpretation supports a sense of pride by honouring both the pre- and post-battle story. Together with modern building forms and materials, the conviction of a thriving Métis culture is reinforced. ![Stage. The view planes are purposeful: ahead (stage West) is obscured by the second steel chamber; to the north are the remains of Batoche's East Village. Image © Peter Lawrence [left]; Image © John deWolf [right]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uVG4vpkyuKrLOt_R9UuNijCNStLC4F99zBlk1-Ppfdmtyl6WjQzcei_qwu4-KgpaLuidJVlCLl9SvHFH7hRRytLkWpfOoqam1i0LXoT-rw4tXHAxSMMPqZjf-AO4clZPvsCeePuAvykpF57gXGtEejneqNKePx3cQbHu6dxn6Dv-g4L8kmFEvzmA=s0-d "Stage. The view planes are purposeful: ahead (stage West) is obscured by the second steel chamber; to the north are the remains of Batoche's East Village. Image © Peter Lawrence [left]; Image © John deWolf [right]") Stage. The view planes are purposeful: ahead (stage West) is obscured by the second steel chamber; to the north are the remains of Batoche's East Village. Image © Peter Lawrence [left]; Image © John deWolf [right]  View planes. Far from overt, the three 'stages' of the platform respect the Metis' relationship with the land by providing views to the land (North and East), water (South and West), and sky. Rendering: Ekistics Planning & Design As a team of multiple professions, the synthesis of method, process, and workflow of our colleagues enriches our designers. For example, our architects and landscape architects think not only of the natural/built environment, but consider interpretation and graphic details as part of their interdisciplinary design process. This is an account of disciplines collaborating to use the landscape not merely as a setting, but rather as a lead character.  Timeline. The chamber celebrates a thriving culture. A 5.3m timeline starts at the floor, and projects skyward to suggest "forevermore" and an infinite future. Image © Peter Lawrence [left]; Image © John deWolf [inset and right]  Foundations. All that remains of the village are foundations and cellars. The rail allows the visitor to engage in imagining these buildings in the landscape. Image © John deWolf Parks Canada's goal is for an architecturally interesting, one-of-a-kind, and interactive design that incorporates historically significant themes and activities of Batoche. Parks wished to use this project as a bridge to allow a landscape scarred by resistance to tell a story of a thriving culture, to create a destination, and to reestablish ties. Through design, we hope to honour the Métis story and to improve cultural relations.  Family Garden. The family garden is organized within a swath of Saskatoon Berry hedgerows, set in 2m increments forming a scale representation of the Métis river lots. Rendering: Ekistics Planning & Design  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| SHoP Unveils Plans for Detroit’s Tallest Tower on Historic Downtown Site Posted: 24 Feb 2017 03:20 AM PST  © SHoP Architects PC For nearly 100 years, the JL Hudson's Department Store in downtown Detroit stood as a mecca of shopping – the 25-story structure at one point holding the record for world's tallest retail building. Then in 1983, following a downturn of the Detroit economy, the department store was closed. Its implosion followed in 1998. In the years since, the important site has laid mainly vacant, save for an underground parking structure inserted into the store's former underground retail levels. But now, plans have been revealed to return the site to its former glory. Announced yesterday by Detroit-based development group Bedrock, the site is set to receive a brand new 1.2 million-square-foot development designed by SHoP Architects and consisting of a nine-story retail podium and a 52-story, 734-foot tower that would claim the title of Detroit's tallest building.  © SHoP Architects PC "For long-time Detroiters, we remember what Hudson's represented. It wasn't just a department store – it was the economic engine of Detroit. It drew residents and visitors downtown, where they spent a day shopping at Hudson's and visiting the retail, restaurants and theaters around it," says Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Rock Ventures and Quicken Loans and founding partner of Bedrock. "Our goal is to create a development that exceeds the economic and experiential impact even Hudson's had on the city. We believe this project is so unique that it can help put Detroit back on the national – and even global – map for world-class architecture, talent attraction, technology innovation and job creation."  Image is in the public domain. Uploaded to Wikimedia by user Ttacit . ImageA postcard image of JL Hudson's Department Store from 1951. Aimed at re-energizing Woodward Avenue and its surrounding downtown area, the massive complex would constitute one of the largest construction projects in the city for several decades. An economic impact study conducted by New York based WSP-Parsons Brinkerhoff has estimated that the development has the potential to attract three million unique visitors per year, while generating $560 million per year for the area.  © SHoP Architects PC The mixed-use development, envisioned by SHoP in partnership with Detroit-based Hamilton Anderson Associates, would contain a full range of program elements, including retail, residential, parking and what Bedrock refers to as "an experiential destination focusing on technology, arts and culture." The 52-story tower would hold the residential component of the project, consisting of 250 units totaling 441,500 gross square feet. The podium below would house 733,823 gross square feet of mixed use, commercial, office, technology, arts and culture space. Three below grade levels would provide one additional commercial floor and two levels of parking with space for 700 vehicles.  © SHoP Architects PC  © SHoP Architects PC "The driving force behind our design for the Hudson's site is to create a building that speaks to the rebirth of optimism in the city's future and an experiential destination that positively impacts Detroit in a meaningful way," said William Sharples, Principal, SHoP. "The building is conceived around a huge and inspiring new public space, a year-round civic square that, both in its architecture and its culture, will foster and convey the feeling we all share when we work together to imagine what this great city can become."  The site of the former JL Hudson's Department Store has laid mostly vacant since its implosion in 1998.. Image © Flickr user gab482. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 "In its heyday, Hudson's was a premier destination in the heart of downtown. After the flagship store closed in 1983, the structure would bring back fond memories of a vibrant downtown," says Sandra Laux, Project Architect, Hamilton Anderson Associates. "We now have the opportunity to be a part of creating unique, new architecture in one of the few vacant sites downtown."  © SHoP Architects PC The project represents the second partnership between Gilbert and SHoP in recent months, following the unveiling of plans to renovate Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, home of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers. To learn more about the project and to see photos from JL Hudson's demolition, visit hudsonssitedetroit.com. News via SHoP Architects, Bedrock. SHoP + Rossetti to Complete $140 Million Renovation of Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Moody Center for the Arts / Michael Maltzan Architecture Posted: 24 Feb 2017 03:00 AM PST  © Nash Baker
