Arch Daily |
- JETLAG Tea & Wine Bar / Mimosa architekti
- The Cooperage / Chris Dyson Architects
- Boulogne Pont de Sèvres Housing Rehabilitation / eliet&lehmann architectes
- Villa X / Barcode Architects
- 37° White / D+space design
- Kojyogaoka House / Hearth Architects
- Flora Pavilion / Design School of Nanjing University of the Arts
- Code Space / Full Scale Studio
- Casa AR / ARCO Arquitectura Contemporánea
- Helen Street House / mw|works architecture + design
- Towards an Architecture of Light, Color, and Virtual Experiences
- Lightspeed Office / ACDF Architecture
- In "Horizontal City," 24 Architects Reconsider Architectural Interiors at 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial
- Installation Showing the Perspective of a Self-Driving Car Aims to Evoke Empathy for Artificial Intelligence
- House D3 / Barclay & Crousse
- All-In-One Structure Solves Flooding, Parking and the Lack of Green Space in Cities
- Solar Squared: A Glass Block That Generates Electricity
| JETLAG Tea & Wine Bar / Mimosa architekti Posted: 25 Sep 2017 10:00 PM PDT  © BoysPlayNice
 © BoysPlayNice From the architect. This small bar in the centre of Prague offers especially tea and wine but also delicious coffee. Separately or in various even astonishing combinations. The space concept of travelling through time zones has been derived from its name „Jetlag". Within this meaning one can "fly through" the entire world only along the whole length of the bar (15 metres).  © BoysPlayNice Awaking in the tea and wine bar at St. George Square: The entire world is crammed in there; 24 time zones compressed into a few seconds; An utter huddle and muddle; One enters today and within a few steps now becomes yesterday. It takes six hours to get to the bar end and Additional thirteen hours to reach the last table at a window. Wine comes from Chile, tea from Ceylon; 9 hours in a 200 ml glass. Austria, China 8 hours; An hour is lost, another hour gained.  © BoysPlayNice The substance of the spatial solution to the Jetlag bar consists in the idea of „cutting its space into time zones". The curvature of real time zones is generalised in the bar morphology. Each zone begins and terminates with a curve delimiting the space part of concern. The shaping of curves creates particular parts of the bar space – the bar itself, wine and tea shelves, light fixtures, benches. The space is intentionally unclear, as if blurred, in the same way as the time in which one travels a sufficient distance for an adequately long time and frequently enough.  Floor Plan  Section Stainless steel was chosen as the basic material. The bright, subtle and only suggested steel curves reflect the imaginary lines delimiting the time zones. The shiny metal associates both the fuselages with riveted sheet metals and the stainless vessels of today's wineries as well.  © BoysPlayNice  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Cooperage / Chris Dyson Architects Posted: 25 Sep 2017 08:00 PM PDT .jpg?1505949875 "© Peter Landers") © Peter Landers
.jpg?1505950952 "© Peter Landers") © Peter Landers From the architect. After a five-year design and construction process, Chris Dyson Architects have finished extending and renovating the Cooperage, a property located on a constrained former industrial site in central London. .jpg?1505950643 "© Peter Landers") © Peter Landers The building dates back to the early 1900s, and the reconfigured building clearly celebrates the remaining original elements, which had been neglected during previous renovation works in the 1990s. CDA worked meticulously to identify these opportunities, stripping back many of the recent additions to reveal and showcase the original historic fabric. .jpg?1505950740 "© Peter Landers") © Peter Landers It was also crucial to rationalise the arrangements of rooms. CDA achieved this by turning the bedrooms scattered across all parts of the building, and small living room and kitchen into generous, open plan family and social spaces on the lower levels with more private bedrooms and studies at higher levels.  1st and 2nd Floor Plan The owners of the home intend to grow old in the Cooperage so a sensible relationship between all of the rooms on each floor and the possibility of future adaptability were crucial. This was all made possible by expanding the existing basement and extending the building vertically. .jpg?1505950126 "© Peter Landers") © Peter Landers The basement has been extended laterally to create a large open-plan family living area over which rises a triple height atrium – a space around which much of the accommodation is structured, and which brings light from the existing rooflights to the depths of the building and makes the original timber roof structure part of the living space, reconnecting the house back to its industrial heritage. .jpg?1505949569 "© Peter Landers") © Peter Landers A suspended, freestanding staircase made of steel and timber is placed as an element in this space. Elegant yet functional, it runs from basement to roof, thereby rationalising the vertical circulation and paying homage to the industrial past of the building. .jpg?1505949646 "© Peter Landers") © Peter Landers The new second floor extension contains a master bedroom suite and roof terrace, with far-reaching roof-top views over south London. The extension is set back from the existing brick walls and is contemporary in design, yet drawing reference from the aesthetics of the historical site with muted, patinated bronze panels. .jpg?1505951027 "© Peter Landers") © Peter Landers Despite the logistical challenges of creating spaces on a constrained site, and the previous renovation work from the 1990s, CDA have managed to strike the difficult balance between creating an innovative residential building, while also remaining loyal to the Cooperage's history. .jpg?1505950998 "© Peter Landers") © Peter Landers  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Boulogne Pont de Sèvres Housing Rehabilitation / eliet&lehmann architectes Posted: 25 Sep 2017 07:00 PM PDT  © Sergio Grazia
