Arch Daily |
- Sasol Place / Paragon Architects
- AD Classics: Red House / William Morris and Philip Webb
- Casa Lluna / CAVAA Arquitectes
- Huawei Technological Factory Buildings / gmp Architects
- Lộc House / 23o5studio
- The Exhibition Hall of Crime Evidences in Harbin / Architectural Design & Research Institute of SCUT
- Vida / studioLOOP
- Elwood Residence / SJB
- Architect Sues SOM for Stealing One World Trade Center Design
- Construction Underway on Masdar City's Community-Oriented Phase 2 Masterplan
- East 34th St. Ferry Terminal / Kennedy & Violich Architecture
- Manson Barn / SkB Architects
- Seattle's Space Needle to Undergo $100 Million Minimalist Renovation by Olson Kundig
- Morphology Building / Talia Valdez + Nómena Arquitectos
- As the RIBA's Largest Outpost Launches in Liverpool, A New Exhibition Seeks to Reveal the City's Maverick History
- "X-Ray Vision" Headset Allows Architects to See Under the Surface of Construction Sites
- Posadas Business Hub / Francisco López Redondo + Gudula Rudolf
- How Architecture Speaks Through Cinema
- Mecanoo and MAYU Architects+ Break Ground on Tainan Public Library
| Sasol Place / Paragon Architects Posted: 15 Jun 2017 10:00 PM PDT  © Tristan McClaren
 © Tristan McClaren From the architect. During May 2013, Paragon Architects was appointed as the Architects of a new Corporate Office on 50 Katherine Street in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2014 Paragon Interface won the invited competition for Interior Architecture and Space Planning.  © Tristan McClaren Sasol is a very large multinational Petrochemical Company with a wide variety of business units and activities in South Africa and abroad. This building was to replace their current occupation of 14 buildings around Johannesburg, and unify the Sasol corporate culture. Sasol had grown rapidly over the last two decades and had never occupied a single building with all of its Johannesburg based business units. As a result this was much more than just a structure. The building needed to reflect the mores of the company, respond to the site, and react to developments in architectural software and sustainable design. The Interior Architecture needed to accommodate over 3000 previously dispersed staff in a single building allowing for a consolidation of company values and work place design.  Ground Floor Site Plan Their logo which encapsulates their values, provided the departure point for the conceptual design of the building. Combined with Paragon's pursuit of architectural design technology and developments in material development the building combined an approach to Sustainable Design.  © Tristan McClaren  Typical Floor Plan  © Tristan McClaren This approach proved to be very successful in presentations to the tenant, but it was ultimately the architecture that won the commission. A central core of circulation and services ties the building together and the various areas are linked by a series of bridges. A major challenge was the site which is on a curving edge of Katherine Street, and to ensure a large building of 130000m2 (lettable area: 68000m2) could be accommodated and well connected both vertically and horizontally. The building can accommodate up to 7500 people.  Section The building was modeled to respond appropriately to the widely used glazed envelope and the impact of natural light internally. The ground podium was widely planted with indigenous plants to encourage birdlife and butterflies and the well-being of staff was a major consideration, including facilities and access to public transport which is generally not well developed in South Africa. The building has a 5 Star Green Star Design V1 rating, which will be confirmed As Built in 2018.  © Tristan McClaren  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| AD Classics: Red House / William Morris and Philip Webb Posted: 15 Jun 2017 09:30 PM PDT  The L-shaped footprint of the building allows it to focus in on the garden. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user Gabrielle Ludlow (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) In the heart of a suburb just east of London stands an incongruous red brick villa. With its pointed arched window frames and towering chimneys, the house was designed to appear like a relic of the Middle Ages. In reality, its vintage dates to the 1860's. This is Red House, the Arts and Crafts home of artist William Morris and his family. Built as a rebuttal to an increasingly industrialized age, Red House's message has been both diminished by the passage of time and, over the course of the centuries, been cast in greater relief against its context.  Although relatively austere, the varying rooflines, oriel window, and pointed arch window frames add Gothic flair to the otherwise simplistic Red House. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user Gabrielle Ludlow (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Morris was one of a formal group of people in the mid-19th Century who grew increasingly concerned about the far-reaching effects of the Industrial Revolution. While the mass-production of household objects made them affordable, critics in the vein of John Ruskin felt that modern manufacturing processes deprived workers of the satisfaction of handcrafting, and that consumers were surrounding themselves with soulless products. This impression aligned poorly with the contemporary notion that the home should serve as a spiritual and moral respite from the chaos of the cities, a philosophy termed the "Cult of Domesticity." The perceived solution was a revival of the medieval "Guild" mode of production, in which craftsmen were directly involved in the entire manufacturing process.[1]  Courtesy of Flickr user KotomiCreations (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0) During his tenure in the Oxford office of architect George Edmund Street, Morris formed what would turn out to be a long-lived friendship with his co-worker Philip Speakman Webb. Even when Morris left the firm—and architectural practice altogether—after only a year to become a painter, the two remained close enough that they, along with their friend Charles Faulkner, took a joint trip along the Seine in France over the course of 1858. During this voyage, Morris discussed his plans to build a house for himself and his wife Jane with Webb. He also became determined to start his own fellowship of artists and craftsmen, and shortly realized that his new home could be the test of their combined abilities.[2] Upon their return to England, Morris and Webb selected a site in the hamlet of Upton, near Bexleyheath in Kent. It was, at the time, a largely picturesque and undeveloped area, dotted with cottages, medieval ruins, and a nearby Tudor mansion (Hall Place). Nestled between orchards and market gardens, the new house was to stand on an acre of land which, at the price of £4000 (roughly £307,026 [$395,962 USD] by today's standards), cost Morris five times his annual income at the time. With its somewhat modest proportions, his new home was not to resemble an English country estate, but rather a villa that presaged the suburban developments to come in the following decades.[3]  The centerpiece of Red House's garden is a well topped with a steep conical roof. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user Gabrielle Ludlow (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) The aesthetic styling of the house is a clear indicator of its designers' fixation on the medieval ideal: its steeply-pitched roofs, prominent chimneys, and cross gables mark the building as an example of simplified Tudor Gothic design. The L-shape of the house's footprint allows it to partially wrap around a garden, simultaneously creating an asymmetry typical of medieval structures built and renovated incrementally over time. The Gothic style was a favorite of Arts and Crafts practitioners; to them, it hearkened back to an age of greater craftsmanship and human dignity. Having originated in Western Europe, it was also seen as more appropriate for an English site than the Greco-Roman influences of Classicist architecture.[4] Whereas most fashionable villas of the period were finished in stucco, Morris' new home was built of exposed brick that inspired its name "Red House." A tower stands at the vertex of the L, containing the staircase; branching out from this vertex are the two wings of the house. The front wing contains the principal rooms, including the dining room, reception rooms, drawing room, main bedroom, studio, and a garden porch. The rear wing contains the more private elements, such as the lesser bedrooms, servant quarters and lavatory, scullery, kitchens, larders, and back stairs. The garden is sheltered in the southeastern lee of the building, while the main entrance is to the north, facing the street.The bold representation of the house's structural materials, along with its practical and straightforward layout, hint at an unexpectedly Functionalist approach cloaked in historicist trappings.