From the architect. This public place is located at the heart of Cap-aux-Meules, a village in the Magdalen Islands, on the ruins of a fish processing plant that was destroyed in a fire. The purpose of this project is to grant a second life to this strategic site and create a gathering place for passersby. The Place des gens de mer is an initiative of the Municipality of Magdalen Islands aiming to pay tribute to workers at sea.
The Place’s various features were set up on the former plant’s foundations. The layout of the features is reminiscent of the plant’s processing chains and long sorting tables. Despite its strategic location, at the centre of the port zone, the Place’s immediate surroundings are not very welcoming. The idea was for the Place to be closed in on itself. An openwork wooden stockade surrounds the site to ensure some intimacy and guide passersby along a discovery path. The undulation represents a stormy sea. The Place features a service wing, a belvedere, a public market zone, a stage, and an agora. Protruding and oscillating wooden counters and benches represent the docks.
The Place des gens de mer is part of a larger project: Le parcours insulaire. This public place is the first in a series of 12 panoramic sites chosen for their photogenic character and their importance to the heritage of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. The other sites along the Parcours insulaire consist of signs, interpretation aids, and interactive terminals telling the site’s history. At this Place, a poem by a local artist takes you on the journey, while the other sites have a storyteller telling the stories of the site. Eastern cedar and marine plywood are used for their resistance in saline environments.
In a country known for massive housing blocks and residential environments that, as in many other cultures, rely on traditional architectural styles to attract the newly prosperous, John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects (JFAK) has created something unique: a peaceful, human-scaled neighborhood of single family detached houses that are completely contemporary in form and materials.
As part of a larger development called Luxe Lakes, the architects and their clients took the calculated risk to reject Western-based traditional architecture in favor of an aesthetic and design solution that would combine China’s longstanding respect for Nature with their own particular embrace of an aspirational future. The end result is a new prototype for middle to upper class single family dwellings in China and beyond.
Working within a constructed landscape in Chengdu’s rapidly growing “suburbs” designed by two Los Angeles-based landscape designers, Fei Huang of Famous Gardens and Pamela Burton, JFAK created something unexpected. “We wanted to offer a new kind of experience,” says John Friedman, “something more organic and based in natural forms, even anthropomorphic at times.” The guiding concept was to create spaces that flow into one another with continuous forms that enclose and engage as well as open up to the outside. “Without trying to mimic the actual environments seen in traditional landscape painting, we aspired to create the same kind of floating, dreamlike quality that is expressed in those paintings,” says Friedman.
The clients hired JFAK based on the firm’s reputation for adventurous and original design. “The clients wanted us to design something not seen before,” says Friedman. “They gave us the freedom to explore – not just for the sake of doing something new, but rather to find a unique model that would resonate with how people might want to live in the new China.”
Each of the villa types is three stories high, with the public living areas located at the middle levels which are accessed from the road. The upper levels are given over to private bedrooms, and the lower levels to additional recreational and communal spaces that open out to the lake or canal. The structural system for all villas is poured-in-place concrete, with various cladding materials that include hard-troweled plaster, wood, metal, stone, and glass.
In employing this material palette, the architects created organic forms that curve in both plan and section and create a sense of continuous flow and connection. Curved walls and floors reinforce a connection to nature and produce a softening effect. They also create structures with a tube-like “directional transparency” that simultaneously capture the views of the surrounding landscape and provide lateral privacy. The houses are alike enough – in character and materiality – that they create a strong sense of a community, but different enough that the environment is not homogeneous or predictable. Inside of each of them, there is ample natural light through skylights, views to the natural landscape, and also the unexpected, surprising, playful views that one would not necessarily expect, marking each house as special, and designed with care and thoughtfulness. It is these small details, as much as the big moves and overall character of the villas, that make them unique and timeless.
Well before construction was complete, all 43 units sold in one day.
When it comes to architecture and home design, some pieces are created like pure art. Of course, there’s always a primary goal in interior decor to create something visually pleasing or stimulating, but the occasional designer will take that to the next level, ensuring that things are functional and practical but also utterly beautiful in their construction. Do you need a good visual of what we mean? Then you must..
Have you ever dreamed of designing your own home that’s themed after or designed around your biggest hobby or your favourite way to spend your spare time? If you’re going to invest the time and money into creating yourself a custom space, you might as well incorporate the things you love doing most, right? That’s how some of the most creative and impressive homes in the business are built! Emphasizing..
With the daily distractions of Facebook, emails and calls, it can become difficult to keep your eye on the ball. This is why having an app that tracks habits and helps you stay organized can made a huge impact on your professional and personal success.
