archipreneur.

A Walk Thru of FLW's Robie House

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:40:00 +0000

The Robie House, photo by Flickr user ..holes▲

Chicago Tonight recently featured a short piece on the history of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House in Chicago.

The Robie House and it's neighbor, The Graduate School of Business, by Flickr user Grufnik

The Modular Mansion

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:40:00 +0000

I've had the March 4th Metro section of the Washington Post laying on my desk for about a month, with a fantastic cover article on a modular house, or rather mansion, that was recently built in Bethesda, MD right outside DC. The modular boxes were dropped in place in a matter of 32 hours.

The article says the construction process was 4 months as opposed to 10 month stick built process.

A comparison of prefab and stick built homes:

SANAA Wins 2010 Pritzker Prize

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:55:00 +0000

Congratulations are in order to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, principals of SANNA, for winning the Pritzker Prize. The firm was founded in 1995. Below are some of the projects that led the to this achievement.

The Pritzker Prize is funded by the Pritzker family, who own the Hyatt Hotels company. Recipients receive a brozne medallion and a $100,000 prize.

Zollverein School of Management & Design, Essen, Germany

Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
Rolex Learning Center, Lausanne, Switzerland.
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City
Dior Omotesando Store, Tokyo, Japan

dbd Studio - Rotating Media Cabinet

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:51:00 +0000

Our first furniture project of 2010 was commissioned for a modern loft condo in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington DC, directly across the street from Mies van der Rohe’s last building, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. The owner is an avid art collector and wanted a media cabinet to double as an art display piece and act as a room divider between the living and dining spaces. He requested a mix of modern and industrial materials, so we combined stained, finished wood with raw, unfinished steel.

Custom fabricated 3″ steel adjustable lally columns extend floor to ceiling to support the media cabinet and 2 shelves above. The entire left side of the media cabinet is cantilevered for a dramatic effect and minimize contact with the floor. Shelves are 2 layers of 3/4″ stained plywood supported by 2″ square steel tubes bolted to the main supports. The media cabinet box is supported by 2"x3" L-stock steel.

An additional request was to design the TV mount so it rotated to face every room in the condo. The center load bearing lally column had to be heavily modified in order to accomplish this. The guts of a lazy susan (normally used in kitchen corner cabinets) were installed to provide a smooth rotation. All wires and cable are hidden within the steel supports for a clean look.

Our previous furniture install video was well received so we photographed the install of this one as well and put together a video of the design, install and walk through. We commissioned a custom soundtrack for the video from one of the biggest local DJ/Producers in the District, DJ Soundtrax, big thanks to him for providing the music.

For inquiries on custom furniture for your home or office head over to our new website.

Daniel Libeskind - Grand Canal Theatre, Dublin

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:26:00 +0000

(photo by Ros Kavanagh)

The Dublin Harbour has recently been graced with a 2,111 seat Grand Canal Theatre designed by Daniel Libeskind. Doors will open for the first time 2 days from now on March 18. The opening production at the Grand Canal Theatre will be a performance of Swan Lake by the Russian State Ballet, featuring star soloists from the Bolshoi Ballet.

(photo by Ros Kavanagh)

HOMB Prefab Homes

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:45:00 +0000

Skylab Architecture & Method Homes has come out with a new prefab concept labeled 'HOMB'. The layouts are made up of 100 sq ft triangular modules that can be configured and expanded in any way you can imagine. Exterior choices are natural, blackened, or whitewashed cedar siding.

View a pdf with floor plan concepts here.

They've put together a fun little video showing how the modules are designed to work together.

Scratch Your Own Itch: Rework, by 37 Signals

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:16:00 +0000

The following is an excerpt from the book Rework by the founders of 37 Signals, who's online business management/operations software includes basecamp, which we use for project management here at dbd Studio.

Scratch Your Own Itch:

The easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use. That lets you design what you know—and you’ll figure out immediately whether or not what you’re making is any good.

At 37signals, we build products we need to run our own business. For example, we wanted a way to keep track of whom we talked to, what we said, and when we need to follow up next. So we created Highrise, our contact-management software. There was no need for focus groups, market studies, or middlemen. We had the itch, so we scratched it.

