Triptyque

How gorgeous is this building? Designed by Triptyque and located on Columbia St. in São Paulo, Brazil, the building houses the Brazilian advertising agency Loducca. I love the use of the structural glass as a means of providing privacy and in contrast to the regular glass windows. A wood skeleton envelopes the front of the concrete building, filtering light and acting as a privacy screen.

Via Architechnophilia.

PTW - Water Cube

The Beijing National Aquatics Centre, also known as the Water Cube, opened in February, hosting the Good Luck Beijing 2008 Swimming China Open. The Centre is part of the 2008 Olympic Village and will host the swimming, diving and synchronized swimming events in the 2008 Olympics.

Designed by the Australian architecture firm PTW, the building boasts of a series of green technologies, including a facade made up of 3,000 air cushions that cause the building to function similarly to a greenhouse. This allows high levels of daylight into the building, and the solar energy is used to heat the pools and the interior, with backwash water being filtered and reused in the swimming pools.

It's kind of pretty, don't you think?

All photos by Chris Bosse, via Dezeen.

Echochrome: between 2D and 3D

Echochrome is a new PSP game focused on navigating worlds of mind and dimension-bending axonometric drawings. It includes a world builder so you can create your own wonky constructs too! See how it works in the videos and check out more information at PSPFanboy.

San Zhi Abandoned Housing Complex

I posted about this amazing, abandoned housing complex outside of Taipei, Taiwan, yesterday over at Notcot. The most interesting theory about why the site was abandoned is that a series of fatal accidents occurred during construction, causing locals to believe the site was haunted, and therefore instigating the developer's decision to stop construction (and also putting a stop to any future redevelopment). I know the fact that the complex has sat abandoned all this time makes it all that much more interesting, but the architecture is pretty amazing, too - modular, pod houses - very Archigram. The site is a vision of the future, frozen in the past. Check out more photos over at Notcot!

BoKlok (Live Smart)

Did you know that Ikea makes homes? BoKlok is a partnership between Ikea and Skanska, one of the world's leading construction companies. In 1997, the two companies combined in order to provide quality low-cost housing throughout Scandanavia. In 2006, they expanded into the UK. Over the last decade they have garnered numerous design and social accolades for their projects and initiatives. I wonder how long it will be until they expand to the USA?

Nils Holger Moormann - Walden

The Walden (a reference to a story by Henry David Thoreau) is a great prototype by Nils Holger Moormann. Built to house precise functions, the Walden has a place for everything that you might need in your outdoor venture. The footprint is only 3'-6" wide by a little over 21' long - just wide enough to allow for two people to sit or sleep side-by-side in comfort.

Shigeru Ban

I saw Shigeru Ban's Shutter Houses on Inhabitat a few weeks back and instantly fell in love with the proposed building. Shigeru Ban draws on the surrounding after-hours security systems of the neighborhood's galleries and shops by incorporating individually motorized, perforated metal shutters and 20' glass garage doors into each unit, allowing the inhabitants to open up their apartments completely to the outside, if desired. This blurring between the inside and out is very contrary to urban residential life, where most buildings strive to keep outsiders out via sturdy brick and glass facades and security bars. The Shutter Houses facade is dynamic - changing every day, depending on each inhabitant's desire for privacy or openness. If I had a several million dollars lying around, I would snap one of these apartments up in a heart beat. The Shutter Houses are scheduled for completion in the fall of 2008. Keep watch at 524 W 19th St. for progress! Check out more of Shigeru Ban's work here (be sure to take a look at the Curtain House, which could be considered an early case study for the Shutter Houses).

Taking A Position

An expert from "Taking A Position", from the blog of Lebbeus Woods.
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Architects are not born theorists, that is true. Most of the world’s best architects never wrote a line about their work, let alone proposed a theory–they didn’t have to. There were busy critics and professors who followed their works with great attention. Innovative architects were lucky to have their Mumfords, Gideons, and Tafuris, and, more rarely, their Foucaults, Deleuzes and Derridas. The theories that the theoreticians spun around their works enabled a wide discourse to develop, elevating architecture to a form of knowledge, lifting it out of the venal chatter of the marketplace. Sadly, those critics and professors have died, leaving a conceptual—and critical—void.
--
Many of us pored over theory books in school and attempted to extract every sliver of meaning that we could and integrate it into our studio projects, whether successfully or not. Having graduated from school and growing into a 'professional' environment, the struggle I find is finding the space for theory in practice. Managing a project means accommodating the needs of the clients, the funders, the contractors, the engineers, the users, the dept. of buildings, the dept. of education, etc. The list goes on and on.

