Architecture

As the origin of an increasing proportion of cultural touchstones, so too has the Internet spawned its own genre of memorabilia. Inspired by "the way designers showcased their work by holding it in front of them," Nadia Ahmad's "Handvas" is among the more successful examples we've seen—a clever way to display a poster or print, modeled after a popular trope of product photography. In fact, Ahmad isn't a product designer by training or trade: the Sydney-based art director works in advertising by day and simply wanted to make her idea a reality. "I didn't have the skills or knowledge to produce it," she noted by e-mail. "So I went in search of a company that could help [me] bring my idea to life."(more...)

By combining the functionality of a casual backless chair with the comfort provided by a hammock, British designer Benjamin Hubert came up with “Cradle”, a captivating seating unit (initially spotted by Freshome on beautiful life). Its appearance is truly intriguing- here we have a furniture piece that is both elegant and practical, with a design emphasizing on texture and color. Careful how you position this gem within the interior composition, as it just might draw excessive attention to itself. Ergonomics was a major factor to consider when planning this project: “The chair’s aesthetic is purposefully architectural with a sharp rectilinear backrest contrasted with a softer seating area, breaking traditional rules of seating typology and styling.  Cradle utilizes a custom-made cut pattern that allows a non-elastic textile to perform in a three dimensional way. This allows for the correct tension to comfortably support the body“. Can you feel the tension wearing off?   You're reading Surprising Hammock-Chair Fusion by Benjamin Hubert: Cradle originally posted on Freshome. The post Surprising Hammock-Chair Fusion by Benjamin Hubert: Cradle appeared first on Freshome.com.

This elliptical chapel near Oxford by London studio Niall McLaughlin Architects contains a group of arching timber columns behind its textured stone facade (+ slideshow). The Bishop Edward King Chapel replaces another smaller chapel at the Ripon Theological College campus and accommodates both students of the college and the local nuns of a small religious order. Niall McLaughlin Architects was asked to create a building that respects the historic architecture of the campus, which includes a nineteenth century college building and vicarage, and also fits comfortably amongst a grove of mature trees. For the exterior, the architects sourced a sandy-coloured stone, similar to the limestone walls of the existing college, and used small blocks to create a zigzagging texture around the outside of the ellipse. A wooden roof crowns the structure and integrates a row of clerestory windows that bring light across the ceiling. Inside, the tree-like timber columns form a second layer behind the walls, enclosing the nave of the chapel and creating an ambulatory around the perimeter. Each column comprises at least three branches, which form a latticed canopy overhead. Niall McLaughlin told Dezeen: "If you get up very early, at sunrise, the horizontal sun casts a maze of moving shadows of branches, leaves, window mullions and structure onto the ceiling. It is like looking up into trees in a wood." A projecting window offers a small seating area on one side of the chapel, where McLaughlin says you can "watch the sunlit fields on the other side of the valley". Photograph by Denis Gilbert A small rectilinear block accompanies the structure and houses the entrance lobby, a sacristy, storage areas and toilets. Photograph by Denis Gilbert The Bishop Edward King Chapel was one of 52 projects to recently win an RIBA Award. Photograph by Denis Gilbert Other projects by Niall McLaughlin Architects include four mono-pitched extensions to a rural cottage in Ireland. Photography is by the architects, apart from where otherwise stated. Here's a detailed project description from Niall McLaughlin Architects: Bishop Edward King Chapel The client brief sought a new chapel for Ripon Theological College, to serve the two interconnected groups resident on the campus in Oxfordshire, the college community and the nuns of a small religious order, the Sisters of Begbroke. The chapel replaces the existing one, designed by George Edmund Street in the late nineteenth century, which had since proved to be too small for the current needs of the college. The brief asked for a chapel that would accommodate the range of worshipping needs of the two communities in a collegiate seating arrangement, and would be suitable for both communal gatherings and personal prayer. In addition the brief envisioned a separate space for the Sisters to recite their offices, a spacious sacristy, and the necessary ancillary accommodation. Over and above these outline requirements, the brief set out the clients' aspirations for the chapel, foremost as 'a place of personal encounter with the numinous' that would enable the occupants to think creatively about the relationship between space and liturgy. The client summarised their aspirations for the project with Philip Larkin's words from his poem Church Going, 'A serious house on serious earth it is... which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in...'. On the site is an enormous beech tree on the brow of the hill. Facing away from the beech and the college buildings behind, there is ring of mature trees on high ground overlooking the valley that stretches away towards Garsington. This clearing has its own particular character, full of wind and light and the rustling of leaves. These strengths of the site also presented significant planning constraints. The college's existing buildings are of considerable historical importance. G.E. Street was a prominent architect of the Victorian Age and both the main college building and vicar

