Brexit crisis: the Creative Industries Federation is organising a series of emergency sessions to prepare the sector for Brexit, saying “if it is going to happen, we need to mitigate the consequences”. (more…)
Icelandic musician Björk has partnered with designer and researcher Neri Oxman on a mask made up of multiple 3D-printed strands that mimic the underlying structure of her own face (+ slideshow). (more…)
An urban house, but nevertheless cozy, warm but open to the surroundings, light but also full of shadows, with modern engineering and using natural materials. These were the first clear concepts agreed with the owners for their future home in the Jardins neighborhood of São Paulo.
To this end, we thought to occupy the plot with a single volume that ran parallel to one of its sides, with a view of the dense garden created in front of this prism. The living and dining room — with a double-height ceiling — was centered in this volume and also features an indoor garden throughout the circulating area. The bedrooms, on the first floor, occupy the two ends of the volume and communicate via a walkway that bisects the double-height living room.
Seeking the best angle for sunlight and the most privacy, the pool and terrace were located in the back of the grounds. Large roof eaves, slender structure, transparencies and wood and stone finishing sought to achieve the sensations idealized by the couple for their house.
Until July 3rd, you can experience the latest and last work of artist duo Christo and Jean-Claude. Called The Floating Piers, the floating dock extends over the water of Italy’s Lake Iseo.
The work consists of a three kilometer walkway wrapped in 100,000 square meters of yellow cloth, which is supported by a floating dock system composed of 220,000 high-density polyethylene cubes. These elements naturally undulate with the movement of the waves at Lake Iseo, which is located 100 kilometers east of Milan and 200 kilometers west of Venice. The floating yellow roads extend from the pedestrian streets of Sulzano, connecting the islands of San Paolo and Monte Isola.
The Floating Piers is the first large-scale work of Christo for more than a decade after making The Gates in 2005 with Jeanne-Claude, who passed away four years later. Due to the importance of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work and the inspiration they have given to many architects, we wanted to investigate the process of building this spectacular project, which makes the dream of walking on water a reality.
August 2014: At the textile manufacturer, Setex, 90,000 square meters of shimmering yellow fabric are produced. (Greven, Germany)
Noviembre 2015: Christo in his studio working on a preparatory drawing for The Floating Piers.
January 2016: At a factory in Fondotoce at Lago Maggiore, 200,000 high-density polyethylene cubes are manufactured over a period of eight months before delivery to the work site in Montecolino
January 2016: At the headquarters in Montecolino, construction workers assemble the piers, which are assembled in 100-meter-long segments and stored outside Montecolino on Lake Iseo
February 2016: Aerial view of the project’s building yard on the Montecolino peninsula and the parking area for the thirty 100 by 16 meter sections on Lake Iseo.
February 2016: At geo – die Luftwerker, 75,000 square meters of yellow fabric are sewn into panels. (Lübeck, Germany)
March 2016: Commercial divers from France are hired to install the underwater anchors at depths up to 90 meters.
March 2016: A diver connects a rope made of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), covered with a polyester protective layer with a breaking load of 20 metric tons, to one of the anchors on the lakebed to keep the piers in place.
April 2016: Frames are attached underneath the cubes to the deadweight anchors on the lakebed with rope made of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), covered with a polyester protective layer and with a breaking load of 20 metric tons.
April 2016: Workers push one of the frames underneath a floating element before connecting it with screws.
April 2016: Workers start to encircle the island of San Paolo with the first floating elements.
April 2016: Aerial view of the project’s building yard on the Montecolino peninsula and the parking area for the thirty 100 by 16 meter sections on Lake Iseo.
May 2016: The felt that will cover the cubes underneath the yellow fabric is transported from Montecolino to San Paolo island by Elimast Helicopter Service.
