Arch Daily

Long House / TWS & Partners
Eye-D / Ofist
One City development, Gemdale Wuhan / ASPECT Studios
Dongshang in Beijing / Imafuku Architects
Vixen Studios Headquarters Seoul / YKH Associates
DUNIA BANGUNAN / ANDParsitek
Herne Bay Hideaway / Lloyd Hartley Architects
Westside School / SKL Architects
10 Must-See Installations at the 2018 London Design Biennale
Casa R / Felipe Lagos
Sacred Architecture Models Crafted from Hand-Cut Paper by Michael Velliquette
Could Carrots Make Concrete Stronger and Greener?
AN House / Studio Bloco Arquitetura
How the Parc de la Villette Kickstarted a New Era for Urban Design
Dogwoodtrot House / modus studio
Which Countries Have Banned Asbestos?
David Chipperfield Architects Create New Hostel Design to Help Spur Margate's Revival

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 07:00 PM PDT

Architects: TWS & Partners
Location: Kota Bandung, Indonesia
Lead Architect: Tonny Wirawan Suriadjaja
Area: 665.0 m2
Project Year: 2016
Photographs: Fernando Gomulya

Contractor: Tan Sie Siong

Text description provided by the architects. The Long House is located in a housing area in the North of Bandung City, surrounded by old fancy houses and lots of trees. Sited far away from the city's heavy traffic, the Long House becomes a comfortable place to settle. In response to those advantages, the building is designed to receive a sufficient amount of natural light and views to the outside. The building mass is designed to be slightly tilted in order to create a different building image from the surrounding neighborhood.

The building consists of three massing stacked up together and creates H-shape form from the top view. The first massing is placed on the ground floor, transverse to the site configuration whereas the other two massing on the upper floor is placed perpendicular to the first massing. The building itself is named as Long House because of its long and horizontal shape. The living room, dining room, and dry kitchen are designed without the use of partition to make the space more spacious.

Extensive use of reinforced glass as its enclosure enhances the space to be more open and provides a natural ventilation system. To improve the natural cooling system in the building, the water pond is added to reinforce the cooling system naturally. A large number of openings also provide more outdoor views for the owner to enjoy the outdoor features such as vegetation and the sound of water creating a tranquil atmosphere. Different kinds of vegetation are also used to surround the building.

Long House is mostly constructed with concrete and wood as its main material. The combination of concrete and wood is to create the tropical and modern atmosphere inside and outside the building. The white concrete wall represents the modernity and is being used because of its rigidity and durability. On the other side, wood represents locality and authenticity.

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Eye-D / Ofist

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 04:00 PM PDT

Architects: Ofist
Location: Karakoy, Istanbul, Turkey
Lead Architects: Yasemin Arpac & Sabahattin Emir
Conctract Design Firm: Ofist
General Contractor: Ofist
Area: 105.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Ali Bekman

Text description provided by the architects. Eye-d is not just designed to be an optical shop.
No business is just the business itself anymore. Everything is social. We can not neglect today's facts when even sitting at home by yourself can be a social media product.

Besides, in crowded metropolises like Istanbul, life is busy, fast and hard. Sparing time for everything and everyone is almost impossible. So maybe that's why we are always doing many things at a time; having a morning coffee, while checking mails and news, adding stories to instagram, following friends to catch up with what they are doing, and also keep on doing our work.

We also try to relate ourselves with the environments around us. Let's call this user experience. When we are in an exhibition, a bookstore, or a shopping mall, there's always some kind of experience, but usually, because of the life in these metropolises itself or the scale of these environments, the experience is somehow out of human proportion. It is not easy to relate oneself to, or to develop an affinity.

So, Eye-D is not just a shop, but a multi purpose venue. It's a blogger spot, a meeting point, an art gallery, a coffee shop or a music venue... More importantly, it is a human experience based space. A place where you not only shop, but involve in other experiences, being aware of your surrounding and valuing it.

Then again, as almost everything else around us, the concept of an optical shop has also changed. What used to be very technical, even scientific has now become fashionable. Wearing spectacles or sunglasses used to be a technical need. To fulfill this purpose, shops were designed hygienical, as if designing a health care space. Clean cut. Sterile. Clinical.

Considering that your face is the first/most eye catching part of your body, your glasses have a distinctive role in identifying your character, personalizing your look. So Eye-d suggests "why wear a mass brand, when you can purchase alternative, independent designer glasses!" Creating a 'Rayban-free' shopping space, the design solution that we come up with couldn't be anything like common! It should be an extraordinary, alternative, eye catching, funky, distinctive, never getting outdated yet fashionable space, allowing different experiences each time for its users.

Our approach was to create a cosy, interactive, user friendly environment, appropriate to human scale, in the middle of the chaotic city. It is a space designed to be addapted to different purposes easily, while developing a communication with its user. We think the strongest instrument of achieving this is the extraordinary use of simple and familiar materials/ideas.

Like our usual approach to our designs; we came up with just a few simple, yet very strong design ideas and shaped the whole space within that framework. One of these ideaswas to form an iron frame work and panels that create a multi purpose background, allowing easy arrangements for different needs like showcasing glasses as well as art works. The other idea was to assign a light, familiar, friendly element, something simple in form and size, and generate a space using it all around. We decided on cork yoga blocks and ended up hanging 550 of them in 105m2 area, 95 of them with light sources. We also hung a 4m long plywood table laminated cork on both sides, from just four corners to the ceiling. Matching cork Bob stools from Modus are wandering around... The key in working on a simple, ordinary material or an idea is the details and how you interpret the idea and implement it. Carefully considered details and implemantations with high quality workmanships are our all time indispensables.

