Arch Daily |
- Tomas Koolhaas On "REM" – A Documentary Film About Architecture, Celebrity, and Globalization
- Topsportschool Antwerp / Compagnie O Architects
- Nisser Micro Cabin / Feste Landscape / Architecture
- Residence in Perinthalmanna / ZERO STUDIO
- Blinds Townhouse / Chon.a
- Jaransanitwong Archery Club / Archimontage Design Fields Sophisticated
- The Floating Parasol House / LIJO.RENY.architects
- Hamilton Residence / Semple Brown Design
- Developer Secures Air Rights for BIG's Spiraling New York Office Tower
- House Cr / Gonçalo Duarte Pacheco
- The Colosseum's Highest Levels to Open to the Public for the First Time in Decades
- La Colombière / yh2
- VTN Architects Designs Office Retreat Formed from Book-Shaped Studios
- Building Dorrego 1711 / Dieguez Fridman
- LACMA and Lincoln Center Reveal Divergent Plans
- JZL House / Bernardes Arquitetura
- This World-Leading Building Researcher Believes That Architecture Is Afraid of Science
- Are.na Research Platform Launches Grant Scheme
| Tomas Koolhaas On "REM" – A Documentary Film About Architecture, Celebrity, and Globalization Posted: 05 Oct 2017 09:00 PM PDT  © GSAPP Conversations In this episode of GSAPP Conversations, Tomas Koolhaas—the director of the much anticipated documentary-biopic REM, a film about the eponymous founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Rem Koolhaas—discusses the movie at length. Among other topics, the conversation touches upon Koolhaas's specific tools and methods for filming architectural space, and the challenges of producing a film founded on a personal relationship. 
GSAPP Conversations is a podcast series designed to offer a window onto the expanding field of contemporary architectural practice. Each episode pivots around discussions on current projects, research, and obsessions of a diverse group of invited guests at Columbia, from both emerging and well-established practices. Usually hosted by the Dean of the GSAPP, Amale Andraos, the conversations also feature the school's influential faculty and alumni and give students the opportunity to engage architects on issues of concern to the next generation. You can listen to every episode of GSAPP Conversations, here. This particular episode is available to listen to directly on Soundcloud and through the iTunes store and iOS Podcasts app, where you can also Subscribe. GSAPP Conversations is a podcast produced by Columbia GSAPP's Office of Communications and Events in collaboration with ArchDaily.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Topsportschool Antwerp / Compagnie O Architects Posted: 05 Oct 2017 08:00 PM PDT  © Tim Van De Velde
 © Tim Van De Velde From the architect. The TSS, short for Topsportschool, is a meticulous spatial translation of a specific program. The daily timetable of the elite-students and coaches is rigorously scheduled. They move like targets, in Spartan efficiency, from one goal to the next. Circulation between school and training is short, straightforward, unambiguous. No time, neither space, to waste. The school facilitates these movements, seamlessly, swift and quick.  © Tim Van De Velde  Floor Plan  © Tim Van De Velde The young athlete is focused and narcissistic. This self-centered view is enhanced by a more communicative look at the other. Challenge and comparison makes the athlete sweat. The TSS is permeated with unexpected inner views, reflective surfaces and voyeuristic spaces.  Section The building does not reveal its purpose, it merely exists on this awkward site, an abandoned military fortress, overgrown with greenery. A sloped concrete base emerges from the soil, self-contained and obvious, slightly superior to its surroundings, revealing hardly anything at all.  © Tim Van De Velde On top of this solid soil hovers a sharp-edged mirror glass surface, reflecting and deflecting the scenery into scattered views.  © Tim Van De Velde It seems like the base and the glasshouse are in a paradoxical confrontation at first. We rather consider it as an oxymoron, it brings together two seemingly incompatible languages within one building, creating a tension we consider interesting.  © Tim Van De Velde  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Nisser Micro Cabin / Feste Landscape / Architecture Posted: 05 Oct 2017 07:00 PM PDT  © David Fjågesund
 © David Fjågesund From the architect. A local cabin developer contacted Feste Landscape / Architecture to design a floating micro cabin for their portfolio. Due to the local planning restrictions of the Nisser lake in Telemark, Norway, the prototype has been instead designed on stilts. However, the ultimate aim is to develop a floating version of the same cabin in the future.  © Smarte Hytter AS From a sustainability point of view, the micro cabin offers an alternative to the emerging trend in the Norwegian holiday home market of luxury cabins with sprawling footprints. The design attempts to maximise the user's experience of the lake and the surrounding landscape. The glazed façade between the kitchen/living room and the covered terrace creates a seamless link between the inside and outside.  © Smarte Hytter AS Externally, the walls and roof of the cabin are clad in thermally treated pinewood, creating a precise and expressive design and at the same time blending in with its surroundings. Gutters and downpipes are integrated into the external walls allowing for clean facades from all angles.  © David Fjågesund The floorplan measures 26sqm with a small mezzanine loft for sleeping. In total, the cabin sleeps seven people. Access to electricity, water, and sewage is provided through a flexible pipe which enters from underneath the cabin. This system is also designed to function with a floating version of the cabin.  Floor Plan  © Smarte Hytter AS  Section  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Residence in Perinthalmanna / ZERO STUDIO Posted: 05 Oct 2017 05:00 PM PDT  © Prasanth Mohan
