ArchiTechno

Brooklyn Bridge Park

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiTechno) — Sun, 22 May 2011 01:50:00 +0000

A Tour with Michael Van Valkenburgh

A massive revamping of Brooklyn's formerly industrial waterfront, Brooklyn Bridge Park will eventually encompass 85 acres. Designer Michael Van Valkenburgh shows us the project and explains how it fits into the fabric of the city.

Rebuilding Haiti

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiTechno) — Sun, 22 May 2011 01:34:00 +0000

It shouldn’t be any surprise that many very thoughtful people are already working on ideas for how to rebuild amidst the destruction in Haiti. In fact, it’s an urgent need, as so many people are homeless.

Photograph by Eduardo Fernandez

Duany Plater-Zyberk’s prototype for factory-built panelized housing in Haiti.

This video documents one of what I think is the more interesting approaches being proposed – by Andres Duany of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. There’s obviously much I like about the approach he is suggesting, not the least of which is the careful use of design to solve social, urban design and architectural problems. Too many people approach situations such as these and don’t consider how design can solve many of the pre-existing issues, or certainly how it’s critical to look at urban design in addition to simply building design.

A few random thoughts as I watched the video:

- “high-tech” materials such as this always make me a bit nervous, since they’ve rarely been applied in such a large quantity. I’m interested to see the results on the ground, but also wonder about the opportunity for more traditional building materials.

-I love the “gridded” plan that he proposes for the settlement. It shows again (pet issue of mine) how a seemingly simplistic approach to urban design can in fact have many excellent nuances for daily life

-The scale of this particular problem is staggering. I hope that casual observers can get a feel for how this effort is still just a very small first step. So much needs to be done.

Enjoy the video-

Rebuilding Haiti from Marvin Joseph on Vimeo.

River gyms and stackable cars: The future for sustainable design

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiTechno) — Sat, 21 May 2011 11:30:00 +0000

Courtesy of Terreform ONE (Open Network Ecology)
RiverGym can get you to work emission-free, powered by the strength of your exercise routine.

Courtesy of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

The Chicago Central Area De-Carbonization Plan tracks buildings’ energy-efficiency and carbon emissions. Highest users are accented in red and lowest in green.

Sarah Moore/MEDILL

(L to R) Mitchell Joachim, Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill shared futuristci designs that bring science fiction scenarios a lot closer to home.

Courtesy of Terreform ONE (Open Network Ecology)

Matrix-esque blimp buses can carry city-dwellers from work to home and back again without them ever climbing into a car.

Sarah Moore/MEDILL

Mitchell Joachim presents In-Vitro Meat Hab, a dwelling made entirely of test tube-grown and permanently cured meat. It's called a "victimless shelter."

A hundred and fifty years ago, Elisha Graves Otis invented the elevator, and predicted it would revolutionize cities everywhere.

Now houses made of trees, high-rise wind tunnels and cars that climb walls to find parking could do the same thing, said ecological designer Mitchell Joachim at the Field Museum Thursday night.

Speaking about the Future of Sustainable Design, Joachim and Chicago architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill painted a dramatically innovative and greener future.

“We’re looking at a more holistic, pluralistic approach,” said Gill, speaking after the event. The Chicago partnership of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is doing just that.

In a planned retrofit of Chicago’s Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower), the partners propose to reduce electricity use by 80 percent, the equivalent of 68 million kilowatt hours or 150,000 barrels of oil per year.

Smith and Gill presented a string of similarly mind-boggling statistics throughout a half-hour lecture that covered wind-farms built into high-rises, self-insulated structures that operate like thermos bottles to eliminate air conditioning and green roofs.

Their Chicago Central Area De-Carbonization Plan even proposes to create an emission-free downtown by 2030.

Smith said that when people think of climate change, they don’t realize that buildings contribute a whopping 50 percent of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, beating out the more commonly-conceived villain: vehicles.

With the city's help, the partners built an interactive model of the Loop with massive amounts of data on building use, emissions, square footage and other details structure by structure.

“We realized this was an enormous challenge and we wanted to understand what it would mean to meet that challenge or exceed it,” said Gill.

A New Yorker with the design firm of Terreform ONE, Joachim also had a lot to say about the revolution he hopes to see in cities.

For starters, he wants to reinvent the wheel.

With just a little vision, cars could contribute, rather than detract, from a greener future. By stacking cars that operate something like shopping carts horizontally along a curb, drivers could park over 300 of them in a single block. By changing the wheel structure, cars could move vertically up the sides of building. By "talking" to each other through “smart” technology, cars and streets could find the driver a parking spot without endless circling and searching.

Cars could even be made of Nerf-like plastics. Joachim calls them “Soft Cars,” with built-in collision-proofing.

It doesn’t end there.

Joachim’s idea for a living tree house, designed with a team from MIT and named Fab Tree Hab, is composed of 100 percent living nutrients – trees grafted into place with reusable scaffolds. He also proposes water-borne gyms, powered by the pump of your workout.

There’s no reason these visions can’t become a reality: the trick is changing the value system, all three speakers said.

Joachim used the example of New York City, which produces enough waste every hour to fill the Statue of Liberty. What if waste were seen as a resource? What if it could be used as a construction material instead of merely contributing to landfill?

