Showing posts with label Architecture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Architecture. Show all posts
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Interactive Model of Lower Manhattan
Pentagram designed this interactive model of Lower Manhattan for Wall Street Rising's Downtown Information Center. Design: Lisa Strausfeld, Nina Boesch.
Augmented Architecture
Application of Augmented Reality in Architecture and Urban Space - Architecture thesis project in Ecole Spéciale d'Architecture Paris Oct 2005 by Quck Zhong Yi, with help from Alexandre Pachiaudi (Pico), Anny Galanou, Gaetan Kohler, Nicolas Trouillard, and Leila.
Muscle room- an interactive hotel room design
concept
The Muscle Room envisions a concept where the user can alter his surroundings to suit his every needs. When the room is entered it is completely empty. One big, open space. By interacting with the room the user can get a different layout or appearance. The walls can be shaped into furniture, doors, spaces to allow the guest a new sensation of freedom. Also the appearance, light, sound and climate can be influenced to create the perfect room.
On the client-side the concept also allows the hotel-operator to maximize the possibilities of a single space and to be able to exploit his hotel in dense areas.
Friday, September 18, 2009
'Memory of Water,' 535 Mission St.
Sebastapol artist Ned Kahn would turn an empty construction site at 535 Mission St., now covered by gravel, into what he calls "Memory of Water" -- a lakebed of sorts, created by shimmering metal discs. This is an aerial view from the roof of 560 Mission.
Photo: SEE SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS / Ned Kahn
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Update: House of Arts and Culture Beirut Competition
In April 2009, Bustler reported that Milan-based practice Teknoarch had won the international competition for the new House of Arts and Culture in Beirut, Lebanon. Representatives of Teknoarch are in Lebanon this week to meet
with their local partners and to present the most recent developments of their project to the Minister of Culture.
The competition organizers also updated us that all entered projects have been uploaded and are now visible on their website www.darbayrut.org.
These are the three competition-winning projects: (Click pics to enlarge and see the designer)
1st PRIZE: Teknoarch
2nd PRIZE: STAR strategies + architecture
3rd PRIZE: Project Meganom
Honorable Mention: DORELL GHOTMEH TANE, Architects, Paris, France in collaboration with Joumana Al-Jabri, Dubai & Klaas De Rycke/BOLLINGIER + GROHMANN SARL, France
Honorable Mention: Spiridon Kakavas, Dimitris Giannisis, Eleni Klonizaki, Kostanti Stamataki, Georgia Nikolakopoulou, Athens, Greece
Honorable Mention: poly.m.ur (Chris Yoo, Homin Kim, Heekyung Mun), London, UK
Honorable Mention: Format 21, Frankfurt, Germany
Honorable Mention: Atelier 2/3/4, Paris France
Honorable Mention: BOARD, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
DnB NOR headquarters by MVRDV
The international Norwegian financial institution DnB NOR decided to concentrate their twenty office locations currently dispersed over the city in the Barcode. In 2007, the master plan team was commissioned by developer OSU to design the urban concept. A new cluster of three volumes and a common basement with a 3,000m2 underground concourse, which interlinks the three buildings of the bank, was developed. MVRDV was commissioned as architect for the central building and co-responsible for the concourse.
The development of a new headquarter cluster is a strategic operation aiming for synergy and a clear identity. The objective was to translate the social and democratic character of the organisation into a building with excellent working conditions and spatial qualities. The structure is conceived as a steel 『rack' which permits adaptation to the flexible nature of the organisation.
The steel rack is wrapped in a stone skin, which adopts Norwegian environmental standards. It appears as a rock, a strong shape within the boundaries of the Barcode. The niches of this rock provide space for vegetation growth: the positioning of the pixels creates roof gardens or outside areas for every floor.