May 2016: Workers install the felt that will cover the floating cubes before the yellow fabric is installed
June 2016: Final installation of the docks, and covering with the yellow fabric
Junio 2016: From the evening of June 15 to the evening of June 17, teams unfurl 100,000 square meters of shimmering dahlia-yellow fabric on the piers and pedestrian streets in Sulzano and Peschiera Maraglio
‘Floating Piers’ de Christo te permitirá caminar sobre el agua
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Graduate shows 2016: a gridded megastructure contains a creative workforce of 1,400 in this proposal by Royal College of Art graduate Ohyun Kwon to address the housing crisis in the South Korean capital. (more…)
VF House is a residential project designed by Studio ro+ca. It is located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photos courtesy of Studio ro+ca
London Festival of Architecture 2016: a soup servery, a rubbish bin-cum-play space and a flat-pack pop-up shop form part of an exhibition that explores how architecture can contribute to city communities (+ slideshow). (more…)
A proposal from George Batzios Architects for the Konaki Averof Cultural Center in Greece uses a cutting edge, sustainable approach to revive a deeply historical site. The design intertwines elements of architecture and agriculture to refit an existing structure with reference to the Thessalian plains on which it lies. The new architecture recreates the existing envelopes with straw cladding, regenerating the “golden environment” which defined the place in the late 19th century.
The structure is scattered among the ruins of buildings in the Thessalian plains, a vast site that once functioned as the granary of the Greek territory and beyond. Georges Batzios propose that the historical architecture cannot simply be reinterpreted as a copy, as the landscape has evolved to the extent that the original architecture is no longer functional. The urban life that existed there has become superseded by the growing urbanization of nearby Larissa, and the vibrancy of the existing structures has faded.
The architects propose that the unique characteristics of Konaki Averof are invigorated by combining the qualities of the old with the capability of modern construction technology. The context and the addition relate dominantly through materiality, enabling the refitting of the building to revitalize “the site, not only the artifact.”
The Thessalian land traditionally bore golden wheat crops, which is directly translated into the evolved building’s primary material: straw. The exposed straw is compressed and forms the entire outer skin of the building. This construction technique, developed in Northern Europe, is here used to this extent for the first time. The material’s insulation capabilities are able to reduce 95% of the building’s energy needs, creating a passive thermal environment. Visually, it presents a golden glow, reinstating the lost color and texture of the plains.
The main area of the building contains two levels; the ground floor, which houses the functionality of the building, and the attic, which becomes the “social playground.” The two are rationalized in completely different ways, the first a clear segregation of programmatic elements and the latter a public open space, able to be used freely.
The proposition was developed as a response to the Konaki Averof Cultural Center Competition, in which Georges Batzios received second place.
News via Georges Batzios Architects
From the architect. This children’s area is linked to the new world headquarters of Japan Tobacco International in Geneva. Located between two imposing buildings, the headquarters of JTI and WMO, the nursery school is envisaged as an ‘inhabited landscape’. The building is based on a regular frame and alternating arches in offset bands which are spread out across the whole site and form the body of the building which is covered by a vegetated roof. This structural principle generates either sheltered spaces when the arch is convex, or open spaces which serve as an interior playground when it is concave. The Origami nursery school derives its specific nature from the way in which it varies a repetitive geometrical principle. There is a mixture of structural materials, the mullions, transoms and uprights being in metal and the horizontal caissons in wood.
Its architectural design can be described as the theatrical staging of the landscape aspect of the building. The entrance is created by lowering the core layer giving access to the centre of the site. On entering one discovers play areas in relation with outside amenities and intersecting views between the different sections.
The interior layout provides for differences in architectural scales corresponding to the different ages of the children.
Nguyen’s house is a residential project designed by 7A architecture studio in 2015. It is located in Dak Lak Province, Vietnam. Nguyen’s House by 7A architecture studio: “NsH (Nguyen’s House) was built in a new residential area in Buon Ma Thuot city. Owners of the house were young parents living with their two kids, desiring a simple, warm and spacious house with plenty of light, and cost savings in construction…
