Wednesday, November 04. 2009Taiwan Pop Music Center / VisiondivisionVisiondivision’s latest entry for the Taiwan Pop Music Center competition aims to “transcend its visitors into a total escapism of pop.” With different districts that use the effect of the main tower and specific angles of light, the whole building expands dramatically in appearance, from a rather low key building in the distance to a spectacular body of light once approached. More about the project including images and a further project description after the break. Inside the pop center, the Star District includes office space and rehearsal studios in a flexible large space that can be easily modified to accommodate specific needs. All office space and rehearsal studios can be reached internally through the surrounding walls. The streets and the small squares in these blocks will be an important area for intermingling for the guest artist and entourage with the local artists and office personnel working in the building. An additional star palace incorporates a hotel setting for the featured artist with an upper level penthouse suite and an exclusive pool formed as a glass bowl that can be illuminated by the tower. The outdoor arena is a plane surface surrounded by walls with three levels of balconies on each side. Smoke machines allow the space to be disguised as a cloud with “the cloud rig” mounted on a rail with a light and sound system that can support the scene anywhere on the arena area either as a roof for the artist or as a separate feature emphasizing the show. The live houses are located in the center of the building, connected both to the outdoor arena and the commercial district. These live houses have different scales and characters for different performances. All live houses, except the smallest ones, have holes punctuating the roofs for the projections from the tower to reach the scenes. A tranquil park for recreation sits amidst the live houses allowing people to take a moment to relax while visiting the complex. The live houses are placed so they can be reached separately from outside the complex for easy controlled night activities. The main hall provides a unique concert experience as large punctuations in the roof are illuminated. The sloping spectator area is made out of glass beams which can transmit light out on the auditorium plaza, creating an epic foyer for the arriving crowds. The roof above the auditorium becomes a sloping terrace down to the commercial district with views over the whole complex. Inside the commercial district, users can visit the central square with the tower, the hall of fame and a great cluster of bars and shops that continue on the sloping roof terrace of the main auditorium.
Credits: Ulf Mejergren & Anders Berensson, 3D from Andres Morelli ----- Via ArchDaily Personal comment: Ultimate clubbing urbanism and atmospheric environment? I like this idea of triggering different atmospheres from the tower. This could go further in triggering differences in different fields of the electromagnetic waves spectrum.
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Architecture, Design, Territory
at
15:47
Defined tags for this entry: architects, architecture, design, design (environments), lighting, territory
Monday, November 02. 2009Design Fictions for Asynchronous Urban ComputingNew dispatch: “A synchronicity: Design Fictions for Asynchronous Urban Computing” by Julian Bleecker and myself has just been released. It’s a discussion between the two us from the Situated Technologies Pamphlets series, published by the Architectural League. This series aims at exploring the implications of ubiquitous computing for architecture and urbanism: How are our experience of the city and the choices we make in it affected by mobile communications, pervasive media, ambient informatics and other “situated” technologies? How will the ability to design increasingly responsive environments alter the way architects conceive of space? What do architects need to know about urban computing and what do technologists need to know about cities? Introduced by the editor as:
We’d like to thank Omar Khan, Trebor Scholz and Mark Shepard for this great opportunity! ----- Via Pasta & Vinegar Personal comment: A very recent publication by Nicolas Nova & Julian Bleecker on the Situated technologies Pamphlets serie. Haven't read it yet, looking forward to do so!
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Architecture, Culture & society
at
12:06
Defined tags for this entry: architecture, artificial reality, books, computing, culture & society, interferences, mobility, monitoring, theory, thinkers, ubiquitous, urbanism
BTEK – Technology Interpretation Center / ACXTArchitects: ACXT
BTEK is an interpretation centre for new technologies, aimed at student visitors. The Centre’s promoter, Parque Tecnológico, S.A., (Technology Park) set out the following as the most important guidelines:
The site’s location, on one of the highest points of the Vizcaya Technology Park and close to the Bilbao airport’s flight path for takeoffs and landings, helps with the aim of making the building a landmark in its landscape. ----- Via ArchDaily
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Architecture
at
10:20
Defined tags for this entry: architects, architecture
Thursday, October 29. 2009Berlin Block TetrisSergej Hein: "It´s kind of a parody about the former socialist building style. They use to build whole cities, without any change in House design or room layout to create cheep housing for workers (we call them Blocks). In Soviet times you could easily wake up at a friends place in another city and still feel like you are in your flat as the furniture was the same as well...