The generic office floors recline and are recessed in various places to reflect the urban context and to create communal indoor and outdoor areas and outstanding daylight conditions. At street level the building volume is opened by sheltered entrance zones, and intersected by a public passage leading to the Oslo Central Station. The pixelated design allows this specific response whilst being highly efficient and flexible. As a result, every floor of the building is both unique and generic: the pixelated volume makes the generic specific.
Besides more than 2,000 flexible work spaces the building contains a panoramic 140 seat canteen on the top level, the executive lounge with a view over the fjord, the board room, in the heart of the volume, DnB NOR's trading room with 250 work stations, and the main entrance with a reception and access to the concourse. These collective elements are connected by a staggered continuous internal route of terraces, encouraging informal meetings and communication between employees.
The route meanders from the reception upwards through the building, connecting all office levels with the communal areas. A series of wooden stairs and bridges allow employees to switch levels or even to walk the 17 levels up to the canteen on one side of the building and down on the other side. The route accommodates communal areas to the office floors and is made homely with a series of pantries, informal meeting areas and fire places. It gives access to the various outdoor terraces and roof gardens. All these collective spaces are designed as glass pixels allowing views over the surroundings and transparency from the exterior. The route is naturally ventilated and has a high performance glass fit for the cold Norwegian winter.
On behalf of OSU, MVRDV collaborates with Norwegian co-architect DARK Arkitekter AS and various Norwegian engineering firms. Project management is executed by Norwegian firm Vedal Project AS. The second building of the DnB NOR cluster is designed by A-lab and the third building by Dark Arkitekter, all within the overall master plan and the Barcode urban master plan by MVRDV / DARK / a-lab. DnB NOR is the largest financial services group in Norway. The Group consists of brands such as DnB NOR, Vital, Nordlandsbanken, Cresco, Postbanken, DnB NORD and Carlson.
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MVRDV was set up in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries. MVRDV produces designs and studies in the fields of architecture, urbanism and landscape design. Early projects such as the headquarters for the Dutch Public Broadcaster VPRO and housing for elderly WoZoCo in Amsterdam lead to international acclaim. MVRDV develops its work in a conceptual way, the changing condition is visualised and discussed through designs, sometimes literally through the design and construction of a diagram.
The office continues to pursue its fascination and methodical research on density using a method of shaping space through complex amounts of data that accompany contemporary building and design processes. MVRDV first published a cross section of these study results in FARMAX (1998), followed by a.o. MetaCity/Datatown (1999), Costa Iberica (2000), Regionmaker (2002), 5 Minutes City (2003), KM3 (2005), which contains Pig City and more recently Spacefighter (2007) and Skycar City (2007), the latter two will be exhibited at the 2008 Biennale of Venice. MVRDV deals with global ecological issues in large scale studies like Pig City as well as in small scale solutions for flooded areas of New Orleans.
Current projects include various housing projects in the Netherlands, Spain, China, France, Austria, the United Kingdom, USA, India, Korea and other countries, a television centre in Zürich, a public library for Spijkenisse (Netherlands), a central market hall for Rotterdam, a culture plaza in Nanjing, China, large scale urban masterplans in Oslo, Norway and in Tirana, Albania, a masterplan for an eco-city in Logroño, Spain and an urban vision for the doubling in size of Almere, Netherlands.
The work of MVRDV is exhibited and published world wide and receives international awards. The 60 architects, designers and staff members conceive projects in a multi-disciplinary collaborative design process and apply highest technological and sustainable standards.
Algorithmic Architecture
As architecture enters the new era of digital representation, geometrical theories and processes are being implemented, tested, and pushed to their limits. Recent theories of form in architecture have focused on computational methods of formal exploration and expression. From topological geometry and hypersurfaces to blobs and folds, there is a clear tendency to seek and explore formal properties as sources of ordering systems. For the last two decades, designers have been concerned with the use of computational mechanisms for the exploration of formal systems. These practices have attempted to readdress formal issues using new techniques and methods. Computational tools are central protagonists in this exploration.
