Shopping Architecturally

Furniture retail box unit explores display from an architectural perspective

WEDGE-1 is the latest of architectonic explorations by Collaborative Architecture in creating projects which are highly refined in architectural morphology and yet fulfilling the programmatic agenda of the brief.

The architectural intent was to dissect the simple ‘shoe box’ and manipulate the architectonic character of the box in the most economical way. (The project had a very stringent budget limit and delivery schedule)

The name WEDGE comes from the character of the spaces within the dissected box, which largely are trapezoidal. The space has been organized as centripetal, pinwheel form as the central gathering space holds the different wedges around it’s periphery with its undulating volumes and roofline.

The peripheral wall sets the tone for the exploration of exhibits with its unique cut-outs, which reveal and mask the displays simultaneously to lure the public in.

These two dimensional cut-outs on the skin, transform the project from a simple container of products to an architectural ensemble of multiple meanings and unparallel perceptual values.

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Shopping Architecturally

News Review February 2009

SHELL PROVIDES PERFECT HIDING PLACE

Kotaro Ide creates residential retreat in Karuizawa

Situated within a dense thickness of trees the Shell House by Kotaro Ide of Artechnic unravels itself displaying its contrasting underbelly to the private audience of its owners.

Brazen yet shy, the house’s open form hidden within the trees presents an honest display of relevance to its situation. The curved forms synonymous with the outer shell of a snail or sea-faring crustacean stand on a plinth of wood creating the illusion that the form floats above the forest bed.

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News Review February 2009

Defining Responsive Architecture

World Architecture News House of  Year competition brings out strongest design talents

Last year, Marbach made its architectural ascent in status when the city’s Museum of Modern Literature, designed by David Chipperfield to reconnect Germany’s literature once separated by the East/West divide, won the Sterling Prize – a most coveted architecture award. This year, perched on 6900 m2 of land atop a hill facing the museum, a private house responds with originality and thoughtful design, elevating the bar in the region. 

Submitted for WAN’s House of the Year 2008, Dupli Casa displays sophisticated shape manipulation to transform a simplistic design into a complex yet comprehensible super-home.

“The geometry of the building is based on the footprint of the house that previously was located on the site,” say Dupli Casa’s designers J. Mayer H. Architects. “Originally built in 1984 and with many extensions and modifications since then, the new building echoes the ‘family archaeology’ by duplication and rotation. Lifted up, it creates a semi-public space on ground level between two layers of discretion.”

The design therefore reflects a family vernacular – the different levels of a family presenting as twisted versions of the next, performing different functions but communicating as a whole.

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Defining Responsive Architecture

New Work Beilinson Gomez Architects PA

Barbara Residence, Miami Beach, United States

New residential work from Beilinson Gomez Architects PA

This oceanfront house in the Altos Del Mar district of Miami Beach utilizes the full extents of its site by creating a site perimeter envelope at the lot setback lines and then organizing both exterior and interior spaces within that perimeter frame, creating semi-exterior spaces between the marked envelope and the interior spaces.

Programmatically, this creates a public zone to the East (on the ocean) and a private / bedroom zone to the west (on Atlantic Way), and provides all of the interior spaces with a dramatic adjacency to vertical spaces that are exterior, yet still within the perimeter frame of the site.

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New Work Beilinson Gomez Architects PA

Shanghai Tower, Shanghai, China

Ground breaks on third of trio of towers in Shanghai’s Luijiazui Finance and Trade Zon

A 632 m tower designed by Gensler breaks ground today in Shanghai to complete a trio of new super-tall towers revolutionising China’s architectural record. Shanghai Tower will join and rise above the recently appraised ‘Best Tall Building Overall’ by the CTBUH, Shanghai World Financial Center and the Jin Mao Tower in the Luijiazui Finance and Trade Zone as China’s first ever super-tall district.

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Shanghai Tower, Shanghai, China

‘Temple of Spirit’

1959 a monumental ‘Temple of Spirit’, as named by Guggenheim’s art advisor, Hilla Rebay, was born in the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York. Almost half a century later the Guggenheim is nearing a rebirth in the restoration of its exterior by architects Wank Adams Slavin Associates (WASA).

The original iconic building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright with no joints, a circular entity free from the ties of structural boundaries. But over time it is this carefree intention which has encountered the need to renovate the exterior after expansion and contraction have taken their toll on the concrete encasement. WASA has been working on the restoration which includes the retrofit and analysis of the energy efficiency of windows and skylights in the building as well as sidewalk replacement.

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‘Temple of Spirit’

The new Google office

Google is not a conventional company, nor does it intend to become one. This is readily apparent in their new offices for Google’s EMEA Engineering Hub in Zurich, Switzerland, where the design cultivates an energized and inspiring work environment that is relaxed but focused, and buzzing with activities.

The new Google office is about functionality and flexibility in the personal workspace and choice and diversity in the community areas, creating an environment that holistically supports the ‘Zooglers’ in their work and well-being. The research undertaken by the architects extended beyond purely functional aspects, and provided information about the Zooglers personality types, representational systems, values and motivational factors. This ensured that the design process was sharply focused on aspects of the environment that mattered most to the Zooglers in their working lives.

The concept of the communal areas like the Library or the Games Room relates directly to the project research conclusions and wider research that indicates relaxation to be crucial to innovation and stimulating original thought. Work and play are not mutually exclusive, or as Google puts it: “it is possible to code and pass the puck at the same time”.

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The new Google office

Nakheel Tower, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Nakheel Tower to become world’s tallest concrete structure

The latest design attempting to breach the dizzying heights of the Burj Dubai has been revealed as the multibillion dollar Nakheel Tower.

Designed by the developments wing of major investment company Nakheel, the tower will be more than a kilometre high, covering a space of around 270 hectares, and will become home to around 55,000 people, a workplace for 45,000, and is hoped will attract millions of visitors each year.

Nakheel Tower will comprise of four individual towers within a single structure, a distinctive crescent-shaped podium encircling the base and complementing the structure’s remarkable height. The multibillion dollar development, commissioned by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of Dubai World, will also include 250,000 sq m of hotels and hospitality space, 100,000 sq m of retail space and huge expanses of green spaces, including canal walks, parks and landscaping.

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Nakheel Tower, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

London’s transformation by transport

VTI2 to transform lifeless Victoria Street in Latest regeneration scheme

For several years, Transport for London have been undergoing a series of advancements in London’s famous underground system to ease congestion, particularly prevalent in central London, and to make travelling in Europe’s largest city as comfortable as possible.

But surrounding the internal developments of the labyrinthine underground network are those cropping up more visibly in the streets of London. A landmark design for Blackfriars Station which will once again abridge the station at either side of the Thames was revealed in September, similarly other stations including Shepherd’s Bush have been remodelled to accommodate the ever increasing stream of travellers through the bustling city.

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London’s transformation by transport