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One City development, Gemdale Wuhan / ASPECT Studios

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 03:00 PM PDT

Landscape Design: ASPECT Studios
Location: Han Yang Da Dao, Wuhan Shi, Hubei Sheng, China
Landscape Design Director: Stephen Buckle
Landscape Design Team: Cameron Archie, FangYu Lee, Penny Ren. Sam Xu
Area: 35900.0 m2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: Arch-Exist

Client: Wuhan Jinxiang Property Co., Ltd.
Architecture Design : LACIME SH

Text description provided by the architects. Wuhan, China. Capital of Central province of Hubei, and the setting for the One City development project by Gemdale, with public domain design by Stephen Buckle and the team at ASPECT Studios Shanghai.

Comprising a cultural and art centre, commercial precinct and eco-shopping gardens, the design of this new mixed-use project is deeply rooted in local culture and people-oriented sustainability. A cultural, social and commercial centre as a place for family, recreation and work.

The brief called for a landmark destination that reflects contemporary Wuhan culture. Our design response abstracts the mythological Chinese Phoenix (originating in Hubei Chu) into a narrative for the flowing land-scape whose fluid lines guide people through the social gathering and event spaces.

A solar 'tree' defines the main gathering space of the central plaza casting an extensive canopy across the main entertainment space sheltering people from sun and rain. To its east, the Phoenix reflection pool and dancing fountains flanked by locally selected tree species is a multifunctional play space for children, reflec-tion pool and summer entertainment space surrounded on all sides with shaded seating for parents and on-lookers. South of the water plaza, a series of signature sweeping walls sculptured from local stone, create a visual interplay between each other, structured to deliberately bring people physically closer together to en-courage social interaction in the dappled shade.

Throughout the public realm, the design captures moments of a bird in flight, a flutter of wings and feathers, colours infused into the elements. A sweeping language of the Phoenix unifies public space, while the dra-matic local natural rock forest formations of Wuhan have inspired the form and character of the bespoke pre-cast active edges that frame the perimeter development.

Specialist lighting design integrates the precinct's architecture and landscape, helping it transition for the changing demographic of users from weekdays to evening and weekends. From a place of interaction and commerce to a recreational play space.

"Grand and inspiring, humanistic and engaging. It's a landscape of many facets, scales and experiences, each contributing to a dynamic new public domain. The careful selection of native trees and shrubs will bring a seasonal dimension to the design, as the spaces take on different characters through the year," says, Ste-phen Buckle, Studio Director ASPECT Studios Shanghai.

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Dongshang in Beijing / Imafuku Architects

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 02:00 PM PDT

Interiors Designers: Imafuku Architects
Location: 18 Workers' Stadium E Rd, Chaoyang District, Beijing City, China
Lead Architects: Yuichiro Imafuku
Area: 240.0 m2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: Ruijing Photo

Text description provided by the architects. Dongshang is a contemporary Japanese restaurant with wide selections of Sake and Japanese whisky located in central Beijing. The restaurant consists of a dining hall with a bar counter and two private rooms. The client requests to design a Japanese restaurant also appearing Chinese style at the same time.

Plan. Image Courtesy of Imafuku Architects

In response to the demand, a bamboo is developing into the entire space in different forms. The significant material is traditionally used in various ways in Japan as well as China. Bamboo strips fixed on walls are folded at the ceiling, and they make tunnel-like spaces enclosed with bamboos at two of hallways. The light passing through the bamboo strips of the ceiling like sunshine filtering through the trees illumined the bamboo walls.

The dining hall is also surrounded by the bamboo walls expanding from two hallways located on both sides of the dining hall. 3cm diameter bamboos are put together at the ceiling makes a roof over the dining hall creating a sense of intimacy.

Illuminated liquor bottles are displayed on shelve plates made with black steel at a backbar featuring the vertical bamboo louvers. The element with strong connections to both of Japanese and Chinese cultures and traditions is iteratively highlighted in the restaurant.

Since two of private rooms are used for a variety of purpose such as karaoke, private party, or lecture, they are soundproofed featuring acoustic boards at the ceilings and the walls. Brass plates, which are repeatedly used in the hallways and the dining hall in some different forms such as brass strips of terrazzo and black granite stones or brass nails of bamboo strips, are used for the ceiling and furniture at the private rooms. Unlike the halls, these rooms are wooden-themed feature with some brass plates without using bamboos.

To maintain a distance from a glaring public hallway, an intermediate space is created outside of the side entrance. Extending from interior to exterior, the language of bamboo continues onto a ceiling of the buffering area bringing inviting atmosphere.

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Vixen Studios Headquarters Seoul / YKH Associates

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 01:00 PM PDT

Architects: YKH Associates
Location: 54-1 Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Lead Architect: Tae Sun Hong
Design Team: Jaeho Shin, Daejung Sang, Yongho Hwang, Youngsoo Ko, Jihoon Lee
Area: 1998.0 m2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: Jaechul Yu

Structure Engineer: Yoon Structural Engineering, Yoonsun Hwang
Hvac Engineer : Samyoung Engineering, Jaebu Ban
Elec Engineer : SMTEC Engineering, Jongsung Seo
Fire Safety Engineer: Naksaeng Fire Safety
Construction: Dosi Construction, Jaeho Shin
Client: Vixen Communications

Text description provided by the architects. One of the crucial design challenges for the new headquarters of Vixen Studios, located in the Gangnam district of Seoul, was to convey and represent Vixen Studios' vision and philosophies. Vixen studios has been growing as an internationally renowned advertising company, since its founding in 1988, by providing efficient and creative marketing insights. Accordingly, the owner wanted a new office space that would inspire creativity and maximize employee productivity. Based on the owner's need analysis, we came up with a very simple solution to accommodate multi-purpose activities, while achieving a high degree of building efficiency. We have chosen a simple box form and a used white-brick and the main material to clad the entire building - a form and a material that bring out a sense of 'timelessness'.

