From the architect. Located in the heart of Erskineville, one of Sydney’s true urban villages, EVE is situated only 4.5kms from the Sydney CBD. Erskineville is an area rapidly growing in popularity with buyers who want affordability within close proximity to the city, together with the existing infrastructure of transport, schools, hospitals and lifestyle offerings.
Flexible layouts and open plan living create flowing spaces from the designer kitchen to the living area to the full height windows and stunning views.
Designer and architect Neri Oxman and the Mediated Matter group have announced their latest design project: the Synthetic Apiary. Aimed at combating the massive bee colony losses that have occurred in recent years, the Synthetic Apiary explores the possibility of constructing controlled, indoor environments that would allow honeybee populations to thrive year-round.
On Friday, September 30, 2016, the US Fish and Wildlife Service added seven species of bees to the Federal Endangered Species list, after a UN-sponsored report released in February found that nearly 40 percent of invertebrate pollinator species (which includes bees and butterflies) are now facing extinction. Bees play a vital role in the reproductive cycle of many plants, including those used for human food production, and according Mediated Matter, losses continuing at these rates could have dire impacts for both human and environmental well-being.
“It is time that the inclusion of apiaries—natural or synthetic—for this “keystone species” be considered a basic requirement of any sustainability program,” says Oxman.
In developing the Synthetic Apiary, Mediated Matter studied the habits and needs of honeybees, determining the precise amounts of light, humidity and temperature required to simulate a perpetual spring environment. They then engineered an undisturbed space where bees are provided with synthetic pollen and sugared water and could be evaluated regularly for health.
In the initial experiment, the honeybees’ natural cycle proved to adapt to the new environment, as the Queen was able to successfully lay eggs in the apiary. The bees showed the ability to function normally in the environment, suggesting that natural cultivation in artificial spaces may be possible across scales, “from organism- to building-scale.”
“At the core of this project is the creation of an entirely synthetic environment enabling controlled, large-scale investigations of hives,” explain the designers.
“As shown in the video at time 2:33, eggs are laid in the apiary, indicating a successful combination of temperature, humidity, light, and nutrition for queens. This proves the ability to shift the entire cycle of bee behavior, out of winter mode and into spring mode, and is a first demonstration of sustainable life in a completely synthetic apiary. The long-term goal is to integrate biology into a new kind of architectural environment, and thereby the city, for the benefit of humans and eusocial organisms.”
Mediated Matter chose to research into honeybees not just because of their recent loss of habitat, but also because of their ability to work together to create their own architecture, a topic the group has explored in their ongoing research on biologically augmented digital fabrication, including employing silkworms to create objects and environments at product, architectural, and possibly urban, scales.
“The Synthetic Apiary bridges the organism- and building-scale by exploring a “keystone species”: bees. Many insect communities present collective behavior known as “swarming,” prioritizing group over individual survival, while constantly working to achieve common goals. Often, groups of these eusocial organisms leverage collaborative behavior for relatively large-scale construction. For example, ants create extremely complex networks by tunneling, wasps generate intricate paper nests with materials sourced from local areas, and bees deposit wax to build intricate hive structures.”
“Honeybees are ideal model organisms because of the historical interplay between their communities and humans.”
With the success of the initial Synthetic Apiary program, Mediated Matter hopes that biological environments will begin to be regularly integrated into architectural and urban settings, for the benefit of both humans and eusocial organisms such as bees.
Research and Design:Mediated Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab Lead researchers: Markus Kayser, Sunanda Sharma, Jorge Duro-Royo, Christoph Bader, Dominik Kolb, and Prof. Neri Oxman (Group Director) Collaborators: The Best Bees Company: Dr. Noah Wilson-Rich, Philip Norwood, Jessica O’Keefe, Rachel Diaz-Granados; Dr. James Weaver (Wyss Institute); Dr. Anne Madden (North Carolina State University); Space Managers Andy and Susan Magdanz; and Daniel Maher Videographers: James Day and the Mediated Matter group Media Lab Facilities: Jessica Tsymbal and Kevin Davis MIT EHS: Lorena Altamirano
The Synthetic Apiary team wishes to convey gratitude to Mori Building Company for their generous sponsorship of this project, as well as acknowledge the Mori Art Museum and Loftworks for their support.
