After the success of its 6th edition in 2007, Sketchup became one of the world’s most widely used 3D modeling software products. This is thanks to its intuitive toolbar, interdisciplinary use within the creative industry (not just architects) and having a free version that doesn’t use watermarks.
Its open source library helped the software to provide a wide range of 3D objects, while hundreds of users developed their own plugins not only to solve the problems of each version but also to exploit the potential of their tools.
We’re going to introduce you to 10 of the plugins shared by Sketchup Tutorials Facebook page using their demonstrative GIFs. If you don’t know how to add a SketchUp plugin, don’t worry! You can learn in this video also posted by them.
Multipe Offsets v4
Created by Sam D Mitch, this plugin creates multiple offsets of selected surfaces in a model. Download here.
Angular Dimension
It seems so basic that it’s surprising this wasn’t already included with Sketchup, but someone actually took the time to program a plugin to fix it. Developed by the user SLBaumgartner, this plugin allows you to calculate and draw angles on the surface of a volume.
Created by 3dalbertsoft, this plugin allows you to create a helical turbine by selecting a curve and a predefined shape in SketchUp. A dialog window lets you choose numerous parameters to create the final shape. We think it is quite useful to define seams, seals, springs, tensioners and cables. And there’s a YouTube tutorial!
Created by Kirill B, LSS Matrix allows you to create a sequence of chained components by simply updating the parent block. As the GIF accompanying this description demonstrates, you can create a spiral staircase by creating a block with two steps and then choosing the number of copies. You can learn how in 2 minutes with this tutorial on Youtube. Download here.
Quad Face Tool
Created by ThomThom, this plugin solves one of Sketchup’s major shortcomings: its trouble working with non-flat quad surfaces. With Quad Face Tool we create figures with continuous edges as topographies or, as we see in the GIF that accompanies this description, give a much more real surface to a helmet that was originally reticulated. Yes, there is a Youtube tutorial!
In 2012, Google sold Sketchup to Trimble Navigation. Although this case is not a plugin, it is a good example of the positive synergy Sketchup achieved with Google: the “Location” tool allows you to choose the satellite image of the place your project is going to end up by entering an exact address in Google Maps. Then, with a click, you can replicate the actual topography of that location. Very useful.
Sketchy FFD
Created by CPhillips, this plugin allows you to create an invisible control cage around an object. What does that mean? It is a mesh defined by a series of control points in its vertices and edges that let you manipulate the dimensions of a selected object. The GIF that accompanies this description uses the example of a diagrid mesh transformed into a bowl by adjusting the lower points or into a vase if you adjust the upper points. Highly recommended tutorial here.
Created by Chris Fullmer, this plugin allows you to replicate a component onto a surface. As in previous cases, when editing the base component, the rest are automatically updated. Highly recommended for designing parameterized façades. Download here.
Camer Tools
Another one by ThomThom, this plugin offers a series of new cameras for your projects’ animations. Download here.
Curviloft
Created by Fredo6, this plugin generates parameterized volumes when selecting a series of curves on a 3D model. Once created, it offers nine different possibilities, including the possibility to redefine its final thickness. Very useful for designing furniture. Download here.
From the architect. Located in Ginza, which is the most renowned commercial district in Japan, and also facing a major junction Sukiyabashi Crossing, Tokyu Plaza Ginza is a large commercial building with a floor area of 50,000 sqm. The site sits at the connection point to Yurakucho and Hibiya disctrict, and can be described as “Gate of Ginza”. Surrounded by roads on all sides, the project is a “1 block full development” which is a rare case in this district.
Based on the concept “Vessel of light”, the building is designed as a glass “vessel” inspired by the Japanese traditional craft of glass cut “Edo Kiriko”. In order to realize a commercial building which interacts with the city, the façade is mainly composed of glass. This reveals the inner activities to the city, and enables an urban feeling. On the other hand, the three-dimensional façade composition results in a diverse optical phenomenon derived from transmission and reflection of sunlight. The façade shows various expressions changing by time and weather. While attracting with a symbolic form, the reflection of surrounding cityscape and climate makes this architecture merge into the entire cityscape. The Tokyu Ginza Plaza is a harmonic addition to the urbanscape of Ginza.