“We imagine a future city where nothing is thrown away, we just move from creation to creation to creation,” he said.

If this seems a little futuristic, that’s because it is. If it seems a little familiar, that’s because Joachim helped work on the technological vision behind the movie “Minority Report.”

But that’s what makes his work so commendable, said Stephanie Comer, president of Chicago's Comer Science and Education Foundation. The foundation funds climate change research and initiatives such as a series of five symposia at the Field Museum. The Future of Sustainable Design marked the fourth annual event.

“What Mitch had to say was out of the box but very much rooted in reality: holistic, organic, with a lot of soul,” she said. “He dares to dream.”

Comer said she has confidence in the presenters’ ability to help solve these issues.

“They have a lot of experience working in a variety of major cities and working on urban issues,” she said.

Comer is the daughter of the late Gary Comer, founder of Lands’ End and a well-known philanthropist who supported climate change research and development by scientists across the country. Comer continues her father’s legacy.

Almost 200 people attended the talks given by the three speakers with a follow-up Q&A.

The previous three programs focused on the nature of climate change, global responses and domestic responses.

And this year?

“This year we are trying to understand sustainable design on a larger architectural scale,” said Beth Crownover, director of education at the Field Museum.

The lectures are slowly focusing in on the problem, Crownover said, adding that she was excited by the different approaches the speakers were taking to similar problems.

“Next year we will continue to look at applied approaches but drill down deeper and look at what the everyday individual can do,” Crownover said, adding that the possibility exists for extending the Comer Symposia.

Cultural Complex Longgang District by Mecanoo

noreply@blogger.com (ArchiTechno) — Sat, 21 May 2011 10:55:00 +0000

Dutch architects Mecanoo have won a competition to design a cultural centre in Shenzhen with this design composed of a row of overhanging red volumes.

The volumes create arches above routes from a new public square to the business district beyond.

The Cultural Complex Longgang District will contain a public art museum, a science museum, a youth centre and a bookshop.

Visualisations are by Doug and Wolf.

Here are some more details from the architects:

Cultural Complex Longgang District
Shenzhen, China

Mecanoo designed the winning competition entry for a new 83,500 m2 cultural complex with a public art museum, science museum, youth centre and a bookshop, public square and parking in the Shenzhen district. The new cultural and commercial complex will provide the district with its own landmark and destination and transform the existing Longcheng park into a lively destination point. It will form a dynamic link between the commercial business district, a formal park and gardens and one of the district’s main thoroughfares. The new museum complex will unify the evolving urban fabric and generate a vibrant downtown.

urban connector
Connecting the cultural complex with the surrounding areas and new residential development was the key consideration for the design. The linearity of the existing urban masterplan created a barrier between the western development area and Longcheng park, further cutting up the area and contributing to its lack of urban vitality. Longcheng park will become a lively square which will further strengthen the quarter’s identity and provide residents and visitors with a much needed sense of place.

arches
Four building volumes emerge from the ground to create a series of arches and sheltered public event spaces which frame the central square. Rounded shapes respect the natural flow of pedestrians through the site. These open arches serve as filters, attractors and reference points and allow the building programmes to expand outside while formally symbolising openness and connection. Different programmes strategically located on the ground floor open outwards into the exterior public space including the city in the exhibition. From within the building interior, two bridges will link to the commercial plinths of the new residential area. Cultural and commercial programmes are linked to contribute to an urban symbiosis.

programme
Cultural complex of 83,500 m2 with public art museum, science museum, youth centre and a bookshop and 22,500 m2 of underground parking and a new public square totalling 7 hectares. Invited design competition, 1st place.

Who will win the 2010 Pritzker Prize?

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:34:00 +0000

The questioner is: Who will be the next Pritzker Prize winners?

The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honor "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture".Founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife Cindy, the award is funded by the Pritzker family and is considered to be one of the world's premier architecture prizes.

Every year, architects present their best work for the prize and wish for the best, but sometimes you can tell who will win it especially in the dark economic year that we went through. The whole construction is generally in a bad shape yet we see outstanding design as designers compete for the few jobs coming up. So who knows, we might see fewer project but better quality.

Additionally, according to the prize's site, any licensed architect may submit a nomination to the Executive Director for consideration by the jury for the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Nominations are accepted through November 1 of any given year.

2010 Jury Members:

Lord Peter Palumbo, 2005-present (Chair)

Alejandro Aravena, 2009-present

Rolf Fehlbaum, 2004-present

Carlos Jimenez, 2001-present

Juhani Pallasmaa, 2009-present

Renzo Piano, 2006-present

Karen Stein, 2004-present

Martha Thorne, 2005-present (Executive Director)

Pritzker Prize winners

Philip Johnson (1979) · Luis Barragán (1980) · James Stirling (1981) · Kevin Roche (1982) · I. M. Pei (1983) · Richard Meier (1984) · Hans Hollein (1985) · Gottfried Böhm (1986) · Kenzo Tange (1987) · Gordon Bunshaft / Oscar Niemeyer (1988) · Frank Gehry (1989) · Aldo Rossi (1990) · Robert Venturi (1991) · Álvaro Siza Vieira (1992) · Fumihiko Maki (1993) · Christian de Portzamparc (1994) · Tadao Ando (1995) · Rafael Moneo (1996) · Sverre Fehn (1997) · Renzo Piano (1998) · Norman Foster (1999) · Rem Koolhaas (2000) · Herzog & de Meuron (2001) · Glenn Murcutt (2002) · Jørn Utzon (2003) · Zaha Hadid (2004) · Thom Mayne (2005) · Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2006) · Richard Rogers (2007) · Jean Nouvel (2008) · Peter Zumthor (2009)

A Investigator guide to Buenos Aires' architecturual buildings

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:35:00 +0000

Buenos Aires' neighborhoods offer an impressive sampling of the city's heritage and utopian ambitions.