The original call for proposals brought together projects which addressed the general theme of “Global Village”, inviting designers to address one of three concepts: the protective shelter, work outside the scope (between hyper-connection and disconnection), and “mobile stations” for pedestrians.
“La Rue des Utopies” by the Geneva-based designers Florian López and Constantinos Hoursoglou from the agency COMPAGNIE DES RUES, was subsequently selected as one of four winning projects to be realised.
Located in the middle of La Défense business district in Paris, “La rue des Utopies” offers a moment of seclusion and contemplation. Climbing along the elevated walk visitors find themselves nestled amongst the grove of existing lime trees. The concept here was simple: to offer a completely new experience of the city only a few meters above the familiar ground plane. Users of the business district accustomed to the ubiquitous grey color scale, strict lines and hard angles are invited to err for a moment and rediscover their surroundings. The elevation enables them to leave this world behind and wander through the crown of the trees; enjoying their shady foliage and awakening their senses.
Traversing some sixty metres, the wooden promenade also invites the eye to open up to new perspectives and offers a well-deserved break from hectic schedules. The elevated view of the esplanade reveals the monumentality of the Grande Arche from another angle, whilst further along the path two shelters invite opportunities for solitary contemplation or group discussions. The intentionally human scale of the installation allows the users to make the transition from global to local: stealing away from the hypercity to a more natural habitat.
2016 New York State Firm of the Year WXY Architecture + Urban Design has been commissioned to masterplan and develop a 130-acre former shipyard into a modern “innovation district” featuring flexible workspaces and a modern maker hub at Kearny Point, New Jersey. Working with owner Hugo Neu, WXY’s plan calls for the adaptive reuse of several former maritime industry buildings that once served as factories for warships.
Courtesy of WXY Architecture + Urban Design
Phase one of the project transforms Building 78, a 210,000 square foot former federal shipbuilding facility, into innovative multi-tenant workspaces for next-generation manufacturing companies. WXY’s design includes façade strategies, lighting, interior finishes and layout.
Courtesy of WXY Architecture + Urban Design
Courtesy of WXY Architecture + Urban Design
Future phases will include the adaptive reuse of the 280,000 square foot Building 54, which already features large, column-free spaces, into open-plan offices for larger tenants and a wholesale marketplace, where companies can sell their wares on site.
Courtesy of WXY Architecture + Urban Design
Courtesy of WXY Architecture + Urban Design
“The adaptive reuse of Kearny Point’s former maritime industry buildings into “multi-tenant artisanal manufacturing hubs” includes building designs by WXY as well as façade and lighting, interior finishes, layout consulting, and final master plans. WXY and Hugo Neu believe the transformed New Jersey site — with its convenient location, rich industrial legacy, and a design mixing original brick with modern glass and steel — will be highly attractive to new tenants,” explain the architects.
Courtesy of WXY Architecture + Urban Design
Courtesy of WXY Architecture + Urban Design
Special care will be taken to preserve the historic elements of the site while optimizing building efficiency. WXY’s masterplan is aimed at addressing “public interface” elements, which include building layout, pedestrian circulation, vehicular and logistic pathways, and waterfront access, as well as the facilities’ relationship to its context. “Green” building features will also be implemented to reduce the complex’s environmental impact.
From the architect. Located in a suburb of Boston, this house serves as a gathering point for a couple’s children and many grandchildren. The addition and pool house develop a dialogue with the existing gardens, allowing the owners to engage the outdoors all year, and creating a series of filters and frames through which the landscape is viewed.
The Newton House living and pool pavilions frame the landscape surrounding the house and enhance the inhabitants’ relationship with the natural landscape of the backyard. Located within the Living Pavilion, a polished stainless steel hood at the center of an open kitchen reflects its context, effectively de-materializing itself, as it absorbs the various views within its facets. At once a significant mechanical presence, and at the same time an optical ruse, the two come together in an unexpected alliance.