The facade of this Tokyu Plaza Ginza Building consists of three dimensional glass planes, which creates a delicate phenomenon of light reflection and transmission. In other words, the facade variously reflects the urban scenery, the interior commercial ambience, and the dynamic activities surrounding this building. By reconstituting these diverse scenic elements, the building facade transforms itself into an urban phenomenon. SSG was adopted so as not to expose the framing of the glass. Like a carved glass pattern seen on the surface of Edo Kiriko, the facade creates a large 3D diamond shaped pattern, which is 6 stories high and 500 mm deep. This large scale pattern of the façade makes the building stand out from the surrounding context. The unitized glass assembly is comprised of both low iron glass and heat reflective coated glass, in a way that emphasizes the three-dimensional profile of the building form. The low iron glass panel is treated with a 1mm ceramic dot pattern of gradient density. At night this plane is illuminated by light fixtures integrated into the interior aluminum mullions.
The KIRIKO LOUNGE is a public space situated at the middle level of the building, providing a broad view of the city. By its 27 meter high atrium, and the vantage point above the heavy traffic of the Sukiyabashi Crossing, the lounge opens up to the commercial activities of the city.
In the high density and limited spatial conditions of Ginza, such an open and elevated space offers an opportunity for people to gather, and create connection. The continuity between the architecture and urban context promotes the attractive nature of this city. This three dimensional interpretation of urban space will generate a new chance to produce activities not limited within the site but also involving the urban context.
The project emphasises a consumerist and touristic view of art at the expense of the cultural and humane task of art. instead of strengthening local artistic traditions and practices, the project strengthens the already doubtful globalisation and commercialisation of art. The public funds could clearly be used in a more innovative and efficient manner to support Finnish artistic culture.
Pallasmaa’s criticism follows a recent suggestion by Finnish Member of Parliament and architect Anders Adlercreutz, alongside British architecture critic Jonathan Glancey, that a second competition should be held for a new design on a different site. They have said that Moreau Kusunoki Architects’ winning proposal is the “wrong building for the wrong site,” reports the AJ.
Initiation is a private home located in Taipei, Taiwan. It was designed by Wei Yi International Design Associates. Initiation by Wei Yi International Design Associates: “Initialization. No matter what we had experienced, go through the initial throb deep in your heart. Through the fascinated of concrete, the designer tries to annotate the different views of space base on the materials, characteristics in this case. This space is divided into two..
Driven by the hyper-density of the city-state from which they operate, WOHA have emerged as Singapore‘s quintessential architects. Combining a locally-specific approach to climate control and spatial planning with an international approach to form and materials, their work holds lessons that can be instructive to architects in all climates. In this interview, the latest in his “City of Ideas” column, Vladimir Belogolovsky speaks to WOHA founders Wong Mun Summ and Richard Hassell about their environmental approach and the future of our global cities.
Vladimir Belogolovsky:How did you two meet and what was it that attracted you to each other?
Wong Mun Summ: I graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1989 and Richard graduated from the University of Western Australia in Perth the same year. There was a recession at the time in Australia so he came to Singapore to look for work.
Richard Hassell: Asia was a natural place to go to, as it was the early days of the Asian economic bubble and construction was booming. When it burst, suddenly, no one could sell their properties. That’s when design became very important for developers. Before that, they could sell anything off the plan. After, the attention shifted from the exuberance of form-making to aiming at providing quality living and smart economical solutions. We started with small projects, mainly houses.
VB:Your work can be identified as green architecture. Was it intended as a conscious direction from the beginning?
WMS: Yes. As far back as at our universities, we both studied environmental design with a focus on passive, energy efficient buildings.
RH: The dean at my school was an environmental scientist, not an architect. We had many professors who came out of the energy crisis, so they were environmentally conscious. It was in the 1980s when architects started embracing such slogans as “greed is good.”
WMS: Then came the form-making contest among architects and out of that, star architecture evolved. But our training was more based on being conscious about the environment and that’s what formed our design strategies. Introducing landscaping and greenery, and creating social spaces within our buildings became the backbone and key features of our work.
VB:One of your exhibitions was called Breathing Architecture. Is this the key principle of your work—to create buildings that breathe?