 © Sergio Grazia From the architect. The renovation of the entire forum, 797 social housing units built in the mid 70's by architects Daniel Babani and Pierre Roux-Dorlut, builds on the strength of the original building. The program advocated the use of exterior insulation. Our first conviction was that the building draws its strength and character from its architectonic concrete facades. A generalized packaging was thus excluded.  © Sergio Grazia At the time of its construction, the building was on the fringes of the city, isolated on its slab facing the industrial zone of the factories Renault. The industrial site closed in 1992 was replaced by the trapeze district with remarkable architectures. The buildings of the forum renovated without being distorted, now find a place in the city, among the great contemporary buildings.  © Pierre-Yves Brunaud The interventions, which were intended to be in line with the original architecture, are nevertheless important: The clean colors of the exterior joinery and the rolling shutters, all replaced, contrast with the original concrete simply cleaned. This tiered building on a slab creates its own mineral landscape. To soften it, a forest of 250 trees is planted on previously unused terraces.  Project Plan The ground floor is completely restructured. The halls are enlarged and open to natural light. Halls and bike storage are gathered in the same crossing space. The whole is treated as a noble place. A floor made of continuous Comblanchian stone covers the floor.  © Pierre-Yves Brunaud  Terrace Section  © Sergio Grazia The feet of the huge blind pinions are pierced to create collective facilities or businesses. The west pinion of building H1, at the outlet of the footbridge that leads to the park of the trapezium quarter sees the installation of a restaurant.  © Pierre-Yves Brunaud On the eastern pinion of the H2 building, on the site of a future public staircase, a large bow-window serves as an entrance to a group of lodges and meeting rooms. The façade interventions, which are sometimes important, take up the constructive principle of assembling large prefabricated concrete elements and blend into the original building.  © Pierre-Yves Brunaud  Balcony Detail  © Sergio Grazia  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2017 05:00 PM PDT  © Christian van der Kooy
 © Christian van der Kooy From the architect. Villa X combines solid and void in a geometrically minimalistic composition. Based on the clients' desires for both openness and privacy, Barcode Architects designed a living space that blends seamlessly with the garden, as well as enclosed rooms that would allow the couple to "close the door". Simplicity, material quality, and a contemporary appearance were key aspects of the design.  © Christian van der Kooy  Axonometric  © Christian van der Kooy To achieve optimal sun exposure and maximize the size of the garden, the villa is conceived as a single elongated box. The front and back facades are folded inwards, providing covered exterior space while maintaining the volume's geometric purity. A public-private transition is thus created at the front, and a protected terrace at the back. Seen from outside, the solid-void composition can clearly be read. A long transparent façade encloses the open living space – the "void" – and two closed concrete blocks at both ends mark the "solid" private spaces, which contain the guest and private living quarters. The fully glazed façade opens the living area towards the garden, and allows the changing daylight to animate the space.  © Christian van der Kooy The "solid" private spaces are clad in anthracite concrete, which is detailed to be at once massive, subtle and refined. Hefty 12-ton 11m x 3m precast concrete side walls give a sense of weight and protective solidity, while the smooth, reflective finish – achieved by multiple layers of hand-polishing – gives a delicate and luxurious effect. A malleable and ductile quality is suggested by the protruding guest room window; it is cast into the wall, appearing to have been pulled out from an elastic surface. The villa's corners are exact and sharp. The 15cm-thick concrete walls come together in a thin 10mm gap, and the angled geometry of the front and back facades makes the walls appear as though they were accurately scored and folded. Inside, the private zones have an intimate atmosphere with rooms that each have their own identity: from the "surrealist" Escher-inspired restroom to the sunny yellow guest bathroom.  © Christian van der Kooy Contained between the two dark "solid" ends, the central "void" is a bright and airy living space. A direct view to the garden is offered by a fully glazed façade with frames hidden in the floor and ceiling. Sunlight is reflected by the white ceiling and walls, and by the light resin floor. The space is completely open, with only two freestanding core furniture elements that define the entrance, living, dining and kitchen zones. One is a tactile linear element with curved edges and a smooth, dark-stained bamboo finish, echoing the aged beech tree outside. It integrates building installations, storage space, a TV, and a fireplace. Continuing above the roof, it visually anchors the building. The second core element is rectilinear and T-shaped. It defines the entrance, dining area and kitchen, and features black-stained oak cabinetry. These two wood elements add warmth and an intimate scale to the overall light and open living area. From this protected yet transparent space, the couple can vividly experience the garden as it changes throughout the seasons.  © Christian van der Kooy  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2017 03:00 PM PDT  © Fancy Images
