After meeting Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto, founders of ecoLogicStudio at the Beyond Media Festival in Florence, they talked to us about one of their latest projects, the STEMcloud v2.0 that now we want to share here, as is a really new and avant-garde vision about parametric and genetic architecture and the way that human interaction can bring new life to architecture projects:

The STEMcloud v2.0 project proposes the development and testing of an architectural prototype operating as an oxygen making machine. The project has been presented and designed for the SEVILLE ART and ARCHITECTURAL BIENNALE 2008.

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KSP Engel und Zimmermann Architekten was awarded first prize for their Tianjin Art Gallery proposal.  The Chinese government has been investing in new cultural buildings in an effort to battle the economic crisis by creating this new form of investment plan.  The 33,000m2 art gallery will be one component in the city’s 90 ha cultural and leisure quarter, which will also include an opera house and other recreational centers.

More about the gallery after the break. read more »

© Iwan Baan

Rem Koolhaas’ latest project -The Prada Transformer- is not just a building, but also a statement on today´s state of architecture. Dubbed the anti-blob, this “object” rejects all common blobby shapes we have seen lately. Simple geometrical shapes (a circle, a cross, a rectangle and an hexagon) enclose a space that depending on its rotation results on different spaces suitable for fashion exhibitions, cinema, art exhibitions and other special events. Each face is the platform on which these activities take place, while also being served by the other faces enclosing the space.

A few weeks ago, we presented the Transformer at Position 1 (Fashion Exhibition) with photos by Iwan Baan . Now, he sent us his photo set for the Transformer at Position 2: Cinema.

From June 26th to July 5th, the Transformer used a center piece on one of the faces to project “Flesh, Mind and Soul”, a film festival co-curated by Alejandro González Iñárritu (director Babel, 21 Grams). Please note that the interiors are now almost all black.

As of now, the Transformer is going through some changes to debut on its new position on Jul 30th to host “Beyond Control”, an exhibition by the Prada Foundation.

More photos by Iwan Baan after the break and the complete photo set on Iwan’s website:

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Eight students at the University of Technology in Eindhoven have built their own design of a little temple at full scale. These buildings were realized in a space that’s part of the office of Kovos Architects, with materials donated by different sponsors. The main source of inspiration during the design process was the abbey of Le Thoronet in the Provence, France.

Aspects like light, space, mass, rhythm and proportion find their most essential form in this great example of architectonic simplicity. After a visit to the abbey the students searched for an interpretation of these aspects within their own design of a little temple. With the full scale execution of the design, the spatial effect of the detail was most important.

The project is led by Jan Schevers. The participating students are Yuri Buteijn, Joan Gaudin, Faye Hermens, Dirk Reijnders, Dave Venmans, Raoul Vleugels, Johanna van Warners en Frank Wijnen. For more informations about the project and visits to the exhibition, check out the projects website: www.littletemple.nl

All photographs of the completed project by Ingrid Bussemakers. More images, after the break. read more »

The initial[1] idea was thought provoking: construct a covering using 400 red umbrellas (outside of their intended purpose) suspended over the new pedestrian mall in the city of Talca to create a visual impression of the inhabitants of a city in which it is uncommon to see daring displays in public spaces.

This lack of innovation seems to come in part, from others creating similar urban displays based only on previously proved ideas as well as the minute demand for this type of “product” by the local population. This could explain why businesses are reluctant to fund innovative displays or events. Or perhaps, it’s the stunted competitive environment that hinders creativity.

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X‐Initiative presents the premiere of Pool Noodle Rooftop by Jeffrey Inaba’s Los Angeles‐based practice, INABA. The rooftop space, which will be used for film screenings and special events, will be open to the public daily during selected visiting hours throughout the summer. Four separate seating areas cluster around a ‘X’ shaped carpet that covers the entire rooftop surface.

The furniture, which is also X‐shaped in plan, has been constructed from pool noodles - the long and cylindrical, foam water flotation toys. The pool noodles have been cut and bunched vertically into chaise lounge and ottoman units of varying heights that accommodate up to 150 people. When viewed from above, the arrangement of buoyant seating material spells out the word, ‘bububluooopppp’ - the sound of something either rising or sinking.

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Media architecture collective Urban Alliance has recently finished the Moodwall: a 24 meter long interactive light installation in Amsterdam.

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© Sungpil Won

Architects: Mass Studies - Minsuk Cho + Kisu Park
Location: City Park, Denver, Colorado, USA
Design team: Joungwon Lee,Bumhyun Chun, Kyungmin Kwon, Sungpil Won
Structure: Pneumatic
Construction: ABR
Finishing: Nylon fabric with silver dot printing
Gross floor Area: 673 sqm
Design year: 2004-2008
Construction year: 2008
Photographs: Sungpil Won / Mass Studies

© Mass Studies

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© Iwan Baan

Rem Koolhaas’ latest project -The Prada Transformer- is not just a building, but also a statement on today´s state of architecture. Dubbed the anti-blob, this “object” rejects all common blobby shapes we have seen lately. Simple geometrical shapes (a circle, a cross, a rectangle and an hexagon) enclose a space that depending on its rotation results on different spaces suitable for fashion exhibitions, cinema, art exhibitions and other special events. Each face is the platform on which these activities take place, while also being served by the other faces enclosing the space.

