Arch Daily |
- Aseptic Office and Lab / AUM architecture
- Attico UB / Teka Studio
- Microsoft Suzhou Technology Center / PDM International
- Chiasma#124949 / Associazione Acropoli
- Gasing Indah House / Seshan Design
- Passalacqua Lahsen House / GITC arquitectura
- US Postal Service Releases Stamp Commemorating Adjaye's Smithsonian Museum of African American History
- MA House / e| arquitectos
- 4 MIT Architecture Courses You Can Take Online (Video Lectures Included)
- Y House / co(X)ist Studio
- This Optical Illusion Floor Serves a Practical Purpose at Britain's Casa Ceramica
- Participatory Habitat in Montreuil / NZI Architectes
- Lake House / FARQ Arquitectos
- EFFEKT's Spiraling Observation Tower Will Take Visitors 45 Meters Above the Treetops
- Ai Weiwei Brings Over 300 Installations to NYC to Examine Issues of Borders and Immigration
- 5800 Individual Bamboo Poles Stand Tall as a Lightweight Transportable Theater
| Aseptic Office and Lab / AUM architecture Posted: 13 Oct 2017 10:00 PM PDT  © Erick Saillet
 © Erick Saillet From the architect. Located in Limonest the ASEPTIC PROCESS EQUIPMENT building takes place in a setting privileged by its landscape. Aseptic commissioned the studio in 2010 for the design of an office building, sterile laboratories and storage facilities. The Client's wish was to have a minimalist and environment-friendly construction made with durable materials. The project we have proposed is composed of 2 adjoining buildings.  © Erick Saillet The first is made of white concrete, which includes the offices, and the second is made of black concrete, in which the clean rooms and stocks are located. The entrance is through a fault between these two buildings.  © Erick Saillet The Office Building  © Erick Saillet The office area is organized along a corridor that runs alongside a zen patio. The interior design are custom made in lacquered wood and glass. The floor made of polished black concrete type Granito.  Floor Plan The Stock Building  © Erick Saillet The facades are made of precast black concrete. This closed construction reflects the confidentiality and storage security of Aseptic Process's pharmaceutical business.  © Erick Saillet The construction has a very good environmental performance of about 45 kW / m². The heating is carried out by a gas boiler.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 13 Oct 2017 07:00 PM PDT  © Francesca Perani
 © Francesca Perani From the architect. The loft rises on the top of a 1958 building in the city center of Bergamo. It was originally composed by a masonry volume with a pitched roof made of tiles.  First Floor Plan The renovation has modified the proportions of the original volume and the building system as well; the roof was completely re-built and both the windows system and the external walls changed with metal frames and coverings.  © Francesca Perani The concept of this project starts from the idea of an explicit different volume layed on the last floor of the original building in a different period of time.  © Francesca Perani The idea of the north facade completely made of glass comes from the context: looking towards the hill where the old city was built. The long glass facade becomes a big eye that allows every room of the house to look at the panorama.  © Francesca Perani  Detail  © Francesca Perani  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Microsoft Suzhou Technology Center / PDM International Posted: 13 Oct 2017 03:00 PM PDT  Courtesy of PDM International
 Courtesy of PDM International From the architect. The 339,000 square-foot office building is a bright, energetic space anchored by a colorful nine-story atrium and a flexible workplace for up to 1,500 workers. It was inspired by China's famous Suzhou Gardens and its caretakers, who believe in creating a space in perfect harmony with nature. The office boasts a huge cafeteria and ample recreational space, including an indoor gym, game room, outdoor sports courts, and health and wellness space.  Courtesy of PDM International The team's goal was to create a stunning, eye-catching design, one that emphasized Microsoft's connected way of working and could help the company attract the best talent. "The key metaphor driving the interior design concept was connectivity," Julius Kanand Director at interior design firm PDM says. That theme grew out of the nine-story building and its large atrium, which is connected by a central staircase and bridge crossings on four floors.  Courtesy of PDM International The design team tapped into the rich heritage of Suzhou, a trading port famous for its classically designed gardens that date back to the 6th century BC. Suzhou boasts nine "Mountain and Water" gardens that are noted for their exquisite craftsmanship, artistic elegance, and rich cultural implications. A tenet of the design is creating a space in perfect harmony with nature, adding greenery where possible, installing a small garden on the first floor to anchor the atrium, and simulating trees in one part of the cafeteria.  