[5,6]  The painted front door is undeniably medieval in character; the stained glass window panes are not original. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user KotomiCreations (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0) Through a somewhat low and unceremonious front porch, visitors pass into the austere entrance hall. The space is largely devoid of extraneous ornament, paved in simple red flagstone and framed with exposed timbers, setting a decorative precedent followed by the rest of the house. The lack of frenetic ornamentation does not mean that there is no attention to aesthetics, however; rather than gird the structure with decorations, Webb used the structure itself to create visual interest. Throughout the interior spaces, exposed brick arches and timber framing, frequently laid out asymmetrically, serve as an indoor continuation of the house's external appearance. Brick fireplaces formed the visual centerpieces of the principal rooms, complete with ironwork grates which have since been removed.[7] While the architecture of the house was Webb's domain, the creation of its furnishings fell to Morris, his wife Jane, and painter Edward Burne-Jones. Their collaborative works throughout the house were as much a celebration of medieval craftsmanship as the building which contained them: everything from the wallpapers to the built-in furniture bore their creative touch. A settle in the entrance hall is adorned with Morris' painted realization of a scene from the Niebelungenlied, while a Gothic hutch designed by Webb stands in the dining room. Stained glass windows around the house were designed by Morris' family and friends. On the second floor, the living room fireplace is painted with Morris' Latin motto, Ars Longa, Vita Brevis: "Life is short, art is forever."[8]  Morris' hand-painted settle in the entry hall features a depiction of a scene from the German epic the Niebelungenlied. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user KotomiCreations (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0) Although Red House is a stylistic masterpiece, certain of its features reveal the relative inexperience of its designers. The orientation of the house means that the principal rooms all face north, leaving them uncomfortably cold even in summer. The fireplaces in each were not only too small to compensate, but smoked so badly that the chimneys had to be heightened in 1861. Meanwhile, the kitchen was positioned to take in the afternoon sun, heating up just as house staff were preparing for afternoon tea and dinner. The larders, being located adjacent to the kitchen, were likewise prone to overheating – a serious flaw in a space designated for food storage. The cellar, which only occupied the space under the stairs instead of the majority of the house as was customary, was insufficient to compensate. These flaws, although having failed to diminish Red House's status in the architectural canon, rankled Philip Webb later in life to the point that he declared his desire never to see the building again and that no architect under forty ought to design a house.[9] Financial difficulties forced Morris to sell Red House in 1865, only five years after his family had moved in. Over the next fourteen decades, the house remained a private residence; it was only in 2003 that the property was acquired by the UK's National Trust, ensuring its preservation and opening the house to the public as a museum. With the exception of some missing furniture and new wallpapers developed by Morris after he moved away, Red House remains much as it did in 1865, providing contemporary visitors with a glimpse of the original owner's vision for an ideal life.[10] Now surrounded by a dense suburban development, Red House stands out as a work of dedicated craftsmanship, its Gothic aesthetic silently protesting the realities of an industrialized world.  This stained glass window, depicting Love and Hate, was one of many designed by friends and family of William Morris throughout Red House. ImageCourtesy of Flickr user KotomiCreations (licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0) References
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| Casa Lluna / CAVAA Arquitectes Posted: 15 Jun 2017 08:00 PM PDT  © Adrià Goula
 © Adrià Goula From the architect. Casa Lluna, located in Vilanova i la Geltru's old town was imagined as a streetscape inside a domestic space. A series of doors and windows overlook the central area of the house.  © Adrià Goula The demolition of part of the slab on the first floor multiplies natural light transforming this former carpenter's workshop into a peculiar streetscape. The introduction of natural light enhances also the spatial relation between the studio, the dining, and the living areas of the house. Ultimately, this new illuminated area appears as the core of the house around which the rest of the rooms are organized.  Axonometric Diagram To highlight the idea of a streetscape inside a house, the project focuses on the openings: balconies, doors and windows are framed with different wood moldings, creating a new interior facade.  © Adrià Goula Pine-wood moldings, stone walls, brick walls and painted surfaces configure a collage of both high-end and rough materials.  Current Situation Section  Current Situation Plans The idea was to allow a clear contrast between the new and the old, creating a site specific timeless intervention.  © Adrià Goula  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Huawei Technological Factory Buildings / gmp Architects Posted: 15 Jun 2017 07:00 PM PDT  Entrance of the canteen. Image © Christian Gahl
 HUAWEI Technology Park, Beijing. Image © Christian Gahl From the architect. In Beijing, gmp · Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners have completed the Huawei Technological Factory Buildings. Following the previous projects in Shenzhen and Chengdu, this is now the third research and development center for the Chinese telecommunications corporation completed to a design by gmp. The development, with its gross floor area of 85,000 m² and campus-like layout, provides a working environment that benefits from a close relationship with the surrounding landscape – nearly all workplaces face the park outside.  Site Plan. © gmp Architekten / RLA Rehwaldt Landschaftsarchitekten The outstanding feature of the place to the north-west of the Chinese capital, in the Zhongguancun Environmental Protection Park, is the impressive silhouette of the nearby West Mountains. Designed in the pattern of a campus, three buildings for research and development are grouped around a canteen building at the center of the development within open parkland. The site is accessed via an outer ring road and an inner network of pedestrian pathways.  HUAWEI Technology Park, Beijing. Image © Christian Gahl The four-story research and development buildings are made up of two intersecting square building volumes that, in plan, form a figure of eight and enclose an entrance courtyard and a garden area. Both the courtyard and the garden area open out – in the manner of a gateway – to the landscape, thereby creating a transition zone between buildings and park. The first floor has been designed as a solid plinth with light-colored natural stone louvre elements, upon which rest the upper stories in a darker color. The upper facades consist of metal panels alternating with fixed glazing and slender ventilation casements. The upper stories are visually separated from the first floor by the recessed glazed horizontal band of the second floor.  HUAWEI Technology Park, Beijing. Image © Christian Gahl  Sections, R&D Building. © gmp Architekten  R&D building entrance courtyard. Image © Christian Gahl The canteen building features a similar sequence of spaces, with a gentle transition from the landscape to the architecture. With its monolithic, light-colored appearance, the building presents a different character in accordance with its more public function as a meeting place for the employees. At its center is the large atrium accommodating the lobby. A rooflight admits daylight into the main hall. Huawei Technological Factory Buildings is an ensemble that derives its uniqueness from the spatial integration of architecture and landscape and the interaction of design features. Tied together by the overarching order and scale of the building volumes, the user's experience is enhanced by the attractive views offered by the network of pathways and the varied sequence of spaces.  Lobby R&D building. Image © Christian Gahl  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 15 Jun 2017 03:00 PM PDT  © KingKien Photography