When you build a product or service, you make the call on hundreds of tiny decisions each day. If you’re solving someone else’s problem, you’re constantly stabbing in the dark. When you solve your own problem, the light comes on. You know exactly what the right answer is.

Inventor James Dyson scratched his own itch. While vacuuming his home, he realized his bag vacuum cleaner was constantly losing suction power—dust kept clogging the pores in the bag and blocking the airflow. It wasn’t someone else’s imaginary problem; it was a real one that he experienced firsthand. So he decided to solve the problem and came up with the world’s first cyclonic, bagless vacuum cleaner.

Vic Firth came up with the idea of making a better drumstick while playing timpani for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The sticks he could buy commercially didn’t measure up to the job, so he began making and selling drumsticks from his basement at home. Then one day he dropped a bunch of sticks on the floor and heard all the different pitches. That’s when he began to match up sticks by moisture content, weight, density, and pitch so they were identical pairs. The result became his product’s tag line: “the perfect pair.” Today, Vic Firth’s factory turns out more than 85,000 drumsticks a day and has a 62 percent share in the drumstick market.

Track coach Bill Bowerman decided that his team needed better, lighter running shoes. So he went out to his workshop and poured rubber into the family waffle iron. That’s how Nike’s famous waffle sole was born.

These people scratched their own itch and exposed a huge market of people who needed exactly what they needed. That’s how you should do it too.

When you build what you need, you can also assess the quality of what you make quickly and directly, instead of by proxy.

Mary Kay Wagner, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, knew her skin-care products were great because she used them herself. She got them from a local cosmetologist who sold homemade formulas to patients, relatives, and friends. When the cosmetologist passed away, Wagner bought the formulas from the family. She didn’t need focus groups or studies to know the products were good. She just had to look at her own skin.

Best of all, this “solve your own problem” approach lets you fall in love with what you’re making. You know the problem and the value of its solution intimately. There’s no substitute for that. After all, you’ll (hopefully) be working on this for years to come. Maybe even the rest of your life. It better be something you really care about.

(Rear Cover, Rework)

2010 Vancouver Olympic Games Podium

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:21:00 +0000

As a follow up to my previous post on the Vancouver Olympic Medal designs, I'd like to bring attention to the Olympic podiums used in the recent games. The Western Red Cedar and Douglas Fir wood was donated by the local community and milled locally as well.

In previous Olympic games there has been very little design effort put into the podiums, as seen by the simple boxes of the 1950's..

(1956 Olympic podium)

And the somewhat creative but still subtle podiums at the recent 2008 games...

(2008 Beijing Olympic podium)

The Vancouver podiums by James Lee and Leo Obstbaum (who unfortunately passed away last year), there were 23 different models made in various sizes and shapes. The undulating wood forms hint at a digitally fabricated process of CNC milling. Its very exciting to see these new processes and technologies being used in such a high profile arena.

(assembly)

Taking it even one step further, custom trays to present the models were designed and fabricated in the same fashion.

Your Input Needed in DC

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:17:00 +0000

First up, for all you DC-ists, there's a Bike Rack Design competition put on by the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. Designs are due March 4th at 5pm, so get on it!
More info at Ready Set DC. Call for entries pdf can be seen here.

The second is not so much a competition as an opportunity to help shape the National Mall. Up until March 18 the National Park Service is seeking comments and ideas on the maintenance and future of the National Mall. Voice your opinion! Go here to fill in your ideas. Full brief and info on the National Parks Traveler site.

Metahaven - Void House

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:08:00 +0000

(photo by Filip Dujardin)

The Void House is a cleanly done modern rowhouse in Belgium by Metahaven which makes the unusual choice leaving the entire ground floor open for public/outdoor functions. The entry level is elevated above onto a concrete slab floor, accessed from the rear. The entire structure is fir from the Black Forest, walls and floor are bamboo.
Open floor plan living at its best: no walls, entirely open, minimalist detailing. Love it.