 © Thomas Struth From the architect. The Moody interior is intended to create a sense of openness and possibility. Sightlines transect through spaces, creating layered views of the myriad activities taking place within the building's production, instructional and exhibition spaces. Views extend simultaneously along major corridors and out to the campus, providing an easy orientation point for visitors, students and faculty and facilitating direct access to studios, classrooms and shops. Extensive interior glazing offers views into learning, production and exhibition spaces to highlight the experience of the artistic process as a complement to the exhibition of finished works. Along the building's north façade a set of wide stairs rises from the first floor and turns back toward the Moody's interior, creating an interior amphitheater that serves as an informal social space.  © Nash Baker The emphasis on transparency extends to the building's exterior, with floor-to- ceiling glass along the majority of the first floor elevations. Arcades created by the second floor's cantilevered massing create shaded walkways that make the building's brick-clad upper story appear to levitate. Large picture windows punctuate the articulated brick façade in a playful rhythm and bring light deep into interior spaces. The design deftly incorporates aspects shared by many of Rice's buildings. Pedestrian paths cut across the site's open lawn and into the building, simultaneously organizing key interior program areas and linking the new building to the broader campus. The design creates an iconic home for Rice's new arts center in the spirit of the Moody's forward-looking vision that is equally at home on the University's historic campus.  © Thomas Struth Three signature Lanterns hover over the ground plan. Two are located at each end of the northern arcade, supported by the iconic "Starburst" columns. A third lantern houses the Moody's coffee lounge. Illuminated from within at night they will become a collection of new beacons for Rice University.  © Thomas Struth The first floor of the Moody features the Lois Chiles Studio Theater, a 150-seat Studio Theater for performing arts and its support spaces; the skylit Brown Foundation Gallery and central gallery for exhibitions and experimental performances; two media arts galleries; Creative Open Studio; and an interdisciplinary maker lab that includes a wood shop, metal shop, paint booth, rapid prototyping areas and a student classroom. Outside the Brown Foundation Gallery is an outdoor projection wall.  © Nash Baker The second floor features a break-out area, three classrooms (one of which doubles as an open studio); a large module studio, an artist's studio, a technology lending library, audiovisual editing booths and a café. Offices and other administration spaces are also on this floor.  © Nash Baker  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Save Time With This Efficient Method For Managing Revit Templates Posted: 24 Feb 2017 01:30 AM PST  This article was originally published by ArchSmarter as "The Best Strategy for a Super Effective Revit Template." The best thing about Revit templates is how much time they can save you. The worst thing about Revit templates is how much time they take to create. It's a bit of a catch-22. In order to save time, you need to spend time. It's not easy to find that time when you have billable projects to work on and deadlines to meet. Believe me, I know. And once you do finish the template, how often do you review it and keep it updated? What if you have a project that's a new building-type? Does your template still work for that kind of building? What if you need to follow an owner's BIM standard? Can you modify your template to fit their requirements? The C-B-T MethodEvery project is different. Because of that, your Revit templates should not be one-size-fits-all. That's why I recommend a modular approach to building Revit templates. I call it the C-B-T method. By C-B-T, I'm referring to Chassis – Body – Trim. "Wait a minute", you're thinking. "Aren't those parts of a car?" Exactly. We're going to approach building a Revit template the same way cars are designed and built. Think about it. Car manufacturers need to be super-efficient. They design something then re-use it in multiple ways. For example, Ford sells a truck called the Super Duty Chassis Cab. It's basically a truck cab up front with an empty chassis in the back.  Courtesy of ArchSmarter The chassis can be customized to do whatever job is needed. Need a dump truck? No problem. Want to add a bucket loader? Done. What about lots of bins and storage? Easy. With the Chassis Cab, Ford created a flexible framework that can be easily modified to handle specific jobs. We need something similar for our Revit templates. Too often, we build templates that are difficult to update and modify. To really save time, you need the right template for the job. That's why you should build modular template components instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. Using a base template or chassis, you create more specific templates or bodies for specific project types. You can then customize those templates for each project by adding the trim. The idea is to build up our template starting with the most general content (the chassis) to the most specific (the trim). Here's an example of how my Revit templates are organized.  Courtesy of ArchSmarter As you can see, there's a clear progression from the chassis to the body to the trim. Single chassis template can be used to create multiple body templates. Now, let's take a look at the parts of the C-B-T method in detail. 1. The Chassis Courtesy of ArchSmarter The chassis is the structural frame of your Revit template. It includes all the essential elements and nothing more. These are things that won't change from project to project. Your chassis should include text and dimension styles, symbols, and line weights. Filled patterns and filled region types should also be included. Be sure to name all of the elements you're adding with a specific prefix. I like to prefix all chassis elements with my firm's abbreviation. This identifies my essential chassis elements from any out-of-the-box or imported content. Depending on the type of work you do, you may need multiple chassis templates. If you do government or institutional work, you likely need to follow a specific BIM standard. Create a specific chassis for these projects. Once you have the chassis template, save it with a unique file name. I like to use numbers to identify my template modules so I call my office standard chassis "00-00-SpaceCmd Template.rte". Lastly, be sure to use a starting view that indicates the version of the chassis template. 2. The Body Courtesy of ArchSmarter The body module builds off the chassis module, like how different car bodies use the same chassis. This template adds project type elements to your office standard content. The scope of this template includes your sheet and view setups. Also include title blocks, schedules, and standard system families specific to the project type. Identify any required shared parameters for this project type and include them as well. Like in the chassis template, elements added at the body template stage should follow a specific naming convention. This convention should reference the chassis number and have its own unique identifier. I like numbers so a template for multi-family residential projects that's built on the "00" chassis would have the code "00-01". A commercial template also built on the "00" chassis would be "00-02". Content added specifically to this template would use the code as a prefix. This will help identify office standard from project-specific content. Likewise, the body template should be saved using the number code as well as a brief description (i.e. "00-01-Multi-family Template.rte" or "00-02-Commercial.rte"). One note – the body template shouldn't include any file based families, like doors or windows. The idea with the C-B-T method is to keep the template files as lean as possible. Rather than bloat your chassis or model templates with file-based families, we're going to load them in the trim template below. 