How much space do we really need to take up in order to have rich and rewarding lives?
In this short documentary for The Atlantic, filmmaker Sam Price-Waldman visits Arcosanti, the revolutionary experimental community and urban laboratory envisioned by architect Paolo Soleri. Since its founding by Soleri in the northern Arizona desert in 1970, the city has grown and evolved as it has demonstrated how to create a walkable, social city that could meet the needs of future societies.
The video is narrated by architect and Arcosanti co-president Jeff Stein, who explains how the city is able to maximize the potential of architecture for providing for communities, and features interviews with several Arcosanti community members.
“It’s not trying to drop out of mainstream society, it’s trying to say, ‘we understand mainstream society intimately and we’re gonna go one or two steps ahead to see where this is going’”
The short film, entitled “The City of the Future is Already Here” is a part of “To Live Deliverately,” a series of documentaries on alternative living strategies published by The Atlantic. Check out the entire series, here.
From the architect. The primary condition for the design of thenew headquarters of Congresso Nacional dos Municípios (CNM) is the creation of a metropolitan area in line with the urban context of the city of Brasilia. The action plan adopted for the design of the new building is based in some fundamental assumptions:
– The land use gives emphasis on integration of users with the built landscape;
– The organization / hierarchy of the ground floor should strengthen its function as the main local of convergence;
– Preference for a clear and rational structural system that will guarantee speed and economy in construction;
– A sustainable building;
The project is embodied along an axis in the form of a white metallic volume floating gently on a concrete basement. The transparency of the volume creates a special relation with their surroundings.
The arrangement of the built elements is a direct response to the distribution of the program in the site:
– The base contains all the public functions, spaces to house the external audience (the auditorium, foyer, support rooms) as well as living spaces (coffee and restaurant);
– The foil has the administrative areas;
– In the roof terrace there is the meeting rooms;
– Finally, in the basement, is the garage and an annex to the technical areas, service and maintenance areas.
Site Plan
Ground Floor Plan
3rd Floor Plan
The design of the ground floor was the guiding principle of the proposal. We have created a square, slightly sunken in relation to the midlevel of the terrain, which unfolds on two levels and results in a new topography for the lot. On the ground floor a reflecting pool guides the pedestrian towards the reception, giving access into the administrative areas. In a lower level, in the base, is the civic square from where you can access the auditorium. A staircase connects the two levels allowing the realization of events autonomously, without affecting the functioning of the administrative areas. The ground floor has two purposes: it is both support for the settlement of the new set and an interface with the city.
Currently, Penn Station is buried underground beneath Madison Square Garden. It accommodates over 600,000 passengers per day, more than twice as many as JFK, La Guardia and Newark airports combined, yet the station remains unsafe and unpleasant to visit. Cuomo’s plan for the new Penn Station centers upon the construction of the Moynihan Train Hall, which will be built where the Farley Post Office Building currently stands. The concerns that Chakrabarti has with this proposal are as follows: firstly, several platforms will have to be moved across from the central transit area beneath the Madison Square Garden, to be located underneath the new Moynihan Hall. Secondly, the vast majority of the traffic will still take place under the Garden, as that is where people are funneled through, especially with the expected construction of the Gateway project which will add new platforms to the South of the existing platforms. Hence, the logic that the new monumental hall should be built across the street from the busiest area of Penn Station is, indeed, somewhat flawed.
The Gateway project, a new program to build rail tunnels under the Hudson River, means that there will be changes in the city skyline on the South end of Penn Station and the Madison Square Garden. Chakrabati notes that this provides Madison Square Garden with the possibility of selling the airspace they have there for new building developments, providing the funding required to move the arena elsewhere; more specifically, to the West end of the Farley building, just 800 meters away. This would leave the building that is currently housing the Madison Square Garden, and placed directly on top of Penn Station, conveniently empty. In the spirit of a shared civil society that “asks us to do more with less,” Chakrabarti advocates for the recycling of the building’s superstructure and foundations, as well reusing the original station’s mezzanine levels and balustrades. The result: Chakrabati’s Penn Station palimpsest, maintaining and displaying the rich and complex history of the site for its commuters.