Theory is most certainly at the end of that list. But how can we find the space for theory? Who will pay for it? Many probably would criticize Woods' position as one of privilege and ignorance (his work is mainly theoretical and unbuilt) to the realities of the pursuit of building architecture. Who is right? Architecture does not exist within a vacuum, there are rules to abide by and parties to appease. Does this remove the purity and the joy from the work?

As with any creative process that exists within the world of commerce, there is the perception of the commercial destroying the purity of the work. However, as Woods notes, the great architects are the ones who recognize their position, navigate the commercial and ultimately build what they desire to build. Ultimately, we as architects have the power to mandate theory as an integral component of practice.

For those who say that theory is lost, it is not due to the lack of the vocal critics applauding the intricacies and influence of the work. Theory is lost by the architects who believe they are merely building buildings and not constructing ideas. I applaud all those who struggle to pursue the latter.

------

If you have thoughts of how this relates to your profession, please comment and begin a dialogue.

image: AIGA design archives

Roberts Street Chaplet Project - Moorhead & Moorhead

The Roberts Street Chaplet Project initiated a series of travelling chaplets, designed to be easily broken down and moved from site to site. Moorhead and Moorhead designed what I think is the best of the six chaplets.
From the M&M site:

Designed in collaboration with North Dakota architect Richard Moorhead, Mobile Chaplet is one of six portable spaces for reflection commissioned to travel to rural communities around the state of North Dakota as part of the Roberts Street Chaplet Project.

Constructed on a trailer bed, the conceptual starting point for Mobile Chaplet was the covered wagons that transported settlers to the Midwest. A canopy of thermoplastic composite rods creates a woven vaulted space that is simultaneously intimate and open to the surrounding prairie landscape. A bench floats above the trailer bed supported by the rods which also act as a backrest for the bench.

Read more about the Roberts Street Chaplet Project.

AvroKO - Social House

AvroKO recently completed the Social House, a maximalist restaurant among the new restaurant/lounges on the Las Vegas Strip. I think the cabinet of curiosities/apothecary wall that surrounds the stairwell is incredible. Each drawer is individually lit and the entire wall is operable, allowing the restaurant to create a constantly changing surface texture. While the restaurant draws on a number of one-liner decor choices, I can't argue with the fact that it looks amazing.

HBO Voyeur Project

HBO Voyeur Project started down on Broome and Ludlow in NYC. The full-scale projected video cross-section of the building exposes the simultaneous and overlapping narratives within the building's public and private realms. If you are in NYC, it's worth stopping by to take a peek.

Park at the Center of the World

The boards for the development of Governor's Island have their own website and they are worth checking out. I like the REX proposal because it offers a very urban proposal for the park. The grid-collage system of the proposal lends itself very well to programming and re-programming for the future as the park develops over time.

Tejo Remy - Playground Fence

The Playground Fence by Tejo Remy is a translation of what is normally a mundane object - by manipulating the fence he reprograms it, creating seats and play areas. What is normally built as a barrier or a separator becomes an area for connecting and hanging out. Beautiful idea!

Via Inhabitat.

Possible Palladian Villas and Peter Eisenman

I am a firm believer that there are virtually no new advances in form, form-making and spatial readings since The Renaissance. The only new ideas come from how to clothe space in material and atmosphere. The major readings of new buildings can be traced back to the structures of recent and ancient history.

On the left is a very interesting book that I picked up years ago, is Possible Palladian Villas, by George Hersey and Richard Freedman, is an interesting documentation of a rigiorous formula for space-making, as dictated by the formal rules of existing Palladian geometries. On the right is an axon of House III, by Peter Eisenman. Eisenman is the master of formal operations and his work can be very strongly compared with Palladio's. At the time, the idea of using the formal operations to generate space was at the forefront of modern architecture. It was not; however, a new idea that had never been explored.

Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis

Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis is a nyc design firm that greatly inspired me during my years at Cornell, and even now in nyc. Pamphlet Architecture 21 - Situation Normal was released way way back in 1998, and you can still find copies of it on Amazon and other stores. The PA contains theoretical projects investigating the rational surreal. They have since moved into more and more built projects and have won numerous design awards. Check them out and admire the drawings. Yes, Diller+Scofidio did the drawing style first, but LTL has taken them to whole new level. In a world of computer blobs, the texture and craft of these drawings is a refreshing and welcome source of inspiration. Thanks, DJL.

