I have always loved MVRDV’s explorations in urbanism and living typologies and the mashups that result from their questions. The Vertical Village is the product of one of those questions:
“This week, MVRDV, The Why Factory and the JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture opened the fourth edition of the exhibition series “Museum of Tomorrow” in Taipei. Under the title “The Vertical Village” the exhibition explores the rapid urban transformation in East Asia, the qualities of urban villages and the potential to realize this in a much denser, vertical way as a radical alternative to the identical block architecture with standard apartments and its consequences for the city.” — bustler.net
I love what BOFFO is doing with their collaborations between fashion designers and architects. Their latest installation is a temporary shop for jewelry designer Irene Neuwirth, designed by Marc Fornes/THEVERYMANY. The result is an amazing environment and landscape of jewelry terrariums that showcases Irene’s raw jewelry line beautifully. Check out the shop while you can – it’s open until October 12th at 57 Walker Street in New York.
I thought that this adaptive reuse project – The Centra at Metropark by KPF – is a pretty cool example of what can be done with aging 1960′s office buildings out in the suburbs of America. By looking at it, you would never guess it used to be a pretty generic building. But the new curtainwall and the L-shaped floating addition re-tune it to modern day.
Last week we wandered over to Brooklyn Bridge Park to attend the opening of Jane’s Carousel, which is now housed in a brand new pavilion designed by Jean Nouvel. The carousel is almost 100 years old, and was originally built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1922.
The Jean Nouvel designed 72 x 72 foot acrylic building is not only a protective shelter for the carousel, but a jewel box that provides framed views of the bridges as well as the Manhattan skyline. The East and West facades are fixed and completely transparent, while the other two facades open via a series of folding steel and acrylic doors. The operable facades each have 18 doors split into two groups of 9, opening from the center outwards. The doors rest on tracks recessed on the floor and programmed to open in four different positions, while the skylight, inspired by the structure of the carousel, is made of insulated glass units.
The pavilion was nice – a glass box that encases the carousel and allows it and the views of the city to be the center of attention. They didn’t do this at the opening, but apparently at sunset the shadows of the three rows of horses will be projected onto four 70′ by 25′ screens. Sounds like fun – we’ll have to go back to check it out!
The carousel lights reflected in the glass and onto the bridge beyond.
A beautiful embedded sign for the carousel.
A rendering of the light projections at night. And finally, a series of photos of the installation process taken by Julienne Schaer.
I love the interior of Glore, a sustainable clothing store in Stuttgart, Germany. Keeping the spirit of the clothes in mind, Markmus Design and Neoos Design gave old bicycles, fruit boxes, and cardboard new life by creating installations with the materials, and integrating them into the display of the clothing. So fun!
Two pretty amazing images from a paper model kit for Prague. Break out your olfa, download them, and get working on your model craft. No laser-cutters allowed.
I would like to do my banking at Raiffeisen’s new Open Lounge in Zurich. A collaboration between NAU Architecture and Drexler Guinand Jauslin, the design references the history and the rich cultural past of the building by exhibiting abstract portraits of some prominent past residents which were milled into the walls.
Advanced technologies make banking infrastructure largely invisible; employees access terminals concealed in furniture elements, while a robotic retrieval system grants 24 hour access to safety deposit boxes. This shifts the bank’s role into becoming a light-filled, inviting environment – an open lounge where customers can learn about new products and services.
The new London Aquatics Centre by Zaha Hadid was recently completed and looks amazing. The facility will host the swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo events for the London 2012 summer olympics. It’s a pretty incredible looking building. You can see more pictures over at Designboom.
In New York, the pigeon is a most reviled creature. But in medieval France, they were the stuff of royals. A colombier/pigeonnier was a building for built specifically for pigeon roosting. They had different shapes, some rectangular, some round – a mix of purpose-built and ornamental. On the interior, there were merely stacked bricks with voids left for the individual roosts.
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