3. The Trim Courtesy of ArchSmarter So you've picked out the model car you want. But what style wheels do you want? What about the seats? Do you want cloth or leather (trust me, go with leather if you have little kids)? And don't forget the interior. That wood finish looks pretty sharp. Like every car model has different levels of trim, your body template should also allow for different levels of project-specific customization. I'm an advocate of keeping Revit files as lean as possible. Revit files get big on their own. You don't need to add any extra elements in there. So rather than loading up your templates with families you might use, I recommend demand loading them when you need them. Rather than creating another template for the trim level, I recommend starting your project using the body template .rte file then loading in the project-specific content using a macro or add-in that inserts families from a list in Excel. You can review and update family sets more easily in Excel than if they were pre-loaded in a template file. A content library system, like Content Studio is another good option. Since we're working at the project level now, we need a way to differentiate our project or trim content from chassis and body content. For trim content, I like to use the project number as a prefix. Next StepsA well-conceived Revit template can save you a lot of time. Templates let you leverage your time again and again. More often than not, Revit templates are created as a one-size-fits-all solution. Every project is different. Why bloat your template with stuff you're never going to use? The C-B-T method gives you the flexibility to create custom Revit templates. By using a modular approach, you can more easily update your templates and create new ones as needed. Likewise, each template can be customized to meet project-specific requirements. Get the Revit Template ChecklistFor a full list of what to include in your Revit template, click here to download this FREE Revit template checklist. You'll also get access to the ArchSmarter Toolbox, a collection of free time-saving Revit macros and tools (click to join).  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Giuseppe Garibaldi Memorial / Pietro Carlo Pellegrini Architetto Posted: 24 Feb 2017 01:00 AM PST  © Mario Ciampi
 © Mario Ciampi From the architect. For the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, the government wanted to recover the most significant historical sites on the peninsula; between them there is the Fort Arbuticci, in one of the most admired views of the archipelago of La Maddalena.  © Mario Ciampi Starting from a deep knowledge of the context, this creative project of restore proposes a new interpretation of the signs and history that intertwine to contemporary. The result is a continuous conversation between architecture and environment, including the design of the premises.  © Mario Ciampi The Garibaldi Memorial was created to accompany the visitor on a journey through the places and events of the life of General: South America, Africa, the United States, Europe, Italy and Caprera. By means of display panels which tell, through the details of paintings, the chronicles of its existence, and with specially designed window displays, showing important historical documents and collections, and finally with the help of multimedia installations, are reconstructed places, events and trips of personnel and equipment, narratives of political activity and private uncommon.  © Mario Ciampi The restoration project respects the memory of places and enhances the existing interventions with which restores vitality to the buildings: four barracks become bodies for the exhibition and alongside there are the smaller buildings with the services to the public. The artifacts are kept in their typological features and original building, to which are added contemporary details that give it a new look. The outer wall faces are restored and the four exhibition buildings and services are plastered and painted in white, the color of the "white house" of Garibaldi; new metal frames have screen printed glass with the General's face.  © Mario Ciampi The design of the external areas also extends to other products, in order to create an internal scenic route to the fortified structure; in this sense, new rest areas and a new protected pedestrian walkway are created. About the munitions stores, the typological prior of the intervention have been maintained, with the use of the existing similar materials and the recovery of the surfaces.  Site Plan Besides the preparation, the project provided for the arrangement of the exterior through the restoration of the original flooring, which is enhanced and increased; it is accompanied, for outside yards, a pavement in an eco friendly product, which does not alter the characteristics of the existing materials and colors. The outer walls of the fort are consolidated and metal railings are added, creating scenic trails that overlook the sea.  © Mario Ciampi At the entrance of the Fort, a corten steel gate, where the repeated words "Giuseppe Garibaldi, the hero of two worlds" become the backbone of the building, and a corten monument, with the inscription "Memorial Giuseppe Garibaldi", welcome the visitor and indicate the face of the Hero of Two Worlds, painted on the building services.  © Mario Ciampi  © Mario Ciampi In front of the four exhibition bodies, there is a sculptural public space, where the stylized form of the peninsula turns into flooring and seating. Caprera is signaled by a panel of Murano glass in red. This square is a symbolic tribute to commemorate the 150th of Italy and Garibaldi.  © Mario Ciampi Product Description. The most used material in the construction is the white plaster and it was chosen for various reasons; first of all has been chosen for its ability to minimize and plasticize the shape which it is applied, ideal for the preparation of a museum as void the chromatic component of the display walls and directs attention towards the artifacts to be displayed; secondly, white is the color of the house of Garibaldi, to which the white color was also chosen to pay homage to the hero, main character of the museum.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Introducing GSAPP Conversations' Inaugural Episode: "Exhibition Models" Posted: 24 Feb 2017 12:30 AM PST  We are pleased to announce a new content partnership between ArchDaily and Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) in New York City. GSAPP Conversations is a podcast series designed to offer a window onto the expanding field of contemporary architectural practice. Each episode pivots around discussions on current projects, research, and obsessions of a diverse group of invited guests at Columbia, from both emerging and well-established practices. Usually hosted by the Dean of the GSAPP, Amale Andraos, the conversations also feature the school's influential faculty and alumni and give students the opportunity to engage architects on issues of concern to the next generation.  