In most cases of buildings in the back streets of Gangnam, Seoul are terraced or tapered to comply with local zoning codes such as daylight plane restrictions; unlike such common design gestures, Vixen's monolithic brick building is placed far from the street for its design intention. The principles of simplicity and efficiency also manifest in the organization of space. An array of service spaces, including staircases, elevator core and restrooms, occupies the same location on each floor. Other than that, open and closed workspaces are planned with consideration for security and types of work. Specifically, the office space on the second and third floors accommodates presentations and meetings with clients. Going upwards, the workspaces become more private.

Within such a simple and rigorous architectural plan, voids of different sizes create unique patterns on the brick facades as well as spatial depth within the building. The connected void space from the fourth floor to the roof plays a critical role in bringing sunlight and fresh air into the interior spaces. This empty space provides not only vertical connectivity but also open space for employees to intermingle. In addition, the deeply recessed windows create a different type of void that emphasizes the visual contrast between glass and brick.

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DUNIA BANGUNAN / ANDParsitek

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 12:00 PM PDT

Architects: ANDParsitek
Location: Jl. Kapten Soebijanto Djojohadikusumo, Kavling Sunburst Blok CBD II No.12, BSD City, Serpong, Lengkong Gudang, Serpong, Kota Tangerang Selatan, Banten 15322, Indonesia
Lead Architects: Andi Pratama
Area: 11700.0 m2
Project Year: 2015
Photographs: Mario Wibowo

Main Contractor: PT. KencanaSewu
Mep Consultant: Ricky Erasmus
Structure Consultant: Willy Kurniawan
Management Construction: Robert Shindunata

Text description provided by the architects. Clients want buildings that serve as showrooms and offices that which accommodate the needs and business clients. And Also on the top of this building also open for rented office. ANDParsitek as architectural consultant trusted to handle this project seeks to create buildings that can be seen representative with the client's business, but can still respond to the tropical climate and accommodate from the high enough building. A combination of tropical, dynamic, modern, iconic.

The mass of the building become one of our focus point to in this area. That is why the building itself created the iconic form and dynamic atmosphere. From the utility perspective, this form also presenting the facade which combined two material: glass and solid partition. The combination of these two material also mixed with the layered material which have function as protection to the heat and rain, enhance the tropical concept of this project. In addition, the iconic form designed by the architect makes this building easier to maintain.

In terms of implementation, the facade of this building as a whole is surrounded by GRC and iron frame as its construction. This is a challenge for designers when they start doing detailed depiction, the workshop process to the installation of the GRC in the field. The difficulty arises because almost 70% of the GRC pattern is not the same between one and the other.

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Herne Bay Hideaway / Lloyd Hartley Architects

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 10:00 AM PDT

Architects: Lloyd Hartley Architects
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Lead Architects: Benjamin Lloyd, Mike Hartley
Area: 400.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: David Straight

Text description provided by the architects. At the end of a long driveway, nestled amongst the neighboring houses and established Pohutukawa trees, an existing 1960's brick and tile home sat stubbornly in the middle of the site. While functional, the existing dwelling provided a confronting car-centric entry and failed to engage with the landscape or the spectacular views over Cox's Bay in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour.

Lloyd Hartley was asked to transform this house into a modern home that responds to its context and provides a private city oasis for a young family. The primary architectural strategy is a covered entry courtyard, with the house bridging over, to create a pedestrian-friendly entrance.

This space also provides a sense of release to the end of the long drive via borrowed views to neighboring tennis-court. The spatial enhancement of crucial areas is a key driver to the rest of the design with the open stairwell drawing in light from above and the main living areas given extra height to fully embrace the stunning outlook and natural light.

The house is extended to provide a direct link to the rear landscaping and exterior upper-level decks are provided to allow the various living areas and courtyards to connect. A carefully selected palette of natural materials and clean detailing ties the house together creating a cohesive and timeless whole.

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Westside School / SKL Architects

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 08:00 AM PDT

Architects: SKL Architects
Location: Seattle, Washington, United States
Principal In Charge: Gladys Ly Au Young
Project Architect: Wingyee Leung
Design Team: Rick Sundberg, John Kennedy, Frances Nelson, Myra Lara
Design Team, Graphics : Nicole Lew
Project Year: 2017

Construction Contractor: Kirtley‐Cole Associates, LLC
Civil Engineer: Pace Engineers
Structural Engineer: Quantum Consulting Engineers LLC
Design Assist: Ecotope
Electrical Design Build: Prime Electric
Geotechnical Engineer: Terra Associates, Inc.
Landscape Architect: Thomas Rengstorf & Associates
Acoustics: BRC Acoustics
Envelope: RDH
Cost Estimating: JMB Consulting Group
Traffic: Gibson Traffic Consultants

Text description provided by the architects. Westside School, a pre-K through eighth grade school serving 360 students, was about to lose its lease. At the same time and nearby, the Hillcrest Presbyterian Church, located in a residential neighborhood southwest of downtown Seattle, found itself in an awkward position. Its congregation had decreased in size over the years, but remained in a large well-loved, but inefficient 1970s-era facility. A plan was born: the church would co-locate with another church nearby and sell its facility to the school to fund ongoing operations. The soaring, vaulted wood roof structures of the church would be resurrected as a school and new home for Westside.