 © Prasanth Mohan From the architect. When approached with two choices one: to design a new home in a vacant plot and to realize the aspirations of the client through a brand new, fresh, home; two: to renovate an existing house and make it meet the requirements put forward by the client and of course making him happy about it; to choose the latter one would be tagged mundane by many.  © Prasanth Mohan .jpg?1507203690 "Ground Floor Plan") Ground Floor Plan  © Prasanth Mohan On hearing the requirements from the client that he wants small home for his family of three (himself a teacher, his wife and a two year old son), which also 'looks small', simple but elegant with no ornamental detailing, no massive form but modest by all means, to go with choice number one was too obvious given that the second option presented the architects with a house to be renovated with almost nothing that strikes a chord with the client's idea of a home.  © Prasanth Mohan The belief that unconventional choices sometimes make remarkable outcomes, or in other words 'thinking out of the box ' may ultimately bring you content and satisfaction, led to the making or rather 'reinvention' of this home. The journey was not a jolly ride when you are trapped in the maze of space, of the old home; to get rid of this ghost of the past seemed quite difficult.  © Prasanth Mohan The challenge was to redefine the interior spaces with more fluidity, openness and the exterior with utmost simplicity with no or minimum indication of what is inside out of a structure which was completely contrary to the idea. The thought that architecture does not always need to be new or the materials and even the spaces could be 'reused' with careful analysis of the context and bringing a sustainable output by solving the constraints.  Concept Sketches Constraints here involved spaces that were not a match for the client requirements and were to an extent aesthetically unappealing. The sustainability lies in the reuse of materials, the thermal comfort attained and the overall energy efficiency.  © Prasanth Mohan The home .jpg?1507203782 "Sections") Sections The interior spaces have been reinvented with the sophistication involved in getting rid of a maze of space, which included: getting rid of unwanted walls, bringing in natural light and ventilation and thereby making it energy efficient. The inclusion of a 'light- well' and one more by the side of the dining does the key role along with the double layered roof in enhancing the thermal comfort of the home. The interiors remain well lit and ventilated even without many numbers of windows opening to the elevations.  © Prasanth Mohan The choice of pallid for walls along with wooden finished flooring is aimed at a subtle blend of colors without much confusion. This is reflected in the choice of furniture and the overall treatment of the interior. The house has an additional floor added to it to be used as multi functional space but not until one sees the stair to the top realize that it has one. The focus on horizontality made the illusion possible together with the minimal façade and the exterior landscape that merges along with it.  Exploded Axonometric Prelude  © Prasanth Mohan  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 05 Oct 2017 03:00 PM PDT  © Quang Trần
 © Quang Trần "These photographs were taken when the project has been finished for 2 years. In the Vietnam 's context of extremely fast urbanization, two years is enough to clearly perceive the interactions of the project with people and the environment". We -designers and client - who are young generation-have come to location together. This site is land have main façade face to the west in a new urban area. The opposite is the weedy land that was planted to be a small park in the future.  Elevation - Sketch The story about the house for 3 generations, a house hold the memories about the father, a house for the mother of the filial son... Luckily when the client invited us to enjoy the coffee in a bright moonlight night. That night we talked, we dreamed about the house full of memories. And ideas were generated from our feelings… Architectural spaces were exploited by human interaction in a conversation between people with the landscape.  © Quang Trần Architecture-Humanist dialogue and respect for nature: A small land fund that is given priority to build a green park. This park is space to connect residents, especially children and elders. Our project was considered like an organic object that was attached to the park, pretty sensitive to any form of the façade. The solution in here is organic integration into the landscape park. We created a soft sun shadow curtain what was inspirited from Vietnam traditional architecture. With modern materials are steel and wire mesh, a hidden architecture among nature inside urban from the visual sense. This material will create a layer of color rust on the surface gradually over time which the trees in the park enough height to make the project easily interact about color. This is conversation between architecture and landscape, we want to awaken the necessary respect to deal with the landscape.  © Quang Trần Traditional factors -the interaction between people and spaces, the story exploited by light and dark. A 20 years old starfruit tree, the colored time wood furniture which was memory things from the old house of father. Three generations, youthfulness-maturation-calmness, that is three transition sense about life…With all those factors, space is divided in public – separation-transition. They are both coherent and relative, based on harmonically divide light zone, dark zone and transition zone.  Section - Sketch The star-fruit is planted in a nice position where it can take sunlight, wind, dews easy. On beside that, the tree is space connect family member too, where connect nature into the house through leafs. The timeless wood furniture was arranged in the transitional spaces between the light and the dark, with tender reflection from the wood created a nostalgic atmosphere.  © Quang Trần The light and shadow elements are also transmitted appropriately based on the visual perception of biology for each age group of family members. From outside to inside, between the spaces, light is always enough and the dark areas are light enough to feel comfortable. That is conformity for a tropical tube house in the South Central Coastal Vietnam.  © Quang Trần  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Jaransanitwong Archery Club / Archimontage Design Fields Sophisticated Posted: 05 Oct 2017 01:00 PM PDT  © Beer Singnoi