 Flower display area. Image © Fancy Images From the architect. The location of Sun's flower shop is in Wanda Plaza of Changshu witch have flowers, courses and buyer coats. Designed in this project only with a white and a single square element to create a pleasant plant kingdom, set off the characteristics of the product at the same time without losing the fun of space. Different from other stores in the region can bring psychological touch of cool to the customer at any time.  Flower display area. Image © Fancy Images White door in the red brick against the background is particularly eye-catching, not only the simple rectangular light into interior spaces, but also to let pedestrians pass by the store to watch the accessibility of the vitality of the plant, the door is not a common symbol design but to join the display of the property, the level of scattered tropical plants, has not yet entered the flower shop was attracted by its unique temperament.  Flower display area. Image © Fancy Images The first floor of the entrance placed three groups of high and low flower racks to meet the bottled flowers into the column, the left side of the wall can display the eternal life, aromatherapy candles and other gift package products. Cash bar in the second half of the floor, to ensure that florists have a relatively independent and not subject to interference creative space.In the absence of freezer, we have arranged in the inside of a storage of fresh flowers cold storage, enough to spend on weekdays retail flowers and movable timber.  Floor Plans The mezzanine on the first floor is mainly for communication, and is used for daily flower lessons, friends small gathering, Confidante afternoon tea. Designers here arranged three different types of tables and chairs. In the sandwich fence designed a bar, which achieved with the first floor of the barrier-free communication, sitting in the bar chair can be directly seen downstairs three groups of flowers display area and long strip of glass into the sun,Put yourself in a relaxed atmosphere as if you were on holiday. The two groups of seats can be separated or merged, after the merger fully meet the needs of a multiplayer course. Inside and staircase between the deck to provide chat to two or three people.  Flower display area. Image © Fancy Images On the second floor for the display and sales of hand-dress, the designer left the window to the best position of the light left to the product display, the guests will be the purpose of direct access to the display area after a lap to visit the locker room, In order to facilitate the payment side of the locker room is the cashier. The walking stream of the guest presents a U-shaped, barrier-free and does not go back to the road. In particular, we arranged a toilet next to the stairs that were about to leave, In order to avoid the repeated replacement clothing after makeup.  Clothing display area. Image © Fancy Images The mezzanine floor of the two floor is the office for the staff of Miss Sun. Although it is limited in size, it meets the needs of their daily work and meetings.  Party area. Image © Fancy Images On the first floor of the mezzanine and the second floor of the connection, we designed a straight to the top of the stairs, the inspiration from the Vietnamese thin floor, in a narrow space, the designer after repeated study to ensure that the space to maximize the use of Comfort, the angle of the stairs and the height of each staircase made a decision.  Section The handrail at the staircase was replaced by an ingenious steel structure square elements were used throughout the space. This design not only creates a good atmosphere but also serves as a display area for hydroponic plants and makes it on the stairs Of people in the absence of handrails in the case,Comprehensive protection can still be achieved. The walls of the stairs are made of wood with a square of different sizes,As the plane display area, and a square steel structure in Vicenza, makes the spatial feature of good interest are realized.  Flower display area. Image © Fancy Images  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Kojyogaoka House / Hearth Architects Posted: 25 Sep 2017 01:00 PM PDT  © Yuta Yamada
 © Yuta Yamada From the architect. This project started with the client's keyword of "every family under one roof". The frontage of this ground is wide and the ground is big enough. It's good site location.  © Yuta Yamada  1st/2nd Floor Plan  © Yuta Yamada I maximized the site location. Concretely speaking, I arranged big roof in a north-south direction, and minimized the number of walls to meet the keyword of "every family under one roof". I arranged other rooms but rooms for children in the future in the first floor. The house like a one-story building became one symbolic building in the area.  © Yuta Yamada  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Flora Pavilion / Design School of Nanjing University of the Arts Posted: 25 Sep 2017 12:00 PM PDT  Shared Color Space. Image © Yusi Chen