As stewards of the next generation, Westside was committed to extensively reusing the existing church structure and minimizing the embodied energy used in new construction. The church's soaring wishbone-shaped nave was the departure point for our imagination. Inspired by the soaring nave we preserved the 45-foot-long glulam arches and reconfigured the space to accommodate classrooms, offices, support, lunchroom, and storage, preserving the existing gym. The challenge was to connect the existing structure to the new entry foyer in a way that communicates a sense of unity. The architecture provides a range of engaging learning environments. Idea spaces carved into the classrooms provide flex space for spontaneous meetings and informal, smaller, group learning. Other found spaces encourage interaction, creativity, and curiosity. The new entry forms a central, transparent gathering and display space where parents, faculty and students convene and connect. The 55,000-square-foot unified structure (35,000-square-foot renovated / 20,000-square-foot new) embodies learning, linking the school's present with its future and past.

All aspects of energy savings were looked at in the design, including lighting, daylighting, HVAC, natural ventilation and future PV panel mounting provisions. Lighting throughout the building is entirely LED, with an installed lighting power density of less than 0.3 W/ft2. After consulting with Seattle's Integrated Design Lab, carefully oriented and sized skylights were introduced into the nave roof to reduce electric lighting loads in the newly created auditorium and library.

The philosophy for the mechanical system design was a Design For Off™ approach, focused on right-sized zonal equipment that can operate independently from neighboring spaces for heating, cooling and ventilation.

New portions of the envelope were built to meet strict Seattle Energy Code requirements, and the majority of the gym and nave roofs and walls were replaced and/or re-insulated. New classrooms feature operable windows to take advantage of Seattle's moderate climate. Ceiling fans help evenly distribute the fresh air in classrooms and provide air movement for improved thermal comfort. First school year building operation achieved a measured EUI of 14 kBtu/ft2·yr. The old Westside School building operated at 48 kBtu/ft2·yr, 39 kBtu/ft2·yr of which was space and DHW heating. The new building is 70% more efficient than the school's former building.

Westside School is now one of the most energy-efficient schools in the Northwest region, created with an extremely small HVAC budget, and achieved by concentrating on introducing energy efficiency where it would count the most. The result is a building that easily meets the 2030 Challenge.

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10 Must-See Installations at the 2018 London Design Biennale

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 07:00 AM PDT

The Silent Room. Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale

Opening next month, the London Design Biennale returns with an impressive cast of characters. In its second iteration, the Biennale begins September 4 under the theme 'emotional states' and will run until September 23. After the 2016 inaugural launch, the event has expanded to include 40 countries, cities and territories. Taking over Somerset House, including the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court and River Terrace, the event will explore ideas ranging from social equality and pollution to migration and cities.

As an immersive 'world tour', the London Design Biennale is set in Somerset House at the heart of London's cultural scene. The historic structure hosts a range of programs as a creative forum for designers, artists and makers. This year, Emotional States aims to provoke a broad interpretation across design disciplines to create engaging and immersive installations. Through states of Anger, Contempt, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness and Surprise, the installations were asked to explore a particular country or city's design story.

Here, presented in no particular order, are some of the must-see installations for the upcoming Biennale.

State of Indigo / India

State of Indigo. Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale

The story of indigo is closely aligned with India's design identity. As a natural form of dye, it is a reminder of traditional methods of cultivating and processing textiles that were pioneered in the subcontinent. In terms of its status as a colour that is inseparable from luxury and desire on the one hand, and exploitation on the other, it is a highly ideologically loaded design tool, which needs to be asserted as being representative of India's design identity. India will immerse viewers in one of the troughs used in indigo production, a dye used to make jeans and other textiles, whose methods have gone largely unchanged for millennia. The State of Indigo will present films of the workers, who stand in a line thrashing the water with their outstretched legs, the installation will exploit the hours of hard labour produce only a small bar of concentrated dye, known as 'blue gold'. State of Indigo is curated by Priya Khanchandani.

Face Values / United States, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Face Values. Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale

Curated by Ellen Lupton, Face Values by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (New York) is an immersive installation that will explore the role of facial detection technology in contemporary society. Featuring work by designers Zachary Lieberman and R. Luke DuBois displayed within a digital environment designed by Matter Architecture Practice, the installation will investigate how the human face has become a living data source that governments and businesses use to track, measure and monetize emotions. Lieberman and DuBois' installations will directly engage the viewer in a public performance of emotion to demonstrate how machine-learning technologies evaluate people's behaviors and assess their identities.

housEmotion / Turkey

housEmotion. Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale

The housEmotion installation considers the emotional meaning of home in an age of increasingly transient living. The meaning of home for a person may simply be a smartphone with a full memory. Or it may be something more fundamental to our sense of self. Curated by Tabanlıoğlu Architects, the pavilion will start with the most elemental idea of a house: a cubic form. The walls, perhaps even the home itself, are seen to be illusory. Once visitors step inside the structure, it will take on the homely role of a shelter. A divan is placed in the heart of the space, which Tabanlıoğlu describe as being "like a mother's lap". It is a place where visitors will want to spend time, relax and meet new people. At night, lights embedded in the rods will turn the structure into a glowing lantern, or perhaps a warm hearth.

The Silent Room / Lebanon

Curated by Nathalie Harb in collaboration with BÜF and 21dB, The Silent Room is a public space where citizens are insulated from outside noise and other sensorial aggressions. Silence is increasingly a luxury for the most privileged - data mapping has shown that the poorest parts of the city are the worst affected by noise pollution. The Silent Room responds to this context: it provides a cocoon-like space, isolated from the city's noise, for all citizens, regardless of background or level of privilege. It makes silence and rest available to everyone. The Silent Room advocates silence as a form of resistance, an act of cleansing needed to reclaim ownership of our thoughts and ourselves.

