Designed by Sori Yanagi | Photo Courtesy of MoMA

Plywood: Material, Process, Form is an ongoing exhibit at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City that will be open to the public starting tomorrow, February 2, 2012. We have seen many architectural projects that take advantage of the flexibility this “layer cake of lumber and glue”, as described by Popular Science in 1948, has to offer. Plywood has given 20th-century designers a material embodying  “formal and aesthetic” qualities on an industrial scale.

More on the exhibit after the break. read more »

Courtesy of ifoapplestore.com

We have all heard of patenting building systems, building technologies, details and of course, products.  But what about patenting architecture?  Jack Martin brought this to our attention in light of Apple successfully getting an architectural patent for the design of a store in the Upper West Side in New York City, asking “On what grounds can you patent architecture?”  The inventors listed in the patent are architects Karl Backus, Peter Bohlin and George Bradley of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, and Robert Bridger, Benjamin L. Fay, Steve Jobs and Bruce Johnson for a design that Architect’s Newspaper describes as “meticulous and seamless as its clients”.

So, what is the extent of patenting architecture?  Structural systems, materials, details, conceptual strategies, the look of it?  We interpret architecture as a language in itself, but it is difficult to conceive of copyright infringement when it comes to architectural design because it is difficult to pin-point exactly what makes all of the parts of a building a copyrighted entity. What if Le Corbusier patented his designs?  Mies van der Rohe? Frank Lloyd Wright?  Their work and strategies have been copied and implemented all over the world to varying degrees.  So, where is the line between protecting an original idea and creating a barrier against progress? Or does this commercialization of architecture fuel competition to design better or design around strategies already patented? More after the break.

Young dutch designer Jólan van der Wiel has been announced as the winner of the [D3] Contest for young designers at the imm cologne fair.

Using a magnetic plastic compounds, magnets and simple gravity, Jólan gives birth to the Gravity Stool, an expressive piece of furniture that is like a frozen moment of physics exposing the forces in action. You can see the full process on the above video by Miranda Stet.

© Jólan van der Wiel

The Gravity Stool thanks its unique shape to the cooperation between magnetic fields and the power of gravity.

Departing from the idea that everything is influenced by gravitation, a force that has a strongly shaping effect, I intended to manipulate this natural phenomenon by exploiting its own power: magnetism. The positioning of the magnetic fields in the machine, opposing each other, has largely determined the final shape of the Gravity Stool.

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© René Spitz via flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/renespitz/

As the New Year begins, architects and designers everywhere search for the latest information in hopes to find inspiration to provide them with ample amounts of motivation. Unsure of my inspiration, I found myself reading Neither Restrospective, Nor Predictive: Dieter Rams & Design of Self on the Semantic Foundry WordPress. I was then reminded of the famous German industrial designer Dieter Rams and his ten principles of “good design”. The straightforward list lays down key points, clearly stating what makes a good design. This information is a timeless source of inspiration that most any designer can appreciate.

Continue reading for Dieter Rams Ten Principles of “Good Design”

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Vacant land is a looming problem for many cities, especially when it remains undeveloped for years or is transformed into garbage dumps and parking lots. But when designers begin to notice these voids within the activity of a city they are able to unlock the inherent potential in the land. That is precisely what “Not a Vacant Lot”, as part of DesignPhiladephia, did this October. Philadelphia’s 40,000 vacant lots are both a challenge and an opportunity for young designers, artists and architects to tranform these under-utilized spaces into experiences within the fabric of the urban environment. The focal point of the design intervention was at the University of the Arts lot on 313 S. Broad Street, just a few blocks from Philadelphia’s center. It featured a reinterpreted map of Philadelphia by PennDesign students and Marianne Bernstein’s Play House, an 8′x8′ aluminum cube which, in its simplicity, could unlock the potential of this particular lot. But this engagement of vacant land was just one such intervention in a series artist installations throughout Philadelphia.  Another such intervention, GroundPaper, was designed by two collaborating artists, Mike Ski and KT Butterfield.  The site of their choosing was along the banks of the Delaware River in Fishtown, a neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Read on to see what artists can accomplish with no budget, a vacant lot and an inspired idea.