 © Beer Singnoi From the architect. Charan Sanit Wong 82 is a narrow street where cars can hardly pass, so small as to be hardly noticeable from the main road. This is where an experiment on the perception of unusual space in urban environment takes place. Functions and activities that happen within that space would reflect its special qualities and character.  © Beer Singnoi  First Level Plan  © Beer Singnoi This archery club is a building of 650 square meters. The entire space is divided into two parts: the front of the building serves as a reception and an office, each of them located on different floors, while the back is an archery ground with shooting lines and targets. Except for the building structure, this archery club is composed of a number of different kinds of non-permanent materials such as cement fiberboard on straight and curved walls, crushed rocks on a target ground and wire mesh fence. Both the inside and the outside are covered by navy blue acrylic paint, contrasting with the semi-polished concrete floor.  © Beer Singnoi The building appearance reflects an attempt to lessen friction, tension, force, and shock the energies that fly all over the archery ground. Rounded corners and twisted planes reduce sharp angles while creating fluidity of joining and expansion of building form. The striking color of the building is the most outstanding feature. It breaks a sense of enclosure of this highly safe archery ground by transforming its environment into a sense of celebration.  © Beer Singnoi  Concept  © Beer Singnoi  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Floating Parasol House / LIJO.RENY.architects Posted: 05 Oct 2017 12:00 PM PDT _a06b_(PM).jpg?1507156534 "© Praveen Mohandas") © Praveen Mohandas
_b06_(PM)_(2).jpg?1507156466 "© Praveen Mohandas") © Praveen Mohandas From the architect. Set in a semi urbanised strip that border a busy road in the otherwise sleepy suburb of Tirur,'The Floating Parasol House' sits on a linear plot with its shorter side abutting the street. Built for a privacy conscious family, the house was tucked towards the rear to accommodate a garden in the front, enclosed by means of a secondary landscape wall, that shield the house from the cacophony of the vehicular traffic and the commotions on the street. _(2).jpg?1507156684 "© Praveen Mohandas") © Praveen Mohandas The house covers an area of 4600 Sqft and consists of three main blocks separated by open to sky/skylit courts. The first block contains the sit-out, foyer and the formal living. The second houses the family living on both the floors, dining, kitchen, utility, etc. The third block has two bedrooms and its toilets on each floor. The car porch, which is separated from the main building, is in a restrained scale so as to relate to the street. The massing of the house was also carefully planned to progress gently towards the rear and avoid an imposing street side presence. A path, reflecting the linearity of the site, stretches from the pedestrian gate to the master bedroom and forms a strong circulation spine that dictates the sequential flow of spaces.  Plans Teak wood, nano white slabs, lapato/ flamed steel grey granite, mirrors and glass constitute the main material palette used in the interiors. A selection of accessories and curios in silver sheen along with custom designed wall art,in cnc cut stainless steel sheet and lacquered glass, finishes the interiors in minimalist simplicity. The large, glass and aluminium, sliding doors blur the interior-exterior divide and also help the internal spaces flow into each other. _(2).jpg?1507156802 "© Praveen Mohandas") © Praveen Mohandas The roof slabs, independent of the walls below, are supported on circular rcc columns making them seem like they are floating. The glazed gap between these floating roofs and the walls bring in diffused light during the day and emit internal light at night while accentuating its floating feel. These roofs also shade the mass below from the harsh tropical sun. All spaces are naturally cross ventilated. Moreover the combination of strategically placed courtyards, skylights and volumetrically interconnected spaces, help keep the internal temperature at a minimum, without resorting to any artificial ventilation, making the house comfortable throughout the year. .jpg?1507156622 "© Praveen Mohandas") © Praveen Mohandas  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Hamilton Residence / Semple Brown Design Posted: 05 Oct 2017 10:00 AM PDT  © David Lauer Photography