(photo by Filip Dujardin)

(photo by Filip Dujardin)

(photo by Filip Dujardin)

(photo by Filip Dujardin)

More at Abitare.

Mario Botta - Sacred Spaces

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:27:00 +0000

I've been a long time fan of Mario Botta's work, and I wanted to take a more in-depth look at some of the church projects he's completed. I've included map links to make it easy for anyone architectural tourists out there to find these projects and visit, which I highly recommend.

Botta's Sacred Spaces
In 1995 Evry, France saw the completion of Botta's design for the Cathedral of Resurrection. He says, "I believe the cathedral is a necessity for those who believe and also for those who do not. It is a testimony that connects us to the great past, when our beautiful, old cities were new." The cathedral is just over 17,000 sq ft in size. Aerial view in google maps.

(exterior, Cathedral of the Resurrection)

(interior, Cathedral of the Resurrection, by flickr user Clement Guillaume)

(section, Cathedral of the Resurrection)

In the late 1990's he was commissioned to replace the facade of a church in Genestrerio, Italy that was in severe disrepair. Botta's facade is supported by a concrete bearing structure with split red Verona stone. Aerial view in google maps.

(by flickr user ticinoinfoto)

If you're willing enough to make the drive up to Mogno, Italy through steeply inclining roads and hairpin turns you'll be pleasantly rewarded with black and white Chapel of St. John the Baptist. The dark stone courses are Riveo granite, the white are Peccia marble. A 1986 avalanche destroyed much of the village and the church; this was designed as a replacement and a stand of defiance for the village in response the the destructive force of nature they had experienced. Google Map link here.

(exterior, Mogno Chapel)

(interior, Mogno Chapel)

A great video showing the approach to the chapel as well as a walk thru:

One of my personal favorite buildings would include Botta's Chapel of St. Mary of the Angels, atop Monte Tamaro in Switzerland. I did a previous blog post on this building, found here. This black and white photo is still the best I've found. Google Maps link here.

A video from the 'catwalk' on top of the Chapel at Monte Tamaro. the view is unparalleled:

Botta From a Distance
As an additional note, many of Botta's buildings are strong and simple geometric shapes, and often he doesn't deviate much from that. Many times a simple truncated cylinder, they tend to stand out clearly in a landscape, town or city. As the photos below illustrate, Botta's buildings have the fantastic quality of both blending in with the townscapes they exist in, while uniquely defining themselves.

(Residence in Stabio, 1981, by flickr user jpmm)

(Chapel of St. Mary of the Angels, 1996, by flickr user numstead)

(Church of St. John the Baptists, Mogno, 1998 by flickr user *chiara*)

(Chiesa del Santo Volto, Turin, Italy, 2006, by flickr user tubo_zeta)

Architectural Insertion

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:19:00 +0000

(Dovecote Studio-left, S(ch)austall - right)

The Dovecote Studio by Haworth Tompkins has been receiving quite a bit of press around the blogosphere lately, and it immediately brought to mind a similar project, the S(ch)austall deigned by FNP Architekten.

As part of the music campus at Snape Maltings in Suffolk, UK, Haworth Tompkin's design inset a Corten steel studio in the ruins of a brick Victorian dovecote. A large northern window on the roof allows even ambient daylight into the simple plywood interior.

The S(ch)austall turned a ruined pigsty into a showroom, a name that is played upon in its title, as saustall = pigsty, and schaustall = showroom. FNP set a wood framed box inside the stone ruins, aligning new windows with existing openings. A thin, understated roofs protects both new and old elements. This project was the winner of a 2005 AR Award for Emerging Architecture.

Both projects achieve an attractive marriage of modern and historic, ruined and new, in a cleanly finished transition to the space's new function.

Kariouk Associates - Echo House

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:23:00 +0000

(before/after)

This project fascinates me. I literally spent half an hour dissecting every photo and studying plans and diagrams.