 Day View. Image © Yusi Chen From the architect. This large space device is from the Design school of Nanjing University of the Arts. The creation concept of the work originates from the Roman flower goddess - Flora. The design team gives its new poetic meaning to the structure, and using the parametric tools, display and perform the form of "flower" by digital means, which forms a temporary pavilion with visual tension and space interest.  Shared Color Space. Image © Yusi Chen The work consists of 272 hollow stainless steel balls as structural locating nodes and a simple supporting structure system welded by 703 stainless steel tubes with different numbered lengths. The triangular meshes formed by the structure system are subdivided and optimized by the computer through the special-shaped surface. The triangular inlay uses the translucent PVC film. When it is in the sun or cloudy environment, the viewer at different times and different viewing angle will get a complete different visual feeling.  Elevation 3  Night View. Image © Yusi Chen  Structural Positioning After completion, due to the artistic expression of the visual form as well as in the day under the epidermis and the color shadows together constitute a fantastic space field, it has received affection from different age level of viewers and to become a landmark shared art space on campus.  Shared Color Space. Image © Yusi Chen  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Code Space / Full Scale Studio Posted: 25 Sep 2017 10:00 AM PDT  © Chaiyaporn Sodabunlu
 © Chaiyaporn Sodabunlu "The Efficient and friendly work environment should be where is able to face the natural light." This is one of the most important conditions that the design team pays attention first to after being assigned by the customer to design this place.  © Chaiyaporn Sodabunlu It starts from the software design (Programmer) company that wants to build their own office and create a community for sharing knowledge and experience among the relevant profession as well as those who find a new style workplace.  Section B Inside the building, the area is divided into coffee shops, conference rooms, software design offices and the co-working space where is the majority of the building. It also includes a library, pantry, and freestyle space to support all activities.The building is on the narrow and long area with Doi Suthep is the backdrop.  © Chaiyaporn Sodabunlu  Floor Plan  © Chaiyaporn Sodabunlu As the design team wants to control the construction period and budget. So, they start designing based on the grid structure, which is less complex. Then put the functions in order and arrange them on the land. The front of the building will be a coffee shop since they would like to give it easy for people to access first and they will make a large green space in front of the area.  Section C Next are the co-working space and the office that will be held at the end of the building. The parking lot is on the front and back of the building for taking the green area and natural light to this place.  © Chaiyaporn Sodabunlu Building form and internal space are followed by folded roof sheet and connected wall. Consider rain drainage to protect the sun from the south and west. Including void positioning to take natural light from the north. The proportions and form of the roof are transformed to be the form of Doi Suthep. This is being like the backdrop of the project.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Casa AR / ARCO Arquitectura Contemporánea Posted: 25 Sep 2017 08:00 AM PDT  © Jaime Navarro
 © Jaime Navarro From the architect. Casa AR is the result of remodeling and extending a residence —in a 1,000 sq m lot constructed in the 80´s— located on the west side of Mexico City. The spaces in the original project had the potential that tilted the balance on keeping most of them and working on making the modifications and extensions necessary for the new program. The public areas had ample spaces, but much reduced ones on the private areas; what lead to a mayor intervention in order to generate a wider opening and a clear visual communication among all the areas in the house.  plan The house is off plumb at the center of an irregular form lot surrounded completely by gardens, the reason why the project granted the relation between interior and exterior. Demolition brick is the finish used for the outside and was left to be combined with black corrugated profile aluzinc blades in the new areas to create the contrast between the two projects and bring out the new volume that integrates to the existent construction.  © Jaime Navarro The interior presents a well done mix of finishes that, along with the lighting design, generates warm and cozy spaces where the natural and industrial materials stand out, such as: engineer hardwood in floors and walls, black forge elements, apparent concrete wall, demolition brick and black granite and plaster floors.  © Jaime Navarro The color pallete is centered on the finishes and was completed with a full range of neutral grays. The selection and specification of the furniture presents an interesting variety formed by custom designed pieces and others that were bought and imported. A main part of the interior design was the selection of the art pieces for the house, as well as the vegetation present in every space, enhancing the harmony between contemporary furniture and antiques that are from the owner´s collection.  © Jaime Navarro  plan Along the whole house there is a series of visual finishing touches and openings towards the exterior garden as well as visual planes that give perspective in the different areas of the house through different levels.  © Jaime Navarro In the garden there is a deep living area with a fire pit for social gathering throughout the year and evenings. This exterior ambiance connects directly with the house exit —from the living room— towards the terrace, that integrates with the grill area creating an ample and multifunctional space to make the most of the exterior areas.  Section  © Jaime Navarro This project shows ARCO Arquitectura Contemporánea great experience for residential design, accomplishing not only the extension of the house, but a full renovation to receive the entire architectonic program that includes all the needs and likes of the new inhabitants.  © Jaime Navarro  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Helen Street House / mw|works architecture + design Posted: 25 Sep 2017 06:00 AM PDT  © Andrew Pogue
