© 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:

read more »

Photo by Javier Vergara Petrescu

Yesterday we featured Iwan Baan’s photo set for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009 by SANAA.

Now, we bring you a photo set from today, at the opening of the pavilion by Javier Vergara Petrescu, on which we can see more of the spatial relations at the park and the effect of the reflective material.  See how the height varies creating different spaces, from a tall open space for a crowd, to a low intimate space at the end.

More photos after the break:

read more »

© Iwan Baan

Architecture photographer Iwan Baan has been documenting the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, a series of temporary structures commissioned to renowned architects that sits on the Gallery’s lawn for three months, hosting a series of public talks and events at the park.  And now he just shared with us his photo set for this years pavilion, which opens to the public tomorrow July 12th, and will stay open until October 18.

For this year, the pavilion was commissioned to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA.

An undulating aluminum structure sits on top of a delicate column system, providing a series of connected spaces while keeping a continuous view through the park. The aluminum reflects the trees, the ground and the sky, for a dramatic blending effect as you can see of the photos.

You can see Iwan’s photo sets for previous versions of the pavilion: Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond with ARUP (2006), Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen (2007) and Frank Ghery (2008).

More pictures after the break.

read more »

Our friends from Design Crave shared with us these amazing photos of the recently opened public glass balconies for public viewing. The 1.5″ thick glass floor (which resists up to 5 tons) offers amazing views over Chicago, from 1,353 feet in the air.

As you can see on a picture after the break, the balcony cantilevers from the main structure.

More images after the break.

read more »

Typical cases of structure damage show portions of or whole buildings collapsing, but this is the first time that I see a building perfectly toppled.

The 13-story building is part of the Lotus Riverside complex in suburban Shanghai.  The cause of this epic structural fail is under investigation, but first sources claim that an error on construction and unstable soil conditions are the probable causes.

More images after the break.

read more »

Architects: Architekton
Location: Phoenix, AZ, USA
Collaborators: EDAW Inc. (landscape designers for the park)
Engineering: Rudow + Berry Structural Engineers
Contractor: Foresite Inc.
Project year: 2009
Photography: Matt Winquist, John Kane, Eric Vollmer

read more »

The Los Angeles based team of Studio SHIFT and SWA Group has been selected to create a master plan for the Sichuan Province, a developing area in China.  The plan consists of SHIFT’s Miyi Tower that aims to promote the region’s heritage, and SWA Group’s design for a sustainable promenade.

Further project description and more images after the break.

read more »

Eric Owen Moss Architects designed a multi-media tower which will sit at the primary entrance of the re-developed zone in Culver City, California.  The objective of the tower is to distribute art and other relevant content to the local and in-transit audiences passing by the site.

Further project description and more images after the break. read more »

Capital Gate, the iconic leaning building in Abu Dhabi, reached halfway point. The building, designed by international architects RMJM, will lean 18 degrees westward, 14 degrees more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

To make this possible, the central core of the building slants in the opposite direction to the lean of the structure, and it straightening as it grows. It sits on top of a 7-foot-deep concrete base with a dense mesh of reinforced steel. The steel exoskeleton known as the diagrid sits above an extensive distribution of 490 piles that have been drilled 100 feet underground to accommodate the gravitational, wind and seismic pressures caused by the lean of the building.

A gigantic internal atrium, including a tea lounge and swimming pool suspended 263 feet above the ground, has been constructed on the 17th and 18th floors, the halfway point of the 35-story, 525-foot tall tower.

Capital Gate will house Abu Dhabi’s first Hyatt hotel – Hyatt at Capital Centre, a presidential-style luxury, 5-star hotel and will provide 200 hotel rooms for Abu Dhabi and will serve ADNEC’s (Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company) visitors and exhibitors as well as international business and leisure travelers.

Rafael López de Heredia Tondonia Winery is one of the oldest and more famous winery in the Spanish region of La Rioja. To celebrate their 125th anniversary they decided to rehabilitate a very old store that the winery founder took to Brussel’s World Fair in 1910 and had been disassembled ever since.

In 2002 current owners (direct descendants of the founder), discovered how beautiful the old store was and decided to built an exterior volume to house the old store. This would become the future wine store and a place where visitors could taste the great wines they produce. This pavillion is only part of all the project that will include three more tasting rooms and a cleaning room. More images and architect’s description 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.

© 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.

read more »

© Alan Tansey

Berlin based architects Raumlabor have been doing an interesting architectural work by temporarily transforming locations: a gallery into a laboratory, a public square into a location for scientific discourse or a cold corridor into a place with new social qualities.

When spaces are meant not only to be neutral shells for content but also to convey particular functions and serve as catalysts, the way of dealing with these spaces, their design and programming have to be integral components of the overall conception.

As we told you on a previous post, thanks to the StoreFront Gallery their latest project Spacebuster is moving around New York, hosting 10 consecutive community events (check schedule here).