RH: Absolutely. That exhibit was held in Germany where they are required by regulation to design buildings that are entirely sealed from nature and provide very controlled environments. But for us it was important to demonstrate the alternative of porous and perforated buildings, because in the tropics the difference between comfort and something that’s very uncomfortable is just a matter of air movement. Sealing a building means consuming a great deal of energy to create comfort.
WMS: So for us, shaping and forming buildings is all about finding the best ways for providing breezes and air movement. Air should be constantly moving across spaces within buildings.
VB:Another one of your shows was called Exotic More or Less.
RH: That was also in Germany where our work was paired with W Architects, also from Singapore. The combined show was called Exotic More or Less, within that our section was titled WOHA More on Less. We demonstrated how to achieve more comfort with fewer resources for high-density living in the environment, which is viewed as exotic in Germany and “More on Less” of course, is a play on Miesian phrase “Less is More.”
VB:Would you say there is such a thing as Singapore architecture?
WMS: There is a broad repertoire of what architects are pursuing in architecture but it is very recognizable, yes.
RH: The local climate is a very powerful influence for Singapore architects. If you don’t provide cross ventilation the environment may be unbearable, so a common set of forms and strategies have evolved for this particular reason.
VB:Can climate alone produce distinctive architecture? What about Kuala Lumpur? Climatically it is right next to Singapore, but its architecture is not as distinctive.
WMS: Yes, the climate there is very similar but in Singapore, we push the boundaries a lot more.
RH: Also Singapore is constrained by its size while Malaysia has a lot of land. Kuala Lumpur has an option to spread horizontally, whereas we can only grow upwards. Real estate prices in Singapore are much higher and that pushes up the construction budgets we work with, which gives us more opportunities to innovate with form and materials.
VB:Was there a particular project for you that could be called as your defining moment? In other words, was there a project that would make you realize—aha, now this is the right direction for us?
WMS: It was a competition project called Duxton Plain Public Housing International Competition held in Singapore in 2001 organized by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. We didn’t win it but it presented an opportunity for us to experiment with many of the design strategies we operate with today. The project became very instrumental for us, but at the time, conservative building codes would not allow such a project to be built, so we did not win that competition. But years later, in 2015, we built our SkyVille@Dawson public housing project also in Singapore, which is based on those initial ideas. The project consists of twelve 47-story towers. They are placed to form three diamond-shaped interconnected atriums spanned by public sky terraces that effectively multiply the ground level.
RH: We are interested in many things. Many inspirations come from outside of architecture. We are interested in traditional arts and crafts such as textiles and weaving. That informs us about how to design our facades and other form-defining components. We are also inspired by landscapes…
WMS: Almost everything and nothing specific. What we are really driven by, being in Singapore, a land-limited place, is that we are forced to think about high density. That is the most important driving force for us.
VB:And what do you think about the work of such pioneering green architects as Emilio Ambasz?
WMS: Sure, we went to school at the time when Ambasz was most influential and so buildings buried under the landscape were quite an influence on us.
VB:What words would you use to describe your architecture?
RH: Generous.
WMS: Responsible.
RH: Delightful.
WMS: Sensuous.
RH: And if you go deeper into our work, there are many connections to Asian visual culture, arts and crafts.
WMS: And also the scale. Many of our projects are quite big, on the scale of megastructures, but we always address the issue of how to humanize our buildings, so people can relate to them.
RH: Our intention is to be good in the broadest sense—good for the planet, good for the city, good for the people.
WMS: And good for the developer. [Laughs.] The more people are satisfied the better. It is important to achieve certain outcomes that are objectively good for everybody.
VB:How would you describe this moment in architecture? Are we going through a crisis and would you say green architecture is a trend of philosophy?
RH: I wouldn’t say architecture is in crisis. Perhaps the world is in crisis and architecture responds to that. We are for sure in transition from having our focus on formal innovation in the last fifteen years.
VB:Are you interested in formal innovation yourselves?
WMS: That’s part of architecture! We don’t want to give up on that. Architecture is about form making. But we think there is a lot more to it. We need to be making more than just interesting shapes.
VB:Singapore evokes vertical possibilities with horizontal connections in midair. How do you see your city’s future?