A French neoclassical building on Avenida Independencia in Buenos Aires. (Julia Kumari Drapkin/GlobalPost)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Wander the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and it's hard not to wonder about the mix of architecture. The house next door, the corner pizza parlor, even parking garages have features that tickle the curiosity.

Most are artifacts of the city's building boom from 1880 through the 1920s, when Buenos Aires was one of the world's richest, fastest growing cities. The capital was a blank canvas and its architects wanted to create their dream city at the beginning of a brand new century.
The resulting architectural styles reflect the utopian ambitions of the designers as well as their immigrant heritage. At the height of the great European migration to Argentina in 1914, 30 percent of the population was foreign born. Neighborhood architects built in their own styles flavored by their home country or that of their patron.
Take a tour of Buenos Aires with architecture detective Alejandro Machado, who rigorously documents the architectural heritage of edifices across the city.

A guide to Buenos Aires architecture
It's not hard to be an architecture detective in Buenos Aires. Just pick a street and take a walk. While some neighborhoods are known for certain styles, most offer an impressive sampling of the city's architectural heritage.
The overall style of a neighborhood building can tell you a lot about when it was built and the people who built it. Three styles dominate the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires: neoclassical, art nouveau and art deco.

Architects stay unified in tackling climate change

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:28:00 +0000

Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times

Designers at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi unified on saying 'yes' to fight global climate change, but the fight doesn't have to be ugly or even comfort restricting.

The fight is all about community living, returning to the good old days and the good old cities, which functioned on interaction and interconnection, and in the words of Lord Richard Rogers, "beauty and function combined is one of the great drives of sustainability."

A superhero among urban planners and designers, Lord Rogers is a British architect, who has in his portfolio iconic buildings such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Millennium Dome, the Lloyds Bank in London and the terminal four of Madrid Airport. His message to Abu Dhabi? Build a city that everyone can enjoy. "There is a direct link between social inclusion and a beautiful environment. If you live in a slum, life will be very difficult and it will brutalise you," said Lord Rogers. With population growth expected to reach 80 per cent by 2050, and the threat of climate change, which may lead to death, poverty, migration and wars, future urban planning must be sustainable. One element of sustainability that Lord Rogers emphasised on was public transport. Individual cars are not just big polluters and "infesters" of carbon emissions, but they also slow down the economy, as people get stuck and waste hours in heavy traffic.

"In Mexico City the congestion is bringing the traffic to a standstill and this will happen in Abu Dhabi too if the public transport is not developed," he warned. Gerald Evenden, also an architect and senior partner at Fosters and Partners in UK, could not agree more.

"When cars dominate, people become second," he said.

"Even well designed, electric cars will create congestion."

For Evenden, who is involved in the urban design of Masdar city, the cities of the future look more like the cities of the past. This means that the city must be built, sustainably, for a community, not a bunch of individuals, with easy access to public transport, pedestrian walkways and attractive public spaces.

"When designing sustainable buildings, two big elements must be considered the orientation and the shading of buildings," added Evenden.

For Masdar, he proposed two such types of buildings a high rise structure that absorbs light and disperse it indoors to create evermore pleasant spaces for people, and low buildings, ideal for homes, with lots of shading that keep them cool and reduce energy consumption. For the award-winning architect, author and professor of architectural engineering, Susan Roaf, who has conducted a lot of research and studies in the Middle East, this is not good enough.

Back in the 60s, western travellers coming to the Gulf used to say that the best way to cool off in summer days was to hide in mountain caves and beat the drum to scare off the heat.

Anecdotes apart, Roaf pointed out that back then, people's houses here were built in such a way that it kept them cool enough. "Leed buildings do not save energy, they are just more efficient consumers of air conditioning," she said.

Leed certified buildings are supposed to use resources more efficiently when compared to conventional buildings, but they concentrate primarily on the efficient use of fossil fuels, rather than sustainable alternative energy sources.

My Photostream on Flickr

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:04:00 +0000

Civil Justice Centre - Manchester	301 Chapel Steet - Salford, Manchester

The U.S. Institute of Peace Building

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:44:00 +0000

Along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., memorials honor the service of Americans in wartime, but the site’s newest addition will be one that fosters conflict resolution and peace. The 150,000-sq-ft permanent headquarters for the U.S. Institute of Peace, being built at the mall’s northwest corner near the Lincoln Memorial and the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge over the Potomac river, will greet visitors with a dramatic new structure that its designers say both respects the context of its historic surroundings and offers a strikingly modern contrast.