GSAPP Conversations #1: "Exhibition Models" with James Taylor-FosterBased on a collection of conversations recorded in Avery Hall at a conference entitled Exhibition Models: Curating Architecture, and at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montréal, this podcast—written and produced by James Taylor-Foster—considers the format, role, and impact of the architectural exhibition in different settings – ranging from institutions to project-based Biennale and Triennale. This inaugural episode features Amale Andraos (Columbia GSAPP), Giovanna Borasi (CCA), Beatriz Colomina (2016 Istanbul Design Biennale), Beatrice Galilee (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Sylvia Lavin (UCLA), Andrés Jaque (Office for Political Innovation), Iván López Munuera, André Tavares (2016 Lisbon Architecture Triennale), Marina Otero Verzier (Het Nieuwe Instituut / After Belonging Agency – 2016 Oslo Architecture Triennale), and Mirko Zardini (CCA). The following text transcribes GSAPP Conversations Episode #1. The podcast itself, which you can listen to on this page or through iTunes (coming soon), is identical.  Avery Hall, Columbia GSAPP. Image © Ofer Wolberger James Taylor-Foster: It's a cold, misty November day and I'm walking in the Giardini in Venice – one of the only places in the city where you can escape the narrow streets and the stone clad campi and walk beneath trees. In the summer, of course, these gardens are a sanctuary from the intense heat and humidity here but, as winter is now rapidly approaching, the gardens have an altogether different atmosphere. The gates have been closed and the crowds have been replaced by people dismantling the exhibitions – exhibitions which, until a couple of days ago, formed part of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition (La Biennale di Venezia), Reporting from the Front. 2016 has been a year of Biennale and Triennale like no other. Alongside Venice were the triennales of Oslo, of Lisbon, and even the Istanbul Design Biennial – each of which addressed architecture as a practice, a process, and a way of understanding our position in the world in very different ways. And so, for this inaugural GSAPP podcast—and with the help of a group of leading voices in the world of architectural exhibition-making—the large majority of whom convened in the school in New York for a conference entitled Exhibition Models: Curating Architecture, I want to probe a little into the rather enigmatic contemporary practice of "curating" the built environment. 1. The Architectural ExhibitionThe world of the architectural exhibition is split between two camps – although it's not quite that clear cut. There are those curated by historians and archivists – exhibitions which present primary material, the stuff used in the process of designing a building. You have drawings and sketches, scale models of varying degrees and, if the project was built, documentation usually in the form of photography and film. Sometimes bits and pieces which connect to the creation of a building—letters, emails, WhatsApp conversations, increasingly—are also used to flesh out its context. When these different types of media are assembled carefully and intelligently they can tell pretty much any story the curator intends, but they are focused first and foremost on the thought process of those involved in its creation. More recently—and we're still talking a fair while back—the architectural exhibition has been pushed and stretched and molded to do more: to provoke and imagine, as much as represent. Becoming established in the 1970s, these types of exhibitions have become less about conventional presentation and the construction of a clear narrative, and more about the creation of an installation or a statement pertaining to the field as close or as loosely as the curator chooses. Whereas some exhibitions point to something over there—buildings more often than not—others offer an experience in and unto themselves. And the most broadly successful iteration of both these exhibition models has been that of the Biennale and Triennale. These events, which are usually accompanied by a large-scale publication strategy and dense public programming, have the potential to reach large physical audiences – if they're in the right location, that is. I will always maintain that the reason that the Venice Biennale has become so successful in this framework is because of the fact that it's Venice. Even if the Biennale is terrible, you're still in "the capital of the imagined world," as Paulo Mendes da Rocha once described it. 2. ExplosionNow, as I mentioned before, many of the conversations you're about to read were recorded in and around Avery Hall at Columbia in New York City. Exhibition Models, the conference we were all there for, was hosted by Amale Andraos, Dean of the School. Here she is explaining why this comparatively undervalued discourse is increasingly of renewed importance. Amale Andraos: We've been kind of witnessing an explosion of Biennale and Triennale over the past two decades. But in particular, I think in the last couple of years, they've been of a very high quality. It used to be that Venice was the beginning and the end of it all until the next Venice. And now there is a kind of a circuit. It's also interesting to think about exhibitions not only as a lens through which to look at architecture and how it's evolving, but how it's also become a practice in itself as a kind of mode of intervention – both discursive and in practice. Exhibitions can do many things. They can take the pulse of the contemporary scene; they can propose alternates and new directions and trajectories for thinking about architecture and cities and the environment. But they can also re-read the past and uncover important archives that allow us to once more look at the future in different ways. Taylor-Foster: And it seems that the idea of an exhibition as a multifaceted method of condensing and provoking discourse is at the heart of what most people understand to be "curation" in architecture. Today, you could argue, display is less important than discussion. Before we head back to New York let's lay a little institutional groundwork. The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) was founded in Montréal in 1979 by Phyllis Lambert, a rather eclectic tour de force of the architectural world who wanted to develop an international research institution based on the fundamental premise that "architecture is a public concern." Almost four decades later the CCA is a bastion in the world of architectural research and production. It also has one of the world's foremost drawing archives, to boot. Giovanna Borasi, a former writer and editor, became the institution's Chief Curator in 2014. 3. Exhibitions as a ToolGiovanna Borasi: I think in general exhibitions are a tool, not a goal per se. For me they are a way of visualizing an idea or something that you want to put out and will become part of a kind of discourse in architecture. So, in this sense—also because we are in Montréal so we live with the fact that many of the things we do here are actually not seen—we put a lot of emphasis on all the rest (publications, events etc.) and how this should be communicated and so on. The issue of archiving and communicating—from one side it's communicating and on the other it is archiving—we are trying to build a kind of institutional archive around what we do. But it's very difficult because there are certain things that are very difficult to grasp. We always have to keep the plan of the show, the photos, and so on. But how do you keep and archive the research? And for me this is a very difficult task because, for example, what is fascinating about looking at the archive of Cedric Price is not only that you have his drawings, his letters and so on, but you actually have all this mish-mash of things that eventually arrive to the ideas. And these are all the sorts of random things that we might now collect