Power Plant / The Netherlands, Het Nieuwe Instituut

Power Plant. Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale

Power Plant is a futuristic greenhouse that uses sunlight to generate both food and electricity. Food drives many of our most primal emotions, and increasingly it is at the root of our deepest fears. The world's population is growing rapidly; by 2050, 2.5 billion people will live in cities. At the same time, climate change is amplifying weather extremes – deserts are expanding and fertile land is becoming scarcer. The question is, how can we continue to feed so many people – and how can we do so in a way that doesn't do further damage to the planet? Power Plant, the Netherlands' installation, will show how design offers cause for hope. Visitors will enter a greenhouse of the future – a building that harvests both food and the electricity needed to grow it. Power Plant is curated by Marjan van Aubel.

Aangan / Pakistan

Aangan. Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale

'Aangan', meaning courtyard, is fundamental to the vernacular architecture of old Lahore and a significant focal point of the urban house or haveli. Curated by Abid Majid and designed by Mariam Majid, Pakistan's installation will explore the concept of habituation in relation to craft making; the introspective nature of the task and the inner worlds of the artisan through film projections and computerised art. The aangan becomes a symbol of human connection and the cascade of garments represents a collective identity celebrating our existential duality as individuals and a community. Responding to the movement of the viewer, the artisan's story will create an interactive display, inviting the viewer towards an introspective interpretation, evoking emotion, ascribing value to the desaturated and decontextualised garments.

ΑΝΥΠΑΚΟΗ (Disobedience) / Greece, Studio INI

ΑΝΥΠΑΚΟΗ. Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale

The concept of ΑΝΥΠΑΚΟΗ has been used throughout history to describe the Greek temperament, with explorations of disobedience dating back to Ancient Greece and its internationally influential mythology. Curated by Nassia Inglessis, Greece's design explores this duality in the nature of disobedience through a kinetic installation that changes our interactions with the physical environment. It encourages visitors to imagine a world in which buildings, boundaries and walkways morph and adapt in response to human intent, shedding light on a potential future for cities. ΑΝΥΠΑΚΟΗ is comprised of a 17 metre-long wall constructed from a steel spring skeleton built up with recycled plastic which flexes, morphs and breathes around the human body. Visitors can transgress through this mechanical boundary, and as they tread, experience the skin of the wall transforming in response.

Matter to Matter / Latvia, Variant Studio

Matter to Matter. Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale

Curated by Arthur Analts, Matter to Matter will explore the relationship between people and nature. Latvians are living in a harmony with nature. With the rapid development of modern technology and cities, it is important to be aware of the interaction and impact on the environment and nature, which is so essential in Latvian culture. Latvia's interactive installation consists of a meditative space and serves to comment on Latvian design, architecture and technology in the 21st century. Design with a long-term focus will create socially responsible and environmentally friendly design, that can coexist with nature and its inhabitants.

Palopò / Guatemala

Palopò. Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale

Guatemala has developed a textile installation, Palopò, curated by Cecilia Santamarina de Oriveelaborated with hand-made materials to represent the breath-taking landscape of Lake Atitlán and bring visitors closer to Santa Catarina Palopó, a community where art and design is being used as a tool to promote sustainable economic and cultural development. This is an interactive installation where visitors are encouraged to learn about the project, and its process by exploring the audiovisuals and miniature interpretations of the spaces found in the village.

Full Spectrum / Australia

Full Spectrum. Image Courtesy of London Design Biennale

Curated by Flynn Talbot, Full Spectrum will communicate the feeling of love and openness. To celebrate Australia's newly-passed legislation that made same-sex marriage legal, the installation hopes to reinforce that love has the power to transcend all borders, all cultures and all religions. Featuring 150 strands of fibre optic light, each one a different color, visitors will be able to touch and move through the light strands, to stand within the interior and be surrounded with a rainbow color wash.

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Casa R / Felipe Lagos

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 06:00 AM PDT

Architects: Felipe Lagos
Location: Vilches, Chile
Area: 96.0 m2
Project Year: 2018
Photography: Courtesy of Felipe Lagos

Collaborator: Ramón Vallejos
Construction Companies: TuCroquis Ltda
Area: 30000.0 m2

Text description provided by the architects. Casa R is a holiday refuge for extreme climates located halfway up the Andes mountain, specifically at the town of Vilches, VII Southern Region of Chile. The main nearby attractions are the Pehuenche Border Crossing Trail, the Maule Lagoon, the Colbún Lake and a series of nature reserves and national parks. The land is a pronounced ravine which limits, on the north with Corel River, and on the east with the mountains. Another virtue of the area is that the place does not have close neighbors, and the land has a series of trails for trekking and outdoor sports.

The placement of the cabin in the land, is to insert the it in the middle of the forest looking towards the northern valley. This house has two floors, in order to rescue the views of the valley above the trees foliage and landscape. This decision also, has to do with occupying the ground on the first floor to avoid the ecological damaging or removing trees. Because of this, the house placement didn't affect any type of native tree or plant.

This cabin is elevated from the ground, has slopes on the terraces and two floors. The slopes dialogue with the naturalness of the terrain, in order to reduce costs in foundations and radiers. The roof also has a steep slope to protect it from snowfals in the winter.

It was planed to modulate designed and prefabricated volumes of 2x4 and 3x4 mt, in response to the dimension of the iron (6 mt) and this way not having material losses. These modules are added side by side in open plan or open space, so they are attached to the main module that is the one of services like bathrooms and kitchenette, but without walls. The modules used in this cabin are 4, and some are repeated; Module A closed for Sanitary Services; Module B open for leisure on terraces and for woodshed; Module C open for bedrooms; and Module D for stairs or complement living spaces.

The specific program of this house, distributing the modules in two floors is the following: On the first floor is the woodshed and 'chiflonera' for accessing the cabin, then come the services such as kitchenette, bathroom and ends in the living-dining-terraces. On the second floor is the master bedroom, the living room and a work desk. As this is a holiday home, it has roofed terraces for winter and open for summer. It should be mentioned that in the perimeter of the house, it could be distributed from 1 to 3 more bedrooms.

