© Shamanth Patil J.

• Architects: Khosla Associates
• Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001, India
• Principal Designers: Sandeep Khosla, Amaresh Anand
• Area: 16000.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2015
• Photographs: Shamanth Patil J.

• Design Team: Sandeep Khosla, Amaresh Anand, Bijeta Bachaspati, Moiz Faizulla
• Civil Contractors: Hi Tech Constructions Pvt. Ltd.
• Structural Engineer: S & S Associates.

© Shamanth Patil J.

From the architect. The 16,000 sft site of the Krishnan house had several existing and mature trees and we envisioned a relatively low-slung architectural expression that would be interpretive of a vernacular aesthetic, while accommodating its green surroundings.

An architecture of sloped Mangalore tiled roofs and rough-cut Shira stone cladding contrasts with floors of rough and polished Kota and joinery of teak.

© Shamanth Patil J.

On entry, a series of vertical ribbed timber louvers provide a gentle divider between the threshold of the house and the garden beyond. Entry is either to the study on one side and the main living space on the other.

Plan

The living space is a grand volume of 25ft with two slopes of the roof at differing heights separated by a clerestory window. Its verticality is emphasized by large floor-to-ceiling windows with sheer linen blinds that provide soft light in the mornings from the northeast. Large overhangs on the southwest protect against the harsh afternoon sun while horizontal timber louvers provide for natural cooling via a stack effect and act as sun breakers. The living areas open to a wooden deck that continues into a wrap around verandah overlooking a lush internal courtyard garden. Almost all the spaces on the ground and first level visually flow into it.

© Shamanth Patil J.

The central feature of the living space is a burnt orange spiral staircase sculpted out of a shell of mild steel and housing timber treads. The Large expanses of grey Kota are contrasted with a bright color palette of turquoise, violet, red and mustard. The bold Ikat patterned carpet provides a vibrant base on which pieces by Moroso, Minotti, Riva and Poliform sit alongside other furniture designed by Khosla Associates. The central cluster of Mori fabric pendant lamps were sourced from New York based design house Rich Brilliant Willing, complemented by other light fixtures by Tom Dixon and Isamu Noguchi. The butterfly sculpture on the wall is Sunil Gawde’s ‘Secret Garden’ and other paintings are by young Bangalore based contemporary artists Shivkumar and Suresh Kumar.

© Shamanth Patil J.

The spatial flow takes into consideration the family’s requirement of segregating public and private space. The ground floor has living, study, dining, puja, home theatre, 2 kitchens, and 2 guest rooms while the upper level has 3 bedrooms, a yoga and meditation space and a family room.

© Shamanth Patil J.

Section

© Shamanth Patil J.

On the garden side, the study and the living rooms flow into their respective verandahs that hug a large pebbled fishpond. An existing tree emerges from the water and is uniquely framed by the study,the living and foyer on three sides.

© Shamanth Patil J.

We were driven to create a contextually sensitive and sustainable design by maximizing local materials, using clay tiled roofs to keep the house cool, large overhangs to protect against sun and rain, and cross ventilation to keep the house breathing at all times. As firmly as our clients were rooted to their traditions , they were also global travellers equally open to an eclectic design aesthetic that is reflected in the house interiors.

© Shamanth Patil J.

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Aquatrium. Image via Arch Out Loud

Arch Out Loud has announced the winners of their New York City Aquarium and Public Waterfront Competition, which invited students and professionals alike to design “an intertwined public aquarium and park” on an underutilized riverfront property located on the East River in Queens. Participants were asked to “redefine the aquarium typology, examining its relationship to the urban context and the public domain.” 

The call for submissions was answered by 556 participants and 178 proposals from forty counties, and included ideas that pushed the physical boundaries of the site and responded to the idea of redefining the typical aquarium typology.

The jury, which included both practicing architects and educators, made their selections based on designs that challenged the relationship between the waterfront and the city, and analyzed how the combination of these two can bring people together and form a new type of aquarium. The winning proposals are simple, powerful designs with easily understandable core concepts and have the potential to become iconic sites.