I was living in a Block on the opposite side of the street in Berlin 2 years ago. Living there remind me of my early childhood in Riga where we had nearly the same Blocks. I think Alexei Paschitnow, the inventor of Tetris, had kind of the same Idea as me in spring 1984. I bet he was looking out of the window of his Block in Moscow and thought how do soviet architects actually plan this buildings?" ----- Via Archinect Personal comment: So to say, a bad score at the "Belin Block Tetris" game produces a Koolhaas, MVRDV (or Dutsch architecture) building. Just a Wink... Wednesday, October 28. 2009Book Review - Installations by Architects: Experiments in Building and DesignInstallations by Architects: Experiments in Building and Design, by Sarah Bonnemaison and Ronit Eisenbach (Amazon USA and UK.) Publisher Princeton Architectural Press says: Over the last few decades, a rich and increasingly diverse practice has emerged in the art world that invites the public to touch, enter, and experience the work, whether it is in a gallery, on city streets, or in the landscape. Like architecture, many of these temporary artworks aspire to alter viewers' experience of the environment. An installation is usually the end product for an artist, but for architects it can also be a preliminary step in an ongoing design process. Like paper projects designed in the absence of "real" architecture, installations offer architects another way to engage in issues critical to their practice. Direct experimentation with architecture's material and social dimensions engages the public around issues in the built environment that concern them and expands the ways that architecture can participate in and impact people's everyday lives. The first survey of its kind,Installations by Architects features fifty of the most significant projects from the last twenty-five years by today's most exciting architects (...) Projects are grouped in critical areas of discussion under the themes of tectonics, body, nature, memory, and public space. Each project is supplemented by interviews with the project architects and the discussions of critics and theorists situated within a larger intellectual context.
You probably saw many examples of architects installations if you attended the latest Biennale of Architecture in Venice. They provide new platforms for innovative perspectives, ideas and experiments in the field of architecture. Some of these installations will remain at the experimental stage, others might later be implemented into built work. Installations, especially when temporary, enable architects to work outside the constraints dictated by clients and city regulations. The main purpose of installations is not necessarily to be useful but to generate conversations, to invite viewers to reflect on the role and essence of architecture. Installations are also vehicles for teaching and research as the Bauhaus was one of the first schools to demonstrate. Finally, young studios can find in installations a fantastic opportunity to advertise their talent.
I expected Installations by Architects: Experiments in Building and Design to be one of those fancy volumes you open to find big, glossy photos and little text to comment on them. I was expecting a beautiful book that lingers on the coffee table for your guests to admire. There are loads of images in the book indeed but there are even more essays by critics, by theorists and by the authors (Bonnemaison is an associate professor of architecture at Dalhousie University and Ronit Eisenbach is an associate professor of architecture at the University of Maryland). Architects get to give their own view as well. The book is divided into five chapters that explore a different area of discussion. Each of them is illustrated by 8 to 10 architectural installations (this post picks up one of them for each chapter): 1. Tectonics: by exploring new modes of assembly and materials, this section reminds us that architecture doesn't stop at the facade.
Mette Ramsgard Thomse's Vivisection is a spatial experiment that explores how a techtonic surface can embed a capacity for sensing and actuation. The silk and steel fabric is conductive thereby allowing the architects to pass electronic signals through it. By using antenna based sensor chips the fabric "feels" the presence of the audience. The sensors inform a network of distributed micro-computers, that in turn control the fans, inflating and deflating internal bladders in the structure. 2. Body examines the relationship between human body, spatial experience and design.
Thom Faulders covered with pink Memory Foam (as used in the earplugs that expand to fill the cavity of the ear) the floor of his Mute Room, a temporary listening environment for experimental electronic music. The foam's surface operates as a sound baffle to enhance acoustical clarity. Similar to the way that musical notes 'decay' in the air before dissipating, this surface has a transitory quality - impressions linger until fully erased by the slowly acting foam. 3. Nature might help shape a more responsible attitude towards nature.