The structure materiality is steel, such as all other protection products (mainly because of the resistance to the fire and water). Also pine woods in general, and mainly like monolithic coating was used tables of pine coated with carbonileo (2x5 ", 1x2 ", 1x3" and 1x4 "). Aluminum, concrete slab, classic grooved plywood plates were used as a finish, and black electroplated zinc was used as cover, all of which was studied as a way of integrating the architecture into the context.

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Sacred Architecture Models Crafted from Hand-Cut Paper by Michael Velliquette

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 05:30 AM PDT

American artist Michael Velliquette has produced his latest series of paper-based artwork, creating intricate paper models of sacred architecture. His hand-cut paper shapes are assembled into complex forms "akin to sacred architecture and three-dimensional mandalas."

Prioritizing formal symmetry, balance, and order, the models aim to evoke "a sense of visual equanimity" through a restrained palette of neutral or monochromatic tones.

Velliquette's website documents his latest series among other noted works, including his New York City public commission "Sparkle Vision City" in 2015, and several other paper-based works including "Paper Serpents" and "Paper Flowers."

Paper has been widely exploited as an architectural medium of late, from Instagram accounts using paper to create surreal architectural scenes, to paper models dedicated to Soviet buildings and Polish Modernism.

"I make paper sculptures by cutting shapes and assembling them into complex forms akin to sacred architecture and three-dimensional mandalas. I don't work from plans or preliminary drawings. I start with the smallest circle I can cut freehand and still hold in my fingers, and that becomes the centerpiece. I build out from there."
-Michael Velliquette

"The process is slow and involves improvisation and moment-moment decision-making. The individual paper pieces are combined to make larger complex components and I think a lot about the relationship between adjacent components. The hardest part is often determining the structural and ornamental transitions from one component to the next. I want the finished form to express a sense of visual equanimity and wholeness, while also revealing the sum of its parts."
-Michael Velliquette

"Depending on scale, the finished sculptures can take 300 to 500 hours to complete. I use relatively simple tools—flat edge scissors, an X-Acto knife, rulers, and glue. My process draws from the arts of paper crafting and paper engineering, combined with techniques I have discovered and invented on my own. The completed works can be shown on the wall where the viewer sees them from a frontal vantage point. Or, they can be shown flat which allows them to be seen from multiple perspectives and entered from the sides."
-Michael Velliquette

News via: Michael Velliquette

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Could Carrots Make Concrete Stronger and Greener?

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 05:00 AM PDT

via flickr user conchur licenced under CC BY 2.0

Carrots cannot help you see in the dark, but they could make your buildings stronger, and more environmentally friendly. Engineers at Lancaster University in the UK have worked in collaboration with Cellucomp Ltd UK to study the effects of adding "nano platelets" extracted from the fibers of root vegetables to enhance the performance of concrete mixtures.

The vegetable-composite concretes, made from vegetables such as sugar beet or carrot, have structurally and environmentally out-performed all commercially-available cement additives, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, doing so at a much lower cost.

The potential of the vegetable-composite concretes lies in the ability of the nano platelets to increase the amount of calcium silicate hydrate in concrete mixtures, which is the main substance controlling structural performance. The knock-on effect means smaller quantities of concrete would be needed for construction.

In addition, the nano platelets could improve product quality, reducing the number of cracks that appear in concrete. A denser microstructure also helps to prevent corrosion and increase material lifespan.

via flickr user 29487672@N07 licenced under CC BY 2.0

The environmental benefits become more apparent when studying CO2 emissions. At the moment, production of Portland cement accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions, a number due to double in 30 years. With root vegetables providing a more durable mixture, a saving of 40kg of CO2 per cubic meter could be achieved.

The composites are not only superior to current cement products in terms of mechanical and microstructure properties, but also use smaller amounts of cement. This significantly reduces both the energy consumption and CO2 emissions associated with cement manufacturing.
-Professor Mohamed Saafi, Lancaster University Engineering Department

The two-year research project has received almost £200,000 backing from the European Union's Horizon 2020 program, and will now build on early findings to gain a fuller understand of how the vegetable nano platelet fibers can enhance the concrete mix.

News via: Lancaster University

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AN House / Studio Bloco Arquitetura

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 04:00 AM PDT

Architects: Studio Bloco Arquitetura
Location: Igrejinha, Brazil
Architect In Charge: Mauro Marcelo Machado
Area: 298.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Marcelo Donadussi

Structure: Douglas Gerson Franck
Contractor: Emerson Coelho Buchmann

Text description provided by the architects. Located in the only closed condominium in the city, the residence is implanted in a land of 12m x 27.5m. The site plan occurred through two overlapping rectangular prisms, which also compartmentalize the house requirements program in two zones: the social and the privative.

On the ground level, the ornamental lake demarcates the main access, which directs the user to the living room with double ceiling height. The amplitude of the environment is also reflected by the horizontal continuity and integration of the living room, kitchen and dining room with the side balcony, in which the spa and a pergola made of wood and glass were positioned. The service's core (laundry and toilet) is behind the kitchen.

On the upper level, the couple's suite is separated from the children's suites by a corridor that crosses through the living room’s double height ceiling. The main suite faces the front of the lot, with a volume in balance, whose projection forms the shelter of a vehicle, and the other suites were positioned in the later range of the volume. The circulation on this floor is illuminated by a series of vertical openings that create a play of light and shadow in the internal space and an interesting rhythm on the facade of the house.