 © David Lauer Photography From the architect. Semple Brown designed this beautiful 7,250 sf home in Cherry Hills Village CO. The site is 1 ¼ acres and offers unobstructed views of the mountains to the west. The program of the residence seeks to find harmony between the alluring views to the west, while passively managing solar height gain and editing the late afternoon sun.  © David Lauer Photography  First floor plan  © David Lauer Photography The residence was strategically laid out to maximize views to the mountains from the primary public spaces, while allowing the private spaces to recede and still take advantage of the site and site lines to the west. A height limit, as designated by the local covenance, suggested the home be conceived as a low, ranch-like profile, with the primary living areas of the home on the ground floor, and the subsidiary spaces be disconnected and separated in to a split-level form. This allows the clients to live day-to-day in their primary spaces, while physically and mechanically shutting down the secondary spaces not in use.  © David Lauer Photography  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Developer Secures Air Rights for BIG's Spiraling New York Office Tower Posted: 05 Oct 2017 09:10 AM PDT  © Tishman Speyer The 65-story, winding glass skyscraper designed by BIG for New York's Hudson Yards neighborhood, "The Spiral," is one step closer to realization, as developer Tishman Speyer has secured the necessary air rights for the structure, The Real Deal reports. The $157 million deal was made between the developer and the Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for 669,000 square feet of development rights, equalling $235 per square foot. After adding in the square footage acquired in two separate deals in 2015 and last year, Tishman Speyer has now spent $265 million to gain more than 1.23 million additional square feet of buildable space for the 1,005-foot-tall tower. But that amount is still just a fraction the estimated $3.2 billion price tag for the building, which will house 2.85 million square feet of primarily office space. Earlier this summer, pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced it would sign on as the building's anchor tenant with a 800,000-square-foot lease. Initial designs for the building were revealed last February, showing a "classic Ziggurat silhouette" featuring an "ascending ribbon of lively green spaces." Learn more about the design, here. News via The Real Deal.
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| House Cr / Gonçalo Duarte Pacheco Posted: 05 Oct 2017 08:00 AM PDT  Facade. Image Courtesy of Gonçalo Duarte Pacheco
 Living Room. Image Courtesy of Gonçalo Duarte Pacheco From the architect. The project proposes the refurbishment of a house built in 1937. Located in the urban area of Caldas da Rainha, its origin is associated with the genesis of this whole urban area, which, at the beginning of the twentieth century, emerged in the west of the railway line that crosses the entire city.  Stairs. Image Courtesy of Gonçalo Duarte Pacheco Time was crucial on this house's layering history, as it endorsed certain acceleration on the advanced state of decay, not to mention the several nature effects or the constant remake and remodel changes imposed to the structure.  Entrance Floor  Stairs. Image Courtesy of Gonçalo Duarte Pacheco  First Floor Plan An interior courtyard was occupied. Along the years, this area has been used for all kind of purposes - from chicken coop to outbuilding - serving the different needs of those who lived there.  Main Facade. Image Courtesy of Gonçalo Duarte Pacheco  Axonometric  Living Room. Image Courtesy of Gonçalo Duarte Pacheco The project returns the house to its dwelling function. The courtyard, surrounded by a 4 meters high wall, with a interior garden, allows a rare sense of intimacy, recalling the city. The entry allowing a focused view of the patio, heading directly to the public part of the house  Interior Facade. Image Courtesy of Gonçalo Duarte Pacheco  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Colosseum's Highest Levels to Open to the Public for the First Time in Decades Posted: 05 Oct 2017 07:15 AM PDT  © <a href='http://https://www.flickr.com/photos/garyullah/15235458515/'>Flickr user garyullah</a>. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 For the first time in more than 40 years, visitors will be able to access the uppermost levels of Italy's most popular historical site, the Colosseum, following the completion of a major restoration project. Beginning November 1st, guided tours will take ticketed guests to the remaining sections of the fourth and fifth levels of the stadium, rising as high as 120 feet above ground level. Much like today's stadiums, stadium hierarchy was determined by wealth and social class: the emperor would sit in a special box, senators on marble benches near the pitch, knights on the intermediate levels, and merchants and traders on the fourth level. The fifth level was typically filled with common folk – the plebeians – who would sit or stand on wooden benches to watch the battles below. Total stadium capacity was estimated between 50,000 and 80,000 people.  © <a href='http://https://www.flickr.com/photos/zoe_toseland/34244194594/'>Flickr user zoe_toseland</a>. Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 "It's not been possible to visit this part of the Colosseum for 40 years," commented Culture Minister Dario Franceschini. "This restores another part of the monument to the public and provides incredible views of not only the Colosseum but also Rome." News via The Telegraph, USA Today.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 05 Oct 2017 06:00 AM PDT  © Francis Pelletier