The Prairie Ladder was commissioned by the Connemara Conservancy (Texas) to preserve, protect, and honor the prairie landscape. The ladder introduces a veritcal axis, making a departure from the natural horizontal axis of the prairie. The ladder also proclaims human defiance of the horizontal limitations of the earth. 4. Memory engages with the collective memory and its relationship with space. 24260 in "art and Economy at Deichterhollen, Hamburg, 2002 Since 1960, Detroit has lost half of its population and demolished over 200,000 housing units. Kyong Park's 24620: The Fugitive House (2001-), is an abandoned house from Detroit that has been dismantled and reconstructed in several European cities. 24620 is looking for a new home in a 'kinder and gentler" city than Detroit. Europe, however, is becoming just as neo-liberal and neo-con as in the USA With its pieces misplaced and their incisions permanent, the house, when re-assembled, replicates the condition of a dysfunctional city in the violence of dismembered spaces. Wherever it may go, the house takes the ideals and failures of modernism with it, creating discourses on the cultural state and destiny of each community. 5. Public Space offers citizens new ways to inhabit or relate to the city.
Sky Ear, by Haque Design + Research, contains miniature sensor circuits that respond to electromagnetic fields, particularly those of mobile phones. When activated, the sensor circuits in the clouds co-ordinate to cause ultra-bright coloured LEDs to illuminate thousand glowing helium balloons. ----- Via WMMNA Monday, October 26. 2009Digital Architecture: Passages Through HinterlandsDigital Architecture: Passages Through Hinterlands is a collection of provocative projects from a young generation of digitally enabled designers. This publication oscillates between the analog and the digital, from concept to realisation, mapping processes as it explores the diverse digital paths that lead innovative spaces, poetic narratives and social interactions.
The book covers a spectrum of London’s leading graduates and young practices, featuring projects from the Architectural Association, Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), University of Westminster and Royal College of Art, and case studies and interviews with architects including Amanda Levete Architects, Plasma Studio, JDS Architects, sixteen* (makers), Horhizon, marcosandmarjan, Mette Ramsgard Thomsen, Philip Beesley, David Greene, Samantha Hardingham, Usman Haque and Neil Spiller.
I’m pleased to announce that “Digital Architecture: Passages Through Hinterlands” is now available. Co-Authored by myself (Ruairi Glynn) and Sara Shafiei it has been a real pleasure to put together a book that is intended to expand the envelope of what we might conside “Digital” Architecture to be.
I would like to thank all of the architects and artists who have contributed their inspiring work and thank our exceptional graphic designer Emily Chicken bringing it all together with such elegance.
I am also pleased to announce that one of the young graduates featuring in the book Nick Szczepaniak, has just been awarded the RIBA Silver Medal (The highest award in the UK for student design work) and we are thrilled to be the first publication to be presenting his work. More posts will follow presenting some of the other work featuring in the book and a preview of its contents can be seen here.