Courtesy of PAU
Chakrabati’s vision for the building strips the structure of all its unsightly cladding, replacing it with a double layer of blast proof glass that will let light, but not heat, into the building. The structure of the station will allow for passive heating and cooling, making it possible to build a 25-foot (7.6 meter) high open entrance along the entire perimeter of the cylinder that will also offer clear and unobstructed exits in the case of an emergency. The suggested oculus in the ceiling allows for smoke to be expelled effectively in the event of a fire, making the building not only beautiful and pleasant, but also efficient and safe.
Courtesy of PAU
Connecting the transit station with its context is powerfully achieved with the enormous glass façade, as well as with the reimagining of the Garden’s ceiling into a map of New York, soaring at 153 feet (46.6 meters) above the heads of passengers exiting the trains. The circular roof also reinforces the local connection by alluding to other specific iconic structures in New York, such as the New York State World’s Fair pavilion and Pan Am’s “Worldport” building at JFK. Chakrabarti’s glass portal is therefore more than just a new station, or a new building; it is working to bind the fabric of the entire neighborhood, reimagining a future that is collective and common.
Courtesy of PAU
The original, grand Penn Station was completed in 1910, designed by McKim, Mead and White, and destroyed in the 1960s, despite protests and futile attempts at salvaging the elaborate structure. In its place, Madison Square Garden was built. Retrieving the site to house its initial function, while respecting the history that has accumulated in the intervening decades, is undeniably the ultimate celebration of the significance of Penn Station for the society of New York. Chakrabarti and PAU’s philosophy of doing more with less and aiming to create a monumental structure without a titanic public cost adds to this building’s identity as belonging to the people. One can only hope that Governor Cuomo’s administration sees its enormous potential.
You can see The New York Times’ presentation of PAU’s proposal here.
A landscape of stone cliffs, wind bent pine trees, heather, and a forest floor of lichen and wild berries – this sparse yet rich site, coupled with a minimal budget, establishes the principles for this private residence at its origin.
The house is located on the island of Viggsö, in the Stockholm archipelago, and functions for a family of five. Both plan and section is ordered in three equal parts – Firstly, the entrance volume at the rear of the house containing the bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen; above, a loft for children and guests. Secondly, an airy, double height living room providing unobstructed views in three directions. Lastly, an open terrace facing the water, covered by a semi-transparent roof, concludes the house. Together, all three parts equate to a total area of approximately 80 square meters.
The design process largely focused on the development of a simple and economic structure in wood. The materiality of the house had to be efficiently transported and assembled on the island, yet able to withstand relatively large spans. The foundation, a series of posts, minimizes the houses touch on the ground condition, while elevating it to sit amongst the trees and vegetation. Simple planks connect the residence with the surrounding cliffs, following the aim to create an unassuming space within the landscape.
Hamonic Masson is envisioning a new Casablanca via the redesign of its financial district, Casa Anfa. The Paris-based firm, which just won a city-sponsored competition to pioneer a transformation of the area, has unveiled big plans for Lot 65-2. The plans respond to questions on the urban scale as well as preservation and sustainability.
“Form and urbanity” underscore the project’s drive for reimagining the links between high-rise entities in the Moroccan city.
The firm stresses the powerful architectural heritage of Casablanca as a driving force in thinking of the project as a means to bring a new form and new identity – along with heightened attention to biodiversity – in Casa Anfa.
Hamonic Masson’s proposal for the renewal of Casa-Anfa draws upon the cultural heritage of Morocco in addition to the sustainability and form of the project. Lot 65-2 presents new ways of living for residents in the district, but, more broadly, challenges citizens across Casablanca to reconsider the area as a focal point of the city.
Sig Nordal 