3^rd Place – Merrior

Merrior. Image via Arch Out Loud

Rob Holmes, Laurel McSherry, Frederick Steiner, David Bayer | UNITED STATES

This project reimagines the aquarium of the twenty-first century to be a node within a much larger “hydrological and ecological network”; or an aquarium that doesn’t hold captive animals behind a glass, but rather becomes a series of encounters with different animals and their living habitats. This designed site is situated at the center of thirty diving bells across the metropolitan region. These bells, and their networks, allow for visitors to engage in a variety of ecologies — mobile bells designed around aquatic habitats, cadastral bells designed around the built environment, and datum bells based on bathymetry and sea-level rise.

The jurors commented on the project, saying: “Merrior questions what architecture and our built environment is. It questions taking animals away from their natural habitat, and therefore avoids the creation of spaces that try to recreate a ‘natural environment.’”

2nd Place – Vers La Mer

Vers La Mer. Image via Arch Out Loud

Dominik Sigg | Brooklyn, NYC, UNITED STATES

This design investigates “a maritime urbanism where the built fabric of the city shifts from traditional solid ground to a floating existence.” The name, literally means “towards the sea” and creates rectilinear volumes that float away from the riverfront and are anchored in the basin. The public spaces include a large, floating water garden.

The jury stated that the overall concept of the aquarium is very poetic, and added: “There’s tension within the idea that the buildings are floating on the water, yet their program demands that they also be filled with water. They seem more like boats than buildings…It’s an urban park over water that let you and others be the facade of the project as visitors participate in moments of wonder.”

1st Place – NYC Aquatrium

Aquatrium. Image via Arch Out Loud

Piero Lissoni, Miguel Casal Ribiero, Mattia Susani, and Joao Silva | Milan, ITALY

The first place design creates a dynamic system that allows for multiple ways to experience the riverfront. The proposal includes an excavation of the existing site, which will become a large water basin. The basin includes a submerged island that can be accessed only by a designed pathway. A new beachfront serves two functions, by both covering a parking area and forming a new public space that includes a new boardwalk. This boardwalk “surrounds the basin and becomes a floating ring connecting the two waterfronts” and encompasses the sliding roof which will protect the biomes within.

The jurors commented on the first place project, saying: “The Building concept is intriguing and alluring; it plays with subtleties rather than with huge or hulking impact that contrasts and plays against the density and grain of NYC in a very poetic manner. The multiple level sectional design is also good and allows for beautifully depicted sensations in the presentation that will encourage a very immersive phenomenological experience.”

Find out more details about the other winners and honorable mentions, here.

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"Through China with a Camera … With … illustrations". Image Courtesy of The British Library

The British Library has continued to release images from its digitized collection, now bordering over one million images on public image-sharing platform Flickr, reports Quartz.  Since 2013, the institution’s “Mechanical Curator” has been randomly selecting images or other pages from over 65,000 public-domain books from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

"Homes of our Forefathers in Boston, Old England, and Boston, New England. From original drawings by E. Whitefield". Image Courtesy of The British Library

The treasure trove includes “maps, drawings, illustrations, handwritten letters, diagrams, cartoons, comics, posters and decorative scrolls,” writes Quartz. As the images are curated randomly — and due to the extreme volume — the public has been called upon to help categorize the collection.  To date, the collection has had over 267 million views and over 400,000 tags have been added. 

"John L. Stoddard's Lectures [on his travels]. Illustrated … with views of the worlds famous places and people, etc". Image Courtesy of The British Library

For architects and architecture students, the “Architecture” album has a wealth of material, including nearly 2,000 images, while the “Castle” album contains close to 200. Countless other images of foliage and people are also easily re-imagined as a collage for more experimental styles of representation.

Below we’ve rounded-up some of our favorite architecturally-relevant images. 