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Courtesy of Populous

Following Populous’ recent success with the redevelopment of the home of the British Formula One Grand Prix, Silverstone, the ground breaking ceremony for the next Populous Formula 1 project, the 4.7km Velociudad Speedcity circuit, recently took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 16th. More images and brief project description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of HartnessVision

Located in front of Manila City Hall, the proposed project by HartnessVision integrates ‘water branding’ into the architecture of this Maynilad customer facility. The site is organized around 3 programmed axes (nature, access, amenities) in which pedestrians have priority. The expression of water-channeling and healthy clean water resources play important roles in their concept. More images and project description after the break. read more »

Photo: Wolfgang Volz // © 1999 Christo

Controversial artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude – known for making large-scale architectural interventions in urban and rural environments – have finally gotten approval from the Bureau of Land Management to construct their most recent project “Over the River”, which will stretch along 5.9 miles along the Arkansas River in Southern Colorado.

Read on for details of the project and more images! read more »

Courtesy of Vitra

Vitra presents an office of possibilities called Citizen Office – one in which employees control the way they interact with their work environment. Through the creative implementation of products and arrangements that stimulate the flexible use of space for each individual, employees can choose how their work will be most productive.  This promotes physical and mental well-being and reflects positively on employee performance.  According to Katharina Weisflog, Marketing & Public Relations Manager for Vitra, “feeling at ease makes people more motivated and productive” which is why at Citizen Office “the workers decide autonomously which rhythm and which form is right for their respective activity at which location”.

Click through for images of the working environment created within Citizen Office. read more »

Production and design firm, The Department of the 4th Dimension (The D4D), created the world’s first pop-up scent museum for Sephora & Firmenich. The Sensorium: Lucid Dreams from the Sensory World is an interactive exhibition exploring the emotions and instincts behind scent.

For more information, continue reading after the break.

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EUA / Los Angeles - Courtesy of Mário N. Rangel

Out of this world…designing for the unknown. The possibilities in design are endless and limitless when it comes to UFOs! The vast impact of ufology in architecture around the world is an interesting discovery. Documentation of some of these designs is shown here in this gallery. The photos prove how design concepts by several architects has been driven by UFO inspired ideas. More images on the UFO inspired designs after the break. read more »

Courtesy of gmp Architekten

Following their success in winning first prize in an international competition, the architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) have been commissioned to realize a tower block complex of ten buildings in Nanjing. The design by gmp is for a financial enterprise center on a site of about 80,000 square meters in this large eastern Chinese metropolis. The above ground gross floor space of the 120 to 200 meter high tower blocks will be about 500,000 square meters. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture

KKA (Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture) presents three architectural dreams consisting of stories and images. In a time when architecture has become increasingly obsessed with shape and surface, they wanted to explore other fields of the profession. KKA wanted to envision alternative futures and societies, to fantasize and write their stories, proposing the unexpected. More project description after the break. read more »

The Vienna Design Week 2011, now in its fifth year, is Austria’s most important international design festival. From September 30 — October 9th, 2011, it will bring some of the best designers of our time to the Austrian capital while simultaneously fostering the talents of tomorrow. The festival is diversified in content — comprising positions of product design, industrial design, and furniture design. For more information, please click here.

Photo by Marie Aschehoug-Clauteaux - http://www.flickr.com/photos/marie-aschehoug-clauteaux/

Architecture often attempts to play with several spatial and formal concepts but the extent of this experimentation is often limited by budgetary and engineering constraints. Sculpture is a medium with which formal and spatial tests can be performed to an aesthetic extent without architectural limitation. There are several modern sculptors whose products can be seen as architecture. Here we will look at the works of Robert Smithson, Richard Serra and Anish Kapoor.

