Staircase in Mallorca by Studio Mishin Architectural Bureau

Photo: Quintin Lake Photography

"A sculptural staircase in the form of irregularly perforated copper panels is the central element of Villa Mallorca. The staircase leads over three storeys and creates a visual link to the copper details throughout the interior and exterior of the building."

Photo: Quintin Lake Photography

from DETAIL.

klemens torggler’s 'evolution' door

"developed without the use of tracks, austrian artist klemens torggler has created ‘evolution door,’ a rotating geometric flip-panel door system that opens up with momentum. the clever structure is just one of the various concepts by torggler. he explains that ‘the special construction makes it possible to move the door sideways without the use of tracks. this technical trick opens up new applications for the door.’"

from designboom

'Paper' at the Saatchi Gallery, 18 June - 3 November

"The role of paper is in decline: paperless offices are encouraged, emails reign supreme, and monetary transactions are conducted via credit cards and transfers. In Paper at the Saatchi Gallery, thoughtful, technically impressive and engaging examples of work in which paper features heavily or exclusively, attempt 

to redress this imbalance."-John Patrick Egan

Opening hours:
10am-6pm, 7 days a week, last entry 5:30pm

Address:
Duke of York's HQ
King's Road
London
SW3 4RY

Admission is free.

HITOSHI ABE - AOBA-TEI RESTAURANT (2004-05)

The restaurant, called Aoba-tei, which means “leafy place”, features perforated steel surfaces as a single continuous inner “skin”. This runs in an S-shape to contain both the reception area on the restaurant’s lower floor and the upper 30-seat dining area. “We made this steel plate as a seamless monocoque surface in order to create a seamless graphic surface for the images of zelkova trees, and to integrate the two floors smoothly,” he says.

The skin’s outer surface, made from 22mm-thick steel plate, performs 90û turns as the walls bend into the ceilings. The upper-floor ceiling height rises from just over 2m high at the front to 3.5m at the back. To achieve all the complex curves in the skin, a shipbuilding process was used in which key points are heated and chilled.

The spaces are lit with concealed downlights and by lighting behind the perforated skin. The overall effect is a golden gloom that evokes the ambience of a forest.

Abe also designed the chairs and tables – each is moulded from a single piece of birch plywood that references the curves of the inner loop – and the long walnut wood counter that runs down the back half of the upper floor of the restaurant.

Hitoshi Abe has his own practice, which he established in Sendai in 1992. Other projects of his include the 49,000-seater Miyagi Stadium, near Sendai, created for the 2002 World Cup, and the Miyagi Water Tower.

Aoba-tei is currently only open for special guests of the owner, who made his fortune in beef tongue, a local delicacy.

from Architecture and Interior blog and ICON magazine online

See the book The articulate surface ornament and technology in contemporary architecture by Ben Pell for more detailed description and drawings

Issey Miyake Turns Plastic Bottles Into Glowing Origami

In collaboration with Italian lighting brand Artemide, Miyake’s Reality Lab researched and developed a translucent fiber made from recycled PET plastic bottles (which likely held water or soda in their previous incarnations). The seven 3-D geometric shapes in the series were created using mathematic programs, but the effect is less technical than ethereal--no surprise considering IN-EI is Japanese for “shadow, shadiness, nuance.” Convenience isn’t on that list, but it could have been--each piece can be collapsed, but will retain its shape without the need for an interior frame when expanded again.


more at Fast Co. Design