"Old and New London, etc". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"Az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia irásban és képben. Rudolf trónörökös főherczeg Ő … fensége kezdeményezéséből és közremunkálásával. (Die deutsche Ausgabe redigirt … J. von Weilen, die ungarische M. Jókai.) Hung", "Appendix. Topography and Travels". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"John L. Stoddard's Lectures [on his travels]. Illustrated … with views of the worlds famous places and people, etc". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"King's Handbook of New York City. An outline history and description of the American metropolis. With … illustrations, etc. (Second edition.)". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"Three Vassar Girls on the Rhine. A holiday trip … Illustrated, etc". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"Old & New London. By W. Thornbury and Edward Walford. Illustrated". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"Strassburg und seine Bauten. Herausgegeben vom Architekten- und Ingenieur-Verein für Elsass-Lothringen. Mit 655 Abbildungen in Text, etc". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"La Terra, trattato popolare di geografia universale per G. Marinelli ed altri scienziati italiani, etc. [With illustrations and maps.]". Image Courtesy of The British Library

"[Paris historique et monumental depuis son origine jusqu'en 1851 … illustré d'un grand nombre de vignettes et de deux plans. Par B. R[enault?].]". Image Courtesy of The British Library

See the full collection here. And learn more about the British Library’s initiative in the full story on Quartz.

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© OMA – Albert Vecerka

• Architects: OMA
• Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY 10028, United States
• Partner In Charge: Shohei Shigematsu
• Client: The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Area: 18300.0 ft2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Albert Vecerka, Brett Beyer, Naho Kubota

• Associate In Charge: Scott Abrahams
• Team: Wesley Ho, Nicholas Solakian, Sergio Zapata, Daniel Rauchwerger, Lawrence Siu, Darby Foreman, Matthew Haseltine, Christine Noblejas
• Engineering: Arup
• Lighting: Dot Dash
• Media: 3 Legged Dog

© OMA – Albert Vecerka

From the architect. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute spring 2016 exhibition, Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, on view from May 5 through August 14, explores how designers are reconciling the handmade and the machine-made in the creation of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear. Manus x Machina features over 170 garments, diverse in their designers, techniques and details. The exhibition is presented in the Robert Lehman Wing, a double-height, octagonal addition on the museum’s central axis constructed in 1975. In order to preserve access to the permanent galleries, the exhibition space is located in the Lehman Wing’s central atrium and corridors. The space posed a number of unique environmental challenges for The Costume Institute’s show: excessive daylighting unconducive to textile exhibition, split levels, a corridor condition lacking dedicated display walls and an eclectic material palette.

© OMA – Brett Beyer

Axonometric

© OMA – Albert Vecerka

A white, translucent volume was inserted into the existing brick and stone corridors of the Lehman Wing, softening its hard geometries. Echoing the sectional relationship of a central clerestory and perimeter naves, the resulting ghost cathedral resonates with the classical language of the adjacent Medieval Art gallery. A raised platform built across the double height atrium provides continuous circulation and a 2,300 square foot central gallery– an unprecedented intervention in the Lehman Wing. Upon arrival, this domed clerestory orients visitor’s with a 2014 Chanel wedding dress by Karl Lagerfeld that embodies the exhibition’s theme. Details of the 20-foot train’s baroque pattern are projected on the dome’s black out scrim, recalling the Sistine Chapel. Four chapel-style pochés provide an area to focus on case studies.

© OMA – Brett Beyer

Exhibition designer Shohei Shigematsu commented, “The diverse range of garments required a neutral, integrated environment to focus on the pairings of manual and mechanical processes. An armature of scaffolding wrapped with a translucent fabric introduces a unique temporality within a historic institution.”

