Tag Archives: Architecture

23/02

Casa Do Conto, Porto

Casa do Conto (House of Tales in Portuguese) a concept hotel in Cedofeita, Porto, has had a rocky start. The charming XIX Century Oporto House was lovingly restored by Pedra Liquida Architects, after which a fire virtually destroyed the building just days before its reopening. A new building was built on the site with the memory of the old structure in mind. The architects thought of the new skin as a type of ‘fossil’ of the historic. The project references the ornate nature of its predecessor with abstract textures and texts applied to concrete surfaces.

Apart from the textured surfaces, the design was approached with restraint and the resulting spaces seem appropriately quiet and poetic. The overall design manages to have a strong identity of its own while subtly referencing the site’s turbulent background.

(Images via Yatzer)

28/07

Table Cloth by Ball-Nogues Studio

Table Cloth is a new performance space in the courtyard of Schoenberg Hall at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in Los Angeles. The project is a result of ongoing research into the reuse of temporary structures and installations.

A collaboration between the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design, the Herb Alpert School of Music, and the UCLA Design Media Arts; Table Cloth serves as an integrated set piece, backdrop, and seating area for student musical performance and everyday social interaction. It is made of hundreds of individual low, coffee-style tables and three legged stools. Each of these household items is a unique product (no two are alike), fabricated specifically for the installation by Ball Nogues. The public can take home the tables and stools after the run of the installation. The tables and stools link together collectively to form a “fabric” that hangs from the east wall of the courtyard. When the Table Cloth meets the ground, it unrolls to form an intimate “in the round” performance area. Visitors can sit on the tables and stools within this area.

“Tables are places for social interaction,” explains Ball-Nogues. “Dining tables, specifically, facilitate organization and communication within the typical American home. We see this project like the cloth adorning a dining table; however, at Schoenberg it will adorn the courtyard, an important social hub, and will facilitate community at the scale of the University.”

Used for a variety of activities, from musical practice to performance, dance to lectures, and from casual conversations to academic discussions; it will embellish the courtyard throughout the summer of 2010. Because of the work’s size and the materials used, its presence within the space helps to reduce reverberation and alter other acoustical phenomena.

The processes of designing manufacturing, assembling, and dismantling the performance space are examples of a unique design and manufacturing methodology that moves beyond and constructively critiques the three “R’s” of sustainability – recycling, reuse, and repurposing, processes that typically down-cycle material into less valuable states. After the structure has served its function as a performance space, the components comprising the installation will be dismantled to become smaller scaled household commodities, – tables and seating. This process, referred to as “Cross Manufacturing” by Ball-Nogues, is an integrated design and manufacturing strategy that harnesses digital computation and fabrication technologies to make architectural scaled installations that become collections of smaller scaled products. The items will be immediately available and given away as consumer goods, once the installation is dismantled. This approach moves beyond recycling and reuse.

By using a consumer good as its basic building block, the project expands and critiques notions of “green” architecture. As a visual concept, the installation serves as a symbolic gesture of sustainability and a poetic reminder that the buildings and temporary pavilions we construct are impermanent: frozen moments in an ongoing flow of products and materials. Outside of its environmental considerations, the Table Cloth dramatically re-contextualizes consumer products – symbols of mass consumption and standardization– into alternative gestures of hope and one of a kind manufacturing.

Table Cloth will be the site of performances hosted by the Herb Alpert School of Music through the summer of 2010. Please see the Herb Alpert School of Music Website to confirm dates and start times.

01/01

'Mr_Design Office' by Schemata Architecture Office

Who wouldn’t want to work in this office? ‘Mr_Design Office’ by Japanese studio Schemata is a 190 m2 office for 5 people in Tokyo. With the intention of keeping the space open while still maintaining a level of privacy and warmth, the project incorporates noninvasive design elements with playful components. In order to avoid separating the single room into a number of smaller rooms, the design purposely lacks complete partitions and dividers.

A meeting area on the south end of the rectangular layout is flanked on one side by a mirrored surface to lengthen the space. The partial-height wall unit which houses the washroom and storage space features a built-in tube slide for the employees. To provide a level of privacy, the conference table is placed under a parabolic reflector with a 3.4m diameter. In addition to funneling light, the suspended fixture collects and directs sounds to the meeting area. In order to have a subtle presence, the overhead lights are constructed from spiral tubes cut in half to mimic the aesthetics of the ceiling ducts.

The bench in the waiting area is made from four separate chairs with clear epoxy feet to give the illusion of floating.