The dominant mode of utilizing computers in architecture today is that of computerization; entities or processes that are already conceptualized in the designer's mind are entered, manipulated, or stored on a computer system. In contrast, computation or computing, as a computer-based design tool, is generally limited. While research and development of software involves extensive computational techniques, mouse-based manipulations of 3D computer models are not necessarily acts of computation.
Presently, an alternative choice is being formulated: algorithmic architecture. It involves the designation of software programs to generate space and form from the rule-based logic inherent in architectural programs, typologies, building code, and language itself. Instead of direct programming, the codification of design intention using scripting languages available in 3D packages (i.e. Maya Embedded Language MEL, 3DMaxScript, and FormZ 4.0) can build consistency, structure, coherency, traceability, and intelligence into computerized 3D form. By using scripting languages designers can go beyond the mouse, transcending the factory-set limitations of current 3D software.
Source: GSD 2309 course description, Prof. Terzidis
follymorph.blogspot.com
follymorph.blogspot.com
object-e.blogspot.com
evolo- algorithmic skyscraper competition
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Computational architecture: Theveryma
For a different take and a different scripting language, go read theverymany, Marc Fornes’ blog on his experiments in computational architecture. 98% of his blog so far is Rhinoscript code for creating generative structures, accompanied by intriguing illustrations. It makes you want to work with Rhino just to be able to see it run.
For those who don’t know it, Rhinoscript is a VBScript language used to control Rhino, a high-end 3D package used for anything from CAD/CAM and visualization to computer animation. Rhino is popular with coding architects, sculptors and CGI heads alike. It’s not as old skool as AutoCAD and AutoLISP, which has been used for computational architecture since 1986. But it’s likely a lot more useful.
theverymany is refreshingly focused on sketches and code, but there is documentation of one interesting recent project: "From DIN to DIM", a “series of experimentations looking at transitions between the German Standard of design to self-similar objects controled by declared variables…”. Done with Vincent Nowak and Claudia Corcilius, it consists of generative formal studies, using nested loops to generate structure.
As with much computational architecture, the results are visually very compelling. The techno-organic tower structures recall fashions in blobby architecture, while simultaneously reminding one of 70s sci-fi book covers. The translation of simple code structures into complex and appealing form seems effortless, it would certainly be interesting to see the slides shown in higher detail.
Marc Fornes is a graduate of the AA's Digital Research Labotary class, and is currently working as an architect for Zaha Hadid Ltd. He indicates in the sidebar of his blog that his rhinoscript library might be available as open source.
Generative architecture- theory and design
Generative architecture refers to a picture in which component invention is set in motion with some degree of autonomy and some degree of design control.
A bicycle is a static system of interactive parts, governed by environmental forces and component relationships. The bicycle requires a skilled cyclist to become a dynamic system successfully operating in changing conditions. Like a bicycle under rider-power, an inhabited building is dynamic. Architects arrange a future building to suit its inhabitants; they become generative architects when they treat building design as component set invention, and if they subject the proposed components to design development using semi-autonomous or autonomous rule-systems.
Gridshell Tectonics: Material Values Digital Parameters
Andrea Palladio and Zaha Hadid Architects
ParametricDesign.net
Generative Design- Good evening, Mr.Eiffel
Update: It’s now clear that the news about the Serero project for the Eiffel Tower is a hoax, as seen on Archinect and NY Times. Thanks to Sarrach for the tip.
Good news for anyone planning to visit that Parisian icon, the Eiffel Tower: A competition for an extension of the tower’s public areas aims to reduce wait times and increase its visitor capacity. And best of all, the winning entry was produced through a generative design process.
Serero Architects have proposed an extension of the top plateau of the tower, using a carbon Kevlar structure capable of carrying the weight of visitors venturing out onto the observation deck to take in the beauty of the French capital. Without any physical modification to the existing structure, it will double the available floor surface.