 © KingKien Photography From the architect. Lộc House is a living space of a family with 2 young daughters. The space's intention is to connect the family members' activities together. The house's common area features a small courtyard roofed by a veranda, where the children can enjoy the open space. Lộc house's colorful veranda casts wavy silhouettes on the wood clad floor.  © KingKien Photography  Section  © KingKien Photography The common space is "Mái hiên" and a small courtyard inside, where children can playing around, reading book,.... In the home, all members are able to observe and communicate with one another through "Khoảng trống." In the course of operation, human communication of light, wind and plants acts as a resonant and emotional touch.  Ground Floor  1st Floor Plan  2nd Floor Plan The house's character then becomes an organic part of the environment, along with the plethora of greenery decorating the rooms. The bedrooms are considered to meet in a just enough way. The architects intentionally left the open space untouched in order to facilitate communication between each other.  © KingKien Photography  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Exhibition Hall of Crime Evidences in Harbin / Architectural Design & Research Institute of SCUT Posted: 15 Jun 2017 01:00 PM PDT  Building entrance. Image © Yao li
 Birdview. Image © Yao li From the architect. The place where the ruins Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army used to station is particular not just for its role as a historical site. Its particularity is already defined by the broken walls, silent and solemn gravel ground, rails extending to infinity, and the desolate lofty elms surrounding it, before the architect has time to assess the harmony of such combination.  View from railway. Image © Yao li To relieve the repression caused by new building volume upon the site, main display spaces are sunk into the ground. A cracked Black Box tilts on the collapsed site, making its charcoal grey roof an extension of the square ground. The "tilt" shows not only the scale but also the attitude of design. Viewing from the square in front of the office building into the east, the exhibition hall seems like a slight fluctuation in the terrain, more of a natural earth-scape than an artificial geometry. The crack creates subtle variations in form, color and material of the Black Box, which in turn help merge the building into the environment.  Site Plan The Metaphor - "Black Box"  Square entrance. Image © Yao li The Black Box collapses, sinks, and falls apart on the site, leaving an eternal "scar" as if the land is incised by a sharp scalpel. These series of simple acts establish interior-exterior building connection while creating a communicative and dialogic space. Here the building serves as an objective container for visitors to perceive and interpret the historical event and the implication of the architecture.  Sunken courtyard. Image © Yao li Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army that invaded China was established in 1933 and they committed war crimes including bacteriologic warfare and human experimentation. Prior to the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Unit 731 bombed and destroyed a large portion of buildings before fleeing, leaving ruins as it is today.  Sketches The base for Unit 731 was built near an airport and surrounded by a large expanse of land which now has been turned into bustling downtown. This determines the relationship between the site and its surroundings to be both connected and disconnected.  View from north. Image © Yao li Our design approach begins with a question: "With a bustling urban environment around, how could quiet environment be separated from the site?" That is an overall design consideration we had. We hoped to recreate the original (empty) environment with the desired atmosphere.  View from south yard. Image © Yao li We visited the site prior to the design, noticing that the place where the building is currently located is the only location free from the historical ruins. This means building built at this location would not cause any damage; instead, it will establish favorable contraposition with the original entrance and the command. Coincidently, this vacant lot sits by the road, so the exhibition hall can either be visited separately or form a part of the entire visiting sequence together with the ruins.  Long Section  Cross Section On the west side of the site, a railway that cuts through the site from south to north is still in service. Our first consideration in design was how to establish a closer connection with the ruins beyond the railway, at the same time trying not to damage the original context. In our master plan, first we reinstated the previous road network, then replaced the enclosing wall made of adobes and wire net with concrete and tamped earth. Except for the ruins, we used grey color gravel for pavement to clearly define the relationship between the ruins and its surroundings.  View from north. Image © Yao li Finally, we designed a street park on the east side of the site. The park serves as a transition between the site and the city, while the enclosing wall along the street is also able to partially filter the noisy outside. According to the regularity, it is inappropriate to build an enclosing wall at the entrance to the site, so we designed a sunken plaza to shield the external disturbance, in the hope of creating a relatively tranquil physical space. After all, we hope the visitors may restrain their mind state a little in such a place.  Birdview. Image © Yao li Design stories  Meditation atrium. Image © Yao li From the design perspective, we employed a refrained approach which involves concise yet power form instead of any exaggerating design. What we tried to express is not an angry mindset, instead, we hope to look at the whole issue from the standpoint of human civilization.  Ground Floor Plan Facing Challenge: construction undergoing for four winter months  Birdview. Image © Yao li We rushed to complete the basement before November ahead of the schedule. When winter came, the construction team even set up an internally heated shed to ensure the works progress in winter, which was quite usual.  Bird view from north ruins. Image Courtesy of Architectural Design & Research Institute of SCUT Thus, the collaboration on construction method and time nodes for the project was extremely important. At the same time, we had to make up for inadequate design period with our experiences. Thanks to the elaborate interdisciplinary cooperation, the construction was smoothly completed.  View from east. Image © Yao li  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 15 Jun 2017 12:00 PM PDT  © Kai Nakamura
 © Kai Nakamura From the architect. This is a project for husband, wife, and 2 children. Vida is a house located in Saitama, Japan.The site is a high-residential area and has a neighboring house in the east and the north.  © Kai Nakamura The south is built with shops across narrow streets whereas rich tea gardens are spreading in the west. Since it is a densely populated area, we derived firstly to the maximum possible volume from the volume ratio and the north side shaded line which are decided by law. In order to cope with environmental burdens while taking in the scenery, we planned living, dining, and kitchen with a large opening using Low-E glass on the second floor. The floor was a one-room with all its floor space, a storage space full of ceiling in the north and south, and a dry area that was accentuated on the exterior as part of the south.  Floors Plan  Longitudinal Sections In addition to the entrance that jumped out black on the first floor, the bedroom and the utilities are compactly summarized. The house which the appearance is simple as well as incorporated privacy and maximize the landscape, gives to the town accented.  © Kai Nakamura  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 15 Jun 2017 10:00 AM PDT  © Peter Clarke
