Architecture

It’s never easy to say goodbye but after 11 years that’s exactly what is happening - . . This is really the first part of two posts that I will write on the subject – the second coming in a few weeks after things have settled down just a bit. Last week I had the unpleasant task of telling the two partners where I currently work that after 11 years employment I was resigning my position and taking a job with another firm. This was a difficult conversation to have, not because things went badly – just the opposite – because things have gone so well. I love my job and I really like the people I work with – they are all exceptional individuals and I have a great deal of respect for the skills they bring to the table. That’s part of what made this process of resigning so difficult. Another reason leaving my current job was painful was because I have been with this firm for 11 years – and they have only existed for 15 years. I’ve been there for almost the entire growth and development of the firm. I’ve been there for some of our greatest successes, seen people come and go, been through some really good years and some not so great years. That’s the thing with small firms – the good ones are like your family – and quitting the firm is like quitting the family. I am leaving my job because of an exceptional opportunity was presented to me to continue my growth and development as an architect. I didn’t go looking for it – it found me and it was a great fit. I thought a long time about how I would walk into the office and give my resignation, the people this act would impact, the clients I feel like I am abandoning, the projects I am leaving behind … incomplete. I lost a lot of sleep over it – if you’re in the creative services industry you probably know what I mean. Working on the projects I have been fortunate enough to spend time on, getting to know the people who will eventually call them “home” has been just another aspect of misery associated with leaving my job. I don’t think for one minute that anyone will begrudge me for leaving, in fact, I am quite sure that they will all be very happy for me – that’s just another part of what makes this hurt. I thought about making this post about how to professionally go about quitting your job – but it’s too soon (but I’ll write about it eventually). I am excited for the change but saddened at the same time … it’s complicated. But it’s still the good kind of complicated. I decided to write today just to let everyone know that there will be some changes – the partners had last week to let anyone they wanted to personally tell know what was happening and now it’s my turn. My last day at my current job will be June 14th – that will give me 5 weeks to handle the transition of my projects to other capable people in the office. Things will continue on here at Life of an Architect – hopefully better than ever. In the meantime, wish me luck! Once I make the move, I’ll write part 2 of this post and let everyone know where I’m at and some of the details behind the move. Cheers, . .

Each tab on this credit card-sized pack by American designers Bolt Group can be torn off and used as a USB stick. The GIGS.2.GO pack by Bolt Group is made of recycled paper pulp and contains four tear-off tabs with a USB flash drive in each. The concept was inspired by Bolt Group designers frequently having problems sharing presentation and CAD files with clients. "Burning CDs is slow and impractical, and nobody wants to leave behind their trusty—and expensive—32GB thumb drive. We saw a need for a smaller pack of drives that could be shared and even left behind with a client," said designer Kurt Rampton. Though the drives are designed to last for many uses, the paper and electronic components can eventually be separated and recycled. Other USB sticks we've featured include a Nendo design concealed as a paper clip and a collection of jewellery that conceals USB drives. See more technology on Dezeen » The post GIGS.2.GO by Bolt Group appeared first on Dezeen.