in our Instagrams. So I think, in this moment, oral history is very much coming back as a system to maintain the ideas behind a project like an architectural exhibition. We are discussing how much we can describe the process more than the final outputs that are documented anyhow through photographs and film and so on. But there is still a whole other part that is in the hands of the audience – comments in social media, for example, discussions that are happening that you might not even be aware of on Twitter. I come more from an editorial background, or maybe really as an architect. So I see the idea of "curating" as not being that different from an intelligent architectural project. A nicely curated project has the same strength of an architectural one: it should see what is coming and even anticipate it; it should be able to put it in a context that is larger than the program you have; it should respond to audience needs; but also provoke through questioning, leave some things open, and also have a time that goes beyond the project in itself. Taylor-Foster: And Mirko Zardini, who has been the Director of the CCA for over ten years, agrees. Mirko Zardini: Until recently a lot of the activities that is done by curators were done by architects; all the important Biennale and Triennale in the past have been created by architects. The Rossi Triennale in Milan (1973) for example, which was very important, or the Portoghesi Biennale (1980) in Venice. They didn't consider themselves curators. Starting from the 1980s there has been a growing number of institutions dealing with architecture. There is an evolution in respect to the original idea of institutional architecture – a museum as was developed in Russia or in the Scandinavian countries, one very closely linked to the idea of national identity. But let's assume, just for the sake of simplifying the discourse a little, that from the 1980s on a new kind of institution started to be created which was not following the model of Scandinavian museums or the architectural department in American museums. It was a center for architecture, like the CCA. These are a center, a museum, and more. Other institutions, like the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Institute of British Architects in London (with their conflictual relationships of love and hate) have adapted their models to operate more in this way. So there's an incredible number of new institutions who are also attracting a different sort of person. Who are these people? Until now they've been coming from the different fields of architecture and have wanted to engage in a more concrete and, perhaps at this moment strategic, way to discuss, criticize, and promote architecture. This comes at a time in which newspapers, magazines, and even universities look as if they have abandoned a little bit a kind of direct commitment to a public voice on architecture. Taylor-Foster: Representing a public voice, that founding principle of the CCA, is fundamental to many other platforms that communicate architecture – including schools. Now, I just want to take the opportunity to add a little more context. The day that we had most of these conversations was a difficult one. It was November the 11th, 2016: two days after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. As many of you can surely imagine, there was a very palpable sense of frustration, confusion, despair and fear. The conversations continued nevertheless, albeit in a rather more charged context. Sylvia Lavin: I'm Sylvia Lavin. I'm an architectural educator and academic in the middle of throes of anxiety and depression after the election, since it seemed to be so much about the difference between people who are educated and people who are not educated. I think it was the first time that a major political event felt as deeply personal to both the importance of the academy and the failures of the academy in the United States. Exhibitions occupy a particular space between the uncontrolled publicness of buildings and the overly controlled privacy of academic discourse. So exhibitions are a halfway house. And maybe what everybody is really imagining is an alternative public, and hoping that the architectural exhibition is a way to do that. I'm not sure anybody talks about architecture as form and aesthetic anymore – I'm not sure that I would give the architectural exhibition any particular agency in that. I think it's the state of existence today. It deals with the collapse of form as the unifying thematic of discourse in a particular way. 4. Aesthetic ConcernsTaylor-Foster: And while the architectural exhibition certainly does have a profound reflective role to play, others have constructed entire curatorial theses on the notion that form is not only one of architecture's fundamental legacies, but is also "a common language that brings together architects to engage in a collective conversation." This, at least, was the foundation of The Form of Form, the 4th Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2016). Was it a reaction against a widespread move away from form and aesthetic in architectural discourse? Here's its Chief Curator, André Tavares. André Tavares: There was a strong awareness of the architect losing track, and architectural exhibitions not being about architecture; curators making a huge effort to explain what architecture is about and then people going to visit exhibitions and thinking about everything but architecture. It was a very conscious effort from myself, Diogo Seixas Lopes and the other curators, architects and people that we engaged to the program to say, "Let's bring architecture into a different realm – one which is not just construction, which is not just design and practice. Let's bring construction and design practice to museums, places, to public spaces, to debates, and let's share the knowledge that as practitioners, as scholars, as curious people about what architecture is, we have." So exhibitions embody a knowledge that we have, and it's about sharing this knowledge and not confusing exhibiting with practice. This is very important, this idea of sharing knowledge, because it's something that you can bring back to practice and that can foster the way you think about your own practice. But, at the same time, that strengthens your relationship with material suppliers, clients, public authorities – any of the multiple players that in the end build architecture who are not architects. And it is also about an aesthetic. I remember a colleague saying, "Oh, look at this building. It's a natural consequence. I didn't design anything." So, if you think about the program and the restraints of the site, for example, you think that it's nothing to do with a kind of aesthetic. And then you look at the building and it's exactly the same as all the other buildings that he designed in different places, having different clients, having different constraints. So it's literally an aesthetic. It's very important for us as curators to raise exhibitions to a theoretical level, a critical level, so that as architects we can also be aware of what we are doing. 