Photo: Clark Construction, By Bill Fitz-Patrick

The New York City office of Moshe Safdie and Associates, Somerville, Mass., designed the base of the five-story building, which is clad in precast panels to blend with its neoclassical neighbors and features a sweeping white glass roof intended to make a strong statement of the institute’s mission. Designed as three buildings connected with glass-enclosed atriums, the structure is topped with two large-span undulating roofs, including one that evokes the image of a white dove of peace in flight. “We see it as a gateway to the city from the Roosevelt bridge,” says Paul Gross, Safdie principal in charge of the project. “It respects the vocabulary of the National Mall and offers a symbolic gesture to the city.” The $108-million project is funded by public and private monies.

Bringing this visual statement to reality created significant challenges for Safdie’s design team and construction crews, led by Clark Construction Group, Bethesda, Md. German firm Seele, LP, was added to the team in late 2006 to assist design and installation of the steel-frame and glass-panel roof system. Using building information modeling with Autodesk Revit and Rhino, designers devised two grid-shell systems that would be built using preassembled pieces of roughly 400 sq ft each in surface area. The south roof has a total surface area of 12,000 sq ft and spans 80 ft between buildings. The north roof has 7,500 sq ft of surface area and a 55-ft span. Project engineer is U.K-based Buro Happold.

A framework of 4-in. by 8-in. hollow steel beams holds 1,500 triple-layered glass panels, the majority of which measure 4 ft by 4 ft, except for custom-sized pieces along the edges. Each panel is fritted on the exterior to give it a white appearance at all times during the day. A white translucent membrane along the interior side of the panels gives it a white glow when illuminated from inside at night.

Clark broke ground on the project in March 2008 and roof installation began in June 2009. Because the roofs would span multiple structures and be exposed to winds blowing off the Potomac, structural analysis was a critical element of the complex design. To minimize loads on the concrete-structure buildings, designers opted for a mix of sliding and spring connectors that would allow for up to 2 in. of expansion.

Portions of the roof also cascade off the edges. Along the south elevation facing the National Mall, one “wing” of the roof extends 40 ft away from the building. Three 35-ft-long steel props fan out from a horizontal structural beam along the facade and meet the roof near the middle of the cantilever, leaving the tip of the roof untouched.

“Those moving connections were the most challenging part of the design,” says Mark Goodwin, project executive with Clark Construction. “Once you allow the facade to move a few inches, then you are dealing with tie-ins to other materials such as a metal roof to the north, a PVC membrane along the roof and fixed metal flashings above it. You need to create expansion joint details to allow this structure to move significantly compared to the building.”

Since the roof is going up in vast atrium spaces, a complex scaffold system had to be designed to not only fill the void between the buildings, but also be precisely tiered to match up with the roof curvatures. The five-story, 20,000-sq-ft horizontal scaffold is fully loaded down to slab-on-grade at the parking level below the main floor. Reshoring was added in the garages to support the scaffold above. After several months of design, the scaffold took nearly six weeks to assemble.

To build the roof, sections of the shell were preassembled on the ground using mostly bolted connections to minimize welding in the field. Each piece was then picked up and placed with a tower crane. Once the entire shell is set, the scaffold is designed to allow workers to stand in each frame and receive each 200-lb glass panel as it is individually picked and placed by the tower crane. Placement of the first glass panels began in mid-October and is scheduled to finish next month. Substantial completion for the entire project is scheduled for October 2010.

As panels move into place, the signature white dove is beginning to reveal itself to city residents, commuters and throngs of tourists. “When it first came out of the ground, it looked like your typical Washington building,” says John Stranix, owner’s representative for the institute. “Now that the roof has started going up, people are taking notice. This is going to be a very important addition to the mall.”

Via archrecod

Hoberman’s "Transformable Design" Gaining Momentum

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:12:00 +0000

By Joann Gonchar, AIA via archrecord

“Transformable design” is the term that Chuck Hoberman uses to describe the focus of his multidisciplinary practice, Hoberman Associates. The 19-year-old New York City-based firm fuses sculpture, engineering, and product design to create objects with the ability to change size and shape. It is perhaps best known for the Hoberman Sphere, which relies on a series of scissor-like joints to collapse from an open polyhedron to a tightly packed sphere. It has been fabricated in many sizes, all the way from a palm-sized toy to a giant sculpture found at the Liberty Science Museum in Jersey City. But Hoberman’s oeuvre also includes retractable domes, medical instruments, and a stage for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

The firm is also applying its expertise with kinetic objects to buildings in order to create automated and responsive enclosures that can provide shading or ventilation. Facades are ripe for such adaptive components, according to Hoberman. “The envelope plays the single largest role in building performance,” he says. “Not only in relationship to energy consumption, but also with regard to occupant comfort.”