 © Francis Pelletier From the architect. Initially built as a small storage space by the previous owner, who was a lumberman, the building has been rearranged into a forest refuge by its new owner. La Colombière (Dovery) thus represents the completion and third phase of this simple one-story construction into a true retreat expanding on three floors.  © Francis Pelletier  Sections  © Francis Pelletier In an attempt to preserve the surrounding nature, the footprint of the building remained untouched. This new phase inspired itself from the natural growth of trees. The link of the tree/house to the soil remains the same while growing vertically and developing an aerial volume based on the tree canopies. By following such principles, the extension was done without any trees being cut or heavy machinery, which could have spoiled the natural environment offered by the forest.  © Francis Pelletier Recalling the bark of the tall surrounding conifer, the exterior volume is covered in dark cedar. La Colombière's vertiginous interior is a space painted all in white. Materials and structure of the previous phase are kept and uninterrupted so that the addition acts as an extension rather than an insertion.  © Francis Pelletier  Floors Plans  © Francis Pelletier On the ground floor, a simple space with exposed structure offers a direct link between rooms and with the forest's soil.On the upper floors, each room opens into a vast vertical shaft punctured by an ultralight stairwell, an aerial structure. On the last floor, an exterior covered terrace acts as white perch from where admire the surroundings. La Colombière is a refuge perched in the forest reminding us of bird huts.  © Francis Pelletier  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| VTN Architects Designs Office Retreat Formed from Book-Shaped Studios Posted: 05 Oct 2017 05:00 AM PDT  Courtesy of VTN Architects VTN Architects has revealed the design of Viettel Offsite Studio, a new campus for Vietnam's largest telecommunications corporation currently under construction 30 kilometers outside of the capital city of Hanoi. Designed as a short-term work environment where employees can go to escape from the stress of the city, the studio building takes the form of six book-shaped walls that help to shield interior spaces from strong sunlight and direct view back to the site's natural surroundings.  Courtesy of VTN Architects Connected by an open corridor, the six V-shaped pavilions are separated into different program elements: a reception area, a dining hall and four studio spaces for meetings, seminars and bootcamps. The V-shapes all open to the North, where a lake and landscape provide calming and focusing views for visitors.  Courtesy of VTN Architects  Courtesy of VTN Architects The walls themselves are also perforated with small openings, allowing a controlled amount of direct light to pass through to the expansive roof garden that weaves between the pavilions and doubles as a series of outdoor studios. Shortlisted for the 2017 World Architecture Festival Awards in the Future: Office project category, the Viettel Offsite Studio is slated for completion by the end of 2017.  Courtesy of VTN Architects  Courtesy of VTN Architects
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| Building Dorrego 1711 / Dieguez Fridman Posted: 05 Oct 2017 04:00 AM PDT  Courtesy of Dieguez Fridman arquitectos
 Courtesy of Dieguez Fridman arquitectos From the architect. The project explores the generation of intermediate spaces that mediate between the outdoor public space and the indoor private areas. Located on a small site in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, this project explores the potential of the differential between buildable area and buildable envelope in the city planning code.  Courtesy of Dieguez Fridman arquitectos Voids generated in the façade generate outdoor terraces that mediate between the public street life and the private interiors. Interior voids work as double-height spaces that expand into the outdoor terraces. Units can be used for working and/or living as the neighborhood is attracting new inhabitants that mix with people working on the area's audiovisual and design industries  Courtesy of Dieguez Fridman arquitectos  Floors Plans  Courtesy of Dieguez Fridman arquitectos The smaller units in the front of the building are separated to generate the space that is occupied by the larger units. As a result, these larger units have a combination of single and double heights and an outdoor terrace as a continuation of the double-height sector. These units can be used as residences –with a bedroom in the single-height sector and a living/dining room in the double height- or as offices. Large and small units can also be combined to generate more complex apartments where living and work can coexist in multiple ways.  Courtesy of Dieguez Fridman arquitectos   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| LACMA and Lincoln Center Reveal Divergent Plans Posted: 05 Oct 2017 03:15 AM PDT  Exterior rendering of the LACMA renovation. Image © Atelier Peter Zumthor Two large-scale US cultural projects have, this week, announced major updates relating to the renovation of existing buildings – and both involve, to a greater and lesser extent, American business magnate, media mogul, and philanthropist David Geffen. One—the Lincoln Center's Geffen Hall in New York City—has scrapped plans for a $500 million renovation to be led by Heatherwick Studio and Diamond Schmitt Architects, while another—Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), for which a renovation is being led by Peter Zumthor—has seen a pledge by Geffen of $150 million toward its $600 million price-tag.  Interior rendering of the LACMA renovation. Image © Atelier Peter Zumthor In a report by The New York Times (October 3, 2017), the new management of the Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic announced that they "were scuttling a half-billion-dollar plan for a gut renovation" of David Geffen Hall, "seeking simpler ways to improve the lackluster theater." In 2015 Heatherwick Studio and Diamond Schmitt Architects were selected to collaborate on the "renovation and re-imagination" of the hall, which is the Lincoln Center's largest concert venue in New York City. In separate news that emerged on October 4, 2017, Geffen's substantial donation to LACMA brings the total amount raised for the project to $450 million. In honor of the donation, which represents the single largest donation to the institution in its history, the renovation to the building will be named the David Geffen Galleries. The project is set to begin construction in 2019, to be completed by 2023. News via The New York Times.
