Receiving an honorable mention for their entry for the Dawntown Seaplane competition in Miami, Florida, NC-Office’s proposal, titled ‘Large Roof’, is a solution to when an artificial geographic condition demands an intuitive architectural response. When seen from above – either as one approaches by air or from the large cruise liners – the project is experienced as a large mass. As one enters the structure the project transforms into an ephemeral space. More images and architects’ description after the break.
This is the third video produced by Marco Mazzotta that Slovenian architects OFIS arhitekti shared with us. We already featured this project a couple of years ago with photographs and drawings, but through this video, mixing reality and digital models, we can see how people really use both common spaces and the interior of the apartments.
The Regional Industrial Heritage Organization of Solingen, Germany has called for a competition to redevelop the local observation using an old spherical gas container in order to address the strong industrial character and historical context of the container and the local architecture. The following project is an entry from René van Zuuk Architekten.
The main objective behind the design for the new Staten Island Animal Care Center was to create a high quality environment for the animals, staff and visitors. The building is sheathed in a highly insulating, translucent polycarbonate envelope. This provides higher performance in comparison to typical glass and maximizes the benefits of natural light. The roof of the outer perimeter housing the animals is raised above a lower interior roof plane, which covers other shelter functions. This configuration permits the daylight to enter the facility on multiple sides. Natural ventilation is encouraged along the periphery with the use of a passive air ventilation system. A sophisticated mechanical system that uses heat recovery to feed heat gain energy back into the system is incorporated into the design to provide constant fresh air exchange.
Architect: Garrison Architects Location: Staten Island, New York City, New York, USA Project Area: 5,500 sqf Renderings: Courtesy of Garrison Architects
https://www.archdaily.com/121670/in-progress-staten-island-animal-care-center-garrison-architectsChristopher Henry
Operating at the interstices of architecture, urbanism, and the pedosphere, SOILED is a venue for dialogue and exploration. It investigates the role that the built environment plays in social issues of earthly but marginalized proportions; it documents hidden systems and in-between spaces. Published by CARTOGRAM Architecture + Urban Design, SOILED curates ideas, from the arable to the obscene, by seeking the active participation of multi-disciplinary contributors. It employs narratives, manifestoes, mappings, ephemera, and live events to mediate its architectural discourse to the broader public.
Published twice per year on each solstice, SOILED is available in both a print edition and a free downloadable PDF! The inaugural issue, entitled Groundscrapers, is now available through their website. More images and description after the break.
The works in Concrete Islands, by a selection of international contemporary artists, document, celebrate and critique architectural projects designed with inherent social and political values that now exist in various stages of inhabitation, dereliction and destruction.
Reality Cues has shared with us their unique idea for the handling of consumer waste and the physical possibilities they imagine stemming from this condition. Images of Excess Heights in addition to a brief narrative description after the jump.
Art, music, movies, etc… All part of our sixth selection of previously featured cultural centers. Check them all after the break.
Fogo Island Long Studio / Saunders Architecture Fogo Island lies outside of Newfoundland, Canada and is home to a gentle, independent people who have lived for centuries between wind and waves in pursuit of fish. Fogo Islanders live in the untamed landscape of the North Atlantic. The people are subtle and unpretentious yet have seen their traditional way of life by threatened by forces largely beyond their control (read more…)
The recent building boom in New York City has radically altered the look and feel of the city and added considerably to the list of starchitects currently reshaping New York’s iconic skyline. It has also helped redefine boundaries of the eclectic pluralism of postmodern architecture.
Designed by Team CLS, headed by award winning UK Architect Darren Chan, other members including Emily Lau (Architecture Graduate) and Jonas Sin (Netherlands Architect), their project, Helios Rehab Sanctuary, innovates in the application of sustainable technologies to create a new and exciting typology. More on this project after the break.
This month the Pratt Institute spring lecture series will include Robert Sanna, Guy Nordensen, Jose Koechlin and Denise Koechlin, and Pualo Portoghesi with Catherine Ingraham, covering topics that range from environmental disaster engineering to eco-tourism in Peru’s Machu Picchu.
They seek other geo-political border ‘hot spots’ in and out of the Political Equator that need to be interpreted and engaged. These geographies of conflict need to be understood through the radicalization of the existing in order to imagine new models of the possible. For more information please visit the competition’s official website.
JDS Architects together with KLAR,CREO ARKITEKTER A/S and Sloth-Møller engineers has presented us their latest project, the Faaborg Harbour Bath and Blue Bass in Faaborg, Denmark. This was the winning design among the invited entrants to the Faaborg compeition and the execution process is ongoing. Follow after the jump for a few additional images and a short project briefing.
Dominique Ghiggi, a landscape architect and academic assistant at the Institute of Landscape Architecture in Zurich, has published a book examining the changing relationship between man and nature over the course of history. The work is perfect for those connected with the environment as it examines tree nurseries scattered across the world and their social, economical and contextual significance.
In 2002, the United States Department of Energy initiated the Solar Decathlon – an intense competition challenging collegiate teams to create residences that fuse the most sustainable technologies with functionality, comfort, and of course, aesthetics. Over the course of the past decade, interest in the Decathlon has grown dramatically [be sure to read our previous Solar Decathlon coverage] as the competition has piqued the interest of students from top universities, as well as millions of public followers learning the advantages of energy-efficient, cost-effective housing.
Team New Jersey, a collaborative effort between the New Jersey Institute of Technology andRutgers University, has designed a handicap accessible net-zero energy prototype featuring low-maintenance concrete construction and the latest green technologies, complete with a striking beach-inspired aesthetic.
More about the residence, including a great video, after the break.
This weekend on April 2nd, Ben van Berkel of UNStudio will be presenting a lecture during the Smart Geometries 2011 Copenhagen – an event that focuses on the role of digital parametrics in architectural experimentation and design strategies. van Berkel, an avid believer in computational design, will focus on his firm’s projects, such as the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the Raffles City mixed use development in Hangzhou and the Star Place Luxury Shopping Plaza in Kaohsiung, to illustrate their application of smart geometries. ”"Parametric design is in itself not so interesting. It needs meaning. We need to combine the possibilities of the virtual with how we discipline the real in a new way,” explains van Berkel. With digital modeling allowing for greater innovation, creativity and experimentation, van Berkel explains how such technologies improve communication on projects to such an extent that design and construction can be much more compact, accelerated and efficient. “In the 90s we were fascinated with the potential of these emerging techniques and their ability to control geometry. However our interest was never solely focussed on the geometry, nor on the computational techniques themselves. Our interest lay largely in the possibility to carry out spatial experiments and to see how the resulting structures could actually be constructed,” states van Berkel. For more information about the lecture, check out the Smart Geometries website.
The 2011 Douglas C. Allen Lecture series at COA continues its long list of impressive guest lecturers with George Hargreaves of Hargreaves Associates on April 6th.