© Alan Tansey

The pavilion is comprised of an inflatable bubble-like dome that emerges from its self-contained compressor housing. The dome expands and organically adjusts to its surroundings, be it in a field, a wooded park, or below a highway overpass. The material is a sturdy, specially-designed translucent plastic, allowing the varying events taking place inside of the shelter – dance parties, lecture series, or dinner buffets – to be entirely visible from the outside and likewise the exterior environments become the events’ backdrops.

The end result is amazing, as you can see on these photos taken by Alan Tansey. The interior looks fantastic: how the light passes through, the projections on the inside… see more photos after the break.

read more »

Los Angeles is often portrayed as the example of the car-friendly city. The traditional image of the town is an endless pattern of single family dwellings, interconnected by traffic-clogged freeways, where transit is undeveloped and the air is choked with smog.

However, Los Angeles is changing. The city’s Transport Authority has planned in the last years a series of measures aiming to improve quality of life through improving transit and walking and providing alternative to car commuting.

read more »

Architect: Guedes + DeCampos / Francisco Vieira de Campos + Cristina Guedes
Location: Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
Collaborators: António Ferreira, Luís Campos
Structural Concept: Francisco Vieira de Campos, Cristina Guedes, Alípio Guedes
Structure Engineering: Mota Freitas, Miguel Guimarães and Alexandra Feliz (ETEC)
Contractor: DEWPOINT with TEGOPI
Graphic Design: Helena Nogueira
Constructed Area: 108 sqm
Project Year: 2007
Construction year: 2008
Photographs: FG+SG - Fernando Guerra, Sergio Guerra

read more »

Architects: Pacific Environments / Peter Eising & Lucy Gauntlett
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Project Managers: The Building Intelligence Group – Gareth Skirrow, Blair Wolfgram, Joe Holden
Engineers: Holmes Consulting – Chris MacKenzie & John Worth, Martin Feeney – Holmes Fire
Building Contractors: NZ Strong – Shane Brealey, Paddy Molloy, Megan Roberts; Citywide Construction Ltd – Jim Bellamy
Timber Fins: McIntosh Timber Laminates – Owen Griffiths, Sandy Sandiford
Lighting: ECC Lighting & Furniture – Renee Kelly
Project year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Lucy Gauntlett

read more »

OMA sent us this new images for their latest AMO project, the Prada Transformer. More images after the break. read more »

I just saw the video for the new OMA project for PRADA, the Transformer. This pavilion currently being assembled in Seoul, Korea allows different configuration for different uses (cinema, exhibition, art , fashion show)  - related to a new mix of disciplines, between art, fashion and architecture.

Then, the question on how to mix these different uses under one pavilion become the architectural trigger for this new “object” (I rather use that word, as i think “building” is obsolet for it).

These different configurations result by rotating this object -the transformer- with a crane, and each face of this object is a plane with a given shape, specific for each use but also being used as a helper for other uses (ie: the cinema projector).

If you take a look at each of these shapes, they are all common to us: a circle, a cross, a rectangle and an hexagon… which results on a very recognizable object that Koolhaas calls the anti-blob, and I think that´s where Rem scores another one.

Anyway, i highly recommend you to watch the videos at the Prada Transformer website: Koolhaas explaining the transformer, time lapse of the construction and the transformer being rotated with cranes.

Channel pavilion (blob, by Zaha) versus Prada pavilion (anti-blob, by OMA)?

Renderings and diagrams after the break. read more »

Architects: ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd]
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands
Design team: Kas Oosterhuis, Ilona Lénárd, Cas Aalbers, Sander Boer, Tom Hals, Dimitar Karanikolov, Tom Smith, Richard Lewis, Barbara Janssen, Gijs Joosen, Andrei Badescu, Maciek Swiatkowski, Rafael Seemann
Engineering: ONL, Meijers Staalbouw BV, Pilkington Benelux BV
Client: Projectbureau Leidsche Rijn Utrecht
Production: Meijers Staalbouw BV
Project year: 2006
Budget: US $6,52 M
Photographs: ONL [Oosterhuis_Lénárd]

read more »

Architects: m2r
Location: Klingenthal, Germany
Project Year: 2006
Client: Landratsamt Vogtlandkreis
Structural Engineering: Arup Düsseldorf
Photographs: m2r

read more »

Dorobanti tower, a new project  by Zaha Hadid Architects in Bucharest moves away from the works we  have been seen lately, with a very expressive structure. The 200m tall iconic tower will be located in the heart of the capital city of  Romania, at junction of Calea Dorobanti and St. Mihail Eminescu, with over 100,000 sqm for mixed-use development which include a 5-star hotel (with restaurants and convention centre), luxury apartments and retail space at street level.

The chamfered diamond like structure  tapers from the centre towards the top and the bottom. The meandering structural mesh expresses the change of programs across the tower.

A good move by Zaha in my opinion.

More on the structure, from Zaha Hadid Architects:

read more »