Friday, August 08. 2008Junya IshigamiRelated Links:Personal comment: Jeune architecte japonais intéressant. Sort de chez SANAA (et ça se voit). Une architecture assez simple, directe et radicale. Le projet pour le "workplace" du Kanagawa Institute of Technology est intéressant du point de vue fonctionnel et structurel: le fait d'avoir multiplié de petits éléments porteurs tout en ne cloisonnant pas du tout l'espace laisse une sorte d'ouverture à la fonction (la fonction occupe un terrain ouvert, l'interprète, éventuellement migre) tout en proposant une variation incroyable à l'intérieur de l'espace.
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Architecture
at
08:43
Defined tags for this entry: architects, architecture
5 excellent ideas for prefabricated housing
The Museum of Modern Art's current show, Home Delivery: Prefabricating the Modern Dwelling (through October 20) surveys the history of prefab homes in the U.S. It shows old ideas that never caught on as well as the latest in prefab home technology. An outside portion of the exhibit contains five modern prefab houses that were built especially for the show. The word "prefab" doesn't inspire warm, fuzzy feelings in most people. In fact, it may make you think of a trailer park. But architects think that prefabricated houses — houses that are at least partially assembled away from where they're built and whose parts can be mass-produced — have potential. Their optimism is for three main reasons: 1) Mass-producing parts for homes as if they were cars is more efficient than building them on-site, which makes them more environmentally friendly. 2) Prefab houses tend to be smaller than most suburban dwellings, so use less energy once they're built. 3) Architects think prefab houses are just plain fun — the concept lets them design modern, minimalist spaces that could be built easily for people all over the world. Click Continue to read about some of the coolest elements from the MoMA exhibit— from walls made of bottles to one of the most compact but livable houses around.
5. More portable than a trailer: the inflatable home.
4. Make your home from bottles.
3. Live in a very, very small space.
2. Forget "external fasteners" (i.e. nails).
Of course, eschewing nails and glue is not a new strategy — just think of an antique chest of drawers or . But the prefab exhibit shows that designers are being creative with the concept. Take this Flatform wall, commissioned by MoMA for the exhibit. It's a wall stamped from standard-sized sheets of stainless steel. Its flat components are "cut, scored and folded to assemble structures without external fasteners." Modern computer modeling is letting us leave nails behind not just for materials like carefully cut wood but for mass-produced commodities like metal sheets.
1. Make your walls out of cellophane (and fill them with solar panels).
Posted by Christian Babski
in Architecture, Sustainability
at
08:08
Defined tags for this entry: architecture, sustainability
Thursday, August 07. 2008REACTIVATE!! Part 1, Urban reanimations and the minimal intervention
As announced two days ago, here's a lengthier report about REACTIVATE!! Espacios remodelados e intervenciones mínimas (Remodeled spaces and minimal interventions), an exhibition which takes place until August 31 at the Espai d' Art Contemporani de Castelló, an hour away from Valencia. Curated by Francesca Ferguson in collaboration with Pepe Ballesteros, REACTIVATE!! is merging two exhibitions organized last year by the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel (S AM). The resulting show brings together a cluster of recently-built projects which demonstrate how resourceful architects and designers can transform disused, outworn or inadequate urban spaces and buildings into efficient, and even aesthetically striking edifices. Although they emerge from different cultural contexts, these architectural endeavours have one thing in common: their transformation is achieved by drawing upon the existing structures and using only minimal means and resources. As the curatorial statement mentions, They show how an aesthetic of the unfinished and the makeshift can reshape our notions of useful - and useable - space, asking the question: can lo-tech and laissez-faire design present relevant alternatives to the driving force of urban renewal?
All the works on show make visitors reflect (once again) on the little sustainability involved in building spectacular museums, concert halls and skyscrapers and on the shortcomings of thoroughly planned and rationalised urban environments. Furthermore, the works selected in this section of REACTIVATE!! demonstrate that 'making the most of what we've got' can go hand in hand with inspiration and sparkle. Here's just a selection from the 17 projects on view in Castelló:
FNP architects converted a pig sty dating from 1768 into a "Matryoshka dolls house". A prefabricated timber structure, with openings to match those of the pigsty, has been hoisted directly into the old stone walls but without touching them. They added a roof on top of the structure. Et voilà!