 © Aaron Puls From the architect. While the brief for this project included a specific aesthetic, the uniqueness of this home is extraordinary. Residing in an inner suburb of Melbourne, the sculptural form of the house has been inserted into the residential landscape, with a cantilevered upper-floor clad in aluminium slats, the day-time presence is that of a textured and patinated container over glass. At night, however, when lit from within, the upper floor becomes a lantern, while the lower floor falls away to give the impression of a single sculptural form floating in the night sky.  © Peter Clarke On an exceptionally narrow site, the solution was to build to the full boundary of the block, effectively making the new house as wide as possible without creating laneways between the adjoining houses. Contained within glass walls, two of the four courtyards read as a continuation of the living area with the largest courtyard at the rear of the property. To one side a long swimming pool follows the boundary, while the opposite side provides a louvered skylight that continues out from the house to the garage as a long cantilevered canopy.  © Peter Clarke At the heart of the house, the internal courtyard, containing the sunken lounge and fire pit, is walled on three sides by glass. "The spaces are carved out and sculptural to optimise the overall form and allow microcosms of daylight and ventilation to permeate the whole" says Michael Bialek, Design Director at SJB Architects. Visually continuous, the floor remains the same level inside and out before giving way to a series of steps and the floor of the courtyard. Designed for cushions and lounging, the area is also highly architectural in its material aesthetic of polished concrete.  Ground Floor Plan  First Floor Plan The upper floor continues these aesthetics with generously scaled bedrooms, en-suites and simplicity of line. Not wanting to finish the stairwell with a balustrade or wall the design incorporates a long bespoke shoe cabinet in American oak. Rather than stop at the adjoining room's threshold the desk continues into the bedroom. The room however, remains separable with a sliding door that cuts through the desk. Bi-fold louvered screens to the street facade of the upper floor mitigate westerly sun while limiting the view to an outward aspect that ensures the privacy of both the residents and neighbours.  © Peter Clarke While the rarefied aesthetic and variable utility are outstanding, what makes the house exceptional is the experience of the space. Intimate and private on arrival, the house is very much concealed before opening to the view as the journey into the house is revealed.  © Peter Clarke  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Architect Sues SOM for Stealing One World Trade Center Design Posted: 15 Jun 2017 09:00 AM PDT  Park's Cityfront '99 design (left) compared to One World Trade Center (right). Image via 6sqft Architect Jeehoon Park has filed a lawsuit against Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), claiming the design of New York City's One World Trade Center was stolen from a project he developed as a graduate student at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1999. The lawsuit states that the 104-story One World Trade bears a "striking similarity" to his 122-story "Cityfront '99" tower, which also featured a glass facade of inverted triangular planes.  Plans of Park's Cityfront '99 design (left), and One World Trade Center (right). Image via 6sqft Park, who is now president of Qube Architecture LLC in Suwanee, Georgia, is seeking unspecified damages including for alleged damage to his firm and to receive official credit for the building's design. According to the architect, SOM could have first seen the graduate thesis after it was put on display in the university's lobby, or through his former thesis adviser, who now works for the firm. Park also said Cityfront '99 was featured in a scene from the 2006 movie "The Lake House," starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, which also included a scene shot in the lobby of a Chicago building where SOM had an office.  One World Trade Center / SOM. Image © James Ewing Other defendants in the case include participating entities run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, developers on the property, and contractor Tishman Construction Co. "He just wants to be treated fairly," said Dan Kent, a lawyer for Park. "Our client frankly didn't know what his legal rights were until he came to us," added Kent. "We believe we are well within any statutes of limitations, and that the wrongful conduct is ongoing."
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| Construction Underway on Masdar City's Community-Oriented Phase 2 Masterplan Posted: 15 Jun 2017 08:10 AM PDT  Masdar City Phase 2. Image Courtesy of CBT "The world's most sustainable eco-city," Masdar City, is preparing for its next phase of development, as unveiled in the award-winning detailed master plan (DMP) by CBT Architects. Depicted in a comprehensive masterplan by Foster + Partners, Masdar was originally envisioned as a carbon-neutral elevated city without cars, instead featuring pod-based transportation located below the podium. As the first phase was constructed, including the Masdar Institute of Technology, a new vision for the city began to emerge, eventually leading to CBT's pedestrian-oriented innovation community plan for Phase 2.  Masdar City Phase 2. Image Courtesy of CBT Located outside of Abu Dhabi in the desert climate of the UAE, Masdar simultaneously plays the roles of city and technology hub, subdivided into educational and commercial zones that cater to the research and development of sustainable design and energy technologies. The 6,700,000-square-foot Phase 2 masterplan will supplement these existing functions while introducing a wide range of new elements, including a new research and development cluster, shops and restaurants, residential neighborhoods, community centers, mosques and schools.  Masdar City Phase 2. Image Courtesy of CBT  Masdar City Phase 2. Image Courtesy of CBT "The Phase 2 DMP encourages creativity and collaboration in one of the world's hottest climates, and is a replicable and market-friendly model for sustainable urbanism that is aligned with local regulation guidelines, yet maintains its identity as a truly walkable and comfortable city," explain CBT. Rather than relying on high-cost technological investments, the Phase 2 plan seeks to utilize passive design principles to optimize sustainability, employing strategies such as fine grain fabric, environmental optimization and hydro-zoning. Building from earlier ideas, the team reviewed past plans, staying true to design intentions while reevaluating the scale of blocks and buildings, public and private programming and circulation strategies.  Masdar City Phase 2. Image Courtesy of CBT The resulting plan focuses on maintaining four key principles, as described by CBT: Identity: inspired by the UAE's local culture and natural environment, the DMP creates spaces that animate and engage the city and community Walkability: the DMP focuses on outdoor environmental comfort and establishing a walkable cityscape by orienting streets and sikkak (pedestrian pathways) towards prevailing winds to create cool and shaded areas for walking, biking, and commuting to the city's other neighborhoods  Masdar City Phase 2. Image Courtesy of CBT Sustainability: Phase 2 integrates sustainable design practices and encourages eco-friendly lifestyles at all levels, from the building, to the block, to the city landscape. At the building and block levels, the DMP leverages renewable energies and passive urban planning strategies to achieve a 40 percent reduction in energy consumption over conventional standards. At the landscape level, it establishes a set of distinct hydro-zones to strategically allocate precious water resources. The DMP uses 70 percent native plantings to create small green spaces, as well as larger desert landscapes. These impressive initiatives will create one of the UAE's most sustainable communities, as assessed by the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council's rigorous "Estidama" sustainability program Replicability: The Phase 2 DMP sets a strong precedent for public realm, pedestrian experience, mobility and sustainability planning that can be carried through to future phases, as well as other developments in arid environments across the region and the world  Masdar City Phase 2. Image Courtesy of CBT  Courtesy of Masdar. ImageMasdar Institute Development Construction on Phase 2's Masdar Institute Neighborhood, which will link the central Podium to the North Car Park, is already underway with expected completion due in 2020. As part of the construction process, the city's driverless Personal Rapid Transit network will be temporarily closed, with alternative means of transportation to be provided during the closure. "Autonomous mobility has evolved dramatically in recent years, which means our next phase of emission-free driverless vehicles at Masdar City will be able to operate outdoors, integrating with both pedestrians and other types of vehicles," explained Yousef Baselaib, Executive Director, Sustainable Real Estate, Masdar. "This is just one of many solutions which we are working on with industry partners as part of our ongoing commitment to drive innovation and support the advancement of intelligent mobility." News via CBT, Masdar City.  Masdar City Phase 2. Image Courtesy of CBT
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| East 34th St. Ferry Terminal / Kennedy & Violich Architecture Posted: 15 Jun 2017 08:00 AM PDT  © John Horner