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| JZL House / Bernardes Arquitetura Posted: 05 Oct 2017 02:00 AM PDT  © Leonardo Finotti
 © Leonardo Finotti From the architect. The JZL House is located in a residential area of Leblon neighborhood, Rio de Janeiro. The program is distributed in three floors: basement, ground and upper floors, which house service, social and intimate sectors, respectively.  © Leonardo Finotti The upper deck is protected by vertical self-supporting cast glass louvers, which – together with the hanging gardens and windows – act as filters for the light and ensure privacy to the intimate sector. The modulation of the collective bedroom and playroom allows for their future subdivision, which will enable each one of the three children to have his own room. This volume is structured by two cores on the ground floor that house the kitchen on one side, and office, cellar and toilet on the other.  © Leonardo Finotti  Section  © Leonardo Finotti The living and dining rooms can be fully integrated with the outside deck. The intention was to create a large space where the boundaries between interior and exterior were diluted.  © Leonardo Finotti The house is dislocated off the site’s back boundary in order to create a natural lighting shaft that reaches all floors.  © Leonardo Finotti  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| This World-Leading Building Researcher Believes That Architecture Is Afraid of Science Posted: 05 Oct 2017 12:00 AM PDT  Steven J Orfield in his anechoic chamber at Orfield Labs, which has been certified by Guinness World Records as the quietest place on earth. Image via screenshot from <a href='http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/06/26/finding-minnesota-orfield-laboratories/'>a WCCO video</a> about the chamber This article was originally published by Common Edge as "A Top Building Researcher Asks: Why is Architecture Afraid of Science?" Recently we've written a fair amount about the state of architectural research. The general consensus appears to be that it lacks rigor and, even more importantly, is not grounded in good science. Steven J Orfield has some strong opinions about architectural research. He's been conducting it—for architecture and design firms, as well as Fortune 500 companies—at his Minneapolis-based Orfield Laboratories for more than three decades now. Late last week I talked to him about why architects are afraid of science, how he would introduce it into the schools, and his work in the field of universal design.
Martin C Pedersen: Your lab has worked with a range of clients, both corporate and architectural. Why do other industries use and rely on science and research to a much greater extent than architecture? Steven J Orfield: I think almost all industries have a greater engagement in research than architecture does. Why? Because architecture really doesn't do research. The field produces many PhDs. It provides Master's degrees and a lot of graduate education, but most of it is theoretical and historical. Architecture doesn't teach science, because it doesn't know science. And architecture has an inherent belief—at least according to many of the architectural deans that I know—that undergraduate American students don't want to learn research, they don't like science, and all they want to do is "art." For the 46 years that we've been in business, we've hosted tours from architecture and design schools around the country, and we know that to be false. The students love science. They just don't get any good science in school. The problem is that science and design don't have a common language. If you're going to teach science to architectural students, you need to use experiential methods. That requires you know all of the science as it relates to human perception and comfort. And that you can create scientifically-grounded demonstrations, because you understand how to do it. To use science effectively, you have to first understand it. MCP: If an architecture dean came to you and said: create a research program for students, what would that look like? SJO: It would be based on the same concepts that we use with our clients. We bring clients in and spend four to five hours bringing them through an immersion session. With graduate students, we would do the same immersion over the period of the course. We'd develop a curriculum that moves from perceptual demonstrations related to the design process, and then once the students understood those intuitively, we would teach them aspects of human perception and cognition. Like clients, students need an experiential base where they can teach themselves by observation, and then learn the formal practice. MCP: Why is architecture so reluctant to embrace research and science? SJO: It's foreign to them. They're also afraid that if they brought research into the "design" process, they would get marginalized. Architects have never found it necessary to learn to design buildings inspired or informed by science, because they believe that their intuitive process works well. And they have no useful way to compare this to the more scientific research-based design method, as they have no experience with it. MCP: Except for the occasional energy performance study, why is there so little post-occupancy research done on buildings? SJO: The really interesting thing is, there is some post-occupancy research done, but hardly any pre-occupancy research. And if you do post-occs but haven't done pre-occs, you've got nothing for comparison and for judgements. MCP: Which is essentially the basis of the scientific method? SJO: Right. We've done pre-occs and post-occs for probably twenty-five years, and we developed a model for work spaces that measured the perceived organizational quality, job quality, compensation quality, and general and local environmental quality. What our studies measure is how you feel about your company. And what aspects of how you feel about your