5. Defining the PracticeTaylor-Foster: And it's interesting here to note how for some, curation in architecture is totally interwoven with that of building. Marina Otero is an architect based in Rotterdam and the Head of Research and Design at Het Nieuwe Instituut (HNI), formerly known as the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi). She was also one-fifth of the After Belonging Agency, the curatorial team who dispatched the 6th Oslo Architecture Triennale (2016), After Belonging. For her, the curatorial aspect of architecture, although undoubtedly present in her work, is just one part of her practice. Marina Otero: Before coming to New York and studying the Masters in Critical, Conceptual and Curatorial Practice (CCCP, Columbia GSAPP) I was a practicing architect; I was working in an architectural office. I was actually on the construction site for a long time. When I came to New York and I was totally amazed by the possibilities in which architectural practice could be expanded. I'm not at all interested in the term "curating." I have to say that, before actually starting the CCCP program, I didn't even know what "curating" was. I thought it was maybe organizing events or, you know, co-ordinating things. I was using other terms to express what you now describe as curating. And even while I was studying the Master's I wasn't interested in the part of curating. So I tried not to describe my practice as "curation," even if then as a matter of fact I became the co-curator of a Triennale! But it doesn't mean that is what represents my practice. To me, it's not what describes what I do. I used to describe myself as an architect, so that's why I think I want also to reclaim the word "Architect" as an individual that is involved in writing, editing, curating, building, et cetera, because it has always been the case. It's not something that's a recent invention. Taylor-Foster: This pluralist approach to the practice of architecture is one which I personally identify with. The role of the architect has diversified (or, indeed, for some diluted) but in so doing has opened doors to alternative ways of thought and production. The practice of architecture embodies curatorial work and encompasses things like writing as ways of working through and presenting ideas. And a sketch, a working drawing, or a presentation model does exactly the same thing. 6. Exhibition Design and the Image So what about exhibition design, where an architect is asked not ostensibly to curate per se, but to design and build the framework through which people experience a show? Is this just about creating interiors, or is it more complex? Here's Andrés Jaque, Principal of the Office for Political Innovation and the exhibition architect for the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, Are We Human? (2016). Andrés Jaque: While most Biennale give space to authors and contributors, with the Istanbul Design Biennial we decided—together with the curators [Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley] to provide conflict. And that is what is given to the contributors. We are not dividing the space and giving lots to each of them, but we were creating constellations in which different contributions could react to one another – that was the first idea. The second is that whereas most Biennale are separating content from the café, or the place where the events happen, we are actually colliding all these things together so it could be a place where the evidence of the work of those that were participating could be the origin of conversations, formal and informal. Images are becoming, as you said, immensely important in the way we get together as society. But, at the same time, I think that we're becoming much more savvy in the way in which we decode images. We don't only look at the image itself, but we look at the frame in which it's given to us. We are looking at who's proposed in it and what is the comment that comes with it – and what the image is that follows it. In a way, we're inhabiting images. And that means that we don't see them that much from outside but we get to inhabit them in a way that we're surrounded by them. We're very much effectively connected and politically afraid by them. Taylor-Foster: And I asked Andrés specifically about the role of the image in exhibitions, because it remains the one consistent thread between architectural exhibitions of the 20th Century and architectural exhibitions today – even if how the image is actually presented has shifted. The Istanbul Design Biennial was unique among the Biennale and Triennale of 2016 because the curators were acutely aware of the role of new media and social media in syndicating a message. Exhibitions are enormously elite events: the proportion of people who are physically able to transport themselves from, say, Mumbai to Venice or Shenzhen to Istanbul, is almost infinitesimal. So how these events are disseminated is, now more than ever, of utmost importance. Iván Manuera helped to direct some of the online dimensions of the Istanbul Design Biennial. Iván López Munuera: From the very beginning we were talking about the importance of social media and the online dimension of any kind of exhibition. It was funny that some of the people that were talking with us for the last year prior to the opening actually thought it the event had already happened… because it's true, no? – in a way, even before the opening of the Biennial, it was already happening. In Bomontiada [Tarihi Bomonti Bira Fabrikası, Istanbul] there was a space that called "Design in 2 Seconds." It was describing this very specific organism of social media – not only like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, but also the urbanism of some other kind of media (like Tinder, Grindr, and some other kind of interactions) that we now have. So this kind of space was suddenly a space that was also given another kind of temporality—these 2 seconds—but also another type of image, another kind of space that we ourselves living in through our cell phone, through our iPads and through, of course, our presence in any of these platforms. 7. Exhibitions and MediaBeatriz Colomina: I'm Beatriz Colomina. I'm, you know, who am I? Taylor-Foster: Well, I can tell you! Along with Mark [Wigley], Beatriz co-curated the Istanbul Design Biennial. But she's also an extremely established historian and theorist and is the Director of the program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University School of Architecture. She's written and curated widely, and one of her ongoing research themes is about the role of media and architecture. We're in a position in the course of architectural communication—and I'm also wrapping in architectural exhibitions and also the role of communication within the field and for outside the field—in which the book will always maintain its relevance. The magazine appears to be losing its relevance in one format and gaining new relevance in a different format. And if we distill it down to the apparent dichotomy between print and digital: I'm constantly advocating that they are, contrary to popular belief, not paradoxical. They have to exist together. It's a matter of pace; it's a matter of the way in which the material is consumed. But there is also a general feeling that, for example., when you're creating an exhibition you create a catalogue, you create a constellation of objects in which you re-present and re-communicate and disperse the ideas behind the exhibition. What was interesting with what you and Mark Wigley did in Istanbul was how you also had an incredible emphasis on digital design issues, whether it was through the "e-flux architecture" platform or based on your own research, and an incredible kind of handle on social media. Colomina: Yes! Taylor-Foster: This is still quite rare in the world of architectural exhibitions! Would you agree? Colomina: Yes, probably. But if this is the case then they are completely missing the point. The whole history of architects in the 20th Century demonstrates that they understood perfectly well the medium of the exhibition, but also the media that was of importance to its time. So you cannot separate all these great exhibitions from the publications that were produced alongside them. So l'Esprit Nouveau pavilion for example is inseparable from l'Esprit Nouveau magazine et cetera, et cetera. And so it's super-important to understand that, in the moment that we are in, the dominant media—the new media—is the digital media. So it's not only the collaboration with "e-flux" that came up at a certain point, but also starting the Biennale in social media very early on. You reach a different kind of audience; a younger audience. So the Biennale does not start the moment that it opens, but the biennale starts many months before when you start reading the manifesto and you curate, in a way, some sort of discussion that happens on multiple platforms all over the world – including, of course, ArchDaily. 