 © John Horner From the architect. The East 34th St Ferry Terminal is a multi-modal public transit hub that strengthens the City's sustainable waterfront transportation system and encourages public use of the waterfront. This public project was commissioned by the NYC EDC, the NYC DOT, and the Parks Department and approved with five NYC Community Boards along the East River. The project has received a Progressive Architecture Award, Design Excellence Award from the New York City Art Commission, and a Design Award from the New York Institute of Architects.  © John Horner The design of the 34th Street Ferry Terminal takes a non-nostalgic attitude toward the NYC Riverfront. The project expands and designs Pier 34 to provide a distributed network of services scaled to the passenger and integrated in the architecture of undulating perforated wall screens, benches and public furniture elements. The 34th Street Ferry Terminal creates a public architecture which integrates the physical experiences of the river front with the expanded virtual experiences of the working commute. The use of reflective and translucent materials in the Ferry Terminal architecture emphasizes the changing, natural effects of light and water. The use of steel is minimized through an innovative lightweight triangulated column structure and a tensile textile lenticular roof canopy, the first in the United States. This public project was designed with digitally fabricated building components that were shop-built and transported on-site for rapid construction.  © John Horner  Plan section through landing  © John Horner The Ferry Terminal design is guided by principles of resilient or "soft" infrastructure, where architecture, the East River ecosystem, and digital networks are integrated by design. The project harnesses New York City's underutilized Maritime Global Positioning System for public use, providing intelligent real-time transportation scheduling (ITS) and public WiFi for commuters. An interactive river environment monitoring system, created specifically for this project, tracks the East River water speed and the direction of daily tidal flows which are important to the health of NYC's water supply. This ambient river monitor is integrated into the three large lightwells of the Ferry Terminal roof canopy. Sensors along the boardwalk capture real-time pedestrian flows between water and land. Subtle changes in the color and direction of LED lighting in the roof canopy lightwells reflect the flows of people and water, creating a civic urban infrastructure that links natural and constructed urban ecologies.  Lighting diagram By providing water-based transportation and a new public presence at night, the 34th Street Ferry Terminal emerged as a significant catalyst for development in the area. The ferry service increased residential property values within a quarter mile of the ferry stop by $500 million. In addition, areas near East River Ferry stops in Brooklyn and Queens realized over 600,000 square feet of additional residential and commercial building space, a 4.9% increase over development rates in comparable areas further from waterfront transportation.  © John Horner  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 15 Jun 2017 06:00 AM PDT  © Benjamin Benschneider
 © Benjamin Benschneider From the architect. What started as a need for a simple orchard barn grew into something much grander. The design for this vacation retreat, entertainment facility, and working barn balances a desire for nostalgia with contemporary requirements and stunning views. Set within twelve acres of agricultural land in central Washington state, the site offers views to Lake Chelan and the Cascade Mountain Range. Inspired by sketches developed by the clients, the 10,740-square-foot barn features a ground floor entertainment area complete with a commercial kitchen, storage for orchard equipment, a below-grade wine cellar, and second floor guest rooms and living areas.  © Benjamin Benschneider  Floor Plan  © Benjamin Benschneider  Section The building is distinguished by its hybrid roof form, a roof based on traditional gambrel barn shapes yet with added elements including dormers and gull wings. The large dormers help to break down the scale of the volume, increase light into upstairs living areas, and provide ample space for guest rooms. Gull wing elements transition the building into the adjoining orchard and house ancillary shop and operations space. Large, sliding carriage doors open both ends of the building up to its setting, encouraging guests to move into the landscape and take advantage of the views. Garage doors, located under the wings, provide additional opportunities to merge inside with outside space. The exterior is clad with black-stained wood siding, applied with steel wool and vinegar; over time, the stain will soften to a silvery gray, blending the building into the adjacent landscape. "We suggested nixing the red barn for something more sympathetic to the landscape," says designer Kyle Gaffney. "We showed them some dark barns which made it more a part of the orchard rather than an object alongside it. The carriage doors, both at the main level and "loft" level, are stained with a transparent tone and provide a contrast."  © Benjamin Benschneider Inside, the main floor is essentially one large open space, suitable for parties or for storing vehicles from the owner's classic car collection. A large kitchen, complete with a custom-designed pizza oven, balances residential materiality with commercial scale. An adjoining great room reinforces the residential feel of the space and completes the contemporary open kitchen plan which encourages mingling. Kitchen and great room open onto expansive exterior patios.  © Benjamin Benschneider A three-story steel staircase featuring wood treads unites the three floors of the facility; vintage apple crate panels clad the solid wall of the stairway and serve as a nod to the landscape outside. Overhead, twenty four exposed wood trusses span the interior and contribute to the quasi-industrial aesthetic. The trusses are supported by powder-coated steel brackets. The upper floor, or loft area, houses guest rooms and a shared living area which wrap the perimeter of the building in mezzanine-fashion, leaving the center open to the ground floor below. Peering over the steel railing reveals an integrally-colored, concrete and stainless steel emblem that is inset into the of the floor below. The emblem serves as the hallmark for the property and is repeated in Dutch-barn-sign fashion on the outside of the building. The master bedroom view overlooks the orchard. The basement level wine cellar is highlighted by the use of split, sanded cobblestones for flooring—once used as ballast in ships sailing to Colonial America. Cedar sinker wood—wood pulled from the bottom of a nearly lake—was milled and turned into the sliding barn doors in the wine cellar and master bathroom.  © Benjamin Benschneider  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Seattle's Space Needle to Undergo $100 Million Minimalist Renovation by Olson Kundig Posted: 15 Jun 2017 05:30 AM PDT  Outer Open-Air Observation Deck (after). Image © Olson Kundig One of the world's most recognizable landmarks, the Seattle Space Needle, is set to undergo a $100 million renovation project focused on the structure's preservation and the enhancement of the visitor experience by opening up spaces to dramatically improved views. Designed by Olson Kundig with interiors by Tihany Design, the scheme will intensify the Observation Deck experience through the addition of floor-to-ceiling glass on both the interior and exterior spaces, creating unobstructed 360 degree views of the Puget Sound and Seattle skyline . The renovation will also reimagine the Needle's restaurant level by featuring a "first-of-its-kind" rotating glass floor to offer never-before-seen downward views of the structure.  Space Needle in the Seattle Skyline (after). Image © Olson Kundig  Cross-Section of the Tophouse to show Observation Deck Renovations. Image © Olson Kundig The project team collaborated closely with the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, local architectural historians and preservationists, one of the original Space Needle structural engineers, and the community to ensure the renovation would remain true to the original spirit of the John Graham & Company-designed structure. The resulting plan achieves this goal by focusing on the removal of visual clutter, including walls and the existing wire cage safety system.  View from the Interior Observation Deck (before). Image Courtesy of Seattle Space Needle  View from the Interior Observation Deck (after). Image © Olson Kundig New exterior glass barriers will open out at an angle, dampening reflections and creating room for canted-glass benches affixed to the structure. On the inside, floor-to-ceiling glass will replace the existing windowed walls, bringing light deeper into the space and creating spectacular views from anywhere in the space.  Circular stairway connecting from the Observation Deck to the Restaurant Level (after). Image © Olson Kundig Other new features will include a new open circular stairway made of steel, wood, and glass connecting the Observation and Restaurant levels, a glass-floored oculus revealing views of the superstructure and elevator systems, and an improved mezzanine level. All spaces will be retrofitted for improved accessibility, with enlarged doorways and stairways and a custom-designed ADA lift.  Early design concept for the Interior Restaurant Level before the integration of the new Tihany Design concepts. Image © Olson Kundig Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in September 2017, and will open over stages, with the initial unveiling slated for June 2018. News via Seattle Space Needle.  Tophouse of the Space Needle (after). Image © Olson Kundig