There are numerous digital tools dedicated to optimizing workflow, communication and time management, helping business owners and freelancers realize their full potential. This can also apply to goal setting. Goals are closely connected to our daily habits. Whether you’re looking to start a new project, learn to use a new tool or launch a product, your habits will play a crucial role in moving things forward. This is why we have compiled a list of great apps and tools that will help you keep track of your work dynamic and make good habits while breaking bad ones.
#1 – Evernote
(Free / Web, Android, iOS)
Evernote is a popular note-taking and goal-tracking app that can be synced across your other devices. You can record your thoughts and notes, upload and save photos, audio files, bookmarks, and any type of reference materials all in one place. It also features an in-app chat box that lets you instant-message coworkers in real time.
#2 – Wunderlist
(Free / Web, Android, iOS)
Wunderlist is a to-do app that entrepreneurs love. It has a minimalist design and can also be accessed from all your devices. It’s great for both short-term and long-term lists and includes a lot of functionality even at the free level. Each task list contains to-do items, and each item can have a series of subtasks.
Available for both Android and iOS, GoalsOnTrack helps you break down goals into smaller tasks which is great for minimizing procrastination. It tracks your progress in real time and allows you to partner with other apps. As a great productivity app, it documents your journey as you move toward achieving your goals, which can help boost motivation.
Strides is a hybrid app for habit and goal tracking and organizing. It can be used to track goals like losing weight, marathon training as well as work-related projects. It color-codes your progress in green or red to keep you on track. Projects can be broken down into smaller steps and the Milestone Tracker helps to keep track of your overall pace.
#5 – Optimized
($3.99 / iOS)
Optimized splits all your activities into four categories: health, creativity, routine, and pleasure. You can set a timer for each activity and log the amount of time spent on it. Using the data, the app establishes correlations between activities and lets you know if you’re falling behind on any of them.
#6 – Habit List
($3.99 / iOS)
Habit List lets you track your habits through streaks, which show how many times in a row you’ve completed that habit. You can create flexible schedules, reorder your lists and mark different habits for different days. You can also toggle between the calendar and stats view.
#7 – Way of Life
($3.99 / iOS)
Way of Life can track everything from your eating habits to exercise and productivity, but it can also track when you don’t do things that are bad for you. If you log a habit that is marked red, it means that it’s not good for you. Green means the opposite. You can add notes when you log a habit, which can help you remember why you chose to skip it on specific days. Informative charts show the ratio of good vs. bad for each habit you select.
#8 – Irunurun
(Free for personal use / iOS)
Irunurun is a performance and accountability app that allows you to enter an action or habit and assign it a point value up to 100. You start at zero and with every completed action the number increases. You can share your experience with other users and build an accountability team that can encourage you. It can be used as a personal, team or enterprise app.
#9 – Momentum
(Free / iOS)
This app in calendar form allows you to complete habits and turns them from grey to green. Two tabs underneath the calendar allow you to set up and maintain habits. There’s also a Tips option in case you’re looking for suggestions for alternative ones. The free version allows you to track up to three habits, while the Premium version allows for an unlimited number. Momentum can be paired with an Apple watch.
#10 – HabitBull
(Free / Android, iOS)
HabitBull has a simple calendar layout to show progress on different goals color-coded to be easily identified. It tracks your success rate and also allows you to get support from other users. It recently expanded from Android only to include iOS. The free version lets you track up to five habits, and offers reminders, while the premium version allows up to 100 habits, cloud backup and other features.
We all have bad habits that stipple our productivity and affect our overall mood. While these digital tools are no substitute for the hard work needed to increase efficiency and productivity, using one can be extremely helpful in turning things around.
On February 10 2017, Netflix will launch a new documentary series—Abstract: The Art of Design—which will present “the most creative designers” from various fields in the design word, with the aim of demonstrating how design influences all aspects of our lives. One of the eight protagonists in the spotlight will be Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, of BIG, who will present his vision of architecture alongside professionals in interior design, graphic design, automotive design, illustration, and set design.
Check out the series feature designers after the break:
Location: R. Aceiro dos Arraiados, 2955 Pinhal Novo, Portugal
Architect In Charge: Miguel Marcelino
Area: 1.04 m2
Project Year: 2016
Photographs: Courtesy of Miguel Marcelino
Structural Engineering: João Esteves
Plumbing Engineering: José Rodrigues
Electrical Engineering: Miguel Julião
Mechanical Engineering: Mário Silva
Landscape Design: Viviana Rodrigues + Miguel Marcelino
General Contractor: Magnokbilding
Courtesy of Miguel Marcelino
Plan
From the architect. The museum consists of a completely closed, opaque and abstract box. Just the main façade has a concavity that marks the entrance of the building. It houses a private colection of mechanical music boxes.