Courtesy of PDM International To create an impact and energize the space, they decided to make the nine-story atrium colorful and vibrant, using an ochre color scheme on the first floors to mimic the Earth's ground, gradually transitioning to greens for tree canopies and then vibrant blues to signify the sky. 6.jpg?1506917768 "4th Floor Plan") 4th Floor Plan The atrium design called for sixty different types of glass in several fading colors, each in a pixelated pattern as a texture playing off a computer pixel. Natural light streams in from the atrium's clear glass ceiling, energizing the space during the day and calming it as the sun fades.  Courtesy of PDM International They created shared spaces close to the atrium to encourage people to take the stairs and use the bridges and to connect different groups. Team spaces were filled with dedicated work stations and contain their own meeting rooms and phone booth spaces. To separate team spaces, they created two open collaboration areas and then a wall in case a team needs security and access control for confidential projects.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Chiasma#124949 / Associazione Acropoli Posted: 13 Oct 2017 01:00 PM PDT  © Francesca Dusini
 © Francesca Dusini From the architect. A multifaceted project is the result of Chiasma#124949, designs and builds workshop organized by the university association Acropoli in Trento. The structure, developed by the participants, consists of a wooden installation realized with a dry fixing system throughout one week. The structural requirements and the limited time span have been determining factors in the definition of the project.  © Francesca Dusini The design idea has its roots in the concept of a harmonic proportion of the "Chaise Longue" from Le Corbusier. The artifact can be perceived as two complementary spaces: a seat with a great view of the valley and a multifunctional space for interaction.  Section For the achievement of the project the considerations about the site was fundamental: the structure develops itself on the terrace of the Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering Department (DICAM) located on the hill of Mesiano, which looks out onto the south-western part of Trento, the Adige valley, and is characterized by strong geometries. The geometry of the place is mainly determined by the façade of the building, but also by skylights with a pyramidal shape, situated on the terrace. The new structure becomes part of this context and it transforms the terrace into a more pleasant space that enriches the environment, giving it more life.  © Francesca Dusini Itaca, the name given to the artifact, wants to offer students the possibility to live a place where to meet, lay down and relax during the lesson breaks. The chaise longue ends its silhouette into a more compact vertical curtain, which creates a unique space equipped with a bar around which it is possible to meet in between classes. As a flexible addition to the project, the design team came up with an element which can be used as a high stool but can also be transformed into a chair or a coffee table by simply rotating it in different ways.  © Francesca Dusini The last piece of the artifact is located near the railing of the terrace, where some plastic water tanks create an informal gathering place. The tanks can be used as seats, flowerpots or ashtrays. In regards to the supporting structure, the work is created using a basic truss structural concept. The main structural frame is thus realized with small-sized timber beams and replicated for the length of the artifact. A secondary structural system provides stability and rigidity and allows for the placing of the wooden board cladding.  © Francesca Dusini  Position Diagram  © Francesca Dusini The installation, offered by Acropoli to the DICAM, is a semi-permanent work: the faculty terrace will host the artifact for at least one year. The workshop "Chiasma" has offered the opportunity of conception, definition, and construction of a small sized architectural artifact. The project was financed by the DICAM, the Provincia Autonoma di Trento, the TAUT and Politiche Giovanili Trento.  © Francesca Dusini  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Gasing Indah House / Seshan Design Posted: 13 Oct 2017 12:00 PM PDT  © Rupajiwa Studio
 © Rupajiwa Studio From the architect. This is one of our favorite houses. It embraces our ideals of building small and efficient. It is also one of our earlier prototype projects to test out ideas on future proofing. It was originally a compact two and a half story, 1625 sqft intermediate link house, which we souped-up to 4 stories (half basement and master bedroom attic) with an internal green wall courtyard. It now has an approx 2400 sqft final built up.  When we started, the clients; a young couple with their first child on the way, had a very tight budget (as always!). This was their first landed property (they were then staying in an apartment) and it was going to be "the" house; their (hopefully!) final home, where they will settle down properly and raise a family. In order to build the house within budget, the footprint had to be kept small. We are a very big proponent of efficient design and we believe we can fit in all the client's needs, without having to extend the house too much.  © Rupajiwa Studio The other effective way would be to future proof the house. That is, to design the house to its maximum potential, meeting the client's full wish list but... we prioritize and only build what is immediately required to them. We get all the messy and complicated infrastructure components built first, and the other dry works like cabinetry and joinery (even additional bathrooms and bedroom walls), can be added later when it is needed. The clients can add these on 10 or 15 years down the line.  © Rupajiwa Studio For example, when they initially moved in with their newborn baby, the house had a master bedroom, a study, maid's room, a large open area which doubled up as a guest room and playroom, and a total of 3 bathrooms. In the future, within the same footprint, the house can effectively be built up to have 4 more rooms (in addition to the master bedroom, study room, and maid's room) and an additional bathroom. We designed and built the infrastructure for this! The other key feature of this house is the central courtyard/light well which punches through all the way to the top. This is the main source of light and air for the house. There is a jacked pitched polycarbonate roof at the top which allows cross ventilation and keeps the rain out. The height (4 stories) of this air well makes for an excellent stack effect that keeps the house breezy and cool.  Ground and First Floor Plan This central courtyard allows users to have a line of sight from practically every space to another. It is the visual link to all the spaces in the house. This is the key factor in designing small spaces: continuous line of sight (and a lot of natural light!) ensures that the spaces do not feel claustrophobic and gives the perception that the spaces are much larger than they actually are.  © Rupajiwa Studio We also included the piping infrastructure for rainwater harvesting where the harvested rainwater can be stored and used for watering the plants, washing the cars and even flushing the WCs in the bathrooms. We didn't put in the storage tanks, pumps and filters due to the limited budget but they can be added in later. Rainwater from the roof and garden terrace are carried down to the predesignated area for the storage tanks via symphonic rainwater downpipes by Fast Flow.  Second and Loft Floor Plan  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Passalacqua Lahsen House / GITC arquitectura Posted: 13 Oct 2017 10:00 AM PDT  © Felipe Díaz Contardo
 © Felipe Díaz Contardo From the architect. The building is in a rural town in the north of Santiago, immersed in an agricultural environment, partially urbanized, in an area of semi - arid Mediterranean climate with a long summer season, sunny, hot and dry, but with temperature daily variations greater than 25 ° C. Likewise, the place is well ventilated.  © Felipe Díaz Contardo Seismically speaking, the area constitutes a very low category ground type. It is a very favorable soil for agriculture, but very unfavorable to found, build and withstand earthquakes in a straightforward way, obligatory requirement in Chile.  © Felipe Díaz Contardo REQUEST: Sub-urban single-family house, for three adults and two children, safe, functional, thermal comfort, mostly one floor, mostly of light material, but with elements of solid structure presence.  © Felipe Díaz Contardo INTEGRATED CONCEPTS: The request was primarily conceived as an isolated dwelling. A house without close neighbors, solitary, at least for a time, relatively far from urban services and facilities. An exposed and discreet building, far from their own predial edges and firmly anchored to the ground, in a close, clear, clean and visible environment. A hyper insulated body thermally talking.  Ground Floor Plan The habitant's security perception and security effectiveness was priority and a fundamental requirement. Also, thermal comfort. It required an efficient design in the broad sense of the word: architectural efficiency, technical - constructive efficiency, energy and thermal efficiency.  © Felipe Díaz Contardo PROPOSAL: The program is distributed mainly in one floor, in an extended cross form plant. An interior quality central volume orders the project. From there, the volume is projected towards certain directions, achieving a visual relationship with the environment, domain and control over the entire site and maximizing the possibilities of passive ventilation to the interior spaces. The central volume, which constructs a double height, and a small inner loft, is oriented slightly rotated and open towards the north - east sun.  © Felipe Díaz Contardo The openings, spans and features of the project are arranged and dimensioned according to safety criteria, visit and control, constructive standardization and direct solar radiation controlled catchment.  © Felipe Díaz Contardo Structurally, the building is thought as a rigid central one floor core, made with reinforced concrete, which supports a slab and an overhanging cantilever inside the main living room. The double height body is designed in steel structure and the rest of the house, which constitutes 65% of the building, in a prefabricated system of insulated panels (SIP).  