Hoberman, who has envelope projects under way with Foster + Partners and Kohn Pederson Fox, among others, completed his first building with an adaptive skin in October—a mixed-use tower on Tokyo’s Ginza. The 15-story structure, designed by Japanese architecture firms Nikken Sekkei and Yasuda Atelier, houses a showroom for cosmetics company POLA on the lower floors and commercial office space on the upper levels. Within the 3-foot-deep cavity of its street-facing double-skin facade, 185 polycarbonate operable shutters shield the interiors behind the all-glass southeast elevation from direct sunlight. Photo sensors and a building management system control the translucent shading devices, helping cut heat gain by as much as 10 percent, says Hoberman. At night, the shutters move in concert with a colorful lighting scheme.

To further the development of responsive facades, Hoberman’s firm has formed a 50/50 joint venture with global engineering consultancy Buro Happold. The two companies have a long history of working together on transformable structures, including a rapidly deployable shelter for Johnson Outdoors and an expanding elliptical video screen for band U2. But the new Hoberman-Happold entity, named the Adaptive Building Initiative (ABI), differs from these previous collaborations. Instead of providing services on a project-by-project basis, ABI will focus on longer-term technology development with the ultimate goal of creating unitized, dynamic envelope assemblies. The joint venture is working to form partnerships with fabricators and manufacturers so that it can “deliver not only design and engineering, but complete adaptive systems,” says Hoberman. The ABI partners hope to make such systems commercially available within three to five years.

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Burj Dubai makes history

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:19:00 +0000

Mile High Illinois

Frank Lloyd Wright
1956

Frank Lloyd Wright intended his Mile High Illinois skyscraper to be the focal point of Broadacre City, the theoretical city, he began planning in the 1920s. Because the Broadacre project was an exploration of horizontal space, a one-mile-high skyscraper might at first seem out of place—but by the 1950s Wright had decided that some cities were “incorrigible,” and that even Broadacre City could use a tall building as a cultural and social hub. The foundation of Wright’s building was a massive column, shaped like an inverted tripod, sunk deeply into the ground. This supported a slender, tapering tower with cantilevered floors. In keeping with his belief that architecture ought to be organic, Wright likened this system to a tree trunk with branches. He planned to use gold-tinted metal on the facade to highlight angular surfaces along balconies and parapets and specified Plexiglas for window glazing. Inside the building, mechanical systems were to be housed inside hollow cantilevered beams. To reach the building’s upper floors, Wright proposed atomic-powered elevators that could carry 100 people.

Then came Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower) a building that made history in hard times

"We're going to need a new word. The Burj Dubai doesn't scrape the sky; it pierces it, like a slender silver needle, half a mile high. It's only because Dubai never has any clouds that we can even see the tower's top. And, judging by the images released so far, the view is more like looking out of a plane than a building. It has made reality a little less real.
The facts and figures about the tower are equally surreal – like the one about how it could be eight degrees cooler at the top than at the bottom, or the one about how you could watch the sunset at the bottom, then take a lift up to the top and watch it all over again. It's a new order of tallness, even compared to its nearest rival, Taiwan's Taipei 101, which it exceeds by more than 300 metres." The Guardian

Concrete jungle ... the view from the 124th floor of the Burj Dubai. Photograph: Imre Solt/Barcroft Media

In environmental terms, the Burj Dubai is way too tall to justify itself, but there is at least some structural efficiency to the form. Its Y-shaped plan – three wings extending from a central core, like the roots of a tree – "confuses the wind", in the architects' words, while the core stops the wings from twisting (which would give top-floor occupants nausea). For super-tall buildings – and surely there will be more, one day – this "buttressed core" design is likely to become the prevailing form.

More worrying than the tower itself, however, is what's around it. In 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright unveiled a scheme for an elegantly preposterous mile-high skyscraper for Chicago, safe in the knowledge that he'd never have to figure out how to build it. It was undoubtedly an influence on the Burj Dubai. It even had a similar triangular structure. But Wright's intentions with his mile-high skyscraper were to create a concentrated human habitat, the better to halt Chicago's unstoppable urban sprawl, and free up ground space for parks, nature and leisure.

The Burj Dubai, by contrast, has become the tentpole for several more acres of anonymous, soulless, energy-hungry cityscape. You can apparently see for 60 miles from the top, but when you look down, the immediate landscape is the same schematic real-estate tat you see everywhere else in Dubai: vast shopping malls, bland office towers, sprawling residential developments semi-themed to resemble "traditional" Arabian villages, outsized ornamental fountains. The Burj Dubai might be a triumph vertically, but what about the horizontal?

Cameron Sinclair talks about the boom-and-bust refugees

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:16:00 +0000

At TEDGlobal U, Cameron Sinclair shows the unreported cost of real estate megaprojects gone bust: thousands of migrant construction laborers left stranded and penniless. To his fellow architects, he says there is only one ethical response.

Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry with Charlie Rose

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:04:00 +0000

A discussion with Pritzker Prize Winners Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Renzo Piano.

This interview happened to be pretty interesting.

Maguns Larsson talks about dunes architecture

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:51:00 +0000

Architecture student Magnus Larsson details his bold plan to transform the harsh Sahara desert using bacteria and a surprising construction material: the sand itself.

Solar panel makers see business potential in UAE

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:13:00 +0000

Solar panel manufacturers are hoping to pick up orders from alternative energy projects in the UAE and the Middle East.

A number of projects similar to Abu Dhabi's $22 billion (Dh80.8bn) Masdar zero-emissions city are being planned in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and other countries, said an official from Sharp Solar.