Courtesy of Miguel Marcelino
The organization is cruciform, around a central patio, that distributes to the buildings four sides. In one side there is the lobby, that works as a vertical distribution space, and to the other sides are three galleries of varying sizes. The transition between each of these four spaces is done through four antechambers.
Courtesy of Miguel Marcelino
The result is a box that seen outside looks very elementary, but whose interior dismantle this simplicity: exploring long diagonal perspectives that open as spaces are crossed – letting us see glimpses of galleries in a game of spatial seduction that seeks to maintain the curiosity of the visitor from the beginning to the end of the visit.
In places with gorgeously warm weather all year round, open concept homes are a popular option so that climate and nature kind of become one with the decor and lifestyle. There are plenty of ways to build gorgeous open concept living, but some designers prefer to make homes that easily transform into private spaces in minutes. This way, residents have the option of open air or shady, cool rooms no..
Aerial Futures, Grounded Visions: Shaping the Airport Terminal of Tomorrow was a two-day symposium held in October 2016 as part of the European Cultural Center’s collateral event at the 2016 Venice Biennale. It encouraged discussion about the future of air travel from the perspectives of architecture, design, technology, culture and user experience. The event featured presentations and discussions by the likes of airport architect Curtis Fentress, Nelly Ben Yahoun, Donald Albrecht, Director of the Museum of the City of New York; Anna Gasco, post-doctoral researcher at the ETH-Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore; Jonathan Ledgard, co-founder of the Droneport Project; and Ashok Raiji, Principal at Arup New York.
Airports and the aviation industry are at the frontline of global demographic shifts, acting as economic engines and cultural icons. Despite being among the youngest of building typologies, airports are taking the lead as intricately-designed, highly frequented and resource-intensive structures that define how we travel, trade and connect with each other.
Keynote: Curtis Fentress, Principal Terminal Designer at Fentress Architects
Fantastic Infrastructure: 21st Century Terminals
We are all familiar with current terminal paradigms, from Arrivals to Departures and all of the complex spatial gymnastics in between. What do advances in technology and contemporary demands on air travel infrastructure mean for the terminals of the future – and how do past projects inform current trajectories?
Moderated by Donald Albrecht, Museum of the City of New York
Icons and Engines: Catalysts for Urban Development
The 21st century has seen an increase in high-profile terminals that act as economic engines and emblematic portals for cities. In an era of global competition between cities – in addition to nations – superior airports have a significant influence. Development –and redevelopment– play a critical role defining the urban and even regional dynamics beyond the airport. How can a single building have cultural, economic and political implications?
Keynote: Nelly Ben Hayoun, award-winning director and experience designer
Getting to Departures: User Experience
Architecture facilitates the intricate transition between airspace and passengers’ much-anticipated destinations. Moving through time and space in airport terminals is still often perceived as more of an obstacle than an enjoyable experience. As interaction with terminal infrastructure increases in frequency and engagement, airports can offer travellers choices to relieve the stress of travel. How should architects balance functional design, digital interfaces, place specificity and comfort to heighten user experiences across the board?
A bit of speculation is essential when we consider the future of airports. Trends and demographic shifts may help forecast the future of air travel and infrastructure. If change is constant on all are fronts, what are the critical considerations when projecting future scenarios? How will architecture adapt to transformations in the aviation industry and the culture of global travel over the next century?
From the architect. Right in the heart of the Landes region of France, this hotel installation interacts with a landscaped tableau where human intervention is in dialogue with nature. The first stage of the project consists in transforming the existing lake into a landscape of dunes crowned with slender pines: the dredged sand is heaped up around the edges of the lake in order to create little bays where the bungalows lie. Built in wood, these are characterised by a notably prismatic arrangement which favours openings onto the lake whilst conserving the privacy of the occupants.
The pavilion’s oblique lines, as well as the reception building’s, form a contrast with the rounded dunes and the linear canopy behind. The harmony between the constructions and the environment is not built on imitation: the architecture and the site are defined by a contrasting homology. Placed over the water that mirrors them, these small, autonomous units are a point in the landscape and allow nature to form a continuous milieu. Different pathways snake between the hills and, through the variety of perspectives on offer on the site, this feeling is confirmed.
The project was developed with the aim of using as many local resources as possible (maritime pines_Landes Forest). Constructed in timber and steel, the material elements respond to the desire to reduce the architectural impact within this landscape.
Sig Nordal 