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| Morphology Building / Talia Valdez + Nómena Arquitectos Posted: 15 Jun 2017 04:00 AM PDT  © Diego Franco Coto
 © Diego Franco Coto From the architect. The project is located in an area of recent urban transformation in Lima, the neighborhood of Santa Cruz. Old mechanical workshops are turning into a new commercial area of bars, offices and housing. The elongated site houses a vertical void (botanical garden) with a semi-urban character. Its boundaries impose a regular line in a discontinuous environment trying to use geometry to shape the city.  © Diego Franco Coto  Section  © Diego Franco Coto The building addresses various programs (commercial, office and cafeteria) vertically, overlapping them in five levels. The commercial program is linked to the street through a base, the offices are located at higher levels and the cafeteria on the top level. On the top floor, the cafeteria has outdoor conditions, a contained space on the sides but open to the sky. The distribution hall has two different routes from the street; a more private to the commercial area and another more public and independent "side street". The latter allows passersby to freely penetrate the building to the cafeteria through an architectural promenade. The commercial levels are linked with slow steps.  © Diego Franco Coto  Floor Plans  © Diego Franco Coto Two envelopes were used, that contribute to control the temperature and solar incidence on the main facade. They work as a veranda (a space traditionally used in the east as protection/transition between interior and exterior) replacing the traditional curtain wall. This idea is also a reference to the traditional Lima balcony that allowed to see without being seen, but this time through a concrete structural lattice. The building reveals its section through a semi-public path, a vertical space that houses an interior botanic garden.  © Diego Franco Coto  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 15 Jun 2017 03:00 AM PDT  Sketch design for the Roman Catholic cathedral, Liverpool: perspective from south east, by Sir Edwin Lutyens, 1932. Image © RIBA Collections The Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) new national architecture center, RIBA North, will open this week (June 17th) in Liverpool as part of the Mann Island project – a complex of waterfront buildings designed by Broadway Malyan and completed in 2013. At the core of the launch of the Institute's largest national outpost will sit an exhibition, located in the new City Gallery, exploring Liverpool's "long, often maverick, history of architectural ambition, its willingness to take risks and consider audacious [architectural] schemes."  Courtesy of RIBA. Mann Island, Liverpool. Image © webbaviation.co.uk  © Hufton + Crow  © Hufton + Crow Liverpool(e): Mover, Shaker, Architectural Risk-Taker intends to reveal the process behind Liverpool's unique development, from architectural competitions to unrealized speculative ideas. According to its co-curator, Joseph Sharples, "highlights of the exhibition [dating from between the 1700's to the mid 20th Century] range from a Seaman's Memorial on the Waterfront to drawings by Sir Denys Lasdun, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Giles Gilbert Scott for the city's two famous cathedrals."  Competition design for Roman Catholic cathedral, Liverpool: elevation, by Denys Lasdun, 1959. Image © RIBA Collections "Amongst the ambitious proposals is a design for the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral by Sir Charles Archibald Nicholson from 1901-1902. He proposed a hexagonal space with pairs of unusual radiating transepts, like the petals of a flower. It would have been roofed with a dome, and the transepts would have had huge windows, flooding the space with light. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott won the contest but Nicholson was able to reuse his idea for the chapel of Clifton College in Bristol."  Panorama proposal for the layout of the city centre, Liverpool by Shankland Cox Partnership, c.1963. Image © RIBA Collections  Competition design for Roman Catholic cathedral, Liverpool: elevation, by Denys Lasdun, 1959. Image © RIBA Collections
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| "X-Ray Vision" Headset Allows Architects to See Under the Surface of Construction Sites Posted: 15 Jun 2017 02:30 AM PDT  Courtesy of DAQRI This article was originally published on Autodesk's Redshift publication as "Augmented Reality in Construction Lets You See Through Walls." Imagine you're part of a crew constructing a new office building: Midway through the process, you're on-site, inspecting the installation of HVAC systems. You put on a funny-looking construction helmet and step out of the service elevator. As you look up, there's a drop ceiling being installed, but you want to know what's going on behind it. Through the visor on your helmet, you pull up the Building Information Model (BIM), which is instantly projected across your field of vision. There are heating ducts, water pipes, and electrical boxes, moving and shifting with your point of view as you walk along the corridors. Peel back layers of the model to see the building's steel structure, insulation, and material finishes. It's like having comic book-style X-ray vision—and soon, it could be a reality on a construction site near you.  Courtesy of DAQRI This magic hat, the DAQRI Smart Helmet, is a wearable augmented-reality system being developed for use in industrial fabrication industries—especially the building and construction industry. Essentially, it allows builders, engineers, and designers to take their BIM model to the construction site, wear it on their heads, and experience it as an immersive, full-scale 3D environment. Giving construction crews access to this level of multilayered building information would let them see spatial relationships better; detect MEP clashes earlier; and in general, allow faster, more informed decisions with fewer errors. "It empowers you to make decisions in the field, as opposed to waiting till the end of your shift to check with your supervisor," says Roy Ashok, DAQRI's chief product officer. "It empowers the end construction worker." The helmets (which cost $15,000 each in this early development phase) are just starting to trickle onto construction sites as DAQRI begins short trial runs, including a collaboration with Mortenson Construction and Autodesk. As part of a proof-of-concept test, Mortenson used the helmets during construction of the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. "The BIM model is step one," says Mortenson's Senior Director of Project Solutions Ricardo Khan. "The reality is that the value of the model is probably 25 percent of the real value. The next 75 percent is connecting the field teams to the rest of the contractual project information in the space."  Courtesy of DAQRI The track record for augmented-reality wearables is marred by one notorious flop—but unlike Google Glass, DAQRI is focused squarely on industrial applications. In this arena, slightly goofy headwear like these helmets are readily accepted, and fewer privacy concerns apply. In terms of hardware, the helmets have three different types of cameras that work together to locate users at a specific point in space and interpret the geometry around them. There's a 166-degree, wide-angle grayscale lens that defines the user's position in an environment, accurate to one centimeter. Then there's a depth-sensing camera (the Intel RealSense) that deciphers the geometry of the space and the objects within it, telling you, "this is a door, this is a window, this is a table," Ashok says. This awareness allows you to place virtual content and alter a model. It also remembers a "map" of each room that's created. "It's almost like a cartography function," Ashok says. A third, thermal, camera also allows users to map temperature readings onto objects rendered in 3D. "With the combination of where you are with the visual odometry system and what is around you, you know pretty much everything you need to know about the world," he says.  