 © Andrew Pogue From the architect. The clients were living on a rural property east of Seattle but found themselves drawn back to the growing vibrancy and culture of the city. They loved the peaceful setting of their old home with its quietness and easy indoor/outdoor living but it was oversized for two people and two small dogs. The new project would distill their way of living into a smaller footprint, specifically tailored to their tastes and activities.  © Andrew Pogue Helen Street is on the north edge of the Madison Valley neighborhood abutting the fringe of the Washington Park Arboretum, but within easy walking distance of the village center. Early design discussions focused on a simple modern structure with a purity of materials and a quiet palette constructed on a modest budget. The home should be open, light filled and private but also transparent and open to views to the landscape. Above all, the owners described a quiet design integrated with landscape that would create a tangible calmness in the home.  © Andrew Pogue The concept grew from this premise, drawing complexity from the opportunities and constraints of an urban corner lot. A courtyard in the center of the site brings light and private outdoor space deeper into the site and serves as an organizational hub for the home. The sunnier south and western fringes of the site are reserved for gardens. Territorial view corridors helped identify where the building could be very transparent and where privacy was more important. The material palette was simple with a largely glassy main level with solid volumes crisply detailed in cement panels. Floating above, the roof plane and master suite are clad in naturally weathered cedar planks. Anchoring the house around the courtyard, the outdoor chimney and garden shed are clad in heavy reclaimed timbers, stacked and blackened.  Lower Floor Plan  Upper Floor Plan By working closely with the owner, who also managed and built the project, the design concept and execution were closely integrated from concept through fabrication. The limited construction budget was focused on key spaces and experiences while others were kept more straightforward. With a shared understanding of project goals there was a great economy of communication and efficiency in realizing the built work.  © Andrew Pogue The outcome is a project that is simple but very intentional and serves as a backdrop to the landscape and the lifestyle of its inhabitants. A true collaboration.  © Andrew Pogue  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Towards an Architecture of Light, Color, and Virtual Experiences Posted: 25 Sep 2017 05:00 AM PDT This essay by Space Popular references an installation currently on display at Sto Werkstatt, in London. You can experience it in virtual reality, here.
Bruno Taut [above] described his Glashaus for the 1914 Werkbund Exhibition in Cologne, Germany, as a "little temple of beauty"; as "reflections of light whose colors began at the base with a dark blue and rose up through moss green and golden yellow to culminate at the top in a luminous pale yellow."[1] The Glass Pavilion, designed based on its potential effects on those who perceived it, was supposed to create vivid experiences. The site was the human mind.  "Nightflyer". Via <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wenzel_Hablik.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en">CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)</a>. Image Courtesy of Wenzel Hablik In the Glass Chain correspondence Taut, a leading German theorist during the Weimar Republic, and others—including Hermann Finsterlin, Wassily Luckhardt and Wenzel Hablik—elaborated on radical visions for a future of architecture revolutionized by coloured light. They imagined edifices so beautiful and inspiring that they would drive social and political change; just as the intricate tracery of a Gothic Rose Window might elevate our souls and inspire our minds to "heavenly" realms, these glass temples would explode us into a world of hyper-transparency and bright, futuristic kingdoms of color. Throughout the 20th Century, glass as a construction material did gradually revolutionize architecture and the built environment. It was, of course, an integral aspect of the Modernist aesthetic; Walter Gropius—an inactive Glass Chain member—forged a path for groundbreaking buildings clad in ever larger sheets of clear glass. These soon became both the norm and a desire. Color was vilified, alongside intricacy and variation. And yet, while the Modernist movement did not give credence to "little temples of beauty," color and glass would soon have a supreme revival by way of television, the monitor-display and, later, the smartphone and tablet. Today, entire worlds of colored light unfold before our eyes day by day and hour by hour, through vitreous interfaces that we stare into longingly.  The Glass Chain / Space Popular (Sto Werkstatt, London). Image © Space Popular Today, glass is our portal to virtual realms and yet, as a building material, often considered to be the least important of all. Glass is never just glass: it is what we see through it, what it reflects back to us, and what it contains. For Sarah Williams Goldhagen:
As virtual reality looms over architectural practice, architects stand before an enormous demand for experience-focused design. In a world in which perception is almost purely visual—in which other sensations are mentally fabricated in response to image triggers—virtual reality provides a universe devoid of concern, where architecture does not need to shelter us or control daylight. Its purpose is to feed us with experiences.