The materiality of the house results from the contrast between the two floors. The ground floor is an apparent concrete box on which rests the pure volume of the dorms, whose neutrality and lightness is represented by the white color. The tension between the materiality of the volumes is also perceived inside the residence. The combination of these elements with wood, stones, water, and vegetation also maximizes the formal result of this cozy and permeable residence.

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How the Parc de la Villette Kickstarted a New Era for Urban Design

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 02:30 AM PDT

© <a href='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Parc_de_la_Villette%2C_August_28%2C_2010.jpg'> Creative Commons User ParisSharing</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>

What does the Parisian park look like? For many, the answer to that question comes in the form of a painting: Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, in which the well-dressed bourgeoisie leisurely enjoy a natural oasis on a verdant island within their industrializing city.

Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

But what does the twenty-first-century Parisian park look like? The answer to this more nuanced question, posed by the French government in a 1982 design competition, comes in the form of Bernard Tschumi's Parc de la Villette, where a then-radical landscape set a precedent for urban parks in the decades to follow.

© <a href='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Parc-de-la-villette.jpg'> Creative Commons User Pline</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/'>CC BY-SA 3.0</a>

Today's heavily-trafficked Parc de la Villette sits what was once an expansive nineteenth-century slaughterhouse in Northeast Paris. The slaughterhouse—built in 1867 as part of Baron von Haussmann's renovation of Paris—closed in 1974, leaving a swath of land rife for redevelopment. Seeking innovative ways to reimagine the space, French president François Mitterrand sponsored a competition (as part of his "Grands Projects" initiative to modernize the country's monuments and public spaces) that called for international entries, garnering responses from the likes of Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas. The competition brief, entitled "Urban Park for the 21st Century," set forth a program that extended, even in its name, far beyond Paris, seeking to broadly redefine the public park.

Abattoir (slaughterhouse) at La Villette

The competition's winner, Bernard Tschumi, used his design as a way to respond to the trials of the contemporary city. But where earlier landscape architects like Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed New York's Central Park, conceived of the urban park as a place to escape from the city, Tschumi viewed the park as a continuation of the city. Specifically, the architect responded to a growing sense in the late 20th century that the city was too big, too anonymous, and too inhuman. The park, in turn, mimics the feeling of urban disorientation: signage is purposefully scarce and paths curve irregularly, leading visitors to nowhere in particular. And despite the site's history, Tschumi purposefully avoids historical reference in an attempt to make the park a "non-place" where people will behave on their own terms, not in accordance with historical norms for park behavior (think: Seurat's Sunday Afternoon). As such, critics of Tschumi's Parc de la Villette—like the Project for Public Spaces, which listed the park as third on their list of the world's worst parks—condemn it as non-user-friendly.

© <a href='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Parc_de_La_Villette_%40_Paris_%2828926264776%29.jpg'> Creative Commons User Guilhem Vellut</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>

Tschumi's now well-known scheme for the park involved a grid upon which sat points, lines, and surfaces; these theoretical concepts translated respectively into red structures (points), nonsensically curving paths (lines), and landscaped green-space (surfaces). Most famous are the structures, which Tschumi referred to as "follies" in a nod to the non-functional but whimsical structures of the English garden tradition. Built as forms without clear functions, the all-red structures are evenly spaced through the park, becoming an orienting intervention in the large city park.

© <a href='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Paris_Parc_de_la_Villette_Folie_J5_detail_20160312.jpg'> Creative Commons User Guilhem Vellut</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>

© <a href='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Canal_%40_La_Villette_%40_Paris_%2833091237904%29.jpg'> Creative Commons User Guilhem Vellut</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>

The park's structural features, designed by Tschumi, are paired with the cultural centers it houses, among them museums, concert halls, and Jean Nouvel's Philharmonie de Paris. As institutions bring people into the park, it becomes even more so a continuation of the city—a fulfillment of Tschumi's theoretical agenda. The park's activity and vitality, then, derive in part from its peculiarity (what other park houses 35 contemporary follies?) and in part from its programming.

© <a href='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/LaVillette100911.jpg'> Creative Commons User Jean-Marie Hullot</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en/'>CC BY 3.0</a>

What does the twenty-first-century Parisian park look like? To Bernard Tschumi, it's a place where people play with follies, navigate winding paths, and, ultimately, interact with each other. If Seurat's subjects came to the park in nineteenth-century Paris for the sake of relaxation—lounging carelessly on sloping greenery—we come to the park in the 21st century in part for the same reasons as Seraut's subjects, but we also have a renewed purpose: social interaction. Indeed, a growing consensus, evident in myriad academic papers and work like the Knight and Kresge Foundations' Reimagining the Civic Commons project, sees the public park as a vital space for cross-cultural, inter-neighborhood contact in the increasingly digital and segregated city. Encouraged human interaction is, it seems, what makes a good park in the 21st century—even beyond Paris.

© <a href='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Sleeping_%40_Canal_%40_La_Villette_%40_Paris_%2833091251614%29.jpg'> Creative Commons User Guilhem Vellut</a> licensed under <a href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/'>CC BY 2.0</a>

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Dogwoodtrot House / modus studio

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 02:00 AM PDT

Architects: modus studio
Location: United States
Lead Architects: Chris Baribeau, AIA (principal architect); Suzana Annable, AIA (project manager); Michael Pope, AIA; Philip Rusk, Assoc. AIA
Area: 5834.0 m2
Project Year: 2016
Photographs: Aaron Kimberlin, Timothy Hursley

Structural Engineer: Myers-Beatty Engineering
Landscape Design: Stuart Fulbright
Contractor: Stronghold NWA

Text description provided by the architects. The Dogwoodtrot House is aptly named as a synthesis of the strong vernacular typology of a dogtrot house and the woodland hillside site to create a modern model for a suburban home located within Dogwood Canyon in northwest Fayetteville, Arkansas. The home denies the common McMansion typology of the surrounding context and instead creates useful, purposeful, and poetic spaces that capture the dynamics of the site while clearly organizing important interior and exterior spaces for the large family rendered in a simple, warm, and elegant palette.