Architects: Burnazzi Feltrin Architects Location: Ischia, Pergine Valsugana, Trento, Italy Design Team: Burnazzi Feltrin Architects (Burnazzi Elisa arch., Feltrin Davide arch.) and Pegoretti Paolo arch. Area: 340 sqm Year: 2012 Photographs: Images are property of architects Davide Feltrin, Elisa Burnazzi, Paolo Pegoretti and photographer Carlo Baroni Structural Design: Studio Tecnico Associato Svaldi Ingegneria (Alessandro Svaldi ing.) Heating System: Studio Tecnico Associato Svaldi Ingegneria (Roberto Svaldi ingegnere) Electrical System: Studio Zecchini Client: Corporate Cubage: 922 m3 (above ground) The GI multi-family housing is located in the south-east of the town of Pergine Valsugana, Ischia and on a slope. The building has three apartments, an apartment on each floor, the last of which is a duplex. From the large windows one can enjoy a beautiful view of Caldonazzo lake, the light is excellent all year round, also permitted by both the natural hills and by the surrounding buildings. The particularity of the place and of the existing buildings have suggested we should make a very compact and uniform construction volume. We wanted to reduce the visual impact of the main front, visible from the lake, using partially loggias balconies, and by creating a continuity between the front and pitched roofs. The latter not protruding from the walls, is actually integrated into the built up volume, which sees the external walls plastered like the local natural earth colours, whereas the balconies and terraces have the distribution transparent parapet. The niches of the lodges, a review of these historic buildings in the country, along with the padding of windows, doors, windows and cantilevered slabs, are dark coloured. In terms of energy the building is classified as A +; winter heating is works through a condensing boiler flue, equal to 29 KW. For domestic hot water solar panels located on the roof of the building, are used. Wanting to get a energy-saving building, in addition to the insulation of external walls and ceilings and to the controlled mechanical ventilation, the rationalization of internal distribution, has been largely focused upon, providing the building with large openings with larch low-E windows, with triple glazing south, east and west to make the most of the benefits of the winter sun. The main entrance, open to both vehicles and pedestrians, is situated on the inferior street, while the secondary entrances, pedestrian-only, at the top and bottom. By accessing the building through spaces, we have tried to emphasize those treated to green, obtaining a residential building immersed in the landscape, capable of fostering the relationships between peoplewho live there. Texts are property of architects Davide Feltrin and Elisa Burnazzi. GI Multi-family Housing / Burnazzi Feltrin Architects originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 20 May 2013.send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

Completed in 1994, the Igualada Cemetery was designed by Enric Miralles and Carme Pinos to be a place of reflection and memories. After 10 years of construction, their envision of a new type of cemetery was completed and began to consider those that were laid to rest, as well as the families that still remained. The Igualada Cemetery is understood by the architects to be a “city of the dead” where the dead and the living are brought closer together in spirit.  As much as the project is a place for those to be laid to rest, it is a place for those to come and reflect in the solitude and serenity of the Catalonian landscape of Barcelona, Spain. More on the project after the break. Miralles and Pinos conceptualized the poetic ideas of a cemetery for the visitors to begin to understand and accept the cycle of life as a link between the past, present, and future. Embedded in the Catalonian hills, the Igualada Cemetery is an earthwork that blends into the landscape as if it were a natural aspect of the land. The cemetery was designed as a tiered landscape that unfolds into the landscape as one continuous and fluid progression. The main burial area is part of a lowered excavated part of the cemetery that is surrounded by gabion walls and the mausoleum-like burial plots, which obstructs the visitor’s vision from the surrounding context secluding them in an area where the sky is the only visible entity outside of the central burial area.  Unlike the first tier, the second tier of the cemetery has more traditional burial plots that are separated and spread out rather than the mausoleum-like burial plots below. Also, on the second level, there is a chapel and monastery that remain unfinished; however, the unfinished aspects are not lacking, by any means, spatially rather they are void of definition and detail.  Yet, the lack of information and detailing compliments the overall sensations of the project where the spaces are open and void to retain the experiences of solitude and serenity. As one enters the site, one confronts a set of cor-ten steel poles that double as gates to the cemetery – the poles are likened to the crosses at Calvary.  From the main entrance, there is a processional winding pathway that descends into the main burial area; the pathway is lined with concrete “loculi” – mausoleum burial plots – that wrap around the depressed space as a transition from tier to tier.  The windy path is conceptualized as the river of life that moves from a wide open expanse in the Catalonian hills to a secluded memorial space excavated below the horizon.  The circulation through the cemetery adheres to a more processional effect that focuses less on the organization of the burial plots, but rather the experience. The materials of the Igualada cemetery tie the project seamlessly back into the landscape.  Miralles employed earthy materials of concrete, stone, and wood into the project.  The gabion walls, the worn/aged concrete, and the wooden railroad ties embedded in the stone groundscape evoke the hard and rough landscape of the surrounding hills.  The earthy tones of the materials transform the architecture into a natural aesthetic creating the appearance that cemetery has long been part of the site. The Igualada Cemetery is in a sense an organic architecture that integrates into the natural landscape as an extension of the Catalonian hills.  It is just as much a part of the landscape as the people that visit it. Even Miralles after his sudden death in 2000 is buried at the Igualada Cemetery, which in a sense completes the cycle of Miralles life: past, present, and future all clinging onto the Igualada Cemetery. Architect: Enric Miralles Location: Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain Project Year: 1984 – 1994 Photographs: David Cabrera References: archinform.net, and as seen in our last post on the project here. AD Classics: Igualada Cemetery / Enric Miralles + Carme Pinos originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visit

