Friday, May 4, 2012

Conference Hall by SelgasCano

Madrid-based architects selgascano designed an 18,500-square-metre seaside auditorium and conference hall in the port city of Cartagena, Murcia. The double facade of translucent extruded polycarb panels exposes the building's metallic structure and adds to the game of transparencies and tonalities created by injecting tiny dabs of neon paint into each piece, with different colours and intensities.



More images and text at domus.

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

Friday, April 27, 2012

Steven Holl: Proposal for Institute for Contemporary Art

Sited at the edge of the Virginia Commonwealth University campus in Richmond, Virginia, the new Institute for Contemporary Art will link the University with the surrounding community.  The new Institute for Contemporary Art is organized in four galleries, each with a different character. Flexibility allows for four separate exhibitions, one continuous exhibition, or combinations. Galleries can be closed for installations without affecting the circulation to the others. 




For plans, sections, and renderings of the proposed project visit archdaily.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Resonant Chamber by rvtr

Resonant Chamber, an interior envelope system that deploys the principles of rigid origami, transforms the acoustic environment through dynamic spatial, material and electro-acoustic technologies. The aim of rvtr is to develop a soundsphere able to adjust its properties in response to changing sonic conditions, altering the sound of a space during performance and creating an instrument at the scale of architecture, flexible enough that it might be capable of being played.





more video info and images at ArchDaily.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Archipelago Cinema by Buro Ole Scheeren

A work with a strong connection to the local community, Archipelago Cinema is based on the techniques used by fishermen to construct floating lobster farms. The raft is built out of recycled materials as a series of individual modules to allow for flexibility for its future use. 




more at ArchDaily.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Steam Blower House by Heinrich Böll Architect

This building was originally built as a steam blower house which was part of a huge steel works in the very centre of the city of Bochum. It is one of the few remaining structures of the industrial era.The architecture is designed to preserve as much as possible of the original atmosphere. Only a few elements have been added such as a new staircase and a huge glass façade to highlight the big studios.

more at ArchDaily.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Metal: How it Works on BBC4



Professor Mark Miodownik travels to Israel to trace the history of our love affair with gleaming, lustrous metal. He learns how we first extracted glinting copper from dull rock and used it to shape our world and reveals how our eternal quest for lighter, stronger metals led us to forge hard, sharp steel from malleable iron and to create complex alloys in order to conquer the skies.
He investigates metals at the atomic level to reveal mysterious properties such as why they get stronger when they are hit, and he discovers how metal crystals can be grown to survive inside one of our most extreme environments - the jet engine

watch a clip here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00qgy6x
and watch tonight at 9PM

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

A Few More Sectional Perspectives



LTL Architects
Art House Museum
Austin, Texas
2009



Knitting: Water - Land - Building - City
2007


Agua:Infrastructure as Landscape Identity
2008
Shanti Levy and Elizabeth Hoogheem - University of Virginia 

Christopher Ludwig



Hospital: House of Hope, Houses of Birth, Houses of No Return
Venice, Italy
1979

All the above found here.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Wyckoff Exchange by Andre Kikoski Architect

from dezeen:
Manhattan firm Andre Kikosi Architect installed a folding Corten steel façade to transform this disused New York warehouse into a market and music venue. The motorised façade of The Wyckoff Exchange is made up of five panels, which fold outwards to shelter the pavement and reveal a glass skin beneath. LED lights hidden within perforations on the metal sheets give the building a glowing effect at night, when the shutters provide protection for the shops inside. The building houses a live music and performance venue, an organic food market and boutique wine shop.





see an animation of the facade system here.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Casalgrande Old House: Kengo Kuma and Associates


The refurbished brick building provides an event space and a series of galleries for product displays.


full article at dezeen.