Business news: Elon Musk is moving closer to his vision for a “one-stop solar and storage experience”, with the announcement that his company Tesla is set to buy solar panel manufacturer SolarCity. (more…)
London’s Design Museum has commissioned a series of films showing classic objects from its collection making their own way to its new building, including a Vespa Clubman and an Anglepoise lamp (+ movies). (more…)
In this interview, presented in collaboration with PLANE—SITE, Pierre Bélanger, curator of the Canadian contribution to the 2016 Venice Biennale—explains why Canada’s practices of mining and extraction should be carefully understood for their architectural implications. Together with his firm OPSYS, Bélanger conceived of a miniaturized experience of an “inverted territorial intervention” so that Biennale visitors could personally experience and relate to “the complex ecologies and vast geopolitics of resource extraction.”
With emphasis and exuberance, Bélanger asks us to reconsider Canada’s image as a pacifist nation, imploring that “we need to understand that essentially our mode of consumption, our mode of living is entirely based on the separation of means of production and territories of extraction. Your life depends on territories in other places where we extract resources.”
He concludes, “We’re personally interested in how we can change people one person at a time. So, it’s not a pavilion, it’s a counter-pavilion; it’s not an exhibition, it’s not an installation; it’s an intervention, and what’s right behind me is essentially a counter-monument.”
See more of the interviews we conducted with PLANE—SITE and the rest of our Biennale coverage at http://archdai.ly/2016biennale.
‘EXTRACTION’ Exhibition to Represent Canada at 2016 Venice Biennale
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‘EXTRACTION’ Exhibition to Represent Canada at 2016 Venice Biennale
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From the architect. The project in the old glass factory “Gaivotas” has brought to it an innovative program: the first student residence in the enter of historic Lisbon. With an innovative program, this project, in an old glass factory, brought to the historic center of Lisbon its first student residence. Some of the factory’s elements with significant value, but largely destroyed, were refurbished – the façade of Fernando Tomas Street and the old brick chimney – and a new core was built.
The implantation of the new volumes, in dialogue with it’s surrounding context, results in two buildings: one that pops up behind the pre-existing façade, and another that connects – with an L shape – to the back of the plot, the “beco do carrasco” alley. Around this second building, arise landscaped courtyards where the social functions are faced.
The existing façade, sustained and attached to a metallic structure, is assumed as a mask, which hides a second skin, designed according to the metric of the new interior spaces. The tiles, a portuguese tradicional coating material, was chosen to apply in this historical façade.
Inside the plot, the building emerges with a corrugated metal sheet coating material – reference to an industrial past – giving a singular environment to the patios.
As A Quincy Jones rightly said, “There’s no unimportant architecture”.[1] The late architect worked alongside his colleague, Frederick E. Emmons, putting their hearts and souls into the design of Case Study House #24, but sadly it was never built. The location in which Case Study House #24 was to be constructed was once a part of the Rolling Hills Ranch, the area which is now popularly known as San Fernando Valley.
The design of the house started with the surrounding environment, which is richly brought out in the architectural drawings by the architects. The region with its lush green vegetation invites swimming, barbecuing, horse riding and other such outdoor activities.
The San Fernando Valley is one of the commuter towns of LA where temperature variation is a huge factor in the construction of houses. During the post-war era, in 1945, many of the designs were being selected for community purposes and San Fernando provided an excellent place to start one. Case Study House #24 was actually a communal plan for 260 homes in all. The complete design consisted of a shared park and recreational facilities. However, it all commenced with the plan of the 1736-square-foot house, proposed by Jones and Emmons and sponsored by the post-war estate developer, Joseph Eichler.[2]
The design was planned as a partially underground structure to control the temperature in the area and provide a certain level of privacy to the home owner. The Hammer Museum in LA holds a model of the original plan put forth by Quincy and his associate. Apart from the semi-underground trick, another idea that made #24 a part of the 36 case study designs, was the fact that it held a water reservoir on its roof. Again, this was intelligently done in order to naturally control the temperature during the hottest LA weather. This reservoir was to be connected with an irrigation system which could water the trees and plantation. The above-ground portion of the facade was to be covered with sliding glass doors, offering access to the courtyards created within the retaining walls for the indoor-outdoor lifestyle many post-war buyers wanted.
One element where a great deal of experience and insight from Jones came through was the kitchen. Notably, this space included the introduction of a scullery. According to A Quincy Jones, the kitchen was the heart of most family activities and presented the need for multiple experiences, and was therefore split into two. The main space was intended to be servant-less, while a secondary space, the scullery, could be barred off from the living room and the kitchen. This arrangement allowed the owner to close off the untidy part of the home and easily receive guests, at any time. All the dishwashing and similar dirty chores would take place in the scullery while the sitting area would be in the “actual” kitchen.[3]
Lastly, Jones and Emmons made the growth of trees a part of the design. According to their thought process, a calming atmosphere within the household could only be created if the trees were grown in such a way that they blocked both sound and light.
We encourage you to experience Archilogic’s Virtual Experience in your Browser, create your own designs and share your tours online. To join the Archilogic Platform Sign up here and enjoy the free trial version of the pro subscription.