company relate to the building. It's the only study type we know of that actually measures work satisfaction instead of workplace satisfaction. MCP: So you're not measuring the architecture, per se? SJO: We're measuring more than that. We tell our clients: If your organizational quality is perceived as low, there's really no point in building a new building. If your compensation quality is perceived as low, there's no point in building a building. Most post-occupancy studies are to a large degree in place to support the building of buildings. Our studies are in place to support organizations and how they think about their employees' health and well-being. MCP: Does your lab do energy modeling? SJO: We do energy modeling on lighting and daylighting. But the energy piece is secondary to the perceptional qualities of lighting and daylighting. Our argument is that there are two main things you want out of a building: you want to be perceptually comfortable, and you want the building to be emotionally resonant. You want to like the place and be comfortable in it. There are different methods to get to each of those goals. Perceptual comfort can be derived from good scientific research, just as our building performance standards are (acoustics, AV, lighting, daylighting, thermal comfort, indoor air quality). Perceptual preference comes from quantitative subjective research on the emotional and associative response to the building design. This is accomplished by POP (Perceptual Occupant Programming) visual juries which expose occupants to images of the schematic design of the building interior and exterior, while they use semantic differential ranking scales to rank a set of bipolar attributes, such as "comfortable – not comfortable" or, "low stress – high stress." During these POP juries, there is no discussion or ranking of opinions, as in focus groups, or what architecture calls, "design charrettes." MCP: Who are your clients? Is it architectural firms, or building owners? SJO: About half the time we're hired by owners, and the other half by designers. The owner-client tends to be open to a much broader involvement. The architectural scope is controlled by the architect's often narrower interests. When I'm hired by an owner to do a new office building, I can do a whole range of things: architect selection competitions, pre- and post-occupancy studies, acoustics, lighting, daylighting, thermal comfort, indoor air quality and performance commissioning. If I'm hired by the architect to do the same project, he or she may be interested in the acoustics and the lighting, or the audio-visual system design. MCP: Why the difference in research scope? SJO: Designers tend to believe something is important if the client says it's important. An architect might ask the client, "Are acoustics important to you in this project?" If they respond, "Not particularly," then the architect checks that off their list. Rather than teaching the client what they need, architects generally ask clients what they want. As an expert testifying to design failures in court, I've heard this in testimony a number of times. MCP: It's almost like they get the research that they're asking for, which is tight and limited. SJO: Clients don't know what to ask for. It's like going to the doctor, and the doctor asking, "Is there anything about your health that you're interested in?" We always assume that the client has no idea what they need. And we're not governed by their initial impressions of what they want. Our job is to do for that client what they would do for themselves, if they had our level of information about design research and testing. MCP: What's an area of research that you'd like to explore? SJO: There's very few areas that we don't have our hands in, but I love psychology. And we've worked with many psychologists around the country, cognitive psychologists, perceptual psychologists and others. We'd like to get into more of those collaborations. I'm interested in neuroscience. We study that at some depth. But we don't think the work coming out in that field is very high resolution, as yet. MCP: It's an emerging field. SJO: And because of that it has limitations. If you're trying to design for a particular group, for example, neuroscience doesn't take into account occupant demographics, to a strong degree. Neuroscience is an extremely limited, low-resolution tool, and architecture is trying to use it for an extremely high-resolution set of problems. If we do POP visual juries, in architecture, we can get into the same things that neuroscience is after, much more easily, with higher resolution, better demographic control, and less expense than they can. At some point, these tools should merge and appear in design offices as subjective testing systems, but this would require architects or technicians who understood the subtlety of research. MCP: But you will concede that neuroscience is an emerging field that holds promise for architecture? SJO: The problem with neuroscience is, it doesn't necessarily tell you much. A certain area of your brain lights up. What does that tell you? Did that stimulate you? Did you like or dislike something? Neuroscience is trying to map those things out, and eventually it will be an interesting tool. But it will become an interesting tool when a client can walk into architect's office, put a headset on, look at a set of images, and go through a process that predictively gives the architect an idea what the client wants, in terms of the building's resonance. Neuroscience may eventually be good for producing better aesthetic judgments by architects, meaning judgments that are more sympathetic to the user. On the other hand, neuroscience won't do anything about perceptual comfort: acoustics, daylighting, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, the things everybody complains about in buildings. Those are issues where we already know the science. We know what the goals should be. We know