WMS:Singapore is an island city and a nation. It can’t get bigger. We need to work on making it denser in the most exiting way. We are an example for other cities not to get too large and to grow responsively ecologically.
RH: With our students, we explore ideas about how future cities can be entirely self-sufficient within city limits and not rely on enormous suburbs and hinterlands. So we are developing strategies to limit the ecological footprint of megacities to their actual physical size—and finding out the limits to density.
VB:When you design your high-rises shooting up into the sky, such as your recently completed permeable Oasia Downtown tower in the heart of Singapore, do you imagine these structures one day becoming a singular megastructure holding pedestrian bridges connecting to neighboring towers?
WMS: We hope so.
VB:So these towers, in a way, serve as bridges into the future, right?
WMS: That is the whole point. We try to instigate with our projects ideas about the potentials for our cities in the future. Someday the future will offer cities that are much more connected. Cities will be truly three-dimensional.
VB:So the ideas of futuristic megacities from the 1960s may be revisited.
WMS: Sure. But in the past the focus was on machine looking aesthetics, whereas now the goal is to make our cities more livable.
RH: We aim at merging the megacity project from the past with the idea of a garden city for the future. We want our cities to be cozy, comfortable, natural, and domestic.
WMS: Our ideal is to create a comfortable garden suburb experience and then replicate it vertically through a megastructure for everyone to enjoy.
VB:Are you aiming at achieving your own voice in architecture?
RH: We feel we have a voice, even though it may not be distinctive stylistically as some formalistic architects have achieved. Our projects may not look 100% consistent stylistically, but our strategic ideas and philosophy of what is critical and valuable all have become our signature. We are erasing boundaries between architecture and landscape. The beliefs that man is separate from nature and cities are separate from countryside are obsolete. In the Anthropocene era, the whole world is a managed landscape. The only way to preserve nature is to integrate it into our built environment. It is supercritical.
Belogolovsky’s column, City of Ideas, introduces ArchDaily’s readers to his latest and ongoing conversations with the most innovative architects from around the world. These intimate discussions are a part of the curator’s upcoming exhibition with the same title which premiered at the University of Sydney in June 2016. The City of Ideas exhibition will travel to venues around the world to explore ever-evolving content and design.
Pneumatic Vacuum Elevators, LLC has created a series of air-powered, space-saving, “plug & play” elevators designed to be easily installed into home environments.
Ranging from a single-passenger to a three-passenger, wheelchair accessible model, the elevators—called Pneumatic Vacuum Elevators (PVE)—are self-supporting, and do not require equipment rooms or other additional spaces above or below the shaft. Similarly, the elevators are completely enclosed and are not built into the framework of the home around them, and thus it can easily be relocated.
Courtesy of Pneumatic Vacuum Elevators, LLC
During a PVE ride, air pressure is used to lift and gently lower the cabin using only about zero to 4.7 kilowatts of electricity, for descent and ascent, respectively.
According to the manufacturers, PVE machines have very few moving parts and do not require lubrication, so they only require maintenance about once every four to five years or 15,000 rides.
The Coral Cave is a refuge from the world. A grotto where love can still happen. The place where the city regains its sacral dimension that binds those who were to those who are.
The Coral Cave explores a Pre-Modern idea: when architecture was imagination and the city was the labyrinth of memory. That labyrinth renewed every day with the caresses of our eyes; that speaks to us, mutedly, of lives lived. The image is the place where the dead speak to the living. Where it confirms the idea of life as permanence and tradition. Without this silent dialogue, the city dies; entertainment and alienation take over neutralizing the subversive potential of love.
Plan
The Coral Cave speaks of the sacred that comes from the sea. The cadence of space recounts the allegories of beauty and metamorphosis imaged from shells evoked by the sediments of the stone base, and corals, to whose willowy asperities alludes the pink asperity of the perpendicular vault. Shells and corals populate the imagery of the town of Trapani. The story of the arrival of the Madonna from the sea and the carved stones of her sanctuary reveal how, along with the tradition of corals, the theme of the shell is a fundamental myth of the sacredness of the city. The colour and tactile surfaces of the Specus rediscover the sensuality of the stone and dust that speak of the place and the bowels of the earth where they were carved. Thus the Coral Cave, with its evocation of a mysterious underwater dimension, relates that consciousness which, from the sea, has sedimented for millennia the sense of the life of the city and its landscape.
