Architect: Marco Casagrande
Location: Taipei City, Taiwan
Project Managers: Delphine, Peng Hsiao-Ting / JUT Group, Nikita Wu / C-LAB
Casagrande Laboratory for Cicada: Frank Chen, Yu-Chen Chiu, Shreya Nagrath, Arijit Sen
Measures: 34 m long, 12 m wide, 8 m high
Interior space: 270 sqm
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: AdDa
Structures
The wicker weaving technique is associated with the traditional manufacturing of small utilitarian objects. This technique installed in Chile since colonial times, stands out for its potential to build complex and resistant shapes given by the flexibility of the fiber and rigidity provided by the weaving. Based on these properties, this project by Andrea von Chrismar explores the manufacturing of the weave, this time in relation to the field of architecture. This research explores the potential of a natural raw material and an ancient technique of patrimonial nature, regarding new usage options. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »
This article, recently seen on The New York Times, was kindly shared with us by the author Sarah Williams Goldhagen.
A REVOLUTION in cognitive neuroscience is changing the kinds of experiments that scientists conduct, the kinds of questions economists ask and, increasingly, the ways that architects, landscape architects and urban designers shape our built environment.
This revolution reveals that thought is less transparent to the thinker than it appears and that the mind is less rational than we believe and more associative than we know. Many of the associations we make emerge from the fact that we live inside bodies, in a concrete world, and we tend to think in metaphors grounded in that embodiment. read more »
Architects: María Langarita and Víctor Navarro
Location: Madrid, Spain
Collaborators: Gonzalo Gutiérrez, Juan Palencia, Ana Rosales
Landscaping: Jerónimo Hagerman
Client: Matadero Madrid
Completion date: 2011
Photographs: Miguel de Guzmán
The first stage in the Augmented Structures project by Salon2 is the Augmented Structures v1.1: Acoustic Formations / İstiklâl Caddesi installation which reanimates phenomena (architecture, sound and visual arts) that appear to be completed and concluded. The acoustic memory of İstiklâl Caddesi is first transformed into an architectural surface and then this solid form becomes a dynamic visual performance through a 400m2 installation on the facade of Yapı Kredi Bank Culture Building. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »
Architects: Jimenez Lai
Project Manager: Thomas Kelley
Fabrication: PR&vD, Andrew Akins
Team: Jimenez Lai, Thomas Kelley, Cyrus Penarroyo, Andrew Akins
Construction Assisted by: Mike Mead, John Stoughton, Anton Bakerjian
Photographs: Magnus Lindqvist, Kyle D, Eberle and Kamil Kroll.
Carrilho da Graça Arquitectos recently won the international competition for the protection project and musealization of the Gallo-Roman villa of Séviac, in Montréal-du-Gers, France. The project sets up a protective device and does not relate to a known typology that is a technical device with its own logic – a homogeneous-looking device that creates an event – which does not compete with the archaeological remains, but rather gives a new insight into the importance and influence of the villa. The event: to take this opportunity to give contemporary architecture its legitimate place in Gers. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »
At first glance, Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis’ Contour Crafting (CC) seems both fascinating and unreal – a fabrication machine that has the potential to construct entire structures in a single run. Supported by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research, CC’s combination of conventional robotics and “age-old tools” creates a layered fabrication process where large-scale parts can be fabricated at remarkable speeds. On his blog, Khoshnevis, a professor in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, explains that the system is a scale-up of the rapid prototyping machines now widely used in industry to “print out” three-dimensional objects designed with CAD/CAM software, usually by building up successive layers of plastic. ”Instead of plastic, Contour Crafting will use concrete,” explained Khoshnevis.
More about Contour Crafting after the break. read more »
RPGS‘s “Jack Up The Box” pop-up store concept was selected winner of the DesignByMany’s latest challenge: “A Pop-Up Retail Store”. Vertical retractable drawers embedded within the raised store allow shoppers to inhabit the space underneath, redefining the shopping experience. Judges Carmen Trudell, Daniel Kidd, and Giancarlo Valle reviewed over 40 entries before selecting the winning proposal. For winning the HP-supported challenge, RPGS will take home a brand-new HP Designjet T790 24″ PostScript ePrinter. read more »