Small Axons

These two books Le Corbusier: Houses and Pet Architecture have pages and pages of plans, sections and axons. The catalog of Corb houses, edited by the Tadao Ando Library, is a library of the hundreds of houses he designed. While Corb has a huge body of work, most of these houses are not among the published. The Pet Architecture book by Atelier Bow-Wow investigates the typology of miniature projects within the remainder lots in the Japanese cityscape. Both are definitely worth checking out and are well worth the price.

Lebbeus Woods - Radical Reconstruction

Radical Reconstruction by Lebbeus Woods, is one of my favorite books. The projects contained in the book are so rich and dense with detail that I never tire of flipping through them. Even though the book was originally published 10 years ago, I think it's still relevant today. Better than the incredibly pervasive blobitecture of the last 5 years. There is a new paperback version recently republished, definitely worth buying if you don't have it already.

Hofman Dujardin

Wow! This is an awesome idea...Dutch architect Hofman Dujardin came up with a fold-out balcony...so cool! When it's in its closed position, it becomes part of the exterior wall and acts as a window. Some mechanism (not clear how it works, exactly, nor am I clear on what the whole assembly looks like from the interior) allows the window/partition to fold down into a balcony. So cool. I want one!

Via Swissmiss.

Zaha Hadid

Check out this crazy design by Zaha Hadid for a performing arts center in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Zaha Hadid is just one of the starchitects who designed a building for this arts supercomplex - Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel and Tadao Ando each designed a museum as well. Hadid's performing arts center is somehow organic while still feeling very rigid - it looks like a series of capillaries and veins underneath a very thin skin. It will be interesting to see how the project is actually built.

Via Tropolism.

John Hejduk

John Hejduk will forever be one of my favorite architects. His work is so far apart from his contemporaries and those who succeeded him, that it will become an example of an architecture without time. While many might believe that it appears dated and that other design trends like surfaces, wrapping and computer modelling have long since surpassed his work, I cannot say I think the same. Hejduk's use of architecture as narrative created a much deeper involvement for the viewer than most contemporary theoretical work. But what I love most about his work was the romanticized drawings that he produced. While many architects of his time focused on the sterility of their white box designs, Hejduk's drawings were always so infused with energy and personal connection that they transcend the page.

Dasparkhotel

This is craziness...In a public park in Linz, Austria, three drain pipes have been converted into mini hostel/hotel rooms. Called Dasparkhotel, each room comes with a double bed, linens, a side table and a bed light. The guest is asked to pay what they can for the room. As for amenties such as a bathroom, guests at Dasparkhotel use the park's public toilets, and nearby restaurants for food. While I think this is a great idea, and a really awesome rethinking of something as banal as a drain pipe, I would have safety concerns, perhaps because I am imagining something like this in Central Park. Also, I wonder who cleans the rooms? The Parks Department?

Via Designklub.

MVRDV Expo 2000 Pavillion

A professor once told me that your architecture can be playful, as long as you are rigorous.

The Hanover Expo 2000 Pavilion by the quintessential Dutch firm, MVRDV, is exactly playful-rigor. It is one of my favorite buildings ever built. Designed around the concept of the vertical garden, each layer displays a different type of 'natural park' which is constructed for tourism.

The pavilion has unfortunately fallen into disrepair, as the Expo has long since past and there has not been any allotment to maintain any of the pavilions from the Expo.

Stephen Holl

Steven Holl has designed a new "Linked Hybrid" complex that is under construction in Beijing, China. Designed as multiple towers that house 700 apartments, these towers are connected on the 20th floor via a circulation path of cafes and other amenities, inverting the traditional city building relationship of commercial on the ground floor with residential above. Holl calls it a "city within a city". The various 'towers' have been organized in such a way (public gathering spaces vs. private living spaces) so as to mimic random city-like relationships through movement, timing and sequence.

Holl's interest in the "city within a city" shows up in the undergraduate dormitories he designed for MIT (right image). He called the dorms a "vertical slice of city" with residential living interspersed with public gathering spaces as well as a 125 seat theater, a night cafe, and street level dining.

First found at Architechnophilia.