Architects: Andrés López, Jesús Bozzo, Rosa Palacios Location: Campus de la Salud, Granada, Spain Area: 3,405 sqm Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Jesús Granada Collaborators: Marcos Plazuelo López Promotor: Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Justicia y Administración Pública Structure: Francisco Duarte Jiménez Installation: Tomás Ruiz de Terry. Insur JG S.L. Project Managers: Andrés López Fernández, Jesús Bozzo Fernández de Tirso, Rosa Palacios Garrido Project Director: Rufino Manuel Quesada Molina Construction: Constructora Hispánica S.A. Budget: 2,488,176 Euros The relationship between legal medicine and architecture hasn’t been, in general, very natural, as a consequence of the western culture avoiding matters that involve suffering. Architecture, sadly, doesn’t have magical formulas to avoid this, and our challenge is to contribute, at least, to relieve it. Bright, kind and dialoguing architecture, closer to the citizens, help the staff in performing their essential work, at the same time giving the users the technical support they need so their stay in these kind of centers are more bearable. Before we started this project, in our minds we had images of nordic forests, associated to projects from Aalto, Lewerentz and Asplund. Places to let the view fly, for reflection and hope. The first sketches of the project tried to find some of this, towards the remoteness of the Alhambra or the bright sunsets over Sierra Nevada. When facing a plot of reduced dimensions in which we needed to accomodate an extensive program, we decided on a compact building, light and transparent, that evoked the snuff dryers of Granada’s Vega. Through a network of concrete, part of this legendary Granada atmosphere will leak into the building, and it’s interior brightness will rescue the cryptic image associated to the character of these programs. The proposed solar for the new Legal Medicine Institute is situated in an area in process of transformation, visible from the bypass and connections to the coast. The absence of urban references and destiny of the building, of complex and introverted program, justify the proposal of a clear block, apparently opaque to the exterior, with the facade’s only opening through a great porch that focuses every entrance to the building. The building is set as a great arch protected to the exterior through vertical concrete ribs that gives the building its blind and hermetic aspect, from the exterior, at the same time bright and transparent from the interior. The closed and massive character the building will offer to the passer during the day will become open and bright like a torch, during the night. The building is located 1,30 m over the outer slope, to allow the dependencies located in the basement to have natural light and ventilation. The interior natural brightness is even bigger in the heart of the building thanks to the interior emptiness that opens to the sky through a transparent cover. Light filters through an overhead structure that reconstructs a fictional city, a perfect downtown, recovered from the noise diagram from the bottom of the universe commissioned by the SETI, whose mission evokes the origin, nature and existence of life in the universe. Legal Medical Institute of Granada / Andrés López, Jesús Bozzo & Rosa Palacios originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 19 May 2013.send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

A door and deep-framed window are set into the glass house-shaped facade of this cupcake shop in Taiwan by J.C. Architecture. Taiwanese studio J.C. Architecture used the cake boxes as a starting point for the interior design. "We wanted to create a space that derives from the actual product itself," say the architects. "We took the idea of the gift packaging and studied the movement of folding." Les Bebes Cupcakery has a house-shaped shop frontage that extends beyond the facade of the building with a floor-to-ceiling glass window, interrupted by a solid black doorway. A black-framed box with a yellow interior pushes through the glass, acting as a display cabinet for the cupcakes. Inside the shop, a line of small shelves appears to have folded out of the white walls like box lids, revealing squares of dark tiles behind. Dark tiles are also used to border a raised bar area, which is lined with yellow and black stools. We recently featured a beauty salon in Osaka that also has a house-shaped shop window. Earlier this year we featured a patisserie that uses reclaimed wooden doors to recreate the decorative panelling of nineteenth century French interiors. See all our stories about shop design » The post Les Bebes Cupcakery by J.C. Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.