What make the result great and quirky is the architects' choice to leave the windows where they were originally. They probably made much sense for a pigsty but look deliciously odd and random for a house.
EM2N's Renovation of the Hardbrücke Railway Station in Zürich is a dream example of how much the 'less is more' approach can be effective. Visible from far away two ueber-simple red and white illuminated panels tie the railway station to the fabric of the city, strengthen the identity of the railway station and facilitate the orientation. More images.
Despite the fact that they were no allowed to touch the side of the buildings which were protected for fire regulations, architects Eva Prats & Ricardo Flores tripled the storage capacity of Yute's Textile Warehouse at the outskirt of Barcelona by going upwards, raising the existing building and reorganizing the interior spaces and circulation throughout. The appealing red and yellow colour that wraps the factory like a piece of textile comes from the use of corrugated iron.
The part of Frankfurt's east harbour lying behind the market hall area is a no man's land made of gravel, dumps, cranes, and containers waiting to be shipped somewhere. That's where Index Architekten worked to extend upward a bunker from the times of World War Two and turned it into that new Holy Grail of cities: a cheap space for artists' studios and an Institute for New Media. Demolishing the bunker would have been too expensive, so would have been a restoration of its leaking hip-roof. Consequently, the architects built a wooden box on top of the structure. Also part of the exhibition: Freitag's container Flagship store, Big Tanks and Retired priests have all the fun.
REACTIVATE!! Espacios remodelados e intervenciones mínimas (Remodeled spaces and minimal interventions) takes place until August 31 at the Espai d' Art Contemporani de Castelló, near Valencia, Spain. Wednesday, August 06. 2008
Researchers led by Neri Kafkafi, PhD, of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, part of the University of Maryland's School of Medicine, mathematically analyzed about 50,000 predetermined movement patterns that resulted when rats roamed freely, one by one, in a small arena. The software created an abstract space defined by combinations of behavior such as speed, acceleration and direction of movement. Mining the resulting behavioral data enabled researchers to test many more facets of behavior than they could analyze manually.
Related Links:Personal comment: y a pas de titre!
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Architecture, Science & technology
at
08:57
Defined tags for this entry: architecture, culture & society, monitoring, research, science & technology, surveillance
Atom by WHITEvoidPerformance for a matrix of 64 gas balloons, lights, and sound A room is filled with deep, evolving noises from a four-channel sound system. An eight-by-eight array of white, self-illuminated spheres floats in space like the atoms of a complex molecule. The height of the helium balloons is adjusted with a computer-controlled cable, whilst the internal illumination is accomplished using dimmable super-bright LEDs, creating a pixel in a warped 8×8 spatial matrix. The sonic events, the patterns of light, and the movement of the balloons are manipulated in real time as a 45-60 minute-long performance. balloon motion control: Christopher Bauder Related Links:Personal comment: Pas si extraordinaire, il y a le syndrome "ça clignote" pas mal et il s'agit plutôt d'un display que d'une architecture. Cela rapelle aussi évidemment les projets "ballons" réalisés par Usman Haque ("Burble", voir deuxième lien), mais donne éventuellement quelques idées pour des pistes avec structures gonflées, variables.
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Architecture
at
08:45
Defined tags for this entry: architects, architecture, design (interactions), designers, environment, installations
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fabric | rblgThis blog is the survey website of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction and research. We curate and reblog articles, researches, writings, exhibitions and projects that we notice and find interesting during our everyday practice and readings. Most articles concern the intertwined fields of architecture, territory, art, interaction design, thinking and science. From time to time, we also publish documentation about our own work and research, immersed among these related resources and inspirations. This website is used by fabric | ch as archive, references and resources. It is shared with all those interested in the same topics as we are, in the hope that they will also find valuable references and content in it.
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