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With the Marks Barfield-designed i360 in Brighton set to open to the public this week, drones have shot new footage of the structure billed the “world’s tallest moving observation tower” (+ movie). (more…)
The world’s tallest moving observation tower, British Airways i360, will open to the public this Thursday, August 4th. Designed by Marks Barfield Architects, the firm behind the iconic London Eye, the i360 tower will transport 200 visitors at a time up 138 meters to take in views of the city of Brighton and Hove, the Sussex coast and the English Channel. With a height to width ratio of more than 40:1, the structure was also designated as the most slender tower in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records after topping out in February.
The tower’s sleek, toroidal observation pod is constructed of double-glazed, hand-crafted glass, which will provide a full 360 degree panorama of the surrounding landscape, with views up to 26 miles away. Passengers are welcome to walk around freely inside the pod, or sit and take in the scenery. A pod host will be on board to guide the passenger and stay in communication with the ground via camera and radio links.
At 18 meters in diameter and weighing 94 tonnes, the observation pod is ten times larger than the capsules at the London Eye. The pod is raised and lowered using state of the art cable car technology, while energy recapture technology activated on its descent allows the tower to generate nearly half of the electricity needed to power its ascent.
“We first experienced what impact that heady mix of innovative architecture and engineering, combined with a great view of a great city, can have on the city at the London Eye. How it can be a catalyst for regeneration, breathe new life into forgotten areas and most importantly, give back to the city,” said architect Julia Barfield.
“Once you have experienced this, there is an almost irresistible urge to do it again – to drop another piece of design into the water and watch the ripples. We hope and expect that the i360 can have a similar positive effect on another great city: Brighton.”
At ground level, the single story glazed “Beach Building” will house the tower’s technical and administrative facilities, along with a 400-seat restaurant, a retail area, a play area for children, exhibition space, a tea room and event facilities. The building’s roof extends out toward to seafront to become the boarding area for the pod and contain the ticket office and tea room.
Added architect David Marks, “Located at the landward end of the West Pier on Brighton beach, British Airways i360 is a modern-day ‘vertical pier’ whose purpose is simply to delight, entertain and inspire. Its design, engineering and method of construction are innovative, just as the West Pier was in its time. Visitors are invited to ‘walk on air’ and gain a new perspective on the city, just as the original pier welcomed Victorian society to ‘walk on water’.”
The idea for a ‘vertical pier’ was conceived in 2005 as a collaboration between David Marks and the city of Brighton & Hove and is part of a larger regeneration plan for the Regency Square seafront in Brighton. Construction of British Airways i360 cost £42.2m, with partial funding coming via a loan from from the Government’s Public Works Loans Board (PWLB). Authorities expect interest on the loan will earn the local community more than £1 million a year. Additionally, the Brighton & Hove City Council will receive 1% of all British Airways i360 ticket revenues, in perpetuity – a similar deal to the one that helped realize the London Eye.
Former footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs have teamed up with architects office Make to design a luxury shopping and hotel complex on the site of a 1950s synagogue in Manchester. (more…)
From the architect. La Maison Haute was designed to reinforce the relationship between the residents, their immediate surroundings and the view on Lac Clair. Located on a plateau, in the middle of a steep hill, circled by mature trees and a narrow river, the construction offers an atmosphere of protection within a vertiginous body.
Despite being compact, the living spaces interact through double and triple heights and offer a breathtaking sight of the forest, from the bottom of the trunk to the leaves. The master bedroom acts as an overlook on the nearby lake, giving the impression of sleeping in a cozy cabin, lodged through the branches. Attached to the main volume by a thin entry porch, an exterior room lives by the rhythm of the seasons. Protected from changing weather, sit by the fireplace, residents can appreciate every day the sound of the water pouring, the clicking of leaves or the slow fall of snowflakes.
Since 2015, Gramazio Kohler Research has been in the process of developing “Mesh Mould Metal,” a project that studies the unification of concrete reinforcement and formwork into a single, robotically fabricated material system. The project is based on their first phase of research, Mesh Mould, which spanned from 2012 to 2014, and developed a robotic extrusion process for a polymer mesh.
Now, as a second phase, Mesh Mould Metal “focuses on the translation of the structurally weak polymer-based extrusion process into a fully load-bearing construction system” by replicating the process in metal. Specifically, the current research delves into the development of “a fully automated bending and welding process for meshes fabricated from 3-millimeter steel wire.”
According to Gramazio Kohler, central to the original research for Mesh Mould was the fact that standard robotic extrusion processes have a low loadbearing capacity, but a “high capacity for precise spatial coordination.” Therefore, “an optimal use of the machine requires construction processes with minimal mass transfer and a high degree of geometric definition,” they explain.
For the switch to a stronger metal mesh with real-world structural applications, Gramazio Kohler abandoned the standard extrusion machine used for the first stage of the research. Instead, alongside the Agile & Dexterous Robotics Lab of Professor Jonas Buchli, they developed a specialized robot capable of automatically bending and welding the metal.
Learn more about the Mesh Mould Metal project here.
News via Gramazio Kohler Research.