This former victorian house in Ottawa, Canada was completely re-thought and re-modeled by Kariouk Associates. This remodel take the process several steps further though than your standard gut & build. Kariouk's design essentially called for the entire house to be gutted to a shell and the exterior walls supported by the introduction of a steel skeleton frame. With a newly open 2-story 'box', they inserted 3 'introverted' living living areas suspended on the 2nd floor. The whole box area is kept open by the use of knee walls instead of full height walls around the study and leisure areas. The master suite was set on top as a visually distinctive exterior element.
The whole project just works. Well.

(Concept diagrams explain the relocation of spaces)

(click to enlarge interior photos)(click to enlarge floor plans)

More photos on Arch Daily.
Photography by Photolux Studios.

Qb Design - Split Level House

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:54:00 +0000

I've seen renderings of this place around the web for a few months, and it appears that Qb Design has finally completed the Split Level House in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia.
I'm very impressed with the way that Qb played off the curved corner facade of the property across the street with a modern spin.

(click to enlarge floor plans)

(The site before construction)

Sebastian Mariscal - Pio Pio Restaurant NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:52:00 +0000

The incredibly talented architect/developer Sebastian Mariscal has finally blessed the East Coast with some of his work. Pio Pio restaurant in Hell's Kitchen combines rough-formed concrete enclaves with a dramatic ceiling and wall of dried canes from a ranch in Mexico. The cantilevered reception desk is pretty slick as well.

(photos by www.archphoto.com)

via Yatzer

dbd Studio - CNC Milled Acrylic Sink

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:01:00 +0000

A quick and fun project came across our desks this past week in the form of a replacement sink for Fly Lounge nightclub in Washington DC. We've had several furniture projects recently that have kept us busy besides the usual architecture work, so this was a chance to again explore some CNC milled pieces and digital fabrication.

The nightclub is modeled after the interior of an airplane, so we carried the idea into the bathroom with a wing-shaped sink counter top CNC milled from 1/2" acrylic with the club logo and aerial photos of various airports printed on the underside.

For inquiries on similar projects email 'dbd *at* dbdstudiollc.com' or visit our website at www.dbdstudiollc.com

Washington DC Under Construction, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:26:00 +0000

Every now and then when I'm jetting down Constitution Ave or rolling around Dupont Circle in DC, I realize that this place, my stomping grounds, is actually one of the top 3 tourist destinations in the country.
Somehow the tourists elude the locals very effectively. Tourists don't go to the bars and lounges we do. Tourists aren't at the networking happy hours or business events in the city. The tourists for the most part aren't even on the roads with us in DC, they are.... at the memorials.
People come to DC for politics, government contracting business, and memorial tourism. Let's take a look at what went into the making of some of those famous memorials and buildings. This will be Part 1 in a series of posts.

Driving into DC on I-66 from the west the first prominent structure you pass in DC is the Lincoln Memorial. After 8 years of construction it was completed in 1922, and was designed by Henry Bacon, it sits on what was formerly swampland. The stone is Yule Marble brought all the way from Marble, Colorado.

(photo on left from flickr user dyoshida)

Directly east from the Lincoln Memorial stands the world's tallest stone structure, the Washington Monument. This 555' tall obelisk began construction in 1848 but and didn't complete until 1884 due to delays caused by the Civil War and lack of funds. Once completed it was the world's tallest structure, beating out the Cologne Cathedral. Architect Robert Mills' original sketch (shown below) called for a round colonnade at the base.

The Potomac River used to run much closer to the monument, but the land mass has since been built up and the Mall extended for structures such as the Lincoln Memorial. See a map from 1810 showing the proximity to the Potomac below.

At the east end of the National Mall stand the United States Capital. Architect William Thornton won a design competition for the building in 1793 and construction began in 1793. After being damaged by the war of 1812, it was completed in 1819. It was later expanded and added to.

(Lincoln's Inauguration in 1861 with the Capitol still under construction)
(a great past/present composition by flickr user jasonepowell)

More images and stories to come on the building of Washington DC, stay tuned.

Concrete Apothecary by Gore Design Co.

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:29:00 +0000

Gore Design Co. has launched a product line to help jump-start your concrete sink project. Instead of going through the process of creating your own form or mould, there is now the option of ordering one from Concrete Apothecary and get to pouring. See my previous post on the works of Gore Design Company here. They also offer a line of instructional DVD's and a hands on workshop for those interested.