They include Dubai's proposed eight million sq ft Enpark, the Qatar Energy Park, the Shams Maan project in Jordan and a zero-emissions city in Saudi.

"Masdar is the first major alternative energy project in the region but there are others in the pipeline in other emirates, Qatar and Jordan," Mohannad Al Shami, Solar Business Development Manager at Sharp Middle East, told Emirates Business at The Big 5 exhibition.
"Enpark, Dubai's first energy and environment free zone, is a long-term project to address power shortages in the city and the industrial areas of Sharjah, Ajman and Ras al Khaimah. It was announced earlier but has been delayed by the financial crisis.

"Such projects will require not only solar panels but also other power infrastructure. There is great potential for tapping solar energy in the emirates. There are 310 sunny days in the region and solar power can be integrated into the grid to provide power to factories during daytime."
Many industrial units in the free zones and other industrial areas in the Northern Emirates face acute power shortages and there are serious plans to develop alternative energy, especially solar power. "A number of factories in the Sharjah industrial zones and many new buildings in Ajman and other Northern Emirates depend on diesel generators," said Al Shami. "Some factories in industrial areas get only five or six hours of electricity each day."

Sharp, which is showcasing its solar products at The Big 5, has expanded its production in six factories to meet the expected demand.

Annual electricity demand in the UAE is growing at between seven and 10 per cent â€“ double the global rate. Despite the slowdown, there will be a need for power and the proposed nuclear project will take many years to complete. â€“ Emirates Business 24|7

Kseniya Simonova's Amazing Sand Drawing

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:22:00 +0000

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. Enjoy!

Building of the Year: RIBA Stirling Prize

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:02:00 +0000

Building of the year award 2009, RIBA award was won by Lord Richard Rogers with his amazing building, The Maggie's Centre, London.

The building was opened to the public by Nigella Lawson and Maggie's Patron, Sarah Brown, on 29 April 2008.

The small, orange building with a roof that seems to float above it has enlivened a challenging corner of Fulham Palace Road, with a tranquil garden leading up to the entrance. Stone sculptures and wooden benches provide welcome and pleasant places to sit along the winding path to the front door.

Designed on a domestic scale, the centre's heart is the double-height kitchen, from which the three sitting rooms, library, courtyard gardens and a number of other spaces for more private or personal conversations, open. Light fills the interior, coming through the glazed walls at first floor level and through openings in the roof.

Despite being on a busy main road, the centre is surprisingly quiet inside, thanks to the protection of the wall and birch trees which wrap around it. The birch-faced ply and fair-face concrete finishes and furnishings - that include rugs by Paolo Lenti and furniture by Alvar Aalto - add to the relaxed, homely atmosphere.

Since opening its doors, the team at Maggie's have welcomed a constant stream of visitors with cups of tea, knowledge and support, as well as a wide range of events and activities, from lunch clubs to yoga. Maggie's Centre, London is already receiving in the region of 50 visitors per day.

Building also won the Civic Trust award see link

RMJM: win islamic architecture award for zliten campus, libya

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:50:00 +0000

zliten campus at asmariya university for islamic sciences by RMJM architects
image courtesy RMJM architects

RMJM architects have received the islamic architecture award for their work on
the zliten campus at asmariya university for islamic sciences in libya at the cityscape
awards in dubai, 2009.

the zliten campus is a new branch of al asmariya university, located 75 miles southeast
of tripoli. RMJM’s architects designed a campus master plan for the development of
the 202-acre site. core academic functions are organized in four quadrants within
a perimeter habitable wall that houses faculty offices and academic support functions.

with a total build-out of more than 1 million square feet, the new campus provides
academic and support buildings, a conference and student center as well as
administration, library, recreation and residential spaces for a population of 4,600 students.

image courtesy RMJM architects

image courtesy RMJM architects

image courtesy RMJM architects

image courtesy RMJM architects

Revit and SketchUp Connection for 3ds Max Design 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:42:00 +0000

The Connection Extension for Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010 design visualization software offers a range of new and enhanced connectivity features exclusively to Autodesk Subscription program customers.

Enhanced Interoperability with CAD Packages

Bring solid models from many of your favorite CAD packages into 3ds Max Design 2010 for visual enhancement and export them back when you’re done. A new, high-fidelity SAT data translator makes it easier for designers to move solids-based design data between 3ds Max Design and Autodesk Revit Architecture software, Autodesk Inventor Professional software, or third-party CAD products such as Solidworks, Rhino, and FormZ. The SAT translator offers:

Import of geometric boundary representation data for trimmed surfaces, solids models, and assemblies as 3ds Max “bodies” (boundary representations based on NURBS).
The ability to retain imported data as the mathematical description of the surface. Users can determine and modify the conversion to polygons at any time.