For this architect, there is an indiscernible line between art installation and building.  Alexander Brodsky studied architecture in Moscow, while working on art installations and drawings both independently and in collaborations with other artists. Brodsky admits that his career path was unconventional, that he felt unready to take on the responsibility of building.  Instead, Brodsky’s approach to architecture is through the lens of art: occupiable, room-sized installations that test spatial and sensory boundaries. More after the break. Having graduated in the 1970s, Brodsky continued working as an artist.  It was not until 2000 that he became an architect.  His architecture reflects a similar approach that his installations have in that it intentionally pushes the boundaries of comfort, creating experiential moments that can turn the elements of the architecture into a work of art. Get to know Alexander Brodsky and his work in this video as he prepares for an installation at the Architekturzentrum Wien in 2011 in Austria. Alexander Brodsky at Architekturzentrum Wien in 2011 originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 19 May 2013.send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

A new Kickstarter campaign is hoping to raise a goal of $3,500 to fund the second annual MAPEO Borderless Workshop – a workshop that focuses on community mapping and brings diverse people and minds together to think about cities within the US-Mexican border region. By rallying individuals from different disciplines with different backgrounds, MAPEO aims to “learn more about our own cities, evaluate urban challenges and come up with ideas on how to improve our life in cities in a very quick and meaningful exercise.” The MAPEO Workshop examines the urban conditions and challenges facing Northern Mexican cities of the Chihuahua region during an intense four day period of work that brings together 12 students from different universities as well as professionals and experts in architecture, regional planning and anthropology. The process is characterized by research, conversations with guest experts and the exchange of information and ideas about local water resources and systems, manufacturing industry and economy, mobility and ecology and other topics. The funds raised by the Kickstarter campaign will help to support the workshop itself, as well as the production of a video to show the world its processes and findings. Last year’s video gives a glimpse into the landscape and lifestyle of the Chihuahua region and highlights the collaboration necessary to understand and confront this area’s complicated and interconnected circumstances. Click here to view the embedded video. For more information on the MAPEO Borderless Workshop, visit their site here; to donate to the program, click here. Reference: Kickstarter, The Borderless Workshop Tumblr 2013 MAPEO Workshop Hopes to Explore Experimental Mapping Techniques originally appeared on ArchDaily, the most visited architecture website on 19 May 2013.send to Twitter | Share on Facebook | What do you think about this?