Related Links:Omena House / Danny ForsterArchitects: Danny Forster
Click here to view the embedded video. Danny Forster Design Studio’s philosophy is that through a blend of intuitive design decisions and technologically enabled design strategies, it is possible to make beautiful sustainable architecture accessible at a reasonable cost. “While we are well-versed in latest high-tech gadgetry, we see sustainability largely as a matter of careful logic and inventive planning. In other words, why pay for air conditioning if mother nature if dolling it out on the cheap?” Their vision is exemplified in this 2700.sq ft lake house, the first private residence in northern Michigan to achieve LEED gold status, (there are 7 total in the state). The Omena Lake house is a project that combines sophisticated energy modeling software, never-before attempted active systems, and basic common sense design strategies that create a contemporary sustainable home whose goal is to connect its residents to the dynamic site on which it sits. Although flat roofed and geometrically abstract, the house is very much a part of the history of Northern Michigan Lake homes—it’s a modern, sustainable interpretation of the a Lake-side cottage. The main living area has a 15 ft long thermally broken, fully operable ‘Nano-Wall’, which acts as the main wind intake to passively cool the entire house. The interior floors are made of rapidly renewable, locally harvested bamboo. The counter-tops are richlite, made from recycled newspaper. The house is equipped with compact fluorescents, low-flow fixtures, two button toilets, and energy star rated appliances. The façade of the building is clad in vertical cedar. 60% of the home is wrapped in an Ipe-clad rain-screen, used both for solar deflection as well as passive cooling. The house is one of the country’s first to use an in-ceiling hydronic radiant heating AND cooling system – there’s no traditional forced air HVAC, just the geo-thermal powered, thermally-active ceiling that can both heat and cool the house. Also 100 % of the roof surface is covered in a unique vegetative roof, used for both solar deflection and storm water filtration. The house was designed using the energy modeling software Eco-tech, to leverage and calibrate both passive cooling, passive solar, as well as basic site orientation. ----- Via ArchDaily Personal comment:
Rather than the architecture, I'm quite interested her by these old diagrams of lighting but enhanced with new informations like the energy counter part of each part of the diagram, etc. Friday, October 23. 2009Solar DecathlonThe U.S. Department of Energy announced today that ‘Team Germany’ from the Technische Universität Darmstadt has won the 2009 Solar Decathlon with their project surPLUShome. This is the second time in a row that a team from TU Darmstadt wins this international contest after already snatching the title in Solar Decathlon’s last edition in 2007. Click above image to enlarge
Winning project at the Solar Decathlon 2009: surPLUShome by Team Germany (Technische Universität Darmstadt), Photo: Jim Tetro, U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon After 9 days and 10 contests, Team Germany reached the highest overall scores, closely followed by Team Illinois and Team California (previously on Bustler). Dubbed “the big, black monolith,” surPLUShome is almost entirely covered with photovoltaic panels that managed to generate 19 kilowatts during one day of test runs—more than twice as much as some other Solar Decathlon contestants. Click above image to enlarge
surPLUShome, Photo: Thomas Ott
Click above video to play
A video tour of surPLUShome The Solar Decathlon—a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house—was hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy for three weeks this October. The contest is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design. Here’s some more info from TU Darmstadt’s Team Germany about surPLUShome: The Solar Decathlon design of the Darmstadt University of Technology is aimed to demonstrate innovative sustainable design and to make it an object of discussion. Our architectural vision offers an alternate lifestyle which introduces the concept of energy efficiency and sustainability as a substantial element of everyday life. Single room concept The “multifunctional body” in the northern part of the building integrates several basic and everyday functions: kitchen, bathroom, stairs, storage space and building services. It is the center piece of our design and plays an important role in defining different atmospheres and zones. The functions are stored away into cupboards and cavities – consequently the main room is open and flexible to provide adequate space for different activities. Emotional Space The choice of interior materials supports the overall idea of a light and airy feeling. Light colors on the walls contrasts to a structured wooden flooring. The functional body attains its solitaire character by the glossy acrylic glass surface. Windows are placed to support the different functions and ambiences of the room and allow different views from and into the in- and outside. Click above image to enlarge
Deck Plan Click above image to enlarge
Floor Plan Click above image to enlarge
Longitudinal Section View North Within the past process of Solar Decathlon, Team Germany has always intended to design new solutions for the integration of photovoltaic cells into the building surface. The construction of the façade is based on the traditional principle of shingles, which is commonly practiced with slate or wooden plates. We picked up this technique and transferred the principle onto a new appearance and modern materials such as glass PV-modules and acrylic glass. Click above image to enlarge
North Elevation Click above image to enlarge
East Elevation Examples of sustainable design integration Technical footprint Click above image to enlarge
PV Facade Elements Ecological Footprint
Meanwhile, California College of the Arts (CCA) and Santa Clara University (SCU), competing as Team California, won the architecture contest with a score of 98 out of a possible 100 in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. Click above image to enlarge
Team California takes the lead in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon with its entry ‘Refract House’ Evaluating three main factors—architectural elements, holistic design, and inspiration—the jurors praised Team California’s house as “beautiful in every respect.” They commented specifically on its “excellent project documentation, crystal-clear concept, and successful translation of a regional architecture to Washington DC.” Click above image to enlarge
Exterior of the Refract House “This project broke out of the box and made exterior and interior space appear as one,” they continued, “with a varied series of sensations from the cool, shaded entry to the cantilevered balconies and a series of microclimates above and beyond” the requirements of the competition. Via Bustler.net Related Links:Thursday, October 22. 2009Harrabin's Notes: Green towerBBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin reports on the tower block under construction in China which could lead the way in green building technology.