8. Ways of CuratingTaylor-Foster: Finally, I want to explore again that "other" model – the non-Biennale/Triennale model. Beatrice Galilee has been the Associate Curator of Architecture and Design at The Met in New York since 2014. Before then she was Chief Curator of the 3rd Lisbon Architecture Triennale (2013) – so she's experienced both sides of the coin, so to speak. What's it like to be a curator in an institution where you have the luxury of time and a greater security in terms of funding perhaps, but a whole other range of pressures to contend with? Beatrice Galilee: I found working with institutions to be difficult whether you're working with a Biennale or a Triennale. And, actually, what's amazing about having an institution that you go in day in and day out is that you develop relationships and so things get easier. When you do Biennales you start from scratch every time. It's a completely new site condition. It's a radical new team. Everyone is new to you. They don't know your sense of humor. Maybe there's a cultural divide; maybe there isn't. But you spend time building that – that's part of what makes you a good Biennale curator: an ability to get the team together, move fast, get people inspired, find people who want to work with you, who want to deliver the best thing that they've ever done for you. Whether I'm at The Met for another year or another ten years or another twenty-five years, I feel that I will get more done. I got more done in my second year than in my first year. I got more done in my third year than in my second year. And I think that's great, and I feel so much more supported and nourished in that context than I ever did working with a Biennale where you have to also, on top of the Biennale itself, do several other things – take writing jobs or teaching jobs. And at The Met, you just do everything and it's all under the auspices of your position – that's what you generate and that's what you want to do as a curator. You write, you make publications, you make exhibitions, you make talks, you do installations. You work on site-specific things. One is able to practice if you can find the space for it. I like talking about curation in architecture to some extent because I like understanding what the point of these things are and what we're hoping to achieve. Because I think there was this let's say the reaction against the model and the drawing, which happened whenever it was – ten, fifteen years ago. People were like, "We don't want to see architecture exhibitions comprised of models and drawings. We prefer experiences, or we prefer other models of – you know, more experimental, performative architectural installations." And I was definitely on that. That was really how I started. And now I think about photography and about moving image, or I think about capturing architecture as something that's really a complex idea, as something I really want to try to understand better. You can't really show architecture if you're showing models and drawings. You're showing an intent or you're showing an isolation of an homage of an image, or you're showing a model of something which is isolated and looking down and all those kind of obvious points about models and drawings. But when you start to deal with photography, or when you start to deal with commissions, or you start to deal with site-specific installations, you really come up against it in a really sort of beautiful way. One cannot present architecture as something that is definitive in the same way that you can with art. Taylor-Foster: It's now spring 2017 and I'm in Dublin, Ireland, walking through the courts of Trinity College. The connection between city, town and landscape in this country has been a fascination of mine ever since I first read Ulysses. But beyond the fiction, there is a unique considered poeticism to the way that practices tend to operate here. Among them, O'Donnell + Tuomey, but also Grafton Architects who, a little over a month ago, were announced as the Creative Directors of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. These things come around quickly! Shelley and Yvonne, the two founders of Grafton Architects are (in their own paraphrased words) firmly rooted in the fertile Irish terra firma, but with their heads looking up to the sky. Their ambitious design sensibility is both grounded and, at the same time, highly aspirational – which is also how architects in Ireland tend to be trained. These words are reminiscent of course of those of one of Dublin's more famous literary sons: "We are all in the gutter," Oscar Wilde wrote, "but some of us are looking at the stars" [Lady Windermere's Fan, 1893]. In the year leading up to the world's largest and most established architectural exhibition—Venice—there is always an incredible amount of speculation. The approach that Shelley and Yvonne take is likely to be very different from what the Biennale has seen before but with a sense of continuity, too. Set against the backdrop of a world which is becoming ever more politically reckless, there is an urgency—in my opinion at least—to engage with it without pretending that all the crises we currently face can be solved by an exhibition. It should seek to reconcile the gulf that has grown between those who contribute and respond to the architectural exhibition in its broadest sense, and those who yet do not. This is absolutely about aesthetic and language but also about how a static, if not temporal, event can be disseminated to contribute to the emerging global discourse – irrespective, to some degree, of what the event is actually about. We've seen how the "wall," for example, a beautiful and powerful architectural tool, can also be read as deeply sinister in the way that it's deployed. So the ways in which we talk about space and, ultimately, where the discourse of architecture should land is of real importance. I recently heard a talk given by a Brazilian-American Professor of architecture who mentioned something which has stuck with me. The Portuguese word for "window" is janela (forgive my pronunciation). And janela is rooted in the word "Janus" – the name of the Ancient Roman god of beginnings, gates, transitions, doorways and passages. He looked one way and the other simultaneously – which is really what an exhibition does. And I think that we shouldn't lose sight of that, nor underestimate how important enriching discourse in a practice with such a tangible impact really is. You can listen to every episode of GSAPP Conversations, here. This particular episode is available to listen to directly on Soundcloud and through the iTunes store and iOS Podcasts app, where you can also Subscribe (coming very soon). GSAPP Conversations is a podcast produced by Columbia GSAPP's Office of Communications and Events in collaboration with ArchDaily.  