In this realm of limitless possibility, scenarios that are the most referential to physical reality are the ones which tend to deliver the most powerful experiences. Similarly to how the column in Ancient Greek temples resembled the trunk of a tree, these new universes will be born out of resemblance. In the same way that our built environment has tended towards, new formats of reality will shape us as much as we shape them. Their architecture will influence our behaviour, as our rituals and routines will dictate the spaces around them. Yet what will we build? For whom? And for what? Virtual reality poses a question of purpose and skill: it asks for an architecture that does not solve immediate problems but that stimulates, communicates, and inspires. It asks for a designer whose skill goes beyond construction and into the understanding of human cognition: grounded, embodied, and situated. With the mind as site, design languages and criteria would be applicable across realities, and practicing in virtual worlds would not necessarily mean a departure from their physical counterparts. With experience as purpose, the aesthetic qualities of architecture will be appreciated as purposeful in their own right.  The Glass Chain / Space Popular (Sto Werkstatt, London). Image © Space Popular The potential that Taut saw in glass we now see in the concept and technology of virtual reality. Recent technological developments that allow for vivid experiences of real-time parallel realms mark a paradigm shift in architecture. It's not so much of a stretch to argue that this shift is on par with the development of parallel projection, or as transformative as the 'discovery' of perspective. As a new territory materialises before us—one in which architecture will take on the role of content in worlds in which our primary construction materials will be light and color—the construction site will be the human mind. References
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| Lightspeed Office / ACDF Architecture Posted: 25 Sep 2017 04:00 AM PDT  © Adrien Williams
 © Adrien Williams From the architect. Lightspeed commissioned ACDF Architecture – the designers for the first phase of the firm's headquarters – to create a new floor dedicated to product development. The workspace of the point-of-sale software company is located on the ground floor of a 19th-century railway hotel, the chateau-style Viger Railway Station. With its distinctive architecture and its historical significance, the building is an iconic landmark that stands out in Old Montreal's skyline.  © Adrien Williams Inspired by the contrast between the historic railway station and the growing tech company, ACDF created a functional and lively office space. The new floor provides an ideal environment for development teams, expressing at the same time the audacious and creative nature of Lightspeed. The offices occupy a large and bright 15-foot-high space. Daylight reflects off the slick surfaces of the glossy white epoxy-coated floor and the gypsum ceiling. The harmonious setting creates a unique synergy driven by spontaneous interaction.  Diagram Detail Inspired by the best product development approaches, Lightspeed encourages collaboration and self-organization amongst its team members. Each group works as a unit, almost like an independent start-up company, and the collaborators adapt the space to fit their needs. Each group has its own desks, meeting room and social area in the open floor plan. Varying pastel tones spread on the walls and floors in shadow-like shapes, defining each team's zone.  © Adrien Williams Like small islands, these areas form a dynamic archipelago that invites gatherings to take place in the in-between spaces and the surrounding pastel walls double as whiteboards for impromptu meetings and presentations. The flexible environment helps team members to focus on projects in progress while also fostering close working relationships.  © Adrien Williams Following in the footsteps of their design for the first floor, ACDF opted for a careful intervention that preserves the original building's rich heritage. Remnants of the existing shell offer a backdrop to the contemporary atmosphere of the office space. The architects uncovered remaining bricks and stones to expose the raw material and created a dynamic contrast between old rough walls and new rectilinear geometry that highlights the space's qualities.  © Adrien Williams Passing through the old central wall, we reach "the alley", a common space where the industrial past of the building is more noticeable. The glossy floor finish of this area exposes the concrete and terrazzo patterns. The black paint on the ceiling conceals the ducts and piping without hiding them completely. Located at the junction between the 1898 Viger Railway Station and the 1912 Berri Railway Station, the alley is a space where eras and people meet.  © Adrien Williams With its comfortable atmosphere and its long counters calibrated for large-size gatherings, the room can accommodate up to 300 people and can provide a meeting place for the whole Lightspeed team. The central position of the alley divides the floor in two: a clean and edgy space on one side, an industrial environment on the other. Adapted to the visionary work of development teams, the new floor of Lightspeed's office is a real innovation hub, while also providing an engaging and inspiring workspace.  © Adrien Williams  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2017 03:20 AM PDT Horizontal City is one of two collective exhibitions (the other being Vertical City) at the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. 