© OMA – Brett Beyer

Lower Level Plan

© OMA – Albert Vecerka

As a high-performance theatrical scrim, the perforated membrane material of the ghost cathedral offers the tensile flexibility required for the dome geometries as well as varying degrees of transparency. When lit from the front, the scrim appears opaque enough to function as a projection backdrop for garment details. Lit from behind, the scrim appears transparent, exposing a sense of the Lehman Wing’s existing material palette and language. The unexpected spatial depth of the scrim allows for visual connections to the wedding dress from all quadrants of the Lehman Wing, while also revealing silhouettes of the temporary scaffolding framework housed within. In the lower level, scrim enfilades provide a permeable divider for each technique. As an integrated system for lighting, signage and projection, the scrim seamlessly serves multiple curation needs that would otherwise rely on overpowering media screens. 

© OMA – Brett Beyer

Upper Level Plan

© OMA – Albert Vecerka

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© Edmund Sumner

From a shortlist of 68 buildings, 36 London projects have been awarded the 2016 RIBA London Awards for architectural excellence, the city’s most prestigious design honor. The winners include a home for ravens, a Japanese-inspired London terrace home and a historical restoration. All of these designs will be further considered for the RIBA National Awards, to be announced in July. The winners of the national award will then create a shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize – the highest award for architecture in the UK.

61 Oxford Street / Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

© Timothy Soar

8 St James’s Square / Eric Parry Architects

© Dirk Lindner

Alphabeta / Studio RHE

© Hufton and Crow

ARK All Saints Academy and Highshore School / Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

Corner House / DSDHA

© Christopher Rudquist

Covert House / DSDHA

© Christopher Rudquist

Curzon Bloomsbury / Takero Shimazaki Architects & Unick Architects

© Helene Binet

Ely Court, South Kilburn / Alison Brooks Architects & Hester Architects

© Paul Riddle

Gagosian Gallery, Mayfair / TateHindle, Caruso St John & BDP

© Philip Vile

Garden House / Hayhurst and Co.

© Killian O'Sullivan

Godson Street / Edgley Design & Spaced Out Architecture Studio (SOAS)

© Jack Hobhouse

Graveney School Sixth Form Block / Urban Projects Bureau

© Killian O'Sullivan

Greenwich Gateway Pavilions / Marks Barfield Architects

© Timothy Soar

Greenwich Housing / Bell Phillips Architects

© Edmund Sumner

House of Trace / Tsuruta Architects

© Tim Crocker

Kingston Ancient Market Place and Stalls / Tonkin Liu

© Anthony Hurren

Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute / Allies and Morrison & PM Devereux

© St†le Eriksen

Merchant Square Footbridge / Knight Architects

© Edmund Sumner

Modern Mews / Coffey Architects

© Timothy Soar

Modern Side Extension / Coffey Architects

© Timothy Soar

Newport Street Gallery / Caruso St John Architects

© Helene Binet

Ravens Enclosure, HM Tower of London / Llowarch Llowarch Architects

© Edmund Sumner

RCA Battersea / Haworth Tompkins

© Philip Vile

Regent High School / Walters & Cohen Architects

© Dennis Gilber

Royal Road / Panter Hudspith Architects

© Morley von Sternberg

Sir John Soane’s Museum / Julian Harrap Architects

© Gareth Gardner

The Bath House Children’s Community Centre / Lipton Plant Architects

© David Vintiner

The Plimsoll Building / David Morley Architects & Weedon Architects

© John Sturrock

The Royal Hospital Chelsea, Long Wards / Peregrine Bryant Architecture and Building Conservation

© June Buck

Thornsett Road / Allies and Morrison

© St†le Eriksen

Tin House / Henning Stummel Architects

© Luke Caulfield

Trafalgar Place – Elephant and Castle / dRMM Architects

© Alex de Rijke

Turnmill / Piercy&Company

© Al Crow

Vaudeville Court / Levitt Bernstein

© Tim Crocker

Waddesdon Bequest Gallery / Stanton Williams & Purcell

© Hufton and Crow

Wilton’s Music Hall / Tim Ronalds Architects

© Helene Binet

Find more information on the 2016 RIBA London Awards and the winning projects, here.

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