how to design to them. But more than 99% of projects in the United States don't use building performance science. MCP: You're doing a lot of work on the universal design front. Tell us about that. SJO: We've spent a large portion of the last ten years studying cognitive and perceptual disabilities, and developing standards for building performance, related to those disabilities. So, we're working toward developing a universal design standard for perceptual and cognitive disabilities that we know will be much better for those with disabilities, but it will also be preferred by those without. What we're saying is, buildings should be designed with certain kinds of limits, related to perceptual stimulation and cognitive complexity. Those should be rules for all buildings. Because they're better for people that way. And since the science is fairly clear that they're better for people that way, it's no longer a question of what "style" of building you want, or what the architect is trying to evoke in his or her design. What we want to know is—and the only thing we want to know is—how do we make that building wonderful for the user? MCP: And that's style agnostic? SJO: It's not style agnostic, at all. But the styles that are applied, the aesthetics, have to be resonant to the user, not just the architect. I believe strongly in aesthetics, but I also believe—and this is something that many architects really dislike—that you can measure aesthetics. We've done it over and over again. We believe that what the architects think they're doing, as art, can be measured in the user to determine whether it works. And often it doesn't. We're starting to believe that buildings all over the world should be designed with more of a peaceful aesthetic, with low perceptual noise levels and low cognitive complexity levels. Buildings that are simple, that are easy to make your way through, they won't have a lot of visual or acoustic noise. Buildings that provide a gentle experience and keep your threshold of stress down. That's rarely done intentionally. It's a great irony that most of the big companies who design products have user-experience departments. But architecture, perhaps the most complicated science-art of all, doesn't have a user-experience department. It's often practiced as poor quality art, with no user measurements. We've done user experience work for Whirlpool, Harley Davidson, Black and Decker, Microsoft, and we find that the concept of user-experience science is completely foreign to the design community. We also find, somewhat surprisingly, that it's foreign to much of the product community as well. The industrial design field is like the architectural world. It absolutely hates being measured from the outside. Martin C Pedersen is executive director of the Common Edge Collaborative. A writer, editor and critic, he served as executive editor at Metropolis magazine for nearly fifteen years.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Are.na Research Platform Launches Grant Scheme Posted: 04 Oct 2017 11:00 PM PDT  First Papers of Surrealism, 1942, New York. Installation view showing Marcel Duchamp's Mile of String, 1942. Are.na Grants is a new initiative to support research, writing, and other creative projects that are being developed and built on Are.na. For the first set of grants, we are especially interested in projects that address issues around the shifting nature of "knowledge work," algorithmic governance, and networked learning, though proposals of all kinds are welcome. To capture the breadth of thinking on Are.na, grants of $500 (USD) each will be awarded in three categories, and may be used to expand on an existing line of research or start a new endeavor. Three to five recipients will be selected by jury members John-Michael Boling, Laurel Schwulst, and Dena Yago, along with the Are.na team. The announcement of grant recipients along with features on grant projects will be published on the Are.na blog. The grant categories include:
Submissions should comprise a link to an Are.na channel containing your name, a 150-word statement, a single sketch or image, and a proposed timeline for completion. The deadline for applying is October 13, 2017. Recipients will be announced October 23, 2017.
Background Our intention behind Are.na is to provide a platform for people, whether alone or with others, to pursue their interests and organize their thinking—without the influence of advertisers or algorithms. Over the course of building Are.na, we've seen how digital tools can become addictive and invasive rather than empowering. We've also seen the emergence of "fake news," filter bubbles, an attention economy, an increasingly contingent and precarious workforce, and growing concern over data security and personal privacy. For us, these issues are intimately related, and they are perpetuated by many of the networked technologies that dominate our lives. We believe in preserving the promise of the internet as a tool for collaboratively creating, organizing, and sharing knowledge. Are.na Grants represent one small way in which we hope to support critical dialogue around the creation of more ethical, equitable platforms that support the dignity and joy of thinking. Jury
About Are.na Are.na is a platform for creative thinking and research. It's a distraction-free space where you can collect anything, organize your thoughts, and develop ideas over time. It's also a community where curiosity and collaboration are more important than algorithms and likes. Whether you're writing a story, designing a product, or just exploring your interests, we believe Are.na should help you think and discover in a way that feels natural. Full application instructions If you don't already have an Are.na account, sign up here. Make a Closed or Private channel for your submission. The channel name is your project title. Then add the following as individual blocks:
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