Courtesy of DAQRI The DAQRI helmet's software design was driven by functional concerns for the unique and relatively dangerous environment of a building zone. An initial idea was to use hand signals, which would be picked up by the helmet's camera, to wade through its menus—but that didn't work. "There are two big reasons," Ashok says. "One is reliability. The technology is just not mature enough have 99.99 percent reliability, and because of that, it leads to fatigue." A construction site is also a bad place to be wildly flapping your arms to highlight an array of lighting fixtures that haven't been built yet: Hence the second concern about using hand signals. Due to the showers of sparks, spinning blades, exposed wiring, and tons of metal swinging though the air on construction sites, you want everyone's full attention on the task at hand and the actual physical surroundings. "Once you pull your awareness away from what's happening around you, it exposes us to potential hazards on the job," Khan says. To address these concerns, the DAQRI team decided the helmets would have to operate completely hands-free, and the engineers settled on what they call a "gaze and dwell system." A reticule oriented in your field of vision moves as you move your head, "just like a mouse and cursor," Ashok says. If you hover over a menu item, hyperlink, or model layer for a few seconds, it's selected. The helmets come with Autodesk BIM 360 out of the box, but it's mostly up to each company to create its own custom software (which DAQRI supports), because the product's range of uses is so broad.  Courtesy of DAQRI Using DAQRI helmets during a project's construction phase seems like the most intuitive application, but Ashok says it's worth bringing to a building site on "day one of design" as well. An architect could show his or her model to engineers and builders on-site before construction begins, and they can point out potential issues—when mistakes are far easier and cheaper to fix. The system's clear visual interface means it could also provide construction crews with step-by-step instructions for punch-list inspections or even for maintenance long after construction is complete. "AR has far-reaching impacts on how society will interact with information in context to the environment," Khan says. "For the construction industry, we see it as a needed disrupter to resolve a wide range of business problems, such as increasing safety awareness for the field crew related to just-in-time knowledge. As a downstream value, our customers can leverage AR to dramatically improve operating and maintaining their facility." The current incarnation of DAQRI promises to change the way buildings are made, but it still relies on importing a static virtual model of a building and overlaying it with the real thing. The next frontier will be creating a device that can detect components hidden from view and then represent them dynamically to users—whether they are included in the model or not. That truly would bring augmented reality to the cusp of X-ray vision, and the construction industry into a world of in-the-moment material omniscience.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posadas Business Hub / Francisco López Redondo + Gudula Rudolf Posted: 15 Jun 2017 02:00 AM PDT  © Fernando Alda
 © Fernando Alda From the architect. In the middle of the local urban center, embedded between facades of different height, stands a braided fence of natural rods that reaches the roof of the neighboring building - the former Manuel Siurot School - which, after sliding gently on the pavement, unfolds before the pedestrian of Miguel Hernández street, a semi-covered urban courtyard inspired by the covered promenades of the region.  © Fernando Alda As a backdrop to this great "open-air hall" (solemn expression of a public interior) stands the facade of a new facility for training purposes and the promotion of business activities of the region which, set perpendicularly to the access road, extends until reaching the back of the plot, partially occupying the residual gaps of the old school.  Plan It is a compact concrete construction two floors high, with a constant section that allows the interior connection with the adjacent building and is open - on the south - to a great interior patio, where a garden and a vertical covered walkway similar to the facade, temper the chaotic image of walls and facades that envelop it, while creating a new urban public space within the city block.  © Fernando Alda At the same time, it serves as a counterpoint to a second longitudinal courtyard adjacent to the northern facade, that is visually connected to the previous courtyard through the main room on the ground floor, enables cross ventilation and alternative circulation, allows the privacy of the upper floor and sifts natural light into the rooms.  © Fernando Alda Internally, the functionality of the construction is simple, with a reduced and transformable program solved with only three materials (concrete, glass and wood), whose bare and daring nature transfer the strong exterior expression to the interior.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| How Architecture Speaks Through Cinema Posted: 15 Jun 2017 01:00 AM PDT  Image: achassignon via VisualHunt / CC BY-SA. Assembly with image of John Cunniff via Visual Hunt / CC BY
It is difficult to imagine cinema taking place in a vacuum. Without the scene to fill each storyline, we cannot be transported away from our reality to the world of the film we are immersed in. Within Godard's list of ways to make films, we can add another: cinema as architecture. The interaction between cinema and architecture - "the inherent architecture of cinematic expression and the cinematographic essence of architectural experience" is a complex, often multifaceted dialogue between both disciplines. [2] Regarding the production of these two distinct "art forms", the architect Juhani Pallasmaa emphasizes that both are realized with the help of a team of specialists and assistants as a result of collective effort. However, another aspect emerges: both are the arts of the author, the fruit of a creator, an individual artist. Let us turn our attention to this and other moments in which these arts intersect. Set construction is undoubtedly one of these moments of intersection. Allowing for great control over shooting conditions, sets built in closed studios enable the possibility of getting rid of limitations related to the climate, lighting and eventual setbacks that may occur in shooting in "real" environments. Alfred Hitchcock is an example of a filmmaker who has made extensive use of sets to create spaces of tension and horror in his productions.  Scenery of the movie Rope. Directed by: Alfred Hitchcok. Distributor: Universal Studios Home Entertainment, 1948. 1 DVD (80 min). Source: https: //lisathatcher.files.wordpress. Com / 2012/09 / rope-set.jpg.  Scenery of the movie Rear Window. Directed by: Alfred Hitchcok. Distributor: Universal Home Video, 1954. 1 DVD (112 min). Source: http://theredlist.com/wiki- 2-20-777-789-view-1950-1960-profile-1954-brear-window-b.html Another emblematic example of the use of sets in cinema occurs in German expressionism. Films such as Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Robert Wiene's Nosferatu (1922) are works in which Pallasmaa says spaces and environments present a "fantastic architecture suspended between dreaming and reality." Wiene's film Nosferatu shows completely distorted architecture characterized by oblique angles and marked shadows on the surfaces of the setting, establishing the architecture as something out of touch with reality. Nosferatu's scenography replicates architectures that are realistic, however, the film's narrative charges these spaces with a dreamlike atmosphere.  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Directed by: Robert Wiene. Distributor: Continental Home Video, 1920. 1 DVD (118 min). Image: drmvm1 via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-ND The artificial spaces of German expressionism with their forced angles, shadows and perspectives generate tension and distort human perception, "oppressing the observer's own space by incorporating it into the vortex of the film." [3] Thus, films like Caligari produce entirely new spaces which simultaneously embrace and absorb everything in the scene. In these films one perceives the scenery acting as a protagonist in itself, not just as a backdrop.