The heavily sloped site embraces two embedded wings of brick and glass with a playful mass timber bridge clad in vertical redwood spanning across. The redwood wraps the underbelly of the bridge and is the tableau for a constructed 'constellation' of ephemeral lighting that creates an inviting entry terrace to channel prevailing winds, receive one to the home, and frame views to the ravine and hillside beyond. The project is purposefully designed so the daily experience of arriving home (day or night) is an equally welcoming experience to that of the occasional visitor, a stark contrast to the overly-formal and rarely-used front door and foyer that defines the traditional and unfavorable McMansion typology.

The southern wing of the home contains the garage, storage, and game room and is oriented specifically to cut down on midday solar gain to the outdoor bridge terrace. It is stable and simple in form, with minimal articulation, a constructed stone akin to one that could be found on the given natural site.

The northern wing holds the primary family spaces of living, kitchen, dining and master suite all nestled into the wooded surroundings. Ample windows deliver natural light and frame views while the family hearth anchors the embedded and carved brick form to the site. The kitchen, the hub of family life, serves as the landing point for the central stair, where the children's wing, master wing, entry, and interior and exterior living spaces converge in a rich palette of wood. Large accordion doors open the living space to the bridge terrace and garden planters to create a dynamic indoor/outdoor space for daily family life and entertaining.

Housing the children's bedrooms and study spaces, the bridge wing formally slides into the northern family wing with a continuous redwood ceiling in the kitchen and a skylight on either side that allows the bridge to perfectly articulate its formal relationship. This playful structure gently sits on top of the southern wing, similar to a tree felled across a ravine striking a perfect balance on a hillside stone. The exposed trusses of the bridge are prevalent in every space of the upper level, providing striking expressive details.

The Dogwoodtrot House is a striking modern home rendering material and structural expressiveness on a dynamic woodland hillside, organized around a central covered space that hearkens to the vernacular dogtrot typology in lieu of the overwrought context of suburbia. Strong interior and exterior connections emphasized by a 30' clear span bridge of bedrooms defines the carefully articulated form of the home.

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Which Countries Have Banned Asbestos?

Posted: 10 Aug 2018 01:00 AM PDT

© <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asbest_leien_-_Asbestos_Roof_Shingles.jpg'>Wikimedia Commons</a>, Under the License <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en">CA Attribution-Share Alike 3.0</a>

The World Health Organization (WHO) has advised that countries throughout the world eliminate the use of all types of asbestos, a dangerous carcinogen, to prevent asbestos-related diseases. According to the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, it was estimated that 40,000 people in the U.S. die each year from asbestos-related conditions.

Despite the WHO's concerns, Fast Company reported that under Trump's administration, "The [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] (EPA) has even made it easier for companies to introduce new uses of asbestos-containing products in America." Although Asbestos Nation estimates that 55 countries have outlawed the carcinogen, this issue brings up a common question: Has my country banned asbestos? Below, we have provided a list by International Ban Asbestos Secretariat's Laurie Kazan-Allen on the following 65 countries and regions that have banned asbestos.

© <a href='https://www.flickr.com/photos/asbestos_pix/27584842094'> Asbestorama [Flickr]</a>, Public Domain. ImageTwo women at work in an asbestos factory in Lancashire, England

Europe

Austria
Belgium
Bosnia
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Gibraltar
Greece
Herzegovina
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malta
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom

Middle East

Bahrain
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Turkey

Asia

Brunei
Japan
South Korea
Taiwan

Africa

Algeria
Djibouti
Egypt
Gabon
Mauritius
Mozambique
Seychelles
South Africa

Latin America

Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Honduras
Uruguay

Oceania

Australia
New Caledonia
New Zealand

Information was revised on August 8, 2018. News Via: IBAS.

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David Chipperfield Architects Create New Hostel Design to Help Spur Margate's Revival

Posted: 09 Aug 2018 11:00 PM PDT

The Turner Rooms. Image Courtesy of David Chipperfield Architects

In a pro-bono move to help spur revival in Margate, David Chipperfield Architects independently conceived a hostel addition to the firm's Turner Contemporary art gallery in Margate. Dubbed the Turner Rooms, the design is made to help grow the vision of the gallery and secure its financial future. Sited on the Margate waterfront, the proposal offers new ways for people to engage with the gallery and the town through a 100 room waterfront hostel.

The Turner Rooms project provides the existing gallery building some additional space to expand its range of cultural and artistic activities. Made to complement and embrace the changing light conditions of the Kent coastline, the design is primarily residential units with meeting rooms, a café/brasserie and social spaces. To accommodate visitors and group events, the design includes space to host conferences and programs related to the Turner Contemporary. As the central element of the project, the hostel rooms are organized across four levels as simple and functional spaces facing the sea. The no-frills approach aims to make the rooms flexible in arrangement and accessible in price.

Hoping to subsidize construction costs by attracting private sponsorship and donations, the Turner Rooms aims to generate an endowment for Turner Contemporary that would allow an expanded social and educational role within the community. Last year, the Arts Council England awarded a £3 million grant to extend the Turner's main gallery, though an architect has yet to be confirmed. As an up-and-coming center for creatives, the town is experiencing an influx of new professionals and businesses in the city, largely due to efforts by the city council. The Turner Rooms project is the latest in a wave of projects in Margate that hope to boost regeneration efforts.

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subota, 11. kolovoza 2018.

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Europe

Middle East

Asia

Africa

Latin America

Oceania

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