At just a little over 50 years old, the University of California San Diego is one of the younger college campuses in the United States, but despite this it is one of the most architecturally fascinating universities around. In the official UCSD campus guide, Dirk Sutro emphasizes that “UCSD does not have a single example of the historical-revival styles prevalent at other University of California campuses… and at San Diego’s two other major universities”. The history of UCSD architecture is one of ambition, which has made the campus a display case of modernism in all of its forms from the last half a century. Thanks to photographer Darren Bradley, we can now share this history and a selection of the exciting structures it has produced. Find out more about the UCSD campus after the break UCSD has its roots in the 1950s, when the City of San Diego offered a large section of land to the University of California. The new campus was positioned to include the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which had occupied a site on the coast since the early 20th century. What is now known as the Old Scripps Building was designed by Irving Gill in 1910; even at this early time, Gill had eschewed historical styles and his concrete design set the tone for the approach occupied by the new campus 50 years later. The original master plan for the campus was designed by Robert Alexander. It consisted of 12 colleges, each with a distinct architectural character, joined by a grand pedestrian boulevard inspired by the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The plan was heroic in its ambition: the focal point of this grand boulevard would be a huge plaza “rivaling the Piazza San Marco”, and a 6000-seat amphitheatre with a 360-foot bell tower at its center. A library “as compelling as a Mayan Pyramid” would complete the ensemble. Alexander oversaw the construction of Revelle College, the first of the 12 planned colleges, as well as the medical school and a number of standalone facilities such as the Gymnasium, with its delicate folded roof and the deceptively simple glass Natatorium. Revelle College is particularly notable for adopting the approach of the overall master plan, designed with strong forms and a large plaza at the center of the college. In order to encourage the different architectural character called for in the master plan, the university hired architect Robert Mosher to design the second college, and got more than they bargained for. A disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright, Mosher believed in humanistic design and was worried about the excessive scale of Alexander’s plan, likening it to the totalitarian architecture of the Nazis – entirely inappropriate for the progressive liberalism that characterized the student population of the 1960s. Mosher convinced the university’s administrators to ultimately abandon Robert Alexander’s plan, then designing Muir College, a more intimate collection of buildings than Revelle College. At around the same time, the university hired William Pereira to design the main library, who disagreed with Alexander’s plan to situate the library at the edge of the campus, and convinced the university that a site at the center of the campus would be better. Reacting to these betrayals of his vision, Alexander resigned from his post as consulting architect – but if nothing else, he got his wish for a library “as compelling as a Mayan Pyramid”. The remarkable Geisel Library (named after Theodore ‘Dr Seuss’ Geisel) is the focal point of the campus and the star of this architectural show. Since its rapid expansion in the 1960s and early 70s, construction at UCSD has slowed down a little, but now with six colleges and a much expanded student village near its center, there are still plenty of architectural gems to be seen, such as Moshe Safdie‘s designs for Eleanor Roosevelt College (2003), the Price Center East by Yazd

This house by Spanish architect Daniel Isern looks like a cluster of concrete cubes, stacked up on a steep hillside on the outskirts of Barcelona. The rural site faces out towards the coast, so Daniel Isern designed the four-storey residence with balconies and terraces on three of its floors, as well as a pair of glazed sunrooms. The form of the building comprises overlapping volumes that integrate several cantilevers. Isern explains: "The reduced dimensions of the plot and the desire to leave the minimum imprint on the land led us to seek out a floor plan which, matching the trees that surround it, emerges from a trunk well anchored to the land and opens up in branches on each floor." The entrance to the house is on the uppermost floor. There are no rooms at this level, so residents work their way downstairs to find a living room and bedroom on the next level down, a dining room below that and a master bedroom on the bottom floor. A concrete walls extends out from the north and south sides of the house and integrates a storage area for firewood. Other concrete houses from Spain to feature on Dezeen include a stark building with richly stained timber shutters and an X-shaped house that hangs over a hillside. See more houses in Spain. Photography is by Adrià Goula. Here's a statement from Daniel Isern: Mediterrani 32, Sant Pol de Mar 2012 "For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value." Claude Monet. The project for this house emerged from a very simple premise, to build on a very steep piece of land with a gradient of almost 100%, boasting wonderful views and on a tight budget. It was this highly complicated plot of land, surrounded by pine trees, that defined a good part of this project. The land, and its perspectives, constantly changing as the hours pass, the colour of the trees, the movement of sun and shadows... On the one hand, the reduced dimensions of the plot and its complex orography, and on the other the desire to leave the minimum imprint on the land led us to seek out a floorplan which, matching the trees that surround it, emerges from a trunk well anchored to the land and opens up in braches on each floor, in such a way that each branch becomes the terrace of the upper level at the same time as it becomes the porch of the lower one. All this helps create a very formal building, with huge cantilevers facing out to emptiness, the woods and the sea which lie before it. A structure which opens up to these views and the sun, and which thanks to the terraces and the porches confuse the interior with the exterior. A building which is equally formal in both its volume and the materials which compose it. Concrete, iron, timber and stone combining in a way that emphasises the character of each one. In the end, the whole building represents a dialogue between emptiness and fullness, between materials, between outside and inside; seeking out a balance between these highly contrasting parts. Level four floor plan - click for larger image Level three floor plan - click for larger image Level two floor plan - click for larger image Level one floor plan - click for larger image East elevation - click for larger image South elevation - click for larger image The post Mediterrani 32, Sant Pol de Mar by Daniel Isern appeared first on Dezeen.