First Floor Plan The building construction was executed under a delegated administration contract with a high participation and decision during the process of the owner.  © Felipe Díaz Contardo  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 13 Oct 2017 09:00 AM PDT  Courtesy of US Postal Service The United States Postal Service has released their latest stamp, honoring one of the past year's most significant architectural works: the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture by Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup. Designed by art director Antonio Alcalá, the commemorative Forever stamp is based on a photograph taken by Alan Karchmer of the museum, which has welcomed nearly 3 million visitors since its debut in September 2016.  Courtesy of US Postal Service "The Postal Service is honored to issue a new commemorative Forever stamp acknowledging the important role African American history plays in American history," said Deputy Postmaster General and Chief Government Relations Officer Ronald A. Stroman. "The National Museum of African American History and Culture is an American treasure that serves as a repository for the history of suffering, struggle and triumph of African Americans." "I am humbled that the museum was chosen for this special stamp," said the museum's founding director Lonnie G. Bunch III. "It is fitting that the image on the stamp is the building itself, as this building, by its very design, stands as tribute to the African American experience." 2017 has been a big year for architectural celebration by postal services – earlier this summer, the UK Royal Mail launched a stamp set celebrating the country's best contemporary architecture, while Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67 received its own stamp from the Canada Post in May. You can purchase the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture stamps for yourself, here.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 13 Oct 2017 08:00 AM PDT .jpg?1493305566 "© Paulina Vaqueiro Toriello") © Paulina Vaqueiro Toriello
.jpg?1493305652 "© Paulina Vaqueiro Toriello") © Paulina Vaqueiro Toriello From the architect. MA House is a 267.5 sqm (2879.3 sqft) residential project, located in León, Guanajuato, México.  Zoning  Front Perspective A rock base is proposed in order to level and respond to the natural site's slope. The shape of the house is simple and compact, with the purpose of having a standard building process, making its development economic, while accomplishing the local constructive/design requirements. .jpg?1493305591 "© Paulina Vaqueiro Toriello") © Paulina Vaqueiro Toriello A series of blocks, with different programs are created, taking advantage of the context. The floor level makes up the social block, with an essence of amplitude, and the juxtaposing of spaces, without "boundaries", by hand of a double height living room, which is present immediately after entering the enclosure.  First Floor Plan  Second Floor Plan The stairs become a sculptural element, as it works as the bond between the social and private blocks, which has a clear and discreet presence from any level of the house. The first level concentrically connects the bedrooms, studio and bathroom, creating a wide sight and feel, making it work as the main transition area. .jpg?1493305684 "© Paulina Vaqueiro Toriello") © Paulina Vaqueiro Toriello The main volume in the front facade respond as the main bedroom, presenting a steel materiality, in order to create an imposing volume, against the traditional materiality like brick and wood along the other bedroom volumes and facade. The materials were chosen in order to create a gesture of contrast between traditional and modern constructive methods. .jpg?1493305708 "© Paulina Vaqueiro Toriello") © Paulina Vaqueiro Toriello  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 4 MIT Architecture Courses You Can Take Online (Video Lectures Included) Posted: 13 Oct 2017 06:30 AM PDT  Louis I. Kahn during the lecture at the ETH Zurich. Photographs by Peter Wenger. Image © Archives de la construction moderne – Acm, EPF Lausanne Learning doesn't have to formal, or expensive. As education becomes increasingly commodified the world over, here are four courses from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) exploring architecture and landscape, urbanism, photography, and the production of space that are—significantly—free of charge and available to all.  Click for course materials. Image Courtesy of MIT Architecture Studio: Building in Landscapes / Prof. Jan WamplerFall 2002 (English, Spanish, Portuguese; Undergraduate). iTunes U materials available.
 Click for course materials. Image Courtesy of MIT The Production of Space: Art, Architecture and Urbanism in Dialogue / Prof. Ute Meta BauerFall 2006 (English, Graduate). Video lectures available.
 Click for course materials. Image Courtesy of MIT Sensing Place: Photography as Inquiry / Prof. Anne Whiston SpirnFall 2012 (English, Graduate). Video lectures available.
 Click for course materials. Image Courtesy of MIT City Visions: Past and Future / Prof. Diane Davis and Prof. Lawrence ValeSpring 2004 (English, Graduate). iTunes U materials available.
