Saturday, August 23, 2008

x house by arquitectura x


















adrian moreno nunez & maria samaniego ponce designed this minimalist modern masterpiece in la tola, valle de tumbaco, quito, ecuador. 380 sqm. photographs by sebastien crespo

dellis cay in the turks & caicos archipielago





































this might be my new favorite space on the planet (of which my narrow little mind is aware, of course). built on a 560-acre island called Dellis Cay in the Turks & Caicos Archipielago. the project features works by david chipperfield, carl ettensperger, zaha hadid, kengo kuma, piero lissoni & chad oppenheim. 124 villas, 154 residences, 30,000 sq ft spa, five star luxury hotel & several signature dining experiences (restaurants to us poor folk). gorrrgeous. loves it.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

theatre of immanence by UNstudio






The group exhibition Ben van Berkel & the Theatre of Immanence consists of an advanced installation designed by Ben van Berkel, together with Prof. Johan Bettum and Luis Etchegorry. The installation, named The Thing, consists of an upper and a lower level. The upper level serves as a form of theatre and the lower level as a more traditional exhibition space. The installation houses a series of works by artists and architects who have participated in the one-year long experimental project, entitled The Space of Communication, a project by the Städelschule Architecture Class, which consisted of a group of international artists and architects investigating various aspects of the contemporary conditions for social interaction and communication. The exhibition presents an advanced shape projection design on architecture.

jellyfish house by iwamotoscott





JELLYFISH HOUSE
Open House: Intelligent Living by DesignVitra Design Museum and Art Center College2005-06Jellyfish House is modeled on the idea that, like the sea creature, it coexists with its environment as a set of distributed, networked senses and responses. Jellyfish have no brain, no central nervous system, no eyes, and consist largely of the water around them. Yet, they sense light and odor, are self-propulsive, bioluminescent and highly adaptive to changing aquaculture. Like jellyfish, the house attempts to incorporate emerging material and digital technologies in a reflexive, environmentally contingent manner. The house is designed as a mutable layered skin, or 'deep surface', that mediates internal and external environments. The skin is designed as a parametric mesh that uses efficient geometric logics of Delauney triangulation and the Voronoi diagram. It deforms in thickness locally for geometric, structural, visual, and mechanical performance. The house is a transformative prototype for reclaimed land. Specifically, it is sited on Treasure Island, a flat, artificial island built off the naturally occurring island of Yerba Buena in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. Treasure Island is at once local and distant, isolated and connected. It has recently been decommissioned by the military, and is being redeveloped largely for new residences. Like many former military bases, Treasure Island suffers from a range of environmental hazards. The most geographically desirable parts of the island have toxic soil that requires remediation. In these areas, the particular hazardous materials necessitate that up to five feet of topsoil be removed for cleansing. In other areas, the contaminated soil can be treated on site using plant based phyto-remediation techniques. The proposed site strategy is to infiltrate the island with sinuous fields of wetlands that allow the removed soil to not have to be replaced, and remediate the remaining toxins.

potters field park pavilions by dsdha






Potters Fields Park Pavilions

As the UK’s first charred timber building, Parkside Pavilion has a distinctive silhouette that offsets the iconic structures that surround it and continues DSDHA’s research into contemporary forms of urban architecture and public space.

sheffield festival centre by carmody groarke






Sheffield Festival Centre

Sheffield / UK
Open International RIBA Competition 2007: Winner

Monday, August 18, 2008

kilden performing arts center for sorlandet by ala


PROJECT: 

Kilden - Performing Arts Center for Sørlandet

LOCATION:
Kristiansand, Norway

TYPE:
Competition 1st prize 2005

STATUS:
Under Construction
Completion 2011

PROGRAM:
17.000 Theatre and Concert Hall
10.000 Parking

SITE:
Tight plot on a renewed industrial pier hinging the city center and a major recreational outdoor area.

DESCRIPTION:
The building is to house different instances whom all get a joined symbol in the form of a massive curving wooden wall, which wraps all the functions within itself.

CLIENT:
TKS IKS

TEAM:
ALA: Juho Grönholm, Antti Nousjoki, Janne Teräsvirta, Samuli Woolston
with Niklas Mahlberg, Pekka Sivula, Pauliina Rossi, Pauliina Skyttä, Sami Mikonheimo, Jani Koivula, Auvo Lindroos, Aleksi Niemeläinen, Erling Sommerfeldt, Ingrid Kokkonen, Tomi Henttinen
SMS Arkitekter AS: Erik Sandsmark, Wenche Aabel, Lasse Stamrud, Hanne Alnes

COLLABORATORS:
WSP Multiconsult (structural engineering), Arup Acoustics (hall acoustics), Brekke Strand (room acoustics), Sweco Grøner, Cowi (service engineering), TPC (theatre technical engineering), Klaus Stolt (scale model)
Birger Grönholm (theatre expertise)