24 architects were tasked by artistic directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee to "reconsider the status of the architectural interior" by referencing a photograph of a canonical interior from any time period. Their challenge was in considering the forms and ways that their selection "might extrapolate out from the cropped photographic frame into a spatial and lifestyle construction across a larger, horizontal site" – in this case, a field of plinths, the size and positioning of which is a direct reference to the footprint of Mies van der Rohe's 1947 plan for the IIT Campus in Chicago. This film was created by PLANE—SITE and Spirit of Space in collaboration with ArchDaily and Hunter Douglas. You can view our ongoing coverage of the event, here.  Vertical City / GAR Hall. Image © Tom Harris Exhibitors in Horizontal City include: Karamuk * Kuo Architects, Urban Lab, MAIO, First Office, Sauter von Moos, fala atelier, DRDH Architects, Besler & Sons LLC, Norman Kelley, Andrew Kovacs, REAL Foundation, Formlessfinder, The Los Angeles Design Group, Diego Arraigada Arquitectos, Lütjens Padmanabhan Architekten, WELCOMEPROJECTS, June14 Meyer-Grohbrügge & Chermayeff, The Living, Adamo-Faiden, Thomas Baeker Bettina Kraus, Angela Deuber Architect, Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, Charlap Hyman & Herrero, BUREAU SPECTACULAR.  Vertical City / GAR Hall. Image © Kendall McCaugherty
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| Posted: 25 Sep 2017 02:30 AM PDT  Courtesy of Guillermo Fernandez-Abascal, Urtzi Grau and Daniel Perlin Driver Less Vision, an installation at the 2017 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism by Guillermo Fernandez-Abascal, Urtzi Grau and Daniel Perlin, is an immersive 3D video experience comprised of spatial scans of Seoul, projected into a dome and paired with surround sound. The supporting audio is the internal monologue of a personified autonomous vehicle, driving through the streets of a future Seoul, Korea. The installation transports vierers to the front seat of the autonomous vehicle, providing a new perspective of traversing cities—through the car's point of view. Driver Less Vision was a response to the Seoul Biennale's theme of "Imminent Commons," which asks questions about what will become of cities and the role they play for both the individual and the collective. The installation takes recent discussions of what autonomous vehicles will mean for society and combines it with the potential technology has for interacting with humans. Driver Less Vision explores some of the urban obstructions an autonomous vehicle might encounter to reveal ways this can affect autonomous mobility and the future built environment.  Courtesy of Guillermo Fernandez-Abascal, Urtzi Grau and Daniel Perlin At the Biennale, the installation is staged inside an 8-meter (26-foot) diameter dome suspended from the ceiling. Attendees will duck their head as they enter the space, becoming immersed in the projection and all-encompassing sound. The three designers, Urtzi Grau, Guillermo Fernández-Abascal, Daniel Perlin, developed the 360 degree experience along with the University of Technology Sydney, Rice University and Ocular Robotics.  Courtesy of Guillermo Fernandez-Abascal, Urtzi Grau and Daniel Perlin In the monologue, the autonomous protagonist speaks in a way that suggests machine learning, a computer science subfield that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. This is increasingly a subject that requires urgent investigation: software is already implementing machine learning, including programs that register the surroundings of autonomous vehicles and make them capable of responding to unpredictable errors, such as drunk drivers.  Courtesy of Guillermo Fernandez-Abascal, Urtzi Grau and Daniel Perlin The Driver Less Vision installation brings us to question how we will design autonomous vehicles in the built environment. There are many companies racing to get autonomous vehicles on our roads. Legislative bodies and individuals are gradually taking their stances on what this new technology will bring to our daily lives. In many ways, self-driving vehicles are a very attractive proposition for cities, given the potential for improved road safety, the ability to reduce parking requirements or move parking outside of city centers, and the reduction in traffic.  Courtesy of Guillermo Fernandez-Abascal, Urtzi Grau and Daniel Perlin But to what degree do we want to incorporate this new technology into our city master plans? Projected urban migration patterns, the exponential rate of innovation in current technologies, and the role government agencies will take all fuel the question the Seoul Biennale asks. Seung H-Sang, Chair of the Biennale's Steering Board asks, "what is a good city? [...] The space and structure of cities, creative development and regeneration, new building methods and technology, sustainable urban environments, city governance, and new forms of solidarity: these are the central issues of the contemporary urban generation." The Driver Less Vision installation helps us to explore these questions and potentials.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2017 02:00 AM PDT  © Gonzalo Cáceres