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| Posted: 13 Oct 2017 06:00 AM PDT  © Patrick Y. Wong
 © Patrick Y. Wong From the architect. Originally built as a ranch-style house in 1962, the remodeled Y House is sensitively designed to weave into the fabric of the Sherwood Oaks neighborhood in South Austin while simultaneously providing a fresh and modern way of living. Conceived by the architect-clients as an investment property, the remodel and addition to the house provide both living and working space for the owners, as well as a reflection of the design values of their architectural practice.  Before  Diagrams  © Patrick Y. Wong The addition portion of the project splits the rectangle at the center to create a Y shape at the private end of the house. This split allows for the master bedroom to have privacy and separation from the other bedrooms, both physically and visually. The split also creates a courtyard at the end of what was once a dead-end corridor, bringing light, views and an added level of interest to a typically mundane space.  Floor Plan In the main living area of the house, the previously compartmentalized rooms have been opened up to create an open concept floor plan. The back wall of the dining room can be completely opened up to the back porch, extending the living space to the outdoors to take advantage of the warm Texas weather. This design also allows for cross-ventilation of air from the front of the house to the back, and creates a strong visual connection to the outside from all spaces within the house.  © Patrick Y. Wong The back porch is an extension of the indoor living space, running the entire length of the back of the house with access from the dining room, guest room, and master bedroom. The porch canopy incorporates the natural canopy of the large existing crepe myrtle tree to provide shade and protection from the Texas sun.  Detail The garage of the house has been transformed into an office for the architectural practice of the owners. This provides them with a space to meet with clients, as well as access to their home as a living example of what they do professionally through their design practice. The home uses several re-claimed materials, including a bench and front porch trellis constructed from the wood studs of the original home. The house also uses abundant daylighting of the spaces through ample windows and skylights to reduce the electrical load.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| This Optical Illusion Floor Serves a Practical Purpose at Britain's Casa Ceramica Posted: 13 Oct 2017 05:00 AM PDT  via Bored Panda An optical illusion has been given a practical purpose in this mind-boggling floor at the headquarters of British tile company Casa Ceramica. In addition to serving as an example of the company's products, the floor is specifically designed to slow down people as they walk into the Casa Ceramica showroom. Thankfully, the forced perspective only works in one direction, so finding your way out is a much less stressful endeavor. Speaking with INSIDER, a representative of the company commented that "the inspiration was to create an entrance themed on illusions and [exceed] expectations of how tiles can be used."
 via Bored Panda
 via Bored Panda
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| Participatory Habitat in Montreuil / NZI Architectes Posted: 13 Oct 2017 04:00 AM PDT  © Juan Sepulveda Grazioli
 © Juan Sepulveda Grazioli Keeping Promises  © Juan Sepulveda Grazioli  © Juan Sepulveda Grazioli The pedagogical process was indeed necessary in order to correspond all the ambitions with the rules of the professional world, especially in the process of construction where the interlocutors are multiple. Our main concern was not to disappoint the expectations: the adopted strategy aims at the most feasible proposal, leaving more ambitious options temporarily aside. We felt it was necessary to announce good surprises rather than failures, both in terms of domestic and external performance.  Site Plan Once the building permit was obtained, the inhabitants drew their dwelling with us. Our role was on counseling, based on personal specifications and compositions of each household. We did not impose our vision, the objective being to make their home.  © Juan Sepulveda Grazioli Collective External Spaces Open Circulations  © Juan Sepulveda Grazioli A posteriori the youngest inhabitants make a play area and the inhabitants can arrive in front of their accommodation with their own bike. The widths of the corridors are not strictly limited to the regulation but exceed 180 cm in order to offer common terraces in addition to the privative extensions of the houses acquired.  © Juan Sepulveda Grazioli Garden on the Ground Floor  © Juan Sepulveda Grazioli  Ground Floor Plan  © Juan Sepulveda Grazioli The grassed spaces are all collective, but the appropriation of the space in front of the dwellings is expected. In this spirit, there is no adjoining fence between the houses overlooking the collective garden.Two valleys run along the northern edge of the pathway, forming a tool for managing rainwater and also the point of the composition of the garden.  © Juan Sepulveda Grazioli Garden Roof  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 13 Oct 2017 02:00 AM PDT  © Cesar Béjar