The generative script was inspired by the cross bracing beams that give the Eiffel Tower its architectural signature, generating 3 interconnected woven forms. The result is a nice combination of the current architectural trend of sub-divided surfaces and the Art Nouveau flourishes of the original tower. Considering that many Parisians hated the tower when it was first built, it will be interesting to see how they react to this revision of their shared heritage.
See Serero Architects for more of their projects involving generative design. ViaMadeincalifornia, a great blog about computational architecture.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Building Information Modeling
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the process of generating and managing building data during its life cycle[1]. Typically it uses three-dimensional, real-time, dynamic building modeling software to increase productivity in building design and construction.[2] The process produces the Building Information Model (also abbreviated BIM), which encompasses building geometry, spatial relationships, geographic information, and quantities and properties of building components. Source: Wiki
Dr. Burcin Becerik-Gerberin the article 'The value of building Information Modeling' mentions:At the recent BIM CON ! FAB 2009 symposium hosted by the University of Southern California, architecture, engineering and construction practitioners described how their firms have effectively used Building Information Modeling (BIM) in their projects—their BIM processes, and the benefits they believe they have found. With the increasing number of case studies on the topic of BIM in practice, anecdotal evidence suggests that the use of BIM makes the building industry more efficient and effective. However, these case studies can only provide insight into singular situations; they fail to provide a complete and comprehensive list of benefits and associated costs and they rarely assign quantitative values. The question still remains: is BIM really lowering costs and making the building industry more productive? The intuitive answer is ‘yes’ but what is really needed are models for establishing metrics and benchmarks, so the benefits of BIM can established more definitively.
See AEC bytes
Dublin bridge wins European award
The new Spencer Dock bridge in the Dublin docklands won the Best Structural Design prize at a Leaf (Leading European Architects Forum) awards ceremony in Berlin last night. The awards, now in their sixth year, are given to those who “have made an outstanding contribution to the world of architectural design” and for buildings that set benchmarks.
“It is great to get a structural award because the structure was where the innovation lay in this bridge,” said Amanda Levete of Amanda Levete Architects who worked on the sculptural bridge with Arup engineers.
Also on the structural award shortlist was a glass staircase in the National Bank of Denmark by Dissing + Weitling Architecture, and a timber tower in east London by Waugh Thistleon Architects. “The shortlisted structures all really pushed out the boat technically and it was a real honour to win,” said Ms Levete.
Two other Irish projects shortlisted in the Leaf awards, run by the Arena International Events Group, were in the public building category. The new Westmeath County Council offices by Bucholz McEvoy Architects and the Wexford opera house by Keith Williams Architects and the Office of Public Works were up against strong competition. This included the restoration of the Neus Museum in Berlin by David Chipperfield Architects and Julian Harrap Architects, and the Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion in Spain by Zaha Hadid Architects. The winner was a community centre by GPY Arcquitectos based in Tenerife.
More Mobile - Portable Architecture For Today
More Mobile! Portable Architecture for Today ~ Edited by Jennifer Siegal ~ this book showed up recently from the Princeton Architectural Press, and its so awesome, i think i'm finally figuring out how to share books with you guys… So i've scanned some of my favorite pages on the next page for you to check out!
This book is the follow up to her 2002 book, Mobile: the art of mobile architecture (which i will now have to go track down!) - for regular readers, you know i've got a thing for mobile architecture, especially shipping container architecture! So this book is just incredibly inspiring to flip through the many fascinating projects! Check out the next page to see some of the best pages!
About the Author:
Jennifer Siegal is founder and principal of the Los Angeles-based firm Office of Mobile Design which explores the ideas of dynamic, accessible, sustainable architecture. She is a former Loeb Fellow at Harvard Graduated School of Design and is the inaugural Julius Schulman Institute Fellow at Woodbury University.
Open Source Architecture for Africa
Osafa.org has just launched and will be a Wikipedia-like platform where the "source code" of construction projects, i.e.