Extensive Connectivity with Google SketchUp
Develop a concept in Google SketchUp software, and finesse it in 3ds Max Design. The Connection Extension for 3ds Max Design 2010 features a powerful new SKP file translator that enables you to bring SketchUp scenes into 3ds Max Design with a high degree of data preservation. And 3ds Max Design can now read thousands of free SketchUp models from the 3D Warehouse section of the Google website. The SKP translator includes:

Support for the double-faced materials workflow available in SketchUp, so arbitrary surface orientations don’t cause models to appear to be missing faces when displayed in 3ds Max Design.
Preservation of original pivot and scaling values of objects and instances, so designers don’t have to redo work.
Consolidation of material references. Multiple uses of the same SketchUp material are collected and referenced back to a single material, saving designers time if a change is required.

Streamlined Compositing with OpenEXR
Create professional-quality cinematic narratives. A rewritten OpenEXR translator makes it easier to work with compositing applications, enabling you to seamlessly blend CG animation with live action footage. The OpenEXR plug-in includes:

Advanced options for transferring extra elements, such as camera information and scripted data, reducing the number of iterations required to achieve a final result.
The ability to store render elements and G-buffer channels to EXR layers.

Intelligent Workflows
Save time and avoid costly geometry cleanup work with new, more effective workflows for dealing with complex scenes that enable you to:

Optimize display and rendering of imported solid and NURBS-based bodies.
Fix imported bodies with new repair tools.
Map the daylight system in SketchUp to the daylight system in 3ds Max Design, for a faster, more painless visualization workflow.
Select a layer from an OpenEXR file to use in a 3ds Max Design material. This functionality is similar to the way Adobe Photoshop software layers are used as textures in a material.

To download log on to your Autodesk subscription centre

Via Autodesk Press Release …

Architectural Design & Fabrication With Digital Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:59:00 +0000

Architectural Design & Fabrication with Digital Technology Lisa Iwamoto [Assistant Professor of Architecture, UC Berkeley] Abstract: Since the advent of Computer Aided Design (CAD), the process of making buildings has fundamentally changed. Computer drafting has become the industry standard, facilitating rapid and accurate communication among architects, engineers, and contractors. There is now a corresponding move toward Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) using computer numerically. Now you talking hey?

Urban Design for Sustainability

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Globalisation includes the increasing spatial division of labour and economies of scale in the

international economy, overriding any increase in transportation costs (which often, in any case,

are highly subsidised). Large scale, single use developments outside the main urban areas are

contributing to urban sprawl. The transport of goods and mobility of people continues to grow

steadily every year adding to the pollution of the global environment, the depletion of fossil fuels

and pollution and congestion at the local level. The development of transport infrastructure, and

particularly roads, responds to the economic pressures and in turn increases mobility and

accessibility, opening up rural areas to new urban development, with the demand for easing the

long distance and international flow of goods over-riding local sustainability needs.

The growth of mobility, of the transport infrastructure and other infrastructures, especially in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) is also resulting in the emergence of

new, more polycentric patterns of urban development, with a greater specialisation of functions

between centres (as well as increased competition) and the growing importance of networks of

cities. The challenge for urban design is to respond to these emerging patterns in a proactive way

that overcomes negative effects such as excessive car-based mobility and urban sprawl.

Growing prosperity and wealth and increasing demands for an improved quality of life are

reflected in the increasing consumption of land and space, demand for privacy and better living

conditions and access to green space. Demographic trends, including an ageing population and

the growth of smaller and single person households, are adding to the demands for new housing

and to the pressures for suburbanisation in rural areas (as well as for improvements to the quality of the environment and everyday life in inner city areas). Valuable agricultural land, amenity space and natural reserves of biodiversity are being lost. At the same, increasing land values and property prices in cities make housing in locations that are accessible to livelihood opportunities and services increasingly unaffordable for many sections of the population.

The relationship between the housing market and public land and housing policies and urban design is critical. Urban design can provide the framework for achieving a good quality of life when the attempt to meet these challenges may require higher densities and better mixes of development.

The overall aim of sustainable urban development is to achieve a healthy and high quality of life

for all people in this and subsequent generations, with equitable and geographically balanced and

socially cohesive economic development, which reduces the impact on the global and local

environments.

Perforated House Challenges and Reinvents Historic Architecture

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:52:00 +0000

For architects working on projects in historic districts or in an area with a concentration of period buildings, solving problems can suffer reduced emphasis over adhering to the predetermined style. Kavellaris Urban Design(KUD) in Australia were challenged to design a house on a vacant lot in between a row of Victorian terrace houses and an Edwardian weatherboard house. The firm saw an opportunity to critique the surrounding historic buildings, many of which underwent predictable interior renovations to make them more ‘modern’. The architects concluded that the demand for the historic houses was based more on people’s romanticized nostalgia for the structures rather than their good design. To KUD, the ornamental facades dictated a ‘neighborhood character’ instead of responding to it.

KUD studied the terrace house, sampled the good parts and rewrote the rest. Top on their list was to address the lack of environmental sustainability in the old houses. One of the big areas for improvement over the old structures was to get more natural light into the building thus reducing energy consumption and allowing for natural ventilation. The north facing terrace redefines the “aussie” backyard reinforced by the childlike mural reminiscing on a past era and making commentary on the changing demography of the family unit and ultimately the inner city house typology. The perforated house incorporates north facing glass bi-folds doors and louvers for cross ventilation as the primary means of cooling.