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| Sinks, Toilets, Shower Heads and Faucets: Downloadable Bathroom CAD Blocks Posted: 24 Feb 2017 12:00 AM PST  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo In order to support the design work of our readers, the company Porcelanosa Grupo has shared with us a series of .DWG files of its various bathroom products. The files include both 2D and 3D drawings and can be downloaded directly from this article. Download the objects below, which have been separated into the following categories: Shower Heads, Toilets, Sinks, Faucets and Tubs. Shower HeadsShower heads with different selectable shower modes: rainfall simulators, cascade showers, and overhead showers. + Wall  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo Download here: 3D / Front / Top + Ceiling  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo Download here: 3D / Front / Top Wall-Mounted ToiletsWall-mounted toilets featuring a frame with built-in cistern, which can be installed on light or solid walls.  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo Download here: 3D / Front / Top Wall Mount SinksSuspended sinks that can be installed in lightweight or solid walls, with or without an overflow pipe.  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo Download here: 3D / Front / Top  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo Download here: 3D / Front / Top Bathroom FaucetsBathroom faucets for washbasins, bidets, showers or bathtubs.  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo Download here: 3D / Front / Top  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo Download here: 3D / Front / Top TubsFreestanding, enclosed or wall-mounted bathtubs, with or without electronic equipment.  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo Download here: 3D  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo  Courtesy of Porcelanosa Grupo Download here: 3D  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Schauman & Nordgren Architects’ Winning Masterplan Envisages New Harbour Front Identity Posted: 23 Feb 2017 10:00 PM PST  © Schauman & Nordgren Architects Envisioning the harbor front as an extension of the city center, "Pargas Maritime Limestone Landscape" designed by the young Danish practice Schauman & Nordgren Architects has been named the winning entry of a waterfront masterplan competition by the City of Pargas, Finland. The proposal was selected for its "thorough analysis of the city, its history, structure, character, potentials and challenge", in response to the area's development as a new residential hub and functional harbor. The competition introduced the notion of maintaining Pargas' dominant maritime identity, while simultaneously strengthening the city's character with various urban elements, such as hotels, a beach, saunas, and offices.  © Schauman & Nordgren Architects  © Schauman & Nordgren Architects "It will be the place in Pargas where you want to enjoy ice cream on the pier, the beautiful view, play tennis or take a dip in the sea after enjoying the heat of the sauna," says co-founder Jonas Nordgren.  © Schauman & Nordgren Architects  © Schauman & Nordgren Architects SNA's masterplan creates an "urban loop" in the form of a beach boulevard, connecting the street and public spaces to those of the harbor front itself. Pedestrians are invited to explore the variety new recreational spaces in what the firm has coined as "a string of pearls", thus functioning as a natural extension of the city.  © Schauman & Nordgren Architects  © Schauman & Nordgren Architects  © Schauman & Nordgren Architects A new compositional logic has also been submitted, inspired by the landscape of a neighboring limestone quarry. Activity areas including playgrounds, sports courts, and piers have been derived from the quarry's unique natural identity within an overarching man-made environment.
News via: Schauman & Nordgren Architects. Winning Proposal for Finland Bay Masterplan Transforms Industry into Innovation Schauman & Nordgren Architects Wins Competition for "City of Gardens" Masterplan in Finland  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Thirty-pine Villa / Aleshtar Architectural Office Posted: 23 Feb 2017 07:00 PM PST  © Farshid Nasrabadi
 © Farshid Nasrabadi From the architect. The project of Thirty-pine Villa was redesigned and reconstructed through anastylosis in the countryside of the city of Esfahan, Iran. This project consisted of an open landscape and a small construction within.  © Farshid Nasrabadi The garden therein has thirty 30-year-old pine trees. The path to the building was formed as bad as possible as it started from the garden door, continued under these pine trees, and ended by the building entrance. It had jeopardized the life of these pine trees.  © Farshid Nasrabadi  Diagram  © Farshid Nasrabadi The building was not in concordance with the landscape of the garden in terms of dimensions and visual aspects and, therefore, did not meet the employer's demands for an appropriate hospitality for the parties and symposiums.  © Farshid Nasrabadi The design strategy of the landscape of the garden building was to pay full attention to the nature and, more importantly, to preserve the life and privacy of the pine trees. The project was thence named Thirty-pine Villa.  Diagram The number "30" is a significant number in Persian mythological literature. Hence, famous Iranian mystics and poets have written legends on the basis of number 30, the most famous of which is the story of Simurgh by famous Persian poet, Attar of Nishapur, where the moral of the story is the rule of trust among 30 creatures of the story that ensures their survival.  © Farshid Nasrabadi As of the story of Simurgh, we also considered each of the pine trees as an entity living in the garden; hence, we did our best to modify certain conditions for the trees to let them relieve from the overwhelm of the building materials and to make a circulation path for the garden and, at the same time, connect the garden and the building to form a fluid circulation in the landscape architecture. This way, we could make suitable and harmonious paths along the garden from the garden gate to the building. Therefore, the myth of Simurgh and the story of thirty birds were adapted not only for the number of 30, but also in the application philosophy of the atmosphere and life space in the architecture of 30-pine villa. The outcome was a pleasing combination of the trees, the interior design, and the myth of Simurgh, which, as a whole, became an influential totality.  © Farshid Nasrabadi The designing process was initiated by spatial design of the environment where the 30 pine trees were living. The pine trees were prioritized and were fully considered. All the paths and traffics were directed towards the trees. The paths, intertwined among the pine trees, made the spatial structure and traffic in the garden. The inappropriate primary lines were subverted and new appropriate environmental spaces were thus obtained; cozy spaces for solitude, personal contemplations, twosome dialogues, children playgrounds, spaces for family parties in the center of the site, etc.  © Farshid Nasrabadi The environmental design lines for flooring were of two types. First, the lines adjacent to old walls that continued among the columns there. These coarse lines with 90 degrees formed one side of flooring. Second, those lines that reduced the width of the paths as they continued along the connection of the pine trees and reacted towards the trees and also reduced by a fracture which was based on the dimensions and sizes of the bricks and this way the pine trees were separated from farming areas. Such a composition let the beholders experience unique and appropriate perspectives.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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