Courtesy of 1+1=1
The new extension designed by 1+1=1 Claudio Silvestrin Giuliana Salmaso architects and planners for laRinascente in Piazza della Repubblica, Florence, is conceived as a symbol of strength through the square, yet of lightness, in the detail of the Archangel’s wing in Filippo Lippi’s painting of the Annunciation. Visually, the new extension is floating above Palazzo del Trianon while preserving its authentic architectural structure. More images and project description after the break. read more »

© SHRM
SHRM‘s Umbra_vela was announced as the winner of DesignByMany‘s latest challenge: “A Rapidly-Deployable Shade Structure”. The challenge asked professionals and students in the AEC community to submit proposals for a rapidly-deployable shade structure that could just as easily be deployed during a day at the beach or park, or in a desert environment. SHRM were chosen by a select group of judges, Andrew Payne, David Benjamin and Kevin Klinger. For winning the HP-supported challenge, SHRM will take home a brand-new HP Designjet T790 24″ PostScript ePrinter.
This past week, the Dutch Society for the Preservation of Natural Heritage received a new observation tower during the mini-symposium ‘Experience Nature with innovative concrete’ in Peize. A multidisciplinary case study team comprised of UNStudio, ABT, BAM Utiliteitsbouw and Haitsma Beton were experimenting with the characteristics of ultra high performance concrete – a super dense mixture of fine grain structure which contains steel fibers – to manifest their findings in a functional, operative design. The observation tower will rest in the forested reserves of De Onlanden in Groningen and will extend 5 meters above the tree line to offer amazing views of the landscape.
More about the tower after the break. read more »

Courtesy of MAI_lab | MAIpublicspace
The “Open Monument” project is a permanent public space installation, by MAI_lab | MAIpublicspace, that wants to recover the link between the inhabitants of Crestuma, Portugal and its landscape history. At the same time, the design aims to boost an experimental, pedagogical and participative realm that should develop new senses of appropriation and belonging. More images and project description after the break. read more »
Architects: Ensamble Studio
Location: Las Rozas, Madrid, Spain
Principal in Charge: Antón García- Abril
Collaborators: Elena Pérez, Débora Mesa, Jorge Consuegra, Marina Otero, Ricardo Sanz
Technical Architect: Javier Cuesta
Promotor: Hemeroscopium
Contractor: Materia Inorgánica
Project year: 2005-2008
Constructed Area: 400 sqm
Photographs: Ensamble Studio

Courtesy of AREA and Electrotexture Lab
The Acoustic Pavilion Project, developed by AREA and Electrotexture Lab, is created from evolutionary algorithms that search the optimum form and reflective environment for electronic music within the context of Aalborg’s harbor front. More images and brief project description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of New Town Studio
Inspired by the existing lattice pylon originally designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield RA in 1927, New Town Studio, who was recently shortlisted for the Pylon Design Competition, uses a lattice steel framework to create a vertical structure which retains the transparent and open qualities of the original in a more modest form to be visually and symbolically appropriate for today. More on the project after the break. read more »
Idyllically located on the mud flats of the Exbury bank of the Bealieu River, The Egg is a project that young architectural practice, Perring Architecture + Design (PAD), are developing in partnership with ArtSway, a contemporary visual arts organization based in the New Forest . The project was initially conceived to bring together architects, artists and engineers to collaborate on exploring new models for rural architecture, through a series of temporary buildings in the New Forest National Park. The buildings will be a resource for interaction and debate on issues of sustainability, recycling, energy conservation and rural development, with artists’ inhabitation and activity as the catalyst. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Sasa Djak & Milica Vujovic
Competition participants, Sasa Djak and Milica Vujovic recently won the community’s vote as best Rapidly-Deployable Shade Structure in the DesignByMany competition. The challenge asked professionals and students in the AEC community to submit proposals for a rapidly-deployable shade structure that could just as easily be deployed during a day at the beach or park, or in a desert environment. More images and project description after the break. read more »
Architects: Isaac Broid + Jorge Covarrubias + Mauricio Rocha
Location: Oaxaca, Mexico
Client: Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca
Project Year: 2010
Photographs: Paul Rivera, ArchPhoto

Courtesy of LED Architecture Studio
The major of the city of Sant’Elpidio a Mare, Giovanni Renzi, with the manifesto of the 15th of September 1903, communicated to his citizens the tender for the construction of the social aqueduct of the Tennacola company. Since then, this work has been in constant evolution and all the structures linked to the aqueduct are still deep-rooted in the territory and they have become symbols of the project by LED Architecture Studio. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »







































