- floor plans,
- building descriptions,
- drafts/photos and
- commercials calculations
are being shared under an open licence, ready to be reused or adapted, without licence fees.
We want to apply the success factors of Open Source Software to the intellectual wisdom of African architecture. Osafa is to be used by all stakeholders of construction projects in Africa, professionals and hobbyists, Africans and non-Africans, world changers and business people alike.
SIETCH NEVADA
Year: 2009
Location: 37°46′20.10″N, 117°31′57.38″W
Exhibition: Out of Water | innovative technologies in arid climates at the University of Toronto
Description: In Frank Herbert’s famous1965 novel Dune, he describes a planet that has undergone nearly complete desertification. Dune has been called the “first planetary ecology novel” and forecasts a dystopian world without water. The few remaining inhabitants have secluded themselves from their harsh environment in what could be called subterranean oasises. Far from idyllic, these havens, known as sietch, are essentially underground water storage banks. Water is wealth in this alternate reality. It is preciously conserved, rationed with strict authority, and secretly hidden and protected.
Although this science fiction novel sounded alien in 1965, the concept of a water-poor world is quickly becoming a reality, especially in the American Southwest. Lured by cheap land and the promise of endless water via the powerful Colorado River, millions have made this area their home. However, the Colorado River has been desiccated by both heavy agricultural use and global warming to the point that it now ends in an intermittent trickle in Baja California. Towns that once relied on the river for water have increasingly begun to create underground water banks for use in emergency drought conditions. However, as droughts are becoming more frequent and severe, these water banks will become more than simply emergency precautions.
Sietch Nevada projects waterbanking as the fundamental factor in future urban infrastructure in the American Southwest. Sietch Nevada is an urban prototype that makes the storage, use, and collection of water essential to the form and performance of urban life. Inverting the stereotypical Southwest urban patterns of dispersed programs open to the sky, the Sietch is a dense, underground community. A network of storage canals is covered with undulating residential and commercial structures. These canals connect the city with vast aquifers deep underground and provide transportation as well as agricultural irrigation. The caverns brim with dense, urban life: an underground Venice. Cellular in form, these structures constitute a new neighborhood typology that mediates between the subterranean urban network and the surface level activities of water harvesting, energy generation, and urban agriculture and aquaculture. However, the Sietch is also a bunker-like fortress preparing for the inevitable wars over water in the region.
Credit: Andrew Kudless (Design), Nenad Katic (Visualization), Tan Nguyen, Pia-Jacqlyn Malinis, Jafe Meltesen-Lee, Ben (Model)
Monday, September 14, 2009
Digital Hinterlands Exhibition
Digital Hinterlands features a diverse range of work by some of the best recent architecture graduates from London's Architectural Association, Bartlett, Royal College of Art, and University of Westminster. Organised by Ruairi Glynn and curated in consultation with Arup, this exhibition reveals how the latest computational design and rapid manufacturing processes are providing new ways of understanding and designing space. From built models, 1:1 fragments, material experiments and installations, to interactive devices, virtual worlds and robotics, this exhibition presents the ideas of a wave of young designers, operating on the speculative hinterlands of architectural design.
The Private View of the Digital Hinterlands Exhibition is on the 21st September to coincide with the Digital Architecture London Conference, as part of London Digital Week
Foster + Partners design of Capital Airport in Beijing
Reference
66 million passengers forecasted to pass through next year, 1 800 miles of cables, 445 lifts, 7 000 car parks. This is a new airport in Beijing, that started with works on August 2004 and is expected to be finished by the end of this year. Ground floor, which lead by functional analises is symetrical, but the roof revolts against order and welcomes tourists, that are in a front of the biggest gate into olympic games Beijing 2008.
Dynamic museum by UNStudio
In village of culture, as in Dubai is a place full of finest stalls called, will be enriched by a building of Dubai Museum of Middle East Art designed by Netherlands from UN Studio. Architects proposed, as is typical for Dubai, fully futuristic, floated, dynamic structure.