THE GREEN TOWER OF GUANGZHOU CITY Among a host of features designed either to make or save energy, the one that caught my eye was the shape of the Pearl River Tower itself. It is built in a curve, facing the prevailing winds. And it has been deliberately sculpted to increase the speed of that wind and force it through slots in the building where wind turbines will be located. Now, on many buildings, wind turbines are a waste of space because there's so much turbulence in cities. I heard an apocryphal story about a Japanese firm that installed a turbine which needed electric power to keep it turning to save the face of its would-be-green owners.
HOW THE TOWER SAVES ENERGY
But the American architects of this tower - SOM - insist that their experiments in a wind tunnel show this building will generate economically viable wind power. The vertical axis turbines will be located in the mechanical floors mandated by the Chinese government as emergency muster floors, so no usable office space will be lost. SOM claims that by thinking carefully about the use of space combined with energy-saving and energy-generating technology, they have been able to make unprecedented gains, so this building will potentially create as much energy as it uses. They are by no means the only architects to espouse the principle of integrated design, of course. But some observers believe that too many buildings are still being put up with a few bolt-on green features, without proper thought as to what could be achieved through a more considered approach. Take the cooling system in the tower. Most of the time, air conditioning is done by fat air ducts which gobble both energy and space between floors and ceilings. Here the cooling is done by a cool water system. The water flows in ducts through concrete beams, and cool air descends upon the toiling masses from cold water radiators in the ceilings. This doesn't just save energy. SOM say it saves so much space that it's allowed the building's owners to put in an extra five storeys of usable office floor at little extra cost. Indeed, they predict that the extra investments in the building will start making the money in five years. There are other green features too. There's a wide-spaced double-glazed wall, which channels hot air upwards to a mechanical floor where it's harnessed for dehumidification. There's also substantial use of solar photovoltaic technology on the frontages of the building, which curve upwards toward the sun, although the current cost of photovoltaic arrays militated against cladding the building completely in energy-generating glass. Inside there are numerous automatic control systems to make sure power isn't being wasted. SOM say they could have coaxed the building to produce more energy but it would have been futile because there's no facility in Guangzhou to feed self-generated power back into the grid. To many, this will be a familiar tale. 'Radical' design I can't verify whether all its claims are true, but the building is undoubtedly an exciting project. Ame Englehart, director of SOM's East Asia office said: "This building is so radical it could only have been commissioned in China. The owners are very self-confident and have been prepared to push the design as far as it will go." SOM insists that the design is site-specific and can't just be replicated elsewhere. But the sad observation from my viewpoint standing on the girders of the 24th floor is that this tower is very much the exception rather than the rule. The Chinese government has increased building standards recently but they still don't lead to anything like the performance of the Pearl River Tower. A report in the China Daily during my trip suggested that 40% of bribery cases in China involve property development. And a Western businesswoman I bumped into told me her firm couldn't persuade Chinese clients to invest in more energy-efficient vehicles even if she could prove that they would start paying back their owners in energy costs is just 10 months. Later in the week I'll be looking at the building frenzy in the Chinese countryside. Tomorrow, though, I'll be looking at electric scooters in Guilin. ----- Via BBC News Related Links:Personal comment: Effet d'annonce ou réalité? Le point frappant est que l'on recommence à dessiner des architectures dont la forme et l'organisation est (en très légère partie ici) déterminée par un design "climatique", à la façon des architectures vernaculaires. A suivre... Wednesday, October 21. 2009JDS proposes to Experience the VoidFor the upcoming exhibition Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum Rotunda 250 artists, architects, and designers were asked to imagine their dream intervention in Frank Lloyd Wright's rotunda. JDS' Julien De Smedt has created a proposal that begs to be realized. A spiraling orange trampoline mesh descends from the top of the rotunda, inviting guest to traverse, rest and play. Brilliant! Via Archinect
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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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