 © Cesar Béjar From the architect. This project is born with 3 basic principles, LIGHT, VIEW, and SPACE. The house is planned to be a 1 level construction and the main desire is to catch the views from the lake, in order to achieve that, the site was needed to be elevated approximately 18 feet above the initial level.  © Cesar Béjar  Lower floor plan  © Cesar Béjar The materials and finishes in this project are mainly from the area and a certain balance is always taken in consideration. High ceilings, open spaces and great views are few of the qualities of the house.  © Cesar Béjar The main areas of this house are located at the center, in order to connect all the spaces and make a good circulation flow. These areas make the soul of the house, achieving an harmonious open space that merges the beauty of the lake views and the mountains.  © Cesar Béjar  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| EFFEKT's Spiraling Observation Tower Will Take Visitors 45 Meters Above the Treetops Posted: 13 Oct 2017 12:55 AM PDT  Image by EFFEKT EFFEKT's 45 meters above the trees spiraling observation tower, which is being built one hour south of Copenhagen, will offer 360-degree panoramic views across the surrounding forest of Gisselfeld Kloster, Haslev. The preserved forest distinguishes itself by its hilly landscape with lakes, wetlands, and creeks. EFFEKT's spiraling observation tower, which is being built one hour south of Copenhagen  Image by EFFEKT Featuring at the end of the 600-metre forest walkway for Camp Adventure, the 13-tiered tower will provide a new perspective and immersive experience from within and above the trees. The observation tower will be inclusive for all its users as the path and tower are a continuous ramp. The walkway will integrate dynamic elements into the route for visitors to learn and interact with the forest. Beginning with an aviary that houses a range of birds, the path will loop and rise to bring you closer to the trees, concluding with the observation deck.  Image by EFFEKT  Image by EFFEKT To be developed as an hourglass shape, it will allow the tower more stability from the enlarged base and a larger area for viewing at the crown; a slimmer center will also provide space for the trees around to interplay with it.  Image by EFFEKT The lattice structure formed of straight, structural elements further cultivates the sculptural quality of the tower by creating an ambiguity between the tree trunks and the structure. Sensitive to the natural tones of the forest, the structural elements will be built out of Corten to succinctly blend in whilst the decks will be built from timber felled from the local trees themselves. Camp Adventure, where the walkway and tower are being built, is an already existing sports facility with treetop climbing paths and aerial zip lines up to 25 meters in the sky. Other projects by the local firm, EFFEKT, have included the 2015 Building of the Year Award-winning Livsrum and their innovative self-sustaining village model that reimagines infrastructure, food production, and green space.
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| Ai Weiwei Brings Over 300 Installations to NYC to Examine Issues of Borders and Immigration Posted: 13 Oct 2017 12:00 AM PDT  "Arch," Washington Square Arch, Washington Square Park, Manhattan. Image © Jason Wyche This article was originally published by The Architect's Newspaper as "Ai Weiwei's fences take on borders and belonging in NYC exhibit." In Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, a new exhibition by Ai Weiwei presented by the Public Art Fund, the artist and activist takes on the security fence as a medium for urban intervention, with New York City as his canvas. Some of the works might be easy to miss, like the chain link fences suspended over a gap between two buildings on East 7th Street, just steps from Ai's old basement apartment. But others, like the monumental Gilded Cage at Doris Freedman Plaza in Central Park, or Arch, nested under the Washington Square arch, are unmistakable and grandiose.
 "Gilded Cage," by Ai Weiwei, at Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park. Image © Jason Wyche The exhibit, which spans the five boroughs, opens to the public on October 12 and is comprised of more than 300 pieces. Like the Robert Frost poem it references, the show examines the tension and contradictions surrounding borders and those excluded by them, inspired by Ai's concerns about the global refugee crisis and related geopolitical conflicts. Many of the city sites selected by Ai, once a New York immigrant himself, also have close ties to histories of immigration, protest, and free speech.  "Harlem Shelter" series. Image © Jason Wyche For the artist, the exhibition became an opportunity to utilize the existing infrastructure of New York City as a scaffolding for public art. From lampposts and flagpoles as well as on the public bus shelters dotting the city, Ai has installed a range of two- and three-dimensional works that combine fencing material with his cell phone shots of border checkpoints and refugee encampments. The images the exhibit has hung from lampposts throughout the city are delicate portraits stamped out of a black mesh fabric, and feature archival shots of Ellis Island entrants, notable refugees and immigrants like Nina Simone and Emma Goldman, and contemporary faces of displacement and exile, such as Iraqi refugees.  "Circle Fence" by Ai Weiwei, at Unisphere, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens. Image © Timothy Schenck Ai Weiwei also resurrects some familiar metaphors from his oeuvre, especially the birdcage. It becomes an inhabitable monolith in Gilded Cage, with turnstiled arcades forming the outer perimeter and a clearing in the middle that frames the sky and the surrounding foliage of Central Park. In Arch, the birdcage that blocks the Washington Square arch is shot through with a mirrored portal-shaped into a silhouette of two people, a reference to a Duchamp work that also suggests how cages can become doorways, or hint at the inevitability of human migration despite the barriers that are erected. Circle Fence, which rings the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, is grand on a different scale, essentially forming a low 1,000-foot-long soft fence that doubles as a collective hammock and seating. Here the fence does not resemble a jail or barrier, but the mesh netting stretched over the fence posts still blocks movement even as it invites the public to lie down and relax.  Closeup of "Circle Fence," Unisphere. Image © Timothy Schenck More quotidian fences clamp around the columns of Cooper Union's facade or swing as pixelated banners from the Lower East Side's Essex Market. Their unobtrusive presence echoes Ai Weiwei's belief that fences tap easily into existing structures of power and don't require a separate infrastructure to be erected. Or, as Public Art Fund's Chief Curator Nicholas Baume stated, Ai's works show "what we have thought was open can suddenly be closed."  The doorway of "Arch" at Washington Square Park. Image © Jason Wyche The full list of works and venues for Good Fences Make Good Neighbors can be found here. The exhibit will be on view through February 11th.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 5800 Individual Bamboo Poles Stand Tall as a Lightweight Transportable Theater Posted: 12 Oct 2017 11:00 PM PDT  © Rick van der Bent Studio Akkerhuis' bamboo design for a mobile theater proposal off the Netherlands coast addresses the characteristics of the material in the construction of light, resistant, accessible and transportable structures. The project, a compact space similar to a small amphitheater, allows reuse with different configurations in various places with its joints made up of ropes and screws. From the architects. Since 2001, a local cultural association -Kunstklank-, organizes every two years a theatrical production on the beach at Noordwijk, a well known seaside resort near Leiden in the Netherlands. Up until now, they were mostly open-air performances, requiring little more than a stage and some improvised seating around it.  © Studio Akkerhuis For this year’s performances, a covered structure was required, to protect against rain and wind, a structure that can be mounted and dismounted at various locations over the next five years. using natural materials and to be assembled almost entirely by volunteers.  © Studio Akkerhuis This time, for the piece “Gestrand Verlangen”, a music-theatre production loosely based upon Henry Pur-cell’s -Dido & Aeneas-, the beach location is particularly appropriate: the configuration of the seating and the opening towards the shoreline have been fully integrated into the choreography of the piece.  © Studio Akkerhuis The idea for the theatre was to create a compact space, somewhere between a small amphitheater, a Bedouin tent, a yurt and reminiscent of a nineteenth-century travelling circus. This has resulted in an intimate space for 250/300 people, with a diameter of only 20 meters. Any member of the public will therefore never be further away than 10 meters from the center of the stage. The public is seated on 21 tribunes, that can accommodate 22/24 people each. 3 of these are reserved for an orchestra of 14 musicians. The theatre is mobile, and be re-used in different configurations, with less or more tribunes.  © Studio Akkerhuis Bamboo was chosen as the main building material: it is a naturally grown material, lightweight and strong, affordable and easy to replace. The entire construction, of both tribunes and cover, is assembled from singular bamboo elements, connected mainly by ropes for the tent structure, and bolts for the tribunes. The elements never surpass a length of 5.8 m (19 Ft), as to fit into a 20 Ft shipping container for storage. Each individual element can be carried by one person.  © Studio Akkerhuis A total of nearly 5800 individual bamboo poles from 4 different species and diameters have been cut and assembled by a group of 50 volunteers in their spare time, over a period of 3 months. Only the foundations, groundworks, the sails and windscreens, the central crown and metal pieces and the cushions have been produced by professional manufacturers. The theatre, from initial ideas to completion, has been designed and mounted in a period of 7 months.  © Studio Akkerhuis For its maiden use on this particular location, the groundworks required the creation of a 30m diameter mound between the dunes and the waterline, perfectly horizontal, on which 32 concrete foot plates, of 760 kilos each, guarantee that the structure will stay in place even with wind forces up to 8 Bft. First sketches were made in December 2016, and the actual construction on site in the first week of July 2017. After two weeks of performances, the structure has been dismantled and stored for its next use.  Drawings Board  Drawings Board  Drawings Board  Drawing Sketch Architects: Studio Akkerhuis, Maurits van der Staay  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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