It isn't necessary to only create scenarios that simulate shadows and distort perspectives. Camera movements and specific frames can create similar effects in cinematography. “ To pre-stylize reality prior to tackling it amounts to dodging the problem," writes Erwin Panofsky, “The problem is to manipulate and shoot un-stylized reality in such a way that the result has style” [5]  Rome, Open City. Director: Roberto Rossellini. Distributor: Image Entertainment, 1945. 1 DVD (103 min). Source: https://www.tomshw.it/files/2011/02 /immagini/29608/ Filming "real space" was the goal of directors like Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti and Pietro Germi, who created narratives that showed the reality of Italy in the second half of the 1940s. Films, which include famous works like Rome, Open City (1945), The Bicycle Thief (1948) by De Sica and Visconti's La Terra Trema (1948), present critical views of Italy's post-war period. As Siegfried Kracauer states: urban space, with its streets and buildings, was both the site and the vehicle fuelling this social critique.  Two or Three Things I Know About Her. Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard. Distributor: Pierrot Le Fou, 1967. 1 DVD (87 min). Source: http: // laboratoireurbanismeinsurrectionnel. Blogspot.com.br/2012/04/godard-la-gestapo-des-structures.html Representations of urban space, however, are not limited to Italian neo-realist films - they also make up an important part of the plot in later productions. For example, Jean-Luc Godard in his film Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967) uses images of Paris and the transformations that the capital went through in the 1960s: with the construction of great projects in the suburbs and suburbs themselves - as metaphor for everyday situations in the lives of some of the characters portrayed in the film. Consumerism, capitalism, and globalization appear as central themes of this story, whether referring to the city or the personal life of the women portrayed in the film. Similarly, Quentin Tarantino with Pulp Fiction (1994) portrays the periphery of a generic city as the background to a series of banal stories: unemployed people, murderers, waitresses, and roadside hotels make up a plot that fits into what could be called "dirty realism" - that can occur anywhere in the world. [6]  Pulp Fiction Director: Quentin Tarantino. Distributor: Miramax Films, 1994. 1 DVD (154 min). Banal stories in banal places. The North American suburb shown through a "dirty realism". Source: Movie Screenshot.  Pulp Fiction Director: Quentin Tarantino. Distributor: Miramax Films, 1994. 1 DVD (154 min). Source: Movie Screenshot Dystopic visions of future cities also make up the specter of architecture's role in cinema. An example of this is the film Blade Runner (1982) by Ridley Scott, which features a fictional city (San Angeles) that is the product of a "new cybernetic society that brings together ethnicities and diverse architectural styles, highlighting the results of years of a hybrid use of often-unsupported spaces and waste generators." Their environments are dystopian manifestations of "postmodernism guaranteed by the capitalist supremacy of the postindustrial era." [7]  Fictional Megalopolis San Angeles in Blade Runner - The android hunter. Direction: Ridley Scott. Distributor: Warner Home Video, 1982. 1 DVD (117 min). Source: http: //www.deolhonailha. Com.br/florianopolis/cinema/ blade-runner.html Metropolis (1927), by Fritz Lang is another instance of the future being portrayed as dystopia. Santos (2004) writes that "the systems’ great machine is effectively represented by an oppressive and omnipresent city, which reduces its inhabitants to mere ventriloquists manipulated by gears in a clear manifestation of the fears aroused by a new industrial city." Lang's work must be examined from the context in which it is made. Having been produced in the late 1920’s, it reflects questions about the inter-war period, when Germany suffered from the defeat of World War I and other European countries showed accelerated economic growth due to heavy industrialization. In that sociopolitical scenario, Metropolis was the possibility of a dystopian future, not as distant from reality that might conjure from other German expressionist films.  Metropolis. Directed by: Fritz Lang. Distributor: Kino Video, 1927. 1 DVD (153 min) and the possibility of a dystopian future. Source: Movie Still Decades later, the modern city was masterfully represented ironically in the films Mon Oncle (1958), Play Time (1967) and Trafic (1971) by Jacques Tati. Technology and modernization, embodied by the most eccentric artifacts, devices and buildings are contrasted by the symbolic figure of M. Hulot, a subject who simply does not fit into the new way of life imposed by the accelerated process of urban modernization. Out of place, he tries in vain to adjust to the new reality that promises ease and comfort, yet presents only obstacles and resistance.  The modern house in Mon Oncle (1958) does not seem to facilitate the life of M. Hulot. Source: https://girlsdofilm.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/mon-oncle-m-hulot-is-puzzled-by-modernism/ Another interesting point that Pallasmaa comments would be to investigate whether cinema architecture, freed from the constraints of practical functions, constructive technology and costs "has gained some artistic advantage over the actual architectural designs of the architects of these remarkable buildings." Far removed from its concrete limitations, would the architecture of cinema have gone further than the architecture that gives rise to our physical environment? Hints of this can be seen in projects by set design architects, such as Paul Nelson's Maison Suspendue, in which "environments are suspended in a steel and glass cell like bird's nests." [8] We can only imagine what buildings these set designers would have built if they hadn’t dedicated themselves to cinema. Architect Robert Mallet-Stevens notes:  Playtime urban landscape. Directed by: Jacques Tati. Distributor: Continental Home Video, 1967. 1 DVD (115 min). Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/ -y7LJmbBN-aM /
These crossovers can also occur the other way around: just as architecture builds scenes in movies, cinema can, with light, shadows, scale, and movements, construct spaces. For filmmakers with a study or academic approach to architecture, such as Sergei Eisenstein, the absence of concrete physical limitations (gravity, functionality, etc.) allows cinema to go even further than architecture (understood here as a practice of designing and constructing buildings) in terms of spatial experiments.
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| Mecanoo and MAYU Architects+ Break Ground on Tainan Public Library Posted: 14 Jun 2017 11:00 PM PDT  Courtesy of Mecanoo Mecanoo and MAYU Architects+ have begun construction on the new Tainan Public Library in Taiwan. The joint proposal was selected as a winner of a competition by the Tainan City Government held in February 2016. The proposal's program hosting people of all ages, combined with its distinctive stepped façade will serve as a key addition to Tainan's cultural landscape. The design has gone through revisions with updated drawings released by Mecanoo.  Courtesy of Mecanoo  Courtesy of Mecanoo The 37,000 sqm library program will be open-plan, with its perimeter expanding in size along each of the three levels. The cantilevered façade is clad with a "second skin" of vertical timber louvres wrapping around its highest floor. The slotted façade will filter light and reduce solar heat gain.  Courtesy of Mecanoo  Courtesy of Mecanoo
 Courtesy of Mecanoo  Courtesy of Mecanoo Apart from hosting a 600,000-volume library (with a further 400,000 stored), the program will boast a variety of facilities including a children's play area, spaces for teenagers and senior citizens, café, reading rooms, bookshop and visitor center. Keyspaces include an 180-seat conference hall and a 290-seat auditorium. A sunken plaza on the ground level acts as a multifunctional outdoor space for hosting talks, exhibitions or social gatherings. The project is set to complete construction in 2019.
News via: Mecanoo.
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