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© Boffo Building Fashion - Nicola Formichetti / Gage/Clemenceau Architects

Boffo is a New York City non-profit organization focused on culture and the arts. Through events and exhibitions Boffo draws attention to artists and designers while often giving them an opportunity to display their work. Boffo recently announced the winners of their Boffo Building Fashion competition, an open competition that called for architects to pair with fashion designers to build temporary spaces displaying both talents. Find out who the architects and designers are after the break. read more »

Courtesy of WAHAG Studio

WAHAG Studio shared with us their competition entry in the international ideas competition to establish a design for the Busan Opera House, which is expected to begin construction in 2014. The opera house will include a variety of facilities that will foster a wide range of artistic activities all the while being accessible to the city’s citizens. The grand scale of this project will be suitable for Busan’s status as an international city. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Obscura Digital HQ © IwamotoScott Architecture

San Francisco-based IwamotoScott Architecture has just shared their latest project with us – a renavoted 1940s warehouse that holds media company Obscura Digital as well as the architects’ new office space.  Upgrading from an unorganized and dimly lit timber warehouse, Obscura looked to Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott to outfit the 36,000 sqf building in Dogpatch to suite their needs, while extending the invitation for the firm to set up its practice in the building, as well.   “It wasn’t a formalized agreement but a pretty casual thing,” Iwamoto told Lydia Lee for Metropolis. “Obscura by nature is collaborative. The hope is that by sharing space, we’ll have the advantage of seeing their process and what can be done with digital media, and they’ll get an idea of the architectural possibilities.”

In addition to this great refurbishment, we are fascinated by the architects’ dividing wall entitled BookCaseScreenWall, an amazing hybrid of surface projection technologies with a “traditional” bookcase which sits between their office space and Obscura Digital’s.

Be sure to view our comprehensive photo set of construction photos, finished work, and of course, the BookCaseScreenWall after the break. read more »

© Mark Noad

Soon after Mark Noad’s vision of the London Tube Map was viewed, debate ensued about whether the integrity of the original diagram was misused to create a hybrid between the original information as a concept of the underground train system and its pathways and the concept of a geographically accurate map.   With a slightly more condensed font style, the map is intended to be more legible, especially on mobile devices.  Eminent typographer and designer Erik Spiekermann headed the debate stating that Harry Beck original depiction of the Tube was not a map at all, “it’s a diagram. Not meant to show geographic relationships, but connections.”

Therein lies the schism between the concept of depiction and illustration.  Fastco Design writer John Pavlus discusses the value of the designer’s intent – to produce something of use – rather than the initial concept of the first drawing.  Most users of the train system diagram are likely to call it a map.  The visual information implies that it will be used to guide travelers to particular destinations, thereby making it useful as a map.  The initial intent of the information becomes irrelevant when its use and usefulness comes into play.  Did Mark Noad achieve the clarification that the Beck’s original diagram was lacking by adding elements of a geographical map into it?

The question that Pavlus concludes with is how does the designer extend his or her role beyond solving problems; how does a designed artifact continue to evolve with each iteration, engage the public and continue to develop new and better uses?

(via Fastco Design)

Photo by Flickr user: seier + seier - http://www.flickr.com/photos/seier/

Vernacular architecture, the simplest form of addressing human needs, is seemingly forgotten in modern architecture. However, due to recent rises in energy costs, the trend has sensibly swung the other way. Architects are embracing regionalism and cultural building traditions, given that these structures have proven to be energy efficient and altogether sustainable. In this time of rapid technological advancement and urbanization, there is still much to be learned from the traditional knowledge of vernacular construction. These low-tech methods of creating housing which is perfectly adapted to its locale are brilliant, for the reason that these are the principles which are more often ignored by prevailing architects.

More on vernacular architecture after the break.

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