In designing the exterior facade, KUD saw an opportunity to represent the past and also create something that was dynamic and engaged the community. The glass facade is opaque by day and has the traditional terrace detailing screened on to it. At night, interior light filters through the wall and transfoms the house into a glowing box. The entire front wall of the second floor can be opened up making the second floor a huge terrace.

Inside, traditional planing elements were borrowed but many of the walls can be moved and altered to make spaces either public or private. This flexibility allows the occupants to tune the interior experience and function to whatever the demands of their lifestyle require.

Want to see the house in 3d? KUD have uploaded a model to the Google Sketchup Warehouse. Preview it here.

source: Designtoinspire

The Highline – New York by JCFO & diller scofidio + renfro

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:50:00 +0000

Project: High Line Public Park project
The High Line design is led by James Corner Field Operations, with diller scofidio + renfro
Location: New York – USA
Photos by: Iwan Baan
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Project Description:

“The high line, in collaboration with field operations, is a new 1.5-mile long public park built on an abandoned elevated railroad stretching from the meatpacking district to the hudson rail yards in manhattan.
Inspired by the melancholic, unruly beauty of this postindustrial ruin, where nature has reclaimed a once vital piece of urban infrastructure, the new park interprets its inheritance. It translates the biodiversity that took root after it fell into ruin in a string of site-specific urban microclimates along the stretch of railway that include sunny, shady, wet, dry, windy, and sheltered spaces.
Through a strategy of agri-tecture, part agriculture, part architecture- the high line surface is digitized into discrete units of paving and panting which are assembled along the 1.5 miles into a variety of gradients from 100% paving to 100% soft, richly vegetated biotopes. the paving system consists of individual pre-cast concrete planks with open joints to encourage emergent growth like wild grass through cracks in the sidewalk. the long paving units have tapered ends that comb into planting beds creating a textured, ‘pathless’ landscape where the public can meander in unscripted ways. the park accommodates the wild, the cultivated, the intimates, and the social. Access points are durational experiences designed to prolong the transition from the frenetic pace of city streets to the slow otherworldly landscape above. ”

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Pavilion by Zaha Hadid

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:45:00 +0000

"Superimpositions of spatial structures with hidden traces of Burnham's organizational systems create unexpected results in the Burnham Pavilion. By using methods of overlaying, complexity is built up and inscribed in the structure."

-Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid's designs have the power to reinterpret and invigorate our understanding of what a building or a cityscape can be. Her fluid structures evolve from experimentation with cutting-edge technologies to reinterpret space itself.

Examining Burnham's drawings in the Plan of Chicago, Hadid was struck by how the city's diagonal streets open up the otherwise rigid street grid. Lengthening the drawn line of one of the diagonals, she marked where the street would fall if extended into Millennium Park. The design for the Burnham Pavilion incorporates that line, as the structural ribs and openings in the roof run parallel to an imaginary extension of Daniel Burnham's diagonal streets. The result is Hadid's sinuous pavilion that plays with shadow, light and space.

More than 7,000 pieces of aluminum- no two alike- were individually bent and welded together, creating the pavilion's curvilinear form. Thousands of yards of fabric were custom tailored and tightly fit onto the interior and exterior aluminum-tube structure. The ridges of the aluminum are deliberately expressed through the external skin. The Marmon/Keystone Corporation donated much of the aluminum that provides the frame of curved ribs supporting the pavilion.

The interplay of light and shadow changes as the skylights cast shadows on the curving interior walls during the day. In the evening, a film installation by artist Thomas Gray will be projected onto the fluid fabric interior from different points inside the pavilion, creating a fully immersive effect. The film impressionistically reflects Chicago's transformation from 1909 to present, and includes the voices of people throughout the Chicago region sharing their visions of the future.

Accompanying the film is a creative multi-channel sound track by Lou Mallozzi of Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. Both the interior and exterior surfaces of the pavilion are bathed in ever-changing lighting designed by Dear Productions.

The pavilion's materials are completely recyclable, and can be dismantled and reinstalled in its entirety elsewhere after the Centennial. (Construction Gallery coming soon.)

Photos by: Eric Y. Exit and Thomas Gray

Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture Book Video

noreply@blogger.com (Muse) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:24:00 +0000

Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture Book

A powerful entity in the world of fashion, Louis Vuitton’s reach over the years has extended much beyond its humble beginnings as a luggage brand. In its latest book release, LV’s unparalleled reach over numerous facets of society and design are outlined in its self-titled book, Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture. The book’s contents delve into the brand’s history and association with numerous personalities from the world of art, architecture, design, photography and fashion. A cornerstone of creativity, the Louis Vuitton book features 400 pages filled stunning imagery and will be available in three languages, English, French and Italian. A special deluxe version will release on September 1st, 2009 at LouisVuitton.com and at Louis Vuitton stores and features artwork by Takashi Murakami. The book is priced at $130 USD. Below is a synopsis of the book as well as a three-question interview with Yves Carcelle, Chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton.

Announced earlier this year, the Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture Book together with Camille Scherrer puts an animated spin on things to further highlight the book. For any Louis Vuitton fan and culture fan in general, this book should appeal to you as it uncovers Louis Vuitton’s involvement over the years in various facets of art, fashion and architecture as the book’s title would suggest.

Source: ILVOELV