© Iwan Baan

A few weeks ago we showed you part of the construction progress, which is already finished and opened in April 15th with a fashion exhibition (Waist Down – Skirts by Miuccia Prada, see video of animated skirts at the exhibition), that will be opened until May 31 when the Transformer will rotate into Cinema mode.

Architecture photographer Iwan Baan recently visited the Prada Transformer and shared with us this impressive photo set of the Transformer on Exhibition mode (see more after the break).

For me, search for the ultimate flexible space and the use of regular shapes puts several things in question. Transformable architecture is nothing new, but in times on which “mixed use” seems to be the 2nd typical characteristic of a building after “green”, this project makes a stand. No fancy shapes, no wind diagrams, no fancy structure, no shiny surfaces, no eye candy renderings. No blob. Just, a simple building.

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Architects: HHF Architects + Ai WeiWei
Location: Salt Point, New York, USA
Design Team: HERLACH HARTMANN FROMMENWILER & AI WEIWEI with Tom Strub, Fumiko Takahama
Structural Engineering: Crawford & Associates, Hudson, NY
Construction Management: Crawford & Associates, Hudson, NY
Design year: 2006-2007
Construction year: 2007-2008
Client: Christophe W. Mao / Chambers Fine Art
Budget: US $321,700
Constructed Area: 373 sqm
Photographs: Iwan Baan

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Architects: wHY Architecture
Location: Culver City, California, USA
Area: 929 sqm
Project Year: 2008
Program: Art Gallery, Café and Retail Shop
Photographs: wHY Architecture

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Parkour is a sport on which you have to go from one point of the city to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, overcoming any obstacles in your way: walls, fences, trees, etc. This has made Parkour THE urban sport, included in recent pop culture music videos.

Danish film maker Kaspar Astrup Schröder is currently finishing MY PLAYGROUND, a documentary on movement, tricking, freerunning and parkour, and its relation with the urban spaces. This documentary will features scenes with parkour masters Team Jiyo and interviews with urban planners, local politicians, architects and philosophers.

The trailer uses the Mountain Dwellings by BIG as playground for the traceurs. The film is expected to be premiered in the summer of 2009.

ROSO has launched a major art installation at Clark Shoes Headquarters in Street Somerset, South England. This was commissioned by Mr Lance Clark and is the first phase of two, of the art work situated in the communal court yard in the heart of Clarks office buildings.

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The 11th Venice Biennaleis just around the corner, starting on Sept 14th with a preview on Sept 11th-13th. I´m eager to see the pavillions and installations on the Biennale, specially because the title for this version is “Out There: Architecture Beyond Building” on which Aaron Betsky, the curator, says ” “will point the  way towards an architecture liberated from buildings to engage the central issues of our society; instead of the tombs of architecture, which is to say buildings, it will present site specific installations, visions and experiments that help us figure out, make sense of and feel at home in our modern world”.

One of this installations is “AirXY: From Inmaterial to Rematerial” by M-A-D, an interdisciplinary design firm with primary expertise in branding and visual communications.  From their authors: he airXY screen is folded to seem as if it had burst out of the wall behind. as visitors approach they notice what appears to be a giant checkerboard with a vertical line scanning from left to right. suggesting the surface of an interface, a desktop and a machine simultaneously, on further observation, the visitors see that the composition is, in fact, charting the passing of time along an XY axis divided into 24×60 units. in addition to the vertical line and rectangular XY units, tiny green abstract icons are floating across the screen, looking like runes, contemporary urban signs or the graphic language of circuit diagrams”.

More pictures after the jump.

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¿Remember GreenPix, the 2,200 sqm LED media wall powered by solar panels we featured some months ago? Alexandra Lerman published a  documentary about the GreenPix on which Simon Giostra, founder of Simone Giostra & Partners. Giostra explains the challenge to design and build this gigantic media wall, with the help of engineering experts ARUP.

Actually Giostra  is trying to convince the chinese goverment to display user generated content on the media wall, which is currently under the curatory of the authorities. This will make if fully interactive.

You can also download a software -available for Mac and PC- to simulate the media wall on your computer using Quicktime videos.

Reminds me of the display on the stage where Beck played at the Oulands Festival in San Francisco last week.

Architect: nArchitects
Location: Lacoste, France
Project Completion Year: July 2006
Design Team: Eric Bunge, Mimi Hoang (Partners); Daniela Zimmer (Project Architect), Kazuya Katagiri, Takuya Shinoda, Shuji Suzumori / Fabrication by nARCHITECTS and SCAD (Jim Bischoff, Michael Gunter, Cindy Hartness, Michael Porten, Ryan Townsend, Troy Wandzel, with Natalie Bray and Sarah Walko)
Client: Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
Program: Ephemeral pavilions
Photographs: Daniela Zimmer & nArchitects

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The 2008 Olympic Games aren´t just a gathering of athletes, it´s also a showcase of the most innovative buildings and technologies like GreenPIX, the Zero Energy Media Wall by Simone Giostra & Partners and ARUP, pictured above.

This curtain wall covers the front of the Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympic Games. It features the worlds largest color LED display, powered by a photovoltaic system integrated into the glass curtain wall.

This Media Wall will showcase a selection of specially commissioned video installations and live performances by artists from China, Europe and the US, starting in May. Pictures, construction progress, diagrams and videos after the break.

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