Aalvar Aalto is arguably one of the most important architects of the 20th century. Known for his all-around care for the design of buildings, Aalto often not only designed the exterior but individual interior features as well. He designed a total of six buildings in Germany, one of them being Heilig Geist Kirche, an Evangelistic Luthern church in Wolfsburg, Germany.  He was asked to design this church on November 5, 1958; it was completed four years later in 1962. Heilig Geist Kirche is a modern religious building consisting of a church, community center, daycare, and pastorate. The church component is located in the center of the structure. The exterior facade is similar to another of Aalto’s, Stephanus Kirche, due to its white-colored brick masonry. A large window fills the northwest side of Heilig Geist Kirche, and a few smaller, irregularly-indented windows are on other facades. The roof is covered in copper plates that incline towards the side altar, where they curve down towards the ground. This feature gives Heilig Geist Kirche a very distinguished and unique look. A 32-meter tall white freestanding bell tower with superimposed free-hanging bells rests on the northwest side of the church, opposite the curve. The interior roof is covered in wooden panels, contrasting the white walls. It is organically shaped and has white ribs running through it. The walls have both curves and straight edges. Approximately 300 seats are organized in Heilig Geist Kirche but an additional 100 can be added if necessary.  Aalto designed a number of churches, and this is one of two he made for Wolfsburg. Aalto’s outstanding international modernist style has truly left its mark in Germany. AD Classics: Heilig Geist Kirche / Alvar Aalto originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 19 Jun 2013.send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

Taking place June 27 – August 2, Gagosian Gallery, in collaboration with Renzo Piano Foundation and generously supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, ‘Fragments’ is an exhibition of more than thirty years of architectural projects by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Equal parts library reading room, school classroom, and natural history gallery, the exhibition consists of twenty-four tabletop displays of scale models, drawings, photographs, and video. Each tells the involved, inspiring story of the design process of a single building, from museums, libraries, and airports to private residences. More information on the exhibition after the break. Among these projects are Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Menil Collection, Houston; Kansai International Airport, Osaka; Fondation Beyeler, Basel; Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center, Nouméa, New Caledonia; The New York Times Building, New York; Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens; and the Whitney Museum’s new building in downtown Manhattan. A complete list and description of all exhibited projects will be available at the exhibition. Born into a family of builders, Piano connects his coastal upbringing in Genoa to the evolution of certain constants in his architecture: an obsession with light and its effect on the dynamic potential of built space. He formed the Piano & Rogers Atelier with Richard Rogers in 1971. The same year, the London-based studio won the commission for the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris—an audacious challenge that transformed the academic idea of the museum into a highly flexible toolbox building, with all technical functions fully exposed. Since then, Piano has become the most sought-after museum architect in the world for his ability to harmonize buildings with their surroundings and the artworks exhibited within them. Innovative technologies enhance these highly functional spaces, but succumb visually to the serene formal neutrality, guided by natural light, for which the Building Workshop is known—which Piano refers to as “the immaterial elements of space.” The exhibition is a window onto the daily studio practice at the core of Piano’s ongoing legacy, demonstrating the passion for innovative thinking and construction that fuels the Workshop’s ongoing success. Five gallery talks—free to the public—with Renzo Piano Building Workshop architects will take place at the gallery during June and July.  For more information, please visit here. 'Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Fragments' Exhibition originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 19 Jun 2013.send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