 © Gonzalo Cáceres From the architect. The project explores the complex relationship between intimacy, domesticity, spatial expansion and transparency, inspired on the traditional limean houses, which respond to an introverted scheme where the street façade, opaque and abstract, give place to a lively courtyard in the interior through a single space called zaguán.  © Gonzalo Cáceres In this project, the apparent opacity and heaviness of the house, seen from the street, is transformed in fluid, transparent and lighted spaces once we get in the interior of the house and the interior garden, treated as a green patio. A multiple storey space defines the threshold where intimacy comes to be.  © Gonzalo Cáceres The house is organized in three levels in the vertical sense and in a square angle in the horizontal sense. The vertical organization responds to the program, while the horizontal organization responds to context and orientation.  Section 02  Section 04 The service area and ludic spaces are located in the basement, but open to mineral patios connected to the ground floor by ramps. The bedrooms are located in the upper level, framing views over the suburbs. Both levels define a transparent space that defines the social area, opening thoroughly to the green patio.  © Gonzalo Cáceres This social level links the mineral and green patios offering many ways to live the house, depending on the time and the weather conditions. These spaces offer a great flexibility and adaptability so to admit evolution in uses and the pleasure of continuously re-discovering your own home.  © Gonzalo Cáceres  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| All-In-One Structure Solves Flooding, Parking and the Lack of Green Space in Cities Posted: 25 Sep 2017 01:00 AM PDT  Courtesy of THIRD NATURE As Earth's population continues to grow, so does car traffic and issues related to climate change. It has been estimated about 30% of urban roadway congestion are drivers searching for a place to park. Car culture puts the pressure on cities to build more parking garages, which usually win out over green parks. Meanwhile, climate change continues to challenge cities to handle a great deal of stormwater. The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season is proof of this - as of Monday, 13 named storms have formed in the Atlantic ocean, costing 210 lives and counting. THIRD NATURE, a Danish architecture firm, designed a solution for the modern-day urban issues of flooding, parking and lacking green spaces with their project, POP-UP. A stacked green space, car park, and water reservoir, from top to bottom respectively, POP-UP uses Archimedes' principle to store water and create floating space to store cars.  Courtesy of THIRD NATURE
 Courtesy of THIRD NATURE  Courtesy of THIRD NATURE POP-UP's varying height changes the city skyline based on the weather. On a dry, sunny day, the car park exists underground with the green space above. On stormy days, overflow sewers lead rainwater below the car park to the water reservoir. As the water reservoir fills up, the parking structure moves up. POP-UP works because of Archimedes' principle of flotation which states, "buoyancy of a submerged body corresponds to the weight of the displaced fluid." Hydraulic lifting and steering bearings, along with retaining walls and supplementary guide tracks, secure the structure's movement up and down during water level changes. No matter the water level, the car park stays accessible to pedestrians and cars alike.  Courtesy of THIRD NATURE While POP-UP is more expensive than a traditional parking garage and water reservoir, it combines three urban elements into one which frees up building plots for residential or commercial spaces. Plus, building just one structure instead of all three would save on construction costs.  Courtesy of THIRD NATURE Even though POP-UP was designed for Copenhagen and St. John's Park in New York, THIRD NATURE, in partnership with engineering companies COWI and RAMBOLL, participated in New York based workshops to create innovative climate solutions that are adaptable across all cities and borders. Arguably as important as the project itself, POP-UP provides design-integrated climate adaptation strategy development. The design team asserts that better, more beautiful urban spaces can be achieved by investing in projects, like POP-UP, that coalesces design and sustainability.
Learn more about the project here.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Solar Squared: A Glass Block That Generates Electricity Posted: 24 Sep 2017 11:00 PM PDT  © Build Solar Renewable energy experts from the University of Exeter in England have developed a glass block with built-in solar cells. The idea is that with the spread of technology, it is possible to build a house or a whole building's facade using blocks that generate energy. The product has been named Solar Squared, tests done at the university have shown that they guarantee thermal insulation and allow natural light to enter the building. It is estimated that buildings consume more than 40% of the electricity produced worldwide, this technology would allow the production of electricity at the site of use. Researchers guarantee that another advantage is that the new solar blocks can be used in new projects or in residential remodeling. The Exeter team has created a startup company, The Build Solar, to better develop the product. The company is now seeking investors to bring into the market in 2018. Dr. Hasan Baig, founder of Build Solar and a researcher at the Institute for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Exeter, explains in an article on the university website that the blocks invented by the group have better thermal insulation than traditional glass blocks, besides supplying energy to the building. "It is now clear that the world is moving towards a distributed energy system, of which an increasing proportion is renewable. This, along with switching to electric vehicles, means that there are substantial opportunities for new ways of generating electricity at the point of use" says co-inventor Jim Williams in the same document released by the university. News via: Gazeta do Povo - HAUS.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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