The Coral Cave looks like an antique oratory. The classic configuration of its architecture, a rectangle governed by the ‘silver ratio’, makes it available for different uses and interpretations; preventing the dominance of function and technology, always casual and transitory pretexts for architecture, from bringing about the obsolescence of the work. (Antonino Cardillo)
La maison du sculpteur Jarnuszkiewicz is a residential project completed by YH2. The 1,700-square-foot home is located in Bolton-Est, Québec, Canada. La maison du sculpteur Jarnuszkiewicz by YH2: “The house of sculptor Jarnuszkiewicz is a collaborative work between client, sculptor Jacek Jarnuszkiewicz and architects Marie-Claude Hamelin and Loukas Yiacouvakis. The project was conceived following the guidelines of the surrealist’s exquisite cadaver where each designer builds upon the work done by..
This week the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale—Reporting From the Front—will close. Six months have passed and hundreds of thousands of architects, urbanists, designers and tourists have perused both the National Participations (of which more were represented this year than ever before) and the central exhibition curated by Alejandro Aravena – the first South American to direct the most prestigious event on the architectural calendar. ArchDaily has compiled our most extensive coverage of the event and, as the 15th incarnation of Biennale shuts its gates for the last time, our collection of articles, interviews and publication excerpts remains permanently accessible.
Before then, however, we invite you to take a look at our short film—presented in collaboration with PLANE—SITE—which celebrates the breadth and value of the hundreds of exhibitions and installations that have been on display.
The focal point of the project is a concrete waffle shaped roof, which sits aloft the new living area. Its pre-fabricated peaks and troughs create trenches for rooftop planting, softening the volume, establishing a connection with the leafy surroundings and creating pleasing views from the floors above. From the garden, the roof trenches are out of sight, giving the immediate effect of a simple concrete slab, which contrasts with the texture of the original building.
The underside of the new roof is exposed to create the living room ceiling, its pronounced ‘beams’ created by the sunken roof planters above. The motion of the waffle ceiling creates a satisfying rhythm, which also offers a logical position for a substantial skylight that traverses the full width of the extension.
Section
This strip of natural light illuminates the kitchen, which would otherwise be overcast by its position, set back within the footprint of the original house. Bureau de Change Director Billy Mavropoulos said: ‘We wanted to create a volume, whose form would be meaningful both inside and out. Inside, the motion of the roof slab breaks up the minimal surfaces of living area. Outside, it creates appealing views through hollows and humps, which bring nature and concrete into immediate proximity.
Although the living and kitchen areas are open plan, a selective palette of materials has been used to visually define these spaces and create an atmospheric contrast. In the living area, the materiality of the ceiling is echoed in concrete flooring, which stretches to meet the threshold of the kitchen. There, it creeps up the face of the kitchen island and turns back on itself to create a sculptural addition, in the form of a breakfast bar.
Plan
The boundary of the kitchen is marked graphically, by a transition into rich monochromatic blue that floods the surfaces of the space, including its resin floor. The concrete appears to force its way into the kitchen’s footprint, creating a pathway around which the resin floor wraps. Within the kitchen, monolithic volumes have a masking effect, concealing ample storage on one side and a cloakroom on the other. This allows the monochrome quality of the space to take the lead. Door edges are cleaved back to create geometric insets, which form handles, and whose elongated shape are repeated on the ceiling to create embedded lighting.
Product Description.Although the living and kitchen areas are open plan, a selective palette of materials has been used to visually define these spaces and create an atmospheric contrast. In the living area, the materiality of the ceiling is echoed in concrete flooring, which stretches to meet the threshold of the kitchen. There, it creeps up the face of the kitchen island and turns back on itself to create a sculptural addition, in the form of a breakfast bar. The boundary of the kitchen is marked graphically, by a transition into rich monochromatic blue that floods the surfaces of the space, including its resin floor. The concrete appears to force its way into the kitchen’s footprint, creating a pathway around which the resin floor wraps.
Sig Nordal 