Clothes printed with artist Richard Woods' woodgrain graphics featured in this week's Spring Summer 2014 show by London studio Sibling. Woods' signature timber-like designs patterned Sibling's garments and were echoed on the wall at the start of the catwalk. The collection also included knitted sportswear, comprising panels of circular links and diamond lattices used to make shorts, three-quarter-length trousers and deep V-necks. Thick black seams, collars, cuffs and hems created outlines around sections coloured in saturated shades of pink, purple, blue and green, taken from the 1961 movie West Side Story. The use of line was meant to reference the title sequence of West Side Story, designed by American graphic designer Saul Bass who was recently honoured with an animated Google doodle. "Bass is the king of creating narrative through the sparse use of lines," said Sibling. One fine-knit pink jumper, with black bands across the shoulders and around the tops of dropped sleeves, billowed around the hips and wrists. Blue leopard print was used for a bomber jacket and shorts in one outfit, then for an unbuttoned sleeveless jacket and cropped trousers in the next. Various shades of denim were worn over shirts and shorts, which were printed with female figures or fists grasping jagged arrows. Towards the end of the show, blue tracksuits emblazoned with stars depicted an "S" on the back of a hooded top and the front of a sleeveless sweatshirt. Unusually, the designers encouraged models to smile as they paraded the attire during London Collections: Men, the city's menswear-only fashion event, earlier this week. Sibling's mens collection last season included oversized knitted accessories and their Autumn Winter 2013 womenswear show featured colourful crocheted flowers. Earlier this year, Richard Woods collaborated with designer Sebastian Wrong to create a collection of chairs that wouldn't seem out of place in a cartoon. See more fashion collections by Sibling » See more menswear collections » See more fashion design » Sibling provided us with the following information: East Side Story - Sibling Spring Summer 2014 West Side Story becomes East Side Story for Sibling this season bringing the tale of angry American youth closer to home. “Finger clicks, high kicks, yet never feminizing men,” were just some of the messages taken on board from the musical by Sibling, AKA Joe Bates, Cozette McCreery and Sid Bryan. Saul Bass’ iconic film titles also inspired the graphic use of line in the collection. “One of the key words for us this season is ‘graphic’,” explain Sibling. “The nature of knit, its texture, softness and drape – we wanted to bring hard lines into it. Saul Bass is the king of creating narrative through the sparse use of lines. Then there is the idea of the youthful male, the idea of young men setting themselves into tribes and having dress codes as tribes. Whether that is a motorcycle gang, a street gang – their dress is their literal badge of honour.” There is a collaboration with the artist Richard Woods that also emphasises the use of graphics in the collection, with his signature woodprint. A nod to American sportswear is given a British domestic spin – or rather knit. And for the first time Sibling unveil their denim pieces made on the model of traditional American military apparel. The global message of American youth culture also finds it’s expression in the influence of Bruce Davidson’s photographs on the collection. In particular the blown-up embroidered motifs from denim gang jackets, WW2 airplane nose art and the scrawled graffiti prints that are peppered throughout. At times utilizing the stiff plastic strings that go to make Scoobie friendship bracelets, new, lightweight woven knits incorporate their structural form. This is also a nod to the Ndebele tribe’s distinct colourful and graphic style of decoration. And much of the colouring of the collection has a debt to them as well as to the cinematog

Architects: Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk Location: Jektvik, Rødøy, Norway Architect In Charge: Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk, Manthey Kula (staff in pre-project phase) Co Workers: Rickard Riesenfeld, Beate Hølmebakk, Per Thamsen Year: 2010 Photographs: Courtesy of Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk Consultants: Finn-Erik Nilsen (civil engineering), Kristoffer Apeland AS (RIB description), Aalerud Hamar (HVAC), IBR elprosjekt (RIE) Contractors: Midt North Project AS Despite the informal program the small service building on Jektvik ferry terminal the project is very much an experiment. Besides of meeting some very pragmatic functions – a waiting room and two rest rooms – the projects is first and foremost about transparency and construction and the architectural consequences of these. Vehicle for this study is built up as follows: A load-bearing, prefabricated, modular aluminium structure has a twisted facade glazing. Ie. that a SG-facade system (“structural glazing”) is assembled with the outside inwards. Both walls and ceiling have this structure and the rooms appear inside with very plane glass sufaces. The glass units, which are composed of various combinations of frosted and coloured glass gives varying transparency and translucency to the side rooms and the surroundings.On the outside of the supporting aluminium structure is mounted a lath work of 48×48 pine c/c approx 250mm. The lath work makes the basis for a seamless outer skin of reinforced polyester. The fibreglass skin is not cast against a smooth shape (as in for example a boat), but hung up on the timberwork as a wet cloth before it hardens. The fibreglass works was, like the main structure, made inside a closed production hall in Hamar, before the house was taken in six parts by car to Helgeland in the north of Norway. The main subcontractors for the house have been a glass contractor and a boat building company. All technical installations and lighting are positioned, half visible, in the zone between the glass and fibreglass. Over the flat glass ceiling is this zone functioning as a cold attic, which comprises ventilation aggregate, technical guidance and lighting. A working title for the project was “the shrimp” because the house’s structure and internal organs were partially visible through the transparent layers of glass and fibreglass.The special construction method has provided a house with many demanding details. The building is universally accessible with wheelchair entrances at the level with the surrounding area. A steel grid floor is surrounding the entire building, so that the transparent walls can be traced all the way down to the ground. The space beneath the grid is also the inlet chamber for ventilation of both the rooms themselves and the double wall structure. The general lighting consists of linear LED lighting fixtures that are mounted on the ceiling trusses. There are also mounted down lights that provide concentrated light to the rooms below. It is used colours and visual contrasts adapted for the visually impaired.The situation and the building volume are applied to give the project a more architecturally relaxed appearance. The “wind queer” form gives a secluded outdoor space behind the existing kiosk building. This outdoor area is defined also by a refurbished phone box placed by the Norwegian Telecommunications Museum. Kiosk building has been given a general renovation. An extension of the kiosk building to the south are being planned to make room for a snack bar and an enhanced information service. Jektvik Ferry Quay Area / Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 19 Jun 2013.send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

I'm a bit too tired to put some thoughts together on this now, but here are plenty of photos of Alvaro Siza's lecture last night at the Museum of Modern Art, organized with the Architectural League of New York. His talk focused on one building, the Foundation Iberê Camargo in Porto Alegre, Brazil. As can be seen, the Siza spent lots of time talking about his sketches and design process, before looking at some precedents from his past then construction shots and photos of the completed building. At the end he spoke with MoMA curator Pedro Gadanho; the lecture was prefaced by comments from Barry Bergdoll and a history of Siza's architecture from Kenneth Frampton.