Most of all I like how Gore Design presents their website, humorous, informal, and clean. It makes me want to do business with them or buy their products. Take note web vendors.

(from the Gore Design website)

Some of their offerings:

Also worth a look, the Omphalos Sink by Concrete Works, absolutely stunning.

Urban Farming: Detroit

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:48:00 +0000

(William Livingstone House, Detroit, by DecoJim)

Hantz Farms has said they plan to utilize over 5,000 acres of land within Detroit city limits for what will essentially be classified as urban farming. That's just over 5% of the city's land area destined to return to vegetation. Financier John Hantz has put $30m of his own money towards the project, which will start small with only around 30 acres. This is welcome news to the area, which boasts a 17.7% unemployment rate.

Coverage in LA Times

Also of interest, an in depth look at the Michigan Central Depot on forgottendetroit.com, which has been sitting unused since 1988.

189,000 Architects Without Work.

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:09:00 +0000

Sad news this holiday season, our profession experienced the highest job losses of any during 2009. MSNBC reports that 17.8% of us are unemployed, which over the first 3/4 of the year totals to 189,000 architects without work.
We're expected to grow 10% by 2018.... a statistic that hardly does any help for us now or the next 8 years.

dbd Studio - Digitally Fabricated Bookshelf

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:49:00 +0000

We've been hard at work the past few weeks here at the offices of dbd Studio, and late last night we completed the installation of our most recent project. A custom bookshelf specifically designed and built for a condo in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington DC.

The owner had a severe lack of storage for household items, as well as no display options for objects collected from his worldwide travels. The large bookshelf serves as both an art piece in itself and a functional storage/display system.

Concept Rendering (click to enlarge)

An organic curving surface was created in Rhino that stretched from floor to ceiling and overhead, terminating at the existing bulkhead. 17 sheets of 3/4" birch plywood were then CNC milled to notch together and form the undulating, gridded mass.

Construction Diagram (click to enlarge)

Special attention was paid to avoid interfering with the recessed lights, sprinkler heads, air vents and fire alarms along the hallway ceiling. The vertical plywood components were spaced to avoid them or notched to allow them to function.

dbd Studio (Design/Build/Develop) is located in the Washington, DC area specializing in restaurant/retail and custom furniture. CNC milling by Brand Vizion of Chantilly, VA.

decaARCHITECTURE - Aloni House

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:35:00 +0000

Greek design firm decaARCHITECTURE has won the Piranesi Award with their Aloni House in Antiparos, Greece. The house fills the void between two retaining walls that bridge a 'saddle' between adjacent hills. The landscape of the hill flows cleanly over the house, blending in seamlessly. Four courtyards bring light into the living spaces.

Recent Furniture Round-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:52:00 +0000

We're halfway to the next International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York on May 15-18, 2010, so I figured we'd take a look at what's been going on lately in the furniture world.

Joseph Walsh of Cork, Ireland produced the Erosion table from ripple & olive ash.

A drawer unit called Cartesia by Japan's NOSIGNER:

The Eterna Primavera table by Troy Backhouse:

City Map shelves by Markus Fischer:

The Pisa Bookrack by Baccarne Design:

The Wave table by Kenneth Cobonpue in walnut or mahogany:

The Otta Table by Finne Architects:

Adam Rowe's '57 ft. Coffee Table', if unraveled would be a strip of wood 57 feet long:

A table/chair combo by Groenart:

Light Show at 290 Mulberry

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:07:00 +0000

An interesting marketing method is being used at the 290 Mulberry building, designed by SHoP Architects (see my previous post), flashing colored lights in the windows. Cool!

ZON-E Architects Social Housing in Degana, Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Archipreneur) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:14:00 +0000

This 15 unit apartment building for miners in Degana, Spain by ZON-E Architects features a shingled black facade penetrated by large window openings, creating a glowing, gridded object in the evenings. At 27,000 sq ft and a construction cost of $1.8m, it came in around $70/ sq ft.

(photos by Ignacio Martinez)

via Architectural Review