Chad Oppenheim

Chad Oppenheim is a Miami based architect (and cornell architecture grad - yeshimesh). The majority of the images on his website are renderings rather than pictures of built works, but regardless, what I like about his work is his interest in the facade. His facades become skins, layered to filter light, air, public and private. Responding to Miami's climate, he often incorporates exposed interior walkways and gardens by pulling the building's skin away from the building's main mass.

Via Inhabitat.

The Second Life of Buildings

Some buildings have two very distinct appearances, some do not. The Irwin National Bank, in Columbus, IN, is one such example of a building that has a striking second life. Although most people would not see the night side, I think it is a great thing to do. And I appreciate that the client was willing to pursue an inventive way to bring light down into the bank.

The bank was designed by Deborah Berke and Partners in NYC. The perpendicular light volume has a strange mix of Miesian geometries and Dutch weirdness. Either way, I think it's great.

SANAA

This is a rendering of the new home for the New Museum of Contemporary Art by SANAA: Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa. The design reinterprets the traditional New York wedding cake building. The museum, which is sited on the Bowery in Manhattan is set to open in late 2007.

2006 RIBA Stirling Prize

The 2006 RIBA Stirling Prize was awarded on October 14. The RIBA Stirling Prize (named after architect Sir James Stirling) is a £20,000 cash prize awarded by RIBA in conjunction with The Architects' Journal. It is awarded to the architect whose building most impacts the evolution of architecture in the past year.

There were six projects that were shortlisted: the Brick House by Caruso St John Architects, the Evelina Children's Hospital by Hopkins Architects, the Idea Store in Tower Hamlets by Adjaye/Associates, the National Welsh Assembly by Richard Rogers, the New Area Terminal at Barajas Airport in Madrid, again by Richard Rogers, and the Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg by Zaha Hadid.

Richard Rogers won the prize for the New Area Terminal. Personally I think the National Welsh Assembly is a much nicer project, as is Zaha Hadid's Science Center.


Richard Rogers' National Welsh Assembly. Photo by Richard Bryant/Arcaid. The topography of the ceiling is really great.


Zaha Hadid's Phaeno Science Center. Photo by Helene Binet. The way Zaha Hadid manipulates perspective makes the building feel like it's in motion.

Open House New York

For all of you that are in New York City, this weekend is Open House New York. This is your opportunity to take an architecture tour of the city and to gain access to some amazing, normally off limit buildings around the five boroughs. The offerings tend to be the same each year, which I guess is a good thing since it's impossible to see even 1/10th of all of the buildings that you want to see. Some of the highlights include Paul Rudolph's residence - the Modulightor Building, the High Bridge Water Tower, an MTA Substation, the Chrysler Building, Leroy Street Studio's offices (love their work), and a tour of the United Nations. What I don't see on the list this year, which is disappointing, is Roosevelt Island's abandoned Smallpox Hospital. I should have checked that out when I had the chance.

Archigram

Archigram, a British architectural collective, are the subject of a new book. Published by the MIT press, the book reviews the history and major projects of the group with many images not seen in most other books that feature Archigram's work.

I have always loved the unique quality the Archigram drawings contain. The Walking City and Plug-In City are the most interesting large-scale works. The Suitaloon is an interesting take on clothing-as-housing. The best part is that these ideas were cooked up in 1960's. Their ideas are often imitated by architects since then, but few can achieve the same results.

Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis Architects - Ini Ani Coffee Shop

This is by no means a new project, but it's one of our favorites by New York architecture firm Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis. We especially appreciate the Ini Ani Coffee Shop for LTL's innovative use of construction materials. The walls are made of strips of cardboard within a structural frame. Because it's a coffee shop, they collected hundreds of coffee cup tops and used them as a mold to cast a plaster wall. LTL built everything you see: chairs, lights, tables, door handles...



Disclosure: Both Sean and I were taught by David Lewis of Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis at Cornell University's School of Architecture.

OMA at Cornell

OMA + Rem Koolhaas (love that wiki photo), the 3rd office to undertake the $40mil Milstein Hall at Cornell University, recently unveiled his design for the new building for the School of Architecture. I think it's a bad idea for the climate there, it's not easy-breezy California. Ithaca is a barren wasteland of snow and rain, so the sunken plaza is going to quickly fill with dead leaves, water, and slush. When Ithaca is nice out, it's pretty nice, so who would want to spend their time sitting on top of a building when you can sit out on the beautiful Arts Quad, only about 75 feet away?