Architects: Michael W. Folonis Architects Location: Santa Monica, California, USA Project Architect: Rudy Gonzalez Design Team: James Kersten, Tommy Johnson Area: 50,000 sq ft Photographs: Tom Bonner Landscape Architect: Pamela Burton & Company General Contractor: Nautilus Group Mechanical Engineer: Vision Mechanical Plumbing/Electrical Engineer: Levine Seegel Associates Medical Planner: Planning Decision Resources/George Pressler, AIA Leed And Acoustical Consultant: Arup Lighting Designer: Kaplan Gehring McCarroll Architectural Lighting Michael W. Folonis Architects (MWFA) designed an inspiring healthcare center with a focus on patient experience and sustainability. The award-winning building—slated for LEED Gold certification—is an elegant balance of aesthetics, efficiency, and sensitivity. The massing of the building consists of two great rectangular volumes in a combination of boardformed and cast-in-place concrete, fronted with glass, louvers, and light shelves. The two distinct volumes are joined by a glass box creating a grand atrium bathed in natural light. The imperatives of transparency and function, and the aesthetic of early California Modernism, are all richly evident in the passive solar design, the building skin’s glass and concrete, the interior’s exposed steel, and sweeping sight lines both inside out and outside in. The presentation is bold, yet there is seasoned, mature balance here: A serious tone, equal to the mission of a leading-edge healthcare center, is given a solid form with physical lightness. The building deploys its aesthetics, materials, and features to meet the comprehensive needs of patients and families, doctors, nurses, staff, and students. The design also communicates in part to visitors by suggesting a guiding beacon, transparent and open during the day, and glowing with warm light at night. The form is set back 45 feet from the street to allow for visitor-friendly landscape. The atrium, behind a point-fixed facade glazing system and beneath a fritted glass roof, is a great open room thus bathed with diffused light. The great room contains a bent-beam cantilevered staircase, glass-enclosed elevators, and two sky-bridges leading people efficiently between the north and south volumes. Ample expanses of bamboo on floors, walls, stairs, and ceilings add elegance and a feeling of warmth. Live bamboo thrives in a cor-ten steel interior planter alongside a waiting bench. The north volume, with oncology areas fortified in steel and concrete, provides security, privacy and sensitivity for patients, doctors, and nurses. There are private patient entrances, exterior louvers to further enhance privacy while diffusing solar radiation, and preparation and recovery rooms featuring natural light. An outdoor waiting area provides a serene option for visitors. The linear accelerator rooms comprise one million pounds of concrete imbedded with three layers of lead. Despite the imposing equipment and three-foot-thick walls, the rooms are humanized with the continued use of bamboo flooring and walls. The south volume contains an expansive, well-appointed waiting area that is open to the atrium as well as to an outdoor patio. The outdoor landscaped waiting area features L-shaped wood-topped concrete benches for added privacy. The space is protected from direct sunlight and excessive solar heat gain by shade created by a 25-foot cantilever over the patio. Throughout the south volume, sidelights, clerestory windows, and fixed louvers admit and manage natural light with efficiency and sensitivity. Second-floor surgery center features eight identical surgical rooms along the south side of the building. Identical rooms increase patient outcomes by negating the need for medical personnel to become re-oriented to a different room for each procedure. Natural light infuses areas normally darkened—prep and recovery, sterile corridors, staff break rooms, and administrative areas. Clerestory windows, openings to

BOFFO, with eyewear brand Linda Farrow, just launched their latest Building Fashion competition which asks participants to design and build a temporary store in New York City for the iconic eyewear brand. Exploring the intersection of architecture and fashion through integrated store and exhibition design, a shipping container, near New York City’s Meatpacking district, will be redesigned inside and out providing a unique glimpse into the work of vibrant and acclaimed designers. This third annual installation series aims to once again push the limits of temporary architecture and the language of retail design. BOFFO Building Fashion will also showcase design installations that push the limits of temporary architecture and retail spaces through fashion and architecture collaborations. The installations will be open to the public December 4-24. The deadline for project submissions is July 14. For more information, please visit here. Check out their video after the break. Click here to view the embedded video. Linda Farrow + BOFFO Building Fashion 2013 Competition originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 18 Jun 2013.send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?