All Images courtesy Schemata Architecture Office

Photographer: Takumi Ota

Via designboom

22/03

SNØHETTA: architecture – landscape – interior

International architecture firm Snøhetta, founded in Oslo in 1989, are exhibiting some of their most important work at Scandinavian House: The Nordic Center in America, located at 58 Park Ave in NYC. Through April 24, 2010, you can view a collection the firm’s environmentally-conscious designs through films, drawings, models, and interactive learning devices. Snøhetta’s designs take both cultural and environmental contexts into consideration, finding a balance between the natural and built worlds.  An intriguing characteristic found in much of their architecture is a blurring between sub-/superterranean boundaries.  Pictured below are the King Abdulaziz Center for Knowledge and Culture, the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, and study models.

19/03

Blob VB3 by dmvA

The Belgian architectural firm dmvA designed ‘blob VB3′, a mobile unit for the office of Xfactoragencies as an extension to the ‘house’. The  space – egg house consists of a bathroom, kitchen, lighting, a bed and several niches for storage. The nose can be opened automatically and functions as a kind of porch. It easily transportable and can also be used as an office, guestroom or garden house. Polyester was the primarily material used in construction of the ‘Blob VB3′.

Via Designboom

Photo by Mick Couwenbergh/Rini van Beek

16/03

Painting the Manhattan Skyline

Approaching completion, Jean Nouvel’s new luxury residences at 100 11th have been masterfully crafted from the inside and out. The 23-story tower, located at 19th St and West Side Highway, faces the IAC/InterActive Corporation headquarters designed by Frank Gehry. Both buildings, bound by the Hudson River to the west and the High Line to the east, provide a new chapter to the ever-changing story of Chelsea’s design district.

The most dynamic views of 100 11th, referred to as the “Vision Machine” by Jean Nouvel, can be taken in from the south via the High Line, or the west – even from across the Hudson. These are the sides which the highly engineered glass curtain wall, the most technologically advanced ever constructed in NYC, wraps tightly around the black brick building. Made up of approximately 1647 window panes varying in both size and inclination, these façades shift throughout the day depending on the location of the sun.  The photograph below was taken from the High Line at sunset, with its mosaic-like screen capturing and reflecting the fragmented, nuanced, changing life of New York City.

By contrast, the north and east façades are made up of black brick referencing the masonry characteristics of West Chelsea’s industrial past.  Punched windows, also varying in size and location, frame and highlight certain views of the city from within.  While not yet occupied, every single residence at 100 11th will be connected to the south or west window wall, receiving a floor-to-ceiling stretch of natural light and urban energy.

View of 100 11th from the High Line

Window Wall via dezeen

View from Interior - via dezeen

20/05

Contemporary Interior Design

Through the ancient times interior designs have been very popular and people in the past have been picky on the interior designs they have wanted for their homes, offices, restaurants, pubs or clubs.

First impression of everything really matters and hence that’s when interior designs come into picture. People are very conscious about the way their home, office, restaurant, office, pub or clubs looks like. This trend is still continuing today, although in the 21st century it is about the modernization of interior designs that are very different to the older times.

21st century stands out with the vast collection and variety of designs that have been designed by different interior designers all over the world. It is about recognizing the art of interior designing and the process involved in it.

Contemporary interior design styles are more likely to be recognized as International styles that are adapted from all over the world. These designs are incorporated and are linked with each other in terms of corporative designs taken from all over the world. Interior designers use the modern techniques to decorate and furnish working spaces and indoor living involving both the aesthetic and practical considerations.

Contemporary Interior design cultures

Classical and Asian culture are some of the most modern interior design cultures used to elaborate and create various interior styles. These cultures have originated through the past changing the design styles with the modernization.

In the medieval European days interior designs were more of hanging objects made in elaborate styles that were used for the furnishing of castle. This style was reformed in the middle ages with more of Roman and Green styles that became popular. The recent style comes with the combination of all the international styles. Most modernized style is usually glass or metals to give a finishing look to the interior designing.

Lighting is the important factor when it comes to Contemporary interior designing and hence arrangement of the interior designing is based on comfort, pattern, scale, color and balance.

Furniture

Furniture used in the Contemporary Interior design is often blended with the color and is more modernized than the ancient times. Furniture usually is made to complement the color and the entire designing process. Furniture is also very important aspect of designing process. The entire interior designing depends on the furniture you will opt for. You can actually make a statement, ‘Bad furniture will spoil the entire décor of your interior designing’.

Wall Paper

Most contemporary interior designers are now going for modernized wall papers that would give more of an attractive look to the décor. The interior designers choose the color and the wall papers but they definitely will sit with you to discuss if the colors and the paper used for the wall are feasible and if that is what you would like.

Most Wall Paper décor will give a very sophisticated and classic look to the entire interior designing. The entire process of it is discussed to make the client comfortable with the look.